Main Justice reports that Christopher Coates, head of the Justice Department's voting rights division, has been removed from his post and replaced.
But no, the administration isn't doing damage control after it mysteriously dropped voter intimidation charges against three members of the Black Panther Party who rather openly intimidated Philadelphia voters on Election Day 2008. Rather, the administration is getting rid of the official who initiated the charges:
Coates signed off on the controversial voter intimidation complaint against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members, filed in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration. The Obama DOJ's decision to dismiss most of the charges in May has become a political controversy for the administration.
Coates is among those who were subpoenaed to testify about the Black Panther controversy before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Voting while melanin-deficient should be a crime!
#2
You identified a minor dysfunction g(r)om where both symtoms and larger, long-term outcomes continue to suffer acute phychosocial denial. Not only is it denied, it is celebrated and deitized.
#3
See the post 'This is England' and note the response of a significant segment of fringe (so far) Britons to government protection of militant Islam. Is it hard to imagine that our own blantantly unfair (& racist) government actions like those around this case will lead to similar gangs of racist (anti-racist?) thugs in this country? Obama, the great unifying leader - yeah, right.
(CNSNews.com) -- Wind-power projects funded in part by the $787-billion Recovery Act (stimulus law) are coming under scrutiny at a time when President Obama and other Democrats have promoted alternative forms of energy production.
Two New York Democrats -- Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Eric Massa -- are among the lawmakers criticizing specific wind-power projects that are getting hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies.
A "definitive agreement" was reached on one of those projects two weeks ago, according to a Dec. 20 news release from the Austin, Texas-based Cielo Wind Power. The deal is between Cielo, U.S. Renewable Energy Group and China-based Shenyang Power Group.
The $1.5 billion project -- which is getting $450 million in stimulus funds -- is supposed to create 2,000 to 3,000 jobs. The problem is, most of those jobs will be in China, Sen. Schumer said, because that's where the wind turbines will be constructed. Another 300 temporary jobs will be created in Texas.
"I'm all for investing in clean energy, but we should be investing in the United States, not China," Schumer wrote in a Nov. 5 letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "The goal of the stimulus was to spur job creation here, not overseas. This project should not receive a dime of stimulus funds unless it relies on U.S.-manufactured products," the senator wrote.
The Cielo wind farm in West Texas is supposed to cover 36,000 acres and generate enough electricity to power up to 180,000 American homes each year.
Cielo Wind Power President Walt Hornaday, in a Nov. 10 statement, insisted that the project will grow the U.S. economy and would not be possible without federal assistance.
"A project of this scale will not only create hundreds of on-site construction and operational jobs, but it will also benefit a network of engineers, suppliers, and contractors all around the U.S. who will see hundreds of millions of dollars in additional work," Hornaday said.
"Cielo plans to draw on the same American contractors from North Dakota to New York and New Mexico to California who have contributed to its past 10 wind projects. This planned project is an economic development lifeline to the wind industry during tough economic times."
Hornaday did not deny Schumer's assertions that most of the jobs would be created in China. However, a Cielo staff member told CNSNews.com last week that none of the stimulus funds (taxpayer money) would be used to pay workers in China. However, the spokesman declined to say any more about the project than has already been discussed in news releases.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Hard to believe I actually kind of agree with Schumer. The unfortunate thing is that we don't seem to be able to manufacture cost and quality competitive turbines in this country anymore. Why not? I don't think they're all that labor intensive so those cheap Chinese workers shouldn't be the whole story.
#2
It is also that the modern designs and manufacturing technology are shipped wholesale to China. Then the $200/month wages come into play.
So this project is $1.5B is expected to average 180MW (30% of the 600MW nameplate) with taxpayers forced to give a private citizen $450M.
Another way to look at that $450M is 1.4¢ taxpayer subsidy for every kWH produced over the 20 year life of the wind turbines. Then there is the 2¢ Fed production subsidy for every kWH. Plus there is accelerated depreciation where wind power investors get to write off their capital investment in only 5 years vs 20, so another .5¢/kWH. That comes to 3.9¢ taxpayer subsidy for every kWH produced. Compare that with the Texas wholesale electricity price of 3¢/kWH.
Another way to look at this is the 3.9¢/kWH forced taxpayer subsidy comes to $1.25 billion over the 20 years life of this wind turbine project. So in effect T. Boone is risking $250M for an income of $946 million. Pretty damn sweet and a total ripoff of the taxpayers.
More bad news for the taxpayers, T. Boone will force the taxpayers to build him new power lines from Bumfuck, TX to the urban markets for XXX hundreds of millions. And because of the unpredictable nature of wind, 90% of the wind project's capacity will have to be backed up by natural gas power plants that will have to be spinning and using energy, but not producing power. That cost will be reflected in every Texans electric rate as additional spinning reserve. So basically, we talking about 7-8¢ for every kWH produced of which only 3¢/kWH actually comes from the electric ratepayer, the rest from taxpayers.
