A good man is hard to find. Especially if you look and talk like Bwarney...
FOX25 has learned that Congressman Barney Frank was present during a marijuana arrest at James Ready's home in Ogunquit, Maine. Ready is well-known for his relationship with Congressman Frank.
According to a police report, police charged Ready with marijuana possession, cultivation and use of drug paraphernalia in August of 2007. Ready admitted to civil possession and paid a fine. The remaining charges were dismissed in 2008.
Sources tell FOX25 that when Frank was questioned he told police that he did not live in the house and that he only smoked cigars. Nah, kids, that's not his best line....here it comes....
Congressman Frank tells FOX25 that he was surprised and disappointed with what police found. He also tells us that he wouldn't recognize a marijuana plant if he saw one because he is, "not a great outdoorsman," and ,"wouldn't recognize most plants."
Rep. Charles Rangel is likely to be cleared on one of a half-dozen ethics charges, it was reported yesterday. I'll be surprised if it's not all of them...
Rangel and four other members of the Congressional Black Caucus may be exonerated of allegations of rule violations stemming from a 2008 trip to the Caribbean for a conference, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.
The ethics panel announced in June that it planned to investigate the group, after The Post reported that the names of corporate sponsors of the conference were featured prominently throughout the events.
Members of Congress are barred from accepting multiday trips from companies that employ lobbyists.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts.
ACORN staffers were given no notice that a search would be conducted today, Herring said. "They have been extremely cooperative," she said.
Early last month, Caldwell's office issued subpoenas for records from ACORN's New Orleans office, where the organization -- now moving its national headquarters to Washington -- has long been based. Today's search is an outgrowth of those subpoenas, which stemmed from an investigation by Caldwell's office into the embezellement of ACORN funds by Dale Rathke, a brother of the organization's founder, Wade Rathke, Herring said.
In a statement, ACORN's attorney Pamela Marple said the group was told the raid was ordered because of reports that workers loyal to Beth Butler, the recently fired head of ACORN's Louisiana branch, had been taking computer data and other items out of the office.
"Over the last two months, ACORN has been cooperating with a variety of governmental entities across the country to provide requested information and documents," Marple wrote. "We were told that the AG's office has no criticisms of ACORN's cooperative efforts, but rather that the warrant was issued because of concern that former local ACORN staff members had, and may intend in the future to remove or alter electronic documents."
An ACORN official also said Caldwell's investigators will copy the hard drives from ACORN's computers and return them next week. The computers contain all payroll information for the national organization, the official said.
Now there's a fascinating read ...
People inside and close to ACORN were angered by news last spring that Dale Rathke had taken close to $1 million from the organization, which is billed as an advocate for poor and working-class people. But in the subpoenas, the state attorney general's office suggested that the embezzlement may have been on the order of $5 million, and that ACORN's current CEO, Bertha Lewis, acknowledged as much at an Oct. 17, 2008 board meeting, soon after she assumed the position.
But Lewis, reacting to the subpoenas, said that Caldwell apparently bought a misleading version of events that she said was being peddled by two dissident former board members for ACORN.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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I think we need these ACORN and SEIU thugs to cool off a bit. Perhaps build a federal prison at Nuiqsut, Alaska, Population 400. On the Arctic Ocean, about 60 miles west of the Canadian Border (Yukon). Since the left was always ready to call anything that was against their `free speech`, `chilling`, but it's OK to silence talk radio and FOX News... They should feel the ultimate chilling themselves....
#5
There is a town called Chicken near the Alaska Yukon border. Was quite the gold mining place at one time. Near to Jack Wade. Nuiqset is a village on the North Slope near the coast. We used to call it No Exit.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/07/2009 16:24 Comments ||
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Strange things are done neath the midnight sun by the men who moil for oil.
#7
My mother visited Chicken, Alaska. The story she came back with was, "They were going to call it 'Ptarmigan', but they couldn't spell it; so they called the town 'Chicken' instead."
Click through to see what National Review calls "The List of 55 Nervous Democrats."
At last report, Nancy is still about ten or twelve votes short on the Take Over One Sixth Of The Nation's Economy Act. If your congresscritter is on the list, look up his/her/its office at www.opencongress.org/ and give 'em a call, and very politely urge them to vote against the bill. This is one of those situations where a few dozen "no" calls really could make a difference.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/07/2009 11:31 ||
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mine is Duncan D. Hunter - he's already said "no way possible" he would vote for this shit sammich
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/07/2009 13:51 Comments ||
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You'll notice that not one of the MA delegation is on this list. There's no one to call that would even listen in this state.
