OBAMACARE GETS CREMATED 244 IN FAVOR TO 185, WHICH MEANS NO FUNDING WILL BE USED TO IMPLEMENT OBAMACARE, THE CBO SAYS WE HAVE BALANCED THE BUDGET FIGURATIVELY, BUT WE MUST PRESS ON, VICE PRESIDENTIAL PICKS AND 2008 DOES IT HAVE ANY BEARING AFTER OBAMA RUINED OUR ECONOMY, SYRIA AND THE ROLE OF IRAN, AND THE 2012 ELECTION-WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU IN A PRESIDENT AND T-SPLOST PROJECT REVIEWS.... https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zGJFuXDukRoJMOpPzEerrK9ZbmJVnvNGRMd48cYKxEg/edit
Aja Brooks shared a link.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/house-republicans-obamacare-repeal.php?ref=fpb
House GOP Holds 33rd Vote To Stick It To ‘Obamacare’
tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com
House Republicans will vote Wednesday to repeal ‘Obamacare’ — again. “To date, 32 Floor votes have been taken to repeal, defund, or dismantle ObamaCare. Tomorrow’s vote to repeal ObamaCare will be the 33rd,” read an advisory from the office of…
TPMDC
House GOP Holds 33rd Vote To Stick It To ‘Obamacare’
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SAHIL KAPUR JULY 11, 2012, 5:21 AM 12532
House Republicans will vote Wednesday to repeal ‘Obamacare’ — again.
“To date, 32 Floor votes have been taken to repeal, defund, or dismantle ObamaCare. Tomorrow’s vote to repeal ObamaCare will be the 33rd,” read an advisory from the office of Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
The vote, which follows the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, signals that the conservative base’s visceral opposition to the law remains strong. Republicans are set for another unanimous show of resistance to President Obama’s signature law, despite some hedging from politically vulnerable members, and will probably pick off a handful of vulnerable Democrats.
With less than four months until Election Day, the vote is easy for Republicans and Democrats who are dug in to their positions, but it’s uncomfortable for members in tough races. GOP leaders sought to deflect criticisms for holding a meaningless show vote by portraying repeal as a boost for job creation.
“The House will vote to repeal Obamacare, which is driving up the cost of health care, and making it harder for small businesses to create jobs,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
For Democrats, it was an opportunity to highlight the benefits in the law, such as guaranteed coverage for people with preexisting conditions and the ability to remain on a parent’s insurance policy until 26. Democrats also bragged that the measure was pioneered by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, and echoed his defense of the mandate as an anti-free-rider provision.
“The Republicans are glorifying freeloaders,” said Rep. Jim McDermott (WA), the only physician in the Democratic caucus. “People who say they don’t want to pay if they can.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday he’ll also push for another vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act “in the near future.”
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, the tide appears to be turning in favor of the law. According to a new Washington Post/ABC poll, the public is split 47-47 percent on the law; in April they opposed it by a margin of 53-39 percent.
The law is projected to provide health care to some 30 million Americans by 2019, and reduce the deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office. CBO did not score the GOP’s latest repeal bill but last year said repeal would add $230 billion to the deficit.
Affordable Care Act, Health Care, House Republicans, John Boehner, ObamacareYEAH BUT LET’S NOT FORGET OBAMACARE ADDS OVER $2 TRILLION ANNUALLY TO THE DEFICIT WITHOUT PROVIDING INSURANCE OR FIXING THE PROBLEMS WE HAVE WITH HEALTH CARE !!
Steny Hoyer @WhipHoyer
Watch my interview on @Foxandfriends where I discuss how repeal of health care reform will hurt millions of Americans.http://youtu.be/G4bP_8T5mrk
@WhipHoyer @Foxandfriends NEWS FLASH #ThePrecious#Obamacare HURT 30 MILLION AMERICANS TOOK THEIR JOBS WHO COULD BUY THEIR OWN INSURANCE!!
9:44 AM - 11 Jul 12 via web · Details
Aja Brooks shared a link.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/romney-black-voters-obama-naacp.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
Romney To NAACP: I’ll Be Better For Black Americans Than Obama
2012.talkingpointsmemo.com
In his speech to the NAACP’s national convention Wednesday, Mitt Romney will focus on the economy and its poor performance for black Americans. He’ll also claim that he, not President Obama, is uniquely capable of solving black America’s economic problems.
TPM2012
Romney To NAACP: I’ll Be Better For Black Americans Than Obama
Mitt Romney
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EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO JULY 11, 2012, 9:54 AM 3669
In his speech to the NAACP’s national convention Wednesday, Mitt Romney will focus on the economy and its poor performance for black Americans. He’ll also claim that he, not President Obama, is uniquely capable of solving black America’s economic problems.
In excerpts of his speech distributed prior to Romney’s address, the projected Republican nominee doesn’t touch on issues like voter ID laws, which the NAACP and other civil rights groups believe disproportionately affect poor and minority voters. The push to make it more difficult to vote by Republican-led legislatures has been a central focus of the NAACP convention.
Attorney General Eric Holder won the convention’s approval Monday when he deviated from his remarks to condemn such efforts as “poll taxes.”
Romney appears to sidestep the subject entirely, instead pitching black voters on his candidacy with an entirely economics-focused approach. Black unemployment is far higher than the national average. It’s also right out of the Romney playbook: The economy-only approach is one he’s used when talking to Hispanics, women and other groups.
“I want you to know that if I did not believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color — and families of any color — more than the policies and leadership of President Obama, I would not be running for president,” Romney says, according to the prepared remarks.
Romney notes that racial inequality still exists, but offers no solution beyond his economic message:
Old inequities persist. In some ways, the challenges are even more complicated than before. And across America — and even within your own ranks — there are serious, honest debates about the way forward. If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone. Instead, it’s worse for African Americans in almost every way.
Polls have shown the economics-only approach haven’t moved the polls much in Romney’s direction when it comes to Hispanic voters. And black Republican leaders told TPM Tuesdaythey don’t expect his NAACP speech to move the needle much among the African-American electorate, either. But Romney will make a personal appeal in the speech.
“I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African-American families, you would vote for me for president,” he says in the remarks.
2012, Mitt Romney, NAACPTHESE DEMOCRATS ARE BLACKLISTED FOR OPPOSING THE WILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT OBAMACARE BE REPEALED, AND WE WILL WORK FOR THEIR REMOVAL:
EVEN AFTER OBAMACARE KILLING OVER 30 MILLION JOBS, THESE DEMOCRATS VOTED TO OPPOSE REPEAL YESTERDAY.
WE DON'T NEED PEOPLE WHO TRADE THEIR LOYALTY TO THE PEOPLE FOR THAT OF PARTY.
Democrats Voting 'Nay'
Rep. Gary Ackerman [D, NY-5] Nay
Rep. Jason Altmire [D, PA-4] Nay
Rep. Robert Andrews [D, NJ-1] Nay
Rep. Joe Baca [D, CA-43] Nay
Rep. Tammy Baldwin [D, WI-2] Nay
Rep. Ron Barber [D, AZ-8] Nay
Rep. John Barrow [D, GA-12] Nay
Rep. Karen Bass [D, CA-33] Nay
Rep. Xavier Becerra [D, CA-31] Nay
Rep. Shelley Berkley [D, NV-1] Nay
Rep. Howard Berman [D, CA-28] Nay
Rep. Sanford Bishop [D, GA-2] Nay
Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D, OR-3] Nay
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici [D, OR-1] Nay
Rep. Leonard Boswell [D, IA-3] Nay
Rep. Robert Brady [D, PA-1] Nay
Rep. Bruce Braley [D, IA-1] Nay
Rep. Corrine Brown [D, FL-3] Nay
Rep. George Butterfield [D, NC-1] Nay
Rep. Lois Capps [D, CA-23] Nay
Rep. Michael Capuano [D, MA-8] Nay
Rep. Dennis Cardoza [D, CA-18] Nay
Rep. Russ Carnahan [D, MO-3] Nay
Rep. John Carney [D, DE-0] Nay
Rep. André Carson [D, IN-7] Nay
Rep. Kathy Castor [D, FL-11] Nay
Rep. Ben Chandler [D, KY-6] Nay
Rep. Judy Chu [D, CA-32] Nay
Rep. David Cicilline [D, RI-1] Nay
Rep. Yvette Clarke [D, NY-11] Nay
Rep. Hansen Clarke [D, MI-13] Nay
Rep. William Clay [D, MO-1] Nay
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver [D, MO-5] Nay
Rep. James Clyburn [D, SC-6] Nay
Rep. Steve Cohen [D, TN-9] Nay
Rep. Gerald Connolly [D, VA-11] Nay
Rep. John Conyers [D, MI-14] Nay
Rep. Jim Cooper [D, TN-5] Nay
Rep. Jim Costa [D, CA-20] Nay
Rep. Jerry Costello [D, IL-12] Nay
Rep. Joe Courtney [D, CT-2] Nay
Rep. Mark Critz [D, PA-12] Nay
Rep. Joseph Crowley [D, NY-7] Nay
Rep. Henry Cuellar [D, TX-28] Nay
Rep. Elijah Cummings [D, MD-7] Nay
Rep. Susan Davis [D, CA-53] Nay
Rep. Danny Davis [D, IL-7] Nay
Rep. Peter DeFazio [D, OR-4] Nay
Rep. Diana DeGette [D, CO-1] Nay
Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D, CT-3] Nay
Rep. Ted Deutch [D, FL-19] Nay
Rep. Norman Dicks [D, WA-6] Nay
Rep. John Dingell [D, MI-15] Nay
Rep. Lloyd Doggett [D, TX-25] Nay
Rep. Joe Donnelly [D, IN-2] Nay
Rep. Michael Doyle [D, PA-14] Nay
Rep. Donna Edwards [D, MD-4] Nay
Rep. Keith Ellison [D, MN-5] Nay
Rep. Eliot Engel [D, NY-17] Nay
Rep. Anna Eshoo [D, CA-14] Nay
Rep. Sam Farr [D, CA-17] Nay
Rep. Chaka Fattah [D, PA-2] Nay
Rep. Bob Filner [D, CA-51] Nay
Rep. Barney Frank [D, MA-4] Nay
Rep. Marcia Fudge [D, OH-11] Nay
Rep. John Garamendi [D, CA-10] Nay
Rep. Charles Gonzalez [D, TX-20] Nay
Rep. Raymond Green [D, TX-29] Nay
Rep. Al Green [D, TX-9] Nay
Rep. Raul Grijalva [D, AZ-7] Nay
Rep. Janice Hahn [D, CA-36] Nay
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa [D, HI-1] Nay
Rep. Alcee Hastings [D, FL-23] Nay
Rep. Martin Heinrich [D, NM-1] Nay
Rep. Brian Higgins [D, NY-27] Nay
Rep. James Himes [D, CT-4] Nay
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D, NY-22] Nay
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa [D, TX-15] Nay
Rep. Kathleen Hochul [D, NY-26] Nay
Rep. Tim Holden [D, PA-17] Nay
Rep. Rush Holt [D, NJ-12] Nay
Rep. Michael Honda [D, CA-15] Nay
Rep. Steny Hoyer [D, MD-5] Nay
Rep. Steve Israel [D, NY-2] Nay
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee [D, TX-18] Nay
Rep. Eddie Johnson [D, TX-30] Nay
Rep. Henry Johnson [D, GA-4] Nay
Rep. Marcy Kaptur [D, OH-9] Nay
Rep. William Keating [D, MA-10] Nay
Rep. Dale Kildee [D, MI-5] Nay
Rep. Ronald Kind [D, WI-3] Nay
Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D, OH-10] Nay
Rep. James Langevin [D, RI-2] Nay
Rep. Rick Larsen [D, WA-2] Nay
Rep. John Larson [D, CT-1] Nay
Rep. Barbara Lee [D, CA-9] Nay
Rep. Sander Levin [D, MI-12] Nay
Rep. John Lewis [D, GA-5] Nay
Rep. Daniel Lipinski [D, IL-3] Nay
Rep. David Loebsack [D, IA-2] Nay
Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D, CA-16] Nay
Rep. Nita Lowey [D, NY-18] Nay
Rep. Ben Luján [D, NM-3] Nay
Rep. Stephen Lynch [D, MA-9] Nay
Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D, NY-14] Nay
Rep. Edward Markey [D, MA-7] Nay
Rep. Jim Matheson [D, UT-2] Nay
Rep. Doris Matsui [D, CA-5] Nay
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D, NY-4] Nay
Rep. Betty McCollum [D, MN-4] Nay
Rep. James McDermott [D, WA-7] Nay
Rep. James McGovern [D, MA-3] Nay
Rep. Jerry McNerney [D, CA-11] Nay
Rep. Gregory Meeks [D, NY-6] Nay
Rep. Michael Michaud [D, ME-2] Nay
Rep. Bradley Miller [D, NC-13] Nay
Rep. Gwen Moore [D, WI-4] Nay
Rep. James Moran [D, VA-8] Nay
Rep. Christopher Murphy [D, CT-5] Nay
Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D, NY-8] Nay
Rep. Grace Napolitano [D, CA-38] Nay
Rep. Richard Neal [D, MA-2] Nay
Rep. John Olver [D, MA-1] Nay
Rep. William Owens [D, NY-23] Nay
Rep. Frank Pallone [D, NJ-6] Nay
Rep. William Pascrell [D, NJ-8] Nay
Rep. Edward Pastor [D, AZ-4] Nay
Rep. Nancy Pelosi [D, CA-8] Nay
Rep. Ed Perlmutter [D, CO-7] Nay
Rep. Gary Peters [D, MI-9] Nay
Rep. Collin Peterson [D, MN-7] Nay
Rep. Chellie Pingree [D, ME-1] Nay
Rep. Jared Polis [D, CO-2] Nay
Rep. David Price [D, NC-4] Nay
Rep. Mike Quigley [D, IL-5] Nay
Rep. Nick Rahall [D, WV-3] Nay
Rep. Charles Rangel [D, NY-15] Nay
Rep. Silvestre Reyes [D, TX-16] Nay
Rep. Laura Richardson [D, CA-37] Nay
Rep. Cedric Richmond [D, LA-2] Nay
Rep. Steven Rothman [D, NJ-9] Nay
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard [D, CA-34] Nay
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger [D, MD-2] Nay
Rep. Bobby Rush [D, IL-1] Nay
Rep. Timothy Ryan [D, OH-17] Nay
Rep. Loretta Sanchez [D, CA-47] Nay
Rep. Linda Sánchez [D, CA-39] Nay
Rep. John Sarbanes [D, MD-3] Nay
Rep. Janice Schakowsky [D, IL-9] Nay
Rep. Adam Schiff [D, CA-29] Nay
Rep. Kurt Schrader [D, OR-5] Nay
Rep. Allyson Schwartz [D, PA-13] Nay
Rep. Robert Scott [D, VA-3] Nay
Rep. David Scott [D, GA-13] Nay
Rep. José Serrano [D, NY-16] Nay
Rep. Terri Sewell [D, AL-7] Nay
Rep. Brad Sherman [D, CA-27] Nay
Rep. Heath Shuler [D, NC-11] Nay
Rep. Albio Sires [D, NJ-13] Nay
Rep. Louise Slaughter [D, NY-28] Nay
Rep. Adam Smith [D, WA-9] Nay
Rep. Jackie Speier [D, CA-12] Nay
Rep. Fortney Stark [D, CA-13] Nay
Rep. Betty Sutton [D, OH-13] Nay
Rep. Bennie Thompson [D, MS-2] Nay
Rep. Michael Thompson [D, CA-1] Nay
Rep. John Tierney [D, MA-6] Nay
Rep. Paul Tonko [D, NY-21] Nay
Rep. Edolphus Towns [D, NY-10] Nay
Rep. Niki Tsongas [D, MA-5] Nay
Rep. Christopher Van Hollen [D, MD-8] Nay
Rep. Nydia Velázquez [D, NY-12] Nay
Rep. Peter Visclosky [D, IN-1] Nay
Rep. Timothy Walz [D, MN-1] Nay
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D, FL-20] Nay
Rep. Maxine Waters [D, CA-35] Nay
Rep. Melvin Watt [D, NC-12] Nay
Rep. Henry Waxman [D, CA-30] Nay
Rep. Peter Welch [D, VT-0] Nay
Rep. Frederica Wilson [D, FL-17] Nay
Rep. Lynn Woolsey [D, CA-6] Nay
Rep. John Yarmuth [D, KY-3] Nay
2012 OUST LIST/BLACKLISTED POLITICIANS:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/thesynthesis/doc/130682773663726/SPEAKING OF
MICHELE BACHMANN....
I REALLY THINK HER CHANCES AT VP ARE RUINED BECAUSE, SHE DIDN’T VOTE TO SUPPORT CUT, CAP, AND BALANCE AND SHE POLITICIZED REPEAL FOR HER PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.
WITH THE TEA PARTY BUDGET, THE CBO NOW SAYS THAT WE HAVE BALANCED THE BUDGET FIGURATIVELY,
MEANING THAT EVEN THOUGH CONGRESS IS STILL OPEN PENDING OUTCOME OF SYRIA AND TAX REFORM, IT IS OPERATING $900 BILLION IN THE RED, WE ARE ON OUR THIRD UMBRELLA OF FUNDING WITH DIPLOMACY RESTRICTIONS IN PLACE. WE HAVE COME ALONG WAY FROM WHEN BACHMANN SUPPORTED GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN TO DENY OBAMACARE FUNDING AND VOTES THAT SHE DID NOT SUPPORT THAT WOULD’VE REPEALED IT THROUGH BUDGETARY MEANS, LIKE CUT, CAP, AND BALANCE AND THE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT.
IN OTHER WORDS, WE HAVE MET CRUCIAL DEADLINES AND STOPPED OBAMA’S DISASTROUS MISAPPROPRIATION OF OBAMACARE BY A BUDGET TECHNIQUE IN THE HOUSE, SOMETHING I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHY BACHMANN DIDN’T SUPPORT WITH HER VOTE. SHE ALSO REFUSED TO BRING MY REPEAL LEGISLATION TO THE FLOOR, AND IF THOUGH A FORMAL VOTE WAS NOT TAKEN ON THIS, ITS COMPOSITION ENSURED OBAMACARE WOULD NEVER BE ENACTED AND ENSURED THAT REAL REFORM WOULD OCCUR WHILE ADDRESSING SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, AND MEDICAID AND AUDITING HOSPITALS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES OVER GOUGING.
FOR THIS REASON, BACHMANN’S EFFORTS AT REPEAL WERE MAINLY RHETORIC AND NOT RESOLVE. I EVEN FELT UNEASY FOR HER SPEAKING AS ROMNEY’S SURROGATE, AND NEWT IS GOING BANKRUPT OVER THE CENTER FOR HEALTH TRANSFORMATION GETTING A KICKBACK FROM OBAMACARE TO PILOT OBAMACARE COMPUTER SOFTWARE THAT PEOPLE COMPLAINS VIOLATES THEIR MEDICAL HISTORY AND PRIVACY.
REPEAL & REPLACE, PART 2: Health Care Reform Act of 2012: Standardization of Procedural and Medical Care Related Costs https://t.co/2UhQi8Z
REPEAL AND REPLACE, PART 2:
Health Care Reform Act of 2012: Standardization of Procedural and Medical Care Related Costs
Purpose: This concerns the exploitation of health care costs by health insurance companies for profit, companies who are dictating the cost of care that hospitals must charge patients. This legislation is piloting standards for Medicare and Medicaid costs, to prevent the government from being overcharged for services that taxpayers fund for the general welfare. Costs that could better be served creating a program to cover those that are uninsured at state levels, which did not occur with any of the legislation passed under Obama health reform.
While a legitimate funding mechanism was proposed for health care for the uninsured, in order to maintain the solvency and guarantee of retirement for aging Americans through Social Security Reforms proposed August of 2010 as repeal legislation:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jK6-kGCB_Dbb5K98YSS9o9kSNBwLJsSb7XQ5GQSvTks/edit?authkey=CIS_je8I&authkey=CIS_je8I premiums have continued to rise due to increased and stagnant unemployment holding at 8% for three years, with the expectation of higher tax increases, all with the accessibility of care not improving by the Obamacare/Unaffordable Care Act. Inflation and government shutdown pending September 30th 2012, makes this the 5th shutdown the Obama Administration faces for failure to restrict spending to Constitutional levels which makes getting care in this economy that much harder, especially for those unemployed.
The consensus is the only two provisions remaining from the dead legislation and mountain of dysfunctional legislation package known as “Obamacare” are requiring insurance companies to keep children on parents’ insurance until 26yrs. of age and non-exclusion of pre-existing conditions. While these are great, these two provisions are not enough to keep H.R. 4872 as a means of reconciling the entire health care industry by a federal government buyout. Health insurance companies should ‘insure’ and the federal government should regulate and govern the market, not violate the Commerce Clause by requiring purchase of insurance or medical services, devices, products, or care that is inappropriate, unused, or misappropriated and unaccounted for tax increases.
For the past 20 years health care costs have risen at twice the inflation rate http://www.halsaservices.org/uploads/20%20Most%20Common%20Ways%20Hospitals%20Overcharge%20Patients.pdf and given that inflation robs the dollar of $.67 of its value before the consumer gets it (for what is borrowed against its value), it is an understatement to say that health care costs, along with borrowing to pay for military operations have given us a substantial deficit problem since 2006, and without proper reforms and legislation that creates jobs rather than destroys them like Obamcare did, it will take us 5yrs. to reverse this deficit to 2006 levels and at most 7-8yrs. to pay it off, adhering to a $2.5 trillion annual revenue http://lnk.ms/Wb6nV and $1.7 trillion annual deficit reduction payment with new revenue created from job creation.
With that said, the Tea Party supports the Republican initiatives to adhere to this budget, budget balancing, with consideration and concession of government spending in accordance to Constitutional priorities. Diplomacy spending on food stamps has increased 100% since Obama took office, which has further compounded the amount of time left to reverse this deficit and prevent government shutdown, little time to reform federal programs past their sunset that are bloated for their inefficiency with their strain on the overall budget. This all equals less money is actually making it to the poor and those needing health care; hence the stark example being no one has health insurance that is uninsured despite passage of this Obamacare package legislation.
REQUIREMENTS OF HOSPITAL AND INSURANCE REFORMS:
- One issue is a monthly premium under $100 that includes a hospital supplemental plan:
Hospitals and insurance companies have played a highly elaborate game of ping-pong when it comes to overcharging for services and supplies in order to write-off indigent care to profit off of the health care industry. Private practice doctors are at the mercy of whether or not Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance pays in order to see their patients rather than their Oath.
- Require hospitals detail a service contract and what care costs in writing.
-The method of pricing each good and service
-The reasonable value of each good and service
- Hospitals will be required to upgrade their records to be accessible to be viewed by the I.R.S. and government health related agencies. As a provision of the current legislation, a standard interface was considered to standardize forms, track supplies and costs, and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. This is particularly so when it comes to hospitals being targeted for identity fraud. http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/quality-of-life/hospitals-pay-23-million-settlement/
Hospitals are overcharging to attain 800% profit http://hospitalbillingformula.blogspot.com/
which is why Tort Reform is so important to limit lawsuits and to bring gougers to court, to hold them to accountable to consumers.
FOR CONSUMERS TO REPORT SUSPECTED GOUGING AND FRAUD OF GOVERNMENT TAX DOLLARS:
1) REQUESTED AN ITEMIZED BILL: I received a list of shorthand descriptions of services that I couldn’t understand. For example: a $403.68 charge for “IV SUPPLIES”. What were the IV Supplies? The needle? The tubing? The gauze? The piece of tape that kept it all in place on my arm? I called to find out. I was referred to three people, but nobody in the hospital billing department could tell me.
2) DETERMINED FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MY INSURANCE COMPANY: Blue Cross assured me that they paid out their maximum reimbursement amounts to the hospital for the services I received, and would not be paying any more. They sent me an Explanation Of Benefits form (EOB) and went over it with me to my satisfaction. They said that they were able to negotiate a lower rate with the hospital on my behalf, and covered costs that exceeded my deductable. They suggested that I contact the hospital to see if they would lower my costs, since the hospital determines their own charges.
3) FOUND A PATIENT ADVOCATE: I went online to find people who have gone through this before and discovered a number of Patient Advocacy groups. A couple of them are: Hospital Victims.org (http://www.hospitalvictims.org/) and The Southwest Medical Review and Recovery. (http://www.southwestmedreview.com/) Southwest Medical Review has over 20 years of hospital billing experience under their belt, and left the industry when they realized that they could help people with their knowledge of billing systems. I found them to be very patient and extraordinarily knowledgeable.
4) REVIEWED BILL FOR CORRECT CODING: I sent my itemized bill to my patient advocate for review. A billing code is assigned to each item being charged. This is what is read by the insurance companies to determine how much the hospital will be paid. I learned that up to 90% of all hospital bills are coded incorrectly. My patient advocate told me that there is supposed to be transparency in the billing system – and that there are definitive coding guidelines that apply to each hospital. However, this hospital administers their own coding system – making it impossible to determine exactly what is being charged. Despite this, my patient advocate was able to figure out three incorrect codes in my bill, resulting in over $300 of erroneous charges. They forwarded me the proper verbiage from the most recent coding manual. I went back to the billing department at the hospital and had them amend my bill. The billing specialist apologized for her oversight and resubmitted my bill with the proper coding. I can only wonder how many more codes were erroneous, had they been using a transparent billing system.
5) REQUESTED ALL BILLING AND DOCTOR RECORDS FROM HOSPITAL – PARTICULARLY THE UB-04 FORM: It is the patient’s right, under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, (HIPAA) to receive a copy of all medical and billing records from the hospital. The UB-04 form is used to determine the cost of services. The billing department at the hospital first told me that they would look into releasing my UB-04 form. After repeated requests, I was told that it was not their policy to release this form to the patient. This is typical. Know your rights as a patient. Every hospital has a HIPAA officer on the premises. I called theirs. She said she would look into it for me. I didn’t hear back. She didn’t return my messages. I then contacted the California Office of HIPPA Implementation. They agreed to contact the HIPPA officer at the hospital. A day later, the HIPPA officer called me to get my address and let me know that my UB-04 form was being sent to me. Release of my U-04 form took me a full year.
· The sections of the HIPAA legislation that the state officer referred to were two federal 45 CFR codes: The Designated Record set was under code 164.501 and the Right of Access was 164.524 (a)(1)
6) DESPITE REMAINING IN GOOD STANDING WITH THE HOSPITAL, I WAS SENT TO COLLECTIONS: I kept meticulously close contact with the billing department, who insured me that I was in good standing with them. Every month, when I received a new bill, I called them and assured them that I wanted to settle the balance, and that I was investigating charges that were in question. Each month, I told them that is was my priority to remain in good standing with them. I even paid them $50 in good faith. But when I went out of town, and didn’t get my mail for a week, I was sent to collections. This was also during the time that I was being told that they were “looking into sending out” my UB-04 form. My challenge here was to keep the perspective that it wasn’t personal. Even though I was on a first name basis with many people in the billing department at that point, the overall billing system didn’t know or care about who I was. I needed to be reminded of this – because I was assured that I was kept in good standing with them.
7) KEPT COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT FROM PURSUING FURTHER PAYMENT: Diligent effort through close communication and refusal to pay any overcharges for my services kept them at bay. I assured them that I would keep them posted to each and every new bit of information that I received – and kept them in the loop every step of the way. I kept telling them that it was my utmost interest to settle the bill – but that I would only be paying fair and reasonable charges, as determined by industry standards.