Mo Money! picked from the taxpayer pockets. And this is just one example of thousands of feeding frenzies from the politically connected that is sinking this Republic.
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2009 10:21 Comments ||
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#3
Don't forget the environazis will almost immediately try to shut down the wind farms because they threaten migratory birds.
They did the same thing to the big wind farm in the Altamonte pass near SFO. Huge wind farm, lots of power for the nasty capitalists in Silicone Valley, shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant in return. Then they go to the 9th Circus Court of Appeals and get an order shutting everything down.
Does Pickens really think he can get those power lines built? Does he really think the environmental movement is serious about sustainable power? There is a butterfly, frog or clam out there somewhere lurking, to be used to shut it all down.
Will the Obama monarchy allow the environazis to stall, shut down or spike this or any other move to sustainable power? Especially since the Obama Monarchy is throwing such huge sums of money at it? Or is Schumer's little investigation actually a environazi instigated ploy to stop the entire thing before it gets off the ground and real money is spent? Maybe Obama has figured that he can talk sustainability and just shrug when his constituents stall his plans?
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:55 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe Obama has figured that he can talk sustainability and just shrug when his constituents stall his plans?
I think you're on to something, Karl. In fact, I think we've seen that show before.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/29/2009 11:59 Comments ||
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#5
I saw Pickens the other day on one of the business channels. He was pushing natural gas as the savior of the future.
He had nothing to say about windmills.
I thought that was a bit strange.
Not.
Posted by: Kelly ||
12/29/2009 12:54 Comments ||
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#6
It always seemed strange to build giant windmill farms and then ship huge amounts of electricity to far away. Back in the heyday of hydroelectric, big electricity consumers were built near the electricity - Oak Ridge nuclear separation and Alcoa aluminum refining were sited to take advantage of TVA electricity, for instance - a government distortion, but at least a rational one.)
Pickens' wind farms and natural gas fields are the same land in and near west Texas - build a plant to use electricity to modify natural gas into synthetic diesel, maybe.
Instead we use government intervention to distort the economic process beyond any rational expression. But somebody is getting rich at our expense.
#7
ION TOPIX > GLOBAL WARMING WILL NOT PREVENT NEW ICE AGE.
ARTIC > IIUC, Warming-induced rise in global temps by 5-degrees Celsius will destroy most iff not all of Humanity before the inevitable formation of any new glacial ice sheets???
* RENSE > BILLIONTH AFRICAN BORN: POPULATION TO DOUBLE IN 40 YEARS [1.9BILYUHN Africans by 2050].
#1
Alone...listless...breakfast table in an otherwise empty room
Young girl...violins...center of her own attention
The mother reads aloud child tries to understand it
Tries to make her proud
The shades go down it's in her head
Painted room...can't deny there's something wrong...
Don't call me daughter not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me daughter not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me...
#4
Big First Year Leaves Obama Tired.... listless, irritable.
The usual prescription would be a laxative and healthy purge with a diet full of fiber rather than fluffy and nebulous empty calorie consumptions and emissions of gas.
#10
Now we know why every man who steps into that office comes in like a bright shiny penny and leaves office looking like a bag of freshly hammered dogcrap.
That job,that nearly holy office of this Republic is the one branch of government held by a single individual and as such, it is damn hard.
What's worse is that its purposely designed by the founders of the Constitution, not to work. Its almost a cruel joke that we play on the biggest "alpha males" of our civilization; we lure them in with a promise of power and then we tie them down in a sort of life sized "Chinese finger trap" where every move is countered by a move of equal size from the other sources of power in the government.
Most of the men who occupy the office run for the job in the strongly held personal hope of "doing something" to leave their mark on history and yet in almost every memoir of an ex-president, you see that most of them leave deeply humbled and happy to have simply survived the experience.
I believe that the current occupant of the Office is rapidly coming to that realization; that while it is "good to be the king", the Presidency of the United States is not King, nor even a Prime Minister, he's just the President, He's just 1/3 of a Governmental system designed at the start and with deliberation, not to work.
Over the years I have sometimes found that the man we as citizens elect to the job is not always someone I like or agree with, but in every case I have and will continue to have, a profound and deep respect for whomever holds it. I would also take this moment to remind you that "like" and "respect" are two very different things.
And I may also take a moment to say that I am not a religious man by any means, but I have often found myself in deep contemplative prayer for the poor bastard that holds that job, not always for him and his agenda, but always for us in this Republic.
For he is after all is said and done:
"Our President"( The poor bastard...)
and we are not "His Citizens"; but his "fellow Americans" and may it ever always be so.
