TPM/—South Carolina’s ethics commission is investigating 37 allegations of lawbreaking by Gov. Mark Sanford in connection with travel and use of campaign funds — charges his lawyer described just last week as “minor, technical matters.”

Sanford is accused of violating ethics laws barring officials from buying high-priced airfare — including on trips to visit his lover in Argentina last year — as well as using state airplanes for personal travel, The State reports.

Sanford’s lawyers told The State that amid the investigation, the governor had added disclosures of flights he took on planes owned by friends and donors, as required by law.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan panel of South Carolina legislators are set to take up impeachment proceedings against Sanford on Tuesday. He has over a year left in his term.

SC State Ethics Commission Complaint Against Gov. Mark Sanford (11/23/09)

More @

**44-D Update**:
SC legislators begin Sanford impeachment hearings

Columbia, S.C. (AP) –

Legislators irked for months over Gov. Mark Sanford’s summertime vanishing act and his tearful revelation that he was in Argentina for a rendezvous with his lover plan to start debating a measure Tuesday that ultimately would remove him from office.

Read more:

Posted by Buellboy

People in the crowd listen as President Barack Obama rallies the U.S. troops at Osan Air Base in Osan, South Korea, Nov. 19, 2009.

I want to deliver, actually, just a quick story, go a little off script. President Lee talked to me about what it was like when he was a young child here in Korea, this country having been torn by war, and the poverty that still existed in the country. And he said, I hope the American people understand how grateful we are for what you’ve done, because we would not be the extraordinarily strong, prosperous nation that we are, had it not been for the sacrifices of your armed services and the continued contributions that you’ve made.

And I thought, when the President of a country that’s become so successful says that America, and America’s armed services in particular, had something to do with the extraordinary success of their country — he said, that’s something you should take great pride in. And I want all of you to know that, because you are carrying that tradition on right here at Osan.

I couldn’t come to the Republic of Korea without coming to see you to deliver a simple message — a message of thanks to you and your families. Because of all the privileges of serving as President, I have no greater honor than serving as Commander-in-Chief of the finest military that the world has ever known.~President Barack Obama

Additional photos @

A novel anti-crime surveillance program that will record the license plate number of every car entering and leaving Tiburon should be up and running within six months, officials said Thursday. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Anil Dash is to head up a US government idea lab for how developers and entrepreneurs can build apps and systems to make a better government and country.

A University of California Board of Regents committee today approved a series of controversial increases in student fees that, if passed by the full board, will raise UC undergraduate education costs by more than $2,500, or 32%, in two steps by fall 2010. (Los Angeles Times)

Looking at this with the 6 years of history one cannot but see some validity.Take note of the debate now about pulling out of Afghanistan as opposed to the lack of talk in removing forces from Iraq. The difference is of course that there are no petrodollars to be made there. Poppy dollars sure…

Oil Factor

(CNN) – In her big interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Monday, Sarah Palin took a slap at Levi Johnston, the father of her nearly year-old grandson, for engaging in what amounts to “porn.”

“We don’t want to mess up the gig he’s got going, aspiring, aspiring porn, some of the things that he’s doing,” the former Alaska governor told Winfrey. “It’s kind of heartbreaking.”

Winfrey asked if Palin was referencing Johnston’s upcoming photo spread for Playgirl.

Palin said she was. “I call that porn, yes. So it’s a bit heartbreaking to see the road that he’s on right now,” she said.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate appeared on Winfrey’s show ahead of the release of her new book, ‘Going Rogue.

God, the stupid just… It’s so brain damaging! Of course I am not saying that he won’t go all John Wayne Bobbit.. But… Really? Porn?

God I hope that 2012 does bring an apocalypse just to prevent her kind of stupid from taking over the government.

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.

In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.

The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year. (The New York Times)

Designer and entrepreneur Liu Mingjie wears his “Oba Mao” t-shirt in which he superimposed the face of President Barack Obama over that of China’s late revolutionary leader Mao Zedong for sale at his shop in the tourist Houhai district of Beijing. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Why is the Swine Flu (H1N1) being advertised as being so deadly, virulent, horrible, “OH MY GOODNESS, SAVE MY BABY!” sickening that we should all drop everything we are doing and get 2 vaccinations for this thing?

