• William Jefferson

    Representative William “Cash in the Freezer” Jefferson Defeated for Re-Election by Little Known Republican

    Joseph Cao

    Anh ‘Joseph’ Cao, a Vietnamese-American, speaks to a reporter as he campaigns in eastern New Orleans. Cao, a Republican, became the first Vietnamese-American in Congress in a predominantly black and heavily Democratic district, beating nine term Representative William Jefferson

    Democrat Representative William Jefferson has been defeated tonight by a little known Republican for re-election to the House.

    Voters in Louisiana ousted indicted Democratic Rep. William Jefferson on Saturday, instead electing a Republican attorney who will be the first Vietnamese-American in Congress.

    Unofficial results showed Anh “Joseph” Cao denying Jefferson a 10th term. Republicans made an aggressive push to take the seat from the 61-year-old incumbent, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, laundering money and misusing his congressional office.

    Cao, 41, won a predominantly black and heavily Democratic district that covers most of New Orleans.

    A barrage of election-day automated telephone calls on Cao’s behalf flooded the district, including a pitch from the national Republican Party.

    The national GOP ran ads citing Jefferson’s indictment for corruption and apparently they paid off.

    Remember the flap?

    jeffersonbribelocweb600

    Graphic courtesy of Flip

    Now, Jefferson will have plenty of time to fight the charges in court when his trial eventually begins. No trial date has been set as of yet.

    What an embarassment.

    This corrupt idiot should have been kicked out of office years ago.

    Previous:

    Representative William Jefferson Watch: Federal Appeals Court Paves the Way for Bribery Trial

    Representative William Jefferson Watch: The Sap Keeps On Running

    Representative William Jefferson Watch: Not a Good Day


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  • Barack Obama

    Barack Obama’s New Deal – But Who The Hell Is Going To Pay For It?

    Weekly Address from the President-Elect Barack Obama: December 6, 2008

    In his weekly address to the nation, President-elect Barack Obama outlined a “New Deal” or a series of initiatives to address American job loss.

    It is one thing to reward your constituency groups who supported your party and candidacy for the Presidency as each of the major initiatives does:

    • ENERGY: “[W]e will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.”
    • ROADS AND BRIDGES: “[W]e will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.”
    • SCHOOLS: “[M]y economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.”
    • BROADBAND: “As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m president – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.”

    It is another to pay for them.

    The labor unions both private and governmental win; as does the teacher union lobby and the high technology sector. All of these groups played a major roll is supporting the winning Democrat Party majority and Obama’s winning campaign.

    But, who the hell will be paying for all of this government spending? And, how will the federal government do it?

    Tax increases for the rich?

    Are there enough rich folks who can pony up enough cash? Doubtful – even if they pay 100 % more.

    What about the entitlements like Social security and Medicare which in a few years will be scrambling to fund their mandated costs?

    The fact is Barack Obama is a PANDER bear.

    All of this sounds good on YouTube,is smart and politically correct to repair schools, roads, bridges,  etc., etc. but the funding will have to come from American taxpayers and business who will have their quality of life subjugated to the grandiose plans of the state – the “New Deal” or “Great Society” Obama wishes to create.

    We have been down this road before in the 1960’s and the 1970’s with disasterous results to the economy. Remember inflation and stagflation?

    America is travelling the road again.

    Exit question: Who will be the next Reagan?


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  • Missile Defense

    Video: Missile Defense Agency Announces Successful Intercept By Ground-Based Interceptor Missile

    Here is the Missile Defense Agency video from yesterday’s successful test:

    A threat-representative target missile was launched from Kodiak, Alaska at 3:04pm (EST). This long-range ballistic target was tracked by several land- and sea-based radars, which sent targeting information to the interceptor missile. At 3:23pm (EST) the Ground-Based Interceptor was launched from the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The interceptor’s exoatmospheric kill vehicle was carried into the target’s predicted trajectory in space, maneuvered to the target, performed discrimination, and intercepted the threat warhead.

