Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel - Kerrys luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabels hailing port is listed as Newport on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.
The senior senators chief of staff David Wade denied the old salt was berthing his boat out of state to avoid ponying up to the commonwealth.
The boat was designed by and purchased from a company in Rhode Island, and its based in Newport at the Newport Shipyard for long-term maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes, not tax reasons, Wade told the Track.
And state Department of Revenue spokesguy Bob Bliss confirmed the senator is under no obligation to pay the commonwealth sales tax.
But back in 2006, then-gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos took some flack for avoiding some $23,000 in Bay State sales tax and $1,320 in local excise taxes by berthing his motor yacht in Rhode Island. But Mihos paid just $475,000 for his 36-foot vessel Ashley and readily admitted that he used the boat at his West Yarmouth summer home.
However, according to Bliss, if Kerry berths the Isabel in Massachusetts waters within six months of purchasing the boat, theres a presumption of use and the Heinz-Kerrys would have to walk the plank and pony up to the Bay State. After six months, should the boat change its berth to, say, Nantucket, then its up to the state to go after them for the taxes, Bliss added.
Yesterday, the Isabel, which lists Great Point LLC of Pittsburgh, Penn., as its owner, was getting a spruce-up at the Hinckley shipyard in Portsmouth, R.I. Sources say the senior senator is demanding that some warranty work be done.
Fontaine, a protege of legendary sailboat designer Ted Hood, was tight-lipped about the owners of Isabel but he did confirm the boat was built in New Zealand. According to Internet reports, Kerry was seen in Whangarei last December inspecting his new high-seas plaything
#1
...and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
Sounds like a certain late US senator also named Ted may have had some input as well.
Maybe, if we're lucky, he'll fall off the damn thing in the middle of the ocean.
#2
Maybe, if we're lucky, he'll fall off the damn thing in the middle of the ocean. Or a patriotic whale will take the distinguished senator and his yacht to Davy Jones' locker.
The ENQUIRER reports in an exclusive bombshell exclusive that police have investigated charges from TWO MORE WOMEN who claimed they were abused by former VP AL GORE!
"He pointed at his erect pee-pee and ordered her, 'Take care of THIS.'"
The allegations come hot on the heels of an ongoing Portland, Ore., police investigation that reopened after The ENQUIRER exclusively revealed accusations by a licensed massage therapist who says Gore groped her in 2006.
The ENQUIRER recently uncovered shocking allegations, from two other massage therapists.
The first incident allegedly took place at a Beverly Hills luxury hotel when Gore, 62, was in Hollywood to attend the Oscars in 2007.
The second reportedly occurred a year later at a hotel in Tokyo.
A Beverly Hills hotel source told The ENQUIRER:
"The therapist claimed that when they were alone, Gore shrugged off a towel and stood naked in front of her.
"He pointed at his erect penis and ordered her, 'Take care of THIS.'"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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So she karate chopped it and the wax blew out of his ears.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/23/2010 8:25 Comments ||
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The idea of Al Gore wanting sex is not a pretty picture. As one gross wit observed, "No matter how you try to tidy up the image, it's still a case of 'putting lipstick on a b*ttpl*g'."
Four months after President Obama signed the historic health-reform bill into law, House Democrats are officially plotting to bring back the government-run health plan that was stripped out under political pressure.
House members introduced the Public Option Act Wednesday evening to create a Medicare-like public plan that would compete with private insurance plans. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., is the bill's main sponsor. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, is among the 128 co-sponsors.
The public option under this legislation is more "robust" than even what the House itself passed last November. Instead of the government negotiating reimbursement rates with doctors and hospitals, the proposal this time calls for paying providers a flat Medicare rate plus 5 percent. Democrats in the Senate couldn't muster the votes for a public option last year, and it was left out of the final reform bill.
McDermott, one of Congress's uber liberals, was forced to skip the news conference because he was managing the House floor debate on extending unemployment insurance ("This was a very good day," McDermott relished).
McDemott said House Democrats wanted to launch the debate on the public option now in hopes of garnering enough support for passage next year. Even foes of reform, McDermott said, would have to agree that curbing health-care costs remains the biggest unsolved challenge.
"We still think that public option is the way to go," McDermott said. "I want to get the discussion going. Put the proposal out there and let people see it."
Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.