CDC now says 4,000 swine flu deaths in US:

Wed Nov 11, 5:49 pm ET

ATLANTA – Federal health officials now say that 4,000 or more Americans likely have died from swine flu — about four times the estimate they’ve been using.

The new, higher figure was first reported by The New York Times. It includes deaths caused by complications related to swine flu, including pneumonia and bacterial infections. Until now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had conservatively put the U.S. swine flu death count at more than 1,000. Officials said this week they’re working on an even more accurate calculation.

The CDC says “many millions” of Americans have caught the pandemic flu virus since it first appeared in April.

Wow… I think I would be fired if I had the job of making sure MILLIONS of Americans are informed and “facilitated in safety” and used such horrible *GUESSTIMATION* numbers as these baffoons.  Likely?  Estimate?  PFFFFFT.

Not to mention that according to the same CDC folks, 36,000 people die of the SEASONAL flu every year.  Sounds like we should welcome H1N1 before we welcome the seasonal jobby.

Is any of this becoming clear?  Judge the fruits, my friends.  You’ll never see the point watching the lips of these people.

We have games.. That’s all.. We play games.

I am fed up with alarmist reactions, misinformed opinions and general scare-mongering surrounding NAMA.

The National Assets Management Agency IS NOT A BANK. The Board will be appointed by the Minister for Finance (applications are currently being accepted for Board positions, not Finance Minister). All staffing and management services will be provided by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).  It will have the commercial powers of a financial asset management company (to establish subsidiaries, to operate through agents, to buy and sell assets, to manage loans and work with borrowers, and to take full and determined action in relation to debts owed).

Banks in case you hadn’t noticed take money deposits, lend money, arrange mortgages, pensions, and let you withdraw cash. None of which NAMA do. Therefore it IS NOT A BANK.

As I have already pointed out, nationalisation of the banks is not a viable option. And if you paused long enough to listen then you would know why. But let me explain it again:

NAMA = funded by the taxpayer. It is taking on toxic debts of property developers who got a bit too greedy and then worldwide economies collapsed because people worldwide got a bit too greedy. It’s a vicious cycle. But it, like most things can be fixed.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work: http://www.nama.ie/Publications/2009/NAMAFAQs.pdf

The EU obviously has a vested interest in this, and we should too. If our economy doesn’t recover in the next five years, there will be sanctions against us. It’s a tad technical, but trust me, we need NAMA to work.

Nationalisation = funded by the government = funded by the taxpayer.

It’s looks the same but it’s not. At the moment we have one bank (Anglo-Irish) nationalised. That’s enough. It’s not smart or viable to nationalise all the major banks (there’s 5) in the country. Why?

Competition. The backbone of business. Banks are business and therefore are open to competition. You know all those adverts on tv (Halifax, though that is a UK bank) offering more competitive interest/mortgage rates? That won’t exist anymore. Nationalisation of ALL the banks means that there will be only one bank, and really, in a modern democracy can we have the government controlling the one bank? Think about it. One bank. One set of rate, no competition. It’s a giant step backwards for banking, the country and you, yes you.

The most ridiculous suggestion I’ve heard is to bankrupt the banks. Yes, you read that right, someone suggested bankrupting the banks.

Bankrupting means that the banks have no money. Ok, so there might be a more technical term for it but I’m aiming for simplicity here.

Bank = no money = you have no money.

How can you still have your lifesavings if you’ve just said the bank has no money? Where is you money kept? In the bank. Therefore……bank has no money, you have no money. And if you have no money, that means that everybody who had money in that bank has no money…so nobody has any money (how can you bankrupt just one bank? You’d have to bankrupt them all because they all have toxic debts, therefore, there is no money in the country at all.) Where do you think the government keeps there money? In a piggy bank in the Dept. of Finance? Under Brian Lenihans’ bed? Amusing thought, but highly unlikely.

