Last week, Obama announced that he was appointing a pay czar. Well .. he isn't going to exactly call this character a "Pay Czar," the official title will be "Special Master for Compensation. This is the guy who will be in charge of making sure that executives at evil financial institutions wouldn't make too much money At least, that is what we expected a pay czar to do. We are finally starting to get a better idea of what exactly the Obama administration had in mind. We will supposedly get all the details sometime this week. But here's a start ...

Any bank or corporation that has received two rounds of bailout money will be forced to submit changes in executive pay to be approved by the government pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg. Those would be companies like Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG, General Motors and its finance arm, GMAC.

Now do you really think that these pay restrictions will only apply to the institutions who have received two rounds of bailout funds? You're kidding me, right? Once the standards are set you can bet that the businesses and financial institutions will be under tremendous pressure to follow suit. This will apply to financial companies, US operations of foreign banks, and other private hedge fund companies and private equity firms. Even companies that repay the TARP funds in full will not escape oversight on their compensation structures. We are talking about the government setting the standards for an entire industry to make them more fair and comparable to other industries.

The principles currently being drafted by the Treasury Department will apparently allow regulators to tell banks when they need to change their compensation arrangements if the government feels it would "encourage too much risk-taking." What is defined as "too much risk" has yet to be determined. It will be a politically motivated government-style definition, though, and you can just guess what that will entail.

Here's a nifty little line that appeared in this article from the New York Times. Tell me that it doesn't make you do a double take ... to think that we once lived in a time when private companies like banks had the luxury of setting their own compensation levels! Here's the quote: "In the past, banks had free rein to determine the base salary and bonuses they awarded their employees." OMG! Can you believe that? Can you actually believe that there was a time in this country when private businesses could decide how to compensate their own employees? Just how backward were we? Any government-educated person certainly knows that this is a job for government, not the private sector.

Government setting private sector compensation ... change you can believe in.

Despite Obama's warning that blocking the Chrysler deal would have "grave consequences" ... The Supreme Court granted the request to hold the sale of Chrysler to Italy's Fiat. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that order of the bankruptcy judge allowing the sale "are stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the court." Fiat can walk away from the sale if it doesn't close by June 15th.

One of the issues here is the brilliant idea to stiff the secured interest of Chrysler bondholders in favor of Obama's union buddies.

Maybe we ought to let Chrysler decide what is best, rather than come to a hasty agreement in the middle of the night in order to comply with the Obama agenda.

I don't have to go into the details of what is going on in California right now. The bottom line is that the state is broke. Part of the reason California is broke is because the wealthy, the high-producers, the larger taxpayers have fled. Can you blame them? We are still free enough to chose to escape high tax states, though that may change under the enlightened leadership of Barack Obama. At any rate, now California has to balance its budget, and it is ugly. Amusingly, it is putting a real strain on the relationship between state Democrats and the labor unions. I say amusingly because I love to see unions scream and politicians squirm.

California is going to have to cut government services --- big time. In fact, some government services may be eliminated altogether. CalGrants, for instance, provides financial aid to low-income students of union members. That program would be phased out. Also, government home healthcare services would be slashed. There's even a headline on Drudge this morning suggesting that California may end its welfare programs. It's news like this has the unions' thongs in a wad because many of them would lose their jobs or see a significant reduction in forces.

What is the solution offered up by the unions? Well .. the same solution Obama has for funding his government takeover of health care. It's really very easy. You just tax the rich! Yep, there is a union pledge being passed around to support $44 million in new or higher taxes on the wealthy, oil companies, tobacco industry and others. The California Democrats, it seems, aren't biting. The unions are "appalled" that Democrats are openly discussing the idea of cutting government programs without first considering the idea of tax increases. Union members are beginning to ask themselves: "If these Democrats are not going to stand up for us, then what good is it to have them there?"

So will these Democrats end up bending to union demands? If not, it could lead to the end of their political careers. If they do, it could lead to the financial collapse of California.

You can read this article that appears on Salon.com. The article highlights all of the crazy conspiracy theories cooked up by the evil right-wing! The article also documents who has been spreading these "myths." Mind you, I am not a Republican and I am surely not at the top of the talk radio pecking order ... but these people didn't even bother to include me. Go figure. But I'll just give you an example of this list:

Myth: The president wants to raise my taxes.

What they believe: No matter what he may have said on the campaign trail, many conservatives are convinced President Obama's secret agenda now that he's in office is to suck every last cent out of hard-working Americans through tax increases. The anti-tax tea parties on April 15 vividly displayed this widely held belief. Granted, some who attended the events exist on the political fringes, but many notable Republicans, such as Newt Gingrich, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina were also big tea-party supporters.

