Say Anything Blog

Dem lawmakers introduce Afghan war surtax

A trio of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation that would impose a surtax to pay for the war in Afghanistan.

Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Dave Obey (Wis.), Defense Appropriations Subcommittee John Murtha (Pa.), and Democratic Caucus chairman John Larsen (Conn.) say that the bill woild end the practice of paying for the war with deficit spending.

“Regardless of whether one favors the war or not, if it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “Now the president is being asked to consider an enlarged counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, which proponents tell us will take at least a decade and would also cost about a trillion dollars.  But unlike the healthcare bill, that would not be paid for.”

Should the bill pass, the surtax would come into effect in 2011 and would pay off war costs from the previous year. Democratic lawmakers previously introduced a similar measure to fund the Iraq War that failed to pass through Congress.

“We believe that if this war is to be fought, it’s only fair that everyone share the burden. That’s why we are offering legislation to impose a graduated surtax so that the cost of the war is not borrowed,” the three sponsors said.

VIRUS in the VOTING MACHINES: Tainted Results in NY-23

GOUVERNEUR, NY - The computerized voting machines used by many voters in the 23rd district had a computer virus - tainting the results, not just from those machines known to have been infected, but casting doubt on the accuracy of counts retrieved from any of the machines.

Cathleen Rogers, the Democratic Elections Commissioner in Hamilton County stated that they discovered a problem with their voting machines the week prior to the election and that the “virus” was fixed by a Technical Support representative from Dominion, the manufacturer.  The Dominion/Sequoia Voting Systems representative “reprogrammed” their machines in time for them to use in the Nov. 3rd Special Election. None of the machines (from the same manufacturer) used in the other counties within the 23rd district were looked at nor were they recertified after the “reprogramming” that occurred in Hamilton County.

Republican Commissioner Judith Peck refused to speculate on whether the code that governs the counts could have been tampered with.  She indicated that “as far as I know, the machine in question was not functioning properly and was repaired” by the technician.

http://www.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Politics/Obama_FoxNews_111809_monster_397x224.jpg

http://www.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Politics/Obama_WarCouncil_doomsday_604x341.jpg

http://www.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Politics/obama_japan_monster_397x224.jpg

US leading indicators up for seventh month in row

The forward-looking US index of leading economic indicators rose nearly as expected in October, the Conference Board said Thursday, in a sign that economic recovery from recession is on track.

The index edged up 0.3 percent, following a 1.0 percent gain in September and 0.4 percent rise in August, the business research firm said.

Most economists had expected a 0.4 percent rise in the index, which is based on data such as manufacturing hours worked, stock prices and consumer expectations,

“The data indicate that economic recovery is finally setting in,” said Ken Goldstein, a Conference Board economist.

“We can expect slow growth through the first half of 2010. The pace of growth, however, will depend critically on how much demand picks up, and how soon,” he said.

Factors such as interest rates, initial unemployment insurance claims and stock prices contributed positively to the index, more than offsetting declines in such areas as consumer expectations and home construction, the firm said.

Barrett consultant arrested for dirty campaign tricks

A 38-year-old advisor to Congressman Gresham Barrett’s gubernatorial campaign has been arrested in Myrtle Beach for engaging in dirty campaign tricks.

Mike Green, who works for the Columbia-based political consulting firm Starboard Communications, was arrested for trespassing at a Myrtle Beach bar Monday night.

Green told police the firm “pays him to cause problems for the opposing side, which is Mark McBride’s campaign.” McBride is running for mayor of Myrtle Beach.

According to WMBF, a police report showed Green was jailed at 8 p.m. after officers were called to the BATB Security Office at 1320 Celebrity Circle. The Palmetto Scoop is working to obtain a copy of the report.

Green was reportedly arrested after trying to enter the Crocodile Rocks bar, where McBride was holding a private campaign party. The bar owner told Green to leave and an altercation ensued, according to the report.

A security officer said he told Green to leave several times, and Green refused. The officer allegedly told Green he was trespassing and the consultant still refused to leave.

