#3
ION FOX NEWS AM > seems the US CENSUS is being criticized for tolerating rampant abuse by its [tewmp]employees. IIUC, GUEST PERT > is indir inferring that either the US CENSUS process shouild be completely PRIVATIZED, or else ANY AND ALL CENSUS WORKERS WEAR DEVICES CAPABLE OF BEING REMOTELY MONITORED BY THE GOVT.
Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a "push/pull" strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them. If possible, they will identify one or two they can perhaps 'turn', either with money or threats, to create a mole in the movement. The others will be subjected to a full-on smear campaign. (Has MSNBC already been notified?) Oppo research is legal, as is the Clintonian ad hominem attack--unethical, immoral, a logical fallacy, but not a violation of criminal law, and quite probably protected free speech. Using the threat of public exposure of embarrassing personal details to influence behavior is probably extortion, which is a felony.
Big Government has also learned that James Carville will head up the effort. Who better to do so?
Obviously, there is no love lost between Obama and the Clinton machine. It may at first seem odd that Clinton would rush to Obama's defense, but the tea party movement poses a threat far beyond the immediate goals of the Obama Administration.
The tea party movement could evolve into a new political realignment, one founded on a belief in limited government and less government interference in the economy. The Progressive agenda, which has been painstakingly built up over the last three decades, could be left in tatters.
As the Clinton's know, "politics ain't beanbag." Expect the counterattack soon. Don't say you haven't been warned.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/17/2010 14:33 ||
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#1
Politics might not be bean-bag, but it isn't Cold War espionage, either. "Turning" assets and inserting moles seems kind of out-there. I can't tell if the Clintons have honestly gone insane or if this source is just garden-variety nuts.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/17/2010 15:23 Comments ||
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#2
It tells everyone who the Clintons consider their real enemies.
Posted by: ed ||
02/17/2010 15:41 Comments ||
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#3
Is that the same mighty Clinton machine that couldn't handle Mr. Hope&Change and his bunch of ivory tower baby bolsheviks in dem primaries?
Sorry, I just don't see Hill & Bill doing something like this to benefit Obama. Stabbing Obama in the back? Sure. Helping him out when he is known for rewarding loyalty by tossing people under his very crowded bus? Nope.
If anything, Hillary benefits if the Tea Party people can take Obama down a few notches. Bubba's legacy looks better if Obama blows it big time. Based on that 12 page NY Slimes story about the "radicals" in the Tea Party movement, they can make shit up on their own perfectly fine without the gang from Arkansas.
There is literally nothing in it for them or their loyalists. There is plenty for Rahm & Axelrod if they can make it look like they had nothing to do with it, however. Keep that in mind.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2010 21:33 Comments ||
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#9
The Clinton and Obama regims are the most corrupt, diasterous anddangerous administrations our cpountry has had to endure. They put the terrorist below them in treachery and deciet.
They can't functio on their own; they have to resort to lies, threats and bribes to forc radicAL COMMUNISM DOWN OUR throats. I see blood
in our streets in the near future.
#10
The "Taxed Enough Already" movement is too grass roots to be damaged by the left. The two Arkansas hillbillies can go after a half dozen wannabe leaders of tea partiers but it will have no effect on the millions of those who are fed-up with socialists. Hillary is mad that her healthcare agenda took a hit.
Mayor Oscar Goodman has refused an invitation to meet with President Obama when he arrives in town on Thursday. Mayor Goodman called President Obama a slow learner after he told Americans not to blow money on a weekend in Las Vegas if they were saving to put their kids through college.
"I've got other things to do quite frankly for my constituents here in Las Vegas who rely on me to do the right thing as a mayor," explained Mayor Goodman.
Mayor Goodman has more important things like attend budget meetings during a major shortfall than meet with President Barack Obama when he visits Las Vegas Friday, even though he's invited by the White House.
"Were you surprised to get that invitation in light of comments you've made before and your opinion on him and what he says," asked Action News reporter Heather Klein.
"A little bit in the sense I would think they would know that I would say I'm not coming," said Mayor Goodman.
They say time heals all wounds but not this time. Mayor Goodman not backing down after the president used Las Vegas the example of where not to go if you're saving money.
This is strike two for the mayor.
"We are hurting, we have people in foreclosures, we have people having a hard time feeding their families and we can't stand to have a flippant statement made," said Mayor Goodman.
"I haven't heard an apology, I haven't heard a response, all I do is get invitations," Goodman went on to say.
Invitations Mayor Oscar Goodman respectfully or depending on your point of view not so respectfully declines. The mayor says his presence isn't necessary its more protocol than anything else. However, he says all it will take is a simple phone call and he will be there ready to move on.
Four Democratic senators, including two facing potentially challenging election campaigns this year, are asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation, a procedural maneuver requiring only 51 votes, to push for a public health insurance option.
Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.) signed a letter to Reid saying they support this plan for four reasons: the cost savings the public option is estimated to achieve, continued public support for the public option, the need for increased competition in the insurance market and the Senate's history of using the reconciliation process for health care reform.
