DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
“In the winter I can feel the cold air coming through the walls and the sockets,” said Anthony Frizzell, 57, who has lived for almost two decades in a Rezmar building on South Greenwood Avenue. “They didn’t insulate it or nothing.”In a short piece headlined "Olmert wants to live on Rehov Barak," (October 13), Ofer Petersburg gave readers yet another glimpse into the real-estate interests of the outgoing prime minister and his wife, Aliza. According to the report, the couple has been eyeing a NIS 10 million villa - on a half-dunam plot - in the upscale North Tel Aviv neighborhood of Tzahala, though they'll be looking at other properties before making up their minds where they will settle after leaving the prime minister's residence. And just so we should all be clear - and disapproving - Petersburg reminded us that the Olmerts already own an apartment in Tel Aviv, as well as the house on Rehov Cremieux in Jerusalem... you know, the one he's under investigation for.Apartments he doesn't deserve to have, I'd say.
“It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance at success, too… I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”—Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speaking to Joe Wurzelbacher, Ohio plumber.ANP is working on a series between now and Nov. 4 analyzing the phenomenon of rage among McCain-Palin supporters which has surfaced in the past few weeks. Our first piece in the series will debut next week as we look at the rising tension at rallies we've attended, the effect of negative ads on the GOP base and John McCain's and the RNC's responsibility in fanning the flames.ANP's site is HERE.
For the other stories in this series, we need your help. Between now and Nov. 4, we want to document this rising rage nationwide at GOP rallies or anywhere else. If you have any evidence of rage, bigotry or deliberate misinformation among McCain supporters, whether at an official rally or elsewhere (local GOP groups, etc.), we need your help to video these events.
ANP producers have witnessed intimidation of Obama supporters, hate speech, racial epithets at these rallies. Our own reporters have been restricted by Republican operatives from speaking to supporters of John McCain or Sarah Palin.
Here's what we're looking for. Please look at this revealing report shot by Al Jazeera English:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0
We like this report for two reasons:
1) The reporter asks journalistic questions but also insistently probes people about the motivations behind their opinions but does so without the intent to provoke.
2) The approach is unbiased.
Many observers, including ANP, are worried that this agitation and rage may lead to more pointed hate speech and perhaps even incitment to violence in the campaign's last three weeks. And we would like you to help us document it.
If there is a McCain-Palin rally in your immediate area (go to http://www.johnmccain.com/Calendar/ to find out), we'd like to hear about it. You should edit the best rushes (about five minutes worth) and e-mail it to dhutchins@newsproject.org using software at www.pando.com or www.yousendit.com. Make sure "McCain Palin Rage" is in the subject line.
If we use your footage in our series, whether it is 5 seconds or 5 minutes, we will pay a fee of $500 and give you producers credit.
[...]
Davin Hutchins
Managing Producer, ANP
As William F. Buckley Jr.'s only child, satirist and former White House aide Christopher Buckley is poised to inherit a fortune worth tens of millions of dollars. But as Buckley waits for the estate of his late father to go through probate court in Stamford, a former Random House publicist is fighting in a Miami courtroom to increase the $3,000 a month in child support he pays for the special-needs son he fathered with her. Irina Woelfle's lawsuit blames 7-year-old Jonathan's learning problems, in part, on Christopher Buckley's refusal to have anything to do with the boy.THE NYPOST:
"The father is notably absent from the minor child's life," her lawsuit states. The legal proceedings involving Christopher Buckley's relationship with his third child — he has two older children with his wife — have received little attention. Details of the initial case that set the child-support parameters for Jonathan were sealed by Connecticut judicial authorities, who for years hid from the public such lawsuits involving prominent people.
It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that the Buckley family's efforts to keep Jonathan at arm's length don't end with Christopher Buckley. In his will, William F. Buckley Jr. leaves the contents of his estate to Christopher and the two children he fathered with his wife — and leaves no doubt that Jonathan will get none of the money.
"I intentionally make no provision herein for said Jonathan, who for all purposes ... shall be deemed to have predeceased me," wrote William Buckley, who died in February.
Jonathan, now 8, is the product of an Christopher's affair with book publicist Irina Woelfle. Caitlin, 20, and William, 17, are the author and former presidential speechwriter's children with his now-estranged wife, Lucy. Woelfle currently works as a publicist in Florida, where she filed suit against Christopher, seeking more child-support money.
Christopher, 56, author of the satiric novel "Thank You for Smoking," pays $3,000 a month. But Woelfle's petition says their son has special needs, and she's looking to put him into a private school near her Coral Gables home.
The suit, which was obtained by the Courant, pins the blame for some of the boy's behavioral problems on Christopher's complete lack of involvement. "The father is notably absent from the minor child's life," despite the mom's efforts to try to get him involved, the suit says. "As Jonathan gets older, he requires love, attention and a notable involvement in his life from his father," the suit says.
Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama's campaign asked the U.S. Justice Department to expand a special prosecutor's investigation to include possible improprieties surrounding reports the FBI is looking into voter fraud in the presidential race.Vote fraud is not Obama's concern. He just wants to silence those who have exposed it.
