Palin pre-empts state report, clears self in probe
ArchPundit
Seriously? Fucking Seriously? The Onion, right?
No.
Even Rod doesn’t try anything that bizarrely ballsy out there.
October 2008
Sigh…Tucker Bounds is the New Baghdad Bob
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKAeufoA3oM[/youtube]
Mitchell: There’s been no question that there’s been an exaggeration in a lot of the things Sarah Palin has said about the relationship. Why do that? What are you trying to suggest? Are you trying to make Barack Obama seem to be some sort of terrorist himself? This man has been running for President for the last two years and has been vetted through twenty two primary debates. Already two debates in the general election. Um, What’s your point?
Bounds: Well I think most Americans who are sitting at home watching television sets know that they don’t have any friends that they’ve gone to their living rooms and helped with their career that are also…
Mitchell: Even calling him a friend Tucker, I mean, even calling him a friend is an overstatement according to all the fact checking that we’ve been able to do.
Mitchell: That was the board of Walter Annenberg, a stalwart Republican who created an education foundation in Chicago.
Bounds: I’m not indicting the board. I don’t think there’s a problem with the board. I think there’s a problem with having an unrepentant terrorist who’s your friend and then going before the American people and them misrepresenting
Errr…there’s no evidence that they are friends. Holding a coffee for a candidate hardly makes you a friend or a close advisor. A coffee doesn’t start a political career.
Oh, and Michael Miner has some fun with the Ayers-Annenberg story challenge too
An Overhead Projector, My Ass
I’m generally one of the sharpest critics of scientific earmarks. The problem with most of them is that they aren’t submitted to peer review and so the resource allocation is random. Instead, the National Science Foundation or other agency should submit proposals through peer review.
I am not completely against infrastruture earmarks simply because sometimes that the only realistic way to get them paid for and some are reasonable expenditures–like a new projector for the Adler
Now, if McCain wants to establish a scientific educational fund for the Adler to compete for the funds, I could live with that, but this is one of the best earmarks I’ve seen. The level of jackassery to suggest it’s just an overhead projector is unfathomable.
Unleashing Gibbs
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjWnpeH31ds[/youtube]
Hannity claims he does it because he presents all points of views. Funny, he never criticized the point of view though as he does with everyone else. Strange.
In fact, it would have been refreshing for Hannity to give Andy Martin the treatment he gave Robert Gibbs.
The Dangerous Group From the Chicago Annenberg Challenge
Say it with a deep menacing voice. But I have some disturbing news out there for the conservatives concerned about the Ayers-Obama relationship. There was a second Chairman for the Board of Directors named Edward Bottum, a politically active businessman. I think we should all call for his donations to be returned because of his ties to the dangerous radical Bill Ayers:
| Bottum, Edward S. WINNETKA, IL 60093 |
Chase Franklin and Co./Venture Capi | $500 | KIRK FOR CONGRESS – REPUBLICAN | P | 03/02/2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bottum, Edward S. WINNETKA, IL 60093 |
Chase Franklin and Co./Venture Capi | $500 | KIRK FOR CONGRESS – REPUBLICAN | P | 03/02/2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bottum, EdwardS. Mr. WINNETKA, IL 60093 |
Chase Franklin Group/Ventum Capital | $500 | REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE | P | 02/15/2002 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bottum, EdwardS. Mr. WINNETKA, IL 60093 |
Chase Franklin Group/Ventum Capital | $500 | REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE | P | 02/28/2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| BOTTUM, EDWARD S WINNETKA, IL 60093 |
VANTURE CAP | $226 | NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS | P | 10/10/200 |
| BOTTUM, EDWARD S WINNETKA, IL 60093 |
CHASE FRANKLIN GROUP | $750 | REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE – RNC | P | 07/28/2000 |
| BOTTUM, EDWARD S WINNETKA, IL 60093 |
CHASE FRANKLIN AND CO | $500 | KIRK FOR CONGRESS INC – REPUBLICAN | G | 07/27/2000 |
The RNC and Mark Kirk had better demonstrate their loyalty to America.
I’m sure Frank Burns will be OUTRAGED!
OMG! Another Kirk donor was on the board:
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| WEBER, ARNOLD | RETIRED | NORTHBROOK | IL | 60062 | 250 | 10/21/2003 | MCKENNA FOR SENATE – REPUBLICAN |
| WEBER, ARNOLD | RETIRED | NORTHBROOK | IL | 60062 | 1,000 | 7/16/2003 | MCKENNA FOR SENATE – REPUBLICAN |
| Weber, Arnold R Mr. | — | NORTHBROOK | IL | 60062 | 500 | 8/23/2004 | REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE – REPUBLICAN |
And the RNC is in league with him too!
Our politics is really stupid.
