Clipmarks | April Clips

Illinois, The State That Lags Economically

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:12:19 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: As a resident of Illinois, I have seen first hand what the effects of Obama's "change" have been.

In 2003, Obama voted to raise the state corporate income tax by $59 million for industries that use heavy machinery. The tax hit consumers of oil, coal, other natural resources

Voted for a property tax hike to increase patronage employees' pay. The bill, costing taxpayers $31 million per year, was vetoed only to be overridden by the senate and house.

In 2004, Obama voted for yet another state income-tax increase that hit Illinois businesses for an additional $29 million per year. In addition, Obama also voted for increased real estate sales taxes and a computer software sales tax hike that cost Illinois consumers and home buyers a combined $95 Million. Obama also supported a 33% increase in licensing fees on Illinois Residents.

In a single massive bill in 2004, Obama voted to increase over 300 TAXES AND FEES Assessed on professionals and businesses operating under state license

Clip Source: politicallydrunk.blogspot.com

Illinois Senate, Barack Obama never saw a tax increase that he didn't like. CBS News Jan 17, 2007 - 'Obama occasionally supported higher taxes, joining other Democrats in pushing to raise more than 300 taxes and fees on businesses in 2004 to help solve a budget deficit.

Yet, these reports do not even begin to demonstrate the fiscal irresponsibility practiced by Obama. Facing a budget deficit in 2003, the newly anointed Illinois Governor, with the full support of Senator Obama who voted for his budget, increased the annual budget by more than $2 billion, as opposed to seeking spending limits or cuts. On April 9th, 2003, Blagojevich introduced his budget by stating, "WE WILL NOT BALANCE THE BUDGET BY SACRIFICING OUR VALUES. INSTEAD, WE WILL BALANCE THE BUDGET BY ENDING BUSINESS AS USUAL." Sound Familiar?

Over the course of the next two years Senator Obama would vote after tax increase after tax increase.

Obama voted for an income-tax hike on natural gas. SB1733 was a $42 million income-tax

Tags: il sen obama, tax increases, unfavorable business environment

Big business, lobbyists had Sarah Palin's ear

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:37:31 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

WASHINGTON -- Big business was granted wide access to Sarah Palin's office during her first 20 months as Alaska governor, but she rarely met with labor, environmental or other groups pressing alternative views, her official calendar shows.

Among those who visited Palin's Juneau office multiple times were the chief executives of Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, as well as several dozen other top oil and gas company officials.

"We have not had problems with access to Gov. Palin or her key department people," said Ashley Reed, a lobbyist who was on a team of natural-gas officials who met with Palin in April 2007. Reed was working with Enstar, a gas firm seeking approval for a natural-gas "bullet" pipeline.

Her calendar shows that Palin met four times in those 20 months with officials from the Teamsters, who endorsed her 2006 gubernatorial bid, and the AFL-CIO.

According to her calendar, however, Palin has met with more than a dozen registered lobbyists since taking office in December 2006.

homelessness

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:33:28 GMT

clipped by: brettlindell

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

The city's homeless shelter population has been mounting steadily for years, from 21,100 people per night in 1998 to 35,200 in April 2007, an increase of about 65 percent. The number of children has increased by 18 percent, to over 14,000.

surgeon

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:09:19 GMT

clipped by: CSHANIKA

Clip Source: books.google.com

The Sanitary Record - Page 837

1896

... Ac. — Mr. Edward A. Sampson, George-street, ... Mr. CE Goddard, secretary to
the company, Sunbury- on-Thames. GAS MANAGER (BANGOR, IRELAND, April 2510). ...

Full view - About this book - Add to my library - More editions

World Bank Under Cyber Siege - "unprecedented crisis"

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:06:22 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned.

It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July.

In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.

