State Sen. R.C. Soles shot one of two people who he said were breaking into his Tabor City home about 5 p.m. Sunday, officials said.
Columbus County Sheriff Chris Batten said Kyle Blackburn was taken to Loris Community Hospital in South Carolina. Late Sunday night, a spokeswoman at the hospital said that Blackburn was in good condition.
The shooting occurred on Soles' property when two men went to the senator's house and tried to kick in his front door, Batten said. The incident happened about a quarter mile from Canal Street and Stake Road.
The other man involved in the incident is B.J. Wright, Batten said. Multiple media outlets have reported that Wright was a legal client of Soles -- an attorney -- and that Soles gave him money while Wright was in prison.
The State Bureau of Investigation is probing the shooting, Batten said, because the agency is already looking into accusations against the senator. A man recently accused Soles of attempting to molest him, leading authorities to ask the SBI to investigate. The man later said his allegation was false.
First elected in 1968 to the House before moving to the Senate in the mid-1970s, Soles is thought to be the longest-serving representative in North Carolina history. In an institution that rewards seniority, Soles' longevity has allowed him to climb the rungs of power.
But with the SBI now investigating the allegation and rumors of a separate federal investigation, the man from Tabor City faces a test of his political mettle.
Elected officials in New Mexico are renewing calls for an ethics overhaul after the state's attorney general this week unveiled the latest in a long string of political-corruption cases.
Longtime Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who left office in 2006, has been indicted on 50 felony counts of embezzlement, tax evasion and money laundering in an alleged scheme to siphon off at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal election funds.
Ms. Vigil-Giron, a Democrat who served three four-year terms as secretary of state, is accused of colluding with a political consultant and two Democratic lobbyists -- also under indictment -- to profit from grants intended to educate voters and boost turnout in the 2004 election.
The indictment alleges that the secretary of state deposited millions of dollars into the personal bank accounts of the political consultant and lobbyists based on fraudulent invoices they submitted. It also says she repeatedly and willfully prepared incorrect tax returns. The indictment doesn't spell out how Ms. Vigil-Goron is alleged to have benefited financially from the transactions, and Attorney General Gary King declined to explain.
All four defendants denied the charges through their attorneys. Ms. Vigil-Giron released a statement calling the allegations a witch hunt and saying she could "account for every last nickel" of the federal grant.
A federal audit of New Mexico's 2004 voter-outreach effort found that the political consultant paid by the secretary of state received about $6.3 million but could account for just $2.6 million in costs.
But Ms. Vigil-Goron's attorney, Robert Gorence, said there were no problems with other grants she supervised, such as an effort to upgrade voting machines. "If someone's a thief, they'll tend to steal across the board," Mr. Gorence said. "None of that happened."
Lawyers for the other defendants said they billed the state reasonable sums for a voter-education campaign that was vetted by the state's lawyers and included television and radio ads in three languages. New Mexico was a battleground in the 2004 presidential election, and voter turnout did improve substantially.
"The state will utterly fail to prove a single example of kickbacks," said Miles Hanisee, who represents political consultant Armando Gutierrez.
The indictments are the latest blow to New Mexico's Democratic party. Gov. Bill Richardson remains under federal investigation for allegedly steering state contracts to a financial-services firm in exchange for political donations. Mr. Richardson, who isn't seeking re-election, has denied any wrongdoing.
Other Democratic public officials indicted or convicted in the state in recent years include two state treasurers; the longtime leader of the state senate; a director of affordable housing; and two members of the agency that regulates utilities. Many were accused or convicted of mishandling public funds.
"There's a culture, an expectation, here that expenditures will not be reviewed," said state Auditor Hector Balderas, a Democrat. Mr. Balderas is calling on the legislature to boost his staff of 30 professional auditors to as many as 150 so he can scrutinize state agencies' contracts and accounts.
Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, a Democrat who is running for governor next year, renewed her call for an independent state ethics commission with subpoena power and investigative authority.
But the legislature has a track record of failing to pass ethics overhauls. Last spring, it passed the state's first campaign-contribution limits, while other ethics-overhaul bills didn't make it.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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For NM Donks, the PRI of Mexico is the model, not Chicago. This is as much a case of party infighting as Standard Operating Procedures.