The founding Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge as announced in 1995 were:
Patricia Albjerg Graham Barack Obama, civil rights attorney at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland; lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School; member of the board of directors of the Joyce Foundation and the Woods Fund of Chicago; winner, Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 award, 1993; former president of the Harvard Law Review (1990–1991); former executive director of the Developing Communities Project (June 1985–May 1988)[25][37][38][39] Stanley O. Ikenberry, president of the University of Illinois (1979–1995); member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago (1983–1995); former professor of education (1965–1971) and senior vice president (1971–1979) of Pennsylvania State University Arnold R. Weber, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago (1995–1999); member of the board of directors of the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial and the Tribune Company; former president of Northwestern University (1985–1994) and the University of Colorado (1980–1985); professor of labor economics and friend and colleague of George P. Schultz at MIT, the University of Chicago, and in the Nixon administration[40] Ray Romero, vice president and general counsel of Ameritech; Chicago School Finance Authority board member (appointed in 1992 by Governor Jim Edgar); candidate in the 1996 Democratic primary for the 5th Congressional District of Illinois; winner, Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 award, 1991; former Illinois Commerce Commission commissioner (appointed in 1985 by Governor Jim Thompson); former civil rights attorney as Midwest regional director of MALDEF where he was lead counsel for Hispanic plaintiffs in the 1985 Chicago ward remap[39][41] Wanda White, executive director of the Community Workshop on Economic Development; former policy director of the Women’s Self-Employment Project; former deputy commissioner of economic development under Chicago Mayors Washington, Sawyer and Daley Susan Crown, president of the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial; vice president of Henry Crown & Company; daughter of Lester Crown[42] Handy Lindsey, Jr., executive director (1988–1997) then president (1997–2003) of the Field Foundation of Illinois; former associate director of the Chicago Community Trust (1986–1988) The final Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in were:
Patricia Albjerg Graham
Barack Obama
Edward Bottum, managing director of Chase Franklin Corp.; former president and vice chairman of Continental Illinois Bank[44]
Connie Evans, founder and president of the Women’s Self-Employment Project
Susan Blankenbaker Noyes, former labor attorney at Sidley & Austin; daughter of Republican former Indiana state senator Virginia Murphy Blankenbaker; goddaughter of Patricia Albjerg Graham[45]
Scott C. Smith, president, CEO and publisher of the Chicago Tribune; former president, CEO and publisher of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale; former chairman of the South Florida Annenberg Challenge
Nancy Searle, consultant to the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust
Victoria Chou, dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago
John W. McCarter, Jr., president and CEO of the Field Museum
Jim Reynolds, Jr., co-founder, chairman and CEO of Loop Capital Services
Gibbs is Teh Awesome
Obama aide Robert Gibbs on which McCain will show up in Nashville:
“Are we going to get the guy who yells at the kids to ‘Get off my lawn,’ or do we want to talk about issues that matter?”
Obama Endorses Health Care Now!
Obama endorsed the Health Care Now effort put together in Illinois by Citizen Action
Estimates by the Economic Policy Institute suggest up to 850,000 people in Illinois could lose healthcare under McCain’s plan to remove the tax break on employer provided benefits.
The current tax exclusion for premiums for employer-sponsored insurance allows employers to offer their employees either direct compensation in the form of health insurance premiums that are not taxed, and the opportunity to pay for premiums themselves with pre-tax (both payroll and income tax) dollars.
This exclusion has attracted policy makers’ attention for a number of reasons.3 First, it is expensive, costing the federal government over $200 billion in foregone taxes in 2007. Second, it is regressive, with most benefits going toworkers who are offered employer-sponsored insurance and who face high marginal tax rates, both of which indicate workers nearer the top of the earnings distribution.
These reasons (among others) explain why many recent health proposals have involved either reducing or
outright eliminating the tax exclusion. While many of these other proposals have focused only on the income tax exclusion, it is not clear that the final McCain proposal will maintain the current exclusion for payroll taxes. Revenue estimates from the McCain campaign suggest that the proposal will indeed end the payroll tax exclusion (Kvaal et al. 2008), but some independent assessments of the McCain proposal have only assumed an end to the income tax exclusion (Burman et al. 2008; Buchmueller et al. 2008). This paper also focuses only on the income tax exclusion. It should be noted that our estimates of employer-sponsored insurance loss would be substantially higher (by roughly a third) if in fact the payroll exclusion
were also eliminated.
The current tax exclusion is a linchpin of the employerbased health insurance system in the United States. While this system is far from perfect, it does pool and spread risk, and it is how 165 million U.S. residents under the age of 65 receive health insurance. Kicking away the foundations of this system should only be done if there is a well-crafted alternative.
The Modern Day Joe Isuzu
“Tony Rezko sent a letter to a judge. In that letter, he expressly states neither Sen. Obama nor I did anything wrong,” Blagojevich told reporters this morning.
“That letter is a pretty strong statement. It speaks for itself,” the governor said later.
The letter the governor referred to was released in June by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve after Rezko was convicted of wide-ranging fraud involving state boards and commissions. Rezko penned the letter in April as he was trying to be released from federal custody while on trial.
“They are pressuring me to tell them the ‘wrong’ things that I supposedly know about Gov. Blagojevich and Sen. Obama,” Rezko wrote in his letter to St. Eve. “I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the governor or the senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people.”
Also today, the governor dismissed as “much ado about nothing” revelations that federal investigators have interviewed and subpoenaed contractors involved in a $90,000 renovation of Blagojevich’s home by a Rezko-owned company. Agents have focused on who paid for that 2003 work, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snzyJ2ymgOE[/youtube]
Your Input on the Tribune Endorsement for Prez
In what would normally be considered a comical bit about how the Trib will endorse a Republican, it strikes me this year that they might deviate.
But I bet against it. I imagine the argument against Obama will include Todd Stroger as the biggest issue evah!
However, let’s make this a group project: How will the Tribune avoid endorsing Obama for President?