The incident came less than 48 hours after police were called to another Myrtle Beach establishment

The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported Saturday that Green showed up at The Fish House where McBride was meeting with restaurant owner Bill Howard. Green walked in with a video camera and began saying some “pretty brutal stuff,” according to Howard.

Green was asked to leave, and that time he did.

Green’s troubles come less than a week after another Barrett consultant, Jim Dyke, made headlines for his own controversy.

On Nov. 11, a staffer for Dyke published an allegedly doctored photo that was used to attack one of Barrett’s gubernatorial rivals.

Hoffman letter says groups ‘tampered’ with vote results

With his prospects of winning the 23rd Congressional District race now almost zero, Conservative Party candidate Douglas L. Hoffman suggested Wednesday in a letter that “ACORN, the unions and the Democratic Party” “tampered” with results to deny him victory.

Mr. Hoffman provided no evidence to support his claims, but asked fellow conservatives to send donations his way to “ensure every vote is counted.”

Jerry O. Eaton, Jefferson County Republican elections commissioner, called Mr. Hoffman’s assertion “absolutely false.”

“No one has touched those ballots or has access to those ballots except Board of Elections staff — and in a bipartisan manner,” he said.

...Mr. Hoffman told conservatives he was “forced to concede” on election night after learning that he trailed by 5,335 votes and that he “barely won” his “stronghold in Oswego County.”

Katrina Flooding Caused by Army Corps of Engineers’ Negligence, Judge Rules

NEW ORLEANS —  A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval sided with five residents and one business who argued the Army Corps’ shoddy oversight of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet led to the flooding of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish. He said, however, the corps couldn’t be held liable for the flooding of eastern New Orleans, where one of the plaintiffs lived.

Duval awarded the plaintiffs $720,000, or about $170,000 each, but the decision could eventually make the government vulnerable to a much larger payout. The ruling should give more than 100,000 other individuals, businesses and government entities a better shot at claiming billions of dollars in damages.

Joe Bruno, one of the lead plaintiffs lawyer, said the ruling underscored the Army Corps’ long history of failure to properly protect the New Orleans region.

“It’s high time we look at the way these guys do business and do a full re-evaluation of the way it does business,” Bruno said.

Panel finds probable cause for charges against Sanford

A state ethics panel has found evidence Gov. Mark Sanford may have broken state law, charging him with “several” undisclosed violations after an investigation into his travel and campaign spending.

State Ethics Commission director Herbert Hayden on Wednesday would not provide details of the charges, nor would he clarify whether the violations were ethical or criminal.

...The ethics panel is scrutinizing Sanford’s travel and use of campaign funds stemming from his five-day clandestine trip to Argentina in June. Sanford later admitted an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman and reimbursed the state more than $3,000 for a 2008 trade trip during which he saw his lover.

...The commission is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, the commissioners cannot be removed.

EXCLUSIVE: CIA Secret ‘Torture’ Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy

The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week.

...“The activities in that prison were illegal,” said human rights researcher John Sifton. “They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions.”

Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the “black site” in 2004.

Lithuania agreed to allow the CIA prison after President George W. Bush visited the country in 2002 and pledged support for Lithuania’s efforts to join NATO.

“The new members of NATO were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period,” said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. “They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters.”

Palin’s Exxon Valdez account draws guffaws

...In the book, Palin claims to have helped the fishermen, Alaska Natives and other individuals suing Exxon over spill damages prevail in their legal case.

“It took years for Alaska to achieve victory. As governor, I directed our attorney general to write an amicus brief in the case, and, thanks to Alaska’s able attorneys arguing in front of the highest court in the land, in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the people,” she writes in her book. “Finally, Alaskans could recover some of their losses.”

But Palin’s claims of victory for the plaintiffs and of playing a role in achieving that victory are highly distorted, said the chief attorney for the approximately 32,000 plaintiffs that sued Exxon over damages from the worst oil-tanker spill in U.S. waters.

