Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained previously redacted material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file of the late Senator Edward Ted Kennedy, who died in August 2009 from brain cancer. Judicial Watch obtained the records pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit originally filed on June 9, 2010.
The documents include a December 28, 1961, State Department memo describing a tour of several Latin American countries taken by then-Assistant District Attorney of Suffolk County Kennedy.
This document as it was originally made public was almost completely redacted. After an initial challenge by Judicial Watch, a version with fewer redactions was released.
Judicial Watch continued to argue that the blackouts were baseless and, after six more months, the FBI relented. Among the statements previously withheld but now made available to Judicial Watch:
While Kennedy was in Santiago he made arrangements to rent a brothel for an entire night. Kennedy allegedly invited one of the Embassy chauffeurs to participate in the nights activities.
[I]n each country Kennedy insisted on interviewing the angry young men of the country. He wanted to meet with communists and others who had left-wing views. Ambassador Freeman, Bogota, said the first person whom Kennedy wanted to meet was Lauchlin Currie. (The document subsequently identifies Currie as a person who had been mentioned in Washington investigations of Soviet spy rings.)
[I]n Mexico Kennedy asked Ambassador Mann that certain left-wingers be invited to the Embassy residence where interviews could be held. Mann took the strong position that he would not invite such people and stated that if any such interviews were to be conducted, all arrangements should be made by Kennedy himself.
#1
The only surprise is that the FBI relented. They must have really despised the swimmer.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/27/2011 18:48 Comments ||
Top||
#2
So when is U-boat Ted's corpse going to dug up and tried for treason? The Ted Kennedy / Jimmy Carter KGB connections Kengor writes that "the most intriguing opposition to Reagan's nuclear policies has sat for decades in the Soviet archives." According to "a highly sensitive KGB document," KGB boss Victor Chebrikov wrote to Andropov, "On May 9-10 of this year [1983], Senator Edward Kennedy's close friend and confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow. The senator urged Tunney to convey [a] message through confidential contacts...to Andropov."
In order to advance the Kennedy/Soviet mutual interests (getting Reagan to back off from missile deployment and/or defeating Reagan's re-election bid), Kennedy suggested the Soviets "should consider inviting the senator to Moscow for a personal meeting in July of this year," thereby arming "Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA."
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
02/27/2011 20:04 Comments ||
Top||
45 Zimbabwean activists have been charged with treason and could face the death penalty following their arrest at a lecture on the political turmoil in North Africa. Munyaradzi Gwisai, a former opposition parliamentarian, and 44 social justice, trade union and human rights activists were arrested by police on Saturday [19 Feb 2011] as they were attending a lecture entitled Revolt in Egypt and Tunisia. What lessons can be learnt by Zimbabwe and Africa.In a recent court appearance, Gwisai said the detainees have been repeatedly tortured & abused by authorities in an event to secure confessions or turn State's evidence.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who has been loyal to the labor movement for four decades and never held a real job during that time, has said he does not want to demonize public workers as he attempts to close a projected two-year budget deficit of $700 million. But he has also said that public-sector union health care and retirement benefits are unsustainable and in some instances unjustified, that the many can no longer afford to pay for the benefits of the few__ rhetoric that mirrors what conservative Republican governors are saying on the mainland.
As they say in economics 101, things that can't go on forever, won't...
Randy Perreira, the HGEA's ( Hawaii Government Empolyees Assn - the sole owner and operator of the State of Hawaii) executive director, said the most troubling thing about Abercrombie's budget draft is that it expands state spending while asking public workers to accept concessions. Have to admit he has a point - Gov's budget shows nearly $500M increase in spending - all due of course undoing the "damage" the last (GOP) Governor did by balancing last year's budget....
Might also be due to Medicaid growing by leaps and bounds. It's usually the single largest item on any state budget.
#1
Tax and spend still is the way for most democrats.
In Maryland tax on fuel suggested. Toll roads will see increases. One dollar a pack increase on smokes.
They will never learn. Regressive liberals rule the day and will reap the pain.
#2
Smokers will know where every Indian Reservation Smoke Shop is at. Folks will avoid the Toll roads if at all possible and the cost of fuel will kill the local economy as the blue collar (most of us) people go into "can't afford it" mode.