8) DETERMINED THE COST OF SERVICES: With the codes on the UB-04 form, my patient advocate taught me how to figure out the cost of services. There is an industry standard for determining cost of services. It is simply what Medicare would reimburse for each line item. The reason why they use Medicare as the guideline is because Medicare reimburses between 92 cents and $1.12 on the dollar. So, for example, if Medicare would reimburse a hospital $1.00 for a box of tissues, it is understood that the cost of the box of tissues is between 92 cents and $1.12. My patient advocate and I went over, code by code, the line items on my UB-04 form. They showed me how to track down, on the internet, the reimbursement amount for each charge. Remember the $403.68 charge for “IV SUPPLIES” on my itemized bill? Well, it turns out that Medicare doesn’t reimburse that cost code – those supplies are not billable. Those supplies are included in numerous other services – like the cost for the antibiotic, the cost for administering the IV, etc. After the reimbursement for each line item was determined on my UB-04 form, I had a total – as calculated by industry standards. The total cost of services being billed to me for my emergency room visit came to a little less than $400!
9) CALCULATED FAIR AND REASONALBE CHARGES: There is an industry standard for calculating fair and reasonable charges. Fair and reasonable charges ensures the hospital receive a profit on their cost. Here is the formula: The amount that Medicare would reimburse the hospital + 25% to 50%. So, in my case, we know that the cost of services were – and we’ll round it up - $400. Add to that, 50%, which is $200 - and the industry standard, for fair and reasonable charges for the services that I received, was $600.
10) OFFERED A SETTLEMENT: Between what my insurance company and I had paid, the hospital had already received $905 at this point – already recouping a 125% profit – as determined by industry standards. I went back to the hospital and insisted that I settle with them, not the collections agency. They complied. I chose to offer an additional 100% profit, giving them a 225% profit on cost of services, to ensure that the hospital does well. They denied it. Instead, they offered me an application for financial assistance.
The silver lining is that I somehow qualified for an 80% discount on my bill. They offered me a settlement of $348. I took it. This does not get them off the hook for their enormous over charges, but it does allow me to settle with them what I considered to be fair and reasonable.
“We can charge anything we want”, I was told by Crystal Crowe, Financial Supervisor at the hospital. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center netted in excess of 190 million dollars in 2007 - which I applaud. I feel secure knowing that there is a reputable, well funded hospital nearby. I just want to pay fair and reasonable charges for the services I receive from them.
I know that there is much talk of overhauling the health care system – but until it is changed, this is what we have to encounter. Here’s hoping that this information can help other people navigating through the existing system.
USE A MEDICAL COST REDUCTION ADVOCATE http://www.medicalcostadvocate.com/blog/?tag=overcharging-for-health-care
- Ambulance transport costs are a huge burden to those in desperate need of care, and ironically, these workers are the last to get paid out of the scheme though they are first responders. Sometimes their pay is withheld if government insurance has not paid, sometimes as much as two weeks. Even if it is the government, pay can not be withheld, wages are given for work done. PAY YOUR TRANSPORT BILLS ON TIME.
- The UnAffordable Care Act does not standardize the cost of all common medical procedures in the U.S. to make insurance competitive or affordable. It only covers certain routine screenings and forces people to do cost comparison on their own. http://www.changehealthcare.com/downloads/hcti/HCTI%202012%20March.pdf
- Type 2 diabetes screening - Adults with high blood pressure
- Mammography - Breast cancer screening for women 50+
- Pap smear testing - Cervical cancer risk assessment for women ages 21+
- Preventive colonoscopy - Colorectal cancer screening for adults 50+
- Lipid screenings - Men 35+; women 45+; younger adults at risk
- The Unaffordable Health Care Act should be renamed: “NO REFORM FOR MEDICARE, EXCEPT TO TAKE $500 BILLION FROM THE ELDERLY TO PAY FOR ABLE-BODIED 30-60 YEAR OLDS TO GET SCREENINGS” this perhaps should be the most compelling reason that we should have standardized costs of procedures. Though this may vary from hospital to hospital, each hospital is required to make a cost procedure available for download online and one copy at the hospital, whatever they charge. If hospitals do not comply, they will be subject to I.R.S. investigation, civil lawsuits, and fines for every 30 days this information is not available or up-to-date.
THIS REFORM LEGISLATION WILL BE UPDATED TO INCLUDE WHAT BASIC ITEMS SHOULD BE COVERED UNDER COST PROCEDURES OR CARE PROVIDED, SO THAT HOSPITALS CAN ASSURE THAT THEY ARE IN COMPLIANCE, THOUGH HOSPITALS MAY BEGIN DRAFTING THESE MATERIALS NOW, THEY MUST HAVE THEM AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AT THEIR FACILITY AND ONLINE BY 1/1/13, OR THEY WILL BE REPORTED FOR TAX FRAUD.
STATES UP FOR AUDIT:
1) TEXAS HAS THE WORST RANKED HEALTH CARE, EXCEPT FOR MATERNITY http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/05/texas-health-care_n_1652066.html?utm_hp_ref=business&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D176216
2) ILLINOIS - CHICAGO’S SACRED HEART HOSPITAL “CBS THIS MORNING” aired 7/7/12 for being unsafe and infection rates.
SO IF BACHMANN’S CHANCES ARE SHOT FOR VP, MANY THOUGHT RUBIO WOULD BE THE ANSWER TO HELP MEND BROKEN IMMIGRATION WITH DIPLOMACY. THE PROBLEM IS, THERE IS NOT A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PASSED FOR RUBIO TO BE VICE PRESIDENT. RUBIO, LIKE OBAMA, DOES NOT MEET THE NATURAL BORN CITIZEN REQUIREMENTS. RUBIO OBTAINED CITIZENSHIP AFTER 5 YEARS, AND WHILE RUBIO CAN PROVE HIS CITIZENSHIP UNLIKE OBAMA, THERE MUST BE AN AMENDMENT MADE IN ORDER FOR RUBIO TO BECOME VICE PRESIDENT.
I SUPPORTED HIS BID FOR SENATE: RUBIO HAS BEEN THE CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF HISPANIC AMERICANS, AN INVALUABLE TEA PARTY PILLAR FOR OUR COUNTRY’S FUTURE. I HATED TO TURN HIM DOWN FOR VP. YET WE MUST FOLLOW THE RULES, OBAMA DOESN’T, AND LOOK WHERE IT’S GOTTEN US. I DO LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH RUBIO TO FUND A MORE DIPLOMATIC BORDER AND COHESIVE SAFETY POLICY TO TRACK WHO COMES IN AND OUT OF THIS COUNTRY WITHOUT PROFILING. WE JUST DIDN’T HAVE THE MONEY TO BRING MY PROJECT TO THE FLOOR THIS YEAR, AND IT WILL NEED TO COME OUT OF HOMELAND SECURITY’S BUDGET:
"The 2011 Immigration Diplomacy, Border Policy, and Drug Enforcement Reform Act" effective 1/1/12: the failure to adhere to this act will further strain state budgets weakened by the federal deficit, making us less safe by less effective response to the security issues on the border for the problems spilling over into our local communities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jrbw7qnUFymrqedJi-Zs0XCx4LhqsEWsJrwJx7RGMt0/edit?hl=en_US
In accordance with current federal immigration laws and standards of citizenship, it has been brought to our attention routinely that President Barack Obama is not authentically a citizen of the United States, but of Kenyan birth. Even Africa has responded on the matter, sufficing to say that they knew about Obama’s ways before we did, to misrepresent himself and motives for campaigns, and Africa cites his cousin Raila Odigna’s election issues and violence. Africa also complains that Obama has recently dumped $60 million taxpayer dollars into an abortion clinic in Uganda, for idol worship purposes of child sacrifice. Obama entered into a contract with the goddess Mami Wata, titled H.R. 4872, for the mass federal funding of abortions, and he justified this by saying the abortions would pay for themselves with the money made off of carcass harvesting, with the bodies being sold for stem cell research.
Therefore, with our moral and lawful objections to Obama’s Presidency and the Impeachment Decree being drafted presently, we must uphold and enforce current federal laws, up to applicable fines, imprisonment, and deportation. It is difficult for America to be respected when the President refuses to honor the laws he is sworn to uphold.
Funding has been a challenge, and the laissez-faire policies of former Speaker Newt Gingrich contributed to Georgia alone losing $20 million dollars in immigration fees and lost tax revenue of 2-3% over the past decade. Amnesty is not an option, with the money being left unpaid.
Additionally, current laws in Mexico that respect personal use amounts of illegal drugs are different than American laws which are outdated on drug policy reforms, according to current Mexico law and Canadian studies. The Tea Party has signed the 2011 Tea Party Treatise: http://www.facebook.com/groups/thesynthesis/doc/141108292621174/ and in coordination with H.R. 313: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr313ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr313ih.pdf we are more concerned with the judicial system reducing felony possession laws for illegal drugs to misdemeanors, with judicial reform agreements for drug courts and entitlement reform: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SVZ_6BpS3i6BWtkeY58wYhknothG6S7Ba9EjwLS2pYQ/edit?hl=en_US unless of course there is proven intent to distribute or trafficking, as both are a form of tax evasion and dangerous.
Given our federal budget and deficit, the judiciary is now confined to a federal budget of $390,000,000,000 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aq5m9QEGEZpOdDE0R0o1YmFJRDdyVkFIcVE0dkthUXc&hl=en_US#gid=0 in respect to a Constitutional structure and function https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U318AW5XYBjzgEhPvvcW59RUHdSehnOVdGiquZyxj6Q/edit?hl=en_US within the branches of federal government.
Therefore, the role of state governments is to report to the federal government agencies handling immigration and deportation matters, or ICE. Restricting state laws meant to comply with existing federal laws is not only ludicrous, but shows a blatant disregard for the citizens who do pay taxes.
While Georgia has lost over $20 million dollars in immigration fees and 2-3% in tax revenue annually, this is not necessarily an issue of Amnesty or naturalization that Obama has politicized for votes and his own lack of citizenship; it is an issue of willful law breaking, tax evasion, and a strained system resultant from ineffective coordination of state government costs with respect to federal enforcement that is both cooperative, collaborative, and truly diplomatic in our relationship to Mexico.
States may sue the federal government for the lost immigration fees, or they may levy the appropriate fines upon those who have not registered for citizenship or upon those who do not have VISAS: usually the financial burden is enough to encourage people to go back to Mexico without us having to foot the cost of imprisonment or for a one-way deportation.
Now, based on arrests and the costs of processing those arrests: the message is simple... either comply with the federal immigration program in ENTIRETY and PAY UP, OR GET OUT!! It is up to each state to report these findings of judicial costs, to be monitored for waste, with this Act. The Southern States have six months to analyze this, and report to Congress by 6-1-2012 their findings for Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, who all share an immigration burden outside lawful federal requirements, in varying proportions, but especially Texas and Arizona who are victimized by cartel violence with California having a 15% unemployment rate, and the federal government will have to take this into consideration for states adhering to budgetary law and proper appropriation to remedy these issues. The IRS may assist and census workers, so there is plenty of work to be done now through next June.
*Other states may apply for federal money, verifying proof of immigration population and state funds expended in enforcing federal law. In gearing towards the border being manned by drones, we are creating a hostility that is unnecessary; as the border needs to be well patrolled, sealed, and monitored for information collection.
The proposal has been put on the table that everyone who does not have a US Driver’s license that they can verify with a passport, must apply for a Temporary Federal ID card. We had originally discussed equipping this with a bar code, charging 10% sales tax to buy items in the United States, so that we could retain revenue for services used. Driver’s License numbers or the TFID number could be entered into the cashier’s system, like it is for alcohol or the birthdate for a citizen OR BY SWIPING THE BAR CODE for all purchases, those buying domestically and those here visiting or working. We want to create a border that is not dysfunctional; one that operates lawfully and provides revenue, while properly protecting citizens and safeguarding the immigration process.
The ID cards would prevent useless waste of inquiries or expenditure of law enforcement’s time, prevent harassment by police, and it would give the federal government access to track who is coming in and out of the United States and for what purposes they are here and by monitoring commerce. This would also be without criminalizing legitimate workers or discriminating needlessly through undue scrutiny, with this system in place.
Until this Photo ID system can be implemented, it is NOT very wise to have an unmanned border with drones. It is a murderous electric fence, and it does nothing to protect citizens from immigrants already here, who go crazy over hearing their loved ones were killed on the border by our government. After all, by our penchant for importing 50% of Mexico’s drugs, we are half the problem, as Mexico is as well. Both countries are equally to blame for not coming to such diplomatic conclusions proposed in this Act.
While we are in a deficit, we can analyze the revenue figures, and approve implementation for July 1st, 2012, after getting the federal budget on a sustainable track of adhering to a $2.5 trillion annual revenue figure and a debt payment plan for deficit reduction.
If we do not adopt a border policy that includes basic legalization of marijuana for diplomatic control with respect to current state laws in this Act to take effect 1/1/12, as it is legal in California, then we are the hypocrites the cartels say we are.
The system has been stealing from its citizens in two ways: the cost of imprisonment and the failure to restore individuals to becoming taxpayers who have dopamine deficiencies, who use drugs. Every Southern border state must issue a compliance statement and action plan on how they will comply yearly to federal enforcement laws. Some states like Arizona have passed SB 1070, and these are the states using E-VERIFY: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Verify
PORTMAN HAS BEEN IN SERIOUS NEGOTIATIONS WITH MITT ROMNEY ABOUT BEING VICE PRESIDENT. I LIKE THAT PORTMAN IS A HUNTER AND CAN RELATE TO THE COMMON MAN. I ALSO LIKE HIS POSITIONS ON FISCAL MATTERS, SOMETHING WE REALLY NEED STRAIGHTENED OUT. HE ALSO DOESN’T HAVE ANY BLACK EYES THAT THE MEDIA CAN ASSAIL HIM FOR HAVING, LIKE THEY ASCENDED UPON SARAH PALIN.
WHILE I DO WANT A FEMALE VICE PRESIDENT, KELLY AYOTTE IS MY PICK, I WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED IF PORTMAN IS CHOSEN. IT IS ROMNEY’S CHOICE WHO HE WANTS TO WORK WITH, AND I DO NOT OPPOSE THIS DECISION.
Aja Brooks shared a link.
SENATE DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO DO THEIR JOBS AFTER GETTING THEIR WAY AND GETTING CONCESSION ONROADS/TRANSPORTATIONhttp://www.rollcall.com/news/senate_democrats_may_skip_appropriations_season-216019-1.html?pos=htmbtxt
11:12 AM - 11 Jul 12 via web · Details
Senate Democrats May Skip Appropriations Season : Roll Call News
www.rollcall.com
Amid lingering differences with the House over government spending, Senate Democrats may not pass any appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Aja Brooks shared a link.
RESHARE IF YOU WANT OBAMA TO STOP ROBOCALLING YOUR HOUSE FROM GOVT. MASKED NUMBERS TO SELL CRAPPY HEALTH INSURANCE WITH YOUR OWN STIMULUS TAX DOLLARS !!!! http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18799732#TWEET171771
US crackdown on illegal robocalls
www.bbc.com
The US government organises a "summit" to tackle computer controlled phone calls by criminals trying to defraud the public.
- Julia Ciampa McBride likes this.
Aja Brooks shared a link.
Supreme Court decision squarely to blame for recovery slipping in June, House set to repeal this afternoonhttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/fed-officials-warn-looming-crisis-180251587.html;_ylt=AhiwZ8wKuhbMF3iEAmW06BKiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQzNjJsMnF...See More
Fed officials warn of looming crisis for economy
finance.yahoo.com
Most Federal Reserve policymakers agreed last month that they might need to take more action to support growth if the U.S. economy loses momentum.Minutes of their June meeting released Wednesday show that ...
Americans want a Congress who serves the President, that honors their will, you are not that man @BarackObama but @MittRomney is!!!
OBAMACARE GOT CREMATED YESTERDAY....http://www.youtube.com/user/The2011Ph … pic.twitter.com/7deTUUt
Julia Heidbrink
Julia Heidbrink
Fill in the blanks for your state and your Senators! Let's send a message to all of them!!!
Folks, here is a letter by Don Henderson that we need to copy and paste into a letter to our Senators.... please do this today! Mail it, fax it or email it, and tell all your friends to do the same please!
Dear Senators,
As my elected representation from the state of _________________ I strongly and respectfully ask that you author a statement to Senate leader Reid that either he allow a vote to repeal Obamacare to be taken on the floor of the full Senate or face a revolt of the Senate.
By revolt I mean just that. We all know that the rules of conducting the business of the United States have been assaulted and broken in the past 3 and 1/2 years so it would not be a new experience...
Senator __________, you face reelection in _____ years, and the people of Georgia not only expect but demand that you represent our wishes and stand up for the citizens of the state. Across the aisle and compromise has not and will not work so it is time that you take more firm and definitive action by causing such a ruckus that you will be heard.
Senator ___________ you, I assume, will be running for reelection in ______ years and the people of Georgia have been so damaged by this administration that we WILL NOT FORGET... it is past time sirs that you unite your voices and fellow Senators and carry out the will of the people... Mr. Reid may be powerful but he cannot stand up to the will of so many if you exercise the leadership you were elected to exercise..
Respectfully and expectantly,
SO WHAT DO YOU WANT IN A PRESIDENT? ONE THING IS CERTAIN... WHATEVER OBAMA HAS BEEN DOING HASN’T BEEN WORKING,
DESPITE HIS DENIALS THAT EVERYTHING IS FINE....
FILE THAT UNDER...
Tea Party Chief @2012_TeaParty
@hopeforamerica I think that is equally matched that 75% also do care @BarackObama lies with precision and they care less for#ClassWarfare
Gallup: 75% Of Voters Don't Care About Romney's Wealthhttp://www.thehopeforamerica.com/2012/07/12/rom … #tcot
Retweeted by Tea Party Chief
3RETWEETS
Gallup: 75% Of Voters Don't Care About Romney's Wealth
July 12, 2012
| The class warmongers won't like this poll. Gallup went out of its way to ask people specifically about Romney's wealth, and how it would affect their willingness to vote for him. 75% of them didn't give a rat's arse. That's overall. 76% of independents said the same thing. And here's the icing on the cake: 62% of Democrats said that Romney's wealth didn't make a difference. Clearly, they don't understand the party platform. 4% of those polled said that they would be more likely to vote for Romney because of his wealth. We suppose that those 4% don't view success as a bad thing. (Gallup via Mediaite) |
HONESTY IS THE #1 QUALITY SOUGHT IN A PRESIDENT:
WND EXCLUSIVE
IMMIGRATION OFFICERS DOUBTED OBAMA BIRTH STORY
INS was prepared to investigate marriage, paternity in 1961
Published: 2 days ago
by JEROME R. CORSIEmail | ArchiveJerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Where's the REAL Birth Certificate?"More ↓
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THE PLOT THICKENS... APPARENTLY, OBAMA WAS A BASTARD CHILD WHOSE MOM WAS GOING TO GIVE HIM UP TO THE SALVATION ARMY WHEN OBAMA’S DAD WAS ALREADY FOUND TO BE MARRIED TO ANOTHER WOMAN IN KENYA... CONFIRMING EVIDENCE MISSING FROM ARCHIVES AND LEGALLY SUPPRESSED INQUIRIES THAT WOULD VALIDATE WHY OBAMA’S CULTURE IS SO DIFFERENT FROM OURS AND THAT HE REALLY WASN’T BORN IN HAWAII, WHICH IS WHERE HIS GRANDMOTHER LIVED. HAWAII IS ONLY WHERE HE GOT THE FIRST FAKE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER THAT WAS REGISTERED TO A DECEASED PERSON FROM CONNECTICUT AND COLB, AND WHY OBAMA HAS NUMEROUS NAMES, DEBTS, AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS IN CHICAGO, ALSO VERIFIED BY DEBT COLLECTORS...
NEW YORK – Immigration documents filed in 1961 cast doubt on whether Barack Hussein Obama Sr. was the president’s biological father and indicate federal officers were prepared to investigate whether the Kenyan was married to the president’s mother, Ann Dunham.
Aside from the image of a long-form birth certificate released by the White House April 27, 2011 – a document Sheriff Arpaio’s law enforcement investigation has found probable cause to believe is a forgery – what documentary evidence is there that Barack Obama was the biological father?
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s next news conference on his probe of Obama’s eligibility is set for Tuesday, July 17. Sign up to watch it live-streamed for free on WND.
The recent biography of the president by Washington Post editor and author David Maraniss, “Barack Obama: The Story,” quotes concerns about Obama Sr.’s sexual promiscuity expressed by Immigration and Naturalization Service officers, but he dimisses them as racially motivated.
Maraniss, on pages 162-163, examines a 1961 INS memo that indicates Obama Sr. continued to have multiple girlfriends at the University of Hawaii after his supposed marriage, Feb. 2, 1961, in Maui to Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham.
In the memo, written by a Lyle H. Dahlin, Obama Sr.’s student adviser, a Mrs. McCabe, indicated Obama Sr. was “very intelligent” but had been a “playboy,” “running around with several girls” since he arrived. The adviser also noted he was married to an American, though he already had a wife in Kenya.
Maraniss writes regarding the memo: “There was a fine line between how Obama acted and the racial attitudes and expectations of those who were working with him, the unanswerable but valid question being whether the official concern was heightened because he was a black man interacting with white women.”
However, a close analysis of the INS documents in Obama Sr.’s immigration file makes clear Maraniss either misunderstood the true concerns of the INS or misrepresented them.
The primary concern of the INS, according to the memos, was not that Obama Sr. was sexually involved with white women, but that he might have engaged in a sham marriage to Dunham so he could remain in the U.S. or gain U.S. citizenship.
See the evidence about Barack Obama’s heritage, in “Dreams from My Real Father.”
The INS documents indicate authorized government immigration agents suspected the evidence for an Obama-Dunham marriage was thin, and doubts that the Kenyan was the biological father were substantial.
The Dahlin memo
In the first paragraph of the Dahlin memo, shown below as Exhibit 1 (click on photo to enlarge), the officer poses the question of whether Obama broke any laws if he married Dunham while he was still married to a Kenyan.
Exhibit 1: INS file by Lyle H. Dahlin. Click to enlarge.
Paragraph three articulates the next problem: If Obama was “running around with several girls” at the university, did Obama’s continued promiscuity suggest he was not married to Dunham or that it was a sham marriage?Evidently, the best McCabe could get out of Obama was a less-than-credible promise that he would “try” to stay away from the girls.
The last two sentences of the third paragraph appear to be Obama’s rebuttal to an accusation of bigamy: He apparently explained to McCabe that he was divorced from his wife in Kenya because Kenya did not require anything more than a husband expressing to his wife a desire to terminate the marriage.
The fourth paragraph dismisses the bigamy concern, explaining Obama was in the United States not as an immigrant seeking U.S. citizenship but on a temporary student visa under which suspicion of polygamy was insufficient to support a deportation charge.
Is Obama constitutionally eligible to serve? Here’s WND’s complete archive of news reports on the issue
The last paragraph indicates that if Dunham, as a “U.S. citizen wife,” were to petition for Obama Sr. to receive permanent residence status as an immigrant on track to citizenship, the INS should conduct an investigation to make sure the alleged marriage was legitimate.
Contrary to Maraniss’ assertion, the INS officers didn’t appear to be concerned about the interracial nature of the Kenyan’s sexual activities at the university.
What was of concern was that Obama Sr. and Dunham were not living together as husband and wife, and their marriage might have been arranged for immigration purposes.
Under 8 U.S.C. Section 1325(c), current immigration law specifies that any individual who knowingly enters into a marriage for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws is subject to up to five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000, or both.
In 1961, the INS, in investigating suspected marriages of convenience, would interview the two individuals separately and ask questions about the personal, often intimate, habits of the alleged mate.
Give the baby to the Salvation Army?
WND previously reported Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs had access to an INS file in which the memo seen in Exhibit 1 was displayed without redaction.
As seen in Exhibit 2, this version of the letter permits reading of part of the third paragraph.
Exhibit 2: Lyle H. Dahlin memo without redaction. Click to enlarge.
In the third sentence of the third paragraph, the Dahlin memo adds the detail that McCabe reported the Kenyan had gotten Dunham pregnant, a fact that would have been consistent with the marriage being legitimate.Except, Dahlin adds, McCabe reported that the Kenyan and Dunham did not live together and Obama Sr. and Dunham were contemplating giving the baby away to the Salvation Army.
The facts suggest a sham marriage arranged for immigration purposes only: a supposedly married couple who do not live together, a “husband” with multiple girl friends on the side and a baby neither parent seems determined to raise.
INS suspicion of the marriage is further reinforced by the handwritten note at the end of the memo. Dahlin makes clear an apparent superior officer within the INS section agreed that the facts did not merit deportation for the Kenyan, a non-immigrant student in the USA on a temporary visa. But an investigation would be warranted if he sought to further extend his visa.
Dating the Dahlin memo
The only date on the Dahlin memo is the handwritten April 12, 1961, preceding the handwritten note at the bottom of the document. That date indicates the memo was written while Dunham was pregnant, less than four months before the baby’s birth.
The decision to give away the baby to the Salvation Army after Obama Sr. “got” Dunham pregnant must have caused the INS to wonder precisely what kind of relationship existed between the two.
The memo indicates Obama Sr. might have been testing the waters to see what impact claiming a U.S. citizen wife and a U.S. citizen child would have on the INS. Officials would question whether he was the natural father or if he was merely the “stand-in” father, covering up an embarrassing situation.
If the Kenyan were actually the father and the marriage to Dunham legitimate, why not press the claim that the U.S. citizen wife and the U.S. citizen child established a basis for changing the Kenyan’s status with the INS from a non-immigrant student seeking only a temporary stay to an immigrant seeking permanent residence on the path to becoming a U.S. citizen?
But then, why would Obama Sr., as the biological father, want to give the baby to the Salvation Army if the marriage with Dunham were legitimate?
The Dahlin memo, written while Dunham was pregnant, raises the question of whether or not Obama married Dunham at all.
If the Kenyan merely wanted a sexual relationship with Dunham, why marry her?
There is no evidence he proposed marriage to any of his allegedly many girlfriends at the university, so what made Dunham different?
If he was not committed to living with Dunham and raising the baby, why bother getting married?
Pieced together, the available evidence supports the theory the Obama-Dunham marriage was a cover-up from the start, designed to designate Obama as the father, without any expectation the two would ever live as husband and wife or that he would help raise the baby.
The factual record is that Obama Sr. never used marriage to a U.S. citizen or the fathering of a child in the U.S. to bolster his immigration status, even though it could have enabled him to remain in the U.S. without having to apply for yearly extensions.
Dahlin may well have been instructed by superiors to communicate to Obama Sr. and to Dunham that an attempt to use the marriage and child as a reason to change the Kenyan’s immigration status would have led to a full-scale INS investigation.
Obama’s 1961 application to extend stay in U.S.
Further evidence that the marriage to Dunham was a sham is provided by a close examination of the next document to occur chronologically in Obama Sr.’s INS file – an alien student application to extend the time of a temporary stay in the U.S. and to request permission to accept employment. It was filed with the INS Aug. 31, 1961, as seen below in Exhibits 3 and 4.
Exhibit 3: Barack Obama Sr.'s INS application to extend stay and permit employment, Aug. 31, 1961, page 1. Click to enlarge.
Exhibit 3: Barack Obama Sr.'s INS application to extend stay and permit employment, Aug. 31, 1961, page 2. Click to enlarge.
