Sarah Palin Says She Has ‘Fire In The Belly’ Ahead Of 2012 (VIDEO)
During an appearance on Fox News’ “On the Record” on Thursday night, Sarah Palin insisted she has “fire in the belly” when pressed on whether she plans to run for president in the next election cycle.
GOP Freshmen On Medicare Attacks: Let’s Let Bygones Be Bygones | TPMDC
House Republican freshmen admit that their so-called “MediScare” attacks on Democrats helped them win a big majority in 2010. Democrats had voted for the health care law, which included $500 billion in “cuts” to Medicare—primarily slashing overpayments to private insurers—and Republican challengers never let them forget it.
Now, they say, it’s time to let bygones be bygones.
Nearly a dozen House Republican freshmen held a press conference outside the Capitol Tuesday morning to “wipe the slate clean,” and “hit the reset button.”
“Yeah, I mean there’s been—again, this is a both-sides issue,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) when asked if GOP candidates and the NRCC had engaged in ‘MediScare’ tactics last year. “To say that one side is blameless in trying to use issues to win votes is just dishonest.”
On Tuesday, Kinzinger and 41 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to rein in Democratic attacks on GOP members who voted for the House budget, which includes a plan to privatize Medicare and cap spending on the program.
“We ask that you stand above partisanship, condemn the disingenuous attacks and work with this Congress to reform spending on entitlement programs,” the letter reads.
Trump University’s Unhappy Students - Kerry A. Dolan - Shades of Green - Forbes
Among the many things that Donald Trump has stamped with his brand is a little-known endeavor called Trump University. In Trump’s true exaggerational style, the university isn’t what it appears to be. It isn’t an accredited university at all, but a for-profit entity that sells classes on how to invest in and make money from real estate. Some of its students claim in a class-action law suit in federal court that the thing Trump University does best is sell its own classes.
Sounds a lot like Scientology to me - maybe they should declare it a religion to get rid of all the lawsuits.
Come to think of it, The Donald kinda looks/acts a lot like a televangelist.
Would also fit Trump’s ego to be worshipped, wouldn’t it?
I guess they’d have to figure out whether to worship Trump, the Almighty Dollar, or fame. Perhaps some ‘Holy Trinity’ magic would be in order.
Waterboarding as litmus test - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com
Asked if there are circumstances under which they’d support water-boarding terror suspects, three candidates raised their hands: Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain. Only the libertarians Gary Johnson and Ron Paul demurred.
Trump: I have ‘real doubts’ Obama was born in U.S. - TODAY People - TODAY.com
Trump: I have ‘real doubts’ Obama was born in U.S.
The potential candidate says he wants to see proof, criticizes administration
Goldman Sachs Employees Told Not to Leave Japan - CNBC
At least four Goldman Sachs executives flew into Japan last week to speak with nervous ex-pat employees about radiation fears, according to a person familiar with the situation. They also conveyed another message: don’t leave Japan and don’t leave Tokyo.
...
Several meetings were held last week between senior Goldman executives and Tokyo-based employees. At least one meeting was held in a large conference room on one of the five floors of the Mori Tower in Tokyo, which houses Goldman’s offices in Japan. Senior executives attending the meeting included Michael Evans, the firm’s head of emerging markets and Asia chairman, and Ed Forst, the co-head of Goldman’s investment management division. Lloyd Blankfein was testifying in the insider-trading case against Raj Rajaratnam last week.
...you’re a public sector union employee.
‘I’m through whining about a liberal press,’ says Sarah Palin - The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room
“I’m through whining about a liberal press that holds conservative women to a different standard, because it doesn’t do any good to whine about it,” Palin said. “When a shot is taken at me, it is water off a duck’s back because I know the important things we need to concentrate on in life — especially the national and international issues that are so important in our country.”
Live Blog - Libya Feb 23 | Al Jazeera Blogs
3.59pm: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose security forces crushed protests against him in 2009, condemned state brutality against protesters in Libya. He said on Wednesday:
How can a leader subject his own people to a shower of machine-guns, tanks and bombs? How can a leader bomb his own people, and afterwards say ‘I will kill anyone who says anything?’
...if they’re clean?
FT.com / Companies / Financial Services - SEC case prompts hedge funds to sweep for bugs
Hedge fund managers are hiring security firms to sweep their offices and homes for listening devices, security experts say, in reaction to the US government’s insider trading investigations.
“Over the past six months, there has been a really heightened interest in electronic sweeps for hedge funds,” said Christopher Falkenberg, founder of Insite Security, a security and risk management firm in New York. “They’re working harder at clamping down on their information security and making sure the telephones are secured and the offices aren’t being bugged. We’ve also been asked to sweep traders’ homes.”
Palin Colorado Event Canceled After ‘Onslaught Of Personal Attacks’ | TPMDC
The Sharon K Pacheco Foundation had scheduled its Patriots & Warriors Gala for May 2, and Palin was to be the keynote speaker, according to The Denver Post. The foundation’s mission is “to provide assistance to military families and at-risk youth,” and the event was to serve as a fundraiser for military families and children who have lost loved ones in combat.
“Due to an onslaught of personal attacks against Governor Palin and others associated with her appearance, it is with deep sadness and disappointment that, in the best interest of all, we cancel the event for safety concerns,” the Facebook post reads.
