Saturday, July 31, 2010
Federal judge taken off case for 'hostility' toward prosecution
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
A federal appeals panel took the incredibly unusual step of pulling a federal judge off of a case in the middle of a trial because the judge showed unwarranted "anger and hostility'' toward prosecutors, the panel said Friday.Should Holderman be impeached?
And it was not just any judge, but James Holderman, chief judge for the Northern District of Illinois.
$435,203 For Suburban Chicago Park District Employee To Pad Pension
The Chicago Tribune reports:
As the economy was taking a historic nosedive, parks officials in Highland Park were paying three of their executives far more — $435,203 in one case — than anyone in similar posts across the suburbs, the Tribune has found.Just a reminder, property owners in Highland Illinois pay some of the highest property taxes in America. For this. What a scam. Eventually, federal taxpayers will be asked to bailout this. Just a reminder.
Parks officials in the northern suburb say it was a good use of taxpayer dollars, even though the off-the-charts spending spree included giving the three executives nearly $700,000 in bonuses while paying one of them $185,120 for no work and signing over an SUV to him as he left town.
The Park District acknowledges it did so, in part, to pad the executives' pensions, a practice pension officials say is wrong. The district's 58-year-old former executive director is now paid more in retirement — $166,000 a year — than he was typically paid to run the agency.
FBI File: Historian Howard Zinn Active Member of Communist Party
Accuracy in Media has the news on committed communist Howard Zinn's FBI file being release:
Although Zinn denied being a member of the CPUSA, the FBI file discloses that several reliable informants in the party identified Zinn as a member who attended party meetings as many as five times a week.The FBI has this message up on their website about popular historian Howard Zinn:
On July 30, 2010, the FBI released one file with three sections totaling 423 pages on Howard Zinn, a best selling radical historian, teacher, playwright, and political activist.No word yet from Matt Damon on this one.
Zinn was born in Brooklyn, New York and died at the age of 87 on January 27, 2010. As a young man he worked as a shipyard hand and served in the U. S. military as a bombardier during World War II. Returning from the war, he became involved in a number of left-wing political causes, some of them associated with the activities of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).
In 1949, the FBI opened a domestic security investigation on Zinn (FBI File # 100-360217). The Bureau noted Zinn’s activities in what were called Communist Front Groups and received informant reports that Zinn was an active member of the CPUSA; Zinn denied ever being a member when he was questioned by agents in the 1950s.
Obama to auto-workers: If GOP had had its way, your jobs would be gone
The Washington Post has Obama defending government ownership of car companies and attacking those who don't believe in socialism:
I don't think they'd be willing to look you in the eye and say that you were a bad investment. They might just come around if they were standing here and admit that by standing by a great American industry, and the good people who work for it, that we did the right thing. It's hard for them to say that. They don't like admitting when I do the right thing.Consumers didn't like GM and Chrysler cars but Barack Obama thinks the unfit deserves to survive by government ownership. What GM couldn't achieve in car sales they got with there the ability to plunder the taxpayers. How many more companies in the S&P 500 does Obama want the government to own? John Dingell's wife might be the most important political whore in American history.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Jan Schakowsky: Charles Rangel is “my leader”
Illinois Review has radical Rep. Jan Schakowky explaining on March 20, 2010 how ethically challenged Charles Rangel is her leader. Jan says at the 6:46 marker :"I love you" to Charlie Rangel. In fairness to Jan, it's not like Charlie Rangel is a mafia figure.
Obama ate alone at fund-raiser dinner
The New York Post reports:
The big spenders who shelled out $30,400 a head for dinner with President Obama at the Four Seasons restaurant and at Anna Wintour's house didn't actually break any bread with him.Obama likes funding his campaigns from the well to do: but doesn't want Citizens United to be able to speak.
After starting Tuesday night at a dinner for 60 high-rolling Democratic supporters hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Marc Lasry, Obama headed to a private room at the Four Seasons to wolf down steak, potatoes and broccoli with two aides before heading to Wintour's Greenwich Village home.
