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Gaza missiles fired at Tel Aviv
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 6: Politix
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2 18:37 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [336066] 
4 23:57 JosephMendiola [336085] 
7 23:09 Thing From Snowy Mountain [336103] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Illinois town comptroller pleads guilty to $53 million embezzlement
Before anyone asks, it's Dixon Illinois, Ronnie Reagan's home town, and the comptroller is an employee, not elected.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/15/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I grew up not too far from Dixon. It's not that big. How could they not miss that amount of money?
Posted by: Spot || 11/15/2012 8:09 Comments || Top||

#2  ...got commingled with the usual graft?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/15/2012 8:54 Comments || Top||

#3  How could Bell City not notice?
Posted by: Fred || 11/15/2012 8:55 Comments || Top||

#4  You're correct, Spot. $53M SHOULD have been noticed, even over 20-odd years. Do the math, that's over 2.4 million average a year. Our town (over 4 times the population of Dixon) would notice even 4% of that in a big hurry.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/15/2012 10:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Interesting that so many of these municipal embezzling cases seem to involve employees of the female persuasion.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/15/2012 22:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Comptroller in small towns is often a glorified accounting clerk job, not well paid, and sometimes is part time. I don't have solid data but I wouldn't be surprised if that meant a majority of them are women.
Posted by: lotp || 11/15/2012 22:52 Comments || Top||

#7  That's $ 3,368.00 per person resident in the town.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/15/2012 23:09 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
WaPo Wails about Narrow Margins for Other Candidates
Despite Obama's big win, there remain no black senators, only one African-American was even nominated for major statewide office, and black candidates lost seven of eight competitive House races -- six of them by very close margins
Posted by: Bobby || 11/15/2012 12:48 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the emperor has no clothes, then his coat tails are rather short...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/15/2012 13:22 Comments || Top||

#2  An interesting message in that.
Posted by: Gloque Smith3733 || 11/15/2012 13:35 Comments || Top||

#3  No black senators but they did keep Allen West for resuming his position in the government so if they are gonna be racialists they should count that as well.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/15/2012 14:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Murray: Can't guarantee 2014 budget
Sen. Patty Murray
... Senator-for-life (D) from Washington state, reputedly not the sharpest intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body....
(D-Wash.) confirmed Thursday that she will seek the chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee next year but told The Hill that she cannot commit to doing a budget.

This opens up the possibility that Senate Democrats will avoiding passing a budget resolution for the fourth year in a row.

The last time the Senate passed a standalone budget resolution was in 2009.

This past year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ...
(D-Nev.) said a budget was not necessary because the top-line spending number for appropriations was set in the August 2011 debt-ceiling deal.

Murray said that an agreement to avoid the "fiscal cliff," the looming $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to strike in January, could preclude having to pass a Senate budget next year.

"I am committed to working with our committee and with our Congress to put a budget in place but there are a lot of questions in front of us: What happens in the next two weeks, six weeks, year? Does the White House and the leadership come together on some solution to the budget that we have right now that precludes a budget being written next year?" she said. "I have no idea."
Posted by: Beavis || 11/15/2012 15:26 || Comments || Link || [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Then we can't commit to your 2014 pay.

Seriously, should be a constitutional amendment. If the congress can't pass a budget, they don't get paid. If they still can't pass a budget after 180 days, they forfeit their seat and can never hold federal public office again.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/15/2012 17:00 Comments || Top||

#2  In the world of Democrat logic, this woman wants to be the chairman(person) of the committee ostensibly tasked with producing an annual budget, yet will not pledge to do so.

I'm serious - why is this woman holding elective office?
Posted by: Raj || 11/15/2012 17:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Many of us asked the same question when she was elected, Raj.

She is a certifiable Loon.

(didn't mean to impugn our Gavian-Americans - sorry)
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/15/2012 17:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Murray is well known to be the Senate's dimmest bulb.
Posted by: Choluter Jones9539 || 11/15/2012 18:42 Comments || Top||

#5  "Mom with all the the intellect of tennis shoes" ...... or perhaps I paraphrased
Posted by: Frank G || 11/15/2012 19:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Dumber than a bucket of hair.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/15/2012 19:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Wait 'til you meet the new US Senator from Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin. Not only is she as dumb as Murray, she's further to the left (yes, it's possible).
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/15/2012 20:59 Comments || Top||


Pelosi Stays On, Keeps Steny Hoyer in his Place
One of the first questions Democratic House Leader Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of politicians. Formerly Speaker of the House, but it's not her fault they lost. Really. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace...
took from reporters after announcing her intention to stay on in that job was whether, at age 72, it wasn't time for her to step aside and make room for younger leaders.

