October 12, 2006 Posts
11:53 St. Cloud Voter Forum Update 00:38 DFL Continues Patty Wetterling's Lie 01:09 Harry Reid's Waterloo? 03:32 Tax Cuts Work? 11:51 Sen. Reid Embarasses Himself (Again) 14:52 Bush Vows to Build Fence 15:38 A Spine Is Detected?
St. Cloud Voter Forum Update
This is just another reminder that The Candidate Values Forum will be held at Joy Christian Center tonight at 6:30. The event is sponsored by the Minnesota Family Institute and 14 area churches. The candidates that we've invited are:
Michele Bachmann, Patty Wetterling, Michelle Fishbach, Paul Stacke, Dan Severson, Barb Beniek, Nate Stang, Larry Hosch, Jeff Johnson, Tarryl Clark, Steve Gottwalt, Diana Murphy Podawiltz, Tara Westby, and Larry Haws.Follow this link for directions to Joy Christian Center.
This forum figures to be a terrific way for voters to learn a great deal of information about all the local candidates in the shortest amount of time. It's also the best way to make the most informed voting decisions possible.
The event is open to the public. We hope you make the most of this opportunity.
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 11:53 AM
August 2006 Posts
Comment 1 by Eva Young at 13-Oct-06 12:13 AM
Did you go to this?
DFL Continues Patty Wetterling's Lie
The DFL has picked up where Patty Wetterling left off. Sort of. The Minnesota DFL has sent out two mailings continuing Patty Wetterling's lie about Michele Bachmann supporting a 23 percent tax increase. Here's a description of what one mailing says:
A quote from a mailing paid for by the DFL:It's astonishing that a major political party could stoop that low and make such an intentionally misleading statement. The DFL, ESPECIALLY PATTY WETTERLING , should be ashamed of themselves. Any politician that stoops to such despicable behavior isn't the type of person that I'd want representing me in Congress? Patty Wetterling used to do alot of good, specifically by advocating child protection legislation. Now she's sold her soul for political ambition.
"Call me crazy but I think we need a national sales tax!" (Supposedly from Michele Bachmann)
Then the DFL line says:
"Paying taxes on April 15th is bad enough; Michele Bachmann wants you to pay them every day of the year."
With ideas like that, even members of her own party are calling her crazy.
This is the type of gutter politics that Hubert Humphrey and Paul Wellstone wouldn't tolerate for a split-second. I'll guarantee that they wouldn't participate in this type of lying. This is the type of stuff you'd expect from Howard Dean's 'win-at-all-costs' Democratic Party. It's the type of thing that Hubert Humphrey would get irate about. Then he'd throw the bums out of the DFL that perpetrated this thing. He certainly wouldn't tolerate this comment either:
DFL spokester Jess McIntosh defended the flyer. "Every statement in the ad is true," she said. As for whether the omission of such a fundamental fact about the "Fair Tax" plan leads voters to a false impression of how the plan would actually affect them, McIntosh said: "The onus is not on us to get Michele Bachmann's talking points out there."Ms. McIntosh's statements are dishonest. There isn't a single sentence in either flyer that's truthful; ergo her saying that "Every statement in the ad is true" can't be true. PERIOD. Furthermore, Ms. McIntosh's saying that it isn't the Wetterling campaign's job to "get Michele Bachmann's talking points out" is a dodge; it's a matter of having the integrity to include a portion of truth in their official statements. Ms. McIntosh's statements fail that test miserably.
I can't imagine Minnesotans of good will voting for Ms. Wetterling.
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:40 AM
August 2006 Posts
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Harry Reid's Waterloo?
Earlier today, the AP reported a major scandal involving Harry Reid. To say that it's bound to damage Harry Reid is understatement. It might even get him kicked out of the Senate. Here's what the AP is reporting:
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show. In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.That's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg:
The Nevada Democrat's deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. He's never been charged with wrongdoing, except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court.
Land deeds obtained by The Associated Press during a review of Reid's business dealings show:
- The deal began in 1998 when Reid bought undeveloped residential property on Las Vegas' booming outskirts for about $400,000. Reid bought one lot outright, and a second parcel jointly with Brown. One of the sellers was a developer who was benefiting from a government land swap that Reid supported. The seller never talked to Reid. In 2001, Reid sold the land for the same price to a limited liability corporation created by Brown. The senator didn't disclose the sale on his annual public ethics report or tell Congress he had any stake in Brown's company. He continued to report to Congress that he personally owned the land.
