Hi there, !
Today Tue 02/19/2013 Mon 02/18/2013 Sun 02/17/2013 Sat 02/16/2013 Fri 02/15/2013 Thu 02/14/2013 Wed 02/13/2013 Archives
Rantburg
531716 articles and 1856008 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 74 articles and 209 comments as of 15:38.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 6: Politix
20 20:18 phil_b [2] 
12 15:42 Alanc [] 
12 20:27 Besoeker [1] 
4 12:19 bigjim-CA [] 
3 13:19 Frank G [] 
8 14:05 JohnQC [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
9 22:22 lotp [1]
1 12:24 Bill Clinton [1]
11 19:42 Nimble Spemble [1]
7 20:24 Besoeker []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
7 18:16 USN,Ret. []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 10:20 Frank G [1]
6 16:25 lotp [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
1 16:10 Frank G [1]
2 13:05 Besoeker [1]
2 15:31 Alanc []
0 [3]
0 []
12 20:21 Besoeker [1]
9 21:03 JosephMendiola [1]
0 []
0 []
6 16:42 Frank G []
0 [1]
0 []
1 12:21 DepotGuy []
0 []
0 []
1 12:10 Redneck Jim []
0 []
0 []
0 [3]
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 12:40 Pappy []
6 15:14 Shipman []
0 []
0 []
0 []
Page 3: Non-WoT
10 20:58 JosephMendiola [1]
9 19:46 Procopius2k []
0 []
7 17:30 Charles [2]
0 [1]
0 [1]
13 17:32 Charles [1]
2 08:28 Besoeker []
1 16:19 Dopey Sinatra9196 [1]
6 14:24 Barbara []
Page 4: Opinion
0 [2]
7 22:52 whatadeal [2]
0 []
9 22:57 whatadeal []
0 []
1 09:58 trailing wife []
2 07:33 Shipman [1]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Former San Diego Mayor Bet More Than $1 Billion as a Result of Gambling Addiction
[NATION.TIME] As Maureen O'Connor stood in court Thursday somberly admitting over the course of years that she had bet a total of more than $1 billion in casinos due to her compulsive gambling, it was the sad culmination of an addiction that dismantled a vast fortune and left her broke and in failing health.

The former mayor of San Diego -- and widow of millionaire Jack-in-the-Box restaurant chain founder Robert Peterson, who died in 1994 -- lost a total of $13 million to casinos, and confessed to taking $2.1 million from her husband's charitable foundation only to blow it on video poker. But it didn't end there. Court records show O'Connor liquidated her savings, sold a number of properties, auctioned her valuables and took out second and third mortgages on her home in La Jolla, Calif. -- all of it to only rack up extensive gambling debts.

O'Connor, who served as mayor of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,'s second-largest city in the 1980s and '90s, pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
on Thursday to a charge of money laundering, striking a deal that allows her to try to pay the money back to the foundation and get treatment for gambling addiction. "I always intended to pay it back," she said of the money at a news conference following her hearing. "And I still intend to pay it back. In that period of time I lost my husband, three siblings, best friends."

O'Connor, 66, suffered a stroke and had a brain tumor removed in 2011; she now lives with her twin sister, Mavourneen, and says she suffers memory loss and sometimes has trouble reading. She blames her gambling compulsion on the tumor. "There are two Maureens -- Maureen No. 1 and Maureen No. 2," O'Connor said at her presser. "Maureen No. 2 is the Maureen who did not know she had a tumor growing in her brain."
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  2 gets ya 5 Maureen 1 wins.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/16/2013 1:59 Comments || Top||

#2  "There are two Maureens -- Maureen No. 1 and Maureen No. 2,"
Both should be in jail.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 3:13 Comments || Top||

#3  the gambling was for nearly a decade before her tumor. STFU
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2013 10:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Seems like a qualifying resume for the White House position at OKs fed money for green projects.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/16/2013 11:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Blames the Gambling on the tumor, BULLSHIT, it's the huge win (If any) That gets them.