She smiled at the questioner, Luke Russert, as the female lawmakers on stage with her grumbled and booed. "You've always asked that question," she said, "except of Mitch McConnell," the Republican Senate Minority Leader, who is 70. Had Pelosi stepped down, mind you, the post would have gone to a pup by the name of the mealy-mouthed Steny StinkyHoyer
... Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi's second banana, or plaintain, or mango, or whatever he is...
, who is 73.


Discrimination!" called New York's Carolyn Baloney. Oops! Maloney. "Discrimination! Age discrimination!"

"Let's for a moment," Pelosi told Russert, treat the question as worthy of consideration. "Although it's quite offensive," she added, extra sweetly. "But you don't realize it, I guess. Everything that I have done in my almost decade now of leadership is to elect younger and newer people to the Congress...It was very important for me to elect young women" -- especially as she herself didn't even enter the political arena until the youngest of her five children was almost ready for college.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/15/2012 12:53 || Comments || Link || [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would dearly love to know what dirt Pelosi has on the caucus that's sufficient leverage for them to keep her on.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/15/2012 15:55 Comments || Top||

#2  clearly she's undead, and has only spared them for their votes of support
Posted by: Frank G || 11/15/2012 18:10 Comments || Top||


Florida: Almost 1K ballots found in Broward County elections warehouse
LAUDERHILL, Fla. (WSVN) -- Nearly a thousand ballots that were not included in Florida's final count have been found in a warehouse in Broward County.

Tuesday morning and into the night, there was a buzz of activity at the Voting Equipment Center in Lauderhill, a week after the general election. There was a recount going on for two commission seats that were too close to call, one in Hallandale Beach and another in Dania Beach. Workers had to count those votes manually.

Also keeping elections officials busy is the fact that 963 filled ballots were found in a warehouse. The supervisor of elections, Dr. Brenda Snipes, said this happens all the time, especially when dealing with paper ballots. Her department is not the only one to have seen more ballots added to the final number after the election, and they have until Nov. 18 to certify all the votes.

Snipes noted that it is a routine thing to look for these kind of mishaps after election night and she is just glad that they are now being tallied into that final count.

Last Tuesday, close to 800,000 people voted in Broward County, some waited in lines for four to five and sometimes six hours. Many have said the news of these ballots add to their uneasiness about how the election was run. Florida was the last state to officially announce its election results, long after President Obama was officially announced as re-elected.

Snipes said there is no reason for alarm. "I've run several elections here, and this election was run no different than any other," she said. "I think the difference with this election is that there was a close race between the two presidential candidates, and there was pressure put on everyone, including our office, to get all of the votes, count, count, count, so you don't have an opportunity to check every box that comes back because you got to get what you got in hand and get it out of there, so if the voters would rather that we kind of sit back and relax and then clean up and find ballots. Then I think they would really be very upset."

She said that further complicating this election was a very long ballot filled with proposed amendments. Snipes has promised that her department will meet their deadline by Sunday.
Just maybe, we will now find out who won the 2004 Presidential Election / snark off
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/15/2012 00:21 || Comments || Link || [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And amazingly, every single one of them was for Democrats.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/15/2012 9:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Save them for the next election.
Posted by: Besoeker on the road again || 11/15/2012 9:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Perhaps Ms. Snipes will be thanking the volunteers from Minnesota who found the misplaced boxes of premarked ballots.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 11/15/2012 9:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Small potatoes. Fraud has reached wholesale levels. The thousand was forgotten because it's no longer enough for the fraudsters to even worry about.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/15/2012 10:19 Comments || Top||

#5  It depends on whose warehouse it was. SEIU's?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/15/2012 10:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Isn't Col. West in Florida? Is this related?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/15/2012 11:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Somebody forgot to load those ballots onto the boat with all the others before it shoved off for the Bermuda Triangle.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/15/2012 13:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Those must have been released from Obama's Strategic Ballot Reserve.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/15/2012 18:38 Comments || Top||

#9  AFAIK up to 300,000 uncounted ballots also in Ohio.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/15/2012 21:52 Comments || Top||


Court hearing set Friday in West-Murphy vote-count dispute

A St. Lucie County circuit judge has scheduled a two-hour hearing for Friday on Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West’s request for a recount of all 37,379 ballots cast during early voting in St. Lucie County in his tight reelection fight against Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Murphy holds a 0.58 percent lead over West in unofficial returns from congressional District 18, which includes St. Lucie and Martin counties and northern Palm Beach County.

