No one, that is, except for reporters, editors and lawyers at the New York Times, which has according to an avalanche of first-, second- and third-hand accounts been working on a piece about Gov. David Paterson that, depending on who you talk to, could prove to be anything from mildly embarrassing to politically apocalyptic.
The last few weeks have brought two major eruptions of rumors concerning Paterson's private life: reports of nuzzling at a New Jersey restaurant and being caught in semi-flagrante in a utility closet in the Governor's Mansion -- stories that Paterson and his press office have vehemently denied.
According to sources who have actually been interviewed for the Times' story, its central narrative is the role played by members of Paterson's inner circle in his personal and political activities.
Rumors about a possibly publication date for the story have ranged from Monday to today; the latest suggests Sunday, but it's hard to believe that the Times would hold the story much longer when knowledge that it's pending has put every other reporter in the Capitol and elsewhere on the scent. Possible reasons for delay include editorial fine-tuning and thorough legal review.
Someday, a sociologist might be able to use an analysis of the rumors currently flying around the Capitol as their dissertation topic. Information from credible sources slowly becomes wilder as it spreads out. Sometimes, the chain of information is circular: A calls B, who calls C; then C calls A, who discovers that the story has changed markedly on its journey.
The Times, of course, won a Pulitzer for breaking the story of Eliot Spitzer's transgressions. Living in anxiety that the paper could be on the verge of dropping something of similar impact won't make for a happy weekend at the Governor's Mansion.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2010 00:00 ||
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So David Paterson ain't nothin but a hound dog, in the Chetaah Woods tradition ? He musta walked into the utility closet by mistake, thinkin it was the elevator in the Govners mansion. I can understand that bein blind and all.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Four British lawmakers facing criminal charges over their expense claims are arguing that they are above the law, while some of their colleagues have yet to repay taxpayers' money.
The four MPs, three from the ruling Labour party and one from the opposition Tories, have stated that parliamentary privileges protect them from the law, reports said on Saturday.
However, Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said he was charging Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, and Jim Devine under the Theft Act 1968. If convicted, each faces up to seven years in jail.
The accused face charges of false accounting but say they are innocent and are pressing to have their expenses claims handled by parliamentary authorities.
Lord Hanningfield, the Tory (Conservative) peer and leader of Essex County Council, faces six charges. Last year, a Daily Mail report said he had withdrawn £100,000 over seven years for staying in London despite living just 46 miles from the capital.
Hanningfield quit his post as the council's leader and stepped down as a Tory frontbencher but denies the charges.
Starmer said Saturday that Hanningfield had "dishonestly submitted claims for expenses to which he knew he was not entitled."
On Thursday, as many as 390 current and former British MPs were ordered to repay a total of more than one million pounds in undue claimed expenses.
Last year, a leaked document detailing the MPs' claims showed that a great number of British parliamentarians, and some ministers, had claimed large sums for their personal expenses from public funds.
The scandal has sullied the reputation of the country's three main parties, but some of the MPs have claimed the overdrafts were due to accounting "mistakes."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2010 00:00 ||
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1 British pound = 1.5603 U.S. dollars - 1,560,300 - 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost. MSRP: $247,000 - Six RR's
doucheness noted, Dems retreat to push less-disgusting candidate?
The Democratic nominee for Illinois lieutenant governor has dropped out of the race less than a week after winning the nomination amid a political uproar about his past.
Scott Lee Cohen announced his decision Sunday night at a Chicago bar. fitting location
The pawn broker and owner of a cleaning supplies company won the nomination Tuesday. Since then, it has become widely know that he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and holding a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend. Cohen's Motto: "Family Values"
The girlfriend herself had been charged with prostitution. He also admits using steroids in the past.
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who would have been paired with Cohen on the November ticket, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and Sen. Dick Durbin all had urged Cohen to leave the race. "please"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2010 20:44 ||
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"he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and holding a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend"
So this was a secret until after he got the nomination?