I had a tumor (Now removed) and I don't Gamble, its a losing bet, I save my money.

I have a brother, I think he gambles, My Mom's inheritance ($800 K) Is gone, yes he dipped into it (Illegally) and it's just vanished.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2013 11:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Inoperable is the tumor of greed. She'll likely succumb to it. Just my guess.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 11:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Knock over a liquor store for a couple of hundred bucks and you get five to ten in prison. Steal $2.1 million from a charity and get treatment for your addiction.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/16/2013 12:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Seems like a qualifying resume for the White House position at OKs fed money for green projects

Gambled a billion and only lost $13 million?

She's overqualified.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/16/2013 13:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Maureen No. 2 better have a good pair of running sneakers. I hear there's some bruisers from Vegas who are looking for her - to settle a few debts. :-)
Posted by: Raider || 02/16/2013 16:34 Comments || Top||

#10  The 'bet more than $1 Billion' is, I think, somewhat deceptive.

Suppose you have $15 Million in assets. For two years, you bet $1.5 Million per day, almost every day, and lose a net of $17k on average per day. After 700 days, you would have bet about $1,000,000,000. Your loss would be about $12,000,000.
Posted by: lord garth || 02/16/2013 19:13 Comments || Top||

#11  correct. She won more than $1 billion. She lost more. I guess she'll make up for it in volume
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2013 19:22 Comments || Top||

#12  I'll be she comps a lot of buffet prime rib and lobster.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 20:27 Comments || Top||


Jackson Jr., wife intend to plead guilty to charges
[Chicago Tribune] Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife Sandi intend to plead guilty to federal charges alleging the former congressman misused $750,000 in campaign funds while she understated their income on tax returns for six years, their lawyers say.

Jackson Jr., 47, a Democrat from Chicago, was charged in a criminal information today with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and false statements. He faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and other penalties.

Sandi Jackson was charged with one count of filing false tax returns. She faces up to three years in prison, a fine of up to $100,000 and other penalties.

Jackson Jr. is accused of diverting $750,000 in campaign funds for personal use.

Federal authorities allege that Jackson Jr. used campaign funds to purchase a $43,350 men's gold-plated Rolex watch, $5,150 worth of fur capes and parkas, and $9,588 in children's furniture. The purchases were made between 2007 and 2009, according to the criminal information, which authorities noted is not evidence of guilt.

Other expenditures listed by prosecutors include $10,105 on Bruce Lee memorabilia, $11,130 on Martin Luther King memorabilia and $22,700 on Michael Jackson items, including $4,600 for a "Michael Jackson fedora."

The government also alleged that Jackson Jr. made false statements to the House of Representatives because he did not report approximately $28,500 in loans and gifts he received.

"He has claimed the credit for his actions and I can confirm that he intends to plead guilty to the charge in the information," Jackson Jr.'s attorney Brian Heberlig said.

Sandi Jackson is accused of filing incorrect joint tax returns with her husband for calendar years 2006 through 2011, reporting income "substantially less than the amount of income she and her husband received in each of the calendar years," with a substantial additional tax due.

Her attorneys released a statement saying she has "reached an agreement with the U.S. attorney's office to plead guilty to one count of tax fraud."
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It was Sandi 2 wut done the deal, Sandi 1 is clean.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/16/2013 7:34 Comments || Top||

#2  I buy Bruce Lee memorabilia and Michael Jackson Fedoras. What's in your wallet ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 7:52 Comments || Top||

#3  the rotten apple doesn't fall far from the race hustler grifter tree
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2013 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  I predict a long and blustery period of PROBATION for these two derelicts.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/16/2013 12:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Harkin: 'Is It a Spending Problem? No ... It's a Misallocation of Wealth'
[CNSNEWS] Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said on Thursday that U.S. government does not have a spending problem, but America suffers from "a misallocation of wealth."

"I look at it this way," Harkin said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Budget Control Act of 2011 (the law that includes the automatic spending cuts referred to as "sequestration"). "We're the richest nation in the history of the world. That kind of begs the question doesn't it? If we're so rich, why are we so broke?"