"Unfortunately, this health care bill before us now is a bit like bobbing for apples in an outhouse," he said. "The harder you look, the more waste you find!"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/07/2009 16:06 Comments ||
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My congresscritter, Melissa Bean, seems to have a very busy number.
Sent her an e-mail, though, reminding her (respectfully), that her seat is really ours, and that a vote for this bill would open the resource gates against her next election....
Between yesterday's Ft. Hood shooting and the unemployment news, this story is bound to get lost in the shuffle. But it shouldn't:
Fannie Mae, the mortgage buyer seized by regulators, plans to tap emergency U.S. capital for a fourth time this year, bringing its draws of taxpayer money to $60 billion as the company sees no immediate end to its losses.
Fannie Mae will seek $15 billion in Treasury Department financing after posting an $18.9 billion third-quarter net loss, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late yesterday. The Washington-based company, which posted $101.6 billion in losses over the previous eight quarters, has already tapped $44.9 billion from the $200 billion emergency lifeline.
"They're going to need that $200 billion in capital, if not more, when this thing's all said and done," said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia.
Last year, when Fannie and Freddie recieved a $200 billion bailout it was generally recognized that the two Government Sponsored Entities, which have virtually a monopoly on the U.S. mortgage market, had protected their corrupt fiefdom by lobbying and otherwise manipulating the political system. William Poole -- one of the most respected economists in America, and former president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank -- said that "Congress ought to recognize that these firms are insolvent, that it is allowing these firms to continue to exist as bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer." The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight issued a damning report about Fannie and Freddie's troubling accounting practices in 2004, and yet Democrats in Congress lined up to defend the Fannie Mae and it's politically connected CEO, Franlin Raines. Almost no one has been held accountable since then -- but taxpayers are still shelling out billions. Further, today's unemployment data suggests that Fannie's woes are going to continue for some time. Over at The Atlantic's business blog, Daniel Indiviglio wonders:
Does anyone still think it's a good idea for the U.S. government to implicitly guarantee approximately half of the U.S.'s $12 trillion mortgage market? I sincerely hope that Washington is serious about scaling down or eliminating Fannie and Freddie, and not just replacing its capacity with broader roles for Ginnie Mae and the Federal Housing Authority.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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I got a better idea: just sell it. A public auction would place a true market value on the company and immediately place a true value on the mortgages held by Fannie Mae.
Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who developed a close friendship with President Obama when they served together in the Senate, is threatening to have the entire health care bill read on the Senate floor.
Senior Senate Democratic aides had heard Coburn was considering having potentially thousands of pages read aloud in effort to stall passage. If he did this it would be even outrageous for a guy whos become known as Dr. No around here, one of them told POLITICO.
Well then, have every Senator sign a statement that she/he has read the bill. And then have them pass a quiz on what the bill actually says.
Coburns office confirmed that he is indeed thinking about having the bill read.
That's a possibility, Coburn spokesman John Hart said. He wants to make sure everyone has a chance to read the bill.
Coburn, who has a reputation for using procedural rules to block and delay legislation, has been an outspoken critic of the presidents health care overhaul. He recently told the New York Times: My mission is to frame this health care debate in terms of the fiscal ruin of this country. I have instructed my staff to clear my schedule for every minute that bill is on the floor.
'We better not see you on again,' the strategist says he was told by a White House official. Obama aides have taken an aggressive stance against the network and may be seeking to isolate it.
Reporting from Washington - At least one Democratic political strategist has gotten a blunt warning from the White House to never appear on Fox News Channel, an outlet that presidential aides have depicted as not so much a news-gathering operation as a political opponent bent on damaging the Obama administration.
Political consultants are a staple of cable television talk shows, analyzing current events based on their own experiences working on campaigns or in government.
One Democratic strategist said that shortly after an appearance on Fox, he got a phone call from a White House official telling him not to be a guest on the show again. The call had an intimidating tone, he said.
The message was, " 'We better not see you on again,' " said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to run afoul of the White House. An implicit suggestion, he said, was that "clients might stop using you if you continue."
In urging Democratic consultants to spurn Fox, White House officials might be trying to isolate the network and make it appear more partisan.
A boycott by Democratic strategists could also help drive the White House narrative that Fox is a fundamentally different creature than the other TV news networks. For their part, White House officials appear on Fox News -- but sporadically and with "eyes wide open," as one aide put it.
