Y3Y3's Blog

AL FRANKEN STEALING SENATE SEAT, STOP HIM

Dear Friend,

The Democrats are on the verge of seating Al Franken as the next U.S. Senator from Minnesota.

This is simply an outrage!

On Election Day, Republican Norm Coleman was ahead by hundreds of votes.

Since then, Franken and liberal allies like George Soros have raised millions to wage a legal fight contesting every Coleman ballot.

With the help of the Democratic Sec. of State in Minnesota, the "recount" has gone wildly in Franken's favor.

With claims of outright vote fraud, double voting -- they are even rejecting military ballots cast by our servicemen overseas to help Franken -- Franken now claims a lead.

He must be stopped. He can be stopped.

The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) is the nation's leading Republican group fighting for a fair vote in Minnesota.

This is the same group that exposed ACORN and is led by a distinguished advisory board, including former attorney general Ed Meese and former solicitor general Ted Olson.

They desperately need to raise funds as the Minnesota recount comes down to the wire.

Please help them today by donating now -- Go Here Now

https://www.newsmaxstore.com/contribute/rnla/?promo_cod
e=76E5-1

Also, read their urgent message below.

Yours,

Dick Morris

So When NBC ends up AT THE BOTTOM of the ratings like they are now, they figure that banning someone who IS A DRAW is just STUPID!  

Perhaps NBC is really more afraid that Ann will ask the questions that Liberal Journalists just can't answer - without showing themselves to be ignorant self-centered news readers.   Ann has always been able to hand the Libs their collective 'but' and perhaps they are still stinging from her past barbs'? 

I guess having a HUGELY SUCCESSFUL Political writer as a guest isn't good for business?

Well.....Liberals aren't exactly good business minds.


I guess they are trying to equal out stuff - as Alan Colms has left Hannity, so it's ONE LESS blathering Liberal JA on TV.    NBC just wanted to keep things unbalanced and biased.  LOL

People like to point to things like the war in Iraq, pork barrel spending, and Bush's tax cuts as reasons why the government needs more money, when the harsh reality is that a massive portion of the federal budget covers what essentially amounts to welfare programs.

The war amounts for less than three percent of our $8.x trillion national deficit. It's really not as big of a spending drain as the left wants you to believe.

Social Security and Medicare are two social programs that are already broken and are now facing a tsunami wave of Baby Boomers retiring in the next decade or so. We can't sustain that with how Social Security currently works, period. It's turning into a financial black hole for the country, and it's only going to get worse.

When you look at where we are today, Big Mac is absolutely right - our culture of immediate satisfaction, entitlement, and rampant consumerism is more to blame than anything else for the current state of the economy. The subprime mortgage meltdown that started in 2006 goes directly back to providing mortgages to people who couldn't afford them and had no business having them. However, our sense of entitlement has corrupted us into think that our country somehow owes us a house, so we had idiots like Jimmy Carter and BIll Clinton go out of their way to force banks to provide extremely risky mortgages to people who in no logical capacity could afford them.

You look at this ridiculous auto bailout, and it points back to union blackmailing (no business can afford to provide lifetime health care coverage to its employees forever) and dealership regulations that prevent them from shutting down some of the independent dealerships across the country. Yes, the Big Three's general direction and business model hasn't been able to compete with Asia's auto industry for years, but the fact is that the UAW has managed to force the American industry into checks they simply can't cash anymore.

Nobody wants to talk about giving up the freebies to which they've become so accustomed. Nobody wants to admit that unions allow large groups of employees to bully and blackmail corporations into providing asinine benefits that can't be financially sustained in the long term. Nobody wants to talk about the fact that Social Security is bankrupt, and it's only going to get worse. If a candidate started talking about cutting back Social Security and Medicare, you can be guaranteed they wouldn't have a chance in hell of getting elected, because Americans have gotten too used to expecting handouts from the government.

When you stop and think about it, the government shouldn't be responsible for your personal retirement. Wouldn't it be much nicer if you were allowed to take the hundreds of thousands of dollars you've dumped into that system over your lifetime and invest it in your own retirement, rather than paying for someone else's life?

Our concept of what we actually have a right to and what is essentially a privilege has gotten seriously skewed. The government can't - and shouldn't - be held responsible for the well-being of individual citizens. However, as America tiptoes closer and closer toward becoming a socialist state, we've forgotten this concept.

And before you say "look at countries x and y, they're so happy", consider this basic idea:

What's one reason why public schools fail in some areas? Lack of funding for adequate staffing. A teacher trying to manage 30 fourth-graders is less likely to be able to give each of them individual attention, so kids slip through the cracks, get pushed through the education system, and graduate without being able to even read or perform basic arithmetic. What's the solution? More money? No. Obviously, smaller classrooms historically provide a better learning environment and allow teachers to focus more on students with learning problems.

There are more than three hundred million people in the United States. It's utterly ridiculous to think that the federal government can manage to hold the hand of each individual citizen and ensure each citizen's personal happiness and well-being. Too many people exploit the system, too many people fall through the cracks, and forty or fifty years after implementing what seemed like a genius system (Social Security), we're facing a major financial crisis because of it.

Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.

On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.

    •    Diabolical New Congressional Plans to Fund Emergency Bail-Outs By Meddling, Manipulating, and Even "Merging" Tax-Deferred Retirement Plans Such as 401(k)s into the Insolvent Social Security System.
 
