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Pirates captured after attacking the wrong ship
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Page 6: Politix
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Page 4: Opinion
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Britain
Now Brown's Own Ministers Join the Chorus of Dissent
THE crisis gripping Gordon Brown's corrupt, incompetent regime now looks terminal. Against the backdrop of deepening recession, Labour politicians have almost given up trying to run the country. Instead they devote their time to plotting and infighting.

Functioning government has been replaced by institutionalised anarchy as the mood of rebellion spreads through Labour's ranks. In an almost unprecedented move, the Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has openly attacked Gordon Brown's premiership, describing his political campaigning as "a lamentable failure".

Other senior Labour figures have joined the chorus of disapproval. Former home Secretary Charles Clarke has said he is "ashamed to be a Labour MP" and has demanded the sacking of Brown's closest political ally, the Children's Secretary Ed Balls.

'A man of towering rages and sly deceit'
Westminster is rife with talk of leadership challenges and mass defections. "This is the first time in my life I have seen my colleagues united. They are united in despair," says the Labour backbencher Bob Marshall-Andrews.

There is a sense of poetic justice about the anger directed at Brown, for he has now become the victim of the treacherous methods he practised against others. The Prime Minister can make no convincing appeal to loyalty since his rise to the top of the Labour party was built on serial disloyalty. Brown has surrounded himself with thuggish henchmen throughout his career in Parliament: men such as Ed Balls, his former spin doctor Damian McBride and his trade union bully boy Charlie Whelan, all of them eager to do his dirty work. Smearing internal opponents, fomenting divisions and conducting vendettas have been the hallmarks
of Brown's approach.

Throughout the past year he has viciously undermined his Chancellor Alistair Darling, while he ensured last September that lurid details about the private life of health Minister Ivan Lewis were made public: Lewis having committed the crime of daring to question some of Brown's policies. This is the real character of the figure who now sits in number 10, brooding on the collapse in his authority.

I always felt that he would turn out to be a disaster because I had seen him at close quarters when I worked for the Labour front bench at Westminster throughout the early nineties. Then he struck me as rude, immature, neurotic, and vengeful, a man of towering rages and sly deceit, completely lacking in integrity or any sense of perspective. There was an air of intimidation and crudeness about him, as his rumpled, sweating bulk charged bullishly along the corridors of Westminster, his fawning, foul-mouthed yes-men at his sides.

The darkest predictions of Brown's premiership have been realised. In just 20 months he has disgraced the highest office, ruined our economy and made himself an international laughing stock. Everything he has done, from the abolition of the 10p tax rate to his bizarre attempt to give MPs a daily attendance allowance, has been dictated by short-term tactics rather than a desire to meet the real needs of the country.

He has emerged as a figure of spectacular dishonesty, whether it be lying about "British jobs for British workers" in the face of his continued support for mass immigration or in his endless manipulation of economic statistics. So as Brown's leadership crumbles, there are now three scenarios facing Labour MPs.
  • First, they can limp on to the general election next year with Brown at the helm, in which case they will probably face a crushing electoral defeat.

  • Second, they can organise an effective leadership challenge. But this is unlikely, not least because they have proved so gutless in the past.

    Brown's own cowardice is matched by the members of his Parliamentary party, who surrendered to his bullying in 2007 when he wanted to avoid a leadership contest after ousting Blair and again failed to mount a coup against him last summer after the fiasco of the Crewe by-election.

    Moreover, there is no obvious successor to Brown. None of the names regularly touted as alternatives, such as Alan Johnson, David Miliband or Harriet Harman, has much appeal to the public.

  • The third alternative is that Brown resigns. This might sound implausible given that Brown plotted for so long against Blair, yet he is also a man of monumental egotism. There is only so much humiliation he can take. Already there are reports emerging from Downing Street that he "hates" the job of Prime Minister and is at the end of his tether, reflected in his regular temper tantrums.

    Tea mugs, even printers, have been thrown from his desk in fits of volcanic frustration. A man with a pathological fear of the democratic process will not relish a massive election defeat next year.
Since the victorian age there have been two Prime Ministers who have succumbed to nervous breakdowns while in office.

The first was the Liberal peer Lord Rosebery, who in 1895 suffered such chronic insomnia that he had to be injected with heavy doses of morphine to help him sleep. The second was the Tory Anthony Eden, who wandered through the Suez crisis of 1956 in a haze of amphetamines and barbiturates.