The document notably was filled out in Honolulu some 28 days after the baby was born.There is a six-and-a-half-month time period in which there is no record of Dunham’s whereabouts – from Jan. 31, 1961, when she concluded her first semester at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, until Sept. 25, 1961, when the University of Washington at Seattle documents she was enrolled for extension classes on campus.
Nothing in the Dahlin memo documents where Dunham was in April 1961, when it was written.
Interestingly, Obama Sr.’s temporary stay visa expired Aug. 9, 1961, some five days after the baby was born, as indicated by his answer to Box 13.
Clearly, Obama Sr. had to be concerned about the extension of his student visa in April 1961. It would have been convenient to have a U.S. citizen wife and a U.S. citizen child being newly born just as his student visa was expiring.
Yet, the application to extend the temporary stay provides more evidence the story of a U.S. citizen wife and child was not credible. In Box 2, Obama Sr. indicated he was living at 1482 Alencastre Street in Honolulu. However, Dunham was living at her parents home at 6085 Kalanianaole Highway, the address listed in the birth announcements published in the Honolulu newspapers.
The INS would have regarded the fact the supposed parents did not live together as additional evidence the alleged marriage was a marriage of convenience arranged to commit immigration fraud.
Even more interesting, in the extension of Box 7, the Kenyan blacked out the first name he wrote for his wife, then penciled in “Ann S. Dunham, Honolulu, Hawaii.” Her named, however, was Stanley Ann Dunham, or S. Ann Dunham.
Then, in the space below Box 7, Obama Sr. did not list Barack Hussein Obama II as his son – an omission that is hard to understand if the child supposedly was born earlier that month.
The Woods memo
An additional document from Obama Sr.’s INS file is relevant: a handwritten memo dated Aug. 31, 1961, by William Wood, as seen in Exhibit 5.
Exhibit 5: Barack Obama Sr. INS File, Woods Memo, Aug. 31, 1961. Click to enlarge.
The memo’s use of the term “claims” suggests the information came from Obama Sr., possibly at an in-person meeting with an officer at the INS office when he filled out and filed his visa extension form.The memo confirms Dunham was leaving Hawaii to attend school in Seattle, an additional factor the INS would have examined had an investigation been undertaken into the legitimacy of the marriage and the fatherhood of the child.
In the last paragraph, the memo notes the child was living with the mother at the home of the grandparents, while the Kenyan was living at the Alencastre Street address – facts that did not need to be seriously considered if the only relevant question in extending Obama Sr.’s visa was whether or not he was then a student in good standing.
Interesting, the note appended to the memo suggests the information the Kenyan provided raised serious questions about the wife and child that would need to be answered if he were applying for more than a temporary stay.
Given that the INS was not going to conduct an investigation, the Woods memo appears to document only what the Kenyan said and did not determine whether or not the claims were true.
While Obama Sr.’s INS files do not prove he was not the father of the future president, they provide ample documentation the officer was skeptical the Kenyan was legitimately married to Dunham and/or was the biological father of Barack Obama II.
By deciding to stay with the temporary student visa status, the Kenyan obviated the need for an INS investigation that might have uncovered in 1961 that the marriage was fraudulent and the biological father of the child was someone else.
Julia Heidbrink
Folks, we are working hard to bring this movie to a theater near us! We need to know about interest. Will you go to this movie if it comes to Thomaston, GA?
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NARCISSIST IN CHIEF
THE REAL REASON OBAMA CONSTANTLY LIES
Exclusive: David Kupelian uncovers what's really behind BHO's astonishing dishonesty
Published: 11 hours ago
by DAVID KUPELIANEmail | ArchiveDavid Kupelian is an award-winning journalist, managing editor of WND, editor of Whistleblower magazine, and author of the best-selling book, The Marketing of EvilHis newest book, How Evil Works, released to much critical acclaim in the spring of 2010.More ↓
Subscribe to author feed“Mr. President, on what occasion do you lie?”
That was Barbara Walters during her painfully fawning interview with Barack and Michelle Obama last Dec. 23.
For ABC News “20/20′s” “Christmas at the White House” segment, the president and first lady were seated on a couch – relaxed, jovial, holding hands – their West Wing surroundings magnificently decorated for the holidays with dozens of exquisitely adorned Christmas trees and “visions of sugar-plums” everywhere.
Walters got the interview rolling with tough questions like (to Obama), “If you were a superhero and you could have one super power, what would it be?” (Answer: “flying.”) And (to the first lady), “If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would you want it to be?” (Answer: “Bo,” the family dog.) And (to both of them), “I’m looking at you. You’re holding hands. That’s very sweet. How many years married?”
“Twenty, next year,” said Obama. “And [you] still hold hands?” rejoined the adoring Walters. “Absolutely,” replied Obama.
Then, against this backdrop of irresistible holiday warmth and good cheer, came the big question:
“Mr. President,” Walters inquired delicately, “on what occasion do you lie?”
“Usually, the only time I lie,” responded Obama, “is very personal interactions with family members, [when] you say, ‘You look great,’ and they don’t. ‘Wonderful dress …’ Uh, not so much.”
Chimed Michelle: “Things where the truth would hurt other people.”
“Right,” echoed Obama, “the things where truth would hurt other people. Not too many big things. I said during the campaign that I’ll always tell you what I think, and I will, always tell you where I stand. I’m not perfect, but you’ll know what I believe.”
There you have it, folks. Welcome to The Matrix – where the elite media specialize in creating virtual reality scenes like this one, which are so pleasant and seem so real … except that they bear virtually no resemblance to reality.
For there, seated in the midst of this elegant, Norman Rockwell-esque Christmas setting, was Barack Obama, the perpetually churning and discontented radical, taking a needed break from his relentless campaign to “fundamentally transform” – that means destroy – the American way of free enterprise and free people. Barack Obama, the man who lies as easily as breathing – a serial deceiver regarding his birth, his childhood, his education, his influences and associations, his religion, his accomplishments, his policies, his true beliefs and his plans for America’s future. Barack Obama, the man whose entire presidency has been a seamless fabric of deception and duplicity, tells Barbara Walters and the American people that the only time he lies is to protect a family member from hurt feelings by occasionally offering reassurance that an unflattering dress is “wonderful.”
Wow.
The level of ongoing media dishonesty in covering Barack Obama is, of course, surreal. But let us now focus our attention on the man who is, in all likelihood, the most perfectly dishonest person ever to occupy the Oval Office.
After all, the correct answer to Walters’ question is obvious. When does Obama lie? Every single time he speaks to the American people.
Indeed, as another long-time ABC News personality, Pulitzer prize-winning columnist George Will, pointed out recently in the Washington Post: “Barack Obama’s intellectual sociopathy – his often breezy and sometimes loutish indifference to truth – should no longer startle.”
“Sociopathy” is a strong word, but used by many to describe Obama – not necessarily as a clinical psychiatric diagnosis, but just because the symptoms fit so darn well, as per this typical description: “Sociopaths are often well-liked because of their charm and high charisma, but they do not usually care about other people. They think mainly of themselves and often blame others for the things that they do. They have a complete disregard for rules and lie constantly. They seldom feel guilt or learn from punishments.” Remind you of anyone?
A vital, creative power
One veteran psychiatrist I know suggested a slightly different diagnosis for Obama, but similar to “sociopathy” in many ways – namely, “malignant narcissistic personality disorder.” The modifier “malignant” signifies the version of “narcissistic personality disorder” that may cross over into criminality, he explained.
He even reviewed with me a list of some of the major symptoms of NPD, comparing them with Obama’s behavior as president. Among the key markers: 1) a grandiose view of one’s achievements (everything with Obama is “historic”), 2) an utter inability to handle criticism (everyone criticizing Obama or his policies is attacked as extremist or racist, his White House even condemning Fox News as “not a real news organization”), and 3) lack of genuine empathy (Obama gave a televised speech on the day of the Fort Hood terror attack in which a Muslim U.S. Army major shot 45 Americans, 13 fatally. With the entire nation reeling in shock and yearning for strong, reassuring words from their commander in chief, Obama instead engaged in small talk and an inane “shout-out” for two full minutes before even mentioning that the worst terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11 had just occurred hours earlier.)
To be sure, many mainstream analysts, including Pulitzer-winning columnist and former psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer, have repeatedly pointed to Obama’s extreme narcissism. Regardless of the “diagnosis,” one thing is certain: We’re talking about a person who absolutely does not consider serial lying to be in any way immoral or problematic.
Far from it. For a super-ambitious and vainglorious person such as Obama, lying is a vital and creative power. Lies open doors that would otherwise remain shut. Thus in a very real sense, for Obama, lies are “magic words,” the invocation of which represents the exercise of real power – power to impress voters, raise money, demonize critics, win elections, pass legislation and transform a nation. Ordinary people don’t possess this power, as they are constrained from such brazen lying by their conscience and/or the fear of being caught. But a highly narcissistic person like Obama feels he has the freedom – indeed, the mandate – to reshape America by creatively speaking into existence his preferred version of reality, without regard for any higher standard of truth. In other words, to lie.
Here’s how psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, M.D., explains it in his classic best-seller, “People of the Lie”:
Malignant narcissism is characterized by an unsubmitted will. All adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves one way or another to something higher than themselves, be it God or truth or love or some other ideal. They do what God wants them to do rather than what they would desire. “Thy will, not mine, be done,” the God-submitted person says. They believe in what is true rather than what they would like to be true.
… In summary, to a greater or lesser degree, all mentally healthy individuals submit themselves to the demands of their own conscience. Not so the evil, however. In the conflict between their guilt and their will, it is the guilt that must go and the will that must win.
The reader will be struck by the extraordinary willfulness of evil people. They are men and women of obviously strong will, determined to have their own way. There is a remarkable power in the manner in which they attempt to control others.
As we will now see, Obama has been preparing to “control others” for a long time.‘I serve as a blank screen’
In his second autobiography “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama makes an audacious admission: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” While it’s amazing that anyone could openly brag about such a manipulative life-strategy, Obama has long cultivated his appealing yet ambiguous public persona in preparation for a career as political messiah. For instance, he voted “present” no less than 129 times while a member of the Illinois state Senate to avoid taking a position that might alienate one side or the other – including on bills he had supported and even sponsored! Taking a position, you see, might have compromised the purity and universality of his “blank screen,” which would one day serve to reflect the aspirations for “hope” and “change” of millions of Americans.
Appearing as all things to all people has been key to Obama’s meteoric rise, requiring constant deception. As one blogger put it recently:
He is Muslim, he is Christian, he is a capitalist, he is a socialist, he is black, he is white, … he is a constitutional professor, he is an average collegian who smoked dope and did cocaine, he is a foreigner, he is American-born, he is “EVERYMAN.”
With America now in precipitous decline on his watch, many have tried to explain the enigma of Obama and his prodigious ability to lie so confidently, comfortably and continually:- Some cite the disturbing degree to which Obama manifests full-blown clinical symptoms of narcissism and/or sociopathy, as previously discussed.
- Some cite his far-left ideology: Whether you label it liberalism, progressivism, socialism, left-wing radicalism, Marxism, communism, anti-capitalism, European-style social democracy or statism, leftist “true believers” have always justified as moral not just lying, but ruthless suppression of dissent, violence and tyranny – as long as these measures seemed to advance their glorious utopian cause. “Exhibit A” for this point would be the entire 20th century.
- Some cite Obama’s childhood, which was awful, and others cite his early influences, which were more awful. A Berkeley, Calif., psychotherapist who writes under the pseudonym Robin of Berkeley weighs in this way:
- My gut tells me that Obama was seriously traumatized in childhood. His mother disregarded his basic needs, dragged him all over the place, and ultimately abandoned him.
- But I think there may be something even more insidious in his family background. While I can’t prove it, the degree of Obama’s disconnect reminds me of my sexually abused clients.
- With serious sexual abuse, the brain chemistry may change. The child dissociates – that is, disconnects from his being – in order to cope. Many adult survivors still dissociate, from occasional trances to the most extreme cases of multiple personality disorder.
- Apparently, young Barry was left in the care of communist Frank Marshall Davis, who admitted to molesting a 13-year-old girl. As a teenager, Obama wrote a disturbing poem, “Pop,” that evoked images of sexual abuse – for instance, describing dual amber stains on both his and “Pop’s” shorts.
- Would trauma explain Obama’s disconnect? In many ways, yes. A damaged and unattached child may develop a “false self.” To compensate for the enormous deficits in identity and attachment, the child invents his own personality. For Obama, it may have been as a special, gifted person.
- Some cite Obama’s religious background – his 20-year affiliation with his “spiritual mentor,” the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who preached raw hatred of America, capitalism and white people, and whose “black liberation theology” gospel amounted to Afro-centric Marxism dressed up with Bible verses. Complicating this picture and suggesting even more questions is the well-documented fact that during his youth in Indonesia, Obama was raised and schooled as a Muslim.
- Some cite his background in “Chicago politics” – a euphemism for wall-to-wall corruption and criminality. Indeed, the state of Illinois, where a staggering total of four recent governors – Otto Kerner, Dan Walker, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich – have gone to prison for corruption, remains a political cesspool to this day, as confirmed by a recent study from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s political science department. Obama is a product of this legendarily corrupt “Chicago machine” and played the game ruthlessly while rising in the ranks there.
- Some cite Obama’s education, the most important part of which, by his own admission, came via Saul Alinsky. During the 2008 campaign, Obama said of his years steeped in the Chicago Marxist’s revolutionary “community organizing” methods: “It was that education that was seared into my brain. It was the best education I ever had, better than anything I got at Harvard Law School.”
In action, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one’s individual conscience and the good of mankind. The choice must always be for the latter. Action is for mass salvation and not for the individual’s personal salvation. He who sacrifices the mass good for his personal conscience has a peculiar conception of “personal salvation”; he doesn’t care enough for people to be “corrupted” for them.
That, friends, is one of the most twisted things I’ve ever heard. To believe it and act on it is to abandon your greatest gift, your moment-to-moment connection with the Living God – your conscience. Maybe that’s why Alinsky dedicated “Rules for Radicals” to “the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”In the final analysis, Obama lies because that’s how he gets his way, and getting his way is all he cares about.
Editor’s note: The preceding is excerpted from a longer piece by David Kupelian in the July issue of Whistleblower magazine, “WHY OBAMA LIES: Exploring what’s behind the president’s glaring and unprecedented dishonesty.” One of Whistleblower’s most popular issues ever, “WHY OBAMA LIES” features groundbreaking analysis of President Obama by multiple psychiatrists who reveal him to be a seriously damaged, fundamentally dishonest and even delusional person, as well as a comprehensive list, running throughout the entire magazine, of Barack Obama’s lies, each followed by PROOF of the statement’s falsehood.
APPARENTLY, HONESTY IS WHAT AMERICANS WANT MOST IN A PRESIDENT, AND SINCE OBAMA HAS BEEN SUCH A GLARING EXAMPLE OF DISHONESTY DESPITE HIS SALIVATING MEDIA HOUNDS, AMERICANS WEREN’T FOOLED THE OTHER NIGHT BY ABC’S SCRUTINY OF OBAMA’S ADS AND ROMNEY’S ADS THAT THEY BOTH DEEMED “FALSE”:
Mitt Romney Ad Accuses President Obama Of Spreading Dishonest Attacks
The Huffington Post | By Sabrina Siddiqui Posted: 07/12/2012 8:07 am Updated: 07/12/2012 11:01 am
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Mitt Romney's campaign released a new ad on Thursday accusing President Barack Obama of running a dishonest campaign and spreading lies about Romney as he did about Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary.
"When a president doesn’t tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead?" asks the narrator in the ad, which once again charges that the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney's outsourcing record are "misleading, unfair and untrue."
The ad, called "No Evidence," also invokes Hillary Clinton saying "shame on you, Barack Obama" while running for the Democratic nomination in 2008, a tactic the Romney campaign employed in a previous ad released last month.
The spot's primary goal is to dispel a Washington Post report that pegged Romney and his private equity firm Bain Capital as pioneers in the outsourcing movement. The ad cites a FactCheck.org article released in late June that found "no evidence" linking the presumptive Republican nominee to shipping jobs overseas during his tenure at Bain. The Obama campaign tried to refute these findings in a six-page letter to the independent website, but FactCheck.org has stood by its assessment.
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Townhall The Tipsheet Guy Benson
Democrats Now Claiming Romney Lied About His Bain Departure, Facts Disagree
- Guy Benson
- Political Editor, Townhall.com
With millions out of work, the American growth and jobs pictures dimming, the cost of healthcare skyrocketing, and the national debt spiraling out of control, Democrats are exhibiting some rather strange priorities. On a policy level, they're fixated on raising taxes on nearly one million small businesses (while blocking votes on their own party's proposals) in order to fuel class divisions. On a political level, they're obsessed with baselessly speculating about Mitt Romney's foreign investments (while blithely ignoring their own) and lying about his non-existent role in Bain Capital's supposed "outsourcing" (even amidst revelations that $29 billion in Obama "stimulus" funds were shipped overseas). Their latest conspiracy theory is that Romney stayed on as a member of Bain's active leadership for several years beyond 1999, the year he's often asserted that he left the company to go save the Salt Lake City Olympics. Liberals and the media -- but I repeat myself -- are buzzing about anew Boston Globe story that suggests that Romney hasn't been honest about his personal employment timeline:
Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time. Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.” Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings. The timing of Romney’s departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date.
The story includes several provocative quotes from a former SEC commissioner, which appears to lend the report an extra air of credibility. The problem? It's all a giant, juicy nothingburger. The Washington Post factchecker summarizes:
It really feels like Groundhog Day again. There appears to be some confusion about how partnerships are structured and managed, or what SEC documents mean. (Just because you are listed as an owner of shares does not mean you have a managerial role.) To accept some of the claims, one would have to believe that Romney, with the advice of his lawyers, lied on government documents and committed a criminal offense. Moreover, you would have to assume he willingly gave up his share to a few years of retirement earnings — potentially worth millions of dollars — so he could say his retirement started in 1999.
WaPo's truth team also notes that the SEC official quoted happens to be a frequent Democratic donor, a fact not disclosed in the Globe report. FactCheck.org joined this fray earlier this month, offering a raft of evidence that further annihilates today's non-bombshell:
The Obama campaign complains that we got a key fact wrong in out June 29 article, "Obama's 'Outsourcer' Overreach." We strongly disagree. We find the Obama campaign’s evidence to be weak or non-existent, and contrary to statements Romney has made on official disclosure forms under pain of federal prosecution. The Obama complaint claims we erred in saying Mitt Romney gave up active management of Bain Capital in early 1999 to run the 2002 Winter Olympics, insisting we were then wrong in saying Romney was not responsible for shipping U.S. jobs overseas. In fact, if the Obama campaign were correct, Romney would be guilty of a federal felony by certifying on federal financial disclosure forms that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999.
And after reviewing evidence cited by the Obama campaign, we reaffirm our conclusion that Romney left the helm of Bain Capital when he took a leave of absence in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics – as he has said repeatedly — and never returned to active management. The Obama campaign’s recent ads thus mislead when they point to investments made by Bain, as well as management decisions made by companies in which Bain invested, after that time. The Obama campaign’s objections are contained in a six-page letter sent to us (and — without notice to us — to other news organizations as well). It cobbles together selective news snippets and irrelevant securities documents in an attempt to show that Romney was still running Bain Capital on a part-time basis while he was also running the Olympics committee.
Note how the passage was published nearly two weeks ago, yet the Globe pressed ahead with their inaccurate "scoop" anyway. Democrats are piling with zero regard for the truth, natch. FactCheck.org's systematic destruction of Team Obama's argument continues on for many paragraphs, citing multiple contemporaneous reports confirming Mitt Romney's accurate accounting of events. In fact, the Romney campaign is also pointing to the Globe's own reporting, which also contracts today's story:
BOSTON GLOBE IN 2002: “Is it accurate? Romney's investment firm, Bain Capital, bought a majority stake in GS Technologies in 1993. Last year, with Bain still in control, the company filed for bankruptcy and Bain announced it would close the company's Kansas City steel rod plant, which employed 750 people. But Romney was not at Bain when the decision to close the plant was made: He left in 1999 to help organize the Olympics, though he was still signing official SEC documents as the company's president and CEO. Romney has taken responsibility for making the initial investment but has said he could not be blamed for management decisions at the company.”
A book entitled "The Real Romney" -- authored by Boston Globe reporters -- provides more evidence on this point, as does this USA Today story from 2001:
USA TODAY IN 2001: “Romney, 54, announced Monday that he won't return to Bain Capital, the company he co-founded in 1984. The firm specializes in acquiring struggling companies and righting them. It manages about $ 12 billion in assets. Romney, who held 100% of the voting stock, said he transferred it to the 26 managing directors who have run the firm day-to-day since he took over the then-troubled Salt Lake City Games on Feb. 11, 1999. He will continue to hold investments in the firm.” (AUGUST 21, 2001)
In other words, the Romney campaign is being forced to waste enormous amounts of time and energy refuting already-debunked lies about their candidate's record. Meanwhile, the Obama camp keeps peddling this stuff because (a) they have an incentive to muddy the waters, and (b) they need to offersome justification for the expensive (and ongoing) false advertising campaign they're running across the country. On that score, the Romney campaign is playing defense, and the RNC is pivoting to offense, in two new ads:
Effective, or treading water?
UPDATE - I spoke with a Romney campaign aide, who confirmed that Romney signed off on these financial disclosure forms (under penalty of law) at the time. In other words, Romney didn't try to rewrite his history only recently, now that he's running for president. So, setting aside all the evidence above, liberals would have us believe that (1) Mitt Romney and his team of attorneys intentionally committed a felony in the early 2000s by submitting false information to the federal government, and (2) he did so to cover his ass just in case future political opponents might try to blame him for Bain-related bankruptcies -- some of which had not even occurred yet (!) -- twelve years later. This is ridiculous on its face, of course, but if liberals want to say they believe it, they'd also better acknowledge that Romney is a wizard who can see the future and act accordingly. Sounds like a pretty good quality to have in a president, doesn't it, deranged Lefties?
UPDATE II - Any documentation to back up these allegations, Obama campaign? Nah:
During the conference call this meeting, the Obama campaign was asked if they had proof Romney was involved in the day-to-day Bain dealings when he was leading the Olympics. The campaign didn’t offer any evidence that they had any such proof.
Think about this: Democrats are conjuring new lies to justify previous lies that are currently being repeated ad nauseam in their attack ads. Unreal.
cole.stangler@huffingtonpost.com
Obama Jobs Council Packed With Outsourcing Companies
Posted: 07/12/2012 8:05 am Updated: 07/12/2012 8:05 am
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WASHINGTON -- During the past two weeks, President Barack Obama's campaign has blasted Republican challenger Mitt Romney as an “outsourcer,” focusing on his career with private equity firm Bain Capital. The Romney campaign hit back on Tuesday, claiming Obama's stimulus package failed to protect American workers and helped create jobs overseas.
If Romney really wanted a juicy example of outsourcing, he would have to look no further than the president's jobs council.
Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, 26 business leaders assembled by the president for job-spurring ideas, includes representatives of several companies that have used outsourcing, fueling job creation abroad and job losses in the U.S. Shipping work to low-cost overseas labor markets has been a trend in American manufacturing for decades. The White House has a plan to curb outsourcing, but companies represented on the jobs council reveal just how pervasive the practice is.
There’s General Electric, whose CEO Jeffrey Immelt has served as chair of the advisory board since January 2011. Since Immelt took over GE in 2001, the company has lost 37,000 American jobs, and added 25,000 jobs overseas, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Some of those U.S. job losses are inflated by the company’s sale of NBC to Comcast in 2009.
Chris Townsend, political director of the United Electrical Workers labor union that represents roughly 5,500 GE employees in the U.S., said the company has closed more than 30 U.S. plants since Obama took office. GE would not confirm the number.
GE "is a company that, despite the constant claims of growth, continues to shrink in the United States,” Townsend said. “These are a mixture of things from garden-variety, old-line manufacturing plants to electrical apparatus service facilities, sometimes something to do with servicing. Several of them were GE Capital.”
GE's outsourcing-related job losses have occurred over a long period, Townsend said. Unlike some of the companies that Bain Capital invested in -- which quickly fell into bankruptcy, faced layoffs or saw jobs shipped overseas as the private equity firm continued to profit -- the GE plant closures have happened slowly, he said.
“If you just back up five, 10, 15 years, those were all plants that were in slow, steady decline," Townsend said. "And that’s been the tradition of a lot of these things. All we’re detecting is the end of the era of these companies really wanting to do mass manufacturing in this country.”
GE spokesman Andrew Williams said the company has increased its U.S. workforce in recent years with 17 new plant openings since 2009. He said GE’s foreign revenue has increased significantly since Immelt became CEO in 2001. The company’s exports are ultimately good for American labor, he said.
“If you’re going to keep jobs in the U.S., it has to be through exports,” Williams said.
Scott Paul, founding executive director of the Alliance of American Manufacturing, said he’s generally pleased with Obama’s record on preventing outsourcing. Though he criticized the administration for doing little to stop Chinese currency manipulation -- which drives up the price of U.S. exports and hurts American manufacturing -- he praised the president’s politically difficult move to bail out the auto industry and his tax policy proposal laid out in the most recent State of the Union speech.
But when it comes to the composition of the jobs council, successor to the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, “it’s a different story,” Paul said. “The optics of this are stupid, the economics are stupid, the policy is stupid.”
The jobs council also includes the AFL-CIO, though the labor union dissented from its final recommendations. And, to be sure, the mere presence of a company on the council does not equal an endorsement by the White House of all of its activities
White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said the council advises the administration and doesn't set policy, and that being named to the jobs council does not mean the White House supports all of the companies' activities.
“The Jobs Council is an outside advisory board comprised of a number of individuals with diverse opinions and backgrounds, and just because a company is on the Council doesn’t mean that we endorse its specific business decisions,” Brundage said in an email. “The council is only intended to provide outside advice and recommendations on ways to create jobs here at home and improve our global competitive edge.”
Another company represented on the jobs board is Boeing, whose CEO, James McNerney, also chairs the President’s Export Council, the principal advisory committee on international trade. The aerospace giant has shed over 14,000 American jobs since 2008, according to a recent report by Public Campaign, a campaign reform advocacy group.
Since McNerney became CEO in 2005, he has done little to reverse the trend of outsourcing established more than a decade ago, according to Stan Sorscher, who worked as a physicist at Boeing from 1980 to 2000. Sorscher remains in regular contact with Boeing employees as a representative for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace labor union.
Sorscher said he witnessed a “culture war” at the company in late-1990s, when the company shifted from in-house design and manufacturing to a global supply chain. Sorscher said he believes that McNerney shares that new vision, which culminated in Boeing outsourcing nearly every part of the supply chain for the new 787 Dreamliner jet. The company has since admitted that outsourcing was responsible for driving up costs and delaying the project for three years.
“Boeing followed the textbook of outsourcing and dismantling the integrated design and manufacturing community" that had been a staple of the company,” Sorscher told The Huffington Post about the 787 project. “The biggest failure I could imagine would be that we could be six months late. It just never occurred to me we could blow it as much as we did.”
Boeing now views China as a trading partner, rather a competitor, said Sorscher. He said Boeing is counting on China to buy 5,000 planes by 2030. China, he said, "would gladly pay top-sucker price for whatever wreck is left after we’ve mismanaged this program and the next program and the one after that.”