Never forget that it is our job as citizens to keep the men who hold that office honest; but let us also never forget that the man in the office is at the end of the day, just a man. Let us hope that all men who hold that office also know that is the case.
Posted by: frank martin ||
12/29/2009 23:21 Comments ||
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The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesnÂ’t have to face Nebraska voters until 2012.
If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the Republican would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%. Nelson was reelected to a second Senate term in 2006 with 64% of the vote.
Nelson's health care vote is clearly dragging his numbers down. Just 17% of Nebraska voters approve of the deal their senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his vote in support of the plan. Overall, 64% oppose the health care legislation, including 53% who are Strongly Opposed. In Nebraska, opposition is even stronger than it is nationally.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters in the state believe that passage of the legislation will hurt the quality of care, and 62% say it will raise costs.
The House and Senate have passed different versions of the health care legislation and now will try to agree on a plan to pass early in 2010. Because every Democratic vote is required to pass the legislation in the Senate, NelsonÂ’s vote is essential. If Nelson votes to block final passage of the health care plan, he would still trail Heineman but would be in a much more competitive situation.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
When survey respondents were asked how they would vote if Nelson blocks health care reform, 47% still pick Heneman while 37% would vote to keep the incumbent in office. Twenty percent (20%) of those who initially said theyÂ’d vote for Heineman say theyÂ’d switch to supporting Nelson. Another six percent (6%) of Heineman supporters say theyÂ’re not sure what theyÂ’d do if Nelson stops the health care plan from becoming law.
If Nelson votes to block health care reform, 10% of all voters would prefer a third-party option. Most of those who would prefer a third choice initially said they would vote for Nelson.
Overall, 40% of Nebraska voters have a favorable opinion of Nelson while 55% have an unfavorable view. Those figures include 12% with a Very Favorable opinion while 34% hold a Very Unfavorable view.
Twenty-six percent (26%) say Nelson has done a good or excellent job in the health care debate. Forty-seven percent (47%) give him poor marks.
Forty-two percent (42%) say their senator has been too supportive of President ObamaÂ’s agenda while 13% say heÂ’s not been supportive enough. Thirty percent (30%) say heÂ’s got the balance about right.
Nelson is also one of the key players in the discussion about how abortion should be handled in the health care plan. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Nebraska voters say that coverage of abortion should be prohibited in any plan that receives government subsidies. Only six percent (6%) want coverage mandated, while 22% want no requirements either way.
Obama earned 42% of the Nebraska vote in 2008, and 38% continue to approve of his job performance. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Nebraska voters disapprove of how the president is performing.
#1
Nelson's vote on the actual health care bill, when it comes to that, is unimportant, and he will presumable vote against it. It was his vote for cloture that mattered, and that's done with. In two years he will be able to drag out either vote to campaign on, depending on the mood by then, and people will have forgotten there was a difference.
Same story for Mary Landrieu and presumably several other vulnerable Senators who will be freed to vote against the bill, which will pass with about 52 or 53 votes.
#3
In general Nelson is considered to have been a good Governor of the state 1991-1999. He promoted welfare reform before the 1994 National bill. He actually cut a few programs. He supported the death penalty. Increasing agriculture prosperity (due partly to ethanol subsidies) helped him. He was at a 70% approval as Senator in 2006. Like so many red state dems before him he slowly internalized the national Democratic party meta narrative.
Sad.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009 17:05 Comments ||
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#4
a very good ad would compose the question of how this "Senator representative" could whore himself out for the quarantees promised, but probably ultimately yanked back, and whether he was "inebriated a) all, b) most, c) partly, or d) only on the video Youtubing around the world right now"....oh, and how about that girl-squeeze on your staff....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2009 19:13 Comments ||
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The Dutch tourist who helped stop the alleged terrorist plot is profiting off his heroism, according to the media outlet Gawker. Filthy lucre, is it? Why, damn the man! I'll bet he'd have profited out of it if he'd been killed, too.
Jasper Schuringa, who burned his hands while taking down Flight 253's would-be terrorist, has taken in at least $18,000 for two cell phone pictures and interviews with CNN and the New York Post, according to Foster Kamer of Gawker. $18,000? That's big money. That's like ten minutes of a Bill Clinton talk.
Schuringa, who sought the help of an Israeli handler to arrange the media appearances, according to the Web site, said Saturday he heard a pop, saw smoke and climbed over seats to stop a man from trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight in Detroit. "I didn't think. I just went over there to try to save the plane," Schuringa said on CNN. And what was everyone else doing at the time?
As passengers on Flight 253 screamed "fire, fire" on Friday, Schuringa said he figured the suspect was "trying to blow up the plane." So if he'd kept his seat and hollered "fire!" he wouldn't have made $18,000.
"When you hear a pop on a plane, you're awake," Schuringa said. ... and looking for the source.
