Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, October 19, 2010
QUESTION...
What comes to mind when you listen to this song?
I try to pick a "neat" newsbite theme song for each day's or weekend's newsbites. These are songs that I enjoy and that I'm betting all of you enjoy - at least I'm betting all of you enjoy most of them.
Today's song, though...
(*SIGH*)
How I loved this song as a 12 year old. It "bops." It tells a story. It's fun to sing!
But the story...
God help me. Even as a kid I "understood" the point of the song. I understood the words. But they didn't truly reach me. I didn't have a brother or father in Vietnam. If my parents ever attended the funeral of one of "our boys" killed in Vietnam I'm not aware of it.
My dad was a marine during WW-2 - a marine assigned to Pacific theatre. I don't know much about his service, only that he was shipboard - fleet service - during the Battle of Midway.
My Uncle Bob was a bomber pilot in European theatre during "The War."
My Uncle Art... he was the family "hero"... his was the second tank to survive the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach, Normandy France. Uncle Art crossed Europe with Patton, ending the war facing the Russians in what was then Czechoslovakia.
My Uncle Art was the toughest guy I ever knew. Remember Clint Eastwood's character - "Sgt. Thomas Highway" - in Heartbreak Ridge? That was Uncle Art. Or... think of a slightly less mellow Walt Kowalski from Gran Torino.
My point is... I was raised to believe that regardless of the cost, if America went to war then the war was to be supported - and won... damn the cost.
I was gung-ho through middle school... through high school... through college. I was your typical "patriot," your typical "hawk." I favored - and still do - a "strong" foreign policy.
Thing is... my idea of a "strong" foreign policy has changed over the years. To take a word out of the liberal lexicon, my attitudes have "evolved;" I've "grown."
It started with Pappy Bush and Colin Powell screwing up the First Gulf War - not only allowing Saddam Hussein to retain power... but worse... more dishonorably... allowing Saddam to drain the Qurna Marshes, slaughter the Marsh Arabs, and crush the Kurdish rebellion in the North of Iraq that Bush himself had egged on.
Folks... understand: George Herbert Walker Bush behaved in a dishonorable fashion and brought shame upon this country. And if anything - as shown by his behavior during this past decade following his role in the first Bush administration - Colin Powell is even more to be blamed and disdained for dishonorable personal and public behavior.
In any case, back to today's "theme song" - Billy Don't Be A Hero - when I hear this song today all I can think of is how once again we're throwing blood and treasure away on a cause that's beyond simply "lost;" rather, it's a "cause" that's misguided.
To those of you who regularly read my "newsbites," you folks know what I mean.
What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan in force? Certainly our 100,000 troops plus aren't "protecting" me. At the very least they're "protecting" me only in the sense that the Vietnam war "protected" America.
(Anyone think Vietnam was worth the price in blood and treasure? If anyone could go back in time and decide whether whether to re-fight the Vietnam War the way we fought it... would you choose to re-fight that war?)
Today... October 19, 2010... all "Billy Don't Be A Hero" reminds me of is that we're repeating the mistakes of the past and that while I'm helping to "pay" the "treasure" part of the cost, it's others who will pay the mental and physical price in wounds and deaths for the policies of the Obama administration.
Blame Bush for failing to get us out of Afghanistan after we had toppled the Taliban and installed a "friendly" government. But Bush ain't been president... he ain't been Commander-In-Chief... since January 2009.
Congressional Democrats have been in a position to end our involvement in Afghanistan since January of 2007.
Barak Hussein Obama has been in a position to disengage since January of 2009.
Again... today is October 19, 2010.
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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/124773-nrsc-targets-harry-reid-for-living-at-the-ritz
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) Washington address has emerged as an issue in his race against Republican Sharron Angle.
[Turns out that Senator] Harry [Reid] lives at the Ritz-Carlton...
(*SNORT*) YOU'VE GOTTA BE FRIGG'N KIDDING ME...!!!
* FUNNY THING ABOUT THIS ARTICLE... (*SMIRK*)... FOR "SOME" STRANGE REASON THE REPORT DOESN'T ADDRESS HOW MUCH REID PAYS TO LIVE AT THE RITZ... WHETHER HE'S PAYING MARKET RATES OR IS HIS "DEAL" JUST ANOTHER "INSIDER'S" SPECIAL DEAL.
* FAIR QUESTION, NO...???
