Monthly Archives: June 2011
N.J. Governor Christie Signs Bill Forcing Public Workers To Pay Their Fair Share For Health Insurance, Pensions
Gov. Chris Christie today signed into law controversial legislation that will force public employees to pay more for their pension and health insurance.
Christie, who signed the bill flanked by a bipartisan cast of mayors, said passage of the bill is his biggest legislative victory since taking office.
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“It is important moment for the state of New Jersey, for its citizens, its taxpayers and New Jersey has once again become a model for America,” Christie said at the bill signing.
Starting on Friday, public employees across all levels of government will pay an additional percent of their pay into the pension system.
Employees will begin to pay more for their health insurance when their contracts expire. For those without contracts or with contracts that have already expired, the increased payments could begin as soon as January, when new health insurance plans are expected to be completed.
The legislation took a bumpy road to passage.
Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) began working on the proposal last fall. They faced strong pushback from the public employee unions, who argued that health benefits should be decided at the bargaining table, not through legislation. But the once-powerful unions were unable to stop the bill.
Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver (D-Essex) got on board with the legislation earlier this month. Republican lawmakers joined a coalition of Democrats, mostly those with ties to South Jersey political boss George Norcross and Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, to provide enough support to pass the bill last week.
A last-minute change to remove the most controversial provision of the bill, which would have limited access to out-of-state hospitals, was done through a separate bill, which Christie also signed today.
Grandpa Jailed After Grandson Walks Into Bedroom, Finds Him Naked On Top Of Dog
Grandpa Jailed After Grandson Walks Into Bedroom, Finds Him Naked On Top Of Dog – Weekly Vice
Eugene Hickman, a 54-year-old DeFuniak Springs man was jailed Saturday after he allegedly attempted to sexually abuse a dog.
According to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, family members called police after Hickman’s grandson reportedly walked into a bedroom and found his grandfather laying naked on top of the family’s bulldog.
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Investigators say Hickman admitted that he was attempting to have sex with the dog, but stated that he knew it was wrong and he would not do it again.
Family members stated that this was not the first time Hickman was seen attempting to abuse an animal. The dog was removed from the home and examined by a veterinarian.
Hickman was booked into the Walton County Jail and charged with one count of animal cruelty, which is a third-degree felony.
Maybe Ed and I need a press secretary for our blog
And after reading this post at The Other McCain, I think I have someone in mind…………
I was dumbfounded by the decision of Ralph Reed to hire Lisa Baron as his press secretary. Baron had a notoriously bad reputation among Republican operatives, and why Reed would hire her — in a state where social conservatives dominated the GOP primary — was a mystery that no one ever satisfactorily explained.
So it was perhaps not too surprising when an audio excerpt of Baron’s new tell-all book was released by Vanity Fair and, as Betsy Rothstein writes, Baron describes ”giving former President Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer a blow job.”
I am, of course, being sarcastic here. It is sad that this woman would tell of her private affairs just to make a buck. Besides, what woman would brag about playing swallow the press secretary with Ari Fleischer?
Thanks Barack… The Deficit Is Worse Than We Think
The Deficit Is Worse Than We Think – Wall Street Journal
Washington is struggling to make a deal that will couple an increase in the debt ceiling with a long-term reduction in spending. There is no reason for the players to make their task seem even more Herculean than it already is. But we should be prepared for upward revisions in official deficit projections in the years ahead—even if a deal is struck. There are at least three major reasons for concern.
First, a normalization of interest rates would upend any budgetary deal if and when one should occur. At present, the average cost of Treasury borrowing is 2.5%. The average over the last two decades was 5.7%. Should we ramp up to the higher number, annual interest expenses would be roughly $420 billion higher in 2014 and $700 billion higher in 2020.
The 10-year rise in interest expense would be $4.9 trillion higher under “normalized” rates than under the current cost of borrowing. Compare that to the $2 trillion estimate of what the current talks about long-term deficit reduction may produce, and it becomes obvious that the gains from the current deficit-reduction efforts could be wiped out by normalization in the bond market.
