Former wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura says he has gone off the grid in Mexico to avoid drones knowing where he is. Ventura spoke with CNBCs Closing Bell from an undisclosed location in Mexico on Tuesday, prompting the hosts to ask him where he was and why he was there. He's making the assumption somebody cares where he is. Think about it: When was the last time you thought about this beauzeau? What year was it when his name last popped into your mind?
[FOXNEWS] The new head of the IRS has apologized to those who suffered because of the agency's targeting of conservative groups, after he testified before a House subcommittee for the first time.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told news hounds after the hearing before the House Boodle Central that the singling out of such organizations for special scrutiny would be "intolerable," and vowed the IRS is not doing so now.
"It won't happen going forward," Koskinen said. "And to the extent that people suffered accordingly, I apologize for that."
Koskinen also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the amount of time and manpower being spent by the IRS on the investigation into the scandal, calling the probe a "major drain" on resources.
"Which is one of the reasons I hope we can get to closure as soon as possible to get it behind us," he said. "The facts will be what they are and we'll respond appropriately. But we have a lot of resources that we could actually put to productive use dealing with services to taxpayers."
Koskinen drew criticism earlier this week when he announced he was reinstating cancelled 2013 employee bonuses. Conservative politicians such as Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch questioned why an agency with employees who "inappropriately" targeted conservative political groups would reinstate the rewards.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2014 00:00 ||
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A drain on resources as a reason to not gully investigate this scandal and denial of 1st amendment rights? Yeah, right.
#8
The apology is genuine, in the sense that they bothered to discriminate covertly in a clumsy and ham-handed way. Bad form and so amateurish. Now, the discrimination will be open and clear. Simply put, going forward, much tighter controls. But the existing super PACs will continue, and all those union contributions will be unchallenged. Since the conservatives came late to the game, they lose in relative numbers. And unions are a deeply protected class.
#9
Theyll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we cant be trusted.
Barry Barack Hussein Obama del Kansas del Hawaii del Harvard del Illinios del Chicago sur la luna.
#3
Her comments aside, the fact Ivan scooped up the call and leaked it is troubling. I get the sense it was cell phone which would make things a bit easier. If it was a secure call - time for a wholesale re-key.
Mr. B - ref you comment about video a few days ago, are you talking about the B-dad rooftop escapade?
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
02/06/2014 16:47 Comments ||
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Lost my train of thought Billy, but I do remember a "rooftop escapade at the USEMBASSY Kuwait City. No! NO! NO! Colonel, Don't blow the doors....we've got the keys INBOUND..... BOOM! KABLOWWI!
Oooops too late. Video taped, fast roping goat ropers is just too sexy. ;-)
#6
You said something about DS types needing to stop leaking video tapes. It was few days ago.
You may recall the nomination of Brett (Brent?) McGurk to be the US Amb in Iraq. Guy had series of zipper malfunctions including a zesty session on the rooftop of the old embassy in B-dad. He remained mostly clothed and standing during the encounter. Said episode was caught on tape and supposedly leaked just after his nomination.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
02/06/2014 17:04 Comments ||
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No, wasn't read-on to that one. But I've sat next to enough of the 'pink bowtie' crowd in the State Department cafeteria to NOT doubt it.
[NY Times] Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday that he would not march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Manhattan next month, citing the event's longstanding tensions with gay and lesbian groups.
Mr. de Blasio will be the first New York mayor in 20 years not to take part in the event, a world-famous procession down Fifth Avenue, which is a highlight of the calendar for many Irish-American groups but also a deeply fraught event for politicians wary of its prohibition on public expressions of gay pride.
"I simply disagree with the organizers of that parade in their exclusion of some individuals in this city," he said in a news conference at City Hall.
The mayor said he planned to participate in several other events on St. Patrick's Day, which is March 17, "to honor the Irish heritage of this city and the contributions of Irish-Americans."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2014 00:00 ||
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What is the parade about? SAINT Patrick, you say? And he was ...? Right, Roman Catholic. And being called a Saint means...? And you know about the Catholic official stance that homos3xuals are OK, but homosexual acts are inherently "disordered", and gays/l3sbians should be celibate within their homos3xuals attractions, the same as it requires of heteros3xuals to refrain from s3x except for those whom have entered into the Holy Sacrament of matrimony? Ok. And what is the Roman Catholic position on gay "marriage"? ... Ok Billy, seeing the trend here as to why gay marriage groups are excluded from the parade managed and sponsored by a Catholic group?
