Thursday, August 9, 2012

ANNUAL 2013 BUDGET REVIEW AND ECONOMIC SUMMIT EDITION 8-9-2012: WHY THE BEST JOB CREATION PLANS MEAN THAT ROMNEY'S MONEY IS LONGER, STRONGER, AND APPARENTLY MORE ETHICAL THAN OBAMA'S: THE SUPER DUPER ANTI-OBAMA BOYCOTT STUNTS OBAMA FUNDRAISING $25 MILLION, WITH ROMNEY OUT-FUNDRAISING HIM FOR 3 MONTHS STRAIGHT, THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR CRISIS BLOOMS TO AL QAEDA CONFLICT, SEQUESTER IMPACTS/UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCTION PROGRESS...

  
ANNUAL 2013 BUDGET REVIEW AND ECONOMIC SUMMIT EDITION 8-9-2012: WHY THE BEST JOB CREATION PLANS MEAN THAT ROMNEY'S MONEY IS LONGER, STRONGER, AND APPARENTLY MORE ETHICAL THAN OBAMA'S: THE SUPER DUPER ANTI-OBAMA BOYCOTT STUNTS OBAMA FUNDRAISING $25 MILLION, WITH ROMNEY OUT-FUNDRAISING HIM FOR 3 MONTHS STRAIGHT, THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR CRISIS BLOOMS TO AL QAEDA CONFLICT, SEQUESTER IMPACTS/UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCTION PROGRESS...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MaXVHea03mx5YHnq4q107as6lPPl3AuLZLQV3C1t1y8/edit


Aja Brooks shared Mitt Romney's photo.
Mitt Romney's "Plan for a Stronger Middle Class" will help restore America as the best place in the world to find a job, start a business, or hire a worker. Sign the petition if you're ready for a jobs plan that works. http://mi.tt/Nxir5U
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SEE HOW THE TEA PARTY IS WORKING NOW WITH MITT ROMNEY, BEFORE THE ELECTION TO REDUCE UNEMPLOYMENT LOCALLY AND PREPARE THE WAY FOR HIS PRESIDENCY:


***THIS REPORT WILL BE UPDATED AND AVAILABLE LATER TODAY, BUT STATES ALREADY COVERED ARE: NEVADA, RHODE ISLAND, CALIFORNIA, NEW JERSEY, SOUTH CAROLINA, NORTH CAROLINA, D.C., GEORGIA, NEW YORK, MISSISSIPPI, ILLINOIS, MICHIGAN, AND FLORIDA.

'Real' Unemployment Rate Shows Far More Jobless

Published: Thursday, 2 Aug 2012 | 2:52 PM ETText Size
CNBC.com Senior Writer


While the national unemployment rate paints a grim picture, a look at individual states and their so-called real jobless rates becomes even more troubling.



**
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images



The government's most widely publicized unemployment rate measures only those who are out of a job and currently looking for work. It does not count discouraged potential employees who have quit looking, nor those who are underemployed — wanting to work full-time but forced to work part-time.
For that count, the government releases a separate number called the "U-6," which provides a more complete tally of how many people really are out of work.
The numbers in some cases are startling.
Consider: Nevada's U-6 rate is 22.1 percent, up from just 7.6 percent in 2007. Economically troubled California has a 20.3 percent real rate, while Rhode Island is at 18.3 percent, more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007.
Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9 percent though off its record peak of 17.2 percent in October 2009.
Only three states — Nebraska (9.1 percent), South Dakota (8.6 percent) and North Dakota (6.1 percent) — have U-6 rates under 10 percent, according to research from RBC Capital Markets.
Election battleground states paint a picture not much more flattering. Florida's U-6 number is an ugly 17 percent, though Pennsylvania and Ohio are both around 14 percent, below the national U-6 average.
The numbers come as the government prepares to release its latest reading, the July nonfarm payrolls number, on Friday. Economists expect the report show about 100,000 jobs created for the month and the traditional "U-3" rate to hold steady at 8.2 percent.
"The lack of improvement in state U-6 rates continues to be troubling," Chris Mauro, head of US Municipals Strategy at RBC, said in a research note. "While down from recent peaks, state U-6 levels remain dramatically higher than they were in 2007 and 2008."
Mauro used the numbers to demonstrate that investing in municipal bonds remains a challenge because high real unemployment rates will be a drain on local finances.
"We remain concerned about the corrosive influence that these stubbornly high U-6 rates may have on both consumer sentiment and state and local tax revenues," he said. "At current levels, these U-6 rates will continue to be a drag on credit quality."
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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

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 !!!!

THIS WEEK WE FOCUS ON: OREGON, WASHINGTON, KENTUCKY, COLORADO, AND ARIZONA....
MY DON’T YOU THINK THAT UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNHAPPINESS WITH GOVERNMENT PERPETUATES VIOLENT CRIME?


NOW, I WON’T GO SO FAR AS TO SAY THAT OBAMA IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE OR INDIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR MASS SHOOTINGS, (EVEN THOUGH THERE IS A LONG-RUNNING CONSPIRACY THAT HE’S OPPORTUNISTICALLY USING IT TO JUSTIFY VIOLATING 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS OR MARTIAL-LAW LIKE GUN CONTROL), UNLIKE ABC’S DIANE SAWYER AND BRIAN ROSS DID BLAME  THE TEA PARTY FOR JARED LOUGHNER AND JAMES HOLMES.... WE HAVE HAD 3 OVER THE PAST YEAR OR SO, WITH A LEGALLY PURCHASED WEAPON, A SYMPTOM THAT UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNHAPPINESS WITH GOVERNMENT HAS DEFINITELY BEEN A LONG-RUNNING THEME OF OBAMA’S DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP.

BILL CLINTON’S TEST WAS ERIC ROBERT RUDOLPH AND THE TRADE CENTER BOMBING, THEN BUSH JR.’S MEGATEST WAS 9/11.... THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, WHO CLAIMED IT WOULD CUT TIES WITH BUSH JR. POLICIES THAT REEKED OF IMPERIALISM AND UNCONSTITUTIONALLY FUNDED WAR, HAS BEEN MET WITH A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT ONCE A MONTH, SCRUTINY OF NON-CITIZEN STATUS, AND EARTH RUMBLING VIOLENCE IN RESPONSE TO HIS ADMINISTRATION.

SEE WHY WE CARE SO MUCH ABOUT REVERSING UNEMPLOYMENT?

  • IT’S NOT SO WE CAN FUND OBAMACARE TO MEDICATE CRAZIES AND ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH OBAMA OR BUYING INSURANCE, SO WE CAN THROW THEM IN JAIL WITH THE VIOLENT PSYCHOS AND MEDICATE THEM TOO, WHICH COSTS OODLES OF TAX DOLLARS AND TOTALLY VIOLATES THE CONSTITUTION...
BUT IT HAS BEEN TRIED AND FAILED.
Tea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
@NancyPelosi @SenateDems can keep their dirty water and rhetoric-champagne is for Repubs. who'll be drinking it in November with@MittRomney
12:11 PM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details
Silly @NancyPelosi everyone knows brains are for smart people: I pick up trash to keep water clean and boil my water for tea.
12:10 PM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details

REMEMBER HOW UNDER BUSH JR. WHAT STARTED AS JOKES ABOUT CALLING THE GOVERNMENT ‘BIG BROTHER’, AND HOW PEOPLE COMPARED THE PROBATION NATION CREATED BY THE PATRIOT ACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT BEHAVING AS A BIG BULLY, TAKING YOUR ALLOWANCE EVERY DAY AND FORCING YOU TO MAKE HIS LUNCH FOR SEVEN YEARS??

WELL, THAT HAS ABSOLUTELY MUSHROOMED OUT OF CONTROL OVER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: THE EXPLODING DEFICIT HAS GIVEN THE GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER THE ECONOMY TO WHERE THEY DON’T HAVE TO PUT PEOPLE ON PROBATION, BECAUSE THEY CAN’T PAY IT WITH JOBS THAT DON’T EXIST AND NO ONE CAN AFFORD TO PARTY WITH THE DOLLAR ONLY WORTH $.33. NOT ONLY HAS THIS STRONG-ARMED CURRENCY AND A LIQUID INVESTMENT MARKET EVAPORATION TO BECOME QUICKER, SALES TAX REVENUE IS DOWN, EXPENSES ARE UP, AND CONSUMERS FEEL PINCHED OR SOCKED IN THE GUT EVERY TIME THEY BUY SOMETHING.
UNDER OBAMA, WHOSE ADMINISTRATION HAS HAD NO LEGITIMATE SIGNATURE AUTHORITY TO ENFORCE LAWS, WE HAVE SEEN THE REAL CULTURE WAR OF HIS CONTROL OVER AMERICANS. THIS HAS GONE WAY BEYOND BIG BROTHER KNOWS BEST, TO DICTATING YOUR OWN PRIVATE CHOICES:

1) WHO YOU SHOULD MARRY AND WHAT YOU SHOULD ACCEPT
2) WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT
3) HOW YOU SHOULD RAISE YOUR KIDS

IT USED TO BE THAT THIS WAS SACRED AND PRIVATE TERRITORY WHEN IT CAME TO PUBLIC POLICY.
I APPLAUD THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, FOR CLARIFYING THEIR PURPOSE AND MISSION IN THESE CONFUSING TIMES, BY STANDING UP TO OBAMA AND DECLARING FLATLY THAT THEY EXIST TO BE BOY SCOUTS, NOT TO SCOUT BOYS!

THIS HAS BEEN VERY PERTURBING, GIVEN OBAMA’S SORDID GAY PAST, WITH HIS MARITAL INDISCRETIONS AND POLITICAL MARRIAGE TO MICHELLE , SO I’M VERY HAPPY THAT THE BOY SCOUTS STATE THAT THEY ARE THERE TO MAINTAIN AND TEACH HONOR, NOT PROMOTE A HOOKUP FOR AWKWARD GAY BOYS.

White House: Obama opposes Boy Scouts' ban on gaysBy DAVID CRARY | Associated Press – 19 hrs ago


RELATED CONTENT


  • President Barack Obama speaks at …
NEW YORK (AP) — When it comes to gays and the Boy Scouts,President Barack Obama and the youth organization he serves ashonorary president have agreed to disagree.
The White House on Wednesday said Obama opposes the youth organization's recently reaffirmed policy of excluding gays as members and adult leaders. He has no plans to resign as honorary president, White House spokesman Shin Inouye said.
The Scouts said in a statement that they respect Obama's opinion and believe that "good people" can disagree on the subject and still work together to "accomplish the common good."
American presidents have been honorary presidents of the Boy Scouts for a century. Obama becamethe Scouts' honorary president in March 2009, shortly after taking office
Last month, after a confidential two-year review, the Scouts reaffirmed their longstanding policy, which has been the target of numerous protest campaigns.
For three weeks, the White House didn't comment on the Scouts' decision. On Wednesday, the press office issued an email to The Associated Press on the subject.
"The president believes the Boy Scouts is a valuable organization that has helped educate and build character in American boys for more than a century," the White House statement said. "He also opposes discrimination in all forms, and as such opposes this policy that discriminates on basis of sexual orientation."
The Boy Scouts responded with a brief statement from their national headquarters in Irving, Texas.
"The Boy Scouts of America respects the opinions of President Obama and appreciates his recognition that Scouting is a valuable organization," it said. "We believe that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together to accomplish the common good."
Obama is a staunch supporter of gay-rights, even coming out in support of same-sex marriage earlier this year. Various liberal organizations have called on him to distance the White House from the Boy Scouts because of its exclusionary membership policy.
Two years ago, the Boy Scouts invited Obama to appear at its 100th anniversary jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia. The president sent a videotaped message, but the White House said he was unable to attend because of out-of-town commitments to tape a TV appearance and attend Democratic fundraisers.
Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, has not spoken publicly about the Boy Scouts' policy in recent days. A campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, told the AP that he still stands by his support of the Scouts as he noted in a 1994 political debate in Massachusetts.
"I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue," Romney said then. "I feel that all people should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation."
@yahoonews on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook


ROMNEY’S STRONGEST SELLING POINT TO VOTERS IS THAT A
JOB PROVIDES FOR PERSONAL SECURITY AS WELL AS NATIONAL SECURITY, AS WELL AS WORKING AS A FORCE FIELD AGAINST GOVERNMENT COW PIE....

PEOPLE ARE PUTTING THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS ON ROMNEY !!!

Romney Outraises Obama By $35 Million In June

04:43 am
July 10, 2012

by MARA LIASSON

Listen to the Story

The latest fundraising numbers are in for the two presidential campaigns, and the amounts are eye-popping. President Obama and the Democratic Party raised $71 million, which is an enormous haul. But it was dwarfed by Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee, which together raised $106 million in the month of June.
For the second month in a row, Romney raised more money than Obama — $17 million more in May and $35 million more in June. When you count all the Republican independent groups and superPACsS, Team Romney is on its way to outspending Obama and his Democratic allies by 2 or 3 to 1 — a spending disparity many political operatives think is big enough to make a difference in a close race.
That has the Obama campaign ringing the alarm bells. In an email, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said, "If Romney's fundraising continues at this pace we could lose the election."
Reached by phone in Chicago, campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt had a number of responses. The first likened Obama to George W. Bush in 2004 — an unusual analogy for the Obama campaign.
I DON’T SEE HOW THAT IS AN UNLIKELY ANALOGY MARA, BECAUSE OBAMA HAS REPEATED ALL OF BUSH JR.’S POLICIES, CONTINUING THE DEBT FROM THE THINGS HE SAID HE’D CHANGE
1) END WAR
2) LEGALIZE MARIJUANA... USELESS ENFORCEMENT COSTS FOR NON-VIOLENT OFFENSES
3) <POOF> FREE HEALTH CARE/NO HIGHER TAXES
"Sen. Kerry outraised Bush every month after he clinched the nomination," LaBolt explained. "Right when a challenger clinches a nomination, there are donors who traditionally give to the party's nominee who don't during the primary process.   
There may have been some low-hanging fruit here."
Then there was the explanation for why the growing money gap may not matter.
"This campaign relied on early investments in building up our ground organization and ground infrastructure. That's something the Republicans have largely taken a pass on this cycle. They're counting they can win this thing on the air, and we're building the largest grassroots network on the ground," he said.
And then, the SOS: "This is a clarion call for our supporters to invest in our organization. That's how we're going to answer this," LaBolt added.
The Romney campaign's message was lot simpler. Romney's national financial chairman, Spencer Zwick, said the June total was a statement from voters that they want a change of direction in Washington.

August 6, 2012 8:47 AM

The Romney Hood Fairy Tale

The false, invented analysis behind Obama's tax claims.

Comments (1002)

As he escalates his class war re-election campaign, President Obama has taken to calling Mitt Romney's economic plan "Robin Hood in reverse" or "Romney Hood." The charge is that even though Mr. Romney is proposing to cut tax rates for everybody across the board, Mr. Romney will finance this by imposing a tax increase on the middle class. His evidence is a single study by the Tax Policy Center, a liberal think tank that has long opposed cutting income tax rates.
The political left always says Daddy Warbucks gets all the tax-cut money. So this is hardly news, except that the media are treating this joint Brookings Institution and Urban Institute analysis as if it's nonpartisan gospel. In fact, it's a highly ideological tract based on false assumptions, incomplete data and dishonest analysis. In other words, it is custom made for the Obama campaign.
Editorial board member Steve Moore on President Obama's claim that Mitt Romney's tax plan would raise taxes on middle and lower class earners.
By the way, even the Tax Policy Center admits that "we do not score Governor Romney's plan directly as certain components of his plan are not specified in sufficient detail." But no matter, the study plows ahead to analyze features of the Romney plan that aren't even in it.

***

The heart of Mr. Romney's actual proposal is a 20% rate cut for anyone who pays income taxes. This means, for example, that the 10% rate would fall to 8%, the 35% rate would fall to 28% and all the brackets in between would fall as well. The corporate tax would fall to 25% from 35%.
The plan says these cuts would be financed in a revenue-neutral way. First, by "broadening the tax base," which means reducing or eliminating tax deductions and loopholes as in the tax reform of 1986. The Romney campaign doesn't specify which deductions—no campaign ever does—but it has been explicit in saying that the burden would fall most on higher tax brackets. So in return for paying lower rates, the wealthy get fewer deductions.
Second, the Romney campaign says it expects to increase revenues by increasing the rate of economic growth to 4%, up from less than 2% this year and in 2011. (Separately from tax reform, but clearly relevant to budget deficits, Mr. Romney says he'd gradually reduce spending to 20% of the economy from the Obama heights of 24%-25%.)
The class warriors at the Tax Policy Center add all of this up and issue the headline-grabbing opinion that it is "mathematically impossible" to reduce tax rates and close loopholes in a way that raises the same amount of revenue. They do so in part by arbitrarily claiming that Mr. Romney would never eliminate certain loopholes (such as for municipal bond interest), though the candidate has said no such thing.
Based on this invention, they then postulate that Mr. Romney would have to do something he also doesn't propose—which is raise taxes on those earning less than $200,000. In the Obama campaign's political alchemy, this becomes "Romney Hood" and a $2,000 tax increase.
The Tax Policy Center also ignores the history of tax cutting. Every major marginal rate income tax cut of the last 50 years—1964, 1981, 1986 and 2003—was followed by an unexpectedly large increase in tax revenues, a surge in taxes paid by the rich, and a more progressive tax code—i.e., the share of taxes paid by the richest 1% rose.
For example, from 1980 to 2007, three tax rate cuts brought the highest marginal tax rate to 35% from 70%. Congressional Budget Office data show that when the tax rate was 70%, the richest 1% paid 18% of all federal income taxes. With the rate down to 35% in 2008, the share of taxes paid by the rich doubled to 40%.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986, which chopped the top income tax rate to 28% from 50%, was probably most similar to the Romney tax proposal because both were designed to lower rates and broaden the tax base. CBO and Martin Feldstein of the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the 1986 tax reform increased the share of taxes paid by the rich (to about 25% from 21% before the reform), in part because their reported taxable income rose as they lost tax shelters. Many businesses also changed their tax status from corporations to Subchapter S companies, thus paying taxes at the individual rate. This also increased the reported share of income declared, and tax paid, by the rich.
So on four separate occasions what TPC says is "mathematically impossible"—cutting tax rates and making the tax system more progressive—actually happened. Hats off to the scholars at TPC: Their study manages to claim that what happens in real life can't happen in theory.
The TPC analysis also fails to acknowledge how highly dependent the current tax system is on the very rich. As the Tax Foundation explains in a recent report based on CBO data: "The top 20 percent of households pay 94 percent of federal income taxes. The bottom 40 percent have a negative income tax rate, and the middle quintile pays close to zero."
This reality is treated as a state secret in Washington because it refutes Mr. Obama's campaign theme that the rich are undertaxed. The same crowd that has been howling that the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes now touts a study concluding that cutting taxes will only benefit the rich. Well, which is it?

***

Another reality is that more than one-third of Americans pay no income tax. Many in this group contribute payroll taxes, but for most their only connection to the income tax is to receive refundable tax credits (in the form of a check) that are effectively government payments. This is the basis for the Tax Policy Center's wild claim that the Romney plan raises taxes on those who earn less than $30,000—a group that now has a negative tax liability.
The claim is that reducing various refundable tax credits that are cash payments from the government are a "tax increase." By this logic, reducing unemployment benefits or food stamps would also be a tax increase. Even the CBO and Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation acknowledge that refundable tax credits are government outlays not tax cuts.
The study's claims also rest on the assumption that tax cutting doesn't increase economic growth. The study's authors expose their own bias on this point by asserting that "the effects of tax rate reductions are likely to be small or even negative" over 10 years.
It's certainly true that not all tax cuts have the same economic impact. But nearly all economists save for the most partisan liberals agree that cutting tax rates at the margin has the most bang for the buck. So how can the Tax Policy Center claim that cutting tax rates to increase incentives to work and invest has a "negative" impact? Not even the Keynesian economists who gave us the failed stimulus plan argue that the effect of tax cuts is negative.
Harvard economist Dale Jorgenson recently testified before the Senate Finance Committee that "a tax reform similar to the Reagan effort of 1986" would raise economic output over the long term "by $7 trillion in 2011 dollars."


Reuters
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney
You can argue that Mr. Romney's expectation of 4% GDP growth is too rosy, but the recent White House mid-session budget review predicts 4% growth in both 2014 and 2015 despite a huge tax increase next year. The Romney plan is far more realistic than that wish in the dark.
The Tax Policy Center's claim that it's impossible to make the numbers add up is also refuted by President Obama's own Simpson-Bowles deficit commission report. The Romney plan of cutting the top tax rate to 28% and closing loopholes to pay for it is conceptually very close to what Simpson-Bowles recommended.
And here's the kicker: Simpson-Bowles assumed that the top rate could be cut to 28%, loopholes could be closed, revenues as a share of GDP would rise to 20% and the deficit could be cut by close to $1.5 trillion. The difference is that the Romney plan caps tax revenues at about 18% of GDP so that taxes don't have to rise on the middle class. If Mr. Romney's numbers don't add up, then neither do those in the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles plan that the media treat as the Holy Grail of deficit reduction.

***

What the Obama campaign and its acolytes at the Tax Policy Center are really saying is that tax reform that reduces rates and makes all income groups better off is impossible. This is a far cry from what Democrats used to believe, going back to Jack Kennedy in 1964 and in the 1980s when prominent Democrats Bill Bradley, Dick Gephardt and Don Rostenkowski helped to write the 1986 tax reform.
The Obama Democrats, by contrast, favor income redistribution and raising rates on the wealthy for their own partisan political sake, no matter the damage to growth, the cost in lost revenue, or a less progressive tax code as the rich exploit loopholes.
The great irony is that the candidate most likely to raise taxes on the middle class is Mr. Obama. He could raise every tax on the rich he proposes and still not come up with enough revenue to finance the increases in spending he wants in a second term. Where do you think he'll turn then?
A version of this article appeared August 8, 2012, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Romney Hood Fairy Tale.

