[Bangla Daily Star] Three ministers belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka resigned yesterday after they were caught on TV watching allegedly pornography video clippings on their mobile phones sitting inside the state legislature.
Lakshman Savdi, C C Patil and Krishna B Palemar quit from the ministry following a meeting among top state BJP leaders.
While Savdi was holding Cooperation portfolio, Patil was Woman and Child Development minister and Palemar was entrusted with Ports and Environment responsibilities.
Savdi and Patil were caught allegedly watching porn film clips on the former's cell phone on the floor of the legislative assembly in Bangalore on Tuesday.
The ministers were caught in the act even as the House was in the middle of a heated debate.
Close up shots of the ministers watching blue films were beamed on local television channels on Tuesday evening and sparked an outrage.
The television visuals showed both the minister sitting next to each other, looking at Savdi's mobile phone and having banter.
Savdi claimed the clips were forwarded by Palemar.
Palemar, who had to pay a price for allegedly providing the blue film clippings to Savadi, said he was contemplating legal course over the issue.
Former chief minister Yeddyurappa said the ministers have voluntarily tendered resignation on moral grounds and none of the party leaders, including party President Nitin Gadkari, had any role to play.
"Inquiry will be conducted and soon truth will be out," he added.
This is for the first time the Karnataka state assembly was rocked by such a scandal.
Sources, however, said BJP had decided Tuesday night itself to take the resignation of the three ministers but was awaiting for Yeddyurappa to come back from tour of Bidar.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2012 00:00 ||
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While President Obama was boasting to Matt Lauer about the creation of 250,000 jobs in January (a figure dwarfed by the number of people who dropped out of the job market entirely in November and December), the Heritage Foundation released its annual Index of Government Dependence. The index analyzes the extent to which Americans are dependent on federal government programs.
Among the cheerful findings:
¡ñ The number of individuals dependent on federal government programs grew by 7.5 percent in just two years under the Obama administration ¡ª the largest such jump since the Carter administration.
¡ñ 67.3 million Americans now rely on some federal program.
¡ñ Medicaid, housing subsidies, food stamps, and welfare account for most of the increase.
¡ñ Spending on dependency programs soaks up more than 70 percent of the federal budget.
¡ñ In 2009, 49.5 percent of Americans paid no federal income taxes, up from 14.8 percent as recently as 1984.
¡ñ 34.8 million Americans were not represented on a federal taxable income return in 1984. Today that figure is 151.7 million.
¡ñ 5.6 million fewer Americans are on the jobs payrolls than four years ago.
Now, everyone knows this administration inherited the most debilitating recession in the history of mankind. According to the study¡¯s analysis, however, the effects of the recession account for only one-fifth of the growth in dependence.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the advocate will "serve as a point of contact for individuals, including those in immigration proceedings, NGOs and other community and advocacy groups, who have concerns, questions, recommendations or other issues they would like to raise."
The agency part of the Homeland Security Department said Andrew Lorenzen-Strait will be the first advocate.
But Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, And in very deep trouble from his sponsorship of SOPA and PIPA.
said that meant elevating the concerns of illegal immigrants.
Its outrageous Outrageous, I say, outrageous!, said Captain Renault.
that the Obama administration has appointed a taxpayer-funded activist for illegal and criminal immigrants who are detained or ordered deported.
The administration all too often acts more like a lobbying firm for illegal immigrants than as an advocate for the American people, Mr. Smith, A wholly owned subsidiary of the RIAA and MPAA.
Texas Republican, said.
Mr. Smith said that when Congress created the Homeland Security Department, it specifically created an advocates position for those in the legal immigration process, but it declined to create one for illegal immigrants, who the courts have regularly ruled are not entitled to the same protections as citizens and legal residents.
#1
All i see from Congree is ranting and wailing. sounds more and more like the UN with strongly worded letters and wringing of hands; Will somebody in DC please grow some balls and challenge Bambi and his minions before we are all royally phuqued? like cut off funds to whatever office has these illegal czars?
#6
The sad part is the only reason Smith is speaking against this, the reason *only* Smith is speaking, is because he is in deep political trouble, and facing a well funded primary opponent; no other Republican gives a hoot, or would care if Obama appointed a dozen (more) prostitutes to 'Czar' jobs.
#9
Its outrageous that the Obama administration has appointed a taxpayer-funded activist for illegal and criminal immigrants who are detained or ordered deported.
Hire a Special Counsel. Spend the rest of the year issueing Subpoenas, draggin all of his Czars before Congress and the nation to testify regarding the White House openly supporting criminal activity.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Christian conservative Rick Santorum ...candidate for president and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was a lawyer before becoming the Representative for suburban Pittsburgh in 1991. He lost his Senate seat in 2006 to Bob Casey, a Democrat machine politician and political dynast. Santorum is a social conservative whose primary attraction is seemingly that he is neither Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich... reignited his White House bid Tuesday, claiming an unexpected trio of state wins that raised new question marks over Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney. ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... Santorum, written off only a few weeks ago, won caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and a primary in Missouri -- a clean sweep that represented another stunning turnaround in this topsy-turvy Republican presidential race.
The established wisdom was that Santorum was surging in the Midwest and could take Minnesota and Missouri thanks to support from evangelical Christians, but no one expected him to win out west in the Rocky Mountains.
It was a bitter blow for Romney, who romped home in Colorado during his 2008 bid, scooping more than 60 percent of the vote.
