December 26, 2011

Romney Wants Money

Romney Wants His Billionaire Wall Street Donors To Be Able To Give Him Unlimited Sums Of Money

By Ian Millhiser on Dec 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/21/393867/romney-wants-his-billionaire-wall-street-donors-to-be-able-to-give-him-unlimited-sums-of-money/


If campaign donations are any sign, Mitt Romney is the runaway favorite candidate of billionaires and Wall Street bankers. Indeed, Wall Street has flooded his campaign with donations and a massive 10 percent of all American billionaires donated to his campaign. So it should probably come as no surprise that, in an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, Romney called for the super wealthy to be able to give unlimited sums of money directly to candidates:

TODD: Do you think Citizens United was a bad decision? [...]

ROMNEY:Well,I think the Supreme Court decision was following their interpretation of the campaign finance laws that were written by Congress. My own view is now we tried a lot of efforts to try and restrict what can be given to campaigns, we’d be a lot wiser to say you can give what you’d like to a campaign. They must report it immediately and the creation of these independent expenditure committees that have to be separate from the candidate, that’s just a bad idea.

Watch it:

It’s not entirely clear from this interview that Romney understands what happened in Citizens United. That decision emphatically did not follow any “interpretation of campaign finance laws that were written by Congress.” Rather, Citizens United threw out a 63 year-old federal ban on corporate money in politics. Citizens United was a case of five conservative justices deciding they knew better than America’s democratically elected representatives, and it was not a case of judges following the law.

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As Romney himself said in 1994, when you allow special interest groups to buy and sell candidates, “that kind of relationship has an influence on the way that [those candidates are] going to vote.” Now that Romney’s running for president on the Wall Street ticket, however, he’s suddenly unconcerned with whether or not his big money donors exert a corrupting influence.


more~~~ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/21/393867/romney-wants-his-billionaire-wall-street-donors-to-be-able-to-give-him-unlimited-sums-of-money/

December 25, 2011

GE Settles Probe Into Muni-Bond Bid Rigging

By Martin Z. Braun - Dec 23, 2011 11:59 AM CT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-23/ge-funding-capital-settles-u-s-municipal-bond-bid-rigging-investigation.html


General Electric Co. (GE) agreed to pay $70.4 million to settle a criminal probe and civil claims for conspiring to rig bids on U.S. municipal-bond deals, overcharging state and local governments on investments.

GE Funding Capital Market Services, a former unit, is the fifth company to settle in a more than five-year federal investigation. The deal will resolve probes by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service as well as attorneys general in 25 states, the Justice Department said today in a statement.

~~~

The settlement will bring to $743 million the amount that banks have paid to end the case, some of which is being returned to localities that were overcharged, the SEC said in a news release. Bank of America Corp., (BAC) JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), UBS AG (UBSN) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) previously settled similar cases.

~~~

The Justice Department said it agreed not to prosecute GE Funding because it admitted its illegal conduct, cooperated with the investigation and took steps to address anticompetitive conduct. The department also cited GE Funding’s commitment to make restitution

more at ~~~ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-23/ge-funding-capital-settles-u-s-municipal-bond-bid-rigging-investigation.html


So make sure you steal a lot of money and once you are caught be sure to help the investigation and you too can get the 'Get out of jail free card.'

December 25, 2011

What I would like for Christmas

What I would like to see within the Christian religions is the leaders actually following in the foot steps of the Christ that they profess to love and obey. I would like them to give up their fortunes and travel the world and live the life of Christ.

The Christ I know was a man that traveled to where the people were and not live a lavish lifestyle. He lived among the people and did not hold himself above the masses. He lived the life he spoke of. How can you expect people to believe you when you live a lie??

One of the most blatant examples is the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope talks about helping the poor and sits on more wealth than a lot of countries. It seems the churches position is if they gave away their wealth then the church would not exist. My position is that if their god is true they could get rid of all their possessions, churches, money, opened their libraries and their god would still exist. Their position seems to be that the church is more important than the people where their Christ thought the people were more important.

If their god exists then he exists outside of the church. He lives among the people. If all the churches were destroyed then god would still be there.

I would like to see the religious leaders move among the people like they told to do and not sit on thrones made of gold.

December 25, 2011

Bananas

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December 25, 2011

Scott Walker Recall Supporter Puts Up 'Recall The Kochsucker' Sign Outside Her Motel

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/scott-walker-recall-kochsucker_n_1163033.html?ref=politics


First Posted: 12/21/11 12:00 PM ET Updated: 12/21/11 01:55 PM ET

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"RECALL THE KOCHSUCKER NOW!" it reads in block letters, likely a reference to reports that the billionaire oil magnate Koch Brothers provided funding to Walker through their PAC, or perhaps to the ensuing prank call made to Walker by a Buffalo journalist pretending to be David Koch.

~~~~

"You know, people with kids are driving by. And you know there are little kids who are 8, 9, 10 years old who are old enough to be able to read that and might say, 'Mommy, what does that mean?'" Andrea Lombard, first vice chairwoman of the Sauk County Wisconsin Republican Party, told the Baraboo News Republic. "Well, how does Mommy explain that? I'm not sure."