The Detroit News tried to reach Schuringa, starting on Saturday, but he has not responded to Facebook requests for an interview. There's no law saying he has to.
Mike Bernacchi, a marketing professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy, said Schuringa's move is a byproduct of "his whole reality mechanism. Reality sells." So does fantasy, for that matter. And I'm guessing you make more money off good reality than off bad reality, and better money off fantasy of any but the worst sort.
"There's a price tag on everything and I guess while that is not the motivation and not the initiation of the action, the opportunity is there," Bernacchi said. "More and more folks are seizing it. Twenty years ago, a parade through main street and receiving a key would have been it and delightful. The price tag is out there. No good deed goes without remuneration." I heard it as "no good deed goes unpunished." I guess he's getting off lightly, just being criticized for picking up a few bucks.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Get it while you can, buddy. And screw the hand-wringers. Oh, and thanks for helping out on the flight.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/29/2009 3:24 Comments ||
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#2
Formal recognition from the White House and a grateful nation? No, no, no! The media would rather talk about MONEY.
#4
Sounds like the Detroit News is pissed off that he didn't "friend" them on Facebook, at the very least.
How much have we taxpayers shelled out for the TSA employees and other government apparatchiki who didn't stop the terrorist from getting on the plane? How much has that pinhead Napolitano made since she took over Homeland Security?
He at least earned his 18k. Thank you, Mr. Schuringa.
#5
IMHO his actions deserve an immediate response. At the very LEAST a phone call from Barry. I know they are stillsorting out the details but come on call the guys and thank him. The money? Dude strike hard and strike often, it wont last that long.
#7
I don't understand why this guy is expected to pay for ANYTHING in the United States EVER.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/29/2009 10:40 Comments ||
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#8
It is utterly disgusting to see this kind of faux outrage from the mainstream media, an industry that falls well below the average whorehouse in ethics and dignity.
#9
The workman deserves his wage, good on him. I would cheerfully pay this man 18K out of my own pocket if I had it.
If the jihad-kebab had turned out to be Osama himself, Jasper and friends would be splitting 50 mil courtesy of Uncle Sam and Detroit News would probably be belly-aching about that too.
#10
--- At the very LEAST a phone call from Barry. In your dreams, man! Barry would never stoop to such a despicable action.
--- Speaking of despicable, I wouldn't be surprised if the MSM next links the Flying Dutchman to the Nazis. If so, you read it here first.
#12
I would say that the MSM's tut-tutting reminds me of a couple of elderly virgins discussing the facts of life, but it actually reminds me of a couple of retired hookers pretending to be elderly virgins discussing the facts of life.
#13
I actually dropped him a message on Facebook on the day this happened, congratulating him.
He acted how I would hope I would act, but you never know until the rubber meets the road.
As far as I'm concerned, if I ever meet him, he's not going to have to buy anything.
#15
" ...but it actually reminds me of a couple of retired hookers pretending to be elderly virgins discussing the facts of life."
A wonderful analogy of the concept of journalistic ethics! Media tearing down a hero because they couldn't pony up the dough for a story they wanted for free.
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/29/2009 15:21 Comments ||
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#16
What this article should be about is why aren't they organizing a ticker tape parade down Broadway for him and why hasn't Obama mentioned giving him a medal yet. Let's hope that someone can manage to get some of his work out on DVD in the US, so that he can profit some more.
#17
Since Rahm Emanuel could not capitalize on this crisis: Recall this quote: You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And since the administration has a lot of egg on its face about this near-disaster and since the MSM are aiders, abeters, and apologists of/for the current administration, it makes sense that the MSM would be critical of Jasper rather than say "Thanks; job well done."
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the front-runner in the Republican primary election for U.S. Senate, finds himself the object of an unusual attack ad from one of his lesser-known opponents.
Andy Martin, once known as Anthony Martin-Trigona, who has run for numerous elective offices over the last three decades in Illinois, Florida and Connecticut, taped a commercial saying Kirk is gay.
So long as he's not teaching school children about fisting, or planning to seduce Congressional pages of either sex, I'm afraid I am uninterested in what happens in his -- or anyone else's -- bedroom, so long as both parties are there of their own free will.
Martin's source? Statements some conservative Republicans made on a radio show saying they have heard "rumors" that Kirk is gay.
"Illinois Republican leader Jack Roeser says there is a 'solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual,'" Martin says in the ad. "Roeser suggests that Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club. Lake County Illinois Republican leader Ray True says Kirk has surrounded himself with homosexuals. Mark Kirk should tell Republican voters the truth."
Kirk, a U.S. Naval Intelligence officer, was unavailable for comment because he is on active duty over the holidays, said spokesman Eric Elk.
But Elk issued this statement on his behalf: "The ad is not true and is degrading to the political process. The people of Illinois deserve better."
