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Surprise! Pervez Musharraf was playing 'double game' with US
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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Home Front: Politix
Hirono (D - Soviet of Hawaii) Saddened by GOP Lack of Bi-Partisanship
words just fail me...
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/17/2009 11:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But dissent is still the highest form of patriotism*, right? Or maybe I missed the memo.

* apologies to Thomas Jefferson who, far too often, gets blamed for that silly quote
Posted by: SteveS || 02/17/2009 11:51 Comments || Top||

#2  The Democratic Dictionary(c) definition of Bi-Partisanship, see..
Muslim Dictionary(c) definition of (infidel) submission.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2009 11:52 Comments || Top||

#3  "Learn to live with disappointment."
-- The Dread Pirate Roberts
Posted by: mojo || 02/17/2009 12:37 Comments || Top||

#4  If they had thrown a few bones to the Repulican masses, a few probably would have bitten. Personally, I'm glad they didn't.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 02/17/2009 16:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Doubt it will improve Hirono. I can only recommend honorable seppuku.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2009 16:10 Comments || Top||

#6  If I recall correctly. Ms Mazie is a typical party hack - she put her time in and was supposed to be given the Governorship, but was such a non-entity a republican (Lingle) beat her out. In HI you have to be pretty damn bad to lose to a GOP'er, but she was given the congress seat as a consolation prize, anyway.
Posted by: Glaiting Stalin7185 || 02/17/2009 16:26 Comments || Top||

#7  good idea besoeker
Posted by: rabid whitetail || 02/17/2009 17:29 Comments || Top||


First California, Now Kansas, Stiffs Citizenry on Refunds
Kansas has suspended income tax refunds and may not be able to pay employees on time, state officials said Monday. The state doesn't have enough money in its main budget account to pay its bills, prompting Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to suggest borrowing $225 million from other accounts throughout state government. But the move required approval from legislative leaders, and Republican leaders refused Monday.

Budget Director Duane Goossen said that without the money, he's not sure the state can meet its payroll. About 42,000 state employees are scheduled to be paid again Friday.

He added that the state might also have to delay payments to public schools and to doctors who provide care to needy Kansas residents under the Medicaid program.
Ah, yes, the old "give us what we wants, or yer kids gets it! maneuver."
Goossen said the state stopped processing income tax refunds last week.
Hmm. I wonder if they would let the good people of Kansas stop filing their state returns until they get back to work on this? Yeah, I didn't think so, either.
Sebelius accused Republicans, who hold majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, of blocking the accounting maneuver to "play political games."

Republican leaders said it's illegal under Kansas law to shift the funds around as long as the state continues to face a projected deficit in the budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

GOP leaders are hoping to pressure Sebelius into signing a bill making $326 million in adjustments to the budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Almost half of the adjustments are spending cuts. Legislators approved that bill last week, but it has not reached the governor's desk. Sebelius hasn't said whether she will sign it.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 02/17/2009 09:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Playing political games? So that's what it's called when lawmakers follow the laws that they themselves passed? What happened three months ago, when they had plenty of time to comply with the law?
Posted by: gromky || 02/17/2009 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  IOU's won't buy beans and rice. The citizenry will soon be "Stiffing" state revenue coffers with added withholding excemptions.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2009 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Please read the NRO article posted in non - wot for more information about what is going on.
Synopsis: Republicans want to cut spending across the board. Sebelius wants to keep spending on her pet programs. Her governess better take that Obama job, because she is going to lose this publicity stunt.
Posted by: bman || 02/17/2009 11:00 Comments || Top||

#4  If you choose the option to roll over your refunds to the next tax year for credit and keep that up till it matches most of what's due, what's the state going to do when they get their own IOUs for a fiscal year?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2009 11:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Procopius,
You can guess how that will work - your tax refund credits will not be usable for paying your taxes; your taxes must be paid with real money. Or eventually, toilet paper, whichever is worth more (see Zimbucks for example.)
Posted by: Eohippus Shaviper7110 || 02/17/2009 12:42 Comments || Top||

#6  California, Kansas, and next the Federal Government? At some point someone is going to have to get serious about working us out of this financial hole--either to stop digging or to come up with a realistic plan to create jobs for people. We have outsourced jobs to other countries for several decades now. We have not addressed the illegal alien problem. We have lost large chunks of our manufacturing base. We have made bad trade decisions. We have lost our ability to provide our own energy--other than by buying from someone else such as OPEC nations. We have strangled ourselves with regulations. We have a government that is not responsive to the people and is out of control. We have politicians that promise everything and deliver little in order to get elected or re-elected. Our financial institutions are in a disarray. Greed and power have driven our country to the brink of collapse. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a better outlook after a drink and a good night's sleep.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2009 21:19 Comments || Top||


NY Gov's Staffers Get Secret Raises Amid 'Freeze'
Gov. Paterson has secretly granted raises of as much as 46 percent to more than a dozen staffers at a time when he has asked 130,000 state workers to give up 3 percent pay hikes because of the state's fiscal crisis, The Post has learned.
What did you think he was going to do with the pörn tax?
The startling pay hikes, costing about $250,000 annually, were granted after the governor's "emergency" declaration in August of a looming fiscal crisis that required the state to cut spending and impose a "hard" hiring freeze.

