#5
"Another chance for them to pretend they're Kennedys."
In a lot of ways they are, Woozle.
Just not JFK and Jackie....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2009 17:49 Comments ||
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#6
Another chance to bask in the world press adoration, and feel the glow of being the most important man in the world. This jacka$$ and his nasty-tempered mate cannot get enough of being at the center of it all.
I'm guessing he was prompted by a fear that his wife might get the attention he so desperately needs. This jerk is more needy than Bill Clinton, has no sense of the dignity of the office, and actually has been ignoring the primary duty of the office, since he cannot be bothered apparently to spend time talking to his Theater Commander in Afghanistan.
"Giving themselves a standing ovation, aldermen eagerly jumped onto Mayor Richard Daley's Olympics bandwagon Wednesday, unanimously approving a measure that places the responsibility for cost overruns on taxpayers if Chicago hosts the 2016 Summer Games.
The endorsement allows Daley to go to Copenhagen in three weeks and tell the International Olympic Committee that the council sent "a very strong message" of support for Chicago's bid, despite tepid public support for playing host and strong opposition to providing an unlimited financial guarantee."
Assuming that, if Chicago does indeed get the games, the usual suspects get the contracts, Chicagoans and Illinoisians are going to get hellacious tax bills for overruns, and the quality of the building will be abysmal. I wouldn't be surprised if a stadium collapsed because somebody chiseled on the quality of the steel or concrete.
#11
We should put the 2016 Olympics in Tehran and issue ultimatums to Chicago.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/28/2009 21:38 Comments ||
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#12
I'm sure the fine people of Chicago will make the same kind of excellent financial moves that the citizenry of Montreal did when they received the honor of hosting the Games.
Former ACORN bigwig Dale Rathke racked up a $157,000 American Express bill that he couldn't repay around the time he was caught embezzling from the group founded by his brother Wade, The Post has learned.
Rathke was a big spender with multiple credit cards who rang up purchases at luxury shops, traveled by limo and frequented five-star hotels and restaurants, court papers show.
American Express filed a claim against Rathke in 2003 in Louisiana civil district court.
Among the court papers is a partial credit history that indicates Rathke had several different cards from different companies. He used them to shop at places like Gucci and Neiman Marcus, where he spent $1,003 and $1,742 respectively on July 6, 2000.
He visited Gucci at least three other times that year, spending $968, $3,631 and $718, the credit report shows.
In November, he traveled to New York, renting a limo and plunking down $2,000 for a stay at the Waldorf-Astoria and $700 for a gourmet dinner at La Cote Basque.
The brothers were booted from the group last year after the national board discovered Dale had embezzled $948,607 between 1999 and 2000 -- and that the two Rathkes covered up his crime with the help of a few ACORN execs.
Dale, who was in charge of ACORN's financial arm, continued to make $46,000 a year on the community-activity group's payroll until 2008.
ACORN, which has received $53 million in federal funds since 1994, hasn't revealed the details of Dale's fraud except to say it was related to improper use of company credit cards.
"It's still unclear if any taxpayer money was stolen when Dale embezzled, and I hope the matter is investigated," said Matthew Vadum, of the conservative Capital Research Center, which has been tracking ACORN's financial history.
In a statement to The Post, ACORN said an anonymous donor had repaid the money.
"The greatest debt that Dale Rathke owes is to the hundreds of thousands of ACORN members from whom he stole. Their organization has been made financially whole, but the very real harm will remain for time immemorial," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Wall Street has showered nearly $11 million on the Senate since the beginning of the year, and more than 15 percent of it has gone to a single senator: Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York.
Schumer’s $1.65 million take from the financial services industry is nearly twice that of any other senator's — and more than five times what the industry gave to any single Republican senator.
While the industry has scaled back its political spending in the wake of last year’s economic collapse, data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that it’s still investing heavily in the Senate, where it’s likely to have its best shot at stopping — or at least shaping — the crackdown on Wall Street that President Barack Obama has proposed.
And itÂ’s clearly looking to Democrats to do it.
Of the $10.6 million the industry has given to sitting senators this year, more than $7.7 million has gone to Democrats. Schumer got his $1.65 million; his New York colleague Kirsten Gillibrand took in $886,000; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada received $814,000; Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut scored $603,000; Colorado freshman Michael Bennet got $401,000; and Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas— who will have a big say on the derivatives portion of regulatory reform — got $336,000.
