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What a train-wreck!

Richardson to withdraw as Commerce secretary - Politics- msnbc.com

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.

Buck Naked Politics: Bill Richardson: Unlucky Target in Pay-to-Play Investigation

Obama’s pick for Commerce Secretary, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, is apparently under investigation for corrupt activities. The Los Angeles Times reports:

LexisNexis News

NBC News Transcripts
SHOW: NBC Nightly News 6:30 PM EST NBC
December 23, 2008 Tuesday
427 words
Questions over Bill Richardson’s political contributions while governor
ANN CURRY
LISA MYERS

ANN CURRY, anchor:

The Obama team may have another problem on its hands: a growing investigation into New Mexico governor and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson, who is Obama’s choice for Commerce Secretary. At issue is whether there was a relationship between political contributions to Richardson and his actions as governor. More on this now from NBC’s chief–rather, senior investigative correspondent, Lisa Myers.

President-elect BARACK OBAMA: Secretary of commerce, my great friend, Governor Bill Richardson.

LISA MYERS reporting:

The allegations now being investigated by a federal grand jury involve whether Richardson as governor steered state bond business to a firm whose founder made substantial contributions to Richardson’s political action committee. Two former state officials involved in the bond deals told NBC News that they testified before a grand jury in Albuquerque last week. One official says prosecutors focused on whether Richardson or staff pushed to give business to CDR Financial Products. It specifically asked about what’s called pay to play.

Now, feds probe Gov. Richardson of Obama Cabinet for ‘pay-to-play’ - Los Angeles Times

It seems that Illinois’ legally challenged Gov. Rod Blagojevich is not the only close Barack Obama associate and Democratic governor being investigated by the feds for possibly selling government business in return for campaign contributions.

New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson, who is the newly named Secretary of Commerce in Obama’s about-to-be Cabinet, is also being investigated by a federal grand jury in his home state for possibly steering state bond business from the New Mexico Financial Authority toward David Rubin, a significant campaign contributor, according to an NBC News report, among other

What a difference a candidate makes. TPM hackery on full display.

Funny how when a report cleared Governor Sarah Palin of any wrongdoing on bogus accusations Talking Points Memo and the rest of the nutroots cried foul because one report was done by the Governors office.

Talking Points Memo | Election Eve Info “Dump”

It’s fitting that the McCain-Palin campaign ends with a couple of politically motivated pretend nods to transparency.

First Sarah Palin’s own personnel board released a report earlier this evening clearing her in the Trooper-Gate investigation. Nice timing.

Now Palin has released a letter from her personal physician proclaiming her to be in good health and fit to serve — instead of releasing her medical records, which she’d promised to do days ago.

They see fit to do this on the night before the election?

(As a side note, the McCain camp press release is titled “GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN RELEASES MEDICAL HISTORY SUMMARY.” But it appears all they released was that letter (.pdf). Over at The Page, that morphs into the headline: “PALIN RELEASES MEDICAL RECORDS.” A letter becomes a summary becomes medical records.)

Now today, with their own report, Barack Obama clears himself and his Chief of Staff to be Rahm Emanuel, the same Talking Points Memo and nutroots are shouting from their laptops that all is well on this night before Christmas Eve document dump, prepared by and released by team Obama itself.

Talking Points Memo | Read It Yourself

We have the Obama team’s report on its contacts with Blago posted here.

TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Obama Team Releases Blago Report

The Obama transition team has now released its much-awaited internal report on staff contacts with Rod Blagojevich and his own office, saying that members of the transition team did not behave improperly.

What a joke.

As the Democrats continue to unravel a NY Senator-elect Hirram Monserrate figures he would contribute to the the unraveling by assaulting his girlfriend

The Daily Politics - NY Daily News

Senator-elect Hirram Monserrate was arrested early this morning after he brought a woman believed to be his girlfriend to Long Island Jewish Hospital with severe lacerations on her face that will require multiple sitches to close, sources confirmed.

Monserrate and his girlfriend arrived at the hospital at approximately 4:30 a.m. where he was detained for questioning and subsequently arrested, according to an NYPD source. The incident occurred at an apartment at 37-20 83rd St. in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Monserrate was charged with assault one.