    •    A Desperately Cash-Strapped Liberal Congress Will Soon Double-Cross Taxpayers and Investors With Massive Changes and Absolutely No Warning.

Read This ALERT Now Because You Must Avoid Becoming Part of the Herd At ALL COSTS. "Innocent Bystanders" Will Receive No Mercy in Breathtaking Changes to Come.

Dear Fellow Concerned American:
    Let me get straight to the point because there isn't a moment to lose.
    The Great Depression wasn't caused by the "failure of business." It was a financial downturn that became an abyss -- spawned by the government's reactionary, blunderbuss response to the crisis.
    Sound familiar?
    Yes, the first squall line of the unwinding U.S. debt pyramid (I warned my subscribers about two years ago) is coming home to roost -- in spades. Even former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has since admitted the entire U.S. financial system is in the throes of a "once-in-a-century" financial emergency.
    Much as I would like to tweak naysayers with an "I-told-you-so," there isn't time to dwell on vindication. This is time for action. Obviously, despite massive election-year manipulations, the political class has failed to stop the initial stages of the U.S. financial system's collapse.
    Even worse, we are now witness to the arrival of what The Wall Street Journal describes as the new "Liberal Supermajority."
    The hard reality is U.S. voters have run into the arms of Barack Obama's "spread the wealth" brand of socialism, which means productive people like you and me need to stay calm -- but think proactively and act resolutely to defend what belongs to us.
    With "Obamanomics" being the flavor of the month and all, now is probably a good time to apologize in advance for the unvarnished assessments you are going to see in this briefing. Unfortunately, events are moving too fast for me to waste time on diplomacy and polished prose.
    After all, Congressional committees are already holding hearings on how the government can "tap" millions of 401(k) retirement funds to stave off the Social Security system's emerging insolvency crisis (more details about that potential legislative bombshell later on).
    At key moments of decision such as this one, I believe embracing truths -- especially unpleasant ones -- leads to understanding, and from understanding comes action. Ignoring or denying the situation confronting our country is the worst possible thing to do now. Especially now.

Unprecedented Events Threaten to Rip
All Our Futures to Shreds

    Economy-transforming events are moving at lightning speed (and the new Congress hasn't even been seated yet).
    It is no longer enough to understand how markets work -- it is now far more important to avoid being on the wrong side of unprecedented, massive government intervention that will transform millions of responsible people into unwitting paupers. If you handle this situation correctly, you can be among the lucky few who come out ahead!
    You see, I have been covering Congress for more than 20 years as editor of American Sentinel (and before that as an aide to two members of Congress), and I can tell you the coming government interventions will be FAR MORE devastating than the initial stock market crash we just saw in October.

Government Meddling Deadly for Most, a Boon to Others

    All government interventions create financial winners and losers. And you'll only get one chance to make sure you're on the right side of that equation.
    My name is Lee Bellinger, Publisher of the monthly financial, health, and taxation intelligence advisory Independent Living. In my two decades of publishing discreet information about government threats to your liberty, health and prosperity, never have we produced as important a set of critical, must-read documents as contained in my popular Wealth Protection Library for the Obama Era of Rising Socialism and the additional bonus reports.
    I want to send ALL TEN reports to you FREE because it is my understanding you are a think-outside-the-box, "keep-ahead-of-the-herd" thinking individual. I know for a fact you need its RED-HOT information on how to protect yourself.
    It contains very in-depth information -- strictly for my most serious, answer-seeking subscribers who want to delve into the nuts and bolts of protective actions you need to take now.
    For example, it hasn't made much news yet, but some very well-known insurance companies are poised on the verge of sudden and unexpected collapse! In one key report I want to send you right away, you learn all about this ominous threat.
    Equally important, you will learn how financially stable YOUR insurance company is right now. The specter of an insolvency crisis among major U. S. insurance companies is a Sword of Damocles hanging over millions of people's heads and they don't even know it! This is absolutely must read stuff you won't find anywhere else (until it becomes BIG news, of course).
    You also need to know about all the game-changing laws embedded in just-passed emergency legislation, why your stock broker can't or won't lead you to safety, which banks are safe, how to get first rate medical care even in the new environment of socialized medicine, and on and on!

Learn What Obama Really Means By "Spreading the Wealth"
(Hint: It involves your 401(k))

    In fact the radical-dominated House Education and Labor Committee is already floating plans to "merge" privately-owned 401(k)s with the Social Security system (which former U.S. Comptroller David Walker has been warning is little more than a vault of government IOUs).
    In such a "merger" -- spearheaded by House committee chairman Rep. George Miller (a Marxist hailing from California's Berkeley area) -- your tax-sheltered personal investments would be liquidated, dumped into government bonds, and linked up with the cash-desperate Social Security "retirement" system (i.e. as government bureaucrats "spread the wealth," and you are reduced to standing in line, hat in hand, hoping you get some portion of your life savings back). (Of course, your purchasing power will evaporate after the federal government inflates away the value of your so-called "Guaranteed Retirement Account," or GRA as it would be named.)
    Without the right information to guide you in these treacherous times, there is a very good chance you could come out on the short end of the stick, joining millions of other hapless investors. But I am determined to not let this happen. Not to me, my business, my family, or my subscribers.
    That is why at the end of this letter I'll tell you how you can get some very important NEW reports developed just for this unfolding crisis. (We have worked on them very hard -- hoped I would never need to tell you about them, but financial catastrophe is knocking at the door.) More about that later. Let me explain the problem in more detail now.