#3
tipover Hi!; Yep that's what I have done "can't afford it" mode. I don't smoke but dislike the tax attack on smokers. The drawback will have a ripple effect. You have mentioned it but many are doing it.
Revenue will continue to shrink. Allot of people can't pay their bills now. The state is in trouble now. They can't print money like the Federal Government.
And despite that, Doc, it still provides mediocre (at best) medical service to most of the poor. (But that's still a lot better than the near-poor can afford.)
#5
"Expanding state spending" > iff Honolulu is $$$ expansion-happy now, wait until 2030 or espec 2036 when COMET APOPHIS impacts close enough to be considered a direct hit.
BECUZ NUTHIN SAYS GOOD JAPAN-STYLE, HYPER-DEFICIT SPENDING THAN A NICE TIDAL WAVE(S)???
Iff our future OWG-NWO that no American = Amerikan voted for screw up their Comet-Space Math.
[Iran Press TV] US President Barack B.O. Obama has called on congressional representatives to temporarily reach a budget agreement to prevent further political deadlocks.
In a weekly radio address on Monday, Obama urged both Democratic and Republican congressmen to avoid a political gridlock on budget issues "for the sake of Americans and the economy," Rooters reported.
"It won't be easy. There will be plenty of debates and disagreements and neither party will get everything it wants. Both sides will have to compromise," he said. "The Publicans will have to compromise more, of course. That's because we won. In 2008."
The US government could suffer a partial shutdown unless politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives would agree on a compromise to replace the current spending measure that expires at midnight March 4.
Neither party is willing to take the blame for the possible shutdown, which could cause disorder in payments to millions of Americans.
However, The infamous However... a Republican senator Rob Portman said his party is seeking to make "sensible reductions" to grow job opportunities, "not to shutdown the government."
This is while the short-term agreement would buy more time for politicians to find common ground for funding the government in the 2011 fiscal year.
Obama later added that he "looks forward to working with members of both parties to produce a responsible budget that cuts what we can't afford, sharpens America's competitive edge in the world and helps us win the future."
Tens of thousands of public workers have converged in Wisconsin's capital, Madison, for more than a week in an attempt to stop a bill, which would curb their union rights and cut their pay. Many demonstrators from inside and outside Wisconsin have also joined the protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Compromise means 'we won't expand the government by 100,000 new federal employees, but only 99,000.'
#2
Boy howdy, compared to that meathead I am a freaking white supremist. I never thought I could call myself a conservative until this empty suit showed up.
You know of course that when he says compromise, he is, like all leftists, meaning do it his way or else. That of course is compromise amongst the nu nu fringe of the extreme left.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/27/2011 0:24 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Republican senator Rob Portman said his party is seeking to make "sensible reductions" to grow job opportunities, "not to shutdown the government."
Nice for public consumption, but I hope the GOP is smarter than that behind the scene. Reducing government expenditures can only put more government workers into unemployment, for the short term. I see NO WAY that unemployment will improve much between now and Election Day 2012. The GOP offers pain now to avoid disaster later. The Dems offer business as usual, aka 'shuck and jive', with later disaster certain.
#8
The Pubs have proposed $100 billion in spending reductions. The public debt is $14 trillion. The proposed reductions are only 0.7% of the debt if my reckoning is correct.
#9
JohnQC, it's even worse than that. IIUC, the current budget would run a deficit of $1.5 trillion if extended through the end of FY11. Pubs want to reduce that deficit by $100 billion (to $1.4 trillion).
Thus, if Pubs get their way, by the end of FY11, the national debt would increase from $14 trillion to "only" $15.4 trillion, instead of $15.5 trillion.
If this was my personal household budget, I think I'd dye my hair, pack a few things, and just kinda split in the middle of the night.
#10
Isn't the budget they're currently working on last year's budget, the one Nancy Pelosi never tried to get passed while she was Speaker? After that gets passed, although we're already 3/4 through the spending year -- clawing back unspent Stimulus expenditures and not providing funding for Obamacare as well as the other small expenditures -- then there is this year's budget, due to start in June, and next year's budget. Or have I lost track?