“Democrats are holding the reins in Washington now with a Democratic-run White House and Congress,” said one financial services lobbyist. “It only makes sense that donors want to put their money into the coffers of those who are driving the agenda.”
Among Republicans, the biggest recipient of financial-industry money so far this year is Richard Shelby of Alabama. But although he’s the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee — ground zero for the regulatory reform bill in the Senate — he’s received just $313,000 from the industry this year.
ThatÂ’s smaller than the haul for Bennet, the most junior Democrat on the Committee, or Lincoln, who isnÂ’t even on it. And Shelby is the only Republican senator on the industryÂ’s top-10 giving list.
The industry’s giving pattern this year may upend the traditional notion of Republicans as the bagmen for Wall Street. But it also reflects political reality: Democrats hold a commanding if not quite filibuster-proof majority in the upper chamber, and some of them may be willing to side with the financial industry on key aspects of the regulatory reform effort — even if that’s not immediately obvious from the Democrats’ populist rhetoric.
About 50 people held signs in protest of President Obama's health care plans at a Scottsdale Goodwill store where U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Tempe, was hosting his "United We Serve" community action day.
Tom Jenney, organizer and Arizona director of Americans for Prosperity, said the event was a way to express their concerns about health care reform.
"We're here to make sure that Harry Mitchell will not vote to turn over American health care over to the D.C. bureaucrats," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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By Howie Carr
Who is Judge Thomas Connolly? And why did this 66-year-old hack Democrat rule Friday that his fellow hack Democrat, Gov. Deval Patrick, had the right to appoint a third hack Democrat to the U.S. Senate immediately, despite a vote to the contrary by the overwhelmingly hack-Democrat Legislature?
Try not to let what I am about to tell you destroy your faith in the integrity of the Massachusetts judiciary.
This Connolly spent five years in the early 1960s at St. John's Seminary (more on that later) and then went to BC Law. He got his robes in 1990 the old-fashioned way - after donating thousands of dollars to all the right, i.e., Democrat, politicians. The Dukakis for President Committee cashed a $1,000 check from Connolly in 1987. The next year, the future judge wisely coughed up another grand to the Duke's "Victory Fund 88."
The Duke lost, but Connolly won - and is winning still, with his $129,694-a-year no-heavy-lifting job, behind which in three years comes the $125,000 pension.
This future enabler of sordid Democrat machinations did what almost all future judges do, duking cash to all the connected Democrats. Whitey Bulger's brother Billy collected $200 a year. The late Speaker George Keverian (D-Papa Gino's) was taken care of, as were such contemptible layabouts as ex-Boston city councilor Rosaria "Sister Sunshine" Salerno, Bulger stooge Gerry D'Amico, Tom Reilly, Evelyn Murphy, etc., etc.
Connolly gave money to Sheriff Bob Rufo, who is himself a judge, and Sen. Mike Creedon, who is ditto, after giving his Senate seat to his brother, who is now a clerk, and did I mention that Bob's wife is a state rep - a Democrat, naturally, like every one of the above.
In 1989, Dukakis announced he wasn't running again, and Frank Bellotti became the favorite to succeed him as the guy who appointed judges. Suddenly the future Judge Connolly was funneling cash to Bellotti. In 1989 he gave him $200, then $500, then another $125. In 1990, Bellotti collected another $1,000 from the future judge.
But the Duke did the right thing to his maxed-out contributor, and appointed Connolly. At his confirmation hearing, his witnesses included then-Norfolk DA (and now rabid congressional supporter of Hugo Chavez and ACORN) Bill Delahunt. It was the least Bill could do, considering Connolly had just sent him a check for $1,000.
Remember how much Connolly liked to give things to ex- and future AG's? Well, in 1994 he took the rare step of handing a directed verdict of not guilty to still another ex-AG, Eddie McCormack, who'd been indicted by then-AG L. Scott Harshbarger, to whom Connolly had given $1,000 in 1987.
Back to St. John's Seminary in Brighton, where Connolly picked up his B.A. in 1964, then spent another year studying theology. Most of the worst pervert priests in the archdiocese attended St. John's during those same years. In 2002, one of them, the Rev. Jon C. Martin, found himself in court, charged with negligence, in front of his fellow St. John's alum-turned-judge.