Obama Sniffles Over Michelle Obama's Not "Getting Paid" After 16th 'Free Vacation' in Three Years? (Youtube)

August 9th, 2012


Obama Sniffles Over Michelle Obama's Not "Getting Paid" After 16th 'Free Vacation' in Three Years? (Youtube)

Posted by: Barry Secrest
Published on August 9th, 2012 @ 09:53:41 am , using 351 words
"...I wanna make sure that when she's working she is getting paid the same as men, I gotta say that First Ladies right now don't, even though that's a tough job!"
Conservative Refocus
Barry Secrest
Indeed, Mr. President, one supposes that 16 vacations in three years on America's dime should easily be pay enough for the First Lady, should it not?
In fact, whatever happened to your constant yammering over public service in favor of going to work for "some big corporation,"  anyway?
Here is a listing of Michelle Obama's "not being paid like a man" exploits:
First compiled by The Washington Examiner:
-- President's Day 2012, Michelle and the girls go to Aspen to ski.
-- Christmas 2011, the first family goes to Hawaii for an extended vacation.
-- Summer 2011, the family visits Martha's Vineyard, Mass., for the annual beach break.
-- June 2011, the first lady, her mother and daughters travel to South Africaand Botswana.
-- President's Day 2011, the first lady and first daughters travel to Vail to ski.
-- Christmas 2010, the first family goes to Hawaii.
-- August 2010, post-BP oil spill beach trip to Panama City Beach, Fla.
-- August 2010, Obama travels to Chicago alone for a weekend 49th birthday bash (and fundraiser).
-- August 2010, the first lady and daughter Sasha travel to Spain for a mother-daughter vacation.
-- August 2010, the family spends summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard.
-- July 2010, the first family goes to Mount Desert Island, Maine.
-- May 2010, the first family takes a four-day trip to Chicago.
-- March 2010, first lady and daughters spend spring break in New York City.
-- Christmas 2009, the family goes to Hawaii for the winter break.
-- August 2009, everyone heads to Yellowstone National Park and theGrand Canyon for a short vacation.
-- August 2009, the first family takes its first vacation from the White House at Martha's Vineyard.
In fact, two of Michelle's vacations alone totalled over $ 800,000 "tax free" dollars
All of this, even while America burns in the fires of a debt severely out of control. So, just exactly how much is enough for you,  El Magnifico?
Regardless of all, this dog simply will not hunt, Mr. President, and it even reeks with a most foul stench, quite frankly.

AS OBAMA CONTINUES THE WALLOW IN MIRE...
Romney raises $101 million in July; outraises Obama for third straight month

By Leigh Ann Caldwell

Topics
Campaign 2012
Updated 9:45 a.m. ET
(CBS News) Mitt Romney's campaign and a joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee raised a combined $101.3 million during July, the Romney campaign announced Monday. This is the second consecutive month that Romney has raised more than $100 million in a month, having first broken his own monthly fundraising record in June by bringing in $106 million.
And, for the third month in a row, the Obama campaign was outraised by his Republican rival. The Obama campaign brought in $75 million last month, the campaign announced via Twitter.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus responded to the Romney camp's robust fundraising saying, "Americans are clearly looking for a change in the White House."
"Mitt Romney has a plan that will create jobs, grow the economy, and build a stronger middle class - that is why he is seeing such strong support," said Priebus in his written statement.
Romney has had to play catch-up to Barack Obama, who had the luxury of being able to raise and spend directly against Romney while his Republican rival spent the better part of a year running for his party's nomination and spending against his intraparty opponents. But since he became the presumptive nominee in April, Romney has been able to work with the RNC and they have been on a fundraising tear.

Presidential Firsts: Obama Will End Term in January Without Creating/Gaining A Single Job(Nick Gillespie) - Reason columnist and Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy has created a chart tracking net job creation by presidential terms since 1945.

The short version: The 21st century really sucks. Slightly longer version: Obama and Bush fils are the worst of the bunch.

Here is what the data show:
  • Since President Obama took office, fewer jobs were created than were lost. Actually, some 300,000 fewer Americans are employed then when the president took office. That’s mainly because a large number of jobs were lost during 2009 and the so-called recovery is the slowest one of all time, with very meek monthly job creation and weak economic growth.
  • It would take Obama roughly 280,000 new jobs per month for every month from now until January 2013 to get him out of last place. [He would need 2.1 million new jobs per month for every month until January 2013 to catch up to Carter.]
  • While it would be unfair to compare Obama with Clinton, this chart shows that at this point President Obama’s job numbers are far worse than Presidents Carter, Kennedy, and Ford, who were in office almost as long or served much shorter periods than he has.
This chart also shows two-term presidents:
  • Presidents Clinton and Reagan saw the highest gains in jobs and maintained some of the lowest unemployment rates during their administrations.
  • President George W. Bush’s overall record is underwhelming [to say the least], especially considering that so many of the jobs created during his term weregovernment jobs.
Here also are a few facts about our labor market.
  • In theory, we are exactly three years into recovery.
  • This is the slowest recovery in history.
  • Wage growth over the last twelve months is the slowest ever.
  • We have the slowest economic growth of any recovery.
  • We have had an important drop in labor-force participation that makes unemployment rates look better than they probably should.
Now, there is an important question: Under these conditions, are we really recovering?
My colleague Keith Hall, a former commissioner at the BLS, tells me that it doesn’t look like it. According to him, the single best labor-market indicator is doing is the employment-to-population ratio — what share of the working-age population (16 years old and above) has a job. When the ratio goes up, things are getting better. When it doesn’t, the labor market is not recovering. Here is a chart. As you can see, the line during the last three years is flat, and last month, it even dropped. He writes:
So, what kind of labor market recovery have we seen over the past three years? As the graph shows, the answer is simple: NONE. Job growth hasn’t been strong enough to support our growing population. The employment-to-population ratio was 59.4% three years ago. It hit a 25-year low of 58.5% in October of 2009, and yet it remains at just 58.6% today.
To know what kind of job growth we need for economic recovery, we must first realize that the United States is still a growing nation. Each month, the working-age population grows by an estimated 180,000 people. Simply to support this growing population, we need to add at least 130,000 new jobs. With anything less, we fall further behind. No matter what the other economic data indicates, a true labor market recovery requires job growth strong enough to consistently raise the employment-to-population ratio. This would mean adding at least 250,000 new jobs per month, every month, for years.
Are you concerned yet? I am. In particular, I worry because export numbers have been really good lately, and represent roughly 30 percent of our economic growth. But the foreigners who have been buying our stuff aren’t looking so good themselves. For instance, France will likely enter into recession in the next quarter, the rest of Europe could follow, and China has given multiple signs that things are getting rough. Then what? We have tried Keynesian economics and it failed. Is Congress ready to give up spending-driven interventions?






Read more: Government | Presidential Firsts: Obama Will End Term in January Without Creating/Gaining A Single Job http://www.carrollstandard.com/politics/bureaucracy/20517-presidential-firsts-obama-will-end-term-in-january-without-creating-gaining-a-single-job#ixzz232NZdXTv
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I mean: you think if Obama would’ve spent 3yrs. working, instead of yakking on a Blackberry and scheming how to leech off of taxpayers to pacify Michelle with vacations so she wouldn’t divorce him, that maybe Obama could’ve created jobs, instead of lobbying to pay Press people to lie to the American public about menial fluctuations as signs of economic recovery, when he continued every one of Bush Jr.’s fiscally disastrous policies!

Rep. Steve King considering bill to repeal everything Obama has signed

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If Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has his way, everything President Obama has signed into law would be repealed, and he is considering a bill to do just that, The Hill reported Wednesday.
"King put forward this suggestion to an Iowa audience on Tuesday, when he also reiterated his threat to sue the Obama administration for its June decision not to deport younger illegal immigrants," Pete Kasperowicz wrote.
He also told a group of about 60 people in Humboldt County that he intends to sue the administration over an executive orde rstopping the deportation of certain illegal immigrants.
''I am bringing him to court and we're going to defend the Constitution of the United States and the separation of powers,'' he said.
According to the Messenger, King's lawsuit may be filed before Labor Day.
"He said Tuesday that he decided to sue the president the day the executive order was announced," the Messenger reported.
King said that President Obama violated the Constitution by usurping Congress' role in the lawmaking process.
''He has prosecutorial discretion, but he does not have the ability to grant blanket amnesty to entire classes of people," he added.
While King's proposal would certainly undo Obamacare, Think Progress said it would also end the Bush-era tax cuts that Obama extended in 2010, defund the military, strip Medals of Honor from 9/11 first responders and cancel plans to honor President Ronald Reagan.
At this point, however, the proposal does not exist, and even if it passed the House, it would most likely die in a Senate controlled by Democrats.
Bridget Johnson wrote at PJ Media that King introduced a "Sunset Act" that would require Congress "take an up or down vote on all new rules and regulations put forth by federal departments and agencies."
"The legislation would also require that all current regulations be sunsetted and voted on by Congress for renewal," she added.
“The Sunset Act will help to ensure that rules and regulations churned out by Washington bureaucrats are necessary and helpful, not burdensome and problematic,” the Iowa Republican said on Friday.
"Americans must be able to hold their elected officials accountable for the rules and regulations that the federal government imposes upon them, and the Sunset Act will do just that,” he added.
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Tea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
@SteveKingIA @SpeakerBoehner To keep integrity with American people and the entire world @SenateDems may neglect duty to impeach, we won't.
5:13 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details
@SteveKingIA I support the bill @SpeakerBoehner King proposes to strike from record anything Obama has signed, the signature has no merit.
5:12 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · DetailsTea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
Without passing a bill declaring Obama signature void @SteveKingIA@SpeakerBoehner you are playing Russian Roulette with national security.
5:35 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · DetailsTea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
We can not jeopardize the integrity of the United States@SteveKingIA @SpeakerBoehner for the sake of @MittRomneykeeping Obama for contest.

Weekly Standard: Obama's Commitment To Tax Hikes

by STEPHEN F. HAYES
EnlargeAlex Wong/Getty Images
President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the East Room of the White House July 9. Obama urged the Congress to extend the Bush era tax cuts for middle class families, but let the tax rates for those making $250,000 or more rise.
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July 10, 2012
Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer for The Weekly Standard.
When did President Obama change his mind on the wisdom of raising taxes in an economic downturn? And, perhaps more important, if the U.S. economy slipped back into recession, would the president abandon his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy?
In the summer of 2009, Obama said in an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd that raising taxes in a recession "would just suck up—take more demand out of the economy and put business further in a hole." Raising taxes in such a downturn, the president said, is "the last thing you want to do."
We are not now in a recession. But an increasing number of economists think we could be headed in that direction.
A study last year by the Federal Reserve found that two consecutive quarters of GDP growth below 2 percent results in a recession 48 percent of the time. In the first quarter of 2012, the U.S. economy grew at 1.9 percent. And it's slowing. (See this comprehensive round-up of second quarter growth projections by Jim Pethokoukis.)
With the president's announcement this morning that he is re-committing himself to raising taxes on the wealthy, an obvious question arises: Why is raising taxes during a recession the last thing you'd want to do, but raising taxes in an economy moving towards negative growth such smart policy that it merits its own East Room announcement?
There is little doubt that raising taxes on the wealthy would slow economic growth further. In the 2010 version of this debate, during the "fiscal stalemate" of that summer, Peter Hooper at Deutsche Bank looked at the possible effects on growth of various policy proposals. He projected that the U.S. economy would slow 1.5 percent if the Obama administration's preferred plan — which raised taxes on the wealthy — prevailed, but only 1 percent if Bush tax cuts were extended across the board, as Republicans wanted.
The answer, of course, is politics. Obama is running a campaign designed to energize the base of his party and to depict Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch rich guy. And every day the dominant discussion of the campaign focuses on "the rich," voters are reminded that Romney is one of them and they're not focused on Obama's increasingly indefensible record.
So what will Obama do if the economy does, in fact, slip back into recession? Will he still raise taxes?

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Romney Outraises Obama By $35 Million In June July 10, 2012
Obama Calls For Tax Cut Extension For Middle Class July 9, 2012
Who 'Owns' The Bush Tax Cuts? July 9, 2012

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BUSH TAX CUTS WERE IMPLEMENTED TO OFFSET INFLATION FROM THE IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN WARS... WITH THOSE WARS WINDING DOWN, IT IS IMPORTANT TO REALIZE THESE WERE NOT REALLY TAX CUTS AT ALL, BUT CUTTING CONGRESS’ SALARY $500 BILLION, TO KEEP FROM HAVING A TAX REVOLT AGAINST A DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED CONGRESS... MAYBE THAT’S WHY OBAMA WANTS TO EXTEND THEM, BECAUSE HE AND HARRY REID ENACTED THEM, AND IT HAS KEPT THE GOVERNMENT OPEN AND THE DEFICIT SOARING. WITH THAT IN MIND, OBAMA MUST OWN IT.

WE LOST THIS BATTLE IN 2006, AND THAT IS WHEN THE TEA PARTY WAS BORN. AFTER THREE YEARS, IT BECAME A NATIONAL MOVEMENT, AND THREE YEARS LATER, IT HAS PROVEN A FORCE THAT OBAMA CAN NOT WITHSTAND POLITICALLY, DESPITE BOUGHT PRESS THAT HAS BLAMED THE TEA PARTY FOR EVERY RIPPLE OF VIOLENCE THAT OCCURS. NEVERMIND OCCUTARDS AND DEMOCRATS UNSUCCESSFULLY MOUNTING AND HIRING OCCUPY TO COUNTER THE TEA PARTY, THE TEA PARTY IS WINNING THEM OVER TOO.

Who 'Owns' The Bush Tax Cuts?

Categories: Budget, Congress
04:02 pm
July 9, 2012

by SCOTT NEUMAN
They're called the Bush tax cuts for a reason. And when they were passed in the early 2000s, most Democrats opposed them.
Cut to a decade later: President Obama is calling for a second extension in as many years of the "temporary" cuts, but it won't come without a fight from congressional Republicans.
Given the apparent role reversal, who owns the George W. Bush-era tax cuts now: Democrats or Republicans?
"They're still called the Bush tax cuts, but I think it's a bit of a misnomer at this point," says Ted Gayer, the co-director of economic studies at the centrist Brookings Institution.
Michael Ettlinger, vice president for economics at the left-wing Center for American Progress, says it's really a matter of semantics. "It's just easier to call them the Bush tax cuts," he says.
The latest fight between the president and Republicans is shaping up to be a battle royal — not only are taxes involved but so are deficits and class politics.
That's because the president wants to extend the cuts for one year, but only to those making less than $250,000. NPR's independent analysis shows Obama's proposal would add $3.2 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade, as opposed to $3.9 trillion if the tax cuts were extended to everyone, like Republicans want.
The Bush tax cuts sliced about 2 percent off most tax brackets. According to the Tax Policy Center, 83 percent of Americans will see their taxes rise if the cuts are allowed to expire. Those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would pay about $2,200 more, while those making $1 million or more would owe an extra $175,000.
Both sides have to make their case to middle-class Americans.
For Obama, it goes like this: The wealthiest Americans need to pay their fair share and take some of the burden off the struggling middle class.
For Republicans, it goes like this: A tax increase on the wealthy, who are the economy's "job creators," will have a negative trickle-down effect on the middle class in the way of more lost jobs.
Sound familiar? The same lines were drawn two years ago, but the president blinked and the Bush tax cuts were renewed for all taxpayers. If the issue comes to a head again before Election Day, don't count on Obama backing down again.
"There will be a political fight this fall on the dueling positions on tax cuts and no resolution before the election," says Brian Darling, a senior fellow for government studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
"If Obama wins, there will be a short-term deal in the lame duck [session]," he says. "If Romney wins, there will be an effort to extend all the tax cuts on a permanent basis."
Tags: Bush tax cuts, middle class

IT IS TIME WE GET TO THE ERA OF GOVERNMENT THAT EVERY YEAR IN AUGUST WHEN WE REVIEW THE NEXT YEAR’S ANNUAL BUDGET, THAT WE QUESTION THE EFFICIENCY AND SERVICE OF PROGRAMS TO THE INTEGRITY AND GOOD FAITH OF TAXPAYERS, AND LET THEM DETERMINE THE EFFICACY OF SEQUESTER AND ONLY MARGINALIZED PERCENTAGE PROJECTIONS OF GOVERNMENT CUTS. PLEASE REVIEW AND CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.
PLEASE REVIEW 2013 TEA PARTY BALANCED BUDGET $3.5 TRILLION ANNUAL REVENUE http://lnk.ms/cj8nx

Romney centers new attack on 1996 welfare law

By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY



Updated 5h 7m ago

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A new line of attack by Republican Mitt Romney against President Obama has brought old antagonists out to battle.
File photo by Ron Edmonds, AP
President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., arrive at the White House on Aug. 5, 1997, where Clinton signed the balanced budget bill.
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File photo by Ron Edmonds, AP
President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., arrive at the White House on Aug. 5, 1997, where Clinton signed the balanced budget bill.

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Romney says an Obama administration offer to waive some federal welfare rules for state programs — an effort, the administration says, to experiment with ways to put welfare recipients into jobs — ends the requirement that recipients of government assistance must work. That dispute has turned the clock back to 1996, the year a welfare overhaul law was hammered out by President Clinton and then-speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Clinton, who signed the law requiring work as a condition of welfare payments, said Tuesday night that Romney's claim is "not true" and that his campaign ad is "misleading."

Romney's ad says: "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check."
On Wednesday in Des Moines, Romney reiterated the attack against Obama. "He removed the requirement of work from welfare. It is wrong to make any change that would make America more of a nation of government dependency. We must restore, and I will restore, work into welfare," he said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called Romney's attack "categorically false and blatantly dishonest." The Obama administration says it does not want to waive work requirements, but wants to allow flexibility for states to test programs that may get more people into jobs.
Carney said the waivers are only available to states that increase the number of people moving from welfare to work. The Politifact fact-checking site rated the ad "pants on fire."
Gingrich — in a conference call Wednesday with reporters arranged by the Republican National Committee— said that Republicans' "immediate assumption is that (Obama) is setting up a dramatic reduction in the work requirement." The 1996 work requirements were designed "not to be waivable" because Republicans "deeply distrusted liberals who, we were convinced, would go back to the pre-1996 model," Gingrich said. "There's a deep, deep bitter opposition to work requirements in the hard-core left."
The Romney campaign has taken up the controversy as part of its broader theme that Obama doesn't understand or value free enterprise — seen in earlier ads claiming Obama's "you didn't build that" comment displayed a hostility to small business.