Obama arrived at the Four Seasons at 5 p.m. Spies said he gave a short speech and schmoozed with 60 attendees, including Lasry and Joan Ganz Cooney, wife of Blackstone Group's Pete Peterson, and ex-Martha Stewart CEO Sharon Patrick, sitting briefly at each table before dining alone.
Black lawmakers irate over Emanuel's $1.5 billion promise to Sen. Lincoln
The Hill reports:
African-American lawmakers are irate that the Obama administration has promised Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) $1.5 billion in farm aid while claiming it can’t pay a landmark legal settlement with black farmers.
Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote to President Obama on Thursday calling on him to find a way to compensate black farmers who suffered discrimination in government loan programs during the 1980s and 1990s.
What Ever Happened to the Constitution?
Mises Audio has Judge Andrew Napolitano's lecture yesterday.
ACLU slams Obama's security policies: Cites failure to halt Bush tactics
The Washington Times reports:
The ACLU on Thursday excoriated President Obama for continuing the Bush administration's strictest national security policies, including indefinite detention, military commissions and a "targeted kill" program that authorizes the government to take out suspected terrorists anywhere.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Economics of the Public Sector
Thomas J. DiLorenzo's audio lecture:
How Austrian economics is used to analyze the effects of government spending, borrowing, and bureaucratizing. Recorded 29 July 2010 in Auburn, Alabama.
New exhibition exposes Nazi eugenics program
Pioneer Press reports on the new eugenics exhibition. Here's the story from exhibition curator Susan Bachrach:
she found some American institutions such as the Museum of Natural History in New York and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to be uncooperative during her research. These institutions signed onto eugenics theory at one time and would rather forget their history, she said.Here's more on the American aspects of this.
"When it comes to eugenics, there's a huge whitewash that continues to go on," she said. "The United States was very strong in the eugenics movement and that can be seen in state sterilization laws."
"Deadly Science" covers much of this ground and a lot more. As long ago as 1927 and as far away from Germany as Virginia, Carrie Buck was sterilized after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Virginia law allowing sterilization of persons judged to be "feebleminded."
League of California Cities pushes for public disclosure of salaries
The Sacramento Bee reports:
Officials with the League of California Cities said today they are interested in crafting state legislation that would require information on the pay of all highly-compensated public officials on the state and local levels to be made easily available to the public.
The Theory of Political Entrepreneurship
Mises Audio has Professor Thomas J. DiLorenzo's lecture on profiting from politics.
Murray Rothbard as Academic Role Model
Mises Audio has Gary North's lecture yesterday on Murray Rothbard.
Drew Carey is half the man he used to be as he debuts new slimline look
The Daily Mail has Drew Carey's new look.
Facebook users published online
MSNBC reports:
The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been collected and published online in a downloadable file, meaning they will now be unable to make their publicly available information private.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Journolist's Eric Alterman Explains His Nascar "Retard" Statement
Journolist member Professor Eric Alterman explains his infamous comment about Nascar fans:
I don’t have anything at all against people who like Nascar, (though even the concept of how such a thing could be enjoyable, admittedly, continues to elude me). People can like whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. To the degree that I do have an objection to Nascar, it is ecological.Professor Alterman doesn't mind criticizing the Nascar fans who pay taxes to subsidize his job.
What I objected to, and what I’ve written about frequently—and would have been understood, I imagine, by most of the people in that private, off-the-record conversation—was the putatively liberal mainstream media treating the folks who like Nascar as “real Americans” and the rest of us who like jazz, foreign films, and prefer pinot noir to Budweiser as un-American commies who should have no say in our country’s future. This is why I am always defending New York, academics, the Upper West Side, even Zabar’s which always appear to be fair game with the So-called Liberal Media.
Gen Y: No jobs, lots of loans, grim future
MSNBC reports:
They are perhaps the best-educated generation ever, but they can’t find jobs. Many face staggering college loans and have moved back in with their parents. Even worse, their difficulty in getting careers launched could set them back financially for years.Yet, the education establishment encourages more people to go in debt for a college degree.