#4
I was there, it was either 91 or 92, when they did allow some gays to be in the parade. They were vulgar and very insensitive, throwing condoms and mocking nuns. Not saying all gays would do this but after that display gays were excluded.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/06/2014 7:31 Comments ||
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#11
Brilliant move. He has nothing to lose, makes a big huff, if they cave he looks like a hero to the gays. If they don't he doesn't have to sit thorugh a dull parade.
[MEDIAITE] Just hours after filing paperwork with the intention of seeking the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Democratic Party's endorsement to replace retiring 20-term Rep. Henry Waxman ...the funny-looking Democrat Representative-for-Life from Caliphornia. First elected in 1975, his estimated retirement date is 2075 or maybe later... (D-CA), Democratic activist Sandra Fluke announced on Tuesday that she was passing on that opportunity and aiming instead to be elected to the state Senate.
"I am extremely moved by the outpouring of local and national support I have received since I announced that I was considering running for office," Fluke said in a statement released late Tuesday night. "While I strongly considered offering my candidacy for Congress, I feel there is a better way for me to advance the causes that are important to our community."
Hidden in all the foolishness known as Sandra Fluke is that there's a model of party control and governance at work here.
The Democrats work very hard on cultivating a deep, deep bench of activists, and have done so for decades. It comes out of the machine politics from the mid 19th century on. You grab them young and develop them. Some of them flame out, some of them lose interest, some of them are so goofy that the leadership abandons them, but some of them, cultivated for a long, long time, pay off. A few pay off big.
Barack Obama: a nobody. But some folks took an interest in him (either in his early Chicago days or even before when he was at Columbia) and started grooming him. The Chicago machine helped as did the Ayers/Chicago radical machine. Obama got press time, information, tips, appointments to various boards, a shot at state senator, and so on. Did anyone think back in the early 90s that he was going to be president? No, not really, but they cultivated him.
Elizabeth Warren: a nobody, graduate of a lower tier law school, a dense and pedantic lawyer and policy advocate. But she was groomed, aided, given jobs, given opportunities, and boom -- now she's Senator Pedantic.
Sandra Fluke is a nobody. Follow her career to date and you'll see the guiding hands of the progressive Left grooming her. She's been a feminist, an 'activist' and a law student (where did she get the money for that, I wonder). She'll be prepped and prepared until the day comes when she cashes in. Ms. Fluke's "career", as you would have to call it at this point, needs more of that cultivation. She's not quite ready for the big time of 'Congresswoman Fluke', though given some of the clowns the Dems have put in those seats you have to wonder. But if she sits in the state senate for a decade or so, builds a lot of connections and chits, and waits her turn, then she can get a seat in Congress. Or run for state-wide office. Or she can get a safe, high-paying NGO job at some point to build her financial portfolio (no Reynolds revolving door tax, alas) and her Rolodex. Then back to government. Maybe a spot high in DHHS if Hillary wins.
Remember, this is how Democrats play the game. It's one of the things the Open Society, foundation, union and NGO folks do best -- find and groom people who can then be put into elected office or political appointed office. Who then do as they're, er, asked, to do.
Look for the pattern in these progressive apparatchiks. The nomenklatura has been grooming them.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2014 00:00 ||
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I didn't know the Congressional health plan did not give unlimited birth control coverage.
#2
Look for the pattern in these progressive apparatchiks. The nomenklatura has been grooming them.
Which is why the Norwegian mass murderer couldn't be white washed as mentally ill to get around the legal limits on incarceration. He knew and explained that system was exactly what he was attacking when he committed the crime. He made a cold calculated plan to disrupt the process and the willingness to pay the price to do so. While here he would fry, there he'll sit out the time. Must be one of those little nightmares in the subconscious of the Left in their unending pursuit to disarm America.
#3
Remember, this is how Democrats play the game. It's one of the things the Open Society, foundation, union and NGO folks do best -- find and groom people who can then be put into elected office or political appointed office. Who then do as they're, er, asked, to do.
[AMERICAN] Contrary to opponents of Keystone XL, the pipeline would have virtually no effect on global warming, and the world is not experiencing more frequent and extreme climate-related events.
