[DETROITNEWS] Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr says the city of bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit's ... ruled by Democrats since 1962... cash-flow crisis makes it "insolvent" and unable to borrow more money to mask over debts being made worse by skipping millions in payments for retiree pensions and health care.
After 45 days on the job, Orr's initial assessment of Detroit's perilous finances is laid bare in a 41-page report to be delivered today to state Treasurer Andy Dillon.
Calling it "a sobering wake-up call about the dire financial straits the city of Detroit faces," Orr said he will use the report as a baseline for paring down the city's $15.6 billion in debt and long-term liabilities.
Orr, a Washington, D.C., bankruptcy attorney, did not use the word "bankruptcy" anywhere in his report but said the city is "insolvent" and has "effectively exhausted its ability to borrow" after years of issuing long-term debt to pay its bills. Previously, he has said he hopes to avoid a Chapter 9 filing.
The report hints that city employees who were not hit by last year's wage reductions could face pay cuts in the near future and that Wall Street bondholders will be asked to take a haircut to relieve a city that shelled out $133 million in debt payments last year on a $1.23 billion budget.
Orr also says he will evaluate "options to reduce or eliminate certain health care costs for both active and retired employees" in light of a $5.7 billion unfunded health care benefit for 18,500 retired city workers and 10,000 active employees.
"No one should underestimate the severity of the financial crisis," he said Sunday in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2013 00:00 ||
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Correction to Headline "Detroit in solvent" Yes Says Orr Detroit is melting way.
*HOLDER SAID TO RECUSE HIMSELF FROM AP PHONE RECORDS CASE
*HOLDER SAID TO RECUSE HIMSELF BECAUSE HE WAS QUESTIONED IN CASE
Yesterday, the Associated Press revealed the Department of Justice had been secretly monitoring both the personal and work phones of numerous AP editors and reporters. So just what did Holder know? For now, it is not known if Holder authorized or even knew about the investigation.
Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Conservative Enterprise Institute.
Particulars at the link. Remember, we're dealing with people who think that 'more discussion' means more talking by progressives and silencing of conservatives. So it stands to reason (to them) that you waive fees for the Left and charge conservatives double. Try explaining to them that they're wrong and see how far you get.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] House Minority 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... said Monday that the IRS should be condemned for targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny in the run-up to last year's elections, but she also blamed the Supreme Court for opening the door to broader political activity. She really is dumb as a bag of hammers...
In the Citizens United decision, the court ruled 5-4 that corporations have First Amendment political rights and ruled that while they cannot contribute directly to candidates, they can run ads making their own views known.
Mrs. Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House, said that has become a problem for the IRS in enforcing the laws.
"There needs to be more clarity in the law regarding the activities of tax-exempt organizations along with greater disclosure and transparency. We must overturn Citizens United, which has exacerbated the challenges posed by some of these so-called 'social welfare' organizations," she said.
She also called for "appropriate action, without any delay or hesitation" to make sure the IRS is playing fairly.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2013 00:00 ||
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A bag of hammers can be useful, even a bag of rocks. A bag of melting Jello? Not so much.
#2
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... Also sometimes known as Skeletor in drag....
#4
Shame she didn't follow her hero down to Guyana.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/14/2013 10:13 Comments ||
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#5
In the Citizens United decision, the court ruled 5-4 that corporations have First Amendment political rights
This Citizens United line is party much an attempt at deflecting a burgeoning ancilliary scandal and partly a cheap attempt to get Citizens United overturned/defanged.
A lot more groups than just corporations benefited from that ruling. But that corporations got in specifically is what has the progressives' stomachs churning.
#7
"There needs to be more clarity in the law regarding the activities of tax-exempt organizations along with greater disclosure and transparency."
Since Congress writes those laws how is it the Court's fault? Basically she's saying that Congress isn't/hasn't been doing their job. For decades I might add.
#8
Since Congress writes those laws how is it the Court's fault? Basically she's saying that Congress isn't/hasn't been doing their job. For decades I might add.
Again, it was okay when groups friendly to Pelosi and her ilk had the exemption. Why shoot your allies in the foot?