A columnist for the Globe - yes, the Globe - demanded Connolly recuse himself from his schoolmate's trial "not because Connolly is certain to side with a fellow seminarian but because those who rely on the court for fairness are uncertain that he won't."
Hmmm. Couldn't the Republicans have made the same argument Friday, substituting the word "Democrat" for "seminarian."
In 2006, a lesbian couple from Rhode Island asked the Democrat seminarian to rule they had been legally married here in Massachusetts, even though our state law prohibited anyone from getting married here if their marriage wouldn't have been allowed back home.
The St. John's alum issued a novel ruling in favor of the pair, saying that since gay marriage was not specifically outlawed in Rhode Island, hey, it must be OK, right? Mitt Romney demanded the absurd ruling be appealed. But AG Tom Reilly as usual declined to do anything. After all, Connolly gave him $1,000 in both 1989 and 1990.
So now you know - this is the bum who effectively put the executor of Ted Kennedy's estate into his master's Senate seat. Just another day here in the Banana Republic of Massachusetts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Former President Bill Clinton predicts that Democrats won't suffer the kind of political meltdown that hobbled his administration after the 1994 elections. Democrats lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years after those elections. Republicans are forecasting that kind of backlash next year against the Democrats.
Clinton suggests that's wishful thinking by the GOP. He says the nation today is more diverse and more interested in positive action. And he says Democrats have not taken on the gun lobby, which he blames for more than a dozen lost seats in 1994.
Clinton says what losses Democrats do suffer in the 2010 elections will be manageable.
Clinton's interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" aired Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Bill, Your party is in for the "Big Chill", its not going to be like 1994, its going to be worse. D = Done
Contrary to what the Left and their media minions told Americans in 2005 when President George W. Bush wanted to reform Social Security, the nation's largest entitlement program is now projected to run deficits for at least the next two years.
In an article on the subject published Sunday, the Associated Press mysteriously hid the seriousness of this revelation while never once mentioning the Republican push to solve this problem four years ago, or that Democrats in January 2006 -- including Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- actually applauded the death of the previous year's reform efforts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
With a little luck we'll be "applauding Barry's demise in 2012."
#2
"With a little luck we'll be "applauding Barry's demise in 2012."
--I know what you mean bro', but let's pray his demise is nothing more than his failure at re-election...I could not imagine the unrelenting media circle jerk and dog/pony race issue for the next 50 yrs if this guy was ever clipped by some whacko.
Puff piece on the heir apparent...
Andrew Mark Cuomo was born one of five children to Mario and Matilda Cuomo in Holliswood, Queens, and attended St. Gerard's School and Archbishop Molloy High School. He graduated from Fordham University in 1979 and Albany Law School in 1982.
While working at a gas station, he developed a love of cars that still exists - a 1975 blue Corvette he rebuilt in college remains a prized possession.
"It was a dirty campaign, no question," Koch said. "I've called him [Andrew] on it, and he's apologized for not having done enough to stop it."
In 1977, he ran his father's failed mayoral campaign, which was marred by tawdry tactics. "It was a dirty campaign, no question," Koch said. "I've called him [Andrew] on it, and he's apologized for not having done enough to stop it."
Cuomo helped get his father elected governor in 1982, and served as his top adviser, earning $1 a year.
In 1984, he left for the DA's office, then quit the next year to join the law firm of Blutrich, Falcone & Miller. One of the partners, Lucille Falcone, was close to Cuomo and was a fund-raiser for Gov. Cuomo.
In 1988, he left to work full-time for HELP, a nonprofit group he created to build housing for the homeless. "HELP was a bridge between where he was and where he was going," said Robert Hayes, a top advocate for the city's homeless in the 1980s. "There were skeptics when he came into the world of helping the homeless, bad stories about his law firm," Hayes said. "But he brought brashness and muscle into his work, and when he reached out to me I found him instantly to be an ally I wanted." Hayes believes that since then, "He has softened dramatically."
Cuomo advised David Dinkins when Dinkins beat Rudy Giuliani for mayor in 1989, and there was mudslinging in that race too.
That same year, Cuomo and a colleague drove a Winnebago camper throughout the nation to explore homelessness, from Baltimore to Tucson.
In 1990, he became engaged to Kerry Kennedy - a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy - in a union dubbed the merger of two American political dynasties.
In 1990, he became engaged to Kerry Kennedy - a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy - in a union dubbed the merger of two American political dynasties.
