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A man who identified himself as an official with New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign was arrested last night after cops found found ecstasy tablets wrapped and ready to be sold in his car, police said.Maybe he was so whacked out he's spinning stories.
Jason Shih, 25, was pulled over by East Rutherford cops at about 11:30 p.m. last night because he was talking on his cell phone on Route 17, said Lt. Chris Conforti of the East Rutherford police.
Officers wound up finding 19 "blue star" ecstasy tablets in Shih's car, each wrapped in its own little plastic bag.
Shih -- who was stopped within 100 feet of Becton Regional High School -- also had had "several hundred" empty plastic bags in his car, Conforti said.
Corzine spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith said Shih is not on the payroll of the campaign or the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, and that the campaign doesn't know who he is.ABC 7 in New York has this link but it's disabled.
Shih was charged with possession of drugs, possession of drugs in a school zone, intent to distribute drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was also charged with two motor vehicle violations -- driving while using a cell phone and having drugs in his car.
Jason Shih, an Assistant Deputy Director to the campaign of NJ Gov. Jon Corzine was arrested last night on drug charges.Emphasis mine. An Assistant Deputy Director of his campaign? Now if that indeed is the case where did this information come from?
East Rutherford police say they pulled over the 25-year-old on Route 17 for driving while using a cell phone.
Police say they found 19 ecstasy pills and several hundred glassine envelopes.
He was charged with possession of a controlled narcotic and paraphernalia that is used for distribution.
A Paramus man claiming to work for Gov. Jon Corzine’s reelection campaign was arrested Friday night on drug charges after police found Ecstasy tablets in his car, authorities said.Here's a cached version of the WABC story that disappeared earlier.
A Corzine spokeswoman said the man does not work for either the governor’s campaign or the Democratic State Committee.
Jason Shih, 25, was pulled over on Route 17 by East Rutherford police at about 11:30 p.m. last night for talking on his cell phone. Police found 19 Ecstasy tablets and hundreds of small glassine bags used for distributing drugs, police spokesman Capt. William Schanel said.
Schanel said Shih told police he was an official in Corzine’s campaign, and several tickets to tomorrow’s rally with President Obama at Newark’s Prudential Center were found in his car.
“As he’s exiting the vehicle, he’s stating it’s not mine,” Schanel said. “He just said I’m assistant deputy director of Gov. Corzine’s campaign, and they rented this vehicle for my use.”
Schanel said the vehicle was rented, but said it is unclear who rented it. He said Shih is not suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol -- just very nervous.
“His hands were shaking,” Schanel said.
New Jersey Democratic State Cmte Expenditure DetailGranted, this is three years old, but I have to assume it's the same Jason Shih, as searches turn up only one Jason Shih in Paramus. So at some point it appears he did some work for the New Jersey Democrats.
Shih, Jason, Paramus, NJ $420 Field Consulting Services 11/03/06
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The White House on Friday released a small list of visitors to the White House since President Barack Obama took office in January, including lobbyists, business executives, activists and celebrities.The transparency is amazing. It's as if we can almost see all the requested information but we never will.
No previous administration has released such a list, though the information out so far is incomplete. Only about 110 names —and 481 visits —out of the hundreds of thousands who have visited the Obama White House were made public. Like the Bush administration before it, Obama is arguing that any release is voluntary, not required by law, despite two federal court rulings to the contrary.
Under the Obama White House's policy, most names of visitors from Inauguration Day in January through the end of September will never be released.
The names released Friday include business leaders and lobbyists with a lot to gain or lose from Obama policies. They include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (whose foundation is pushing for changes in teacher pay), former AIG chairman Maurice Greenberg, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Chevron CEO David O'Reilly, Citigroup's Vikram Pandit, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JP Morgan's James Dimon, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, John Stumpf of Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley's John Mack, State Street bank's Ron Logue, BNY Mellon's Robert Kelly, labor leader Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union (22 visits), American Bankers Association CEO Ed Yingling, community bankers president Camden Fine, and lobbyists Heather and Anthony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta led Obama's transition team.Nice to see New Gingrich's transformation is nearly complete. Doing commercials with Nancy Pelosi, hanging out with Al Sharpton and Howard Dean, and now he's pre-approved for White House pats on the head. As for Soros, I'm surprised he's only visited twice. I figured he had an office in the West Wing.