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101019/D9IUNITO0.html
Democrats are making a pre-election pitch to give Social Security recipients a one-time payment of $250...
* EVEN THOUGHT THE NATION IS BROKE... EVEN THOUGH DEMOCRATS COULDN'T EVEN COME UP WITH A LEGALLY REQUIRED BUDGET THIS YEAR... EVEN THOUGH THESE "ONE TIME PAYMENTS" WOULD GO OUT TO RICH AS WELL AS POOR SENIORS.
(*SMIRK*)
* FOLKS... THIS IS WHY THE DEMOCRATS MUST BE THROWN OUT OF POWER. THEY'LL SPEND *YOUR* LAST DIME TRYING TO BRIBE... er... *YOU.*
President Barack Obama has urged Congress to approve the $250 payment.
* OF COURSE HE HAS...!!! OBAMA IS A SELF-SERVING, INCOMPETENT, IRRESPONSIBLE HYPOCRITE. THIS WE KNOW!
[According to Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid, "The only thing standing in the way of America's seniors receiving this critical support are Senate Republicans."
Actually, 12 Democrats and one independent who aligns himself with Democrats joined 37 Republicans in blocking the $250 bonus when Senate voted on the issue last March.
* WELL KUDOS TO THOSE 12 DEMOCRATS AND DAMN THE SO-CALLED "JOURNALIST" WHO WROTE THIS FOR NOT IDENTIFYING THE RINO TURNCOATS.
* OH... AND BTW... BACK TO THE HYPOCRISY OF THE MAJORITY OF SENATE DEMOCRATS...
Democratic leaders in the House never brought the issue up for a vote.
(*SMIRK*)
"It's clearly a last-ditch election-year Hail Mary," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. If supplementing the incomes of seniors was really a priority, he said, Democrats would have acted on it before they adjourned for the campaign.
Democrats may have the votes in the House to push through the measure, although still unanswered is how they plan to cover the estimated $13 billion to $14 billion cost of giving $250 to each of more than 50 million Social Security beneficiaries.
(*SNORT*)
Obama hasn't offered any suggestions...
(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)
* ACTUALLY, FOLKS, IT'S NOT FUNNY. THIS IRRESPONSIBLE FOOL IS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. (*SIGH*)
Neither Pelosi nor Reid have given any specifics on how, or if, the bill would be paid for. Pelosi's office said it would be "fiscally responsible."
(*GUFFAW*)
The House bill is H.R. 5987.
* I INVITE YOU ALL TO CHECK AND SEE WHETHER YOUR REPRESENTATIVE HAS SIGNED ON TO THE BILL OR ACTED RESPONSIBLY BY OPPOSING IT.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
** BTW... DIRECTLY RELATED TO MY OPENING STATEMENTS IN TODAY'S FRONT PAGE POSTING.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Troops-chafe-at-restrictive-rules-of-engagement_-talks-with-Taliban-1226055-105202284.html
To the U.S. Army soldiers and Marines serving here, some things seem so obviously true that they are beyond debate. Among those perceived truths:
The restrictive rules of engagement that they have to fight under have made serving in combat far more dangerous for them, while allowing the Taliban to return to a position of strength.
(*SIGH*)
"If they use rockets to hit the forward operating base we can't shoot back because they were within 500 meters of the village. If they shoot at us and drop their weapon in the process we can't shoot back," said Spc. Charles Brooks, 26, a U.S. Army medic with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, in Zabul province.
(*SIGH*)
Word had come down the morning Brooks spoke to this reporter that watch towers surrounding the base were going to be dismantled because Afghan village elders, some sympathetic to the Taliban, complained they were invading their village privacy. "We have to take down our towers because it offends them and now the Taliban can set up mortars and we can't see them," Brooks added, with disgust.
(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
* FOLKS... AMERICA'S FINEST ARE BEING USED AS POLITICAL PAWNS - AND WORSE, LITERAL CANNON FODDER - IN THE SERVICE OF OBAMA'S POLITICAL MANEUVERINGS. IT'S NOT RIGHT...!!! OBAMA DOESN'T WANT TO "WIN" THE WAY. (AND EVEN IF HE DID, IT'S UNWINNABLE - AT LEAST IN ANY DEFINITION OF THE TERM "WIN" THAT YOU OR I WOULD UNDERSTAND.) NOPE. OBAMA ORDERED THIS "SURGE" ONLY TO PROVIDE COVER FOR HIMSELF FROM CHARGES OF "CUTTING AND RUNNING" WHICH WOULD HAVE HURT HIM POLITICALLY. THIS IS THE WORST SORT OF POLITICS AS USUAL.