It's part of Newark Mayor Cory Booker's belt-tightening plans that include reducing most city workers to a 4-day work week and shuttering city pools. Booker estimates that the pool closures alone would save $250,000. He also says that no gas will be purchased for municipal vehicles that are not deemed critically important.
Police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers would not be affected by the furlough plan. City workers were already bracing for furloughs starting in August. The number of unpaid days would increase from 11 to 19 with Booker's plan.
The city budget shortfall is $70 million and Booker plans to meet the revenue shortfall with budget cuts instead of property tax increases.
"Taxes can not be the answer," Booker said.
Booker says property taxes in Newark have gone up 76 percent in last decade and 19 percent in the past five years.
At the news conference Booker was also quoted as saying, "Call me Mr. Scrooge, if you want, but they'll be no Christmas decorations around the city."
Booker has proposed a $600 million budget which includes the possibility of laying off as many as 350 police and firefighters.
The moves come after the City Council deferred action on the creation of a municipal utilities authority, which is a key part of Booker's budget.
Council President Donald M. Payne, Jr. and four other council members held a news conference on Thursday to attack Booker. They claim he is using fear tactics instead of working for a real solution.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): "Isn't it a good thing today in America that we have an automobile manufacturing sector? If it had been up to them [Republicans], General Motors would be gone. If it were up to them, Ford Motor Company would probably be gone. Chrysler definitely would be gone."
Ford did not take any bailout money from the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Harry is F.O.S
Posted by: Mr. Bill ||
07/23/2010 1:10 Comments ||
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For once dingy Harry could be right: If you want to buy an American, non-socialist brand, there's only one choice left: the blue oval. I suspect there are plenty of folks like me who will never consider a Government Motors product again.
OTOH, there are plenty of quality US-made cars that happen to carry Japanese brands, showing what American workers can do when unions and government stay out of the way.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/23/2010 7:53 Comments ||
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The PT Cruiser is was made in Mexico.
it's discontinued as of last week, IIRC
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/23/2010 8:33 Comments ||
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I Drove/Bought Fords all my life, now I own and drive a Toyota Camry (And get an astounding 37 MPG, no NOT a Hybrid),with better Quality throughout.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2010 10:58 Comments ||
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Gotcha beat KBK I gave away (Last Year) a 1965 Dodge D-100 pikup with 850,078 RECORDED miles on it, still running but smoking and needing a rebuild, slant 6-235 with power nothing, and the speedometer was bad 3 years before I could find another junkyard unit to replace it it was still running when a kid wanted it to Hot Rod, so I gave it to him.
Essentially a free truck since I paid $300 for it in 1970. never needed much repair, only real problem was a rusted off exhaust manifold stud, I drilled it out rethreaded it and out in a new one total expense 5 bucks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2010 19:22 Comments ||
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#10
I hear Ford makes a pretty good truck.
/drink up!
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/23/2010 19:41 Comments ||
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The debate in Ann Arbor, where firefighters are being laid off due to a multimillion dollar budget deficit, is over an $850,000 piece of art.
That's how much the city has agreed to pay German artist Herbert Dreiseitl for a three-piece water sculpture that would go in front of the new police and courts building right by the City Hall.
The city has the money to do it because in 2007, it agreed to set aside for public art 1 percent of money that went into capital improvement projects that were $100,000 or larger. Most capital projects involve streets, sewers and water.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Simple, give sufficient pay cuts to all the city employees until the "art" is paid for.
Now, if I can do that, why can't they?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/23/2010 6:10 Comments ||
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Hey, Herb's gotta eat same as the rest of us ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2010 7:59 Comments ||
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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal railed against the federal ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico at a rally on Wednesday, saying the "arbitrary moratorium" could cost the region hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Speaking at an "Economic Survival Rally" in Lafayette, Jindal called on the Obama Administration to end the ban on drilling for oil and natural gas in more than 500 feet of water, which was instituted earlier this year in response to a devastating oil spill in the Gulf.
"The folks in Washington just don't seem to understand that you can't just turn a switch on and off with these rigs," Jindal said. "When they leave our coast to produce oil in other parts of the country or the world, the jobs that support them go too."
Jindal said the freeze on deepwater activity could cost Louisiana 20,000 jobs over 12 to 18 months. Lost wages for those jobs could be as high as $5 to $10 million per month, per rig, according to the governor's office.
The comments came days after the Interior Department issued the first permit for drilling in shallow water, less than 500 feet, under a new set of safety and environmental regulations.
