Monthly Archives: May 2011
Well, look who is leading the newest Zogby Poll………….
Duane Lester finds the latest reason to keep Raising Cain in 2012
Herman Cain might not be the most well known candidate, but those who know him love him.
The results of a new IBOPE Zogby Interactive poll, conducted from May 20-23, show Cain, a businessman and radio talk show host who drew attention at the first party Presidential debate early this month, as the choice of 19% of GOP primary voters. Christie, the New Jersey Governor who led in our four previous polls, is second with 16%, followed by Mitt Romney in third with 11%.
That sound you hear might be the wailing of the Establishment GOP
Leftist Nutbags Attempt To Raise “Genderless” Child
Leftist Nutbags Attempt To Raise “Genderless” Child – The Australian
It is usually the first thing that proud parents reveal to the world about their new offspring. But a Canadian couple has sparked controversy by deciding to keep the sex of their baby secret as part of an attempt to raise a “genderless child”.
Kathy Witterick, 38, and David Stocker, 39, who live in Toronto, believe that a child’s sex should not determine his or her place in the world.
When Storm was born four months ago, they sent an e-mail to friends and family reading: “We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now – a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place?)”
There is nothing physiologically ambiguous about Storm’s sex. However, whether he or she is a girl or a boy is known only to the couple’s sons, Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, a close family friend and the two midwives who helped to deliver the baby.
The parents say that it will be up to Storm to decide whether he or she decides to live as a boy or girl but their plan has led to them being labelled the “world’s most PC parents”.
They say that they are striking a blow against the gender stereotypes that order society, which they believe begin as soon as parents pick out blue or pink romper suits. “When the baby comes out, even the people who love you the most and know you so intimately, the first question they ask is: ‘Is it a girl or a boy?’,” Ms Witterick, a housewife, said. Mr Stocker, a teacher, told The Toronto Star: “If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs.”
Storm’s grandparents have been supportive, but some friends have accused the couple of imposing their values on a newborn.
Others have criticised Storm’s parents for setting up their child for a life of bullying and notoriety. “These parents are turning their children into a bizarre lab experiment,” one reader wrote to The Toronto Star.
“For most people, gender is bedrock. When two parents challenge that bedrock, as Storm’s parents have, it makes everyone anxious,” said Diane Ehrensaft, a California-based psychologist and a specialist on gender roles.
The couple, who spent a recent holiday meeting Zapatista revolutionaries in the mountains of Mexico, are nothing if not aggressively progressive.
They believe in “unschooling”; a variation of home schooling in which a child is allowed to decide what he or she learns. The entire family sleeps on two mattresses pushed together on the floor and their young sons decide when to cut their hair and which clothes to wear each day.
Jazz recently donned a pink dress, which he said he loved because it “really poofs out at the bottom” and “feels so nice”. He wears his hair long and his favourite colour is pink. Kio prefers purple. Most strangers assume that the boys are girls – but Jazz was recently shunned at a playground by two girls who said that they did not want to play with the “girl-boy”.
The debate on the long-term effects of Storm’s unconventional start in life are likely to rage on. For now, however, the parents have declined to do any more interviews.
“We don’t want [our children] to feel like exotic bugs. When consulted, they said ‘no thanks’ to more media attention,” Ms Witterick said.
Egyptian Pyramids Found By Infra-Red Satellite Images
Egyptian Pyramids Found By Infra-Red Satellite Images – BBC News
More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements were also revealed by looking at infra-red images which show up underground buildings.
Initial excavations have already confirmed some of the findings, including two suspected pyramids.
“To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist,” says US Egyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak.
She has pioneered the work in space archaeology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and says she was amazed at how much she and her team has found.
“We were very intensely doing this research for over a year. I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the “Aha!” moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we’d found and I couldn’t believe we could locate so many sites all over Egypt.”
The team analysed images from satellites orbiting 700km above the earth, equipped with cameras so powerful they can pin-point objects less than 1m in diameter on the earth’s surface.
Infra-red imaging was used to highlight different materials under the surface.