Wounded, paranoid and infuriated, Brown now seems dangerously close to losing his grasp of reality as he staggers from one political catastrophe to another. his departure, however achieved, cannot come soon enough for the country.
Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  wow. When Hazel Blears calls you a "lamentable failure", that's gotta sting
Posted by: Frank G || 05/05/2009 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Just read on Drudge that Brown's Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has banned Michael Savage from entering Britain for supposedly engaging in hate speech on his radio show. They let the Paks practice hate speech in the mosques but Michael Savage is not OK? I think as long as that's the case I'd just as soon stay away from Britain myself.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 05/05/2009 13:32 Comments || Top||

#3  They did the same with Geert Wilders - the Danish MP. For producing fitna.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/05/2009 14:20 Comments || Top||


Tax success Google to help failure BBC, say ministers
Google could be be hit with an online advertising tax to boost the coffers of the BBC, under proposals being discussed by the Government.

Ministers are considering taxing search engines, download websites and broadband providers to fund public service TV and the roll-out of broadband. It could mean tax bills of more than £ 100million, which in turn may force firms to start charging for emailing, internet searches and social networking, which are used by millions of Britons every day.

Conservative MP Philip Davies, who sits on the Commons culture, media and sport select committees, criticised the proposals, saying the money to fund the future of 'Digital Britain' was lying unused in the BBC's coffers.

'They are looking at everything apart from the thing which is shooting them in the eye, which is the BBC,' he said. 'There's piles of money sat glaring them in the eye. But they are trying everything to avoid doing the most obvious thing of all.'

Chancellor Alistair Darling has already outlined plans in his budget which give the broadband industry money from the BBC's underspend on digital switchover. An estimated £250million which it is unlikely to have spent by 2012 will go towards installing universal broadband. But ministers are discussing options to raise more cash from successful internet companies.
Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Homeland agency pulled back extremism dictionary
The same Homeland Security Department office that categorized veterans as potential terrorists issued an earlier report that defined dozens of "extremists" ranging from black power activists to abortion foes. The report was nixed within hours and recalled from state and local law enforcement officials.

Whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Cubans and Mexicans, along with tax-hating Americans were among several political leanings listed in the "Domestic Extremism Lexicon" that came out of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) in late March.

The lexicon lists definitions for key terms and phrases used by Homeland Security analysts "that addresses the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the United States," the report said.

Click here to download a PDF of "Domestic Extremism Lexicon"

Black separatism was defined as a movement that they said advocates the establishment of a separate nation within the U.S., and its members "advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence directed toward local law enforcement" to advance their goals. Black power is a "term used by black separatists to describe their pride in, and the perceived superiority of the black race," the report said.

Under the listing "antiabortion extremism," the lexicon cites a movement that "advocates violence against providers of abortion-related services." It notes that some people in the movement "cite various racist and anti-Semitic beliefs to justify their criminal activities."

"The lexicon was not an authorized I&A product, and it was recalled as soon as management discovered it had been released without authorization," said Amy Kudwa, Homeland Security spokeswoman. "This product is not, nor was it ever, in operational use," Ms. Kudwa said.
Posted by: Beavis || 05/05/2009 13:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Next up, Nature-Evolved-Disaster Birds on the natgeo show.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/05/2009 19:19 Comments || Top||


Clan bicker over Ted Kennedy's Senate seat
The vultures circle. But I'll bet Grampa Joe would "understand"...
Ted Kennedys wife, Vicki, and his nephew, former congressman Joe Kennedy, are getting set for a bruising battle over who will succeed the ailing senator, according to a new book excerpted in the new issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

"Vicki is seen by all as an interloper and she is deeply resented by Teds children and many of the newphews," Edward Klein writes in his new book, "Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died," due in stores next month. "Joe, who sees himself as the only serious heir apparent, particularly loathes her control over his uncle and hence the family. Joe inherited his fathers ruthless gene. He is nothing if not aggressive. And anybody who tries to get between him and Teds Senate chair is in for a fight."
Character traits not mentioned? Joe's a friggin moron who reeks phoniness...
The excerpt, which appears in the June issue of Vanity Fair, covers the 12 months since Kennedy, 77, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Klein, a former Newsweek and New York Times [NYT] editor, is the author of four other salacious Kennedy books, including "The Kennedy Curse" and "Just Jackie," which were not exactly kind to the famous clan.