In one of the many e-mails Martin sends to Chicago media -- often in the middle of the night -- Martin offers links to a tape of a radio show in which Roeser and True did make the comments referenced in the ad.
"You've got Mark Kirk, who's been so strong on his homosexuals so long that the solid rumor is that he himself is a homosexual," Roeser said on the program, adding, "Who, in Christ's name, needs to get themselves identified as a freak in the sexual department?" They named other Illinois Republicans they suspect are gay.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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Liberals being 'liberal', except when they are being fascists, which it seems is most of the time.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/29/2009 3:28 Comments ||
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#2
Exactly the sort of behavior that keeps the Republicans as the minority party.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2009 7:54 Comments ||
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#3
....because they're not as effective as liberals in carrying out the smear? /rhet question.
#5
This is the 'conservative' Republicans smearing another Republican. Kirk should probably stand up and defend homosexuality and condemn those who attempt to use it as a smear campaign tactic (though saying nothing one way or another about his personal position.)
#6
Anthony R. Martin-Trigona (aka Andy Martin) is a headcase from way back. He's a serious 'birther' (think he even filed a lawsuit in Hawaii trying to get access), and once ran a TV ad saying GW Bush used cocaine.
He has run as a Democrat, Republican, and Independent for various offices in various states over the last thirty years with no success. The campaign committee for his 1986 congressional was named "The Anthony R. Martin-Trigona Congressional Campaign to Exterminate Jew Power in America." That's 'good PR'.
Total whack-job. Unfortunately he's now painting himself a 'Republican'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/29/2009 9:00 Comments ||
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#7
The people of Illinois deserve better.
You hear this line a lot these days, but I am not sure it is true.
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/29/2009 15:13 Comments ||
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Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, will offer an amendment on the Senate floor shortly that if adopted will ban the practice of trading earmarks for votes in the Senate. In order for the Senate to have an opportunity to vote on the DeMint measure, Senate rules will have to be suspended, something that is rarely done.
The text of the DeMint amendment reads as follows:
"(a) IN GENERAL.--It shall not be in order in the Senate to consider a congressionally directed spending item, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit, if a Senator, Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner has conditioned the inclusion of language to provide funding for a congressional directed spending item, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit in any amendment, bill, or joint resolution (or an accompanying report) or in any conference report on a bill or joint resolution (including an accompanying joint explanatory statement of managers) on any vote cast by any Senator, Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner."
The South Carolina Republican decided to offer the amendment in the wake of the national uproar against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's buying of votes for Obamacare, including the infamous $300 million "Louisiana Purchase" for Sen. Mary Landrieu's vote, agreeing to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's demand that the federal government begin paying his state's Medicaid costs in perpetuity, and a $10 billion program to create free medical clinics across the country, as demanded by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
A DeMint aide said the amendment is similar to one his boss co-authored with Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL, in 2007. A similar rule is already in effect in the House of Representatives. The 2007 Durbin-DeMint amendment, which included a ban on earmark vote-trading, passed the Senate by a vote of 98 to 0. The Senate vote-trading rule was dropped in closed-door negotiations with the House and was not part of the final legislation signed by the President.
Senate rules will have to be suspended because Reid has blocked all further amendments to Obamacare. A motion to suspend Senate rules requires the votes of two-thirds of those present on the Senate floor at the time.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It's legal, unless you're the governor of Illinois, in which case, they remove you from office. The lesson is - It's good to be the Senator.
#2
My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this He pays nothing, and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than He needs, but He is not required to do any upkeep. If He makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He is living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head, Holy S#!t, my dog is a democrat!
The system is supposed to work, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, something like this: a man recently reported to U.S. authorities by his own father, who was on a terror watch list, who pays three grand in cash for a ticket to Detroit (enough to buy a city block in the Motor City), and who was denied a student visa to the United Kingdom, attempts to explode a bomb on a packed plane and is tackled by a Dutch filmmaker. Vindication of the stupid, bloated, counterproductive DHS security apparatus! Which, as has been pointed out in these very pages by Jesse Walker, is about to get even dumber and more irritating.
Today Napolitano backtracked, saying she had been taken out of context and that the system, in fact, failed:
Ms. Napolitano said Monday on NBC'S "Today" that her remark the day before -- "the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days" -- had been taken out of context. "Our system did not work in this instance," she said. "No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way."
Other notable backtracks in the past few days: The ever-reliable Michael Moore tweeted that it was a gang of tough Detroiters (probably union guys) that foiled the plot, forgetting that no one actually lives in Detroit anymore. He later clarified that the 60 pound Nigerian was pummeled by a flying Dutchman, but "Then Motown kicked in" by providing a runway for an emergency landing.