Ancient Egyptians built their houses and structures out of mud brick, which is much denser than the soil that surrounds it, so the shapes of houses, temples and tombs can be seen.
“It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements,” says Dr Parcak.
And she believes there are more antiquities to be discovered:
“These are just the sites [close to] the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt. This is just the beginning of this kind of work.”
BBC cameras followed Dr Parcak on her “nervous” journey when she travelled to Egypt to see if excavations could back up what her technology could see under the surface.
In the BBC documentary Egypt’s Lost Cities, they visit an area of Saqqara (Sakkara) where the authorities were not initially interested in her findings.
But after being told by Dr Parcak that she had seen two potential pyramids, they made test excavations, and they now believe it is one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt.
But Dr Parcak said the most exciting moment was visiting the excavations at Tanis.
“They’d excavated a 3,000-year-old house that the satellite imagery had shown and the outline of the structure matched the satellite imagery almost perfectly. That was real validation of the technology.”
The Egyptian authorities plan to use the technology to help – among other things – protect the country’s antiquities in the future.
During the recent revolution, looters accessed some well-known archaeological sites.
“We can tell from the imagery a tomb was looted from a particular period of time and we can alert Interpol to watch out for antiquities from that time that may be offered for sale.”
She also hopes the new technology will help engage young people in science and will be a major help for archaeologists around the world.
“It allows us to be more focused and selective in the work we do. Faced with a massive site, you don’t know where to start.
“It’s an important tool to focus where we’re excavating. It gives us a much bigger perspective on archaeological sites. We have to think bigger and that’s what the satellites allow us to do.”
“Indiana Jones is old school, we’ve moved on from Indy, sorry Harrison Ford.”
New Round Of Deadly Tornadoes Kills Nine In Oklahoma, Kansas And Arkansas
New Round Of Deadly Tornadoes Kills Nine In Oklahoma, Kansas And Arkansas – New York Daily News
Another round of killer tornadoes tore through the Midwest on Tuesday, leaving at least five people dead in Oklahoma and two both in Kansas and Arkansas.
Several twisters shot through Oklahoma City and its suburbs during rush hour, killing five and leaving 60 injured, including three kids in critical condition.
The new line of high-powered storms struck just two days after a massive tornado barreled through Joplin, Mo., killing at least 122 people and injuring 750, officials said.
Four people died in El Reno, west of Oklahoma City, where winds were clocked up to 151 mph. A 26-year-old woman died when a tornado smashed into her mobile home in Chickasha, southwest of Oklahoma City, said police.
In Kansas, a twister hurled a huge tree onto a car in the town of St. John, killing two people.
Storm systems spawning tornadoes and baseball-sized hail also moved north and east across north Texas last night, filling the sky with debris but causing noinjuries.
In Arlington, Tex., tornado sirens began screaming in Rangers Ballpark during the fourth inning of the Rangers-White Sox game.
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As the sky turned pitch black, the game was called and fans were evacuated through service tunnels. Thunderstorms, but no tornados, passed over the stadium.
But tornadoes were reported moving north and east across north Texas during the night. They caused damage but no injuries in parts of Dallas and Tarrant counties.
And officials warned that more severe weather was expected.
“Unfortunately, this event will likely continue for some time,” Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said. “I am asking all Oklahomans to stay aware of the weather and to take proper precautions to keep themselves out of harm’s way.”
Meanwhile, rescue crews toiled throughout the day in Joplin in a desperate search for survivors amid the splintered homes, fallen trees and crushed cars. It was the deadliest tornado there in 60 years.
President Obama, who is planning to visit Joplin on Sunday, said in London yesterday, “The American people are by your side. We’re going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet.”
Efforts focused on the remains of a Home Depot store and a Walmart, withsearch-and-rescue dogs hunting for survivors.
Rescuers in Joplin were given some reason for hope as they pulled 17 survivors from the rubble.
But the blue-collar town of 50,000 was far from out of the woods. Fire from gas leaks continued to burn, and weather forecasters said similar conditions could emerge to set off other large tornado outbreaks in the Midwest.