    Should YouTube take the video down, it can be viewed at the Missile Defense Agency website here.

    Enjoy!

    Now, back to college football.


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  • Day By Day,  Harry Reid

    Day By Day by Chris Muir December 6, 2008 – Reid Makes a Stink

    Day By Day 120608

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Harry Ried will be up for re-election in Nevada in 2010. Something tells Flap that the GOP will try to do to him as they did the last Democrat Majority leader, Tom Daschle.

    Run him out of the Senate.

    But, Reid is very popular in the southern part of Nevada and especially with all of the employee labor unions in Las Vegas.

    So, Americans will have to put up with Dingy Harry for a while.

    Previous:

    The Day By Day Archive


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  • Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2008-12-06

    • Last week, following my annual mammogram at Brigham and Women's Hospital, I was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma In Sutu (DCIS). While this is commonly referred to as early stage breast cancer, it is technically not cancer but rather pre-cancer, as it has not become invasive. Today, I have had a lumpectomy. This procedure does not require hospitalization. Mitt and I feel fortunate to have caught this so early. And, it reminds us how important it is for women to have regular mammograms. As in all cases of cancer, early detection is critical. Many families are facing medical hardships–our hearts go out to all of you and also our wishes for healing holidays."
      ++++++
      Best Wishes for a speedy recovery
      (tags: mittromney)
    • Has Andrew Sullivan lost his mind?
      YES he has…..
    • But the amicus briefs filed before the court grants cert are much rarer, and, accordingly, more influential. Yet this is a tool that liberal groups often fail to use.

      The private groups and advocacy organizations that most frequently urge the court to take a case are overwhelmingly pro-business, anti-regulatory, and ideologically conservative. For liberal groups to cede the cert-stage battleground is to forfeit a key phase of the war. When left-leaning groups ignore an opportunity to tell the court to hear the cases most likely to be decided in their favor, they are doing their causes a disservice.

    • When it comes to irresistible words, “oogedy-boogedy” has few peers.

      In the several days since I first used the term in a column describing the Republican party’s “religious” problem, oogedy-boogedy seems to have entered the bloxicon. (New word invented right here, meaning: the blogosphere’s lexicon.) Google produces more than 26,000 references.

      Despite its sudden popularity, oogedy-boogedy is nonetheless causing some consternation and confusion. What does it mean and whence does it come? In the Dec. 15 issue of National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru writes that he doesn’t know what oogedy-boogedy means, “but I gather it’s bad.”

    • Kathleen Parker’s war on religion in the Re-public-an square entered a new phase today. In her syndicated column, she nobly attempted to explain her use of the term “oogedy-boogedy” to describe religious conservatives. It’s not that she is “anti-God.” It’s just that God really shouldn’t be mentioned in polite company. Religion can inform our values (gee, thanks). But reason, not religion, should inform our public debates.

      I hadn’t realized religion and reason were mutually exclusive. It seems Pope Benedict hasn’t gotten the memo, either.
      ++++++
      Enough of Kathleen Parker already

    • Middle-aged men want younger women, often touting their intelligence and their high income. This is shown in research at Gothenburg University and Oxford University that studied 400 lonely hearts ads to see how men and women choose partners.

      Research in the theory of evolution includes a number of accepted theories about how men and women choose their partners. Among the more established ones is that men place more emphasis on attractive appearance, whereas resources and social status are more important to women.
      +++++++++

      (tags: Medical_News)
    • Across the United States, more than 30 daily newspapers are for sale, and buyers are scarce.

      From Los Angeles to New York, leading newspapers have slashed newsrooms with buyout offers, and when those failed to reach budget-cutting goals, with layoffs.

      The newspaper industry has been caught in a tailspin for three years, a trend variously blamed on plummeting ad revenues, declining readership, growing competition from the Internet and a deepening national recession.

