NYT Investigation: MSNBC’s Sharpton Runs ‘Delinquent’ Nonprofit Organization
By Erik Wemple, Washington Post
A New York Times investigation into the finances of MSNBC host and Washington heavyweight Al Sharpton has found “$4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses,” according to the story by Russ Buettner. Titled “Questions About Sharpton’s Finances Accompany His Rise in Influence,” the story documents a long trail of unmet obligations and a messy web of financial interests spanning nonprofits, personal finances and beyond.
“Mr. Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent and other bills,” claims the piece. Even with his tax liabilities, notes the story, Sharpton “traveled first class and collected a sizable salary.”
Gee, I wonder if the clown will be Ferguson stirring the pot.
Liberal Law Prof Jonathan Turley Named Lead Counsel for House Suit Against Obama
By: Stephen Gutowski (Washington Free Beacon)
Professor Jonathan Turley, who currently serves as the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, will be the lead counsel for the House of Representative’s lawsuit against the way President Obama has implemented Obamacare.
“As many on this blog are aware, I have previously testified, written, and litigated in opposition to the rise of executive power and the countervailing decline in congressional power in our tripartite system,” Turley said on his website.
“I have also spent years encouraging Congress, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, to more actively defend its authority, including seeking judicial review in separation of powers conflicts.”
“For that reason, it may come as little surprise this morning that I have agreed to represent the United States House of Representatives in its challenge of unilateral, unconstitutional actions taken by the Obama administration with respect to implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).”
I dont know why people get all bent out of shape over the Obama-care. I mean it is great for our country, was great for me personally. I mean I am so dumb I need the government to tell me how to live and to take care of me. With Obama care I get less coverage then I had with blue cross blue shield and I get to pay more for it, who does not want that? I mean heck I still had plenty money left over from my pay checks to further help those poor unfortunate souls who lost their work boots and those that haven't figured out were kids come from ( its our public schools fault, cant be from lack of parenting). It is our duty as good citizens to support them. Wont it be great when America is a totally socialist country were our government controls what we do and how we live so we dont make mistakes, were everyone is truly equal (except those in washington ofcourse) and everyone makes the same amount of money regardless their job? This way we dont need to waste our time with dreams and goals, who needs that crap anyways? I know some of you may disagree with me. But sit back and think about all the mistakes you have made. These people are in WASHINGTON DC, this makes them WAY smarter then us. Its great minds like Obama that is going to get this country were it needs to be..
I will say if you doubt me think back to the first of the year. Those smart men and women were debating a dept ceiling. They made sure to let those poor souls on welfare know they would still be getting their checks however our boys and girls in the armed forces and our vets may not get theirs, heck what have they done for us anyway? Thats true leadership people.. This is a prime example why I can sit in my lazy chair with my feet propped up without a worry in the world as I KNOW the government is there for me
"Now, Mr. Lincoln, just because you passed the Emancipation Proclamation that frees slaves in captured southern territory doesn't mean we to go telling those negroes that they're free. Otherwise, they might start thinking that they're entitled to own property and vote and get paid wages and get married to whom they want and believing that all men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If they start believing that, all the captured white people in those states might start a race riot to keep the negroes from exercising their rights. Better to keep it quiet."
FoxNews in 1866:
"Now, Mr. Johhson, just because the 14th Amendments guarantees citizenship and equal protection under the law and rights to native or naturalized citizens don't mean we want Horace Greely and Frederick Douglas telling all those newly freed salves that they're actually citizens who have the right to vote, own property, marry who they want and not be worried about being strung up a tree if they disagree with a white man. No, if we start telling them they have rights they might try to use them. Better we keep them ignorant and then pass Jim Crow laws that will invalidate these rights."
FoxNews n 1955:
"Now, Mr. Eisenhower, just because the Supreme Court has ruled that segregated schools are illegal doesn't mean we want the liberal newspapers to tell all the negroes they can attend the fully funded white schools in their neighborhoods rather than the totally neglected schools in their own neighborhoods. That might just cause them to try to enroll at these white schools, which will cause all the white bigots to start a race war. No, better, we not tell them anything and maybe they'll forget."
FoxNews n 1965:
"Now, Mr. Johnson, just because you've managed to get the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act passed doesn't mean you want the liberal newspapers to start telling the negroes that they no longer need to sit at the back of the bus or can't be barred from restaurants, hotels and water fountains and can't be turned away at the polls. Once they get that notion in their head they might try using these rights, and then all the white bigots will start a race war to stop integration at any cost. No, better we not tell them and hope those radicals like Martin Luther King will go away on their own."
Each of these quotes could more accurately be attributed to the party of slavery, aka Democrats, aka Dixiecrats. What these quotes have to do with Fox in your mind is a mystery to me.
I will say if you doubt me think back to the first of the year. Those smart men and women were debating a dept ceiling.
It's not the debt ceiling. It's the spending ceiling. If they would stop passing things they cannot fund, and dismantle things already passed which they cannot fund, then the debt problem would go away. Spending is the bitter pill they refuse to swallow.
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." ... Thomas Jefferson
[Too long to requote it all. Read previous messages for context]
Each of these quotes could more accurately be attributed to the party of slavery, aka Democrats, aka Dixiecrats. What these quotes have to do with Fox in your mind is a mystery to me.