The National Weather Service said last Sunday’s crippling twister appeared to be a rare “multivortex” tornado, with two or more small and intense centers of rotation orbiting the larger funnel.
It ranked as an EF5 – the highest on a scale used by weather experts – with winds greater than 200 mph. At its peak, the massive funnel cloud was three-quarters of amile wide.
Until now, the single deadliest twister killed 116 in Flint, Mich., in 1953.
Doesn’t Obama Know What Year It Is? President Signs Westminster Abbey Guestbook 2008
Doesn’t Obama Know What Year It Is? President Signs Westminster Abbey Guestbook 2008 – Daily Mail
Everyone wishes they could turn back the clock sometimes, and it turns out Barack Obama is no different.
He got the date wrong by three years when he signed the guestbook at Westminster Abbey today on his official visit to the UK – despite apparently asking the dean what day it was.
As a tough election looms next year and he faces criticism for his handling of the financial crisis, perhaps Mr Obama wished it was indeed May 24, 2008, when he was still a rising superstar.
It was the second tricky moment of his day – as Mr Obama was in the middle of a royal toast when the orchestra seemed to misunderstand a pause and began playing ‘God Save the Queen’ too early.
The visit comes just a month after millions watched as Prince William married Kate Middleton in the Abbey – an occasion to which the Obamas were not invited.
Following a tradition set by former presidents Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, he laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, before going into the nave to sign a heartfelt message in the Distinguished Visitors’ Book.
After apparently asking the Dean of Westminster, Dr John Hall, for the date, he wrote: ‘It is a great privilege to commemorate our common heritage and our common sacrifice’.
Even the First Lady affectionately stroking his back as he wrote – and then signing the book after him – couldn’t stop him making the gaffe.
Three years ago today Mr Obama was campaigning in Puerto Rico, as he fought a fierce battle in the Democratic primaries against Hillary Clinton.
On the same day, he accepted Mrs Clinton’s apology for saying she was staying in the race because of her memory of Robert Kennedy’s assassination.
And, with what now seems like ironic foresight, he said: ‘I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Senator Clinton and I have been campaigning, sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make, and I think that is what happened here.’
Although he eventually lost that primary, he went on to take the nomination and then the presidency amid a surge of support.
Since then, his popularity ratings have fallen as the effects of the financial crisis took their toll on unemployment rates.
It’s not the first time Mr Obama has made a gaffe.
During his inauguration ceremony, he made a mistake in his oath and had to be sworn in a second time to make him the legal president, and the following year he joked his bowling skills were ‘like the special Olympics or something’.
But the Obamas still received a warm welcome from a crowd who gathered outside the Abbey, chanting ‘we love you, we love you’.
And his wife, Michelle, made the choirboys laugh when he teased the president for his poor singing ability.
After the visit, Dr Hall said: ‘It was very friendly, very relaxed, very charming and he is a friendly nice person and so is Mrs Obama.’
Later a spokesman for Westminster Abbey confirmed Mr Obama wrote the date himself.
The incident happened on a day when he was also out of sync with time in a different way.
Mr Obama was toasting the Queen when the orchestra misunderstood a pause in his speech and believed he was giving them a queue to begin playing the British National Anthem.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, please stand with me and raise your glasses as I propose a toast,’ Mr Obama said as he picked up his glass. ‘To her majesty the Queen.’
As he paused, the orchestra began to play and he continued speaking over the music.
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‘The vitality of the special relationship between our peoples and for the words of Shakespeare to this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.’
The Queen looked ahead as the National Anthem was being played. Then as he lifted his glass to her, there was an awkward moment as she forced out an embarrassed smile.
However nobody drank from their glasses because the song was playing – but then once it had finished everybody raised a glass to conclude the awkward moment.
Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Ted Nugent to Piers Morgan: ‘Suck on my Machine Gun’
Piers Morgan has no clue, none at all.
Your Tax Dollars At Work
A Superfluous Federal Agency Is Caught Discriminating – Again! – Pajamas Media
Rep. Greg Harper (R-Miss.) has introduced a bill to eliminate one of the least known and most useless agencies in Washington: the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The fact that this supposedly temporary $18 million-a-year agency is apparently on the hook to pay damages for refusing to hire a military veteran provides another sound reason for shutting it down. This is the second time in less than two years that the EAC has discriminated in hiring a job applicant – and for the very same position no less.