- After getting local officials to rezone the property for a shopping center, Brown's company sold the land in 2004 to other developers and Reid took $1.1 million of the proceeds, nearly tripling the senator's investment. Reid reported it to Congress as a personal land sale.
- The complex dealings allowed Reid to transfer ownership, legal liability and some tax consequences to Brown's company without public knowledge, but still collect a seven-figure payoff nearly three years later.
Kent Cooper, a former Federal Election Commission official who oversaw government disclosure reports for federal candidates for two decades, said Reid's failure to report the 2001 sale and his ties to Brown's company violated Senate rules. "This is very, very clear," Cooper said. "Whether you make a profit or a loss you've got to put that transaction down so the public, voters, can see exactly what kind of money is moving to or from a member of Congress." "It is especially disconcerting when you have a member of the leadership, of either party, not putting in the effort to make sure this is a complete and accurate report," said Cooper. "That says something to other members. It says something to the Ethics Committee." Other parts of the deal, such as the informal handling of property taxes, raise questions about possible gifts or income reportable to Congress and the IRS, ethics experts said.Earlier in the article, Reid is quoted as saying "Everything I did was transparent," Reid said. "I paid all the taxes. Everything is fully disclosed to the ethics committee and everyone else." Based on this paragraph, that isn't the truth:
Brown sometimes paid a share of the local property taxes on the lot Reid owned outright between 1998 and 2001, while Reid sometimes paid more than his share of taxes on the second parcel they co-owned. And the two men continued to pay the property taxes from their personal checking accounts even after the land was sold to Patrick Lane in 2001, records show. Brown said Reid first approached him in 1997 about land purchases and the two men considered the two lots a single investment.The fact that Reid didn't disclose this on the appropriate forms so that the Ethics Committee could provide proper oversight tells me that Reid didn't want to tell people that he was a business partner of someone allegedly with organized crime connections. It's apparent that he didn't want to tell the authorities that he was a business partner with one of the biggest Washington lobbyists around.
"During the years of ownership, there may have been occasions that he advanced the property taxes, or that I advanced the property taxes," Brown said. "The bottom line is that between ourselves we always settled up and each of us paid our respective percentages." Ultimately, Reid paid about 74 percent of the property taxes, slightly less than his actual 75.1 ownership stake, according to canceled checks kept at the local assessor's office. One year, the property tax payments were delinquent and resulted in a small penalty, the records show.
"As I said, if there is some technical change that the ethics committee wants, I'll be happy to do that."This isn't just a technicality. This is Sen. Reid's attempt to give himself political cover. It's also a likely preview of his defense if the ethics committee brings charges on this despicable incident.
Ethics experts said such informality raises questions about whether any of Brown's tax payments amounted to a benefit for Reid. "It might be a gift," Cooper said. Brand said the IRS might view the handling of the land taxes as undisclosed income to Reid but it was unlikely to prompt an investigation. "If someone is paying a liability you owe, there may be some income imputed. But at that level, it's pretty small dollars," he said.This isn't a little matter. Expect this issue to explode in the coming days. I suspect that a bungler like Harry Reid won't help himself by defending himself in public. That's exactly what will be expected of him, though. If that happens, it won't be pretty. It'll get ugly fast.
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:11 AM
August 2006 Posts
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Tax Cuts Work?
That seems to be the message behind the shrinking deficit story that President Bush touted Wednesday. That still didn't satisfy Democrats, though:
"Only a president with such a historically bad economic record would be this excited about a $248 billion deficit," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, (D-NY). "Under his watch...record surpluses turned into record deficits as far as the eye can see."Those record surpluses Ms. Maloney talked about were the result of Clinton not sufficiently investing in national security more than anything else. Ms. Maloney's statement is intellectually dishonest on another level. She's comparing a peacetime economy to an economy that's beared the burdens of paying for major homeland security upgrades, two wars in the GWOT and overcome the economic consequences of the biggest terrorist attack in our nation's history. Simply put, if President Bush hadn't had to fight the terrorists, he'd be posting surpluses.
