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'Pakistan Taliban' behind Times Square bomb plot
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Repealed 33 years ago, homeowners get bills now
When an 80-year-old West Side homeowner received a bill this week for an unpopular "occupancy tax" that was repealed three decades ago after a near-revolt by city residents, he thought the notice might be an error.

It was no mistake.

The city mailed bills this week to 2,994 property owners informing them that they owe money for a fee that was imposed in 1976, then abolished after only a year.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We really are just a few more "mistakes" by politicians before tar and feathers comes back.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/09/2010 0:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought that tax matters were void after seven years except in cases of fraud.
Posted by: gorb || 05/09/2010 0:22 Comments || Top||

#3  And this is the sort of organization some folks want to hand over our medical care to.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/09/2010 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  This should fall under the statute of Limitations, if they didn't attempt to collect within 7 years they CANNOT try to collect now.
Sue them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/09/2010 12:24 Comments || Top||

#5  ... for pain, suffering, distress, and damage to the lawn.
Posted by: Fred || 05/09/2010 13:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
May Could Be the Cruelest Month for Senate Incumbents
Over the next 11 days, the Senate could lose three of its incumbents in primary fights.

For some perspective on how politically stunning that fact is, consider this: since 1980, only seven senators have lost their seat in a primary election. And one of them, Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, rebounded to win the general election.

Now, Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, and Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter are facing serious intra-party fights to hold on to their seats.

Bennett could lose his seat on Saturday, when 3,500 delegates at the Utah Republican Party's state convention will vote for their party's nominee. Bennett is facing two strong challenges, from attorney Mike Lee and businessman Tim Bridgewater. Two outcomes are possible: one candidate secures 60% of the delegate vote and wins the nomination without a primary, or the delegates winnow the field to two candidates who would face off in a June primary election. Bennett's best hope is to win enough support to force a primary, but even then his re-election prospects are tough considering the anti-incumbent surge in his home state.

In Arkansas, Lincoln is facing two Democrats in the May 18 primary, but her main challenger is Lt. Gov Bill Halter. He is challenging her from the left flank, aided by unions and liberal activists who want to oust the more centrist Lincoln. The senator is leading in the polls, but the closing days of the race will be crucial. Outside groups are also playing heavily in this race. The SEIU, for example, just dropped $1 million in television and radio ads attacking Lincoln's record on jobs. She has the backing of key Democrats, including Arkansas's own former President Bill Clinton.

Specter switched parties to boost his re-election prospects in the Keystone State, but 2010 could be the year that he couldn't win as a Republican or a Democrat. National and state Democrats initially scoffed at Rep. Joe Sestak's upstart primary bid, and the senator enjoyed months of double-digit polling advantages. But Sestak has steadily closed the gap. He's spending the final days reminding Democratic voters that Specter, for 45 years, was a Republican.
Posted by: Fred || 05/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bennett lost his seat now.

Who's next?

I would love to see Specter thrown out.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/09/2010 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I heard Bennett speak on the TV re his defeat. He said he knew that some of his votes might be controversial and end his career. What struck me in his statement was the phrase: "might end his career." I realized that these officials view their jobs as "careers" -- not as temporary elected positions where they serve their country at the behest of the American people. Also implicit in his statement is that he didn't give a flip about the will of the voters.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/09/2010 10:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Utah's other senator, Orrin Hatch, was on TV commenting on Bennett's defeat and said Bennett had "earned the right to that senate seat." I think that comment speaks volumes about the sense of entitlement Hatch and other senators have.
Posted by: Biff Wellington || 05/09/2010 11:01 Comments || Top||

#4  "I do think I still have a lot of juice BS left in me," Bennett said following his loss. "We'll see what the future may bring."

Find Florida, a palm tree lined golf course or a fishing boat PLEASE!
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/09/2010 11:40 Comments || Top||

#5  She has the backing of key Democrats, including Arkansas's own former President Bill Clinton.

Talk about being Dammed with faint praise.
This statement illustrates that perfectly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/09/2010 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  "I do think I still have a lot of juice left in me," Bennett said following his loss. "We'll see what the future may bring."