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is the independent agency that investigates prohibited political activity by federal employees. On December 2, 2009, it announced that two EAC commissioners had discriminated against a job-seeker applying for the position of General Counsel, a career civil service post. Although OSC did not identify the discriminators, the two commissioners were Gracia Hillman and Rosemary Rodriguez.
After interviewing the applicant, Hillman and Rodriguez, both Democrats, had voted along with the two Republican commissioners to hire him. He was sent an offer letter. However, according to OSC, when Hillman and Rodriguez discovered the lawyer was a Republican, they refused to approve his appointment as General Counsel. The OSC concluded that Hillman and Rodriguez had engaged in a “prohibited personnel practice” – specifically, they discriminated against the prospective EAC employee “because of his political affiliation, in violation of civil service laws.”
The lawyer received a six-figure settlement from the EAC – all of it paid by taxpayers, not those who violated the law. Now the Labor Department has found that the EAC discriminated again. And it’s the behavior of one of the same commissioners, Gracia Hillman, that was the problem. Neither Hillman nor Rodriguez is on the Commission now, but Hillman was still a commissioner last August when the EAC tried again to fill the still-open General Counsel slot. One of the applicants was a lawyer with extensive experience in voting and election law, as well as election administration. He had perfect qualifications for the job with one exception, at least according to Hillman’s point of view – he is a reserve naval officer.
During the interview, Hillman started asking detailed questions about his military service. According to the attorney, Hillman’s questioning showed that she believed “that no military reservist could ever be ‘objectively’ involved with voting issues due to some imaginary legal conflict under attorney bar requirements,” an absurd (and offensive) notion. Hillman’s questions showed that the lawyer’s military service was “a negative in her eyes and [she] sought to convey these negative ramifications to the other Commissioners and staff present.”
She even discussed “the potential burdens on the Commission in the event [the lawyer] was out of the office on reserve duty,” despite the fact that his ordinary schedule involves only one weekend a month (when he would not be working at the EAC) and two weeks a year of active duty training. The lawyer said it was clear to him that Hillman believed his military service “was a valid reason not to hire [him] as General Counsel.”
Hillman’s (and the EAC’s) problem is that this kind of discrimination against a military service member is illegal under federal law. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), 38 U.S.C. § 4311, prohibits denying employment to any individual on the basis of membership in the uniformed services. When he wasn’t hired, the lawyer complained to the Department of Labor (DOL), which has responsibility for investigating this type of discrimination against members of the military.
On March 14, 2011, DOL informed the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that the lawyer’s claim of discrimination was “meritorious and that the claimant is entitled to the position of General Counsel and compensation for lost wages and other benefits.” The DOL letter stated that Hillman asked the lawyer “inappropriate questions regarding his military obligations” during his interview. Even worse, she apparently lied to DOL investigators when she “denied making any comments about [the lawyer’s] military commitments.” Witnesses present during the interview confirmed that Hillman had asked these inappropriate questions.
DOL even has a recording of the closed session at the EAC where the commissioners discussed the two finalists for the General Counsel job, which included the reserve officer. To her credit, Republican Commissioner Gineen Bresso confronted Hillman over her inappropriate questions and the fact that they violated USERRA. In that recording, according to DOL’s letter, “Hillman admitted that she asked questions about [the lawyer’s] reserve duties” – something she later denied to DOL investigators.
DOL’s letter tells OPM that if this is not resolved, the claim will be referred to the Office of Special Counsel, the same office that investigated Hillman and Rodriguez in the earlier case. Once again, it looks like the taxpayers will be saddled with large expenses thanks to the misbehavior of an EAC commissioner.
Rep. Harper has the right idea. He wants to get rid of an agency that has outlived its purpose. After all, its work is done. The Help America Vote Act created the EAC in 2002. Its only purpose: To help implement that law and distribute funds to update voting equipment around the country. These tasks have all been accomplished.