Yes, it's WoT related, about an investigation into a leak of information pertaining to a foiled terror plot.
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.
The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of the calls.
Wonder what the reaction would have been if the Bush administration had done something like this in about 2005 or so in an attempt to squelch leaks...
In all, the government seized the records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown, but more than 100 journalists work in the offices where phone records were targeted, on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.
And of course all 100 would be presumed guilty before being found innocent, and therefore all their phone conversations and internet communications are fair game for Mr. Holder and company...
In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know," Pruitt said.
It's almost..Nixonian...
The government would not say why it sought the records. Officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.
In testimony in February, CIA Director John Brennan noted that the FBI had questioned him about whether he was AP's source, which he denied. He called the release of the information to the media about the terror plot an "unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information."
Given what happened in the Plame affair, I wonder if Holder already knows the identity of the leaker and is doing this to smoke out other issues, other people and perhaps get a reporter or two to perjure themselves...
Prosecutors have sought phone records from reporters before, but the seizure of records from such a wide array of AP offices, including general AP switchboards numbers and an office-wide shared fax line, is unusual.
'Unusual' in AP speak means unprecedented, but they can't say that and stay anywhere on good terms with Champ and his administration...
In the letter notifying the AP, which was received Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation for the seizure, according to Pruitt's letter and attorneys for the AP. The records were presumably obtained from phone companies earlier this year although the government letter did not explain that. None of the information provided by the government to the AP suggested the actual phone conversations were monitored.
Among those whose phone numbers were obtained were five reporters and an editor who were involved in the May 7, 2012, story.
And the other 94?
The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of providing classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined.
Imagine if the NYT was to leak the Pentagon Papers today...
The White House on Monday said that other than press reports it had no knowledge of Justice Department attempts to seek AP phone records.
"We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department," spokesman Jay Carney said.
But Jay Carney is a lying sack of shit, so his denial means nothing...
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the investigative House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said on CNN, "They had an obligation to look for every other way to get it before they intruded on the freedom of the press."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an emailed statement: "The burden is always on the government when they go after private information, especially information regarding the press or its confidential sources. ... On the face of it, I am concerned that the government may not have met that burden. I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government's explanation."
The good Senator would have been more 'troubled' if a Republican president had done this, but I'm gratified to see that he isn't just rolling over...
The American Civil Liberties Union said the use of subpoenas for a broad swath of records has a chilling effect both on journalists and whistleblowers who want to reveal government wrongdoing. "The attorney general must explain the Justice Department's actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again," said Laura Murphy, the director of ACLU's Washington legislative office.
Rules published by the Justice Department require that subpoenas of records of news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general, but it was not known if that happened in this case.
Since, after all, Mr. Holder isn't exactly known for obeying the rules...
The letter notifying AP that its phone records had been obtained through subpoenas was sent Friday by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.
William Miller, a spokesman for Machen, said Monday that in general the U.S. attorney follows "all applicable laws, federal regulations and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations." But he would not address questions about the specifics of the AP records. "We do not comment on ongoing criminal investigations," Miller said in an email.
The Justice Department lays out strict rules for efforts to get phone records from news organizations. A subpoena can be considered only after "all reasonable attempts" have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. It was unclear what other steps, in total, the Justice Department might have taken to get information in the case.
A subpoena to the media must be "as narrowly drawn as possible" and "should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period," according to the rules.
Wouldn't the AP have an opportunity to fight a subpoena in court?
The reason for these constraints, the department says, is to avoid actions that "might impair the news gathering function" because the government recognizes that "freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news."
News organizations normally are notified in advance that the government wants phone records and then they enter into negotiations over the desired information. In this case, however, the government, in its letter to the AP, cited an exemption to those rules that holds that prior notification can be waived if such notice, in the exemption's wording, might "pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation."
It is unknown whether a judge or a grand jury signed off on the subpoenas.
The May 7, 2012, AP story that disclosed details of the CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot occurred around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.
The plot was significant both because of its seriousness and also because the White House previously had told the public it had "no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the (May 2) anniversary of bin Laden's death."
So it isn't really about terror, but more about embarrassment. For the same reason Champ and his minions can't say what actually happened in Benghazi.
