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from JohnBatchelorShow.com
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Ground Zero mosque legal and financial problems remain as design plans emerge
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A familiar 'star' motif seems to be the plan.
Bloomberg and Obama in golf cart on Martha's Vineyard, 8/27/10, ap
The Ground Zero mosque developers have withheld property tax because they don't agree the land is valued at the amount assessed by the city. While this was going on and $224,000 in property taxes were in arrears, NY Mayor Bloomberg carried on an extensive media blitz, including tearfulness, on behalf of these people and how important it was they should have this land. We were scolded by Bloomberg, told we should have 'shame' for ourselves. So important was this group to him that he staged a dramatic speech on their behalf in front of the Statue of Liberty, becoming choked up while trying to make
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A familiar 'star' motif seems to be the plan.
- via American Thinker, via Atlas Shrugs
Bloomberg and Obama in golf cart on Martha's Vineyard, 8/27/10, ap
The Ground Zero mosque developers have withheld property tax because they don't agree the land is valued at the amount assessed by the city. While this was going on and $224,000 in property taxes were in arrears, NY Mayor Bloomberg carried on an extensive media blitz, including tearfulness, on behalf of these people and how important it was they should have this land. We were scolded by Bloomberg, told we should have 'shame' for ourselves. So important was this group to him that he staged a dramatic speech on their behalf in front of the Statue of Liberty, becoming choked up while trying to make
- the issue merely about religion.
- This is the kind of neighbor politicians are dying to inflict on ordinary Americans. I wonder why.
- $224,000 behind on its property taxes this summer.
The city's finance department confirmed Friday that El-Gamal had begun resolving that debt Wednesday, turning over a check for a little more than
- $35,000 and signing on to an eight-installment payment plan to pay the rest.
El-Gamal said in a statement that the failure to pay was due to a dispute with the city over the assessed value of the property —
- an appeal that is still pending."
- ####
- 9/29, "Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad planned second attack on the city: Feds," NY Post, B. Golding
- Reference: 8/6/10, "Mayor Bloomberg says Ground Zero Mosque opponents should be 'ashamed of themselves,'" NY Post, by D. Seifman
- 9/18/10, "Muslim summit planned over NYC Islamic Center," AP
- 9/17/10, Islamist orders assassination of American cartoonist, "There is no more Molly," WSJ.com
- via Atlas Shrugs
- the 2 and 3 subway lines run under a portion of the Park Place property, the Post learned."...
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Former Australia Prime Minister John Howard says went too far accommodating Muslims
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9/29, "Australia Ex-PM: We went too far accommodating Muslims," MiddleEastOnline.com, by S. Tandon
""This is a time not to apologize for our particular identity but rather to firmly and respectfully and robustly reassert it," Howard said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
9/29, "Australia Ex-PM: We went too far accommodating Muslims," MiddleEastOnline.com, by S. Tandon
""This is a time not to apologize for our particular identity but rather to firmly and respectfully and robustly reassert it," Howard said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
- "I think one of the errors that some sections of the English-speaking world have made in the last few decades has been to confuse multiracialism and multiculturalism," Howard said.
Howard pointed in particular to Britain, whose Muslim community came under a spotlight after the 2005 bombings on the London transport system.
- "I am a passionate believer in multiracialism. I believe that societies are enriched if they draw, as my country has done, from all parts of the world on a non-discriminatory basis and contribute, as the United States has done, to the building of a great society," he said.
"But when a nation draws people from other parts of the world, it draws them because of the magnetism of its own culture and its own way of life," Howard said.
"People want to live in the United States not because of some futuristic ideal of multiculturalism, but because of what they regard as the American way of life and American values," he said.
While in office, Howard faced criticism from his opponents that he aggravated anti-Islamic sentiment through tough anti-terrorism laws and tighter immigration controls, including a test on "Australian values.""...
- via Weasel Zippers
'Political Islam' supported by US for decades, why scold Americans that it's 'just a religion' at this late date?