In a recent Pajamas Media article, Richard Pollock noted that the EAC is an agency without a mission, yet half of its staff earn six-figure incomes. Only one of every three employees works on real programs, and its internal finances are such a mess that it could not be audited. It can’t account for half a million dollars in travel vouchers and wasted $7,000 in taxpayer funds on t-shirts for its employees. The National Association of Secretaries of State, a bipartisan organization that represents the chief election officials of all the states, has twice passed resolutions calling for the EAC to be phased out.
While I was at the Justice Department, I served on the first Board of Advisors of the EAC. I had many interactions with the EAC and its personnel and it was one of the most dysfunctional federal agencies it has ever been my misfortune to encounter. This latest scandal involving ugly discrimination against a dedicated member of the military is just another outrageous example of why Congress should follow the advice of the states’ chief election officials and shut down this unneeded, inept, and discriminatory federal agency.
Man Exposes Himself To Bojangles Drive-Thru Worker
Man Exposes Himself To Bojangles Drive-Thru Worker – Weekly Vice
Jason Douglas Gross, a 32-year-old North Carolina man demonstrated why his last name suits him well after he allegedly exposed himself to a restaurant employee after she informed him that they had run out of chicken legs.
According to police, Gross became enraged when he tried to order a chicken leg dinner through the Bojangles restaurant drive-thru window and learned that the restaurant had run out of chicken legs.
Investigators say Gross, who was a passenger in a minivan, became enraged upon hearing the news.
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You don’t have any f***ing legs?” Gross reportedly shouted.
When the employee told him no and tried to suggest something else, Gross reportedly pulled down his boxer shorts, fully exposed his penis and stated “Here’s a f****ing leg for you.”
“He did it gradually,” said the employee. “It’s going to be forever ingrained in my head.”
The employee and a manager at the restaurant were able to get the vehicle’s license plate number as it sped off. Gross reportedly turned himself in on Saturday and was charged with indecent exposure. He was released without bond a short time later.
Democrat-Controlled Illinois On “Verge Of Financial Disaster” Treasurer Says
Democrat-Controlled Illinois On “Verge Of Financial Disaster” Treasurer Says – Reuters
Illinois is “on the verge of a financial disaster” as payments on the state’s debt have skyrocketed, Treasurer Dan Rutherford said on Monday.
Illinois faces an estimated $45 billion in principal and interest payments on its outstanding debt over the next 25 years, up nearly four-fold from the $12 billion owed in 2002, according to a position paper from Rutherford, who took office in January.
Adding to the state’s debt burden is $140 billion in unfunded pension and retiree health-care liabilities and $8 billion of currently unpaid bills, the paper said.
“Every household in Illinois is responsible for the repayment of $10,000 to reimburse our bondholders in the coming years,” Rutherford said in a statement, adding that unpaid bills and pension and health-care liabilities would boost that total to $42,000 per household.
Illinois’ widening structural deficit, huge unfunded pension liability, inability to pay the state’s bills on time, cascading bond ratings and its propensity to borrow its way out of financial problems have made the state a major worry in the $2.9 trillion U.S. municipal bond market.
“We need to cut our spending and break our unsustainable borrowing cycle before we realize a further financial disaster,” Rutherford said.
Even with a big income tax rate hike passed in January, Illinois is still spending about $5 billion more a year than it receives in revenue, according to the position paper, which also said the state’s low bond ratings have resulted in higher borrowing costs compared with other states.
Democrat Governor Pat Quinn has been pushing the legislature for anywhere from $2 billion to $8.75 billion of bond authority to pay off bills and other obligations incurred this fiscal year.
His office said in a statement on Monday that this plan is not new borrowing, but a restructuring of debt the state owes to vendors and service providers who have been waiting months for payments.
“Governor Quinn is 100 percent committed to making good on all bills due and feels restructuring debt the state already owes at attractive rates is the least costly option for taxpayers in order to address this bill backlog,” the statement said.
Daily Benefactor News – Congressman Thaddeus McCotter Weighing White House Bid
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Congressman Thaddeus McCotter Weighing White House Bid – Politico
In an interview Monday with POLITICO, Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter said he’s seriously considering a White House bid and will decide within the next two weeks.
