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Yemeni President Restructures Army, Removes Saleh Cronies
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Vietnam Veterans for Kerry
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can we vote for the guy in the pic on the right? Who is his sole supporter? Jane Fonda? Is she claiming to be a vet of the North Vietnam military now? Kerry is such a blowhard phony. Certainly we can do better than that.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/20/2012 9:39 Comments || Top||


Economy
Treasury announces GM exit strategy
[Detroit News] The Obama administration said Wednesday it will sell 200 million shares -- or 40 percent of its remaining stake in General Motors Co. -- back to the automaker and announced plans to completely exit the Detroit automaker by March 2014.

The Detroit automaker said it will purchase 200 million shares of GM stock held by Treasury for $5.5 billion -- or $27.50 per share -- nearly $2 above the stock's closing price on Tuesday. GM shares jumped sharply on the news and were up 7.5 percent to $27.36, or $1.90, early afternoon in very heavy trading.

The U.S. Treasury, after more than a year of refusing to say when it might start selling its remaining stake in GM, said it will announce a written plan in January to shed its remaining 300 million shares over the next 12 to 15 months, likely in a series of small stock sales.

The Treasury's move is intended to minimize the impact of the stock sale on the share price -- and the government's state will shrink from 26.5 percent to less than 19 percent -- but the exit could be completed far more quickly.

The exit plan may prove to be a boost to GM's lagging stock price and to some car buyers, who have avoided GM because of the "Government Motors" label.
Posted by: Fred || 12/20/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336109 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The not so hidden costs of the Ohio and Michigan Obama re-election campaign:

TARP was approved by Congress as a $700 billion program, though Treasury eventually disbursed $418 billion. On Wednesday it said it had recovered $381 billion to date, or about 90 percent.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 3:52 Comments || Top||

#2  "The exit plan may prove to be a boost to GM's lagging stock price and to some car buyers, "

Or not. Maybe the gummint is bailing out because the company is a money black hole. They already got their cut, anyway.
Posted by: twobyfour || 12/20/2012 5:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Election is over chumps. Time to move on. Other soul sellers need to be serviced.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/20/2012 7:54 Comments || Top||

#4  taxpayers will almost certainly lose billions of dollars in the $49.5 billion GM bailout - and the government would need to sell its remaining shares for about $70 each to break even.

Another hosing of the taxpayers. The bondholders got nailed the first go around. The unions made out O.K. as Obama paid them back for their votes. An additional hosing of the taxpayers who didn't like or vote for Obama.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/20/2012 9:33 Comments || Top||

#5  $5.5 billion was it? ......How much are those Sandy victims asking for again ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 9:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Fred, don't be dogging on Ford. They have worked outside of the Obama bailout machine. I am disappointed that your graphic includes Ford in it.
Posted by: rammer || 12/20/2012 23:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The One Single Reason Why We're Going Over the Fiscal Cliff
Politicians are in charge of this issue.
Posted by: tipper || 12/20/2012 11:34 || Comments || Link || [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's a lie. They're pretending it's 'politicians' when IMHO the singular form of the noun is more appropriate.

It's not as if we have a real budgetary process we could use if he wanted to.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/20/2012 12:39 Comments || Top||

#2  We will go over the fiscal cliff if, and only if, it benefits Champ.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/20/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||

#3  It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. - David Hume

F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, pg. 35.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 13:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Update
‘Plan B’ Vote Set for Thursday Evening
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to begin voting at between 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. EST Thursday on a backup plan developed by House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) to avoid looming tax increases and spending cuts next year.
Posted by: tipper || 12/20/2012 14:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Harry Reid said today that he will not allow the Plan B to come up for a vote in the Senate, blaming Republicans' refusal to compromise. Buttwipe.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/20/2012 16:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Is that the same Harry Reid who has been refusing a vote on any sort of a budget for 4 years running now?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/20/2012 16:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Every cloud has a silver lining
Budget Talk Delays Could Stall 100 Million Returns: Taxes
Posted by: tipper || 12/20/2012 17:30 Comments || Top||

#8  I disagree with the notion that GOP cannot force dems to cut spending: all they have to do is not pass an increase to the debt ceiling. The GIvernment will be force to only spend what comes in. The dems won't last one missed GIvernment check cycle. Of course that requires the GOP to stick together and play hardball. So off the cliff we go.
Posted by: Airandee || 12/20/2012 18:41 Comments || Top||


Darth Bolton sez Hildebeast faking illness to avoid testimony
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under:


Champ considering AMEX CEO for Treasury Secretary
Chicago style political payoff. Don't Leave Home without it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OOH, they're really showing those 1% guys.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/20/2012 8:29 Comments || Top||

#2  It's the 95% folks (Holder's "our people") whom the Champ and FLOTUS are most concerned about. The one percent crowd are little more than a meaningless, Stalin era slogan.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 9:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Time to turn in my AMEX card.

Pelosi got cut in on one of the most coveted IPO in history when she secured the chance to buy into the Visa credit card IPO. She bought 5,000 shares of Visa at $44 a share just as legislation threatening credit card companies was moving its way through the House. Two days later Pelosi’s Visa stock was worth $64. The then-Speaker made sure the bill never made it to the House floor.