Red Alert! Congress' Interventionist Reaction
Will Be Deadly to Investors and Retirees

    Even though more Americans have started to grasp what a house of cards our nation's finances truly are, the "other shoe" has yet to drop. The real danger still isn't very well understood: Congress' draconian, freedom-stealing, investor-bashing, wealth-destroying reaction that threatens to end what's left of free-market capitalism in this country.
    Business and investor bashing is coming back into style in a big way.
    Lots of people are going to get hurt in the cross-fire of political blame-games and the punitive regulatory response which is at the very heart of "Obamanomics" -- now barreling at the private sector like an out-of-control freight train.
    The early indications are disturbing. Not just the many "emergency" stock trading restrictions that are suddenly being slapped into place, or wholesale changes in rules which shot-gunned banking giants and their hapless investors into the ruinous maw of public ownership. What's really scary are coming new financial controls which threaten to double-cross people who play by the rules and are counting on the integrity of their investments.
    I am deeply concerned for America's middle class, small businesses, and our whole way of life. We are living in a minefield!
    Let me give you just one terrifying example: If the insider information I am receiving is correct, you need to brace yourself for the possibility of a federally-imposed "banking holiday," to stem panic withdrawals and to sort out all the black holes that have appeared on the banks' balance sheets. According to my sources, one of America's largest banks has already prepared for such a possibility by having door signs printed up explaining they will be "closed until further notice."

Don't Become Part of America's Emerging Pauper Class

    One of the biggest risks is, too many people are still looking to the government idiots who got us into this mess for salvation. I don't know what makes me angrier, the rip-off artists in the political class who wrecked the U.S. financial system and chased millions of great jobs overseas, or the gullible general public who continue to believe government ninnies can "fix" the very fiasco they created.
    It wasn't greedy lenders who created the subprime mortgage debacle. The lenders were merely participants in a scheme hatched in Washington by federal authorities to artificially inflate U.S. home-ownership rates.
    In 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were issued radical new Affirmative Action lending quotas from politicians kowtowing to the Marxist ACORN and other radical groups.
    Their mandate: increase "minority" home ownership by 5.5 million by the year 2010. The only way the mortgage industry could meet such demands was to eviscerate traditional lending standards. Now that the federal government has taken over Fannie and Freddie after having driven them into insolvency, guess who is on the hook for the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of bad mortgages on their books? That's right, you and me, the taxpayers.
    The planning and investment rules you and I have followed all our lives are being re-written -- quite literally -- as you read this letter! We are witness not just to the government takeover of the U.S. financial sector, but to the many new dangerous pieces of emergency legislation coming down the pike. Each of them will be crammed with bureaucratic power-grabs and other nightmare provisions which will fleece unsuspecting millions.

Congress is Changing the Financial
System At Lightning Speed:
You Must Avoid the Herd at ALL COSTS!

    Now is a terribly dangerous time to be following the herd.
    My Wealth Protection Library for the Obama Era of Rising Socialism contains a core of seven of my very best, hot-off-the-presses Special Reports. Each was developed specifically for the crisis window we are in right now.
    Let me explain each of them in turn and why it is vitally important I rush them to you immediately -- not just for your sake, but for your family and friends as well. I hope you use what you learn to help protect everyone you know from falling into the financial traps being set for them.


Critical Must-Read Report #1
Capital Controls "Team Obama" Can Impose Without
Warning to Corral Citizens in Dollar Denominated Assets


    The early death throes of the besieged U.S. financial system are truly scary, which is why I began developing this critical subscriber briefing shortly before this crisis started to unfold in August of 2007.
    Right now, Congress, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve are readying helicopter drops of cash and federal bailouts that could ultimately crush the dollar. That's why capital controls are coming. The powers that be are absolutely determined to prevent millions of middle class Americans from fleeing the U.S. financial system to protect themselves. They have already moved to discourage asset-expatriation by imposing a punitive tax on the value of unsold assets any person of means dares to try to take overseas. And just recently, the harried Republican minority barely beat back a plan to punish people who have invested in commodities such as gold and silver.
    Dangerous new investment controls are poised for enactment without warning or notice. For example, when Treasury Secretary Paulson first submitted his $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan to Congress, it was only three and a half pages. The final "product" signed by the President a mere 10 days later was a whopping 451 pages -- packed not just with billions in new pork-barrel spending garbage, but also crammed with hidden, sweeping new powers for federal regulators.
    One provision of the bailout bill, for example, gives the IRS unlimited authority to conduct "sting" operations (previously such authority was only granted on a temporary basis due to the likelihood of abuse by overzealous IRS agents). This of course is just the beginning!
    This astounding, brand-new report gives you the shocking lowdown on the freedom-stealing, investment-destroying provisions of this "emergency" legislation, including:
    •    Sweeping new IRS powers that encourage them to go after small businesses and individuals, especially those who dare to flee the dollar.
    •    New hidden energy taxes gas stations and utility companies will soon be passing on to you.
    •    A jump of $17,064 in new Federal debt per U.S. family.
New Investment Regs Will Sucker-Punch
Millions of Unsuspecting Households