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
In June, Gen. David Petraeus, who took command here after the self-inflicted demise of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, told Congress that he was weighing a major change with rules for engaging enemy fighters in Afghanistan. That has not yet happened, troops say. Soldiers and Marines continue to be held back by what they believe to be strict rules imposed by the government of President Hamid Karzai designed with one objective: limit Afghan civilian casualties.
"I don't think the military leaders, president or anybody really cares about what we're going through," said Spc. Matthew "Silver" Fuhrken, 25, from Watertown, N.Y. "I'm sick of people trying to cover up what's really going on over here. They won't let us do our job. I don't care if they try to kick me out for what I'm saying - war is war and this is no war. I don't know what this is."
* HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE READING THIS CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THIS OBSCENITY... THIS WASTE...
* I'LL TELL YOU HOW PEOPLE CAN SUPPORT THIS: THEY DON'T HAVE THEIR OWN LIVES OR THE LIVES OF LOVED ONES ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK. IT'S THAT SIMPLE AND THAT DISGRACEFUL.
To the soldiers and Marines risking their lives in Afghanistan, restrictions on their ability to aggressively attack the Taliban have led to another enormous frustration stalking morale: the fear that the Karzai government, with the prodding of the administration of President Obama, will negotiate a peace with the Taliban that wastes all the sacrifices by the U.S. here. Those fears intensified when news reached the enlisted ranks that the Karzai government, with the backing of senior Obama officials, was entering a new round of negotiations with the Taliban.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
"If we walk away, cut a deal with the Taliban, desert the people who needed us most, then this war was pointless," said Pvt. Jeffrey Ward, with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, who is stationed at Forward Operating Base Bullard in southern Afghanistan.
* SORRY, PRIVATE WARD... NO "IF" ABOUT IT. WE'RE LEAVING. ONLY WE'LL BE LEAVING AFTER OBAMA HAS PLAYED OUT HIS "STRONG FOREIGN POLICY" THEATRE AT THE COST OF THOUSANDS OF REAL LIFE AMERICANS WOUNDED AND KILLED.
From the front lines, the U.S. backing of the Karzai government, widely seen as riddled with corruption by the Afghans living in local villages, has given the Taliban a position of power in villages while undercutting U.S. moral authority. Corrupt government officials have made "it impossible for us to trust anyone," said elder Sha Barar, from the village of Sha Joy. The people of that village and many others profess fear of the Taliban, and recount tales of brutality and wanton killings by the Taliban and their sympathizers. But they don't see the Karzai government as a positive force in their lives.
* WHAT THE F--K ARE WE DOING...?!?!
"What does it mean if we give in to the Taliban? They are the enemy," Brooks said. "This place is going to be a safe haven for terrorists again. The government doesn't care about the sacrifices already made. As far as the mission goes, I want to see these kids go to school and have a future but not at the expense of my friends - not anymore."
* AMEN.
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20101018/NEWS010702/10190308/
Three van loads of Hughes High students were taken last week – during school hours – to vote and given sample ballots only for Democratic candidates and then taken for ice cream, a Monday lawsuit alleges.
* DID IT HAPPEN OR DIDN'T IT; THAT'S THE QUESTION.
“They plan to bring four more high schools (to vote) this week,” Christopher Finney, COAST (Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes against Cincinnati Public Schools) attorney, said Monday after filing the suit.
[T]he school district’s lawyer denies any school connection. “No CPS personnel engaged in the promotion of candidates or any political party,” CPS attorney Mark Stepaniak noted in a written release.
* AS I WROTE ABOVE... EITHER IT HAPPENED OR IT DIDN'T.
CPS spokeswoman Janet Walsh said taking students on school time to vote has been done before. “It has to be scrupulously nonpartisan,” Walsh said.
* HMM... A BIT OF A WALK-BACK HERE... (*SMIRK*)
* SO THEY DO ENGAGE IN TAKING STUDENTS ON SCHOOL TIME TO VOTE; THEY ADMIT IT!
Stepaniak said church vans were volunteered to drive students to vote.