SEC Says New FinReg Law Exempts It From Public Disclosure
Fox Business News reports:
Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange CommissionIs this to hide the SEC's failures? As you can see, Obama is a man of state command and control.
no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities."
Albany’s Two Payrolls: One Is Anybody’s Guess
The New York Times reports:
As Gov. David A. Paterson calls lawmakers back to work on the budget this week, he has announced that the fiscal situation is so serious that he must begin laying off state workers. But there is one wrinkle, as officials try to pare government spending: No one knows for sure how big the state work force actually is.This is not a small matter. It's impossible to have accountability when so many government workers are taken outside politics. Here is a major legacy of the progressive movement. Government is expanded by off budget financing with little executive branch or legislative control.
That is because the state has not one but two public payrolls.
One is controlled by the governor, encompassing about 131,000 employees, who toil for agencies like the Health Department, the parks department and the Department of Motor Vehicles. That payroll has shrunk by about 25 percent in the last two decades — so has the much smaller legislative payroll — and usually shoulders the brunt of layoffs.
The other lies beyond the direct control of the governor and includes perhaps 163,000 more workers employed by independent public authorities and agencies — though that number is an estimate, because not all authorities have been reporting their payrolls to a central state registry. And projections of state employment by the federal government do not always match the state government’s figures. The work force beyond the governor’s control has largely bucked the statewide retrenchment, according to a review compiled by The New York Times.
That is particularly true of some of the largest public employers. The State University of New York has grown by 14 percent over the last two decades, while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which serves a dozen counties, has seen its work force rise by about 5 percent. The state judiciary has increased by 31.6 over that period.
Illinois prepaid college tuition program loses big on ShoreBank investment
Crain's Chicago Business reports:
The state's prepaid college tuition program is caught in the downward spiral of ShoreBank.No word yet from Robert Creamer on this one.
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which manages $1 billion invested for the college educations of Illinois students, has written off all but $2 million of a $12.7-million investment it made in ShoreBank two years ago, just before the South Side community lender hit the skids. That stake, which made the prepaid tuition program ShoreBank's largest shareholder, was the agency's first and only direct investment in a privately held company.
The $10.7-million loss, though modest in the context of a $1-billion fund, could turn up the already considerable political heat on the monthslong effort to save ShoreBank from failure. Congressional Republicans have questioned whether the Obama administration pressured big Wall Street banks into rescuing the lender.
War Against White Males: Feds demand diversity on Wall Street
Politico reports:
A little-noticed section of the Wall Street reform law grants the federal government broad new powers to compel financial firms to hire more women and minorities — an effort at promoting diversity that’s drawing fire from Republicans who say it could lead to de facto hiring quotas.
The Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People 2010
The Hill has their list of the most beautiful people. Ethical Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. makes the top 10.
Bloomberg hints the party's over for Rangel's 80th-b'day gala
The New York Post reports:
It might not be much of a birthday party after all.
Mayor Bloomberg suggested yesterday that Rep. Charles Rangel's gala 80th birthday party and fund-raiser -- long planned for Aug. 11 at The Plaza hotel -- may not be happening in light of the Harlem Democrat's ethical problems.
Schools, city stare into abyss
San Diego Union Tribune reports:
The San Diego Unified School District and city of San Diego are struggling to find a way to end chronic budget shortfalls that have plagued them in recent years and are projected to continue into the future. Deficits in past years have been closed with increasingly painful cuts, funding shifts and one-time measures. Both the school board and City Council are moving toward possible solutions they hope will bring long-lasting answers to their problems.
Muni Fund Managers Stand Pat: Plan Ahead for A Rise in Rates
The Bond Buyer reports:
Buoyed by the strength of the long-term municipal market over the past 18 months, mutual fund assets have climbed to record levels, and portfolio managers have had little need to make major changes to their current investment strategies.