NAMA isn’t the best solution to the crisis. Far from it. But it’s the only one the government has come up with. It’s taken them a year to get this far – in that year America, UK, France and Germany have all implemented solutions and are well on the way to economic recovery. We’re still talking about how we will go about starting to stimulate the economy. Ireland is at the back of the class. A place we can’t afford to be.

So, please, if you’re going to slag off something when I’m in ear shot the least you can do is have an actual argument and not false propaganda.

Well I guess 60 Minutes made the INFOSEC news wires burn today as they reported on something I have been saying for some time now. Who’da thunk it, but our infrastructure is vulnerable, we are constantly under attack, and generally, the US is not at all prepared for an attack that could bring down the power.

Really? NO WAY!

See folks, I am not “completely” paranoid! Take it from the FBI guy, as well as McConnel who pretty much gave up the jewels in their interviews. See, what they had to say was to be unsaid by folks I know who have been sworn to secrecy. Guess perhaps all the “detail” given was done so for a reason? Perhaps to get someone’s ass in gear to appoint a Tsar?

Who knows.

All I know is that I sat there watching this and thinking;

“Who DIDN’T know this?”

I mean really, the attacks on Rio’s infrastructure were just a prelude as you might surmise from the report. Probing has been going on for some time and the Rio systems were a soft target. Our systems are just as porous and have been infiltrated for some time. I mean what do you expect when chuckleheads start connecting SCADA to internet connected networks huh?

This report also made me think about my post in August about the EMP threat that the government seems to suddenly taken a real interest in this last year. All this time they have known about the vulnerabilities and have done nothing to remediate them. Add to this, as the veiled reporting intimated in last nights piece, that much of the hardware that runs and regulates our grid is made in China! It’s not off the shelf kind of stuff and were we to have an epic cascade and failure, it would be some time before we could get new systems from China. Time that could amount to a year at the least.

So the big question is what are we doing here? The “we” being our government. As you could see from the report, the senate told the power companies to start remediations and they outright lied to congress about their remediations. Remediations that NEVER happened.

Trust us, we’re your friendly power company!

Right.

Oh well, I guess its time for you all out there to start thinking about getting your supplies together. As McConnell said it:

“I’d do it during the winter, I’d hit the northeast”

Say, it’s almost winter…. Oh my… And we don’t have a John McClaine to save us.

60 Minutes: Sabotaging The System

EDIT: According to Wired a certain sources are saying that it was not a hacker or hackers that caused the outtage…

SAO PAULO, Brazil — A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil has been newly blamed on computer hackers, but was actually the result of a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines. That’s according to reports from government regulators and others who investigated the incident for more than a year

Wired Article

Hmmm well, all I have to say is “gee, really.. I am sure that the government of Rio would love to admit they had a power DoS by hackers” But.. it’s plausible… Kinda like a downed tree limb causing the whole of  NYC being dark…

The complex package would affect virtually every American and fundamentally alter vast swaths of the health insurance industry. Starting next year, private insurers could no longer deny anyone coverage based on preexisting conditions, place lifetime limits on coverage or abandon people when they become ill. Insurers would be required to disclose and justify proposed premium increases to regulators, and could not remove adult children younger than 27 from their parents’ family policies.

For the elderly, the group that has been most skeptical of Obama’s initiative, the House package would immediately offer discounts on prescription drugs and reduce a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage, closing it entirely by 2019. Uninsured people who cannot get coverage could join temporary high-risk insurance pools, and unemployed workers would be permitted to keep their COBRA benefits until the public plan and insurance exchanges started in 2013.

In four years, the measure would establish a new insurance system. Businesses with payrolls exceeding $500,000 would be required to offer their workers insurance or pay a fine of as much as 8 percent of payroll. Individuals would be required to obtain insurance or pay a fine of as much as 2.5 percent of income. States would be required to extend Medicaid coverage to as many as 15 million additional people. Low- and middle-income individuals who still could not afford coverage could apply for federal subsidies through an insurance marketplace that would negotiate with private insurers to provide comprehensive policies alongside a government-run “public option.”