* SO...??? (*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*) ARE WE SUPPOSED TO SAY, "OH, IT'S THE CHURCH," AND SO IT'S OK...??? (*SNORT*)
The suit alleges three van loads of Hughes High students arrived at the Downtown Board of Elections offices at 1 p.m. Wednesday, supervised by a school employee. School lets out at 3:15 p.m.
When they got out of the vans, the students, the suit alleges, also were accompanied by adults who appeared to be campaign workers or supporters for U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-West Price Hill, the congressman being challenged this fall by Steve Chabot. When the students got out of the vans, the suit alleges they were given sample ballots containing only Democratic candidates.
“We want these kids to vote,” Finney said. “I’m not sure them being bussed during the school day is a good thing, but that’s not the thrust of the suit.
“If they had fair sample ballots or no sample ballots it would be different.”
The suit alleges those actions violated a 2002 agreement between CPS and COAST where the school agreed it wouldn’t allow school property or employees to be used for “advocating the election or defeat of candidates for public office.”
* ALL I CAN SAY IS IT SURE SOUNDS LIKE DEMOCRATIC POLITICS AS USUAL. (*SHRUG*) IN OTHER WORDS... IT SOUNDS "DIRTY."
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/International/us-woman-pays-british-addicts-kids/story?id=11916808
An American charity that pays drug addicts to get sterilized has expanded its operation into Great Britain...
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Barbara Harris, the founder and head of Project Prevention, shrugs off the criticism of her group, which has paid 3,600 American drug addicts $300 each to get sterilized or undergo other long-term birth control procedures.
* AS WELL SHE SHOULD! THIS WOMAN HAS THE RIGHT IDEA!
Harris makes it clear that she's not forcing anyone to get sterilized, and everyone who's opted for sterilization in Project Prevention has already had children. Harris is happy if people choose long-term birth control options like IUD or Implanon. But she says if people want to be sterilized, it's an acceptable choice. In the past, she's had women call her complaining that they've been denied sterilization because of their young age.
* PLEASE CHECK OUT http://www.projectprevention.org/ AND CONSIDER PLACING THE ORGANIZATION ON YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST. I'LL BE SENDING THEM A CHECK! (CARL... MARY... TED... COM'ON...)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE69I2EC.htm
Climate change is not a threat and the consequences of global warming will not be catastrophic, the President of the Czech Republic [,Vaclav Klaus,] said on Tuesday.
* AND HE'S RIGHT!
"Global warming in the last 150 years was modest and future warming and its consequences will not be dangerous or catastrophic. It doesn't look like a threat we should respond to," he told a lecture in London on Tuesday.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*) (*NOD*)
"I don't see empirical evidence of human-caused global warming. I see so many mistakes in the methodology of science and modelling," he added.
(*THUMBS UP*)
Klaus said the debate over the threat of climate change was biased, subject to propaganda and used by governments and lobbyists to earn more power for themselves.
Over the past 10,000 years, the world's climate has been much the same as at present, he argued.
"Average surface temperatures did not vary significantly. If there has been any long-term trend, it is an overall gentle cooling trend," the president said.
He denounced scientific institutions such as the UK's Royal Society which published a layman's guide to the science of climate change in September in the hope of clarifying confusion around the issue.
"I am not impressed by heavily biased British scientific institutions," he said.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
** FINE BARKER RANTING INTERSPACED BTW!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559972460199304.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Congress will face a runaway train on taxes and spending when it reconvenes after the elections. The solution is to restrain both - especially to stop the $6 trillion tax increase scheduled to take place on Jan. 1 - in order to restore business confidence and help job growth.
Instead, Congress is more likely to do nothing and count on the central bank to flood the economy with more money.
* AND IF SO... WILL LARGE NUMBERS OF AMERICANS RESPOND BY SERIOUSLY CONTEMPLATING VIOLENCE? (JUST POSING THE QUESTION...)
In his speech at the Boston Federal Reserve Bank on Friday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke practically promised to oblige by resuming the large purchases of Treasury notes carried out to [supposedly] help stop the 2008 financial crisis.
* MY POSITION NOW - AS IT WAS THEN - IS THAT THE BAILOUTS AND MANIPULATIONS OF MARKETS WERE THE PROBLEM... NOT THE SOLUTION. I BELIEVE THAT IF WE HAD JUST LET THE LOSERS LOSE... (*SHRUG*)... THEN, THEN WE WOULDN'T BE IN THE SHAPE WE'RE IN NOW.
