[An Nahar] Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Walter Q. Gresham ... may be tipped as a future U.S. president, but that did not impress a London traffic warden who slapped her vehicle with an £80 (95-euro, $130) parking fine.
The former US secretary of state was in town to receive a prize from the Chatham House think tank last week for her work in promoting "a new era of U.S. diplomatic engagement".
But her entourage failed to buy the £3.30 ticket required to park the Mercedes for an hour on the exclusive St. James' Square in central London, and received a £80 fine.
"The former U.S. secretary of state was parked for nearly 45 minutes without paying," said Daniel Astaire, an elected member of Westminster City Council.
"I'm sure she will understand that we have to be fair to everyone, regardless of their status on the world stage."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess, if she's elected, London is going to be nuked.
#6
"Don't you know who I AM? The smartest woman in the world!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/17/2013 10:00 Comments ||
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#7
Just ask NYPD how often the ruling/diplomatic class pays traffic fines. Answer: Never, fines are for the proletariat. "Now get out of my dedicated center lane or I'll have you shot".
Hey can we assign this screen name to the Redskins.
#5
I was going to suggest Putin, but somebody beat me to it. G(r)omgoru is faster on the draw than I am. Dead people don't count they don't have phones. Have Obama call me and see what he gets. I rarely answer the phone because I don't carry one and I am "out" a lot. Cell phones are too much like dog collars. I don't want to be "reached".
#9
"Dead people don't count they don't have phones" yet if you're a Democrat, you can count dead people in an election...probably where Champ made his error...
Authority to borrow money extended until Feb. 7. Happy Holidays!
Government shutdown ends, federal agencies funded through Jan. 15. Furloughed workers receive back pay. Ah, another taxpayer-paid vacation!
H&HS Department to certify it can verify income for eligibility of gubbamint subsidies for O'care. That's why getting signed up is taking so long, and always will. But it won't be too long before the scammers figure out how to beat the system.
Next July 1, the department's I.G. will report on the agency's safeguards for preventing fraud. I'm sure it'll be thousands of pages. House-Senate committee will negotiate over issues like budget deficits and spending levels. Bargainers must issue report by Dec. 13, but they are not required to come to agreement. Like all the other taxpayer-funded, United-Nations-like "commissions" to study the "Problem". Lookit the can roll!
Best news: No pay raise for members of Congress in 2014. Also, an extra $294 million for Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce backlogs of benefits claims. Not to mention extending the expired authority for DoD to support African forces hunting warlord Joseph Kony, leader of rebel group Lord's Resistance Army. They must think it's a Christian group.
Special interest groups get their cut: $636 million for firefighting for the Interior Department and the Forest Service; work continues on Olmstead lock in the Ohio River between Kentucky and Illinois a twenty-year, multi-billion dollar boondoggle; Federal Highway Administration will reimburse Colorado up to $450 million for flood-damaged roads, since we have money to burn, exceeding usual $100 million cap; and who knows how much funds for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to continue work on two weather satellites.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/17/2013 06:07 ||
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#1
Jerry Pournelle commented a couple of days ago:
"I still think that the only way to start reducing the deficit is to stop spending more money than youre taking in, meaning that while we must fully service the debt, we can sure start reducing government expenses by 1% a year. We can also eliminate bunny inspectors and other federal tasks that may or may not be worth doing, but are almost certainly not worth borrowing money to do. Of course none of this will happen. The nation has become accustomed to obedience to the ruling class and there is a large political interest group who wants to continue to increase entitlement spending not only those who get the entitlements, but those who make their living collecting and paying them. We seem to be approaching a point of no return.
Of course if something cant go on forever, it will stop."
#2
There is not a single monolithic "political interest group who wants to continue to increase entitlement spending", but a host of them. Getting rid of them is like playing Whack-a-Mole.
#3
Apparently there is no stock market 'good news' rally. If there is, it's been delayed. Perhaps none of what has taken place over the past few weeks, or the outcome, was any surprise to Wall Street.
#4
Amazing how a trend that started in Californicate and has been roundly criticized in every newspaper on this and several nearby planets suddenly becomes good news to the lurches and wobble heads in the press.
Kicking a budgetary problem with cash flow, i.e., taking in less money than you spend with few prospects of increasing the revenue stream without sending the cash cow packing for the Caymans, does not lend itself to confidence.
The confidence meter is a nice touch.
Since Wall Street is the only place in the US with any economic sense, albeit extremely unethical and greedy, I don't see how anyone that knows two whits about economics, this side of Paul the Obama Shill Krugman, would think this is good news.
Machiavelli said that avoiding discord only postpones the conflict to the disadvantage of others.
He also said the best way to gauge the intelligence of a leader is to assess those that surround him...OOPS
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
10/17/2013 11:42 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Republican and Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate struck an agreement Wednesday to end a fiscal impasse, hours before Washington hits its debt limit, a senator said.
"I understand that they've come to an agreement," said Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ... and Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the senate, led the negotiations to avert a potentially devastating debt default after an earlier bid collapsed in a bitterly divided House of Representatives.