#4
Alas, it would take more water than flows in the Wabash and Mississippi combined to clean out Illinois, Besoeker. Still, the puny travails of other states gives me a chuckle:)
#6
...oh, but there's more. This is just one of the many opportunities to keep judicially appointed independent counsels and federal investigators in a life time of work.
They sent two state Treasurers to federal prison [the second only after they fired the AG who was incompetent, though all you hear it was because of 'politics'], the former head of the one of the state chambers is also now in prison for kickbacks in the construction of federal court house in Albuquerque along with numerous strap holders.
Former ACORN Las Vegas field director Christopher Edwards cut a deal with prosecutors and has pleaded guilty to "two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters," the Las Vegas Sun reports. Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller, both Democrats, unveiled the charges in May.
Hurrah for Nevada!
(Previous blog post; article in Human Events)
As part of the deal
Edwards will testify against the other two defendants in the case -- ACORN and its former regional director, Amy Busefink. [...]
State investigators consider Edwards the mastermind of an illegal incentive program at the local ACORN office that, with the approval of Busefink and national ACORN officials, encouraged the collection of fraudulent voter registration forms during the 2008 campaign season. [...]
In the plea agreement
Edwards said that from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31, 2008, he unlawfully conspired with ACORN and Busefink to create a local bonus incentive program, known as 'Blackjack,' giving ACORN canvassers an additional $5 for turning in 21 or more registration cards per shift. ACORN allegedly required its workers to submit at least 20 voter registration forms a day to keep their jobs.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. ACORN is corrupt on so many levels.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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That's quite enough proof for me that the election was rigged. Throw the 2008 results out and start anew. Sarah Palin where are you? John McCain, please remain seated.
#2
Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller, both Democrats,
There are still honest Donks out there. Rare, but still in the world overrun by social-ist masquerading as liberals, or, since they've debased the term 'liberal', the newer and 'improved' term 'progressive'.
Fit-looking former leader Fidel Castro appeared on Cuban television for the first time since June 2008 and his photograph was published in an official newspaper on Sunday in a signal that his once-failing health has improved.
Castro, 83, looked aged but in good condition as he spoke with a group of Venezuelan students in a three-hour meeting that took place on Saturday. Did he talk the whole time, lecturing non-stop?
He told them he was worried about the future of the planet, under threat from global warming. He may look better, but his brain has gone soft.
"Even the Pentagon has gotten involved," Castro said. "It has included the climate among things that threaten the security of the United States. We are facing events that are very, very, very grave," said the 83-year-old bearded rebel, who took power in a 1959 revolution and held on to it for 49 years. Rebel? How about one-time rebel marxist dictator?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/24/2009 07:01 ||
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Dear Fidel...next time you're in ATL, please join me for a beer at SFU.
Refining, energy security, jobs, physical security, economy, a decent life....
The United States will be more dependent on imports of gasoline and other petroleum fuels while U.S. refining production would be shifted overseas if a climate change bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law, a study shows.
An analysis by global consulting firm EnSys Energy of the impact of the "American Clean Energy and Security Act", which passed by a narrow 219-212 vote in the House in June, on the U.S. refining sector showed that investment in U.S. refining capacity could plummet because the cost of doing business could soar. Production at U.S. refineries would drop while production at refineries in countries that do not limit their own greenhouse gas emissions would rise. The impact on global refinery greenhouse gas emissions would be minor as reductions in U.S. emissions mostly would be offset by increases in emissions in other countries.
"This study clearly shows the devastating impact this legislation could have on U.S. jobs and U.S. energy security," said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. "Climate legislation should not come at the expense of U.S. economic and energy security. Congress needs to analyze carefully the impact of any climate policy on ordinary Americans, American jobs and American companies. A deep decline in U.S. refining activity would have a ripple effect throughout the economy, affecting jobs in sectors beyond the oil and gas industry. Steelworkers, construction workers, even the shop keepers, school teachers and waitresses working in communities where refineries operate would feel the pinch."
The House climate legislation drives up individual and business fuel costs because it inequitably distributes free emission "allowances" to various sectors. Refiners are held responsible for 44% of emissions, including the refinery emissions (about 4%) as well as consumer emissions from planes, trains, automobiles, heating oil, and other petroleum use. Yet refiners are allocated only 2.25% of allowances. In contrast, some other sectors receive free allowances that match or exceed their obligation.