In the last few months, Boeing has ramped up business in China. In September 2011, the company signed a 10-year contract with the state-owned Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Co. to build horizontal stabilizers for the 737 jet. The contract is the company’s largest with a Chinese supplier. And in March, Boeing announced partnership with the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China on energy research.
Several other corporations represented on the jobs council also rely on outsourcing.
Xerox, for example, has a business model that depends on providing its outsourcing services to other companies worldwide. In its most recent annual report, Xerox said it is the “largest worldwide diversified business process outsourcing company in the large and growing BPO market.”
American Express, one of the pioneers of outsourcing call centers to India in the 1980s, still depends on “outsourcing functions … [and] relocating certain functions to lower-cost overseas locations,” according to its most recent SEC filings.
Even jobs council representative Permac Industries, a 36-employee precision part manufacturer located in suburban Minneapolis, is finding its place in the global supply chain. The company offers “outsourcing management, a process where Permac teams up with other global suppliers -- inside the U.S. as well as offshore -- to get the job done,” the company’s website says. “While other manufacturers may deny the changing reality of U.S. manufacturing, Permac looks it squarely in the eye.”
The United Electrical Workers's Townsend said the outsourcing companies on the jobs council reflect longstanding failure to protect American jobs. Obama, he said "has not been serious about addressing the catastrophic destruction of good, primarily manufacturing jobs. ... Where on earth is their coherent response to this?”
Paul, of the Alliance of American Manufacturing, said Obama has shown a willingness to praise companies when they create U.S. jobs.
"At the same time," Paul said, "there’s been no moment where he’s been before a group of CEOs where he’s ripped them for what they’ve done for the economy.”
Aja Brooks shared a link.
That means your declaration of annual worth is not net zero @DWSTweets @MittRomney @SenJohnMcCain and you can be fined and penalized !!!!!!51s Allison Brooks @madhatternews
so until we pass a law that you must pay 7% of annual income @DWSTweets @MittRomney @SenJohnMcCain he has not broken current laws
1m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@DWSTweets On the contrary @MittRomney released 23yrs. of tax returns to @SenJohnMcCain
11:42 AM - 11 Jul 12 via web · Details
http://godfatherpolitics.com/6107/if-you-cant-say-anything-bad-about-your-opponent-make-it-up/
If You Can't Say Anything Bad About Your Opponent, Make It Up - Godfather Politics
godfatherpolitics.com
Ah, campaign season. There's mud in the air, the attack ads are blossoming and the liars have a spring in their step. It goes without saying that it'
THE BLOG
DNC Chief Called on to Release Tax Returns
12:16 PM, APR 16, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER
“This week millions of taxpaying Americans will fulfill their requirement of filing their tax returns by paying any and all taxes due to the federal government,” Harrington’s campaign writes. “Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been asking Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to release his 2011 tax return even after Governor Romney released his 2010 tax return.”
“Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s request of Governor Romney to release his tax returns screams of hypocrisy, because to the best of our knowledge, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz has never released a single tax return of her own. As a member of Congress, she is required to release a yearly ‘financial disclosure,’ this yearly disclosure is not a tax return.
“While asking for Governor Romney to release his past tax returns, and In keeping with the spirit of President Obama’s call for ‘full transparency,’ we ask Congressman Wasserman Schultz to release her own tax returns.”
There are no records of Wasserman Schultz having ever released her personal income tax returns, though, as the Harrington campaign states, members of Congress are required to disclose assets, holdings, and various other financial information.Aja Brooks shared a link.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/11/nancy-pelosi-made-between-1-5-million-on-asian-investments-in-2011/
Nancy Pelosi made between $1-5 million on Asian investments in 2011
dailycaller.com
On the heels of The Weekly Standard's report yesterday that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- a vocal critic of Mitt Romney's investing practices, had herself dabbled in the foreign markets -- we
By Matt K. Lewis
Bio | Archive | Email Matt K. Lewis
Get Matt K. Lewis FeedJuly 11, 2012
Nancy Pelosi made between $1-5 million on Asian investments in 2011
inShare14
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According to Pelosi’s 2011 financial disclosure statement, the Democratic House Minority Leader received between $1 million and $5 million in partnership income from ”Matthews International Capital Management LLC,” a group that emphasizes that it has a “A Singular Focus on Investing in Asia.” A quick trip to the company website reveals a featured post extolling the virtues of outsourcing.
“Designed in California, Made in Manila” sounds like an excellent title for a smear ad to be run the by the Barack Obama campaign. Instead, it appears to be Nancy Pelosi’s investment strategy.
Pelosi is also a small investor in the embattled “Moduslink Global,” one of the “outsourcing pioneers” that Mitt Romney has been criticized for associating with while at Bain Capital.
It’s not surprising that a wealthy politician would invest globally (nor should it be considered problematic). This is interesting because of the attacks on Mitt Romney’s investments — because Obama purportedly believes in the virtues of “insourcing” and anti-globalization. (Obama appears to be running on a protectionist platform that went out of style with Canadian tuxedos)
Obama sure can preach the economic nationalism, but it doesn’t appear his fellow leaders and surrogates are buying the message.
If they aren’t, why should other Americans?
Aja Brooks shared a link.
He's right: ABC got their history wrong in declaring what Mitt Romney said about Obama was false, in him being the worst President since the Great Depression, when in fact there was a time when unemployment was worse during the time of Garfield during the Reconstruction Era when the South lay in ruins for 20-30yrs. due to Garfield's favoritism of blacks and carpetbaggers in the South. So yes, Romney is right to say that ABC got it wrong in declaring Romney's statement on Obama was false.
Mitt Romney Makes A Fresh Complaint About Media Bias
www.huffingtonpost.com
Mitt Romney said on Tuesday that he is fighting an "uphill battle" for fair coverage with some media outlets. Romney's complaint came during a town hall session in Colorado.
Aja Brooks shared a link.
23 hours ago7s Allison Brooks @madhatternews
So to answer ABC who doesn't know their history: @SmartMoney YES @ABC @MittRomney right on @BarackObama worst President ever since then...
1m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
Garfield was blamed for the carpetbagger era of the South @SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama hated for his policies favoring blacks.
3m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
GA's readmission to the Union fell short, as Garfield balanced books, the South remained ruined @SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama
4m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
Garfield pissed off a lot of people in 20yrs. and was an opponent of Mormons @SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama
8m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama and the Republicans, because its ideas have been realized."
9m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama "the Democrats, because every idea they have brought forward in the past 12 years is dead"
9m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama To quote "the death of both parties is all but certain;"
10m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama Like Obama, Garfield was living high on the hog and Americans blamed him bad economy 1870
11m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama LIKE OBAMA NOW BLAMES THE TEA PARTY, SO GARFIELD BLAMED THE GREENBACKS !!!!
12m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@SmartMoney @ABC @MittRomney @BarackObama 1870 Garfield chairman of a Congressional committee investigating #BlackFridayGoldPanic scandal
14m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
Maybe they should take a history class @SmartMoney AT @ABC @MittRomney right on @BarackObamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._ … blamed for #Reconstruction
19m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@SmartMoney I am thinking that @ABC was wrong to declare @MittRomney statement on the economy the worst since Depression under @BarackObama
22m SmartMoney @SmartMoney
The unemployment rate for those ages 18 to 29 may be close to 17% - the highest it's been since World War II.http://sm.wsj.com/M1g1eR
Retweeted by Allison Brooks
20m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@HuffPostComedy Well considering @BarackObama is the bitch, I would say that @MittRomney is his biggest problem next to his failed economics
21m Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@realDonaldTrump @BarackObama @MittRomney Obama, you are not only a bastard child, but you are also a non-citizen!http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253 …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A
en.wikipedia.org
Aja Brooks shared a link.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrumpWhat a coincidence?! @BarackObama's campaign logo uses the same font as Cuban communist propaganda posters.http://bit.ly/MaVENs
12s Allison Brooks @madhatternews
@realDonaldTrump @BarackObama HA! YOU'RE RIGHT TRUMP... OBAMA'S PLATFORM SHOULD READ #BettingAgainstAmerica Obamacare killed 30 million jobs
9:01 AM - 11 Jul 12 via web · Details
The New Obama Typeface: Revolution Gothic
bit.ly
A reader points out that President Barack Obama's new typeface is Revolution Gothic, a style inspired by retro Cuban propaganda posters. Who vets the fonts? (Obama press secretary Ben LaBolt em...
Ben Howe @BenHowe
Obama is just jealous that Bain created any jobs at all.
@BenHowe What he's really jealous of is that @MittRomney is like CEO of all those companies that could've failed and didn't -uh#leadership
8:33 AM - 12 Jul 12 via web · Details
We should take a look at Obama's stock portfolio. Whatever companies he owns shares in he's responsible for their hiring practices.
Retweeted by Tea Party Chief
The Second Banana
July 12, 2012 by Ben Crystal
OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY DAVID LIENEMANN
Vice President Joe Biden is likely to goof when he steps up to a microphone.
Earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden attended a fundraiser for Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). During the course of his predictably bizarre and occasionally worrying (This is the guy the Democrats feel comfortable allowing within a heartbeat of the Oval Office?) remarks, Biden claimed: “Republicans have changed the law so you get arrested if you do vote.” To be fair, anything that falls out of Ol’ Plugsy’s blowhole has to be taken with a grain of salt the size of the Superdome; but he’s not exactly breaking new rhetorical ground for the Democrats. All he’s really doing is giving the Biden treatment to a talking point the Democrats have deployed in order to frighten the less — ahem — aware among us back onto the liberal plantation.But Biden’s latest verbal miscue — which the liberal-constructed pool reports suggested was “apparently” a joke — is miniscule in comparison to the Democrats’ miscue in letting him mingle with unprotected citizens unsupervised. If the endless parade of scandals, failures and outright crimes that have defined President Barack Obama’s tenure to date don’t give voters a case of the shivers, the fact that Biden’s name will probably remain on the ticket ought to. Biden is Dan Quayle with worse hair, or John Edwards with worse hair and fewer “baby mamas.”
There’s an old saw in American politics: “Your running mate can’t help you, but he can hurt you.” Ask George H.W. Bush, whose decision to promote then-Indiana Senator Quayle from the golf course to the Naval Observatory actually made the ridiculous Michael Dukakis seem slightly less like a practical joke. What the saw leaves out is the modern corporate media’s virtually absolute obedience to the Democratic Party. Biden is the biggest public train wreck to even sniff the Vice President’s digs since Senator Thomas Eagleton (George McGovern’s running mate for just over two weeks in 1972) endured his last round of shock treatment. And yet, Biden’s buffoonish antics — be they racist remarks, half-witted attempts to explain away academic fraud, public profanities in grossly inappropriate moments or even his notoriously poor grasp of basic spelling and history — are seldom reported by the corporate media. When they are, they’re usually treated as pure entertainment, like a sideshow at an old-school carnival.
The 2008 election featured the most witheringly misogynistic assaults on a major party Vice Presidential candidate in my lifetime. Even Geraldine Ferraro, who couldn’t have damaged the already laughable Walter Mondale’s Presidential aspirations, was subjected to fire over her politics, not her gender nor her children; a statement which certainly can’t be made about the Democrats’ repugnantly anti-woman treatment of Governor Sarah Palin (jokes about her grandson’s Down syndrome? Where’s the punch line?). And the person presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney taps for the second banana spot should prepare himself to run a gauntlet that makes a visit to the proctologist seem like a dinner date by comparison.
To be honest, Biden isn’t so much frightening as he is embarrassing. He’s a living testament to the abject lack of respect Obama and the Democrats have for America and Americans. The idea that such an oaf would be allowed anywhere near the “nuclear football” without a visitor’s badge and an armed guard ought to embarrass the Democrats — not the rest of us. Romney can’t do worse; but he can do much, much better. He can choose a running mate who doesn’t make us pine for Quayle — or, God save us — Mondale. Sometime in the near future, I’m going to examine the field of potential Romney running mates in my own inimitable style — presuming Mr. Livingston doesn’t replace me with some syndicated gossip columnist. In the meantime, enjoy Biden’s floor show. Maybe he’ll do another one of those “duets” with Neil Kinnock.
–Ben Crystal
FAITH IN JOB CREATION THE #2 MOST SOUGHT OUT QUALITY IN A PRESIDENT:
WILL ROMNEY TAP WAL-MART CEOs FOR CABINET POSITIONS????
Make sure you read all of it
1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.
2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March
17th) than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco
+ K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private
employer, and most speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and
keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.
8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.
9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. Wal-Mart has approx. 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super
Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.
11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at
Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)
12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.
You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground
work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart
to fix the economy.
This should be read and understood by all Americans... Democrats,
Republicans, EVERYONE!!
To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature
It is now official that the majority of you are corrupt morons:
a.. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234
years to get it right and it is broke.
b.. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to
get it right and it is broke.
c.. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it
right and it is broke.
d.. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it
right;
$1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to
"the
poor" and they only want more.
e.. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44
years
to get it right and they are broke.
f.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it
right
and it is broke.
g.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our
dependence
on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of
$24 billion
a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get
it right
and it is an abysmal failure.
You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our
throats while overspending our tax dollars.
AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED
WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM??
Folks, keep this circulating. It is very well stated. Maybe it will end
up in the e-mails of some of our "duly elected' (they never read
anything) and their staff will clue them in on how Americans feel.
AND
I know what's wrong. We have lost our minds to "Political Correctness"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Someone please tell me what is wrong with all the people that run this
country!!!!!!
We're "broke" & can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless
etc.,???????????
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile , and
Turkey ..And now Pakistan ..........previous home of bin Laden.
Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do
they get any breaks...
AMERICA : a country where we have homeless without shelter, children
going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' meds, and mentally
ill without treatment -etc.,etc..
Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to
other countries. Sad isn't it?
99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.
I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did
--
Glynda
and Sport
Jobs debate is really about independence
July 10, 2012Karin Agness
OpEd Contributor
The Washington Examiner
Popular in Opinion
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Young voters were sold on his inspirational language.
Forty-four months later, buyer's remorse is setting in. One in eight Americans age 18-29 is unemployed. Recent graduates and young professionals are finding fewer good opportunities.
Government data last year found 53.6 percent of people under age 25 with a bachelor's degree -- about 1.5 million people -- were unemployed or underemployed, which is the highest percentage in more than a decade. And according to a recent Census Bureau report, "Between 2007 and 2010, the number of adult children who resided in their parents' households increased by 1.2 million."
Reporters, pundits and politicians typically treat the "jobs problem" as an economic issue. But it's much more than that. The deeper problem is the lack of opportunity for young adults to become independent, start careers and lay the groundwork for their future. Ultimately, the problem is the lack of opportunity for young people to earn their own success -- defining what they want out of life and then, through their own initiative and hard work, achieving it.
In 2008, candidate Obama tapped into the desire among young voters for a fairer and more open society in which they could pursue their dreams. Unfortunately, his policies -- from the economic stimulus to Obamacare -- have not been conducive to creating greater opportunity, especially for younger people.
Herein lies a paradox. The president's language promises opportunity, while his policies restrict it for young Americans. And free-market policies create more opportunity, but their advocates typically craft data-heavy, numerically driven arguments to make their case. The challenge, then, is to make the case for economic freedom in explicitly moral terms. It's crucial that we explain why economic freedom matters to young people and how it will create a better society for all Americans.
To be sure, some young people are starting to understand. To take one recent example, a group of high school students from Chicago started SOS Liberty, an organization dedicated to reducing the national debt and promoting fiscal responsibility. While they rely on many traditional arguments to make their case (for instance, they have a running national debt clock on their website), their strongest arguments are made in terms of fairness and generational theft. It's compelling to hear the group talk about how it is unfair for the baby boom generation to stick their generation with a multitrillion-dollar tab.
This group exemplifies how to make the case for economic freedom to young people. But we need more of it.
This means that economists, policy analysts and liberty-friendly professors must clearly articulate the link between economic freedom and the opportunity to live a meaningful life -- in essence, the opportunity for people to create value in their own lives and in the lives of others. It also means that student leaders and younger free-market activists need to use the kind of inspirational moral language that candidate Obama used in 2008 in order to reach their peers.
The difference, of course, is that free markets deliver real opportunities for advancement. The past 44 months have shown that the policies President Obama favors do not.
Young people who are concerned about the economy shouldn't shy away from explicitly making the moral case for free enterprise. After all, it offers the most opportunity for people, particularly the young, to get jobs that enable them to earn their own success. And this is what the jobs debate is really all about.
Karin Agness is the director of academic programs at the American Enterprise Institute.
ABILITY TO RELATED POLITICS TO CULTURE SUCCESSFULLY IS THE #3 ATTRIBUTE AMERICANS SEEK IN A PRESIDENT...
AMERICANS ARE REJECTING THAT OBAMA KNOWS BEST:
THEY ARE TIRED OF BEING COMMANDED TO DRIVE CHEVY VOLTS, PAY FOR INSURANCE THAT DOESN’T SUPPORT THEIR HEALTH CARE NEEDS, NOT TO DRINK SODA, AND EAT THEIR PEAS AND LIKE IT....
Bloomberg’s Rampant Totalitarianism, And Stopping Its Spread
July 12, 2012 by Sam Rolley
SPECIAL
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg loves power and gains it through fear, a tactic used by notable totalitarians of the past.
AN ANALYSIS
There is no question that maintaining law and order in America’s most populace city, New York, isn’t an easy thing to do. But where is the line between necessary public safety measures and creating an openly totalitarian regime within the borders of a country founded upon the principals of personal liberty and freedom?
Many people would agree that officials in New York City crossed it long ago.
The events that took place on Sept. 11, 2001 are ones that have defined our Nation for more than a decade. Fear of another mass casualty event in a heavily populated area has led police throughout the Nation to resort to Big Brother surveillance tactics assuming guilt before innocence and rampant spending on police power has bolstered many police departments to the point of domestic militarization. But nowhere is the phenomenon more visible than in the City of New York.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has become the poster boy for American nanny statism, was elected as the dust was still settling in the city following the World Trade Center attacks. In fact, New York’s mayoral primaries were ironically scheduled to take place on the very day that the attacks occurred. The primaries were moved to Sept. 25 of that year, and Bloomberg—a lifelong Democrat who changed parties for the election—emerged the victor on the Republican Party ticket.
In the general election Bloomberg—whose current net worth is around $22 billion and who owns 88 percent of the Bloomberg media empire including a New York radio station—faced a libertarian-leaning Democrat, Mark Green. Green’s campaign, however, was disadvantaged on many fronts.
First, he had criticized Mayor Rudy Giuliani who had become popular among many residents of the city because of his response to the 9/11 attack, for suggesting the city do away with the two-term limit on New York mayors. Giuliani had, however, been unsuccessful. He subsequently endorsed Bloomberg’s candidacy.
Green also lacked a financial war chest anywhere comparable to Bloomberg’s and planned to rely on public access media to advertise his campaign. Bloomberg’s hefty media relationships, meanwhile, earned him endorsements from a variety of major New York media outlets.
Another problem for Green was the fact that many fearful New Yorkers thought that he lacked the ability to protect the city from terror. Now, some in the city are beginning to learn that terror from law enforcement comes in more subtle but more disturbing ways when everyone is labeled a criminal.
It was “a terrorist-provoked, money-soaked aberration.”
That is how The Economist described some New Yorkers’ reaction to the Bloomberg victory, as some Democrats began to point out the Republican-soon-to-be-mayor’s Democratic roots. Perhaps the “R” next to Bloomberg’s name made New Yorker’s feel he would be a better protector. After all, war hawks are almost always notable Republicans. So how has Republican Mayor Bloomberg done in protecting his city’s more than 8 million residents? He’s done pretty well, if it is a city where only thugs, terrorists and toddlers reside.
One of Bloomberg’s first moves as mayor was to replace Giuliani’s police commissioner with Raymond Kelly, the man who had previously held the position a decade before under former mayor David Dinkins.
Kelly immediately stepped up the stop and frisk tactics adopted under the Giuliani administration and began a campaign to lower the number of reported violent crimes in the city by putting pressure on individual precincts to reduce reports of major crimes while increasing citations and arrests for lesser charges.
It has become a numbers game for New York police officers, rather than a devotion to law and order. This means that New York Police Departments, through means of constant surveillance and intelligence gathering, have created a massive dragnet capable of entrapping any individual who in any way finds himself on the wrong side of even a footnote in the law book.
And Kelly, under Bloomberg’s direction, has most certainly given the New York Police Department every means necessary to operate as a totalitarian force—or in the Mayor’s words, his “personal army.” The NYPD now commands about 33,000 officers, including some who gather information in foreign countries and other U.S. States that lie completely out of their jurisdiction; operates very closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency; and has an annual budget of around $4 billion.
Yes, crime has dropped in the city. But there has also been a marked increase in reports of innocent New Yorkers being abused by the “army” of NYPD officers instructed to use jackboot tactics to enforce the city’s totalitarian policy initiatives.
Such is evidenced by the following examples:
The New York Times reported this week that a group of friends in Brooklyn received citations from undercover police officers for drinking in public because they were enjoying alcoholic beverages on the stoop of their home on July 4. The citations are being fought, as the individuals’ stoop is several feet away from the sidewalk and separated by a private gate.
Upon being informed that according to the law, the individuals were indeed on private property, an NYPD officer responded, “I don’t care what the law says, you’re getting a summons.”
Early last month, The Times reported that a New York Supreme Court justice approached a scene of chaos on a New York Street as two police officers dealt with an unruly crowd. The judge called 9-1-1 and reported that the officers may have been in trouble and in need of assistance. Unfortunately, standing too close to the events unfolding before him caused one of the officers to become enraged at the judge and punch him in the throat. There are dozens of other instances like these.
It has been noted by many New Yorkers that Manhattan, the epicenter of the 9/11 attacks, has become a militarized fortress likened to the New York City portrayed in “Escape From New York” the 1981 dystopian film that predicts the city would operate in the future as a maximum security prison.
While the push has reportedly dropped violent crime rates in some areas of the city (if you believe the official numbers), it has done so at the expense of basic 4th and 5th Amendment rights. And as for the effectiveness of the massive counter terror arm of the NYPD, it turns out the “terrorist-provoked, money-soaked aberration” that it grew from serves ulterior motives. While Kelly argued in an editorial in Newsweek last month that his department has thwarted at least 14 full-blown terror attacks in the past decade, it has been pointed out that two of the 14 actually failed because of the perpetrators ineptitude rather than NYPD intervention. A handful of the “thwarted terror attempts” were actually set up by the NYPD, which then recruited weak-mined patsies to label as terrorists. And other “terror attempts” were actually cases in which the department labeled individuals with no plans but who had been critical of government or involved in protests as “terrorists”; in those cases, no charges were filed.
So why does Bloomberg need such a force if it really isn’t that effective? Simple, New York’s mayor is a full-blown totalitarian control freak. As he neared the end of his second term with the prospect of another run hampered by the same law that booted Giuliani, he lobbied the City Council to change the New York term limit law, and they did. He controls a media empire that is capable of shaping much of the information disseminated about him to be largely positive, hence his ability to be re-elected time and again. And now in his third term as New York’s mayor, Bloomberg is really letting his penchant for complete control to shine brightly; right down to what residents of his city are allowed to eat and drink.
Bloomberg’s version of New York City should serve as a reminder to the rest of the Nation as to what can happen when Americans cast aside freedom and liberty in the name of safety. Sept. 11 changed the course of thinking in the United States, and New York City was the place hardest hit. But, domestic armies, constant surveillance and a loving nanny state are not the enemies of terrorists; they are the enemies of freedom and liberty utilized by elitists who wish to control your every move.
The rest of the Nation can be derailed from a slower track to the same destination if patriots fight back against elites like Bloomberg. But, it isn’t going to happen by relying on Washington D.C.’s group of criminals.
It must start in hometowns much smaller than New York City with Constitutional sheriffs, city councils that believe in private property rights, local police departments that maintain relationships with community members and residents willing to stand up to any of their local government agencies when totalitarianism begins to manifest itself in the smallest of forms.
Totalitarians hate freedom and they fear groups of liberty-minded individuals. By keeping these things in mind and by exercising Constitutional rights that remain to the fullest extent, Americans can keep the totalitarian cancer from spreading to every locale in the United States.
Daniel Sobieski
(IBD) Open-Border President Swings Open The Floodgates by closing 9 border stations http://bit.ly/NMgcx9
KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW IS #4 IN ORDER TO ENFORCE IT AND PROTECT AMERICAN INTERESTS:
PEOPLE ARE NOT IMPRESSED WITH OBAMA BEING A HARVARD LAWYER, BECAUSE HIS QUESTIONABLE CITIZENSHIP UNDERMINES HIS ABILITY TO KNOW THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF LAWS, AND THEY ARE ANGRY THAT HE DOES NOT FOLLOW THE LAW NOR ENFORCE THE LAW TO PROTECT OUR INTERESTS, BUT HIS.
PERHAPS MOST NOTABLE HAS BEEN HIS PROMISE OF TOTAL TRANSPARENCY AND THEN TO FIND ERIC HOLDER STONEWALLING BEFORE CONGRESS AND OBAMA CLAIMING EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE. AMERICANS HAVE SEEN REMUNERATION WITH OBAMACARE FOR BLACK VOTERS AND NOW THEY SEE IT WITH HISPANICS...
IN CONJUNCTION WITH #4, #5 IS THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND IMPLEMENT FOREIGN POLICY...
NEXT TO OBAMA’S LYING TONGUE, COHESIVE FOREIGN POLICY WAS RELEGATED TO INTERIM ADMINISTRATION WHEN OBAMA WENT OVER-THE-TOP ON IRAN, AND SO HE WAS STRIPPED OF HIS EXECUTIVE ORDER POWER BEING RECOGNIZED BY THE HOUSE ON 1/1/12 AS IMPEACHED DESPITE A SENATE MAJORITY VOTE IN SUPPORT OF THE MEASURE. THIS EFFECTIVELY STOPPED OBAMA’S POWER GRAPPLING WITH TRYING TO START A THIRD WAR WITH IRAN AFTER CONTINUING BUSH JR.’S WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN TO CONCLUSION, WHEN HE SAID THAT HE WOULD NOT.
ANOTHER BROKEN 2008 ELECTION PROMISE...
UN envoy says Syria president discusses transition
By EDITH M. LEDERER and JOHN HEILPRIN | Associated Press – 12 hrs ago
RELATED CONTENT
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey …
GENEVA (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad has discussed the possibility of forming a transitional government for his country as proposed by an international conference in Geneva last month,envoy Kofi Annan said Wednesday.
Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, said that during his discussions with Assad in Damascus this week the Syrian leader proposed someone who could serve as an interlocutor for the regime as it explores ways of forming a transitional government with the opposition.
Activists estimate that 17,000 people have been killed in the Assad regime's crackdown on a popular uprising that began in March 2011. As the conflict has dragged on, the increasingly armed rebellion appears to be getting more radicalized and violent, complicating the goal of a peaceful resolution or transfer of power.
Annan spoke to reporters in Geneva after a private videoconference session with the U.N. Security Council in New York. The envoy did not identify the person whose name Assad put forward, but said: "He did offer a name and I indicated that I wanted to know a bit more about that individual. So we are at that stage."
In his closed-door briefing, Annan said he and Assad exchanged views on "how a political transition could be negotiated and unfold — which, I indicated, I believe should be able to be completed within six months to a year," according to a transcript posted on un-report.blogspot.com and confirmed by a U.N. diplomat.
"President Assad indicated that this could be possible if conditions were correct," Annan said.
He said the key is appointing "an effective empowered interlocutor" with access to the president who is authorized to negotiate on the basis of the six-point plan and the guidelines for a transition and would be viewed "with confidence by those he or she must engage."
