Monica Crowley

Maybe This Is What They Meant By "Torture"

Last week, the reigning Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, visited the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with Miss USA, Crystle Stewart. The two beauty queens spent several days touring the facility, meeting with U.S. military personnel, and observing how the detainees are treated.

Miss Universe then took to her blog to write about the experience: "It was a loooot of fun! We visited the detainee camps and we saw the jails where they shower, how the(y) recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting."

I've been to Guantanamo, and I agree, Miss Universe.

She continued: "I didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful."

She also said that they visited a bar on the base and the "unbelievable" beach there. Plus, "all the guys from the Army were amazing with us."

(I'll bet! After all, they're Miss Universe and Miss USA, not Barbara Mikulski and Janet Napolitano.)

I'm so glad that our very hardworking and dedicated soldiers, some of whom I met when I visited Gitmo, got to spend some time with these two gorgeous women. They don't get a lot perks down there, what with getting spat upon, attacked, sworn at, and plotted against by Islamic terrorists. So if our guys can get a little face time with a beauty queen, good for them. (There are female soldiers serving there too---how about a little somethin' somethin' for THEM?)

I only hope that the world's most hardened jihadists got to see the two ladies from afar---but not be able to talk with them, laugh with them, and flirt with them a bit like our guys could.

Now THAT'S a form of torture I think we can all get behind.

Count Barack Dracula

The president of the United States just fired the CEO of a major American company.

The company, General Motors, had invited the vampire of the federal government into its house by accepting taxpayer-funded bailout money. Once the vampire is allowed in, he never leaves. He continues to suck the lifeblood of the host, until the host weakens and is ultimately destroyed.

In America today, we now have a president and a Treasury secretary who can, on a whim, fire a CEO, set executives' pay, work with Congress to retroactively tax that pay, break private contracts, and seize private firms.

(Not to mention the inconvenient fact (for the Democrats) that the problem with GM was not the CEO, Rick Wagoner, but the labor union, the UAW. The Bama fired the wrong guy.)

The vampire is now in the house. He will not leave unless and until we drive a stake through his symbolic heart by resisting the endless bailouts and demanding that capitalism be able to function without the jackboot of the government on its throat. And yes, sometimes that means bankrupcy and restructuring.

The invisible hand has become the leaden hand.

It's time for the next wave of the 21st century American Revolution.

The McLaughlin Group

Please join us for The McLaughlin Group this weekend. Check your local listings for time and channel, or visit www.McLaughlin.com for more information.

A Fountain in The Sahara

Yesterday, Daniel Hannan, a British member of the European Parliament, rose out of his seat in a plenary session in Strasbourg, France, and directed a scathing indictment of the British government's wild spending ways---right to the face of the British Prime Minister himself, Gordon Brown.

"You cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit...," he railed.

"You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt," he thundered.

Exactly so.

If only we had Republicans with those kinds of cojones on this side of the pond.

We don't, really: so we're going to have to do it ourselves.

Please call the Senate and House and tell them we oppose the latest nearly $4 trillion crap sandwich, also known at President Obama's budget. He is adding $9.3 TRILLION to the national debt over the next 10 years with this monstrosity, with wild spending on nationalizing health care, federalizing education through college, and a $1 trillion-plus cap and trade national sales tax.

The Senate Budget Office: 202-224-0642 The House Budget Office: 202-226-7200

It's our money. It's our government. It's time we channeled Mr. Hannan, and give him some back-up.

Strange But True

Last night, I Googled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's name to check when he was with the International Monetary Fund. The first link that popped up was his Wikipedia entry, so I scanned it for the information I was looking for. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a very strange item. I traced the footnote on the item to its original source, which is The Chronicle of Philanthropy (www.philanthropy.com).

Here's what I found:

"In an unusual twist of fate, the parents of Barack Obama and his Secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner, share a nonprofit connection: they worked at the Ford Foundation at the same time.

"Indeed, Mr. Geithner's father (Peter) was head of the philanthropy's Asia grant making for a period in the early 1980s and oversaw the work of Mr. Obama's mother (Ann Dunham-Soetoro), who developed the organization's microfinance programs in Indonesia.

"According to the Foundation, they met at least once in Jakarta."

Isn't this kind of weird coincidence a little too X-Files?