To some extent this is a controllable risk. The Federal Reserve could act aggressively by purchasing even more bonds, or targeting rates further out on the yield curve, to slow any rise in the cost of Treasury borrowing. Of course, this carries its own set of risks, not the least among them an adverse reaction by our lenders. Suffice it to say, though, that given all that is at stake, Fed interest-rate policy will increasingly have to factor in the effects of any rate hike on the fiscal position of the Treasury.
The second reason for concern is that official growth forecasts are much higher than what the academic consensus believes we should expect after a financial crisis. That consensus holds that economies tend to return to trend growth of about 2.5%, without ever recapturing what was lost in the downturn.
But the president’s budget of February 2011 projects economic growth of 4% in 2012, 4.5% in 2013, and 4.2% in 2014. That budget also estimates that the 10-year budget cost of missing the growth estimate by just one point for one year is $750 billion. So, if we just grow at trend those three years, we will miss the president’s forecast by a cumulative 5.2 percentage points and—using the numbers provided in his budget—incur additional debt of $4 trillion. That is the equivalent of all of the 10-year savings in Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget, passed by the House in April, or in the Bowles-Simpson budget plan.
Third, it is increasingly clear that the long-run cost estimates of ObamaCare were well short of the mark because of the incentive that employers will have under that plan to end private coverage and put employees on the public system. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has already issued 1,400 waivers from the act’s regulations for employers as large as McDonald’s to stop them from dumping their employees’ coverage.
But a recent McKinsey survey, for example, found that 30% of employers with plans will likely take advantage of the system, with half of the more knowledgeable ones planning to do so. If this survey proves correct, the extra bill for taxpayers would be roughly $74 billion in 2014 rising to $85 billion in 2019, thanks to the subsidies provided to individuals and families purchasing coverage in the government’s insurance exchanges.
Underestimating the long-term budget situation is an old game in Washington. But never have the numbers been this large.
There is no way to raise taxes enough to cover these problems. The tax-the-rich proposals of the Obama administration raise about $700 billion, less than a fifth of the budgetary consequences of the excess economic growth projected in their forecast. The whole $700 billion collected over 10 years would not even cover the difference in interest costs in any one year at the end of the decade between current rates and the average cost of Treasury borrowing over the last 20 years.
Only serious long-term spending reduction in the entitlement area can begin to address the nation’s deficit and debt problems. It should no longer be credible for our elected officials to hide the need for entitlement reforms behind rosy economic and budgetary assumptions. And while we should all hope for a deal that cuts spending and raises the debt ceiling to avoid a possible default, bondholders should be under no illusions.
Under current government policies and economic projections, they should be far more concerned about a return of their principal in 10 years than about any short-term delay in a coupon payment in August.
Black Mobs Terrorizing Whites… As Planned
Black Mobs Terrorizing Whites… As Planned – Con Underground
This is what November 2012 will look like – Get ready!
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What did you think was going to happen? What did you think the result would be? The media is constantly pounding the not so subliminal message that whites are evil and stupid. Politicians are doing the same, actually politicians are worse, Obama laughingly agreed with Lula, the former Brazilian president and prior to that former Brazilian communist agitator, when the latter said that the global financial crisis was caused by “blond haired, blue eyed devils”
In doesn’t stop there “educators” are also stuffing the brains of students with the notions that whites are evil and thieves and stupid and helpless.
The media calls them “flash mobs”. Isn’t that quaint? Flash Mobs… aren’t those the dancing folks? Bull sh*t these are not “flash mobs” these are organized gangs of black thugs and criminals attacking whites and white owned businesses “
Madison Avenue also pushes the agenda that whites are either evil or stupid or both. In one Pepsi commercial a black couple happily throw a can of Pepsi at the head of a white woman with a velocity that would indicate a fatal blow to the woman’s temple. That perhaps is the most obvious of the anti white commercials however it is by no means the only one. Just turn on your TV and I challenge you find a single commercial or TV show where whites are not portrayed as evil or crooks or stupid or inept.