According to the EnSys study, commissioned by API, the U.S. would need to increase its imports of petroleum fuels in order to meet as much as nearly one-fifth of U.S. refined product demand in 2030 if the House climate bill becomes law, double what imports would have been.
U.S. refining throughput, a measure of productivity, could plummet by as much as 25% (4.4 million barrels per day) and investment in U.S. refining could fall by as much as $90 billion, a decline of 88 percent, by 2030, the EnSys study forecast.
Link to the PDF report is at the bottom of the story.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/24/2009 14:57 ||
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Watch how livestock-based agriculture moves out of California over their new animal welfare laws. It will be cap and trade in a microcosm.
#2
FOX NEWS > GLEN BECK Show = "THE NEW REPUBLIC: AMERICA'S FUTURE?" WEEK-LONG SERIES > IIUC Guest + DEMO POLLSTER_AUTHOR-ANALYS PAT CADDELL argued that POTUS Bammer's policies are essens HIGH-$$$ TAXPAYER/GOVT-SUBSIDIZED POL PAYOFFS TO OBAMA'S SUPPORTERS whom helped get him into the WH, + that OBAMA's VARIOUS STIMULUS PACKAGES includ "OBAMACARE", "CAP-N-TRADE", etc. is mainly for the $$$ personal benefit of PROFITEERS + POWER-HUNGRY PERSONAGES, and which accomplishes little or nothing save for harming or weakening America???
A "profanity-laced screaming match" at the White House involving CIA Director Leon Panetta, and the expected release today of another damning internal investigation, has administration officials worrying about the direction of its newly-appoint intelligence team, current and former senior intelligence officials tell ABC News.com.
Amid reports that Panetta had threatened to quit just seven months after taking over at the spy agency, other insiders tell ABCNews.com that senior White House staff members are already discussing a possible shake-up of top national security officials. "You can expect a larger than normal turnover in the next year," a senior adviser to Obama on intelligence matters told ABCNews.com.
Since 9/11, the CIA has had five directors or acting directors. A White House spokesperson, Denis McDonough, said reports that Panetta had threatened to quit and that the White House was seeking a replacement were "inaccurate."
According to intelligence officials, Panetta erupted in a tirade last month during a meeting with a senior White House staff member. Panetta was reportedly upset over plans by Attorney General Eric Holder to open a criminal investigation of allegations that CIA officers broke the law in carrying out certain interrogation techniques that President Obama has termed "torture."
#4
Panetta went running to Congress when he came across the never-even-remotely-implemented "kill terrorist leader" plans, so that HE could be said to be clean, no matter the hit his agency and operatives took as a result.
#5
Panetta's proboscis as seen by Cyrano de Bergerac
Tis a rock! ... a peak! ... a cape! --A cape, forsooth! 'Tis a peninsular!'
Curious: 'How serves that oblong capsular? For scissor-sheath? Or pot to hold your ink?'
Gracious: 'You love the little birds, I think? I see you've managed with a fond research To find their tiny claws a roomy perch!'
Truculent: 'When you smoke your pipe ... suppose That the tobacco-smoke spouts from your nose-- Do not the neighbors, as the fumes rise higher, Cry terror-struck: "The chimney is afire"?'
Considerate: 'Take care, ... your head bowed low By such a weight ... lest head o'er heels you go!' Tender: 'Pray get a small umbrella made, Lest its bright color in the sun should fade!'
Pedantic: 'That beast Aristophanes Names Hippocamelelephantoles Must have possessed just such a solid lump Of flesh and bone, beneath his forehead's bump!'
Cavalier: 'The last fashion, friend, that hook? To hang your hat on? 'Tis a useful crook!'
Emphatic: 'No wind, O majestic nose, Can give THEE cold!--save when the mistral blows!'
Dramatic: 'When it bleeds, what a Red Sea!' Admiring: 'Sign for a perfumery!' Lyric: 'Is this a conch? ... a Triton you?'
Simple: 'When is the monument on view?'
Rustic: 'That thing a nose? Marry-come-up! 'Tis a dwarf pumpkin, or a prize turnip!'
