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links for 2010-11-16
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Meeting with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at the White House Tuesday, President Obama reiterated his support for fixing the country's "broken immigration system" — but gave little indication that in this year's remaining lame-duck congressional session, his administration could win passage of key legislation granting legal status to some illegal immigrant students.
The president, in a White House statement released following the meeting, thanked caucus members Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) "for their constant efforts on this issue" and highlighted earlier bipartisan support for the DREAM Act.
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Token payback for helping Harry Reid in Nevada and Boxer in California win re-election -
Some have asked why we just don’t use the handwand. Good question. Threats can be both metallic and non-metallic. Pat-downs, like AIT, allow us to screen for nonmetallic threats that handwands would not find.
And finally, the $10,000.00 question of the day… Will you receive a $10,000.00 fine if you opt out of screening all together and leave the checkpoint? While TSA has the legal authority to levy a civil penalty of up to $11,000.00 for cases such as this, each case is determined on the individual circumstances of the situation.
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Wow!Guess I will have to decide whether to fly or not. The airlines cannot be happy with Obama's Big Brother TSA.
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Nevada Sen. John Ensign said Tuesday he has been planning to run for reelection “for a long time,” suggesting that the ongoing fallout of his extramarital affair won’t doom him politically.
“Mainly what I’ve been focusing on is earning people’s trust back in Nevada, getting around the state and doing my job,” Ensign told POLITICO in the Capitol. “We’ve been planning on it for quite some time.”
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There will be either Sharron Angle or another GOP candidate to run against him in the GOP primary -
Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., wrote a $390,000 check to boost the California Republican Party's efforts in the final days of the campaign. The contribution, made Oct. 28, was reported in an amended campaign filing posted yesterday on the secretary of state website.
Adelson, whose estimated net worth of $28 billion landed him the No. 3 spot on Forbes' list of richest Americans in recent years, owns several major properties on the Las Vegas Strip, including The Venetian, The Palazzo and the new Sands Expo and Convention Center
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Conservatives should frequent the Venetian and boycott Dem supporting Harrah's and MGM -
Key Republicans hoping to prevent Michael Steele from another term as chairman of the Republican National Committee, who just a week ago were anxious they might not be able to stop Steele, are now confident he will be defeated.
There is still no consensus candidate to run against Steele. But that no longer worries Steele’s adversaries, who told The Daily Caller that they believe the embattled chairman does not have the support he needs to win 85 votes when the RNC’s 168 members vote on Jan. 11.
Sentiments among Steele’s enemies – and there are many in the GOP – changed dramatically over the past week. Barely more than a week ago, there was grave concern that no clear front runner existed who would have the support of a majority of RNC members.
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Michael Steele should NOT run for another term. He should accept his thanks for the past year and move on.
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RNC Political Director Gentry Collins Resigns and Seals Michael Steele’s Fate?
Former Republican National committee (RNC) political director Gentry Collins and RNC Chairman Michael Steele
Probably so.Republican National Committee political director Gentry Collins resigned from his post Tuesday morning with a stinging indictment of Chairman Michael Steele’s two-year tenure at the committee.
In a four-page letter to Steele and the RNC’s executive committee obtained by POLITICO, Collins lays out inside details, previously only whispered, about the disorganization that plagues the party. He asserts that the RNC’s financial shortcomings limited GOP gains this year and reveals that the committee is deeply in debt entering the 2012 presidential election cycle.
“In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles,” Collins writes, underlining his words for emphasis. “In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with 100% of the RNC’s $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt.”
Here is a copy of the letter embedded below:
Gentry Collins LetterRNC Chairman Michael Steele has yet to announce plans for re-election. But, with today’s revelation, I doubt he will run since it is obvious that he would not be able to win.
Going into the 2012 Presidential cycle, the Republican National Committee Chairman needs to be a very productive fundraiser as well as an executive leader. This is why California’s Carly Fiorina has been mentioned as a possible successor to Steele.
I don’t think she wants the position though.
I can see Carly more on Fox Business Network and writing a column for the Wall Street Journal.
Stay tuned…..
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City of El Segundo, California Going the Way of Bell?
Photo from my last year’s El Segundo High School reunion
You remember the City of Bell, California FLAP/SCANDAL?A Times report on the huge salaries of top administrators and elected officials in the small, working-class city of Bell has ignited community anger, calls for resignations at City Hall and condemnation from politicians and civic groups. Most council members are earning nearly $100,000 for part-time work, far more than the $400-a-month stipend recommended for a city the size of Bell. The Los Angeles County district attorney and the state attorney general have opened inquiries.
Now, it appears this public employee largess at the expense of the taxpayers has spread to my hometown of El Segundo.
A homeowner in El Segundo posted the salaries of the overpaid cops in his town, on his blog – and the next thing he knew he was being harassed at work, by a police captain who makes over $300K a year, according to the LA Weekly.
The blogger, David Burns, is in charge of emergency preparedness at UCLA. After this incident, the same police captain turned in a public records request at UCLA to find out how much Burns makes. It turns out Burns makes a third of what the overpaid captain pulls in, and his salary has been cut by 23% due to budget problems.
It should be noted that El Segundo has only 16,000 residents and barely any crime, but their cops and firemen make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This is shocking but I wonder if this isn’t the case in most Los Angeles County cities, where oversight has been remarkably absent. All I know is that this would never have happened in the days of my youth where the town’s people kept a close eye on the city’s coffers.
Although El Segundo has not experienced the same excessive City Council and City Manager pay as the City of Bell, El Segundo has experienced greatly excessive and unsustainable firefighter and police union and manager pay that may exceed that of Bell once detailed Bell data is obtained and analyzed. The approach being used in El Segundo – creating new fees for residents and raising business taxes to pay for obscenely excessive city employee salaries, benefits, and pensions – parallels what was done in Bell. It appears from the El Segundo salary and pension data that the firefighter and police union contracts make many public employees into millionaires.
Maybe a few dismissals and a roll back of public employee salaries and benefits will quickly solve the problem. If not, California’s state budget problems will only worsen.
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Day By Day November 16, 2010 – Face It
Zed, going into Afghanistan, you will need all of your senses, including good hearing.But, I am positive Sam would rather have your beard and long hair – as long as you were home. And, I bet that the elbow flab does NOT matter at all.
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