David Plouffe, the president's campaign manager and author of a new campaign book, "The Audacity to Win," was scheduled to appear on Fox's "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren Thursday night as he promotes his book. His appearance, preempted by the breaking news of the shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas, has been rescheduled for Monday.
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said Thursday night that she had checked with colleagues who "deal with TV issues" and they had not told people to avoid Fox. On the contrary, they had urged people to appear on the network, Dunn wrote in an e-mail.
But Patrick Caddell, a Fox News contributor and a former pollster for President Carter, said he has spoken to Democratic consultants who have been told by the White House to avoid appearances on Fox. He declined to give their names.
Caddell said he had not gotten that message himself from the White House. "They know better than to tell me anything like that," he said.
Caddell added: "I have heard that they've done that to others in not-too-subtle ways. I find it appalling. When the White House gets in the business of suppressing dissent and comment, particularly from its own party, it hurts itself."
The White House has taken an aggressive stance toward Fox. When President Obama appeared on five separate talk shows one Sunday in September, he avoided Fox.
"It would be foolish for us to just treat it like it's CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS," said a White House aide. "That doesn't make any sense. That would be like saying we're going to do [interviews] with the newsmagazines and we're going to do Time, Newsweek and the [conservative] National Review."
The aide spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk more openly about the White House's thinking.
Last month, Dunn told CNN that Fox was, in effect, an "arm" of the Republican Party. Dunn said in an appearance on the rival cable network: "Let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."
As the dust-up played out, Fox's senior vice president of news, Michael Clemente, countered: "Surprisingly, the White House continues to declare war on a news organization instead of focusing on the critical issues that Americans are concerned about like jobs, healthcare and two wars."
Fox's commentators have been sharply critical of the Obama administration. After the president won the Nobel Peace Prize, Sean Hannity, who has a prime-time show on Fox, said he got the award for "trashing America."
The two sides seemed interested in easing tensions. On Oct. 28, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs met privately with Clemente.
But White House aides haven't changed their underlying view of Fox.
Fox's audience is by far the largest of the cable networks, with an average of more than 2.1 million viewers in prime-time this year. CNN is second with 932,000 prime-time viewers.
Fox's viewership is not what worries the White House, though. More troubling to White House aides is that other news organizations may uncritically follow stories that Fox has showcased.
The White House aide said: "Where some of the falsehoods become dangerous is when the rest of the media accepts them as fact and reports on them, either out of a desire to tap into Fox's news audience -- which you can understand, given where circulation and viewership rates are -- or as some sort of knee-jerk fear of being considered liberally biased, which is what conservatives have been saying of the mainstream media for years."
The White House's pugnacious approach to the network leaves some Democrats troubled.
Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, said in an interview: "This approach is out of sync with my conception of what the Obama administration stands for and what they're trying to do. I think they'll think better of it and this will be a passing phase."
#2
He just wants FOX to use fakes like the other networks. That is, when ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. need "conservative Republicans", they bring in somebody like James Carville and call him a "conservative Republican."
So maybe FOX could bring in a "liberal Democrat" consultant like Rarel Koveski:
A simple query from the Supreme Court is forcing the Obama administration to wrestle with the limits of states' authority to enforce immigration laws -- and also is throwing an uncomfortable spotlight on Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
On Monday, the justices asked the Justice Department to provide its views on Arizona's attempt to force employers to verify the immigration status of potential employees. The law being challenged in the cases was signed by Napolitano in 2007, when she was governor of Arizona.
Napolitano has stated that she believes the law is constitutional, but business groups and immigration reform advocates generally in President Barack Obama's camp are asking the Supreme Court to strike down the statute.
"It is awkward, given the fact that she signed the law," said Glenn Hamer of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of the organizations asking the Supreme Court to take up the issue. "It's got to be a difficult situation for the administration."
A spokesman for Napolitano, Matt Chandler, declined to say whether the secretary, who was once a defendant in the case, would recuse herself from the matter. Her department is in charge of enforcing federal immigration laws and thus could be expected to have a voice in the administration's position.
But Napolitano won't make the ultimate call, Chandler said, adding, "This is a decision for the solicitor general."
The Justice Department also declined to discuss what consultations will go into the administration's response to the court's query. "The solicitor general is studying the issue," DOJ spokeswoman Beverley Lumpkin said.
The court's query demonstrates how the immigration issue forces itself onto the Obama administration's agenda, even though White House officials have given immigration reform legislation a lower priority than issues such as health care reform and stimulating the economy.
Immigrant advocates said they're hoping Napolitano will urge the administration to support the challenge to the Arizona law, as improbable as that may seem.