In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an "unprecedented crisis."

haunted house

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:48:05 GMT

clipped by: rsorock
clipper's remarks: The Original Most Haunted House in America Congelier Mansion, 1129 Ridge Avenue

Clip Source: www.google.com

Home Equity Loan Lowdown: April 2007

Charles Wright Congelier Home: One of the weirdest houses was located was located at 1129 Ridge Avenue, in the Manchester, North Side, and neighborhood of ...
www.homeequityloanlowdown.com/2007/04/index.html - 30k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Quote of the Day heard on NPR

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:00:05 GMT

clipped by: infoark
clipper's remarks: Just caught a bit of Ira Glass on This American Life who played a piece of tape of a son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy talking about his father's speech the night MLK was assasinated.

Clip Source: www.gaia.com

In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. Quoted by Robert F. Kennedy, delivering an extemporaneous eulogy to Martin Luther King, Jr., the evening of April 4, 1968, in Indianapolis, Indiana. These words, lacking "own," have been used as one of the inscriptions at the Robert F. Kennedy gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery.

Mutant Fish Develops A Taste For Human Flesh In India

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:09:52 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Mutant fish develops a taste for human flesh in India

The enormous goonch, a type of catfish, is said to have developed a taste for human flesh after feeding on corpses thrown into the river after funeral ceremonies.

Locals rumours have held for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water.

But they think it has moved on from scavenging to targeting live bathers who swim in the Great Kali, which flows along the India-Nepal border.

He said: "The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses. It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on remains of funeral pyres.

In 2007 an 18-year-old Nepali disappeared in the river, dragged down by something described as like an "elongated pig".

However, the first live victim of a goonch was thought to have been a 17-year-old Nepalese boy in April 1988.

Witnesses said he was cooling himself in the river when something suddenly pulled him below the surface.

Planting Seeds of Disaster

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:54:17 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: In one of the first book-length scholarly studies of ACORN, Organizing Urban America, Rutgers University political scientist Heidi Swarts describes this group, so dear to Barack Obama, as “oppositional outlaws.”

ACORN’s Inside Strategy

Yet ACORN’s entirely deserved reputation for militance is balanced by its less-well-known “inside strategy.”

The untold story of ACORN’s central role in the financial meltdown is about the one-two punch to the banking system administered by this outside/inside strategy.

Critics of the notion that CRA had a major impact on the subprime crisis ask how a law passed in 1977 could have caused a crisis in 2008? The answer has a lot to do with ACORN — and the critical years of 1990-1995.

Banks merger or expansion plans were rarely held up under CRA until the late 1980s, when ACORN perfected its technique of filing CRA complaints in tandem with the sort of intimidation tactics perfected by that original “community organizer” ,Saul Alinsky.

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

‘You’ve got only a couple thousand bucks in the bank. Your job pays you dog-food wages. Your credit history has been bent, stapled, and mutilated. You declared bankruptcy in 1989. Don’t despair: You can still buy a house.” So began an April 1995 article in the Chicago Sun-Times that went on to direct prospective home-buyers fitting this profile to a group of far-left “community organizers” called ACORN, for assistance. In retrospect, of course, encouraging customers like this to buy homes seems little short of madness.

Militant ACORN

At the time, however, that 1995 Chicago newspaper article represented something of a triumph for Barack Obama. That same year, as a director at Chicago’s Woods Fund, Obama was successfully pushing for a major expansion of assistance to ACORN, and sending still more money ACORN’s way from his post as board chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

Through both funding and personal-leadership training, Obama supported ACORN.

CONTINUED 1 2 3 Next >

Tags: acorn, cra, saul alinsky, bank mortgages, minority quotas, clinton administration, housing sec henry cisneros, madeline talbot, james johnson

Wealthy Are Afraid They’ll Run Out of Money

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:57:52 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Wealthy Are Afraid They’ll Run Out of Money

It’s not just the middle class that has money worries. Even the affluent are worrying about running out of cash.

According to a new survey from American Express Publishing and the Harrison Group, nearly half of respondents with incomes of $250,000 or more agreed with the statement that “I worry that at some point I could run out of money.” That’s up from about a third in April.

Fully 69% agreed with the statement that “The recent real estate and banking crisis has affected my sense of financial security.”

Of course, $250,000 is only “Obama wealthy.” And running out of money “at some point” is a long time horizon. Yet the survey suggests that even high-income earners are cutting back their spending for fear of what the financial future might bring. Fully two-thirds say that they are “looking closely at every spending category to see where I can save.”