“At this point, we see little risk of rising rates given the sovereign conditions globally,” said Gary Madich, chief investment officer for fixed income at JPMorgan Asset Management in Columbus, Ohio.
“We see the [Federal Reserve] on hold until late this year or early next year due to low inflation, improving — but weak — employment conditions, and weak housing markets,” he said.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Ex-Regulators Get Set to Lobby on New Financial Rules
The New York Times reports:
As the battle over toughened financial restrictions moves to a new front, the regulatory agencies that will create hundreds of new rules for the nation’s banks will face a lobbying blitz from companies intent on softening the blow. And many of the lobbyists the regulators hear from will be their former colleagues.Rent seeking gone wild.
Nearly 150 lobbyists registered since last year used to work in the executive branch at financial agencies, from lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission to Federal Reserve bankers, according to data analyzed for The New York Times by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.
In addition, dozens of former lawyers for the government, who are not registered as lobbyists, are now scouring the financial regulations on behalf of corporate clients.
Fired Washington Post Journolist David Weigel Hired By Washington Post's Slate
Outside the Beltway reports on Slate's new hire, fired journolist David Weigel. It's all one big , happy Washington Post family. Journolist Matt Yglesias says the :
Washington Post company is managed by idiotsSlate isn't bothered by David Weigel's journolist e-mails. Everyone at Slate is a registered Democrat in good standing.
GE pays $23m after Iraq probe
The Financial Times reports:
General Electric has agreed to pay $23.5m to settle allegations from US regulators that its subsidiaries bribed Iraqi officials to win contracts under the United Nations Oil for Food Programme between 2000 and 2003.No word yet from the MSNBC-Obama cheerleaders on this one. We'll bet Eric Holder will not indict anyone on this.
The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission is the second in as many years for GE. Last year, the company agreed to pay $50m to resolve charges of accounting fraud relating to hedging activities in 2002 and 2003.
Still the Butcher After All These Years
The New York Times has a story on the legendary Abdullah the Butcher.
Miami-Dade police union fires back over report on cops' moonlighting
The Miami Herald reports:
The police union has filed suit in an attempt to stop the county's Office of Inspector General from investigating cops following a tough report on county police officers working second jobs as private consultants in Panama.
Lawsuit against Bell suggests voter fraud in 2009 election
The L.A. Times reports:
A lawsuit filed Monday by a former Bell police officer makes a variety of serious allegations about city officials and suggests voter fraud in a 2009 election.Theft through voting!
According to the lawsuit, filed by James Corcoran, off-duty police officers in Bell distributed absentee ballots in a 2009 municipal election and told would-be voters which candidates to support.
The former police sergeant alleges in the suit that he was forced out of his job of 25 years in retaliation for informing state and federal authorities about the officers’ actions and reporting alleged misconduct involving City Administrator Robert Rizzo and other city officials.
Obama religion adviser linked to unindicted co-conspirator
WorldNetDaily reports:
A religion adviser to President Obama has close ties to a radical Muslim group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas.
The group, the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, has an extensive relationship with the Obama administration.
Appeals court concludes NYC will lose fuel fight
The New York Post reports:
A federal appeals court has rejected New York City’s latest attempt to force taxicab owners to buy fuel-efficient hybrids.
The Manhattan federal appeals court issued the ruling Tuesday. It found new rules created by the city directly regulate fuel efficiency in taxis even though federal laws already do that.
State budget gaps to total $84 billion for fiscal 2011: study
Marketwatch reports:
State budget gaps are now expected to total $83.9 billion for fiscal 2011, with shortfalls anticipated for the next couple of years, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
That bleak assessment contains one ray of good news: The total is slightly less than the estimate in March for an $89 billion gap.
The biggest shortfall to make up may be the reduction in federal aid for medical programs. Congress hasn't approved extending this aid after increasing support as part of last year's stimulus package.