West has not conceded, citing errors in St. Lucie County’s initial early vote tally that prompted Secretary of State Ken Detzner to send three officials to Fort Pierce Wednesday to begin observing the St. Lucie County elections office.

St. Lucie County Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker said her office double-counted some early ballots and failed to count others on election night. But Walker said the problem was limited to ballots from three of the eight days of early voting and was fixed Sunday during a recount of those votes.

West says a full recount of ballots from all eight days of early voting is needed to eliminate any doubts about St. Lucie County’s totals. West’s motion for injunctive relief asks Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn to order a full recount of early votes and bar the county from certifying results until the recount is complete. Vaughn set a hearing on the motion for 1 p.m. Friday.

Counties must file certified results with the state by noon Sunday. The state’s Election Canvassing Commission gives final certification to all results on Tuesday.

Detzner sent three officials to St. Lucie County to observe and make recommendations. David Drury, head of the Division of Elections Bureau of Voting Systems Certifications, arrived late in the afternoon and spoke to Walker while elections workers conducted a recount in the Fort Pierce mayor’s race.

In that race, a total of 448 new votes appeared after Sunday’s partial recount, while a total of 799 votes disappeared from the West-Murphy race during the same recount. Murphy lost 667 votes and West 132 — a net gain of 535 votes for West that reduced Murphy’s overall margin to 1,907 votes or 0.58 percent.

A race must be within 0.5 percent to trigger a recount under state law. But state law also allows a county to conduct a “retabulation” of votes if it “determines that the unofficial returns may contain a counting error in which the vote tabulation system failed to count votes that were properly marked.”

West’s camp argues the errors that came to light in Sunday’s partial recount justify a full recount or retabulation.

“What we’re seeking is the truth of what the actual vote count is,” West attorney Jason Torchinsky told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. “And given all these inconsistent and constantly changing numbers, we have no confidence in the numbers that are being reported by St. Lucie County right now.”

But Murphy attorney Sean Domnick said Sunday’s partial recount was sufficient.

“There is no reason to doubt the veracity of the other votes, the process that was there. If there was, these folks (the St. Lucie County canvassing board) would have looked at those other days,” Domnick said. “I am absolutely comfortable that the canvassing board looked at what their responsibility was, fulfilled their responsibility and Patrick Murphy is the winner.”
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/15/2012 00:17 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is Florida even capable of holding an election without chicanery, stupid errors, double counting , and "finding lost ballots"?

pretty embarrassing
Posted by: Frank G || 11/15/2012 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  "Finding lost ballots" is the key to political power nowadays.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/15/2012 18:37 Comments || Top||


Al Gore calls on Barack Obama to 'act boldly' on climate change
Former vice-president and climate champion urges re-elected president to immediately begin pushing for a carbon tax

The former vice-president and climate champion, Al Gore, has called on Barack Obama to seize the moment and use his re-election victory to push through bold action on climate change.

The president has faced rising public pressure in the wake of superstorm Sandy to deliver on his promise to act on global warming.

But none of those calling on Obama to act carries the moral authority of Gore, who has devoted his post-political career to building a climate movement.

Now, Gore said, it is the president's turn. He urged Obama to immediately begin pushing for a carbon tax in negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" budget crisis.

The vice-president's intervention for a carbon tax could give critical support to an idea that has gained currency since the election -- at least among Washington thinktanks. The conservative American Enterprise Institute held an all-day seminar on the carbon tax on Tuesday.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/15/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obama will probably come out of the box this second term with something no one really wants such as Climate Change initiatives just as he came of the box the first term with health care (I'm still gagging hard on it trying to swallow the guff). He will try to do it legislatively. Might be a little harder this time around unless the House caves. If that doesn't work, he will either do it via executive order or via a treaty with the UN.

One must remember the ONE is skillfully schooled in the art of taqiyya and kitman. His annual news conference yesterday was a good example of these skills on display.

Jobs? Who cares in this administration? This morning's expected first time unemployment numbers came out. The number was expected to be 375K. Lo, they were actually 439K. The numbers were cooked until after the election IMO. Look for them to get worse.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/15/2012 9:47 Comments || Top||

#2  But none of those calling on Obama to act carries the faux-moral authority of Gore, who has devoted his post-political career to building his bank account on a climate movement.

Big ol' sweaty shakra-releasing Al. Absolute Moral Authorahtay
Posted by: Frank G || 11/15/2012 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Its the peanuts in his mouth, actually said Snack Baldly
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/15/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Looks like Gore has the CIA behind him ...???