Dinkins and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. were at his bachelor party at the East Side Irish bar where Cuomo regularly hung out with reporters and public relations execs. Their marriage provided such fodder as the fact that the Kennedy-Cuomo household was furnished with Porthault bed sheets that cost $20,000 a set.
The marriage produced three daughters the couple doted on. "He is totally devoted to them," said Lawsky, who said Cuomo was leaving his office that afternoon to watch Cara in a field hockey game.
Cuomo was former President Bill Clinton's secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Cuomo was former President Bill Clinton's secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cynics have said HELP was a springboard to the federal post, but even if Cuomo's motives were Machiavellian, "he produced good works," Hayes said.
In 2002, Cuomo became a political pariah after he took on Carl McCall, the state controller who was seeking to become New York's first black governor. In a major misstep, he criticized then-Gov. George Pataki by saying Pataki simply "held [Rudy Giuliani's] coat" after the 9/11 attacks. Cuomo quit the race five months later.
Then, in June 2003, Cuomo discovered his wife was having an affair with a playboy polo player named Bruce Colley.
Then, in June 2003, Cuomo discovered his wife was having an affair with a playboy polo player named Bruce Colley. Kennedy issued a bland statement that they were separating, saying it was "amicable," but Cuomo's lawyer told the press he "was betrayed and saddened by his wife's conduct during their marriage."
There was a media frenzy about the other man that kept the tabloids sizzling all summer. "He went through tough times, personally and in his career," Lawsky said. "He was staring into the abyss."
That's when Cuomo hooked up with a group seeking to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws.
That's when Cuomo hooked up with a group seeking to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws. "Andrew took the Rockefeller movement to a new level," said Randy Credico, a political comedian and co-founder of Mothers of the New York Disappeared. "He played a major role in their eventual changes, which is one reason why he is so popular in the black and Latino community.
"He has evolved tremendously. He's Italian, like me, and we have major tempers, and they flared on strategy ...But it's night and day; he's calm, cool and collected."
Cuomo rebuilt his relationships with political leaders, many of whom endorsed him for attorney general in 2006.
Even his wife's former lover, Colley, said he was a great candidate.
Even his wife's former lover, Colley, said he was a great candidate.
He has found companionship with Sandra Lee, a striking blond on the Food Network, for the last four years. He finds solitude fishing on his small boat off the Hamptons.
He's spent the last year getting back to the basics of politics: visiting every corner of the state to attend fairs and fund-raisers and meet hundreds of key state and local elected officials. "Now he has success on his own," Sheinkopf said. "He's made a name for himself by staying out of politics," and by making cases on less-sexy topics of student loans and pension fraud.
He has found companionship with Sandra Lee, a striking blond on the Food Network, for the last four years. He finds solitude fishing on his small boat off the Hamptons.
But he couldn't hold back a smile last Monday when Obama paid homage to Cuomo's old rep when, tongue-in-cheek, he introduced him as the "shy and retiring" attorney general.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
I, for one, just sympathize like crazy with a poor fellow whose wife took up with a polo player and spends his time in dignified silence on his boat off the Hamptons with nothing but a few bottles of Tattinger '69 and a blond named Sandra for company.
Reminds me how tough life can be. I should thank Dog ever day my life didn't turn out like his.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 15:29 Comments ||
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#3
"He has found companionship with Sandra Lee, a striking blond on the Food Network"
I'll never look at Semi-Homemade the same way again....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2009 16:05 Comments ||
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#4
He finds solitude fishing on his small boat off the Hamptons.
National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman and the White House finally responded to a controversial effort by political appointees of both the White House and the NEA to "leverage" government funding of the arts into cultural support for the administration's legislative agenda.
This is the short version of the Obama administration's position: Nothing bad happened. The rogue employee who didn't do anything bad has been relieved of his duties (and has now resigned). In an effort to make sure that the same "nothing bad" never happens again, the administration has distributed a memo and provided some new training on how not to do "nothing bad."
The facts are simple and public. During the transition, President Obama's top arts adviser made it clear that his ambition was for the arts to become an integral part of the West Wing. After the inauguration, meetings of artists and political activists at the White House explicitly discussed how to keep the arts community in campaign mode to back Mr. Obama's legislative agenda. An NEA grants official, Mario Garcia Durham, was at one such meeting for which the attendee list is public.