A Middle East lecturer notes the US has dealt with and supported political Islam for decades. At minimum, this shows Bloomberg and Obama are only the latest aiming to sell dangerous political Islam as merely a religion to chump Americans.
Bloomberg and Obama in golf cart on Martha's Vineyard, 8/27/10, ap.
Mayor Bloomberg uses the Statue of Liberty in desperate attempt to sell a mosque at Ground Zero as strictly a matter of religious freedom, 8/10, getty
9/29/10, Nat Hentoff, Village Voice: "This proudly self-described moderate Muslim might think again about another unyielding conviction he has steadily held. Though often asked,
- 12/11/2008, "Obama and change we can believe in," Gulf News, Marwan Kabalan
"For the past six weeks, since the election of Barack Obama as US president, analysts have been speculating about the policy the new administration would pursue towards political Islam. The spectrum of opinion ranges between retaining the status quo to a complete overhaul of the current antagonistic policy.
Regardless of their differences, however, most foreign policy experts in the US agree on one thing:
- Obama cannot afford to ignore political Islam as the most dynamic movement in Middle Eastern politics.
Political Islam has been at the heart of Middle Eastern politics since the late 1940s. For a variety of reasons, it has constituted a source of political inspiration, legitimisation and popular mobilisation ever since. Throughout the past five decades the US made full use of this political phenomenon and its approach towards it differed widely, ranging from alliance to co-option to confrontation.
Throughout the Cold War, the US regarded Islam as a bulwark against communist penetration into the Middle East.
- Washington supplied Afghanistan's fighters with arms and money to drive the Soviets out of the country, helped Iran in the early days of the war with Iraq and
- supported Islamic conservative regimes from Indonesia to Morocco.
After the Cold War, political Islam fell from grace, but retained a role in regional politics. Washington overlooked the activities of some Islamists and provided sanctuary to their leaders - the case of
- Shaikh Omar Abdul Rahman, leader of the Egyptian Al Jama'a Al Islamiyya is a case in point.
The logic behind this policy was to use Islamists as a leverage to extract concessions from Middle Eastern regimes and consolidate US hegemony in the region.
- In addition, and by way of applying pressure on Arab governments to secure an (Israeli) peace and also to prevent a repetition of the Iranian scenario,
Washington recognised Islam as a major political force and did not hide its intentions to co-operate with Islamist regimes as long as they did not pose significant threat to its two intrinsic interests: oil and Israel.
Turning point
It was the September 11,2001 attacks, however, that changed the picture, turned major assumptions in US policy upside down and set the stage for confrontation.
The Bush administration came to power looking for an enemy to justify its aggressive foreign policy agenda and convince a wary public of major increases in military expenditures. In the early days of its tenure, China was the target, but 9/11 supplied the Bush administration with a more credible and much needed enemy to pursue its priorities.
- A new policy line was established and some US scholars volunteered to provide the logic for the long-awaited crusade....
Bernard Lewis, who was once described as one of the leading Western commentators on the Middle East and Islam, became a ringleader of a group of US scholars and analysts whose fortune improved after September 11. This group includes
- Mortimer Zuckerman, Martin Kramer, Edward G. Shirely, Judith Miller, Daniel Pipes, Peter Rodman, Amos Perlmutter, and Charles Krauthammer.
For decades, Lewis and company have been propagating a centuries-old antagonism between the West and Islam. In this respect, Islam was depicted as a monolithic political and cultural threat to the West. Hence, the Islamic revival of the late 20th century was seen as a "clash of civilisations, the perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judaeo-Christian heritage, our secular present, and the world-wide expansion of both," Lewis wrote.
- Some of Lewis's sympathisers went as far as to compare Islam to the totalitarian movements of the 20th century. "Islamic fundamentalism is an aggressive revolutionary movement as militant and violent as the Bolshevik, Fascist and Nazi movements of the past," Perlmutter argued.
September 11, 2001 presented these scholars with an opportunity to translate their theory into policy guides. Unfortunately, the Bush administration adopted much of their argument and acted accordingly. Since 9/11, the US has declared a war disguised under the term "war on terrorism". By doing so, it ran the risk of bringing the fallacy of the clash of civilisations thesis into reality.
