This is my eldest cat Zena – yes named after the ‘Princess Warrior’.
As she gets older, she loves laying on her back. I can (and do sometimes) put a little dish of food on her belly and she’ll eat it much like an otter does.
She also likes sleeping on the bed at night and leaning against me, slowly pushing me to the edge.
So kill me. I’m a cat person.
But know, you can never ‘own’ a cat. They will however let you live with them.
(GRINS!)
Now I really don’t care if Secretary Salazar gets a raise or not.
But I CERTAINLY don’t want his pay based on how many permits he issues a month.
That’s called blackmail.
But even worse is 1, count them, ONE Senator holding so much power over a body of 100 Senators.
Like the filibuster, this abuse is slowly destroying our Government, a Government we all depend on to SOLVE ALL of our problems not seek selfish special interests.
WASHINGTON (AP) — ‘Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was on track for pay raise that would have brought his salary on par with other Cabinet secretaries, until Sen. David Vitter gave him a quota’.
‘Until Salazar each month approved six new deep-water permits to allow exploratory oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Vitter would block the raise’.
‘On Friday, the Senate ethics committee chided the Louisiana Republican for undermining public trust but stopped short of charging him with rules violations, because no guidance had been issued on such a tactic’.
‘In a statement Friday, Vitter said the committee had validated his action by dismissing the complaint and that he was glad he had “killed Ken Salazar’s salary increase – he has completely failed us on energy policy.”
“And I’ll absolutely place a hold on any raise for him in the future,” Vitter said’.
‘In a statement, Vitter said this was his way of keeping a “boot on the neck” of the Interior Department’.
From : http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VITTER_ETHICS_?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-31-03-48-56
As usual the eventual ‘loser’ in the Great Health Care Debate will be us, ‘we the people’, the consumer.
Cost of the actual health care will go up.
Insurance premiums will go up.
Coverage will be reduced.
And politicans and business (the politicans taking money FROM business) will keep telling us how hard they are working for us.
‘Nobody except Justice Anthony Kennedy knows what will happen to Obamacare. But Wall Street, whose predictive powers are dubious, thinks it does. The proof is in the healthcare stocks’.
‘The below chart shows Aetna’s stock price the past week. Check out the vertical action today. That’s a single day increase of over 6.5 percent’.
‘It’s not just Aetna. UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and Wellpoint are all up between 2 and 5 percent on the day too’.
From : http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/wall-steet-thinks-it-knows-the-future-of-obamacare-why/255244/
And then a breath of fresh air –
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday –
KEYES: ‘You don’t think the subsidies for low-income people are going to be helpful’?
CALDWELL: ‘No, no. The worst thing you can do is give it to an insurance company. I want to make my point. All insurance companies are controlled in their particular state. If you have a hurricane come up the east coast, the first one that’s going to leave you when they gotta pay too many claims is an insurance company. Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business. I trust the government more than insurance companies. If the government wants to put forth a policy where they will pay for everything and you won’t have to go through an insurance policy, that’d be a whole lot better’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/30/454261/buddy-caldwell-private-insurance/
Watch it here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9BTQow2t-I&feature=player_embedded
Santorum: “We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like, the anti-war government nigg… America was a source for division around the world, that what we were doing was wrong.”
Watch and listen for yourself : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=egtaV6Pj8yI
IL-08: Rep. Joe Walsh, R vs. Tammy Duckworth, D
Illinois – Representative Jow Walsh vs. Tammy Duckworth
Representative Walsh’s comments with Politico –
“What else has she done? Female, wounded veteran … ehhh,” he continued. “She is nothing more than a handpicked Washington bureaucrat. David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel just picked her up and dropped her into this district.”
Duckworth –
“I’m not there to say yes to President [Barack] Obama, and I’m not there to say no to Speaker [John] Boehner. I am there to find a way to help the people of my district,” she said in an interview at a Veteran of Foreign Warspost in Villa Park’.
From : http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74625.html
Or lesser known as Samuel Wurzelbacher.
Representative Marcy Kaptur -D Samuel Wurzelbacher -R(tea bag) – Ohio -9th
Yep. Just a ‘regular’. hard working, blue collar guy.
‘Wurzelbacher has no plumbing income in the last two years. Rather, he’s been earning a modest income as a speaker for lobbying groups and political causes, many of which are funded by corporate interests’.
‘According to financial disclosure forms collected by Republic Report, Wurzelbacher has made over $140,000 in honorarium fees — his only reported source of income since 2010’.
Here are some of the most interesting fees:
– ‘Americans for Prosperity, the group financed in part by the billionaire Koch brothers and led by the astroturf lobbyist Tim Phillips, has paid Joe the Plumber at least $32,000’.
‘The disclosure forms reviewed by Republic Report indicate that Wurzelbacher has forgone plumbing for a career as a political speaker, one closely tied to special interests that might be looking for payback if Joe the Plumber becomes Joe the Congressman’.
Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock :
‘Apparently, during the 2010 campaign cycle, Schock’s campaign committee paid out $319 for his P90X workout program, writing it off as a health care expense’.
“Aaron Schock personally paid American Express directly for the charge,” Schock’s spokesman Steve Dutton tells HOH. “It was mistakenly reported on our FEC report filed on July 15, 2010′.
“We corrected that mistake when it happened by filing an amended FEC report on July 30, 2010. So that was corrected 20 months ago. The campaign never paid for the P90X DVD.”
‘Fair enough’. However…………
‘Back in 2008, his campaign reimbursed the then-27-year-old candidate close to $50,000’.
‘ The campaign gave Illinois’ Most Famous Six Pack a big raise in 2010, reimbursing the candidate $105,511’.
‘which included a stay at this five star hotel in Athens, Greece, and this luxury resort in Miami, Fla’.
