Oh, what a happy, happy, happy day!
Yes... it's Linda's wedding!
Tonight... 6:00 p.m.
Heading down to Jersey "Horse Country" early this afternoon to check into the Inn and (hopefully) do a bit of "pre-gaming" with my buddy Phil and other members of the Leiter clan!
(Rob... com'on... George and Harry will enjoy the CopperTop Bar with their uncles Phil and Bill!)
(Oh, yeah... and then there's "Uncle Tom" and "Cousin Tom." It's gonna be a GOOD night!)
So, folks... in the meantime I'll try and get a few newsbites posted - but no promises!
Hey... I've gotta go wash Hank!
A toast:
When we drink, we get drunk.
When we get drunk, we fall asleep.
When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to heaven.
So, let's all get drunk, and go to heaven!
5 comments:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/27/major-obama-bundler-gets-dutch-ambassadors-post/
D.C. lawyer Timothy Broas, who has funneled more money to the political campaigns of President Obama than nearly anyone else, last week was recommended by Mr. Obama as the next U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands.
As a campaign “bundler,” Mr. Broas collected more than a half-million dollars for Mr. Obama’s 2012 campaign, raising money from family members, colleagues and other wealthy associates; four years ago, he assisted Mr. Obama’s successful bid for the presidency by raising between $200,000 and $500,000.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Mr. Broas becomes the latest of dozens of Obama “bundlers” who are already serving as ambassadors.
* NOW, FOLKS... THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. IT'S THE WAY THINGS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN DONE. (OR AT LEAST THE WAY THEY'VE BEEN DONE FOR MUCH OF OUR HISTORY AS A NATION.) BUT HERE'S THE THING: REMEMBER "CHANGE"? REMEMBER "HOPE"?
* IT'S NOT THAT OBAMA IS OPERATING AS OTHER PRESIDENTS HAVE IN THIS REGARD THAT'S THE PROBLEM. NO. WHAT THE PROBLEM IS IS THAT OBAMA IS A COMPLETE FAKE, PHONY, FRAUD, HIPOCRITE!
This election cycle, 117 people have raised $500,000 or more each for the president’s reelection efforts – totaling at least $59 million. That’s at least 40 percent of the $145 million Mr. Obama has raised.
One hundred and forty-one people have donated between $200,000 and that amount, or $30 million to $70 million. One hundred and twenty people have donated $100,000 to $200,000, a Washington Times analysis showed.
* SO MUCH FOR "THE PEOPLES CANDIDATE."
The list of Mr. Obama’s 532 2012 bundlers so far is dominated by lawyers, financial professionals and Hollywood figures.
The Center for Public Integrity found that at least 250 bundlers, including Mr. Broas, have been invited to the White House, and at least 68 bundlers or their spouses have received administration appointments ranging from advisory economic boards to humanities posts.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... STANDARD WASHINGTON PROCEDURE... BUT... OBAMA WAS THE CANDIDATE OF "HOPE AND CHANGE."
* AGAIN, FOLKS... TO PARAPHRASE OL' BULLET HEAD... "IT'S THE HIPOCRISY, STUPID!"
In the past, not all of those who have been appointed to prestigious diplomatic posts after raising campaign funds have proven qualified for those jobs.
(*SMIRK*)
A State Department investigation tied 2008 bundler-turned-Bahamas Ambassador Nicole Avant to “dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement, which has caused problems throughout the embassy” since she was appointed by President Obama, Foreign Policy magazine reported.
* OH... AND IN MITT ROMNEY NEWS:
In a departure from his own precedent in 2008 as well as standard practice for recent presidential campaigns, Mitt Romney, Mr. Obama’s likely opponent in November, has refused to release the names of his bundlers.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303592404577361891800868180.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently offered a stark assessment of the threat to his state's future that is posed by mounting pension and retiree health-care bills for government workers.
Unless Illinois enacts reform quickly, he said, the costs of these programs will force taxes so high that, "You won't recruit a business, you won't recruit a family to live here."
* WHAT'S NOT ACKNOWLEDGED IS THAT AT A CERTAIN POINT IT'S NO LONGER POSSIBLE TO RAISE TAXES ENOUGH TO KEEP TREADING WATER... AND THEN... SOMEONE DROWNS. THAT SOMEONE...? THE PENSIONER WHO WILL BE TOLD, "SORRY... WE KNOW WHAT YOU WERE PROMISED... BUT WE JUST CAN'T PAY YOU."
(*SHRUG*)
[S]tate and local governments across the country have accumulated several trillion dollars in unfunded retirement promises to public-sector workers, the costs of which will increasingly force taxes higher and crowd out other spending.
