By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
The year 2012 saw the triumph of cold reality over pie-in-the-sky dreams.
Ding, dong, the Ding Dong is dead. Well, maybe. But Twinkie, the Ho Ho and Sno Ball will surely live again, likely in a right-to-work state. It's hard to imagine a plate of barbecue without the embrace of two slices of Wonder Bread to soak up the sauce.
Wall Street ratings agencies are skeptical of the resolve of political leaders to tame the nation's debts, and are raising the likelihood that at least one of the three top agencies will add to the turmoil in financial markets at the end of the year by further downgrading the U.S. credit rating.
Ford's third-quarter profit eased 1 percent to $1.63 billion as European losses swamped record North American profits.
Wall Street rating agencies are starting to sound warnings again about the possibility of further downgrades of the once-perfect U.S. credit rating as a critical year-end deadline for addressing the nation's mounting debt nears.
Wall Street cash bonuses for 2011 are expected to drop 14 percent and profits are expected to drop by half for the second year in a row, according to a forecast Wednesday by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Shoppers spent more money online this holiday season than ever before, and yet, Amazon _the world's largest Internet retailer_ failed to meet Wall Street's sales expectations with its latest financial results.
Despite much fanfare at a summit last week, European leaders failed to convince global investors that they are on their way to solving their massive problems with debt and recession.
House Republicans have a not-so-secret weapon that could bring the National Labor Relations Board to a halt and block Democrats' Wall Street watchdog agency from getting started — and all it requires is just sitting around.
It still seems unthinkable to most Europeans, but a growing number of outside analysts and investors believe the eurozone is headed toward a breakup as fast-moving market turmoil and a looming recession threaten to overwhelm the slow-motion response of European leaders.
The long-running debt crisis in Europe intensified and broadened dramatically Monday as a top Wall Street credit agency warned Germany, France and a handful of other previously stable Northern European countries that they are in danger of losing their top ratings as they get drawn ever more deeply into the financial maelstrom.
Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a quick-witted and outspoken voice of the liberal House caucus for more three decades who helped write the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial systems since the Great Depression, announced Monday he wouldn't seek re-election next year.
A re Democrats about to buy a political pig in a poke? When it comes to the Oc- cupy Wall Street movement, some appear to be leaning that way. Aside from pro- found substantive differences with the conservative Tea Party, there also are ones entailing great political risk. When the Occupy Wall Street movement began recently, it must have seemed only fair to Democrats that a break finally was coming their way. Little has gone right for them since they seized Washington's big prizes in 2008. The economy remains poor, the federal deficit historically high, and their signature accomplishment, health care reform, remains unpopular. They suffered deep losses in the 2010 elections, and their candidate, who won with the largest popular-vote percentage of any Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, has approval ratings in the low 40s.
Are you listening, Van Jones? Precious few moments in America's story have offered an opportunity like the one we have before us to realign politics and bend the long arc of history toward liberty. Occupy Wall Street activists decry the bank bailouts just as Tea Partyers have since 2009. Fine. If the occupiers really mean it, they should join the fight to finally end not just bailouts to banks, but all forms of corporate welfare.
President Obama's shock troops are marching in the streets. Occupy Wall Street - a movement composed of communists, anarchists, socialists and anti-globalization student radicals - is spreading. Protests have swelled in cities including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and Philadelphia. The protesters are gaining influence and numbers. A ragtag group of hippie students has turned into a potent political force.