"You can legitimately say Napolitano is wearing a different hat now. She has to take a step back and look at how these efforts have metastasized across the country," said Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Council.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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nappy did the right thing for AZ and states right when she signed the law. Her fatal mistake was joining Zero's team.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/07/2009 8:46 Comments ||
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business groups and immigration reform advocates = open borders advocates, who believe there is no such thing as illegal immigration.
Neither Barack Obama nor Nancy Pelosi can be as clueless as they want us to think they are. The White House said the president was so uninterested in the results on election night that he watched a documentary on the '08 presidential campaign, no doubt eager to see who won. Mzz Pelosi, as oblivious of the scoreboard as a ditzy cheerleader unaware of which team has the ball, insists her side won the night.
Mr. Obama continues to campaign for the job the rest of us thought we gave him a year ago. The day after the Republicans sent wake-up calls from Virginia and New Jersey, he was back on the stump, working up a sweat -- or at least a gentlemanly perspiration -- and breathing hard against George W. Bush.
"One year ago," he told voters in Wisconsin who probably knew it already, "Americans all across this country went to the polls and cast ballots for the future they wanted to see." When he finally got to Washington, he told them, he discovered "a financial crisis that threatened to plunge our economy into a Great Depression, the worst that we've seen in generations. We had record deficits, two wars, frayed alliances around the world."
Some of this was even true. Americans had, in fact, gone to the polls the year before, and had in fact cast ballots for "the future they wanted to see." Very few voters ever cast ballots for a future they don't want to see. But the rest of his stump speech was a good deal of the windy exaggeration expected during a campaign. But like it or not, Mr. Obama is the president now, and the opportunities and failures at the White House are his. George W. is back home in Texas, where he no longer frightens women and horses. We've still got record deficits, two wars and now our allies don't know what to believe. Someone should break the news, gently, to the president that the election is over and he won.
Rhetoric, even soaring messianic rhetoric, ultimately makes thin, watery soup. Mr. Obama has a gift for shutting his ears against what he doesn't want to hear. The man who listened to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright every Sunday morning for 20 years and never heard any of the preacher's signature rants against Jews and the evil white man insists he didn't see or hear any of the bad news for Democrats in this week's election results.
Some badly frightened Democrats tried to find good things in the details of the Tuesday night returns. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey called the results "a mixed bag" and in no way a referendum on the Obama agenda. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, the Little Miss Sunshine of the Senate, agreed. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada scoffed that the verdicts in Virginia and New Jersey were "just local." Why worry about the results of a race for county assessor?
But there are wiser Democratic assessments for the president to consider. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who owes his own election to the popular view that he is made of tougher stuff than the usual Democratic candidate, says the results will "energize" Republicans and persuade Democrats to get their message "straighter."
But this is President Obama's dilemma. His "message" is his agenda, and that's the whole point of why a community organizer ran for president in the first place. He can dither about sending enough troops to Afghanistan - the "necessary war" he talked about last year is the irrelevant war this year - but he can't dither away his unexpected opportunity to recast the nation into a harmless Little America, small and weak so that it can never again offend the cultured sensitivities of the Swedens or Lower Voltas or Luxembourgs of the world. It may be now or never.
Nancy Pelosi and her purveyors of fairy-tale economics in the House understand this. The longer Congress takes to create the vast bureaucracy to "reform" health care, the greater the likelihood that common sense and a righteously angered public will kill the evil scheme. Most people look at the $1.05 trillion - that's trillion, with a 't,' not a 'b' - health care "reform" and see a debt to crush their grandchildren. The Republicans got a lesson in the elections, too. The natives are restless; Barack Obama's windy eloquence and his 25-cent promises of hope and change are stale and getting a little moldy. Even credulity has its limits. But winning in spite of themselves won't be enough to resurrect the Republican corpse. Unattended corpses get moldy, too.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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George W. is back home in Texas, where he no longer frightens women and horses. Not so. 0's rhetoricians regularly trot out the hobgoblin image of W to keep the doubtful and wavering in line.
A few days ago, the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org began sending out emails seeking contributions to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who does not fully support "health care reform with a public option." Now there's an update: MoveOn executive director Justin Ruben says the group has raised $3,578,117 for the project and is thinking of new ways to punish errant Democratic lawmakers.
The more they6 spend on this silliness, the less they'll have to manufacture imaginary voters for the election next year... or to pay lawyers for those up on charges.
"It's a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots," writes Ruben.
