Top Murkowski aide, central to reelection, headed to prison

/0 Comments/in /by

By Steven Nelson (Daily Caller):

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s longtime fisheries adviser is heading to prison — for illegal fishing.

Arne Fuglvog, who was employed as a legislative assistant to Murkowski beginning in 2006, signed a plea agreement on April 8 confessing to violations of the Lacey Act. The act governs the sale of unlawfully captured wildlife.

In 2005, Fuglvog harvested twice the amount of sablefish that his commercial fishing permit allowed for in the “Central Gulf” region of the Gulf of Alaska, then falsified reports to cover up the loot — valued at approximately $100,000.

If the plea agreement is accepted by a judge, Fuglvog will spend 10 months in jail and be fined $50,000, mandated to author a confession in the National Fisherman Magazine and forced to give $100,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Although the plea agreement was signed four months ago, Fuglvog was not officially charged until Monday. On Sunday he resigned from Murkowski’s staff.

In a statement to the Alaska Dispatch, Murkowski said, “He knows the importance and value of our fisheries, and he also knows what all fishermen understand: fishing laws and regulations must be followed.” She said that he understood the consequences of his actions.

It is unclear when Murkowski learned of the investigation into Fuglvog’s fishing violations. A spokesman for the senator told the Anchorage Daily News, “This is an ongoing legal issue, so we cannot comment further at this time.”

Fugalov was reportedly the frontrunner for an appointment to lead the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2009, but withdrew his name from consideration.

Read more HERE.

The Next Crisis is at Our Doorstep

/0 Comments/in /by

For weeks now, I’ve been warning about a market collapse. Among the numerous items I pointed out were:

1) The US economy rolled over in a big way in Q1
2) The Euro Debt Crisis was spreading to Italy and Spain
3) China was showing signs of economic contraction
4) Mutual funds were overly invested in stocks
5) Historical patterns forecasting a collapse
6) Signs that the Fed had lost control of the markets

And on and on.

Meanwhile the mainstream financial media’s consensus was that everything was just fine and that at worse the “recovery” was slowing just a bit. The Euro issues were contained. The US debt issues weren’t a problem. And the Fed would be able to get the economy roaring in no time.

Well here we are and the markets are an absolute bloodbath. Other than hopes for QE 3 there really isn’t much to be bullish on. Indeed, we are very likely heading into the REAL Crisis in short order.

That Crisis will be a Crisis of Faith in the US Fed’s ability to contain and/or solve the problems of the financial system.

For 80+ years, the US financial system has operated under the belief that the Federal Reserve could handle any problem. This belief was put to the ultimate test in 2008 when the Fed faced off against the biggest Financial Crisis of the last 80 years. And the ONLY thing that kept us from the brink was the belief the Fed could fix things.

Read More at Zero Hedge By Phoenix Capital Research

DID GOP BREAK ‘PLEDGE TO AMERICA’ DURING DEBT VOTE?

/4 Comments/in /by

Penny Starr at CNSNews.com pointed out this morning that House Republicans may have broken one of their most vocal promises from their 2010 campaign Pledge to America pitch when voting for Budget Control Act yesterday. The debt-limit bill, which is expected to save the U.S. from default for the first time in it’s history, was passed in the House yesterday with GOP support despite not being posted with the text online “for at least three days” before the vote.

“Explaining the Republicans’ vision in a response to President Obama’s radio address on Oct. 30, 2010—just before the election—Rep. John Boehner explained that ‘Americans should have three days to read all bills before Congress votes on them.

‘The American people are in charge of this country, and they deserve a Congress that acts like it,’ said Boehner. ‘Americans should have three days to read all bills before Congress votes on them–something they didn‘t get when the ’stimulus’ was rushed into law. We should put an end to so-called ‘comprehensive’ bills that make it easy to hide wasteful spending projects and job-killing policies. Bills should be written by legislators in committee in plain public view–not written in the Speaker’s office, behind closed doors.’”

Starr finds that the summary of how the Republican Congress has fulfilled the Pledge on the House Republican Conference’s Web site, reads on the section regarding the three-day rule: “A Three Day Waiting Period on all Non-Emergency Legislation.” The words “non-emergency” or “emergency” do not appear anywhere in the text of the original Pledge for America as published by the House Republicans.

Read More at the Blaze By Christopher Santarelli, the Blaze

Boehner Should be a Goner

/9 Comments/in /by

Boehner and McCain vied for “Pansy of the Week,” and Boehner won. Despite the polls that revealed overwhelmingly that America wanted no increase in the debt ceiling, Boehner caved like a Hollywood stage chair. As the saying goes, “His ass is grass.”

America deserves a budget that is tighter than a camel’s butt in a sandstorm; however Boehner’s bill essentially doubles the national debt in a decade, thus the Democrats lust for spending is not hampered in the least. The payout to the lien holders, the American taxpayers is over ten years, a deal I dare you to try to cut with the IRS if you owe back taxes.

Any ten year plan for spending by government is a fool’s folly, because America’s back will be broken from the weight of debt long before then. We are clicking off $5B a day in debt service alone, and not even addressing the principal. Why didn’t Boehner just approve America for a reverse mortgage, because that’s what old people do when they don’t plan on leaving the kids and grandkids the house in the will.