Besides Gates, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt are also on the list. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC. One of NBC's parents is GE.)
Advocates and nonprofit leaders include National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which is interested in health policy.
Democratic donor and businessman George Soros visited with White House aides twice.
Political figures include former Sen. Thomas Daschle, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, former Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Al Franken, former Vice President Al Gore, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, and Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf.
A request for the complete records of all visitors from the first months of the administration, filed by msnbc.com, was rejected by the White House, and an appeal is pending. The news organization requested the names of all visitors to the Obama White House beginning with Inauguration Day. Msnbc.com has filed an administrative appeal with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.If they had nothing to hide they'd provide a daily list so we knew who was coming and going. That would be transparent. Instead those who are actually seeking information are blindfolded with a sack over their heads. Some transparency.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has been seen as a leading contender to be the next governor of California, announced today that he is quitting the race.Cutting edge policies, like allowing vagrants to set up shop where they please.
Newsom is withdrawing from the Democratic primary amid lackluster poll numbers and meager fund-raising receipts. His withdrawal leaves state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who is expected to run even though he has not officially entered the race, with little opposition in the Democratic primary.
“It is with great regret I announce today that I am withdrawing from the race for governor of California,” Newsom said in a statement. “With a young family and responsibilities at City Hall, I have found it impossible to commit the time required to complete this effort the way it needs to — and should be — done. This is not an easy decision. But it is one made with the best intentions for my wife, my daughter, the residents of the city and county of San Francisco, and California Democrats.”
Although Newsom had been effectively running for more than a year, his campaign never gained much traction. Even in his hometown, which Newsom touted as a model of cutting-edge policies, his candidacy was widely derided among civic insiders.
Got news for you, Newsom. Maybe there is such a thing as being too liberal. And sleeping with your bud's wife isn't cool either.An even more harsh reaction (language warning):
Newsom dropped the word "young" into his exit speech, a move that helps remind people he's a rising political star who in all likelihood plans to try again for higher office, just once he tackles some of those festering homelessness and crime problems he promised to attack when first elected mayor six years ago.In case you forgot about his sordid affair, here's a refresher.
Though losing an alcoholic wife-fucker like Newsom will take some fun out of the gubernatorial race, the contest still features Democratic hopeful Brown, who proposed a state space academy last time he was governor, and Republican contender Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO whose personal voting record is "unacceptable," according to one Meg Whitman.
For Newsom - who reported having just $1.2 million on hand as of June - the task of raising enough money to challenge Brown was daunting. Recent spending reports show that even a big Los Angeles fundraiser with former President Bill Clinton pulled in just 13 individual contributions over $5,000 - hardly the kind of cash haul to signal Newsom would be able to mount a serious challenge.
That effort was made more difficult by the fact that Democratic Party officials had pressured the mayor to refrain from attacking Brown and perhaps damaging him in the general election.
It's alive.Well, I guess I shouldn't wait for any apoligies to Palin, especially when people are still busy making stories up about her.
The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said was tantamount to 'death panels' for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday.
The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death.
For years, federal laws and policies have encouraged Americans to think ahead about end-of-life decisions, and make their wishes known in advance through living wills and similar legal documents. But when House Democrats proposed this summer to pay doctors for end-of-life counseling, it touched off a wave of suspicion and anger.
Sen. John F. Kerry jumped on the flu-vaccine shortage yesterday with a new television ad blaming the situation on the President.
In the ad, a narrator says: "Three years ago, medical experts warned that a dangerous shortage loomed. Instead of fixing the problem, production of the vaccine was sent to a factory overseas -- the vaccines were contaminated. Now he wants Canada to help, even though his own policies make it illegal for us to import medicine from Canada.
"Seniors and children wait. Not enough vaccines for pregnant women. A mess."
A sizable majority of Americans (64 percent) say the country would be better off by throwing “most” members of Congress out, a jump of 19 percentage points from two years ago. Only about one in five Americans (19 percent) feels the average representative deserves to be re-elected, a seven-point drop from October of 2007. Even half of Democrats take the view that we need to clean house and start over with new people.But of course then we fall into the same old trap of everybody else's Congress critter is bad, but mine is okay.
This phenomenon of “hating” Congress but “loving” one’s congressman is an established trend in politics. However, even in this setting, more people opt for getting rid of their representative today (35 percent) than did two years ago (29 percent).