The AP delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP disclosed the plot, though the Obama administration continued to request that the story be held until the administration could make an official announcement.
The May 7 story was written by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman with contributions from reporters Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan and Alan Fram. They and their editor, Ted Bridis, were among the journalists whose April-May 2012 phone records were seized by the government.
Brennan talked about the AP story and investigation in written testimony to the Senate. "The irresponsible and damaging leak of classified information was made ... when someone informed The Associated Press that the U.S. government had intercepted an IED (improvised explosive device) that was supposed to be used in an attack and that the U.S. government currently had that IED in its possession and was analyzing it," he wrote.
He also defended the White House decision to discuss the plot afterward. "Once someone leaked information about interdiction of the IED and that the IED was actually in our possession, it was imperative to inform the American people consistent with government policy that there was never any danger to the American people associated with this al-Qaida plot," Brennan told senators.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2013 00:00 ||
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Remember the apologists for communism quip that 'if only the right people were in charge' it would have worked. The problem is that there are no 'right' people. It's all about power.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. - Lord Acton
#6
Hello Operator... I believe there is something wrong with my telephone line...there are strange clicking noises and I sometimes...just sometimes, I'm automatically connected to the party I was just talking about with a colleague...could you check on it please and get back to me ?
#9
This and the IRS affair I believe, while serious, are simply distractions from the Benghazi coverup being offered to confuse the issue.
The Benghazi coverup is the most serious issue - a sitting administration deliberately placing an innocent civilian's life in real danger to cover up their own gross negligence and deliberate refusal to defend our Ambassador for purely political reasons.
And there is a direct link from the event to both the White House and the Secretary of State's office at the time for the coverup.
I'm putting this link up from PJ Media and J. Christian Adams. The people at the IRS who did this should have no expectation whatsoever that they should be shielded from the repercussions of their public duties. No violence or law-breaking towards them, of course, but public scorn is a must.
Oh, and your IRS officials in Washington? They knew. And they're every bit as bad as Nixon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2013 00:00 ||
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That picture... there's something very wrong with that picture.
#2
Americans for a great part, actively and voluntarily comply with the convoluted and complicated tax laws because they hold law to be dear. However, this is just another crack in the legitimacy that such voluntary compliance is predicated upon. De-legitimize the government and tax compliance becomes a sport as its done in Europe. The usual response is more draconian tax collecting methods matched by more creative tax avoidance, to include even greater corruption in the system as those 'with' seek to keep what they have. It's just another natural aspect of the environment known as Socialism.
#3
If the IRS not only conducted improper investigations based on politics, but passed private, financial information to third parties [as is now being alleged].... the noxious, fouling discharge will soon be hitting the electrically powered rotating oscillator.
Graphic - No, I still wouldn't have voted for the REDACTED.
The usual response is more draconian tax collecting methods matched by more creative tax avoidance, to include even greater corruption in the system as those 'with' seek to keep what they have.
Excepting the rare example, like Julian the Apostate. Ordered to increase the tax income from Gaul, he found the region on the edge of a tax revolt -- rates too high, corruption everywhere. So he lowered the rates and increased the penalties for offering and accepting bribes.
What a pity about his campaign against the Persians.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/14/2013 10:13 Comments ||
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KMOV anchor: The IRS is targeting me
Larry Connors, a veteran local news anchor at KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis, says that the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting him since an April 2012 interview he conducted with President Obama -- a fact that he dismissed as coincidence until the recent reports about the IRS targeting conservative groups.
#6
I know the picture is supposed to be Bambi morphing into Nixon (I've see the moving one), but for the life of me I can't tell which side is Bambi and which is Nixon.
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/14/2013 14:10 Comments ||
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#7
Nixon is the side which could at least get a good score bowling.
#10
..that was because the Trunks of the time still had a modicum of integrity and were willing to go along with the Donks to vote for impeachment. Nixon didn't want to become the second president to face a Congress intent on impeachment for his legacy. The Donks have no such integrity. As amply demonstrated by them, its all about power.
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DETROITNEWS] Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr says the city of 
Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Conservative Enterprise Institute.
Nancy 