Congressional budget analysts say the package would cover an additional 36 million Americans, leaving 18 million people without insurance by 2019, about a third of them illegal immigrants. To avoid increasing the deficit, Democrats would pay for the coverage expansion by slicing more than $400 billion from Medicare over the next decade, and by imposing a variety of new taxes, primarily a 5.4 percent surcharge on annual income over $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for families. Initially, the tax would hit only 0.3 percent of taxpayers, but that number would climb rapidly, because the income thresholds would not be indexed to inflation. (The Washington Post)

Jejejejejejejee y alimentando a toda la bandita paranoica del blotch una tira que deja al fenómeno UFO mas claro que el agua

H1N1 Fun Facts!

While Googling the .gov today I came across an interesting little document that contained the following pages.

NEP 1

NEP 2

NEP 3

NEP 4

What are they? They are the code names and proposed dates for 2009/2012 DoD and government terrorism drills. One might ask, “umm how come this is available online and why is it marked as UNCLASSIFIED?” I certainly did…

Of course it could be that this is all harmless and not something to worry about, but, usually when code word operational (even drills) plans are out there to be Googled, one has to wonder just how much a Jihadist might like to have the data.

Well, I guess the next step is to start Googling all those code words and see what comes up… I should think that this stuff at least should be FOUO.

CoB

E. Keith Bardwell

AP/Melinda Deslatte—A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday.

Keith Bardwell, who is white, quit the post with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: “I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009.”

Bardwell refused to perform the ceremony for Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay because they are of different races.

When questioned about his refusal, Bardwell acknowledged he routinely recuses himself from marrying interracial couples because he believes such marriages cause harm to the couples’ children. In interviews, he said he refers such couples to other justices of the peace, who then perform the ceremony, which happened in this case.

Newlyweds Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay

Humphrey has said she and McKay received their marriage license from the parish clerk of court, where they also received a list of people qualified to perform the ceremony. When she called Bardwell’s office to ask about the ceremony on Oct. 6, Humphrey said Bardwell’s wife told her that the justice wouldn’t sign their marriage license because they were a “mixed couple.”

Humphrey and McKay have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Bardwell.

More @

Related Articles

Some Unanswered Questions on the Justice of the Peace Who Refuses to Wed Interracial Couples Story

So I did. First time I voted REPUBLICAN in decades – CHRISTIE and I hope he slaughters CORZINE. I want to see Corzine’s billion dollar asshole at the bottom of a landfill and then I want them to fill it in so that his asshole is caked with mud, slop and other assorted mulch.

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW — I WAS WRONG ABOUT CHRISTIE – IT WAS CORZINE PLANNING FALSE INFO ABOUT CHRISTIE AND THE “NO FREE MAMMOS” RULES. DON’T VOTE DAGGETT – HE’S A SHILL FOR CORZINE AND WILL RAISE TAXES, TOO.

I want Corzine to become part of the landscape and fade away. Maybe grow into a tree that we can cut down and make firewood out of to heat the homes of all the taxpayers everywhere in NJ.

We work hard for the little money we make and this asshole wants to spend, spend, spend. Just like the other asshole who calls himself NIGPOTUS.

VOTE – I DID – FOR CHRIS CHRISTIE NJ GOV.  Oh and for the people I didn’t want to vote for – I WROTE IN MY OWN NAME!!! Hope I win.

—-CATHERINE HAIG BONJUKIAN – AKA – BONJU PATTEN

WhiteHouse.gov—While there is nothing to celebrate until job numbers turn around, the President cites the recent dramatic turnaround in gross domestic product as a sign of better things to come. He also applauds the fact that the Recovery Act has now created or saved more than a million jobs.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
October 31, 2009

Each week, I’ve spoken with you about the challenges we face as a nation and the path we must take to meet them. And the truth is, over the past ten months, I’ve often had to report distressing news during what has been a difficult time for our country. But today, I am pleased to offer some better news that – while not cause for celebration – is certainly reason to believe that we are moving in the right direction.