Military: 'Point against cavalry!'
Practical: 'Put it in a lottery! Assuredly 'twould be the biggest prize!'
#7
More trouble among the ranks? Tis no matter. All will come together again in September, like it did last year. Or will it? Obama will have to show some new skills to get this Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/24/2009 18:06 Comments ||
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Stones my ... foot.
As Leon's reputation slowly settles once again to the sea floor, we shake our heads sadly and say "Tsk, tsk."
Colorado, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, has some claim to be on the leading edge of American politics. It produced anti-war, pro-environment Democrats like Sen. Gary Hart in the 1970s, Reaganite Republicans like Sen. Bill Armstrong even before Ronald Reagan won in 1980, Clintonesque Democrats like Gov. Roy Romer in the 1980s and National Review's favorite Republican governor, Bill Owens, in the 1990s.
In this decade, a group of liberal multimillionaires -- Tim Gill, Rutt Bridges, Jared Polis and Pat Stryker -- developed "the Colorado model," not only funding candidates, but setting up think tanks, advocacy groups and public relations operations designed to oust Republicans and install Democrats.
As Fred Barnes pointed out in The Weekly Standard last year, this Colorado model has been a brilliant success. Democrats captured both houses of the legislature and a Senate and House seat in 2004, the governorship in 2006, and a Senate and House seat in 2008. Colorado, which voted for George W. Bush by 8 points in 2000 and 5 points in 2004, voted for Barack Obama by 9 points in 2008. It was a fitting conclusion to a campaign in which Obama accepted his nomination in front of Greek columns in Denver's Invesco Field.
But now, Colorado seems to be going in the other direction. Gov. Bill Ritter, elected by 17 points in 2006 and seeking another term next year, is trailing former Republican Rep. Scott McInnis in the polls and runs only even against a little-known Republican state legislator. Michael Bennet, appointed by Ritter to fill Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's Senate seat, has a negative job rating and runs well under 50 percent against Republican opponents. Barack Obama's job rating in the state has been conspicuously below his national average -- closer to those of still rock-ribbed Republican Rocky Mountain states than the hip states of the Pacific Coast.
Campaigning, it turns out, is easier than governing. The Colorado-model folks could target particular legislators, taking one out for her strident opposition to same-sex marriage, beating another with the support of horny-handed labor union operatives. Out of office, Ritter could gush with enthusiasm about alternative energy sources and Obama could eloquently promise hope and change.
In office, thing have gotten stickier. Ritter enraged union leaders by vetoing their pet legislation, then risked alienating suburbanites with an executive order empowering public employee unions. Limited by Colorado's taxpayer bill of rights, he imposed higher fees on car registration, but at the same time has had to order big spending cuts.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Ritter is a moron. He tried to please everyone and pissed everyone off. Then he went full liberal and really pissed off the mostly conservative state.
Center groups see him as a liberal special interest puppet that is trying to get rid of TARBOR (he is BTW) and is their puppet.
Liberals see him as weak and not strong enough to champion their causes (remind you of The One?).
#3
"Campaigning, it turns out, is easier than governing."
Ya' think?
It's the difference between running your mouth and actually doing the job. And with these clowns (and most Dems nowadays), it's all hat mouth, no cattle.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/24/2009 15:41 Comments ||
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President Obama's aides were so furious that Gov. Paterson dragged him into a rant about racism that they sent a message sharply criticizing the governor's comments just hours after he made them, The Post has learned. Aides to Obama were angered by Paterson's tirade on liberal talk-radio station WWRL on Friday, sources said.
Paterson blamed his political woes on racially slanted coverage and predicted the president would be the next "victim" of biased media.
Obama's team delivered a pointed message to Paterson within hours of the morning broadcast, multiple sources said. It came in a call from White House political director Patrick Gaspard, who has deep ties to the New York political scene, to Larry Schwartz, the governor's first deputy secretary.
Gaspard wanted to know "why [Paterson] was dragging the president into" his troubles, said one source.
But although Obama's aides were unhappy, the sources said, the conversation was not hostile.
Obama, who still enjoys popularity in the polls despite taking some hits on the health-care issue, has rarely touched directly on issues of race. He won election by a wide margin with support across demographic lines and broad support among white voters.