      On Thursday, Colorado's oldest newspaper joined the growing list of dailies on the market. E.W. Scripps Co., owner of the 149-year-old Rocky Mountain News, offered to sell it after reporting an $11 million loss through the first nine months of this year.
      +++++++
      An industry whose time has passed in the internet age.

    • Salons and spas, including $350 at Escape Skin Care and Day Spa in New York, were the latest unusual expenses to appear in the Republican National Committee’s coordinated expenses account with the McCain-Palin campaign, according to November reports released late Thursday.

      Overall, the RNC has reported spending a total of about $180,000 for clothes and various accessories for the family of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Federal Election Commission records show.

      As Politico first reported in October, the bulk of that spending, about $150,000, was spent in early September on clothes for the Alaska governor and her family.

      The RNC’s post-Election Day report documented another $30,000 at outlets that read like a suburban shopping directory.
      +++++++
      RNC donors will NOT be happy

    • For a while there this afternoon, President-elect Barack Obama's immensely talented chief speechwriter, 27-year-old Jon Favreau, might have been pondering how to address that question.

      That's when some interesting photos of a recent party he attended — including one where he's dancing with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of secretary of state-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and another where he's placed his hand on the cardboard former first lady's chest while a friend is offering her lips a beer — popped up on Facebook for about two hours. The photos were quickly taken down — along with every other photo Favreau had of himself on the popular social networking site, save for one profile headshot.

      Asked about the photos, Favreau, who was recently appointed director of speechwriting for the White House, declined comment. A transition official said that Favreau had "reached out to Senator Clinton to offer an apology."
      +++++
      Well, he is screwed.

    • A woman who appears from campaign finance records to have been Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s fashion stylist was paid $54,900 by the Republican National Committee, according to a new report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

      A charge for that amount to “Lisa Kline & Co.” for “Consulting-Campaign” appears on Oct. 17 in the R.N.C.’s latest campaign finance report. Ms. Kline is a New York stylist whose name had previously appeared alongside some of the much ballyhooed $150,000 in charges for clothing and other “campaign accessories” from luxury stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
      +++++++
      How would this campaign money been better spent? Recruiting Congressional candidates for one? You betcha.

    • Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist was paid $68,400 and her hair stylist received more than $42,000 for roughly two months of work, according to a new campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

      Ms. Palin’s makeup artist, Amy Strozzi — who was nominated for an Emmy award for her cosmetics work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?” — was paid $32,400 by Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign between Oct. 16 and Nov. 24, the period covered by the most recent reports filed with the commission.
      ++++++++
      Profligate spending by the RNC and McCain Campaign.

    • A federal appeals court refused Thursday to reconsider a ruling that raised doubts about the constitutionality of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military, a decision that could give President-elect Barack Obama a chance to act quickly on his promise to repeal the policy.
      +++++++
      Gays in the military will be forward and center for the Obama Administration – whether they like it or not.
      (tags: gay_politics)
    • Since I'm a Blogger for Red County, I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm a "Red Guy". If you dig a bit deeper, you'll find that I'm also a "Sales Guy". When I give my "elevator pitch", relative to my Sales role, I typically say that my background is primarily with "technology-based business-to-business systems solutions". With that in mind, I'm sure that the Democrat's superior use of technology in the recent Presidential election, especially the superior use of social media, is a sore point with me. This week, I've seen a couple of very encouraging signs of determination, within the Republican Party, to take an upper-hand in this regard. In both cases, there was a "Little Birdie" involved … the social media site known as Twitter.
    • Facebook's 120 million users are being targeted by a virus dubbed "Koobface" that uses the social network's messaging system to infect PCs, then tries to gather sensitive information such as credit card numbers.

      It is the latest attack by hackers increasingly looking to prey on users of social networking sites.

      "A few other viruses have tried to use Facebook in similar ways to propagate themselves," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in an e-mail. He said a "very small percentage of users" had been affected by these viruses.

      "It is on the rise, relative to other threats like e-mails," said Craig Schmugar, a researcher with McAfee Inc.

      (tags: facebook)