Don't Aim At The Bubbles

H/T ChiTown Charlie

Tell Us Something We Don't Know

Oh wow, voter fraud... Who woulda thunk it?

From the Business Insider:

In an email sent on November 7, 2008, and titled " Insight - The Dems & Dirty Tricks ** Internal Use Only - Pls Do Not Forward **," Stratfor vice president of intelligence Fred Burton wrote:

1) The black Dems were caught stuffing the ballot boxes in Philly and Ohio as reported the night of the election and Sen. McCain chose not to fight. The matter is not dead inside the party. It now becomes a matter of sequence now as to how and when to "out".

In an email sent two days earlier and titled "Insight - McCain #5 ** internal use only - Pls do not forward **," Burton wrote:

After discussions with his inner circle, which explains the delay in his speech, McCain decided not to pursue the voter fraud in PA and Ohio, despite his staff's desire to make it an issue. He said no.

Staff felt they could get a federal injunction to stop the process. McCain felt the crowds assembled in support of Obama and such would be detrimental to our country and it would do our nation no good for this to drag out like last go around, coupled with the possibility of domestic violence.

The original emails are here and here.

Of course, this is not the first time that accusations of fraud have made in a Presidential election. the Kennedy/Nixon piss off of 1960 comesimmediately to mind. Although no instances of rampant voter fraud were ever officially uncovered in either Illinois or Texas-

[...]On the other hand, some fraud clearly occurred in Cook County. At least three people were sent to jail for election-related crimes, and 677 others were indicted before being acquitted by Judge John M. Karns, a Daley crony. Many of the allegations involved practices that wouldn't be detected by a recount, leading the conservative Chicago Tribune, among others, to conclude that "once an election has been stolen in Cook County, it stays stolen."  

What's more, according to journalist Seymour Hersh, a former Justice Department prosecutor who heard tapes of FBI wiretaps from the period believed that Illinois was rightfully Nixon's. Hersh also has written that J. Edgar Hoover believed Nixon actually won the presidency but in deciding to follow normal procedures and refer the FBI's findings to the attorney general—as of Jan. 20, 1961, Robert F. Kennedy—he effectively buried the case.

Another man, too, believed Nixon was robbed: Nixon. At a 1960 Christmas party, he was heard greeting guests, "We won but they stole it from us." Nixon nursed the grudge for years, and when he was criticized for his Watergate crimes he would cite the Kennedys' misdeeds as precedent. He may have felt JFK's supposed theft entitled him to cheat in 1972. It's an interesting hypothetical: If no pall had been cast over the 1960 election, would Watergate have happened?

Eating Dogs

Rumors of drastic changes in the White House ala carte menu have sparked nationwide alarm.

Michele Obama's initiative to change the nation's school cafeteria offerings have meet with signifcant resistance.

But perhaps the phrase, "eating dogs," was just a misunderstanding?

H/T Right Wing News

FINALLY!

It took awhile but hopefully  this issue is finally getting more traction.

During a Senate hearing on Democrat-sponsored legislation aimed to prohibit racial profiling by law enforcement officers, an attorney who served in the Department of Justice said the underlying problem of high rates of criminal behavior and out-of-wedlock births in the black community should be a part of the discussion.

Roger Clegg, who served in the DOJ’s civil rights division in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, was a witness at a Senate hearing on Tuesday and made the remarks in his opening statement.

"I think we have to recognize that it’s going to be tempting for the police and individuals to profile so long as a disproportionate amount of street crime is committed by African Americans and there will be a disproportionate amount of street crime is committed by African Americans for so long as more than seven out of ten African Americans are being born out of wedlock,” Clegg said.

“...that is the elephant in the room, and it has to be addressed,” Clegg said.

Currently 72% of all black births are out-of-wedlock. Comedian Bill Cosby has also commented on this.

For Californians There Is Somewhere To Run

By increasing it's maximum tax rate, California is driving out it's most productive - therefore wealthiest - citizens.

According to a new report from the Golden State’s Franchise Tax Board, the top 1% of earners paid $25.7 billion in state income taxes in 2007. Two years later, the most recent for which data are available, that figure dropped by half — to $12.3 billion.

Researchers note that the economic downturn contributed to this drop. But that’s not the only cause. A huge number of high-income taxpayers have simply left the state.

Between 1992 and 2008, California suffered a net loss of 869,000 tax filers. About 3.5 million moved into California, while 4.4 million left.

Those that left were disproportionately wealthy. The average adjusted gross income for people leaving the state over that period was $44,700. Meanwhile, the average person moving into California posted income of just $38,600.

Of course this is nothing new. The genuises running the state have known this for years. Over three quarters of a million taxpayers have fled the state since 1992, taking their skills, their jobs,their wealth with them to less greedy states that respect their work ethic.

The mass migration of top earners has seriously damaged the Golden State's tax revenues. Ratcheting up rates might provide an influx of cash in the short term. But over time it will drive out payers and shrink the tax base.

Indeed, California lost a stunning $44 billion in tax revenue from the 869,000 taxpayers that left the state between 1992 and 2008. And that figure is probably too small. It only counts earnings for one year — the difference between paying state taxes one year and not paying them the next year, after the payer moved.

A Great British Update

Looking at things from a UK perspective, with a rather jaundiced & cynical eye:

After her assured performance in the House yesterday I was prepared to give Theresa May the benefit of the doubt; she seemed confident and on top of her brief. Well, how wrong was I - and how deep in the mire is she?

