Geithner Trying to Control All Banks?

A quick trip around Hannity's America...

Follow the Leader!

President Obama and tax cheat Timothy Geithner created the TARP program to rescue failing banks, but what about the banks that don't want to be rescued? Well, it appears that the president and tax cheat Geithner want to control them, too.

Not one, not two, but three CEOs of major banks — Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein, J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon and Bank of America's Ken Lewis — have all expressed their desire to return the government's TARP funds. After Investment Business Daily reported that the Treasury Department was refusing to accept repayments from smaller banks, it miraculously accepted their money.

It is now up to tax cheat Geithner to decide whether these larger and more influential banks will be allowed to return the money and regain their freedom.

Geithner said at the outset of his tenure that his goal was not for the government to control private financial institutions. I guess the manner in which he chooses to resolve this problem will show if he is telling the truth, or if the federal government is merely using the bailout bill to exert its control over the private sector.

Change of Tune

In our edition Media Mash, we note a recent change in the media's coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Throughout the Bush administration, news of American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan were frequently on the front page news. Media personalities like Wolf Blitzer and Katie Couric, and liberal publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post, reported daily on the mounting casualties but failed to recount the bravery and heroism of our troops. This type of coverage effectively stirred up anti-war sentiment here at home. When the 2,000th soldier died in Iraq, The New York Times breathlessly reported that "at the 1,000 mark, many still saw the war as having a clear purpose and goal. Now polls show that a majority of Americans think it was wrong to invade Iraq in the first place and do not see a good way out."

Lee Cary at the American Thinker notes that since President Obama's inauguration, the media has steered clear of these sorts of reports. Eighty-five Americans have died in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginning of February, but we haven't heard much about them from our friends in the media.

I can't explain what accounts for the media's strange silence on this issue that they were once so passionate about, but maybe you can figure it out.

Bush's Legacy

Before Barack Obama raised his right hand to take the oath of office, pundits and historians were already assessing the presidency of the man who would become his predecessor, George W. Bush. Well, one major verdict on the Bush administration has just been released, and not surprisingly, this one wasn't featured by the liberal mainstream media.

A study by two doctors at Stanford University recently took a look at former President Bush's emergency plan for AIDS relief in Africa and came up with some staggering figures. According to the report, which was featured in The Washington Times, the program has reportedly reduced the mortality rates in 15 countries by 10 percent and has saved an overwhelming 1.1 million people.

Ironically, the man who oversaw this successful program under President Bush, Ambassador Mark Dybul, had initially been asked to stay on by President Obama, but that changed the day after Hillary Clinton was sworn in as secretary of state. On that day, he was abruptly asked to submit his resignation.

One thing is clear: President Bush and Ambassador Dybul are great Americans, and we can all be proud of this lifesaving program.

Climate Craziness

The Meltdown is brought to you by the president's science adviser John Holdren.

In his first interview since being confirmed, Dr. Holdren took the opportunity to sound some rather alarmist notes on the subject of global warming. He told the Associated Press twice in a single interview that global warming is just like being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog."

He went on to say that the situation is so dire that the administration is discussing radical strategies to cool the Earth's air, including shooting pollution particles into the atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. This is also known as climate engineering.

In some corner of the Earth, the vanquished vice president is crying, because he picked the wrong president to work for. Just think how much joy he'd be getting out of all of this doom and gloom!

— Watch "Hannity" weekdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX News Channel