UPDATE: More details on the incident: It involved a beer bottle, which Monserrate allegedly used to cut his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, 30, in or around her left eye so badly that she required 20 to 40 stiches.

HIRAM MONSERRATE - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Officials said that Mr. Monserrate had taken his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, 30, to Long Island Jewish Medical Center with what appeared to be a serious injury in or around her left eye.

Ms. Giraldo told hospital staff members that it was Mr. Monserrate who had assaulted her, officials said. It appeared that she had been punched and slashed in or around her left eye with a shard of glass, and officials said it took 20 to 40 stitches to close the wound. A doctor at the hospital, which straddles the border between Queens and Nassau County, called the police at 4:50 a.m.

MySpace.com - Hiram Monserrate - 100 - Male - Queens, New York - www.myspace.com/hirammonserrate

Hiram Monserrate made history in 2001 when he became the first Latino elected to public office in Queens, winning a seat representing the 21st Council District of Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights. Since then, he has brought his unique experience as a Marine, NYPD police officer, and civil rights advocate to the City Council, working to empower and protect all New Yorkers.

democrats, crime, new york, senate, monserrate

Barack Obama and the Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich senate seat scandal.
Rahm Emanuel looks to be neck deep in this scandal by at least 21 taped phone calls between Emanuel and Blagojevich;

Rahm’s calls on tape :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Michael Sneed

Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is reportedly on 21 different taped conversations by the feds — dealing with his boss’ vacant Senate seat!

A lot of chit-chat?

How deep in is Obama?

Blagojevich, crime, obama, democrats, scandal, fbi, taped, phone calls, emanuel, video

Not that we were ever torturing anybody but that’s beside the point.

Seems now that “the chosen one” Barack Obama has been elected president democrats like Diane Feinstein are turning off their crocodile tears of torture.

Swampland - TIME.com » Blog Archive Interrogation Policy Still A Bit Shadowy «

Now Feinstein is set to take over the Senate Intelligence Committee. And the next president, Barack Obama, is a man who supported the Army Field Manual bill. So everything should be pretty open and shut, right?

The answer is no. Read closely this passage from today’s New York Times.

Democrats like war profiteer Diane Feinstein are a disgrace.

War profiteering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Center for Public Integrity has reported that US Senator Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, are making millions of dollars from Iraq and Afghanistan contracts through his company, Perini.

iraq, obama, democrats, feinstein, torture, cia

 Yes the party that lies through its pork stained dentures as it cries for bipartisanship is voting by “secret ballot” on how to punish Senator Joe Lieberman for his support of John McCain.

What are the democrats now the Water Buffalo lodge from the Flintstones?

CQ Politics | Senator Says Secret-Ballot in Private Meeting to Determine Whether Democrats Punish Lieberman

Senate Democrats will vote by secret ballot on Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman ’s fate this week, according to North Dakota Sen. Byron L. Dorgan .

The caucus is due to meet Tuesday to decide whether Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut, should be punished for his aggressive support of Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., for president.

Next Pelosi and gang will be recommending double secret probation for Senator Lieberman.

It’s really interesting when the Democrats use terrorism as a crutch and an excuse to mold their leftist agenda. John Edwards the once front runner and now disgraced Presidential nominee called the war on terrorism a joke and bumper sticker (who’s the joke?), now Rahm Emanuel wants to use the war on terrorism as an excuse to indoctrinate all American citizens between the ages of 18 to 25 while laughing at questions of how he will implement it.

democrats, leftist agenda, emanuel, obama, civil defense

Notice how Democrats are only interested in counting votes when they lose. Al Franken lost to Senator Norm Coleman but now the democrats are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to steal the election.

This must be an Al Franken recount because it reads like a scene from a Saturday Night Live script.

Minnesota Democrats Exposed

“Let’s assume the 32 disputed ballots in Minneapolis were legitimate. Let’s assume the newly discovered 100 votes in Pine County — all for Al Franken — were just overlooked by a sleepy official, and the 100 votes found in Mountain Iron — again, all for Franken — were valid.

Mischief in Minnesota? - WSJ.com

The vanishing Coleman vote came during a week in which election officials are obliged to double-check their initial results. Minnesota is required to do these audits, and it isn’t unusual for officials to report that they transposed a number here or there. In a normal audit, these mistakes could be expected to cut both ways. Instead, nearly every “fix” has gone for Mr. Franken, in some cases under strange circumstances.