This has nothing to do with political parties and you know it. The original post I responded to a verbatim requote a story by a FOXNews pundit who doesn't want the "liberal media" to report about the anger of African American Ferguson residents and the cover up and blame game waged by the Ferguson police because he believed such reporting would cause race riots. So, then, no one should report about the KKK thugs who threatened to kill black people in Ferguson because, gosh, this might cause a RACE RIOT? And then the court decides whether or not to bring charge against the cop who killed the kid, the "liberal media" shouldn't report the story or voice any point of view on it at all (because certainly, FoxNews has NEVER expressed an opinion on the issue. Wel,, not any opinion that doesn't align 100% with its conservative ideology, that is) because, lord forbid, it might cause a RACE RIOT.
Zombie Fans Stagger Through ‘Walking Dead’ Conventions
Even Bit Players are Stars at Gatherings of Those Obsessed With Hit TV Show
By
Amol Sharma
ATLANTA—Actor Parker Wierling played the bit part known as “Asthma Boy” in AMC ’s “The Walking Dead,” uttering two lines in a single episode last year. He isn’t exactly Hollywood royalty, but on a recent Saturday he was signing autographs for his fans at $20 a pop.
Welcome to “Walker Stalker Con,” the convention for people obsessed with every detail of the hit cable TV drama, which centers on the fallout of a zombie apocalypse and kicked off its fifth season last month.
Yes, Trekkies have long had their conventions and now Walkers have theirs.
“The Walking Dead” has become a big draw at geek TV meet-ups around the country—from “Wizard World” to “Monster-Mania Con” to “Spooky Empire.” But “Walker Stalker Con,” which launched last year and has been held four times, is the only one that focuses exclusively on the “Dead.”
The latest edition of the event was held in Atlanta, about 30 miles from where the show is filmed. Some 35,000 ravenous fans staggered in over a weekend, waiting in lines for hours to see stars like Andrew Lincoln, who plays the ringleader of a band of survivors, and Norman Reedus, who plays bow-and-arrow-wielding Daryl Dixon.
They also feasted on C-list actors with tiny roles deemed important to the show’s subculture, like “Bicycle Girl”—who appeared only in the first episode—and “Michonne’s Pets,” the jawless and armless zombies who accompany one of the main characters. Actors signed photos of themselves and posed for selfies for anywhere from $20 to $80 apiece.
Zombie Fans Stagger Through ‘Walking Dead’ Conventions
Even Bit Players are Stars at Gatherings of Those Obsessed With Hit TV Show
By
Amol Sharma
ATLANTA—Actor Parker Wierling played the bit part known as “Asthma Boy” in AMC ’s “The Walking Dead,” uttering two lines in a single episode last year. He isn’t exactly Hollywood royalty, but on a recent Saturday he was signing autographs for his fans at $20 a pop.
Welcome to “Walker Stalker Con,” the convention for people obsessed with every detail of the hit cable TV drama, which centers on the fallout of a zombie apocalypse and kicked off its fifth season last month.
Yes, Trekkies have long had their conventions and now Walkers have theirs.
“The Walking Dead” has become a big draw at geek TV meet-ups around the country—from “Wizard World” to “Monster-Mania Con” to “Spooky Empire.” But “Walker Stalker Con,” which launched last year and has been held four times, is the only one that focuses exclusively on the “Dead.”
The latest edition of the event was held in Atlanta, about 30 miles from where the show is filmed. Some 35,000 ravenous fans staggered in over a weekend, waiting in lines for hours to see stars like Andrew Lincoln, who plays the ringleader of a band of survivors, and Norman Reedus, who plays bow-and-arrow-wielding Daryl Dixon.
They also feasted on C-list actors with tiny roles deemed important to the show’s subculture, like “Bicycle Girl”—who appeared only in the first episode—and “Michonne’s Pets,” the jawless and armless zombies who accompany one of the main characters. Actors signed photos of themselves and posed for selfies for anywhere from $20 to $80 apiece.
I love this show, but i don't understand the love of the small bit characters. I have a few buddies that are like that about this show, and they start talking about what those people stand for and whatnot, and i am like, dude it was just a kid with asthma; not something that stands for the words struggle to recover from the situation.
[Too long to requote it all. Read previous messages for context]
Each of these quotes could more accurately be attributed to the party of slavery, aka Democrats, aka Dixiecrats. What these quotes have to do with Fox in your mind is a mystery to me.
This has nothing to do with political parties and you know it. The original post I responded to a verbatim requote a story by a FOXNews pundit who doesn't want the "liberal media" to report about the anger of African American Ferguson residents and the cover up and blame game waged by the Ferguson police because he believed such reporting would cause race riots. So, then, no one should report about the KKK thugs who threatened to kill black people in Ferguson because, gosh, this might cause a RACE RIOT? And then the court decides whether or not to bring charge against the cop who killed the kid, the "liberal media" shouldn't report the story or voice any point of view on it at all (because certainly, FoxNews has NEVER expressed an opinion on the issue. Wel,, not any opinion that doesn't align 100% with its conservative ideology, that is) because, lord forbid, it might cause a RACE RIOT.
Raisin, you do know that Juan Williams is a liberal black man, don't you?
]
Raisin, you do know that Juan Williams is a liberal black man, don't you?
It doesn't matter that he's liberal. It doesn't matter he is black. It doesn't matter he wants to avoid race riots. All that matters to raisindot is, he said his piece on Fox.