No one in the media will tell you that these are black mobs. During and entire segment that Glenn Beck did on the subject never once did he mention the word “black”
Every year there are over 500,000 more violent attacks against whites by blacks than vice-versa. 500,000 and no one says a word about it.
I’ve warned, as far back as just after the first NYC tea party, I’ve warned you that “if we don’t stop this, taking your money will be the least of your worries”.
Akron Ohio black mob attacks white family
In Akron Ohio a black mob attacked white homeowners on their own property. There have been no hate crime charges brought up because the blacks only shouted ”This is our world” and ”This is a black world” Of course these could not possibly be considered racist remarks and they only attacked the man his daughter his friend and his son.
The father describes his good fortune thusly, ”I’m lucky. They didn’t break my ribs or bruise my ribs. I thank God, they concentrated on my thick head because I do have one. They were trying to take my head off my spine, basically,” and then added ”This makes you think about your freedom. In all reality, where is your freedom when you have this going on?”
You can read more about this attack here.
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
About 40 Cleveland Heights police officers had to control a crowd of unruly teenagers in the last hour of the Coventry Street Arts Fair Sunday [June 26, 2011], an event [that] closes Coventry Road every summer from Mayfield Road to Euclid Heights Boulevard.
The teens, who other kids said were from “all over the place — Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights — were starting fights, screaming and throwing punches in the crowded streets”, according to witnesses and shop owners.
Sarah Corcoran, 21, of Cleveland Heights, said she saw about 75 people run through the street, some yelling, just before the fair was scheduled to end at 6 p.m. Police showed up shortly after to clear the streets.
Philadelphia Pennsylvania
Other victims were not so lucky. Just walking in Downtown Philadelphia is simply not safe. A 27-year-old woman’s leg was broken and several other people were injured Saturday night after a group of 30-40 black teens accosted pedestrians in Philadelphia’s Spring Garden area.
Upper Darby Pennsylvania
A group of 40 to 50 blacks invaded the Sears store and robbed it.
Chicago Illinois
In Chicago attacks by black mobs are becoming routine. So much so that the police is now mobilizing detectives and additional officers form gang units in a desperate effort to try to get a handle of this.
So far they are failing.
June 9th 2011,”police here are girding for another weekend of “flash mob” attacks after arresting 29 people in connection with a recent rash of assaults and robberies in and around the city’s tony shopping and dining district.
Twelve crimes involving large groups of young men were reported last weekend, in addition to others earlier this spring. The incidents are some of the first major problems confronting newly appointed Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy”
The attacks are typical of what this man experienced. ”Krzysztof Wilkowski, after shopping on Michigan Avenue, was sitting on his scooter a couple of blocks away checking his phone for a restaurant when he got whacked in the face with a baseball” After he was dazed by the blow “A few of the attackers dragged him off his scooter and pulled him onto Chicago Avenue where they punched him, hit him with his helmet and tried to grab his phone”
Another victim was “Jesse Andersen, the 35-year-old brother of Smashing Pumpkins front-man Billy Corgan” who was accosted and attacked by a black mob while waiting for the train.
Don’t think that these attacks occur in some devastated ghetto, on the contrary the black mobs are praying on victims in Chicago’s affluent North Side including the very popular tourist attraction The Magnificent Mile.
A few days ago another black mob invaded and took over a Walgreens store right on the “Magnificent Mile”
Read full article here.
Peoria Illinois ” kill all the white people”
A mob of African-American male youths terrorized White residents of Peoria, Illinois as they shouted “kill all the White people” while rioting in the downtown area late Saturday night
Eyewitness Paul Wilkinson, president of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association, wrote the following account in the Peoria Chronicle:
Tonight, around 11 p.m., a group of at least 60-70 African American youth marched down one of the side streets (W. Thrush) to the 4 lane main drag (Sheridan). They were yelling threats to white residents. Things such as we need to kill all the white people around here. They were physically intimidating anyone calling for help from the police.