"I'm not surprised" that his advisers were displeased, said one Democratic insider, adding that Gaspard is a fiercely loyal adviser who has been monitoring the situation in New York.
Paterson is facing growing calls from union leaders and others to reconsider his chances of winning election in 2010. Paterson, New York's first black governor, is suffering historically low popularity. He blamed his and Obama's problems on a white-dominated media that he said had embarked on an attack campaign.
"My feeling is it's being orchestrated, it's a game, and people who pay attention know that," he said.
He compared his troubles to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the nation's only other black governor, then brought in the president. "The next victim on the list -- and you see it coming -- is President Barack Obama," he said, citing his efforts to change health care.
Paterson said the health-care debate was an example of how the nation is "not a postracial" society, a phrase often proudly used to describe the United States in the wake of Obama's election.
Paterson aides declined comment yesterday.
But on Friday, the governor issued a "clarifying" statement, saying, "What I did point out was that certain media outlets have engaged in coverage that exploits racial stereotypes."
There was speculation the later statement came because of the Gaspard call, although it was unclear whether they were related.
Paterson, in his efforts on Friday to point out reports he'd found biased, cited accounts of his late-night partying at a Chelsea club. But on Friday night, he was partying again -- this time at the second annual "Best Buddies" party in the Hamptons, where he posed for photographs with Paris Hilton's mom, Kathy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Paterson said the health-care debate was an example of how the nation is "not a postracial" society, a phrase often proudly used to describe the United States in the wake of Obama's election.
Especially when people like Patterson insist on playing the race card, which got them where they are at present. With the election of Obama playing the race card is old hat. Learn to play a new hand or get out of the game.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The revival of a guide for veterans' end-of-life care, suspended under the Bush administration, has caused controversy as some believe it encourages veterans to end their lives.
The pamphlet titled 'Your Life, Your Choices', was first published in 1997 and was in use until the Bush White House evaluated the document's effect on treating complex health and moral issues and suspended it.
The document, however, was revived under the Obama administration's Department of Veterans Affairs.
Senator Arlen Specter, a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee said on Sunday that the guide raises 'a lot of questions' and that he would call for hearings immediately, Fox News reported.
'Your Life, Your Choices' provides instances where the person is on life support, and his family is struggling with the question whether they should 'pull the plug'.
The guide, dubbed the 'Death Book' by opponents, asks the reader to write down whether they find their lives 'worth living' under certain circumstances.
The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to 'shake the blues'. There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."
"I think consideration ought to be given right now to suspending it pending hearings," said Specter -- a former Democrat-turned-Republican who caused controversy by switching back to the Democratic Party in April.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Makes you wonder when the Iran Press TV has a balanced article on the subject. Doesn't make the MSM look good.
#2
I caught the VA Public Affairs director Tammy Duckworth and Chris Wallace Fox interview last evening. She was most unconvincing about the guidebook and appeared to want to talk about herself and her creds as a vet. She's Illinois politician wanna-be, and pals with Axelrod and Blago, so I suppose she needs some reinforcement about now.
#3
Paging Dr. Steve to the courtesy phone, please.
I posted a WSJ article on this topic the other day, and Dr. Steve commented that he didn't see anything objectionable about the booklet. So I'd be interested in his take on this item from the Iranian press.
By Dick Polman
Is George W. Bush on the ballot in New Jersey this November? I recently saw a Democratic TV ad that invoked him as a bogeyman six times in 30 seconds.
Is he on the ballot in Virginia? I recently heard the Democratic candidate for governor declare, "Let's be clear: George Bush is responsible for our economic problems."
The two marquee races of 2009 - Jon Corzine's fevered bid to save his gubernatorial job in New Jersey, and his party's ambitious bid to elect a third successive Democratic governor in Virginia - will demonstrate whether Bush-bashing can still sway the voters and deliver the goods.
The tactic worked well for the Democrats in 2006 and 2008. And running against unpopular ex-presidents is a tried-and-true tradition. Forty years after the Democrats thrashed Herbert Hoover, they were still banging on him.
The Republicans are no different. They racked up a landslide against George McGovern 37 years ago, yet they still circulate his name as a synonym for wimp. And I remember how the Republicans ran against Jimmy Carter in 1988, even though he'd been gone for eight years. For TV ads, they dug up footage of cars waiting in gas-pump lines during the '79 energy crisis, complete with Johnny Mercer on the sound track crooning "I Remember You."