V. interesting choice of words. "Juice" usually implies money-making, revenue-generating ability.

What are you willing to bet that Bennett decides to become yet another ex-pol multi-million $ rainmaker for

a) a lobbying firm serving Wall Street clients,

b) a hedge fund or dealmaking unit of an investment bank (cf John Edwards, Tom Daschle, Rahm E. after he left the WH and began pimping the Clinton donor list for Wasserstein Perella)

c) a "green tech" venture fund that seeks to shape legislation in order to, so to speak, juice up the ROI for its dodgy investments (cf Khosla's attempt to steer billions in California public funds toward Kleiner Perkins via his own ballot initiative a few years back)

d) some combination of a), b) and c)
Posted by: lex || 05/09/2010 12:36 Comments || Top||

#7  dude will be 77 this September. Go out with grace, Bob.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/09/2010 12:57 Comments || Top||

#8  The 3-term senator was targeted by Tea Party activists and other groups for supporting the first traunch of TARP. Bennett broke a promise he made to only serve two terms. He was vying for his fourth term.

MSNBC was reporting this. They must have swallowed hard to report the story. Matthews, Maddow, and Olbermann must be turning over in their figurative graves.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/09/2010 20:55 Comments || Top||


Stunning 2006 Barney Frank VIDEO Surfaces: Banks Forced to Report Too Much
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaking at a forum on national housing policy on December 11, 2006. Three weeks after making this speech at the Treasury Department, Frank became Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Frank on Democrats taking over regulatory reform:

"You will see far less difference with Democrats taking over in the Financial Services regulatory area than in virtually any other area of public policy, because we did work together on things like regulatory relief and we have more to do yet in the deregulation. One of the things we did was try to reduce the reporting requirements from the banks to the financial detectives.

"Far too much has to be reported now in my judgment."

On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

"We weren't doing anything for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The issue for me was housing. We were doing something for housing. And I agreed with those who argued that because of the markets' perceptions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got this great benefit to be able to borrow money cheaply yet the benefit was not being adequately returned to the public.

"There were two things you could have done about that. You could have reduced the benefit. You could have cut back on their ability to borrow as cheaply or you could leave that benefit in place and distribute it more fairly. That's what we chose to do with the affordable housing fund."

On the housing bubble in 2006, two years before the housing bubble burst:

"I do want to address this thing about the bubble. I think the bubble is an entirely inappropriate metaphor. Let me just be very clear, houses ain't tulips. Houses today even with the drop in housing prices are more valuable than tulips were however many years ago when we had the tulip business."

On plummeting housing prices:

"I think it's a good thing that housing prices are dropping. A few speculators get stung, that's icing on the cake. The cake is... the cake is that people can afford to buy houses now. A 10% drop in housing prices is a good thing. Housing was over-valued.

"But let me make this distinction on why it's not a bubble. I was just thinking about this [unintelligible]... maybe housing suffered from irrational exuberance. But bubbles in history haven't been cases of irrational exuberance. They have been cases of exuberant irrationality. And there really is a distinction.

"Irrational exuberance means you get a little carried away with something that is basically a good thing. But exuberant irrationality is when you start thinking that tulips or some of those dumb ideas on the internet when there were some of those things that nobody in their right mind wanted to buy, those were excessive."

On why housing prices plummeting is a good thing:

"Fundamentally I don't think that there's a crisis, and I do think that the end result in a 10% drop in many parts of the country will be a more rational and healthier housing market."

And finally... Frank on his own ability to deal with "things."

"I'm pretty good with words but I'm not so good with things. I've had a lifelong struggle with things. And the less I am responsible dealing with them the better off everybody is."
There is indeed that.
Posted by: Fred || 05/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Banks do have to report too much.

Banks should be regulated in simple ways.

The currency should be regulated by modifying banks reserve requirements.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/09/2010 6:49 Comments || Top||

#2  And in the end it will not matter, because Rep Fwank will never be held accountable by the unthinking knee-jerk idiot cattle who vote in his district.

They only way for people like that to be held accountable is by prosecutors, or pitchforks.

Posted by: OldSpook || 05/09/2010 11:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Mr. Frank being frank and not dissemmbling? That is not usual mode of the Congressman. He did forget to mention the strong arm techniques used by the federal government on banks to give out so many subprime loans that became toxic for the entire world. I'm willing to give credit where credit is due. Time to dump Barney. Put him in the unemployment line.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/09/2010 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Time to dump Barney. Put him in the unemployment line.

...and tell the bugger to keep his distance.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/09/2010 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  ...and leave the children alone.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/09/2010 11:57 Comments || Top||


63 Democratic House Seats In Play For Republicans
That Republican wave is looking bigger: 63 Democrat-held House seats are now toss-ups, likely GOP pickups or lean Democrat. That's based on average of estimates from the Cook Political Report, the Rothenberg Political Report, Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball and Real Clear Politics.

When IBD looked at that average about a month ago, it was 48.

