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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Something To Hide'

Fed lowers economic expectations for 2011

November 24th, 2010 · Deception, Dissention, Economy, Federal Spending, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars

By Neil Irwin Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 24, 2010; 12:40 AM

Unemployment is set to remain higher for longer than previously thought, according to new projections from the Federal Reserve that would mean more than 10 million Americans remain jobless through the 2012 elections – even as a separate report shows corporate profits reaching their highest levels ever.

Top Federal Reserve officials project that the unemployment rate, now 9.6 percent, will fall only to about 9 percent at the end of 2011 and about 8 percent when the next presidential election arrives, in late 2012. The central bankers had envisioned a more rapid decline in joblessness in their previous forecasts, prepared in June.

The sober economic forecast comes despite signs that the recovery is picking up slightly. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that gross domestic product rose at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the three months ending in September, not 2 percent as earlier estimated. And there have been solid readings in recent weeks on job creation, manufacturing and retail.

The apparent contradiction reflects the brutal math that faces a nation trying claw out of a deep recession: Moderate growth, which would be fine in normal times, will do little to bring down sky-high joblessness, a reality reflected in the Fed’s forecasts.

Even as conditions are likely to remain miserable for job seekers for years to come, an extraordinary bounce-back is underway in the nation’s corporate sector, with profits rebounding 28 percent over the past year to an all-time high in the third quarter.

Businesses’ spending on compensation for employees, by contrast, rose only 7.6 percent.

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Obama’s Support of Terrorism.

November 24th, 2010 · Accountability, Deception, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism, Terrorism from Within

 

 

  • Murderer
  • Murdered 1 Person
  • Possible life imprisonment without Parole

 

Terrorist Attack on US in NY Court:Al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ghailani acquitted of all but one charge of 285 counts

  • Terrorist
  • Murdered 224 People
  • Possible 20 years imprisonment

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House panel rejects Rangel’s request to delay corruption trial.

November 15th, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Democrats, Ethics, House

By Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 15, 2010; 10:35 AM

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) pleaded with a House panel Monday to delay his long-awaited public trial on corruption charges, saying he needed time to find a new lawyer, but his request was rejected and the session went ahead without him.

The trial, conducted by an eight-member panel of Rangel’s congressional peers, is the first of its kind since 2002. Rangel faces allegations that he broke congressional rules in his personal finances and his fundraising efforts for a New York college. He and his previous legal team parted ways in September.

“I object to the proceeding,” Rangel told the House panel. “With all due respect, since I don’t have counsel to advise me, I’m going to have to excuse myself from these proceedings.”

He said he cannot afford a lawyer at present because his campaign account has been depleted.

The panel then went into closed session to consider the requested delay. The lawmakers later emerged and said the trial would go ahead.

Rangel asked that he be allowed to accept either pro bono legal work or reduced-fee support, but such actions might violate congressional rules forbidding gifts. Abbe Lowell, one of Washington’s premier white-collar defense lawyers, attended the hearing and said during the break that he would join Rangel’s defense if the panel postponed the hearing to allow Rangel time to raise money to pay Lowell’s fees.

Rangel has already burned through $2 million in legal fees, draining funds from his now wiped-out campaign account. When he told his former legal team that he would not be able to pay the estimated $1 million to finish the case, they withdrew from the case, he said Monday. He now wants to set up a separate legal defense fund that could provide legal support, but it may take weeks or months to finance the operation.

“I am being denied the right to have a lawyer,” he complained. He argued that “50 years of public service is on the line.”

The 40-year House veteran arrived in the hearing room inside the Longworth House Office Building precisely at 9 a.m., the scheduled start time, with his wife and other family members trailing behind.

He sat at a desk in front of the dais, in a room that is usually reserved for the House Administration Committee, which oversees mostly mundane matters of internal congressional management. Winking at photographers, Rangel brought with him some yellow legal pads, pens and a massive binder containing the case against him.

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Junior Democrats in Senate seek to change the way chamber does business

November 15th, 2010 · Democrats, Dissention, Senate

By Shailagh Murray Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 15, 2010; 12:34 AM

Senate Democrats are expected to elect the same party veterans as their leaders when they return to work this week, but a new class of junior lawmakers is exerting its influence by challenging the chamber’s sacred traditions and the partisan, top-down governing style that has marked the past two years.

The young Democrats, many of whom will be on the ballot in 2012, reject the view that the Senate must move at a glacial pace, that only its most senior members get to determine the policy agenda, and that bipartisanship has become the purview of the naive and nostalgic.

“In the last election, voters said, ‘Please work together.’ I think they’re going to move next to profanities,” said Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.), a member of the Class of 2008.