Sam Adam Jr. accuses Barack Obama's transition team of negotiating with Rod Blagojevich
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Sam Adam Jr. has just accused President Barack Obama and his transition team of negotiating with Blagojevich.
The offer came from Rod to Tom Balanoff, Adam says. Balanoff brought it to Valerie Jarrett and word came back from Rahm Emanuel through John Wyma. It's a negotiation they were in, he said of Obama and Blagojevich.
"You start high and they come low," Adam said.
Tax Revenue Creeps Up, but Can't Fill State Budget Gaps
CNBC reports:
State tax revenue is improving, but only slightly, and may not be enough to end steep spending cuts or replace the loss of assistance from the federal stimulus plan that expires in December, according to a report Tuesday.
The National Conference of State Legislatures said states faced a collective budget gap of $83.9 billion when creating their budgets for fiscal 2011, which for most began on July 1.
California's climate change law backer donates $5 million to fight Prop 23
McClatchy reports:
Thomas Steyer, a San Francisco hedge fund manager and a big backer of Democratic candidates, will donate $5 million to a group opposing the ballot measure to roll back California's landmark climate change law.
Steyer, founder of Farallon Capital Management LLC, has joined George Shultz, former U.S. secretary of the state, as co-chairman of the No on 23 committee, giving the group's leadership a bipartisan mix.
Monday, July 26, 2010
America’s system of rail freight is the world’s best. High-speed passenger trains could ruin it
The Economist reports:
the problem with America’s plans for high-speed rail is not their modesty. It is that even this limited ambition risks messing up the successful freight railways. Their owners worry that the plans will demand expensive train-control technology that freight traffic could do without. They fear a reduction in the capacity available to freight. Most of all they fret that the spending of federal money on upgrading their tracks will lead the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the industry watchdog, to impose tough conditions on them and, in effect, to reintroduce regulation of their operations. Attempts at re-regulation have been made in Congress in recent years, in response to rising freight rates. “The freight railroads feel they are under attack,” says Don Phillips, a rail expert in Virginia.An article well worth your time.
Judge Zagel threatens to hold Blagojevich lawyer in contempt; attorney vows to go to jail
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
A fiery clash between Rod Blagojevich's lawyer and judge broke out at the end of court, with the judge threatening to hold Sam Adam Jr. in contempt of court if he didn't abide by his ruling and Adam later vowing to go to jail over the dispute.Blago's team is preparing for an appeal before conviction.
The jury was out of the room when the clash happened. It ultimately sidetracked the trial for the day and it's back on tomorrow morning.
Zagel told Adam he could not tell jurors in his closing argument that the government had refused to call 35 witnesses named in the indictment, including Tony Rezko, Bill Quinlan and Stuart Levine.
"I don't want to get into the classic mode that if the facts are against you and the law is against you, then attack the opposing lawyer. That's all you're doing," Zagel said. "The fact is, you cannot draw an evidentiary inference from the fact a witness was not called by the other side when you had an equal right to call them."
Can NJ keep its pension promises? No way, many officials concede
Asbury Park Press
Jack Curtis was driving with his wife to the grocery store recently when the 63-year-old elementary school principal from Morris County announced they needed to downsize their retirement dreams.This long article is well worth your time. In the future, many will find "democracy" is a God that failed them.
Why? Because the state's pension system is so far in arrears that Curtis doesn't think he can count on it anymore.
The reality of New Jersey's pension system crisis is sinking in.
The numbers are mind-numbing. As of June 2009, the state's pension systems faced unfunded liabilities of $45.8 billion. That number assumed an annual 8.25 percent return on investments, an actuarial standard that many experts are now declaring is unrealistic. In the past decade, the pension system averaged 2.56 percent a year, not nearly enough to keep pace with projected costs.
More pessimistic assumptions about rates of return peg the pension system liability as high as $173.9 billion — not to mention some $55 billion in unfunded health care costs.