The correct term is astroturf, my dear Mr. Ruben. A few days ago the Democratic senators saw the difference between the two.
And now, working in conjunction with Howard Dean's old organization Democracy for America, MoveOn is starting a drive to take away the committee chairmanships of any Democrat who fails to live up to MoveOn's progressive standards. "Many of these senators hold coveted committee chairmanships that give them significant power within the Senate," Ruben writes. "Our friends at Democracy for America have launched an open letter urging Senate Democrats to strip committee chairmanships from any Democrat who filibusters health care." Ruben says that more than 66,000 MoveOn and Democracy for America members have pledged to contribute.
Golly, what a lot of voters that is, to be sure.
"Chairing a committee is a privilege, not a right," Ruben continues. "So if a member of the Democratic Congress joins with Republicans in the most important vote in a generation, then they certainly don't deserve a position of power controlled by Democrats."
The latest statements from MoveOn and Democracy for America come amid continued media analysis of divisions in the Republican party. MoveOn's threats -- backed by millions of dollars and tens of thousands of progressive activists -- have received far less attention.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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an apt graphic for MoveOn
of course you do know what the proscribed remedy for vicious dogs is....
Posted by: abu do you love ||
11/07/2009 2:39 Comments ||
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Thanks to a 36-to-62 vote in the Senate today, the National Science Foundation will continue funding studies like this one, which concluded that congressmen can boost their approval ratings by holding Internet town halls. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., proposed an amendment banning the use of NSF funds for such political science studies. Nine Republicans voted to preserve the funding. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was among those voting against it.
The vote highlights the total lack of prioritization in federal spending. One would expect National Science Foundation money to go towardy...well, science. If this kind of flimsy study (it examined town halls with only 15 to 25 participants each) on a topic of questionable value isn't worthy of a cut, is there any place in the budget for Congress to begin cutting?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Congress always has the same priority - re-election, so they can milk as many benefits from themselves from the public purse as possible. The electorate plays along by its dedication to incumbents and its belief in free lunches.
The House will not vote on a liberal Democratic plan to have a fully government-run "single-payer" healthcare plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to pursue a single-payer plan in the healthcare overhaul. But Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) secured a commitment from leadership in July to have an "up-or-down vote" on the single-payer approach during floor debate. He got it in exchange for liberal support of a compromise with Blue Dogs on the public health insurance option in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The amendment almost certainly would have lost, but would have demonstrated what support there is among Democrats for single-payer.
But as the vote, now planned for Saturday, has neared, Pelosi has seemed increasingly reluctant to open the bill up for any amendments, even from her own party.
Weiner said Friday after Pelosi's announcement that he didn't want his push for a vote to interfere with passing the healthcare bill, which is proving difficult enough for Democratic leaders. He said that vote counting efforts turned up complaints that a single-payer vote could put some centrist lawmakers in a bind, caught between their liberal base and their more conservative constituents.
"I didn't want the legacy of single-payer to be that it jeopardized passage of healthcare reform this year," Weiner said.
Pelosi's praised Weiner as "tireless and effective advocate for progress on healthcare."
"His decision not to offer a single-payer amendment during consideration of H.R. 3962 is a correct one and helps advance the passage of important health reforms by this Congress," Pelosi said in a statement, which was echoed by Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who negotiated the July deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Maryland First District Congressman Frank Kratovil says he will vote against the House Democrats' health care reform bill.
Kratovil is one of a number of House Democrats seen as vulnerable by some Democrats in next year's election. Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats in his district that includes all of the Eastern Shore and parts of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford Counties.
Kratovil issued a statement from his office today saying that the bill is too costly. "I still am concerned that this bill does not do enough to bend the long-term cost curve and that it lacks adequate provisions to reduce the deficit and protect small businesses," Kratovil said.
Kratovil is one of a number of House Democrats seen as vulnerable by some Democrats in next year's election. Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats in his district that includes all of the Eastern Shore and parts of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford Counties.
Republican State Senator Andy Harris who narrowly lost to Harris last year is expected to challenge Kratovil next year.
The bill costs $10.2-trillion. It includes the so called "public option" which provides taxpayer funded insurance for those who can't get insurance anywhere else.
The House of Representatives had been scheduled to vote on the bill Saturday but House Majority leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says the vote has now been delayed until Sunday or early next week.
The White House says President Barack Obama regrets a delay in plans for a House vote on sweeping health care legislation and that he'll visit Capitol Hill Saturday to personally lobby for it.