But I question whether bashing Bush will work this year. It's just as likely that the Republicans can win both races by framing them as referendums on Barack Obama - not necessarily by attacking the president directly, but by identifying and mobilizing those voters who seem particularly angry about the policy changes he is seeking.
The Republicans need only look at the polls. In blue New Jersey, a new Quinnipiac University survey shows that Obama's approval rating has fallen 12 points in the last two months (from 68 to 56 percent), due largely to a plunge among swing-voting independents. And in Virginia, a new Washington Post survey shows that Obama is actually a drag on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds; only 23 percent of swing voters said Obama's endorsement made them more likely to support Deeds and 37 percent said it made them less likely to do so.
A bit of perspective, however, is necessary. If Obama appears to lack coattails, he would hardly be the first. The party that controls the White House tends to lose these New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. The Republicans won both races in 1997, one year after Bill Clinton was easily reelected. The Democrats won both in 2001 - a mere eight weeks after 9/11, when Bush was a war president at the peak of his popularity. These "off-year" voters don't like to take directions from Washington.
Nevertheless, Obama's people recognize the potential spin problem: If Corzine and Deeds go down in November, their defeats will be widely interpreted (by the political media, with GOP encouragement) as a thumbs-down verdict on Obama, further imperiling his political capital.
That would not be fair to Obama, at least in New Jersey. Corzine's woes are his own; he was taking heat for the economy, corruption among his fellow Democrats, and taxes long before Obama broke big. Obama has been stumping for Corzine, and Corzine has put Obama in a TV ad. But in the end, the race is a referendum on Corzine.
Perhaps Corzine's best hope is to link Christopher J. Christie, his Republican opponent, to a politician who is even more unpopular than Corzine. That would be Bush, of course. Hence the Corzine TV ad that seeks to weigh down Christie with Bush baggage - noting that Christie raised money for Bush, allegedly awarded millions in no-bid contracts to "Bush cronies," is pushing "the same failed Bush economics," and is "Bush's friend."
The Corzine team got some luck the other day when news surfaced that Christie had on several occasions discussed his prospective candidacy with Bush political guru Karl Rove while serving as U.S. attorney, a job that is supposed to be nonpolitical. The question, however, is whether New Jersey voters care more about Rove than they do about their property taxes. Quinnipiac found last month that 77 percent of New Jersey voters want Corzine to focus on state issues.
But it's arguably smart politics (or perhaps just desperate politics) to link Christie to "failed Bush economics." Even though Obama has taken hits in the polls, people are still more likely to blame Bush, not Obama, for the nation's economic woes. The latest Rasmussen poll reports that 55 percent of Americans cite Bush as the main culprit. The latest CBS-New York Times poll, asking a different mix of questions, reports that 30 percent blame Bush for the downturn and that only 4 percent blame Obama.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Consider this letter, sent Friday by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. to the Postmaster General.
Dear Postmaster General Potter: I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the recent announcement that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is considering closing 37 post offices in Pennsylvania. I am well aware of the financial challenges that the USPS faces, and I am committed to working with the Postal Service to overcome these challenges while preserving jobs and the services on which thousands of Pennsylvanians depend....
Casey's letter could be viewed as either a kind offer of help or a threat. Either way, it represents a non-market pressure on the business dealings of the USPS. Could Federal Express or UPS survive, let alone make a profit, if they had politicians breathing down their necks regarding essential business decisions? Could any private business survive in a competitive marketplace under these circumstances? The likely answer is no.
This applies in the case of nearly every quasi-governmental venture. Politicians from both parties, beginning with President Clinton and including President Bush, prodded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand the pool of mortgages whose risk they would assume to include the credit-unworthy. We have since reaped the disastrous results of this business decision made for political reasons.
The lesson: hybrid government-business ventures have political aims which inevitably come to cross-purposes with their business goals.