Now for the hard facts:
- Corporate income tax receipts grew from $278.3 billion to $353.9 billion, a 27% increase.
- Personal income tax receipts grew from $927.2 billion to $1.044 trillion, an increase of $116.8 billion.
- The deficit dropped from $318.7 billion to $247.7 billion, a drop of $71 billion or 22%
Democrats said the narrowing of the deficit would be temporary as the pending retirement of 78 million baby boomers will send costs of the government's big benefit programs soaring. "The fact that some are trumpeting this year's deficit number as good news shows just how far we've fallen. Our budget picture is extremely serious by any measure," said Sen. Kent Conrad, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee.Shame on Sen. Conrad for talking about the troubles we face when baby boomers retire. His was the party that said we didn't have a problem. His was the party that opposed any changes in Social Security. His was the party that ignored former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's advice to utilize private account growth rates to compensate for the predicted shortfall. His words ring rather hollow in light of those facts.
That's the epitome of a do-nothing congressional caucus.
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 3:34 AM
August 2006 Posts
Comment 1 by quactedlelt at 17-Oct-07 01:38 PM
There's some special secret Sale link on Amazon, EBay, etc. where you can find very good discounts:
http://bargains-hunter.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-find-bargains-at-amazons-secret.html
Bargains Hunter
I've seen discounts there as low as 75% off sticker Price.
Comment 2 by unfonseeasesy at 02-Nov-07 06:42 AM
I've got an Amazon gift certificate burning holes in my pocket,
and I want to get the most bang for my buck.
Enter the Secret Amazon Web Pages:
http://bargains-hunter.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-find-bargains-at-amazons-secret.html
Amazon Secret Web Pages
This is where you're going to find the "latest sales, rebates, and limited-time offers" from
Amazon, and you can score some pretty deep discounts if you're a savvy shopper.
Next, there's the special Sale link. This is open every Friday, and ONLY on Fridays.
You can find the same good discounts here as you would in hidden Deals, although some
Fridays you can really get lucky and make off like an Amazon bandit - I've seen discounts
there as low as 75% off sticker price.
Sen. Reid Embarasses Himself (Again)
Just when you don't think Senate Minority Leader Harry can sound more foolish, he says this and proves you wrong again:
"The President's policy in Iraq sent that country into civil war and turned it into a training ground and rallying cry for terrorists. His policy in North Korea allowed that country to develop and test nuclear weapons. His policy in Afghanistan allowed the Taliban to return and the country to slide towards chaos. Iran is going nuclear. Somalia risks falling into terrorist hands. America is less safe. President Bush tries to talk tough, but he doesn't act smart. He insists on stubbornly following policies that don't work, and it is time for a change."Let's fisk that statement line-by-line:
The President's policy in Iraq sent that country into civil war and turned it into a training ground and rallying cry for terrorists.Wrong. President Bush's policy hasn't turned Iraq "into a training ground" "for terrorists." They're currently being trained in Iran, and possibly Syria, before being 'imported' into Sadr's militias. It was Clinton's policies that turned Afghanistan into a training ground for terrorists.
His policy in North Korea allowed that country to develop and test nuclear weapons.Wrong again. It was President Clinton's policies that gave North Korea the technology to "develop and test nuclear weapons." You'd think that Sen. Reid's memory would work better since he had a front row seat for that history being made. Then again, maybe it isn't his memory as much as it is his ever-shrinking integrity that's the problem.
Somalia risks falling into terrorist hands.Sen. Reid, it's been "in terrorist hands" since the days when warlord General Mohamed Farrah Aidid ruled Mogadishu with an iron fist. In fact, it was President Clinton's mistake of listening to John Murtha's advice that sealed Somalia's fate.
President Bush tries to talk tough, but he doesn't act smart.Sen. Reid, you're the guy that wanted the Patriot Act to expire at the time when President Bush wanted it renewed. Sen. Reid, it was you that voted against the Military Commissions Act at a time when our interrogators needed clarity and the Supreme Court said that military commissions needed Congressional approval to start trying the world's worst terrorists. In the end, Sen. Reid didn't even talk tough. He's eliminated that step and didn't act smart.
"He insists on stubbornly following policies that don't work, and it is time for a change."Sen. Reid hasn't had a new thought on national security in ages. In fact, I don't think he's had a thought on national security in ages.