Juan Williams use to work at npr (ultimate publicly funded liberal radio). They fired him because he had the audacity to appear as a liberal counter point on FOX.
Juan Williams use to work at npr (ultimate publicly funded liberal radio). They fired him because he had the audacity to appear as a liberal counter point on FOX.
Intolerance in the name of tolerance. The Ultimate hypocrisy.
Federal watchdogs uncover thousands of lost Lerner emails, decoding to take weeks
As many as 30,000 lost emails from Lois Lerner -- the ex-IRS official at the center of the agency's targeting scandal -- have been recovered by federal investigators.
The IRS has already turned over thousands of Lerner emails to congressional investigators but has said the remainder are gone forever because Lerner’s hard-drive crashed in 2011. And in June, agency Commissioner John Koskinen(liar liar pants on fire) told Congress that back-up tapes containing the missing emails had been destroyed.
“The IRS has continually dragged its feet, changed its story, and been less than forthcoming with information related to its egregious violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights,” said Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has spearheaded congressional probes on the issue.
“These e-mails are long overdue, and underscore again why we need a special prosecutor to conduct an unhindered investigation. Hopefully these e-mails will help us get to the truth,” he continued.
Lerner led the IRS division that targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups for excessive scrutiny during the 2012 presidential election cycle when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Lerner in March refused to testify before the GOP-led House investigative committee, saying she was protected under the Fifth Amendment, and has since retired.
VIDEO: Did IRS bother to look for emails?
Some of the recovered emails might be duplicates. And it could take weeks to learn their content because they are encoded, said Frederick Hill, a spokesman for Republicans on the Oversight committee.
In addition, the IRS would also have to delete information about taxpayers that is considered private before it can be released to the committee, which is headed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
The federal investigators are from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which audits the IRS. A spokeswoman for the inspector general, Karen Kraushaar, declined to comment, saying the investigation was continuing.
The investigators ignited a political firestorm in May 2013 with the initial report the exceptionally close scrutiny.
The IRS said Saturday that it remains "committed to fully cooperating with all of the pending investigations."(yea right)
The agency also said that it learned after the June that the TIGTA had began an investigation of the hard-drive crash and a search for additional emails.
Senate Finance Committee aides said the investigators will assess if the newly recovered data can be made readable before it can be turned over to the committee.
They said their committee, which has been conducting a bipartisan investigation of the IRS's treatment of groups, including liberal ones, expects to complete its work early next year.
I wish I could remember his name. A couple of days ago a reporter asked one of our elected people why he hadn't impeached obozo and without missing a beat he replied, "I've met joe biden".
US releases Saudi prisoner from Guantanamo Bay, to take part in militant rehab program
FILE 2006: A Saudi citizen who has spent the past 12 years detained at Guantanamo Bay has been released, the Pentagon said Saturday, amid a push to whittle down the prison population at the U.S. base in Cuba. (AP)
A detainee at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is being returned to his home in Saudi Arabia where he will take part in a program to rehabilitate militants, according to the Pentagon.
Muhammad al-Zahrani was released Saturday, based on the conclusion of a U.S. government board that has been re-evaluating the need to continue holding the roughly 142 men held at the facility.
The facility was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks to get people with strong evidence of ties to terror groups off battlefields.
The release of al-Zahrani follows the release Wednesday of five other prisoners, as part of the Obama administration’s renewed effort to close the detention center at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. It also follows the controversial release in May of five Taliban detainees in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. One of the primary criticisms of the deal is that the detainees -- after being sent to Qatar where they will stay for a year -- is they will likely return to terror-related groups.
Al-Zahrani, who is about 45, had been held at Guantanamo since August 2002, according to military records. A report by the Periodic Review Board said he traveled to Afghanistan in 1999 and "almost certainly" joined al Qaeda, trained in military tactics and fought the Northern Alliance.
His lawyers, in a statement to the board, described him as a "middle-aged, ailing man who desperately wants to return to Saudi Arabia."
They said his father died while he was in U.S. custody and "his only wish is to see his ailing mother before she passes away."
The board cleared him for release in October, citing a number of factors including his willingness to participate in the Saudi rehabilitation program. He left Guantanamo on Friday.
Al-Zahrani is the 13th prisoner to leave Guantanamo Bay this year and the seventh in just the past two weeks. Officials have said more prisoners will be released in the coming weeks as part of a renewed effort to close the site. Seventy three are already cleared for release.
Of the five prisoners releases earlier this week, three were sent to Georgia and two to Slovakia for resettlement.
The prisoners -- four Yemenis and a Tunisian -- also were among dozens of low-level prisoners at Guantanamo that an administration task force in 2009 deemed to no longer pose a threat. There are now about 100 fewer detainees at the facility, compared to when President Obama took office roughly six years ago. Obama's vow to close Guantanamo was thwarted by Congress, which prohibited sending any prisoner to the U.S. and imposed restrictions that brought releases to a halt.
Congress eased the transfer restrictions last December, and releases have resumed. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan has been trying to persuade countries to accept prisoners, and he praised Georgia and Slovakia.
"We are very grateful to our partners for these generous humanitarian gestures," Sloan said. "We appreciate the strong support we are receiving from our friends and allies around the globe."
Georgia took three prisoners from Guantanamo in 2010. Slovakia has taken a total of eight men from Guantanamo.