Upstarts such as Udall, his cousin Tom Udall (N.M.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Mark Warner (Va.) are expected to wage a fresh campaign to change Senate operating procedures and give first-term lawmakers a greater say over Democratic strategy and how the party communicates with voters.

To amplify the voice of Democratic freshmen, Senate leaders are considering elevating at least one newcomer to senior ranks. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) asked Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.), who survived a bruising 2010 challenge, to lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 2012 campaign cycle. That would have given Bennet a seat at leadership meetings – along with responsibility for a potentially brutal election cycle, with 23 incumbent Democrats on the ballot, compared with 10 Republicans. But Bennet, who has three young children, turned down the job.

A top goal for ’06 and ’08 Democrats is to change Senate rules that allow a single member of the minority party to prevent legislation from advancing. They want the Senate to take a more entrepreneurial approach to crafting bills, rather than falling back on the same veteran chairmen and their pet policy prescriptions. And they are unwilling to write off Republicans, viewing the opposition as the linchpin to advancing Democratic goals.

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‘Soul-searching’ Obama aides: Democrats’ midterm election losses a wake-up call

November 14th, 2010 · Accountability, Change of Power, Deception, Democrats, Dissention, Ethics, Government Control, Greed, Non-Transparency, Obama Exposed, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

"Soul Searching" or "Tee Time"?

By Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 14, 2010; 12:41 AM

After nearly two weeks of introspection, President Obama‘s top advisers have concluded that the “shellacking” Democrats took on Election Day was caused in large part by their own failure to live up to expectations set during the 2008 campaign, not merely the typical political cycles and poor messaging they pointed to at first.

While the president has been on a trip to Asia for the past 10 days, all but a few of his top aides stayed behind to figure out what went so wrong and what to do about it. Wearing casual clothes and with the White House to themselves, they determined that the situation they face is serious and will take significant adjustments to reverse.

The advisers are deeply concerned about winning back political independents, who supported Obama two years ago by an eight-point margin but backed Republicans for the House this year by 19 points. To do so, they think he must forge partnerships with Republicans on key issues and make noticeable progress on his oft-repeated campaign pledge to change the ways of Washington.

Even more important, senior administration officials said, Obama will need to oversee tangible improvements in the economy. They cannot just keep arguing, as Democrats did during the recent campaign, that things would have been worse if not for administration policies.

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Obama heralds Indonesia’s political, religious diversity in latest outreach to Muslims

November 10th, 2010 · Deception, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason

By Scott Wilson Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 10, 2010; 12:02 AM

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – Speaking before thousands in the city that helped raise him, President Obama on Wednesday cited this country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy as a model in an Islamic world often governed by unelected autocracies.

He also praised Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation – for a “spirit of tolerance that is written into your constitution, symbolized in your mosques and churches and temples, and embodied in your people,” a quality worthy for all the world to emulate.

Obama received a warm welcome from the crowd of about 6,500 at the University of Indonesia, particularly when he spoke in Indonesian, as when he recalled buying satay and bakso from street vendors or referenced the national motto, “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika,” or “Unity in Diversity.”

“We are two nations which have traveled different paths. Yet our nations show that hundreds of millions who hold different beliefs can be united in freedom under one flag,” Obama said.

The speech was cast by White House officials as part of the president’s continuing outreach to Muslims, an effort he began last year in Cairo by calling for a “new beginning” between the United States and Islam.

But Muslim views of Obama around the world have worsened in several countries since then, and in the United States, a recent Pew Research Center poll found that nearly one in five Americans thinks the president is a Muslim, in part because of the time he spent here as a child. Obama describes himself as a practicing Christian.

The president’s efforts to mend relations with the Islamic world were partly overshadowed by the reopening Tuesday of a rupture between the United States and Israel, a development that reflected his administration’s struggle to strike a balance that satisfies either side in the Middle East conflict.

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MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann suspended for contributing to 3 Democratic candidates

November 6th, 2010 · Corruption, Democrats

By David MontgomeryWashington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 6, 2010

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, the unabashedly liberal-leaning counterpart to cable television’s conservative hosts, was suspended indefinitely without pay on Friday for contributing a total of $7,200 to three Democratic candidates in late October, in violation of network policies.

Olbermann’s banishment leaves uncertain the immediate future of MSNBC’s top-rated show, “Countdown With Keith Olbermann.” MSNBC initially said Christopher Hayes, Washington editor of the Nation, would fill in for Olbermann Friday night — then revised the announcement to say that daytime anchor Thomas Roberts would host. Who will take the helm in coming days has not been decided, a spokesman said.

Olbermann’s audience at 8 p.m. weeknights averaged about 1.1 million people in October, according to the network. He launched “Countdown” in 2003.