Lefty blogger Spencer Ackermann tweeted that "Some idiot set firecrackers off on a jet and were supposed to be afraid of that?" Well, yes we are. Because according to a report in today's New York Times, were he not foiled by a faulty detonator, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was carrying enough firecrackers to blow Flight 253 out of the sky.
In related news, Brian Ross of ABC News reports today that Abdulmutallab "told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon." Awesome.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"No one actually lives in Detroit anymore" > Uh, uh, and the SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO.
Also, lets not fergit IRAN's so-called "14 Province", aka DA ARNUUULD'S STATE OF CALIFORNIA?
#4
Napolitano Says No Evidence Yet Airplane Bomb Plot Part of 'Anything Larger"
Ummm, Ms. Napolitano, in case you missed it while you were trying to figure out how to build a Potemkin Village of security, it's a larger plot called the Radical Violent Muslim War against the infidel and the West. A good start would be to read The Looming Towers by Lawrence Wright. Then you might understand why (since the first WTC bombing in 1993 and leading up to 2009 when there were 28 "Man-Made" successful or attempted attacks), that this is something larger.
#5
Since all of the lefties in the Obama administration are lawyers, it's all law enforcement to them.
It's not a war, we don't need war, a couple of cease and desist orders and a nicely worded MOI and its all good.
Except for one thing, they will never negotiate, it is their sworn duty to convert the world or kill the infidels. Its the Quran or the sword to these people.
When is anyone going to seriously admit, through their politically correct filters, that we are in a religious war and a cultural war. We either pray to Allah or we die. They bash our Judeo-Christian traditions, won't say a negative word about Islam and they hide the really ugly news of what these people are doing all over the world from the american people. I just hope and pray that some nut case from Somalia or Yemen decides to blow up the NYT. Maybe then, these pillars of journalism will get the message. And maybe once one of them blows up a building full of lawyer, then the legal profession will get on board...wait, THAT has already happened.
I for one do not want my grandchildren to live like they do in these illiterate, fanatical fever swamps of hate that the radical islamists create.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:47 Comments ||
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#6
To raise his popularity rating quite a few points, all 0 would have to do is fly back to DC & fire Napolitano, just to encourage the others. Of course that won't happen.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. President Barack Obama vowed Monday to hunt down extremists wherever they plot attacks against the United States as al-Qaeda claimed it hatched the attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
Obama pledged to "disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us--whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland."
" A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable "
U.S.President Barack Obama
The president said he had ordered a probe to find out how 23-year-old suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria managed to board a Detroit-bound plane from Amsterdam with an explosive device.
"A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable," Obama said in his first public comments since the botched attack.
Abdulmutallab has told U.S. investigators that al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen supplied him with an explosive device and trained him on how to detonate it, officials said over the weekend.
As millions of edgy air travelers endured stringent new security measures for flights around the globe, Obama was under massive pressure to ease frayed nerves and counter accusations his administration is soft on terror.
The incident has put a spotlight on the growing prominence of al-Qaeda in Yemen, and on the expanding role of the U.S. military and spy agencies in fighting the group.
"This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland," Obama said, three days after catastrophe was narrowly averted on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
In a statement posted on Islamist websites, an al-Qaeda affiliate in the Arabian peninsula said the attempt was to avenge U.S. attacks on them in Yemen.
It said it had provided the Nigerian suspect in the failed airliner bombing with a "technically advanced device" but that it did not detonate because of a technical fault.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
In Rush Limbaugh place (or Glenn Beck's), I'd be calling Blackwater right now.
#2
First off, fire Homeland Insecurity Chief Napolomano and FBI Director Robert Mueller. He might also wish to call in CIA Director Leon Panetta for some very serious discussions. Twelve killed at Fort Hood and nearly 300 dead on this Delta flight.
Their efforts are focused upon the gun hugging, bible thumping, racists and neo-Nazis commonly referred to as the center and right of American politics, aka 'the enemy'. Just check the rhetoric they employ against them as opposed to 'not jumping to conclusions' about various Islamic related incidents.
#5
Obama pledged to "disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us--whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland."
O.K. Let's get on with it then and quit pussyfooting around. The headline says: "Facing pressure, Obama vows to hunt extremists." What astounds me is the reactionary mode this administration is in. He should have been doing something long before he faced pressure. You get the idea there are a bunch of novices at the helm. Obama, Napolitano, etc. If you gut the CIA, shackle them with lawyers, handcuff them, treat terrorism as a crime, prosecute Navy Seals for busting a terrorist's lip, then you are going to get more and more terrorist assaults on our country.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2009 14:15 Comments ||
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#8
This moron actually thinks that since public reaction to the attempted attack and his 3 days late speech, coupled with Napolitano's incredible blunder, was poor, that if he just gave another speech and showed he was real mad it would be fixed/ Jesus Mary and Joseph, we are in serious sh*t, the American people are discovering what a clown we have given the Presidency to, and how utterly feckless and clueless he is. Instead of action, more political talking points on national security and "violent extremists" so he can calm the anger and get back to reshaping the nation into a workers paradise. We are going to end up, dead broke, and in a worldwide war with sudden jihadi events all over the country and the Israeli's contemplating nukes as the fight for their lives, all becasue this POS didn't understand how to keep all the balls in the air and keep the world confident and stable through a belief in American power.