On Thursday, we received a report on our Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. This is an important measure of our economy as a whole, one that tells us how much we are producing and how much businesses and families are earning. We learned that the economy grew for the first time in more than a year and faster than at any point in the previous two years. So while we have a long way to go before we return to prosperity, and there will undoubtedly be ups and downs along the road, it’s also true that we’ve come a long way. It is easy to forget that it was only several months ago that the economy was shrinking rapidly and many economists feared another Great Depression.

Now, economic growth is no substitute for job growth. And we will likely see further job losses in the coming days, a fact that is both troubling for our economy and heartbreaking for the men and women who suddenly find themselves out of work. But we will not create the jobs we need unless the economy is growing; that’s why this GDP report is a good sign. And we can see clearly now that the steps my administration is taking are making a difference, blunting the worst of this recession and helping to bring about its conclusion.

We’ve acted aggressively to jumpstart credit for families and businesses, including small businesses, which have seen an increase in lending of 73 percent. We’ve taken steps to stem the tide of foreclosures, modifying mortgages to help hundreds of thousands of responsible homeowners keep their homes and help millions more sustain the value in their homes. And the Recovery Act is spurring demand through a tax cut for 95 percent of working families, and through assistance for seniors and those who have lost jobs – which not only helps folks hardest hit by the downturn, but also encourages the consumer spending that will help turn the economy around.

Finally, the Recovery Act is saving and creating jobs all across the country. Just this week, we reached an important milestone. Based on reports coming in from across America – as shovels break ground, as needed public servants are rehired, and as factories whir to life – it is clear that the Recovery Act has now created and saved more than one million jobs. That’s more than a million people who might otherwise be out of work today – folks who can wake up each day knowing that they’ll be able to provide for themselves and their families.

We’ve saved jobs by closing state budget shortfalls to prevent the layoffs of hundreds of thousands of police officers, firefighters, and teachers who are today on the beat, on call, and in the classroom because of the Recovery Act. And we’ve also created hundreds of thousands of jobs through the largest investment in our roads since the building of the interstate highways, and through the largest investments in education, medical research, and clean energy in history.

These investments aren’t just helping us recover in the short term, they’re helping to lay a new foundation for lasting prosperity in the long term – and they’re giving hardworking, middle-class Americans the chance to succeed and raise a family. Because of the investments we’ve made and the steps we’ve taken, it’s easier for middle-class families to send their kids to college and get the training and skills they need to compete in a global economy. We’re making it easier for these families to save for retirement. And in areas like clean energy, we’re creating the jobs of the future – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.

In fact, just this week, I traveled to Arcadia, Florida to announce the largest set of clean energy projects through the Recovery Act so far: one hundred grants for businesses, utilities, manufacturers, cities and other partners across the country to put thousands of people to work modernizing our electric grid – the system that provides power to our homes and businesses – so that it wastes less energy, helps integrate renewables like wind and solar, and saves consumers money. And that’s just one example.

So, we have made progress. At the same time, I want to emphasize that there’s still plenty of progress to be made. For we know that positive news for the economy as a whole means little if you’ve lost your job and can’t find another, if you can’t afford health care or the mortgage, if you do not see in your own life the improvement we are seeing in these economic statistics. And positive news today does not mean there won’t be difficult days ahead. As I’ve said many times, it took years to dig our way into the crisis we’ve faced. It will take more than a few months to dig our way out. But make no mistake: that’s exactly what we will do.

For the economy we seek is one where folks who need a job can find one and incomes are rising again. The economy we seek is one where small businesses can flourish and entrepreneurs can get the capital they need to plant new seeds of growth. The economy we seek is one that’s no longer based on maxed out credits cards, wild speculation, and the old cycles of boom or bust – but rather one that’s built on a solid foundation, supporting growth that is strong, sustained, and broadly shared by middle class families across America. That is what we are working toward every single day. And we will not stop until we get there.

Thank you. And Happy Halloween.

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