Along the same lines, consider the much-debated government-run "public option" health insurance plan. Assume, generously, that it will not gouge and ultimately destroy its private competition through predatory pricing. How many lawmakers will pen letters like Casey's, in hopes of micromanaging this government-run insurance company's insurance activities? Can anyone take seriously the Obama administration's claim that a government-run insurance company will not begin receiving taxpayer subsidies, the moment its clients begin demanding additional services from their congressmen?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Democratic Staten Island Sen. Diane Savino charged that Paterson's impaired vision is what's actually hampering his ability to do the job.
"We live in a digital age now, with e-mailing and BlackBerrying. He is not able to do that because of his visual impairment," Savino told the Staten Island Advance in yesterday's editions.
"David cannot do those things. Also, he does not read Braille. He has people reading newspapers to him. He listens to tapes of staffers briefing him. All that takes an enormous amount of time.
"As a result, he is not able to respond on the fly the way [former Gov. Eliot] Spitzer or even [former Gov. George] Pataki could. In some ways I think that has hindered him, in spite of everything he has accomplished in life."
Savino's comments came out a day after Paterson - New York's first legally blind governor and just the second in the country's history - blamed his problems on his race.
Perhaps because of his disability, Paterson has long had a "disengaged" management style, said Savino, who served under him when he was Senate Minority Leader. "David is one of those people who tends to rely on the staff around him to set policy and make decisions, and then he turns around and undoes things," she said. "The messaging and the policy development comes out in various conflicting forms."
In a final dagger, Savino called Paterson "brilliant in many respects," but added "as we have all found out, you can be smart and not be able to govern."
Savino also indicated that many Democrats would prefer Attorney General Andrew Cuomo at the top of the ticket next year. "This is a delicate dance for him, but if Andrew Cuomo was running, I don't think there is anybody in the state who wouldn't want to see him run if things could be resolved with Gov. Paterson," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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What? He doesn't read braille? Then he's functionally illiterate!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/24/2009 11:39 Comments ||
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"Then he's functionally illiterate!"
That implies he's functional at all, Mitch. You're assuming a lot.
The problem isn't his lack of eyesight or his race - it's his gross imcompetence.
The lack of vision that matters here isn't in his eyes....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/24/2009 15:09 Comments ||
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Paterson lives in a state that is 17.3% black, so he may feel he can make these kinds of statements with impunity. Ogabe is in charge of a country that is only 12.8% black, so he echoes them at his peril.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trailing a top Republican challenger by 11 points ahead of next year's election, according to a new poll.
The Mason-Dixon Polling and Research survey, reported Sunday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, showed GOP candidate Danny Tarkanian leading Reid by 49 percent to 38 percent in Nevada.
Tarkanian is a former basketball player for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and recently announced his candidacy.
The new poll also showed Sue Lowden, chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party and a possible candidate, leading Reid by 45 percent to 40 percent.
The sagging numbers come at a time when congressional Democrats are facing tough questions from constituents on their health care reform proposals.
Reid has a lot of time to make up the difference in the polls. But of the top Democrats in Congress, he is perhaps the most vulnerable. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is from a solidly liberal district in California, Nevada is not so dependable for Democrats.
Nevada's other senator, John Ensign, is a Republican. But he's got his own set of problems, after admitting an affair with a former staff member. The new poll showed 37 percent of voters would vote against him, while 30 percent would re-elect Ensign. Twenty-three percent said they'd consider a challenger.
Ensign does not face the voters' verdict until 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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A lot of Californistas went with the overblown home mortgages they gambled on in LV. Nevada doesn't have a generous welfare for life government infrastructure. In this case, what happened in Vegas, didn't stay in Vegas.
#4
"...all his rights depend on the will of men whose corruptions are notorious, who regard him as an enemy, and who have no interest in his prosperity."
-- George Johnstone, MP - 1775
Speaking of why the American colonists were revolting
Howie Carr
Let us now consider the State House friends of Teddy Kennedy.
OK, so the senior senator's scheme to keep "his" Senate seat in the family is probably a non-starter. After all, it's too late for Teddy to provide the customary "gratuities" to the sleazy solons who in 2004 rolled over for him on the bill that took away the then-GOP governor's ability to fill a vacant Senate seat.
You know, the bill that Teddy demanded passage of, but which he now claims "concerns me deeply," because it's so, uh, undemocratic.