Who's been spreading it: CNBC's Rick Santelli won fame for his trading-floor conniptions, but he didn't start the tea-party movement or the post-inauguration antitax groundswell. (A whole cadre of conservatives has been warning about Obama's desire for higher taxes. In addition to Gingrich, Perry and Sanford, other right-wing luminaries such as Michelle Malkin and Dick Armey have also propagated the tax myth. However, give credit where credit is due: Unquestionably, the unofficial sponsor of the "Obama is going to raise my taxes" movement has been Fox News. Fox on-air personalities such as Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, and Sean Hannity steadily warned their audience of promoted the tea party demonstrations with unbridled gusto and Fox Business has the impending Obama tax hike.

What is real: Obama will raise taxes -- just not on most of the people who are worried about it. For those who make under $250,000 a year (the vast majority of Americans), Obama's tax plan will either lower income taxes or leave those taxes unchanged. The tax increases, which by most estimates amount to $1 trillion over 10 years, are targeted at the incomes of top-tier earners, as well as their capital gains and itemized deductions, such as charitable donations. Obama wants to use the increased tax revenues to pay for healthcare, as well as the soaring national debt and the two wars his predecessor started. Making the myth even more ridiculous is that even with Obama's tax raise on the wealthy, the top tax rate in the nation will still be far lower than it was during the reign of Ronald Reagan, that great beacon of conservative economic policy.

Reality ... there are many ways to raise taxes. Obama's wonderful plan to raise taxes on the evil SOBs who earn more than $250,000 a year amounts to a plan to raise taxes on America's small businesses. These small businesses account for about 70% of all existing jobs, and about 80% of all new jobs. Here's the dirty little secret. The owners of these small businesses report their business income on their personal tax returns. These small businesses represent a huge percentage of the people who report those earnings over $250,000 a year. Obama wants you to believe that his tax increases will simply be taxing people who make over $250K a year. The reality is that he will be taxing these small business owners. And how will they respond? One way would be to raise prices. Pass those tax increases off to the consumers. Government-educated myrmidons don't really see price increases as tax increases, but that's the reality. If the tax increases can't be passed off in the price structure, they will be passed on in wage limitations for employees, or even a reduction in employment figures.

Are you starting to see how useful government education is to the looters? Obama can repeat his "no tax increases on those making less than $250,000" a year line, and the government-educated dupes buy it. Isn't it time for you to look beyond the headlines a bit and try to figure out what is really going on?

Hey, a girl's gotta work, right?

There must be a mistake .. the TODAY show mocked Obama's usage of the teleprompter. Someone is going to get fired.

This is what happens when you deal with government workers. It's only a matter of time, folks.

The left isn't doing all that well in Europe. Britain's labor party is losing election after election. The European Union in disfavor.

Now for your conspiracy theory of the day ... global warming brought down Air France flight 447. No .. not kidding.

Here's an idea. Why not read what a Canadian doctor has to say about the Canadian healthcare system. This is not going to be pretty.

When the Democrats get this climate change bill passed, included in the bill will be a new entitlement program to make sure that the poor can pay for the expected increases in energy costs. The Congressional Budget Office has some initial estimates of how much we are talking.

Just prove the incompetence of government ....the Department of Energy failed its own energy audit.

The headline here says it all: "Obamanomics: How Stupid Do They Think We Are?" Hey, they educated us. They know how stupid we are.

Obama has a line he's using to great effectiveness. "Saved or created." The phrase refers to jobs. It's a fraud. This from The Wall Street Journal.

Could California become the first state in the union to eliminate welfare programs? Now THAT would be a reason to move to California.

Obama wants to create the first-ever international supply of uranium that would allow nations to obtain fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but limit the capacity to make bombs. Yeah, because this is really going to stop Iran.

Despite Obama's best efforts to appease Iran and talk to officials without preconditions, a poll finds that few Iranians have a favorable opinion of the United States.

Do you know how much you as a taxpayer have invested in keeping the US auto industry alive?

In New Haven, CT government officials thought it would be a good idea to issue ID cards to everyone, including illegal immigrants. Two days after the law goes into place, federal agents conduct a raid and catch four illegal immigrants. Now the court says that the constitutional rights of these illegal immigrants have been violated.

Col. Oliver North says that he has undergone and performed waterboarding as a part of military training. He also says that it is not torture.

So the Democrats want to impose "lifestyle taxes" in order to pay for healthcare reform. Okay, well where does "lifestyle" stop and necessity begin?

What does it mean to be "more like Europe?" The government would provide everything and it would be "free!" Give me a break.

So Cuba is offered the chance to rejoin the Organization of American States after a 47-year suspension, and its response is: no gracias.

Coming soon to the United States of America ... China is now requiring all personal computers sold in the country to include software that can filter out pornography and other "unhealthy information" from the Internet.

Getting rid of your SUV because it is the "green" thing to do? Not so fast ....

A Christian evangelical group says it has been prohibited from conducting Bible study classes in government housing projects in Tulsa.

I see celebuslut Britney Spears is at it again.