The Ted tome contains some new details about the day the senator was rushed to the hospital with what turned out to be a malignant brain tumor. According to Klein, Kennedy was stricken as he played with his dogs, Sunny and Splash, on the beach in Hyannisport. "According to one family friend he fell in the sand and realized he could not move." The senators sad diagnosis - a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe - set off a series of events that roiled Americas once-royal family, Klein says.
They can't even wait til he's gone?
As Ted began to seek a successor, a rivalry developed between his wife, his nephew and his neice, Caroline Kennedy. It was Ted who insisted that Caroline make a bid for the seat Hillary Clinton would vacate so there would be "a Kennedy in the Senate" after he was gone. But her disastrous campaign and New York Gov. David Patersons public reluctance to appoint the Camelot princess to succeed Clinton, humiliated and infuriated Caroline. So much so that her three children sat her down and told her they didnt like what politics was doing to their mother. She withdrew her candidacy that night, Klein said.
Should've waited. I think she would've had a shot here. Pinchy probably would've made sure the Globe stayed open to run her propaganda no matter what the cost...
Klein also contends that Kennedys grim diagnosis has driven him back to a bad habit: drinking. Subsequently, he claims, Vicki and her father hatched a scheme to relocate the senator and his beloved sailboat Mya to Florida for the winter to get him away from enabler pals.
Oh, yeah. A lotta "enabler" arm twisting involved there I'll bet...
Vickis father, Edmund Reggie, had a friend who was trying to sell an estate on Biscayne Bay in Miami and thats where Ted and Vicki spent the winter, Klein says.
For free too, I'll bet...
The author also contends that Kennedy "had been drinking the night before" his seizure at President Obamas inauguration.
Johnson! Stop the presses!!
The senior senators staff did not return an e-mail seeking comment.
This will be almost as fun as watching every Democratic congressmen here try to cut each other to pieces for their shot at the seat...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/05/2009 12:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Joe's a friggin moron who reeks phoniness...

This is a KENNEDY seat! Joe's the man! Perfect replacement for Ted.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/05/2009 13:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Come to think of it, that would be Kerry...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/05/2009 13:43 Comments || Top||

#3  “Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died Like That Mary Jo Kopechne Did”
Posted by: Frank G || 05/05/2009 14:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Ted Kennedys wife, Vicki, and his nephew, former congressman Joe Kennedy, are getting set for a bruising battle over who will succeed the ailing senator...

Not that anyone should be concerned about what the people of Massachusetts might want. They traded off their liberties long ago for the pennies of patronage. George III must be laughing the good laugh these days.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/05/2009 15:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Won't be as easy as it used to be. When an Evil Republican was in charge and the Kerry juggernaut was running for president, the dems on beacon Hill changed it from governor appointed to special election.
Bet they're kicking themseelves in the ass now...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/05/2009 16:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey, here's a weird idea - how about an election?
Posted by: mojo || 05/05/2009 17:33 Comments || Top||

#7  tu3031, if the legislature hurries, they can change it back.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/05/2009 18:29 Comments || Top||

#8  "Infuriated CAROLINE" > it appears that, 2010-2012, CAROLINE isn't finished just yet as a potens successor to Uncle Ted, or as an independent for that matter???

What sayeth the Perts!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/05/2009 19:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Meh, if I were him, stuck with a family like that and a diagnosis like he has....I'd be drinking heavily, too.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 05/05/2009 20:22 Comments || Top||

#10  How about do like they do with sports jerseys of the super stars...
Retire the seat and let Mass. hobble along for another 100 yrs with just ONE SENATE SEAT!
Posted by: 3dc || 05/05/2009 22:20 Comments || Top||


Murtha's Nephew Got Millions in Defense Contracts
The headquarters of Murtech, in a low-slung, bland building in a Glen Burnie business park, has its blinds drawn tight and few signs of life. On several days of visits, a handful of cars sit in the parking lot, and no trucks arrive at the 10 loading bays at the back of the building.

Yet last year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech's most striking feature is its owner -- Robert C. Murtha Jr., 49. He is the nephew of Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has significant sway over the Defense Department's spending as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews. He said Murtech's 17 employees "provide necessary logistical support" to Pentagon testing programs that focus on detecting chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, "and that's about as far as I feel comfortable going." Giving more details could provide important clues to terrorist plotters, he said.