The release of the three Yemeni prisoners, the first of that nationality to be resettled since 2010, was unusual because the U.S. has been reluctant to send them to their unstable homeland and has struggled to find alternatives. They make up the majority awaiting transfer.
California GOP Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called for a halt to the transfers because of the potential that some former prisoners could pose a threat.
"What the Obama administration is doing is dangerous and, frankly, reckless," he said.
Of the 74 prisoners cleared and awaiting resettlement, 36 have been designated for detention without charge. There are also 23 slated for prosecution and 10 either facing trial by military commission or who have been convicted or sentenced.
Obama Administration Shielded Banks From Criminal Prosecution, Admits Top Fed Official
By Taylor Tyler | Nov 22, 2014 06:55 PM EST
Federal Reserve
People walk into a meeting of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve, October 24, 2013 in Washington DC. (Photo : Getty Images)
A top Federal Reserve official admitted Friday that the U.S. government has worked to protect big banks from criminal prosecution due to the belief that such prosecution could harm the financial system, the Huffington Post reported.
Share This Story U.S. government protection of big banks is a policy the Obama administration has adamantly denied, but during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Friday, William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, candidly admitted to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, that the policy was indeed a reality.Under the Obama administration, despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing, large financial organizations have avoided criminal prosecution for the following: laundering money for suspected terrorists and drug cartels, manipulating interest rate benchmarks, rigging various commodities markets, misleading investors in mortgage-linked securities, tricking homeowners into taking out expensive mortgages, manipulating municipal debt markets, and breaking state and federal rules when seizing homes from borrowers who were behind on their payments, according to the Huffington Post.
"We were not willing to find those firms guilty before, because we were worried that if we found them guilty, that could somehow potentially destabilize the financial system," Dudley said during the hearing. "We've gotten past that and I think it's really important that we got past that."
It's the first admission from a federal official acknowledging the explicit policy of protecting big banks from prosecution, despite lawmakers having long suspected such an arrangement.
A separate report released Thursday by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations detailed how banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan purchases metals warehouses, crude oil tankers and other physical commodities, and used those business to "gain unfair advantages and influence markets," according to the Guardian. U.S. lawmakers claim such commodity hoarding by big banks jeopardized firms and the financial system.>br>
The report charged the banks with engaging in "many billions of dollars of risky commodity activies, owning or controlling, not only vast inventories of physical commodities like crude oil, jet fuel, heating oil, natural gas, copper, aluminum and uranium, but also related businesses, including power plants, coal mines, natural gas facilities, and oil and gas pipelines."
It also found the banks to have benefited from lower borrowing costs and lower capital to debt ratios compared to nonbank companies, and some of the companies "used or contemplated using physical commodity activities that had the effect or potential effect of manipulating or influencing commodity prices."
Head of the committee, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, said, "It's time to restore the separation between banking and commerce and to prevent Wall Street from using nonpublic information to profit at the expense of industry and consumers."
Watch out, JD... you're beginning to sound racist here.
You know, that is the hexll of it. he is the POTUS and you can not think in terms of race, gender or any other loser insult fall back and name calling. You can only think of the office and nothing else. Some people just refuse to accept he is the worst thing to happen to this country in my life time. He makes the clintonistas, carter look like rank amateurs.
If the libertarians would realize that they are only taking away votes and form a united front with republicans and work from inside the system instead of a useless outside the system maybe a united front could do some real good. Remember the perrogies?
Again I want to make it clear, I am neither Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green or any other party. I will vote for anyone who has the best chance of defeating a liberal-socialist-progressive democrat. Yes I am voting against, and not in favor of.
Watch out, JD... you're beginning to sound racist here.
You know, that is the hexll of it. he is the POTUS and you can not think in terms of race, gender or any other loser insult fall back and name calling. You can only think of the office and nothing else. Some people just refuse to accept he is the worst thing to happen to this country in my life time. He makes the clintonistas, carter look like rank amateurs.
If the libertarians would realize that they are only taking away votes and form a united front with republicans and work from inside the system instead of a useless outside the system maybe a united front could do some real good. Remember the perrogies?
Again I want to make it clear, I am neither Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green or any other party. I will vote for anyone who has the best chance of defeating a liberal-socialist-progressive democrat. Yes I am voting against, and not in favor of.
Let it begin.
That really is the helluvit, innit? You have certainly seen it happen to me, here, repeatedly. And not just here. My lunatic leftist sisters are convinced I am racist. My leftist office mates are convinced I am racist. I remember the first time that I suggested to the fervent democrat I work for that it was grossly improper to appoint as Attorney General a lawyer out of a DC firm famous for defense of banksters and stock swindlers at the very time when the country was suffering a crisis precipitated in great part by swindling bank frauds, his immediate response was that I was racist. I am not addicted to TV news, had never seen a photo of the rascal, and had no idea of his complexion. Had to look him up on line to find out.
Last I looked, Barry is half white. And yet... Leftists find it utterly inconceivable that anyone could in any sense criticize their favorite fascist for any of his blatant misdeeds, whopping lies, tyrannical fiats, or mind numbing blunders without ipso facto racist motive.
Other than that, it's always George Bush's fault.
Frustrating.
Adamant idiocy.
Like talking to a brick wall.
They are criminals by definition...deport them all....