- Should Barack Obama change this policy? I think he should. But would he?
Dr Marwan Kabalan is a lecturer in Media and International Relations, Faculty of Political Science and Media, Damascus University, Syria."
- Reference: 8/7/10, "Mischief in Manhattan: We Muslims know the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation," from Ottawa Citizen by Raheel Raza and Tarek Fata
Bloomberg and Obama in golf cart on Martha's Vineyard, 8/27/10, ap.
Mayor Bloomberg uses the Statue of Liberty in desperate attempt to sell a mosque at Ground Zero as strictly a matter of religious freedom, 8/10, getty
9/29/10, Nat Hentoff, Village Voice: "This proudly self-described moderate Muslim might think again about another unyielding conviction he has steadily held. Though often asked,
- he repeatedly refuses to characterize Hamas as a terrorist organization.
- "Hamas gunmen slaughtered four Israeli settlers—including a pregnant woman—in an ambush yesterday in the West Bank" near Hebron.
Could that have been a coincidence just before face-to-face Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington? The Hamas assassinations
- orphaned seven children in the worst terror attack in the West Bank in four years.
A Hamas spokesman praised the killings as the "heroic operations in Hebron."
- There's not been a word about these murders from this
- "man of peace," Imam Rauf."...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Obama: Fox News 'destructive,' MSNBC 'invaluable'
- 9/28, "White House spokesman praises MSNBC hosts after Obama's Fox swipe," Michael Calderone, Yahoo
- praised a couple of commentators on MSNBC --
Burton, holding a press gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, was asked whether Obama feels
- "that too many Americans don't appreciate or recognize these things that you guys have accomplished."
"No, I don't think that that's his point," Burton said....
However, Burton added that Obama does want to make sure that people on the left and right know that the administration's "done a lot" and that "we've got a lot more to do."
- He then lauded the efforts of MSNBC's top liberal hosts.
"And if you're on the left, if you're somebody like Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow or one of the folks who helps to keep our government honest and pushes and prods to make sure that folks are true to progressive values," Burton continued, "then he thinks that
- those folks provide an invaluable service." ...
Since January 2009,
- Obama has invited Maddow to a few small discussions with left-leaning and moderate columnists and pundits."
- ####
- He has just about everything and pretty much has Fox News too in that staff was ordered to give Obama the soft touch:
- ed.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Congressional Black Caucus members, Obama to campaign against African American Republican candidate Allen West
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via Steve Malzberg show
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- Reference: "Obama coming to raise money for Democratic Rep. Ron Klein," Palm Beach Post, Post on Politics, 9/16/10, by George Bennett
- "On the 11th of October, the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are coming down here to campaign against me."
via Steve Malzberg show
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Monday, September 27, 2010
AP and LA Times join government against the people in New Black Panther voter intimidation case
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Government doesn't need protecting, ordinary people do. The press claims that without them, democracy might not exist, a moot point since they've joined with government against the people.
Explosive testimony was delivered against the Obama Dept. of Justice Friday, 9/24 by a man named Christopher Coates. The AP invites readers to believe Mr. Coates is a Bush-era stooge. They omit that he was hired by Bill Clinton and and previously worked for the ACLU:
The LA Times also suggests the case is a stretch to begin with as it took place in a mostly black neighborhood:
photo at Philadelphia polling place, November 4, 2008.
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A young Obama fan overwhelmed with emotion, 10/3/08 in Abington, Pa., getty
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Government doesn't need protecting, ordinary people do. The press claims that without them, democracy might not exist, a moot point since they've joined with government against the people.
Explosive testimony was delivered against the Obama Dept. of Justice Friday, 9/24 by a man named Christopher Coates. The AP invites readers to believe Mr. Coates is a Bush-era stooge. They omit that he was hired by Bill Clinton and and previously worked for the ACLU:
- AP: "Coates, who ran the Voting Section under President George W. Bush,
- Many people will accept this version and never know the truth.