Obama had planned to visit lawmakers on Friday, but changed his plans as a result of the delay. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that while there now won't be a final vote on the bill on Saturday, as Democratic leaders had previously indicated, the president "sees tomorrow as an important step forward."
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters earlier in the day that the make-or-break vote on Obama's top priority could face delay. Democrats indicated they didn't have enough votes lined up to conduct the vote Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Let us suppose that the vote squeaks by and the Obamanation passes and is signed into law.
Let us further suppose that 2010 becomes an absolute bloodbath for House Democrats.
Is there any possibility of scuttling this thing before it would take effect in 2013? (E.g. Refusing to fund it.) It seems outright repeal would take until a new President (God willing) in 2013.
But to answer the questions specifically, the Pubs would need --
1) control of the House. Maybe after 2010, not sure.
2) 60 votes in the Senate. Not happening.
3) a president who would sign the reversal. Not happening.
Well, what about 2012? If the country were really angry, two election cycles might get the Pubs a president and near-control of the Senate. That means they could kill it early in 2013, just after it started, as long as they're aware of what Gloria noted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2009 11:55 Comments ||
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Of all the numbers swirling around this week Capitol Hill this week -- health care whip counts, CBO estimates, winning and losing margins in Virginia, New York and New Jersey -- one stands out from the rest: 10.2 percent.
That's the national unemployment rate. And lawmakers from both parties know that, if it doesn't go down dramatically before next November, they could be adding to it themselves.
With control of the White House and Congress, Democrats have the most to lose if jobless numbers remain high.
"I think anytime unemployment is high and people are concerned about their jobs, the economy, incumbents on both sides of the aisle need to be concerned," Republican Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said Friday. "What people care most about is food, clothing and shelter. Period. .... When food, clothing and shelter are sort of impacted, their base lives are impacted, it definitely sours the public as it should. Usually the party in power takes the brunt of that, but it affects all incumbents."
With control of the White House and Congress, Democrats have the most to lose if jobless numbers remain high. But like Corker, Democrats insist that incumbents in both parties will feel the pain. "I think it's bad for incumbents in general. You'd have to be a fool not to realize that," said Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley, whose home state of Nevada has a jobless rate in excess of 14 percent. "The way our fellow citizens register their concern is at the ballot box ... if the unemployment numbers don't go down, if there's no relief, they will express their frustration in November 2010."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Just cook the books. Just start making up unemployment numbers. The MSM will go along with it and not just because they're loyal, but because they no longer care about doing the leg work that would reveal the discrepancy. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Already happening. The 10.2% doesn't include 'discouraged workers', contractors (people working 1099) and a host of other actual unemployed people. The REAL unemployment number is closer to 17.5%.
#6
Just cook the books. Just start making up unemployment numbers.
They started cooking the employment books back during Reagan's tenure. Successive administrations have further refined the scam to the fine art it is today.
#8
Just cook the books. Just start making up unemployment numbers.
If it's good enough for the Soviets, it good enough for Obama. Soon the US will have no unemployment. Nor sex.
Posted by: ed ||
11/07/2009 11:09 Comments ||
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#9
They started cooking the employment books back during Reagan's tenure. IMHO, the media have cooked the books on economic & business reporting for decades. I used to subscribe to the WSJ to educate myself on investing my retirement funds, but gave it up, as the info WSJ provided was utterly useless for my purposes. Many 401K owners followed the WSJ line in their investments and have paid a dreadful price. It is unlikely they will live long enough to recover. You can go back and read old issues of the NY Times during the worst years of the Depression. I've read some of it, and found the 1930's-era business and economic reporting more to-the-point and useful for an average citizen.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) predicted on Thursday that there will be a constitutional challenge to the provision in the health care bill under consideration in Congress that would require all Americans to buy health insurance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government has never before mandated that Americans purchase any good or service. I wouldn't place a lot of reliance on a Supreme Court that's round and firm and fully packed with B.O. appointees. Johnny Mac's campaign finance restriction on freedom of speech survived review by a much more conservative court.
When asked by CNSNews.com on Thursday where in the Constitution is Congress given the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance, McCain said, "That is an excellent question and I'm sure that if they pass health care legislation, I think there would be a challenge."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
just go home, take a nap, and let Arizona elect a real conservative.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
11/07/2009 2:58 Comments ||
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#3
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government has never before mandated that Americans purchase any good or service. If mandatory payroll deductions for Social Security and Medicare are not the functional equivalent of a 'mandate that Americans purchase certain goods or services,' I don't know what is.