New DHS Immigration Rules: Drunk Drivers, Sex Abusers, Drug Dealers, Gun Offenders Not Top Deportation Priorities
By Byron York, Washington Examiner
The Department of Homeland Security has just released new "Policies for the Apprehension, Detention, and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants." Designed to fill in the details after President Obama's announcement that at least four million currently illegal immigrants will be given work permits, Social Security numbers and protection from deportation, the DHS guidelines are instructions for the nation's immigration and border security officers as they administer the president's directive.
The new priorities are striking. On the tough side, the president wants U.S. immigration authorities to go after terrorists, felons, and new illegal border crossers. On the not-so-tough side, the administration views convicted drunk drivers, sex abusers, drug dealers, and gun offenders as second-level enforcement priorities. An illegal immigrant could spend up to a year in prison for a violent crime and still not be a top removal priority for the Obama administration.
In the memo, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson says his department must develop "smart enforcement priorities" to exercise "prosecutorial discretion" in order to best use his agency's limited resources. Johnson establishes three enforcement priority levels to guide DHS officers as they decide whether to stop, hold, or prosecute an illegal immigrant.
Watch out, JD... you're beginning to sound racist here.
You know, that is the hexll of it. he is the POTUS and you can not think in terms of race, gender or any other loser insult fall back and name calling. You can only think of the office and nothing else. Some people just refuse to accept he is the worst thing to happen to this country in my life time. He makes the clintonistas, carter look like rank amateurs.
If the libertarians would realize that they are only taking away votes and form a united front with republicans and work from inside the system instead of a useless outside the system maybe a united front could do some real good. Remember the perrogies?
Again I want to make it clear, I am neither Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green or any other party. I will vote for anyone who has the best chance of defeating a liberal-socialist-progressive democrat. Yes I am voting against, and not in favor of.
Let it begin.
If only it were that easy. In my lifetime I've been registered first as a Democrat, because in TN at that time all the state level elections were decided in the Democratic primary. Thus, I became a Democrat who voted for Ronald Reagan, twice.
Later, when things balance out somewhat, I changed to Republican. Then ended up voting for Bill Clinton, the first time. Ross Perot the next time around, didn't want to get burnt twice.
In that last few Presidential elections my votes have been for Gary Johnson, Bob Barr, and Ron Paul who is the smartest of them all. So, my votes are often more "against" than "for". Even so, there are a lot of things about the Libertarian party that I find myself in disagreement with.
I do often end up voting for the Republican in state elections, Lamar Alexander, Fred Thompson etc., although I can't stomach our current governor, Haslam, because I think he's a shameless opportunist bent on personal gain over service to the public.
The thing is, I also can't back anyone who thinks that Social Security should be "privatized". The record seems to be pretty clear to me that this will inevitably end up with lots of deregulation that always seems to end up in system-wide collapse in which the investors end up broke, and the CEO's end up fabulously wealthy. A prime example being the collapse at the end of the Bush presidency, all the banksters still got their $ bonuses, instead of the jail time they still deserve, while the blame was shifted to the stupid Fannie May policy "bone" that was thrown to the Democrats. Giving home loans to people too dumb or lazy to invest any of their own equity was NOT a good idea, nor a means of providing housing to those who need it.
What followed was also inexcusable, shifting the blame all to Obama, which began about 30 seconds after the oath of office was administered. Bush was not to blame, either, but the policies his party forwarded certainly were. So, "the buck stops" at...Bush. Sorry, them's the facts.
I'll go ahead and point out the cognitive dissonance of my above statement, yes, many of the Libertarian Party also think SS should privatize. They're wrong. The fact is that the Private Sector does not always manage everything better. Capital ventures? Yes. Public Interest? Not so much.
Meanwhile, who can back the Democrats? Without engaging in more cognitive dissonance, that is. They won't even stand up for their own guy! Fact is, unemployment has dropped dramatically under Obama. So, point it out! Flip side: the Affordable Care Act isn't working for the most part, but that's largely because by the time it made it through the bought-and-paid-for Congress it was essentially a poisoned apple. Obama should have had the sense to veto it, and continued to push for a simple Medicare for everybody program. Expensive? You bet. But, where does the money end up? Back in every single city, town, borough, county, state in the country, instead of in the deeeeeep pockets of the military industrial complex. The money spent on only the first Iraq war would have funded it for 50 years.
Black Panthers Unable To Buy Bombs Because EBT Card Didn’t Have Enough Money
By Katie Frates, Daily Caller
Two men affiliated with the New Black Panther Party allegedly planned to murder Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and bomb the Gateway Arch.
In an undercover police sting, the two bought a pipe bomb, and intended to buy two more but couldn’t afford it until one man’s girlfriend’s Electronic Benefit Transfer card was refilled, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
ST. LOUIS • Two men indicted last week on federal weapons charges allegedly had plans to bomb the Gateway Arch — and to kill St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson — the Post-Dispatch has learned....
Black Panthers Unable To Buy Bombs Because EBT Card Didn’t Have Enough Money
By Katie Frates, Daily Caller
Two men affiliated with the New Black Panther Party allegedly planned to murder Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and bomb the Gateway Arch.
In an undercover police sting, the two bought a pipe bomb, and intended to buy two more but couldn’t afford it until one man’s girlfriend’s Electronic Benefit Transfer card was refilled, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
ST. LOUIS • Two men indicted last week on federal weapons charges allegedly had plans to bomb the Gateway Arch — and to kill St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson — the Post-Dispatch has learned....