1930's anyone? Fascism and the krystalnacht may already be rumbling in the UK through the BNP and the EDL. What a mess.
#9
OTOH THE HINDU.com > HEADLEY TORTURED ME, ALLEGES ONE OF 26/11 ACCUSED [Mumbai Attack].
SABAHUDDIN AHMED claims to recognize DAVID HEADLEY as a member of FOUR-MAN US FBI INTERROGATION TEAM "investigating" = torturing him over the Mumbai terror operation.
A disturbingly confused Janet Napolitano, confidently proclaimed Saturday that the security system that failed to spot a terrorist on a terror watch list worked just fine. Yesterday she must have added a shot of truth serum to her coffee and admitted the obvious.
The system failed.
To put it more bluntly, she failed.
Of course aviation security experts weren't buying her initial CYA line about the system working just fine. You see, when the only thing that prevents an airliner from blowing up is the fact that the detonator went bad, unless the government supplied the terrorist with the bad detonator, from a security standpoint, the plane was as good as lost.
From the Washington Post.
"Security failed," said Doron Bergerbest-Eilon, Israel's senior-ranking counterterrorism officer from 1997 to 2000 and a former national regulator for aviation security. It is of little comfort that Abdulmutallab was stopped only after he allegedly failed to properly detonate the bomb, instead igniting a fire that alerted fellow passengers, Bergerbest-Eilon said.
"The system repeatedly fails to prevent attacks and protect passengers when challenged," he said, adding that, in the minds of security experts, "for all intents and purposes, Northwest Flight 253 exploded in midair."
One wonders why a guy named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was on a terror watch-list because his father was worried about his militant behavior and reported him, was allowed to get on a plane. Call me a simpleton, but why wasn't that guy on the list to get the full-proctology screening at the airport? As the WaPo article notes, the explosive he was using is easily detected by security equipment. But aside from the equipment, what about just using common sense? The hard work was already done: He's already on the watch-list. Why should he fly anywhere without a full body search?
Or perhaps we are worried that he might be offended?
After all, it is not nice to offend your enemies, they might try to blow you up or something.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
those snot nosed drooling halfwit TSA agents couldnt spot a watermelon on a barn door much less an obviously middle eastern freak - on a watchlist- without a passport.
#4
Strange sounding muzzie name, no passport, one-way ticket, no baggage....no problem. Your window seat directly over the fuel tanks have now been confirmed. Have a nice flight.
#5
Amazing, no passport, paid cash for his ticket and he checked no baggage.
Geez Louise, aren't those supposed to be major league signal flares that something is wrong?
I think the initial reports that some well dressed handler got this half wit on the plane has some legs, I hope the Dutch are investigating this one...must have been a big handshake to get the kid on the plane..
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:34 Comments ||
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#6
While I am not entirely supportive, I don't think he got a TSA screening. He was screened in Europe and should have been stopped there. Lots of blame here but I don't think TSA gets any.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009 14:01 Comments ||
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#8
But the TSA is damn good at making sure I take tiny tubes of toothpaste and shaving cream, and don't carry water in my waterbottle. I've lost 2-3 plastic water bottles in the last year because I forgot to empty them...
God I hate flying, and would do none of it if I didn't need to for work...
#9
garth,
IIRC, he may have had the visa but was missing the passport, or something like that. And the OTHER Nigerian (the lavatory lad) was on a cash -aid, one way, no luggage trip. Of course he wasn't exploding the plane, just his bowels, or so they say.
#10
The ticket was purchased in Lagos, Nigeria. I should think in that part of the world many middle class people would not own a credit card. On the other hand, our lad's father was the former head of the national bank, and our lad himself had spent several years in London at university, so he should have had a credit card of his own. On the third hand, our lad was no longer connected to his family and I imagine Papa was no longer paying his credit card bill (Papa had contacted the U.S. embassy to report him in the hope that the U.S. would track him down and return him to the bosom of his loving family -- an odd hope, but perhaps Papa was relying on his influence as a former high government official, even if only of Nigeria). But apparently the purchase did ring bells, because his name was run twice against the No Fly list with, of course, no result. And then I read today that AQ-AP has purchased the scanning machine the airlines use, so they knew their lad's laden underpants would pass inspection. All hail that Homeland Security contractor who made the draft handbook available to the general public!
