The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the nation's most prominent civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan's major bridges and tunnels. But he still carries baggage from his early days as a fire-breathing agitator: Government records obtained by The Associated Press indicate that Sharpton and his business entities owe nearly $1.5 million in overdue taxes and associated penalties.
There's a guy in virtually every organization who is a pop-off, and David Hackworth fit that description perfectly.
But unlike most pop-offs, this man the most highly decorated soldier in American military history was reliably on target. So much so that his career ended with the threat of a court martial because of his scathing criticism of the Vietnam War, but his legacy as an eccentric but fearless and brilliant officer and motivator of soldiers has lived on.
The U.S. economic downturn has spread personal financial worries far and wide, but women are more worried about paying bills, losing jobs, providing for children and saving for retirement, according to a study released on Thursday.
The study comes as the U.S. economy has been mired in a half-year-long period of stagnation accompanied by a shrinking job market, rising energy prices and a downward spiral in consumer confidence.
A rare international alert seeking a man shown in dozens of raw child porn images quickly led to the arrest of a small-time actor, who painted faces at children's parties and performed as "the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen."
Wayne Nelson Corliss told authorities he had sex with three boys in Thailand six years ago, an experience he described as "euphoria," a prosecutor said Thursday at Corliss' first court appearance.
Over the past several years, the Union of Concerned Scientists has been performing an amazing public service: Surveying scientists, agency by federal agency, to determine how many report inappropriate political interference in their work. And so UCS has canvassed the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Food and Drug Administration--and so on. In each case, the surveys have shown intolerable levels of political meddling, and collectively have documented the existence of hundreds of unhappy researchers across the government. But we were all waiting to hear about the agency that many have long suspected to harbor the worst problems -- the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The nonprofit group received responses from 1,600 EPA scientists, and found an "agency under siege from political pressures": 60 percent of respondents said they'd personally experienced political interference in their work in the past 5 years. Meanwhile, just over half of respondents -- 783, by number -- said they could not freely share their findings with the media.
Bob Herbert: At the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington should be Senator Jim Webb's proposed expansion of education benefits for the men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001. It's awfully hard to make the case that these young people who have sacrificed so much don't deserve a shot at a better future once their wartime service has ended. Senator Webb, a Virginia Democrat, has been the guiding force behind this legislation, which has been dubbed the new G.I. bill. The measure is decidedly bipartisan. Mr. Webb's principal co-sponsors include Republican Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John Warner of Virginia, and Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey
Matt Taibbi: I had been attending the Cornerstone Church for weeks, but this was really my first day of school. I had joined Cornerstone -- a megachurch in the Texas Hill Country -- to get a look inside the evangelical mind-set that gave the country eight years of George W. Bush. The church's pastor, John Hagee, is one of the most influential evangelical preachers in the country -- not because his ministry is so very large (although he claims up to 4.5 million viewers a week for his Sunday sermons) but because of his near-absolute conquest of a very trendy niche in the market: Christian Zionism. The whole idea behind Christian Zionism is to align America with the nation of Israel so as to "hurry God up" in his efforts to bring about Armageddon.
Do white right-wing preachers have it easier than black left-wing preachers? Is there a double standard?
The political explosion around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was inevitable, given Wright's personal closeness to Barack Obama and the outrageous rubbish the pastor has offered about AIDS, 9/11 and Louis Farrakhan.
After Wright's bizarre and narcissistic performance at the National Press Club on Monday, Obama would have looked weak and irresolute had he not denounced him. But if there was a moment of courage in this drama, it was not Obama's condemnation of Wright but his earlier and now much-criticized effort to avoid a complete break with his unapologetic pastor.
In a new memoir, the former commander of US forces in Iraq provides new details of the goings-on at high levels of the Bush Administration in the first year of the Iraq war. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez' conclusion: "Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty."
McCain's Achilles' heel has always been his policy oscillations. His limber "principles" allow him to sweep from one side of an issue to another; they are generally lauded as badges of maverickness in the press and recognized by the reality-based community largely as panderiffic moments of Washington as usual. And until now, because the traditional media has refused to properly cover these flip-flops and distortions, McCain has been able to get away with saying one thing and doing another, or voting one way and soon thereafter voting another. But how will the real McCain -- whiplash policy McCain -- play out in 2008, where video and blogs will be able to juxtapose his stances and statements in such a manner that shatters the myth of McCain as an "honest broker"?
Perhaps more shocking than any of this was the accusation from Barry Halley, a former project manager for Worldwide Network Services, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that was working on subcontract for DynCorp. According to Halley, his site manager in Iraq, who he said was employed by a "major defense contractor," moonlighted as the leader of a prostitution ring serving American contractors in Iraq that indirectly caused the death of a colleague. "A co-worker unrelated to the ring was killed when he was traveling in an unsecure car and shot performing a high-risk mission," he told the committee. "I believe that my co-worker could have survived if he had been riding in an armored car. At the time, the armored car that he would otherwise have been riding in was being used by a manager to transport prostitutes from Kuwait to Baghdad."