    It's no wonder Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to the floor of the House basically to declare "martial law," so that the contents of the new bailout plan would not be posted to the Internet for public scrutiny. Fortunately, as a former aide to two members of Congress, I know all the tricks legislators use to sneak dangerous wealth-destroying provisions into law.
    My report Capital Controls "Team Obama" Can Impose Without Warning to Corral Citizens in Dollar Denominated Assets also gives you the latest inside skinny on frightening new capital controls that will:
    •    Prevent you from evacuating your precious retirement assets from the dollar and harboring them in more fundamentally sound overseas investments and currencies.
    •    Discourage, and all but ban, investment and trading in precious metals.
    •    Force gold exchange-traded fund investors to accept "cash" for their share in precious metals.
    •    Force you to stay in declining dollar-denominated assets.
    •    Partially (or totally) restrict 401(k)s and IRAs to inflation-lagging bonds and certain other dollar-denominated assets decreed to be "safe."

    Access to your own money in the bank may be restricted as well in the form of a federally imposed "banking holiday" I just mentioned. Customer withdrawals could at times be suspended to prevent further bank runs or simply restricted by limits and regulatory hamstrings.

The Political Blame-Game is Afoot:
Millions of Retirees Will Take the Fall

    It's no accident that Congress is holding full scale hearings designed to blame private investors, "corporate greed," and business in general for the ills the political class and its enablers at the Federal Reserve have inflicted on the country. Members of Congress know that with all the emergency legislation coming, the grip they and their bureaucratic partners will have over the economy is poised to tighten.
    You need to be ready for all the surprise financial controls soon to come down the pike. And the many other diabolical ways they'll come up with to steal your money in the name of all this Barackian "we're-all-in-this-together" political crapola.
    You can't get this information anywhere else, because most of the dangerous capital controls Congress has in mind haven't been enacted yet. You can only find this information here. This report spells out what is likely to come and how you can protect yourself. Details on how to get your hands on this information can be found at the end of this letter.


Critical Must-Read Report #2
Everything You Need to Know About Picking A Stable Bank
and Keeping Your Money Safe


    Subprime-intoxicated Washington Mutual recently became the largest bank failure in U.S. history. Even with massive liquidity injections by federal authorities to try to arrest further calamities, the fundamentals of the U.S. financial system remain markedly unsound. That means many more bank failures are likely to come.
    So this is a must-have report for you to share with friends, loved ones and associates at work. In it you will learn how to:
    •    Determine EXACTLY where your bank stands financially.
    •    Avoid runs on the bank long before they ever happen.
    •    Find out if regulators are likely to shut down your bank.
    •    Hoard emergency cash (and cash alternatives) in case a panic causes banks to shutter their doors and ATM machines to empty out.
    Congress recently expanded FDIC protection guarantees from $100,000 to $250,000 and gave the grossly under-capitalized Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation a preemptive bailout by establishing a special line of credit for it with the U.S. Treasury. This massive new U.S. Treasury obligation may be reassuring to many bank account holders. But we both know these FDIC guarantees (which are ultimately backed up by the government's virtual printing press) do nothing to ensure banks will actually remain solvent or open for business.
    This is crucial survival information, but if you put off obtaining it until circumstances present you with a clear and present need, it will be too late. The name of the game is being prepared in advance. Learn how to get all the newly updated information you need at the end of this letter.

 

The idiots at Chrysler STILL DON'T GET IT ABOUT WASTE!!!   I say the stockholders should have to PAY BY CHECK to offset the wasted ads 'thanking' You and Me for the free money.

The Ads are yet another example of the Auto makers being absolutly OUT OF TOUCH.  Fire all of them.   make Chrysler the BLEEP of Ford - who backed away from the bailout bucks because they were in better shape than the rest.  Let the Chrysler mgmt observe what Ford is doing, so maybe they might learn something.

Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.  

By Christopher Booker
Last Updated: 7:40AM GMT 29 Dec 2008

The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".

Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

Ever shriller and more frantic has become the insistence of the warmists, cheered on by their army of media groupies such as the BBC, that the last 10 years have been the "hottest in history" and that the North Pole would soon be ice-free – as the poles remain defiantly icebound and those polar bears fail to drown. All those hysterical predictions that we are seeing more droughts and hurricanes than ever before have infuriatingly failed to materialise.

Even the more cautious scientific acolytes of the official orthodoxy now admit that, thanks to "natural factors" such as ocean currents, temperatures have failed to rise as predicted (although they plaintively assure us that this cooling effect is merely "masking the underlying warming trend", and that the temperature rise will resume worse than ever by the middle of the next decade).

Secondly, 2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a "scientific consensus" in favour of man-made global warming collapsed. At long last, as in the Manhattan Declaration last March, hundreds of proper scientists, including many of the world's most eminent climate experts, have been rallying to pour scorn on that "consensus" which was only a politically engineered artefact, based on ever more blatantly manipulated data and computer models programmed to produce no more than convenient fictions.

Thirdly, as banks collapsed and the global economy plunged into its worst recession for decades, harsh reality at last began to break in on those self-deluding dreams which have for so long possessed almost every politician in the western world. As we saw in this month's Poznan conference, when 10,000 politicians, officials and "environmentalists" gathered to plan next year's "son of Kyoto" treaty in Copenhagen, panicking politicians are waking up to the fact that the world can no longer afford all those quixotic schemes for "combating climate change" with which they were so happy to indulge themselves in more comfortable times.

