Category: Politics As Usual

Bachmann staffer’s house raided by FBI

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Hmmm. I sure this has nothing to do with her decision not to run for reelection:

The Federal Bureau of Investigations confiscated materials belonging to a former aide to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) presidential campaign who left under acrimonious circumstances to help one of her GOP primary opponents.

The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that agents spent hours at the home of former Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorensen (R) in November 2012.

“We were not notified that he was the target of any investigation,” Sorenson’s attorney, Ted Sporer, was quoted as saying. “They took computers and things that would be used to verify or validate communications with presidential entities.”

Documents uncovered in August 2013 stated that a spokesperson for Sorenson asked for an $8,000 salary and a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee for leaving Bachmann’s campaign to endorse then-Sen. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) candidacy during the 2012 Republican presidential primary. Sorenson, who joined the Paul campaign two months later, denied any financial promises at the time, though Bachmann accused him of taking payments from the Texas senator’s camp.

“I wasn’t part of this conversation,” Sorenson was quoted as saying. “I’m not even sure if the discussion happened, but if it did happen, I wasn’t part of it.”

Predictable

~ susie

Now see, when you appoint a former lobbyist (remember when Obama promised there would be no lobbyists in his administration?), you tend to get this kind of industry ass-kissing!

Newly anointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said this week that it would be OK for Internet service providers to charge Netflix and other companies for a faster lane to consumers.

Wheeler’s stance is surprising given that it appears to contradict the FCC’s Open Internet Order, passed under his predecessor in 2010. That order, which sets out the country’s network neutrality rules, says that fixed broadband providers may not “unreasonably discriminate” against any type of traffic. The order specifically calls out pay-for-play arrangements as being potential violations.

“[B]roadband providers that sought to offer pay-for-priority services would have an incentive to limit the quality of service provided to non-prioritized traffic,” the rules state. “For a number of reasons… a commercial arrangement between a broadband provider and a third party to directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic in the broadband Internet access service connection to a subscriber of the broadband provider (i.e. ‘pay for priority’) would raise significant cause for concern. … [A]s a general matter, it is unlikely that pay for priority would satisfy the ‘no unreasonable discrimination’ standard.”

The Open Internet Order is being challenged in court by Verizon. A Verizon win would let ISPs block content or charge providers for a faster lane to customers. But the rule is still in place, at least until the US Court of Appeals makes a decision.

Wheeler (a former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industries) spoke positively about the order but said he wouldn’t mind if Netflix has to pay for a faster lane to consumers while answering questions Monday after a policy speech at Ohio State University.

We must not be speaking the same English language as he is.

Oh Allyson

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

John Hanger is calling for Allyson Schwartz to resign her board membership with Third Way:

A commentary in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal caught my attention. Written by the leadership of the centrist think-tank Third Way, the article attacks progressive Democrats such as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor-elect Bill DeBlasio.

I found these attacks on leading progressive Democrats and progressive policies we believe in to be misguided and unacceptable. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, whom I am running against in the Democratic primary for Governor, is Honorary Co-Chair of Third Way. I think she should resign from the organization’s leadership and disavow her support for their policies.

Today I released the following formal statement on the issue:

Third Way’s attack in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal on Elizabeth Warren, Bill DeBlasio, and other Democrats who are fighting for working people was misguided and unacceptable. Sen. Warren has captured Americans’ imagination and Bill DeBlasio won the mayoralty of New York City because they effectively and unapologetically challenge the political elites and the big money interests just as we are doing in our People’s Campaign for Governor in Pennsylvania. Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz can undermine Third Way’s unacceptable attack on good Democrats and important ideas by resigning as Third Way’s Honorary Co-chair. I hope Congresswoman Schwartz joins my call to strongly disavow and rebuke this right wing attack on Senator Warren, Mayor-elect DeBlasio, and progressive policies.

Because freedom!

~ susie

It’s really bizarre, isn’t it?

Actress Evan Rachel Wood recently took to Twitter to air her frustrations over the MPAA forcing a cunnilingus scene out of her upcoming movie “Charlie Countryman.” She found it a bit odd that a consensual scene of sexual pleasure was considered inappropriate while extreme, murderous violence was not: “The scene where the two main characters make ‘love’ was altered because someone felt that seeing a man give a woman oral sex made people ‘uncomfortable’ but the scenes in which people are murdered by having their heads blown off remained intact and unaltered.” Wood also speculated that the scene would not have been cut if it had shown a woman going down on a man.