For example, there was Friday night’s announcement by Minneapolis’s director of elections that she’d forgotten to count 32 absentee ballots in her car. The Coleman campaign scrambled to get a county judge to halt the counting of these absentees, since it was impossible to prove their integrity 72 hours after the polls closed. The judge refused on grounds that she lacked jurisdiction.

Some democrats all but admit how they are going to steal the election for Franken using the already in place guidelines. Hiding votes in car trunks and attics…No big deal.

The courts have already rejected a claim that Hennepin County cannot count absentee ballots because they were accidentally left in an election official’s car. Republicans are criticizing St. Louis County (where Duluth is), another Franken stronghold, because the county stores its ballots in the courthouse attic. But that just happens to be the location of a secure room to which the county auditor and chief election official have the only two keys.

What the democrats wont touch or answer is how many Coleman votes are making their way into the trash as the DEMOCRAT election officials transfer the “new found” ballots from their car trunks to the recount table?

Why Al Franken Will be Minnesota’s Next Senator | Democracy and Elections | AlterNet

There are many steps to a certified election result in Minnesota and each, to Franken’s benefit

The Democrat Firewall

Katherine Kersten - Could Senate recount referee’s resume color the result?

On the day before last week’s election, the respected on-line journal Politico predicted that these SOS victories would bear fruit this year. “Democrats have built an administrative firewall designed to protect their electoral interests in five of the most important battleground states,” Politico said. As a result, they are now “in a more advantageous position when it comes to the interpretation and administration of election law — a development that could benefit Barack Obama if any of those states are closely contested.”

That advantageous position could also benefit a Democrat in a pivotal Senate race, they might have added.

Ritchie said in an interview that he will be impartial in the Coleman-Franken recount. “Just two months ago, we ran two really great primary recounts, and I’m looking forward to the four recounts coming up,” he said.

Thus far, Ritchie has shown no evidence of misconduct. But many Minnesotans are questioning the openness and transparency of the vote tally that just ended.

It’s amazing how the left and democrats use the word “choice” when trying to bamboozle Americans.

The Employee Free Choice Act?

“American workers won this election,” said Anna Burger, chairman of the labor coalition “Change to Win” at a news conference this week in Washington. “The mandate has never been so overwhelming for a progressive economic agenda.”

Labor unions ask political backing for organizing law - Yahoo! News

A battle is shaping up in the U.S. Senate over the Employee Free Choice Act. Its two major provisions would let prospective members sign union cards instead of waiting to hold secret ballot elections to unionize workers at a company, and call for a government arbitrator if a newly created union and the employer did not reach a contract within 120 days.

Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)

How the Employee Free Choice Act Takes Away Workers’ Rights

Fundamental Right to Vote in Privacy. The misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act would end this system. The act would require com­panies to recognize a union without a private elec­tion once organizers submit union cards signed by a majority of workers in a company. This effectively replaces private organizing ballots with publicly signed cards.

Abolishing elections deprives workers of a fun­damental democratic right. Elections guarantee that all workers can express their views on whether they want to belong to a union. Under card check, how­ever, workers who have not been contacted by union organizers have no say in whether their workplace organizes. If organizers collect cards from a majority of workers, all workers must join the union without a vote.

Interesting how “The Union News” notes today as a notable day in the life of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. I digress.

The Union News.

November 9: Joseph Stalin enters the provisional government of the USSR (1917)

Surprise..! The Communist Party USA “unanimously endorsed the Employee Free Choice”

CPUSA Online - Endorsement of the Employee Free Choice Act

The 28th National Convention of the Communist Party, USA unanimously endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1696 and S. 842) that would help 57 million U.S. workers gain a union.

Communist Party’s Resolution on the EFCA

Former Union Organizer Details Tactics of “Manipulating Workers Just to Get a Majority on ‘the Cards’”

A former union organizer today detailed for the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions tactics used to manipulate workers as part of controversial “card check” campaigns. The panel met to hear testimony on legislation, the “Employee Free Choice Act,” that would strip workers of their right to a secret ballot in union organization elections and replace it with a mandatory card check that would end workers’ rights to freely choose whether to unionize. Card checks notoriously leave workers open to coercion, pressure, and outright intimidation.

