Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Quinn’s Chicago bailout

For months Gov. Pat Quinn has campaigned on the need to make permanent the temporary tax hike the Illinois General Assembly passed in 2011. Under state law, the majority of the 2011 tax increase will sunset in January 2015. Quinn wants to reverse that.

He claims the state is out of money and there is nothing left to cut or reform. And without making the tax hike permanent, he says, education, Medicaid and the state’s infrastructure will all suffer budget cuts.

From Quinn’s budget speech: “If action is not taken to stabilize our revenue code…extreme and radical cuts will be imposed on education and critical public services. Cuts that will starve our schools and result in mass teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and higher property taxes.”

But Quinn seems to have forgetten all that. He’s suddenly found hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds to help bail out Chicago’s nearly insolvent pension systems.

He’s proposing to increase the share of state income taxes local governments receive as part of a revenue sharing agreement between the state and local governments.

Quinn’s willingness to share state income isn’t an act of benevolence. Instead, he’s in a political bind and trying to find a way out.

The governor is being asked to sign a Chicago pension bill that he knows offers no real reforms and no way to pay for itself. If he signs the bill, Quinn will give Mayor Rahm Emanuel cover to raise Chicago property taxes by $750 million over five years.

But that runs in direct contrast to what Quinn promised in his budget address just a few weeks ago: tax relief to all Illinoisans. In his speech he said: “My comprehensive tax reform plan starts with providing every homeowner in Illinois with a guaranteed $500 property tax refund every year. … The property tax is a complicated, unfair tax, hitting middle-class families the hardest. …For too long, Illinois has … overburdened its property taxpayers.”

Quinn is stuck. If he signs the Chicago pension bill he’ll break his promise of property tax relief. If he doesn’t sign the bill, he’ll upset the proponents of the pension “fix.”

His offer of additional state income tax funds for Chicago is his solution to that dilemma.

Quinn’s act is one of desperation. He’s traveling the state trying to muster support to keep taxes high. In some cases he’s threatening to cut education funds if he doesn’t get support for his tax plan. In others, he’s promising mayors more money in exchange for making the tax hike permanent.

Some would call this a bribe. Others, extortion. Yet others would simply call it politics.

In Illinois, it’s called the Chicago Way.

No one should be falling for Quinn’s ploy. Either the state is broke, or it isn’t.

Illinoisans shouldn’t be forced to bail out Chicago – especially if it’s just to provide cover for Quinn’s political miscalculations.

- See more at: http://www.illinoispolicy.org/quinns-chicago-bailout/#sthash.f8dPMqVj.dpuf

Video: Besieged Carney Claims Newly-Released WH Emails...Weren't About Benghazi

Another "Baghdad Bob" Style Interview! Feeding the reporters a line of Crap and MSNBC and the rest of the gang are probably wondering if Obama is going Golfing today. Carney is an Idiot and should be embarrassed to do what he does for this White house!

Beyond the conservative blogosphereand Fox News, the mainstream media's reaction to yesterday's release of crucialnew Benghazi emails was...muted, to say the least. That all changed at this afternoon's White House press briefing, at which ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl pummeled Jay Carney with questions about the White House's political response to the deadly terrorist attacks. Watch the whole thing, then scroll down for extensive analysis:

(1) Bravo to Jonathan Karl for really pressing on these points. He forced Carney to produce spin that is not at all credible, for reasons I'll address below. Today also represents something of a vindication for Karl, whose previous accurate reporting on Benghazi has been assailed by the administration as false. Mediaite's Noah Rothman has the background on that, but the bottom line is that Karl and former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson were correct all along: The White House did, indeed, play a role in shaping Susan Rice's deeply misleading Benghazi talking points, and they lied about it. Carney himself once claimed that the only change the White House or State Department made to her talking points was a single cosmetic revision. For the umpteenth time, that has been exposed as a lie. True toform, Carney treated Karl with sneering contempt throughout the exchange, at one point intimating that the journalist was too jet-lagged to ask coherent questions.

(2) Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell testified earlier this month that the agency was not the source of the bogus talking point that the Benghazi attacks were rooted in an internet video. And yet, that fairy tale ended up in Susan Rice's official talking points days later -- and days after the administration knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the raid was in fact a coordinated terrorist attack. Who dreamed up the "internet video" excuse? We still don't have the answer to that question, but it wasn't the intelligence community. And it did appear in the now-infamous Ben Rhodes email that finally came to light this week. The key quote: The administration's goal was to "underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy." It's right there in black and white. A smoking gun, right? Wrong, says the White House's top spokesman...