Chicago FBI Boss Slams Mayor Daley
The Chicago Sun-Times quotes FBI special agent Robert Grant's comments on Mayor Daley:
"Our people ask: What gives with this mayor?" Grant said. "He's always embarrassing his employees. What you need from a mayor is someone who will stand up and set a tone for this city."Ouch.
Fur and feathers fly as San Francisco weighs ban on pet sales
The L.A. Times reports:
What began as a proposal to ban sales of dogs and cats quickly grew to include birds, hamsters, rats and other small mammals. Shelters and rescue groups could still offer adoptions.
Mass. State workers feverishly taking sick time...as pol pushes for reform in private sector
The Boston Herald reports:
The nauseating number of state employees banging in ill is compelling one Bay State politician to call for a probe just as the Legislature is set to take up a controversial first-in-the-nation sick-time policy for the private sector.Who's to say , in the future, Massachusetts will not mandate 20 sick days or 57 sick days? We need to return to the Lochner era.
State Rep. Kay Khan said the clock is ticking on her bill mandating seven paid sick days for everyone - and state workers calling in sick in high numbers is an ill-timed irony.
“It sounds like something that needs to be investigated, certainly if we’re pushing to get this done in the private sector,” said Khan (D-Newton), after being told of the sick-time tally by the Herald yesterday.
“We need more fairness across the board,” she said, adding her bill is in the House Ways and Means Committee and could be up for a vote this week before the legislative session ends Saturday.
A Herald investigation of state worker sick-day use shows executive branch employees averaged 8.1 days a year in 2009 - and are on pace to equal that this year. But many call in sick more than that
Madoff Investors Brace for Lawsuits
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The court-appointed trustee recovering money for Bernard L. Madoff's victims is preparing a wave of new lawsuits seeking to wrest funds away from investors who also were duped by the Ponzi scheme.
In an interview, Irving Picard said he could wind up suing about half the estimated 2,000 individual investors he has called "net winners" from their dealings with Mr. Madoff. Such investors withdrew more from Mr. Madoff's firm than the amount of principal they invested.
"The people who made money, who got more, have made money at the expense of the people who didn't," said Mr. Picard, who has the power under federal bankruptcy provisions to pursue money withdrawn from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC before it collapsed in December 2008 and redistribute the funds fairly among victims.
Mr. Picard must file any so-called clawback lawsuits by December, the two-year anniversary of Mr. Madoff's arrest and the filing of regulatory proceedings against him. "We're not going to wait until the last minute," Mr. Picard said.
Rev. Jackson: Breitbart “morally wrong”
Politico reports:
Andrew Breitbart’s posting of the misleadingly excerpted video footage that started the Shirley Sherrod controversy “was morally wrong and created of course a very difficult climate,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Sunday.Should Jesse Jackson (Democrat-Freddie Mac) be talking about morality?
Taleb: Government Deficits Could Be the Next 'Black Swan'
Business Week has an article you should read.
The landfill and Blagojevich's fall
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
It was the feud that helped start it all. In January 2005, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered state environmental workers to shut down a Will County landfill owned by Frank Schmidt -- a relative of Blagojevich's wife, Patti, and of his father-in-law, powerful Chicago Ald. Richard Mell (33rd).You'll want to read this one.
Blagojevich's administration had accused Schmidt of accepting illegal waste and of "using his ties to the Blagojevich family to solicit" business for an illegal-dumping operation.
Journolist debates making its coordination with Obama explicit
The Daily Caller reports on how the leftists in the media worked to help the Obama 2008 narrative.
Cities View Homesteads as a Source of Income
The New York Times reports on the supply of land going up.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Trade association: bottled water making a comeback
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
The bottled water industry, battered by recession and environmental concerns, is applauding the demise of several initiatives that aimed to stop cities and states from buying the product.
The attorney general of Massachusetts, citing procedural errors, voided a decision made last spring at an annual town meeting in Concord that would have banned the sale of bottled water within the town.
In San Francisco, discussion of banning bottled water from all city events has resulted in no real action, the San Francisco Chronicle reported last week. And Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell nixed a directive from his predecessor that prohibited state agencies from purchasing single-serve bottled water for most official functions and meetings.