Olbermann anchored MSNBC’s election coverage Tuesday night. The revelation of Olbermann’s contributions — first reported by Politico — means that the anchor was leading on-air coverage of races in which he had privately picked favorites.

Federal Election Commission records show that on Oct. 28 Olbermann gave $2,400 each to Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords, and on Oct. 29 he donated $2,400 to Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway. The donation to Grijalva came on the same day the Democratic incumbent appeared on “Countdown,” Politico reported. Conway and Giffords have also appeared on the show.

Under FEC rules, $2,400 is the most an individual donor can give to a candidate in a general-election campaign.

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Republicans criticize government’s management of real estate holdings

November 1st, 2010 · Accountability, Economy, Federal Spending, Government, Greed, Non-Transparency, Real Estate, Terrorism from Within

By Jonathan O’Connell – Capital Business Staff Writer
Sunday, October 31, 2010; 10:13 PM

Seven House Republicans have coined a phrase to describe how they think the federal government is managing its property, including its local real estate portfolio: “Sitting on Our Assets.”

Led by ranking minority-party member John L. Mica (Fla.), Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee recently issued a report by that name, criticizing the management of real estate and other assets by agencies including the General Services Administration, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The federal government is the country’s largest real estate owner, with a portfolio of about 1.2 million facilities nationwide. An audit conducted during the George W. Bush administration found that the government owns 14,000 vacant buildings and underuses 55,000 other locations.

Although President Obama issued a memo in June requiring federal agencies to reduce real estate costs by $8 billion by the end of fiscal 2012, the Republicans’ analysis says the government continues to overly rely on leased space and retain underused and vacant property. The GSA, the report says, “struggles to dispose of its surplus property in a timely fashion and for reasonable rates of return despite its enhanced property disposal authorities.”

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In emotionally charged times, calls arise for impeachment of a justice or two

November 1st, 2010 · Accountability, Ethics, Supreme Court

By Robert Barnes – Monday, November 1, 2010

All across the country Tuesday, political incumbents are bracing for judgment from an angry electorate. So perhaps members of the Supreme Court should not be surprised that they are in somebody’s sights, as well.

Justices, of course, can’t be voted out. They serve for life, or as the Constitution puts it, “shall hold their Offices during good Behavior.”

But that hasn’t stopped calls from the left and the right recently for the House to open impeachment hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

None of the complaints is gaining traction, but they do seem to indicate a desire to do something about the court’s rulings or recent developments that some say violate testimony given at justices’ confirmation hearings.

“These are sulphurous times,” said Dennis Hutchinson, a Supreme Court scholar at the University of Chicago law school. “And the only stick you can wave at a federal judge is impeachment.”

He quickly noted that such demands almost never get very far.

The only justice ever served with impeachment was Samuel Chase, accused in 1805 of being overtly partisan. He was cleared by the Senate and served another six years.

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ObamaCare and Voters: Clinton and Obama told Democrats it would be popular. Whoops.

October 31st, 2010 · Corruption, Dissention, Healthcare, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

By the time anyone finds out, the bill will already have passed!!

Midterm elections amid a lousy economy are usually bad for the President’s party, but it looks as if a neutron bomb may detonate on Democrats in 2010. And one of the major reasons that this year shifted from ordinary losses to potential catastrophe is ObamaCare. This election is a referendum on an entitlement the public never wanted and continues to hate, as evidence from around the country is showing.

Take almost any poll at random. Even this week’s New York Times-CBS poll has repeal leading among likely voters, 47% to 43%. The latest Pew-National Journal survey shows that a majority of likely voters—51%—favors repeal, including 53% of independents. The Real Clear Politics average of all polling shows support for the law at 40.9%—and opposition at 50.6%.

The Kaiser Family Foundation—whose outlier tracking poll has consistently shown the most ObamaCare support—now reports that only 42% view the law favorably. That’s a seven-point drop since September, and it happened to coincide with the start date for the “patients bill of rights,” which Kaiser says is among the bill’s popular parts. Voters are learning that mandates—like those that allow “children” to remain on their parents’ health insurance until age 26—tend to increase costs.

There are many other such scales-from-the-eyes moments. The New England Journal of Medicine, another outlet for ObamaCare partisans, recently conceded in a “perspective” akin to an editorial that “it seems clear that Americans today have very negative views about the general direction of the country,” in large part because of the health bill.

Speaking of the shock of recognition, there’s the case of Earl Pomeroy. The nine-term North Dakota Democrat earned liberal plaudits for his numerous TV ads defending ObamaCare and his vote for it, as well as blasting Republican Rick Berg for ostensibly putting “big insurance first.”

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