On Friday, oil and gas firm Apache Corp. was issued a permit to drill for natural gas off the coast of Texas in about 50 feet of water. The company said it began work on the well on Sunday.
Jindal acknowledged that there are some faint signs that drilling activity in shallow water is resuming.
"I'm very very very, I want to put as many verys as you can before that, cautiously optimistic on the shallow water situation," Jindal told reporters after the rally.
While there was never an official ban on drilling in shallow water, industry officials and politicians like Jindal have argued that shallow water activity has effectively been frozen for months.
"There's not an official moratorium, but there has been a de facto moratorium," Jindal said.
According to Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the number of permits issued for drilling in shallow water in the Gulf has plunged to 1 in July from a high of 24 in March.
The government first announced a six-month ban on deepwater drilling on May 28, just weeks after the Deepwater Horizon drill rig exploded and sank, giving rise to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
But on June 22, a federal judge overturned the ban. A government attempt to overturn the ruling was denied by a U.S. court of Appeals on July 8. A few days later, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar re-worked the old moratorium, issued a new one on July 12, and changed the label to "suspension."
"On the deep water moratorium we have not seen any movement," Jindal said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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The drilling ban is wholely Obama's doing, and will be lifted as soon as he finds a way to play "SAVIOUR" by turning it both back on and blaming the republicans at the ame time, not before then.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2010 0:38 Comments ||
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The media's reporting on the drilling ban is distorted. Many jobs have already been lost. A federal court order to overturn the ban is in effect, but the ban is still effective, since drilling companies are unwilling to re-start operations until the legalities are finalized. Drilling rigs and workers have already been shipped overseas. Just how much financial damage has already been incurred will not be measured & reported for some months.
#3
This is one of the stupidest political moves Obama has made. 1. He is giving one of his strongest potential opponents a bazillion hours of favorable publicity on TV. 2. He is engaging in a political spat with this potential opponent on a peer to peer basis, thus lowering himself and raising his opponent. 3. He is giving Jindal the excuse of "The way I can best serve the people of Louisiana is by running for the Presidency in 2012 and getting this obstruction to jobs out of the way" instead of serving out his term as governor. Jindal-Bachmann anyone?
#5
This article needs to be read in conjunction with the one posted above on Harry Reid boasting about how good it was that the government saved the Big Three (well, two actually, but those are big numbers for Harry to deal with.)
Unprofitable industry employs union labor in a Blue State = Bailout
Profitable, mission-critical industry employs non-union labor in a Red State = We've Got To Stop This Shit ASAP.
It's the Chicago Way.
Of course, when gas at the pump hits $5, it may turn out that GM and Chrysler are going to need another bailout.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/23/2010 16:08 Comments ||
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My hero's have always been cowboys. But Bobby Jindal is gettin pretty high on my list.
A vignette from Eurabiaturkey. Article in German is here.
The Google translation isn't too good, and there's some background missing so I'll try to give a brief summary & comments.
Aygül Özkan is the cabinet minster for social affairs in the state government of Lower Saxony. Her minstry plans to hold a conference next month with representatives of the media in Lower Saxony attending. According to the itinerary the conference to be concluded by a public signing ceremony where these representatives are supposed to commit to a "Media Charter for Integration in Lower Saxony" (Google translation & original link.)
This Charter states that the press is "to support the integration process", and in a specific stipulation mandates "culturally sensitive language."
As for Mrs Özkan's political background: she's a member of Merkel's party. Lower Saxony is currently governed by the same parties that make up Merkel's coalition. Appointed only this year, she's the first "Turkish/German" cabinet minster in Germany. In Germany the police departments are organized at the state (Land) level. Anyone who engages in speech that is "culturally insensitive" and whose life is subsequently under credible threat will have to rely on police protection ultimately provided by and organized by the State Government. Can you say chilling effect? Siding with Danish cartoonists or supporting Israel against Turkey just got a lot more dangerous in Lower Saxony.
-Mad arab (Muhammad)
-Filthy, ignorant mullahs
-Absurd superstition (islam) who holds country backward and prevent it from integrating cilized (aka non-Muslim) countries
In case you ask these are excerpts from the "Nutuk" aka Mustafa Kemal's self biography (a 16 hours speech in fact).
#3
To be fair to her, she's likely much closer to the traditional Kemalist elites than to Erdogan.