McCotter argued that the current crop of GOP candidates simply isn’t making the case about how to confront what he described as the existential threats facing the country.
“I think the majority of the Republican electorate isn’t happy with the choices they’ve got and want to take a look at new people,” he said.
McCotter said his party must address four major issues: “The challenge of globalization, the war for freedom against terrorists, the rise of Communist China and whether moral relativism erodes a nation built on self-evident truth.”
But what makes a little-known four-term House member who gave up his own leadership position think he can enter the campaign in June and be a viable contender for the nomination?
McCotter said the revolution in communication and media has made it easier for aspiring politicians who don’t have the sort of name identification or personal wealth that traditionally determined who could mount a national campaign.
“It’s easier to get your message out today, and people will take a look at it – and if they like it, maybe they vote for you,” he said.
Pressed further, the Michigander quipped: “I’m from Detroit – we live to prove the doubters wrong.”
If anything, McCotter, 45, is known among political insiders for such wit – along with a love for rock music and his chops on the guitar. He’s a member of a band – The Second Amendments – comprised of a bipartisan group of House members. At a congressional picnic in 2006, President George W. Bush memorably deemed him “that rock and roll dude.”
But he’s also developed something of a cult following on the right as an unapologetic conservative who can quote Russell Kirk as easily as he can Robert Plant. (McCotter weaved Led Zeppelin lyrics into a House floor speech earlier this year.)
Frequent appearances on Fox’s late-night show “Red Eye” and Dennis Miller’s radio program also have built up his fan base in the right-leaning media, particularly among Republicans who, like him, came of age in the 1980s.
“There’s no one I’d like to see more at a debate than McCotter,” gushed conservative Web impresario Andrew Breitbart. “This is a guy that’s blunt, sarcastic, pop-culture-savvy, constitutionally sound and an authentic voice.”
Breitbart predicted: “I think that the American people would be won over by him.”
There have been whispers about the possibility of a McCotter run, but the extent of his plotting is little-known.
He has quietly reached out to potential campaign attorneys and early-state Republicans and counts longtime GOP communications guru Mark Corallo and Eric Ueland, a former chief of staff to Bill Frist, as informal advisers.
If he does run, McCotter, a Twitter enthusiast, will try to harness the Internet, and he’s considering hiring a conservative new media firm to help boost online fundraising potential. One of the new media consultants to his congressional campaign is Andrew Hemingway, who heads the tea-party-leaning Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire.
On Capitol Hill, though, the possibility of a McCotter campaign is being greeted with a mix of puzzlement and speculation about what he’s really after.
The same words tend to come up when congressional Republican aides are asked about McCotter, who favors old-style suit vests: “weird,” “strange,” “odd.”
In an effort to save taxpayer money, he sought last year to eliminate his position in the GOP leadership – head of the Policy Committee – and wound up ceding the job to another member.
With no obvious leadership position or committee gavel available, some Republicans believe that he’s bored in the House and looking for attention – a Michele Bachmann in a three-piece suit. He’s had enough time on his hands to pen a 256-page book, “Seize Freedom: American Truths and Renewal in a Chaotic Age,” that was published earlier this year.
But McCotter notes that he passed on a run next year against Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and wasn’t simply trying to raise his profile in case he’s redistricted out of his current House seat.
“There are easier things to do [than run for president],” he said.
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On the charge of eccentricity, McCotter pleaded guilty – but said it’s a matter of perspective.
“Here in Washington, I’m quirky,” he said. “That’s a compliment, because it means I didn’t assimilate with the D.C. Beltway mind-set.”
His enthusiasts prefer to focus on a different set of attributes.
“He’s Midwestern, Catholic, opposed TARP, is a mainstream Republican on fiscal and social issues and has been working on a fairly innovative Social Security modernization plan,” said a source familiar with McCotter’s thinking. “He’s also one of the few candidates who has been engaged on foreign policy issues.”
McCotter is already eyeing that vote against the bank bailout in 2008 – perhaps the closest thing there is to a tea party litmus test – as an issue he’ll hold up should he get in the race.