Murtha said he does not advertise being the nephew of John Murtha and considers it "unfortunate" that some will unfairly assume Murtech received its federal contracts because of his uncle's influence at the Pentagon.

"If we're not doing our job well, we wouldn't be doing our job," he said. "I'm successful at the work I do because of the skill sets I have. . . . You don't know how good someone is unless you work with them."

A spokesman at Murtha's office did not return calls seeking comment. The lawmaker, a former Marine, has said in the past that he is proud of his family's service to the military and the government.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/05/2009 04:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yet last year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services.

The dude seems rather quiet on warehousing some Gitmo material. Hey, it's an earmark, bite!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/05/2009 8:54 Comments || Top||

#2  He said Murtech's 17 employees "provide necessary logistical support" to Pentagon testing programs that focus on detecting chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, "

So Murtha's hack nephew has a piece of this action?
Well don't that make me feel safe...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/05/2009 12:44 Comments || Top||


ACORN charged with voter registration fraud
Nevada authorities are accusing the political advocacy group ACORN and two former employees of illegally paying canvassers to sign up new voters last year.

ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson in New York blames rogue former employees for the allegations.
Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed charges Monday alleging the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now had a handbook and policies requiring employees in Las Vegas to sign up 20 new voters per day or be fired.

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller and Masto say that's voter registration fraud, and it violates state law banning quotas for registering new voters.

A criminal complaint filed in Las Vegas Justice Court accuses ACORN and two former employees of 39 low-level felonies. ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson in New York blames rogue former employees for the allegations. He says ACORN will fight the charges in court.
Few organizations are quite so rife with rogue former employees.
Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No kidding? I thought they only helped the poor, dead, or illegal voters. Not a 4 billion dollar government sponsored entity.

Who knew?
Posted by: newc || 05/05/2009 2:25 Comments || Top||

#2  related story in Ohio

former Obama campaign workers convicted
Posted by: lord garth || 05/05/2009 7:38 Comments || Top||

#3  let's see if this link works better
Posted by: lord garth || 05/05/2009 11:08 Comments || Top||

#4  SUCKAS!!!
Posted by: GirlThursday || 05/05/2009 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Where is the surprise meter? Vote fraud is in ACORN's mission statement.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/05/2009 12:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Surprise meter would be superfluous, Iblis.

Master of the Obvious, however...

Paging Master of the Obvious to the Courtesy Phone of Color...
Posted by: Querent || 05/05/2009 13:05 Comments || Top||

#7  In other stunning news, water is wet, it is dark at night, and the desert is dry.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/05/2009 18:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Surprise meter would be for who is doing the prosecution. Notice that the party affiliation of the AG is not listed. And in the Pigs Fly department -

"We commend the Secretary of State and Attorney General's offices for their work in this investigation," said Phoebe Sweet, director of communications for the Nevada State Democratic Party. "Clearly the system works, and fraudulent registrations were caught and disqualified. And today's action on the part of the Secretary of State and Attorney General will help ensure that unlawful quota systems that encourage fraud are not used in the future." - YJCMTSU
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/05/2009 19:28 Comments || Top||


The President Who Hates His Country
In just the first 100-days of his tenure, Obama's words and actions have demonstrated that he is no friend of the country he leads. This is only a smattering of what happened on his recent three-continent trip abroad and to Mexico:
  • In France, Obama told his audience that America "has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" toward Europe.

  • In Prague, Obama -- in true utopian-kindergarten fashion -- pledged "with conviction" that America will "seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." In other words, destroy big bad America's ability to defend itself!

  • In London, Obama made clear that the world's financial wealth was no longer made by those inferior leaders Roosevelt and Churchill, effectively ceding America's leading role in creating and sharing wealth to nations that have never measured up to our country's bountiful generosity or spirit of free-market entrepreneurship.

  • In Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Obama sat passively while the Marxist Chavez handed him an American-bashing book and delivered another revile-America speech, while never once rising to defend our country.

  • In Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Obama again sat passively while the Marxist Ortega blamed the United States for a century of what he called terroristic U.S. aggression in Central America, again emitting not a whisper of defense on our country's behalf.

  • In Turkey, Obama said -- incredibly and inaccurately -- that America was not a Christian nation.