"I hope that we're nearing the end of this ordeal, this impasse which never should have happened in the first place," said Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who has led efforts to broker a compromise.
Details of the latest agreement were not known, as politicians went in to conference to learn what the leaders had agreed to.
Senate approval of the deal still would have to be ratified by the Republican-controlled House, where a core Tea Party faction has until now vehemently resisted compromise.
The move comes with a midnight deadline. On Thursday the United States is expected to hit the limit of its $16.7 trillion borrowing authority, raising the threat of a default with potentially catastrophic effects on the world economy.
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind: I can do this! I can do this! Then the trap sprung... President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... urged Congress later on Wednesday to move swiftly to approve the deal to reopen the U.S. government and remove the threat of a potentially devastating default.
White House front man Jay Carney said Obama was grateful to the leaders of the Senate for working together and wanted politicians now to ensure "the government reopens and the threat of default is removed."
"We obviously hope that each house will be able to act swiftly because we're already on Day 16, I think ... of a wholly unnecessary shutdown of government with real consequences for real people," Carney added.
"And we are obviously very close to the point beyond which the United States Treasury no longer has the authority to borrow new money to meet our obligations."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
See RUSSIA TODAY > US AVOIDS DEFAULT AS CONGRESS PASSES DEAL TO END SHUTDOWN.
* Also from RUSSIA TODAY > BREAKING NEWS: OBAMA SIGNS BILL TO END DEBT IMPASSE + GOVT. SHUTDOWN.
* SAME > "MANUFACTURED" CRISIS COST US US$24.0BILYUHN - S & P.
IMO it may be "manufactured" because ...
> Many Perts argue that the US collects enough revenue to pay its obligations, hence there is no need at this time to raise the debt ceiling save to engage in pork or excessive new spending.
> As things stand widin the US Establishment, as a general rule the US CANNOT NOT RAISE THE DEBT CEILING BECAUSE IT ALWAYS HAS EVERMORE OBLIGATIONS THAN INCOMING REVENUES TO PAY FOR SAME.
The US Debt Structure is designed or devol such that the National, Global Debt level/burden can only go up, NOT-N-NEVER DOWN. IMO it is a per se, deliberate violation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
IT IS THUS NO SURPRISE THAT ..
* FREEREPUBLIC > [Pajamas Medias] MINUTES AFTER DEBT CEILING RAISED, OBAMA SHOWS UP WID A LIST OF THINGS SPEND MONEY ON.
US Political Histoire' repeats itself.
Apparently the Bammer reverses himself and signs only for SENATE = DEMOCRAT-SPONSORED TEMPORARY EXTENSIONS TO RAISING THE DEBT CEILING, NOT HOUSE-SPONSORED = GOP REPUBLICAN BILLS.
It will be a clash of wills as come Spring + February 2014, the GOP will hard fight on Bammercare + Immigration, while the Democrats will claim victory + hard to defend same; + fight even HARDER for a significant new Debt Ceiling limit.
------------
* ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [First Post] US DEBT DEBATES IS HOGWASH: THE US HAS ALREADY DEFAULTED.
* SAME > US WEIGHS LETTING IRAN KEEP ITS NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT FACILITIES - WSJ.COM.
Iran = Amerika's new [pseudo?]BFF in Syria + ME agz AL-Qaeda + other.
D *** NG IT, WASN'T "PSEUDO" A PHIL COLLINS SONG VEE "MIAMI VICE"!?
* RUSSIA TODAY > SHUTDOWN OF US GOVT. + "DEBT DEFAULT" A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR PRIVATIZATION OF FEDERAL STATE SYSTEM.
'Tis a wily dastardly covert "Stage Act" + PSYOP by the US Govt. + Wall Street agz their own Country + World??
* JAPAN TIMES > TURNING POINT: BEHIND WASHINGTON'S [Debt] FIRESTORM.
Heralds the end of the US' post-WW2, Cold War [post-Cold War? 9-11?] institutions and values as we knew it???
CRY FOR THE LOSS/END OF AMERICA, HAIL THE RISE OF AMERIKA!
Or as I liked to put it - the OWG-Mighty-USSA-vs-OWG-Weak-USRoA-Global-SSR, a Global-Space LLC.
#3
Quislings. Traitors to the American people. 13% job approval rating explains what people think. Maybe they should have asked "Do you think Congress is despicable?" Probably would have been somewhere in the 90 percent region.
#4
Now they won't be bothered by messy arguments over increasing the debt ceiling - it will take a supermajority to just keep it from automatically happening.
[Al Ahram] The US Senate appeared ready to announce a last-minute deal on Wednesday to avert a historic lapse in the government's borrowing ability and a potentially damaging debt default.
But even if the Senate and House of Representatives manage to overcome procedural hurdles to seal the deal before Thursday - when the Treasury says it will exhaust its borrowing authority -- it will only be a temporary solution that sets up the prospect of another showdown early next year.