Who ratted him? More importantly, since this sounds like actions the police would have been called for, why didn't the media investigate the candidates' backgrounds and find this out before the primary? In the tank for the Dems, I know. But what changed?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/07/2010 21:09 Comments ||
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..and holding a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend.
I thought cut-throat politics was what it is all about in IL. You know the Chicago way. Girlfriend should have been packing heat, in a Colt way too.
from 2011 to 2020, the administration projects total federal spending of $45.8 trillion against taxes and receipts of $37.3 trillion. The $8.5 trillion deficit is almost a fifth of spending. In the last year (2020), the gap is $1 trillion, again approaching a fifth: spending is $5.7 trillion, taxes $4.7 trillion. All amounts assume a full economic recovery. The message: there's a huge mismatch between Americans' desire for high government services and low taxes.
Second, almost $20 trillion of the $45.8 trillion of spending involves three programsSocial Security, Medicare (health insurance for those 65 and over), and Medicaid (health insurance for the poor). The message: the budget is mainly a vehicle for transferring income to retirees from workers, who pay most taxes. As more baby boomers retire in the 2020s, deficits will grow.
Third, there is no way to close the massive deficits without big cuts in existing government programs or stupendous tax increases. Suppose we decided to cover all future deficits by raising taxes. Taxes would rise in the 2020s by roughly 50 percent from the average 19702009 tax burden.
#3
Now read the Foxnews.com exclusive on the oversized WFP budget for Afghanistan, with the US paying 47% of their budget. It ain't gonna happen--better get prepared for massive social unrest. I just hope any stringing up at the lampposts target those really responsible, who will remain namelsess for the sake of RB, although we all know who I'm thinking of.
WAFF > COME HOME UKRAINE|UKRAINED ELECTIONS CARRY GLOBAL RAMIFICATIONS [Potential Elex of PRO-RUSSIA,PRO-RUSS LANGUAGE-CULTURE Prez Candidate Victor Yanukovich opens the door for GREAT RUSS INFLUENCE IFF NOT DOMINATION OF THE EU VIA UKRAINE]???
HMMMM, HMMMM, MUSLIM TURKEY vs. COMMIES-FOR-FASCISM-FOR-COMUNISM RUSSIA.
Read, [anti-US?]COMMIE, ISLAMIC COLLUSION ONA LARGER GEOPOL = MULTI-NATION LEVEL???
Yeah, I know some of you can't stand anyone or anything pro-Hillary, but read this posting from Hillbuzz. They know Dem politics and they have a nice little plan for getting them where it hurts most....right in their pocketbooks and right in their donors' egos.
#1
Very few of the people who attend these events want it know they are attending them. Theyre there for the pictures, only, not so much the cause. So, using FEC records to identify the top donors to the 60 Democrats in the Senate currently, then organizing letter writing, email, and telephone campaigns to ask these top donors, politely, to stop donating to these Democrats will severely curb DNC fundraising efforts in 2010.
#2
the DNC is already less important than the various PACs, etc.
The Hildabeast already has HillPac and NOWPac.
Her bigger enemies are the various anti Hillary PACs.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/07/2010 9:50 Comments ||
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Essentially the Tea Party is being advised to make an attack run on the formerly Clinton-controlled DNC, It would supposedly help out the Tea Party, but more likely would benefit Hillary (Hillary's team set up a fund-raising mechanism outside of the Party several years ago).
Kinda like smugglers handing out guns to the natives.
Blame the childish, ignorant American public--not politicians--for our political and economic crisis. tough choice where to place this - but we don't yet have an "untalented elitist asshole socialist media" category, so I guess it goes here. If you see Jacob, punch him in the gunt and say: "this is for the people who pay the taxes, asshole"
But the gown is surpassing lovely, and the hat is to die for!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2010 00:00 ||
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Count De Monet - Sire, the peasants are revolting! King Louis - You said it. They stink on ice.