The announcement also states that no direct threats had been made against anyone, but said that the “increase in negative rhetoric against the former Alaska governor” after the Tucson shooting “raises concern for her safety and the safety of others despite the call for civility in America.”
...but not any more.
We’re looking more and more like Somalia every day.
Romney: Workers Should Pay Their Own Unemployment Benefits | TPMDC
Mitt Romney has a solution to America’s unemployment problems. Rather than giving Americans government help when they lose their jobs (help which he says will keep them unemployed), Romney suggests workers pay for their own unemployment insurance. The government, on the other hand, should spend its money spurring companies into making new jobs.
Let them eat cake…
Public invited to inform on those renting to Arabs - Israel News, Ynetnews
The Lehava organization issued a notice Sunday evening, inviting the public to call a voicemail service and record the names of Jewish Israelis renting apartments to Arabs. Lehava, identified with supporters of Meir Kahane, thus adds its weight to the recent call by 50 prominent rabbis to avoid renting to Arabs which, the organization says, amounts to no less than assimilation.
According to the notice, the information given anonymously will be verified, after which the names will be published as a mark of disgrace “so the public can decide what to do with them.”
...or just a bad actor. C’mon, does Bruce Willis cry about crap like this?
Maybe he has Glenn Beck’s acting coach.
Boehner Cries, Claims He Doesn’t Go Tanning In 60 Minutes Interview (VIDEO) | TPMDC
Incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who cried during an emotional speech on election night, let the tears flow once again in an interview with Leslie Stahl of “60 Minutes” which aired Sunday.
Kyl: Dems Cave By Monday Or No START Treaty | TPMDC
Republicans say no Senate business until tax cuts are extended and the government is funded—presumably on terms favorable to the GOP. That apparently includes the START treaty. And now the man leading the resistance to ratifying the treaty during the lame duck says Dems have until Monday to come to terms with Republicans on those two issues.
“If the taxes all can’t be resolved and voted on and completed and spending for the government for the next ten months completed by like next Monday, I don’t know how there’s enough time to complete START,” Kyl told The Hill.
Bush: Waterboarding Legal ‘Because The Lawyer Said It Was’ (VIDEO) | TPMMuckraker
Former President George W. Bush was asked during an interview last night why he believes waterboarding is legal.
“Because the lawyer said it was,” Bush said. “He said it did not fall within the Anti-Torture Act. I’m not a lawyer, but you gotta trust the judgment of people around you and I do.”
Pelosi Tells Diane Sawyer: No Regrets, No Decisions (VIDEO) | TPMDC
In an exclusive interview with ABC News this evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke silence about the devastating losses her caucus suffered in Tuesday’s midterm. Fighting back tears at times, Pelosi called the results “disappointing,” but said she’s made no decisions about what’s next for her.
Whitman says her former housekeeper should be deported| PolitiCal | Los Angeles Times
Until now she has declined to comment on whether the former housekeeper should be deported. But Wednesday, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, Whitman answered the question head on. “Well, the answer is it breaks my heart, but she should be deported because she forged documents and she lied about her immigration status,” Whitman said. “And it breaks my heart. Gloria Allred pulled off a political stunt. And you know what? On Nov. 3, no one’s going to care about Nicky Diaz. But the law is the law and we live in the rule of law. It’s important.”
Kentucky Stomper Wants An Apology From Woman He Assaulted (VIDEO) | TPMDC
Tim Profitt—the former Rand Paul volunteer who stomped on the head of a MoveOn activist—told told local CBS station WKYT that he wants an apology from the woman he stomped and that she started the whole thing.
Or is it merely Kenyan anti-colonialism he objects to. Black anti-colonialism, that is…
Jim DeMint Plans To Grind Senate To A Halt | TPMDC
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is telling members that he plans to grind the already lethargic Senate to a complete halt at the end of the day.
DeMint’s staff informed all Senate offices yesterday that he plans to hold all legislation that hasn’t been “hot lined” by the end of business on Tuesday, forcing each piece of legislation the Democrats hope to address before the election to overcome days’ worth of procedural obstacles.
“The Executive Committee of the Senate Steering Committee has asked the Steering Committee staff to hold all bills that have not been hotlined by close of business Tuesday,” his chief of staff wrote. “If there are any bills you would like cleared before we go out, please get them to the Steering Committee staff along with a CBO score, if applicable, by close-of-business on Tuesday.”
...or even honest with its readers.
Study: Newspapers stopped describing waterboarding as ‘torture’ during Bush years - Yahoo! News
Is waterboarding torture? If you picked up a major U.S. newspaper before 2004, the answer would likely be yes, according to a new Harvard University study.
But in the post-9/11 world, when the practice of immobilizing and virtually drowning detainees became a politically charged issue, that straightforward definition grew murky. The study, conducted by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, examined coverage in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and found a noticeable shift in language concerning waterboarding.
“From the early 1930s until the modern story broke in 2004, the newspapers that covered waterboarding almost uniformly called the practice torture or implied it was torture,” the study noted. But the study found that things changed in the years when “war on terror” became part of the American lexicon.
The New York Times defined waterboarding as torture, or effectively implied that it was, 81.5 percent of the time in articles until 2004, the study found. But during 2002-2008 — when the George W. Bush White House made a concerted effort to normalize harsh interrogation methods for use on terror detainees — the Times “called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture in just 2 of 143 articles.” That’s 1.4 percent of the time.