‘In 2008 and 2010, Schock’s campaign reimbursed his mother, Janice Knapp, $23,711’.
‘All in all, Schock’s campaign paid the lawmaker and his mom $178,567 over two campaigns in travel, incidentals, workouts and events’.
From : http://hoh.rollcall.com/this-is-schocking/
Of course the orginal rumor was that the Justice Department was preparing an indictment. The IRS reports to the Treasury Department, not the Justice Department.
But……….
‘Haley’s office provided The Hill a copy of the letter from the IRS to the Sikh temple that finds no investigation was warranted’.
“After further consideration of your organization, we have determined that an investigation is not warranted at this time for the above tax period,” the letter states’.
From : http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/219333-irs-not-investigating-nikki-haley-for-alleged-tax-fraud
President Obama –
More and more, as it’s clear Romney will win (but only after Santorun and Gingrich eviscerate him), the problem Obama has is peaking too soon.
Expectations.
Mitt Romney has little to no expectations due in most part to his comments. And President Obama, taking the ‘high road’, has resulted in higher expectations.
Then you look at the Country and ask ‘why aren’t we doing better’?
Hence the President running against Congress, and will continue to do so even AFTER Mitt is selected. Running against Mitt will actually be an after thought as the President has to bring home the point that the Republican lead House is the body of Government that ‘won’t compromise’ and help the middle class out of the recession.
But with the Republican ‘war on women’ and the tea bag ‘war on budgets’ turning off most Independents and Moderates, maybe it’s less about Obama peaking too soon vs. Republicans can’t stop themselves.
The Supreme Court decision on AHCA (regardless of how they vote) is a win-win for Democrats. This will be in June.
The Republicans are already making plans to have ANOTHER budget battle over the deficit. This will be in September.
I’ve said it before. This should have been a year long victory lap of Conservatives. Between the war in Afghanistan, the sluggish economy, high unemployment and the Supreme Court debate over health care, all Conservatives had to do was present someone intellighent, human and rational. Someone that Americans could see ‘felt their pain’.
But after the circus left town ( Palin, Bachmann, Perry, Trump, Cain), all that was left was Romney. Someone ‘Real’ Conservatives really don’t like all that much.
Republicans –
Seantor Marco Rubio (R-Fl) is very rapidly becoming the VP choice for the Republicans. Kind of strange to have a VP before a P. (Oh it’s going to be Romney but how much of a stink will Santorum and the Religious right put up BEFORE they endorse Romney?)
He, Rubio and a few others are working on a revised ‘Dream Act’ that will be introduced AFTER the Republican Convention.
This is hoped to offset the really, really bad rating that Republicans have with Latinos –
‘A recent poll by Fox News Latino illustrated the problem for the GOP: 70% of Latino voters backed Obama, compared with 14% supporting Romney’.
From : http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/15/nation/la-na-gop-latinos-20120316
Rick Santorum –
He needed BOTH of these States.
‘A new Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin shows Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum in the Republican presidential race, 39% to 31%, with Ron Paul at 11% and Newt Gingrich at 5%’.
‘The Wisconsin primary is April 3’.
From : http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/03/27/romney_leads_in_wisconsin.html
‘A new Pittsburgh Tribune-Review poll in Pennsylvania finds Rick Santorum barely ahead of Mitt Romney in his home state, 30% to 28%, within the poll’s 4.2% margin of error’.
‘That’s a big change from February, when Santorum held a commanding 15-percentage-point lead over Romney in the poll’.
From : http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/03/28/santorum_loses_his_lead_in_pennsylvania.html
Well THAT isn’t goinjg to happen so ‘Nuff said.
Mitt Romney –
Mitt, Mitt, Mitt. The ‘excitement factor’.
‘The Washington Post reports Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has been selling official “Romney Super Fan” T-shirts for $30 apiece but has managed to sell just 346’.
‘Rick Santorum, by contrast, has sold 3,000 of his $100 souvenir sweater vests’.
From : http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/03/28/hard_to_find_a_romney_super_fan.html
There is of course still Newt –
Just a book tour now. I’m sure Fox spews will take him back.
And of course Ron Paul. Since he doesn’t know what he’s doing – how can he expect anyone else too.
Keep telling yourself that these people are ‘working hard’ for you.
‘In a 51-47 vote, 43 Senate Republicans and four Democrats filibustered to protect $24 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil. Although a majority voted for Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) bill, it fell short of the 60 needed’.
– ‘The 47 senators voting against the bill have received $23,582,500 in career contributions from oil and gas. The 51 senators voting to repeal oil tax breaks have received $5,873,600’.
‘Republicans have taken an overwhelming 88 percent of oil and gas contributions this election cycle. While showering politicans with cash, the oil industry also spent over $146,000,000 on lobbying last year’.
‘Although 55 percent of Americans want to see Big Oil welfare end, the GOP once again largely acted in-line with their Big Oil donors’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/29/454853/senators-who-voted-to-protect-oil-tax-breaks-received-23582500-from-big-oil/
Oh wait. There’s more………..
‘Exxon Mobil, the most profitable of the big five oil companies, made $41.1 billion in profits last year’.
‘Although Exxon made 35 percent more profits since 2010, its estimated effective tax rate actually dropped. Citizens for Tax Justice reported Exxon paid only 17.6 percent taxes in 2010’,
‘lower than the average American, and a Reuters analysis using the same criteria estimates that Exxon will pay only 13 percent in effective taxes for 2011’.
‘Exxon paid zero taxes to the federal government in 2009’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/26/452213/exxon-mobils-tax-rate-drops-to-13-percent-after-making-35-percent-more-profits-in-2011/
The Last Of The Millenniums 