[Fortune] In 1995, the former House speaker was caught passing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to his fellow congressmen--something he later said he regretted. And when Boehner resigned late last year, OpenSecrets data showed he took more money from the tobacco industry than any other lawmaker during his 26 years in Congress. Not to mention Boehner smokes so much that when he left the Capitol, his office was fumigated to get rid of the smell, according to CNN Money.
So it’s no surprise that Boehner now sits on the board of Reynolds American RAI -0.63% , the second biggest tobacco company in the country. He will serve on the corporate governance, nominating and sustainability committee, likely helping his colleagues shape how Washington regulates the struggling U.S. tobacco sector, CNN reports. More at link including a picture of the former Speaker with a 'grette in his mouth. Sorry to any of you who may be smokers, but at my age I've seen so many people get sick and die from cigarettes that I can't help it. I understand that if you get addicted at a young age it's damn near impossible to quit. But for people who produce and market addictive carcinogens I believe a special place in hell is reserved.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
So? Any US congressmen/senator who doesn't play with special interest groups?
As to smoking: a nasty, smelly habit - but my own.
[Daily Caller] National security insiders and environmentalists believe the next U.S. president must create a new cabinet position to confront so-called man made global warming.
An environmentalist think tank and former members of the military brass argued in a report Wednesday that future presidential administrations must tackle global warming by crafting a cabinet level position to deal with the effects climate change have on national security.
The document, which also describes global warming as a "significant and direct" threat to the U.S. military, is the brainchild of Washington-based think tank Center for Climate and Security, as well as senior military officials including retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, and Admiral Samuel Locklear, the former head of the Pacific Command.
"The complex relationship between sea level rise, storm surge and global readiness and responsiveness must be explored down to the operational level, across the Services and Joint forces, and up to a strategic level as well," the report said.
#5
The Ministry for Putting Things on top of Other Things
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
09/17/2016 17:19 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I demand a "Ministry of Silly Walks". But don't we already have a Department of the Interior
Seriously, I don't want individuals or business to be able to dump pollutants into the air or water any more than anyone else does. But I also understand that there is this nasty little thing called reality along with common sense. We have the capacity to go solar completely if we really want it. But the "true believers" only want "small" solutions. Small and local solutions are fine to a point. If you want to put solar power or hot water systems on the top of your house that's fine. Just don't expect to run a national economy on these "small solutions". Now I don't ever expect the hydrocarbon part of the economy top go away simply because oil and gas are so damn useful. But I would love the West (US, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea' Australia, New Zealand and a few others to get off of hydrocarbon based economies. I don't care if we have electric from solar, wind, hydro, fission, geothermal or fusion (I hope, really hope). That way the day will come when the Saudis and the rest of their ilk can go pound sand
[GP] On Friday, after Donald Trump's wildly anticipated 'Birther' press conference, Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign manager admitted the birther rumor was started inside the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Breitbart.com reported:
Patti Solis Doyle, who was Hillary Clinton's campaign manager in 2008 until the Iowa caucuses, admitted on Friday that a Clinton campaign staffer had, in fact, circulated the Birther conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was born outside the U.S. and therefore potentially ineligible to serve in the presidency.
Doyle made the admission on Twitter, as she responded to former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer.
No, @AriFleischer, it is not. The one rogue staffer who sent an email was fired pretty damn quick.
This is a lie. https://t.co/Js93dkSVdW
-- Mo Elleithee (@MoElleithee) September 16, 2016
Doyle appeared about an hour later on CNN with Wolf Blitzer to address the issue once again. She denied that Hillary Clinton had started the Birther theory -- then admitted that someone in the Clinton campaign had, in fact, been involved. Here is part their exchange:
Blitzer: Someone supporting Hillary Clinton was trying to promote this so-called Birther issue? What happened?
[Free Beacon] Congress on Friday launched a wide-ranging probe into a secret Obama administration-funded campaign to unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to information exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The probe comes on the heels of an internal government report determining that the State Department provided hundreds of thousands to an organization that plotted to unseat Netanyahu in the country’s 2015 election.
Obama administration officials were found to have deleted emails from State Department accounts containing information about its relationship with OneVoice, the non-profit group that led the effort.
OneVoice, which was awarded $465,000 in U.S. grants through 2014, has been under congressional investigation since 2015, when it was first accused of funneling some of that money to partisan political groups looking to unseat Netanyahu. This type of behavior by non-profit groups is prohibited under U.S. tax law.
A group of nine leading lawmakers led by Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.) are now formally petitioning the State Department to come clean about the effort and provide answers about how U.S. taxpayer dollars were permitted to be spent on an organization working against the elected leader of America’s closest Middle East ally, according to a readout of the investigation obtained by the Free Beacon. "Petitioning the State Department to come clean?" Unfortunately, I believe we're a bit beyond that.
"State Department officials failed to properly vet the OneVoice grant proposal because they failed to properly conduct an analysis of risks in the pre-award phase," the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry. "Unfortunately, it seems that inconsistency and apathy toward oversight of such grants at the State Department is not new. Our aid dollars should be going toward solving real problems, not contributing to the destabilization of allied governments."
#1
Not to be confused with the Soros funded campaign to destroy America. Remember those millions of untraceable small donations out of Europe in 2008 to one campaign?
This type of behavior by non-profit groups is prohibited under U.S. tax law.
I'm sure the IRS will get on that after they finish with the Tea Party applications.
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.
[Free Beacon] Congress on Friday launched a wide-ranging probe into a secret Obama administration-funded campaign to unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to information exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