* TOPIX > CIA: "RISING OF THE OCEANS" MORE WORRISOME THAN RISE IN TERRORISM.

The SIRIUS EVENT [Sun = solar] versus much-younger OSAMA???

* SAME > THANK CLIMATE CHANGE: SEA-LEVEL RISE COULD END SOUTH CHINA SEAS SPAT, + all those occurring elsewhere around the globe [land changes].

versus

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA PLANS TO UPROOT SMALL ISLANDS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA, i.e. use specialized ships to destroy barely-visible reefs + islets in order to create ONE OR MORE LARGE, PLA-USABLE [PLAN, PLAAF], DEFENSIBLE ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS LOCATED IN STRATEGIC SPOTS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/15/2012 23:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
O Meets the Press, Takes a Victory Lap
Appearing in his first post-victory news conference, the customarily cautious Obama spoke like a politician with nothing to lose after winning the last race of his life.

There was a confidence and ease in Obama's manner far removed from the listlessness of his first presidential debate in Denver six weeks ago. There also was a stridency that had been absent during key moments in his first term, much to the dismay of his supporters.

Displaying a rare flash of anger, Obama fiercely defended U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice, a leading candidate to be the next secretary of state, from Republican attempts to "besmirch her reputation." He told GOP senators to "go after me" instead and, showing the potential risks of his approach, they soon did.

His self-assurance on display in the East Room, despite a looming fiscal crisis and a widening scandal involving former CIA director Petraeus, suggested he would take a far more combative approach with Congress than he did during his first term.

The event also reflected a sense that Obama understands the need for a fast start after a draining and negative campaign. Although his term will last another four years, a second-term president's power slips away sharply after about two. "Even less really, because the congressional elections will be taking away attention before that," said a presidential scholar. "This is when he has his authority and influence, and his political capital is right there to be spent. He doesn't need to wait until January."
He's got a MANDATE!
With that narrowing window in mind, Obama said Wednesday that he intends to be as ambitious as possible, while avoiding the second-term mistakes that have afflicted at least the past three two-term presidents. "I'm more than familiar with all the literature about presidential overreach in second terms," he said. "We are very cautious about that. On the other hand, I didn't get reelected just to bask in reelection."
There's still a lot more golf out there to be played.
"I think every voter out there understood that was an important debate, and the majority of voters agreed with me," Obama said.
There's still more narcissism at the link, on page two.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/15/2012 12:38 || Comments || Link || [336108 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Vous Sortez Du Secteur Americain

(where is reelection, le cote d'azure?)
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/15/2012 17:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Vous entrez dans le secteur de la merde.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/15/2012 18:42 Comments || Top||

#3  * ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SEVEN [US]STATES QUALIFY FOR SECESSION RESPONSE FROM WHITE HOUSE.

The US State of TX has 100,000 signatures, while NC + LA + FL + AL + GA + TN have roughly 30,000 each.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/15/2012 23:27 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
42[untagged]
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3Jamaat-e-Islami
2Muslim Brotherhood
2Govt of Syria
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Palestinian Authority
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Thai Insurgency
1Arab Spring
1al-Qaeda

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2012-11-15
  Gaza missiles fired at Tel Aviv
Wed 2012-11-14
  France recognizes rebel coalition as legitimate rulers of Syria
Tue 2012-11-13
  Jamaat, Shibir go berserk in Bangla
Mon 2012-11-12
  Govt. Soldiers shoot it out in Mogadishu
Sun 2012-11-11
  IDF Changes Rules of Engagement Along Syrian Border
Sat 2012-11-10
  Mexican police charged over US embassy staff shooting
Fri 2012-11-09
  David Petraeus resigns from CIA
Thu 2012-11-08
  Syria raids Hamas offices months after group's leaders leave
Wed 2012-11-07
  Bombings, Clashes Kill 131 in Syria as Gunmen Assassinate Parliament Speaker's Brother
Tue 2012-11-06
  Suicide bomber kills at least 27 by army base near Baghdad
Mon 2012-11-05
  Grenade attack on Kenya church kills 1, wounds 14
Sun 2012-11-04
  Two Suicide Bombers Attack Restaurant in Somali Capital
Sat 2012-11-03
  30 people shot dead in Nigeria, rights group says
Fri 2012-11-02
  US withdraws its support for Syrian National Council
Thu 2012-11-01
  Armed Islamists on Tunis streets after clashes

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