(3) Carney's latest explanation is that the Rhodes email (which directly and comprehensively contradicts the White House's previous assertions)...wait for it...wasn't about Benghazi. These talking points were about the broader Middle East protests, he said, not Benghazi. This is a stunning and insulting claim. Are we to believe that top level White House officials were heavily involved in parsing Susan Rice's talking points about everything except the deadly attack that led to the assassination of a sitting US Ambassador? Beyond that smell test, there's ample concrete evidence disproving Carney's ludicrous spin. For instance, Rhodes included an entire bullet point about bringing attackers "who harm Americans to justice." That's not a reference to Benghazi, Jay? The same email included a sample question Rice could face from television interviewers that was explicitly about Benghazi. And then there's this:

.@PressSec's argument on new Benghazi emails is that they were about Mideast writ large. But there's a whole section titled "BENGHAZI"

(4) The White House and senior administration officials repeatedly linked Benghazi to the internet video as they deliberately downplayed the terrorism angle (despite all of the intelligence). Indeed, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the grieving mother of a murdered Benghazi victim that the attacks were "about the video." Obama and Clinton fed that untruth to Patricia Smith on the day of the memorial service on September 14, 2012 -- which happens to be the exact day Rhodes' internal email was sent. Smith's recollection:

Question: “Did Hillary Clinton say anything to you? Did President Obama, did they say anything to you on that day?”

Pat Smith: “Oh yes, they all told me about the reason that this happened was the video. Every one of them told me that.”

Question: “They actually told you it was the video? Both Secretary of State Clinton and the president told you it was the videotape?"

Pat Smith: “Yes, they actually did, and Susan Rice also.”

Carney insists that Rhodes email wasn't about Benghazi, and thus the White House wasn't involved in crafting false talking points. But the Rhodes email fantasy that the attacks "were rooted in an internet video" were also embraced by -- and perhaps even conceived by -- the people at the very top of the food chain,entirely within the context of explaining what happened in Benghazi.

(5) Karl asked why this batch of emails had not been previously released to Congress and the public. Remember, the White House has been saying that its previous Benghazi document dump was exhaustive, proving that the story was over. Carney's slithery answer:

"This document was not about Benghazi."

Later in the press conference, the Press Secretary went on to assert that the White House had "put out" all of the information on Benghazi. That's demonstrably false. They withheld these emails, which were most assuredly about Benghazi (see items 3 and 4), and only came to light when Judicial Watch sued the administration. By the way, the FOIA request that prompted that lawsuitspecifically asked for talking points pertaining to Benghazi -- and the administration, under duress, produced...ahem...the Rhodes email:

Interesting. MT @kesgardner: Here is the FOIA request for the Rhodes emails. VERY EXPLICITLY about Benghazi. 

12:56 PM - 30 Apr 2014

Carney also regurgitated familiar bromides about making sure that a Benghazi-style attack "never happens again," and bringing the terrorists to justice. It's been 20 months since those murders took place, and zero arrests have been made. I'll leave you with the key talking points-related question from my Fox News colleague Stephen Hayes, who's followed this story as closely as anyone:

Acting CIA Dir Michael Morell says the video claim Susan Rice made did not come from the CIA. Where did it originate? #Benghazi @pfeiffer44

1:12 PM - 30 Apr 2014

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/04/134123-krauthammer-white-house-benghazi-emails-coverup-coverup/

http://freebeacon.com/blog/brother-of-cbs-news-president-at-center-of-latest-benghazi-bombshell/

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/04/30/media-playing-catchup-on-benghazi-n1831609

Krauthammer Nukes Hillary ~> Lied to Families as Coffins Were Being Received ~> Must See Video

Exposing More Lies From These Liberal idiots!

Charles is being kind, the actual description of what happened should be: Obama and Hillary are pure evil. Oh, and they're both guilty of treason or espionage; whichever fits!

http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2014/04/krauthammer-nukes-hillary-lied-to.html

"Bald-Faced LIE!": Graham Crushes Obama WH with Benghazi "Smoking Gun"

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/greghengler/2014/04/30/baldfaced-lie-graham-crushes-obamas-wh-with-benghazi-smoking-gun-n1831856

Flop: Federal Minimum Wage Bill Goes Nowhere in Senate

Failed in the Senate...They Have a Majority. I still feel as an example if Walmart or Meijer raised their wages, (They might be above minimum) what will happen to the cost of goods? Prices will naturally go up. So people will get a little more per hour but then they are not getting more for their money. Minimum wage should be set by the private sector and the business. This story breaks it down a bit. These Liberals are playing a divide game here.