Annan urged the 15-nation council, the most powerful arm of the United Nations, to send a message to the Syrian government and the opposition that there will be "consequences" if they don't comply with demands for an immediate cease-fire, Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said.
"He called for the Security Council members to put aside their national interests and to put joint and sustained pressure on both parties with clear consequences for non-compliance," Lyall Grant told reporters after the meeting.
To accomplish that, he said, Western nations would introduce a draft resolution threatening sanctions against the Syrian government and opposition if Annan's six-point peace plan and guidelines for a Syrian-led political transition adopted in Geneva last month are not implemented. The proposed resolution would be under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which can be enforced militarily.
Russia and China, key allies of Assad and veto-wielding council members, have blocked repeated attempts by the United States and its European allies to even threaten "consequences" — a diplomatic code word for sanctions.
Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Alexander Pankin said Annan "sounded very concerned, (but) there are encouraging signs" after his meeting with Assad.
"Kofi Annan did not ask us to apply sanctions. He just said that the Security Council should speak in a united and single voice and make sure to send a signal that its suggested recommendations and actions have to be implemented," Pankin said. Russia wants "consolidated pressure on all parties," he said, and it believes that any militarily enforceable resolution "is the last resort."
Two Syrian opposition delegations visited Moscow this week, raising hopes that Russia could be pushed to accept Assad's ouster but Syrian National Council head Abdelbaset Sieda said he saw "no change" in Moscow's stance after meeting with officials including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Sieda said Russia's resistance to international intervention in the conflict was bringing misery and "suffering" to the violence-torn country.
Pankin told reporters that at the Moscow meetings, "what we heard from many factions and many representatives of the opposition is they are not ready for diplomatic or political dialogue. They don't trust the current government. They would continue fighting, which is very discouraging."
Annan's peace plan, submitted in March and accepted by Assad's government, called for an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from populated areas by the Syrian government to be followed by a cessation of hostilities by the opposition. It led to an April 12 cease-fire agreement, which has failed to hold.
The U.N. sent a 300-strong unarmed observer mission to Syria for 90 days to oversee the cessation of violence and monitor implementation of the Annan plan. The team was forced to withdraw from key conflict areas because of escalating fighting and the council must decide what to do about extending its mandate, which expires on July 20.
At a conference in Geneva on June 30, Russia insisted that any political transition must have the "mutual consent" of both Assad's government and the opposition, essentially handing a veto on the peacemaking process to both sides.
On the eve of Annan's briefing Wednesday, Russia circulated a draft resolution to Security Council members that would extend the U.N. observer force mission in Syria for three months but refocus its activities on trying to achieve a political solution to the conflict.
The draft calls for "the urgent, comprehensive and immediate implementation" of the Annan peace plan and the guidelines for a political transition. It says the council will assess implementation and "consider further steps as appropriate."
France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said the Russian draft has "no teeth" to ensure implementation of the Annan plan and the guidelines for a political process which is why a Chapter 7 resolution threatening sanctions is critical.
A Western-backed text circulated by Britian late Wednesday and obtained by AP would order Syrian authorities to "visibly and verifiably" implement commitments in the two previous council resolutions to withdraw troops and heavy weapons from population centers in order "to facilitate a sustained cessation of violence."
If Syria does not comply within 10 days, it says the Security Council will impose non-military sanctions.
The British draft would only extend the observer mission for 45 days and change its focus to increasing support for dialogue between the government and opposition and promoting political talks and respect for human rights.
Diplomats said council experts would discuss the rival texts Thursday morning before a closed meeting of ambassadors in the afternoon.
Annan briefed the council on his talks with Assad in Damascus and his visits to Iran and Iraq. He told reporters in Tehran and Baghdad on Tuesday that Assad agreed to a plan to contain the bloodshed in the most violent areas of Syria step-by-step and then expand the operation to the whole country.
Annan said Wednesday, however, that these steps would be incorporated into the broader six-point plan that he has insisted on all along.
"Within that framework the discussion we had was to take action at those locations where one has such horrific violence that you can't get in humanitarian assistance, people who are trapped couldn't get out, and work out cease-fire arrangements at these localities with possibly the help of UNSMIS," Annan said, using the acronym for the UN truce mission.
"This does not free anybody from the broader obligation of the cease-fire as indicated in the plan," he said.
In his closed-door briefing, Annan painted a grim picture of Syria today, saying the situation "has gone from bad to worse" with entire families massacred, neighborhoods shelled into ruins, several hundred thousand people displaced, many civilians trapped in combat zones and thousands "detained or disappeared without a trace and reportedly tortured."
According to the transcript, he said government campaigns to root out opposition strongholds have intensified, with civilians being killed and injured "in appalling numbers."
"Despite repeated promises to comply with its obligation to cease the use of heavy weapons, the government has increased its operations with shelling, mechanized infantry and the use of helicopter gunships, including in population centres," Annan said. "Opposition elements have also intensified their attacks against government forces and installations."
___
Edith M. Lederer reported from the United Nations in New York. Associated Press Writers Laura Mills in Moscow and Ron DePasquale at the United Nations contributed to this report
Pressure on Assad as envoy defects, West eyes sanctions
AFP – 4 mins 48 secs ago
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faced mounting pressure on Thursday after a senior diplomat defected and Western powers drew up a 10-day ultimatum for Damascus even as Russia ruled out sanctions.
Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, announced he was joining a small but growing list of officials who have defected to the opposition as the regime battles a nearly 16-month-old uprising.
"I call on all free and worthy people in Syria, particularly in the military, to immediately rejoin the ranks of the revolution," Faressaid in a message aired on Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
The defector has since taken refuge in Qatar, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday.
Fares, who served as provincial governor around Syria and held senior security and Baath party posts, hails from a prominent Sunni tribe from eastern Syria.
The foreign ministry in Damascus said Fares had been "discharged" after having made statements to the media "in contradiction with his duty, which consists of defending his country's position." He would be "legally prosecuted."
In the latest clashes, troops shelled and then stormed Treimsa village in the central province of Hama, monitors and activists said, while 38 people were killed -- 24 civilians, 11 soldiers and three rebels -- across the country on Thursday.
Elsewhere, in the coastal province of Latakia, pro-regime militiamen shot dead seven people in their cars, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Lebanese security sources, meanwhile, said Syrian troops fired off dozens of shells in areas bordering northern and eastern Lebanon after firefights, adding that at least four people were injured inside Lebanese territory.
At the United Nations, Britain, France, Germany and the United States submitted a draft text that would give Assad 10 days to implement UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's ceasefire plan or face tough new sanctions.
If Security Council members approve it, the resolution would allow for non-military sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN charter if Syrian government forces keep up their offensive on cities.
Negotiations on the Western draft and a rival Russian resolution, which does not mention sanctions, started Thursday in New York. A vote must be held before July 20, when the mandate of the UN observer mission in Syria ends.
Russia made clear from the outset that sanctions were a "red line" for veto-wielding Moscow.
"Anything can be negotiated but we do not negotiate this. This is a red line," Russia's deputy UN ambassador Igor Pankin told reporters at the Security Council after the first talks among key envoys.
Russia and China have previously twice used their powers as permanent members of the Security Council to veto resolutions which hinted at sanctions.
The draft calls for an "immediate" end to violence by government and opposition forces and demands that President Assad's troops return to barracks in line with the Annan plan and UN resolutions passed in April.
The resolution would renew the mandate of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria for 45 days, and calls on the mission to take on more political duties, moving away from monitoring a non-existent ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on an Asian tour, coordinated with China on moves to support the peace plan drawn up by Annan, who has said the UN motion should include "clear consequences" for the regime if it fails to act.
"I had a good discussion on these issues with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang (Jiechi) today and we agreed to do all we can in New York to see the Geneva plan... be implemented," she said on Thursday.
World powers agreed in Geneva last month a plan for a transition in Syria which did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit power. However the West swiftly made clear it saw no role for Assad in a unity government.
"We do look to the Security Council and all its members including Russia to join us in a serious resolution that gives special envoy Kofi Annan what he needs, what he's asking for and imposes real consequences on the regime for continuing to defy its obligations," Clinton said.
The regime and the opposition publicly accept Annan's peace plan, but fighting has raged on and rights monitors estimate that more than 17,000 Syrians have died since March 2011.
Turkey said on Thursday it has found no traces of explosives on the wreckage of a fighter jet it has claimed was downed by Syria, raising new questions about last month's incident that inflamed cross-border tensions.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said that Syrian regime forces appear to have used Soviet-made cluster bombs against rebel hideouts in a mountainous region of Hama province.
Two videos posted online appear to show unexploded submunitions and a bomb canister in Jabal Shahshabu, northwest of the city of Hama, it said.
I DO NOT SUPPORT THE CONTINUED USE OF SANCTIONS ON ASSAD, WHICH WILL ONLY ELEVATE ANGER LEVELS BY THE WEST AND ITS ALLIES. SANCTIONS ARE USELESS ON A PRESIDENT WHO REFUSES TO JAIL INSURRECTIONISTS AND INSTEAD TURNS TO KILLING HIS PEOPLE RATHER THAN NEGOTIATING A TRANSITION.
- I DO SUPPORT SECRETARY CLINTON’S 6/30/12 CALL FOR MILITARY ACTION.
- I DO NOT SUPPORT A GROUND WAR OR OCCUPATION OF SYRIA. WE ARE NOT INTERESTED IN AN AMERICANIZED IRAQ, AND WE DO NOT SEE SYRIA AS A PLACE NEEDING A MILITARY BASE OR CONQUEST BY OCCUPATION, UNLIKE THE MOUNTAINS OF AFGHANISTAN THAT WERE AN AL QAEDA AND TALIBAN STRONGHOLD AND HEADQUARTERS UNTIL IT WAS TAKEN LAST YEAR. WE SAW THAT AS A CURTAIN CALL TO A 10YR. DEFENSE AGAINST JIHAD.
- THE TALIBAN ARE REJECTING THE AL QAEDA LEADERSHIP BY 70% DISAPPROVAL, BECAUSE OF THE DAMAGE DONE TO AFGHANISTAN AND CALLED FOR A TRUCE, AS THEY UNDERESTIMATED AMERICANS AVENGING THOSE WHO DIED ON SEPTEMBER 11TH, AND OUR RESOLVE TO DEFEND OUR COUNTRY.
70% of the Taliban are mad at Al Qaeda, as the Taliban lacks the power to take control of Afghanistan and they have concluded that Jihad has destroyed their country Afghanistan rather than putting them in charge, and that Osama should've done Jihad in Saudi Arabia, not their country.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/11/taliban-commander-interview-afghanistan-al-qaida?CMP=twt_gu
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Taliban commander: we cannot win war and al-Qaida is a 'plague'
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, helped scupper the Taliban’s talks with the US because he resented being left out of negotiations. Photograph: Kimimasa Mayamak/EPA
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Remove from timelineWednesday 11 July 2012
Interview: senior Taliban commander admits insurgents must seek settlement with other political forces in Afghanistan
One of the Taliban's most senior commanders has admitted the insurgents cannot win the war in Afghanistan and that capturing Kabul is "a very distant prospect", obliging them to seek a settlement with other political forces in the country.
In a startlingly frank interview in Thursday's New Statesman, the commander – described as a Taliban veteran, a confidant of the leadership, and a former Guantánamo inmate – also uses the strongest language yet from a senior figure to distance the Afghan rebels from al-Qaida.
"At least 70% of the Taliban are angry at al-Qaida. Our people consider al-Qaida to be a plague that was sent down to us by the heavens," the commander says. "To tell the truth, I was relieved at the death of Osama [bin Laden]. Through his policies, he destroyed Afghanistan. If he really believed in jihad he should have gone to Saudi Arabia and done jihad there, rather than wrecking our country."
The New Statesman does not identify the Taliban commander, referring to him only as Mawlvi but the interview was conducted by Michael Semple, a former UN envoy to Kabul during the Taliban era who has maintained contacts with members of its leadership, and served on occasion as a diplomatic back-channel to the insurgents.
Semple, who is now at the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard, said the commander's identity had to be protected because the Taliban was highly sensitive about unauthorised pronouncements on the movement's behalf, but he added there was no doubt about Mawlvi's role within the movement."I maintain dialogue over time rather than have one-off contacts so I know who Mawlvi is and I know everyone he is talking to," he said.
Semple said that speaking unofficially allowed Mawlvi to stray from the rigidly controlled Taliban "party line" and voice the unvarnished views of a pragmatic wing of the leadership, which Semple describes as "making a serious bid to shape the strategy of the movement".
Mawlvi's scepticism over his own side's military prospects is in particularly striking contrast to the consistently triumphalist output of official Taliban statements. "It is in the nature of war that both sides dream of victory. But the balance of power in the Afghan conflict is obvious. It would take some kind of divine intervention for the Taliban to win this war," he says.
"The Taliban capturing Kabul is a very distant prospect. Any Taliban leader expecting to be able to capture Kabul is making a grave mistake. Nevertheless, the leadership also knows that it cannot afford to acknowledge this weakness. To do so would undermine the morale of Taliban personnel. The leadership knows the truth – that they cannot prevail over the power they confront," Mawlvi says.
As a result, he says that the Taliban has had to shelve its dream of re-establishing the Islamic emirate it set up when it was in power from 1996 to 2001. "Any side involved in a conflict like this has decided to fight for power. If they fall short of achieving national power, they have to settle for functioning as an organised party within the country," he admits.
He is scathing about President Hamid Karzai, who the Taliban has consistently derided as a US puppet. "There is little point in talking to Kabul. Real authority rests with the Americans," he says. "The only other serious political force in Afghanistan is that of the Northern Alliance" – a Tajik-led coalition that led the resistance to Taliban rule and is now a powerful player in Kabul.
David Miliband, who was an early champion of talking to the Taliban when he was foreign secretary, said the interview represented an opportunity that should be seized. "This landmark interview shows both the need for and difficulties in serious discussion with the Taliban about the future of Afghanistan," Miliband, who published the interview as the guest editor of the Statesman, argued.
"The candour and clarity of the remarks about al-Qaida, Nato and the Afghan government show that we are dealing with a sophisticated and long-term presence in the country that cannot be wished away," he said. "With 10,000 British troops in the country it is vital that those talks are taken forward now. Afghanistan cannot become the forgotten war."
Earlier this year, the Taliban sent representatives to Qatar to act as a political office for negotiations with the US. However, the talks soon stalled largely because of resistance to such contacts from Karzai, who felt he had been excluded, and reluctance in Washington to authorise the transfer of five Taliban prisoners in Guantánamo, something the Taliban had been led to believe had been agreed in preliminary talks as a confidence-building measure.
The Taliban officially suspended the contacts in March but kept its envoys in Qatar. It also sent a delegation last weekend to a reconciliation conference in Kyoto. In the article, Mawlvi signals that the Taliban's pragmatic wing at least remains committed to the talks.
"The world has long been keen to portray the Taliban as wild and uncivilised, ignorant of international norms and uninterested in government. Nato has long claimed that it wants peace but the Taliban are an obstacle who refuse to break links with al-Qaida. The Taliban wanted to turn the tables on Nato and show who are the real obstacles to peace," he says.
Mawlvi maintains the Taliban interest in negotiations goes beyond the immediate desire to get its men out of Guantánamo. If that had been the case, they would not have bothered going to Qatar but would simply have established a commission for prisoner exchange, he said.
Semple says it is hard to judge the influence of pragmatists such as Mawlvi in comparison to more radical jihadists grouped around the overall leader, Mullah Omar. Mawlvi's outspoken contempt for al-Qaida conflicts with evidence found in Osama Bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad pointing to close working relationship between Omar and al-Qaida's leadership in orchestrating attacks on Pakistan and Afghanistan.Semple argues that greater western commitment to talks would help the movement disentangle itself from al-Qaida. Mawlvi dismisses what he says are the few hundred al-Qaida fighters still in the region as irrelevant, saying the Taliban had not made a formal break only because it feared "it might alienate some Islamist constituencies".
It is also unclear whether the largely Pakistan-based Taliban leadership still has control over junior field commanders in Afghanistan, who have become progressively younger and more radical as a result of an intensive campaign of assassination spearheaded by US and British special forces over recent years.
"In truth, no one knows whether the Taliban leadership has the authority to make a peace deal," Mawlvi says. "But the same question could well be asked about Karzai, except that, with regard to Kabul, we know that authority is in the hands of someone else."
- WHILE TALKS WITH THE TALIBAN HAVE FAILED DUE TO A TIDE OF UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE SINCE THE CEASE FIRE IN IRAQ AND WRAPPING OF THE FLAG, IRAQ HAS TROOPS LINED UP AT THE SYRIAN BORDER AS OF LAST WEEKEND, AS AL QAEDA HAS FLED RUNNING OUT OF MONEY AND BOMBS TO SUSTAIN OSAMA’S LAST STAND REVENGE AND JIHAD.
- THE UNITED STATES DOES NOT WANT TO SEE A WAR WITH SYRIA AS ACT 3 OF WORLD WAR III. THAT IS WHY THERE WILL NOT BE A DECLARATION OF WAR, BECAUSE WE ARE NOT AT WAR WITH SYRIA OR ITS PEOPLE WANTING THEIR FREEDOM FROM ASSAD.
- WITH THAT SAID, I DO SUPPORT AN AIR STRIKE AGAINST ASSAD TO WEAKEN HIS REGIME TO SUPPORT A TRANSITION WITHOUT HIM AS PRESIDENT, VERY MUCH LIKE WHAT WAS DONE TO GADDAFI IN PUTTING IT FAIRLY IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE TO DECIDE.
- WITH THE MATTER OF OBAMACARE NOT BEING IMPLEMENTED OR FUNDED BY THE HOUSE, A $2 TRILLION ANNUAL TAX INCREASE, THE $100 BILLION APPROPRIATED FOR SYRIAN OPERATIONS MAY BE AUTHORIZED TO COVER THE EXPENSE OF AN AIR STRIKE, WITH A REQUEST FOR APPROPRIATIONS GRANTED TO FINISH THE JOB IN SYRIA BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY AS DETERMINED BY THE GENERALS.
- THE POWER TO STRIKE AND WHEN TO STRIKE IS GIVEN TO THEM, AS AFFORDED BY THE APPROPRIATION OF CONGRESS AND ITS DESIRE TO NOT MAKE A FORMAL DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST SYRIA AND THE FUNDING REQUIREMENTS THAT TAKES ABOVE AND BEYOND OUR CURRENT APPROPRIATIONS AND BUDGETING.
- I STAND IN FULL SUPPORT THAT THIS IS THE DETERMINATION OF LAST RESORT UPON THE EXHAUSTION OF THE BROKEN UN AGREEMENT ON 7/20/12, IN CONSIDERATION THAT RUSSIAN NAVY HAS BEEN DISPATCHED AND HAS REQUESTED 7/30/12 FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION, BEFORE AN AIR STRIKE IS ISSUED.
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Yesterday#RussianIntelligence confirms presence of #AlQaeda with #Iraq's announcement last weekend and dispatches Navy http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/world/middleeast/russia-sends-warships-on-maneuvers-near-syria.html
Russia Sends Warships on Maneuvers Near Syria
www.nytimes.com
Russia announced that a flotilla of navy vessels had sailed to the Mediterranean Sea and some would dock in the Syrian port of Tartus, moves seemed designed to convey that Russia would protect their interests in Syria.
Syria Condemned for Bombing Lebanon, Russia Sends Fleet
By Shawn Humphrey | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 20 hrs ago
According to Reuters, Syrian forces shelled villages in northern Lebanon for five hours on Tuesday, leaving three people dead.
Among the dead were a Lebanese man and two Syrian expatriates. The Syrians were struck by a vehicle that was trying to avoid the shelling. Reuters also indicated that Russia had deployed a destroyer-class warship, the Smetlivy, on Tuesday.
The following is a closer examination of some of the statements and events surrounding the Syrian civil war.
Lebanon boosts border security: Xinhua was told by a parliamentary source that a decision made by Lebanon to boost border security on the northern border was similar to an executive order,according to Xinhua-ANI. The decision was reached on Monday night.
France, U.S. condemn bombings: The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs issued a press statement on Tuesday, saying that they offer condolences to Lebanese victims and would support Lebanon boosting their troops on the border to protect the nation's sovereignty.
The U.S. agreed, as U.S. State Department Director Patrick Ventrell opened a Tuesday press briefing by saying, "We encourage all parties to exercise restraint and demonstrate respect for Lebanon's security and stability," according to the State Department's website.
Syria home to Russian base: The Russian destroyer Smetlivy was reportedly on its way from Sevastopol, Ukraine to send food, water and fuel to the only Russian base outside of the former Soviet Union, a naval maintenance and repair base at Tartous. Marines were on board as well and were expected to conduct a training mission at the base. Along with the Smetlivy were three landing ships and an anti-submarine destroyer.
The destroyer had previously patrolled Syrian waters in April and May. Russia is an ally of President Bashar al-Assad and has repeatedly blocked efforts to increase sanctions against the Syrian regime at the U.N. Security Council.
Offer to give Assad asylum "a joke": When asked by a reporter whether Russia was serious about offering President Assad asylum, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said that the offer was non-existent and was the result of a joke between Russian and German diplomats last week. He explained that the Germans had said it would be "nice" if Russia would offer Assad asylum, a comment he claimed Russians believed to be in jest.
"I thought that everything would be over on this joking note," he said, according to a statement on Russia's Foreign Affairs website.
Shawn Humphrey is a former contributor to The Flint Journal and an amateur Africanist, focusing his personal studies on human rights and political issues on the continent.
- ASSAD IS RUNNING OUT OF TIME, AND WITH AL QAEDA PRESENT, WE CAN NOT RISK THE SAFETY OF OUR TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN FOR POLITICS WITH RUSSIA, YET OUT OF RESPECT WE ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR ATTENTION TO THIS ELEVATED THREAT, AS IRAQ: THAT OUR CONSENSUS IS AL QAEDA’S PRESENCE ENDANGERS CHINA, RUSSIA, ISRAEL, AND EVEN IRAN IN PROMOTING AND PERPETUATING VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT, IN THEIR HOPES OF PUTTING ANY OF THOSE NATIONS TO WAR WITH EACH OTHER OR THE UNITED STATES BY NUCLEAR ASPIRATIONS.
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I find Senate hopeful Ted Cruz and Rep. Ron Paul to be ostriches on Syria http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/6383/asad-apologists_the-ostrich-syndrome
Asad Apologists: The Ostrich Syndrome
www.jadaliyya.com
The debate surrounding Syria has stooped very low among self-identified leftists and anti-imperialists. It is high time the discussion moves away from personal attacks, and focuses instead on presenting specific arguments and developing clearer ...
1Jul 10 2012by Hicham Safieddine
[Monument commemorating the 1972 Conference of Foreign Ministers of Non-Aligned countries when it was held in Guyana, 8 - 11 August, 1972. There are four busts sculpted to the likeness of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, President Pandit Jawaharlall Nehru of India and President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia. Image by Amanda Richards via Flickr]
The debate surrounding Syria has stooped very low among self-identified leftists and anti-imperialists. It is high time the discussion moves away from personal attacks, and focuses instead on presenting specific arguments and developing clearer political positions. No group has been as pilloried by all sides as much as the one that has come to be labeled “the third way,” composed of those who are simultaneously opposed to foreign intervention (cheered for by major opposition forces) and the Asad regime. Apologists for the Asad regime, or what have become labeled as “first wayers,” will go to great lengths to discredit “third-way” politics. This essay serves as a rebuttal of apologist arguments. In doing so, the hope is not merely to expose the fallacies of first-way rhetoric, but to also elaborate what a third way might actually mean or entail. The latter is something that has yet to be fully expounded in terms of its principles and consequences.
In their attempt to distort and discredit third-way politics, most first wayers identify the essence of the Asad regime as anti-imperialist, when in reality it is ultranationalist with an anti-Zionist silver lining—a thick lining one might still argue. Sometimes, they invoke Lenin’s critique of third-way politics, with little accompanying class analysis. However, a more apt analogy would be the non-aligned movement of the Cold War era. Apologists will confuse the lack of political power (i.e., the power of decision making) with a lack of political position (i.e., a practical political agenda or plan) and draw a caricature of who is a third wayer as a criticism of last resort.
Anti-Imperialism a la Ba’th: The Secret of Succession
Asad apologists will discuss and debate every single aspect of the Syrian crisis with one exception: the phenomenon of cultish family rule and succession. They will invoke the geopolitics of regional and international rivalries, anti-imperialist struggles, resistance to Zionism, fear of sectarianism, outbreak of civil war, and the rise of Islamism. Asad apologists will also play the numbers game, asserting that the majority of Syrians support the regime, and–rightly—bash the unreliable media coverage across the world. They will even go so far as to explicitly defend Asad himself, in a manner similar to how other Arab rulers were defended. In this vein, they will argue that he is well intentioned, surrounded by a clique of corrupt and conspiring aides, and hence either unaware of the political situation on the ground or unable to change it. Then, when the going gets tough and the ruler himself comes out to reinforce the regime’s unrelenting stance, they will argue that his rule remains favorable compared to that of the opposition or the unknown, never suspecting that tackling succession is itself part of fending off foreign-backed aggression and the unknown.
It is no coincidence then, that Asad apologists have so intentionally ignored the issue of succession. Hereditary succession never was and never will be a source of legitimacy, nor a viable long-term strategy to strengthen national unity and cohesion, all of which are necessary requirements for anti-imperialist resistance.
Succession is the identifying marker that separates Asad from his “resistance” allies and lumps him into the same category as other Arab rulers. When cornered about succession, Asad apologists will compare Asad to Gulf monarchs (unaware perhaps that, at one symbolic level, a royal president in Syria is more scandalous than a petty monarch of an oil shaykhdom). That, however, is the wrong and easy comparison to make. Asad fails the test even according to first-way logic when compared to self-identified anti-imperialist leaders like Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, or even Asad’s closer allies, Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah and Iranian president Mahmud Ahmedinejad. Unlike all of the above, Asad’s ascension to power was no different in form and content from the process governing other Arab states. It is telling that this “anti-imperialist” president had no qualms allowing a Western white journalist like Barbara Walters question him about his coming to power. Such a question by one of his own people would be unthinkable. Some might argue that this is merely a detail, but I say it is a very symbolic one. It goes to the heart of how Arab leaders perceive themselves in relation to their own people vis-à-vis the West.
But even if we grant Asad the benefit of the doubt regarding his ascension to power, what about the actual policies Asad implemented? Are they as socialist and anti-imperialist as Asad apologists would like us to believe? During his first decade of rule, Asad attempted to reverse whatever remained of Ba’thist socialism. He was a much more effective agent of neoliberalism than his father was. Whatever non-neoliberal realities apologists point to, they have nothing to do with the Asad regime. On the contrary, they have managed to survive the regime and were not borne by it. After the eruption of the uprising, Asad apologists—so eager now to fight liberal politics—seem blind to the fact that whatever “reforms” Asad introduced were themselves actually pro-liberal reforms. These include removing the reference to the socialist nature of the regime (a very anti-imperialist move indeed, clearly having everything to do with the fight for Palestine) maintaining the stipulation that the president be a Muslim, and allowing for elections under a multi-party system (i.e., the hallmark of liberal rule).