Embattled Gov. David Paterson is pulling out all the stops to save his job. "Gentlemen, we've got to save my phoney baloney job!"
He plans to mount a major ad blitz to tell New Yorkers about all the good things he's done for the Empire State. "Like roads and bridges and conserving Noo York's Buffalo and Lackawanna herds for future generations!"
The election may be over, but the political ads aren't. They never end, just keep on gobbling up money that people are for some reason willing to spend to buy politicians...
The governor is now taking to the air waves to convince New Yorkers he deserves to stay in office. "What it's geared to do is talk about his very good record over the last year, the things he's done for the state, including closing a $35 billion budget," said veteran political consultant Bill Lynch. "Who was it that took over after Spitzer crashed and burned? It wuz me! I am not Elliott Spitzer! That's something, ain't it?"
The ads are aimed at improving Paterson's low poll numbers and sending a message to other Democrats, including President Barack Obama, that he is determined to seek another term in office. "Once people know the things he's done for this state they will start to look at him differently," said Lynch. "Revulsion will turn to adoration, mark my words! All it takes is a few million to interrupt Gilligan reruns!"
Paterson, whose popularity currently hovers in the 20 percent range, was seriously wounded when Obama let it be known he didn't want Paterson to run because Republicans like Rudy Giuliani consistently trounce beat him in the polls. According to one poll, he comes in fourth in a two-man race between Giuliani and Cuomo...
But Obama's recent lack of success in backing local candidates, including New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, has empowered Paterson. "I'm just as incompetent as Corzine! Why shouldn't I get to be governor for six or seven terms? Or even a full term?"
"The President went to New Jersey five times for Corzine and wasn't able to turn that around, so I think here in New York, New Yorkers know everything is local," said Lynch. Giuliani and Cuomo and even Joe Doaks are also local Noo Yorkers.
But that's not all Paterson is doing. "But wait! There's more!"
He's bringing on board campaign powerhouse Harold Ickes, who was former President Bill Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff. Hiring a local boy like that's always good...
Will all this help the popularity-challenged governor? My guess is "no." What's yours?
At least one lawmaker thinks so. There's always a dumbass in every crowd, isn't there?
"I think he's a viable candidate already. He's the governor. Anybody that's the governor is a viable candidate to begin with. I think it can only help make him more viable," said Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan). "The fact that people throw fruit and dog turds at him when he speak is beside the point. A little bit better PR guy and he'll be fine! Trust me on this. I'm a politician!"
Paterson's political future is hanging in the balance. If the ads are successful they could make popular state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo think twice about a primary challenge. They'll have to be damned successful to stunt the ambition of Andrew Cuomo.
If they're not, it could force him to re-assess his candidacy. I'd be thinking seriously about a rewarding career in the food service industry if I was him.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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good! throw more money down the toilet. It's more they can't spend on a competitive race
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/07/2009 13:49 Comments ||
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Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain "acceptable health insurance coverage" and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Test it out for a decade first on the congress critters.
Why no simply get them to leave the rest of us alone, allow free trade, stop restricting commerce across state lines (no competition for insurance companies by law in many areas).
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
11/07/2009 1:07 Comments ||
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Why no simply get them to leave the rest of us alone
Because using public spending to reward friends and allies (including self) is how politicians stay in office and enjoy their standard of living?
President Barack Obama said Friday the entire nation is grieving for those slain at Fort Hood, and he urged people not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officers investigate the shootings.
"We don't know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts," Obama said in a Rose Garden statement otherwise devoted to the economy.
"What we do know is that there are families, friends and an entire nation grieving right now for the valiant men and women who came under attack yesterday," the president said.
His aides, meanwhile, worked to make way for Obama to attend a still unscheduled memorial service for those slain at the nation's largest military post. The White House's top spokesman said Obama would attend that service and emphasized it would take place at the family's convenience, and that it will not be dictated by the president's schedule. Where Obama can give a shoutout to Maj. Hasan, next's year's Obama medal of honor freedom winner.
Posted by: ed ||
11/07/2009 11:29 ||
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Note to all, if for some reason I die and someone mistakes me for a hero, please keep that self serving ass the hell away from my family. Oh, note to everyone else, the wake will be a blast and your all invited!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/07/2009 12:11 Comments ||
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And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts
Which was exactly what he did when the white cop busted the black professor.
Of course, this is different - it goes to the heart of his religion.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/07/2009 12:59 Comments ||
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Note the worthless bastard is taking a pass on visiting families of the dead or wounded. He isn't even sending Joe. "W" and his wife have found time to visit them however.