As those meetings occurred, Yosi Sergant, a key cog in the Obama campaign's outreach to artists, was transferred from a position at the White House to a position as the communications director of the NEA. When the grant spigots opened at the NEA, more than $2 million went directly into the coffers of arts organizations (and their members) attending these meetings and publicly backing elements of the administration agenda.
Does that prove laws have been broken? Of course not. The worst appearances can be completely innocent. However, the administration's assertions that Mr. Sergant acted alone ("unilaterally and without ... approval or authorization" in Mr. Landesman's words) and that the administration's efforts were "completely unrelated" to grant-making are at odds with the facts. The public deserves more than bland reassurances.
A full investigation by both Congress and the NEA inspector general is the only way to bring this story to a close. Answers to these questions would be only a start:
What was an NEA grants official doing at a White House political meeting? What other grants officials have been meeting with White House political officials?
So far we know about a handful of conference calls last month and White House meetings last spring. Is this the full extent of the coordination between the White House political staff and the NEA?
Has the grant-making process been compromised by politics? How were the brand-new stimulus grants insulated from politics? Were any of the safeguards circumvented?
On the same day that Americans for the Arts, a lobbying organization that also runs a partisan Democratic political action committee, endorsed the key elements of the Obama health care plan, the president of the group met with Mr. Landesman, the new NEA chief. What happened at that meeting?
Why was activist Yosi Sergant transferred from the White House to the NEA? Who made the decision?
From Day One of this story, Mr. Sergant's statements, the NEA's official statements and Mr. Landesman's statements have been riddled with falsehoods and bluster. There's no reason to take anything the NEA has said so far at face value.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
NEA was established in 1965. I just read the other day that it was one of LBJ's pet projects, part of his "Great Society". Shoulda known. That old bastard did more to screw up this country than any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
NEA should be abolished. There is no justification for its existence and certainly no reason why our tax dollars should be spent on it. Let artists do whatever they are inspired to do. If they can sell it, fine. If they can't then maybe they should look for some other line of work.
#2
What? NEA abolished? Oh, ok. Please send along the Bureau of Firearms, Tobacco, and Firearms, Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Education as well. Might as well do a thorough house cleaning.
#3
There's a Bureau of Firearms, Tobacco, and Firearms?
I think you mean Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. :)
I think there may be a place for a much smaller Agriculture and Energy. And there should be some regulation of firearms - if only to attempt to keep them out of the hands of criminals.
Education and the NEA (and NPR too!) should be killed dead. Throw in labor to boot.
#4
Yeah. LBJ established HUD too. Built a whole lotta slums, he did, housing for the poor. Who knows how much it cost the taxpayers? But those welfare moms loved him. They were never very good at being responsible and he made it easy for them.
Bill Clinton says a vast, right-wing conspiracy that once targeted him is now focusing on President Barack Obama.
The ex-president made the comment in a television interview when he was asked about one of the signature moments of the Monica Lewinsky affair over a decade ago. Back then, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton used the term "vast, right-wing conspiracy" to describe how her husband's political enemies were out to destroy his presidency.
Bill Clinton was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether the conspiracy is still there. He replied: "You bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was because America has changed demographically. But it's as virulent as it was."
Clinton said that this time around, the focus is on Obama and "their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I want Obama to fail at advancing his neo-Marxist agenda, so I guess that makes me a proud member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy - along with tens of millions of other Americans.
#2
Ok Bill, the number of people involved in your vast right wing conspiracy - 59,597,520 the number of people who cast their vote for McCain in November 2008.
#5
It's liberal desperation you're hearing from Slick and the Hilderbeast...
Yep. It is much easier to blame someone else than admit your own mistakes. Which is why liberals take the easy route and never admit their wrong. It is always someone else's fault.
#6
Ok Bill, the number of people involved in your vast right wing conspiracy - 59,597,520 the number of people who cast their vote for McCain
Probably a much larger number than that if you count the independents who went for Obama--voters who were largely upset with big government Washington. Voters who are likely to leave the donks next time.
#8
It's not as strong as it was because America has changed demographically.
Yeah, Bill. You made damn sure that would happen, didn't you? Let just about anybody walk right across the border and turned the USA into a Third World country, you slimy weasel. You even got morons like McCain and other assorted RINO's to help. You oughta know about conspiracies better than anybody else.
#9
I wish there was a vast right wing conspiracy such as these morons talk about all the time. We'd best be worrying about the vast left-wingnuts conspiracy that is upon us now.