Nevertheless, majorities disapprove of the performance of both Democrats (53 percent) and Republicans (59 percent).Of course, I also chalk a lot of this up to the fact that a majority of Americans do not know who controls Congress and have in fact controlled it for over three years now.
Former actor and present White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi was directly involved in planning the controversial conference call hosted by a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) flack to encourage tax-supported artists to create propaganda for President Obama, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.More at Judicial Watch.
The emails reveal that Modi worked with now-former NEA national communications director Yosif Sargant in planning the August 10 conference call that was first revealed by Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood.com web site. Participants in the conference call were encouraged to use their talents to generate public support for the Obama agenda in Congress.
The following are excerpts from the email correspondence:A shame nobody of the state-controlled media cares about this scandal.
--August 10, 2009, 10:23 am: Email from Yosi Sergant to Kalpen Modi: "[The call is] organized by me...I'd ask you to come on and give the exact spiel you gave on Saturday. Walk them through the WH Arts Policy. They won't know it. Then I will take them into United We Serve and the NEA."
--August 10, 2009, 10:29 am: Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: "Oy. This would be awesome to be a part of. Let me know if you think it's going long, or maybe I can get someone from here to do it if I can't because of the Social Security mtg."
--August 10, 2009, 11:04 am: Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: "Let me see if we can move Social Sec by a few mins. Agreed, it would be great to be on the call and helpful for us also."
--August 10, 2009, 1:37 pm: Email from Yosi Sergant to Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement: "We have an important call at 2pm for UWS (United We Serve) and the Arts with my peeps. Indie producers around the country. Kal can't join the call. Any chance you can hop on for 5 minutes and intro with Nellie and I?"
While the names of the individuals on the conference call were redacted due to "privacy concerns," some of their titles were disclosed, including: Green Blogger, Publisher, Musician, Music Writer, Film/Marketing, Actress/Director, Marketing, Magazine, Marketing/Magazine, Event Producer, and Actress. These individuals were described by Sergant in an email as a "rad group, who can really get stuff done."
"These emails shed new light on a very serious Obama administration scandal. The NEA is supposed to foster the arts, not serve as a propaganda machine for the Obama White House. We will continue our investigation so we can provide the truth to the American people about this scandal."
The committee did not detail the two newly disclosed investigations. However, according to the July document, Rep. Maxine Waters, a high-ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, came under scrutiny because of activities involving OneUnited Bank of Massachusetts, in which her husband owns at least $250,000 in stock.
Waters arranged a September 2008 meeting at the Treasury Department where OneUnited executives asked for government money. In December, Treasury selected OneUnited as an early participant in the bank bailout program, injecting $12.1 million.
The other, Rep. Laura Richardson, may have failed to mention property, income and liabilities on financial disclosure forms.
An investigating magistrate on Friday ordered the former French president, Jacques Chirac, to stand trial on corruption charges dating to his time as mayor of Paris, reinforcing the whiff of alleged malfeasance swirling around the political elite here.Sure, Chirac may not be a full-blown socialist like many French pols, but calling the guy a conservative is really a stretch.
If he comes to trial, Mr. Chirac will be the first former French head of state to be prosecuted for corruption, news reports said, offering a humiliating book-end to a career as a towering presence in French politics for 30 years.
The order by the magistrate, Xavière Siméoni, may still be challenged by public prosecutors who have already requested that the charges against the conservative Mr. Chirac, 76, be abandoned. If the prosecutors appeal Friday’s order, it could take months for judges to determine whether he should face trial.
The development came at a time when one of Mr. Chirac’s most prominent aides, former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, is in court defending himself against separate charges of planning a smear campaign in 2003 and 2004 against Nicolas Sarkozy, a political rival who is the current president.
The charges against Mr. Chirac and nine other people relate to his years as mayor of Paris, and involve accusations of awarding contracts for fictitious positions as city advisers in return for political favors.
Animosity towards the U.S. seems to have increased since a new bill - widely known as the Kerry-Lugar bill - was passed by Congress.John Kerry. That name is familiar for some reason.
It promises a massive injection of aid to Pakistan, but with conditions attached which many Pakistanis feel give the U.S. too much control over their country's affairs.
"They say they are our friends," says Mr Mir. "But through the Kerry-Lugar bill they are trying to convert all of Pakistan into their slave. This is the feeling in Pakistan."