This is the fifth large mob action in about a month with smaller groups of 10-12 are out threatening children and adults a few evenings a week or later into the night.
No. Virginia
Three people were beaten by mobs in Northern Virginia in two separate incidents that occurred within five minutes of each other on Saturday night, authorities said.
To think that is is random stretches the furthest bounds of credulity and requires a suspension of disbelief bordering on comatose. The spark of these attacks is planned and some of them were actually organized on social media sites. Do you remember which president got elected using social media sites?
You don’t think that these are dry runs for the upcoming 2012 elections? Really, OK, read this.
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Democrat Rep. Laura Richardson Could Face Jail Time For Ethics Violations
Democrat Rep. Laura Richardson Could Face Jail Time For Ethics Violations – Daily Caller
New documents disclosed in a complaint from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) appear to show California Democrat Rep. Laura Richardson and her staff clearly violating congressional ethics rules and potentially federal law.
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The documents show Richardson using official taxpayer resources for political events, including fundraisers. “Rep. Richardson didn’t just violate House rules, she likely committed crimes,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director.
In one instance, Richardson’s chief of staff, Shirley Cooks, told all of Richardson’s aides in an email from her official House account, “All staff are required to attend” a fundraiser held Sept. 29, 2010, adding, “Bring spouses and tell interns they have to be there as well. Thanks.”
Another staffer, Daysha Austin, then a district scheduler, told staffers, “The Congresswoman is asking all staff that one has to wear their staff shirt to tomorrow’s event so we can be visible and easily identified.”
The “staff shirt,” pictured in CREW’s complaint, features a logo that says “California’s 37th Congressional District,” the district that Richardson represents.
The demands on staff to attend a fundraiser and use of official email accounts and resources to coordinate political activities clearly violate congressional ethics rules that taxpayer dollars “may not pay for campaign expenses.”
A strict wall separates official congressional office work from political campaigning; lawmakers and their staff may not even make one phone call for campaign purposes from a congressional office phone, for instance.
‘Project Gunrunner’ Whistleblower Says ATF Sent Him Termination Notice
‘Project Gunrunner’ Whistleblower Says ATF Sent Him Termination Notice – Fox News
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is being accused of retaliating against an agent who helped publicize the agency’s role in allowing thousands of guns to cross the U.S. border and fall into the hands of Mexican drug gangs.
The agent, Vince Cefalu, who has spoken out about the ATF’s so-called “Project Gunrunner” scandal, says he was served with termination papers just last week, and he calls the move politically motivated.
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“Aside from Jay Dobyns, I don’t know of anyone that’s been more vocal about ATF mismanagement than me,” said Cefalu, a senior special agent based in Dublin, Calif. “That’s why this is happening.” Dobyns, an ATF special agent based in Tucson, has appeared several times on Fox News to discuss the scandal.
Cefalu first told FoxNews.com about the ATF’s embattled anti-gun smuggling operation in December, before the first reports on the story appeared in February. “Simply put, we knowingly let hundreds of guns and dozens of identified bad guys go across the border,” Cefalu said at the time.
Since then, Cefalu’s claims have been vindicated, as a number of agents with first-hand knowledge of the case came forward. The scandal over Project Gunrunner led to congressional hearings, a presidential reprimand – Obama called the operation “a serious mistake” – and speculation that ATF chief Ken Melson will resign.
Yet last week, Cefalu, who has worked for the agency for 24 years, was forced to turn in his gun and badge. He can appeal but will be on “paid administrative leave” during the process.
