Thursday, September 22, 2011

Eric Holder and UN counter-terrorism; 23 Chicago labor leaders receive $56 million in pensions; Government demands Americans "adjust" their food tastes; California bans use of E-Verify; Book author provides tape recording of complains about a hostile White House; House defeats bill funding federal government past September 30; EPA finally allows drilling permits in Alaska; Censured on ethics, Charlie Wrangle unveils controversial official portrait - paid for with campaign funds; Millions go to lawyers of Solyndra and government; Author of book on Palin filled with tawdry gossip and rumors; Cashing in on the Mother of All Government Hand-outs; White House had "absolute control" over press releases - no talking to reporters

Floyd Reports writes: Eric Holder Promotes UN Redistribution of Wealth to “Fight Terrorism”

The Huffington Post reports that the attorney general and supreme representative of his people told the UN Secretary-General’s Symposium on International Counter-Terrorism Conference “Tuesday that the Obama administration will do its utmost to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay before next year’s presidential elections.” Bloggers on the Left and the Right have noted Holder’s hypocrisy. None has yet reported that this recycled 2008 campaign promise came as part of a speech that invited the UN to create an “international legal and policy framework” for waging the War on Terror in “civilian courts,” and which pledged to redistribute taxpayer dollars to fight such “root causes” of terrorism as global income “inequality.” Eric Holder vowed to bring terrorists to the mainland, diminishing U.S. wealth to the Third World, and UN norms to the halls of power.
As the centerpiece of this feckless conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the creation of a new UN anti-terrorism center — financed by Saudi Arabia  in New York City.
On Monday, Holder addressed the United Nations Secretary-General’s Symposium on International Counter-Terrorism Cooperation. Holder asserted on 9/11 world leaders agreed “to respond to national challenges with international action, with global solutions, and with a renewed commitment to collaboration.”
Saudi Prince Faisal al-Saud insisted, “‘Terrorism has no religion’…adding that the religion that the terrorists profess should not be accused of terrorism.  [And we have always been careful to say it isn't.]  http://floydreports.com/the-uns-new-center-for-counter-terrorism-funded-by-saudi-arabia/
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The Chicago Tribune writes: All it took to give nearly two dozen labor leaders from Chicago a windfall worth millions was a few tweaks to a handful of sentences in the state's lengthy pension code.
The changes became law with no public debate among state legislators and, more importantly, no cost analysis.
Twenty years later, 23 retired union officials from Chicago stand to collect about $56 million from two ailing city pension funds thanks to the changes, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation found. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pensions-legislation-watchdog-20110921,0,4724416.story
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CNS News writes: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday that Americans need to “adjust” their tastes so that they like the kind of food the government believes they should eat—and “we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition.” http://cnsnews.com/news/article/usda-secretary-we-must-create-appropriate-transition-what-americans-eat
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Judicial Watch opines: Bucking the national trend to curb illegal immigration, the country’s most populous state has passed a law forbidding private businesses as well as state and local governments from screening workers’ immigration status.
It’s a baffling move on the part of legislators in a state—California— with well-documented financial struggles and a whopping 12.1% unemployment rate. Never the less, lawmakers have sent a bill to the governor that will essentially ban any employer—private or public—from using a national online database known as E-Verify to check workers’ immigration status. California cities that currently use E-Verify must immediately stop if the bill becomes law.
California’s famously liberal governor, 73-year-old Jerry Brown, is expected to sign the measure (Employment Acceleration Act) which couldn’t come at a worse time for the state with the largest concentration of illegal aliens. Besides record-high unemployment,
The move also comes as local governments across the U.S. pass laws making E-Verify mandatory, especially to screen candidates that will get paid with taxpayer dollars. California’s measure also conflicts with a bill (Legal Workforce Act) pending in the U.S. House that would require that all of the nation’s employers use E-Verify. The Texas congressman who introduced the measure says it could open up millions of jobs for unemployed Americans and legal immigrants. http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/sep/calif-ban-e-verify
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The UK Daily Mail reports: The author of a controversial book that has rocked the White House has hit back at claims of plagiarism - and produced a tape recording of a female colleague complaining about the 'hostile environment'.
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Yahoo News writes: The U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly defeated a bill that would fund the federal government past September 30 on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party to push for deeper spending cuts.
The measure failed by a vote of 195 to 230, with 48 of the chamber's most conservative Republicans joining Democrats in opposition.
It was an embarrassment for House Republican leaders who have at times struggled to rein in rank-and-file conservatives. 