President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke built a bridge they anticipate will lead to a lasting U.S. economic recovery. It may end up being a bridge to nowhere they want to be.As many have pointed out GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government spending.
The economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in more than a year, propelled by emergency programs to boost buying of cars and homes, according to Commerce Department figures released yesterday. Policy makers are betting those temporary measures will pave the way to a self-sustaining expansion as companies hire and consumers increase spending.
The risk is that the biggest government intrusion into the economy since World War II will leave the U.S. saddled with trillions of dollars of debt and not much to show for it. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression may have shaken companies and consumers so much that their spending won’t be enough to replace federal support.
Third-quarter growth “was boosted by the various fiscal stimulus policies,” Harvard University professor Martin Feldstein said in an e-mail. “The danger remains of a serious slowdown after this and a possible double dip” of the economy in 2010, he said.
Consumer spending on cars and homes helped power the 3.5 percent annual pace of growth. Sales at Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Co. and Detroit-based General Motors Co. were spurred by the government’s “cash for clunkers” plan, which expired in August. Builders including Miami-based Lennar Corp. benefited from a first-time home-buyers tax credit that may be extended beyond its Nov. 30 expiration date.
Excluding sales, production and inventories of vehicles, the economy grew 1.9 percent last quarter, the Commerce Department said.
Operation Sleigh Ride, held annually on post, garners hundreds of gifts for the children of cash-strapped Fort Benning soldiers while also making it possible for sky soldiers such as Young to earn foreign jump wings.
This year’s event attracted close to 240 paratroopers to Fryar Drop Zone, said Col. Jon Ring, commander of the 1st Battalion, 507th Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Regiment, 199th Infantry Brigade, which sponsored the jump.
A 37-year-old wife from New Brighton tried to slit her husband’s throat as he slept because he was not the devout Muslim she believed she married, and pressured her to eat pork and drink alcohol, authorities allege.Just when you think things can't get anymore bizarre a story like this comes out. Of course the guy was no saint according to her written statement.
The day before the incident, “he literally threatened to have her parents mutilated,” Licitra said.This little bit is going to give the imans a migraine.
But after the marriage, she discovered more about him, she told investigators — before meeting her, he had only dated non-Muslims, and he considered Salman Rushdie to be one of his favorite authors.
He's promising the Venezuelan madman he'll soon be meeting with Barack Obama, so I'm assuming he's now the de facto Secretary of State while Hillary Clinton is off negotiating the return of the Honduran thug to power.Sean Penn, the Hollywood star who wants to be a journalist, has now become an amateur diplomat by visiting America's noisiest enemies in the Southern Hemisphere and promising to relay their messages back to Washington.The two were later spotted canoodling over a candle-lit dinner at a Caracas hotspot. They were using candles, of course, since the Marxist dreamstate is running out of electricity.
After Penn's visit with Hugo Chavez in Caracas on Wednesday, the Venezuelan strongman said he had discussed politics with Penn, who told him he would soon see President Obama.
"Chavez said he'd asked Penn to tell Obama he should take action to earn his Nobel Peace Prize, and should scrap a plan for the US military to increase its presence at bases in Colombia," the Associated Press reported on their session.
"They gave him the Nobel Prize -- very well, now he should earn it," admonished the socialist Chavez, paraphrasing his friend, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore.
Penn had come from Cuba, where he reportedly tried to meet with his other hero, Fidel Castro, 83, who hasn't given an interview to a Western journalist since he was felled by intestinal illness three years ago.
The Oscar winner's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, didn't know about Penn's visits with either Castro or Obama. State Department spokesman Noel Clay told Page Six, "Sean Penn is a private person. He's entitled to his views and opinions. He doesn't speak for the US government."
Ummah believes that a separate Islamic state in the U.S. would be controlled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Colorado for shooting two police officers in Georgia in 2000, Leone said.What else has been uncovered in all of this is an unholy alliance between several prominent Muslim groups in this country and their association with various radical groups, which all have a history of violence or at the very least advocating violence?
In 2000, four leading Muslim organizations - CAIR, the AMC, ISNA and the Muslim American Society - issued a joint statement: "The charges against Imam Jamil are especially troubling because they are inconsistent with what is known of his moral character and past behavior as a Muslim." Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam visited Al-Amin in his jail cell, as did CAIR's executive director.CAIR is well known for their grievance-mongering on the behalf of Muslims, normally with the accompanying faux outrage, that is so typical of their tactics.