Furthermore, and early on during his reign, the “nationalist” in Asad seemingly had little qualms implicitly forfeiting the right of Syria to Iskandarun (Alexandretta) in order appease his then-new Turkish ally. In addition, it took Asad eleven years and the eruption of the Syrian uprising to grant thousands of Kurds their rightful Syrian citizenship, proving the move was a ploy to co-opt them out of the uprising and thus reinforcing the notion of the state is subservient to the power of the ruling elite rather than the ruling elite being subservient to the state. This is to say nothing of how the clique of corrupt networks that increasingly took control of the country’s resources grew bolder under his rule. Claiming Asad was ignorant of this clique’s machinations is too naive and false to warrant a response.
By ignoring these “details,” Asad apologists fail to see that the Asad regime’s alliance with anti-US forces in the region has not prevented it from exhibiting the essential features of all the Arab dictatorial regimes: family rule; institutionalized corruption: cultish forms of obedience; and the overexpansion of the police state. All these features undermine the anti-imperialist struggle in subtle but deadly ways.
These issues matter not only in the small (i.e., domestic) picture, but also in the big (i.e., regional) picture. They matter for anyone who keeps invoking geopolitics and long-term resistance as Asad apologists do. According to anti-imperialist logic, structural causes tend to prevail over individual or apparent ones in explaining history. On the basis of such a principle, structures of inequality, oppression, and domination are much more to blame for violence and extremism than are such factors as one’s personal proclivity for violence or extremist ideology (something Asad apologists are so keen to identify among the opposition camp). A comparative analysis of the Asad regime—in relation to its allies in the region—shows that these structures (of inequality, oppression, and domination)—in the case of Syria—are not entirely, even if largely, a product of external imperialist forces. Regimes and groups allied to Asad have arguably suffered a lot more from imperialist pressures but did not endorse the same governance structures adopted by the Ba’th. Since the uprising began, the regime has done nothing to significantly alleviate these problems. In fact, it has taken a more intransigent stance. As such, the destruction of Syria is as much an effect of regime policies as it is of the external forces colluding with internal agents. The silence of first wayers in favor of the regime in the face of the latter’s culpability becomes no better than the raucous of opportunist opposition forces.
Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Colonialism: The Fanon Factor
The regime has not done nearly enough compared to its allies in consolidating its anti-imperialist stance mainly because it is busier consolidating its internal control and dominance. To continue to insist on blanket support for Asad under the pretense of an anti-imperialist stance is to confuse anti-imperialism with blind support for nationalist elites. Furthermore, a refusal to conflate the two is not an invention of “liberal armchair intellectuals” as some first wayers claim. Such a refusal was substantively formulated by one of the pillars of anti-colonial thought, Frantz Fanon, whose name is conspicuously absent from the political lexicon of Asad apologists. Long before neoliberal elites had come to power, Fanon warned against the excesses of nationalist bourgeois elites in using anti-imperialist or anti-colonial discourse to disguise their own comprador role in consolidating imperialist structures of control. Fanon’s analysis might actually help explain why some Arab leftists, who are likely more sensitive to anti-colonial history than international anti-imperialists, are third wayers rather than outright supporters of the regime.
But instead of invoking Fanon, apologists will go so far as to invoke Lenin’s quote about third-party politics, which is really a language trick no different than someone quoting Tony Blair’s own reference to a “third way” in order to undermine third-way politics in Syria. Lenin was at times more than willing to compromise when it came to dealing with imperialist forces (i.e., the Brest Liovsk treaty). In the instance of his critique of third-way politics, the communist leader was actually more concerned with class struggle and contemptuous of those, like liberal socialists, who did not take a firm and uncompromising position in this struggle against the bourgeois class. In fact, a reference that would have better served Asad apologists is Lenin’s disagreement with Rosa Luxemburg over backing the third-world bourgeoisie. Lenin’s critique of third-way politics may thus ironically lend itself more to backing calls for no compromise with Asad, given that the Syrian uprising’s class is largely made up of the countryside peasantry and suburban working class. It is true that the peasantry have a very dubious representation in the intellectual history of Marxism. In the case of Syria, the dominant political expression of their uprising has not only taken on a reactionary form (read “religious” in Marxist terms). It is in fact, contrary to what many pro-uprising folks want us to believe for romantic or more sinister reasons, backed by imperialist and reactionary regional regimes. However, admitting this problematic political expression of the uprising necessitates a third way, not a stance that is apologetic for the Asad regime.
As mentioned above, a much more apt —even if far from perfect—invocation of third-way politics in the Syrian case is the non-aligned movement that spread across the global south during the Cold War. Back then, the Soviet Union was much more anti-imperialist than today’s oligarchy-ruled and market-oriented Russia. Yet, leaders from the global south such as Nasser, Nehru, and Nkrumah recognized the need to chart an independent path of anti-colonial struggle to avoid total dependency on the great powers. A similar—but certainly not identical—logic might well be behind third-way thinking. Syria has turned into a playground for a global power struggle, and the ultimate losers are the Syrian people themselves. One of many crucial differences between the non-aligned movement then and third way politics in Syria today is that the third way in Syria today has remained largely a political position, with little political power to make such a position more concretely visible. Asad apologists fail to make this distinction between the lack of political power and the lack of a political position. To be fair to Asad apologists who complain, one must admit that there is no well-defined articulation of third-way politics. However, such a lacking is a far cry from the caricature portrait of third wayers that apologists have come to draw.
Third Way Thinking: An Elitist Liberal Bunch?
The primary factual misrepresentation of third way politics is of the very makeup of the third way camp. The third way current, we are told, is comprised of intellectuals and activists drawn from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the mainstream media. These are the usual suspects of liberal elitist ideology. It is easy, then, to make all sorts of claims about the privileged and liberal tendencies of this group.
Conveniently excluded in such representations are elements of the Syrian homegrown opposition, the majority of which are non-academic in the classic sense. Some members of this latter group have served years in prison and suffered from torture at the hands of the regime (and for reasons that have nothing to do with liberating Palestine from Zionism or the world from imperialism). Instead of being described as an integral subset of third wayers, Syrian internal opposition elements are portrayed by Asad apologists as a distinct group supported by the third wayers! This makes sure third wayers are seen as merely those engaged in bench politics. It also obscures the possibility that third wayers have an actual political position, possibly similar to the concrete one endorsed and acted upon by the home-grown opposition. In short, what apologists fail to see, or perhaps even hide, is the fact that third wayers are no different from the pro-Asad and dominant opposition camps, with people from all walks of life identifying with one political streak or another.
Throwing in the reference to mainstream media as an outlet of third-way rhetoric is another misleading move. In terms of the media (globally speaking), divisions between third wayers, first wayers, and those problematic elements of the Syrian opposition have little to do with academic backgrounds, NGO affiliations, or other liberal proclivities. This is the case even in an alternative media outlet like Lebanon’s self-identified anti-imperialist paper Al-Akhbar. If anything, the vast majority of mainstream media journalists in the West are uncritical cheerleaders of the rebels and have few qualms with military intervention. As for the Arab media, the bulk of it is Saudi-owned or allied, and parrots Western discourse (at times in even cruder forms). The other (minority) part of Arab media outlets is largely owned or supported by pro-Asad forces or its allies.
Radical third wayers are thus left out to dry when it comes to the media landscape. To demand that third wayers—who are intellectuals, especially leftists—cease being as publically critical as they are is to give them—their egos notwithstanding—more credit in terms of their impact on events while denying them what little role they can play as critical and radical voices in the midst of this crisis. Being critical is not merely done for the sake of being critical, nor is it simply a matter of moral consistency (not that moral consistency is now a crime, is it?) It is equally about a reading of the realities on the ground (both the details and the big picture) and—as argued above—definitely about fighting the anti-imperialism first wayers are so fond of invoking. But a close analysis of first way discourse shows that anti-imperialism is the last thing on the mind of first wayers. In such a discourse, anti-imperialism is a code word for anti-Zionist struggle as crystallized over the last two decades in the form of armed resistance centered in Lebanon, facilitated by Damascus, and backed by Tehran. The two are of course interrelated but not identical. It is best then to name things as they are and agree or disagree over them accordingly.
The Question of Palestine: The Teflon Test
The gist of the arguments advanced by many self-proclaimed, anti-imperialist first wayers is less about the larger questions of anti-imperialism, and ultimately boils down to armed resistance against Israel. To be fair to first wayers, discussion of the Syrian regime’s role in the Palestinian struggle (both by pro and anti-Asad forces) suffers from a total lack of measured and informed analysis wherein the regime comes out as either the be all and end all of resistance or a total sell out. The role of the Syrian regime has changed over the years and to paint it as either an entirely positive or negative one is counterfactual. To invoke what the regime did over thirty years ago, like some leftists do, is polemical and I would argue inaccurate. For the purpose of understanding the current crisis, what counts is its more recent history. Since the Oslo Accords (1993), there is no denial that the Asad regime, for many reasons and regardless of motives, was a pillar of the resistance axis to US and Israeli aggression and imperial/colonial aims in the region. Just as Asad the son was a more effective agent of neoliberal policies compared to his father, one has to admit he was also a bolder supporter of armed resistance in the region.
Consequently, to claim that the Syrian regime is “worthless” to the resistance project is thus another surprising distortion advanced by apologists, as well as some third wayers (i.e., the liberal type). If third wayers did not see any such worth, they would not call for a third way to begin with. In fact, opposing foreign intervention may have a very high cost in terms of human life, given that the regime might be capable of unleashing its full wrath on dissenters in the absence of external restraint. Some third wayers might argue that it is a painful price one has to bear if the issue is indeed about organic revolution, and not either a grand struggle for power or merely saving lives in the short term. A better articulated radical third way stance may help clear out much of these positions. Such a stance means, for example, seeking to overthrow the regime, but not at any cost. It means refusing to engage in “dialogue” with the regime, but accepting negotiations under certain terms that ensure an exit strategy that safeguards the sacrifices of the Syrian people while preventing the usurpation of the uprising by external powers.
Simply stating these general claims is not enough. But neither is burying one’s head in the sand and parroting absolutisms about anti-imperialism like apologists do. Asad apologists are gasping to stop the ebbing tide of a past history. Opposition opportunists are eager to replace that past with a double-faced one masquerading as revolution. The time is ripe for a radical third way to assert itself and engage in a constructive political debate about what has turned out to be the most complex of all the Arab uprisings.
1 comment for "Asad Apologists: The Ostrich Syndrome"
As an outsider, who has nevertheless sympathized with the Palestinian people for over twenty years, I find this extraordinarily helpful. I also very much appreciate the distinction between internal and external opposition. There is much food for thought here, and although I would like to have seen a more neutral headline, it does appear to be accurate. The critical question: can third wayers become the bridge over the violence?
Maggie Meehan
Aja Brooks shared a link.
#Rape #WeaponofViolence used to damage womb of those in #Syria #Assad is suppressing so children can not take revengehttp://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/the-ultimate-assault-charting-syrias-use-of-rape-to-terrorize-its-people/259669/#.T_15j0i6DU4.twitter
LAUREN WOLFE - Lauren Wolfe is the director of Women Under Siege, a Women's Media Center initiative on sexualized violence in conflict. She is the former senior editor of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and blogs at laurenmwolfe.com.
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*Syrian Revolution @RevolutionSyria
7hTea Party Chief @2012_TeaParty
@RevolutionSyria thanks I will be sure to put it in the newsletter#Ahmedinejad I just pray you know #Obama has angered the people, as most have noticed, as he doesn't represent them religiously/politically.#Ahmedinejad that is why I understand what you believe. Christians are not to conquer the world as in the days of the Crusades.#ignorance#Ahmedinejad I have Cherokee ancestry, so I do not believe that:#Zionism in order for Jesus to come back or that it's politically viable.#Ahmedinejad that is why our determination is clearly against#AlQaeda but #Assad has upped the ante killing his people and welcoming them.#Ahmedinejad most of us do not want to see #Syria as final act of WWIII in our defense against #Jihad --we are not conquering just defending#Ahmedinejad history is a valuable teacher when we remember what we were taught, that which came before us.#Ahmedinejad I know this is not what you believe, but this is why I want #Syria spared, especially places in #Damascushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnosticismThe Ultimate Assault: Charting Syria's Use of Rape to Terrorize Its People
JUL 11 2012, 7:46 AM ET 25A new project tracks reports of sexualized violence in Syria, where the attacks appear to be orchestrated by government security forces.Syrian army soldiers allegedly kidnapped, raped, and killed some of 16-year-old Zaynab's classmates. When they came looking for her father, her family fled their home in Homs for Lebanon, where they live as refugees. (Matilde Gattoni).A woman, swathed in black, squares her shoulders and calmly looks into a camera. She holds a Quran. Only a sliver of her face -- her eyeglasses -- shows. "What happened to me hasn't happened to anyone, or if it has affected anyone else I do not know," she says. "But I will speak and let all the people know what [Syrian leader] Bashar al-Assad and his men are doing." Over the next four minutes, her breathing grows labored and her voice breaks as she describes how, in May 2011, five men wearing black entered her home on the outskirts of Homs and raped her."This is my message to the world," she says. "Let all the world hear what is happening to us. And I might not be the first one nor the last who was treated in this way."The still-unidentified woman posted the video to YouTube on February 11, 2012. It is one of the earliest reports on our live, crowd-sourced map of sexualized violence in Syria. The Women's Media Center project Women Under Siege has been collecting reports out of Syria for three months, during which time we've seen many stories similar to this, in which multiple attackers, usually government forces, are said to gang rape a woman in her home. We have also mapped stories at the extreme edge of nightmares; of teenage girls given shots that immobilize them while their genitals were burned or filled with mice. Government forces and others appear to be carrying out appalling sexualized attacks against women, men, and children in Syria as the conflict there continues. Although we are unable to independently confirm these stories -- Syria is simply too dangerous, and our research staff too small -- they are consistent both internally and within the news and NGO reports telling similar stories from the Syrian conflict.To step back from the red dots on our map and try to understand the sexualized violence of Syria's war, our team of doctors, activists, and journalists has taken the 81 stories we've gathered so far, from the onset of the conflict in March 2011 through June 2012, and broken them down into 117 separate pieces of data on everything from rape to the consequences of sexualized violence, such as depression, HIV, and pregnancy. Many more victims are included in these reports, but the vagueness of much of the information does not allow us to give an estimate of the total number. For example, one report tells of an incident in which the Syrian army allegedly raped 36 women whileanother speaks of a doctor who is treating some of the "2,000 girls and women raped throughout Syria." Our data, though largely anecdotal, gives us a sense of the scope and impact of sexualized violence in Syria. It appears to be widespread, not limited to any particular city, and often involves rape."The data we have so far suggest sexualized violence is being used as a tool of war, although possibly haphazardly and not necessarily as an organized strategy," said Dr. Karestan Koenen, associate professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the lead epidemiologist on the mapping project. "These reports indicate that post-conflict intervention will need to address the consequences of sexualized violence for victims."Government perpetrators have committed the majority of the attacks we've been able to track: 61 percent, including attacks against men and women, with another 6 percent carried out by government and shabiha forces together. These soldiers or officers have allegedly carried out 58 percent of rapes against women; shabiha (plainclothes militia) attackers 14 percent; government and shabiha working together 5 percent; and another or unknown attacker 26 percent. In 42 percent of the incidents of sexualized violence against women that we found, the victims were allegedly attacked by multiple people at once, suggesting a disturbingly high rate of gang rape.There are well-documented challenges and limitations when it comes to studying sexualized violence in conflict, and our data is not meant to represent the Syrian conflict in its entirety. All of our reports come second- or third-hand, and can't be independently confirmed. Still, the data provides a small but critical window into Syria's ongoing violence."These new data drawn from reports of sexualized violence crimes in the Syria conflict give us an important initial snapshot of the scale and scope of this horror," said Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, which conducts research and advocacy related to rape in armed conflict.Women Under Siege
"The fact that a large portion of the alleged crimes involved multiple attackers indicates possible coordinated, orchestrated, or systematic violence without restraints on the behavior of government and other forces," Sirkin said. In other words, either Syrian leaders appear to be instructing soldiers to violate women, or the Syrian armed forces have descended into such a Lord of the Flies-style chaos that rape is becoming more routine.Of the 117 reports, 80 percent of them include female victims, with ages ranging from 7 to 46. Of those, 89 percent reported rape; 6 percent reported groping; 6 percent include sexual assault without penetration; and 11 percent of reports include detention that appears to have been for the purposes of sexualized violence or enslavement for a period of longer than 24 hours. It's difficult to know intent, but some soldiers have described being ordered to detain women to rape them. We're keeping an eye out for similarities to Bosnia's infamous "rape houses," such as this one in Foča.Syrian women are suffering more than just sexualized violence itself, with 20 percent of reports leading to the victim's death, 10 percent to anxiety and/or depression, and 5 percent to pregnancy. "Death" means that women were found dead with signs of sexual assault or they were raped and then killed in front of witnesses, as in this report in which a mother describes watching her three daughters stripped, raped, and murdered by knife-wielding security forces. "You could only hear the screams and the cries of the little ones asking for help, but this did not make them show any mercy," she recalled.So far, we've found 24 incidents involving men and boys between the ages of 11 and 56 who have also reported sexualized violence as a consequence of the Syrian conflict. Thirty-three percent of reports with male victims allege rape and 38 percent include sexual assault without penetration. Almost 17 percent include multiple attackers. In all but one case, the perpetrators of sexual violence against men were reportedly members of government forces. This is likely due to the fact that most -- 75 percent -- of the reported sexual torture has occurred in detention facilities, staffed and run by the government, where rape and sexual assault appear to be used as a tool of torture. The other 25 percent of reports do not specify the exact location, in many cases because the attack was in the victim's home -- in a number of these, the male victim is forced to watch as his wife or daughter is raped."The fact that about a fifth of the reports involve male victims also points to unbridled terror, given the enormous stigma and silence that typically surrounds mass rape of men," said Sirkin.The one city that has produced the most reports is Homs, the long-suffering center of protest, with 37 percent of incidents. Surprisingly, the second-most frequent source of the reports is Damascus, the supposedly quiet capital city, with 12 percent of reports.Our numbers tell us that there is a potentially tremendous human rights crisis unfolding for women, men, and children in Syria. Behind each number though, is a life -- a family, or even a whole community -- now potentially destroyed by rape and sexualized torture.Jackie Blachman-Forshay contributed research.Aja Brooks shared a link.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/christians-evacuated-besieged-syrian-city
Christians evacuated from besieged Syrian city
bigstory.ap.org
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A group of Christians trapped in the besieged, bombed-out Syrian city of Homs has been evacuated after a deal between the army and rebels, a priest involved in the evacuation efforts said Wednesday.Maximos al-Jamal, a Greek Orthodox priest who has been following the plight of ...
- Ernie Paul Young Minister likes this.
UN observers in Syria come under fire as they try to reach site of newly reported mass killing
By Edith M. Lederer,Zeina Karam, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Thu, 7 Jun, 2012
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BEIRUT - U.N. observers came under fire Thursday as they tried to reach the site of the latest reported mass killing in Syria — about 80 people, including women and children who were shot or stabbed. The deaths added urgency to diplomatic efforts to end the escalating bloodshed.As reports emerged of what would be the fourth such mass slaying of civilians in Syria in the last two weeks, the United States condemned President Bashar Assad, saying he has "doubled down on his brutality and duplicity."U.N. patrols in Syria have on several instances been deliberately targeted with heavy weapons, armour-piercing ammunition and a surveillance drone, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council, according to a senior U.N. official. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because Thursday's council meeting was private, said Ban also reported repeated incidents of firing close to U.N. patrols, apparently to get them to withdraw.International envoy Kofi Annan, whose peace plan brokered in April has not been implemented, warned against allowing "mass killings to become part of everyday reality in Syria.""If things do not change, the future is likely to be one of brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence, and even all-out civil war," Annan told the U.N. General Assembly in New York. "All Syrians will lose."U.N. diplomats said Annan was proposing that world powers and key regional players, including Iran, come up with a new strategy to end the 15-month conflict at a closed meeting of the Security Council that took place Thursday.Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Annan highlighted the urgency of taking action to diffuse the situation.Standing alongside Annan and League of Arab States Secretary General Nabil Elaraby, Ban echoed the sense of urgency."The three of us agree: Syria can quickly go from a tipping point to a breaking point. The danger of full-scale civil war is imminent and real, with catastrophic consequences for Syria and the region," Ban warned.Any proposal to resolve the situation, however, must be acceptable to Russia and China, which have protected ally from past U.N. sanctions, as well as the U.S. and its European allies, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private.The latest violence centred on Mazraat al-Qubair, a small farming community of 160 people, mostly Bedouins, in central Hama province. Activists said the Sunni village is surrounded by Alawite villages. Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam and Assad is a member of the sect, while the opposition is dominated by Sunnis.A resident said troops shelled the area for five hours Wednesday before government-aligned militiamen known as "shabiha" entered the area that is known to shelter army defectors, "killing and hacking everyone they could find."Leith Al-Hamwy told The Associated Press by telephone that he survived by hiding in an olive grove about 800 metres (yards) from the farms as the killings took place. But he said his mother and six siblings, the youngest 10-year-old twins, did not."When I came out of hiding and went inside the houses, I saw bodies everywhere. Entire families either shot or killed with sharp sticks and knives," he said.Al-Hamwy would not give his exact location or real name, fearing for his safety, but said he was waiting for U.N. observers to come to the farm. Al-Hamwy's account could not be independently confirmed or corroborated by other eyewitnesses.He said the gunmen set his family home on fire and his family burned to death, huddled in a concrete attic above their bathroom, where they stored food provisions. Around 80 people in total died, he said, many of them children, and that most of the villages 20 homes were either destroyed by the shelling or burned down."There's flesh of animals and humans scattered, the smell of smoke from burning houses and bodies," al-Hamwy said.Syria's main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, also said 78 people were killed in Mazraat al-Qubair when government-aligned militiamen converged on the village from neighbouring pro-regime villages. Some of the dead were shot in the head, others were slain with knives, the SNC said. It said 35 of the dead were from the same family and more than half of them were women and children."Women and children were burned inside their homes in al-Qubair," said Mousab Alhamadee, an activist based in Hama.Syria denied the opposition claims as "absolutely baseless." The exact death toll and circumstances of the killings reported overnight in Mazraat al-Qubair were impossible to confirm.One YouTube video purported to show the bodies of babies, children and two women wrapped in blankets and lined with frozen bottles of water to slow decomposition.Another row of bodies lay elsewhere: a grandmother, a mother, and five siblings and two cousins, according to the video narrator. All the corpses were neatly wrapped in white sheets, more frozen water bottles tucked among them. One toddler's arm covered her face. Their names were scrawled on pieces of paper and tucked into their shrouds.In another video were four blackened objects that the narrator said were the remains of a mother and two children who were shelled in their home.The authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified. Attempts to reach more witnesses and residents of the area were difficult. The Syrian government keeps tight restrictions on journalists.A government statement published on the state-run news agency SANA said "an armed terrorist group committed an appalling crime" in Mazraat al-Qubair, killing nine women and children. It said residents appealed for protection from Hama authorities, who went to the farm and stormed a hideout of the group and clashed with them.The statement said all members of the armed group were killed in clashes, adding that the incident was meant to pressure the Syrian regime ahead of the U.N. meeting.Secretary-General Ban said U.N. observers were initially denied access to the scene in central Hama and "were shot at with small arms" while trying to get there.The observers were forced to turn back and were not injured, although one vehicle was hit and slightly damaged, said Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department. They were not able to enter Mazraat al-Qubair, he added. It was not clear who was behind the shooting.On May 25, more than 100 people were killed in one day in a cluster of villages known as Houla in central Homs province, many of them children and women gunned down in their homes. U.N. investigators blamed pro-government gunmen for at least some of the killings, but the Syrian regime denied responsibility and blamed rebels for the deaths.On May 30, 13 bound corpses in Deir el-Zour province, while on June 1, 11 workers were found shot to death near the town of Qusair in Homs province.The Houla massacre brought international outrage and a co-ordinated expulsion of Syrian diplomats from world capitals.Ban called the latest reported mass killing "shocking and sickening," saying "each day seems to bring new additions to the grim catalogue of atrocities."He said it has been evident for months that Assad and his government "have lost all legitimacy," adding that "any regime or leader that tolerates such killing of innocents has lost its fundamental humanity."The White House issued a strong condemnation."Assad's continued abdication of responsibility for these horrific acts has no credibility and only further underscores the illegitimate and immoral nature of his rule," press secretary Jay Carney said.Speaking in Turkey after meeting foreign ministers and envoys from 16 European, Turkish and Arab partners, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined principles that included Assad's eventual ouster and departure from Syria."Assad has doubled down on his brutality and duplicity, and Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable or certainly democratic until Assad goes," she said.British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted more must be done to isolate Assad's regime and show that "the whole world" wants to see political transition in Syria and condemns "absolutely" the Syrian regime.Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, who also addressed the U.N. General Assembly, urged all Arab states to recall their ambassadors and halt all diplomatic contact with the Syrian government.Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said an unjustifiable massacre was taking place in his country, but the government is not responsible. He also said "the government of Syria has spared no efforts to implement its part of the Kofi Annan plan."Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Security Council would not support a military intervention in Syria. "There will be no mandate for foreign intervention. I guarantee it," he was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying in Kazakhstan.In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said ministers from the so-called "Friends of Syria" countries — many European and Arab nations — would meet in the French capital July 6 to help support the Annan plan.___Lederer reported from the United Nations. AP writer Diaa Hadid in Beirut, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Bradley Klapper in Istanbul, Turkey, and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.U.S. must tighten pressure on Iran: Israeli minister
By Crispian Balmer | Reuters – 1 hr 28 mins ago
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States must do more to show Iran it is serious about curtailing its nuclear ambitions because the current pressure is not working, Israel's vice prime minister said on Thursday.Moshe Yaalon also fired a warning at the armed Hezbollah movement in neighboring Lebanon, saying the Shi'ite group would be crushed if it tried to attack Israel at the behest of Tehran in any future war.Speaking just days before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Jerusalem, Yaalon said Iran appeared to believe it was safe from military attack or from further sanctions before November's U.S. presidential election."As long they perceive this, they don't feel like they are under pressure. That is a pity," said Yaalon, who is also Israel's minister of strategic affairs."It is up to the United States to try to change this perception in Iran. This is crucial," he told Reuters, adding that Iran would top the agenda during Clinton's visit on July 15 and 16 -- her first trip here in almost two years.Western powers believe Iran is developing technology to build nuclear weapons and have imposed an increasingly tough regime of economic sanctions to make it reverse course.Iran insists its atomic program is peaceful and has shrugged off the latest round of sanctions, with a European Union embargo on Iranian crude oil taking full effect on July 1."We've witnessed the impact of the sanctions in Iran, but up until now the regime prefers to suffer rather than give up its military nuclear capabilities," Yaalon said, adding that the time had come to introduce "really crippling sanctions".Reputed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, Israel has threatened to resort to force if it deems diplomatic and economic means are failing. Yaalon repeated the threat, but made clear that he thought Washington should lead the way."We believe of course that the military option should be the last resort and we believe that someone else should be doing the job. But we should be ready to defend ourselves by ourselves."ASSAD DOOMEDA former chief of staff in the Israeli army, Yaalon said he was sure Hezbollah would jump to Iran's aid if hostilities broke out, but predicted it would soon regret any attack."Any provocation will be responded to by us, by charging them with such a heavy price that they will ask for a ceasefire," he said, sitting in the sun-filled gardens of the King David Hotel in central Jerusalem.Some Israeli officials have worried that Hezbollah, which is estimated to have thousands of missiles ready to rain across the border, might start trouble with Israel to divert attention from the woes besetting its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Yaalon did not see such a threat and thought that Assad was doomed to lose the violent power struggle gripping Syria."We are not sure when it will happen, but it will happen. From day to day we have witnessed an acceleration of the process as a result of the power that the opposition has succeeded in gaining," he said.A junior Israeli minister said on Thursday that some Israelis were on Syria's borders with Turkey and Jordan looking to get humanitarian aid to Syrians caught up in the fighting and to evacuate some of those trapped by the violence."We are sending, as volunteers, many people ... to help in the borders in Jordan and Turkey," said Ayoob Kara, a deputy minister and a member of Israel's minority Druze community, which has close ties with fellow Druze in Syria."We sent food and clothes. This is humanitarian aid. We could not be apathetic when every day Assad killed one or two hundred people," he told Reuters, adding that he received messages every day from Syrians seeking help.(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)FROM SYRIA TO T-SPLOST.................TRANSPORTATION DIRECTLY AFFECTS OUR ABILITY TO CREATE JOBS, SO I DON’T KNOW WHY IT IS SO HARD TO GET THAT, BUT APPARENTLY SOME PEOPLE WOULD RATHER POLITICIZE THAN DISCUSS THE PROJECTS’ MERIT BEFORE DECIDING HOW THEY FEEL AND HOW THEY’LL VOTE... MAKE THAT 2 AGAINST T-SPLOST, BUT I THINK THE PROJECTS OUTWEIGH THE POLITICS:Aja Brooks
I know political hell has froze over when Debbie Dooley knows she can't own her hypocrisy and Vincent Ford says no to T-SPLOST - SO VOTE YES
@2012_TeaParty on Twitter · via Twitter
WHY?