  • And in his recent trip to Mexico, Obama said that the escalating border violence was essentially America's fault.
  • Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Feel free to not represent ME, Mr President.
    Posted by: newc || 05/05/2009 2:23 Comments || Top||

    #2  When Carter was President, he attacked South Korea's human rights record, without acknowledging the context - a hostile North - of the country's national security concerns. It took public protest to shake Carter. Someday a US President will acknowledge the imperialist nature of Islam and the inherent supremacism of Muslims. But don't hold your breath while waiting.
    Posted by: Jans Wittlesbach2039 || 05/05/2009 6:22 Comments || Top||

    #3  Well ok, I'll give Barry the benefit of the doubt here. He may be on to something! How about we just pull all of our trouble making military and diplomatic missions back to the States, resign from the worthless tit UN, and mind our own business for 5, 10, 20 years or so. Let the more "civilizaation" go at it at as they will and may the best man win. If they so much as blink at us, instantly zap them from space, napalm or nuke the hell out of them. No "nation building, no international aid or 'fix it' missions, just stay right here and leave them to it.





    Posted by: Besoeker || 05/05/2009 8:08 Comments || Top||

    #4  Besoeker, I'd be game for that. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the street agitator doesn't have us involved in darfur in the next couple yrs.
    Posted by: Broadhead6 || 05/05/2009 8:12 Comments || Top||

    #5  It's already upon us Broadhead. AFRICOM is becoming more involved in the subsaharan region every month. They'll be using the old Mobile Training Team (MTT) model at first, utilizing contractors. Watch it all unfold.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 05/05/2009 8:20 Comments || Top||

    #6  While we haven't stayed out of the world's trouble spots, really, since dear Tommy Jefferson got into a snit about the Barbary pirates, we did try ignoring the jihadis for a while when President Clinton was running things, Besoeker. I don't think any of us are pleased with how that turned out.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 05/05/2009 8:22 Comments || Top||

    #7  You must follow them back to their wolfsshanze TW and destroy it, and them! This is the only language the jihadis will understand. It is the only language they have ever understood. Until we to that, we're only wrestling in the mud with a swine.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 05/05/2009 8:29 Comments || Top||

    #8  The President Who Hates His Country?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/05/2009 12:28 Comments || Top||

    #9  Sorry I'm a maverick here, the problem is we threaten, then when not listened to we threaten some more. It's well proved asking and saying "Please" is a waste of time.

    I think we should give one warning and when ignored, blast them to hell, the second time folks will listen, (Maybe not the second, but you get the idea)

    I don't want the USA to be loved, we've tried that, I want the world scared shitless, THAT will work.

    Take hostages, you're dead, your home and neighborhood are a smoking debris pile.

    Kill an American and your nation pays 10 million (Each)to the person's survivors, plus the above smoking hole where the neighborhood was.

    No payment and their government suffers a huge hole where their capital used to be.

    (Or military base, or dam and power plant etc, whatever hurts the worse)

    Nukes are worthless, the world has gotten over their fear, we just won't use them, but normal High Explosives work just fine.

    Demount the nukes, remount with either HE or a huge hunk of steel (Penetrator) drop said from orbit and a nuke looks puny.

    Any international lawyer trying Hobble the USA legaly or sue for damages, kill and destroy as above. End "Lawfare" once and for all.
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/05/2009 14:43 Comments || Top||

    #10  I'm all for that too Redneck Jim. I'd also repeal the law of not being able to assassinate foreign leaders. Wetworks would be added into the mix as well.

    "Sorry to hear, Mahmoud. You mean a jet full of Mullahs went down yesterday? That's just horrible. Have you figured out what caused the malfunction?"

    *snickering in the background*
    Posted by: Andy Ulusoque aka Broadhead6 || 05/05/2009 15:57 Comments || Top||

    #11  Oderint dum metuant.
    Posted by: OldSpook || 05/05/2009 16:08 Comments || Top||

    #12  Rev. Wright's star pupil
    Posted by: HammerHead || 05/05/2009 19:23 Comments || Top||


    Lobbyists help Dems draft climate change bill
    Democratic lawmakers who spent much of the Bush administration blasting officials for letting energy lobbyists write national policy have turned to a coalition of business and environmental groups to help draft their own sweeping climate bill.