A lingering political crisis in Honduras seemed to be nearing an end on Friday after the de facto government agreed to a deal that would allow Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, to return to office.If she was interested in constitutional order, she'd have realized Zelaya violated his own constitution, which is why he was removed form office.
The government of Roberto Micheletti, which had refused to let Mr. Zelaya return, signed an agreement with Mr. Zelaya’s negotiators late Thursday that would pave the way for the Honduran Congress to restore the ousted president and allow him to serve out the remaining three months of his term.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed on Friday that Mr. Zelaya and Mr. Micheletti had approved what she called “an historic agreement.”
“I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that, having suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue,” Mrs. Clinton said Friday in Islamabad, where she has been meeting with Pakistani officials.
The accord came after a team of senior American diplomats flew from Washington to the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on Wednesday to press for an agreement. On Thursday, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Thomas A. Shannon Jr., warned that time was running out for an agreement.
Mr. Micheletti’s government had argued that a presidential election scheduled for Nov. 29 would put an end to the crisis. But the United States, the Organization of American States and the United Nations suggested they would not recognize the results of the elections without a pre-existing agreement.
“We were very clearly on the side of the restoration of the constitutional order, and that includes the elections,” Mrs. Clinton said in Islamabad.
Their parents must be so proud.There was little to disguise what these two had been up to moments before police pulled them over.Imagine. There was alcohol involved.
Would-be burglars Matthew McNelly and Joey Miller's masterplan had one tiny flaw --their 'disguises' comprised of masks drawn on their faces with permanent marker pen.
American police stopped their car after a witness reported two men 'with painted faces' were trying to break into a flat in Carroll, Iowa.
The caller added that the pair were wearing dark, hooded tops and had driven off in a big white car.
Police soon spotted a 1994 Buick Roadmaster matching the description and stopped it at gunpoint.
Inside they found the two men, both of whom had what appeared to be masks, beards or moustaches scrawled on to their faces.
McNelly, 23, and Miller, 20, were both charged with attempted second-degree burglary and released on bail.
McNelly was also charged with drunk driving.
The only way this guy would look less inconspicuous is if he were holding a bloody trident and wearing nothing but AstroGlide and Saran Wrap.
Police arrested this guy (and his bud, his pic back at the link) near the home they'd tried to rob. Police kinda got suspicious about the magic marker villain masks and all.
Which is why villains usually wear masks they can take off after a heist.
See, they didn't get that part. The point of a mask is that you look different during the crime, and then you can also look different after the crime again.
Compared to Methuselah, he probably seemed a good catch.Such a heartwarming love story.
Hundreds of people have attended the wedding of Ahmed Muhamed Dore, who says he is 112, and his bride, aged 17.
At the ceremony in central Somalia, Mr Dore - who already has 18 children by five wives - said he would like to have more with his new wife, Safia Abdulleh.
'Today God helped me realise my dream,' he said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud.
The bride's family said she was 'happy with her new husband'.
Mr Dore said he and his bride - who is young enough to be his great-great-grand-daughter - were from the same village in Somalia and that he had waited for her to grow up to propose.
The marriage in the town of Guriceel is being described by Somalian historians as the first of its kind in the Horn of Africa nation for over a century.
'I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love; and then we agreed to marry,' Mr Dore was quoted by the BBC as saying.
I swear if I didn't know better I'd take this chap for an offspring of John Candy.For the first time in his life, Chaz Bono is starting to feel like his insides match his appearance.Aww. That's not all. Chaz is now going through puberty!
Chaz, nee Chastity, the child of Sony and Cher, is in the process of becoming a man, reports People.com.
And he's finally beginning to feel some of the change.
"I shave about once a week now," Chaz tells "Entertainment Tonight" during a two-part interview with Mary Hart. "It kind of started to come in just like peach fuzz. I always wanted to shave. It is a very natural process. For my birthday I got a lot of shaving stuff."
The entire sex change process will take between four and five years, but Chaz will have to stay on testoserone for the rest of his life.
And like most teenage boys, the side effects of sudden high doses of testoserone are the same: growing pains and body aches.
"I am literally going through puberty," he says.
A judge in Illinois sentenced an admitted Al Qaeda agent Thursday to less than two years in prison in addition to the six years he already has spent behind bars — much less than the 15 years requested by prosecutors.