Illegal except in Congress. It's worse than insider trading because key Congresscritters legislate to their advantage and then make a killing on their legislation. Outside of Congress she should be serving hard time for her criminal activity. Thought Duke Cunningham served time for such activity. No wonder Pelosi and others are so despised by voters.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/20/2012 9:52 Comments || Top||

#4  FOR THE RECORD !
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Obama inherited a mess from the past four years. Oh, wait a minute, he was Prez during the last 4 years.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/20/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Besoeker:

I conducted my own little experiment this election year. Wrote in a name for one of positions on the ballot. Checked with the SoS and verified they had me listed as having voted. Then, checked the certified results. My write in name was not there.

So, I know my ballot was received. I also know it wasn't counted.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/20/2012 11:10 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm gobsmacked lblis. Just returned from the barbershop. No worries though, it's all over tomorrow, Mayanageddon and all of that. Undertaker haircuts are never quite satisfactory.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 11:49 Comments || Top||

#8  If you're gonna borrow a gazillion dollars, might as well have an expert at the helm.
Posted by: Perfesser || 12/20/2012 13:04 Comments || Top||

#9  B:

Glad to hear you'll be leaving a beautiful corpse. Mine will be saturated in alcohol...
Posted by: Iblis || 12/20/2012 14:22 Comments || Top||

#10  If the world should end tomorrow, you could go to a blind barber and it wouldn't make much difference. If the world, doesn't end, you might end up with the world's worst haircut.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/20/2012 16:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Good point John. I must confess however, my barber and his partner are rabid, anti-Obamanist. My real motivation for stopping in was to join them in one last vile rant. Unfortunately the shop was full and they were not in the mood for our usual discourse, so all I came away with was a $13. trim. They did indicate yesterday was quite slow. Just my luck, day late - dollar short. :-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 16:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Obama named TIME magazine's Person of the Year
Along with such illustrious predecessors as Adolf Hitler in 1938, and Joseph Stalin in 1939 and again in 1942, and the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979
President Barack Obama was named TIME's Person of the Year for 2012, citing his historic re-election last month as symbolic of the nation's changing demographics amid the backdrop of high unemployment and other challenges.

TIME editor Rick Stengel announced the choice on NBC's "Today" program on Wednesday.

"He's basically the beneficiary and the author of a kind new America - a new demographic, a new cultural America that he is now the symbol of," he said.

"He won re-election despite a higher unemployment rate than anybody's had to face in basically in 70 years. He's the first Democrat to actually win two consecutive terms with over 50 percent of the vote. That's something we haven't seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt," Stengel said, citing the president who served during the Great Depression and World War Two.
Posted by: tipper || 12/20/2012 01:50 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No worries Tipper! Future electronic voting as well as exit polling will be simplified by the use of serialized EBT cards.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 9:37 Comments || Top||

#2  "Person of the year?" A genderless designation. That is so PC.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/20/2012 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  I heard Time's renaming it the Barack Obama Award.
Tell ya the truth, considering the source, I thought this was his fifth in a row...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/20/2012 11:42 Comments || Top||

#4  About as bad as LIFE magazine and its worship of the Kennedys.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/20/2012 13:03 Comments || Top||

#5  "Person of the year"?

Sure that's not "Poison of the year"?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/20/2012 13:44 Comments || Top||

#6  "He's basically the beneficiary and the author of a kind new America - a new demographic, a new cultural America that he is now the symbol of, of a Media which is so far in the tank for him that it has a standing order for kneepads and doesn't even bother to wipe it's mouth off afterwards anymore."

FIFY

And like FDR he's making the economic situation even worse.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/20/2012 16:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Ah, so THATS an assault magazine.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/20/2012 16:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Time decided ths year to randomly select the reason the year from their subscriber list. Obama had a 50/50 shot.
Posted by: Airandee || 12/20/2012 20:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Airandee wins the thread! :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 12/20/2012 20:38 Comments || Top||


Sheriff Joe Gun Control Deputy in 2008
Newly appointed gun control taskforce deputy and current Vice President Joe Biden said at a campaign stop in Castlewood, Virginia in 2008, “If he (Obama) tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem.”

Beltway Confidential had the quote:

“I guarantee you Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey,” Biden said. “Don’t buy that malarkey. They’re going to start peddling that to you.” [...]

“If he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem,” Biden added, referring to Obama.

The Vice President also informed prospective voters at the time he was the proud owner of two guns.

Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/20/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Biden was talking about his firearms, not the peasant's firearms.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 12/20/2012 2:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Note yesterday's Smith & Wesson stock bump during Champ's televised speech.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/20/2012 3:11 Comments || Top||

#3  After the deadly Aurora, Colorado shooting Feinstein criticized those who said responsible conceal carry permit holders could have stopped gunman James Holmes, saying "...and maybe you could have had a firefight and killed many more people. These are people in a theater."

Opponents of the Assault Weapons Ban point to Feinstein’s hypocrisy on the issue, as the Senator herself said she obtained a concealed carry permit in California when she felt her life was threatened. In 1995, Feinstein described this experience:

Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/20/2012 8:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Rules are for thee.... not for me!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/20/2012 8:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Not to be confused with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/20/2012 9:55 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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2TTP
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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 2012-12-20
  Yemeni President Restructures Army, Removes Saleh Cronies
Wed 2012-12-19
  Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Tue 2012-12-18
  Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Mon 2012-12-17
  Rebel Offensive In Hama
Sun 2012-12-16
  Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
Sat 2012-12-15
  Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers 'infidels'
Fri 2012-12-14
  Coca-Cola resumes its production in Somalia
Thu 2012-12-13
  'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Fri 2012-12-07
  6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
Thu 2012-12-06
  Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents

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