Greetings, Canada

A week and a half ago, I joined several comedians on Fox's very late night comedy show, Red Eye. Among other things, we talked about a report that Canadian soldiers were being given a year off after service tours abroad. Very soon after we taped the program, four Canadian soldiers were killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan---a tragedy that obviously we had no knowledge of at the time. All of us have enormous respect and admiration for the tremendous courage and selfless service of U.S. military personnel---and the military personnel of all of our allies, including Canada. The host of Red Eye, Greg Gutfeld, has apologized for the crass and insensitive segment, and I would like to apologize as well. I have visited Canada many times and always found Canadians to be warm, generous, and supportive of America. Thank you for being such a good friend to the United States, and again, my apologies.

While We Were Sleeping

In case you haven't noticed, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are turning the United States into the Soviet Union.

America----formerly the greatest free market engine of the world, whose capitalist power and democratic ideals defeated the command economics and centralized tyranny of the Soviet Union---is now in danger of becoming the Soviet Union.

The Bama is demanding unprecedented powers to seize non-bank financial institutions, such as hedge funds, investment firms, and insurers, if they look like they're teetering and might collapse.

As of now, the federal government can only seize banks. The new powers would allow the president and his Treasury Secretary (who is appointed and unelected, by the way) to take control of other firms, firms that have not taken government bailout money, firms that are simply trying to operate, make money, and mind their own business.

First, who would decide which firms needed to be seized? Who would decide which firms were looking weak enough to take over? And by what standard? If a firm has a bad quarter, will the government rush in and take it over? Who decides----and by what metric? This is pure arbitrariness, based on the whims of the president.

Second, with this kind of broad power, the president and his Treasury Secretary can seize whatever they want. Yesterday, it was banks. Today, it's hedge funds. Tomorrow, it may be your company.

This is a witch-hunt on investment. It is a witch-hunt on wealth.

They want to replace Wall Street with the government. In fact, they want the government to BE the investment.

They will use whatever pretext necessary to extinguish capitalism in order to get us all as dependent on the government as possible. And when you have this kind of absolute power in the hands of the president and his Treasury Secretary, abuse and corruption are the next stop. What would stop The Bama from ordering Tim Geithner to seize a firm whose CEO or executives gave political donations to Republicans? The potential for the abuse of power is huge----which is why we have always relied on independent agencies to carry out financial regulation. Until now.

So, say goodbye to capitalism and hello to a planned economy.

Say goodbye to freedom of action and hello to oppressive government regulation.

Say goodbye to private enterprise and hello to government seizures.

Welcome to the Soviet Union.

They Came For My Wallet

They first came for my wallet for the $700 billion TARP. They said it would fix things. They were wrong.

Then they came for my wallet for the $1 trillion economic "stimulus" bill. They said it would fix things. They were wrong.

Then they came for my wallet for the half trillion omnibus spending bill. They said it would help fix things. They were wrong.

Then they came for my wallet for the $75 billion housing plan. They said it would fix things. They were wrong.

Now they are coming for my wallet for a $1 trillion bank rescue plan. They tell us it will fix things.

They come for my wallet for a $1.5 trillion plan to nationalize health care. They tell us it will fix things.

They come for my wallet for a $1.5 trillion cap and trade tax plan on energy. They tell us it will fix things.

And they come for my wallet for a $4 trillion budget. They tell us it will fix things.

Over the next decade, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that all of this spending will force us to borrow a staggering $9.3 trillion. Even President Obama's own budget director, Peter Orszag, says those deficits would "not be sustainable."

It's easy to play with trillions when it's Monopoly money to you. But when it's YOUR money---as it is ALL of OUR money---playing fast and loose with it has political consequences.

Some Democratic lawmakers are seeing this and warning the Bama White House about going too far.

But so far, all the Bama sees is my wallet.

He says picking it will fix things.

He is wrong.

And we all know it.

The Media DisHonors Awards

On Thursday night, I was a presenter at the Media Research Center's annual Gala.  I presented two of the evening's awards for media shame.  Hilarity ensued.  Watch it here.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Carter 44 Gets Advice From Carter 39

Jimmy "My Name Is Earl" Carter leaves the White House today after meeting with The Bama.  To be a fly on THAT wall, huh?