The 100-month sentence includes a credit for 71 months already spent behind bars and an additional credit of nine months because of harsh treatment during his incarceration.
The House legislation would require companies with a payroll of $500,000 or more to offer health coverage to employees, or pay a penalty of at least 2% of payroll. Some earlier House versions set the threshold at $250,000. The penalty gradually rises, and firms with payroll greater than $750,000 would pay a penalty of 8% of payroll. Senate versions of the bill have weaker penalties.
COVERAGE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan.
A furious Sarah Palin lit into Levi Johnston on Wednesday for what she called "mean-spirited, malicious and untrue attacks" - including his charge that she made fun of her own Downs Syndrome-afflicted son.No kidding. This kid has zero credibility and why on earth anyone would allow him to go on record with these comments with no way to back them up just shows how nasty they are as well.
"We, like many, are appalled at the inflammatory statements being made or implied," the former vice presidential candidate said through her spokeswoman.
"Trig is our 'blessed little angel' who knows it and is lovingly called that every day of his life. Even the thought that anyone would refer to Trig by any disparaging name is sickening and sad," Palin said.
The heated exchange was the latest in a war of words between Palin and Johnston, who had a child out of wedlock with Palin's daughter, Bristol.
Earlier this year the young couple abandoned plans to marry.
Johnston got under Palin's skin again on CBS' "Early Show" Wednesday, where he repeated a charge he made in a recent Vanity Fair interview that Palin often referred to Trig as being "retarded."
Although he gave no details, he also suggested Palin has done worse, saying he knows things that could get her "in trouble and could hurt her.
"You know, I mean, if I really wanted to hurt her, I could very easily. But there's - I'm not gonna do it," he said.
Palin, whose memoir "Going Rogue, An American Life," comes out next month fired back, targeting Johnston's plans to appear nude in Playgirl Magazine.
"Consider the source of the most recent attention-getting lies. Those who would sell their body for money reflect a desperate need for attention and are likely to say and do anything for even more attention."
She also took a shot at CBS for giving Johnston air time.
"CBS should be ashamed for continually providing a forum to propagate lies," Palin said.
A deputy assistant attorney general who said he was on his lunch break when an officer found him with a stripper and sex toys in his sport utility vehicle has been fired, his boss said Wednesday.Unless he was going to bury his career, of course.
Roland Corning, 66, a former state legislator, was in a secluded part of a downtown cemetery when an officer spotted him Monday, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.
As the officer approached, Corning sped off, then pulled over a few blocks away. He and the 18-year-old woman with him, an employee of the Platinum Plus Gentleman's Club, gave conflicting stories about what they were doing in the cemetery, Officer Michael Wines wrote in his report, though he did not elaborate.
Corning gave Wines a badge showing he worked for the state Attorney General's Office. Wines, whose wife also works there, called her to make sure Corning was telling the truth.
He then searched the SUV, where he found a Viagra pill and several sex toys, items Corning said he always kept with him, "just in case," according to the report.
Corning and the woman were let go without charges. Wines' wife reported the call to her supervisor, who told Attorney General Henry McMaster.
"We received credible information about inappropriate behavior Monday afternoon," McMaster said Wednesday. "And by the close of business, he was no longer working here."
Such a trip to the cemetery "would not be appropriate, at any time, for an assistant attorney general," McMaster said.
The Obama administration on Thursday slammed a report from The Associated Press alleging the government had overstated by thousands the number of jobs it has created or saved with federal contracts under President Obama's $787 billion recovery program.If only they reacted so swiftly to developments in other wars, such as in Afghanistan. They seem to care more about their own political image than they do about our military.
The White House seized on an initial report from a government oversight board weeks ago that claimed federal contracts awarded to businesses under the recovery plan already had helped pay for more than 30,000 jobs. The administration said the number was evidence that the stimulus program had exceeded early expectations toward reaching the president's promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.
But the 30,000 figure is overstated by thousands -- at the very least by nearly 5,000, or one in six, based on AP's limited review of some of the contracts -- because some federal agencies and recipients of the money provided incorrect job counts. The review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs were credited to stimulus spending when, in fact, none were produced.
Within minutes of the publication of AP's story, the White House released a statement at 12:15 a.m. Thursday that it said was the "real facts" about how jobs were counted in the stimulus data distributed two weeks ago.