The Council of Europe has said that Abu Qatada's solicitors (I believe it's Gareth Pierce, again) launched his appeal against deportation within the 3-month time limit set by the ECHR.

Just what, exactly, does a Minister have to do to be sacked? How incompetent must they prove themselves to be before they're deemed unfit for office? Once upon a time, in a land far away, she would either have resigned by now or been sacked but these days there seems to be nothing they can't do and get away with. They're pretty much like those crims who are never sent to jail despite so many previous convictions but are left unpunished to go on and commit further, bigger crimes. I wonder who takes after whom.

May should be sacked, no doubt about it, but I can't see anyone fit to replace her. David Davis is studiously ignored by Cameron, having shot himself in the foot when he resigned as Shadow Home Secretary in 2008. After all, it wouldn't do to have a government comprised of Ministers who are willing to resign on points of principle. We might actually begin to believe that integrity and honesty had made a return to the Front Benches, and that would never do.

Talking of integrity, Nick Clegg faced the Political & Constitutional Reform Committee this morning. Much has been made about giving local people the power of recall over their MPs if they were judged guilty of something like, for example, fiddling their expenses. Well, we can forget that. One thing Clegg said stood out for me. When asked whether the procedure for recall might be 'abused', he replied that MPs would have "a fair amount of discretion" and that "industrial-scale laziness" would not count as serious wrong-doing or grounds for recall. Try that one with your boss.  So, if anyone was hoping to see a cleaner, more accountable House of Commons, they can forget it. As if they'd really give away any real powers to us, the people.

Something else you might be interested in is a copy of a Spectator article due for release this coming Saturday and it goes some way towards explaining why Cameron, Clegg & the Coalition are in such a mess. Civil Service Coup. If Cameron doesn't have the cojones to deal with this then he deserves all he gets; the trouble is, the country doesn't deserve it but we're the ones who will bear the brunt of his failure.

Finally, George Soros, a man who should be behind bars, has peeped above the parapet again and declared that the Euro is ripe for plucking. It looks as though the end game is nigh but because of the prevarication & subterfuge of the so-called 'EU elite' over the past three years, the damage will be so much greater and has the capability of taking us all down with it. Osborne should not have been propping up this failed ideology, with our high taxes, for as long as he has.

That's the trouble with our government, they all want to be dancers on the world stage but they just can't cut it with their two left feet.

Tweet

R.I.P. Dick Clark

New Year's Eve is not going to be the same. Although he almost looked embalmed for the last few years, I still enjoyed seeing him. Like me, he was a Syracuse University graduate. Unlike me, he was a media star - American Bandstand. He was the host from 1956 through 1987. In 1972 he started his Rockin' New Year's Eve gig.

Fast And Penurious

Pley Club in Cartagena, Colombia

Why all the fuss? The Secret Service only did to the hookers what Obama and the Democrats have been doing to US taxpayers for years.

A preliminary investigation into the night of alleged debauchery involving members of President Obama's advance security team in Colombia has revealed that additional military personnel may have been involved in the prostitution scandal, Pentagon officials said Monday.

The U.S. Southern Command initially reported that five members of the U.S. special forces had participated in the partying, but preliminary reviews of hotel security tapes indicate that the number was likely much higher. A senior defense official told the AP that "at least 10 military members may have been involved."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that the agency is conducting a "full investigation" into the incident," and emphasized that he expects a strong response.

On The Bright Side

Men who suffer from prostate cancer may start to breathe a little easier now that encouraging news has been released on a new form of treatment.

A new treatment for prostate cancer can rid the disease from nine in ten men without debilitating side effects, a study has found, leading to new hope for tens of thousands of men.

It is hoped the new treatment, which involves heating only the tumours with a highly focused ultrasound, will mean men can be treated without an overnight stay in hospital and avoiding the distressing side effects associated with current therapies.

A study has found that focal HIFU, high-intensity focused ultrasound, provides the 'perfect' outcome of no major side effects and free of cancer 12 months after treatment, in nine out of ten cases.

Traditional surgery or radiotherapy can only provide the perfect outcome in half of cases currently.

Experts have said the results are 'very encouraging' and were a 'paradigm' shift in treatment of the disease.

It is hoped that large scale trials can now begin so the treatment could be offered routinely on the NHS within five years.

No word on when we can expect to see this treatment performed on a routine basis, but it is still very good news in a world were it seems that gloom and doom are de rigueur.

We're Baaaack

Ok. Blogroll is fixed and I took a nap today. Good to go.

First up. Jay Parmley, the director of the North Carolina Democratic Party has resigned his position for trying to get one of his staffers to play Pet My Monkey. The staffer, a male named Adrian Ortega, was allergic to monkeys. Emails have been recovered that indicate:

that the Democratic Party made a financial settlement with Ortega, and that both Ortega and Parmley signed non-disclosure agreements to keep the incident quiet.

Local news outlets have reported that Ortega was fired after he made the sexual-harassment allegations, and that the state party has not been transparent about his firing since it happened.

Actually the party is tranparent, we can see right through it.

Next. The Brits have found themselves in another sticky wicket through the actions of one of their "moderate" Muslims.

A Labour peer was suspended last night after allegedly claiming he would put up a £10 million bounty for the capture of Barack Obama.

Lord Ahmed of Rotherham is reported to have made the gesture after the U.S. announced a $10 million bounty for Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, whom it blames for orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

He is said to have described the bounty on Mr Saeed, who founded banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as an ‘insult to all Muslims’.

The Brits were put under tremendous pressure to suspend Lord Ahmed by the White House after millions of dollars started to pour into the bounty fund from US voters.