- "But Coates has a pedigree different from that of many conservatives. He was hired at Justice
- during the Clinton administration in 1996 and
- had worked for the American Civil Liberties Union."...
- LA Times: "Coates was promoted to voting chief during the end of the Bush administration. He said he felt "closely supervised" by his superiors after the beginning of the Obama administration."...
- go to the trouble of citing a man's promotion within a department as related to a political party,
The LA Times also suggests the case is a stretch to begin with as it took place in a mostly black neighborhood:
- LA Times: "accusing the men of attempting to intimidate white voters even though the polling place was in a primarily African American neighborhood"...
- Politico: "A Justice Department prosecutor defied his superiors by testifying at a U.S. Civil Rights Commission hearing Friday, where he leveled an explosive allegation: top officials in the department gutted a voter intimidation case against a fringe African American militant group because the suspects were black and their alleged victims were white.
- leading to his departure as chief of the voting rights section early this year."...
From Politico on Coates' background:
- "Coates’s charges may carry greater weight because he worked decades ago as an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, has won
awards from civil rights groups and
- lacks the partisan GOP resume of the department’s harshest opponents. "...and
- (That this case is suggested to be political at all is a reason Tea Party and independent voters have emerged. We will get to the 'post racial' America billionaires and big media erroneously said would be here with Obama's election. ed)
- "Coates, former head of the voting section that brought the case, testified in defiance of his supervisor's instructions and
- has been granted whistleblower protection.
- "I had people who told me point-blank that [they] didn't come to the voting rights section to sue African American people," said Coates, who transferred to the U.S. attorney's office in South Carolina in January. "When you are paid by the taxpayer, that is totally indefensible.""
- 9/24, Washington Post, "Bias led to 'gutting' of New Black Panther case, Justice official says" by Markon and Thompson
- 9/24, AP, "Ex-DOJ official blasts voting rights enforcement," by J. Holland
- 9/24, LA Times, "Former Justice official says 'race neutral' voting enforcement discouraged," by J. Steffen, Tribune Washington Bureau
- 9/24, Politico, "Prosecutor alleges Department of Justice bias," by Josh Gerstein
photo at Philadelphia polling place, November 4, 2008.
- Headline from NY Times, 11/4/08, "Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls," by Adam Nagourney:
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A young Obama fan overwhelmed with emotion, 10/3/08 in Abington, Pa., getty
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Sunday, September 26, 2010
Change in the Beltway means changing the people
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Anna Little, candidate for Congress from New Jersey:
Anna Little, candidate for Congress from New Jersey:
- "“The simple fact is, you cannot change Washington without changing
- the people in Washington.""...
- Warren Buffet says we are not 'helpful' and of course should shut-up. I guess he doesn't get it. "Buffet to taxpayers: Get over your anger," Omaha.com
- When his interests are at stake, he talks all he wants.
More likely to vote for Tea Party backed candidate than one backed by Obama-CNN
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9/26, "The Tea Party is now more powerful than President Obama," UK Telegraph by Nile Gardiner
9/26, "The Tea Party is now more powerful than President Obama," UK Telegraph by Nile Gardiner
- "While just 37 percent of Americans are more likely to vote for a candidate if backed by Barack Obama, a far larger
- 50 percent will vote for a Tea-Party endorsed candidate.
As CNN puts it:
"A solid majority of all Americans — 56 percent — say that Obama has fallen short of their expectations. As a result, the president is not in a position to help struggling Democratic candidates;
- only 37 percent of likely voters say they are more likely to vote for a congressional candidate backed by Obama.
In contrast, half of all likely voters now say they are likely to choose a candidate supported by the conservative Tea Party — contributing to the GOP’s 53 to 44 percent lead when such voters are asked which party’s candidate they will choose in November.""