The ugly parts of Kemalism, i.e. ethnic hyperchauvinism, statism, authoritarian government which are on display here are not compatible with Western political culture, hence the kerfuffle.
#4
It's important to distinguish the national subclasses found within Islam. The Turks see themselves as at the peak of Islamic-secular culture, and as European, compared to "Arabs", who they look at with disdain.
Even their Islamists are far more oriented to reestablishing the Sultanate, in which the Turks would again rule over the Arabs.
This is one of the reasons Germany is so much quieter than France or England. The Turks are in Germany to work, with far less inclination to welfare, unlike the North Africans in France and the Pakistanis in England.
The Turks are also much more familiar with Germany, because of their WWI alliance. They like Germans a whole lot more than Russians, their traditional enemy.
Gallup's 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll finds Congress ranking dead last out of the 16 institutions rated this year. Eleven percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress, down from 17% in 2009 and a percentage point lower than the previous low for Congress, recorded in 2008.
The Gallup poll was conducted July 8-11, shortly before Congress passed a major financial regulatory reform bill, which President Obama signed into law this week.
Underscoring Congress' image problem, half of Americans now say they have "very little" or no confidence in Congress, up from 38% in 2009 -- and the highest for any institution since Gallup first asked this question in 1973. Previous near-50% readings include 48% found for the presidency in 2008, and 49% for the criminal justice system in 1994.
This year's poll also finds a 15-point drop in high confidence in the presidency, to 36% from 51% in June 2009. Over the same period, President Barack Obama's approval rating fell by 11 points, from 58% to 47%. However, confidence in the presidency remains higher than in 2008 -- the last year of George W. Bush's term -- when the figure was 26%.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Shit, Even behind Banks?
now that takes effort.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2010 0:33 Comments ||
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Eleven percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress...
So from this we can assume that 11% of Americans are deaf, dumb and blind?
#5
..not to forget the real culture of thieves who's representatives are indeed robbing the rest of the country to service their clan at the expense of everyone else.
#6
The real poll will be in Nov. when we can actually measure the percentage of incumbents running for re-election who do get re-elected. I expect it will be much higher than 11%.
We've gone from a republic to idiocracy in a little over 200 years.
#8
This is unfair to Congress: the poll compares Congress to the military, the police, church and so forth. I mean, comparing Harry Reid to General Petraeus: how fair is that?
A more realistic poll would compare Congress to Al Qaeda, Mara Salvatrucha, crack dealers, the Russian mob, Bernie Madoff, and the UN. Congress would still come in dead last, but the numbers would be much less one-sided.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/23/2010 16:25 Comments ||
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Senate Democrats pulled the plug on climate legislation Thursday, pushing the issue off into an uncertain future ahead of midterm elections where President Barack Obama's party is girding for a drubbing.
Rather than a long-awaited measure capping greenhouse gases -- or even a more limited bill directed only at electric utilities -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will move forward next week on a bipartisan energy-only bill that responds to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and contains other more popular energy items.
"It's easy to count to 60," Reid said. "I could do it by the time I was in eighth grade. My point is this, we know where we are. We know we don't have the votes [for a bill capping emissions]. This is a step forward."
"He's anxious to get something done before we leave in August," Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said of Reid. "Given the time constraints, this probably a realistic judgment on his part."
"We don't have the 60 votes," said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). "So Sen. Reid's a pragmatist. So rather than take us to a situation where we don't have the votes, rather than do half measures, let's wait until we can get it done and get it right. So I think it's a smart decision."
The bill headed to the floor will not include a carbon cap or a renewable electricity standard, Bingaman said. Instead, it has low-hanging-fruit provisions dealing with the oil spill, Home Star energy efficiency upgrades, incentives for the conversion of trucking fleet to natural gas and the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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"It's easy to count to 60," Reid said. "I could do it by the time I was in eighth grade.
Learned to count to 60 by the 8th grade. Good for you Harry. See, everything is OK with the education system.
Sen. Richard Lugar on Wednesday became one of the first Republicans to back Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
The Indiana Republican said he would vote for Kagan because she is "clearly qualified" and "has demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge of court history and decisions."
"I believe that she has had a distinguished career in both education and public service and is well-regarded by the legal community and her peers," Lugar said in a statement.
State Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, used his Facebook page to criticize Lugar's decision, calling it disappointing.