#11
What's really sad is the Dems went from "we're kind of the world, Republicans are extinct" to "we are the victims" in less than a year. Come on guys, you have a majority in the House and Senate and still can't get your stuff through because it's bad stuff and you can't sell it on its merits so you slur others. Its clear to pretty much everyone.
LAINGSBURG, Mich. (AP) - Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days.
The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall. Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol.
Michigan is one of just two states whose budget year starts Oct. 1. The other, Alabama, already has a spending plan in place, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. If lawmakers in Lansing don't make progress soon, Michigan could join the eight other states that failed to meet budget deadlines - but did not shut down - this year.
That's something neither Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm nor lawmakers want to do. They're haunted by memories of the fallout from an hours-long government shutdown in 2007 and want to avoid the resulting voter disgust and national derision.
One state lawmaker, Republican Rep. Ken Horn, introduced legislation that would give residents a grace period to renew licenses, apply for benefits and let businesses operate under existing permits if there's a government shutdown. The legislation hasn't had a hearing.
About the only thing Republicans and Democrats have agreed on is tapping up to $1.5 billion in federal recovery dollars to fill part of the $2.8 billion budget gap. A continuation budget could be put in place to avoid a shutdown, but one approved Friday by Senate Republicans is opposed by Democrats, and it can't be voted on by the Democratic-led House until one day before the Oct. 1 deadline under legislative rules.
With the Senate in Republican hands and Democrats holding a House majority, and the Democratic governor and House speaker disagreeing, a compromise has been slow in coming. Legislative leaders did report some progress Friday, but hurdles remain.
Republicans want Democratic lawmakers to propose and pass tax increases, giving the GOP possible fodder to use against Democrats in next year's elections. Democrats hope to get a leg up by painting GOP lawmakers as willing to hurt children rather than reinstate estate taxes on the rich.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days.
I call bullshit: the state lottery is a money maker. They'll keep those going and let all the other stuff shut down.
#3
The state lottery? How the hell do they run it?
Our state lottery pays completely for itself and its expenses, AND turns over millions to the state for education (that's what the proceeds are marked for by the original legislation).
A quick peek at our state lottery's website shows that they've contributed over $4 billion to state education (that's K-12, not college, I believe) since they started.
So is Michigan so stupid that they don't even know how to run a lottery? Then they do need to shut the state gummint down - permanently.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2009 16:02 Comments ||
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#4
Yeah, hard to see how they can lose money on the lottery. On the other hand, the five separate lottery games are a) a government run enterprise, and b) run by the State of Michigan - the same jokers that tried to fix the budget shortfall by placing a surcharge on the Michigan Business tax. That's right, they are now taxing taxes. We are soooo screwed.
Senate Democrats will unveil legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions next Wednesday, kicking off what is likely to be a battle in Congress as lawmakers tussle over the economic impact of controlling global warming. The bill has not been released formally but will be coauthored by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and California Senator Barbara Boxer, a Congressional source said on Thursday.
"The overall architecture of the Senate bill is going to be very similar to the House version of the bill," a separate source at an environmental group said via telephone from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Another source said the Senators are contemplating requiring a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020.
Any climate legislation in the Senate likely faces an uphill battle, as lawmakers from heavy industrial states in both parties have raised concerns about burdening companies with additional energy costs. Republicans, a dying breed in indusrtrial states in particular, have characterized so-called cap and trade legislation as a massive energy tax that will kill jobs and dampen economic recovery.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he hopes to bring this legislation to the floor for a vote by the end of this year. He has also said he plans to combine the bill, with a comprehensive energy package that was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee earlier this year.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/28/2009 08:27 ||
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#1
Congressional Dems seem to be in a sucide pact with Obama.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/28/2009 11:33 Comments ||
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What? You mean they're gonna shut their mouths?
Kerry last week sought to change the vernacular surrounding the climate bill and sell its concepts more broadly, insisting it is not a "cap and trade" proposal but a "pollution reduction" bill. "I don't know what 'cap and trade' means. I don't think the average American does," Kerry said. "This is not a cap-and-trade bill, it's a pollution reduction bill" (E&E Daily, Sept. 25).
But a leading GOP opponent to the Senate climate effort quickly pushed back on the Democrat's strategy.
"No matter the semantic games employed, or the extent to which Democrats wish to hide the truth from the American people, cap and trade will mean more job losses, more pain at the pump, and higher food and electricity prices for consumers," said EPW Committee ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.)."