"Is it a spending problem? Harkin said. "No, it's because we have a misallocation of capital, a misallocation of wealth."

"All of this wealth that's been built up by hard-working Americans has been accumulated into fewer and fewer and fewer hands all the time," Harkin said.
But enough about Nancy Pelosi and her husband. And John Kerry and his wife...
Harkin, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, criticized a U.S. tax code he said benefits wealthy people.

"I tell you we've got to get back to a better, rationale system of revenues and spending in this country and back to our obligations," Harkin said. "I just feel very strongly, that it's not just appropriations that's causing this problem.

"It's the lack of the revenue that we should be taking in to meet our obligations as a country," Harkin said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Massive increases in spending by the Federal government is the misallocation of capital.
Posted by: Raj || 02/16/2013 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Do lefties get taught that wealth obeys the First Law of Thermodynamics, or does the notion just come inherently? Or is it just a way to rationalise their all-consuming jealousy?
Posted by: Bulldog || 02/16/2013 2:22 Comments || Top||

#3  But some friends of Champs [and his IRS] do pretty well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 2:42 Comments || Top||

#4  In other news: Kerry goes to State. Warren Buffet pays $23B for Heinz; illegal options trading suspected in advance of tender.

Temps drop as cold front invades South.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 3:02 Comments || Top||

#5  "It's the lack of the revenue that we should be taking in to meet our obligations as a country," Harkin said.
Leave Facebook out of it. Dontya know he's the Champs buddy.
Posted by: tipper || 02/16/2013 4:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Then get rid of the sixteenth amendment.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/16/2013 6:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Thou shall not covet
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/16/2013 8:17 Comments || Top||

#8  It's a Misallocation of Wealth

Due to Government interference in the economy?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/16/2013 9:53 Comments || Top||

#9  "Due to Government interference in the economy?"

Due to the gummint stealing and wasting misallocating the wealth to itself, grom.

But what you said too.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/16/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Rent-seeking i.e. making use of under-charged for things the state actually does, or being a beneficiary of government extortion is the sole cause of asset mis-allocations.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/16/2013 11:02 Comments || Top||

#11  The good senator himself is estimated (by the Wapo) to be worth $16 mil, despite (or because of) having been a public servant for the last 30 years, so I think we can safely assume that he's talking about reallocating OPM.

The federal gummint spent something like $3.8 trillion last year as near as anyone can tell. If that's not a spending problem, what would a spending problem look like? $38 trillion?
Posted by: Matt || 02/16/2013 11:39 Comments || Top||

#12  I have a "Misallocation" of Capital, I don't have any, why won't Obama help me. (Whine, whine.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2013 11:46 Comments || Top||

#13  If you "misallocation" had been by hmm, hmm design, Obama would be there for you.
Posted by: Shineger Schwarzeneggar2970 || 02/16/2013 12:06 Comments || Top||

#14  Then get rid of the sixteenth amendment.

For once, I agree.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/16/2013 13:06 Comments || Top||

#15  Congress rigs the tax code for their cronies. Look in the mirror Mr. Hawkin.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/16/2013 13:26 Comments || Top||

#16  Thing is....

What did the Government do FOR facebook that would justify them paying any (direct) tax?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/16/2013 13:46 Comments || Top||

#17  What did the Government do FOR facebook that would justify them paying any (direct) tax?

That's an awfully considerate thought to have about a corporation that did so much to help this government retain power. Simply put, Facebook Corp. and its owners and mangement deserve to suffer because they've been acting to keep the Asshole in power and making _me_ suffer.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/16/2013 13:49 Comments || Top||

#18  Misallocation of wealth. I call it trough addiction. When is Tax Freedom Day this year?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/16/2013 19:05 Comments || Top||

#19  Yet Facebook - Obama's buddy - gets a tax refund of some +400M+. Half a Billion dollars folks.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/16/2013 19:24 Comments || Top||

#20  The idea a society can consume wealth is the worst kind of economic illiteracy.