- UK Telegraph article via Free Republic
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Chris Christie on Oprah 9/24 with Newark Mayor and Facebook founder, discuss plans to save Newark public schools
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9/24, NJ Governor Chris Christie appeared on Oprah Friday afternoon 9/24 to discuss a new program for Newark public schools with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Newark, NJ's failing schools were taken over by the state in 1995 but they are still failing. from National Review Online, The Corner, "Worlds Collide: Chris Christie Meets Oprah," by Daniel Foster
9/24, NJ Governor Chris Christie appeared on Oprah Friday afternoon 9/24 to discuss a new program for Newark public schools with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Newark, NJ's failing schools were taken over by the state in 1995 but they are still failing. from National Review Online, The Corner, "Worlds Collide: Chris Christie Meets Oprah," by Daniel Foster
- via Lucianne.com
Getaway day $30 billion bailout-US seizes 3 wholesale credit unions-citizens will have to 'bear' costs-WSJ
Local credit unions will have to "shoulder" the losses via "special assessments over the next decade," new $50 billion TARP fund created
"Two years after the peak of the financial crisis, the federal government swooped in to stabilize a crucial part of the credit-union sector battered by
People that have no job and no income will obviously not be able to pay a mortgage. Enough with the 'tough economic times,' it's a crime.
- to "stabilize" the system....
"Two years after the peak of the financial crisis, the federal government swooped in to stabilize a crucial part of the credit-union sector battered by
- losses on subprime mortgages.
Regulators announced Friday a rescue and revamping of the nation's wholesale credit union system, underpinned by a
- federal guarantee valued at $30 billion or more.
Wholesale credit unions don't deal with the general public but provide essential back-office services to thousands of other credit unions across the U.S. The majority of
- retail credit unions are sound, but
they will have to shoulder the losses through special assessments over the next decade.
Friday's moves include the seizure of three wholesale credit unions, plus an
- unusual plan by government officials to manage $50 billion of troubled assets inherited from failed institutions.
To help fund the rescue, the National Credit Union Administration plans to issue $30 billion to $35 billion in government-guaranteed bonds,
- backed by the shaky mortgage-related assets.
Officials said the plan won't cost taxpayers any money. Still, it marks the latest intervention by the U.S. government into a
- financial system weakened by the real-estate bust.
Bad bets on mortgage-backed securities have now killed five of the nation's 27 wholesale credit unions since March 2009. The federal government, which now controls about 70% of the total assets at such credit unions, said the surviving institutions will be reined in so that they take fewer risks with their investments....
- Members United Corporate Federal Credit Union in Warrenville, Ill., Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union of Plano, Texas, and Constitution Corporate Federal Credit Union, Wallingford, Conn., which had a total of $19.67 billion in assets as of July, were taken into conservatorship by federal regulators.
Wholesale credit unions, also known as corporate credit unions, invest money for retail credit unions and provide them with check clearing and other services. Since the start of 2008, 66 retail unions have failed, compared with more than 290 banks or savings institutions. Credit unions are member-owned cooperatives that act much like banks.
Under federal rules, wholesale credit unions were supposed to invest only in safe, liquid assets. But some chased higher returns by
- loading up on securities backed by subprime mortgages or other risky loans. Their portfolios were decimated by the mortgage meltdown.
Last year, regulators seized the two largest wholesale credit unions, U.S. Central Federal Credit Union, based in Lenexa, Kansas, and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union, San Dimas, Calif., after finding
- their losses were much larger than previously reported.
Losses on the mortgage-backed securities held by the five seized credit unions are expected by regulators to total about $15 billion. Wiping out the capital of the failed institutions will cover a chunk of those losses.
But the remaining $7 billion to $9.2 billion eventually will be
- passed along to the nation's 7,445 federally insured credit unions
- in the form of future assessments.
The changes won't immediately affect customers of retail credit unions throughout the U.S. But it is possible that assessments on the industry could
- result in higher interest rates on loans
- and lower payouts on deposits, if credit unions can't otherwise cover their obligations.
Bert Ely, a financial-industry consultant in Alexandria, Va., said regulators share some of the blame for the resulting mess, because wholesale credit unions were allowed to pursue a strategy that was "viable only because of what
- clearly has turned out to be excessive risk-taking."...