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The welfare dispute led both Romney and Gingrich to speak favorably of Clinton, who will make the speech nominating Obama at the Democratic convention next month. Gingrich praised Clinton for being willing to negotiate with Congress, and called Obama "the anti-Clinton."
"I hope that every American when they watch Bill Clintonspeak, will realize how much weaker and ineffective as president Obama is than the man that is nominating him was," Gingrich said.
On July 12, the Obama administration told states they could seek a waiver from federal requirements. Facing GOP opposition in Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius clarified that the waivers would not be granted to states trying to reduce work requirements.
Welfare policy expert Olivia Golden of the Urban Institute says the waiver plan will allow states to avoid cumbersome documentation and spend more time on helping welfare recipients get jobs — one of the goals of the 1996 legislation.
Golden, who was an assistant health secretary under Clinton, says the Obama administration "pinpointed a need … to give states the opportunity to look for good ways to be effective in this economic climate, and the need to focus on results in a more intensive way, rather than the needs of the process."
Because of the way the law is written, a court may have to decide whether the waivers are allowable, says Peter Schuck, a Yale law professor.
Schuck says the 1996 welfare law increased employment and cut poverty among single mothers, and the work requirement "is an issue that resonates with lots and lots of … middle-class and working-class Americans." If Romney "can depict it as being undermined by a zealous welfare-ist Obama, that may sway some votes," Schuck says.
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Federal agency questions plan to seize underwater mortgages

FHFA voices 'significant concerns' about eminent domain idea Chicago is considering




*
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is concerned that the use of eminent domain to help those with underwater mortgages may add to the taxpayer burden. (Brian Van Brug/Tribune Newspapers /August 8, 2012)

By Mary Ellen Podmolik, Chicago Tribune reporter
August 9, 2012
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has "significant concerns" about a controversial idea floated in Chicago and elsewhere to stabilize communities by seizing and restructuring the mortgages of homeowners who are current but underwater on their loans.
The agency, in a notice sent to the Federal Register and released Wednesday, said it may need to take action "to avoid a risk to safe and sound operations and to avoid taxpayer expense."
First floated in San Bernardino County, Calif., the concept would allow local governments to use their power of eminent domain to seize mortgages, allowing private investors to purchase them at a steep discount, write them down to fair market value and then create workable mortgage payments for homeowners based on the reduced principal balance due.
The idea, pitched by Mortgage Resolution Partners, a San Francisco firm, has received national attention, and several local governments, including Chicago, have voiced interest in it. It also has ignited an outcry among critics, including the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, that say such a program is potentially unconstitutional and will harm the market for private mortgage-backed securities.
The FHFA said it is concerned that using eminent domain to write down the value of mortgages "represents a cost ultimately borne by taxpayers." The plan, as now floated, would not affect mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the FHFA said it could "have a chilling effect on the extension of credit to borrowers seeking to become homeowners and on investors that support the housing market."
It is unclear whether Mortgage Resolution Partners has met with officials in Chicago. "We have or will be talking to every community that is suffering under the weight (of) underwater mortgages and considering this innovative solution," a spokesman for the firm said in an email.
Efforts to reach Ald. Edward Burke, who has urged the city to investigate the idea, were unsuccessful. A City Council committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the proposal Tuesday.
Almost 33 percent of Chicago-area homes with a mortgage were underwater during the year's first quarter, compared with 30 percent in the final three months of 2011, according to housing data provider CoreLogic. An additional 5 percent of homes were in a near-negative equity position, meaning the homeowners had less than 5 percent equity in the homes. A mortgage is considered underwater if the homeowner owes more on the loan than the value of the home.
"It's not surprising that lots of municipalities are looking at it," said Brian Murray, a partner at law firm Jones Day. "It looks so good on the surface. It fixes everything and the only losers are the banks."
Murray noted, however, that eminent domain should be used for the public good. Under the suggested plan, the restructured mortgages would not be offered to everyone, and an investor fund would be a financial beneficiary.
The FHFA, which has overseen Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since they were placed into conservatorship in September 2008, has consistently fought any efforts to help stabilize the housing market if they might weaken the taxpayer-funded agency's finances.
Last week, the FHFA said it would not allow principal reductions of Fannie- and Freddie-backed mortgages under the federal government's loan-modification programs, a decision criticized by the Obama administration.
The agency also is active in federal courtrooms in Illinois, fighting Chicago's vacant building ordinance. In that lawsuit, it argues that Fannie and Freddie, as the owners of foreclosed properties, are not subject to the fees required to register and maintain vacant buildings in Chicago.
Separately, the FHFA is involved in a case on whether the enterprises are exempt from real estate transfer taxes paid to Illinois counties and the state when a property changes hands and the transaction is recorded. Similar cases have been filed in other states.
The FHFA said it would take public comments on the eminent domain proposal through Sept. 7.
mepodmolik@tribune.com
Twitter @mepodmolik
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
Tea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
Great: so the only thing we did was juice the banks, prop up the housing market, and we have no jobs and taxes are going up if we don't cut.
5:01 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details

Obama is Following LBJ’s Bad Example

Written on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 by David L. Goetsch

We all need role models—people we can look up to, people who will show us the way as we develop and learn.  Presidents are no different.  When he took office, Barack Obama had available to him some excellent role models he could have chosen to emulate. Ronald Reagan comes immediately to mind.  Unfortunately for America, the president he chose to emulate is a bad example: Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ).
As president, LBJ just wanted to be loved.  Assuming the presidency in the aftermath of a highly-popular president’s assassination, LBJ was driven by feelings of inferiority.  He wanted, some might say needed, to be loved by the American people and he wasn’t above dipping into the federal treasury in an attempt to buy that love—a strategy that failed miserably.  Although he enacted more government entitlement programs than any other president in our nation’s history except FDR, LBJ left office reviled by those whose love he craved.
Barack Obama is following LBJ’s bad example of using the federal treasury to buy what he craves as president—not the love of the American people in his case, but power and perquisites.  President Obama has no vision for America beyond his own personal vision of remaining in office so he can continue to exercise presidential power and enjoy the luxurious perquisites of being president.  LBJ wanted to be loved by the American people.  Barack Obama wants to rule them, not as their elected president but as their king.
As American presidents go, Obama and LBJ are practically twins—entitlement twins—when it comes to methodology. LBJ used government entitlements in a failed attempt to buy the love of the American people.  Barack Obama is using government entitlements in an attempt to buy the votes necessary to retain the power and perquisites of the most powerful office in the world. LBJ’s problem was a Texas-sized inferiority complex.  Obama’s problem is arrogance.
Stinging from the growing criticism he faced over an unpopular war in Viet Nam War, LBJ tried to get back in the good graces of the American people by ramming his Great Society program through Congress.  Consisting of more than 100 bills—all establishing new government entitlements—the Great Society program was unparalleled in its size and cost, that is until Barack Obama came along.  Johnson hoped his Great Society program would redeem him in the eyes of the American people.  Commenting on his domestic legislative program Johnson said: “Deep down I knew—I simply knew—that the American people loved me.  After all that I had done for them and given to them, how could they help but love me.”
Barack Obama cares little about what Americans think of him.  Like the kings of old European countries, he is driven by arrogance.  President Obama thinks he can do what he wants in office unimpeded by public sentiment.  Actions he cannot convince the representatives of the American people in Congress to take are simply enacted by executive order.  Laws he cannot convince Congress to eliminate, he simply refuses to enforce.  Facts that do not suit his purposes are simply ignored.  When his abysmal record is placed before the American people, he simply lies about it.  LBJ would probably be proud of Barack Obama, but I for one am not.

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Romney: Obama Favors 'Culture of Dependency'

Tuesday, 07 Aug 2012 08:36 PM
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Republican Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of ditching a long-standing work requirement for welfare recipients, accusing him of fostering a "culture of dependency" and backing up the charge with a new television commercial.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said the allegations were "blatantly dishonest ... hypocrisy knows no bounds." He added that Romney, while serving as Massachusetts governor, had once petitioned the White House to loosen employment rules for those on welfare.

Romney made his accusation in a relatively rare occurrence in the race for the White House - an appearance before voters outside the small group of battleground states likely to settle the Nov. 6 election.

Illinois and its 20 electoral votes are politically safe territory for Obama in the fall. Romney was there for a fundraiser as well as a stop at a manufacturing company, part of the intense competition between the two candidates to stockpile cash for the stretch run to Election Day.

The president was speaking at two private events, one of them a fundraiser, at a hotel a few blocks from the White House. And after being outraised by Romney in recent months, his campaign announced a fundraising "shoot-around" and dinner in New York on Aug. 22 featuring several professional basketball stars.

In a race as close as this one, the taunts were getting personal.

Romney, interviewed on Fox News, said Obama was "saying things that are not accurate" when it comes to taxes. He referred to a crack the president made on Monday night as "Obama-loney," rhyming it with baloney.

At a fundraiser, Obama called Romney's tax plan Robin Hood in reverse - "Romney Hood" - and repeated his accusation that it would mean tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans while forcing the middle class to pay the IRS as much as $2,000 more a year.

The president wants to extend tax breaks due to expire at all income levels, except above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for a couple. He has made his proposal central to a pitch to middle- and working-class voters as he seeks a second term with unemployment at 8.3 percent.

Romney wants to keep the tax cuts in place at all income levels, and has proposed an additional 20 percent reduction in rates.

Romney's decision to introduce the welfare issue into the campaign seemed aimed at blue-collar, white working-class voters in a weak economy, and suggested that Obama might be gaining ground politically with his position on taxes.

It also marked an attempt to take the gloss off the recent announcement that former President Bill Clinton will have a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. early next month.

Appearing before hundreds of supporters at a manufacturing plant near Chicago, Obama's hometown, the Republican challenger said bipartisan legislation signed into law by Clinton in 1996 "reformed welfare to encourage people to work. They did not want a culture of dependency to continue to grow in our country," he said of the then-president and Congress, under Republican control at the time.

He said that, just recently, Obama "has tried to reverse that accomplishment by taking the work requirement out of welfare. That is wrong, and If I'm president, I'll put work back in welfare. ...We will end a culture of dependency and restore a culture of good, hard work," he said.

Romney's new ad buttressed the point.

"Under Obama's plan you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you a welfare check, and welfare to work goes back to being plain old welfare," the announcer says in the commercial.

"Mitt Romney will restore the work requirement."

Under the law signed by Clinton and amended a decade later, the federal government does not provide a guaranteed benefit to welfare recipients. Instead, the states receive federal funds and are permitted to establish a variety of programs to benefit the poor. The government imposes a limit on the length of time families can receive aid and requires recipients eventually to go to work.

The Romney campaign circulated material during the day that quoted Obama, then a state senator in Illinois, as saying he "probably would have voted against it" if he had been in Congress.

The Obama administration recently announced plans to issue waivers to states that wanted "to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies and procedures" to improve employment among needy families. It said it was acting after receiving requests from some of the nation's governors, including Republicans in Utah and Nevada. But senior GOP lawmakers attacked the move as an attempt to undermine the welfare-to-work requirements in effect for more than a decade.

Officials with access to detailed advertising information said it appeared the commercial was airing at heavy levels in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia - states where the race is closest.

Romney was himself targeted with a new ad during the day, this one launched by Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that supports Obama.

It features a former Kansas City steelworker who says his company was taken over in 1993 by a group that included Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Romney.

"When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my health care, and my family lost their health care," he said. His wife became ill, but "I think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance," he says. By the time she went to the hospital, she was diagnosed with cancer and died quickly, he said.

"I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned."

In response, Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney, said Obama's allies "continue to use discredited and dishonest attacks in a contemptible effort to conceal the administration's deplorable economic record."

Both parties were fleshing out the speaking schedule for their conventions.

Republicans said Romney's most persistent primary rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, would have a turn at the speaker's podium. So, too, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a tea party favorite.

Former President Jimmy Carter will tape a video message to be aired in prime time at the Democratic convention.


© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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POLITICS - August 8, 2012 18:00

Conservatives irked at Romney health care comment

Susan Ferrechio
Conservatives complained Wednesday that the praise Mitt Romney’s campaign expressed for a Massachusetts health care law was a moment of betrayal akin to one-term President George H.W. Bush’s broken “read my lips” promise not to raise taxes.
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul angered conservatives when in an interview on Fox News she sought to rebut a Democratic ad that effectively blamed Romney for the cancer-related death of a woman. Instead, Saul ended up touting health care reforms similar to those implemented by President Obama, reforms Republicans are now trying to repeal.
“If people had been in Massachusetts, under Gov. Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care,” Saul said.
Conservatives gasped. Romney’s reforms in Massachusetts served as a model for the Obama health care law.
Erick Erickson, co-founder and author on the conservative website Red State, condemned Saul’s comments in a blog entry headlined “The moment all doubt about Romney resurfaced on the right.”
Saul’s comments revived earlier tensions between Romney and the Republican Party’s conservative base, which during the presidential primary expressed its doubts about Romney’s principles. Likening Romney to Bush, who failed to win a second term in part because conservatives claimed they couldn’t trust him, is a bad sign for Romney.
The new ad, paid for by the pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA Action, features Joe Soptic talking about his wife’s death from cancer. Soptic had lost his job at a steel mill, and his health insurance, after the mill was bought by Romney’s Bain Capital and went bankrupt.
Soptic appears to suggest that his loss of health insurance was somehow related to his wife’s death, but she actually died in 2006, five years after the mill closed, and had her own health insurance.
As misleading as the ad is, Romney’s campaign appeared to struggle with its response to it. And that puzzled conservatives, who questioned why Romney would raise the thorny issue of his health care reforms rather than focus on the ad’s inaccuracies.
“The Romney campaign must stop talking about the health care plan,” said a Republican strategist who requested anonymity. “It has given them nothing but heartburn by conservatives as the campaign tries to focus on the economy and independent voters.”
Christopher Hahn, a Democratic strategist, said Saul’s comments illustrate the biggest vulnerabilities in the GOP’s choice of a candidate.
“He’s absolutely the worst person in the world to run against President Obama on the issue of health care,” Hahn said. “They nominated a guy who passed the same exact health care law as the president.”
The Romney campaign was doing damage control late Wednesday, dropping any talk of health care and trying to turn the story to the Obama campaign’s misleading efforts to deny its connection to the super-PAC and Soptic. Obama aides said they didn’t know Soptic, but he has actually appeared in Obama campaign videos in the past.
“With unemployment at a five-month high and stagnant economic growth, President Obama and his campaign are willing to say and do anything to hide the president’s disappointing record,” Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said. “But they’re not entitled to repeatedly mislead voters. Americans deserve better — they deserve a president who’s willing to run an honest campaign and be honest about his own record.”

THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OBAMA AND ROMNEY ON HEALTH CARE?

ROMNEY THINKS THAT THE STATES MAKE THAT CHOICE, NOT HIM AS PRESIDENT, AND PAUL RYAN’S BUDGET PUTS HEALTH CARE AND ENTITLEMENTS BACK TO STATE LEVEL TO REDUCE FRAUD, WASTE, AND ABUSE OF PROGRAMS TO SHRINK THE SIZE OF FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY.... YEP, WAY~~~~ DIFFERENT THAN OBAMA !!!

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT LESS TAXES AND LIMITED GOVERNMENT, THIS IS THE WAY TO GO, AND OF COURSE, WE WILL CONTINUE TO PURSUE HEALTH CARE REFORMS TOO, AT STATE LEVEL.
Dem Abortionist talks of the “ugly black babies” he aborts
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Charlotte abortionist Ashutosh Ron Virmani was caught on camera telling pro-lifers to “adopt one of those ugly black babies.”
Virmani’s comments came as he was speaking with pro-life activists from Operation Save America who confronted Virmani on his doorstep on July 26, 2012.
The abortionist’s comments have riled black pro-life activists. Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union, said in a press release, “It’s all too obvious that he had a particular disgust for black babies and therefore has no problem killing them.”
The doctor in the video, apparently, is an active political donor, giving almost all his money to Democrats.
Ashutosh Ron Virmani Donor List
Tea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
@SenatorShaheen @SenatorLugar @SenToomey Well good -- eat your peas and go without sugar, so your party can fund abortions on your dime!

The abortion movement: spot the theme

POSTED ON AUGUST 8, 2012 AT 10:31 AM, BY JON SANDERS
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and a leader in the U.S. eugenics movement (click here to read about eugenics in N.C. and here to sample eugenics literature), discussing Planned Parenthood’s “Negro Project”:
[We propose to] hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. And we do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.
Ron Weddington, co-counsel on Roe v. Wade, in a letter to then-Pres.-elect Bill Clinton:
You can start immediately to eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of our country. No, I’m not advocating some sort of mass extinction of these unfortunate people. Crime, drugs and disease are already doing that. The problem is that their numbers are not only replaced but increased by the birth of millions of babies to people who can’t afford to have babies.
There, I’ve said it. It’s what we all know is true….
We lost a lot of ground during the Reagan-Bush religious orgy. We don’t have a lot of time left. …
The biblical exhortation to “be fruitful and multiply” was directed toward a small tribe, surrounded by enemies. We are long past that. Our survival depends upon our developing a population where everyone contributes. We don’t need more cannon fodder. We don’t need more parishioners. We don’t need more cheap labor. We don’t need more poor babies.
Abortion doctor Ron Virmani, active Democratic donor, confronted by pro-life activists:
I as a taxpayer do not wish to pay for those babies, to be born and brought up and kill those people in Colorado. Go ahead and pay for them. Let me see you adopt one of those ugly black babies.
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Written by Jon Sanders


Jon Sanders (twitter.com/jonpsanders) is Director of Regulatory Studies at the John Locke Foundation. A columnist for TownHall.com, Sanders has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, National Review,ABC News online, FrontPage Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle,The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, the Philadelphia Inquirer and numerous newspapers throughout North Carolina. A native of Garner, N.C., Sanders has been an adjunct instructor in economics at North Carolina State University, and he holds a masters degree in economics with a minor in statistics and a bachelors degree in English literature and language from N.C. State.
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POLITICS - August 8, 2012 20:00

Rating likelihood of Romney picks: Portman, then Pawlenty, then Ryan, Rubio


Byron York
So far Mitt Romney has succeeded in keeping his vice presidential deliberations a secret.  
At times, it has appeared Romney’s search committee consisted of just three people: Romney himself, wife Ann, and top aide Beth Myers.  At some point — it’s not clear whether it has happened yet — Romney will have to extend the circle, at least a little, to run his thoughts past trusted aides and confidants who can offer extra perspective.  That’s when there’s a heightened danger of the news leaking; for that reason, Romney will likely do that late in the process.
But that doesn’t mean outsiders know nothing about what is going on.  That’s because there are people who know Mitt Romney, who know how he works, and who have been a part of decisions he has made in the past.  And their impressions of Romney offer insights into Romney’s secret deliberations now.  Some of those insights:
1. Romney is innately cautious. Consider the most outside-the-box, game-changing choices Romney might make — and throw them out.  Romney will most likely follow his instinct and go right down the middle with the safest, most do-no-harm pick.
2. Romney is instinctively unflashy. To use a reference to the last Republican nominee, Romney is not a man who would fly his plane under the bridge. He wouldn’t go for the thrill — but he wouldn’t lose the plane, either.
3. Romney believes the boss is the boss. The vice presidential candidate is not the leader of the ticket, and he doesn’t decide the direction of the campaign. Romney is in charge and won’t change his direction to accommodate a running mate.
4. Romney believes his current course is working. He sees staying nearly even with a wealthy incumbent, and keeping that incumbent under 50 percent, is the right foundation for ultimate victory in November. He doesn’t need a big, showy, and possibly risky vice presidential choice to get there.
5. Romney chooses experience. When Romney considers a vice president and is given a choice between a talented newcomer and an equally talented but more experienced veteran, his instincts will tell him to go with experience.
What does that mean for Romney’s current deliberations?  It means he will most likely pick Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, but might go with former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.  Portman has experience as a representative, a senator, and a top official in the executive branch; he is an entirely plausible president should something happen to a President Romney.  In addition, unlike Pawlenty, Portman might help Romney win Ohio, and if Romney does not win Ohio, he will not win the presidency.
Of course, the same is true of Florida — if Romney doesn’t win there, he won’t become president.  It’s possible Sen. Marco Rubio would help Romney win Florida , but Rubio doesn’t have Portman’s experience, is still a somewhat unknown quantity, and would also possibly overshadow Romney on the campaign trail — a situation Romney has no interest in creating.
Finally, there is Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.  Ryan is the only one of the four finalists who, if chosen, would fundamentally alter the course of the Romney campaign.  Choosing Ryan would instantly elevate the Ryan budget plan to the top of the Romney agenda.  Some Republicans want to see that, but that is not how Romney has run his campaign so far.  Although he has mostly endorsed the Ryan plan, Romney has from the very start stressed job creation far more than entitlement reform or any other issue.  Romney has thought very carefully for a long time about this campaign; it is highly unlikely that he is planning to change his direction now.
So Romney will very likely go with the least risky choice — Portman — or possibly Pawlenty.  Romney did not get where he is by throwing the dice, and he’s not going to start now.

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Opinion: Columnists

Romney should pick Paul Ryan

August 8, 2012

1 Comment

David Harsanyi

Examiner Columnist
The Washington Examiner

Popular in Opinion


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The other day, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi nonchalantly explained to a group in Florida that conservatives are in the "E. coli club."
The next day, a pro-Barack Obama super PAC began running an ad blaming Mitt Romney and Bain Capital for the death of a steelworker's wife (who actually had insurance and passed away seven years after Romney ran Bain and five years after her husband was laid off from a money-losing steel plant).
The Obama campaign has, more than once, implied that Romney is a felon.
We often have the tendency to believe that political attacks are purely cynical, but that's probably not the case. Some attacks are presumptive.
Many liberals already believe that Republicans wouldn't mind seeing children (poor, minority and handicapped children, at least) contracting deadly bacterial diseases, even if conservatives won't explicitly say so. Many liberals assume that the wealthy (especially those who have an exotic career, such as "banker") never really pay their share in taxes and probably cheat and devastate the poor to achieve success. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid might not have any proof that Romney hasn't paid a penny in taxes in a decade, but it plays to a larger social truth about conservatives; it is a given.
So, no matter whom Republican Mitt Romney finally taps as his vice presidential nominee, Democrats will accuse this person of crimes against common decency and fairness. This person will, you can bet, be indicted as someone hell-bent on "dismantling" Social Security, sacrificing Medicare to the gods of social Darwinism and "slashing" the safety net into worthless tatters.
If that's the case, why not pick a politician who actually speaks about reforming entitlement programs in a serious way? Someone who has actually come up with some ideas that reach beyond platitude? Rep. Paul Ryan, who was spotted pushing a frail wheelchair-bound elderly woman off a cliff in a political ad last year, is really the only person on the shortlist we keep hearing about who fits the bill.
Obama strategist David Axelrod has already written that Ryan, like Romney, has "a conviction that our future will be brighter if we simply pass even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy; dramatically shift health care costs from Medicare to seniors, and walk away from our national commitments to education, research and development, and new energy technology."
Rest assured Axelrod is going to regurgitate the exact same nonsense no matter whom Romney picks.
Some in the GOP also view Ryan as a liability, and the hand-wringing over his tepid budget is a sad testament to the future of fiscally responsible government. Ryan's plans still would have Washington running a $287 billion annual deficit, and they would increase government spending by about 35 percent over 10 years. That, sadly enough, is what passes for bravery these days.
On the other hand, Ryan also champions a voucher-style reform and other ideas that are excellent starting points. If there is any time to champion free market ideas on that front, it's before Obamacare is codified. His budget may be wrong, but it's a lot less wrong than, say, Obama's proposed budget, which would add $11 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years.
And it's doubtful he would hurt the ticket. Any retired Floridians who believe that pinstripe-suited goons are about to seize the 1 percent return they're making on Social Security will never shed that gullibility. Right now, though, working Americans are paying more in Social Security taxes than they will receive in benefits when they retire. That's what matters.
Of course, the veep pick is perhaps the most overvalued decision of a presidential race. Put it this way: If the vice president had any effect on your chances, Obama would be down 20 points by now. Ryan, though, would add a measure of number-crunching earnestness to a campaign (and then, more importantly, should it happen, to an administration) that lives on broad strokes.
Examiner Columnist David Harsanyi is syndicated by Creators.