"The Romney bandwagon just went in the ditch," CNN analyst David Gergen said, as pundits scratched their heads and struggled to explain the loss.
The Republican battle to be the nominee to take on President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... is in a interesting repositioning phase ahead of "Super Tuesday" on March 6, when 10 states vote at once and almost a fifth of all delegates are decided.
A clutch of seven February contests, including the three held on Tuesday, will not alter the fact that Romney goes into that day the frontrunner, but they could boost Santorum's challenge and put added pressure on the favourite.
The surge by Santorum, a former US senator, arguably places him back out in front of former House speaker Newt Gingrich ...former Speaker of the House, author of the Contract with America. Gingrich gave the country welfare reform and a balanced budget and the Publicans a landslide House victory in 1994. On the downside, he has a roving eye and a loose fly, he's opinionated, and he's abrasive despite his ability to work with the other side of the political aisle... , whose campaign has slumped in recent weeks, making a mockery of his claim to be the obvious "anti-Mitt."
With nearly all of the precincts reporting in Missouri, Santorum was the big winner with 55 percent of the vote, more than double Romney's 25 percent.
In Minnesota, Santorum won 45 percent of the vote, easily defeating Texas congressman Ron Paul at 27 percent. Romney was a distant third at 17 percent, with 85 percent of precincts reporting.
The biggest shock of the night was in Colorado, where Santorum won 40 percent of the vote, edging out Romney on 35 percent, according to official party results.
"Wow, what a night for Santorum and a disaster for Mitt," Charles Franklin, cofounder of pollster.com and a professor at Marquette University Law School, told AFP.
"This certainly raises the stakes for Super Tuesday and the burden on Romney to start winning like a frontrunner should. It's a great second chance for Santorum to replace Newt as the top alternative."
Romney and Gingrich will take solace in the fact that none of Tuesday's contests are binding votes but for Santorum it is all about momentum, media attention and maybe some more cash to fill up his depleted campaign coffers.
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02/09/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
I've been telling locals that the GOP race agz the Bammer was still wide open despite Mitt's early wins, ala NEWT-VS-MICHELLE'S-BOYZ.
#2
George Washington would have a difficult time running agains the Food Stamp President. I fear we have four more years of the Manchurian. I am planning for the worst.
#3
Ok. I will say it. From a Canuck perspective looking over our Southern border, the US electoral system seems, well, a bit weird - like it was designed by Constantly Nattering Ninnies (CNN) to sell "news". LIke John King whining when he had his short one slapped -not really news but there it is. Rather than afulsome airing of conservative views, it looks like each of the conserv runners are trying to take each other out at the knees, or going hi-lo on each other. The demos do not need an advertising campaign. They can just do reruns of the slammers against whoever is the last man standing for the Republicans. Maybe I just dont get it.
#4
From a Canuck perspective looking over our Southern border, the US electoral system seems, well, a bit weird
Seems that way from here, too. But consider the ability of folks to travel back when it was developed in the late 1700s. Also, just imagine what would happen if the popular vote alone decided the race. They would run in the big cities and that would be the end of it. Liberals would love the popular vote. At least this way the votes in flyover country aren't ignored.
#5
The biggest changes happened in about the '60s. It used to be that the party organization picked the candidate with just a few primaries to see what kind of chops the candidate had. JFK basically won the nod on the basis of the West VA primary.
The primary process has devolved now to the point where it's a popularity contest with very limited gravitas. The idea of anyone Dem or Repub voting in any primary is bizarre in the extreme.
#6
From a Canuck perspective looking over our Southern border, the US electoral system seems, well, a bit weird
That's because so many ignore the name "United States". How do you get 13 former colonies, now autonomous governments to agree to a federal system? You certainly don't do it by arranging things that allow a couple of them to dominate all of them. That still applies today. As gorb points out, other than the usual suspects, no one wants 10 states with major metro areas to tell everyone else how to live. Buried in the contract, the Constitution, is the escape clause by State's Convention which permits 3/4ths of the states to tell the remaining 1/4th with all those metro areas to stick it if they push a centralized autocratic agenda too far.
#7
From a purely practical perspective, the primary system could use some tweaking. Any process that could produce nominees like Dole, McCain and Romney when 40% of the electorate self-describes as conservative is either malfunctioning or designed to be something other than what it appears to be. One obvious indication of the latter is the VA GOP changing the rules at the last minute so that only Romney appears on the ballot (Paul was approved before the rule change).
#9
Gallup did a mid-year poll in 2010 which found that 42% of those polled were conservative, 35% moderate, and 20% liberal. This poll is fairly consistent with other polls.
One would think that we would get a conservative POTUS and Congress more frequently. All I can figure is that a high percentage of moderates vote with the liberals. Or people have distorted views of what they claim to be. Or that there are more liberals out there and they are ashamed to claim being liberals.
#12
Any process that could produce nominees like Dole, McCain and Romney when 40% of the electorate self-describes as conservative is either malfunctioning or designed to be something other than what it appears to be.
One major problem is that the nominee often isn't really the choice of the Majority. Often smaller states (IOWA, NH) are given a far greater amount of influence over the nomination process while other,often much larger, states get none.
In addition, due to the long, drawn out process, the media is allowed to practically pick the winner by attacking real conservatives (like we've seen this season).
And, IMHO, it is designed that way by the republican leadership.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Bangla Daily Star] Three ministers belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka resigned yesterday after they were caught on TV watching allegedly pornography video clippings on their mobile phones sitting inside the state legislature.