"Put simply, including a strong public option is one of the best, most fiscally responsible ways to reform our health insurance system," the letter says. "Although we strongly support the important reforms made by the Senate-passed health reform package, including a strong public option would improve both its substance and the public's perception of it."
The letter points to the last CBS News/ New York Times poll that surveyed Americans on the public option, from Dec. 2009, which showed that 59 percent of Americans supported the public option.
Throughout the health care debate, Democratic leaders resisted using reconciliation for fear that bypassing a Republican filibuster would appear too partisan. The letter points out that the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare Advantage, and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) were all enacted under reconciliation.
In this month's CBS News/ New York Times poll, 37 percent of Americans said Congress was more responsible than President Obama for failing to pass health care reform. Half of Americans, meanwhile, said the filibuster -- which requires 60 senators to approve a bill -- should not stay in place, while 44 percent said it should.
The advocacy groups the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America, as well as Credo Action, the grassroots political arm of the for-profit company CREDO Mobile, are promoting the letter and calling on citizens to become signatories online.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Bennet and Gillibrand are short-timers for sure. both interim appointments that will not be there after November. don't know the other 2, but this looks like smokescreen. if things get hot, no risk to the rest of the Dems. if the rubes aren't paying attention, the they can (will)go the reconciliation route.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
02/17/2010 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
Their "four reasons" make them look like they're from a parallel universe - but not really parallel.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/17/2010 5:45 Comments ||
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#3
Abu,
you may be right that Gillibrand and Bennet are short timers but as of now they are both running hard to be elected
of course the pretense that the public option will save money has been rebutted by none other than the CBO (but libs believe nonetheless)
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/17/2010 5:46 Comments ||
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Public Option can save money, since those plans would be subject to HHS approval of procedures etc. that would be covered, with no oversight of HHS rules. It's rationing, in disguise. Rationing may very well be necessary in the end, but I think it should be discussed openly, not enacted blindly.
#5
Bennett of Colorado is going to get a LOT of pissed off people visiting his local offices over this one. I'm half tempted to visit with a sign... attached to a baseball bat.
These arrogant bastards just don't get it - they keep cramming this down on us, they will eventually force us to resort to violence.
#6
The letter points to the last CBS News/ New York Times poll that surveyed Americans on the public option, from Dec. 2009, which showed that 59 percent of Americans supported the public option.
The fact that these folks hang their hat on such a bogus poll shows their unbelievable desperation. Whenever these Senators are asked to define a public option they stammer and ramble on about multiple versions with a myriad of characterizations. Because there is no single definition, no one (including the proponents) actually knows what a public option really is. In other words, all this poll proves is that if you ask people if they would like free stuff from the government generally they will respond positively.
#7
poll that surveyed Americans on the public option, from Dec. 2009,
December is a looooong time ago. I'll bet polls taken since then had significantly smaller positive responses, no matter how carefully the questions were worded... and I'm quite certain there have been polls on the subject since last December -- this is a hot button issue played up in the blogs on both sides. The honourbable senators are cherry-picking.
Can we stop playing pretend? The insult to the intelligence of the average Chicagoan -- the Chicagoan without a heavyweight alderman for a brother -- is overwhelming.
When it comes to conflicts of interest at City Hall, one degree of separation is no separation at all, except in the make-believe world of Dan and Ed Burke.
The scam, as described by investigative reporter Tim Novak in Monday's Sun-Times, goes like this:
State Rep. Daniel J. Burke has raked in tens of thousands of dollars by working on the side as a lobbyist at City Hall, paving the way for clients who seek big city contracts. These contracts must be approved by a vote of the City Council, where Dan's brother, Ald. Ed Burke, is among the most senior and powerful members.
And Ald. Burke doesn't even bother to recuse himself from the vote because legally -- if not ethically -- he doesn't have to. Brother Ed and his pals say "aye," and brother Dan collects a fee.
If ever you needed proof, folks, that money and contracts at Chicago's City Hall are an insiders' game for the favored few, this is it.
The pathetic truth is that City Hall's culture of corruption, snaking back more than a century, is so deep-seated and strong that nobody can write enough laws to kill it. If the goo goos of reform, for instance, were to push through a new law that says the brothers and sisters of aldermen can't work as paid lobbyists in City Hall, the business would simply be passed along to nephews and nieces, or some such thing.
The eternally duped public still would fear the fix is in. And, more often than not, they'd still be right.
Not for nothing have 31 Chicago aldermen been convicted of felonies in the last 37 years.
Clean government requires that politicians and other public employees abide not just by the letter of the law, but also by the spirit. Unfortunately, the only spirit walking the marble halls of City Hall seems to be Paddy Bauler, the boodling alderman who so famously said more than 50 years ago, ''Chicago ain't ready for reform.''
If state Rep. Dan Burke sincerely cared about good government, he would not work as a lobbyist in City Hall, legally or not. If Ald. Ed Burke sincerely cared, he would recuse himself from any vote that put a dollar, directly or indirectly, into brother Dan's beautifully tailored pinstriped pocket.