"Elena Kagan, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, are all very liberal," Delph said. "None of these individuals is worthy of Hoosier support as they are all out of step with Main Street Indiana."
Delph said that Lugar is supposed to be the dean of the Indiana Republican Party but that his record on judicial nominations is abhorrent to the values the party stands for.
"He needs to be mindful of how people in Indiana view these nominees," Delph said in a phone interview.
Micah Clark, the executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, said Lugar "has become nothing more than a rubber stamp for this administration when it comes to judges and most nominees."
"Senator Lugar needs to retire and allow new representation in Washington, D.C., just as the junior senator from Indiana is doing," said Clark, whose group describes itself as a defender of the values and institutions that sustain families.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., also announced his support for Kagan on Wednesday.
"After carefully reviewing her record, I believe she appreciates the limited role of the federal judiciary and is well-qualified to serve on our nation's highest court," Bayh said in a statement.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted mostly along party lines Tuesday to send her nomination to the full Senate. Neither Lugar nor Bayh serves on the committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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We will rue the day should Kagan be approved! mark my words!
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/23/2010 3:30 Comments ||
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Were you hoping for another Scalia?
Who did you think they would nominate?
Kagan has no killer flaw, she's in.
I don't like it any more than you, but look where we're at. Socialist in WH, Dems in control of all Congress.
#3
The essential problem is that the very idea of being a judge is to show judgment. The conservative side of the bench consistently does this, researching, debating, arguing, justifying, and writing very well thought out opinions supporting their decisions.
The liberal side of the bench just votes as a monolithic block. Little or no thought involved, they know how they are going to vote within a minute after they see the subject of the case for the first time. No deep consideration, just knee-jerk response. This is not good judgment, or any judgment at all.
To make matters worse, the liberal side cling to their seats until they are assured that they will get a replacement that is just like them. Not just philosophically, but their own particular subgroup.
This is why the justice Ginsburg will not retire now, because in her mind, her seat is now the "liberal Jewish seat", and she does not trust Obama to put a liberal Jew in it.
Likewise, that is why the left was so outraged with the nomination of Clarence Thomas. He "stole" Thurgood Marshall's seat, "just because he was black", and not a "real black", a liberal.
This puts all of America and our civil liberties at jeopardy. We are literally "one heartbeat away" from having a totally leftist court, that could reverse MacDonald, approve Obamacare, resurrect Roe, and rubber stamp anything Obama wanted.
Without even reading it, much less caring about oral arguments.
A Will County judge Wednesday ruled to put a Bolingbrook Republican and tea party favorite back on the ballot for a state Senate race.
Judge Bobbi Petrungaro overturned a 2-1 decision by the Will County Electoral Board to remove Cedra Crenshaw, 37, from the ballot over a technical issue with her nomination petitions. Crenshaw is vying to unseat Democrat A.J. Wilhelmi in the 43rd District, which has been a Democratic stronghold since 1975.
The ballot controversy energized tea party members, who organized protests on the stay-at-home mom's behalf and showed up in patriotic T-shirts at her legal hearings. Crenshaw, an African-American voice in a tea party movement that last week was criticized by the NAACP for alleged "racism," has made the rounds on talk radio shows across the country in recent weeks.
"Finally, we can vindicate the 2,100 people who signed my petition and all the people in the district who are looking for an alternative," she said after learning of the ruling.
Wilhelmi, 42, who has served in that seat since 2005, said he supports the court's decision and that the Democratic leadership does not plan to appeal the decision.
"I welcome Mrs. Crenshaw to the race, and I look forward to discussing the issues that are important to Will County as well as the significant challenge we face in the state of Illinois," he said.
Wednesday's decision comes about three months after Crenshaw's petitions were challenged. This month, the electoral board ruled her nomination petitions invalid because her campaign indicated on old forms that signatures were collected within 90 days of the filing deadline, even though a new state law requires that signatures be collected within 75 days.
In fact, Crenshaw collected signatures less than 20 days before the deadline. Republicans picked her to be their candidate on March 30 because no one in the GOP ran in the February primary.
After the electoral board ruling, her attorney, Burt Odelson, filed an appeal.
In her five-page ruling, Petrungaro said state election law is unclear, but court precedent is clear and favors Crenshaw.