Obama envoy hails group accused of working against Jewish state
JERUSALEM -- In her first major interview since becoming President Obama's newly appointed anti-Semitism czar last month, Hannah Rosenthal yesterday blasted the Israeli government for its criticism of a lobby group accused of anti-Israel activity.
Rosenthal characterized as "most unfortunate" a decision by Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, to not attend the annual dinner in September of J Street, a lobby group that is mostly led by left-leaning Israelis and that receives funds from Arab and Muslim Americans.
In an interview yesterday from Jerusalem with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Rosenthal said Oren "would have learned a lot" if he had participated in J Street's conference.
Rosenthal was in Israel as the Obama administration's envoy to the Foreign Ministry's Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism.
"I came away realizing what a generational divide there is and I don't know how it is in Israel. Young people want to be part of the discussion, they feel they have fresh ideas and they feel that we have to end the stalemate," she said, speaking of the J Street dinner.
Rosenthal stated it was important that new and different voices need be heard regarding Israel in the American Jewish community.
"It is not 1939," she said. "We have the state of Israel. We have laws in countries that are holding people accountable."
Regarding a recent U.N. report accusing Israel of war crimes during the Jewish state's defensive war in Gaza last year, Rosenthal told Haaretz, "it is not anti-Semitic to look at a certain policy of Israel and say -- I disagree with it. Half of the population in Israel isn't anti-Semitic by not agreeing with policies."
Anti Semitism Czar criticizing Israel for criticizing/ostracizing an anti Isreali lobby group?
Please explain to me how this person got the job? Hannah obviously didn't read her job description before she issued that statement...no wait, maybe she did.
I think this, if nothing else, should finally confirm that Bambi has no idea what he is doing...or that he cares for that matter.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:38 Comments ||
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#2
I believe the term is "Orwellian." I wonder if George ever thought that "1984" would become a training manual...
#3
This is all of a piece with Bambi's determination to destroy capitalism, democracy and America. The Juice are at fault and therefore the Arabs must be given Israel.
#6
This prez of ours can't even hire a jew that believes in Israel. WTF?
Posted by: S49 Pan ||
12/29/2009 15:40 Comments ||
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#7
"It is not 1939." Hmmm. Maybe not 1939 but similar in many ways.
This 1960s anti-war activist and community organizer is dangerously naive. She seems to be mesmerized by the sound of her own voice.
It wasn't too long ago that Ahmadinejad said:
"Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime [referring to Israel] must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement."
What's with these socialists wanting to commit suicide? Why invite a Holocaust?
#9
I've reached the point with the O'bumble misadministration where I completely withdraw my consent to be governed by this bunch of absolutely idiotic people. That includes all Democrats and their supporters in Washington, DC. They are idiots. They are self-centered, jack-booted thugs with an IQ in negative numbers. I will NOT comply with anything they do. If they attempt to use force, in any form, to compel me to comply, I shall consider it a declaration of war against me, and will respond in kind. I will vote against them, I will campaign against them, and if necessary, I will take up arms against them. Their behavior is tyrannical, their "ideas" unsuitable to have come from five-year-olds, and the "Chicago Way" is pure thuggism.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/29/2009 23:09 Comments ||
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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.
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.
Main Justice reports that Christopher Coates, head of the Justice Department's voting rights division, has been removed from his post and replaced.
(CNSNews.com) -- Wind-power projects funded in part by the $787-billion Recovery Act (stimulus law) are coming under scrutiny at a time when President Obama and other Democrats have promoted alternative forms of energy production. 
The Dutch tourist who helped stop the alleged terrorist plot is profiting off his heroism, according to the media outlet Gawker. 
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the front-runner in the Republican primary election for U.S. Senate, finds himself the object of an unusual attack ad from one of his lesser-known opponents.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, will offer an amendment on the Senate floor shortly that if adopted will ban the practice of trading earmarks for votes in the Senate. In order for the Senate to have an opportunity to vote on the DeMint measure, Senate rules will have to be suspended, something that is rarely done.
The system is supposed to work, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, something like this: a man recently reported to U.S. authorities by his own father, who was on a terror watch list, who pays three grand in cash for a ticket to Detroit (enough to buy a city block in the Motor City), and who was denied a student visa to the United Kingdom, attempts to explode a bomb on a packed plane and is tackled by a Dutch filmmaker. Vindication of the stupid, bloated, counterproductive DHS security apparatus! Which, as has been pointed out in these very pages by Jesse Walker, is about to get even dumber and more irritating.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. President Barack Obama vowed Monday to hunt down extremists wherever they plot attacks against the United States as al-Qaeda claimed it hatched the attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
A disturbingly confused Janet Napolitano, confidently proclaimed Saturday that the security system that failed to spot a terrorist on a terror watch list worked just fine. Yesterday she must have added a shot of truth serum to her coffee and admitted the obvious.