What sort of reprobate reps would vote for such palpably corrupt legislation? Let's go down the 2004 roll call on a proposed amendment to Teddy's sordid bill. It would have given Republican Mitt Romney exactly the same power to appoint an interim senator that Kennedy now believes a Democratic governor should have.
The amendment was defeated, 104-44. Below and in our photo array is a partial list of some of the usual Democrat suspects, and I do mean suspects, who followed Teddy's orders to deprive the people of their "continuity of representation," as Kennedy now puts it:
Jim Marzilli of Arlington, later elected to the Senate, now awaiting trial in Middlesex County on charges of harassing or molesting four women in Lowell last year.
Brian Dempsey of Haverhill: Arrested in 2003 for drunken driving, two years after his mother called 911 when Dempsey and his brother got into a barroom brawl in her living room.
Robert Coughlin of Dedham: Not charged, but named in the DiMasi indictment as filing bills at the speaker's behest that led to the $57,000 in bribes paid to DiMasi. Coughlin served as a job-application reference for a Turnpike toll taker who was charged with murdering, dismembering, then cooking the body parts of a cocaine dealer. Succeeded Felon Finneran as lobbyist for biotech industry.
Mark Howland of New Bedford. Defeated after one term in the House, then got into the business of selling wind turbines that didn't work. Said one customer: "He's a crook." Ordered to repay $488,000 to fleeced customers.
Robert Spellane of Worcester: Found guilty of diverting $50,000 from his campaign account for personal use. Dumped his wife last year, after which his 28-year-old girlfriend was hired to work for a State House lobbyist. Recently sent out a letter of apology to his constituents, then days later got into a shouting match with his ex-wife and ex-brother-in-law at a Little League game over $19.
John Rogers of Norwood: Fined $30,000 by the Ethics Commission after an investigation into a summer home in East Falmouth Rogers claimed he owned with one of his campaign consultants, a bank president. Rogers once compared the felony conviction of still another crooked House speaker to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
I'm out of space, with no room to name at least six more Kennedy stooges in the House who've been bagged for nonpayment of various taxes, not to mention two others fined by the Ethics Commission for accepting improper gifts from lobbyists. But you get the picture.
When it comes to Ted Kennedy's Svengali-like control over the Legislature, remember the old saying: birds of a feather . . .
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Barack Obama will soon follow in the footsteps of US Presidents Bill Clinton and John F Kennedy by holidaying on Martha's Vineyard. But behind the scenes of the exclusive island getaway, BBC Brasil's Bruno Garcez finds an army of immigrant Brazilian workers tending lawns and waiting on tables.
"During his visit to Martha's Vineyard, Barack Obama will play golf in a course set up by Brazilians, eat meals prepared by Brazilian cooks and swim in a pool which was cleaned by workers from Brazil."
So predicts Mauricio Brandao, a 28-year-old Brazilian who has spent the past 12 years in Martha's Vineyard, a sophisticated resort and a traditional summer destination for Hollywood stars and politicians.
He works on the island as a horse trainer, but defines himself as a "fixer" who grabs any job available - with a preference for work offered by those he refers to as "the high-ranking people".
Mr Brandao knows the place where Mr Obama is likely to stay with his family well. The Blue Heron Farm is a 28.5-acre vacation home likely to cost from $35,000 to $50,000 per week to rent, according to local newspaper the Vineyard Gazette.
The official data provided by the administrator of Oak Bluffs - one of the island's six towns - backs up Mr Brandao's prediction.
Posted by: ed ||
08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
CHELSEA CLINTON is repor planning to get hitched = married at one of POTUS Bammer's favor-i-i-ite vacation spots.
#5
The Brazilian engine is also fueled by Petrobas, recently awarded US loan guarantees of $2 billion, whose largest shareholder is none other than open-border world citizen George Soros,and major financier of Obama's campaign.
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.
Elected officials in New Mexico are renewing calls for an ethics overhaul after the state's attorney general this week unveiled the latest in a long string of political-corruption cases.
Former ACORN Las Vegas field director Christopher Edwards cut a deal with prosecutors and has pleaded guilty to "two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters," the Las Vegas Sun reports. Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller, both Democrats, unveiled the charges in May. 
It's not his race - it's his blindness.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trailing a top Republican challenger by 11 points ahead of next year's election, according to a new poll. 
Howie Carr