Asked what separates him from the candidates already in the race, he quickly retorts: “I led the fight against the Wall Street bailout because I thought it was fundamentally unjust.”
Coming from hard-hit Michigan, McCotter also takes a harder line against China, suggesting that Beijing is in “indirect warfare with us” and prescribing a “constructive containment policy.”
He also said bold solutions were needed to address the country’s fiscal situation – “not simply balancing the budget.”
He declined to give details but said he was going to introduce a comprehensive Social Security reform bill in the coming weeks. He called Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal “a good base” but said he wanted to do even more to bolster the supply side of health care.
He said he’s no protectionist but also noted that “free trade as a panacea has not proven to be the case.” As for reviving the economy, he proposed across-the-board tax cuts for businesses.
McCotter has a keen interest in foreign affairs but defies easy categorization.
He spoke out earlier this year in defense of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, noting that the former dictator was a loyal American ally.
“America must stand with her ally Egypt to preserve an imperfect government capable of reform,” McCotter said at the time of the unrest.
“How’s that turning out now?” he said of the country’s post-revolution tumult. “The tragedy there is that the kids who led the revolution are going to be undercut.”
He said he would not have intervened in Libya and bemoaned the “mission creep” taking place there.
But he said he wouldn’t draw down American troops in Afghanistan until “circumstances on the ground allow it.”
McCotter sounded enthused about the prospect of running but said he sympathized with those Republicans who’ve recently opted out of running.
“I understand how difficult it is,” he said, noting that he’d be “a decided underdog.”
Yet some of his friends suggest he also would liven up the race.
Corallo offered a preview when asked if he was talking to McCotter about a presidential bid.
“I’m talking to McCotter about a lot of things – the economy, China, the war on terror, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr (or Starkey, as he was known offstage), spending, taxes, gas prices, crazy Supreme Court justices who release 46,000 convicts, [Friedrich] Hayek, the Kirks (Russell and James Tiberius), TARP, Son of TARP and a host of other things on which we find ourselves in agreement,” Corallo quipped.
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Tax Cheats Among Recipients Of Obama Stimulus Money
Tax Cheats Among Recipients Of Obama Stimulus Money – Daily Caller
Thousands of companies that cashed in on President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package owed the government millions in unpaid taxes, congressional investigators have found.
The Government Accountability Office, in a report being released Tuesday, said at least 3,700 government contractors and nonprofit organizations that received more than $24 billion from the stimulus effort owed $757 million in back taxes as of Sept. 30, 2009, the end of the budget year.
The report said the tax delinquents accounted for nearly 6 percent of the 63,000 contractors and grantees examined and cautioned that the real number might be higher because the known tax debt does not measure such factors as income underreporting.
Among the examples was an engineering firm that received a $100,000 stimulus act contract but owed $6 million in taxes. The IRS called it “an extreme case of noncompliance.” A social services nonprofit that received more than $1 million in stimulus funds owed taxes of $2 million.
New Palestinian Authority Law Grants All Convicted Terrorists Monthly Pay
New Palestinian Authority Law Grants All Convicted Terrorists Monthly Pay – Jerusalem Post
A new Palestinian Authority law grants a monthly salary to all Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs imprisoned in Israel for terrorism, a media watchdog says in a report released Friday.
While Palestinian car thieves in Israeli prisons will not receive a salary, Hamas and Fatah terrorist killers will, the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) report says.
Those serving sentences of more than 20 years will receive higher salaries, according to the new PA law. Salaries are to be paid from the day of arrest until release.
The PMW report points out that more than 6,000 Palestinians are currently serving time in Israeli prisons for terror- related offenses.
Among those now eligible for salaries are Abdullah Barghouti, serving 67 life sentences for acts that include planning the Sbarro restaurant (2001) and Moment cafe (2002) suicide bombings in Jerusalem; Hassan Salameh, serving 38 life sentences for offenses that include planning a series of 1996 bus bombings; and Jamal Abu al-Hijja, serving nine life sentences for planning 2005 bombings in Hadera and Netanya.