BECAUSE THE TAXES PEOPLE PAY FOR MARTA ARE THE SERVICES THEY USE, AND IF YOU WANT TO GET THE GROCERIES, DON’T YOU WANT TO MAKE SURE THEY ACTUALLY GET THERE, FROM A ROAD PROJECT PROPERLY FUNDED, NOT A VOTE-FOR-ME-AND-I’LL-REPAVE WHATEVERVILLE’S ROADS??!!
County would receive $267 million from TSPLOST
by Mary Cosgrove
mcosgrove@neighbornewspapers.com
June 13, 2012 12:37 PM | 417 views |
With 69 percent of Henry County’s workforce leaving the county each day, transportation is paramount to not only residents but those who govern it.
The county has long kept the issue of connectivity and smooth-flowing traffic at center focus, and with the upcoming vote for Transportation Investment Act, officials were prepared to fight for high priority improvements.
Henry County Commission Chairman Elizabeth “B.J.” Mathis said many of the projects that constituted the county’s original $400 million request came from the county’s comprehensive transportation plan that was adopted several years ago.
The wish list was pared down to the current approved $193 million allocation, which constitutes seven projects, Planning and Zoning Director Cheri Hobson-Matthews said.
These projects would be funded through the one cent tax known as the TSPLOST, which comes to vote as a regional referendum July 31.
Mathis, who sat on the Atlanta Regional Roundtable — the governing body which established the parameters of the TSPLOST — was pivotal in making sure that Henry County wouldn’t simply be a donor county to the 10 counties drawing from the kitty.
The Atlanta Regional Commission estimates that the 10 counties — Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale, as well as the city of Atlanta — will accumulate $8.5 billion during the 10-year duration of the tax.
“A donor county means that you generate more money within your county than is returned back in projects,” Mathis said. “In other words, you donate some of your revenues to construction projects elsewhere.”
Instead, Mathis said the county will see a 99.5 percent return on the taxes collected in the county.
Matthews said the money collected during the 10 years equates to $7.4 million per year. Additionally, the county will receive 15 percent of funds generated in the form of discretionary funds, which will total $75 million.
Some of the major projects on Henry County’s approved list are a widening of State Route 42/U.S. 23, which will add relief to I-75; an extension and upgrade of State Route 2081 to Lemon Street in McDonough; a widening of Bill Gardner Parkway from State Route 155 to I-75; and new road construction of a three-mile Western Parallel Connector, which will provide relief to I-75 and an alternative route from Hudson Bridge Road to Jonesboro Road.
Mathis said she urges residents to research the TSPLOST and head to the polls July 31.
“One of the greatest things we possess as Americans is the right to go to the polls and make our will known to our elected officials, and I sincerely hope people take time to do that,” she said.
Read more: NeighborNewspapers.com - County would receive 267 million from TSPLOST
Tea Party Blog for Dunwoody GeorgiaFRIDAY, MAY 18, 2012
T-SPLOST Issues in Henry County
Here are just 3 Questions to ask of the Proponents of T-SPLOST brought to you by WWW.TRAFFICTRUTH.NET
1. The TSPLOST projects list has some ultra-expensive projects that are only partially funded. Does the region plan to build a quarter of these projects and leave them unfinished and useless? Or, if the region plans to complete these projects, how will they be paid for without coming back to taxpayers for even larger future tax increases?
2. Some of these projects will require large future operating and maintenance costs with no identified long term future funding source to pay for these expenses. How can these expenses be paid without additional large future tax increases?
3. The pro-TSPLOST people keep trying to scare people into voting for the TSPLOST by saying that there is no "Plan B," but the TIA legislation provides that if any region votes against the tax, the region can then put together a better projects list and bring it back to the voters in 2 years. Isn't that a Plan B
Source: Google Henry Citizen, Henry County, Issue # 346 &www.traffictruth.net
Comments: Plan B may take too long and may not kill regionalism. Plan C should be a defeat of the regional approach, the repeal of TIA and a return to City and County sovereignty over their own roads. They can have voters vote to decide the priorities and costs and keep their own tax money for their own roads.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
1 comment:
SDG said...Get fully informed before you make up your mind about the transportation tax. Join a Wireside Chat and talk to your local officials about the transportation projects in your county: http://bit.ly/JjUjXOCheck out the Politifact reviews of transportation information at: http://bit.ly/JDbPVUBus service, Tara revamp top Clayton T-SPLOST list
Want daily summaries and Breaking News alerts?
By Jim Massara (78)
jmassara@news-daily.com
As of Tuesday, July 10, 2012
© Copyright 2012 Henry Herald
#One of the most controversial votes on the July 31 primary ballot is a referendum on whether to approve the T-SPLOST, a tax that would finance the Transportation Investment Act. The tax would bankroll about $8.5 billion worth of road and transit projects throughout the 10-county metro Atlanta area. Proponents include civic and business leaders who say the bigger picture demands immediate action to address inadequate roads and transit that stymie economic development. Critics say it costs too much, over-emphasizes public transit and is short on details. They’re also skeptical that the sales tax proposed to fund the projects will disappear in 10 years, as its proponents say it will.
#What does T-SPLOST stand for?
#Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
#How much is the tax?
#It would cost an extra penny for every dollar spent. If you spend a dollar on a candy bar, it would cost you an extra 1 cent. If you spend $15,000 on a car, it would cost you an extra $150.
#How long will the tax last?
#Ten years or until the planned projects are paid for, whichever comes first.
#Who has to approve it?
#A majority of voters in the 10-county metro area. That means that even if Henry County doesn’t approve it, if everyone else does the tax will pass.
#What if it’s not approved?
#Two years must pass before it’s put on the ballot again.
#Henry County projects:
#• US 23 / SR 42 from SR 138 to SR 155 — Widening — $44 million;
YES -- I SUPPORT WIDENING OF THIS ROAD
#• SR 155 (North McDonough Road) from Bill Gardner Parkway to Racetrack Road — Widening (Phase 1) — $48 million;
YES -- I SUPPORT WIDENING OF THIS ROAD
#• Bill Gardner Parkway from SR 155 (North McDonough Road) to I-75 South — Widening — $27 million;
YES -- I SUPPORT WIDENING OF THIS ROAD
#• SR 20/81 (Hampton Street / Keys Ferry Road) from Jonesboro Road at Norfolk Southern Railroad to Lemon Street — Extension and Upgrade of One-Way Pair through McDonough — $11 million;
YES -- I SUPPORT THIS MEASURE TO RELIEVE CONGESTION
#• Western Parallel Connector from Hudson Bridge Road to SR 920 (Jonesboro Road) — New Alignment — $17 million;
YES -- FEDERAL STIMULUS PROJECTS HAVE NOT REDUCED TRAFFIC FLOW
#• I-75 South at Bill Gardner Parkway — Interchange Improvements — $9.5 million;
#• SR 81 (Keys Road) from Lemon Street to Bethany Road — Widening — $27 million.
YES -- MORE BUSINESSES AND SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN BUILT SINCE 1998 REQUIRING THIS WIDENING AND ACCOMMODATIONMore like this story
- ARC committee picks regional SPLOST project list ( August 17, 2011 )
- Henry, Clayton projects on transportation referendum list ( May 11, 2012 )
- Debate over transportation referendum heats up ( May 10, 2012 )
- Henry County submits transportation 'wish list' ( March 31, 2011 )
- NDDHARCDECISION8-17-11Wedne MISSING HEADLINE ( August 13, 2011 )
Clayton County T-SPLOST projects on the July ballot
Posted: Jun 25, 2012 6:20 PM EDTUpdated: Jun 25, 2012 7:27 PM EDT
By Adam Murphy - emailClayton County Transportation and Development Department
SR 54 at Tara Boulevard
CLAYTON COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -Tara Boulevard
Clayton County officials told CBS Atlanta News they hope voters will approve a 1% sales tax on July 31 to fund needed transportation improvements within their region.
The largest project in the area would be the conversion of Tara Boulevard from its current configuration to a "super arterial" between I-75 to Battle Creek Road. The new configuration would mean that through traffic would be on the main road with frequent ramps allowing access to and from parallel roads on either side. The new configuration would then allow local traffic to reach businesses and other roads off to the side.
PART OF BUSINESS DECLINE IN CLAYTON COUNTY HAS BEEN ACCESSIBILITY TO BUSINESSES OF BEING UNABLE TO GET IN AND OUT OF THEM BECAUSE OF THE CONGESTION, AND CRIME.
Officials said the project would look similar to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in metro Atlanta and was slated to cost more than $102 million.
"Look at what one penny will do," said Clayton County Commission Chair Eldrin Bell.
Another project that would cross county lines to relieve congestion is the widening of Fayetteville Road from McDonough Road in Fayette County to Tara Boulevard in Clayton County.
Transportation officials said they believe the widening project would lead to a 49 percent reduction in delays during rush hour. The cost for that project would be $8.1 million.
YES CONLEY ROAD NEEDS TO BE WIDENED.
Other projects include the widening of Highway 85 from Adam's Drive to I-75, along with the widening of Conley Road from I-285 to Jonesboro Road.
But not everyone is on board with the new projects, like Carl Swensson.
"I think this will line the pockets of our elected officials," Swensson said.
I DON’T. FUNDED PROJECTS ARE A LOT EASIER TO DO WITH A SUNSET OF 10 YEARS THAN TO GET BLOOD OUT OF A TURNIP WITH HUGE PROPERTY TAX INCREASES AND NO JOBS TO SUSTAIN GROWTH THAT WAY.
Perhaps the most talked about project would be the return of a local bus service to Clayton County. If voters approve the transportation referendum, $100 million would pay to operate the service for 10 years.
CLAYTON COUNTY WAS ON THE DECLINE BECAUSE OF FORMER SHERIFF VICTOR HILL’S ABUSES WITH CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANTS AND CORRUPTION, BUT CLAYTON COUNTY IS ABOUT TO GO UNDER WITHOUT C-TRAN. WE CAN’T SELL OLDER HOMES WITHOUT TRANSPORTATION TO JOBS, NOR CAN THEY BE RENTED EITHER, AND WE STILL NEED TO SPEND VOLUNTEER HOURS AND JAIL COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS CLEANING UP THE MESS OF HILL’S POLICIES.
CBS Atlanta News will take a closer look at some of these projects this week and will let you know whether Clayton County taxpayers plan to vote for or against the T-SPLOST referendum.
Copyright 2012 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.WaMu closed in your neighborhood too, huh??
WaMu Pressured Appraisal Company To Inflate Home Values, Lawsuit Alleges
Reuters | Posted: 07/11/2012 6:45 pm Updated: 07/12/2012 8:56 amFOLLOW:Foreclosure Crisis, Housing Crisis, Housing Crisis, Video, Marsha Courchane, Eappraisalit,Housing Bust, Property Values, Reuters, Wamu, Washington Mutual, Business News
* eAppraiseIT is on trial for bowing to WaMu pressure
* Rare government case in the housing crisis
* Expert testifies analysis shows too-high appraisals
By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) - An expert witness testified on Wednesday that a home appraisal company gave inflated valuations to mortgage lender Washington Mutual Inc in the period leading up to the housing crisis.
Marsha Courchane, a vice president at consulting firm Charles River Associates, was giving evidence in a case brought by New York state against eAppraiseIT and its former parent company, First American Corp.
New York sued eAppraiseIT for fraud, saying it caved into pressure from Washington Mutual to raise home valuations. It is one of the few government cases alleging wrongdoing linked to the housing crisis.
Washington Mutual, one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders until the housing collapse, failed in September 2008 and JPMorgan Chase and Co acquired its lending business. It is not a defendant in the case.
Courchane analyzed appraisals of New York properties done by eAppraiseIT for Washington Mutual from June 2006 through November 2007, comparing them to median home values in a similar geographic areas and automated valuation models.
She found that at least 60 percent of the appraised properties had appraised values higher than median prices for homes sold during similar periods in comparable zip codes or valuation models.
The appraisal values "reflect an almost 2-to-1 bias in terms of being above" expected property values, Courchane testified.
Appraiser Alfred Lama testified last month that he suddenly stopped getting work from eAppraiseIT in April 2007 because he failed to pump up valuations. Lama said he was told his name was not on a list of appraisers provided by Washington Mutual's sales office.
Homes that were appraised above their value, allowing mortgage companies to issue bigger mortgages, are among the causes cited by experts for the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis.
At the time, eAppraiseIT was the appraisal management unit of real estate services company First American Corp. Since then, First American split into two companies, First American Financial Corp and CoreLogic Inc, and eAppraiseIT is now a unit of CoreLogic.
Appraisal management companies are supposed to provide a buffer between bank loan staff and individual appraisers to eliminate pressure or conflicts of interest, according to papers filed in the case last month by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
However, eAppraiseIT permitted bank loan officers to determine the pool of appraisers to be used based on whether the appraisers were more likely to come through with the values needed to close on the loan.
Patrick Smith, an attorney for eAppraiseIT, said in an interview after Wednesday's proceedings that Courchane's testimony was "deeply flawed" and should be excluded.
"The conclusions she reaches are misleading, statistically unreliable and, at the end of the day, totally irrelevant," Smith said. "The state is completely unable to tie her opinions back to any allegations of unlawful activity by my clients."
New York state Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos, who is hearing the case without a jury, was skeptical of Smith's questioning of Courchane.
Saying it was risky to cross-examine an expert witness, Ramos told Smith, "she beat the stuffing out of you."
The appraisal company's expert witness is scheduled to take the stand Thursday.
New York sued eAppraiseIT and First American for violations of general business law and repeated fraud or illegal acts under the state's executive law. The attorney general is seeking penalties of up to $16 million and restitution of about $2.7 million.
The case is People of the State of New York v. First American Corp., New York state Supreme Court, New York County, No. 07-406796.What "Jobless Recovery?"
By Ron DeLegge | ETFguide – Tue, Jun 7, 2011 12:55 PM EDT
The so-called 'jobless recovery' that our generation of economists predicted would happen is unfortunately not coming true. In fact, various measures of nationwide unemployment show that a lack of employment and underemployment is hindering economic growth. What is a 'jobless recovery' and is it really possible?Jobless Recovery 101The term 'jobless recovery' was first coined in the 1930s to describe a scenario of increases in gross domestic product (GDP) with high or rising unemployment. Today, certain economists argue that a 'jobless recovery' could very well happen again because it existed in the past.During the Great Depression unemployment remained high even though GDP statistics reflected economic growth. But is it historically accurate to describe that horrific decade from 1930-40 as a 'jobless recovery?' Would individuals who lived through that period agree? Any such declarations of a 'jobless recovery' during the Great Depression are highly controversial and ignore that much of the nation remained mired in poverty. Calculating the Real Unemployment Rate Evaluating the true level of nationwide unemployment is messy. Even though the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports these numbers on a monthly basis, the figures are often under-reported or skewed by the media, BLS or both. For example, the media regularly quotes the 'headline' unemployment figure (also known as the U-3 number) even though other data sets from the BLS paint a more accurate picture of the job market. The U-6 number is far more complete because it includes discouraged workers, marginally attached workers, plus workers that are forced to work part-time because they are not able to find a full-time job.Over the past year, U-3 unemployment has hovered between 5.1 to 5.9 percent while the U-6 figure has shown a substantially higher range between 15.7 to 16.1 percent. And if we add another important category of workers to the U-6 numbers - unemployed self-employed individuals - the real nationwide unemployment rate is probably closer to 20 percent. (An example of a 'self-employed unemployed worker' would be a real estate agent that hasn't been able to manufacture enough income from selling properties.) U-6 Nationwide Unemployment (Seasonally Adjusted) Conclusion In summary, the term 'jobless recovery' used by today's economists is a false world collection. It's similar to other misleading statements like nutritious junk food, harmless explosives, healthy cigarettes, safe skydiving and painless amputation. Theoretically, all of these things sound nice but simply aren't possible. A healthy job market is an essential element to a true economic recovery and there is no such recovery without it. And economists that say otherwise are misleading themselves along with anyone gullible enough to believe their theoretical rubbish.
*
*
STATE-BY-STATE STRATEGIC UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCTION PLAN: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L2ZmGM-izViR2QkN_RRhV9lG82z-n7VZcUpetHQi2F0/edit
30 STATES IN 30 WEEKS: http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm
TEA PARTY SLATES REDUCING FEDERAL WORKFORCE 1/5, REPEAL BY INJUNCTION TO HIRE WITHOUT OBAMACARE, 30 STATE UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCTION STRATEGY BY RETURNING 30 MILLION-150 MILLION ON FEDERAL PAYROLL TO PRIVATE SECTOR WITH GRANTS TO HIRE AND CREATE JOBS...
Federal, state, local employees 150 million relieved to work in private sector/create small businesses
http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm #30states30weeks
WEEKLY TEA PARTY NEWSLETTER FEATURES 1 STATE PER WEEK,
AS ROMNEY TAKES 1 STATE PER WEEK, FOR 30 WEEKS
TEA PARTY BUDGET $2.5 TRILLION ANNUAL REVENUE http://lnk.ms/Wb6nV
The Tea Party is here to REFORM and REVOLUTIONIZE -- D.C. - 37 fed pgms. to be cut/govt. employees don't contribute as private sector employees: it takes 5 private sector employees to fund one govt. employee=Tea Party to shrink federal workforce 150 million employees to private sector.... 150 million federal employees need to get a federal grant NOW, and start your OWN small business, BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR JOB TO CUTS !!!!
51ST WORST RANKED NEVADA
50TH RHODE ISLAND
49TH CALIFORNIA
48TH DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
47TH NEW JERSEY
46TH SOUTH CAROLINA
45TH GEORGIA
44TH MISSISSIPPI....
MISSISSIPPI IS 44TH WORST FOR UNEMPLOYMENT:
Mississippi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the U.S. state of Mississippi. For the river, see Mississippi River. For other uses, see Mississippi (disambiguation).
State of Mississippi
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|
| |
 ** | |
Mississippian
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Area
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- Total
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48,430 sq mi
(125,443 km2)
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- Width
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170 miles (275 km)
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- Length
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340 miles (545 km)
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- % water
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3%
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- Latitude
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30° 12′ N to 35° N
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- Longitude
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88° 06′ W to 91° 39′ W
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Population
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- Total
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2,978,512 (2011 est)[1]
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- Density
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63.5/sq mi (24.5/km2)
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- Highest point
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807 ft (246.0 m)
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- Mean
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300 ft (90 m)
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- Lowest point
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sea level
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Before statehood
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December 10, 1817 (20th)
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Tate Reeves (R)
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Thad Cochran (R)
Roger Wicker (R)
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Abbreviations
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Website
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*
*Mississippi budget deficit not so bad
Posted: Feb 18, 2011 9:08 PM ESTUpdated: Feb 18, 2011 9:34 PM ESTBy Jeff Lawson - bio | email
BILOXI, MS (WLOX) -
Our state is certainly not alone in that dubious category; 43 other states are facing a budget deficit, with California being an estimated $25.5 billion in the red. That makes our state deficit of about $70 million, seem rather small.
Ocean Springs State Representative Hank Zuber told us, "In Mississippi, we have not had it get out of hand in terms of how much money we have taken in, versus how much we have spent."
Zuber said that's because of good fiscal management.
"Sure, absolutely, in fact in his state of the state speech, Governor Barbour said this downturn will last for another year or two and so we acted accordingly."
But, the reality is that some cuts are coming. It's just a matter of where and how much.
"We have had a lot of services and a lot of things, needs that our local community and citizens want, that we have not been able to provide," Representative Scott DeLano of Biloxi said.
The good news is, the economic situation, at least in our state, seems to be getting better, and that's great news for everybody," DeLano added
The state has met its revenue estimates the last couple of months, which clearly indicates revenue is up.
Both DeLano and Zuber are bullish on our state's economy, saying eventually it will flourish.
Copyright 2011 WLOX. All rights reserved.
STRATEGY:
1) ANALYZE GEORGIA’S ECONOMIC CAPABILITY/ECONOMIC PROFILE: (this includes natural resources, state government budget, and crime rate)
ECONOMIC PROFILE:
Economy
A Mississippi U.S. quarter
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Mississippi's total state product in 2010 was $98 billion.[54] Per capita personal income in 2006 was $26,908, the lowest per capita personal income of any state, but the state also has the nation's lowest living costs. Although the state has one of the lowest per capita income rates in the United States, Mississippians consistently rank as one of the highest per capita in charitable contributions.[55] A 2009 report by the American Legislative Exchange Council ranked Mississippi as having the 19th best economic outlook of all U.S. states.[56]Before the Civil War, Mississippi was the fifth-wealthiest state in the nation, its wealth generated by cotton plantations along the rivers.[57] Slaves were then counted as property and the rise in the cotton markets since the 1840s had increased their value. A majority – 55 percent – of the population of Mississippi was enslaved in 1860.[58] Ninety percent of the Delta bottomlands were undeveloped and the state had low population overall.
Sharecroppers daughter Lauderdale County August 1935.
Family in a wagon Lee County August 1935.
Hitchhidkers Vicksburg (vicinity) March 1936.
Largely due to the domination of the plantation economy, focused on the production ofagricultural cotton, the state was slow to use its wealth to invest in infrastructure such as public schools, roads and railroads. Industrialization did not come in many areas until the late 20th century. The planter aristocracy, the elite of antebellum Mississippi, kept the tax structure low for themselves and made private improvements. Before the war the most successful planters, such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis, owned riverside properties along the Mississippi River. Most of the state was undeveloped frontier away from the riverfronts.During the Civil War, 30,000 mostly white Mississippi men died from wounds and disease, and many more were left crippled and wounded. Changes to the labor structure and an agricultural depression throughout the South caused severe losses in wealth. In 1860 assessed valuation of property in Mississippi had been more than $500 million, of which $218 million (43 percent) was estimated as the value of slaves. By 1870, total assets had decreased in value to roughly $177 million.[59]
Poor whites and landless former slaves suffered the most from the postwar economic depression. The constitutional convention of early 1868 appointed a committee to recommend what was needed for relief of the state and its citizens. The committee found severe destitution among the laboring classes.[60] It took years for the state to rebuild levees damaged in battles. The upset of the commodity system impoverished the state after the war. By 1868 an increased cotton crop began to show possibilities for free labor in the state, but the crop of 565,000 bales produced in 1870 was still less than half of prewar figures.[61]
Blacks sold timber and developed bottomland to achieve ownership. In 1900, two-thirds of farm owners in Mississippi were blacks, a major achievement for them and their families. Due to the poor economy, low cotton prices and difficulty of getting credit, many of these farmers could not make it through the extended financial difficulties. Two decades later, the majority of African Americans were sharecroppers. The low prices of cotton into the 1890s meant that more than a generation of African Americans lost the result of their labor when they had to sell their farms to pay off accumulated debts.[18]
Mississippi's rank as one of the poorest states is related to its dependence on cotton agriculture before and after the Civil War, late development of its frontier bottomlands in the Mississippi Delta, repeated natural disasters of flooding in the late 19th and early 20th century requiring massive capital investment in levees, heavy capital investment to ditch and drain the bottomlands, and slow development of railroads to link bottomland towns and river cities.[62] In addition, when conservative white Democrats regained control, they passed the 1890 constitution that discouraged industry, a legacy that would slow the state's progress for years.[63]
Democratic Party paramilitary militias and groups such as the Red Shirts and the Knights of the White Camelia terrorized African American Republicans and suppressed voting. The Democrats regained political control of the state in 1877. The legislature passed statutes to establish segregation and a new constitution that effectively disfranchised most blacks, Native Americans and many poor whites by changes to electoral and voter registration rules.[64] The state refused for years to build human capital by fully educating all its citizens. In addition, the reliance on agriculture grew increasingly costly as the state suffered loss of crops due to the devastation of the boll weevil in the early 20th century, devastating floods in 1912–1913 and 1927, collapse of cotton prices after 1920, and drought in 1930.[62]
It was not until 1884, after the flood of 1882, that the state created the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta District Levee Board and started successfully achieving longer term plans for levees in the upper Delta.[11] Despite the state's building and reinforcing levees for years, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke through and caused massive flooding of 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) throughout the Delta, homelessness for hundreds of thousands, and millions of dollars in property damages. With the Depression coming so soon after the flood, the state suffered badly during those years. In the Great Migration, tens of thousands of African Americans migrated North and West for jobs and chances to live as full citizens.
The legislature's 1990 decision to legalize casino gambling along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast has led to economic gains for the state. Gambling towns in Mississippi include the Gulf Coast resort towns of Bay St. Louis, Gulfport and Biloxi, and the Mississippi River towns of Tunica (the third largest gaming area in the United States), Greenville, Vicksburg and Natchez. Before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Mississippi was the second largest gambling state in the Union, after Nevada and ahead of New Jersey.[citation needed] An estimated $500,000 per day in tax revenue was lost following Hurricane Katrina's severe damage to several coastal casinos in August 2005.[citation needed] In 2007, Mississippi had the third largest gambling revenue of any state, behind New Jersey and Nevada.[65] Federally recognized Native American tribes have established gaming casinos on their reservations, which are yielding revenue to support education and economic development.[citation needed]
On October 17, 2005, Governor Haley Barbour signed a bill into law that allows casinos in Hancock and Harrison counties to rebuild on land (but within 800 feet (240 m) of the water). The only exception is in Harrison County, where the new law states that casinos can be built to the southern boundary of U.S. Route 90.[citation needed]
Mississippi collects personal income tax in three tax brackets, ranging from 3% to 5%. The retail sales tax rate in Mississippi is 7%. A local sales tax of 2.5% is levied in Tupelo.[66] For purposes of assessment for ad valorem taxes, taxable property is divided into five classes.[citation needed]
On August 30, 2007, a report by the United States Census Bureau indicated that Mississippi was the poorest state in the country. Many cotton farmers in the Delta have large, mechanized plantations, some of which receive extensive federal subsidies, yet many other residents still live as poor, rural, landless laborers. Of $1.2 billion from 2002–2005 in federal subsidies to farmers in the Bolivar County area of the Delta, 5% went to small farmers. There has been little money apportioned for rural development. Small towns are struggling. More than 100,000 people have left the region in search of work elsewhere.[67] The state had a median household income of $34,473.[68]
As of January 2010, the state's unemployment rate was 10.9%.[69]
[edit]Federal subsidies and spending
With Mississippi's fiscal conservatism, in which Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, and other social programs are often cut, eligibility requirements are tightened, and stricter employment criteria are imposed, Mississippi ranks as having the 2nd highest ratio of spending to tax receipts of any state. In 2005, Mississippi citizens received approximately $2.02 per dollar of taxes in the way of federal spending. This ranks the state 2nd highest nationally, and represents an increase from 1995, when Mississippi received $1.54 per dollar of taxes in federal spending and was 3rd highest nationally.[70] It should be noted, however, that this figure comes from the year that large portions of the state were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, leading to large influxes of federal aid from FEMA.A proportion of federal spending in Mississippi is directed toward large federal installations such as Camp Shelby, John C. Stennis Space Center, Meridian Naval Air Station, Columbus Air Force Base, and Keesler Air Force Base. Three of these installations are located in the area affected by Hurricane Katrina.