Republican leaders got little help from Democrats, who objected to a $1.5 billion cut to an electric vehicle loan program. Republicans included the cut to offset the cost of increased disaster aid.
Republicans might remove that cut to pick up Democratic support, an aide said -- an action that could further alienate conservatives. http://news.yahoo.com/house-unexpectedly-defeats-spending-bill-215033219.html
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The New American writes: Shell Oil is set to tap Alaska's vast oil reserves now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final air quality permit to allow exploration development north of the Arctic Circle. The permit allows Shell to set up its Noble Discoverer drillship in the Chukchi Sea along with a fleet of support vessels including icebreakers and oil spill response crafts. The company will be allowed to operate them no more than 120 days annually starting in 2012. The permit sets strict air pollution control limits on the drilling equipment.
In a press release, EPA explained the new permits are revised versions of those issued to Shell in 2010. At the time, environmental activist groups challenged them, and EPA's Environmental Appeals Board decided the original permits did not meet Clean Air Act standards. The new ones restrict fleet emissions by more than 50 percent from the levels allowed in 2010. EPA says it granted the new permits based largely on state-of-the-art pollution control equipment recently installed on the Discoverer and on Shell's agreement to further reduce emissions by adding more controls to its drilling fleet.
EPA also announced two other air permits yet to be finalized: one for Shell's drilling rig Kulluk to operate in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea next year and another for ConocoPhillips to begin drilling in the Chukchi Sea in 2013. It will issue final permits after public comment review. http://thenewamerican.com/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/9067-shell-gets-alaska-drilling-go-ahead-from-epa
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The Hill reports: On Thursday, House leaders will pay tribute to Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), less than a year after the House formally censured the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will speak at a ceremony to unveil Rangel’s official portrait as chairman of the storied committee, which the longtime New York Democrat led from 2007 until March 2010, when party leaders pressured him to give up the post amid a growing ethics scandal.
The portrait itself was the subject of controversy. Just nine months into his term as chairman, Rangel asked the Federal Election Commission for permission to use campaign funds to pay for the portrait, which his lawyer said would cost more than $64,000. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/183047-house-leaders-to-honor-rangel-nine-months-after-censure
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The Washington Times reports: Before Solyndra went bankrupt and its headquarters were raided by the FBI, law firms that highlighted their work on the loan-guarantee package received millions of dollars in legal fees, according to payments disclosed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Morrison Foerster, which represented the Department of Energy as the loan guarantor, received more than $1.9 million for legal services. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which represented Solyndra, received more than $2.4 million.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy said it’s customary in commercial loan transactions for the borrower to pay or reimburse the fees of the lender and guarantor counsel.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/21/lawyers-netted-millions-in-solar-loan-deal/?page=all#pagebreak
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Big Government opines: The awful launch week for the over-hyped, expected bestseller The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, by controversial author Joe McGinniss, just got worse. Much worse.
After a week of universally scathing pans from the reflexively anti-Palin establishment media, McGinniss now faces the fight of his literary life: the accusation that he seems to have knowingly submitted a book to his publisher, Crown/Random House, that was filled with unproved “tawdry gossip” and rumors that lacked “factual evidence.” http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2011/09/22/explosive-email-shows-anti-palin-author-mcginniss-random-house-likely-published-literary-hoax/
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YouTube video shows: Obama Bundler George Kaiser in 2009: It's Time to Cash in on the Mother of All Government Handouts http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=19tD9xDoNmE

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The European Union Times reports: President Obama’s presidential campaign focused on “making” the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was “controlled,” White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.

“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” said Dunn.
“One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters,” said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama’s chief campaign manager.
“We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it,” Dunn said.
Fox hit back this past Friday, releasing a video of Dunn speaking to high school students last June in which she lists her two “favorite political philosophers,” including Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung, whose draconian policies are blamed for the deaths of tens of millions of people. http://www.eutimes.net/2009/10/white-house-boasts-we-control-news-media/
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1 comment:

  1. Very helpful news update ! What happened to the wonderful quote and standard-bearer for all of us who oppose Marxism and Socialism ?? We should be reminded of it EVERY Day :

    "The problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other people's money!"

    ReplyDelete