THE IMPROMPTU AND HONEST ANSWER OBAMA GAVE JOE HAS EXPOSED HIM FOR WHAT HE IS: A SOCIALIST.Results 1 - 10 of about 1,370,000 for "JOE THE PLUMBER". (0.22 seconds)
NEWS RESULTS: Results 1 - 10 of about 6,703 for JOE-THE-PLUMBER. (0.23 seconds)
October 17, 2008 --
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) is holding a hearing today entitled, "The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Workers' Retirement Security."
In reality, it's a dog-and-pony show to advocate for the nationalization of 401(k) plans. The theory is that workers are too stupid to manage them ourselves, so we need to have the government do it for us.
Don't believe me? Here's what Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci, one of the star witnesses, had to say :
Going forward, I propose Congress establish universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts and the federal government deposit $600 (inflation indexed) in those Guaranteed Retirement Accounts every year for every worker. Every worker (not in an equivalent defined benefit plan) would save 5% of their pay into their Guaranteed Retirement Account to which the government pays a 3% inflation-indexed guaranteed return. Workers would earn pension credits based on these accumulations.
Obama's 95% IllusionRead the rest. The Obama tax-cuts plan is a tool for wealth redistribution.
It depends on what the meaning of 'tax cut' is
One of Barack Obama's most potent campaign claims is that he'll cut taxes for no less than 95% of "working families." He's even promising to cut taxes enough that the government's tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% -- which is lower than it is today.
It's a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he's also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of "tax cut."
For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase "tax credit." Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand no fewer than seven such credits for individuals:...
What Obama's plan would do is to write a check to the millions of Americans who currently pay no taxes at all. For those of us who work for a living, we will pay higher taxes to support this massive transfer of wealth.Pity that the Obamamaniacs believe their candidate's promises. Those promises are full of hot air.
Another item in Obama's tax cuts are the tax credits he will provide. All but one of these tax credits are refundable -- the others only work if you have a tax liability. The liability is reduced by the credit, but you don't get it as a refund.
I say the puck is going to be where the ideas are. Money follows ideas. Ideas thrive in freedom. As long as America is free, it will be the great investment, and money will flow to America.THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.
So ... I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.
Why?
A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.
A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.
Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.
You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.
Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.
Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that Lebanon will not be a fully sovereign state until Hizbullah, and other militia groups are disbanded."Hizbullah's maintenance of separate military assets and infrastructure is a fundamental challenge to the government's attempts to consolidate the sovereignty and authority of the Lebanese state," he wrote in a six-month report to the UN Security Council, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
"In addition, several Palestinian militias operate in the country, inside and outside of refugee camps," said the secretary general, adding that they also undermine the stability of the country and the region.
In the report, Ban also said he was encouraged by the positive developments in relations between Lebanon and Syria, but called on the two countries to take further steps to improvesecurity along the border.
"Over the last six months, Lebanon has experienced both the ruinous effects of sectarian violence and hope and optimism," he said in the report.
"I applaud the historical steps that have been taken so far by Presidents Suleiman and Al-Assad," he said. "For the first time since their independence, the two neighboring states are establishing diplomatic relations.The foreign ministers of Syria and Lebanon signed a document Wednesday formalizing diplomatic ties between the two countries for the first time in their turbulent history.
The signing comes a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree establishing diplomatic relations with its smaller neighbor - a long-standing demand of the West and Lebanese politicians opposed to Syria's influence in the country.
The two countries have not had formal diplomatic relations since both gained independence from France in the 1940s in an arrangement that many Lebanese viewed as a result of Syria's refusal to recognize Lebanese sovereignty.
Ban, in his report, said in addition to establishing diplomatic relations, Lebanon and Syria must also take concrete steps to implement other agreements reached during these meetings, including "joint activity to improve security arrangements along that border."
In his April report, Ban highlighted the mounting international concern over Lebanon's failure to fill the presidential post, left vacant after pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud stepped down last November.
In Thursday's report, he said the most significant progress made in the last six months was Lebanon's compliance with requirements for a "free and fair presidential electionaccording to Lebanese constitutional rules."
Ban said Lebanese President Michel Suleiman's election on May 25 "represented a significant step forward," but said "I remain concerned by the political assassinations and explosions that continue to plague Lebanon."
The secretary-general said that clashes in May and violent incidents since then raised concerns "that groups on all sides of the political spectrum may be re-arming."
In the report, Ban called on Lebanese parties to immediately halt all efforts to acquire and build paramilitary capabilities.
He reiterated that disarming and disbanding all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias should be done through a political dialogue "that will lead to the monopoly on the use of force by the government of Lebanon throughout all of its territory."
"The ultimate purpose of disarmament is the establishment of a strong Lebanese state for all inhabitants of Lebanon," he said.
"A local Republican group has distributed a newsletter picturing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on a fake $10 bill adorned with a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken.
The drawing harked back to racist images from decades ago in America that featured caricatures of blacks eating watermelon and other Southern foods, often suggesting they were lazy or unclean. Linking Obama, who is the first black presidential nominee of a major US political party, to such stereotypes drew denunciations from various Republican officials.
The illustration appeared in the October newsletter of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper reported today.
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