The new PA law stipulates that payment “will be implemented… on the basis of available sources of funding.”
Accordingly, when the PA is short of cash, salaries to the prisoners will be cut, said PMW.
Such direct aid to the PA could be part of the “available sources” for terrorist salaries or could free money elsewhere in the PA budget that could be used for these salaries, the report says.
The new law was enacted before the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement and was published in the official PA Registry on April 13, 2011.
The law includes:
• A monthly salary “to provide for the needs of prisoners within Israeli prisons”
• Additional benefits for released prisoners
• Additional benefits for prisoners’ families
• Funding “for the prisoners’ legal needs.”
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are serving multiple lifesentences for murder and will receive a PA salary, which goes directly to the terrorist or the terrorist’s family.
All of these prisoners, no matter what their crime or affiliation, will receive the same base salary. Married prisoners will also receive additional pay, as well as those with children.
Arabs from Jerusalem and Israeli-Arabs imprisoned for terror offenses will get an additional supplement of NIS 300 and NIS 500, respectively.
The PMW report quotes an article in a PA newspaper that explained that the new law offered prisoners a series of privileges, including exemption from tuition fees at government schools and universities, if the inmate serves five years or more in prison.
In addition, the law states that a prisoner’s children will be exempt from 80 percent of their academic tuition fees if the prisoner was sentenced to at least 20 years and has been in prison for at least five.
Every released prisoner will be exempt from government health insurance if he served at least five years in prison, while female prisoners will be exempt for serving at least three, according to the law.
PMW warned that funding to the PA by donor nations could enable the payment of the salaries.
“This is not just about funding,” Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik of the media watchdog group said in a statement.
“This is about what the PA is, and what they stand for. We feel the US and EU should be reevaluating not just their funding, but their entire relationship with the PA.”
Marcus and Zilberdik said that while donor countries have “carefully created laws to prevent their money from supporting PA incitement and terror,” they have been lax in adhering to these laws.
“Paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists is just one example of how the PA uses its budget to support and glorify violence, thereby violating the intentions of its donors,” they charged. “As long as the donor countries continue to support the PA budget – ignoring what the budget as a whole is funding – they are directly responsible for the continuation of PA hate incitement and terror glorification.”
In 2004, the PA defined by law exactly who would be considered a prisoner as “anyone imprisoned in the occupation’s [Israel’s] prisons as a result of his participation in the struggle against the occupation.”
The PA’s Ministry for Prisoner Affairs said Thursday that its policy had always been to pay salaries to prisoners and their families “regardless of their political affiliations.”
The ministry said it was unaware of any new law concerning salaries of prisoners and their families. It said, however, that the PA government had in recent years taken a number of decisions to raise the salaries of the prisoners and their family members.
The ministry pointed out that the PA had been paying salaries to prisoners since its establishment in 1994.
Black Gang Trashes Manhattan Dunkin’ Donuts
Black Gang Trashes Manhattan Dunkin’ Donuts – WNYW
It’s like a flash mob gone bad. Security footage from a Manhattan Dunkin’ Donuts shows a group of black people climbing on counters, throwing chairs and throwing tables in a violent attack on workers.
It happened at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. A $2,000 hot chocolate machine was reportedly destroyed in the attack.
Similar attacks have targeted other stores in the neighborhood in previous weeks.
The video shows one of the teens throwing a chair and then running up to grab a donut.
A few of the attackers also grabbed drinks out of a refrigerator near the door, and they all quickly ran from the store.
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Some businesses and even residents recently have complained about violence in the area. Most of the business owners didn’t want to give their names for fear of retribution.
One store owner told Fox 5′s Lisa Evers that some kids did something similar at his business about a week earlier than the incident at Dunkin’ Donuts.
He said, “It’s not safe around here.”
The NYPD said it was examining the Dunkin’ Donuts security footage but has not made any arrests.
In a statement to MyFoxNY.com, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s spokesperson, Jamie McShane says, “We will continue to work with the NYPD to make sure Christopher Street is a safe place especially as the weather gets nicer and more people flock to the area.”
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