The only way it can be done is to sell productive assets to foreigners, effectively exchanging them for consumables from that country.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/16/2013 20:18 Comments || Top||


Waxman: Obama Should Regulate Oil Refineries, Household Appliances to Stop Global Warming
But I thought we all bought new appliances with government help a few years ago in order to fix that. Did we not thusly cool the sun's passion?
[CNSNEWS] Representative Henry Waxman
...the funny-looking Democrat Representative-for-Life from Caliphornia. First elected in 1975, his estimated retirement date is 2075 or maybe later...
(D-Calif.) said the B.O. regime should regulate oil refineries, household appliances, and even renegotiate climate treaties if Congress does not pass legislation dealing with global warming.

"The president will be taking action by executive order through his administration," Waxman said at a presser on Friday unveiling his Safe Climate Caucus, which will work to pressure House Republicans to take up a climate change initiative.

Waxman, who said that Obama's executive actions would also pressure the GOP, explained that there were several things the administration might do to address global warming.

"We've asked the White House to coordinate their activities throughout the various departments and the various areas within the administration," Waxman explained. "The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] can do a lot more. They've proposed regulating new power plants to control emissions, they can go forward and complete that rule."
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Waxman's a fascist.
Posted by: Raj || 02/16/2013 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Most of the Dem's and an uncomfortable number of the R's are fascists. The pol's MN and MO need to be dangling worm the end of a wire.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 02/16/2013 4:48 Comments || Top||

#3  They ARE mostly fascists, SAM, except for those like Harkin that are full on communists that believe that all wealth belongs to the state to be allocated at the whim of the pols.

Tree, rope, politicians...some assembly required.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/16/2013 8:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Add "Tree, Rope, Journalist - some assembly required" to that mix.

They are the reason the voters are so intentionally mis-informed that they voted for these guys.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/16/2013 9:40 Comments || Top||

#5  "Waxman's a fascist."

And an IDIOT.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/16/2013 10:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't forget the NJ state government.
Posted by: Hellfish || 02/16/2013 10:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Nostrildamus
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2013 10:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Stopping global warming? That is like pissing into a hurricane to try to slow it down. It's going to happen anyway.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/16/2013 10:59 Comments || Top||

#9  We may not be able to do everything but gotta do something.

Cash for Can Openers?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/16/2013 11:32 Comments || Top||

#10  Gold and silver buying/selling ?

You heard it here first!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 11:36 Comments || Top||

#11  Global warming is just another lefty con game to try to grab money that doesn't belong to them. In another time this was called stealing. Waxman, go pound sand.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/16/2013 13:57 Comments || Top||

#12  JQC I'm afraid that this s*** won't stop still there is some actual pounding going on.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/16/2013 15:42 Comments || Top||


Chuck Hagel filibustered by GOP for defense post
[WASHINGTONTIMES] Republicans succeeded Thursday in blocking a vote on Chuck Hagel, President B.O.'s defense secretary nominee, by launching the first filibuster in history against a president's choice to fill the Pentagon's top civilian post.

GOP senators said they are delaying the confirmation in order to have more time to study Mr. Hagel's record and to obtain more information on the White House's handling of the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a matter on which they accuse the administration of stonewalling or providing wrong information. Republicans expect they will green-light him later this month after the chamber returns from a weeklong vacation.

Still, the filibuster is a stark move against a man who just four years ago was a Republican senator from Nebraska -- meaning the senators are blocking one of their former colleagues.

The vote drew a furious response from the White House, which said Republicans were "playing politics" with the Defense Department and with Mr. Hagel, who was maimed serving as an enlisted combat soldier in Vietnam.