On September 18, 2006 John Hagee appeared on the WHYY radio show "Fresh Air", and the recorded show segment [PDF of transcript] began with an audio excerpt from one of Hagee's recorded sermons in which Hagee enthusiastically declares that envisioned chain of events he expects will follow a US and/or Israeli attack on Iran, which include "Ezekiel's War" and the "Rapture", would be "thrilling". Hagee proceeded to state, in the interview with Terry Gross, that during "Ezekiel's War" that God will cause a Russian nuclear strike on America that will destroy the East and West coasts.
The Dems will lose a lot of white union members when they run Osama Obama. Me thinks I know what I am talking about.
Sure you do.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, officially endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president Wednesday.
The 1.4-million Teamsters union endorsed Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke exclusively with Teamsters president Jim Hoffa on Wednesday.
"We came to the conclusion that Barack Obama gives us the opportunity to rebuild America and win in November," Hoffa said.
"This endorsement is an important endorsement for him. He's excited about what it means to him in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas ... it's going to be important to all of labor and the American people," he added.
The endorsement decision follows a meeting in Austin, Texas, between Hoffa and Obama, and completes a months-long process that included scientific polling of Teamster members, surveys of local union and joint council leaders and deliberations by the union's democratically elected General Executive Board, according to the union's press release.
When asked about criticisms over Obama's inexperience, Hoffa said the union looks at the Illinois senator "as a person who can lead and surround himself with the very best people."
And as for why the union didn't endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton.
"This is not about the Clintons, this is about Obama and the momentum he has that I think everybody detects out there that we really have a phenomenon of him having the opportunity to win in November and to basically remake America and speaking out on issues that resonate with our members," Hoffa said.
Hoffa said the union, which has a history of supporting both Democratic and Republican candidates, chose not to support Sen. John McCain because he is "lock-step with the Bush administration. ... I think America has had enough of that and that's why we can't support McCain."
www.cnn.com
Nice try Bl2.
Ultimately every Republican in Congress voted against the bill, as did a number of Democrats. Vice President Al Gore broke a tie in the Senate on both the Senate bill and the conference report. The House bill passed 219-213.[1] The House passed the conference report on Thursday, August 5, 1993, by a vote of 218 to 216 (217 Democrats and 1 independent (Sanders (VT-I)) voting in favor; 41 Democrats and 175 Republicans voting against), and the Senate passed the conference report on the last day before their month's vacation, on Friday, August 6, 1993, by a vote of 51 to 50 (50 Democrats plus Vice President Gore voting in favor, 6 Democrats (Lautenberg (D-NJ), Bryan (D-NV), Nunn (D-GA), Johnston (D-LA), Boren (D-OK), and Shelby (D-AL) now (R-AL)) and 44 Republicans voting against). President Clinton signed the bill on August 10, 1993.
[edit] Theory
The bill, at the time, was based on unproved economic theory. Since the Ronald Reagan administration, the American public was more receptive to Reaganomics pursued during the 1980s. The theory behind the bill was that federal budget deficits were more critical to economic health than either the New Deal liberals or Reagan-era conservatives wanted to admit. Both groups dismissed the importance of the federal budget deficit.
The bill, which both raised taxes and cut government spending, has been credited as the major cause behind the deficit reduction and eventual surpluses during the 1990s, by sources such as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. [2] The theory holds that federal budget deficits increase both inflation and interest rates. These two phenomena are widely known to cause economic stagnation.[citation needed] Indeed, when inflation increases, often the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to contain the inflation.
en.wikipedia.org
Here's the presidential candidate for the happy go lucky cancervatives. I know he's pissed off because he's short, because the "gooks" used him as a pinata, because he's married to a trollup cunt ,because he was caught up to his wrinkled ass in the savings and loan scandal,etc....
rightsfield.com
In the country of its birth, Wal-Mart is wrecking havoc with worker
standards of living. It forces other large grocery chains to demand from
their unionized employees lower wages and benefits to be able to compete
with Wall-Mart's race to the bottom. This direction is a historically tragic
reverse for the U.S. economy that before World War II featured rising wages
that increased consumer demand and improved livelihoods.
Increasingly, Wal-Mart's immense arc of influence here is pushing wages and
benefits downward. With hundreds of thousands of its nearly 1.4 million
workers making under $7.50 an hour, before payroll deductions, (the average
wage is between $7.50 and $8.50 an hour), the average-on-the-clock workweek
is only 32 hours. Since Wal-Mart defines anyone working fewer than 34 hours
per week as part-time, they have to wait for two years before qualifying for
health insurance whose co-payment takes one-fifth of the average paycheck.
