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Stories we should know more about.
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(7789 of 8569)
Re: What's New in the News
Aug 6, 2009 7:23 AM
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but requiring that all federal employees from the White house on down use that insurance option exclusively would pretty much guarantee the program would get good funding and oversight.
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Re: What's New in the News
Aug 6, 2009 7:21 AM
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mornin Gz
I think someone asked at one of the townhall meetings if congress enacts a hc reform bill that includes a public health care insurance option would congress opt to use it instead of their current health insurance plan and the answer was...uhhh...No.
lol
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3,019
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3/21/08
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(7787 of 8569)
Re: What's New in the News
Aug 6, 2009 7:18 AM
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Congress just bought itself 2 jets, $200 million dollars worth...while they fight tooth and nail against healthcare.
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Re: What's New in the News
Aug 6, 2009 6:57 AM
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> I hope that the Blackwater case gets blown wide
> fucking open.
Jet,
I imagine there must have been a few threads on Blackwater here on the boards over the years. I wonder where their employees blog and chat online?
from SourceWatch.org:
Erik Prince is the founder of private military corporation Blackwater USA.[1] In February 2009, shortly after Blackwater changed its name to "Xe," Prince announced he was stepping down as the company's CEO, but would remain its chair. "I'm a little worn out by the whole thing, the politics of it all," he said. [2]
Prince is a former Navy Seal and a "billionaire right-wing fundamentalist Christian from a powerful Michigan Republican family. A major Republican campaign contributor, he interned in the White House of President George H.W. Bush and campaigned for Pat Buchanan in 1992. He founded the mercenary firm Blackwater USA in 1997 with Gary Jackson, another former Navy SEAL."[3]
Prince's father, Edgar Prince, and Gary Bauer started the Family Research Council, where Prince interned. Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, is a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party
Family Research Council
The Family Research Council (FRC) is an organization in Washington, DC that grew out of Ronald Reagan's neoconservative "pro-family" domestic agenda.
Contents
According to the organization's website, "the Family Research Council (FRC) champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society. FRC shapes public debate and formulate public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions of marriage and the family. Believing that God is the author of life, liberty, and the family, FRC promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society."
"The idea of the Family Research Council originated at the 1980 White House Conference on Families. Among the conferees, James Dobson stood out because of his rare combination of Christian social values and academic and professional credentials. A practicing clinical psychologist and noted author, Dobson had recently transitioned into radio broadcasting and also launched a nonprofit, family service organization. He felt that the time was ripe to establish an organization that would drive the national debate on family issues. In 1983, the Family Research Council incorporated as a nonprofit educational institution in the District of Columbia; its founding board included Dobson and two noted psychiatrists, Armand Nicholoi. Jr. of Harvard University and George Rekers of the University of South Carolina," it states.
"Under the leadership of Gerry Regier, a former Reagan Administration official at the Department of Health and Human Services, FRC began to link policy makers with researchers and professionals from a variety of disciplines. Gary Bauer, a domestic policy advisor to President Reagan, succeeded Regier in 1988 and by the mid-1990s the organization had grown into a $10 million operation with a nationwide network of support...", it states.[1]
The FRC is associated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family and William J. Bennett.
Personnel[2]
* Tony Perkins, President
* Chuck Donovan, Executive Vice President
* Tom McClusky, Vice President for Government Affairs
* Charmaine Yoest, Vice President for Communications
* Robert Morrison, Vice President for Academic Affairs
* Peter Sprigg, Vice President for Policy
* J. Kenneth Blackwell, Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment
* David Prentice, Senior Fellow for Life Sciences, Center for Human Life and Bioethics
* Patrick F. Fagan, Senior Fellow and Director for Marriage and Religion Center
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364
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2/3/09
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(7785 of 8569)
Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 11:34 PM
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> The two journalists are on a plane with President
> Clinton and on the way home.
>
> Its confirmed.
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/04/north-korea-w
> elcomes-bill_n_250682.html
The only reason Clinton was successful is because North Korea is so far behind the times they think he's still President.
--
"We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf"-George Orwell
"The opposite of progress is Congress"-Will Rogers
I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than driving with Ted Kennedy
FOR SALE-One French army rifle. Never fired, only dropped twice.
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Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 10:16 PM
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.
--
Edited by RainyKincaid at 08/05/2009 7:16 PM PDT
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Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 10:09 PM
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A search on the Times' site didn't come up with anything but a few comments by citizen bloggers.
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Posts:
8,394
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8/24/06
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(7782 of 8569)
Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 9:53 PM
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Jeremy has been on Keith for 2 nights in a row.
My bet is the MSM will pass on this one.
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Posts:
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Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 9:51 PM
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> Jeremy Scahill is showing stupendous courage exposing
> Erik Prince's Blackwater/Xe rebirth of Christian
> Crusades against Muslims.
Gzndhyt,
After watching the author of the book about The Family on Maher this week, can't help but wonder if Prince et all are members.
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(7780 of 8569)
Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 9:46 PM
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The Canadian press is a bit more forthcoming than the US press---http://tinyurl.com/lufh2o
This government is so bizarre...
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8,394
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(7779 of 8569)
Re: New meaning for "Cold Cash"
Aug 5, 2009 9:25 PM
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Well I guess they catch a few--very damn few.