"There was no evidence of fraud, nor was there any evidence of voter confusion. ... No evidence was presented that the petitions were circulated in an untimely manner or that the petitioner gained an unfair advantage over her opponents by circulating her petition in advance of the circulation period," the ruling said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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"There was no evidence of fraud, nor was there any evidence of voter confusion. ... No evidence was presented that the petitions were circulated in an untimely manner or that the petitioner gained an unfair advantage over her opponents by circulating her petition in advance of the circulation period"
Evidence? When did the Dems let something like evidence stand in the way of walking all over the average tax-paying black person everyone else?
Guess I just found another politician who will be getting a small donation from my help-out-the-good-guys fund.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/23/2010 17:15 Comments ||
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The past president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council won the Republican primary on Tuesday for state agriculture commissioner, a post held by a Democrat for more than 40 years and responsible for regulating and promoting a $7 billion industry.
No Republican secured an outright majority in the GOP primaries for insurance commissioner and the Public Service Commission, meaning the races will be decided in an Aug. 10 runoff election. Meanwhile, the Democratic primary for labor commissioner was too close to call early Wednesday.
Unofficial returns showed Republican Gary Black, a beef farmer, winning roughly three-quarters of the primary vote for agriculture commissioner in a race with Darwin Carter, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official, with 98 percent of precincts reporting. The winner will face former state Sen. J.B. Powell, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
The primary for agriculture commissioner was remarkable since it was the first race in four decades not to include the incumbent, 81-year-old Democrat Tommy Irvin, who will step down in January. Irvin is among the longest-serving elected officials in the country and remained a Democrat even as his party lost its dominance across the South to the Republicans.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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You gotta wonder if his endorsement commercials will ever be even half as awesome as Dale Peterson over in Alabama who was running for Ag Commissioner.
When a Democratic National Committee member sent an e-mail asking whom he should support in the Democratic Senate primary, at least one result came quickly.
The DNC member, Jon Ausman of Tallahassee, received a check the next day from the campaign of billionaire candidate Jeff Greene, hiring Ausman for political consultation and strategy.
Six days after that, Ausman announced his endorsement in another e-mail: He was endorsing Greene.
He signed the endorsement e-mail as a DNC member but didn't mention that he was being paid by Greene. He says he provided 35,000 e-mail addresses in exchange for the money.
Ausman said Wednesday that he had already planned to support Greene before being paid by him and that he plans to make it clear in the future that he is a paid consultant.
"Frankly I liked Greene from the word get go," said Ausman, who received national attention in 2008 for challenging the DNC's decision to strip Florida of its delegates as punishment for holding an early presidential primary.
Asked why he asked people to take the survey if he already supported Greene, Ausman said it was because he wanted to make sure there wasn't an "overwhelmingly negative response" to Greene's candidacy.
Ausman said he was also one of the few people who donated to the Greene campaign, writing a check below $200, the amount at which Greene must list donors.
"God bless him," Ausman said. "His check to me was bigger than the one I sent him."
Greene has spent about $6 million of his own money on the campaign while accepting $3,036 in donations.
"The endorsement of Ausman was very welcome but we also wanted to tap into his experience," said Luis Vizcaino, a Greene spokesman.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2010 00:00 ||
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I saw that headline, and wondered where Alvin Greene got enough money to bribe a dogcatcher, let alone a DNC mandarin.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2010 11:07 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.
The ENQUIRER reports in an exclusive bombshell exclusive that police have investigated charges from TWO MORE WOMEN who claimed they were abused by former VP AL GORE!
Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): "Isn't it a good thing today in America that we have an automobile manufacturing sector? If it had been up to them [Republicans], General Motors would be gone. If it were up to them, Ford Motor Company would probably be gone. Chrysler definitely would be gone."
The debate in Ann Arbor, where firefighters are being laid off due to a multimillion dollar budget deficit, is over an $850,000 piece of art.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal railed against the federal ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico at a rally on Wednesday, saying the "arbitrary moratorium" could cost the region hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Gallup's 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll finds Congress ranking dead last out of the 16 institutions rated this year. Eleven percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress, down from 17% in 2009 and a percentage point lower than the previous low for Congress, recorded in 2008.
Senate Democrats pulled the plug on climate legislation Thursday, pushing the issue off into an uncertain future ahead of midterm elections where President Barack Obama's party is girding for a drubbing.
Sen. Richard Lugar on Wednesday became one of the first Republicans to back Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