    And one little-noticed provision of the draft bill would give one of the coalition's co-founders a lucrative exemption on a coal-fired project it is building.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, both of California, were among the Democrats -- then in the minority -- who slammed Vice President Dick Cheney for holding closed-door meetings to draft energy policy early in the Bush administration.

    Republicans "invited energy lobbyists to write the energy bill that gouges consumers with big payoffs to Big Gas and Big Oil," Mrs. Pelosi said in 2005. "They have turned Washington, D.C., into an oil and gas town when it is supposed to be the city of innovation, of new, of fresh ideas about our energy policy."

    But the sweeping climate bill Mr. Waxman and Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the panel's key environmental subcommittee, introduced at the end of March includes a provision that benefits Duke Energy Corp., a founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), whose climate plan released in January the lawmakers have frequently called a "blueprint" for their climate legislation.

    The exemption would save Duke Energy -- along with other firms now building new coal power plants -- from having to spend millions of dollars outfitting its Cliffside, N.C., power plant currently under construction with "clean coal" technology.

    "The USCAP companies must be delirious over the freebies that they've received after writing the blueprint for [the House draft bill]," said Larry Neal, deputy Republican staff director for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

    At the kickoff to hearings last week on the massive climate bill, Myron Ebell, climate and energy policy director for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told lawmakers, "The authors of the draft bill have invited the beneficiaries of what could turn out to be the biggest transfer of wealth from consumers to special interests in American history to write the rules for this legalized plunder."
    Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Yeah, whenever Fast Edddie Markey's name comes up in the conversation, ya know everything's on the up n' up...
    Posted by: tu3031 || 05/05/2009 14:12 Comments || Top||


    Vanity, Karma Continue to Take Toll on Edwards
    Former Sen. John Edwards could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if an investigation into his campaign finances yields an indictment, a guilty verdict and the maximum penalty -- an outcome that some observers say couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

    "I think the biggest problem we're hearing from people when they talk about this case, aside from the criminal possibilities, is how angry a lot of people still are at John Edwards, not for his infidelity but for claiming the mantle of his wife's illness as part of the reason for his running for president, and then while he was running for president engaging in this kind of conduct," said Washington Examiner political editor Chris Stirewalt.

    "I think there's going to be very little sympathy for the former senator as this goes forward. I mean, people are mad," Stirewalt said.
    Continued on Page 49
    Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.
    Posted by: Mike || 05/05/2009 9:02 Comments || Top||

    #2  Pretty Boy in prison?
    No matter what it takes, I suggest he make a deal. Because that would be...ewww.
    Posted by: tu3031 || 05/05/2009 13:42 Comments || Top||

    #3  this guy is the conssumate scum bag lawyer slick talkin southern boy POS, let him rot in the slammer while the "sisters" have their way with him
    Posted by: Criger Mussolini9004 || 05/05/2009 13:53 Comments || Top||


    Chicago aldermen find ways to supplement their six-figure salaries
    At least 15 of Chicago's 50 alderman supplemented their six-figure city salaries last year by working outside jobs or owning businesses, according to annual financial statements released this morning.
    The only news is that it isn't all 50 ...
    A handful of City Council members -- led by Finance Committee Chairman Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) -- also disclosed income that either they or their spouses derived from people who do business with the city or other local government agencies. In Burke's case, his law firm, Klafter & Burke, provided services to 31 companies with government business ties -- seven fewer than it did last year.

    In addition, several aldermen reported investment income and ownership of various city real estate holdings outside of their homes. Statements for all but two aldermen, Latasha Thomas (17th) and Willie B. Cochran (20th), are available on suntimes.com here.

    Thomas and Cochran did not file their statements by Friday's deadline. City ethics law allows a 30-day grace period before they can be penalized.
    Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Doc, it doesn't say the other 35 are NOT in the game, just that at least 15 are.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 05/05/2009 12:51 Comments || Top||


    Voters now prefer Spitzer to Paterson, poll finds
    Times are so bad for Gov. David A. Paterson that 51 percent of voters say they'd rather see Spitzer, who left office a year ago following his fling with a prostitute, in office as governor than Paterson, a new poll out this morning by Marist College has found

    Only 19 percent say the governor is doing a good or excellent job in office -- down 7 percent from March. And 68 percent disapprove of the job he is doing tackling the state's most pressing problem: the economy. By a 67-27 percent margin, New Yorkers think the state under Paterson is moving in the wrong direction.