#2
Even larger majorities oppose the kind of spending cuts that would reduce projected deficits, let alone eliminate them. Nearly half the public wants to cancel the Obama stimulus, and a strong majority doesn't want another round of it. But 80-plus percent of people want to extend unemployment benefits and to spend more money on roads and bridges. There's another term for that stuff: more stimulus spending.
Where to start?
Unemployment insurance is not stimulus spending. It is government relief, a far cry from stimulus, and it is nominally at least self-funding.
Back in the 70s an economic stumulus was supposed to means free money to get the general public spending.
Now it means borrow money and rain cash onto top of any number of political pet projects,
That's not stimulus spending either.
Projected deficits will become even worse if the federal reserve decides to raise interest rates, and will be bad enough with the current administration's policy of expanding welfare rolls and subsidizing pet industries.
Tax cuts will work, but at this moment they will lead to another bubble similar to the one the current administration is blowing.
The only fix is the only one that hasn't been tried and that is a massive reduction of government scope, power and expenditures at all levels. Not cut spending, not reduce spending, but wholesale elimination of any non constitutionally mandated programs ( defense, border control, and other traditional government functions ( painfully limited federal law enforcement ) )
Top of the list to be eliminated: ( not cut, not reduced, but wiped out ) PBS, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, the US Department of Energy, and the US Department of Education.
For every revolution, there must be casualties. Those are my top six.
#4
Nah, Frank, don't punch the twit. He'd see it as vindication, and you'd just get bloodstains and puke on your nice shirt.
Far better to just smile and outthink the sorry little bastard and his hallelujah chorus. It wouldn't be that hard, really. He's so busy patting himself on the back for regurgitating what must be a "secret" talking point (remember that Time Mag rant about how the public is so shtooopid not long ago? Expect to see more in the future for a while until Axelrod sees that it's not really working all that well.)
Look, if he was so bloody brilliant as he imagines himself to be, he wouldn't be the third or fourth or whatever writer to harp on this theme, now, would he?
Let him emote loudly in public. Let him vent somewhere that gets more traffic than DU or Daily Kos. Let it out there so that the vast independent majority sees exactly what the "hopeychangey" people they voted into office really think of them when they won't follow orders.
#7
If there are ignorant people out there, Jacob, perhaps it's because they are educated by the media, after learning whatever-passes-for-education-these-days in the politically-correct public schools.
But more and more folks are watching Fox News.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/07/2010 5:56 Comments ||
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Jake, you are buggie.
Jacob Weisberg -(born 1964) is an American political journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of Slate Group, a division of The Washington Post Company, and a columnist for the Financial Times. He served as the editor of Slate magazine for six years, until stepping down in June 2008.[1] He is the son of Lois Weisberg, a Chicago social activist and connector celebrated in Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point. Weisberg's father, Bernard Weisberg, was a prominent Chicago lawyer and, later, judge. His parents were introduced at a cocktail party by novelist Ralph Ellison.
#9
Besoeker is correct. Social Security and Medicare are the big handouts. They were created after the passage of the 17th amendment, to provide for more democratic election of senators.
This tipped the balanced government our founders created. Too much democracy, too little monarchy and aristocracy.
Franklin also said, when asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had created, "A republic, if you can keep it." We are about to find out.
#10
Another hole in the bottom of the bucket are the hordes that are now taking their doctor's slip of "100% disability" to the lawyer who assists them in applying for Social Security disability. There is is a huge spike in these claims that no one is talking about. They are what I call the southern nouveau-rich. Too young to be retired, but well enough to motor their Cadillac Escalades to the department stores.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2010 14:49 Comments ||
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#15
You want stimulus and to provide jobs perhaps we should build a nice wall (think great wall of China) along the Southern Border. That'll provide work for Americans, and a tourist attraction for the future. It might also slow down the number of illegals when the economy picks up again.
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 Latest] Four British lawmakers facing criminal charges over their expense claims are arguing that they are above the law, while some of their colleagues have yet to repay taxpayers' money. 
Blame the childish, ignorant American public--not politicians--for our political and economic crisis.