Republican leaders work hard to save freshman class targeted by Dems

By Molly K. Hooper - 08/08/12 05:00 AM ET
 
House Republican leaders are crisscrossing the country and raising money to help preserve their majority, a large portion of which comprises freshman members elected in the historic class of 2010.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) all have busy schedules during the usually sleepy month of August.
Their primary focus is to reelect the first-term lawmakers being targeted by Democrats.
Earlier this year, Boehner acknowledged that there is a decent chance Democrats will take back the House, putting the odds at 1-in-3. The Speaker has since said he is feeling more optimistic.
But Democrats, boosted by impressive fundraising this cycle, say the House is in play. They are aiming to take out a slew of freshman GOP members this fall, including outspoken Reps. Joe Walsh (Ill.) and Allen West (Fla.).
Freshman Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.), swept into the House during the red wave of 2010, told The Hill that Boehner and Cantor have raised funds for him in his new, more Democratic-leaning district. McCarthy is in the process of scheduling a trip.
“These guys are working their hearts out right now … they are literally covering the country,” Tipton said.
House Democrats need 25 seats to regain the Speaker’s gavel. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) put the chances of Democrats winning back the lower chamber at better than 50-50.
Independent political handicappers disagree. Some, including The Hill, predict that Democrats will cut into the GOP majority, but will fall short of the 25 needed.
History is on the GOP’s side. A party with a president in the White House has not picked up 25 House seats since the landslide election of 1964.
Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said the House GOP is in a good place.
“I actually think this crop of GOP candidates that they’ve recruited may be better than last year’s, which I thought was the best I’d ever seen,” Cole said.
Republicans hope to offset potential losses with new members, but are well aware that the fate of their majority resides with the 87 freshman members who make up more than one-third of the GOP conference.
Boehner, for example, has done events for more than two-thirds of the freshman class.
Meanwhile, freshman Rep. Cory Gardner (Colo.) said that McCarthy wasted no time heading back to Colorado to get a jumpstart on the 2012 race.
“If you look back at my campaign before redistricting, McCarthy was out in Colorado early last year — March — holding events for my campaign reelection. He spent the entire day in Colorado meeting with anybody that would be helpful for me to have him meet with,” Gardner recalled.
Sources at the NRCC told The Hill that as head of the recruitment effort in 2010, McCarthy courted more than 400 candidates to run for the House. Ninety of them became members of the elite NRCC candidate assistance program known as the “Young Guns,” founded by the whip, Cantor and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.).
“Kevin, from the day he got here, was a star at recruiting, mentoring, helping candidates. Usually people do that while they’re trying to get someplace and then they quit doing it — but he’s kept doing it,” Cole said.
McCarthy, 47, is in a unique position. As whip, he is the House Republicans’ chief vote-counter — a job that requires a lot of listening to centrist and Tea Party lawmakers.
At the same time, the third-term lawmaker must counsel vulnerable freshman members on how to make it to a second term.
“The guy must never sleep,” Cole said, noting how much time it takes to travel and fundraise.
Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy have raised record-setting amounts of money to donate to the GOP congressional contenders in the 2012 cycle.
As of mid-July, Boehner topped fundraising charts, raking in nearly $80 million since becoming Speaker in 2011, according to a memo released by his political office. The prolific fundraiser transferred $20 million from his various funding committees to the NRCC.
McCarthy’s leadership PAC contributed nearly $800,000 to more than 75 members of the historic freshman class. He has transferred more than $1 million to the NRCC.
Boehner and Cantor both have headlined more than 100 fundraisers for candidates in 20-plus states, according to data released by their respective staffs earlier this year.
Cantor has raised more than $22 million since the beginning of 2011 and transferred more than $1.5 million to the NRCC, according to data provided by Cantor’s office in June.

Crossroads GPS releases ads attacking Dems in five swing states

By Alexandra Jaffe - 08/08/12 10:03 AM ET
 
Crossroads GPS, the super-PAC backed by former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, on Wednesday released the ads it's airing as a part of a $7.2 million television ad blitz in five swing states.

The ads, to run in Virginia, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and Nevada, attack vulnerable Democrats locked in election battles mainly over excessive spending and raising taxes.

Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp is charged with "hiding" details on her past policies with respect to taxes in a $191,000 ad buy in North Dakota. That ad attacks her for supporting taxes on job creators, a charge lobbed at Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill as well.
Crossroads GPS's $874,000 in Missouri goes up the day after a primary election anointed Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) as her challenger, considered by most Democrats a boon to McCaskill. But the choice of a Republican candidate means that the race will only heat up in a key swing state this year, and attacks like this one from Crossroads GPS — which charges her with "sid[ing] with government" on taxes — will only grow louder.

Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D), running a fierce campaign fight for Virginia's open Senate seat, is slammed for what the ad characterizes as his tax-raising, big-spending record during his time as governor in a $1.9 million buy. In Montana, a $397,000 total buy tacks the same tax-raising record on incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

Each ad directs viewers to visit NewMajorityAgenda.com, where Crossroads GPS lays out its electoral platform, which includes a "pro-growth tax system" and replacing President Obama's healthcare reform law.

Unique among the five ads is one running in a $768,000 buy in Nevada attacking Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) for a "disturbing pattern of unethical behavior." Berkley is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations that she's abused her position to help her husband's business interests. Though the investigation has not yet turned up any clear wrongdoing, its a label that will make it more difficult for Shelley to defeat incumbent Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.).

Allen West Offended Everyone When He Ordered Chick-Fil-A For Entire Congressional Black Caucus

by Noah Rothman | 2:23 pm, August 7th, 2012
» 529 commentsRep. Allen West reportedly offended the entire Congressional Black Caucus when he delivered a selection of Chick-fil-A chicken and biscuits to the members’ weekly meeting. CBC Chairman Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) told The Huffington Post that, despite the incident happening six months ago, it is still fresh in their minds and every member was offended.
RELATED: Allen West’s Democratic Opponent Shows Off Tea Party Congressman’s Greatest Hits At WhatWestSaid.com
Despite that this incident occurred months prior to the public dustup that followed Chick-fil-A’s CEO voicing his support for traditional marriage, Hastings told The Huffington Post that the members of the CBC were offended by West’s choosing that particular fast food chain to cater their meeting.
Hastings says that it is appropriate for each member of the CBC to buy lunch on a rotating basis for their weekly meeting, but West’s purchase was too “in your face” to be tolerable.
“We have fried chicken. And we have catfish and BBQ. We do not have watermelon, although sometimes people will have fruit. We serve a full course meal with collard greens. We have Jamaican beans and rice,” Hastings said. But West “sent Chick-fil-A with biscuits. Ok?”
“That was an ‘in your face.’ Every member of the Congressional Black Caucus that was there was offended,” he said.
“He did it deliberately,” said Hastings, explaining that West was sending a not-so-subtle signal with his choice of fast food. Hastings also noted that he and West rarely interact and have a rocky relationship as vocal and partisan members of opposing parties in the House.
“I wouldn’t want to go into his mental state,” Hastings added. “All I know is his verbiage and his rhetoric is way over the top. Way over the top.”
West briefly flirted with leaving the CBC In the summer of 2011. West decided to stay in the organization despite its close affiliation with the Democratic party.
h/t The Huffington Post
> >Follow Noah Rothman (@Noah_C_Rothman) on Twitter


Speaking of the Tea Party...
EFFECTIVE 7/19/2012 THROUGH 11/6/2012
UNTIL WE ERADICATE OBAMA, HIS INFLUENCE, AND POWER WITH THE DNC THROUGH THE SENATE

THE SUPER-DUPER ANTI-OBAMA BOYCOTT LIST: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-wwsP_p5BDdBIH0RiTl-mdwpJlNI7V13PySyJ-RR2SE/edit#

yes, Obama is petrified of us.
While the likelihood of Rick Perry being President in 2016 is a real possibility, Obama is freaked out...

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES
-
The Washington Times
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
  • Illustration: Battle worn Tea Party by Greg Groesch for The Washington Times more >
Imagine Tea Party extremists seizing control of a South Carolina town and the Army being sent in to crush the rebellion. This farcical vision is now part of the discussion in professional military circles.
At issue is an article in the respected Small Wars Journal titled “Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A ‘Vision’ of the Future.” It was written by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army's University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It posits an “extremist militia motivated by the goals of the ‘tea party’ movement” seizing control of Darlington, S.C., in 2016, “occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council and placing the mayor under house arrest.” The rebels set up checkpoints on Interstate 95 and Interstate 20 looking for illegal aliens. It’s a cartoonish and needlessly provocative scenario.
The article is a choppy patchwork of doctrinal jargon and liberal nightmare. The authors make a quasi-legal case for military action and then apply the Army’s Operating Concept 2016-2028 to the situation. They write bloodlessly that “once it is put into play, Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas.” They claim that “the Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment,” not pausing to consider that using such efficient, deadly force against U.S. citizens would create a monumental political backlash and severely erode government legitimacy.
The vision is hard to take seriously. As retired Army Brig. Gen. Russell D. Howard, a former professor at West Point, observed earlier in his career, “I am a colonel, colonels write a lot of crazy stuff, but no one listens to colonels, so I don’t see the problem.” Twenty years ago, then-Air Force Lt. Col. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. created a stir with an article in Parameters titled “The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012.” It carried a disclaimer that the coup scenario was “purely a literary device intended to dramatize my concern over certain contemporary developments affecting the armed forces, and is emphatically not a prediction.”
The scenario presented in Small Wars Journal isn’t a literary device but an operational lay-down intended to present the rationale and mechanisms for Americans to fight Americans. Col. Benson and Ms. Weber contend, “Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil.” This is a dark, pessimistic and wrongheaded view of what military leaders should spend their time studying.
A professor at the Joint Forces Staff College was relieved of duty in June for uttering the heresy that the United States is at war with Islam. The Obama administration contended the professor had to be relieved because what he was teaching was not U.S. policy. Because there is no disclaimer attached to the Small Wars piece, it is fair to ask, at least inCol. Benson’s case, whether his views reflect official policy regarding the use of U.S. military force against American citizens.

The Washington Times



By Annie-Rose Strasser on Aug 8, 2012 at 4:39 pmMitt Romney held a meeting Thursday with a group of right-wing activists that included several leaders who have been vocal supporters of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) Islamophobic witch hunt, deepening his association with right-wing, anti-Muslim sentiment.
One of the guests at Thursday’s event was Vice President of the Family Research Council Jerry Boykin, who has a long history of Islamophobia, and once said that Islam “should not be protected under the First Amendment.” Most recently, Boykin piled on to Bachmann’s baseless indictment that top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is part of a Muslim Brotherhood plot. “I believe in some aspects of this situation there is support for the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into our government, that sounds extremist but it is just a fact, it’s a reality,” he said.
Three others in attendance at Thursday’s event — American Values president Gary Bauer, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins —penned a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) defending Bachmann’s witch hunt. In that letter, they argued there is legitimate concern about “senior federal officials or branches of the federal government could be animated or influenced by groups affiliated with, or a philosophy grounded in, radical Islam.”
Boehner ended up rebuking Bachmann and her Islamophobic effort — which is more than Romney has done. The presidential candidate has refused to condemn Bachmann saying, “I’m not going to tell other people what things to talk about.”

Tags:



RNC Statement on the White House’s Transparency Hypocrisy

Posted August 6, 2012
WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement regarding the White House’s questionable actions with regard to Solyndra and Iran:
“Today’s headlines reveal more ethically questionable conduct by a member of President Obama’s inner circle, adding to a growing pattern of behavior,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “Senior White House advisor David Plouffe profited handsomely by speaking to a company doing business with the radical, anti-American government of Iran. “Last week, we learned Jim Messina used his personal email account to negotiate with lobbyists while other top officials chatted up the special interests at Caribou Coffee to keep their conversations secret–blatantly violating the very transparency standards on which Obama campaigned. A separate report showed Jack Lew, Bill Daley, Valerie Jarrett and other Obama insiders all knew the Solyndra loan was headed for disaster, but they let the administration swindle the taxpayers for half a billion dollars anyway. New emails show Rahm Emanuel was ‘hot on Solyndra’ and pressured the administration to move forward, yet he refuses to answer questions about his involvement. “President Obama owes the American people an answer: Does he knowingly allow this kind of reckless behavior in his White House, or has he lost control of his own senior staff? Why isn’t he answering questions or holding his staff accountable? When President Obama promised to change the way Washington works, this certainly isn’t what voters had in mind.”
###

54 Members of Congress Accepted Money from Hamas Terrorists


54 Members of Congress Accepted Money From Hamas Terrorists: Federal Judge Confirms CAIR Are Hamas Terrorists!

Posted by Volubrjotr ⋅ June 18, 2012⋅ Leave a Comment

FEDERAL JUDGE CONFIRMS CAIR ~ ARE HAMAS TERRORISTS.

IN CASE THERE ARE ANY DOUBTS…

Hamas is a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization that professes to be a “Nation of Jihad”.

CAIR is a front organization of Hamas.

At least 54 Members of Congress are aiding, working with, taking money from and/or acting as a front for CAIR (i.e., Hamas, i.e., a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization).

The Palestine Authority has long been considered an entity supporting terrorism. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have given nearly $600 Million in taxpayer money to the Palestine Authority.

Barack Obama and his Administration have close ties with Islamic radicals, CAIR, terrorists and terrorist organizations and they have implemented an agenda that supports terrorism.

The publicly available evidence is abundant, clear as glass and cannot be ignored by any rational person. 54 Congressmen, Obama and Hillary are aiding terrorists and should be immediately arrested.

Okay, America, it’s time for us to force our government to drop its charade. We have terrorists, communists, socialists and criminals running our country and driving it into the dirt. Now we have clear and sufficient evidence to demand a historic investigation of these criminal elements.

If the new House of Representatives does not immediately investigate, prosecute, impeach and/or jail these people for crimes, then America must assume that Republicans are active members of a now openly visible, terrorist Mafia organization that cannot be trusted to run the USA in the interest of law-abiding citizens. In fact, if the GOP House does not take immediate action on this terrorist issue, logic would dictate to any reasonable person that terrorists have captured our government and that citizens must act immediately to protect themselves and their country from further harm or potential death.

You don’t want to live in a terrorist country, do you? Send this article to your Congressman today and tell that anything short of IMMEDIATE public investigations and/or arrests beginning on January 5, 2011 is not an acceptable response. Spread the word to your family and friends! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Congressman Issa… Are you Listening?

Congressman Issa

HERE ARE THE ANTI-SEMITES:

Arizona


  1. Raul Grijalva

California


  1. Lois Capps
  2. Sam Farr
  3. Bob Filner
  4. Barbara Lee
  5. Loretta Sanchez
  6. Pete Stark
  7. Michael Honda
  8. Lynn Woolsey
  9. Jackie Speier
  10. Diane Watson
  11. George Miller

Connecticut


  1. Jim Himes

Indiana


  1. Andre Carson

Iowa


  1. Bruce Braley

Kentucky


  1. John Yarmuth

Maryland


  1. Elijah Cummings
  2. Donna Edwards

Massachusetts


  1. Michael Capuano
  2. William Delahunt
  3. Jim McGovern
  4. John Tierney
  5. John Olver
  6. Stephen Lynch

Michigan


  1. John Conyers
  2. John Dingell
  3. Carolyn Kilpatrick

Minnesota


  1. Keith Ellison
  2. Betty McCollum
  3. James Oberstar

New Jersey


  1. Donald Payne
  2. Rush Holt
  3. Bill Pascrell

New York


  1. Yvette Clarke
  2. Maurice Hinchey
  3. Paul Tonko
  4. Eric Massa

North Carolina


  1. David Price

Ohio


  1. Mary Jo Kilroy
  2. Marcy Kaptur

Oregon


  1. Earl Blumenauer
  2. Peter DeFazio

Pennsylvania


  1. Chaka Fattah
  2. Joe Sestak

Vermont


  1. Peter Welch

Virginia


  1. Jim Moran

Washington


  1. Jim McDermott
  2. Adam Smith
  3. Jay Inslee
  4. Brian Baird

West Virginia


  1. Nick Rahall

Wisconsin


  1. Tammy Baldwin
  2. Gwen Moore

Virginia


  1. Glenn Nye

http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/54-members-of-congress...

-REFERENCES

1.www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm

2.atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/12/hamas-prime-minister-haniya-we-are-a-nation-of-jihad-.html

3.www.wnd.com/?pageId=232181

4.www.rightsidenews.com/201001278384/us/politics-and-economics/hamas-54-democratic-congressmen.html

5. www.jcpa.org/art/brief1-11.htm

6.www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2001/The%20Palestinian%20Authority%20and%20Terrorism%20-%20Picture

7. www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2010/07/palestinian-authority-again-honors-terrorist

8. www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/140889.htm

9. www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/US-Announces-Additional-Palestinian-Aid–107047048.html

10. www.commieblaster.com/obama/

11. www.commieblaster.com/world_obama/

12. www.commieblaster.com/progressives/

-Views: 5647

Keith Ellison 2008 HAJJ trip paid for by Muslim American Society ‘MAS’ – overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America

Why is it that the two Muslim reps in congress Keith Ellison and Andre Carson have such ‘infidel’ westernized names, and not using their Muslim names? And with all the smearing of Michele Bachmann trying to find out if Weiner’s wife and Hillary Clinton lackey is a part of the Muslim Brotherhood (among others) this article for PJ Tatler connects some dots. Keith Ellison. who declares himself a proud Muslims and denies any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Problem for Ellison is his 2008 16 day Hajj trip to Saudi Arabia. The trip was paid paid for by a group known as the Muslim American Society (MAS). And the trip cost $13,500. Seems that a court document filed back in 2007 in the federal appeal of convicted terror operative Sabri Benkahla states exactly what the Muslim American Society is.
MAS was formed as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.

Minnesota should be really proud of the people they’ve elected over the decades. Walter Mondale in 1984, Jesse Ventura for Governor, Al Franken for Senator, and Keith Ellison. And I thought California was bad.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

'The biggest joke he's ever heard': Obama's a friend of Israel

The Shark Tank interviews former New York City Mayor and Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who says that the notion that Barack Hussein Obama is a friend of Israel is 'the biggest joke' he's ever heard.

http://youtu.be/Wxbuqe4AlTI

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Arutz Sheva).

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Rudy Giuliani, US-Israel relationship
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:31 PM

Missouri Prayer Amendment Passes, But Critics Fear Unnecessary Lawsuits And Minority Exclusion

The Huffington Post  |  Posted: 08/08/2012 3:33 pm Updated: 08/08/2012 3:47 pm
The Missouri prayer amendment , widely known as the "right to pray" amendment passed on Tuesday, asserting citizens have a right to pray in public and in schools.
The prayer amendment, formally called Amendment 2, had widespread supportthroughout the state. It passed with 83 percent of the vote, with only two precincts still outstanding, ABC News reported Wednesday morning.
Republican state Rep. Mike McGhee introduced the measure. The General Assembly voted on a ballot that read:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ensure:
  • That the right of Missouri citizens to express their religious beliefs shall not be infringed;
  • That school children have the right to pray and acknowledge God voluntarily in their schools; and
  • That all public schools shall display the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution
McGhee and supporters think the prayer amendment is necessary in order to match Missouri's state constitution to the U.S. Constitution, Fox News reports. They also say they hope it will protect Christianity in the state, which they believe is under attack.
McGhee recounted an incident to Fox News in which a teacher told a kindergarten student singing “Jesus Loves Me” to change the verse to “mommy loves me.”
Missouri voters reportedly believe religious liberty is pretty important to them and a high priority,” Kerry Messer, president of the Missouri Family Network, told the Kansas City Star. “The public feels like the Supreme Court took this away from them over 50 years ago” by ruling against mandatory school prayer.
However, some critics say Missouri's prayer amendment is unnecessary and could spawn frivolous lawsuits and minority exclusion.
Tim Townsend, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, previously explained that opponents have emphasized that such religious protections are already protected under the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. They did not want the Missouri prayer amendment passed for fear "it will open the door to all manner of unintended and costly consequences including endless taxpayer-funded lawsuits."
The Islamic Foundation of St. Louis worries the bill could send a message of exclusion to religious minorities.
Others were concerned the amendment could change school curriculum in Missouri, The Kansas City Star reports. It could have an impact on how topics such as the age of the earth, climate change and evolution are taught in schools.
Messer, on the other hand, says he doesn't think the amendment will have any effect on school lessons.
"Will somebody try to opt out of a class over something like evolution? Probably so," he told The Kansas City Star. "But I don't see the courts applying the amendment that way at all. This is only about religious liberty. If a Christian student is told they must kneel and bow east in a mock Islamic prayer to sensitize students to the Muslim community, that student can refuse to participate."
SPIES IN SYRIA? THE QUESTION AHMADINEJAD WON’T ANSWER AFTER HOPPING A CAMEL TO SEND A REPRESENTATIVE TO GRIPE TO TURKEY ABOUT AMERICA...

Thursday, August 09, 2012

48 Iranians being held by Free Syrian Army

This is rich. 48 Iranians come to Syria as guests of the Assad regime, ostensibly on a 'pilgrimage,' but probably as spies on Assad's and Ahmadinejad's behalf. They are proven to be 'connected' to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. They are arrested by the Free Syrian Army. And the fun begins.
The kidnapped 48 men traveled to Damascus on Saturday as part of a large contingent on a trip organized by a Revolutionary Guard Corps travel agency, according to people familiar with the trip.

They packed into six buses from the airport and traveled on the highway to their destination, Hotel Al-Faradis in downtown Damascus, when the last bus in the convoy was stopped at an opposition rebel checkpoint and abducted, according to a person involved in the planning of the trip.

"Everyone on this trip was either a Guard or a Basij militia. This wasn't a regular tour group," said an employee of the tour agency that organized the trip, reached by telephone. Agency officials could not be reached.

The reason for their journey, at the height of one of the most violent periods in Syria, is not clear. But the people familiar with the trip said the men were active members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, on a mission to train Syrian forces in counterinsurgency methods as its armed forces fight a decisive battle in Aleppo.

That would represent the strongest suggestion of Iran's involvement in Syria's 17-month uprising and could further dig Iran into isolation in the region, fueled by anger among its Arab neighbors for its support of President Bashar al-Assad.