Both Brown and Stabenow said they would welcome the release of the Senate bill even though it will give critics something tangible to target.
"It always does," Brown said. "There is always something to shoot at. But I think it is the right step, and then we start working to improve it."
Senate Democratic leaders, including Reid and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), have said that they do not know if there will be enough time to get to the climate bill on the floor this year. But Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the lead authors of the House bill, said that he is not giving up yet.
"At this stage in the House no one was predicting we could be successful," Markey told reporters. The lawmaker said he expected the Senate to closely follow the House bill's outlines, especially "once people sit down and begin to understand we have dealt with the major interests in the country.
#2
"Undocumented, if they can afford it, should be able to buy their own private plans. It keeps them out of the emergency room,"
--so would reporting them and detaining them upon treatment...that's if we had a gov't w/any integrity to actually uphold their constitutional oaths of office. Rome 400 A.D.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe. Having finished my formal education in 1972, I agree. "Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go. Obamacare expands!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/28/2009 06:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Childhood education, medicine, health care, diplomacy, energy, religion, war & peace, the guy really is a genius.
#3
As with any government program, work expands to fill time, but not necessarily to increase productivity. Pay off to the Teachers Union. More money, more money, more money.
#8
School on weekends=overtime for the teacher's unions.
Jesus, is there anything this thief-in-chief won't do to but support?
I am beginning to believe we need to think about impeachment.
#11
I'm all for year round education. Kids forget too many things during the summer recess as well as miss four years of educational time. There is no reason an 18 year old not graduate HS w/o the equivalent of a general 4 year college education or industry apprentice program.
Unfortunately, this Saturday program looks more like taxpayer funded babysitting leaving the parent(s) free to get drunk or high. I'd much rather have a structured (at their desks) after school homework time for those kids whose parents are away at work.
Posted by: ed ||
09/28/2009 15:17 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I forgot everything I was taught, but remember everything I learned.
A good teacher helps you learn. School should be about outputs not inputs.
#13
I volunteer in a third grade classroom on Friday afternoons. The kids are tired already. And the govt is talking about Saturday classes?
The school has many students who haven't been taught proper manners, meaning that the teacher has to spend time maintaining order that could otherwise be spent on teaching. Longer classroom hours won't change this; it just drags the day on longer, because the kids are crankier and more tired. You can't teach kids who have had enough already.
And the teachers are often dog-tired by Friday too. So are they going to have the oomph to teach on Saturdays, and are the kids going to learn anything else? I doubt it.
#14
Maybe if they concentrated on the important things - reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic (as well as critical thinking skills), instead of diversity, anti-drug, sexual training, etc. etc. etc., they could take a few days off every week and even a few weeks in the summer.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/28/2009 21:28 Comments ||
Top||
#15
You want year-around school? Fine - first make teachers exempt employees. Just like a lot of other professional office workers (like software engineers, DBA's, webmasters, etc...). No Union.
And then let the marketplace rule. Good teachers will be promoted and given appropriate pay. Bad teachers will either change (and become good teachers) or find themselves in the unemployment line a lot.
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.
Former ACORN bigwig Dale Rathke racked up a $157,000 American Express bill that he couldn't repay around the time he was caught embezzling from the group founded by his brother Wade, The Post has learned. 
Wall Street has showered nearly $11 million on the Senate since the beginning of the year, and more than 15 percent of it has gone to a single senator: Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. 
About 50 people held signs in protest of President Obama's health care plans at a Scottsdale Goodwill store where U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Tempe, was hosting his "United We Serve" community action day.
Former President Bill Clinton predicts that Democrats won't suffer the kind of political meltdown that hobbled his administration after the 1994 elections. Democrats lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years after those elections. Republicans are forecasting that kind of backlash next year against the Democrats. 
Contrary to what the Left and their media minions told Americans in 2005 when President George W. Bush wanted to reform Social Security, the nation's largest entitlement program is now projected to run deficits for at least the next two years.
Bill Clinton says a vast, right-wing conspiracy that once targeted him is now focusing on President Barack Obama.
Senate Democrats will unveil legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions next Wednesday, kicking off what is likely to be a battle in Congress as lawmakers tussle over the economic impact of controlling global warming. The bill has not been released formally but will be coauthored by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and California Senator Barbara Boxer, a Congressional source said on Thursday.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