Cefalu’s dismissal follows a string of allegations that the ATF retaliates against whistleblowers. When the Project Gunrunner scandal broke, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote the ATF that an agent who had been giving his staff members information about the scandal had been “allegedly accused… of misconduct” by the agent’s boss for talking with Grassley’s staffers.
And two days before Cefalu was served with termination papers, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to the ATF warning officials not to retaliate against whistleblowers.
ATF spokesman Drew Wade denied in a statement to FoxNews.com that the bureau is retaliating, but he declined to comment about Cefalu’s case. “ATF will not comment on specific, ongoing personnel matters. It is illegal to use disciplinary actions to retaliate against employees, and ATF does not engage in such improper reprisals.”
The ATF’s termination letter to Cefalu, obtained by FoxNews.com, makes no mention of Cefalu’s role in the latest scandal.
“You think they would just come out and say that?” Cefalu said.
The letter instead says that Cefalu should be fired because he leaked documents on a website he helped create, CleanupATF.org, and showed a “lack of candor” on past projects, in particular a 2005 operation that Cefalu led. Cefalu admits he made information about the case public but says he did so only after redacting sensitive parts and exhausting internal channels.
In the 2005 case, local police wanted to wiretap a suspect to gather evidence, but Cefalu objected, saying it would be illegal to use wiretaps until all other options for gathering evidence had been tried.
Cefalu was then removed from the case. But he continued to speak out and file internal complaints about what he viewed as illegal ATF wiretapping. And that’s when his life became difficult.
“That was the beginning of the end,” Cefalu told FoxNews.com.
“I had never had a disciplinary action in 18 years. Outstanding evaluations — above average — and on the 19th year, when I filed a complaint, I get my first unsatisfactory evaluation ever.”
Cefalu showed a copy of his 2005 evaluation to FoxNews.com, in which his supervisor, Dennis Downs, noted: “Not only have you meet [sic] performance expectations, you have exceeded them.”
But that changed after 2005, Cefalu said. He received unsatisfactory evaluations complaining about his use of foul language. The termination letter also notes there were complaints about his smoking and “even your hygiene.”
Another ATF agent, who requested to remain anonymous but who has provided accurate information on the Project Gunrunner case to FoxNews.com in the past, discussed what he knew about Cefalu.
“Common knowledge in the agency is that Cefalu outed an illegal wiretap quite some time ago, and he has been in the crosshairs since,” the agent told FoxNews.com. “My impression of him is that he has probably ruffled lots of feathers and delicate egos in his time. He is very direct and honest.”
But this agent said he’d “prefer that to a ‘go along to get along’ type.”
“We don’t avoid or learn from mistakes if we just lie to each other about how we never do anything wrong — which is pretty much standard operating procedure from what I have seen of our HQ people,” the agent said.
Cefalu said his work on the Project Gunrunner scandal likely was the last straw for his bosses.
“I think it’s obvious why they’re doing this. It was my willingness to expose (Project Gunrunner) and support other people to come forward,” Cefalu said.
Greek Protesters Are Rioting Again In The Streets Of Athens
Greek Protesters Are Rioting Again In The Streets Of Athens – The Blaze
Riot police fired tear gas at youths hurling rocks near the Greek finance ministry Tuesday, trying to quell the anger unleashed by a general strike as parliament debated new cost-cutting measures.
The latest austerity measures must pass in two parliamentary votes Wednesday and Thursday if Greece is to receive bailout funds from the EU and the IMF that will keep it from becoming the first eurozone nation to default on its debts.
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The clashes with police came at the start of a two-day general strike called by unions furious that the government’s new euro28 billion ($40 billion) austerity program will slap taxes on minimum wage earners and other struggling Greeks. The measures come on top of other spending cuts and tax hikes that have sent the Greek unemployment rate soaring to over 16 percent.
Hooded youths ripped up paving stones and set trash bins on fire in central Athens as police gave chase and fired tear gas and stun grenades. Earlier, about 20,000 people had marched peacefully in two separate demonstrations, while another 7,000 protested in the northern city of Thessaloniki without incident.