Now that the State Department has reported the obvious -- that the Keystone XL pipeline would have virtually no effect on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or on global temperatures -- the opponents of the project are bringing the heat. But in the realm of energy and environmental policy, Pavlov's dogs are many, loyal, and deeply religious, and unlike Sherlock Holmes's four-legged friend in Silver Blaze, they decidedly are not silent.
One such immediate reaction was offered by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, who informs us modestly that "the future survival and wellbeing of humanity" is at stake. His specific arguments in summary are as follows:
"The world is on a trajectory to raise the mean global temperature by at least 3 degrees C by the end of the century."
"The world is experiencing a rapidly rising frequency of extreme climate-related events such as heat waves."
"The Keystone pipeline is crucial to the global carbon budget," that is, an effort to limit the use of fossil fuels to an amount that would yield a global temperature increase of no more than 2 degrees C.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2014 00:00 ||
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So three degrees is catastrophic, but if we give complete control to Professor Sachs, he could limit the global increase to just two degrees. Over the next ninety years.
That requires a certain level of trust, which I feel Dr. Sachs has not earned. Nor any other of his ilk.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/06/2014 7:37 Comments ||
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Not building XL will not lower CO2 emissions, which is what the State Dept. said. Canada will extract the oil. They can pipe it to us, or they can ship it to China. The oil will get burned either way.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/06/2014 10:43 Comments ||
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Which is safer for the environment:
1. A pipeline that goes through a safe country and can be built according to crazy strict environmentalists guidelines.
2. Shipping crude by boat in which it has to risk the vast ocean, drunk captains, and occasional pirates while requiring oil to cross that distance and a military (and all the oil they use for war and war prep) to safeugard a lot of whackos in the countries where it is drilled in order to drill it safely in the first place.
Not really a hard choice if yo uhave any brains, except their goal is not the environment so much as removal of cheap energy and control.
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee ,exceptional moonbat, Okay, in comparison maybe, just maybe 'Congresswoman Fluke' isn't so bad...
said that the new Congressional Full Employment Caucus will "give President Obama a number of executive orders that he can sign." After all, he is The One.
Jackson Lee added that writing up executive orders "should be our number one agenda." Because we don't want to do our jobs and we bow to a higher athority.
"We will be answering the call of all of America because people need work and we're not doing right by them by creating work," the Texas congresswoman said. "I believe this caucus will put us on the right path and we'll give President Obama a number of executive orders that he can sign with pride and strength," Jackson said Jan. 29 at a press conference where she and fellow Democrats launched the Full Employment Caucus. We believe that the President knows best. The American people are way to dumb to run their own lives.
"In fact, I think that should be our number one agenda. Let's write up these executive orders -- draft them, of course -- and ask the president to stand with us on full employment," Jackson Lee added. So, Con gress is now subserviant to the Preznit. Yes Massa, Thanks you Massa.
President Obama has declared 2014 a "year of action" despite facing a Republican-controlled House of Representatives opposed to most of his potential legislative reforms. Which include completely ignoring Congress and the Constitution.
The Full Employment Caucus, a new job-oriented working group, was created by Democrats including Rep. John Conyers Jr., Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Frederica Wilson, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Jose Serrano, Rep. Mike Quigley, and Jackson Lee. Not a hard-working American in the bunch. Socialists and Fascists all.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/06/2014 00:00 ||
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Yeah 'cuz the Senate (congress) bowing to an emperor worked so well for the Romans too.
#2
People who think like this and advocate exclusion of a democratic process, i.e. open debate and the weight of the legislative process, make my hair stand on end.
What about you ?
Posted by: Au Auric ||
02/06/2014 0:27 Comments ||
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Quick - someone send her a copy of that de-facto manifesto for the 'Occupy' movement so she can have him sign it into law...
You know the one which guarantees equals incomes, free student loans, and canned unicorn farts for everyone...
#5
People who have no need for a stinkin' republic or Constitution and are a fractional minority in the overall population had better be prepared for the inevitable forces of history leaving a mark.
#12
Some in Congress are dumb as a box of rocks. However, the change in leadership and majority party in the House in 2010 may have been a move towards self-preservation on the part of the voters. A vote for change in control of the Senate in 2014 may be a further move in that direction.
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.
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Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee 
You've seen the movie, now read the book. 