The platinum coin

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

It turns out the Obama administration took it more seriously than they let on:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration was serious enough about manufacturing a high-value platinum coin to avert a congressional fight over the debt ceiling that it had its top lawyers draw up a memo laying out the legal case for such a move, The Huffington Post learned last week.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which functions as a sort of law firm for the president and provides him and executive branch agencies with authoritative legal advice, formally weighed in on the platinum coin option sometime since Obama took office, according to OLC’s recent response to HuffPost’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. While the letter acknowledged the existence of memos on the platinum coin option, OLC officials determined they were “not appropriate for discretionary release.”

Study suggests Occupy Wall Street movement undone by liberals’ need to feel unique

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Man, I can’t tell you how critical the progressive activists I knew were over the Occupy movement. I saw its potential right away, but they were all too busy arguing over what they were doing wrong:

Study suggests Occupy Wall Street movement undone by liberals’ need to feel unique (via Raw Story )

Liberals tend to underestimate their similarity to other liberals, according to a recent study, while conservatives overestimate their similarities — and those differences may account for the relative political success of the tea party in comparison…

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Ha ha

~ susie

Don’t you just hate it when politicians have to tell the truth?

A New Jersey court may force Gov. Chris Christie’s administration to reveal information about a hush-hush state pension probe involving Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and a quarter-million dollar double-dipping scheme.

Superior Court Judge Mary C. Jacobson ordered the attorney general’s Division of Criminal Justice to submit an index of its investigatory records for release to a New Jersey Watchdog reporter.

The stakes are high for Christie, who eyes a 2016 presidential campaign, and Guadagno, who could become governor if her boss quits to run for the White House.

Jacobson’s decision was a stunning setback for the state, which sought an order entirely dismissing the reporter’s public records lawsuit.  The attorney general argued that all of its 770-plus pages of records should be exempt from disclosure.

Instead, the judge will require DCJ to argue its need for secrecy on a document-by-document basis.

Release of the index opens the door for specific arguments on whether the public interest in release of the records outweighs the state’s interest in keeping the information confidential.

“The public has an indisputable and overriding interest in knowing about the integrity of government and the conduct of elected officials in their governance,” stated the reporter in a certification filed with the court.

DCJ began its criminal investigation in May 2011 at the behest of a pension board, according to a certification by a state pension official. Christie, Guadagno and DCJ officials have declined comment. In court papers, the state refused to acknowledge whether the case is open or closed.

Christie faces political consequences for his judgment in handling the Guadagno controversy. Rather than use his constitutional power to appoint an independent prosecutor or special investigator, the governor allowed DCJ to run the case.

It was an obvious conflict-of-interest. Guadagno is a former DCJ deputy director and now Christie’s second-in-command. She sits in the governor’s cabinet with the attorney general, who is in charge of DCJ.

The controversy began with an investigative report by New Jersey Watchdog in 2010 detailing how statements by Guadagno enabled one of her top aides to improperly collect $227,000 in pension checks from the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System.

As Monmouth County sheriff in 2008, Guadagno hired Michael W. Donovan Jr. as “chief of law enforcement division” at a $87,500 annual salary. She announced the appointment in a memo to her staff. The sheriff’s official website identified Donovan as “sheriff’s officer chief,” supervising 115 subordinate officers and 30 civilian employees.

Donovan faced a legal problem. He already was collecting an $85,000 a year state pension as a retired investigator for the county prosecutor. While double-dipping is often legal in New Jersey, this case was different.

Since the position of sheriff’s officer chief is covered by the pension system, Donovan should have been required to stop receiving pension benefits, re-enroll in the retirement plan and resume contributions to the pension fund.

Instead, Guadagno changed Donovan’s job title in several documents so her aide could get two checks, not just one, totaling $172,500 a year.

New York train crash kills 4, injures dozens

~ susie

Of course, the maintenance on the train system has been, uh, underfunded for years now. I read they were begging for the money. I heard one report that the brakes failed:

New York train crash kills four, injures dozens (via AFP)

A train hurtled off the tracks in a New York suburb, killing at least four people, injuring dozens and coming perilously close to plunging into a freezing river. It was still unclear why the train veered off the rails in the Bronx at around 7:20 am (…

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‘Staggering need’

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

My sister and I decided last night to skip Christmas presents this year and give to charity instead. I’d be much happier knowing someone got fed instead:

Food stamp program changes lead to ‘staggering’ increase in need (via PBS News Hour)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Thanksgiving week is naturally a time when closer attention is paid to the role of food in our daily lives, including concerns over how we get it, the cost, the nutritional value, and why some don’t have enough to eat. We will be looking…

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