"Companies don't want to buy shares in a phenomenal tax burden that will unfold over the decades," the Chicago Tribune observed after Mr. Emanuel issued his warning on April 4. And neither will citizens.
* AGAIN... THEY'RE MISSING THE BIGGER PICTURE! UNLIKE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, STATES AND MUNICIPALITIES CAN'T SIMPLY MONETIZE THEIR DEBTS BY PRINTING INCREASINGLY WORTHLESS PAPER AND CLAIMING THE DEBTS ARE BEING PAID OFF. YES... I'M SURE THE STATES ARE COUNTING ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO BAIL THEM OUT... BUT... (*PAUSE*)... THAT CERTAINLY WOULD BRING ON THE HYPER-INFLATION SUFFERED BY GERMANY IN THE 1920's. (AND THE END RESULT OF THAT HYPER-INFLATION WAS... YES... A DESPERATE PEOPLE PUTTING HITLER AND THE NAZIS IN POWER!)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
Some states have enormous retiree obligations that they will somehow have to pay...
(*SNORT*) AGAIN... NICE THROWAWAY LINE! "SOMEHOW" HAVE TO PAY. YEAH... RIGHT. BUT HOW...?!?!
Illinois is an object lesson in why firms are starting to pay more attention to the long-term fiscal prospects of communities. Early last year, the state imposed $7 billion in new taxes on residents and business, pledging to use the money to eliminate its deficit and pay down a backlog of unpaid bills (to Medicaid providers, state vendors and delayed tax refunds to businesses). But more than a year later, the state is in worse fiscal shape, with its total deficit expected to increase to $5 billion from $4.6 billion, according to an estimate by the Civic Federation of Chicago.
Illinois borrowed money in the last two years to make contributions to its public pension funds. This year, under pressure to stop adding to its debt, the legislature must make its pension contributions out of tax money. That will cost $4.1 billion plus an additional $1.6 billion in interest payments on previous pension borrowings.
[Over on the west coast, another blue state - California -] and its municipalities already face unfunded pension bills that now top $500 billion, according to studies by Stanford University's Joe Nation, and several of the state's cities, including Stockton in the Central Valley, face the prospect of insolvency.
Bigger bills will fall due elsewhere. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation examined unfunded retiree health-care liabilities in 10 midsize municipalities, including Worcester and Springfield, and found the debt averaged $13,685 per household. To pay those commitments over 30 years would require adding $565 a year to property tax bills on average, the group estimated. In one community, Lawrence, the tab was $1,209 annually, a 50% increase over current taxes.
Back in Illinois, Dana Levenson, Chicago's former chief financial officer, has projected that the average city homeowner paying $3,000 in annual property taxes could see his tax bill rise within five years as much as $1,400. The reason: A 2010 Illinois law requires municipalities to raise the funding levels in their pension systems using property tax revenues but no additional contributions from government employees. The legislation prompted former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in December to warn residents that the increases might be so high, "you won't be able to sell your house."
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/transcript-al-gore-got-d-natural-sciences-harvard
In his commencement speech at Hamilton College on Sunday, former Vice President Al Gore told the graduates that global warming is “the most serious challenge our civilization has ever faced.”
Gore...was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work on global warming.
But as an undergraduate at Harvard University in the late 1960...earned a “D” in Natural Sciences.
Gore’s transcript documents that during his sophomore year at Harvard he earned a "D" in Natural Sciences 6 (Man’s Place in Nature). Also, as a senior at Harvard, he earned a C-plus in Natural Sciences 118.
(*SNORT*)
* COM'ON, FOLKS... IT IS KINDA FUNNY!
(*CHUCKLING*)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html
The United States has been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years... or so it has seemed.
A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol...
A scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y....
A fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts.
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT... (*DRUM ROLL*)
But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training.
Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested.
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... THIS IS THE FRIGGIN' NEW YORK TIMES REPORTING THIS!
When an Oregon college student, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, thought of using a car bomb to attack a festive Christmas-tree lighting ceremony in Portland, the F.B.I. provided a van loaded with six 55-gallon drums of “inert material,” harmless blasting caps, a detonator cord and a gallon of diesel fuel to make the van smell flammable. An undercover F.B.I. agent even did the driving, with Mr. Mohamud in the passenger seat. To trigger the bomb the student punched a number into a cellphone and got no boom, only a bust.
* FOLKS...
(*SHRUG*) (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* FOLKS... READ THE FULL STORY. THEN THINK ABOUT RUBY RIDGE. THEN THINK ABOUT "OPERATION FAST AND FURIOUS." THEN THINK ABOUT THE LATEST SECRET SERVICE SCANDALS.
* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM!
Post a Comment