As it happens, Dan Burke stopped doing lobbying work in City Hall a year ago, but not out of any crisis of conscience. He told Novak he was just too busy campaigning for re-election to the Illinois House. Burke said nothing about giving up the business for good, and we expect he'll be back at it soon enough.
In the meantime, he'll just have to get by on the $68,828 pension he collects from his years as the city's deputy clerk, plus the $85,903 he makes as a state legislator.
In a related story, Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times reported Sunday that a lot of aldermen are annoyed with Mayor Daley for saying the city's inspector general should be empowered to investigate the City Council. They say the mayor's just trying to deflect attention from his own problems with corruption.
We agree with the aldermen: Daley's doing a little posing.
And we agree with Daley: The inspector general should have complete power to investigate aldermen.
Although, unfortunately, probably not their brothers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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It's two years away, but speculation surrounding the 2012 presidential race is alive and kicking, if only for the increasingly irrefutable fact that anyone who intends to run without immediate access to a cable news soapbox is starting the 2012 campaign at a severe disadvantage. It is the uphill battle facing possible Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, who, from the Minnesota Governor's mansion must be watching potential challengers like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich milk their cable news contracts for all they're worth.
Mitt Romney managed to somewhat dubiously get himself into the news cycle this week too, and even Dick Cheney, who despite denying any interest in the presidency is topping Republican presidential contender polls along with Palin et al, is keeping his face in the public eye.
Pawlenty is taking an unorthodox approach compared to his would-be opponents: making media appearances to debate substantive issues. He has willingly stepped into the ring to debate health care with President Obama, taking advantage of the President's call for a bipartisan health care summit on February 25th to publicly list off his ideas on the topic. On Sunday, the Washington Post published an opinion piece by the governor entitled "Five Ways to Reform Health Care," and last night Pawlenty appeared on Fox News to explain his ideas to Greta Van Susteren on air. It's a comprehensive conservative approach that highlights the token set of problems Republicans have been pointing out with the current reform -- interstate insurance availability, tort reform, a more meritocratic approach to awarding insurance companies. It goes beyond a simple grocery list of possible changes in the way the American health care industry works: it's a sizable chunk of a campaign platform.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi eulogized Rep. John Murtha at his Pennsylvania funeral as a friend to men and women in the military, heading up a large congressional delegation that the speaker said had been planning earlier this month to celebrate his tenure in Congress.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi eulogized Rep. John Murtha at his Pennsylvania funeral as a friend to men and women in the military, heading up a large congressional delegation that the speaker said had been planning earlier this month to celebrate his tenure in Congress.
"On Saturday February 6th, (Murtha) became the longest-serving member of Congress from Pennsylvania ever to serve.They were planning a celebration. Today, they presented him to us for celebration of his life," she said.
Murtha was chairman of the House appropriations defense subcommittee.
Pelosi spoke at Tuesday's service and says Murtha's vocal opposition to the Iraq war in 2005 taught people "to make a difference between the war and the warrior."
Murtha died Feb. 8 at age 77 after an infection developed in his small intestine following gallbladder surgery. He was the first Vietnam War vet to join Congress after taking control of the seat in Pennsylvania's 12th District in 1974.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Eeew... eulogized by a virtual witch.
That's not a pleasant exit.
#2
I can't think of which is more discusting. Nancy Pelosi eulogizing John Murtha or John Murtha being eulogized. Couldn't they just close the casket, roll him into the hearse and put him in the ground without so much hypocrocy? I hope they checked his pockets and checkbook first.
#3
I would have preferred he be humilated at the polls and live a long, obscure life therafter - sort of like Carter - so he could be reminded how little he really mattered.
But I'll take this exit, and find it somehow fitting that the Flake From Frisco sent him on his way.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/17/2010 5:50 Comments ||
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Marti - as the old quip goes, he (murtha) was so crooked, they could have just screwed him into the ground...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/17/2010 11:03 Comments ||
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Murtha served his country well as a young man. And by all accounts was a good family man
and then note that he lived a lot longer, and screwed a lot more people than just his wife
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2010 18:36 Comments ||
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#8
Pelosi and Murtha are chums from way back. When Dems won control of the House, Pelosi selected Murtha to be Majority Whip. But that was too much for even the Democrats and they rebelled and elected Steny Hoyer. It was a big humiliation for both at the time.
Posted by: ed ||
02/17/2010 19:19 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.
Four Democratic senators, including two facing potentially challenging election campaigns this year, are asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation, a procedural maneuver requiring only 51 votes, to push for a public health insurance option. 
Can we stop playing pretend? The insult to the intelligence of the average Chicagoan -- the Chicagoan without a heavyweight alderman for a brother -- is overwhelming.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi eulogized Rep. John Murtha at his Pennsylvania funeral as a friend to men and women in the military, heading up a large congressional delegation that the speaker said had been planning earlier this month to celebrate his tenure in Congress.