As part of the plan, regulators will eventually wind down the operations of the five failed credit unions.
- Together they had about $50 billion in shaky mortgage-backed securities on their books, according to Larry Fazio, NCUA's deputy executive director.
Based on current market values, those securities are worth roughly half of their face value, representing
- a potential loss of $25 billion.
In an effort to minimize and spread out losses that must be absorbed by the credit-union industry, regulators said they will move all the battered securities into a good bank-bad bank structure. NCUA officials will manage the $50 billion portfolio, or "bad bank," of the failed wholesale institutions.
- Federal regulators will allow the remaining "good bank" operations at the credit unions to continue for about two years while retail credit unions wind down their relationships with the failed institutions.
Friday's moves could deepen tensions between regulators and retail credit unions that withstood the financial crisis and
- resent
- having to bear financial costs
- caused by the mistakes of wholesale institutions."
- "has to bear"
People that have no job and no income will obviously not be able to pay a mortgage. Enough with the 'tough economic times,' it's a crime.
- via Lucianne.com
Oliver Stone compares Tea Party to KKK
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- 9/24, "Tradition of Ignorance," by John Batchelor
- and answering with banal disdain by making the analogy of the KKK:
- (JB) That's enough to understand the incoherence of the Hollywood Left.
- commenter to JB: "
- photo of KKK from JohnBatchelorShow.com
2 Minnesota health insurers drop out of individual market, cite Obama mandates effective 9/23
- 2 Minnesota health insurers drop out of individual market. New law disallows caps on total lifetime benefits as was customary, among other changes.
- 9/24, "Two Minnesota health insurers suspend single policy sales," Pioneer Press, by C. Snowbeck
"Bloomington-based HealthPartners said it was temporarily suspending sales of individual health insurance policies because of uncertainty created by the new federal law.
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota said it was taking similar steps.
But officials with the Medica and PreferredOne health plans said they still were selling policies in the individual market, where about 1 in 20 Minnesotans obtain health insurance coverage.
Congress passed health reform six months ago; as of Thursday, new health insurance policies had to comply with key provisions of the legislation.
- In Minnesota, that's meant changes to health plan policies that regulators at the Minnesota Department of Commerce must approve before companies can sell them to new customers.
The state hasn't signed off on some changes sought by HealthPartners, said Amy Von Walter, a company spokeswoman. "Due to continuing changes caused by health care reform, we temporarily have no long-term individual medical plans for sale," the insurance company says in a notice on its website. "We are currently working with regulators to get affordable products approved to sell as quickly as possible."
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota also awaits final approval before resuming sales of its health plans for individuals, said Pam Lux, a spokeswoman for the Eagan-based insurer....
Current customers at both plans are not affected by the disruption. It also does not affect people covered through group health insurance plans -- the majority of Minnesotans.
Beginning Thursday, newly issued policies to individuals and groups had to include benefits mandated by the federal health reform law
- such as enhanced coverage for preventive care and a prohibition on caps for lifetime benefits....
What's happening, she said, is that the Commerce Department is still getting guidance on details of health reform from the federal government.
- That, in turn, has led health plans to file amendments as recently as this week for new rates and policies.".....
Lobbyist bragged Soros gave group no money, now caught in a lie, says 'proud' to get Soros money. What 'Disclose Act'?
- 9/24, "Soros revealed as funder of liberal Jewish-American lobby," Washington Times by Eli Lake
"The Jewish-American advocacy group J Street, which bills itself as the dovish alternative to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby,
- has secretly received funding from billionaire George Soros
- despite previous denials that it accepted funds from the Hungarian-born financier and liberal political activist.
Tax forms obtained by The Washington Times reveal that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009....
- Mr. Ben Ami said his group had no qualms about getting money from Mr. Soros.
"I am very, very proud that our movement and what we are trying to do is aligned with the values and principles of George Soros and we are proud to have his support," he said.
Mr. Ben Ami said Mr. Soros "made the public decision not to support us once we launched.