DECRYING Barack Obama as "white power in black face", hundreds of African Americans marched on the White House today to protest policies of the first black US president, and demand that he bring US troops home.
More than 200 people gathered for the first public demonstration by African Americans against the Obama administration since his historic inauguration in January, and slammed the president for continuing what they described as Washington's "imperialist" agenda around the world.
"We recognise that Barack Hussein Obama is white power in black face," civil rights activist Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black is Back coalition which arranged the protest, called into a megaphone as the group marched outside the mansion's gates.
"He is a tool of our imperialist enemies and we demand our freedom. And we demand that Obama withdraw all the troops from Afghanistan right now."
Protesters also called for Mr Obama to order troops out of Iraq and to scrap Africom, the controversial year-old United States Africa Command, and demanded "hands off" Venezuela and ends to the Cuba embargo and the Zimbabwe blockade.
Several demonstrators held up placards bearing messages such as "US out of Afghanistan" and "Stop US war against Iraq".
Charles Baron, a New York city councilman and former member of the Black Panthers, a Black Power movement in the mid-1960s and 70s, attacked the president for turning a cold shoulder to the plight of African Americans.
"We're not satisfied with him, and ... this hope and change rap has not been a reality for black people," Mr Baron said.
"We are glad that Barack Obama broke up the white male monopoly on the White House, but we were not looking for a change in the occupant of the White House from white to black, we were looking for change in foreign policies and domestic policies," he said.
"To have a black person exploiting me just like a white person, that's no easier pain."
The group also called for the release of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in 1982 of killing a white police officer and sentenced to death.
The US Supreme Court upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction in April and rejected his bid for a new trial.
Black Americans voted overwhelmingly for Democrat Obama in last year's election, when he defeated Republican Senator John McCain.
About 13 per cent of US citizens are African Americans
#1
The group also called for the release of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in 1982 of killing a white police officer and sentenced to death.
See above for the real reason for the march on the White House.
#2
Charles Baron, a New York city councilman and former member of the Black Panthers, a Black Power movement in the mid-1960s and 70s, attacked the president for turning a cold shoulder to the plight of African Americans.
"We're not satisfied with him, and ... this hope and change rap has not been a reality for black people," Mr Baron said.
"We are glad that Barack Obama broke up the white male monopoly on the White House, but we were not looking for a change in the occupant of the White House from white to black, we were looking for change in foreign policies and domestic policies," he said.
I think these people think Ogabe was elected African dictator, and like Mugabe, has the power to confiscate everything from the non-black population and hand it over to the black population. They are finding out that that is not the reality of American presidential power. Yet. Ogabe will do his darndest to seize Mugabe-like powers, but I expect him to fail, because he's not the only power-hungry pol in DC. And, unlike in Mugabe-land, Ogabe doesn't actually command the personal allegiance of the entire military to do anything he wants.
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.
Rep. Charles Rangel is likely to be cleared on one of a half-dozen ethics charges, it was reported yesterday.
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts.
Between yesterday's Ft. Hood shooting and the unemployment news, this story is bound to get lost in the shuffle. But it shouldn't:
Reporting from Washington - At least one Democratic political strategist has gotten a blunt warning from the White House to never appear on Fox News Channel, an outlet that presidential aides have depicted as not so much a news-gathering operation as a political opponent bent on damaging the Obama administration.
A few days ago, the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org began sending out emails seeking contributions to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who does not fully support "health care reform with a public option." Now there's an update: MoveOn executive director Justin Ruben says the group has raised $3,578,117 for the project and is thinking of new ways to punish errant Democratic lawmakers.
Thanks to a 36-to-62 vote in the Senate today, the National Science Foundation will continue funding studies like this one, which concluded that congressmen can boost their approval ratings by holding Internet town halls. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., proposed an amendment banning the use of NSF funds for such political science studies. Nine Republicans voted to preserve the funding. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was among those voting against it.
The House will not vote on a liberal Democratic plan to have a fully government-run "single-payer" healthcare plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday.
Of all the numbers swirling around this week Capitol Hill this week -- health care whip counts, CBO estimates, winning and losing margins in Virginia, New York and New Jersey -- one stands out from the rest: 10.2 percent.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) predicted on Thursday that there will be a constitutional challenge to the provision in the health care bill under consideration in Congress that would require all Americans to buy health insurance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government has never before mandated that Americans purchase any good or service. 
Embattled Gov. David Paterson is pulling out all the stops to save his job. 
Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain "acceptable health insurance coverage" and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.