Everyone from doctors and ambulance drivers to casino workers and even actors at a state-funded theater were joining the strike or holding work stoppages for several hours.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or rescheduled as air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours in the morning – and were holding another walkout in the evening. Strikes by public transport workers snarled traffic across the capital, while other protesters blockaded the port of Piraeus.
“The situation that the workers are undergoing is tragic and we are near poverty levels,” said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the PAME union at the Piraeus blockade. “The government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war.”
Lawmakers began debating the latest austerity measures Monday and were continuing Tuesday. The package and an additional implementation law must be passed so the European Union and the International Monetary Fund release the next installment of Greece’s euro110 billion ($156 billion) bailout loan.
Without that euro12 billion ($17 billion) installment, Greece faces the prospect of a default next month – a potentially disastrous event that could drag down European banks, hurt other financially troubled European countries and even shock the whole global financial system.
But even lawmakers from the governing Socialists have been upset over the latest measures demanded by international creditors, and Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to contain an internal party revolt. He reshuffled his cabinet earlier this month to try to ensure his party’s support for this vote, but the Socialists still only have a 5-seat majority in the 300-member Parliament.
Papandreou urged lawmakers Monday to fulfill a “patriotic duty” by voting in favor of the new measures, but two of his own lawmakers have suggested they won’t.
European officials have also been pressuring Greece’s the main conservative opposition party to back the austerity bill.
“Both the future of the country and financial stability in Europe are at stake,” European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said. “I fully respect the prerogatives and the sovereignty of the Greek Parliament in the ongoing debate. And I trust that the Greek political leaders are fully aware of the responsibility that lies on their shoulders to avoid default.”
But conservative party leader Antonis Samaras has refused, arguing that while he backs some austerity measures, the overall thinking behind the package is flawed.
Greece remains frozen out of bond markets and is surviving on the euro110 billion ($156 billion) in promised bailout loans. But the initial plan had assumed that Greece would be able to return to the markets next year.
That won’t happen, and a result Athens is negotiating for a second bailout, which Papandreou has said will be roughly the same size as the first.
Papandreou said he hoped the terms would be better than those for the first bailout.
“I call on Europe, for its part, to give Greece the time and the terms it needs to really pay off its debt, without strangling growth, and without strangling its citizens,” he said.
Papandreou’s new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said the government acknowledged the new cuts were “unfair” and that he hoped negotiations over a second bailout would be concluded by the end of the summer.
“These measures will take us from running budget deficits to achieving primary surpluses,” he said. “It’s a difficult but necessary step.”
But many Greeks insist they should not be forced to pay for a crisis they believe the politicians are responsible for.
“We don’t owe any money, it’s the others who stole it,” said 69-year-old demonstrator Antonis Vrahas. “We’re resisting for a better society for the sake of our children and grandchildren.”
Even with the new austerity measures, many investors still believe that Greece is heading for some sort of default because its overall debt burden is too great.
TSA ‘Ignored Warnings’ About Body Scanner Cancer Cluster
TSA ‘Ignored Warnings’ About Body Scanner Cancer Cluster – TG Daily
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) says it’s got evidence that the Department of Homeland Security has failed to properly evaluate the level of risk from airport body scanners.
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In a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the DHS, EPIC says it’s obtained documents concerning the scanners’ radiation risks, including agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs and the results of some radiation tests.
EPIC says that TSA staff have been concerned that a large number of workers have been falling victim to cancer, strokes and heart disease. But the documents show that the TSA’s response was simply to tell them: “Because TSA systems comply with federal regulations, the increased risk of developing radiation-induced cancer in later life is extremely small, no greater than other risks people routinely accept in their daily lives”.
“One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters – safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure,” says EPIC.
“Another document indicates that the DHS mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stating that NIST ‘affirmed the safety’ of full body scanners.”