- Once we got started, he provided us with some money."
Mr. Ben Ami's words on Thursday contrasted sharply with statements on the J Street website concerning the group's receipt of funding from Mr. Soros.
In a section of the website called "myths and facts," the group includes a passage that reads: "George Soros very publicly stated his decision not to be engaged in J Street when it was launched — precisely out of fear that his involvement would be used against the organization."
- After Mr. Ben Ami spoke with The Times,
- the website was abruptly amended Thursday night with an addition that stated:
"J Street has said it doesn’t receive money from George Soros, but now news reports indicate that
- he has in fact contributed."
Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Mr. Soros, said the billionaire "has made no secret of his support for" J Street."...
- Reference: Obama says special interest donations shouldn't be secret. Except in certain cases. 9/23/10, "GOP blocks bill to disclose campaign ad donors"
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Friday, September 24, 2010
Punches thrown at end of Nevada Senate forum apparently between supporters of Reid and Angle
- 9/24, "Nevada Senate Forum turns Raucous, Ends in Fist Fight," National Review Online, by Elizabeth Crum
The unruly affair went down at the unlikely venue of Faith Lutheran high school in Summerlin, a master-planned community just west of the Las Vegas city limits.
As the forum opened, attendees were asked not to applaud or shout out questions or comments during the event. Harry Reid answered questions via a pre-taped 30-minute interview, and then Sharron Angle answered a moderator’s questions live on stage.
A few in the 800-member audience snickered and murmured during portions of Reid’s video segment, particularly when he was talking about health care reform, and a couple of comments were uttered loud enough to be heard throughout the auditorium. For the most part, though, the crowd was respectful and fairly reserved during the Reid portion of the forum.
That changed once Angle appeared. Most of the 800-member audience jumped to their feet, half of them cheering, half loudly booing as she and the moderator took the stage. Even once all were seated and Angle began to speak, many in the crowd were quite boisterous and some became increasingly bold and uncivil as the event continued.
Angle was repeatedly shouted at as she tried to answer questions. Scornful remarks, sarcastic questions, and accusations including “Liar!” were shouted by Reid partisans. The moderator politely asked for order, twice, but it had little effect on the more raucous members of the crowd.
At one point, the moderator admonished the audience and said shouting and applause cut into Angle’s speaking time. A few people then deliberately continued clapping and making comments to prevent Angle from saying anything. To her credit, Angle stayed composed and continued speaking even when as many as 30 or 40 audience members were shouting all at once.
As Angle was giving her closing statements, some Reid supporters stood up and began to leave. An Angle and Reid supporter exchanged angry remarks which drew in others and led to a punch being thrown. This led to a shouting match as witnesses on both sides argued about the situation, and two security guards pushed through the small crowd in order to break up the situation.
Later today, once Battle ‘10 gets some sleep, look here for details from the candidates’ remarks along with some video from the event."
- via Lucianne.com
Getting America back
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- Created and produced by Ben Howe at RedState.com
- condemning them to live out their days in poverty and insecurity?
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- 9/24, "The pincer movement against Christine O'Donnell," American Thinker, L. Cary
- Consequently, she's caught in a classic double envelopment, known as a pincer movement.
The Democratic Party and its shills in the legacy media zeroed in on O'Donnell the moment she became the confirmed winner of the Delaware GOP primary. They immediately identified her as the most vulnerable Tea Party-related target of opportunity. And they've been on a relentless attack ever since, with the aim of keeping her hunkered down until their guy, Chris "The Bearded Marxist" Coons, wins the November election
No surprise there. You personalize the opposition and then marginalize it. It's standard Alinsky-style community agitator tactics....- and they can declare the Tea Party defeated.
- The other attacking force in the pincer movement also has a political agenda, but one
within the Republican Party. It's about internecine combat.
The Republican blue bloods -- a term that originally referred to the aristocratic families of Castile Spain who wouldn't intermarry with Moors, Jews and other races, and maintained a fair complexion wherein their blood veins looked distinctively blue -- control the GOP. Until the ascendency of the Democrats' rule over Congress and the White House,
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- the blue bloods sustained their "moderate" posture by compromising with the Democrats.
