June 30, 2012

JOE OLIVO- REMEMBER this name:

(Quotes from Joe Olivo whining about the ACA from MSNBC and NPR)
<snip>
Wow—two news organizations covering the same story scoured the nation for a random small business owner to comment on that story—and they both found the same one! How’d that happen? What are the odds?

Well, as it turns out, Joe Olivo of Perfect Printing turns up quite a bit in public discussions of this and other issues. Here he is testifying against the health care law before House and Senate committees in January 2011. Here he is on the Fox Business Network around the same time, discussing the same subject. Here he is a few days ago, also on Fox Business, talking to John Stossel about the law. Here he is discussing the same subject on a New Jersey Fox affiliate.

And here he is in July 2010 discussing small business hiring with Neil Cavuto on Fox News. Here he is opposing an increase in the minimum wage in an MSNBC debate a couple of weeks ago.

Go to many of these links and you find out something about Joe Olivo that NPR and NBC didn’t tell you: he’s a member of the National Federation of Independent Business. NFIB's site and YouTube page promote many of Olivo’s public appearances. He was the subject of an NFIB “My Voice in Washington” online video in 2011.

NFIB, you will not be surprised to learn, is linked to the ALEC and Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, and to the usual rogues’ gallery of right-wing zillionaires.So Joe Olivo isn’t just some random business owner—he’s dispatched by NFIB whenever there’s a need for someone to play a random small business owner on TV.
<snip>
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/06/29/just-a-humble-tradesman-trapped-in-a-world-he-never-made/

Whoa! What a coincidence!

I think there is a group of selected people who rotate through government hearings on all levels, write copious LTTEs, make endless media appearances in many markets large and small, and such. They are trained and paid by ALEC.

They aren't the high profile mooks that always turn up on national teevee. Nobody really notices because who pays close attention to a lot of these areas all the time much less remembering who appears in them.

It would be interesting to set up a database and just enter names plus where and when they appear. Might be interesting.

June 29, 2012

Check out the LAPD's Gay Pride website banner:

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/06/lapds-website-banner.html

How will haters boycott the LAPD?

June 29, 2012

IMHO Ann Curry is too good for NBCnooz or whatever.

She should be a traveling reporter like Richard Engel. She is great covering serious subjects and such. These 2 are a dying breed.

Apparently she wasn't up to snuff according to Matt Lauer and others. 'Today' was going slowly down before Curry took over. The morning shows have turned into a lot of what the PTB consider entertainment.

Meh!

June 28, 2012

Affordable Care Cat is pleased:

Edit to add:


http://affordablecarecat.com/

Happy cat!

June 28, 2012

'A history of congressional contempt' (several prior cases)

A few memorable moments in the annals of congressional contempt, with details drawn from CRS report, “Congress’s Contempt Power and the Enforcement of Congressional Subpoenas: Law, History, Practice, and Procedure” (RL34097).
http://bureauphile.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/a-history-of-contempt/

Several cases are detailed and none reached the House floor.
Bastids!

June 28, 2012

"The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal" - a detailed account of the operation

A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust.

FORTUNE -- In the annals of impossible assignments, Dave Voth's ranked high. In 2009 the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives promoted Voth to lead Phoenix Group VII, one of seven new ATF groups along the Southwest border tasked with stopping guns from being trafficked into Mexico's vicious drug war.

Some call it the "parade of ants"; others the "river of iron." The Mexican government has estimated that 2,000 weapons are smuggled daily from the U.S. into Mexico. The ATF is hobbled in its effort to stop this flow. No federal statute outlaws firearms trafficking, so agents must build cases using a patchwork of often toothless laws. For six years, due to Beltway politics, the bureau has gone without permanent leadership, neutered in its fight for funding and authority. The National Rifle Association has so successfully opposed a comprehensive electronic database of gun sales that the ATF's congressional appropriation explicitly prohibits establishing one.

Voth, 39, was a good choice for a Sisyphean task. Strapping and sandy-haired, the former Marine is cool-headed and punctilious to a fault. In 2009 the ATF named him outstanding law-enforcement employee of the year for dismantling two violent street gangs in Minneapolis. He was the "hardest working federal agent I've come across," says John Biederman, a sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department. But as Voth left to become the group supervisor of Phoenix Group VII, a friend warned him: "You're destined to fail."

Voth's mandate was to stop gun traffickers in Arizona, the state ranked by the gun-control advocacy group Legal Community Against Violence as having the nation's "weakest gun violence prevention laws." Just 200 miles from Mexico, which prohibits gun sales, the Phoenix area is home to 853 federally licensed firearms dealers. Billboards advertise volume discounts for multiple purchases.
Much more:
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/

I am sure this could have a lot added to it. In addition, I am also sure that parts of it will be disputed.
It is the best summation of this whole mishegas I have read. It should have ben called 'SNAFU and FUBAR.'

June 28, 2012

@LOLGOP smacks Ari Fleischer:

RT @LOLGOP:
RT this if you want to un-invade Iraq.
RT @AriFleischer:
RT this if you want the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare.

Oh snap!

June 27, 2012

Dachshund puppy meets Nikki Haley's doppelganger on a SC beach:

August 2011 - Pawleys Island, North Carolina Madeline is a two year old rescue Dachshund, who belongs to myself and my girlfriend, Emma Crompton. She was adopted with the help of Halfway There Rescue in Charlotte, NC.
The video was taken in August of 2011, when Madeline was a year old, in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. She had been playing with the crab for around twenty minutes, when I decided to capture the unique moment between the two unlikely playmates. Madeline is a very playful, loving pup who always seems to make friends...whether it be our friend's pit bull or this ghost crab.

Ghost Governor.....

June 27, 2012

Photo of fire almost on top of the Air Force Academy. So this is what Armageddon looks like:

The football stadium is at the bottom.

I expect the Four Horseman to ride out of that any second now.

June 27, 2012

New lawsuit against Second Mile claims Sandusky abuse started in 1970s

The first civil lawsuit since Jerry Sandusky's guilty verdict has been filed. The suit includes three of the victims included in the child sex scandal, as well as a new alleged victim who claims Sandusky was abusing children as far back as the 1970s.

Making this suit more notable is the fact that it is not aimed at Sandusky or Penn State. Instead, the target is the organization founded by Sandusky, the Second Mile Foundation.

The Second Mile wants to distribute its assets to a group called Arrow Ministries, but this new court filing is hoping to block that move. The suit is filed on behalf of Victims 3, 5, and 7 as identified in the Sandusky grand jury indictment.
<snip>
Last month, Penn State Trustees were briefed on another suit that person has filed against the university. In that suit, John Doe A. claims Sandusky had been molesting children for decades and that Penn State and the Second Mile knew its facilities were not safe.

The plaintiffs want to block the transfer of the Second Mile assets so the organization cannot say it does not have the money to pay a civil suit.
<snip>
http://www.wjactv.com/news/news/new-lawsuit-claims-sandusky-abuse-started-1970s/nPfcS/

Decades...
No surprise.
And nobody knew nothing.