    Paterson couldn't even get any breaks from his fellow Democrats: only 22 percent think he's going a good job as governor.

    Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  If the voters mental defectives in DC can re-cycle Marion Barry, why not the voters drooling idiots in NY re-cycle Spizzle?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/05/2009 0:12 Comments || Top||

    #2  Crook or Moron? Decisions, decisions...
    Posted by: mojo || 05/05/2009 17:35 Comments || Top||


    Illinois' Bright Start college fund loses $85 million, buys hybrid for treasurer
    While parents come to grips with major investment losses in a college savings program, public records show that Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias' office spent Bright Start proceeds to buy a $26,000 SUV he uses as his state car.

    The purchase is surfacing as the politically ambitious Giannoulias continues to face criticism for his oversight of the Bright Start investment program, which lost $85 million last year.
    Giannoulias is a friend of Obama and of Blago. He's involved with a bank bought with family money that's rumored not to be the cleanest, if you know what I mean and I think you do ...
    It's the first time since the program was launched nearly a decade ago that money from it was used to buy a state vehicle, the treasurer's office acknowledged.

    Giannoulias refused to comment for this story, but his spokesman defended using Bright Start funds to buy the black 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. Scott Burnham said the SUV is not exclusively driven by Giannoulias but is part of a pool of a dozen cars used by workers to travel the state promoting treasurer's office programs, including Bright Start. "They use it just like any vehicle is used by the entire staff," Burnham said. "Bright Start is a large part of the treasurer's office, and marketing the program and Illinois residents is critical."
    What exactly does the Treasurer's office have to promote? Themselves?
    But Burnham could not provide a breakdown of how often that particular Ford Escape is used for Bright Start-related purposes and said no log is kept of how that car is used or for what reasons.

    Though the SUV is registered to Illinois license plate No. 6, Burnham said there are three such vehicles with that plate and that Giannoulias drives all of them, plus his personal car, which also is a Ford Escape Hybrid.

    Giannoulias' office bought the Ford Escape in October 2007, according to state records obtained by the Tribune. An identical car was purchased at the same time with funds from the Illinois Public Treasurers' Investment Pool, which allows towns and other taxing districts to pool their assets and have them invested by the treasurer's office.

    Burnham said it is Giannoulias' discretion how operating money for the office's various funds are spent. He noted that the money for the SUV didn't come from parents' investments, but from a fee the firm that handles the investments pays to the treasurer's office to offset the cost of running the program. "All of the funds pick up a portion of the expenses of the treasurer's office," Burnham said. "But we're not talking about taxpayer dollars here."
    And where does the firm gets its money? ...
    Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Fred, the 'Giannoulias family money' is not clean, even by "Chicago Standards" and Alexi himself is a 'chip off the old block'.
    Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/05/2009 9:03 Comments || Top||

    #2  The First National Bank of Crazy Joe?
    Posted by: mojo || 05/05/2009 17:36 Comments || Top||

    #3  He's not just a friend... he is one of Barry's pick up B Ball buddies. Small forward I think.
    Posted by: Capsu78 || 05/05/2009 22:04 Comments || Top||


    Science & Technology
    Europeans: U.S. Should Give Up Control of Internet
    The United States has too much control over the Internet and needs to give it up, a European Union bureaucrat declared Monday. EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, a Luxembourgian, called for ''full privatization'' of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), demanding that it be removed from the supervision of the U.S. Department of Commerce when its operating agreement expires on Sept. 30.
    Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Are they going to pay DARPA and US gov for developing it?
    No?
    FOAD!
    Posted by: Satan || 05/05/2009 0:34 Comments || Top||

    #2  No.

    EU free riders want control of the system because control is what they are all about. Someone else in control is intolerable to them.
    Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 05/05/2009 1:06 Comments || Top||

    #3  And so it was demanded during the Clinton 1990's, Dubya, as it is being demanded again today in May 2009 under the Bammer.
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/05/2009 1:06 Comments || Top||

    #4  No. Own patent. Get bent.

    And anyone else who wants control of it.

    Posted by: newc || 05/05/2009 2:22 Comments || Top||

    #5  As bad as US government control is, ICANN control would be even worse.
    Posted by: gromky || 05/05/2009 5:36 Comments || Top||

    #6  Dear Europeans:

    F*ck you lazy-assed, non-innovation thieves and the camel you road in on. FOAD.