Raising the minimum wage has been a White House pet project for months. And yet today Senate Democrats came exactly six votes shy of moving forward with a bill that would raise the hourly federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 over a30 month period. The official tally was 54-42 (they needed 60 votes to get past cloture) and as expected, most lawmakers voted the party line; only Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) joined Democrats to advance the measure:

Senate Republicans on Wednesday filibustered an increase in the minimum wage, halting yet another key item on President Obama’s 2014 agenda and giving both sides talking points heading into the November elections.

Democrats fell five votes shy of the 60-vote threshold needed to take action, with just a single Republican — Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee — voting to move ahead with the bill.

Raising the minimum wage is wildly popular with the public. Hence why Senate Democrats aren’t squandering a golden opportunity to verbally pummel their Republican colleagues. Indeed, the Senate Majority Leader has already -- and yet again -- invoked the Koch brothers as the primary reason for why every Senate Republican but one refused to endorse the legislation: that is, two billionaire brothers had bought their votes.

But of course he says nothing about how raising the minimum wage could do more harm than good. After all, the (nonpartisan) Congressional Budget Office came out with a study this year estimating that raising the federal minimum wage could cost somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 American jobs:

It’s also worth noting that the vast majority of workers earning the minimum wage are part-time students from middle class families -- i.e., not poor Americans -- as the Heritage Foundation reported in 2013:

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau show that most minimum-wage earners are young, part-time workers and that relatively few of them live below the poverty line. Their average family income is over $53,000 a year. A hike in the minimum wage primarily raises pay for suburban teenagers, not the working poor. If Congress and the President seriously want to help the working poor, they should look elsewhere.

But Democrats, of course, will not be deterred. They know they can score political points by upbraiding Republicans for voting against their job-crushing, albeit popular, Senate bill. This coming minimum wage hike fight, in other words, was always a win-win for them politically, no matter the outcome.

Now watch them go to work.

townhall.com/tipsheet/danieldoherty/2014/04/30/senate-republicans-kill-minimum-wage-hike-bill-n1831650

http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/30/dems-lash-out-after-minimum-wage-bill-defeat/

Economy Stalls, Health Spending Explodes as Obamacare is Fully Implemented

Just three months ago, President Obama was trying to claim that his signature domestic accomplishment, Obamacare, was responsible for slowinghealth care spending in the United States. That claim was widely debunkedby fact checkers at the time since health care spending began to fall long before Obamacare was passed, and has since began to rise.

But now all pretense that Obamacare would lower health care costs has been destroyed.

Today, the Commerce Department reported that health care spending spiked by a staggering 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014, the fastest rate since 1980, according to The Washington Examiner's Phil Klein. And a Commerce Department spokesman admitted to Budiness Insider that health care spending explosion "reflects additional spending associated with the implementation of theAffordable Care Act."

The Commerce Department also reported today that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of U.S. economic strength, fell to an almost non-existent .1 percent. Analysts had expected at growth at least 10 times as large.

And don't try and blame weather for Obama's weak economy. Canada's economy grew more in February than the U.S. did in the entire first quarter, despite experiencing a colder winter than the U.S. did.

Maybe forcing millions of Americans to buy health insurance they don't want and can't afford isn't all that great for economic growth.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/conncarroll/2014/04/30/economy-stalls-health-spending-explodes-as-obamacare-is-fully-implemented-n1831629

White House Blames Weather for GDP's Miniscule Growth

Reagan after Carter had a huge recovery

Katie wrote earlier today about how the United State's GDP grew at .1 percent, compared to estimates of 1.1 percent growth.

The White House's official report blamed "unusually severe" weather for the startlingly-low increase in GDP, noting that there had been record cold temperatures and intense snowstorms.

White House: GDP "subject to a number of notable influences, including historically severe winter weather, which temporarily lowered growth"

9:41 AM - 30 Apr 2014

Curiously, the severe winter weather did not have a similar economic effect on our neighbor to the north, Canada. Canada's GDP grew by 2.5 percent, exactly what was forecast. Several Canadian cities experienced their coldest and snowiestwinters in decades.