Suddenly it has become rather less appealing that we should divert trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into the fantasy that we could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 80 per cent. All those grandiose projects for "emissions trading", "carbon capture", building tens of thousands more useless wind turbines, switching vast areas of farmland from producing food to "biofuels", are being exposed as no more than enormously damaging and futile gestures, costing astronomic sums we no longer possess.

How do you know if your elected politicians are IDIOTS?  See which ones raise taxes, and which ones CUT SPENDING.   
It's tough to say know to the irresponsible government types who just can't do without.  Their grubby little hands grabbing at all the bucks they can.   I guess saying "NO!" takes guts.  Thats another issue.  It seems the politicians aren't familiar enough with what the various programs and agencies to know WHERE TO CUT.
Suggestions:
Cut all services to non-citizens.No more boondoggles.No more welfareNO overhead spending for work area improvements for workers.

So you take money as investment and pay it to someone else as profit on their investment.

How different is that from spending money as federal spending whre they are just paying with other folks taxes?

53 TRILLION in unsecured debt is where our corrupt, and STUPID elected officials have brought us.


Tell me again about politicians being good for us?

So much for Liberals being non-violent, understanding types.   Seems at least one is a destructive "JA"  decided that dumping gas and setting it on fire to her church was somehow justifiable. 

you have to wonder what type of fool it was.  Acorn loser?  Party operative from Chicago?
Rham?

I hope they have to kill the fool as he runs to escape capture.



Funny that the libs on this site have been quiet about this.  Perhaps they secretly approve of it.

Do union 'workers' have ANY skills that NON-UNION workers have?

What value does a union worker have that non-union workers DON'T have?



My suggestion is for the 'Big 3" to declare bankruptcy.

THEN

Reorganize themselves without the UNION laborers.  I know the Union slacks will protest etc.  SO?  Perhaps they can get a nice job forever being a picketing JA?

the former union thugs can either:

1 - work as a NON-UNION worker for the auto industry

2 - get a job at a Wal-Mart or something.

Either way, they will get paid what THEY ARE WORTH, instead of what THEY THINK THEY ARE WORTH.

It's not like the slow witted union workers would have improved themselves or become educated anyway - since they had it made. 

THEY ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO NOT SEE THEY CAUSED MOST OF THE INDUSTRIES PROBLEMS.

The UAW thugs (lazy slackers who are overpaid, and worthless) are now blaming the GOP in the Senate for the mis-management of the Auto manufacturers.  I guess their stupidity goes to not understanding the link between too high salaries and the money problems the car makers have. 

I'm not surprised at the comments from the Union thugs.  They were counting on the Government to pay for the retirements of those same usless thugs.

Where does Colin Powell think he is?  Ever since he endorsed 0bama (which got no "Bump" in the polls) Powell has been spouting off even more stupid and thoughtless comments. 

He has attacked Rush Limbaugh.  So......?  All the liberals want to do what THEY think is fashionable.  

You have to ask:

Does Powell think he or ANYBODY is FORCED to listen to Rush? 
Does Powell realize he can choose to NOT watch, or listen to the media?
Does Powell understand that more people listen to Rush than Powell has that listen to him?
Why does Powell fear the comments from Rush?
Why does Powell think he, as a public person, is above criticism?


The Bottom line is that Powell doesn't grasp the concept of free speech, OR how commercial radio works.   Does Powell think Rush has people donating to him like NPR?  The FACT is that Rush EARNS HIS PAY for doing a successful radio show.  If it weren't popular it would be OFF the air to be replaced with something more people will listen to.   Liberals had their radio network, and it was a failure.    So, JUST LIKE THE FAILING CAR MAKERS need to understand - your products aren't selling!

Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi can stop clucking now. For the last three years, Democratic leaders cheered GOP ethics woes. Dean accused Republicans of making "their culture of corruption the norm." Pelosi touted cleanliness as a liberal virtue. But with the eye-popping pay-for-play and bribery case against Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich topping a year of nationwide Democratic scandals, the corruption chickens are coming home to roost.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called the breadth and depth of charges against Blagojevich and his Democratic Chief of Staff John Harris "staggering." That's an understatement. Anything that breathed was a potential shakedown target. It's the Chicago way. Democrat Blago's so dirty he'd hit up a children's hospital for money. Oh, wait. He's accused of doing that, too.

Democrat Blago allegedly conspired to use his power to appoint President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat as a bargaining chip for financial payment. He explored trading on that authority for an appointment as Health and Human Services secretary or as an ambassador or for installment in a cushy union position. (He discussed his trading scheme with an unnamed "SEIU (Service Employees International Union) official" and unnamed "various consultants" in Washington.)

According to the criminal complaint released yesterday, he also tried to leverage his influence over the sale of Wrigley Field (owned by Tribune media company) in an attempt to get Chicago Tribune editorial writers who called for his impeachment fired -- which illustrates the very perils of media/government entanglements I warned about in my newspaper bailout column last week. His wife, Patricia Blagojevich, was apparently in on the thuggery, too. Taking a break from her first lady duties advocating "on behalf of women and children," she is heard in taped discussions about the Chicago Tribune/Wrigley Field deal telling a governor's aide "to hold up that f**king Cubs BLEEP. ... F**k them."