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Posts:
1,918
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3/13/08
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(7778 of 8569)
New meaning for "Cold Cash"
Aug 5, 2009 8:52 PM
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Well, I can't blame him for not putting it in the stock market anyway... The only thing I might add, does a mere $90K even COUNT anymore?
ALEXANDRIA, Va. ? A former Louisiana congressman accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes was convicted in federal court Wednesday in a case in which agents famously found $90,000 stashed in his freezer.
William Jefferson, a Democrat who had represented parts of New Orleans for almost 20 years, was stoic as the verdict was read and had little to say afterward. Asked how he was doing, he said, "I'm holding up."
Prosecutors contended Jefferson accepted more than $400,000 in bribes and sought millions more in exchange for brokering business deals in Africa. After a two-month trial, jurors took five days to convict him on 11 of 16 counts that also included racketeering and money laundering. He was acquitted on the other five.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lytle said Jefferson could face more than 20 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
Jefferson had been under investigation since March 2005. In August that year, FBI agents searched his Washington home and found the cash in his freezer, wrapped in foil and hidden in boxes of frozen pie crust. Prosecutors said he had planned to use the money to pay a bribe to the then-vice president of Nigeria to secure a multimillion dollar telecommunications deal there, an accusation Jefferson denied.
U.S. Attorney Dana Boente said after the verdict that "no person, not even a congressman, is above the law. Ninety thousand dollars in a freezer is not a gray area. It's a violation."
The defense argued that Jefferson was acting as a private business consultant in brokering the deals and that his actions did not constitute bribery under federal law.
Defense lawyer Robert Trout said he will appeal.
The 62-year-old Jefferson was acquitted of counts that included obstruction of justice and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was the first official to be charged with violating that act, which makes it illegal to bribe foreign government officials.
In 1991, Jefferson became Louisiana's first African-American congressman since Reconstruction. His run ended in December, when Republican attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao beat him a year after a grand jury indicted Jefferson.
The verdicts were a clear victory for the Justice Department, which had been embarrassed earlier this year by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct that forced them to drop corruption charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.
Jefferson took the money found in the freezer as part of an FBI sting. A disgruntled businesswoman, Lori Mody, agreed to wear a wire after telling the FBI that she had been cheated out of $3.5 million in deals brokered by Jefferson.
The jury saw videotape of Mody handing over a suitcase filled with $100,000 cash outside an Arlington hotel. On the tape, Mody asks Jefferson if he would like to "take a peek" at the suitcase's contents."
"No, I would not," a wary Jefferson responded.
A few days later, agents recovered nearly all the money in the freezer. The defense argued that Jefferson never intended to pay a bribe and took the money only to placate an overly aggressive Mody, who was insisting on paying the Nigerian vice president to seal her business deal.
Judge T.S. Ellis III allowed Jefferson to remain free on bond until sentencing set for Oct. 30, although prosecutors argued he was flight risk because of his ties to Africa. Jurors must return to the courthouse Thursday to consider whether Jefferson has to forfeit more than $450,000 in alleged bribe receipts.
Prosecutors outlined numerous schemes in which they accused Jefferson of concealing bribe payments as "consulting fees" paid to sham companies controlled by his wife and brother. Legally, much of the case turned on whether Jefferson's deal-making was an "official act" under federal bribery laws.
New Orleans voters had long been loyal to Jefferson, re-electing him in 2006 even after news of the bribery scandal broke, and some remain on his side.
The Rev. Aubrey Wallace, a Baptist church assistant pastor in suburban Jefferson Parish, said the verdict doesn't erode his belief in the ex-congressman's innocence or his view that the prosecution was politically motivated.
"We're going to rally around him," he said. "I'll be a supporter until the last breath in my mouth."
Edward Chervenak, a professor of politics at the University of New Orleans, said Jefferson's core supporters may not be swayed by the verdicts. But for much of the country, the convictions will reinforce the perception that Louisiana is a hotbed of public corruption.
Wallace also wasn't ready to concede that the verdicts mean the end of Jefferson's political career.
"If Marion Barry can be convicted of smoking crack cocaine on video and come back, then I think Bill Jefferson can have a second chance," he said.
DaN
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(7777 of 8569)
Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 12:05 PM
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Jeremy Scahill is showing stupendous courage exposing Erik Prince's Blackwater/Xe rebirth of Christian Crusades against Muslims.
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Posts:
8,394
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8/24/06
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(7776 of 8569)
Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 9:53 AM
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I hope that the Blackwater case gets blown wide fucking open.
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Posts:
35,294
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Re: What's New in the News
Aug 5, 2009 1:02 AM
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Doctors used to be fairly cavalier about removing organs from the human body that they believed didn't provide critical health benefits like the spleen and ovaries. They just made a major discovery that the spleen is the source of a strong flood of immune cells that present themselves after heart attacks, large wounds, etc. and play a major role in recovery. People whose spleens were removed have a significantly higher rate of death afterwards from heart disease than people with intact spleens.
Ovaries as well, even in women who have hysterectomies, have proven to continue to provide health benefits. Women whose ovaries have been removed have higher rates of lung cancer, heart disease, and Parkinson's
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/science/04angier.html?em
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