~~~~

And while supporters of the Walker recall effort continue to near their target, reports of their opposition getting in trouble for alleged actions against volunteers continue to pop up around the state.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Tuesday that a 32-year-old River Falls woman was arrested over the weekend after workers collecting recall petitions claimed that she had screamed profanity at them, then thrown their table toward the street and spat at them.

more at ~~~~~~ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/scott-walker-recall-kochsucker_n_1163033.html?ref=politics


Go get them Wisconsin ........... show them what the Midwest can do

December 25, 2011

Pentagon Finds No Fault in Ties to TV Analysts

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/us/pentagon-finds-no-fault-in-its-ties-to-tv-analysts.html?_r=2&hp

By DAVID BARSTOW
Published: December 24, 2011

A Pentagon public relations program that sought to transform high-profile military analysts into “surrogates” and “message force multipliers” for the Bush administration complied with Defense Department regulations and directives, the Pentagon’s inspector general has concluded after a two-year investigation.

The inquiry was prompted by articles published in The New York Times in 2008 that described how the Pentagon, in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, cultivated close ties with retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks. The articles also showed how military analysts affiliated with defense contractors sometimes used their special access to seek advantage in the competition for contracts. In response to the articles, the Pentagon suspended the program and members of Congress asked the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate.

~~~

The inquiry found that from 2002 to 2008, Mr. Rumsfeld’s Pentagon organized 147 events for 74 military analysts. These included 22 meetings at the Pentagon, 114 conference calls with generals and senior Pentagon officials and 11 Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Twenty of the events, according to a 35-page report of the inquiry’s findings, involved Mr. Rumsfeld or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or both.

~~~

Wesley K. Clark, a retired four-star Army general who worked as a military analyst for CNN, told investigators he took it as a sign that the Pentagon “was displeased” with his commentary when CNN officials told him he would no longer be invited to special briefings for military analysts. General Clark told investigators that CNN officials made him feel as if he was less valued as a commentator because “he wasn’t trusted by the Pentagon.” At one point, he said, a CNN official told him that the White House had asked CNN to “release you from your contract as a commentator.”


more at ~~ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/us/pentagon-finds-no-fault-in-its-ties-to-tv-analysts.html?_r=2&hp



No wonder it is so hard for people to find out what is happening in this country............

December 24, 2011

Vikings win

Vikings 33-Redskins 26

December 24, 2011

Mass. woman says TSA confiscated frosted cupcake

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/12/23/mass_woman_says_tsa_confiscated_frosted_cupcake/


December 23, 2011


PEABODY, Mass.—A woman who just flew back home from Las Vegas says an airport security officer confiscated her frosted cupcake because he thought the icing on it could be a security risk.

Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport took her cupcake Wednesday, telling her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives. She said the agent told her the frosting was conforming to the jar it was inside.

~snip~

Hains, who lives in Peabody, just north of Boston, said the agent didn't seem concerned that the cupcake could actually be explosive, just that it fit some bureaucratic definition about what was prohibited. She said he even offered to let her eat it away from the airport security area.

Hains, a 35-year-old communications professor at Salem State University, said she told the agent she had passed through security at Boston's Logan International Airport earlier in the week with two cupcakes packaged in jars, gifts from a student. But she said the agent told her that just meant TSA in Boston didn't do its job.


more at ~~ http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/12/23/mass_woman_says_tsa_confiscated_frosted_cupcake/

December 24, 2011

I Will Promise You ........... says Rpmney

Mitt Romney: 'If I'm President You'll Have A Job' After Graduating College

The Huffington Post Paige Lavender
Posted: 12/23/11 11:44 AM ET

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made a hefty promise to a college student on Thursday when he claimed that a vote for him meant a job after graduation.

"What I can promise you is this -- when you get out of college, if I'm president you'll have a job," Romney said during a New Hampshire appearance, according to ABC News. "If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job."

Romney made the promise to 21-year-old Kallie Durkit, who asked why college students should support the former Massachusetts governor over Obama. While he was answering just one student's question, he directed his answer toward all college students.

~snip~

After revealing his jobs plan in September, Romney said "America should be a job machine: jobs being created all the time, people looking for employees to join their enterprises." His plan was quickly criticized by his GOP rivals, including Huntsman, who blasted Romney's plan as being "sadly similar to that of Obama's."

a little more at~~http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/23/mitt-romney-jobs_n_1167525.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-nb%7Cdl8%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D122748

December 23, 2011

Boy's survival from flesh-eating bacteria deemed a miracle by his family - and the pope

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/20/9588670-boys-survival-from-flesh-eating-bacteria-deemed-a-miracle-by-his-family-and-the-pope


By James Eng, msnbc.com

Jake Finkbonner is bouncing about, teasing his sisters and playing basketball again. That is a miracle – not only to him and his family but also to the Pope Benedict XVI.

The 11-year-old Ferndale, Wash., boy’s stunning recovery from the flesh-eating bacteria that chewed up his face and nearly killed him in 2006 has been officially deemed by the Vatican as a miracle attributable to Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-century American Indian woman who converted to Catholicism at a young age.

The pope on Monday signed a decree authenticating the miracle, clearing the way for Tekakwitha to be canonized as America’s first Roman Catholic indigenous saint.

“There is no doubt in me or my husband’s mind that a miracle definitely took place,” Jake’s mother, Elsa Finkbonner, told msnbc.com on Tuesday. “There were far too many things that could have and should have gone wrong with his illness. The doctors went through every avenue they could to save his life and he survived. It’s a miracle that all of the other things that could have gone wrong, didn’t.”


more~ http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/20/9588670-boys-survival-from-flesh-eating-bacteria-deemed-a-miracle-by-his-family-and-the-pope


What are your thoughts on this??