It's a sweeping manipulation of longer-term government interest rates and the dollar that the Fed should consider only in the direst of national emergencies or with specific congressional authorization.
* THE LATTER IS THE ONLY TRUE CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY. THE FED AS IT CURRENTLY OPERATES IS A CONSTITUTIONAL TRAIN WREAK.
Mr. Bernanke argued that most of today's high unemployment is cyclical...
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
* FOLKS... UNLIKE BERNANKE I'M ASSUMING MOST OF YOU HAVE AT A BARE MINIMUM HALF A BRAIN. SO... LET ME ASK YOU... DO YOU SUPPOSE THE FACT THAT WE HARDLY MAKE ANYTHING ANYMORE IN THIS COUNTRY - THAT WE'VE LARGELY DE-INDUSTRIALIZED - HAS MAYBE "SOMETHING" TO DO WITH UNEMPLOYMENT...??? AND ASSUMING IT DOES... PRAY TELL HOW BRAINLESS BEN PLANS ON REVERSING THE... er... CYCLE OF UNEMPLOYMENT?
Corporate and government jobs are faring better than small business jobs...
* OBAMA'S PALS AT GOLDMAN SACHS... CHRIS DODD'S PALS KNOW COLLECTIVELY AS "FRIENDS OF ANGELO..." (*SMIRK*) THE DEMS HAVE BEEN BOUGHT AND PAID FOR.
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
Jobs are moving to Asia as Washington's weak-dollar policy causes trillions of dollars to move abroad...
(*MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
[Fearing the coming] U.S. inflation [stagflation!] and dollar debasement:,] investors put their money into foreign factories, mines and workers, creating a boom there [while] they avoid long-term job-creating investments here, instead buying short-term IOUs from our government.
* BTW, THAT'S HOW OBAMA'S BANKING BUDDIES HAVE BEEN MAKING THEIR... er... "PROFITS." THEY "BORROW" MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT (MEANING FROM US, THE TAXPAYERS!) AT ZERO-POINT-WHATEVER RATE AND THEN IMMEDIATELY "LOAN" IT BACK TO THE GOVERNMENT AT A HIGHER INTEREST RATE. CUTE, HUH? FUNNY HOW YOU AND I DON'T HAVE THIS ATTRACTIVE OPINON TO MAKE MONEY BY DOING... er... NOTHING.
Whether in Republican or Democratic administrations, the Washington policy consensus for a decade has been "print and spend."
* WHICH LOGICALLY BRINGS US BACK TO THE QUESTION: IS VIOLENCE THE ONLY ANSWER...???
[T]he nearly $100 billion per year in "profit" the Fed is "earning" from its "investments" are at the expense of savers forced to compete with the Fed for bonds.
* I HEAR WALMART HAS FAIRLY GOOD PRICES ON RIFLES, SHOTGUNS, AND PISTOLS... (*SHRUG*) (HEY... JUST SAY'N...)
President Obama and Mr. Bernanke tried print-and-spend in trillion-dollar increments in 2009 and 2010, with no discernible improvement in unemployment (which is still almost 27 million counting underemployment) or small business investment plans...
* AND NOW THESE TWO IDIOTS ARE CONSPIRING TO "DOUBLE DOWN" WITH ALL THE RISK FALLING UPON THE SHOULDERS OF THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER WHILE THESE BASTARDS LOOK FORWARD TO LIFETIME FORTUNE.
The administration's centralized small business loan plan, enacted in September, was the latest spending flop. As the government controls more industries and allocates more of the nation's capital, small businesses lower their hiring plans, as they did last month, on the expectation that the federal government will tax them more to pay for Washington's largess.
(*SIGH*)
By electing a new Congress in November, voters may be able to slow federal spending growth, but they probably can't stop the Fed's latest expansion plan. The Fed is likely to buy more long-term government-guaranteed bonds, using newly created money to add to the over $2 trillion in bonds it already owns.
* CAN CONGRESS DEFUND THE FED...???
The damage is substantial. Near-zero interest rates are hammering savers, while transferring hundreds of billions of dollars annually to bond issuers - mostly governments, banks and bigger corporations. The weaker dollar is pushing risk capital away from this country and toward Asia and emerging markets.