In fact, says EPIC, the documents show that NIST disputed this assertion and pointed out that the it had not actually tested the devices. Indeed, one NIST study actaully warns airport screeners to avoid standing next to full body scanners.
Further, says EPIC, the documents include a Johns Hopkins University study which revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the General Public Dose Limit.
EPIc has been fighting the use of body scanners in airports since July 2009, when it filed its suit calling for the program to be suspended.
Daily Benefactor News – Does Obama’s White House Fund-Raising Video Violate FEC Laws?
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Does Obama’s White House Fund-Raising Video Violate FEC Laws? – Hot Air
A video filmed at the White House that was designed to raise funds for the president’s reelection campaign appears to be in violation of Federal Election Committee campaign finance laws.
In the video, President Obama promotes a “Dinner with Barack” raffle. To enter, participants are required to make a minimum donation of $5 to the president’s reelection campaign. The winner, whose name is presumably chosen at random, is flown to Washington to have dinner with the President and Vice President.
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Federal Election Campaign Laws are vague in their language regarding the use of federal property to raise campaign funds. Nevertheless this contest smacks of impropriety, as first noted by Jim Geraghty of the National Review.
In response to the allegations, administration spokesmen argue that the video is on the lawful side of the relevant statutes. They offer three arguments in support of their claim:
First, they said, an open process for small donors to essentially win a raffle is not the kind of fundraising prohibited under the law – and the president didn’t make a direct appeal for donations, anyway. Second, they pointed to a longstanding advisory opinion from the Justice Department that differentiates between the residence portion of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – where the aide said Obama had been filmed – and official rooms in the White House. Third, they said, Obama’s approach is in keeping with the practices of his predecessors.
As Alexis Simendinger underscores at Real Clear Politics, the last assertion is only partly true – at least for Obama’s immediate predecessor. While it is a fact that George W. Bush filmed political ads in the White House, these were not overt fundraising efforts. (The same cannot be said for President Bill Clinton, who blatantly offered overnights in the Lincoln bedroom in exchane for big-ticket donoations, but abuses by a fellow Democrat hardly help make the current president’s case.)
For the Obama campaign, the video is not the first of its actions to raise eyebrows. In March, the president met with members of the Democratic National Committee in the Blue Room of the White House. Also in attendance were business leaders who were former or current donors or fundraisers. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was quick to assure the media that the meeting was not “a fundraiser,” but for a president who campaigned on changing the way Washington works, Obama has given some seriously mixed signals.
As to the raffle itself, considering the decline in the president’s approval, not to mention his lack of success with previous contests, the “Dinner with Barack” promotion may prove to be a risky proposition. As reported in this column, in February the White House announced a competition among the nation’s 27,000 high schools where the prize was a commencement address by the president. The contest received all of 14 applications.
Maybe the “Dinner with Barack” contest should have a second place prize: two dinners with the President and Vice President.
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Another Radical Leftist Judge Strikes Again, Blocks Georgia Immigration Law
Another Radical Leftist Judge Strikes Again, Blocks Georgia Immigration Law – Gateway Pundit
Why win elections when you can legislate from the courts?
Eva Cardenas, a community organizer who works for Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, marches in front of the Federal Court with other protesters in Atlanta. Civil liberties groups argued that Georgia’s law cracking down on illegal immigration should not take effect until a lawsuit challenging it as unconstitutional is resolved. (Washington Times)
The statists strike again!
Radical federal Judge Thomas Thrash, a Clinton appointee, blocked the Georgia immigration law today. Judge Thrash believes that penalizing people who knowingly and willingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants while committing another crime is just way out of line.
The AP reported:
A federal judge on Monday blocked parts of Georgia’s law cracking down on illegal immigration from taking effect until a legal challenge is resolved.
Judge Thomas Thrash granted a request to block parts of the law that penalize people who knowingly and willingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants while committing another crime. He also blocked provisions that authorize officers to verify the immigration status of someone who can’t provide proper identification.