“That is the most cockamamie bullshit,” said Dave Oesting of Anchorage, lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants’ civil case against Exxon and its successor, Exxon Mobil Corp. “She didn’t have a damn thing to do with it, and she didn’t know what it was about.”

While the Supreme Court in its June 25, 2008 decision did uphold the right of the plaintiffs to receive some punitive damages, it slashed the award dramatically. The Supreme Court ordered that punitive damages be no more than $507.5 million, down from the $2.5 billion ordered by a U.S. appeals court and the jury’s original verdict of $5 billion.

While the plaintiffs did manage to salvage some punitive damages, the result was hardly a win, said Riki Ott, a scientist, environmental activist and longtime commercial fisherman from the Prince William Sound town of Cordova.

“It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to the legal system. It’s a disgrace to intellectual honesty to call 10 cents on the dollar a win for Alaskans,” said Ott, who has written a book about the spill and the failure of the justice system to address it.

At the time of the Supreme Court ruling, even Palin described it as a bitter disappointment to Alaskans rather than a victory. In an interview with Reuters, she said the state will tighten its oversight of the oil industry in response. “Exxon will know that we’re very disappointed in this ruling,” she said then.

Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will Change Our Lives

“Future Flesh” is squatting on your plate. Are you nervous? Stab it with a fork. Sniff it. Bite! Chew, swallow. Congratulations! Relax and ruminate now because you’re digesting a muscular invention that will massively impact the planet.

In-Vitro Meat—aka tank steak, sci fi sausage, petri pork, beaker bacon, Frankenburger, vat-grown veal, laboratory lamb, synthetic shmeat, trans-ham, factory filet, test tube tuna, cultured chicken, or any other moniker that can seduce the shopper’s stomach—will appear in 3-10 years as a cheaper, healthier, “greener” protein that’s easily manufactured in a metropolis. Its entree will be enormous; not just food-huge like curry rippling through London in the 1970’s or colonized tomatoes teaming up with pasta in early 1800’s Italy. No. Bigger. In-Vitro Meat will be socially transformative, like automobiles, cinema, vaccines.

1. Bye-Bye Ranches…

Mary Cheney Gives Birth to Daughter Sarah Lynne, Dick Cheney’s Seventh Grandchild

Mary Cheney gave birth to a baby girl named Sarah Lynne Cheney on Wednesday morning in Washington, D.C.

The family released the following statement: “Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, welcomed their seventh grandchild, Sarah Lynne Cheney, Wednesday, November 18, 2009. She weighed 6 lbs., 14 oz and was born at 8:17 A.M. at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C. Her parents are the Cheneys’ daughter Mary and her partner, Heather Poe.”

This is the second child for Cheney and her longtime partner, who are raising her son, Samuel David Cheney, together. Cheney has never publicly disclosed the paternity of either of her children.

Republican Apologizes for Bloomberg Slam

Long Island GOP Rep. Pete King doesn’t know what Arizona’s John Shadegg was thinking when he suggested terrorists could kidnap Mayor Bloomberg’s daughters, and apparently neither does Shadegg, who is now apologizing.

“No one can question the Mayor’s integrity, or in any way make references to his family,” King said moments before Shadegg apologized for going over the top yesterday in criticizing Bloomberg for wanting to hold the 9/11 terror trials in New York. “He [Bloomberg] is a true patriot in every sense of the word… It’s just wrong. The debate should not be at that level.”

King does oppose Bloomberg on the trials, though.

In apologizing, Shadegg stuck by his underlying postion.

“I apologize for the insensitivity of my remarks with respect to the Mayor or his family, however I think it is important to note that this decision involves potential risk to innocent people,” he said in a statement sent by his spokeswoman.

King didn’t want to try to read his Arizona colleague’s mind as to his reasons for dissing Bloomberg and the city, but said he’s heard Big Apple bashing before.

“in some parts of the country, I guess anti-New York remarks still pay off,” King said. “John Shadegg’s a nice guy. I don’t know why he said this, but if there’s anyone who doesn’t deserve it, it’s Mike Bloomberg.”