Divert and deflect honed to a fine art

These Idiots never take the blame for their wrong doings! Here is the same thing with Kerry. He spoke and then he tries to take it back.......Same old Liberal B.S. They say they miss spoke!

"The crime of apartheid is defined as inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”
- 1998 Rome Statute (the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Yesterday, 80-year old Donald Sterling...tried in the court of public opinion...was banned for life from any and all NBA league activities, fined $2.5 million for racist statements made, and will be forced to sell 'The Clippers' all because of comments he made in a PRIVATE taped phone conversation with his then bought and paid for 30-year old mistress. This punishment came after threats by ubber race-baiter Al Sharpton to protest at the NBA headquarters. And while Sterling's statements were disgusting and indeed racist saying them is NO crime as he is protected by the First Amendment for NO violence against the government or against anyone was made in his comments...brief to the point synopsis NOTHING more needs to be said.

Divert and deflect...so while the media stays focused on and is promoting this story ad-nauseum, real stories about real serious international infractions basically go unreported, and that is what Obama hoped for as the stories going unreported give yet another black-eye to his administration.

"If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming 'an apartheid state,'” hateful words said by Secretary of State John 'Swiftboat' Kerry as he addressed world leaders in a closed-door meeting last Friday at the Trilateral Commission.

John Kerry...just his name becomes synonymous with the word 'traitor' NOT just for his LIES about his service in Viet Nam and for his to this day close-friendship with 'Hanoi' Jane Fonda, but now for his out-and-out bigoted and hateful words deliberately and maliciously said about our ally Israel on the eve of Yom Hashoah... Holocaust Memorial Day...the day set aside every year to remember and honor the six million Jews...six million men, women, and children...MURDERED by Adolf Hitler and his cronies just for being Jews.

And what's even sadder than the words themselves is that Kerry ignores the fact that there is NO semblance of apartheid in Israel whatsoever as all with Israeli citizenship...and the Palestinians refuse Israeli citizenship...whether Jews, muslims or Christians, have the same equal rights and standing under Israeli law. Can't say that in any Arab country...in any muslim country. In fact, the PLO has announced that in any future Palestinian state, Jews will NOT be permitted to be residents... now that is apartheid Mr. Kerry...that is apartheid.

And these words about apartheid were NOT the only anti-Israel comments that Kerry made while speaking before the commission. This in-your-face hater of Israel actually threatened that failure of the Israeli/Palestinian peace talks could lead to a restart of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens. This truly vile man looks away to the fact that violence against Israeli citizens has NEVER stopped courtesy of all the rockets lobbed into Israel from his ever-loving Palestinian cohorts in Gaza.

Kerry also alluded to the fact that if one or both of the governments of either Benjamin Netanyahu or that of Mahmoud Abbas left power, there could be a change for the positive in the prospects for peace. If “there is a change of government or a change of heart,” Kerry said, “something will happen.” The man who works for and is loyal to the most corrupt and traitorous government in U.S. history had the audacity to criticize the governments of others, especially the government of our closest ally and friend, Israel.

And with Jewish leaders rightly seething over Kerry's words, TexasSenator Ted Cruz did the right thing by calling for Kerry's resignation. Saying, “Mr. President, it is my belief that Secretary Kerry has thus proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation,” adding, “And the president should accept it.” Cruz said what needed to be said...but something we know Kerry's fellow Israel-hater Barack HUSSEIN Obama will NEVER do.

And now 'Mr. Swiftboat', in an attempt to cover his butt, has said he chose the wrong words in describing Israel's possible future. Wrong words my eye...Kerry knew damn well what he was saying as his previous comments concerning Israel speak volumes about his true feelings for the now and forever Jewish state. Releasing a statement through the State Department, Kerry turned his ire on Republicans by saying these attacks against him were NOTHING but "partisan political" attacks. "I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone, particularly for partisan, political purposes..." he said in his statement but NO one is buying this nonsense for Kerry is NOT committed to Israel but to the muslim brethren of his boss Barack HUSSEIN Obama...for a traitor doesn't change his spots that easily...for the first words out of someone's mouth are more times than NOT the words they meant to say.
In his continued attempts to remove his foot from his mouth, Kerry claimed his words were only an"expression" and "misinterpretation" of his deep belief that a two-state solution is the only viable way to end the on-going conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. But let's be honest here...there is NO"misinterpretation" of words for these words are NOT unlike his past public pronouncements regarding his military record, which he claims to this day to have also been"misinterpreted." A liar like his boss is more like it...a man whose words are always carefully chosen for he, like Obama, is a master of subterfuge and lies...a master at blame everybody else for his actions when caught.