Employee Free Choice Act

Critics contend that additional use of card check elections will lead to overt coercion on the part of union organizers. Opponents of the EFCA also assert that the measure would not protect employee privacy.

‘Card Check’ Forced-Unionism - National Right to Work Committee®

Card checks empower union bosses to force a business’s employees to accept a union as their exclusive bargaining agent solely through the acquisition of signed union authorization cards from employees in a particular bargaining unit. Since union officials themselves keep the signed cards until they obtain the required number, workers have no real privacy rights vis-à-vis Big Labor in this process. And under the watchful eyes of union organizers, workers may be intimidated into signing not just themselves, but all their nonunion fellow employees, over to union-boss control.

Employee Free Choice Act - Congresspedia

By removing the secret-ballot system, unions and employers would be aware of which employees wanted to create a union and which ones didn’t. This would pave the way for intimidation efforts from both the unions and employers.

GovTrack: H.R. 800: Text of Legislation, Placed on Calendar Senate

Text of H.R. 800: Employee Free Choice Act of 2007

OpenCongress - U.S. Congress - H.R.800 Employee Free Choice Act of 2007

This is the Democrats’ chief labor bill (aka the Card-check bill). It would change the rules governing the formation of unions, the way first contracts between unions and employers are negotiated, and how employees’ rights are enforced. Under the bill, unions could be certified once a majority of employees have signed union authorization cards. The bill also designates a time line for first contracts to be drawn up between unions and employees. Finally, it would increase the fines employers must pay if found guilty of violating their employees’ right to unionize.

My Private Ballot

Polling Memo from McLaughlin & Associates PDF of poll.

Voters will oppose labor’s scheme - John McLaughlin - Politico.com

EFCA is designed to stem the decline in union membership by making it much easier for Big Labor to organize nonunion workplaces. But to do so, EFCA opens up workers to the threat of intimidation and coercion by union organizers and management. Under EFCA, workers would lose their right to a private ballot when deciding whether to join a union. The private ballot would be replaced with a card-check scheme, in which a union is organized if a majority of workers simply sign a card. The workers’ signatures would be made public to their employer, their co-workers and the union organizers.

More Info:

Maplight

unions, democrats, free choice act, sham, rights, workers rights, right to privacy

Rahm Emanuel outlined his favor of compulsory service for all Americans ages 18 to 25 back in 2006 in his book The Plan - Big Ideas for America. Amazon

This sounds eerily similar to Barak Obama’s “America Serves” plan which was scrubbed after one day on his “Change.gov” President Elect website.

From President Elect Obama’s new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s book, The Plan:

The Plan page 60-64

It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service. …

Here’s how it would work. Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They’ll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we’re hit by a natural disaster. These young people will be available to address their communities’ most pressing needs.

Emanuel gets into his mandatory service plan about 7:30 min into the video.

Civil Liberties Examiner: Obama’s chief of staff choice favors compulsory universal service

Emanuel and co-author Bruce Reed insist “this is not a draft,” but go on to write of young men and women, “the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service.” They also warn, “[s]ome Republicans will squeal about individual freedom,” ruling out any likelihood that they would let people opt out of universal citizen service.

Emanuel is also an enthusiastic supporter of the United States Public Service Academy Act, a lobbying group founded in 2006 in order to promote the foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military academies - a youth corps whose students would be trained in “civilian internship in the armed forces”.

Hillary Clinton has sponsored S.960 - The Public Service Academy Act of 2007 pushing for the establishment of the establishment of a United States Public Service Academy.under the Department of Homeland Security.

March 22, 2007

Mrs. CLINTON (for herself, Mr. SPECTER, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. BIDEN, Ms. LANDRIEU, Mr. KENNEDY, and Mrs. HUTCHISON) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

A BILL To establish the United States Public Service Academy.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Public Service Academy Act of 2007′.

House.gov - Rahm EmanuelClinton, Specter, Moran and Shays Call for Creation of United States Public Service Academy

Clinton, Specter, Moran and Shays Call for Creation of United States Public Service Academy

AEI - Short Publications - Is the U.S. Public Service Academy a Good Idea?

Is the U.S. Public Service Academy a Good Idea?

democrats, mandatory service, clinton, obama, obama administration, rahm emanuel, the plan, america serves