Comments
A.j.
By Erik Wemple, Washington Post
A New York Times investigation into the finances of MSNBC host and Washington heavyweight Al Sharpton has found “$4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses,” according to the story by Russ Buettner. Titled “Questions About Sharpton’s Finances Accompany His Rise in Influence,” the story documents a long trail of unmet obligations and a messy web of financial interests spanning nonprofits, personal finances and beyond.
“Mr. Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent and other bills,” claims the piece. Even with his tax liabilities, notes the story, Sharpton “traveled first class and collected a sizable salary.”
Gee, I wonder if the clown will be Ferguson stirring the pot.
By: Stephen Gutowski (Washington Free Beacon)
Professor Jonathan Turley, who currently serves as the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, will be the lead counsel for the House of Representative’s lawsuit against the way President Obama has implemented Obamacare.
“As many on this blog are aware, I have previously testified, written, and litigated in opposition to the rise of executive power and the countervailing decline in congressional power in our tripartite system,” Turley said on his website.
“I have also spent years encouraging Congress, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, to more actively defend its authority, including seeking judicial review in separation of powers conflicts.”
“For that reason, it may come as little surprise this morning that I have agreed to represent the United States House of Representatives in its challenge of unilateral, unconstitutional actions taken by the Obama administration with respect to implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).”
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." ... Thomas Jefferson
This has nothing to do with political parties and you know it. The original post I responded to a verbatim requote a story by a FOXNews pundit who doesn't want the "liberal media" to report about the anger of African American Ferguson residents and the cover up and blame game waged by the Ferguson police because he believed such reporting would cause race riots. So, then, no one should report about the KKK thugs who threatened to kill black people in Ferguson because, gosh, this might cause a RACE RIOT? And then the court decides whether or not to bring charge against the cop who killed the kid, the "liberal media" shouldn't report the story or voice any point of view on it at all (because certainly, FoxNews has NEVER expressed an opinion on the issue. Wel,, not any opinion that doesn't align 100% with its conservative ideology, that is) because, lord forbid, it might cause a RACE RIOT.
Even Bit Players are Stars at Gatherings of Those Obsessed With Hit TV Show
By
Amol Sharma
ATLANTA—Actor Parker Wierling played the bit part known as “Asthma Boy” in AMC ’s “The Walking Dead,” uttering two lines in a single episode last year. He isn’t exactly Hollywood royalty, but on a recent Saturday he was signing autographs for his fans at $20 a pop.
Welcome to “Walker Stalker Con,” the convention for people obsessed with every detail of the hit cable TV drama, which centers on the fallout of a zombie apocalypse and kicked off its fifth season last month.
Yes, Trekkies have long had their conventions and now Walkers have theirs.
“The Walking Dead” has become a big draw at geek TV meet-ups around the country—from “Wizard World” to “Monster-Mania Con” to “Spooky Empire.” But “Walker Stalker Con,” which launched last year and has been held four times, is the only one that focuses exclusively on the “Dead.”
The latest edition of the event was held in Atlanta, about 30 miles from where the show is filmed. Some 35,000 ravenous fans staggered in over a weekend, waiting in lines for hours to see stars like Andrew Lincoln, who plays the ringleader of a band of survivors, and Norman Reedus, who plays bow-and-arrow-wielding Daryl Dixon.
They also feasted on C-list actors with tiny roles deemed important to the show’s subculture, like “Bicycle Girl”—who appeared only in the first episode—and “Michonne’s Pets,” the jawless and armless zombies who accompany one of the main characters. Actors signed photos of themselves and posed for selfies for anywhere from $20 to $80 apiece.
As many as 30,000 lost emails from Lois Lerner -- the ex-IRS official at the center of the agency's targeting scandal -- have been recovered by federal investigators.
The IRS has already turned over thousands of Lerner emails to congressional investigators but has said the remainder are gone forever because Lerner’s hard-drive crashed in 2011. And in June, agency Commissioner John Koskinen(liar liar pants on fire) told Congress that back-up tapes containing the missing emails had been destroyed.
“The IRS has continually dragged its feet, changed its story, and been less than forthcoming with information related to its egregious violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights,” said Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has spearheaded congressional probes on the issue.
“These e-mails are long overdue, and underscore again why we need a special prosecutor to conduct an unhindered investigation. Hopefully these e-mails will help us get to the truth,” he continued.
Lerner led the IRS division that targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups for excessive scrutiny during the 2012 presidential election cycle when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Lerner in March refused to testify before the GOP-led House investigative committee, saying she was protected under the Fifth Amendment, and has since retired.
VIDEO: Did IRS bother to look for emails?
Some of the recovered emails might be duplicates. And it could take weeks to learn their content because they are encoded, said Frederick Hill, a spokesman for Republicans on the Oversight committee.
In addition, the IRS would also have to delete information about taxpayers that is considered private before it can be released to the committee, which is headed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
The federal investigators are from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which audits the IRS. A spokeswoman for the inspector general, Karen Kraushaar, declined to comment, saying the investigation was continuing.
The investigators ignited a political firestorm in May 2013 with the initial report the exceptionally close scrutiny.
The IRS said Saturday that it remains "committed to fully cooperating with all of the pending investigations."(yea right)
The agency also said that it learned after the June that the TIGTA had began an investigation of the hard-drive crash and a search for additional emails.