White Baby Born to Black Parents
pp
Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com
Schakowsky: Want to cut the deficit? Get with our new public option
Raw Story reports:
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said Saturday that serious deficit hawks ought to get behind a new "robust" public option bill that she and more than a hundred other members introduced days ago.Since the average federal government worker makes more money than the average private sector worker: Jan Schakowsky is being less than truthful about the public option saving money.
In an interview with Raw Story at the Netroots Nation conference, Schakowsky predicted that a new "focus on deficit reduction" and rising public distrust of the insurance industry would generate stronger support for it among members of Congress.
Obama's Aug. 5 Chicago visit: Ford plant, 3 fund-raisers
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
President Obama is coming to Chicago on Aug. 5 for what is now three fund-raising events to benefit Democrats, adding a visit to the Chicago Ford plant on the Far South Side.It's always about the dollars with Chicago Democrats.
That "official" business at the Ford plant, announced Friday, means the share the Democratic National Committee and the Giannoulias campaign will have to pay to cover the cost of bringing Obama in for the fund-raisers will decrease.
Former Chicago Mob Lawyer, Ilinois Supreme Court Justice, Anne Burke Gives Pope Advice
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke has free advice for the Pope. We think Anne Burke is giving the Pope cheaper advice than these Chicago mobsters got.
L.A. Has Less Public Transit Riders After Spending $8 Billion
The L.A. Times reports:
Los Angeles officials will hold a major event Friday near Staples Center to mark the 20-year expansion of urban rail service in the county and what they see as a dynamic shift that will transform the nation's car capital into a model for mass transit.Great moments in central planning.
But although the region now has a gleaming system of subways and light-rail trains, some transportation experts say the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's $8-billion effort — less operating costs — has done little to reduce traffic congestion or increase the use of mass transit much beyond the level in 1985, when planning for the Metro Blue Line began.
Rather than bolster ridership, these experts say, the emphasis on rail has come at the expense of the MTA's vast network of buses and may have cost the agency at least 1.5 billion passenger boardings from 1986 to 2006.
International Anti-Censusism: Canada "To appease the Ron Paul, Tea Party base"
CTV reports on the Tea Party movement gone Canada? No census long forms in Canada. What the video and read the article. The central planners are upset.
New Democrat MP Charlie Angus was more colourful, stating that the Tories had scrapped the mandatory long-form census "strictly out of partisan reasons to appease the Ron Paul, Tea Party base."Via LRC Blog.
Probe may open books at CalPERS
The L.A. Times reports:
California taxpayers are on the hook when the state's giant public pension system — lately plagued by corruption scandals and huge losses — makes a bad investment. Yet they are permitted to see little of what goes into its investment decisions.Just a reminder for those who want to hand more responsibilities over to the government.
Officials at the California Public Employees' Retirement System have shrouded many of their multimillion-dollar transactions in secrecy, refusing to release analyses of potential investments, meeting materials and correspondence relating to venture capital, real estate and other private equity holdings.
Citing privacy laws, they have said the pension fund need not share "any documents that reflect investment recommendations and the process by which investment strategy is decided."
But now, as some current and former officials are being investigated by state and federal authorities in probes of influence-peddling and bribery, CalPERS has hired at least one outside firm to examine whether pension dollars were doled out improperly in deals negotiated out of public view.
Reid to Netroots: "We're Going To Have a Public Option"
The American Spectator reports:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, seeking to console liberal activists who were disappointed by the final version of the national health care law, assured them that there would eventually be a public option.
"We're going to have a public option," Reid said. "It's just a question of when."