Get the idea of what is meant by the Wal-Mart way.
Waiting periods are key to Wal-Mart's phony health insurance boasting in
their television ads. Impoverished employees dont stay, with turnover rates
for these hourly employees at 50 percent to 100 percent at many stores.
Wal-Mart is devilishly ingenious in thinking up ways to have taxpayers fill
in its wage gap. Put them on partial welfare, says the very well paid
company bosses who make millions of dollars each per year. These workers are
given advice on how to apply so that taxpayers subsidize Wal-Marts profits.
For example, in Georgia, over 10, 261 children of Wal-Mart employees are
enrolled in the states Peachcare program for health insurance in families
meeting federal poverty criteria.
According to the report, Everyday Low Wages, one 200-person Wal-Mart store
could cost federal taxpayers over $420,000 per year. These costs include
subsidized lunches, health insurance and housing assistance, federal tax
credits and deductions for low-income families, among other examples of
Wal-Mart's freeloading.
Enough is never enough for this corporation. It often demands substantial
local tax breaks from municipalities as a condition for locating there.
Although successful local opposition is blocking dozens of Wal-Mart location
plans, this corporate welfare King still manages to escape its fair share of
taxes, while local home owner and small businesses ante up for local public
services and assume Wal-Mart's share. That is, small businesses that manages
to remain in the hollowed out Main Streets that are the aftermath of a
Wal-Mart opening. Minimal thinking by consumers say Wal-Mart is a bargain;
maximum thinking starts adding up the local, national and global costs of
this Goliath depressor of purchasing power by workers.
www.organicconsumers.org
Why does the right want Joe Sixpack to be dirt poor?
There was no shortage of Guardsmen,nor anything else.
Is that so? The guardsmen say otherwise. Nice try though.
In interviews, Guard commanders and state and local officials in Louisiana said the Guard performed well under the circumstances. But they say it was crippled in the early days by a severe shortage of troops that they blame in part on the deployment to Iraq of 3,200 Louisiana guardsmen. While the Pentagon disputes that Iraq was a factor, those on the ground say the war has clearly strained a force intended to be the nation's bulwark against natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
Reinforcements from other states' National Guard units, slowed by the logistics and red tape involved in summoning troops from civilian jobs and moving them thousands of miles, did not arrive in large numbers until the fourth day after the hurricane passed. The coordinating task was so daunting that Louisiana officials turned to the Pentagon to help organize the appeal for help.
At the convention center, 222 soldiers trained in levee repair, not police work, locked themselves into an exhibit hall at the convention center rather than challenge an angry and desperate crowd of more than 10,000 hurricane victims at the center.
The near-total collapse of communications made every task far more difficult, forcing some Guard commanders to use "runners, like in World War I," as one put it. With landlines, cellphones and many satellite phones out of action, the frequencies used by the radios still functioning were often so jammed that they were useless.
Disaster experts said that even with perfect planning and management, the 5,700 Louisiana National Guard troops available were far too few.
www.nytimes.com
isn't every wave, earthquake and sneeze caused by GM?
What does General Motors have to do with this?
Rightwingdouche: It was the Crawford Cumguzzler who
is at fault for sending the Louisiana Nation Guard to Iraq. Nice try fucktard.
The 3,700 Louisiana National Guard members in Iraq will begin heading home within about a week as part of normal troop rotations, but there are no mass Guard movements back to the United States planned to aid hurricane relief, U.S. military officials in Baghdad said Thursday.
"Everyone we have here, and every piece of equipment we have here, is needed here," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, senior spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.
www.washingtonpost.com
So it turns out that Blair, Chimpy's little lap dog, is every bit the lying sack of shit that the deciderer is.
Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered.
The claims by Blair in November and December of last year, were given widespread credence, quoted by MPs and widely published, including in the introduction to a US government pamphlet on Iraq's mass graves.
In that publication - Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves produced by USAID, the US government aid distribution agency, Blair is quoted from 20 November last year: 'We've already discovered, just so far, the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves.'
On 14 December Blair repeated the claim in a statement issued by Downing Street in response to the arrest of Saddam Hussein and posted on the Labour party website that: 'The remains of 400,000 human beings [have] already [been] found in mass graves.'
The admission that the figure has been hugely inflated follows a week in which Blair accepted responsibility for charges in the Butler report over the way in which Downing Street pushed intelligence reports 'to the outer limits' in the case for the threat posed by Iraq.
www.guardian.co.uk
What were you saying about money? McThusela is toast.
www.politico.com