Samen Al Aemmeh, the tour operating company, is not open to the Iranian public and solely caters to members and families of Guards or the plainclothes Basij militia. The company is also a subsidiary of Samen Al Aemmeh Industries, one of IRGC's largest umbrella groups, which has been sanctioned under United Nations Security Council resolutions and by the U.S. Treasury for its role in missile building and Iran's nuclear program.
Read the whole thing. It's a pity that the Free Syrian Army is not a whole lot better than Assad. I'd love to see them start killing off those 'innocent' Iranians one at a time unless Assad stops shooting and lets the civilians go.
Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Iran, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:30 AM
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Virus found in Mideast can spy on finance transactions

By Jim Finkle
BOSTON | Thu Aug 9, 2012 10:32am EDT
(Reuters) - A new cyber surveillance virus has been found in the Middle East that can spy on financial transactions, email and social networking activity, according to a leading computer security firm, Kaspersky Lab.
Dubbed Gauss, the virus may also be capable of attacking critical infrastructure and was built in the same laboratories as Stuxnet, the computer worm widely believed to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear program, Kaspersky Lab said on Thursday.
The Moscow-based firm said it found Gauss had infected personal computers in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. It declined to speculate on who was behind the virus but said it was related to Stuxnet and two other cyber espionage tools, Flame and Duqu.
"After looking at Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame, we can say with a high degree of certainty that Gauss comes from the same 'factory' or 'factories,'" Kaspersky Lab said in a posting on its website. "All these attack toolkits represent the high end of nation-state-sponsored cyber-espionage and cyber war operations."
EXCEPT I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS: I THINK THIS WAS A SPONTANEOUS FLEXING OF MUSCLES BY A HACKER CAPABLE OF TAKING DOWN ENTIRE SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT, SAY LIKE THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE WEBSITE OR A SCHOOL.
IT JUST SEEMS THAT THEY HAVE PERFECTED IT, AND THEY USED IT AT A CRUCIAL TIME TO PREVENT WAR WITH IRAN. I’M STICKING WITH THAT UNTIL WE SEE PROOF OTHERWISE.
Kaspersky Lab's findings are likely to fuel a growing international debate over the development and use of cyber weapons. Those discussions were stirred up by the discovery of Flame in May by Kaspersky and others. Washington has declined comment on whether it was behind Stuxnet.
According to Kaspersky Lab, Gauss can steal Internet browser passwords and other data, send information about system configurations, steal credentials for accessing banking systems in the Middle East, and hijack login information for social networking sites, email and instant messaging accounts.
Modules in the Gauss virus have internal names that Kaspersky Lab researchers believe were chosen to pay homage to famous mathematicians and philosophers, including Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss, Kurt Godel and Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
Kaspersky Lab said it called the virus Gauss because that is the name of the most important module, which implements its data-stealing capabilities.
One of the firm's top researchers said Gauss also contains a module known as "Godel" that may include a Stuxnet-like weapon for attacking industrial control systems.
Stuxnet, discovered in 2010, attacked via USB drives and was designed to attack computers that controlled the centrifuges at a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, Iran.
Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher with Kaspersky, said the Godel code may include a similar "warhead."
Godel copies a compressed, encrypted program onto USB drives. That program will only decompress and activate when it comes in contact with a targeted system.
While Kaspersky has yet to fully crack Godel's code, Schouwenberg said he suspects it is a cyber weapon designed to cause physical damage and that its developers went to a lot of trouble to hide its purpose, using an encryption scheme that could take months or even years to unravel.
CODE BREAKERS WANTED
He said the prospect that a cyber weapon like Gauss or Stuxnet could attack critical infrastructure keeps him up at night.
"They could do pretty much anything," he said. "A few weeks ago when power went out in and around (Washington) D.C., my first thought was a cyber weapon."
Kaspersky said it is searching for "world-class" cryptographers to help it break the code.
A United Nations agency that advises countries on protecting critical infrastructure plans to send an alert on the mysterious code.
"We are going to, of course, inform member states that there is an unknown payload," said Marco Obiso, a cyber security coordinator for the U.N.'s Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, or ITU.
"We don't know what exactly it does. We can have some ideas. We are going to emphasize this," he said.
The ITU issued a warning about Flame shortly after the virus was unveiled by Kaspersky in late May. The agency told member nations that Flame could potentially be used to attack critical infrastructure, according to Obiso.
At the time, experts knew only that Flame was a sophisticated espionage tool; they were not certain it could damage computer networks.
Several weeks later, researchers at another security firm, Symantec Corp, confirmed suspicions that Flame was capable of deleting computer data and likely was used to attack Iran in April.
Iran blamed Flame for causing data loss on computers in the country's main oil export terminal and Oil Ministry. Reports of the data losses prompted the ITU to ask Kaspersky to search for a data-wiping virus, which resulted in its discovery of Flame and Gauss.
(Jim Finkle in Boston, editing by Tiffany Wu and John Wallace)

Clashes rage in rebel bastions of Syria's AleppoBy ZEINA KARAM | Associated Press – 1 hr 39 mins ago


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BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes between government troops and rebels raged Thursday in opposition bastions of besieged Aleppo as President Bashar Assad's key state backer Iran hosted a gathering of allies for talks on how to end the conflict.
Speaking at the opening of the conference in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said his country rejects any foreign and military intervention in Syria and accused rebels of kidnapping nationals of other countries and using civilians as "human shields." Syrian rebels last week intercepted a bus carrying 48 Iranians in a Damascus suburb and seized them. Rebels claimed the men are military personnel, including some members of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, who were on a "reconnaissance mission" to help Assad's crackdown on the uprising.
Iran initially said the 48 were pilgrims visiting a Shiite shrine in Damascus. Salehi said Wednesday that some of the kidnapped Iranians are retired members of the army and Revolutionary Guard.
The overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels have also abducted 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who have been held in northern Syria since May.
Assad, meanwhile, appointed a new prime minister to replace the one who defected to neighboring Jordan this week in a humiliating blow to the regime. State-run news agency SANA said he appointed Health Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi, a Sunni member of the ruling Baath party who hails from the southern city of Daraa, birthplace of the 17-month-old uprising. He replaces Riad Hijab, who defected to Jordan this week. Like nearly all prominent defectors so far, Hijab is a member of Syria's majority Sunnis — the Muslim sect which forms the bedrock of the uprising.
Still power remains closely held within Assad's inner circle and the leadership is dominated by members of the president's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
The regime pressed its new assault on Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial hub, for a second day. But blistering attacks on rebel positions from the ground and the air appear to be only slowly chipping away at the opposition's grip on its strongholds.
The state news agency claimed Wednesday that Assad's force had regained control of the Salaheddine neighborhood, the main rebel area in Aleppo. But activists said rebels were still putting up a fight there on Thursday.
"It's difficult to know exactly what's going on because of the scale of the bombing, but the rebels are still fighting," Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed told The Associated Press by Skype.
He said troops were using warplanes and tanks to shell the towns of Hreitan and Tel Rifat, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Aleppo, from where most of the rebels converged on the city.
"They are trying to cut the main lines from Tel Rifat to Aleppo," he said.
Syrian fighter jets launched airstrikes Wednesday on Tel Rifat, hitting a home and a high school and killing six people from one family, residents said.
They said government forces often shelled the village, but that this had been the first airstrike. They acknowledged that there were some rebels in the village, though an Associated Press reporter saw no armed men during a brief drive through the area.
Aleppo holds great symbolic and strategic importance. Some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Turkish border, it has been a pillar of regime support during the uprising. An opposition victory there would allow easier access for weapons and fighters from Turkey, where many rebels are based.
State television in Iran, Syria's closest ally in the Middle East, said Tehran was hosting the conference of "friends" of Syria in the hope of finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Salehi said some 30 countries attended the meeting, including Russia and China, as well as Pakistan, Iraq, Algeria and Venezuela.
The meeting was called at short notice and most countries were represented at the ambassador level.
Russia in the past has urged the West to allow Tehran to take part in international discussions on how to settle the Syrian crisis, arguing that the Islamic republic could play an important role. Moscow has been the main protector and ally of Assad's regime, shielding it from the United Nations sanctions over its brutal crackdown on an uprising that has evolved into a full-blown civil war.
___
AP writer Nasser Karimi contributed to this report from Tehran.
@yahoonews on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook

THE TEA PARTY UPS THE ANTE ON BOYCOTT OF CHINESE GOODS IN WAKE OF SYRIAN CIVIL WAR:

TO MAKE OUR BOYCOTT OF CHINESE GOODS MORE EFFECTIVE AND TO SEND A MESSAGE TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF HOW WE FEEL ABOUT THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, WITH CHINA AND RUSSIA’S REFUSAL TO VOTE FOR A RESOLUTION EARLIER IN CONDEMNATION OF ASSAD, WE FEEL THAT THEIR REASON OF PERSONAL SAFETY IS FLAWED, AS NOW ALL COUNTRIES ARE IMPERILED BY THE PRESENCE OF AL QAEDA THERE. JUST YESTERDAY, ASSAD USED MISSILES ON HIS OWN PEOPLE, SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE NOT SEEN SINCE THE TIMES OF HITLER, NOR HAS IT GONE UNNOTICED BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, FOR LACK OF CONSENSUS.

WE ARE ASKING EVERYONE TO SELL THE CHINESE GOODS IN THEIR HOME, AT YARD SALES, AND TO DONATE THE MONEY TO THE RED CROSS AND TURKEY, FOR ACCEPTING AND CARING FOR THE SYRIAN REFUGEES.
WE DO THIS TO MAKE 2 STATEMENTS:

1) THAT WE WILL NOT TOLERATE CHINA’S LORDSHIP OF OUR ECONOMY, THE SUBVERSION OF OUR CURRENCY, OR THEIR CURRENT PRACTICE OF SATURATING OUR MARKETS WITH THEIR GOODS IN CONJUNCTION WITH NON-COMMITTAL POLICY ON DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS WHEN IT COMES TO THE PRESERVATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
2) WE WILL TAKE THEIR PRACTICES THAT HAVE UNDERMINED OUR ECONOMY, AND USE THEM TO BENEFIT A COUNTRY THAT CHINA AND RUSSIA LACK COMPASSION TOWARDS, SO THAT WE WILL REPLACE CHINESE GOODS WITH AMERICAN-MADE GOODS IN OUR HOMES, AND THE MONEY FROM THE CHINESE GOODS WILL BE DONATED TO SHOW OUR COMPASSION TO SYRIA AND ITS PEOPLE.edward dark ‏@edwardedark
many parts of Aleppo city are without electricity for 3 days now #Syria
11:18 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details

Members of underground sect charged with child abuse in Russian province plagued by IslamismBy Mansur Mirovalev, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 6 hours ago


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  • Members of an underground sect in Russia's Volga River province of Tatarstan province …
MOSCOW - A self-proclaimed prophet had a vision from God: He would build an Islamic caliphate under the earth.
The digging began about a decade ago and 70 followers soon moved into an eight-level subterranean honeycomb of cramped cells with no light, heat or ventilation.
Children were born. They, too, lived in the cold underground cells for many years — until authorities raided the compound last week and freed the 27 sons and daughters of the sect.
Ages 1 to 17, the children rarely saw the light of day and had never left the property, attended school or been seen by a doctor, officials said Wednesday. Their parents — sect members who call themselves "muammin," from the Arabic for "believers" — were charged with child abuse.
The sect's 83-year-old founder, Faizrakhman Satarov, who declared himself a prophet in contradiction to the principles of Islam, was charged with negligence, said Irina Petrova, deputy prosecutor in the provincial capital of Kazan.
The children were discovered when police searched the sect grounds as part of an investigation into the recent killing of a top Tatarstan Muslim cleric, an attack local officials blame on radical Islamist groups that have mushroomed in the oil-rich, Volga River province of Tatarstan.
Satarov ordered his followers to live in cells they dug under a three-story brick house topped by a small minaret with a tin crescent moon. Only a few sect members were allowed to leave the premises to work as traders at a local market, Russian media reported.
The children were examined at hospitals and will temporarily live in an orphanage, pediatrician Tatyana Moroz said. "They looked nourished but dirty, so we had to wash them," she said in televised remarks.
Their parents expressed concern about the children's medical treatment.
Doctors "can do anything to them," Fana Sayanova, a woman wearing a long white dress with her face veiled, told local television.
The decrepit house on a 700-square-meter (7,530-square-foot) plot of land was built illegally and will be demolished, Tatarstan police said.
"They will come with bulldozers and guns, but they will have to demolish this house over our dead bodies!" sect member Gumer Ganiyev said on the Vesti television channel. The ailing Satarov appointed Ganiyev as his deputy prophet, according to local media.
Satarov had followers in several other cities in Tatarstan and other Volga River provinces, local media reported.
In a 2008 interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, Satarov said that he fell out with other clerics and authorities in the Communist era, when he said the KGB sent him to Muslim nations with stories about religious freedom in the officially atheist Soviet Union. Government-approved Orthodox Christian, Muslim and Jewish clerics routinely travelled abroad on Soviet publicity trips.
"That's how I became Satan's servant, a traitor," the white-bearded and turbaned man was quoted as saying. "When I understood that, I repented and started preaching."
Muslim leaders in Tatarstan said Satarov's views contradict Islamic doctrine.
"Islam postulates that there are no other prophets after Mohammad," Kazan-based theologian Rais Suleimanov told the Gazeta.ru online publication Tuesday.
Police raided Satarov's house last Friday as part of an investigation into the killing of Valiulla Yakupov, Tatarstan's deputy chief mufti, who was gunned down in mid-July as he left his house in Kazan. Minutes later, chief mufti Ildus Faizov was wounded in the legs when a bomb blast ripped through his car in Kazan.
Both clerics were known as critics of radical Islamist groups that advocate a strict and puritanical version of Islam known as Salafism.
Prosecutors have named two suspects in Yakupov's killing who remain at large and arrested five others in the case.


9 August 2012 Last updated at 09:53 ET

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Syria crisis: Rebels lose key district of Aleppo
A Syrian fighter plane fires a rocket during an air strike in the village of Tel Rafat, north of Aleppo

Syria conflict


Syrian rebel commanders say they have lost control of the strategic Salah al-Din district in the northern city of Aleppo after a government offensive.
The rebels' loss came as Damascus named a new prime minister to replace Riad Hijab who defected on Sunday.
Iran called for dialogue between the government and opposition, as it opened a summit on the crisis in Tehran.
Meanwhile, Lebanon has detained a former minister with close ties to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Michel Samaha, who is known for his pro-Syrian views, was taken for questioning by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces over what were described as security reasons.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has confirmed it has retreated from Salah al-Din, a densely packed area of narrow streets on the south-west side of Aleppo, where rebel fighters had been heavily dug in.
State media had reported the army was in full control of the district, saying it had inflicted heavy losses on hundreds of "terrorist mercenaries".
"We have staged a tactical withdrawal from Salah al-Din," rebel commander Hossam Abu Mohammed of the Dara al-Shahbaa Brigade in Aleppo told the AFP news agency by phone.
"The district is completely empty of rebel fighters. Regime forces are now advancing into Salah al-Din."

“Start Quote

Regime forces are now advancing into Salah al-Din”
Hossam Abu MohammedRebel commander
The rebels still control several other districts, including some in the east of the city which activists say are coming under very heavy bombardment, according to the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon.
State television reported clashes there too, in the Hananu quarter. It said dozens of rebels had been killed or wounded, while others had thrown down their weapons and fled.
New prime minister
On Wednesday, Syria's state military launched a large operation to retake Aleppo from rebel fighters, who overran some areas three weeks ago.
Aleppo is Syria's largest city, and Salah al-Din is considered a vital supply route for government troops coming from the south.
Wael al-Halki, a Baath loyalist from Deraa, was named as the new prime minister
The Syrian Observatory said at least 26 people were killed in Aleppo on Wednesday - it said they were among 130 people killed across the country.
Meanwhile, three days after Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to the opposition, the health minister Wael al-Halqi has been named as his replacement.
Mr Halqi is a Baath Party loyalist from Deraa in the south of the country, where the uprising began in March last year, and where violence is still raging, our correspondent says.
Riad Hijab, whose defection was considered the most significant since the revolt began, was said to have crossed into Jordan on Wednesday.
Opening a 29-nation conference in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said dialogue between both sides was the only solution to crisis.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran firmly believes that the Syrian crisis can only be resolved through serious and inclusive talks between the government and opposition groups that enjoy popular support in Syria," Mr Salehi said in a speech broadcast on TV.
'Political approaches'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is a staunch ally of the Assad regime, said the foreign ministers' summit would be a gathering of countries with "a correct and realistic position" on the Syrian conflict.
He said it would be an opportunity "to replace military clashes with political, indigenous approaches to settle the disputes".
Western governments, who are not taking part, have expressed scepticism that Tehran can mediate, given its recent strong commitments to the survival of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Kuwait's foreign ministry told al-Seyassah newspaper it would not be sending a representative. Lebanon has also said it will not attend while Russia is sending its ambassador and not Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
This is a meeting of people who are already close to Tehran and to the Syrian regime, our correspondent says.
On Tuesday, Iranian security chief Saeed Jalili expressed strong support for President Assad during a visit to Damascus, describing Syria as a crucial part of a regional "axis of resistance".
Are you in Syria? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below.
Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.





*

Time To Leave the United Nations of Despots

By Craig Andresen on August 9, 2012 at 7:02 am
*It’s beyond the pale.
Disgusting.
It’s downright OBSCENE and exactly what we should expect from the world’s most corrupt organization.
Omar Al-Bashir, the Sudanese warlord and a man with a warrant out for his arrest by the International Criminal Court is about to be named to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
That warrant, by the way, is directly related to…GENOCIDE…Carried out by HIS regime in Darfur!!!
GENOCIDE!!!
The United Nations, by allowing such a vile MURDERER to sit on that council is literally making the ABSURD and VILE argument that…
GENOCIDE is a basic human right!!!!!
My God.
And just exactly who is “Omar the GENOCIDAL Maniac” replacing on the U.N. Human Rights Council???
I hope you’re sitting down…
LIBYA’S MUAMMAR QADDAFI…THAT’S WHO!!!!!
None of this should come as any surprise.
—Just last month, Iran was elected to the deputy president role of a 15-member board aiming to thrash out a UN arms trade treaty, despite multiple UN sanctions against the Islamic republic regarding its nuclear defiance and human rights abuses.
—In May, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was appointed as a UN tourism envoy for a major UN conference despite allegations of ethnic cleansing and rigged elections by the 88-year-old who has led the southern African nation for more than three decades.
—Syria was elected to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) human rights committee last fall, despite the ongoing crackdown on opposition protests by Bashar al-Assad’s regime that has reportedly claimed more than 21,000 lives in just 17 months.
The U.N. Human Rights Council also includes such Human Rights advocates as…Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Mexico, Cameroon  and Cuba.
Can anybody…ANYBODY…offer a reasonable explanation for WHY we continue to pour money…TAXPAYER money, down this thug infested moral abyss called the “United Nations???”How much money???
The United States pays for 22% of the U.N. annual budget.
The U.N. annual budget is…$4.19 Billion Dollars.
OUR SHARE OF THAT EQUALS…921.8 MILLION DOLLARS EACH AND EVERY YEAR!!!!!
While the United Nations busies itself levying “oh-so-fearsome-sanctions” against its “oh-so-valued” members like Iran and Syria…
Who can levy sanctions against the United Nations itself???
WE CAN!!!
We hold the purse-strings don’t we???
WE are responsible for nearly one quarter of their annual budget and yet WE stand by, like an ATM shelling out an endless supply of money…YOUR money!!!
The mere idea that WE would give one red CENT to an organization which promotes such a diverse collection of despots, thieves, thugs, murders and yes, GENOCIDAL MANIACS is quite beyond me.
To be fair, the U.N. DOES have members who are decent, solid proponents of human rights and freedom and amongst them, some of our strongest and best friends. Israel, Great Britain, Poland, Canada, Germany, France and that list goes on and on.
If WE want to be leaders again, on the world stage, WE need to LEAD a PARADE of decent nations OUT of the U.N. and we need to do it now.
Imagine, if all the nations of the United Nations that actually care about freedoms, liberty, human rights and the like just got up and LEFT with their WALLETS firmly in hand. It seems to me that THOSE nations are looking for a leader…1 nation to stand up first and say…ENOUGH IS ENOUGH…YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN!!!
And oh by the way…GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!!!
Any organization that tries to reach diplomatic solutions to issues with countries that don’t give a rat’s ass about diplomacy and hands out significant posts to those who openly advocate the killing of their own people or wiping other Member nations off the map is 100% WORTHLESS.
The United Nations is THE most POLITICALLY CORRECT and hence, MORALLY BANKRUPT entity on the PLANET.
Think about it…Would you allow a known ax murderer to live in your house with your family and tell you how to run your life?
Of course not but…
INTO THE UNITED NATIONS BUILDING, WE OPEN THE DOOR TO THE WORLDS MOST ABHORRENT EXCUSES FOR HUMAN BEINGS…MURDERERS, MANIACS, THOSE WHO KILL THEIR OWN, WISH TO WIPE OUR BEST FRIENDS FROM THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, COMMIT GENOCIDE, STEAL FROM THEIR OWN PEOPLE AND FROM US AND WE EXTEND TO THE WORLD WORST DESPOTS…DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!!
So…When Omar al-Bashir, the genocidal warlord of Darfur strolls into New York to address the United Nations…The International Criminal Court, with their arrest warrant in hand…can do nothing. Al_Bashir will give us the finger and…Stroll on out the door.
Nice huh?
Let me put this into perspective.
The exact same liberal mentality that suspends a 7 year old for bringing a plastic spork to school in her lunch box, is willing to allow mass murderers to address the world in New York City without fear of reprisal and further more…New York University, an asylum of “higher learning” which babysits those formerly disallowed the sporks, often INVITES those mass murderers to address the sporkless masses.
Is it any wonder, considering the embracing of the double standard, that Obama loves the United Nations and wants to cede OUR 2nd Amendment rights to an organization who would put a genocidal madman on their Human Rights Council?
To make a direct comparison, Obama insisted that the Muslim Brotherhood have a “seat at the table” in forming a new Egyptian government. The Muslim Brotherhood stated they would NOT seek the presidency OF Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is now in CONTROL of Egypt and wants to do away with the decades old peace accord with Israel. Obama told Netanyahu to go back to Israel’s pre 1967 borders and Obama supports the creation of and Membership in the U.N. for Palestine which is headlong, up to their ankles, in the keester of Hamas who has in THEIR charter, the killing of all Jews along with the elimination of Israel.
While Obama supports the Muslim Brotherhood, he also supports Gay marriage and is against the Boy Scouts because they, as a private club, don’t allow gay Members BUT…The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas support putting gay people to DEATH yet…Gay people in THIS country overwhelmingly support Obama.
Oh what a tangled web they weave.
Shortly after the 2004 election, Senator Obama said that democrats must define their core values. That’s essentially the same as saying that democrats had no core values upon which they stood firm. The exact same can be said of the United Nations.
If either HAD core values, NEITHER would be consistently taking both sides of the same issues in the attempt to appease those to who they owe their future existence.
We spend nearly 1 billion dollars every year to assist the U.N. in supporting and protecting the worst abusers of liberty on the planet and the best they can do, when the allies of despots don’t veto the measures, is to issue resolutions they have no intention of standing behind or sanctions which mean nothing to the sanctioned.
$921.8 million dollars per year for an occasional half-hearted finger waging to those who consistently give us, and the rest of the free world, the finger.
ENOUGH!!!
It’s high time for the U.S. to get the hell out of the U.N. and the U.N. to get the hell out of the U.S.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2012 at 702am and is filed under Conservative, Craig Andresen, Education, Islam, israel,Liberals, Progressives, Socialists, Military and Wars, Obama, Race and Gender, Tea Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