Tags: wealthy, middle class, money, finance, economy

Obama Joined Democratic Socialist Party In 1995

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:37:09 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: ...the NP's '96 Political Program has been enormously successful with 3 of 4 endorsed candidates winning electoral primaries. All four candidates attended the NP membership meeting on April 11th to express their gratitude... Barack Obama, victor in the 13th State Senate District, encouraged NPers to join in his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration.

Obama is not simply an ultra-liberal. He is a Marxist. He campaigned on the Socialist ticket, signed the Socialist contract, and attended Socialist meetings.

I'll ask it again: just who in the hell is Barack Obama? And who sent him?

Update: American Thinker, Gateway Pundit, Newsbusters and Jammie Wearing Fool have more.

Original DSA newsletters: #47 and #42. Linked by: Ace o' Spades. Thanks!

Clip Source: directorblue.blogspot.com

Obama signed a contract with the DSA "promising a more open relationship with the Marxist New Party"

mission statement of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America

Our mission is to establish democratic socialism as a political force in the United States and around the world by training and mobilizing socialist activists to participate in a vibrant and diverse socialist organization at both the local and the national level.

In the long term, democratic socialists fight for a world in which all people share equally in the governing of the economic, political and cultural institutions and relationships that shape their lives.

The Jawa Report notes that the DSA founded the New Party

The 'New Party' was a political party established by the Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA) to push forth the socialist principles of the DSA by focusing on winnable elections at a local level and spreading the Socialist movement upwards...

In 1996 the Socialists celebrated Obama's primary victory:

Tags: democrats, extremism, obama, urgent

burger king

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:51:08 GMT

clipped by: coasterman

Clip Source: mostlysavingmoney.com

Get a Burger King receipt - on the back is a write in box for the validation code
Generate a code for the current month
Write this code on the back of your receipt
Purchase any size fries and drink
Present coupon to redeem your free sandwich
Save receipt from step #4 and repeat !

WHERE IS THE BOTTOM ?

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:27:34 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: Is Capitalism worth saving?

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Stocks drop for 6th session on recession fear

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stocks fell for a sixth straight session on Wednesday, as a coordinated worldwide cut in interest rates failed to alleviate fears about a global recession.

It was a session of wild swings, with no clear direction determined until the final minutes. Wall Street's favorite measure of investor fear, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, hit a record intraday high.

The Nasdaq has lost 16.81 percent in the last six days -- its worst six-day percentage loss since April 2001.The Nasdaq has dropped 351.55 points in the last six days -- its worst six-day point loss since December 2000.

Bank of America's shares fell 7 percent to $22.10 after it was forced to price a $10 billion stock offering at below Tuesday's closing price.

Leahy Concerned about NorthCom’s New Army Unit

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:01:38 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.progressive.org

Leahy Concerned about NorthCom’s New Army Unit

Leahy was instrumental in getting Congress to repeal the “Insurrection Act Rider” in the 2006 defense appropriations bill. That rider had given the President sweeping power to use military troops in ways contrary to the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act. The rider authorized the President to have troops patrol our streets in response to disasters, epidemics, and any “condition” he might cite.

Leahy said last December that this rider “made it easier for the President to take over the Guard and to declare martial law.” In a Senate statement on April 24, 2007, he cautioned against inserting the military “into domestic situations.” As he put it: “One of the distinguishing characteristics of the United States is that we do not use the military to patrol our communities

The repeal of the rider was signed by Bush on January 28, though Amy Goodman reports that “Bush attached a signing statement that he did not feel bound by the repeal.”

IMF predicts $1.4 trillion in losses from crisis

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:05:10 GMT

clipped by: sunstreak509

Clip Source: iht.com

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday increased its estimate of global losses from the financial meltdown to $1.4 trillion and warned that the world's economic downturn was deepening.

"Declared losses on U.S. loans and securitized assets are likely to increase further to about $1.4 trillion," the IMF said, increasing the loss estimate from $945 billion in April and slightly up from $1.3 trillion it cited last month.

Tags: economy, markets, government