And always remember that there was NEVER any real possibility for Kerry or anyone else for that matter brokering a true peace deal simply because trading land for peace just does NOT work. And the truth is that the Palestinians NEVER really wanted peace as they are of the same islamic mindset that wants Israel pushed into the sea...of the same mindset that says we want it all...and John 'Swiftboat' Kerry was Obama's appointed man to give them just that.

So while Kerry was bloviating his LIES all these many months about wanting a two-state solution that we all knew from the start would NEVER be had what with Kerry on many occasions baiting and publicly chastising Israel...publicly chastising Netanyahu...about the building of settlements on their rightfully owned land...a final deal with Iran had time to be reached allowing them to continue enriching uranium.
And all this was going on while the media had us focused on both the wild goose chase search for a missing plane and the fall of a wizened 80-year old racist. It will now be interesting to see what the media cooks up for us to focus on next, especially with yesterday's bombshell that as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit more than 100 pages of documents were released to Judicial Watch, and that among these documents was a September 14, 2012, e-mail from Ben Rhodes (an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications) showing that one of the Obama administration’s primary communications goals after the September 11th attack on Benghazi was “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy."

But that story my friends is for another day.

http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2014/04/op-ed-divert-and-deflect-honed-to-fine.html

House Democrat: Basically All Criticism of Obama is Straight-up Racism

I don't have High blood pressure but when I hear Dumb asses like this idiot Say crap like this it gets me going. These Liberal Assbags have nothing to run on but this Crap and I lose Respect for people like this! These people need to run on positive things they can do to help the economy.......Oh wait that is NOTHING!

Congressman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, has his finger on the pulse of America. And the heartbeat he detects is unremittingly racist (viaBuzzfeed):

A Mississippi Democratic Congressman says Clarence Thomas is an “Uncle Tom,” Mitch McConnell is a “racist,” and that Republicans are only anti-big government and anti-Obamacare because President Obama is black. Rep. Bennie Thompson was appearing on a New Nation of Islam radio program over weekend where he made the comments. “I’ve been in Washington. I saw three presidents now. I never saw George Bush treated like this. I never saw Bill Clinton treated like this with such disrespect,” Thompson said. “That Mitch McConnell would have the audacity to tell the president of the United States — not the chief executive, but the commander-in-chief — that ‘I don’t care what you come up with we’re going to be against it.’ Now if that’s not a racist statement I don’t know what is.”

So much nonsense, so little time. (Actually, I have plenty of time and column inches, but I don't want to waste too much of my energy or brain power on this crank). Slinging racial arrows at Clarence Thomas is par for the course in some circles sadly, so Thompson's ugly "Uncle Tom" reference isn't a surprise. It's actually less offensive and racist than recent comments from another Southern black Democrat, who stated in a floor speech(!) that he despises the Supreme Court Justice because "he's married to a white woman." And that super racist Mitch McConnell quote? An online search for it turns up zero results -- except for references to Bennie Thompson's tirade. Did this Congressman just invent it on the spot? Finally, if Thompson didn't see evidence of George W. Bush or Bill Clinton being treated badly by the opposition, he wasn't looking very hard. Among countless other examples, some Congressional Democrats and their supporters accused Bush of complicity in 9/11 during faux impeachment hearings conducted in the Capitol basement. And perhaps Thompson was napping when Republicans impeached Clinton. The"unprecedented opposition" canard rests on a specious, lazy argument that happens to suit the interests of race-baiters like Bennie Thompson. Based on his perverse, imbecilic standard, I'll leave you with a quote from American's mostvirulent and notorious racist:

When it comes to the current president, Nader said that Obama has violated the Constitution on several occasions and should be impeached. "Oh, most definitely," Nader said when asked if Congress should bring forward articles of impeachment against Obama. "The reason why Congress doesn't want to do it is because it's abdicated its own responsibility under the Constitution." Nader said the president's use of military force in Libya has been his most "egregious violation of the Constitution."

And that wasn't even his first expression of that highly racist opinion:

Dude's a regular Donald Sterling.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/04/30/house-democrat-basically-all-criticism-of-obama-is-straightup-racism-n1831285

Central-Illinoisand_beyond

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