#11
TW, the fiscal year runs from Oct 1 to Sep 30, so we're about 5 months into FY11. The budget they're currently working on is this year, FY11, which ends Sep 30, 2011.
Yes, this would be the budget Democrats, controlling both houses of Congress and the White House, could have passed and made it as big as they liked, but didn't, because it coincided with midterm elections and they would've been slaughtered no matter what they did.
Instead they just got a "shellacking," and by means of this calculated procrastination, are now positioned to blame whatever doesn't poll well on that nasty Republican majority in the House (with the assistance of the lapdog media, of course).
#12
Got to work on Zero based budgeting. No, I don't mean Oh. I mean, making no assumptions and looking at everything. Nothing sacred. We will also need an amendment or something to enable line item veto. Two many poison pills in legislation. Also, we need to stop riders. Each bill stands on its own, its contents all related. We cannot afford business as usual, we used up all or chips.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/27/2011 14:20 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Thank you, RandomJD. My understanding of matters financial is sadly limited. :-( So the bottom line is they can only address part of the year in this budget vote, because a great many things they would otherwise vote on have already been spent, yes?
#14
TW, when Congress finally passes the budget for FY11, that will set the sum total the US government will spend for FY11. IIUC, that amount will include what has already been spent since Oct, which so far has been authorized by continuing resolutions (CRs) - basically, temporary extensions of the FY10 budget until Congress works up the nerve to vote on an actual official budget.
Once that's done, they'll have to pretty much turn around and get right to work on the budget for FY12. B.O. has already proposed one that's a real stinker, to force Pubs to play bad cop to Dems' good cop.
As a voter, I think of it as being courted by two men, each of whom are deeply in debt. One wants to take out a big loan for a tricked-out Harley chopper. He's too fat and lazy to fight. The other wants to borrow a bit less to buy a sleek Ninja crotch-rocket. He can fight, and win, but every now and then he gives you a black eye.
There are no others to choose from. Which one do you pick? That is, after you cry your eyes out.
#15
Bloomberg reported that Geitner was in front of the Senate Finance Committee suggesting as part of the greater corp tax reformation, go after LLCs & Sub-S's.
...The recommendation, which Geithner repeated in a meeting with reporters this week at Bloomberg News in Washington, would affect income earned by the nations largest law firms, investment partnerships and so-called S corporations. It would more than double, to about $3 trillion, the amount of business income potentially affected by tax-law changes.
#16
Boehner has issued a CR for the deadline 3/4/11 which includes a $2 Billion cut. It's bait for the Donks to bite, showing that cuts are possible. If they don't bite, there's a shutdown with the Reps looking responsible: "if we can't cut $2 billion, what's the point of discussing anything?" It also has a threat - he says that the cuts will increase $2 billion every week til they approve a budget. It takes the Obama/MSM "GOP shut down the gubbamint!!11!!" argument away, and starts the cycle of cuts.
It's a good move. You do realize we don't have the Senate or President?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2011 16:58 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Some compromise. Since Obama has become president, the $1 trillion per year stimulus has become a permanent fixture of the federal budget. Fed spending has gone from 19-20% to 25% of GDP and is still rising.
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
02/27/2011 17:23 Comments ||
Top||
#18
Frank, we don't have the media either.
Sure, Boehner's move is clever. But he's still playing on Dems' terms: a parry here and feint there in an attempt to shift the public's perception of who owns this. It doesn't matter. House Republicans will be branded as unreasonable obstructionists anyway, and even if they got everything they're asking for, it's still just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
#20
There are no others to choose from. Which one do you pick? That is, after you cry your eyes out.
If the hypothetical were real? Invite them both over for tea and carrot cake, and mention in passing that I couldn't possibly go out with a man who didn't pay off his debts every month -- it's a matter of character. And while I understand the appeal of motorcycles (my sister has one, for which she paid cash), I've never enjoyed them myself. If they aren't smart enough to figure it out right away, I can be celibate for a while. If I am the only girl, as they are the only men, eventually they'll notice that their motorcycles aren't doing the trick. And if they don't, I absolutely don't want either one of them -- can you imagine the kind of children they'd father?
There's a good reason I don't get any closer to politics than voting.
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.
[Iran Press TV] US President 