Is that the type of 'leadership' you want in January, 2007? That isn't the type of leadership I want.
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 11:53 AM
August 2006 Posts
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Bush Vows to Build Fence
According to this Washington Times article, President Bush has committed to building the border fence.
President Bush yesterday pledged to follow through on building 698 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border but said that the Department of Homeland Security will decide where and that he wants sensors and cameras to watch the border. "We're going to do both," Mr. Bush said at a press conference yesterday. "We're just going to make sure that we build it in a spot where it works."Alot of bloggers, especially Michelle Malkin, have believed that President Bush would attempt to thwart the Secure Fence Act's intentions. While I've been disappointed with President Bush on a number of things, I still take him at his word. This quote tells me that he'll definitely build the 698 miles of border fence after signing the Secure Fence Act into law.
Captain Ed said that President Bush would sign the Secure Fence Act "somewhere between October 24th and November 1st." Captain Ed also observes:
The White House considers this bill a front-and-center accomplishment and wants the boost to last all the way through Election Day. Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress (especially Bill Frist, I'm told) want this to get as much coverage as possible. After the signing ceremony, expect to see this bill get trumpeted in the final advertising push for all Republican incumbents running for re-election.I'd be foolish to argue that this White House has been a picture of a movement conservative's White House. It hasn't been. It's done too many things that have upset 'the base' to qualify as a truly conservative administration. One thing that I'd argue, though, is that Rove understands when 'the base' has to be paid attention to. Immigration is that time. Rove also knows that the immigration issue is something that separates the GOP from the Democrats. Furthermore, if there's anything that Mr. Rove enjoys, it's pitting a clear conservative message vs. the Democrats focus-grouped, incoherent message.
As Captain Ed said, this provides the GOP with a great burst of energy at just the right time in the election cycle.
Mr. Bush's pledge of support for the fence bill drew praise from House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, (R-IL), who said illegal immigration is "a clear threat to our safety." House Republicans consider passage of the fence bill a major victory in their push for an enforcement-first policy and are campaigning across the country on the accomplishment. "It should concern the American people that 131 Democrats voted against creating this security fence along our southern border," Mr. Hastert said yesterday. "They don't want border security; instead, they would rather jeopardize our national security and put Americans at risk."Don't you just love Mr. Hastert throwing that shiv in at the right moment? "It should concern the American people that 131 Democrats voted against creating this security fence along our southern border," Mr. Hastert said yesterday. "They don't want border security; instead, they would rather jeopardize our national security and put Americans at risk." OUCH!!! That'll hurt right through Election Day.
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 2:52 PM
August 2006 Posts
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A Spine Is Detected?
Strange as it seems, it appears as though Republicans are growing a spine in light of this article:
A group of House Republicans called Wednesday for a congressional investigation into the improper handling of classified documents by President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger. Berger admitted last year that he deliberately took classified documents out of the National Archives in 2003 and destroyed some of them at his office. He pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material and was fined $50,000.Sandy 'Burglar' isn't being held accountable for his actions. A $50,000 fine is a sizeable fine but he needs to answer about which documents he took from the Archives, what those documents pertained to, why he took them and a host of other questions.
Ten lawmakers led by House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, (R-CA), and Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, (R-WI), released a letter calling for the House Government Reform Committee to investigate. They asked the committee to determine whether any documents were missing from Clinton administration terrorism records, to review security measures for classified documents and to seek testimony from Berger.
Just because he's paid his fine doesn't mean that the American people have gotten all of the answers that they're entitled to. Berger owes it to the American people to explain if he was helping Bill Clinton destroy important information that would ruin Clinton's already-shrinking legacy. It isn't unthinkable that Berger might've taken documents that had Clinton's notes on them, notes that might've caused Clinton serious damage.
During Berger's sentencing hearing, Breuer characterized Berger as eager to get the facts of the Sept. 11 attacks right when he took the material, which contained information relating to terror threats in the United States during the 2000 millennium celebration.That's Clintonesque doublespeak if I've ever heard it. It's as credible as hear OJ say that he'll spend the rest of his life looking for his wife's murderer. The words ring utterly hollow.
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 3:39 PM
August 2006 Posts
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