By some estimates, the Republican potential target list is far bigger. National Review's Jim Geraghty recently released his list of 99 Democrat seats in play.

RCP's Sean Trende said last month he wouldn't be shocked if Republicans won 100 seats or more, though he stressed a 1994-style result would be more likely. The whole analysis is worth checking out.

In 1994, Republicans won 54 seats. This year, they need to pick up a net 41 seats to retake the House.

So perhaps it's not surprising that six months from the election, and we're already getting articles about whether Nancy Pelosi will remain leader of the House Democrats should her party return to the minority. Over at Salon (not exactly a pro-GOP website), Mike Madden considers the scenario, but doesn't see any obvious replacements:
It's hard to imagine a party suffering such a cataclysm at the ballot boxes wouldn't want to shake up its leadership. (And it's not clear that Pelosi would want to return to being House minority leader after four years wielding the gavel.) But there aren't really any strong candidates to take her place -- because Pelosi has, over the years, outmaneuvered all her rivals.
Regardless, speculating about "Minority Leader Pelosi" this early can't be a good omen for the Democrats.
Posted by: Fred || 05/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bennett lost the primary too. The anti-incumbent feeling is everywhere. Anyone who voted for bail out or any other government expansion is in real trouble.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/09/2010 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Do not, repeat do not, fall for Barry's trap and rile up his latino and afr-amer base. Everything is going the right way, politically. No need to stimulate Dem turnout by highlighting Mexican immigration any more than it's already been highlighted. Keep quiet this summer, and take revenge against an idiotic and corrupt political class in November.
Posted by: lex || 05/09/2010 1:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Tracking polls of how the country is doing indicate that 56.8% of the people think the country is on the wrong track; 34.9% think it is going in the right direction. The other 8.3% = ?. This link shows the trending: Pollster.com
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/09/2010 11:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Those polls understate the gap. Rasmussen, the only pollster who restricts his survey pool to LIKELY voters, has it at 33% right track, 61% wrong track.

Let's not get overconfident. Now is the time to ensure that no one falls for Barry's trap and let the "rACiSts!!!" meme take hold and stoke high latinos and afr-amer turnout this fall. Put immigration aside, downplay health care, and focus like the proverbial laser beam on the real unemployment rate, which is rising and is now over 17%.
Posted by: lex || 05/09/2010 12:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Agreed, lex.
Posted by: lotp || 05/09/2010 15:09 Comments || Top||


Jimmy Carter hits the campaign trail with grandson
Most candidates for the state Legislature would love to campaign door-to-door with a former president, but Jason Carter wanted to keep his famous grandfather away for a while.

The grandson of Jimmy Carter wanted to do it on his own, without relying on his famous family name, even though grandma and grandpa have been asking for months to get out on the trail with him. The younger Carter finally relented with a special election for a vacant state Senate seat just days away - and there were Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, handing out fliers and shaking hands Saturday with surprised residents in a tree-lined Atlanta neighborhood.

"Oh my gosh, President Carter I can't believe you're on my front lawn," Christine Marsteller said as Jimmy Carter slowly made his way up to her yard sale. Yes, Marsteller said, absolutely she would vote for Jason Carter on Tuesday.

"Don't forget, it's very important," the 85-year-old Carter said, pecking the 29-year-old Emory University researcher on the cheek with the politician's practiced ease.
Ick. I hope her scientific judgement is clearer.
Jason Carter said he didn't take his grandparents up on their offer sooner because he wanted to prove he could do the hard work on his own. After all, with the Carter name comes high expectations for success.

"I can't be trading on my family name," the 34-year-old lawyer said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This is not a campaign of entitlement. We've got to earn this on our own."
As you say, Mr. Carter.
Still, in a special election where turnout will be key, he is rolling out the political royalty to rally voters. He is facing a Democrat, a Libertarian and an independent.

If he wins, Carter would become the first in his family to be elected to political office since his grandfather won the presidency in 1976.

Jimmy Carter served two terms in the Georgia Senate before becoming the state's governor in 1971.

The heavily Democratic district covers portions of Atlanta and Decatur in DeKalb County and has a large Jewish population, which has resurrected some touchy questions about Jimmy Carter's strained relationship with the community.

Jimmy Carter outraged many Jews with his 2006 book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" by comparing Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa.

In a sign that emotions on the issue still run high, a flier has circulated in recent days in one Jewish neighborhood that purported to show a Jason Carter donor with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Jason Carter called the anonymous flier "ridiculous and completely false."
And yet he let Grandpa campaign for him. So he doesn't seem to be repudiating what his grandfather has chosen to stand for. A man is known by the company he keeps and all that.
Posted by: Fred || 05/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "This is not a campaign of entitlement. We've got to earn this on our own."