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Following 2nd denial of Obama Gulf oil moratorium, court orders administration to turn over 8000 pages of documents
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9/16, "US loses bid to shield papers in Drill-ban case," Bloomberg Business Week, by Calkins and Fisk
9/16, "US loses bid to shield papers in Drill-ban case," Bloomberg Business Week, by Calkins and Fisk
- (This follows the 9/1/10 second denial of Obama's Gulf drilling moratorium:
- 9/1, "Judge deals new blow to drilling moratorium," Wall St. Journal by S. Power)
- records supported claims the
- U.S. didn’t weigh new evidence in ordering a revised ban.
Salazar had agreed to give drilling-ban opponents all of the materials dated after July 12 when he issued a second moratorium to replace the first one imposed after the BP Plc oil spill. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans on June 22 struck down the first moratorium as overly broad.
Ensco Offshore Co. and other oil industry opponents claim Salazar issued the second moratorium without considering new evidence. They sought a court order for the U.S. to turn over about
- 8,000 pages of documents and e-mails written between the two bans.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Wilkinson Jr. today ordered the U.S. to turn over the papers after reviewing them.
“The record of withheld materials dated after June 21, 2010, which I am ordering must be disclosed, is
- rife with evidence that the second moratorium decision was made on June 22
and that the subsequent agency deliberations were after-the-fact justifications for that decision,” Wilkinson said in his order.
- Feldman, in a separate ruling today, gave the parties until Sept. 20 to appeal Wilkinson’s decision.
“We are reviewing the judge’s decision,” Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Salazar, said in an e-mail....
‘Unequivocal’ Statements
Drilling ban opponents claim Salazar broke federal laws by issuing the second moratorium without properly considering new evidence and conferring with governments and businesses affected by the policy.
Wilkinson said he gave great weight to Salazar’s “unequivocal” press statements and congressional testimony on June 22 and June 23 that, in the secretary’s words, the agency would
- “issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate and within our authorities.”
“These actions,” Wilkinson said, “establish that
- a final decision had already been made by the decision maker
and that any subsequent deliberative discussions among his subordinates would only serve to buttress that fait accompli.”
Spill Response
Salazar and other regulators claim they withdrew the first moratorium on Feldman’s order and issued a second set of drilling suspension rules only after investigating and re- evaluating the industry’s deep-water drilling practices and spill-response capabilities.
- Salazar turned over 28,063 pages of material documenting his deliberative process,
- withholding about 8,000 pages,
- saying federal law allowed him to shield the agency’s pre-decision process.
Ensco claims the second moratorium is an illegal mirror image of the first ban, which Feldman ordered the U.S. not to enforce.
- President Barack Obama imposed the first moratorium on drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet on May 28....
Feldman overturned that ban in a lawsuit brought by Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. and joined by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and scores of business and industry groups.
The Hornbeck case, which remains focused on the initial drilling moratorium, has been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
- That court is weighing whether Salazar had the legal authority to withdraw and then re-impose an agency policy
- that had been overturned by a federal judge.
Ensco filed its suit targeting the second drilling ban in July. Feldman has scheduled oral arguments in that case for next week.
The case is Ensco Offshore Co. v. Salazar, 2:10-cv-01941, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans). The appeal case is 10-30585, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (New Orleans)."
Rasmussen latest, Senate 51-45 Democrat; Republicans favored by 10 in House-9/23
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9/23/10, "Overall, the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Balance of Power summary shows
9/23/10, "Overall, the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Balance of Power summary shows
- Democrats with a 51-45 advantage in the Senate while four races are now Toss-Ups
- The Rasmussen Reports Gubernatorial Scorecard shows
Toss-Ups in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont."...
..
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I wonder if he has any clue how many of his former fans are in the "Tea Party" and will be turned off to the point of never patronizing his work again. No wonder Hollywood is losing money."