Pelosi, champion of women as political cleaner-uppers, was unavailable for comment.

Fitzgerald says President-elect Obama was not implicated in the plethora of charges against Democrats Blago and Harris. The national media went out of their way to absolve him, too. But declaring Team Obama's hands clean -- especially with Blago crony and indicted Obama donor Tony Rezko in the middle of it all -- is premature. (And if you're wondering why I keep putting "Democrat" in front of the accused corruptocrats, it's because the mainstream newspapers can't seem to remember to identify their party prominently the way they do when Republicans are nabbed.)

Chicago's Fox affiliate reports that Obama Chief of Staff and Chicago hometown heavy Rahm Emanuel was the catalyst for the Blago takedown and suggests Rahm-bo tipped off the feds. If so, this raises more questions than it answers about who on the transition team may have talked to Blago and his shakedown artists about what and when. Needless to say, if it were the Republican Bush administration tied to the Blago bust, the White House press corps would be frothing like a pack of Michael Vick's pit bulls.

Democrats and the media can no longer rest on the old rationalization that Blago is an exception to the "we're cleaner than thou" rule. 2008 was the year of Democratic Reps. William "Cold Cash" Jefferson, Charlie "Sweetheart Deals" Rangel, and former Detroit Mayor Kwame "Text Me" Kilpatrick. It was the year Democratic Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson got caught stuffing bribes from an FBI informant down her shirt. It was the year 12 Democratic leaders and staffers in Pennsylvania's state Capitol were stung in a massive corruption scandal involving cash, sex and abuse of public office. And it was the year of multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandals at Democratic satellite offices of ACORN and the SEIU.

The Democrats have met the culture of corruption, and it looks like it ain't just elephants among the BLEEP soiling public office.

CORRUPT CHICAGO POLITICS!

Hmmmm....

0bama is from there.... Hmmmmmm......

Gov. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested at their homes this morning in a probe involving the governor’s quest to fill Sen. Barack Obama’s open Senate seat and focusing on wire fraud and bribery charges.

The charges also include alleged attempts by the governor to influence the Tribune editorial board, threatening, that if the Tribune didn’t support him, he wouldn’t approve the sale of Wrigley Field.
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Gov. Rod Blagojevich met with laid off workers at the Republic Window & Door Company yesterday. A source has told the Sun-Times that Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris have been taken into federal custody.

The complaint contends Blagojevich, a Democrat, threatened to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Co. in connection with the sale of Wrigley to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members critical of Blagojevich.

The governor is also accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for official actions — in the past and recently in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect Jan. 1.

Blagojevich, 51, and Harris, 46, both of Chicago, are each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. They were charged in a two-count criminal complaint that was sworn out on Sunday and unsealed today following their arrests, which occurred without incident, the feds said.

A 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat vacated by Obama for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife.

At various times, in exchange for the Senate appointment, Blagojevich allegedly discussed obtaining:

•    A substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.

•    Placing his wife on corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year.

•    Promises of campaign funds — including cash up front.

•    A cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

On Dec. 4, Blagojevich allegedly told an advisor that he might “get some (money) up front, maybe” from Senate Candidate 5, if he named Senate Candidate 5 to the Senate seat, to insure that Senate Candidate 5 kept a promise about raising money for Blagojevich if he ran for re-election.

In a recorded conversation on Oct. 31, Blagojevich claimed he was approached by an associate of Senate Candidate 5 as follows: “We were approached to ‘pay to play.’ That, you know, he’d raise 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a Senator.”

On Nov. 7, while talking on the phone about the Senate seat with Harris and an advisor, Blagojevich said he needed to consider his family and that he is “financially” hurting, the complaint states.

Harris allegedly said that they were considering what would help the “financial security” of the Blagojevich family and what will keep Blagojevich “politically viable.”

Blagojevich stated, “I want to make money,” adding later that he is interested in making $250,000 to $300,000 a year, the complaint alleges.

On Nov. 10, in a lengthy telephone call with numerous advisors that included discussion about Blagojevich obtaining a lucrative job with a union-affiliated organization — in exchange for appointing a particular Senate candidate whom he believed was favored by the President-elect — Blagojevich and others discussed various ways Blagojevich could “monetize” the relationships he has made as governor to make money after leaving that office, the complain alleges.

“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said. “They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism.

“The citizens of Illinois deserve public officials who act solely in the public’s interest, without putting a price tag on government appointments, contracts and decisions,” he added.

Robert Grant, in charge of the FBI office in Chicago, added: “Many, including myself, thought that the recent conviction of a former governor would usher in a new era of honesty and reform in Illinois politics. Clearly, the charges announced today reveal that the office of the Governor has become nothing more than a vehicle for self-enrichment, unrestricted by party affiliation and taking Illinois politics to a new low.”

Federal agents today also executed search warrants at the offices of Friends of Blagojevich at 4147 N. Ravenswood.

The feds said the charges focus on events since October when they obtained information that Blagojevich and “Fundraiser A,” who is chairman of Friends of Blagojevich, were accelerating Blagojevich’s allegedly corrupt fund-raising activities. The goal was to accumulate as much money as possible this year before a new state ethics law would severely curtail Blagojevich’s ability to raise money from individuals and entities that have existing contracts worth more than $50,000 with the state of Illinois.