To avoid sequester and revisiting the military draft laws in speaking with Netanyahu, the Tea Party Chief espouses Prison Reform, Judicial Reform, and a measure to end violent crime and terrorism to the Global Counterterrorism Council, in wake of UN failure in Syria...Tea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
@NicolasSarkozy AGREED! http://news.yahoo.com/sarkozy-breaks-silence-urge-international-action-syria-144424101.html …
7:14 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details

Sarkozy breaks silence to urge international action in SyriaReuters – Wed, Aug 8, 2012

You read this
PARIS (Reuters) - Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy called on Wednesday for rapid international intervention in Syria, likening its conflict to the early days of war in Libya in which he mobilized NATO-led action that helped rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi.
Breaking a long silence since losing May's presidential election to Socialist Francois Hollande, Sarkozy said he had spoken at length to Syrian opposition leader Abdulbaset Sieda this week and they agreed on the need for foreign intervention in the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"They noted a total convergence in their views on the seriousness of the Syrian crisis as well as the need for rapid action by the international community to avoid massacres," said the statement signed by Sarkozy and Sieda, who is president of the Istanbul-based Syrian National Council.
"They agreed that there are great similarities with the Libyan crisis," said the statement.
After a three-month hiatus from public life, Sarkozy's sortie, and his 40-minute telephone talk with Sieda, appeared designed to raise pressure on Hollande to engage more openly with Syrian opposition groups.
It came days after French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, who prodded Sarkozy to help Libya's rebels last year and became his unofficial adviser in the crisis, slammed Hollande's approach in a newspaper interview.
The French government, which holds the rotating chair of the U.N. Security Council for August, has said Fabius will chair a ministerial meeting of Council members on August 30 focusing mainly on the humanitarian crisis in Syria, with the diplomatic stalemate over concrete action to stop the violence persisting.
Western powers have urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, but Russia and China have vetoed Security Council resolutions that would have condemned his government and opened the way to U.N. sanctions against it.
Hollande has not sought to circumvent the United Nations as Sarkozy did with Libya.
While Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has had frequent contact with Syrian opposition leaders since June, Hollande has shied away from getting too involved, only meeting Sieda briefly during a Friends of Syria meeting in Paris in early July.
That month, Sarkozy was quoted by le Parisien daily as criticising Hollande's policy toward Syria, saying: "I was criticized on Libya but at least I acted."
Sarkozy was quick to embrace Libyan rebels at the height of the crisis there, becoming the first Western leader to recognize them. He spearheaded efforts to assemble an international military coalition which bombed forces loyal to Gaddafi, strengthening rebels who eventually overthrew him a year ago.
But in contrast with isolated Libya, Western powers are leery of intervention in Syria due to Assad's alliances with Russia and Iran and Syria's position at the heart of sectarian and ethnic divisions that radiate across the Middle East.
Sarkozy's conservative UMP party also chimed in on Syria.
"Why is Francois Hollande... doing less than Sarkozy? Why has he decided not to intervene? Because of fear? Because of amateurism? Because he doesn't know how to decide?" UMP official Philippe Juvin said in a statement.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
@yahoonews on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook


#GCC did you hear? @MittRomney @SpeakerBoehner @netanyahu@Number10gov We're going to exile terrorists now @President_Iran@SayyidKhamenei
@SpeakerBoehner no more death row, Manson can pilot the#CrueSoeProject
@SpeakerBoehner We will be drafting a 10yr. proposal to exile violent criminals, to phase out Guantanamo, Max Security, and Pedophile wards.
@SpeakerBoehner we believe life imprisonment punishes taxpayers and society, not the offender, and constitutes cruel and unusual taxation
@alvedaking I pray He now give me the words to draft the legislation while Congress is on break, for consideration on next year's budget.
@alvedaking After earnest prayer this morning, the Lord revealed to me how to eradicate abortion&violent crime, like 2 birds with one stone.
LOCAL:
Tea Party Chief ‏@2012_TeaParty
@GovernorDeal @wsbtv @Kem_Kimbrough to me, the cost issue of busing all students #YearRound with #Obamanomics has come full circle #Atlanta

6:16 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details

If parents are worried about their kids @GovernorDeal @wsbtv@Kem_Kimbrough walk to school with them, and then do community watch groups.
6:14 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details
@GovernorDeal @wsbtv Walking to school in #ATL reinforces@BarackObama #LetsMoveCampaign and reduces #CO2 and cost of buses. Problem solved.
6:10 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details
Forgive me @GovernorDeal but I saw @wsbtv bus problems #ATL for students-I've been w/o my car going on 7yrs. no one cared about my safety!
6:09 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details

The self-induced paralysis of Georgia government

7:34 am August 8, 2012, by Jay
Last week’s overwhelming rejection of a proposed 1-penny sales tax leaves metro Atlanta with no conceivable funding mechanism to address its serious transportation deficiencies.
The financing certainly won’t come from local sources, not after metro taxpayers rejected the new tax by an almost 2-1 margin. It won’t come from the feds either, not after we’ve so emphatically demonstrated an unwillingness to pay our local share.
And as Gov. Nathan Deal has made clear, state leaders also have no intention of trying to fill the gap, and will content themselves with trying to patch the system together using existing resources.
The problem is, no one with any knowledge of the situation believes that our existing meager resources — we are 49th in the nation in per capita spending on transportation — will be sufficient. Unless unspecified bold approaches are forthcoming from previously unsuspected sources of leadership, the region now seems destined to stall for years in its own traffic congestion.
Moody’s, the New York-based bond-rating firm, this week noted the damage that could do to the region’s economy, and thus to the bond ratings of local governments. The region “needs major upgrades to its dated and limited transit system and congested roadways to maintain its long-term position as an influential economic center,” Moody warned, concluding that the region now has no means to fund those needed upgrades.
Unfortunately, last week’s vote must also be seen as merely a symptom of a much deeper crisis in leadership, political culture and vision now confronting the Atlanta region and the state. In short, through their own rhetoric and their own actions, Georgia political leaders have succeeded in delegitimizing government as a tool for fixing not just transportation but a whole range of problems, including education. They have led the crusade to destroy public faith in the institutions that they themselves lead, and as a result those institutions have become increasingly useless.
The cynicism that fuels that delegitimizing process could be seen clearly in a statement released by the governor’s office after the T-SPLOST defeat. “On public transportation, yesterday’s vote slams the door on further expansion of our rail network any time soon,” Deal said in a press release. “Neither I nor the Legislature has much of an appetite for new investments until there are significant reforms in how MARTA operates.”
A few points:
— Deal’s statement “slam[ming] the door” on rail expansion demonstrates the folly of the anti-T-SPLOST position taken by the Sierra Club and Georgia NAACP. Both groups had hoped that the plan’s rejection would lead to a second proposal more heavily weighted toward transit investment. That will not happen.
— The Deal statement also reflects a conviction among conservative Georgians that Atlanta, alone among the world’s major metropolitan areas, can somehow grow and prosper without a significant and ongoing investment in transit. There is no example of a major metro region succeeding in that effort, but it is an article of faith nonetheless.
— Finally, last week’s rejection by voters was the culmination of a series of leadership failures by state officials. First, they lacked the courage to raise transportation revenue themselves; they then Macgyvered a flawed T-SPLOST process and forced it upon local officials and voters. Finally, in the months before last week’s vote, they ignored pleas to create a basic regional transit governance structure that would supercede MARTA and reassure voters that regional transit could become reality.
Given that record of failure, it takes a lot of gall to trot out a favorite whipping boy, MARTA, and somehow imply that the transit agency is somehow to blame. That is particularly true given the financial, political and geographic constraints that MARTA is forced to operate under by state leaders. Rather than challenge the attitudes that led to the T-SPLOST defeat, Deal pandered to them.
However, the most frustrating aspect of the anti-tax, anti-government mythology threatening prosperity in this state is that it is indeed a mythology. State government in the last 20 years has simply not been the bloated monster devouring ever larger chunks of our wealth that some would like to claim.
In 1992, tax revenue collected by the state amounted to 4.5 percent of Georgia’s gross domestic product. By 2011, state government was collecting just 3.8 percent of state GDP, a significant reduction in tax burden. So look around you: Is this the economic powerhouse that such a reduction in state tax burden was supposed to have created?
– Jay Bookman
GEORGIA AND NATIONAL ELECTIONS 2012 6:39 p.m. Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Clayton County names street after fallen deputy

Posted: Jul 20, 2012 12:05 PM EDTUpdated: Jul 20, 2012 5:21 PM EDT
By Bernard Watson - email
CLAYTON COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Joyce Daly said her son, Rick, was a hero, and she won't get an argument from police and sheriff's deputies in Clayton County.
Deputy Rick Daly was killed in the line of duty last July. Friday Clayton County officials honored him by renaming Justice Center Road, Deputy Rick Daly Memorial Drive.
"It is just an honor what they have done for his memory, it really is. He began his career here in Clayton County with the police department in the 1980s and this is where he ended it," said Toby Daly, Rick Daly's son.
Rick Daly was shot and killed by then-17-year-old Jonathan Bunn exactly one year ago today. Bunn was convicted earlier this year of murdering Rick Daly while the deputy tried to arrest him.
"It's been a rough year, it really has, but we know he is in heaven. He is a Christian man, we know where he is at," Toby Daly said.
"Each and every one of us is thinking about how short a year is, we all feel like this happened just yesterday," said Kem Kimbrough, the Clayton County Sheriff.
Kimbrough said it's only fitting that the road that circles the county's justice center has been renamed after a man who epitomized what a law enforcement officer should be.
"He always had a smile on his face. He was always concerned about his brother and sister officers and of course he served with the Clayton County Police Department and served with the sheriff's office. He was well respected, well liked and he was he was a cop's cop," Kimbrough said.
"It makes my heart swell with pride to know he was honored this way," Toby Daly said.
"I know that he is up there looking down and cheering us on," Joyce Daly said.
Copyright 2012 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation).  All rights reserved.

Bridge dedicated to slain Ga. trooper

Posted: Aug 08, 2012 10:50 AM EDTUpdated: Aug 08, 2012 12:37 PM EDT
By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF
A bridge over the Chattahoochee River was dedicated to a Georgia State Patrol trooper killed in the line of duty on Wednesday, August 8.

  • Email Patty Pan

COBB COUNTY, Ga. -
A bridge over the Chattahoochee River was dedicated to a Georgia State Patrol trooper killed in the line of duty on Wednesday.
The ceremony was held at the bridge on South Cobb Drive and James Jackson Highway. The bridge is located on the Cobb County-Fulton County line, and was an area that Trooper Chad LeCroy patrolled.
In December 2010, Trooper LeCroy was gunned down after an attempted traffic stop and chase in northwest Atlanta. LeCroy approached the vehicle and was shot in the neck. He died on the way to the hospital. The man accused of shooting LeCroy, Gregory Favors, remains behind bars.
A sign designating the bridge as the "Trooper Chadwick T. LeCroy Memorial Bridge" was revealed during the ceremony.
"Every time we drive over this bridge and look at the sign, we remember one of our fallen own that did a fantastic job. So it's a, it means a lot to us," said Public Service Commissioner Mark McDonough.
Family members, friends, and fellow troopers were present during the ceremony.
HENRY COUNTY PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL NIGHT OUT:CITIZENS ON PATROL https://docs.google.com/document/d/147Sxs8H-wPeAQ30Zg6XY3TGCusMeuiCSATSEl_Kq-U8/edit
Citizens On Patrol is a Community Neighborhood Watch program that serves the residents of Henry County of the Crumbley Road area and surrounding subdivisions. This program works in conjunction with the volunteer Community Cleanup, sponsored by Riverbrook Subdivision, which reports to the Henry County Police Department, providing information on corresponding investigations and crime tips.
CONTACT HCPD sheriffsoffice@co.henry.ga.us or to submit an anonymous tip, email talk2us@wsbtv.com

Rural area mailboxes are vulnerable to vandalism because they are usually isolated, located on public thoroughfares, and frequently not visible to the box owners from their homes. City residential mailboxes are vandalized to a lesser degree.
Mailboxes are considered federal property, and federal law (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1705), makes it a crime to vandalize them (or to injure, deface or destroy any mail deposited in them). Violators can be fined up to $250,000, or imprisoned for up to three years, for each act of vandalism.


WANTED: (fliers to be distributed to business owners in the area)
information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the “Water Bottle Gang”
Suspects face potential charges for the following criminal activity, as witnessed and verbally reported to HCPD over the past 3 years with documented reports submitted, with the following patterns:
(Fleeing the scene of an accident, vandalism [malicious and persistent nuisance in nature], DUI, underage drinking, insurance fraud, littering enough to constitute environmental dumping [over 100 bags of trash collected over the past year], gang activity, burglary, possession of fake marijuana, contributing to delinquency of minors [by furnishing alcohol] , and general juvenile delinquency and mayhem of a terroristic type nature, property damage, harassment of property owners/taxpayers.)
PATTERNS OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY IN THE AREA:
- 3 years of consistent vandalism to mailboxes by use of throwing water bottles on Crumbley Rd. at various intervals during school breaks (mailbox numbers #325, #475, #510, #710, #978, #1311, #1319, #1405, #1546, #1573, #1665 and others)
- gang activity and burglary in the area, suspects were witnessed in the act outside the home at scene of burglary and for targeting 4 specific areas for dumping trash (Selfridge Rd. intersection, Elliot Rd., curve at Cotton Creek, and private property from 1665 Crumbley Rd. to 1775 Crumbley Rd.)
- suspects burglarize and steal, but are also using their income from part-time jobs to buy cigarettes, alcohol, fake pot, and possibly other drugs
Suspects are male, aged 14-25, currently or formerly work at Kroger who go by the names Roman or Turner, dark haired, 3 others are blond headed one is believed to work at Papa John’s, and are being supplied alcohol by a young adult male, who initiated them for the purpose of gang activity, to steal on behalf of the group, so they celebrate their exploits and spoils together and leave the mess on various properties on Crumbley road. Suspects have been seen congregating at 509 Crumbley Rd. on winter break.One male, blond, driving tan/brown Jeep Cherokee TAG #W176D (lean and lanky) One male, blond, drives a gold car TAG # forthcoming (curlier hair, dominant one in the group) One male, brown hair, drives a car TAG # forthcoming (lean and lanky)
Vehicles:White Chevrolet Tag# BSM 9999, brown truck TAG #659 RWF this person furnishes alcohol to minors, possibly a small red pickup truck, JACKED-UP TRUCK TAG# BXZ 3612
Items that may be missing from store inventories or that were sold to minors:

BEER/LIQUOR
-Soda cans, various brands
-Icehouse cans
-Budweiser cans and glass 40’s
-Natural Light, tall and regular cans
-Bud Light cans
-McCormick Vodka
-Vodka Minis
-Sutter Home wine minis

CIGARETTES
-Silver Marlboros
-Green&Black Marlboros
-Gold Label Marlboros
-Camel Wides
-New Ports
-Pall Malls
-L&M’s
-Dip cans
-Blunt wraps

FAKE MARIJUANA
-Tow Up
-Game Over
-Happy Daze
-Purple Haze
-Black Sabbath
-Farmer John

-Sonic, McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A
-chip bags
-Capri Suns
-Water Bottles, various brands
CLAYTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S RACE ONLY SHOWS THE CORRUPTION THAT STILL LINGERS IN POCKETS IN CLAYTON...

Clayton County sheriff race headed for runoff

Posted: Jul 31, 2012 8:52 PM EDTUpdated: Aug 01, 2012 6:31 PM EDT
By Wendy Saltzman - email
CLAYTON COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
A controversial race in Clayton County is headed for a runoff. Current Sheriff Kem Kimbrough is facing off against his predecessor, Victor Hill.
Kimbrough received 42 percent of the vote to Hill's 38 percent.
Kimbrough didn't expect to be in a runoff with Hill, especially since Hill is currently fighting a 37-count criminal indictment and Hill's peace officer certification is suspended.
Kimbrough spoke to CBS Atlanta News about the runoff on Wednesday.
"I'm confident when we go into this runoff the citizens will show again that when it comes to their choice for sheriff, I'm their man," Kimbrough said.
Hill refused to comment to CBS Atlanta News about the runoff.
Copyright2012 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

MORE EVIDENCE TO BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC REGARDING THE SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION TIED TO HILL’S UNETHICAL USE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANTS THAT LANDED HIM 37 CHARGES, RELATED TO FAST AND FURIOUS, IN THAT HE PAWNED WEAPONS OFF ON MEXICAN CARTELS WHEN THEY THREATENED HIM FOR LARGE DRUG SEIZURES AND DEMANDED WEAPONS FOR PAYMENT.
Oh and let’s not talk about how he solicited black female inmates for sex in regards to sentence bartering...
Roberta was her name...
IF HE WASN’T CORRUPT, HE’D NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT, BUT VICTOR HILL’S EGO IS HIS OWN BIGGEST ENEMY, NEXT TO PRIDE.
CRIME:
ABC continues to ridicule a prior Tea Party Newsletter while announcing plea of Jared Loughner, referring to it as “Judgement Day”, alluding to the airing of the ABC footage that Diane Sawyer narrated where she slandered the Tea Party, implying that what goaded Loughner to shoot Giffords was that he was influenced by it, she even went so far as to crucify Sarah Palin in the spoof, for her pro-2nd Amendment rights in using a target sight for voting districts regarding Obamacare, when Loughner is actually a Libertarian Anarchist, more like Occupy. ABC ran clips showing Gabrielle Giffords being booed and jeered as a betrayer of her constituents, by a raucous meeting prior to this publication:
1-7-2011 JUDGEMENT DAY EDITION:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11aXEL9UCYYPSCUc2nmg4YDsrmy5hI0RR5QUoFA2BYf8/edit?hl=en#
While Jared Loughner may now be a self-admitted remorseful Libertarian Anarchist, he was never associated with the Tea Party, and I was never arrested for inciting him to riot or compelling him to do so, as I never had any communication or contact with him--when those aren’t my personal beliefs or those about government.
That didn’t stop ABC though!
If ABC would have read the newsletter that they not only took out of context (of its content being a declaration of Judgement sought regarding Obama’s non-citizen status), the same title that they contorted to fit the lie that they had been subsidized to put forth by Obama to run the slanderous piece to be spoken in the aftermath of the shooting, in a vain attempt to kill public support for the movement while squelching the abject failure of Obama’s Presidency, they would understand that I sought a written apology because this type of reporting lacks the integrity and factual basis to even be called reporting.

Peddling sensational bias, especially outright lies, are a crime. While it did little to assassinate my character or credibility as a writer, I did not draw attention to this matter solely for the purpose of my ego or to get Diane Sawyer suspended from the desk.  
REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS
Arizona Shooter
PLEADS GUILTY
BREAKING NEWS
Jared Loughner -- the guy who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- has changed his plea to "guilty" after last year's Tucson, AZ shooting, in which he killed 6 people and injured 13 more ... and has agreed to spend SEVEN life sentences in prison.

A plea of "not guilty" had previously been entered on Loughner's behalf -- but today, the judge ruled Loughner was competent to understand the gravity of the charges against him ... thanks to forcible treatment of his schizophrenia.

The shooting took place back on January 8, 2011. Loughner opened fire in a Safeway parking lot, where Rep. Giffords was holding a constituents meeting.

Loughner was originally charged with 49 criminal counts including first-degree murder. Today he pled guilty to 19 counts, including attempted assassination, 1st degree murder of 2 federal employees, and attempted murder of 2 federal employees. The remaining counts were dismissed.

The federal employees Loughner gunned down and killed were U.S. District Court judge John Roll and one of Giffords' staffers, Gabe Zimmerman.

Loughner's plea deal will allow him to avoid the death penalty, but he's agreed to serve seven life sentences in prison ... plus an additional 140 years.

Giffords, who was shot in the head, is slowly recovering. Shortly before Loughner entered his new plea today, Giffords released a statement, saying, "The pain and loss caused by the events of Jan. 8, 2011, are incalculable."

She added, "Avoiding a trial will allow us — and we hope the whole Southern Arizona community — to continue with our recovery."