So entitlement is bad, eh?
Posted by: gorb || 05/09/2010 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2 
"Don't forget, it's very important," the 85-year-old Carter said, pecking the 29-year-old Emory University researcher on the cheek with the politician's practiced ease


Need to add the "kiss of Death" movie poster pic. It works on many levels.
Posted by: regular joe || 05/09/2010 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  "Oh my gosh, President Carter I can't believe you're on my front lawn," Christine Marsteller said as Jimmy Carter slowly made his way up to her yard sale.

"get off my lawn!"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/09/2010 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "This is not a campaign of entitlement.

Certainly not! Lifelong "entitlement" and privilege only comes AFTER you've been elected.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/09/2010 11:25 Comments || Top||

#5  The grandson of Jimmy Carter wanted to do it on his own, without relying on his famous family name

Translated: He wanted to distance himself from Jimmy so as to have a snowball's chance in hell of winning an election.

He was hoping that the "hope and change" president would supplant his grandfather as the most lame and ineffectual U.S. president.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/09/2010 11:41 Comments || Top||

#6  I think he's about 30 years too late for DeKalb county.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/09/2010 11:45 Comments || Top||


Christie ban on unions' political donations struck down
A state appeals court Friday struck down an attempt by Gov. Christie to restrict political donations from state workers' unions, overturning one of the first moves of his administration.
In an executive order, the governor moved to have unions treated like other business entities, which may not receive state contracts worth more than $17,500 if they have donated more than $300 to statewide campaigns within 18 months. Christie signed the order on his first full day in office.

The executive order would have severely hampered the state workers unions' influence, but a three-judge panel ruled that the governor's executive order violated the principle of separation of powers.

"The desired changes in the law would, in essence, require not only a pen, but also an eraser," the opinion states.

"We are not, by any means, concluding that what the governor seeks to accomplish is illegal, impossible, or unwise public policy," the ruling continues. "We simply hold that what [Executive Order] 7 seeks to achieve must be pursued through legislation."

Christie said that while he was disappointed with the outcome, he was encouraged that the opinion "very strongly supports the . . . robust authority that the governor of New Jersey has in order to execute executive orders." He said the judges also indicated that the issue "is a public-policy issue that needs to be debated and discussed."

Christie has until July 1 to decide whether to appeal to the Supreme Court. He said he would talk with his advisers to determine how to proceed in order to achieve his policy objective: "to level the playing field so that no one has a greater advantage over the other because of their money."

"We've gone through a period in New Jersey where money has been an extraordinary driver of political discussion in this state, and I'd like to get to a place where the ideas are the driver," Christie said.

The Communications Workers of America, which filed the lawsuit challenging the executive order, praised the ruling Friday.

"We are gratified that the court recognized the basic principle that in our system of government, the legislature makes laws, and the executive branch executes them," said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA New Jersey state director.

"With Executive Order 7, Gov. Christie twisted this principle and attempted to, in the court's words, 'bypass the legislature and carry out what would be, in effect, an implied repealer of existing legislation.'
Posted by: Fred || 05/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Trying to govern New Jersey for the voters must be like trying to swim through a sea of mud made of slime and political corruption.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/09/2010 11:59 Comments || Top||



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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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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
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2010-05-09
  'Pakistan Taliban' behind Times Square bomb plot
Sat 2010-05-08
  Uighur big turban reported titzup in Pak
Fri 2010-05-07
  Mullah Atiqullah captured in Afghanistan
Thu 2010-05-06
  Death sentence for Kasab
Wed 2010-05-05
  Iraqi Troops Arrest Head of Qaeda-Linked Ansar al-Islam
Tue 2010-05-04
  Pakistani-American Arrested in Times Square Plot
Mon 2010-05-03
  Somali rebels seize pirate haven of Haradhere
Sun 2010-05-02
  Pakistani Taliban claim credit for failed NYC Times Square car bombing
Sat 2010-05-01
  Explosions inside a Somali mosque kill at least 30
Fri 2010-04-30
  Two New York men charged with trying to help al Qaeda
Thu 2010-04-29
  Hakimullah Mehsud no longer dead
Wed 2010-04-28
  Egypt court convicts 26 men of links to Hezbollah
Tue 2010-04-27
  French cops seize five jihad suspects
Mon 2010-04-26
  Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri Nabbed?
Sun 2010-04-25
  AQI confirms death of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri

Better than the average link...



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