Agents said they learned that Blagojevich was seeking approximately $2.5 million in campaign contributions by the end of the year, principally from or through individuals or entities — many of whom have received state contacts or appointments — identified on a list maintained by Friends of Blagojevich, which the FBI has obtained.

The complaint details several incidents involving efforts by Blagojevich to obtain campaign contributions in connection with his official actions as governor, including three in early October:

•   After an Oct. 6 meeting with Harris and Individuals A and B, during which Individual B sought state help with a business venture, Blagojevich told Individual A to approach Individual B about raising $100,000 for Friends of Blagojevich this year. Individual A said he later learned that Blagojevich reached out directly to Individual B to ask about holding a fund-raiser.

•   Also on Oct. 6, Blagojevich told Individual A that he expected Highway Contractor 1 to raise $500,000 in contributions and that he was willing to commit additional state money to a Tollway project — beyond $1.8 billion that Blagojevich announced on Oct.15 — but was waiting to see how much money the contractor raised for Friends of Blagojevich.

•   On Oct. 8, Blagojevich told Individual A that he wanted to obtain a $50,000 contribution from Hospital Executive 1, the chief executive officer of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which had recently received a commitment of $8 million in state funds. When the contribution was not forthcoming, Blagojevich discussed with Deputy Governor A the feasibility of rescinding the funding.

On Oct. 21, the government obtained a court order authorizing the interception of conversations in both a personal office and a conference room used by Blagojevich at the offices of Friends of Blagojevich. The FBI began intercepting conversations in those rooms on the morning of Oct. 22.

A second court order was obtained last month allowing those interceptions to continue.

On Oct. 29, a court order was signed authorizing the interception of conversations on a hardline telephone used by Blagojevich at his home. That wiretap was extended for 30 days on Nov. 26, according to the affidavit.

Another alleged example of a pay-to-play scheme was captured in separate telephone conversations that Blagojevich had with Fundraiser A on November 13 and Lobbyist 1 on Dec. 3. Lobbyist 1 was reporting to Blagojevich about his efforts to collect a contribution from Contributor 1 and related that he “got in his face” to make it clear to Contributor 1 that a commitment to make a campaign contribution had to be done now, before there could be some skittishness over the timing of the contribution and Blagojevich signing a bill that would benefit Contributor 1.

Blagojevich commented to Lobbyist 1 “good” and “good job.” The bill in question, which is awaiting Blagojevich ’s signature, is believed to be legislation that directs a percentage of casino revenue to the horse racing industry.

Regarding the Senate seat, the charges allege that Blagojevich, Harris and others have engaged and are engaging in efforts to obtain personal gain, including financial gain, to benefit Blagojevich and his family through corruptly using Blagojevich’s sole authority to appoint a successor to the unexpired term of the President-elect’s former Senate seat, which he resigned effective Nov. 16.

The affidavit details numerous conversations about the Senate seat between Nov. 3 and Dec. 5. In these conversations, Blagojevich allegedly discussed the attributes of potential candidates, including their abilities to benefit the people of Illinois, and the financial and political benefits he and his wife could receive if he appointed various of the possible candidates.

Throughout the intercepted conversations, Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, according to the affidavit, including:

•    Frustration at being “stuck” as governor;

•    A belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor;

•    A desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016;

•    Avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature;

•    Making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office;

•    Facilitating his wife’s employment as a lobbyist;

•    And generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office.

In the earliest intercepted conversation about the Senate seat described in the affidavit, Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on Nov. 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: “If . . . they’re not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it.”

Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich allegedly said: “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain.” He added later that the seat “is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

Over the next couple of days — Election Day and the day after — Blagojevich was allegedly captured discussing with Deputy Governor A whether he could obtain a cabinet position, such as Secretary of Health and Human Services or the Department of Energy or various ambassadorships.

In a conversation with Harris on Nov. 4, Blagojevich compared his situation to that of a sports agent shopping a potential free agent to the highest bidder. The day after the election, Harris allegedly suggested to Blagojevich that the President-elect could make him the head of a private foundation.

Later on Nov. 5, Blagojevich said to Advisor A, “I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there,” the affidavit states.

Two days later, in a three-way call with Harris and Advisor B, a consultant in Washington, Blagojevich and the others allegedly discussed the prospect of a three-way deal for the Senate appointment involving an organization called “Change to Win,” which is affiliated with various unions including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

On Nov. 10, Blagojevich, his wife, Harris, Governor General Counsel, Advisor B and other Washington-based advisors participated at different times in a two-hour phone call in which they allegedly discussed, among other things, a deal involving the SEIU.

Harris allegedly said they could work out a deal with the union and the President-elect where SEIU could help the President-elect with Blagojevich’s appointment of Senate Candidate 1, while Blagojevich would obtain a position as the national director of the Change to Win campaign and SEIU would get something favorable from the President-elect in the future.

Also during that call, Blagojevich agreed it was unlikely that Obama would name him Secretary of Health and Human Services or give him an ambassadorship because of all of the negative publicity surrounding him, according to the complaint.

In a conversation with Harris on Nov. 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew Obama wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them.”