    Cordially,

    America
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/05/2009 9:49 Comments || Top||

    #7  Under Obama I will not hold my breath.
    Posted by: Kelly || 05/05/2009 9:57 Comments || Top||

    #8  "Regulators, Pa!!"
    Posted by: mojo || 05/05/2009 11:52 Comments || Top||

    #9  Panama Canal.
    Posted by: Grunter || 05/05/2009 12:07 Comments || Top||

    #10  and the camel you road in on.

    Camels not being native to Europe, I suspect most of them rode in on hyenas. But it's only a guess.
    Posted by: SteveS || 05/05/2009 12:07 Comments || Top||

    #11  Are they going to pay Algore DARPA and US gov for developing it?
    Posted by: Glenmore || 05/05/2009 12:54 Comments || Top||

    #12  Build your own boys, just like the all European GPS substitute, Galileo. Otherwise, as has been so eloquently previously said, FOAD.
    Posted by: rwv || 05/05/2009 13:29 Comments || Top||

    #13  Get your stinking paws off my internet, you damn dirty ape!

    It's about ceding control of information to the dictators and wannabe dictators of the world. The UN dictatoriat tried this a few years ago. Now the wannabes in the EU are at it. It goes to show anyone looking where the EU's heart lies. Right now the internet is wide open to all expression and opinion. National firewalls are expensive, labor intensive (30,000 in China alone) and still leaky. If the Kimmies, Abdullahs, Jintaos and Redings can delete an offending website, or even better the offending ISP, from the root DNS, then they have easy control of what type information flows through the web.
    Posted by: ed || 05/05/2009 15:51 Comments || Top||

    #14  And the Euros should kiss my BEEEEEEEP!
    Posted by: GirlThursday || 05/05/2009 16:04 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: Culture Wars
    'El no habla': Obama jumbles Cinco de Mayo salute
    WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's joke wasn't lost in translation - even though he referred to a Cinco de Mayo celebration as "Cinco de Cuatro."

    Obama jumbled his words as he welcomed guests to the White House to observe the Mexican holiday, sending the crowd into laughter before he referred to the day correctly. "Welcome to Cinco de Cuatro - Cinco de Mayo at the White House," said Obama, in what appeared to be an attempt to note they were celebrating on the fourth of May instead of the fifth.
    Teleprompter must have been having some fun ...
    Cinco de cuatro means "five of four" in Spanish.

    "We are a day early, but we always like to get a head start here at the Obama White House," he said. During the presidential campaign, Obama acknowledged his Spanish skills weren't great. "My accent's always been good," he said. "It's just that I only know 15 words."
    Fourteen of them on the teleprompter ...
    The holiday, which marks the Mexican troops' defeat of the French on May 5, 1862, was overshadowed by a swine-flu outbreak that started in Mexico and has spread around the world.

    Obama pledged to work with Mexican officials to fight the swine flu and drug wars, using the early Cinco de Mayo celebration to underscore the challenges facing the neighboring countries.

    "I know it's a tough time, on both sides of the border," Obama told lawmakers and other guests.

    The president said the United States would "stand side by side" with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the people of Mexico to overcome hardships, including an economic downturn that has hit both countries. "One thing we know: Good neighbors work together when faced with common challenges," Obama said.

    Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said the holiday helps to show the depth of the two countries' friendship. "No other bilateral relationship is more important for the security and the prosperity of the United States than its relationship with Mexico," Sarukhan said, "in the same way that the well-being of the Mexican people is inextricably tied to the fates of the United States."

    Sarukhan said some Latino immigrants face obstacles when it comes to integrating in America. "Some would like to make these people invisible," he said. "This cannot stand."
    Posted by: Besoeker || 05/05/2009 09:34 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  I guess TOTUS don't do Espanol?
    Posted by: tu3031 || 05/05/2009 12:42 Comments || Top||

    #2  In the previous administration, this would have been cited as irrefutable evidence of the gross stupidity of the Commander in Chief.
    Posted by: Mike || 05/05/2009 12:55 Comments || Top||

    #3  Cinco de cuatro means "five of four"

    Then he said "You will be assimilated.", but the the Queen Borg (also known as "Michelle") cut off the microphone.
    Posted by: ed || 05/05/2009 16:07 Comments || Top||



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