One raise was approved as recently as last month - when Paterson claimed the budget deficit had reached an unprecedented $15.5 billion.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whenever the bosses talk about cutting costs, they are never talking about themselves.
Posted by: gromky || 02/17/2009 1:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Four legs good, two legs bad better. - George Orwell's Animal Farm
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2009 8:11 Comments || Top||

#3  This is how Wall St. will beat the bonus limitations of Obama's TARP II funding. Raise pay!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 02/17/2009 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  These days, the state just sees themselves as another corporate giant and acts accordingly.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/17/2009 9:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Lauren, Chardee, and Charlotte.... those fellas really did GOOD!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2009 10:37 Comments || Top||

#6  I read "Animal Farm " some years ago, and the man was spot on, I hear the sheep chorus daily, "Men Baaaad" only now it's changed to
Whoever's against ME, Baaaad ("Me" being Democrats.)

("DEM"S GOOD, OTHERS BAAAAD)

I would have to say the DNC either uses Animal Farm as it's "Bible", or was the model "Animal Farm " was based on.
I frankly don't see any difference.
Posted by: Rednek Jim || 02/17/2009 14:08 Comments || Top||

#7  As I recall, Orwell was directly criticizing the Soviet Union under Stalin.

FWIW
Posted by: lotp || 02/17/2009 15:39 Comments || Top||

#8  True, lotp, but Jim's comment ("I frankly don't see any difference.") still stands. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/17/2009 16:30 Comments || Top||


Burris Offers Defense of Evolving Account
Senator Roland W. Burris of Illinois on Sunday defended his evolving descriptions of conversations he had with allies of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich in the months before Mr. Blagojevich appointed him to fill the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. "I did not donate one single dollar, nor did I raise any money or promise any favors of any kind for the governor," Mr. Burris, a Democrat who was sworn in as a senator a month ago, said at a contentious news conference.

Mr. Burris tried to explain why he did not mention three phone conversations with Mr. Blagojevich's brother -- in which he now says he was asked for fund-raising help -- during testimony last month before a committee of state lawmakers weighing whether to impeach Mr. Blagojevich. "Anyone who suggests otherwise," Mr. Burris added, "or would insinuate that my testimony in person or in writing is anything other than fully compliant with the committee and consistent with the truth is simply playing at partisan politics."

Mr. Burris said that none of his comments had been inconsistent and that he had hidden nothing, telling reporters, "If you all report this correctly, this is no story."
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  His testimony is another example of "living document" in liberal parlance.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 02/17/2009 9:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Doesn't his nose appear to be growing a bit longer?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2009 10:33 Comments || Top||


Franken: Call me 'Senator-elect'
Democrat Al Franken has started using the title "senator-elect," despite the fact that his contest with Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) has not yet been decided. A Minnesota court is currently hearing Coleman's challenge to the recount.

A press release sent out by his staff Monday announcing a series of town halls with local mayors reads: "Sen.-elect Franken held the first in a series of roundtable discussions with Minnesota Mayors today in St. Paul. Franken and metro-area mayors discussed the economic realities facing their cities, budget cuts, President Obama's measures for economic stimulus, and how to grow Minnesota's economy."

The Democratic mayor of St. Paul is also quoted in the release referring to Franken as the victor. "Right now, Washington is debating matters of enormous consequence to Minnesota's economy," Mayor Chris Coleman says in the release. "Senator-elect Franken understands what our cities need to prosper, and we're ready for him to go to Washington to be a voice for us."

Since taking the lead in the recount, Franken has insisted that he is the rightful winner of the Minnesota Senate race but did not use the phrase in a press release until Monday. Franken staffers and attorneys have used the phrase but often drawn flack from Republicans for doing so.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From the look of his waistline, nobody calls him late for dinner either.
*rimshot*
Posted by: Spot || 02/17/2009 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2  At least he will make the name for the Senate official - A Joke!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 02/17/2009 9:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Franken: Call me 'Senator-elect'

Een nie goed nie gedeelte van kak!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2009 10:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Dunno what Besoeker is saying. But if Franken ever gets to Washington DC expect the old Air America blowhard to join the chorus of those who are calling for a revival of the Fairness Doctrine. OTOH, if Coleman could somehow pull out a miracle the Trunks might be able to stage a filibuster once in a while.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/17/2009 11:50 Comments || Top||

#5  One no good piece of crap.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2009 11:55 Comments || Top||

#6  I prefer other labels for him. NSFW
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 02/17/2009 16:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Al, is it O.K. if I call you $hithead?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2009 21:21 Comments || Top||



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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.
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In no particular order...
Steve White
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tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2009-02-17
  Surprise! Pervez Musharraf was playing 'double game' with US
Mon 2009-02-16
  Another Wazoo dronezap
Sun 2009-02-15
  Talibs: Pak will surrender in Swat
Sat 2009-02-14
  Suspected U.S. Missile Strike Zaps 27
Fri 2009-02-13
  Canadian Muslim sentenced for firebombing Jewish institutions
Thu 2009-02-12
  Pak arrests 'main operator' in Mumbai attacks
Wed 2009-02-11
  Taliban Attack Afghan Government Buildings, Killing 20
Tue 2009-02-10
  FBI woman sexually harassed me: 26/11 accused terrorist
Mon 2009-02-09
  Female Tamil Tiger bomber kills 28 after hiding among refugees
Sun 2009-02-08
  India wants Pak declared terrorist state
Sat 2009-02-07
  Russia allows transit of US military supplies
Fri 2009-02-06
  Islamabad High Court frees AQ Khan
Thu 2009-02-05
  Thirty dead in Pakistan blast: hospital
Wed 2009-02-04
  Bridge Attack Severs Afghan Supply Route
Tue 2009-02-03
  Somalia orders recapture of Baidoa

Better than the average link...



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