2) COORDINATE WITH STATE LEADERSHIP: (employment agencies, state government budget balancing, crime reduction/community prevention)
Mississippi also encourages interaction on one page with government http://www.new.ms.gov/content/Pages/Government.aspx
Mississippi has a great website portal for jobs http://www.new.ms.gov/content/Pages/Employment.aspx
Budget is in order and everyone can see very easily what the money is spent on, wish GA’s was like this site here http://www.new.ms.gov/webcontent/partnerSite.html
Mississippi’s deficit is not as bad as California’s but it is a heavy burden with a much lower population to distribute that debt per capita:
Mississippi is still dealing with lingering issues and strain from Hurricane Katrina.
Crime rate is not as bad as others....
Mississippi Information
POPULATION2,967,297Mississippi Crime Data Help
Annual Crimes| VIOLENT | PROPERTY | TOTAL |
| 8,003 | 88,574 | 96,577 |
| annual crimes per 1,000 residents | ||
| 2.70 | 29.85 | 32.55 |
Violent Crime per 1,000 residents
NATIONAL MEDIAN4.0MY CHANCES OF BECOMING A VICTIM
in Mississippi1 in 370
2.70
| ||||
Mississippi
|
Population 2,967,297Mississippi violent crimes
MURDER
|
RAPE
|
ROBBERY
|
ASSAULT
| |
| REPORT TOTAL |
208
|
927
|
2,779
|
4,089
|
| RATE PER 1,000 |
0.07
|
0.31
|
0.94
|
1.38
|
Population 308,745,538United States violent crimes
MURDER
|
RAPE
|
ROBBERY
|
ASSAULT
| |
| REPORT TOTAL |
14,748
|
84,767
|
367,832
|
778,901
|
| RATE PER 1,000 |
0.05
|
0.27
|
1.19
|
2.52
|
Property Crime Rate per 1,000 residents
NATIONAL MEDIAN29.4MY CHANCES OF BECOMING A VICTIM
in Mississippi1 in 33
29.85
| ||||
Mississippi
|
Population 2,967,297Mississippi property crimes
BURGLARY
|
THEFT
|
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
| |
| REPORT TOTAL |
30,444
|
52,770
|
5,360
|
| RATE PER 1,000 |
10.26
|
17.78
|
1.81
|
Population 308,745,538United States property crimes
BURGLARY
|
THEFT
|
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
| |
| REPORT TOTAL |
2,159,878
|
6,185,867
|
737,142
|
| RATE PER 1,000 |
7.00
|
20.04
|
2.39
|
Crimes Per Square Mile
NATIONAL MEDIAN39.3
5
| ||||
Mississippi
|
3) CREATE LOCAL JOBS AND ATTRACT INVESTORS: (DETERMINE IMMEDIATE JOB GROWTH AREAS AND ABILITY TO REPAY FEDERAL LOANS) TOURISM, CULTURE, MUSIC, AND SPORTS
Culture
While Mississippi has been especially known for its music and literature, it has embraced other forms of art. Its strong religious traditions have inspired striking works by outsider artists who have been shown nationally.Jackson established the USA International Ballet Competition, which is held every four years. This ballet competition attracts the most talented young dancers from around the world.[80]
The Magnolia Independent Film Festival, still held annually in Starkville, is the first and oldest in the state.
George Ohr, known as the "Mad Potter of Biloxi" and the father of abstract expressionism in pottery, lived and worked in Biloxi, MS.
The New Southern View Ezine, first published in the summer of 2001, is the state's first online magazine.
[edit]Music
Musicians of the state's Delta region were historically significant to the development of the blues. Their laments arose out of the region's hard times after Reconstruction.[citation needed] Although by the end of the 19th century, two-thirds of the farm owners were black, continued low prices for cotton and national financial pressures resulted in most of them losing their land. More problems built up with the boll weevil infestation, when thousands of agricultural jobs were lost. Many Mississippi musicians migrated to Chicago and created new forms of jazz and other genres there.[citation needed]Jimmie Rodgers, a native of Meridian and white guitarist/singer/songwriter known as the "Father of Country Music", played a significant role in the development of the blues. He and Chester Arthur Burnett were friends and admirers of each other's music. Rodgers was supposed to have given Burnett his nickname of Howlin' Wolf. Their friendship and respect is an important example of Mississippi's musical legacy. While the state has had a reputation for being the most racist in the United States, individual musicians created an integrated music community. Mississippi musicians created new forms by combining and creating variations on musical traditions from Africa with the musical traditions of white Southerners, a tradition largely rooted in Scots–Irish music.
The state is creating a Mississippi Blues Trail, with dedicated markers explaining historic sites significant to the history of blues music, such as Clarksdale's Riverside Hotel, where Bessie Smith died after her auto accident on Highway 61. The Riverside Hotel is just one of many historical blues sites in Clarksdale. The Delta Blues Museum there is visited by tourists from all over the world. Close by is "Ground Zero", a contemporary blues club and restaurant co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman.
Mississippians have contributed to American music. Elvis Presley, who created a sensation in the 1950s as a crossover artist and contributed to rock 'n' roll, was a native of Tupelo. From opera star Leontyne Price to the alternative rock band 3 Doors Down, to gulf and western singer Jimmy Buffett, to rappers David Banner, Big K.R.I.T. and Afroman, Mississippi musicians have been significant in all genres.
[edit]Sports
- Biloxi, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi Surge ice hockey team. The team is a member of the Southern Professional Hockey League and began its first season of play in 2009.
- Clinton, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi Brilla soccer team. The Brilla are a member of the USL Premier Development League.
- Pearl, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi Braves baseball team. The Braves are an AA minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They play in the Southern League.
- Southaven, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi RiverKings hockey team, formerly known as the Memphis RiverKings. The RiverKings are a member of Southern Professional Hockey League.
4) ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRACKING PROGRESS: (DELEGATION OF DUTIES, CONTRIBUTIONS AND ORCHESTRATION BY LEADERSHIP, CUMULATIVE RESULTS)
THESE DUTIES ARE DELEGATED TO HOUSE REP. BENNIE THOMPSON http://benniethompson.house.gov/
CONTRIBUTIONS BY REPUBLICAN/TEA PARTY LEADERSHIP: TEA PARTY CHIEF AJA BROOKS RECORDS AND UPDATES REPORTS FOR MITT ROMNEY, GOVERNOR PERRY ASSISTS WITH STATE OFFICES, AND RICK SANTORUM IS DESIGNATED TO SPEAK REGARDING THESE MATTERS, AS IS THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN.
RESULTS: WE NEED CONSERVATIVE HOUSE LEADERSHIP, NOT THOSE WHO ENCOURAGE GANG ACTIVITY TO KEEP THEIR SEATS THROUGH SUCH INSURRECTION MOVEMENTS LIKE OCCUPY.
GET YOUR ROMNEY GEAR.... YOU CAN EVEN PHONE BANK TO GET SOME, I LIKE THESE...
http://store.mittromney.com/collections/vintage/
LIKE I THOUGHT... PATERNO JUST COULDN’T LIVE WITH HIMSELF FOR NOT GOING TO THE COPS OR FACE HIS LEGACY MARRED BY SANDUSKY.
Penn State Report: Freeh says Joe Paterno, administrators showed 'total disregard' for Sandusky victims
PUBLISHED Thursday, Jul 12, 2012 at 8:25 am EDT LAST UPDATED 17 minutes and 36 seconds agoRana L. Cash Sporting News
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Joe Paterno and Penn State's most influential administrators did not concern themselves with the victims of abuse at the hands of now convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, Louis Freeh's seven-month investigation concluded. The report was released Thursday.
MORE: Read the Freeh report | Summary of findings in Penn State report | Penn State statement
"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh said. According to the findings of Penn State's $500,000 a month internal investigation, Paterno was aware of the 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky, as was president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz.
"The evidence shows Mr. Paterno was aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action, even though Sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years, and had an office just steps away from Mr. Paterno's.
"At the very least, Mr. Paterno could have alerted the entire football staff, in order to prevent Sandusky from bringing another child into the Lasch Building."
None of the men alerted the Board of Trustees about the 1998 investigation or even confronted Sandusky. The 2001 allegations were kept under wraps as well. The investigation confirmed that Curley, Spanier and Schultz decided in 2001 to report Sandusky to the child welfare office and to the charity he founded, The Second Mile. But, Curley later told his superiors that after discussing the issue with Paterno, he thought it would be best to just talk to Sandusky.
Freeh described their actions as "callous and shocking disregard for child victims."
As for the Board of Trustees, Freeh said it failed to create an environment "which held the University's most senior leaders accountable to it."
More than 400 people were interviewed by Freeh’s team, which has produced a report of more than 100 pages. A press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET.
While the Penn State report states otherwise, lawyers for former Penn State president Graham Spanier, left, say their client was no part of any cover-up. (AP Photo)Sandusky was convicted last month on 45 counts of sexual abuse involving 10 boys. Shortly after Sandusky’s arrest in November, the university fired Spanier and Paterno, who died shortly thereafter from lung cancer.
Tim Curley, who is on leave, and Schultz, who retired, have been charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to report the suspected abuse after then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary reportedly told them he saw Sandusky molesting a boy in the shower.
The Paterno family issued a statement this week decrying its lack of participation in the investigation. They also said that Paterno did not know that Sandusky was a pedophile. McQueary told the grand jury that the day after seeing Sandusky in the shower with a boy in 2001, he told Paterno—sparing graphic details, but making clear it was inappropriate—of what he’d seen.
He later shared that information with Curley and Schultz. McQueary was not interviewed for the Freeh investigation.
Spanier’s lawyers said their client told Freeh investigators that he was not a part of any kind of cover-up. Spanier has not been charged with a crime.
“At no time in the more than 16 years of his presidency at Penn State was Dr. Spanier told of an incident involving Jerry Sandusky that described child abuse, sexual misconduct or criminality of any kind, and he reiterated that during his interview with Louis Freeh and his colleagues,” the statement from lawyers Peter Vaira and Elizabeth Ainslie read.
Sandusky, 68, is awaiting sentencing.
FILE THIS UNDER..... “I’M-A-GET-MY-OBAMACARE-EVEN-IF-I-GOTTA-VOTE-BY-PROXY”
Jesse Jackson Jr. Alcohol Addiction? Congressman's Office Denies Report Of Arizona Facility Treatment
Posted: 07/11/2012 6:16 pm Updated: 07/11/2012 10:35 pm
Updated story
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) is being treated for a mood disorder, according to astatement released by his office.
From Jackson's doctor, via CNN:
"The Congressman is receiving intensive medical treatment at a residential treatment facility for a mood disorder. He is responding positively to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery."
Earlier reports about Jackson's condition suggested he was hospitalized due to alcoholism.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell tweeted that Jackson was staying in a rehabilitation facility in Arizona where he was reportedly receiving treatment for alcoholism.
That initial report claimed Jackson was also receiving treatment for addiction, but NBC Chicago later reported the congressman is only being treated for alcoholism.
Jackson's office subsequently denied the NBC report, according to a tweet from ABC's John Parkinson.
Sandi Jackson, Jackson's wife, further clarified to NBC Chicago that her husband is not in rehab, but did not provide additional details. Rick Bryant, a Jackson aide, told Talking Points Memo the NBC report is “not true!”
Jackson, 47, went on medical leave June 10 but did not publicly disclose his decision until two weeks later. Last week, Jackson's office released a statement reporting that the congressman was being treated at an inpatient medical facility for "physical and emotional ailments" that are "more serious" than initially believed.
Earlier Wednesday, both House Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) contributed to mounting pressure for an update on Jackson.
On Tuesday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jackson's father, told an NBC affiliate in Chicago that it was "inappropriate" for him to disclose his son's medical condition.
The Chicago Democrat is currently the subject of an ethics investigation related to Illinois' imprisoned former governor Rod Blagojevich, though Jackson has never been charged with any wrongdoing.
This is a developing story.
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Jesse Jackson Jr. Medical Condition
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Do You Have a Drinking Problem?
10 Warning Signs of Alcohol Abuse1. You drink specifically to become intoxicated.
2. You prefer to drink when you’re alone or keep your alcohol consumption a secret.
3. You drink alcohol as a way to deal with or escape from your problems.
4. You stash alcohol in unlikely places.
5. You become irritable if alcohol is unavailable when you want a drink.
6. You have a ritual of drinking at certain times of the day and become upset if this ritual is disturbed.
7. You have lost interest in the hobbies and activities you used to enjoy.
8. Problems have arisen at work, school, home, or with the legal system because of your drinking.
9. You frequently experience memory loss or blackouts as a result of heavy drinking.
10. You become annoyed when friends, family members or loved ones say you have a drinking problem.
If two or more of these statements sound like you, the bad news is that you likely do have an alcohol abuse problem. However, this doesn’t necessarily indicate an alcohol addiction. According to the NIAA, alcoholics will also experience these four symptoms:
4 Warning Signs of Alcoholism
1. An increasing tolerance to alcohol.
2. The inability to stop drinking once you start.
3. Strong urges or cravings to drink.
4. Experiencing withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, nausea, shakiness, and cold sweats when you don’t have a drink.
14 Signs of Alcohol Abuse
By Jennifer Gruenemay, LifeScript Staff WriterPublished July 12, 2012
Here are the phone numbers of three alcoholism support groups that can help put you on the path to full recovery:
Alcoholics Anonymous
alcoholics-anonymous.org
(212) 870-3400
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
niaaa.nih.gov
(301) 443-3860
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependencies
ncadd.org
(212) 269-7797
Sign up to the LifeScript newsletters below and get a FREE daily dose of news, advice, free samples, coupons and tips for better living, as well as LifeScript Daily
VIEW 35 COMMENTS related links- The Ugly Side of Binge Drinking
- Recovering Alcoholic Shares Her Struggle
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Many people who are living with alcoholism don’t even know it. Social acceptance may play a large role. After all, getting drunk is a rite of passage into adulthood, and it is hardly a surprise that many teenagers pass that milestone before they reach the legal drinking age.
Knocking back a few too many is often considered part of the fun of having a drink: Go ahead, let go of your inhibitions – after all, you won’t remember it in the morning.
Unfortunately, when alcohol use becomes alcohol abuse, the problem is much more serious than a pounding headache. It can escalate into a full-blown addiction with serious, even deadly, repercussions.
Next: What is alcohol abuse?
Common Women's Health Mistakes
9 Bad Health Habits to Break Now
The life of a modern woman – who balances work, home, friends, and family while making it all look effortless – comes with some h
Walking In High Heels
Fashion over function, right? But no matter how comfortable you claim your stilettos are, know that this habit could be killing your feet.Women who walk around all day in high heels are more prone to injury than those who keep their feet flat on the ground , a recent study at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, found. Sharon Kolasinski, MD, a rheumatologist in Camden, N.J., says that all those hours in heels put undo stress on your hips, knees, and back, and therefore, create a health risk.
Break the habit: Reserve heels for special occasions where you’ll only wear them for just a few hours. If you know you’ll be walking any distance, wear a pair of flattering and functional flats, and change into your heels when you arrive.
Carrying Too Much Baggage
Women are notorious backpack rats, throwing everything in their favorite tote — makeup, magazines, gym shoes, wallet, cell phone, keys, water bottle, electronics, snacks, and more. But if you’re carrying the weight of (your) world on your shoulders, you could be putting your whole upper body at risk.“Packing it all in could knock you off balance and stress your neck, shoulders, and upper back,” Kolasinski says. The American Chiropractic Association recommends that your tote weigh no more than 10 percent of your body weight, fully loaded.
Break the habit: Learn to travel light. Pack only the essentials when you leave the house every day. If you must lug around a large purse or a gym bag on a daily basis, go for a backpack with lots of pockets to help you distribute the weight as evenly as you can.
Shying Away From Strength Training
Many women skip the weight rack at the gym for fear of bulking up. Not to worry, says the American College of Sports Medicine, the high levels of estrogen in your body will prevent you from looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, no matter how much weight you lift . Strength training is so essential because it protects your joint and bone health, helps you tone, and according to some research, even wards off cognitive decline, dementia, and diabetes, so don’t be afraid to reach for that heavier weight.Break the habit: Add strength training twice a week to your workout routine, using resistance bands, free weights, or your body weight to work your muscles to fatigue.
Juggling Too Much at Home
You’re trying to put a load of wash in the dryer, get dinner on the table, help your son with his math homework, and answer a call from your boss all in the 20 minutes since you walked in the door. No wonder you’re stressed! Working moms spend 48 hours per week multitasking, and this bad health habit leaves them feeling overwhelmed, overstressed, and exhausted, a study at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Michigan State University found.Break the habit: Prioritize — and realize you can’t do it all, at least not simultaneously! Asking your spouse and kids to pitch in with housework and child care duties can also help alleviate some of the pressure.
Lying About Your Diet
You enjoy a large slice of chocolate cake after dinner, but later in the evening, you’re telling yourself it was only a tiny sliver. You overeat at lunch and promise yourself you won’t eat a big dinner. At the end of your meal, you swear that whatever you ate will be the last thing you eat today.Sound familiar? Women lie to themselves about their eating habits an average of 474 times a year, a British survey says, which could cause weight to creep on and unhealthy eating habits to develop.
Break the habit: If you’re trying to lose weight, journal your calories to stay honest. If your goal is health, monitor your hunger and fullness signals to determine if your body needs to eat or if you’re eating out of habit or emotion. If it’s the latter, take steps to avoid emotional eating and skip the diet lies.
Putting Everyone Else First
You’ve got to run to the drugstore for your mom. Gather the files your boss needs for his meeting. Drop your husband’s shirts off at the cleaners. Pick up your son from soccer practice. Work a fundraiser at your daughter’s school. But nowhere in your packed schedule is a minute to yourself.“Women are prone to putting everyone else’s needs first and neglecting themselves,” says Christy Matta, MA, a dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and mindfulness trainer and author ofThe Stress Response. This neglect leads to physical as well as emotional health problems — more than half of women say they feel unhealthy, and one in five says it’s a struggle to be healthy because they put themselves last, a poll of more than 1,000 women by the health communications firm TeleVox found.
Break the habit: Make a list of your needs and wants. Matta suggests identifying those that are high priority and allowing yourself time to meet them, even if it means saying no or compromising with the people who are demanding your time.
Cutting Out All Snacks
With all the negative news about snack foods like chips and candy bars, you might think you’re helping to manage your weight by cutting out between-meal eating. But snacking on good foods isn’t a health risk; in fact, it has merit for women’s health. A study of overweight post-menopausal women, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, found they had more weight loss success when they had one to two healthy snacks a day — popcorn, low-fat yogurt, almonds, carrots, and berries, for example — especially if those snacks were in the afternoon, breaking up that long stretch between lunch and dinner.Break the habit: Bring two small 100- to 200-calorie snacks with you to fight hunger in between meals and prevent overeating.
Skipping Sleep
The average American sleeps only 6.9 hours a night, even though 8 hours of shut-eye is ideal for health. Working moms may have it even worse: After analyzing diaries kept by more than 18,000 working couples who were parents, sociologist Sarah Burgard of the University of Michigan found that, even if mom works all day, she is 2.5 times more likely than dad to get up in the night to quell a child who cries out. All that sleep deprivation can wreak havoc on women’s health and can exacerbate certain health conditions, decrease cognitive function, and cause weight gain.Break the habit: Make better sleep a priority . Get more restorative sleep by going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, even Saturdays and Sundays; keeping your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet; and reserving your bed for sleeping and sex, not watching TV or working on your laptop. If you have small children, negotiate with your partner about who gets up with the baby.
Always Apologizing
Do you find yourself saying things like, “I’m sorry I interrupted you,” “I’m sorry, but I just had a question …” or “I’m sorry I didn’t do that for you”? Women tend to over-apologize, Matta says, and definitely apologize more than men, a study at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, confirmed. The problem with this bad habit is that it can lower your self-esteem. “If you’re constantly apologizing, you can feel as though you’re just taking up space in the world,” Matta says.Break the habit: “Become aware of what you’re doing,” she says. “Realize you have a right to your opinions, too.” Take a moment to reflect before you start a sentence with “I’m sorry.” Apologize if you were wrong and made a mistake, but don’t apologize for something you didn’t do or don’t need to do.
James Ammons, FAMU President, Resigns Amid Hazing Death Lawsuit, Financial Problems
By GARY FINEOUT 07/11/12 08:35 PM ET
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FAMU Hazing, Florida A&M University, James Ammons, Famu, Florida a&m, Fraternity and Sorority Hazing, Hazing Scandal, James Ammons Resigns, Robert Champion Case, College News
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The president of Florida A&M University abruptly resigned Wednesday, the latest in a series of blows to the college and its famed marching band following the hazing death of a drum major.
James Ammons' announcement appeared to take the college's trustees by surprise and marked an about-face from his previous pledge to stay on the job "until the final bell rings" – despite a vote of no-confidence last month.
The resignation takes effect Oct. 11, during the same month that 11 defendants go to trial in the November hazing death of Robert Champion. The embattled president said he plans to exercise a provision in his contract that allows him to remain at the school as a member of the faculty.
The trustees voted to hold an emergency meeting Monday to discuss a replacement and the specific terms of Ammons' resignation
Ammons' departure is the latest fallout from Champion's death, which also led to the suspension of its famed Marching 100 band until 2013 and the springtime resignation of the band's veteran director.
Eleven FAMU band members face felony hazing charges, while two others face misdemeanor counts for alleged roles in Champion's hazing. They have pleaded not guilty.
Dreams of becoming a member of the Marching 100 drew many students to apply to the university. The band's once-vibrant performances gained it admission to Super Bowls and presidential inaugurations and pulled in huge crowds at football games.
An alumnus and former top administrator of the school, Ammons was first hired to help steady FAMU in the wake of financial woes and threats to its accreditation.
But Champion's death on Nov. 19 put a spotlight on a hazing culture that he and other top FAMU officials have been unable to eradicate.
Ammons did not explain why he chose Oct. 11 as his final day, or why he chose to announce his resignation Wednesday, the same day Champion's parents, Robert and Pamela Champion, sued the university. The two events appeared to be unrelated.
In a letter to the chairman of the university's governing board, Ammons said his decision came after "considerable thought, introspection and conversations with my family."
He acknowledged "new challenges that must be met head on" at the university, but his letter did not mention Champion directly.
Still, the Champions applauded the move.
"Before the school can move forward, they have to do house cleaning," said Pamela Champion. "That means taking care of the entities that are there in order to prevent something like this from happening again."
Ammons' decision clearly caught some trustees off guard, despite their recent criticism of his job performance. One trustee called it "unexpected" and "unanticipated."
"I am saddened by President Ammons' decision to resign, but it is his choice to do so," said FAMU Board Chairman Solomon Badger. "Given all that has transpired, it seems to be in the best interest of the university and I applaud him for putting FAMU ahead of his personal goals."
FAMU math professor Calvin Robinson called Ammons' resignation "the worst news I've heard."
"I'm a second-generation Rattler," he said, referring to the nickname given to school alumni and students. "This is like the darkest day. ... Ever since Nov. 19 I saw this pressure coming, but I was hoping they'd realize the better strength of this man."
Given the intense pressure he had been under, Ammons' move was not completely unexpected.
Gov. Rick Scott at one point had recommended that Ammons be suspended from the job while investigations of Robert Champion's hazing were under way, a move that brought a nighttime protest outside the governor's mansion from hundreds of FAMU students.
The school's trustees gave Ammons a vote of no-confidence in June, after questioning his leadership in several areas, including what some saw as his lax attitude toward hazing and management of the band prior to Champion's death.
At the time, Ammons said he would stay on the job, and top alumni with the school criticized board members for bowing to pressure from outside the university.
Champion died after being beaten by fellow band members during a hazing ritual aboard a bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a football game against the school's archrival.
Ammons suspended the band right after Champion's death. He announced in May that the suspension would stay in effect for at least one more school year as officials moved ahead with trying to eliminate the hazing culture that surrounded the band. The president also recommended new stringent eligibility requirements for membership in the band.
Veteran band director Julian White was fired last year, but then his dismissal was placed on hold while the criminal investigation unfolded. He insisted that he did nothing wrong and fought for months to get reinstated. He changed his mind in May and decided to retire after it was revealed that at least 100 band members were not students when Champion died.
Hours before Ammons' announcement Wednesday, Champion's parents added the university to a lawsuit that already targeted the bus's driver.
The Champions claim Florida A&M University officials did not take action to stop hazing even though a school dean proposed suspending the band because of hazing concerns three days before their son died.
School officials also allowed nonstudents to play in the band, fell short in enforcing anti-hazing policies and did not keep a close eye on band members to prevent hazing, the lawsuit said.
School officials "failed to properly supervise, train, discipline and control the FAMU Band," the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit seeks damages greater than $15,000, but does not give a specific amount. The university in a statement said it knew the lawsuit was coming but had no further comment.
___
Associated Press writers Brent Kallestad in Tallahassee, and Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report.
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READ HOW WE THOUGHT CHAMPION’S LIFE COULD HAVE BEEN SPARED AND THAT HIS DEATH WAS NEEDLESS REMINDER OF HOW MUCH OUR CULTURE HAS CHANGED SINCE 1998:
The Champion “Anti-bullying” Act of 2012: mandatory implementation of Peer Mediation Programs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12744tU65064xLEPL5YlHrqlnYyLocu6RJIsLupFupsc/edit?pli=1&hl=en_US
Aja Brooks shared a link.
Vera Wang getting a divorce after 23yrs., so do you still want to buy a wedding dress from her? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/vera-wang-arthur-becker-separate-_n_1664277.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008
Vera Wang Splits From Husband Of 23 Years
www.huffingtonpost.com
In an ironic twist, the woman behind every little girl's wedding fantasies, Vera Wang, is separating from her husband Arthur Becker, reports Women's Wear Daily. The president of Wang's company, Mario Grauso, said in a statement, "Vera Wang and Arthur Becker have mutually and amicably agreed to separ...
DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR COMMUNITY? THE GOVERNMENT? MAKE YOUR MARK ON THE WORLD? DON’T JUST SIT BACK AND SAY NOTHING,
GET POLITICALLY INVOLVED BY USING YOUR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY!!
BECOME A LOBBYIST!
FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BECOME A LOBBYIST AND FOR A FULL LIST OF LINKS FROM THIS ORIGINAL POST, GO TO THE LINK
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