Earlier in that conversation, Blagojevich suggested starting a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization, which he could head and engage in political activity and lobbying. In that conversation with Harris and other discussions with him and others over the next couple of days, Blagojevich suggested by name several well-known, wealthy individuals who could be prevailed upon to seed such an organization with $10 million to $15 million, and suggesting that he could take the organization’s reins when he is no longer governor, according to the affidavit.

On Nov. 12, Blagojevich spoke with SEIU Official who was in Washington. This conversation occurred about a week after Blagojevich had met with SEIU Official to discuss the Senate seat, with the understanding that the union official was an emissary to discuss Senate Candidate 1's interest in the Senate seat.

During the Nov. 12 conversation, Blagojevich allegedly explained the non-profit organization idea to SEIU Official and said that it could help Senate Candidate 1. The union official agreed to “put that flag up and see where it goes,” although the official also had said he wasn’t certain if Senate Candidate 1 wanted the official to keep pushing her candidacy. Senate Candidate 1 eventually removed herself from consideration for the open seat.

Also on Nov. 12, in a conversation with Harris, the complaint affidavit states that Blagojevich said his decision about the open Senate seat will be based on three criteria in the following order of importance: “Our legal situation, our personal situation, my political situation. This decision, like every other one, needs to be based upon that. Legal. Personal. Political.”

Harris said: “Legal is the hardest one to satisfy.”

Blagojevich said that his legal problems could be solved by naming himself to the Senate seat.

As recently as Dec. 4, in separate conversations with Advisor B and Fundraiser A, Blagojevich said that he was “elevating” Senate Candidate 5 on the list of candidates because, among other reasons, if Blagojevich ran for re-election, Senate Candidate 5 would “raise money” for him.

Blagojevich said that he might be able to cut a deal with Senate Candidate 5 that provided Blagojevich with something “tangible up front.”

Noting that he was going to meet with Senate Candidate 5 in the next few days, Blagojevich told Fundraiser A to reach out to an intermediary (Individual D), from whom Blagojevich is attempting to obtain campaign contributions and who Blagojevich believes is close to Senate Candidate 5.

Blagojevich told Fundraiser A to tell Individual D that Senate Candidate 5 was a very realistic candidate but Blagojevich was getting a lot of pressure not to appoint Senate Candidate 5, according to the affidavit.

Blagojevich allegedly told Fundraiser A to tell Individual D that if Senate Candidate 5 is going to be chosen, “some of this stuff’s gotta start happening now . . . right now . . . and we gotta see it.”

Blagojevich continued, “You gotta be careful how you express that and assume everybody’s listening, the whole world is listening. You hear me?”

Blagojevich further directed Fundraiser A to talk to Individual D in person, not by phone, and to communicate the “urgency” of the situation.

Blagojevich spoke to Fundraiser A again the next day, Dec. 5, and discussed that day’s Chicago Tribune front page article stating that Blagojevich had recently been surreptitiously recorded as part of the ongoing criminal investigation.

Blagojevich instructed Fundraiser A to “undo your [Individual D] thing,” and Fundraiser A confirmed it would be undone, the complaint alleges.

Also on Dec. 5, Blagojevich and three others allegedly discussed whether to move money out of the Friends of Blagojevich campaign fund to avoid having the money frozen by federal authorities and also considered the possibility of prepaying the money to Blagojevich’s criminal defense attorney with an understanding that the attorney would donate the money back at a later time if it was not needed. They also discussed opening a new fund raising account named Citizens for Blagojevich with new contributions.

According to the affidavit, intercepted phone calls revealed that the Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs, has explored the possibility of obtaining assistance from the Illinois Finance Authority relating to the Tribune Company’s efforts to sell the Cubs and the financing or sale of Wrigley Field.

In a Nov. 6 phone call, Harris explained to Blagojevich that the deal the Tribune Company was trying to get through the IFA was basically a tax mitigation scheme in which the IFA would own title to Wrigley Field and the Tribune would not have to pay capital gains tax, which Harris estimated would save the company approximately $100 million.

Intercepted calls allegedly show that Blagojevich directed Harris to inform the Tribune and an associate, identified as Tribune Financial Advisor, that state financial assistance would be withheld unless members of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board were fired, primarily because Blagojevich viewed them as driving discussion of his possible impeachment.

In a Nov. 4 phone call, Blagojevich allegedly told Harris that he should say to Tribune Financial Advisor, the Cubs chairman and the Tribune owner, “our recommendation is fire all those [expletive] people, get ‘em the [expletive] out of there and get us some editorial support.”

On Nov. 6, the day of a Tribune editorial critical of Blagojevich , Harris told Blagojevich that he told Tribune Financial Advisor the previous day that things “look like they could move ahead fine but, you know, there is a risk that all of this is going to get derailed by your own editorial page.”

Harris also told Blagojevich that he was meeting with Tribune Financial Advisor on Nov. 10.

In a Nov. 11 intercepted call, Harris allegedly told Blagojevich that Tribune Financial Advisor talked to Tribune Owner and Tribune Owner “got the message and is very sensitive to the issue.”

Harris told Blagojevich that according to Tribune Financial Advisor, there would be “certain corporate reorganizations and budget cuts coming and, reading between the lines, he’s going after that section.”

Blagojevich allegedly responded: “Oh. That’s fantastic.”