Senate Finance Committee aides said the investigators will assess if the newly recovered data can be made readable before it can be turned over to the committee.
They said their committee, which has been conducting a bipartisan investigation of the IRS's treatment of groups, including liberal ones, expects to complete its work early next year.
US releases Saudi prisoner from Guantanamo Bay, to take part in militant rehab program
FILE 2006: A Saudi citizen who has spent the past 12 years detained at Guantanamo Bay has been released, the Pentagon said Saturday, amid a push to whittle down the prison population at the U.S. base in Cuba. (AP)
A detainee at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is being returned to his home in Saudi Arabia where he will take part in a program to rehabilitate militants, according to the Pentagon.
Muhammad al-Zahrani was released Saturday, based on the conclusion of a U.S. government board that has been re-evaluating the need to continue holding the roughly 142 men held at the facility.
The facility was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks to get people with strong evidence of ties to terror groups off battlefields.
The release of al-Zahrani follows the release Wednesday of five other prisoners, as part of the Obama administration’s renewed effort to close the detention center at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
It also follows the controversial release in May of five Taliban detainees in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. One of the primary criticisms of the deal is that the detainees -- after being sent to Qatar where they will stay for a year -- is they will likely return to terror-related groups.
Al-Zahrani, who is about 45, had been held at Guantanamo since August 2002, according to military records. A report by the Periodic Review Board said he traveled to Afghanistan in 1999 and "almost certainly" joined al Qaeda, trained in military tactics and fought the Northern Alliance.
His lawyers, in a statement to the board, described him as a "middle-aged, ailing man who desperately wants to return to Saudi Arabia."
They said his father died while he was in U.S. custody and "his only wish is to see his ailing mother before she passes away."
The board cleared him for release in October, citing a number of factors including his willingness to participate in the Saudi rehabilitation program. He left Guantanamo on Friday.
Al-Zahrani is the 13th prisoner to leave Guantanamo Bay this year and the seventh in just the past two weeks. Officials have said more prisoners will be released in the coming weeks as part of a renewed effort to close the site. Seventy three are already cleared for release.
Of the five prisoners releases earlier this week, three were sent to Georgia and two to Slovakia for resettlement.
The prisoners -- four Yemenis and a Tunisian -- also were among dozens of low-level prisoners at Guantanamo that an administration task force in 2009 deemed to no longer pose a threat. There are now about 100 fewer detainees at the facility, compared to when President Obama took office roughly six years ago.
Obama's vow to close Guantanamo was thwarted by Congress, which prohibited sending any prisoner to the U.S. and imposed restrictions that brought releases to a halt. Congress eased the transfer restrictions last December, and releases have resumed. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan has been trying to persuade countries to accept prisoners, and he praised Georgia and Slovakia. "We are very grateful to our partners for these generous humanitarian gestures," Sloan said. "We appreciate the strong support we are receiving from our friends and allies around the globe." Georgia took three prisoners from Guantanamo in 2010. Slovakia has taken a total of eight men from Guantanamo.
The release of the three Yemeni prisoners, the first of that nationality to be resettled since 2010, was unusual because the U.S. has been reluctant to send them to their unstable homeland and has struggled to find alternatives. They make up the majority awaiting transfer.
California GOP Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called for a halt to the transfers because of the potential that some former prisoners could pose a threat. "What the Obama administration is doing is dangerous and, frankly, reckless," he said.
Of the 74 prisoners cleared and awaiting resettlement, 36 have been designated for detention without charge. There are also 23 slated for prosecution and 10 either facing trial by military commission or who have been convicted or sentenced.
By Taylor Tyler | Nov 22, 2014 06:55 PM EST
Federal Reserve People walk into a meeting of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve, October 24, 2013 in Washington DC. (Photo : Getty Images)
A top Federal Reserve official admitted Friday that the U.S. government has worked to protect big banks from criminal prosecution due to the belief that such prosecution could harm the financial system, the Huffington Post reported.
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U.S. government protection of big banks is a policy the Obama administration has adamantly denied, but during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Friday, William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, candidly admitted to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, that the policy was indeed a reality. Under the Obama administration, despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing, large financial organizations have avoided criminal prosecution for the following: laundering money for suspected terrorists and drug cartels, manipulating interest rate benchmarks, rigging various commodities markets, misleading investors in mortgage-linked securities, tricking homeowners into taking out expensive mortgages, manipulating municipal debt markets, and breaking state and federal rules when seizing homes from borrowers who were behind on their payments, according to the Huffington Post.
"We were not willing to find those firms guilty before, because we were worried that if we found them guilty, that could somehow potentially destabilize the financial system," Dudley said during the hearing. "We've gotten past that and I think it's really important that we got past that."
It's the first admission from a federal official acknowledging the explicit policy of protecting big banks from prosecution, despite lawmakers having long suspected such an arrangement.
A separate report released Thursday by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations detailed how banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan purchases metals warehouses, crude oil tankers and other physical commodities, and used those business to "gain unfair advantages and influence markets," according to the Guardian. U.S. lawmakers claim such commodity hoarding by big banks jeopardized firms and the financial system.>br>
The report charged the banks with engaging in "many billions of dollars of risky commodity activies, owning or controlling, not only vast inventories of physical commodities like crude oil, jet fuel, heating oil, natural gas, copper, aluminum and uranium, but also related businesses, including power plants, coal mines, natural gas facilities, and oil and gas pipelines."