"Allow this war hero an up-or-down vote, and let our troops have the secretary of defense they deserve," press secretary Jay Carney said after the vote.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: junkiron || 02/16/2013 2:56 Comments || Top||

#2  meaning the senators are blocking one of their former colleagues

Time wounds all heels.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/16/2013 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  apparently he was an all-purpose insufferable dick to colleagues and staff alike.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2013 13:19 Comments || Top||


MN, MO Dems introduce parallel bills to confiscate all guns
4. Any person who, prior to the effective date of this law, was legally in possession of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine shall have ninety days from such effective date to do any of the following without being subject to prosecution:

(1) Remove the assault weapon or large capacity magazine from the state of Missouri;

(2) Render the assault weapon permanently inoperable; or

(3) Surrender the assault weapon or large capacity magazine to the appropriate law enforcement agency for destruction, subject to specific agency regulations.

5. Unlawful manufacture, import, possession, purchase, sale, or transfer of an assault weapon or a large capacity magazine is a class C felony.

Posted by: || 02/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should be little doubt where this effort is headed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2013 2:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Since that state is planning on breaking your constitution should this not be seen as a declaration to leave the united states?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/16/2013 6:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Try and send the Sheriff by the house to pick up the guns...see what happens.

In Montana it should be interesting. Even in Missouri...

My daddy once told me that a Law that can't be enforced is no law.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 02/16/2013 7:23 Comments || Top||

#4  I believe the Donks have solidified their image as 'gun grabbers'.

Try and send the Sheriff by the house to pick up the guns...see what happens.

Look how panic they were with just one man in LA. Imagine their state when every house, car and prol could be packing when they try to do the grab. Their kill ratio wasn't that good in LA. Once they do a Ruby Ridge or Waco on a few, their family members will also become vulnerable. They don't live in fortified cantonments, but among the community. They have to go home every night or end of shift. As amply demonstrated with the police in Iraq and Afghanistan, that renders them very ineffective in 'enforcement'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/16/2013 8:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Missouri is larger than Kansas City and Saint Louis. I'm sure the same could be said about Minnesota. Any volunteers for an Ozark gun grab LOL.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/16/2013 10:58 Comments || Top||

#6  They're cowards they TALK a war, but will NOT fight.

Your guns are safe.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2013 11:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Gun Rights: Are There Any Peaceful Solutions Left?
Posted by: tipper || 02/16/2013 13:58 Comments || Top||

#8  The numbering in the original article was botched. Journalists and the govmint aren't good at counting. I'll take license and add #6 and #7.

(6) The American people can take up arms, exercise their 2nd Amendment rights, defend the country and its Constitution against all enemies domestic and foreign, and then
(7) Throw the rascals out of office if they are still available.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/16/2013 14:05 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
39[untagged]
9Arab Spring
6Govt of Syria
3TTP
3Govt of Pakistan
3Jamaat-e-Islami
2al-Qaeda in North Africa
2Commies
1Hamas
1Govt of Iraq
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Salafists
1Boko Haram
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Thai Insurgency

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-02-16
  Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
Fri 2013-02-15
  Meteorite Hits Urals, Up to 500 Injured
Thu 2013-02-14
  Pakistan asks Taliban to announce 30-day cease-fire for talks
Wed 2013-02-13
  Syrian rebels say they captured military air base near Aleppo
Tue 2013-02-12
  KCNA confirms: Pudgy sets off a nuke
Mon 2013-02-11
  Seven killed, 11 injured in attacks across southern Thailand
Sun 2013-02-10
  Syrian troops, rebels clash over Damascus highway
Sat 2013-02-09
  India Executes Man Convicted in 2001 Attack on Parliament
Fri 2013-02-08
  Suicide bomber hits north Mali, troops clash in capital
Thu 2013-02-07
  Syrian Army Launches 'All-Out Attack' on Capital Region
Wed 2013-02-06
  Fat Lady Sings for Abd el Kader Mahmoud Mohamed el Sayed
Tue 2013-02-05
  Second big turban nabbed in northern Mali
Mon 2013-02-04
  Ansar Dine #3 arrested in northern Mali
Sun 2013-02-03
  Yemen Troops Kill 12 'Qaida Militants' in Restive South
Sat 2013-02-02
  Syria Suicide Attack on Regime Kills 53

Better than the average link...



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.
54.225.56.41
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (23)    WoT Background (28)    Non-WoT (10)    Opinion (7)    (0)