See also



YEAH THANKS GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, NOW MAYBE WE CAN ALL GET ON WITH OUR LIVES!! I’M SURE IT WOULD BE AWFUL FOR YOU TO REVISIT DURING A TRIAL HOW ALL OF WHAT WAS SAID ABOUT THE TEA PARTY BEING RESPONSIBLE WAS A PACK OF MEDIA CONCOCTED LIES.

I do believe that Loughner suffered a psychotic break.
This seems to be worse for men, sometimes a manifestation of total blackout, or so much trauma occurring prior to a violent attack, as inability to recall memory or even doing it, but to use that as a justification to mass-medicate society with Obamacare provisions and lock people up and medicate them if they refuse to buy insurance, well, that’s just Tyranny.

Perhaps the depth of stupidity is most astounding for this failure of leadership to understand, including Giffords herself, is that people see right through the veneer....
Many refused to buy the book that she put out, because they were repulsed how the media falsely blamed the Tea Party for what Loughner chose to do on his own volition, albeit mentally ill, and people reviled the fact Giffords used this to try and do a book sale to personally profit off of it.

People are also equally disgusted how Liberals tend to claim that everyone who doesn’t agree with them is mentally ill, while simultaneously declaring that they are never to blame or to be held accountable when the shit hits the fan.
Did Wade Michael Page mistake Sikhs for Muslim Brotherhood?
Or does this go beyond a hate crime to a crime of specific nature....
The Symbol is awfully similar....

Ahmadi Muslim claims that anti-Sikh violence is actually anti-Muslim violence -- yet his list contains Muslim violence against Sikhs

The appalling Harris Zafar, the Ahmadi Muslim spokesman who sides with those who persecute his people in Pakistan and Indonesia and instead attacks those who defend his people, tweeted the above this morning. He repeats the now-familiar claim that the Sikhs who were murdered a few days ago were actually mistaken for Muslims -- a claim that has been substantiated by no evidence whatsoever, and is a spectacularly distasteful display of exploitation of the dead. Yet the link in his tweet goes to a HuffPo list of hate crimes against Sikhs in the U.S. that contains an attack by a Muslim:
May 24, 2007 -- Queens, N.Y.: A 15-year-old student has his hair forcibly cut by an older student at his high school. The scissor-wielding 17-year-old showed the Sikh a ring inscribed with Arabic, saying, “This ring is Allah. If you don't let me cut your hair, I will punch you with this ring.” Afterward, he cuts the younger boy’s hair. A main pillar of the Sikh faith compels followers to keep their hair uncut.
More details about this attack here.
So now a Muslim-on-Sikh crime is an example of Sikhs being mistaken for Muslims and victimized by "Islamophobes." It is already established that Harris Zafar is a liar; apparently he will stop at nothing in his zeal to carry water for Islamic supremacists.
Meanwhile, the HuffPo left out of its list this stabbing of a Sikh by a Muslim in Connecticut.
The Islamic supremacists expressing sympathy for the Sikhs this week are out of sync with their brethren in Muslim countries, where Sikhs are among the foremost victims of Muslim persecution, and stand together with all the targets of jihad and Islamic supremacism.
Posted by Robert on August 8, 2012 6:28 AM | 25 Comments
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@FBIPressOffice Meaning that while race/religion was the rub #SikhTempleShooting was too specific to be a generalized hate crime.
5:20 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details
@FBIPressOffice There seems to be compelling evidence of #SikhTempleShooting that supports this was not only a hate crime but specific crime
5:20 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details
@FBIPressOffice doing a followup on #SikhTempleShooting others back my assertion deceased #WadeMichaelPage targeted as a mistake but was it?
5:19 AM - 9 Aug 12 via web · Details
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Posted at 07:57 PM ET, 08/08/2012
Sikh temple shooter's ex-girlfriend shows female face of hate
By Patricia Murphy
Misty Cook is blonde, rosy cheeked and pretty, but the sweet-looking mother of one is also the ex-girlfriend of Wade Michael Page, the gunman who brutally killed six Sikh worshipers in Milwaukee temple on Sunday.  Although police say Cook is not a suspect in the shootings, they were worried enough about her connections to Page this weekend that they went to the restaurant where she worked and, after searching her apartment, arrested her on a charge of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.
In addition to Misty Cook’s felony rap sheet, she is also one of thousands of women in the United States who are a part of or support white supremacist organizations, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Misty supported Skinhead groups, including the white power groups that Wade Page followed and the ex-couple had in common.   
MANY WOMEN ARE RECRUITED TO WHITE SUPREMACIST GROUPS THROUGH CERTAIN MUSIC, BAR AND SOCIAL SCENES AND GROUPS, BUT THE WOMEN ARE PRIMARILY SEEKING PROTECTION, AND IN DOING SO, EXCHANGE THEIR AUTONOMY FOR A FORM OF SUBSERVIENCE, SEX SLAVERY, AND PROPAGATION OF THEIR BELIEFS BY HAVING CHILDREN WHO ARE RAISED TO DISAVOW THE CULTURAL RELEVANCE OF OTHER CULTURES.
One of those groups, the Hammerskins, pledges to live by the 14 words:  “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children.”
It’s easy to assume that only men like Page are a part of a dark and secretive culture that espouses violence and hate against minorities in our country and sometimes even acts on it.  But the ADL estimates that between 30 percent and 40 percent of the roughly 100,000 people who support white supremacist group are women.
WHITE SUPREMACIST GROUPS OPERATE UNDER A CODE OF SILENCE, THEY ARE BIG FANS OF CERTAIN POLITICAL BELIEFS, BUT UNLIKE POLITICAL GROUPS WHO GET INVOLVED IN GOVERNMENT, THEY ESTRANGE THEMSELVES FROM IT. THEY PREFER TO SIT BACK AND WATCH, AND ANY ACTS THAT THE GROUP DECIDES TO DO ARE DONE IN SECRET. VERY MUCH LIKE THE DAYS OF THE KLAN OF OLD, BUT WITHOUT THE ROBES AND SUCH TO ATTRACT ATTENTION AND SCRUTINY.
“There are different motivations for different women,” said Marilyn Mayo, the co-director of the Center on Extremism for the ADL.  “Some follow their boyfriends into the movement, but by and large, they share the same ideology and that’s why they’re there.”
Mayo described the Skinhead culture like the one Cook and Wade followed as one that is predominantly male, but attracts — and even relies on — women to spread their beliefs.
“Their job is to be at home and have white babies,” Mayo said.  “Just as women in other cultures pass on their beliefs and values, these women will pass on their white supremacist values and ideologies to their children.”

While women can’t join most of the groups, some like the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, have separate groups for female supporters. Women may have special names like “Skinbirds” or “Chelseas,” and create their own culture within a white power movement.
The ADL had been aware of Misty Cook for some time because of her active association with the Ham­mer­skins, which also keeps women out, but lets them participate in a “sup­port group” for women.  According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Cook wrote more than 800 messages on the Hammerskins Web site between 2009 and 2012, often praising the skinhead community and people she met there.
One of those people appears to have been Wade Page.
Following the shootings, Misty Cook released a statement to the Journal Sentinel, calling Page’s rampage “a senseless tragedy” and asking that her privacy be respected as she struggles with how to deal with what's happened.
"If I could say something to ease the pain of the victims and their families I would gladly do so. Unfortunately words do not begin to heal the pain they are going through,” she wrote.
It’s true that Misty Cook cannot begin to heal the pain, and it's also true that she and Page had apparently not been dating for months. But Cook cannot claim to be without blame, even if she played no role in and had no knowledge of the shooting. She not only knew about the visceral hate in her Milwaukee community, but she participated in it, supported it, and from all outside signs, may even have enjoyed it.
Wade Page may have been the only gunman in the Sikh temple shooting, but he most certainly did not act alone.
By Patricia Murphy  |  07:57 PM ET, 08/08/2012

Tags:  Misty Cook, Wade Page, ex-girlfriend, Sikh, temple, shooting, skinhead,ADL, women

This murder case shook the culture of Americana to its core... I was 10 when this happened, and this really ruined socializing or visiting other people for many, for fear a child killer was at large with no one knowing who it was.

JonBenet Ramsey Would Have Turned 22 Years Old This Week; Murder Case Remains Unsolved (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Posted: 08/08/2012 5:38 pm Updated: 08/08/2012 10:06 pm

ATLANTA - AUGUST 16: The grave of JonBenet Ramsey is shown August 16, 2006 in Marietta, Georgia. (Photo by Barry Williams/Getty Images)
Sixteen years have passed since JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in her Boulder, Colo. home over the Christmas holiday and the shocking homicide of the child beauty queen still remains unsolved to this day.
Had JonBenet lived, she would have turned 22 years old this past Monday, August 6.
On Dec. 26, 1996, 6-year-old JonBenet was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in the basement of her family home. A ransom note from an anonymous group of individuals "that represent a foreign faction" asking for $118,000 in exchange for the safe return of JonBenet was found just hours before, but no call ever came from a kidnapper and it was never linked to a murderer. See the full text of the ransom note originally published by Vanity Fair magazine here.
Although there has not been any new evidence uncovered in the homicide case for some time, two new books that came out this year shed new light on the young girl, her family and ask some troubling new questions.
The first book, published in March and written by JonBenet's father John Ramsey,titled "The Other Side of Suffering," chronicles John Ramsey's religious faith throughout his tumultuous life, including the death of his eldest daughter in a car accident, the international media attention to JonBenet Ramsey's still-unsolved murder and the loss of his wife Patsy to ovarian cancer in 2006.
During an ABC News interview with John Ramsey at the time of the book's release, Ramsey says that he now regrets putting his daughter in child beauty pageants. From the ABC News interview:
Patsy had [JonBenet] sitting atop a friend's convertible in the Christmas parade waving at the people lining the streets," Ramsey recalled. "Patsy's mother later told me that a strange man approached the car during the parade and it made her uncomfortable. I think about these things now and it makes me cringe. We were so naive. I now believe with all my heart that it's not a good idea to put your child on public display.
Published in June, the second book is by James Kolar, a former lead investigator in the JonBenet case, titled "Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet?" The book raises some new questions about the intruder theory -- the same theory that eventually led to JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, being cleared as suspects.
Kolar's theory is simple: there could not have been an intruder on the night of JonBenet's murder because of evidence that was overlooked or dismissed during the investigation. The former detective had access to 60,000 pages of evidence, including crime-scene video and photos, interviews with individuals related to the case and forensic reports, according to The Daily Beast's exhaustive analysis of the book.
Among the contradicting evidence Kolar points to: fully intact cobwebs stretching over the window the intruder allegedly entered, DNA evidence found on the garrote cord used to strangle JonBenet and a child's toy that may have been responsible for some of the abrasions on JonBenet's body, rather than a stun gun which has been considered the source of some injuries.
John and Patsy Ramsey were prime suspects for years and repeatedly appeared on news channels defending their innocence and demanding justice for the murder of their young daughter. The entire Ramsey family was cleared of any involvement in the murder of JonBenet back in 2008, thanks to then newly discovered DNA evidence, according to 9News. Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's mother, died 2 years earlier in 2006 of ovarian cancer, tragically, she was still considered a possible suspect when she died.
Beginning in 2010, investigators reopened the case and launched a fresh round of interviews with witnesses that could provide more insight into the murder, according to ABC News, but nothing fruitful came of those interviews.
The DNA evidence still points to an "unexplained third party" that serves as a vague lead for authorities still pursuing the case, TIME magazine reported.
According to 7News, Boulder police have tested more than 150 DNA samples and investigated nearly the same amount of potential suspects in their ongoing investigation, but none have ever been linked to the crime.
After all these years, Boulder police have received thousands of tips about her murder and still receive several monthly. Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett said in 2010 that he personally gets five or more tips each month, according to Fox31. The ones that have potential are passed along to Boulder police's Major Case Unit. There have been plenty of false leads as well, including most famously Mark Karr -- who bizarrely admitted to being with JonBenet the night of her death, but DNA evidence later cleared him of any wrongdoing in this case, MSNBC reported. Craig Silverman, talk radio legal analyst on 630 KHOW that has covered the unsolved murder since it first broke, spoke to KDVR about the public's interest in the case back in 2010:
It's an enduring, epic mystery. Everybody would like to know who killed little JonBenet.
Silverman went on to say on his Huffington Post blog, "This JonBenet murder mystery has never been lacking for clues. There are too many clues. It is putting all the puzzle pieces together that matters."
It remains one of the most notorious murders in U.S. history and a decade and a half later there is still no justice for JonBenet.
For a timeline of the events of the unsolved murder case during its peak years in the 1990s check out the Daily Camera's chronological summary of the major events from Dec. 1996 to 1999.
Look at photos of the JonBenet Ramsey case below and watch police footage from the Ramsey's basement taken hours after JonBenet's body was found, above, via The Daily Beast.
JonBenet Ramsey Case
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Mark Fix, Zuma
FRAUD WATCH:

Wednesday Waste: Tax Fraud Edition

WEDNESDAY WASTE | August 8, 2012

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The inspector general who oversees the IRS released a report estimating $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds are set to be paid out to identity thieves in the next five years. Past examples of fraudulent payments include $3.3 million in refunds to one address that was listed on 2,137 separate tax returns and another $470,000 sent in 300 direct deposits to the same bank account.
The report went on to detail simple measures that the agency could do to reduce the amount of fraud, including steps such as limiting the number of direct deposits to a single bank account, depositing refunds to accounts only with that individual’s name on the account, and using existing federal databases to screen for potential fraud. The last measure would actually require an act from Congress in order to allow the agency permission to access other federal databases.
J. Russell George, the treasury inspector general for tax administration, said, “At a time when every dollar counts, these results are extremely troubling… Undetected tax refund fraud results in significant unintended federal outlays and has the potential to erode taxpayer confidence in our nation’s system of tax administration.” He recommended the government agency take new measures to stop the waste of federal dollars. With a budget deficit set to hit $1 trillion by the end of the fiscal year, “every dollar counts.”
BA
  
TOPICS:

Management & Governance | Oversight

GSA investigation widens to more conferences, bonuses

August 7, 2012 | By Molly Bernhart WalkerAs many as 77 General Services Administration conferences and award ceremonies are now under review by the agency's inspector general and Congress, said Committee Chair Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) during an Aug. 1 hearing before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Brian Miller, GSA's inspector general, said an audit of executive compensation is also underway. While Miller said he cannot yet verify Mica's numbers, Mica said his committee believes some $10 million in bonuses were awarded to GSA employees in the last two years.
Miller testified on his investigation into a Federal Acquisition Service award ceremony held Nov. 17, 2010. His findings, though subject to further investigation, show more than $200,000 was spent on the 1-day ceremony. The costs included $140,000 for coordination and logistical management by a third-party vendor.

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"GSA has event planners on staff," said Miller.
Under new rules set out by Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini--who took the post April 2 following Martha Johnson's resignation--a third-party event planner can only be used with approval from the head of the service and Cynthia Metzler, GSA's chief administrative services officer, said Metzler.
The agency has canceled 37 previously-scheduled conferences since April, in an effort to tighten its review of conference spending, said Metzler.
All events including internal GSA meetings, training, conferences, seminars and leadership management events, among others were suspended in April and required review from the office of administrative services in order to gain approval.
Before April "we did not have central controls of conferences, of how many there where, who went or the nature of them," said Metzler.
For more:
- go to the hearing page (includes prepared testimony and archived webcast)
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IRS supervisors ignored employees who tried to warn agency higher-ups of fraud in a program designed to collect taxes from immigrants, resulting in the agency paying out potentially bogus refunds, according to an official audit released Wednesday.
The Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) said theIRS is too focused on getting out refunds quickly rather than getting them only to qualified taxpayers. Auditors also said the agency eliminated some methods employees had used to figure out questionable refund requests and doesn’t have the right training or tools to screen out bogus identity documents when immigrants apply for taxpayer numbers.
“TIGTA found an environment which discourages employees from detecting fraudulent applications,” said J. Russell George, the inspector general.
In the wake of the finding, one congressman called on the IRS commissioner to resign.
IRS pays out $6.8 billion in refunds to taxpayers who file using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). They generally are immigrants, here both legally and illegally. The potential amount of fraud was not stated, but the investigators detailed seven schemes that paid out $9 million in tax refunds in 2011
The agency said it has put new checks in place to try to crack down on fraud, including getting training from the Homeland Security Department on how to verify documents when an immigrant applies for an ITIN.
But the IRS disputed the inspector general’s assumption that fraud is rampant in many of the cases in which taxpayers are using the same addresses for multiple applications.
“While this is one of many risk factors for fraud, it is also the case that some taxpayers list the address of the tax return preparer to ensure that any future correspondence from the IRS is received. The IRS is analyzing this issue in more detail as it conducts its review of the ITIN program,” the agency said in a statement.
The auditors took a closer look at fraud after being prompted by senators, who said they had heard complaints from IRS employees that their warnings were being ignored.
Mr. George confirmed that, saying IRS supervisors were urging employees to turn their backs on potential fraud from identity theft.
Rep. Sam Johnson, Texas Republican, called for IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman to resign.
He has written a bill that would limit the popular child tax credit to only those taxpayers who have a Social Security number. The House passed a bill that included a version of his legislation, but the Senate has not acted on it.
The IRS said the law doesn’t prohibit illegal immigrant parents from obtaining the credit, though many members of Congress disagree.
Overall, the audit painted a picture of some cases investigators said should have raised red flags.
For example, investigators said the IRS issued 23,994 refunds to one address in Atlanta, totaling $46 million in refunds.
And one single bank account was issued 8,393 refunds totaling $236,747, while another account was issued 2,706 refunds totaled $7.3 million in 2011.
“This report is shocking,” said Rep. Charles W. Boustany Jr., Louisiana Republican and chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the IRS. “It’s one thing if the IRS tries to catch fraud and fails, but it’s quite another when management apparently takes steps to weaken program integrity.”

Whistleblower lawsuit alleges Florida Hospital filed millions in false claims

By Marni Jameson, Orlando Sentinel
5:03 p.m. EST, August 8, 2012
A whistleblower lawsuit based on insider information from a former Florida HospitalOrlando billing employee and a staff physician alleges that seven Adventist Health hospitals in Central Florida have overbilled the federal government for tens of millions of dollars in false or padded medical claims.
The suit claims Florida Hospital used improper coding for more than a decade to overbill Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare, all federal government payors. In addition, it alleges, the hospital commonly overbilled for a drug used, for example, in MRI scans and billed for computer analyses that were never performed.

DC Gets America Addicted to Federal Money

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Nick Sorrentino
How does one make sure a country as vast as the United States stays compliant with the whims of the folks in Washington DC? Easy, make sure the hinterlands are reliant on federal outlays.
Plan on thinking for yourself state X? You might want to think again or we’ll pull your funding. And you wouldn’t like that now would you? Lots of people would be unhappy. You guys in state government might get thrown out of office.
Just be smart and do what we say in Washington and things will go much more smoothly.
Click here for the article.

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Top Komen foundation leaders announce plans to leave posts

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 10:39 PM EDT, Wed August 8, 2012
Nancy Brinker will resign as CEO of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • The organization's CEO says the changes have nothing to do with Planned Parenthood snafu
  • Nancy Brinker will leave her job as CEO 30 years after founding Susan G. Komen for the Cure
  • The foundation's president is also leaving the organization in September
  • The announcement comes months after a controversy over funding for Planned Parenthood
(CNN) -- The Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced Wednesday that two of its leaders are leaving their posts, months after the breast cancer advocacy group came under fire over its decision -- later reversed -- to cut funding for Planned Parenthood projects.
Nancy G. Brinker will step down as CEO once her successor is found and take on a new role within the organization, the foundation said in a statement. As chair of the Komen Board Executive Committee, she will focus on revenue creation, strategy and global growth, it said.
President Elizabeth Thompson will leave the organization altogether next month, the statement said, adding, "Thompson said the time is right for her to pursue other opportunities."
Brinker told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that the changes had nothing to do with the firestorm that erupted in January and February, when the foundation made a decision that would have cut funding to Planned Parenthood projects.
YEAH...... RI~~~~ GHT <Bill Cosby voice>
"I apologized to everyone," Brinker told the newspaper. "I think we all made mistakes and we addressed them and we're through that and we're moving on."
In 1982, Brinker founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure -- named for her sister who had died from breast cancer two years before.
Brinker went on to become a political appointee of the George W. Bush administration, serving as U.S. ambassador to Hungary and as chief of protocol.
Thompson, who began her career in medical publishing before turning toward cancer advocacy, was named president of the foundation in September 2010, two years after joining the group to lead its research and scientific programs.
Wednesday's announcement comes six months after Karen Handel, a vice president of the organization, resigned in the wake of a Huffington Post report, based on a review of internal e-mails at the foundation, that concluded she had been the driving force behind the foundation's decision not to renew parts of its longstanding partnership with Planned Parenthood. Handel denied that was the case.
Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, was a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Georgia in 2010, losing to current Gov. Nathan Deal in a primary runoff.
"Let me be clear, since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood," Handel wrote on her campaign website in 2010. Planned Parenthood operates hundreds of family clinics where abortions are performed.
When asked in February what role her position on abortion may have played in the decision not to renew funding for Planned Parenthood projects, Handel said: "Absolutely none."
"I'm a professional. ... My No. 1 priority is the fight against breast cancer, our mission and the women that we serve. The only place for politics in all of this came from Planned Parenthood, when they launched this vicious, vicious attack on a great organization and perpetrated what was nothing short of a shakedown to coerce a private entity to give them grants," she told CNN affiliate WXIA in Atlanta.
"It's abundantly clear that this was never about the fight against breast cancer for Planned Parenthood. What it was about, and remains about, is the fight to advance Planned Parenthood's agenda, and they sucked Komen in the middle of it and used them in all of this. And it's a disgrace," Handel said.
After encountering a deluge of opposition, the Komen foundation reversed its decision.
On Wednesday, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America praised Brinker, Thompson and the Komen Foundation. They "have made profound contributions to women's health," said Cecile Richards, in a statement. "They have helped elevate the importance of breast cancer detection and prevention nationwide."
The organization Brinker founded has invested almost $2 billion in breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment, according to its website.