It also found the banks to have benefited from lower borrowing costs and lower capital to debt ratios compared to nonbank companies, and some of the companies "used or contemplated using physical commodity activities that had the effect or potential effect of manipulating or influencing commodity prices."
Head of the committee, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, said, "It's time to restore the separation between banking and commerce and to prevent Wall Street from using nonpublic information to profit at the expense of industry and consumers."
You know, that is the hexll of it. he is the POTUS and you can not think in terms of race, gender or any other loser insult fall back and name calling. You can only think of the office and nothing else. Some people just refuse to accept he is the worst thing to happen to this country in my life time. He makes the clintonistas, carter look like rank amateurs.
If the libertarians would realize that they are only taking away votes and form a united front with republicans and work from inside the system instead of a useless outside the system maybe a united front could do some real good. Remember the perrogies?
Again I want to make it clear, I am neither Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green or any other party. I will vote for anyone who has the best chance of defeating a liberal-socialist-progressive democrat. Yes I am voting against, and not in favor of.
Let it begin.
Last I looked, Barry is half white. And yet... Leftists find it utterly inconceivable that anyone could in any sense criticize their favorite fascist for any of his blatant misdeeds, whopping lies, tyrannical fiats, or mind numbing blunders without ipso facto racist motive.
Other than that, it's always George Bush's fault.
Frustrating.
Adamant idiocy.
Like talking to a brick wall.
By Byron York, Washington Examiner
The Department of Homeland Security has just released new "Policies for the Apprehension, Detention, and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants." Designed to fill in the details after President Obama's announcement that at least four million currently illegal immigrants will be given work permits, Social Security numbers and protection from deportation, the DHS guidelines are instructions for the nation's immigration and border security officers as they administer the president's directive.
The new priorities are striking. On the tough side, the president wants U.S. immigration authorities to go after terrorists, felons, and new illegal border crossers. On the not-so-tough side, the administration views convicted drunk drivers, sex abusers, drug dealers, and gun offenders as second-level enforcement priorities. An illegal immigrant could spend up to a year in prison for a violent crime and still not be a top removal priority for the Obama administration.
In the memo, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson says his department must develop "smart enforcement priorities" to exercise "prosecutorial discretion" in order to best use his agency's limited resources. Johnson establishes three enforcement priority levels to guide DHS officers as they decide whether to stop, hold, or prosecute an illegal immigrant.
Later, when things balance out somewhat, I changed to Republican. Then ended up voting for Bill Clinton, the first time. Ross Perot the next time around, didn't want to get burnt twice.
In that last few Presidential elections my votes have been for Gary Johnson, Bob Barr, and Ron Paul who is the smartest of them all. So, my votes are often more "against" than "for". Even so, there are a lot of things about the Libertarian party that I find myself in disagreement with.
I do often end up voting for the Republican in state elections, Lamar Alexander, Fred Thompson etc., although I can't stomach our current governor, Haslam, because I think he's a shameless opportunist bent on personal gain over service to the public.
The thing is, I also can't back anyone who thinks that Social Security should be "privatized". The record seems to be pretty clear to me that this will inevitably end up with lots of deregulation that always seems to end up in system-wide collapse in which the investors end up broke, and the CEO's end up fabulously wealthy. A prime example being the collapse at the end of the Bush presidency, all the banksters still got their $ bonuses, instead of the jail time they still deserve, while the blame was shifted to the stupid Fannie May policy "bone" that was thrown to the Democrats. Giving home loans to people too dumb or lazy to invest any of their own equity was NOT a good idea, nor a means of providing housing to those who need it.
What followed was also inexcusable, shifting the blame all to Obama, which began about 30 seconds after the oath of office was administered. Bush was not to blame, either, but the policies his party forwarded certainly were. So, "the buck stops" at...Bush. Sorry, them's the facts.
I'll go ahead and point out the cognitive dissonance of my above statement, yes, many of the Libertarian Party also think SS should privatize. They're wrong. The fact is that the Private Sector does not always manage everything better. Capital ventures? Yes. Public Interest? Not so much.
Meanwhile, who can back the Democrats? Without engaging in more cognitive dissonance, that is. They won't even stand up for their own guy! Fact is, unemployment has dropped dramatically under Obama. So, point it out! Flip side: the Affordable Care Act isn't working for the most part, but that's largely because by the time it made it through the bought-and-paid-for Congress it was essentially a poisoned apple. Obama should have had the sense to veto it, and continued to push for a simple Medicare for everybody program. Expensive? You bet. But, where does the money end up? Back in every single city, town, borough, county, state in the country, instead of in the deeeeeep pockets of the military industrial complex. The money spent on only the first Iraq war would have funded it for 50 years.
Sigh!
By Katie Frates, Daily Caller
Two men affiliated with the New Black Panther Party allegedly planned to murder Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and bomb the Gateway Arch.
In an undercover police sting, the two bought a pipe bomb, and intended to buy two more but couldn’t afford it until one man’s girlfriend’s Electronic Benefit Transfer card was refilled, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
ST. LOUIS • Two men indicted last week on federal weapons charges allegedly had plans to bomb the Gateway Arch — and to kill St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson — the Post-Dispatch has learned....
Aj
... reality exceeds farce.
Electronic Bomb Transaction. Ain't it great what our tax money is used for.