As of early Thursday, on its recovery.org Web site, the government was still citing 30,383 as the actual number of jobs linked so far to stimulus spending, despite the mistakes the White House has now acknowledged and said were being corrected.
A Colorado company said it created 4,231 jobs with the help of Obama's economic recovery plan. The real number: fewer than 1,000.
A child care center in Florida said it saved 129 jobs with the help of stimulus money. Instead, it gave pay raises to its existing employees.
Elsewhere in the U.S., some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two, three, four or even more times.
The discrepancy raises questions about the reliability of a key benchmark the administration uses to gauge the success of the stimulus. The errors could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is released. It is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.
One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack Obama’s campaign arm features a mural of an America flag splattered with health care graffiti until it’s covered completely by black paint.Naturally after selecting this offensive video they weren't prepared to comment. I guess they need to get their talking points together.
In the video – which is accompanied by the sound of a heart monitor pumping and then flat-lining – words such as “pre-existing conditions,” “homeless” and “death panel” ultimately obliterate the flag, which reappears on screen seconds later with the words “Health Will Bring Our Country Back to Life” on the blue field where the 50 stars usually are.
According to the Organizing for American Web site, the 20 finalists in the “Health Reform Video Challenge” were chosen by a panel of “qualified” Democratic National Committee “employee judges.”
A contestant whose video didn’t make the final-20 cut complains that a video “defacing the flag” won’t do much to help President Barack Obama or the Democrats sell health care reform.
“They should never pick that,” said the contestant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It makes the Democrats look really, really bad.”
A spokesman for Organizing for America said the group was not prepared to provide immediate comment on the video, which, according to the OFA Web site, was produced by Daniel Lahoda and Saber.Since Organizing for America was created by and is wholly owned by Barack Obama, we'll assume for now he has no problem with this video.
Mr Obama, who was wearing a dark coat, was taken to the base, 100 miles (161km) from the White House, by the Marine One helicopter to greet the C-17 aircraft that had brought back the dead.
He boarded the plane and watched as a military chaplain prayed for those who had passed away.
The bill, however, would add $1.7 billion for an extra destroyer the Defense Department did not request and $2.5 billion for 10 C-17 cargo planes it did not want, at the behest of lawmakers representing the states where those items would be built. Although the White House said the administration "strongly objects" to the extra C-17s and to the Senate's proposed shift of more than $3 billion from operations and maintenance accounts to projects the Pentagon did not request, no veto was threatened over those provisions.
Those members include Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., who won 45 earmarks totaling $133,566,000. Moran received the biggest return on his efforts, with $201,100 in contributions from earmark beneficiaries.
Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., another top earmarker, brought home $281,955,000 for pet projects and received from those beneficiaries $67,600 in campaign contributions.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the subcommittee chair, inserted 20 earmarks totaling $77,500,000 and he received $199,050 in campaign contributions. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., the former Appropriations Committee chair, got 35 earmarks worth $115,700,000. Campaign contributions from those earmark beneficiaries totaled $123,800.
Norwood did, however, in 1999 attend the state GOP convention as a delegate in 1999. Her campaign said she attended as a vendor and was offered a delegate slot on the spot. She says the experience turned her off to partisan politics.And you wonder how we get candidates like McCain and Scozzafava. No word yet on whether the RNCC is backing Mary, but they might want to check with her first since she adamantly says she is no Republican. She just helps them out in the primaries.
Addendum: The Reed campaign points out that Norwood voted in the 1998, 2000 and 2004 Republican primaries and runoffs. And that, while Norwood says she voted for Bill Clinton in 1996 general election, she also participated in the ‘96 Republican presidential primary contest.
"Able" Mable Thomas is an off and on representatives of one of the poorest and crime ridden areas of the city of Atlanta. She is a liberal Democrat with socialistic and "racism chasing" tendencies.Able Mable endorsed Mary Norwood.
While her official endorsement has not yet been rendered - there is no way that this woman would ever even think about endorsing a Republican.
The gossip apocalypse has arrived: Jon Gosselin and Nadya Suleman will be going on a date.
The "Jon & Kate Plus 8" star has reportedly agreed to appear in a cheesy new reality show in which he'll date Octomom Nadya Suleman, former "Cheaters" producer Bobby Goldstein told In Touch Weekly.
"I heard that Nadya has an insatiable desire to spend time with Jon and to put their families together," Goldstein said. "And I had the idea that this could be a very entertaining fiasco."