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ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IS TRUMPING OBAMACARE, A TAX INCREASE FOR NO INSURANCE OR BASIC CARE, HOMEOPATHY (NATURAL MEDICINE) HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD IS THE WAY TO WELLNESS WITH OR WITHOUT INSURANCE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC. HOMEOPATHY IS PUTTING A WHOOPING TO CHRONIC DISEASE THAT OBAMACARE NEVER DREAMED IT COULD DO OR THE ‘LET’S MOVE’ CAMPAIGN EVER DID REGARDING FITNESS GOALS TIED TO HOLISTIC HEALING...

A positive approach towards homeopathy

Published: Tuesday, Aug 7, 2012, 10:29 IST
By DNA Correspondent | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA





Positive Homeopathy has successfully made inroads into the Bangalore market. On Monday, excise minister MP Renukacharya inaugurated the sixth branch of Positive Homeopathy at Basaveshwaranagar.
“We tend to rely more on allopathy to cure illnesses and diseases. What we fail to understand is that allopathy is not the permanent solution. Homeopathy, on the other hand, cures chronic diseases and offers long-term relief,” the minister said.
The minister also pointed out that lifestyle in cities is so stressful that one needs to adopt natural methods to maintain a healthy lifestyle. “It’s important that people take up yoga or create a habit of going on long walks to beat the stress,” he said. He also added that cholesterol is a common problem haunting the urban populace and homeopathy is the need of the hour.
People certainly are going for homeopathy and this is visibly evident in the fact that Positive Homeopathy has set up 32 branches across the country. Patients suffering from diabetes, allergies, thyroid problems and arthritis frequent the Positive Homeopathy clinics and the results have been remarkable.
Talking about the advantages of a homeopathic approach, actor Haripriya, who was present at the inauguration, said, “Homeopathy is a natural way to treat illness. This approach is beneficial in the long term and will cure diseases.”
Considering the response that homeopathy has received in the state, AM Reddy, director, Positive Homeopathy, said that preparations are in full swing to set up another branch in Hubli.




8/6/12 9:41 PM

Angola

Lack of traditional medicine policy disperses initiatives




ANGOP



Minister of State and head of the Civil Office to Presidency of the Republic, Carlos Feijó.



Luanda – The lack of a policy on traditional medicine in Angola, the lack of articulation among practitioners of these services and the lack of research lead to a dispersion of initiatives and failure to guarantee security and efficacy in their utilisation,” Angop learned Monday in Luanda.
This was said by the minister of State and head of the Civil Office to Presidency of the Republic, Carlos Feijó.

Carlos Feijo was presenting his view on the issue, during the opening of the first National onference on Traditional Medicine, on behalf of Angolan head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos.

He on the occasion stated that the Angolan Constitution sets as one of its essential tasks the promotion of practices that make first healthcare universal and free of charge, thus providing for other policies that cater for the populations in the rural areas and outskirts of big cities where traditional medicine is already used in the treatment of diseases.

He regarded the national policy on traditional medicine as of relevant, transversal and strategic importance as an essential instrument for the valorisation of the healer and retrieval of the traditions of the Angolan people as its cultural heritage.

According to the official, the national health policy approved in 2010 recognises that the traditional medicine is in a state of incipient organisation, despite being sought for by many patients.

Carlos Feijó also stressed the role of traditional medicine in the prevention, diagnose and treatment of several diseases in various parts of the world and about 90 percent of the drugs used come from vegetal extracts.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Infant and Children Education Fund (UNICEF) promoted the International Conference on First Healthcare, having recommended the member countries to formulate local policies and regulations for the use of practices that complement the traditional medicine with proved efficacy.

The WHO recognised that a large part of the population of developed countries rely on traditional medicine as their first care, as 80 percent of the said population use traditional practices in their healthcare and 85 percent use plants and drugs that derive from medicinal plants.

Therefore, in response to the WHO and SADC appeal regarding their resolutions and strategies for Africa, the Government of Angola considers the wide utilisation of the traditional medicine in the country part of the efforts for research and its valorisation, with a view a safer use by people. Print    Indicate

What do you think of alternative medicine?

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By Editorial - Cloverdale Reporter
Published: August 08, 2012 5:00 PM
Updated: August 09, 2012 2:00 AM
by Kolby Solinsky
*contributing editor to the Cloverdale Reporter
--------------------
Personally, I've never had much patience for medication outside the mainstream.
I understand why other folks seek out non-traditional forms of treatment or, at least, I've tried to be open about their desire to do so. Sure, I scoff when they talk about Acai berries, or coconut water, super-charged bins of protein, or whatever the trend is this week, but I'm a cynical person.
If you work in the news and your job is to ask questions and find truth, you will have doubts about nearly anything and everything, and you will take nothing at face value. You will find it hard to believe that cancer can be avoided by drinking green tea or that naturopathic remedies will somehow, one day, save your life.
Illness is illness, I always figure. Some are just luckier than others.
Last week, a Langley-based nutritionist named Murray Cameron showed me a machine he uses called a biophotonic scanner, which has been available and in practice for nearly a decade.
It's appeared on The Dr. Oz Show and it's been discussed in various medical journals and publications. Some are for it, and some are against it. Some think it's legitimate, while others think it's... well, not.
The machine's job is to measure the amount of anti-oxidants in your body (the good things you get from vegetables and fruits, and stuff), which it does with a light or some kind of ray that is aimed at the palm of your hand. According to Cameron, the optimal number you should hope for is 50,000 cartenoids, with 25,000-30,000 being in the encouraging range.
(I came in at 32,000. Go me.)
Of course, even after giving it a try, I couldn't help but feel this was no more legitimate than the practice of measuring your strength by whacking a bell with a mallet at a circus, or by hitting one of those electronic punching bags at a bar. At its best, it's equivalent to the scale in your bathroom.
Chances are, it's accurate. Then again, I don't know, because I'm not a doctor, nor do I have the expertise to assume anything finite about it. I know that it scanned my hand and a number came up, but that's all I know about it.
So, I went to Google, Google News, and Google Scholar.
For as many testimonials I found of patients or customers who swore by the machine and found it slightly revolutionary, there were an equal number who called it a"scheme" or a "scam."
The biophotonic scanner is made and manufactured by Nu Skin, a high-profile direct selling American company that distributes personal care products and dietary supplements. They were voted one of Forbes Most Trustworthy Companies in 2010, but that list ranks companies on their financial integrity, not their medical reliability.
(And, even then, controversy can occur.)
So, there's a commercial angle here, as well.
Who's to say that those who had glowing reviews of the machine didn't have a personal interest in seeing it succeed? Who's to say any different of those who denied its accuracy? That's the tricky thing of reading into anything said by anonymous commenters, and of anything you find online, really.
Even if someone says something was approved by a relentless researcher or trusted doctor with a spotless background, how can I be sure? I can only report what others have said, but I can only report it as what they have said. Even if it's Steven Hawking.
I believe a doctor is a doctor. A dentist is a dentist. A lawyer is a laywer.
I've never felt that nutritionists, acupuncturists, or chiropractors were doctors and, frankly, it bothers me when they portray themselves to be. They have different degrees. They're from different educational backgrounds. Technically, they're not the same, and if you're even the tiniest bit different in the medical community, then you're completely separate.
After all, people are depending on what you say, and what you advise. Medical journalism is very sensitive, and very personal.
Now, when it comes to the biophotonic scanner, perhaps I'm getting a little ahead of myself. It's simply a measuring tool, and you can choose to use it if you like. It aims to aid those who are trying to improve their health, their stamina, their fitness, and many have sworn by it, even those such as Dr. Oz, who many believe but I am skeptical of.
The reason why I personally wouldn't invest in a biophotonic scanner (which costs $10 per examination) is that I don't think I need a machine to tell me how many vegetables I've had every day. I know when I've eaten a cucumber and when I've eaten a Mars bar.
I know how much junk food I have, that I don't eat McDonald's, that I drink too much coffee and tea, that I need to exercise more but still exercise enough, that I didn't shave this morning, that I weigh 150 lbs., that I can play the guitar but not the piano, that I like red meat, that I was born in Winnipeg, that I love celery and cauliflower, and that I was the only kid on the block who ate broccoli when I was five years old.
I know these things about myself, so I don't see the need in a biophotonic scanner.
Then again, not everyone's like me.
What do you think?

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*1/31/12 $10 Rick Santorum

*2/1/12 1 scarf and 1 purse, valued at $25 for January birthday gift
*2/7/12 $5 Prison ministry
*2/10/12 2 scarves for Valentine’s Day one $15, the other $10
*2/20/12  $190 pledge to Rick Santorum's campaign for scarves and buttons to raise money for Rick Santorum's campaign, $15 donation to his campaign equals a free scarf and button

*3/17/12 $10 donation to Wounded Warrior Project on behalf of Ashton Williamson, who was given a scarf to wear

*4/3/12 $25 donation to Rick Santorum’s campaign for advertising
*4/5/12 $25 Prison Ministry for Easter
*4/11/12 $5 to Rick Santorum's campaign
*4/11/12 $5 to Newt Gingrich to carry Rick's banner of repeal http://t.co/VcLjBgo
*4/13/12 $10 to Rick Santorum's campaign
*4/20/12 $18 to Rick Santorum for Trisomy 18 Awareness for Bella

*5/20/12 $932.47 to Governor Nathan Deal, Governor Perry, and Mitch McConnell for Disaster Relief certificates

*6/1/12 2-John Cena scarves, one for Ryan one for Tyler, valued at $10
*6/2/12 1 white Betty Boop Purse, 1 tea pot, basket, tea bags, and political unity scarf, for Courtney's graduation, valued at $50
*6/30/12 $10 for Repeal and Replace to Mitt Romney

*7/31/12 $10 for books for belated bday gift

EVERY ITEM CREATED OR PURCHASED IS USED TO BLESS OTHERS!
WE SUPPORT BILLY GRAHAM MINISTRIES, REPEMU INTERNATIONAL http://repemuint.org/ministries/, AND LOCAL CHURCHES

Using my business to facilitate God's will: tithing, supporting churches, charitable donations, and others in need.
2011 CONTRIBUTIONS/my treasures in Heaven:
*4/14/11 Prison ministry $10
*4/30/11 Billy Graham Japanese disaster relief $3.30
*5/3/11 Red Cross disaster relief for the South $1.59
*5/9/11 Red Cross disaster relief for the South $.42
*5/10/11 GA GOP Chairmanship Tricia Pridemore Grassroots and GA GOP $5
*5/16/11 Prison ministry $10
*6/23/11 tithe and prayer list $2
*7/16/11 Prison ministry $10
*8/16/11 Prison ministry $10
*9/11/11 DeKalb Memorial 9/11 $9.12
*9/16/11 Prison ministry $10
*10/5/11 2 pink breast cancer awareness scarves, valued at $10
*10/22/11 1 pink breast cancer awareness scarf and pink purse, valued at $15
*11/6/11 Prison ministry $10
*11/24/11 1 camo scarf valued at $15
*12/6/11 1 pink and black diva scarf valued at $15
*12/8/11 4 red and black Mt. Zion school colors - scarves valued at $40
*12/21/11 Prison ministry $5/$5
*12/21/11 Rick Santorum $10
*12/24/11 1 ocean colored scarf, valued at $15

2011 statement: I produced over $700 worth of goods, I gave $200 of it to charity, I had a few orders this year that paid for the cost of my post office box rental yearly of $120.
Price Range $$$$ (50+)
Awards 2012 STATEMENT OF COMPANY WORTH - $13,321

Haggai 1:9
Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

Churlish souls stint their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations, and call such saving good economy; little do they dream that they are thus impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses. Our God has a method in providence by which He can succeed our endeavours beyond our expectation, or can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay; by a turn of His hand He can steer our vessel in a profitable channel, or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy. It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the liberal and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding tendeth to poverty. In a very wide sphere of observation, I have noticed that the most generous Christians of my acquaintance have been always the most happy, and almost invariably the most prosperous. I have seen the liberal giver rise to wealth of which he never dreamed; and I have as often seen the mean, ungenerous churl descend to poverty by the very parsimony by which he thought to rise. Men trust good stewards with larger and larger sums, and so it frequently is with the Lord; He gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels. Where wealth is not bestowed the Lord makes the little much by the contentment which the sanctified heart feels in a portion of which the tithe has been dedicated to the Lord. Selfishness looks first at home, but godliness seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, yet in the long run selfishness is loss, and godliness is great gain. It needs faith to act towards our God with an open hand, but surely He deserves it of us; and all that we can do is a very poor acknowledgment of our amazing indebtedness to His goodness.

The Tea Party Lobby 1.972.628.0080/teapartychief@gmail.com took email, twitter, and Facebook feedback and proposed CUTS to local programs http://lnk.ms/RCtmn AND fed pgms http://lnk.ms/RCtmq. More than 5,000 participated on Facebook http://lnk.ms/Q3lmB - like the pagehttp://lnk.ms/RCtms --- VOTE YES on the Balanced Budget Amendment and CUTS or hit the automatic recall button yourself: we replaced 59 seats in the House, and we intend to rid Congress of Obamanomics and impeach Obama for high crimes, treason with China, and wasting $9 trillion.
Products: art, Tea Party hats, Tea Party purses - handmade, originals and replicas
Email teapartychief@gmail.com



PARTICIPATE: RESHARE, MEET ONCE A DAY OR ONCE A WEEK, AND EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND THOUGHT.
WORD IS: PREPARE FOR A DIFFICULT FALL AND HARD WINTER. IF YOU DON’T LAND A JOB BY SEPTEMBER, YOU MAY NOT GET ONE UNTIL JANUARY. PLAN AHEAD TO STORE FOOD AND A PLACE TO LAY YOUR HEAD. YEAR-ROUND SCHOOLING HAS INCREASED OUR BUDGET COSTS, ESPECIALLY WITH GAS GOING UP, GIVING US LESS TIME OFF TO FARM OR WORK A SUMMER JOB: IN HAVING TO KEEP THE KIDS FOR A DURATION OF TIME THAT PREVENTS GETTING HIRED OR FINDING A RELIABLE NANNY, AND IT HAS DECREASED THE SUMMER TOURISM BOOM, TRAVELING, AND RESTAURANT INDUSTRIES, WHO ENJOYED 3 SEASONS: SPRING, SUMMER, AND FALL... WHO ARE NOW FOLDING BECAUSE OF OBAMACARE UNCERTAINTY AND THE BUDGET IMPOSITIONS OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, ONLY GETTING SEASONAL BOOSTS INSTEAD OF THE SEASONAL INCOME OF TIMES PAST.

WITH THE HOUSE PASSING A BUDGET AND THE TEA PARTY AGREEING TO WORK OUT CUTS AND DIFFERENCES IN COMMITTEE, DEMOCRATS WILL TRY EVERY TRICK IN THE BOOK TO NOT WRITE A BUDGET AND DEFRAUD THEIR DONORS.
TEA PARTY BALANCED BUDGET $3.5 TRILLION ANNUAL REVENUE http://lnk.ms/cj8nx
CONTINUE TO PLAN AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR BY BUILDING UP FOOD SUPPLIES AND RESTORE YOUR CREDIT AND SAVE YOUR MONEY:RickLeventhalFoxNews ‏@RickLeventhal
Wanna see what $600,000 in pure silver bullion looks like? #usminthttp://yfrog.com/h2
pijzjj
Retweeted by Tea Party Chief

PAY OFF AND SETTLE YOUR DEBTS WHILE THE DOLLAR IS ONLY WORTH $.33 AND SETTLE WITH YOUR CREDITORS FOR NO MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL LIMIT OF YOUR CREDIT CARDS.

CIRCULATION: 2,000 by direct email, 125,000+ through Facebook groups, and a blog viewership of 1,000 views to one blog, and 2,500 to the other blog :D
UPDATED 3/14/2012 SUBSCRIBERS THROUGH FACEBOOK GROUPS AND CONTRIBUTORS:
FACEBOOK GROUP NAMES:                                   MEMBERSHIP ROLL:
ACCROP WATCH                             1,071
IT’S AJA                                                                                   110
UAF                                                                                          154
GOVERNMENT BYTES                                                           115
CONSTITUTION PARTY GREEN BAY WISCONSIN              329
SUPPORTERS OF THE BONNIE AND BLUE FLAG              153
PATRIOTIC DEFENDERS OF THE CONSTITUTION           1,122
PATRIOTIC REVOLUTIONISTS                                             1,216
PATRIOTIC CONCERNS                                                        1,693
GEORGIANS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT        1,228
2012 ANTI-DEFICIT PURPLE AGENDA         244
THE GEORGIA GANG               1,376
CLAYTON COUNTY TEA PARTY   15
FAYETTE COUNTY TEA PARTY 6
HENRY COUNTY TEA PARTY 30
JONES COUNTY TEA PARTY          3
SPALDING COUNTY TEA PARTY 16
PATRIOT ACTION NETWORK          4,186
SYNTHESIS LEGISLATIVE WORK GROUP          296
WOMEN’S ONLINE TEA PARTY 99
ANTI-SECRET SOCIETY 658
CITIZEN DEFENSE COALITION           2,996
CONSERVATIVE VOTER COALITION           5,167
CHIMPY’S REAL AMERICAN           2,236
JAMES GROUP OF ACTIVISTS 116
POLITICAL FRIENDS         61
REFOUNDING AMERICA 2384
SYNTHESIS ARCHIVES 299
TEA PARTY CONSORTIUM 60
US GOVT. AGENCIES-THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH 66
UNIFIED                   20
WE WANT A PUBLIC INVESTIGATION INTO CLIMATE 344
WIKILEAKS                                                                               55
UNIFIED MILITIA COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK             1,670
USMC                                                                                    10,647
CONSERVATIVE WOMEN, CONSERVATIVE VALUES            264
THE DOCTORS                                                                         57,141
SUPPORT CHRIS DROTLEFF                                                     3,698
PROTEST THE ANTI-AMERICAN 1 MILLION MUSLIMS MARCH    153
E-BUSINESS POLAND                                                                      458
FALCONIST PARTY                                                                         9,443

AFRICAN/LATIN/ASIAN/NATIVE/WHITE,ETC. AGAINST OBAMA        56
RRA INC.                                                                                                 241
REPEMU INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT GROUP                                   148
LET’S GET HEALTHY                                                                           1,462
STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT                                                                291
CONSERVATIVE VOTER COALITION                                              5,167
WE THE CONSERVATIVE VOTERS OF AMERICA                         2,895



SUPPLEMENTAL READING:
Top 60 Conservative Websites News & Information Links



1) Fox News: 260
2) Wall Street Journal: 383
3) The Drudge Report: 748
4) New York Post: 888
5) WorldNetDaily: 2,692
6) Newsmax: 3,264
7) Free Republic: 3,988
8) The Washington Times: 4,717
9) TownHall: 5,986
10) The Rush Limbaugh Show: 7,624
11) Real Clear Politics: 7,957
12) National Review: 10,346
13) Hot Air: 11,517
14) Michelle Malkin: 12,871
15) Glenn Beck: 13,153
16) Human Events Online: 17,538
17) The Heritage Foundation: 20,746
18) Newsbusters: 21,452
19) Lew Rockwell: 24,677
20) The Weekly Standard: 25,565
21) News With Views: 27,352
22) Sean Hannity: 28,086
23) Pajamas Media 28,969
24) The Ludwig von Mises Institute: 29,116
25) Atlas Shrugs: 29,548
26) The American Thinker: 29,980
27) Cybercast News Service: 32,348
28) Neal Boortz: 32,857
29) Reason: 33,254
30) Lucianne: 34,135
31) Ann Coulter 36,864
32) The Cato Journal: 39,187
33) Daily Paul: 41,465
34) The Volokh Conspiracy: 42,021
35) Bill O'Reilly: 42,533
36) Redstate: 42,655
37) Conservapedia: 43,866
38) Power Line: 44,542
39) Jewish World Review: 44,765
40) Front Page Magazine: 48,645
41) Daniel Pipes: 49,692
42) Little Green Footballs: 49,844
43) Campaign for Liberty: 50,638
44) The American Spectator: 52,377
45) Commentary: 55,447
46) GOPUSA: 58,771
47) James Lileks': 60,536
48) Right Wing News: 63,097
49) Wizbang: 63,427
50) Day by Day: 63,455
51) Moonbattery: 67,850
52) Life News: 69,493
53) Vdare: 70,866
54) Debbie Schlussel: 73,543
55) Republican National Committee: 73,599
56) Lifesitenews: 73,823
57) Dick Morris: 77,187
58) Blackfive: 83,031
59) Outside the Beltway: 83,455
60) American Conservative: 90,579


“THE SYNTHESIS” IS A FREE PRESS: NO ONE PAYS ME TO COMPILE THESE ARTICLES OR PAYS ME TO COMMENT ON THEM.

IN LIKENESS AND SPIRIT OF THE “CHEROKEE PHOENIX”, THESE
ARTICLES ARE IN ENGLISH FOR THE CONGLOMERATION OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING MODERN DAY CHEROKEES, THOSE OF MIXED HERITAGE, AND FOR TEA PARTY GROUP DISCUSSION IN USING PICTURES TO CONVEY THE MEANING.
THESE MAY BE REPRINTED FOR YOUR GROUPS OR DISTRIBUTED AS TEA PARTY LITERATURE, BUT THEY ARE OF THE DIGEST RANGE, 25-75 PGS. IN LENGTH.

“THE SYNTHESIS" ARCHIVES, LINKS TO READ AND SHARE AT YOUR NEXT TEA PARTY OR WITH FRIENDS: 

Go to the link and scroll to the bottom for nearly 3 years of free weekly Tea Party newsletters


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