Thrash wrote that under parts of the law, the state is enforcing immigration law that should be left to the federal government.
Your Marxist Moron of the Day is…………
Image via Wikipedia
Brought to us by William Teach
Eleni Towns at partisan hack and uber alarmist Joe Romm’s website
Many of the GOP presidential candidates are seeking the votes of church-goers and religious conservatives by presenting themselves as strong defenders of their faith.
However, while candidates mostly agree with their respective churches on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, they are mostly silent when it comes to environmental issues. Why? Perhaps because their stances directly conflict with the positions of their churches.
A number of leading candidates have embraced an extremist anti-environment platform, in which they deny climate change science, call for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, and support the deregulation of the oil and coal industries.
The promises of Marxism are so sweet, but the fruit, ah the fruit is like venom
Image via Wikipedia
The Right Scoop has video of what life in North Korea, a Stalinist Hell-hole is like
Odd isn’t it? The Left in America proudly drape many of their lurches towards Communism as being “for the children”. And the video shows children, sweet, innocent children starving, caked in filth, begging for even a scrap of food. This, my friends is where Marxism, and all its bastards Isms, Stalinism, Maoism, Trotskyism, Communism, Leninism, Socialism lead.
ABC News exposes the evil that is Marxism
Footage shot inside North Korea and obtained by the ABC has revealed the extent of chronic food shortages and malnutrition inside the secretive state.
The video is some of the most revealing footage ever smuggled out of the impoverished North Korean state.
Shot over several months by an undercover North Korean journalist, the harrowing footage shows images of filthy, homeless and orphaned children begging for food and soldiers demanding bribes.
The footage also shows North Koreans labouring on a private railway track for the dictator’s son and heir near the capital Pyongyang.
Strolling up to the site supervisor, the man with the hidden camera asks what is going on.
“This rail line is a present from Kim Jong-il to comrade Kim Jong-un,” he is told.
The well-fed Kim Jong-un could soon be ruling over a nation of starving, impoverished serfs.
The video shows young children caked in filth begging in markets, pleading for scraps from compatriots who have nothing to give.
“I am eight,” says one boy. “My father died and my mother left me. I sleep outdoors.”
Many of the children are orphans; their parents victims of starvation or the gulag.
But markets do exist – private markets that stock bags of rice, pork, and corn. The state no longer has any rations to hand out.
But the state wants its share of this embryonic capitalism.
In the footage, a party official is demanding a stallholder make a donation of rice to the army.
“My business is not good,” complains the stallholder.
“Shut up,” replies the official. “Don’t offer excuses.”
It is clear that the all-powerful army – once quarantined from food shortages and famine – is starting to go hungry.
“Everybody is weak,” says one young North Korean soldier. “Within my troop of 100 comrades, half of them are malnourished,” he said.
Jiro Ishimaru is the man who trained the undercover reporter to use the hidden camera.
“This footage is important because it shows that Kim Jong-il’s regime is growing weak,” he said.
“It used to put the military first, but now it can’t even supply food to its soldiers. Rice is being sold in markets but they are starving. This is the most significant thing in this video.”
Meanwhile, in South Korea, where the people have freedoms, there are no such horrific scenes of suffering, or starvation are there. Yet, the Left still cries out for “Social Justice” which is nothing more than a nice name for Marxism. If the Left were right, it would be South Korea that was in despair, while North Korea, a Communist nation that has been praised by useful idiots like Jimmy Carter and Ted Turner, would be flourishing.
The Left ignores the numerous historic examples of the sheer Hell that Communism visits upon people unfortunate enough to live under its boot. They never admit the insanity of embracing the demented teachings of Marx. At most, they will say that the problem with Communism, is that it has just “never been done correctly”. To embrace such hogwash is not only intellectually bankrupt, it is the ultimate form of moral retardation.
Gatordoug
darcprynce
Dave C