Major US stock indexes rose more than 1 percent on optimism that politicians would finally end the weeks-long fiscal impasse, but cautious investors are still wary over the final outcome. Although the cost of insuring US debt hit its highest in over two years, the dollar held its ground against other currencies.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ... and Republican leader Mitch McConnell were close to finishing a fiscal plan that could be considered by the full Senate later on Wednesday. The leaders were expected to announce a deal when the Senate convened at noon (1600 GMT).
Weeks of bitter fighting among Democrats and Republicans over President Barack Obama If you have a small business, you didn't build that... 's signature healthcare reform law led to a two-week government shutdown, sidelining hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
The initial fight over the healthcare law turned into a bigger battle over the debt ceiling, threatening a default that would have reverberations around the world.
"If we don't get a default, it would be like Y2K. People were staying up all night worried about what would happen during that deadline. Then nothing happened," said David Keeble, global head of interest rate strategy with Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in New York, referring to worries about the millennium computer bug in 2000.
Both Democrats and Republicans are confident that the US House of Representatives will have enough votes on Wednesday to pass the bipartisan Senate plan, a top Democratic aide said.
Aides to House Speaker John It is not pronounced 'Boner!' Boehner ... the occasionally weepy leader of House Republicans... , the top Republican in Congress, called senior Senate staff to say the House would vote first on the measure, the aide said, adding that it appears certain to be approved with mostly Democratic votes.
Lawmakers are racing against time. While analysts and US officials say the government will still have roughly $30 billion in cash to pay many obligations for at least a few days, the financial sector may begin to seize up on Thursday if no deal is secured.
"I think folks on both sides of the aisle in the Senate are ready to get this done," Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia told National Public Radio on Wednesday, a day after chaotic developments frayed the nerves of many members of Congress and global financial markets.
Even if a deal is reached, it must still clear the full Senate and possible procedural snags before moving to the fractious House of Representatives, which was unable to produce its own deal on Tuesday.
"Today is definitely not the day to be conducting any serious business as traders across the globe will be hypnotized by their TVs/terminals and anxiously waiting for something to hit the news wires," Jonathan Sudaria, a trader at Capital Spreads in London, wrote in a client note.
Fitch Ratings warned it could cut the US sovereign credit rating from AAA, citing the political brinkmanship over raising the debt ceiling.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2013 00:00 ||
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Looks like the anti-Unitarian Unitarian GOP-Right will side wid histoire' + "safe" politics + vote for it, once again proving both the validity of being "chicken littles" during every shutdown, + why the US Debt burden can never go down ever again - ITS ONLY A QUESTION OF MUCH PORK = MASSIVE EXCESSIVE/PROHIBITIVE SPENDING WASHINGTON WANTS TO ENGAGE IN EVER POLITICAL YEAR OR PERIOD.
Final confirmation will come from the Democrat POTUS Bammer himself, whom has times said that he will not support any temporary raise in the debt ceiling - which is what this Senate bill is - but demands a full-scale/funded,
"clear" or "clean" budget bill.
The Bammer + Democrats must know that the GOP will attempt to use this extension to bring Bammercare + Immigration to the debate forefront - AS AN ALLEGED MARXIST-ANARCHHIST-GLOBALIST, THE BAMMER CAN PREEEMPT THE GOP BY VETOING THIS SENATE BILL AS ABOVE, OR HE CAN KNOWINGLY ENGAGE THE GOP FULL MONTY COME SPRING 2014 IN ANTICIPATION OF ANOTHER DEMOCRAT VICTORY VEE "SCARED GOP" FRENCH SURRENDER GOING INTO THE 2014 CAMPAIGNS.
In any case, be it by full-scale debt ceiling increase andor QE, the USA will no longer be officially or realitically able to keep its Debt-to-GDP ratio under 100% = absolute/total accounting bankruptcy save by Govt-wide mandatory order e.g. Obama-led "Executive Action".
#5
Have the Dems come up with a viable budget that can pass muster in the last five years? Is the budget figure just going to be left up to the PREZ to decide every couple of months? Are we operating on the basis of "Just give me what I want and no back talk?" Have we become an executive branch dictatorship with abetting by the Senate Majority Leader and the MSM?
#6
Is the budget figure just going to be left up to the PREZ to decide every couple of months? Are we operating on the basis of "Just give me what I want and no back talk?" Have we become an executive branch dictatorship with abetting by the Senate Majority Leader and the MSM?
#7
A Chinese agency has downgraded the US government credit rating from A to A-. What I can't understand is why would they continue to loan us money at all. They're gonna look pretty stupid when we default.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/17/2013 11:46 Comments ||
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#10
What I can't understand is why would they continue to loan us money at all.
IIRC they've stopped buying bonds. They just want to clear their existing holdings (to suckers out there in the market, just like the mortgage paper racket before 2008). A lot of the bond sales are bought by the Treasury with fake the printing of money.
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.
Hillary Clinton
Authority to borrow money extended until Feb. 7. 
House-Senate committee will negotiate over issues like budget deficits and spending levels. Bargainers must issue report by Dec. 13, but they are not required to come to agreement.
Harry Reid