[T]he Fed's stimulus policy supports government over the private sector and big business over small—meanwhile, giving Congress an excuse to impose crippling increases in taxes and spending.
* WALMART ALSO SELL AMMUNITION, I BELIEVE.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/business/global/20rare.html
China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.
[T]he interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese leaders are willing to use their growing economic muscle.
* YA THINK...?!?! (*SMIRK*)
Chinese customs officials imposed the broader restrictions on Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official summoned international news media Sunday night to denounce United States trade actions.
China mines 95% of the world’s rare earth elements...
* WHICH ANY SANE AMERICAN KNOWS IS A PROBLEM IN AND OF ITSELF...!!!
[These "rare earth elements] broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of products as diverse as cellphones, large wind turbines and guided missiles.
* AIN'T DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE "KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY" GRAND! (*SMIRK*)
Industry executives said there had been no signal from Beijing of how long rare earth shipments intended for the West would be held by Chinese customs officials.
* IN OTHER WORDS, KIDS, THE CHINESE ARE HOLDING A GUN TO OUR HEADS. (THANK YOU PRESIDENTS CLINTON, BUSH AND OBAMA!)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560311899176750.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecond
During 2008, the Obama campaign didn't show any interest in going beyond the letter of the law in disclosing its donors to the general public.
Despite public pleas from campaign-finance reform groups such as Common Cause and Democracy 21, Team Obama refused to follow Senator John McCain's lead and release names of donors who gave less than $200, even though such donors supplied about half of the $800 million the Obama campaign raised.
Perhaps one reason is that, as the Washington Post reported, the Obama campaign had turned off its Address Verification System, or AVS, at its Web site. That program should have stopped contributions coming in from citizens of foreign countries - a violation of federal law.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Clearly, the Obama campaign's decision to abandon filters had consequences - the campaign was forced to refund $33,000 to two Palestinian brothers in the Gaza Strip who had bought T shirts in bulk from the campaign's online store.
* INTERESTING...
The Federal Election Commission, which did receive a complete list of Obama donors, privately expressed concern that the list might include thousands of other Obama donors it suspected of contributing illegally from foreign countries.
* HMM...
The FEC declined to pursue any of these smaller fish. But nothing prevents the White House from releasing the full list of donors it gave the FEC and letting inquiring reporters put the matter to rest once and for all.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101802645.html
[T]he Service Employees International Union (SEIU)...is spending lavishly to elect Democrats.
The SEIU claims 100,000 members in Canada.
According to SEIU's 2008 constitution, dues include $7.65 per month per member that must be sent to the SEIU International in the United States. This means that the SEIU takes in nearly $9.2 million per year from foreign nationals...
* HMM...
Is any foreign money being used to fund the SEIU's anti-Republican campaign efforts?
* IN OTHER WORDS, ARE LAWS BEING BROKEN...?
According to the Wall Street Journal, "The Service Employees International Union, one of the nation's fastest-growing labor unions, acknowledges that it can't be certain that foreign nationals haven't contributed to its $44 million political budget to support pro-labor Democrats."
The SEIU is not the only union that takes in money from foreign members. According to the Canadian Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers has 280,000 Canadian members; the United Food and Commercial Workers has more than 245,000; the Teamsters has more than 108,000; the Laborers' International Union of North America has more than 68,000; and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has more than 57,000. How much do these foreign union members send to the United States? If the constitutions of their unions are anything like SEIU's, it could be tens of millions of dollars. Is any of that money being used to help elect Democrats this November?
* GOOD QUESTIONS, ALL!
Unions have another source of foreign cash: dues from illegal immigrants.
In an April 2007 speech, uncovered by the conservative Web site RedState, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina boasted how his union's rolls were loaded with illegal immigrants. Medina declared: "SEIU is the largest union of immigrant workers in the country, and a number of them are undocumented. But let me hasten to add, these are not just Latinos. In our membership are Eastern Europeans, Irish, Polish, Indians, Chinese - the whole world is represented among the undocumented and also in our membership. We also represent American-born workers, legal residents."
(*SNORT*)
They "also" represent legal residents? Exactly how many illegal workers are on the rolls of the SEIU and other trade unions? Do the unions track which of their members are here illegally? How much do these illegal workers contribute to union coffers each year? And [how much] of this money being used to fund union efforts to elect Democrats this November?
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