Though reps for both parties deny that any show is in the works, Goldstein says he will produce the pilot, called "Jon – Kate = Jon Octomom," with a former producer of "The Jerry Springer Show."
According to a press release, cameras will follow Gosselin "as he contemplates what hooking up with Octomom could really be like. He's totally creeped out by the idea that if they got married, they'd have 22 kids."
To increase the creep factor, the plotline for the 33-year-old single mom reveals that she will be so obsessed with the octodad, "she's already talking openly about the two of them getting married."
Michelle Obama can add one more thing to her list of "firsts": next month she will be the first first lady to grace the cover of Glamor magazine. It's part of the fashion mag's annual "Women of the Year" edition, and Obama is being honored for her with a "Special Recognition" award for her work in mentoring younger women. Of course, no self-respecting women's mag would run a cover story without some mention of the central issue: boys. So what does the president's wife have to say on the matter? Good looks won't cut it.Vera Baker was unavailable for comment.
In a sneak peak of the interview (conducted by Katie Couric, who also makes her debut in the mag this month) just posted by Glamor's editor in chief, we get a glimpse of her thoughts on men: “Cute’s good. But cute only lasts for so long, and then it’s, Who are you as a person? Don’t look at the bankbook or the title. Look at the heart. Look at the soul ... When you’re dating a man, you should always feel good ... You shouldn’t be in a relationship with somebody who doesn’t make you completely happy and make you feel whole.”
But rather than simply pointing a finger and complaining, here are some loose ends the media ignored, from our footage alone, that warrant attention.Good questions all. A shame the state-controlled President Approved Pundits aren't interesting in finding the answers.
With regard to the children:
· Baltimore-Why no mention of the toddlers that were in the room while James and I were being counseled on how to manage our underage prostitution ring?
· San Bernardino-The content of this video was largely ignored except for the part where Tresa Kaelke mentions she shot her husband. What about when she told us not to educate our sex-slaves because they won’t want to work for us? Or when we talked about making more money off clients who are permitted to physically abuse the girls? What about the whole transport-the-girls-in-a-school-bus-to-avoid-suspicion discussion?
Attention to the masses:
· Washington, DC- Why were we counseled by ACORN during a first time homebuyer’s seminar, while 30-40 other first time homebuyers sat scrammed in a hot room?
· Brooklyn- This office was swarmed with people, busy staff members and a full waiting room. Did we take our number and wait in line? Nope. Why were we given the private attention of three ACORN staffers, when more deserving and less intrusive clientele patiently waited?
The political games:
· San Bernardino: What happened to the list of politicians that Ms. Kaelke rattled off when she spoke of her ACORN office’s community involvement and influence? Has anyone set out to uncover just how close these politicians relationships are with the San Bernardino ACORN? Does anyone even remember the names?
· San Diego: Has anyone questioned why Juan Carlos would want to help smuggle girls across the Mexican border right after an ACORN-sponsored immigration parade???
· Philadelphia: Why did the Philly office go into damage control mode as soon as the Baltimore story first broke? What do they have to hide?
The latest installment of a calendar series that pokes fun at Mormon stereotypes is putting a twist on motherhood.Still hungry? Check out these tasty samples.
The "Hot Mormon Muffins: A Taste of Motherhood" calendar features 12 mothers who claim membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in vintage pinup picture poses. Each month also has a muffin recipe.
It's a companion piece to "Men on a Mission," the three-year series of calendars that featured 12 male church missionaries who doffed their signature white shirts.
Last year, a dustup over the calendar ultimately cost its creator, Las Vegas entrepreneur Chad Hardy, his membership in the church and his diploma from the church-owned Brigham Young University.
Hardy said the projects are designed to shake up stereotypes that paint Mormons in general as stuffy or hyper-conservative and mothers in particular as homemakers from another era.
"For Mormons, the most holy calling next to missionary work is motherhood," said Hardy. "But they're not all the subservient housewives that people think they are."
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah declined to comment on the calendar Monday.
On paper, Miss May and cover model Tami Roberts seems like she might fit the stereotype.
A lifetime Mormon, the 35-year-old woman from Idaho Falls, Idaho, has been married 17 years to a Mormon man and has three daughters, ages 11, 9 and 4. The family attends church, and Roberts said she's raising her kids with Mormon values.