A legacy of lax oversight and dubious claims
The Boston Globe reports:
The troubles at the state Probation Department go way beyond patronage. Key programs have gone astray, with bloated budgets and indifferent management; caseload reports are wildly exaggerated; and a culture of secrecy has enveloped it all.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Pelosi calls for liberal activists to help keep Democrats in majority
The Washington Post reports:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stepped into a convention of liberal activists here Saturday with a blunt appeal: The gates to a progressive agenda have opened under Democratic control, she said, and they will close if Republicans seize power in the fall midterm elections.</blockquote>
Quinnipiac Poll Shocker: Young Voters Turn on Obama
The New York Post reports:
Young voters who had been enthralled by Barack Obama's "Yes, we can" message are now saying "Maybe not" -- and are backing away from the president in a worrisome new poll for the White House.This is a major sign that November will be a difficult election for Democrats.
Obama is losing in a match-up against a generic Republican challenger by 37 percent to 34 percent among voters in the 18-34 age group, according to a stunning Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday.
In March, voters in this group approved of Obama by 54 percent to 37 percent.
"The youngest age group may be the most impatient and the most easily disillusioned among all age groups," said Molly Andolina, a youth-vote expert and DePaul University political-science professor.
The Founding of the Federal Reserve | Murray N. Rothbard
You'll want to watch Murray Rothbard's lecture ,if you haven't seen it.
Estate Tax Fighter Katrina Vanden Heuvel Tells Us How Important the Estate Tax Is
Wealthy democratic socialist Katrina Vanden Heuvel writes an op-ed in the Washington Post telling us why America needs an estate tax. Yep, this is the same Katrina Vanden Heuvel that doesn't want to pay her fair share.
Where the jobs are: These 25 counties have experienced the most job growth over the last nine years.
CNN Money has a list of the counties with the biggest job growth the last nine years. As Professor Mark Perry reminds us, 5 of the 7 top job growth counties are in Texas!
P Street Project to lobby for progressives' agenda
The Washington Post reports:
A progressive grass-roots organizing group is launching a federal lobbying arm Saturday, seeking to leverage the energy of its members to advance liberal policy in Congress.
The P Street Project is an effort by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to build upon the progressive movement's online organizing of the past few years and move into the business of registered lobbying. The lobby has recently advocated on some issues during a trial run, but will be officially launched here at Netroots Nation, a gathering of 2,100 liberal leaders, bloggers and activists.
California school boards group exec retires amid credit-card, pay revelations
The Sacramento Bee reports:
It was a fall from grace for a man who has championed public schools across the state.For the children.
Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association, announced his retirement Friday amid revelations he had charged thousands of dollars to a company credit card at area casinos, and according to the most recent tax filings, was drawing annual pay of more than $500,000.
Skull and Bones Member Senator John Kerry will pay if ‘taxes are owed’
The Boston Herald reports:
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the owner of a new, super-luxe 76-foot yacht, is not dodging a six-figure Massachusetts tax bill by docking the Isabel in Rhode Island and will pony up to the state if “any taxes are owed,” a spokesman for the alleged tax-skipping skipper said.Taxes are for little people.
And it appears the senior senator may be on the hook for more than $500,000 in state and local taxes because Kerry tied his toney tub up in Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket waters within six months of buying her.
Senate returns $60B stripped out war bill to House
USA Today reports:
In a take-it-or-leave-it gesture, the Senate voted Thursday night to reject more than $20 billion in domestic spending the House had tacked on to its $60 billion bill to fund President Obama's troop surge in Afghanistan.
Instead, the Senate returned to the House a measure limited chiefly to war funding, foreign aid, medical care for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and replenishing almost empty disaster aid accounts.
The moves repel a long-shot bid by House Democrats earlier this month to resurrect their faltering jobs agenda with $10 billion in grants to school districts to avoid teacher layoffs, $5 billion for Pell Grants to low-income college students, $1 billion for a summer jobs program and $700 million to improve security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Caught red-handed: Bad boy Hugo Chavez is up to his eyeballs in narcoterrorism
The New York Daily News reports:
The Colombian government has presented evidence that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is playing host to as many as 1,500 narcoterrorist guerrillas in camps near the Colombian border.No word yet from Oliver Stone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)