Boehner’s deal does not shrink government at all. He had a chance to finally force government to rein in spending, and he dropped the ball. He negotiated with Obama, a guy who is too lazy to scratch his own butt, a guy who hasn’t presented a budget in over eight months. Obama relies on white people to do his work for him, because Obama is incompetent and indolent.

If there were ever a president who needed the credit card cut, as Sheila Jackson implied, “It’s this [black] president.” Obama runs America finances like a hood rat; spending all the money before he even gets his check. Hood rats spend like there’s no tomorrow, because they don’t think about tomorrow.

Read More at The Black Sphere By Kevin Jackson, The Black Sphere

Sarah Palin Defends Tea Party

/8 Comments/in /by

Sarah Palin has become one of the most effective defenders of the Tea Party. Last Night on FOXNEWS she took after Democrats that have called them terrorists. Her best line was when she attacked Obama asking: “If We Were Real Domestic Terrorists, Shoot, President Obama Would Be Wanting to Pal Around With Us, Wouldn’t He?” Go Sarah Go.

Tax Warning: Will Barack Obama Do to America What Leftists Already Have Done to Illinois…and England…and…?

/0 Comments/in /by

Now that the debt-limit fight is basically over (the Senate will join the House in approving it later today), we need to immediately prepare for the next stage in the fight to stop big government and restore economic liberty.

President Obama and other leftists clearly have signaled that they want the new “super committee” – which will recommend $1.5 trillion of deficit reduction before Thanksgiving – to be a vehicle for “balance” and “shared sacrifice.” But if you look in a Statism-to-English dictionary, you learn that “balance” is a code word for higher taxes and “shared sacrifice” means class-warfare taxation.

I’ve already explained that a truly balanced approach requires nothing but spending restraint. And I’ve explained why Obama’s class-warfare taxation is misguided.

Today, let’s look at three real-world examples. We’ll start with the President’s home state. Early this year, using sneaky maneuvering, Illinois politicians raised the state’s income tax rate. I warned that this would drive jobs and businesses out of the state. That was an easy prediction, of course, and we’re already seeing results.Here’s a blurb from a Chicago Sun-Times story.

It’s becoming a habit around here — another day, another stalwart of financial services in Chicago threatening to leave town. On Thursday, it was the Chicago Board Options Exchange suggesting that higher corporate taxes in Illinois could cause it to take jobs out of state. The CBOE’s warning came a day after CME Group Inc. said the same thing. CME owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. The options market, with its headquarters and trading floor at 400 S. La Salle, employs about 580 people, not including traders who use its facilities. A CBOE spokesman said in a statement that “economic realities” could force a move.

Because the CME and CBOE are so high profile, I suspect Illinois politicians will provide some sort of one-off tax holiday or back-door subsidy to prevent this from happening. That won’t solve the problem, of course, which is that high tax rates inexorably will undermine the state’s competitiveness and that ordinary people will pay the highest price.

Read More by Dan Mitchell

Why I Opposed the Debt Limit Increase

/2 Comments/in /by

This act increases the debt limit by between $2.1 and $2.4 trillion, the biggest explosion of debt in American history. It allows the government to avoid spending reductions for the next two years while squandering our last best hope of averting a sovereign debt crisis.

I am opposed to this measure for the following reasons:

The purported cuts, even if realized, are far below the $4 trillion deficit reduction that credit rating agencies have warned is necessary to preserve the Triple-A credit rating of the United States government.

It blows the lid off the House budget passed in April by more than a half-trillion dollars over ten years.

It makes no significant spending reductions for at least the next two years, essentially freezing spending at an unsustainable level. While the debt increase occurs this year, deficit reductions are to be spread over many years and could be reversed by future acts of Congress.

The spending caps are easily circumvented by declaring appropriations to be an emergency, a response to a “major disaster,” or necessary for the “Global War on Terror.”

 Read More at Floyd Reports By Rep. Tom McClintock, Floyd Reports

Limbaugh: Don’t Be Fooled — Debt Deal Means More Taxes

/1 Comment/in /by

Whether the deal to reduce the government deficit passes or not, says radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, the American people are still going to get a tax increase.

“Any way you slice it you are going to get tax increases. That’s how screwed we are,” he said.

Limbaugh blames the complex accounting done by the Congressional Budget Office, he said on his radio show on Monday.

President George W. Bush’s tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of next year, he says. If Obama extends the cuts, the CBO will consider that a $ 5 trillion reduction in government income which will have to be made up elsewhere. If they expire, that’s a direct tax hike on Americans, Limbaugh said.

“Anyone wanting to tell you there are no tax increases in this technically may be right, this piece of legislation does not have a specific tax increases in it. But what’s slated to happen over the next few months results in one,” Limbaugh said.

Read More at NewsMax  By Martin Gould, Newsmax.com

They hate Palin because they can’t control her

/3 Comments/in /by

By AWR Hawkins (BigGovernment.com):

No one in recent memory has faced the left’s vitriol like Sarah Palin (not even George W. Bush). The over-the-top, asinine attacks she’s received have been so ubiquitous they need not even be relisted here. Just suffice it to say there is a genuine hatred of Palin throughout the MSM, the leadership of the Democrat Party, and the Republican Party establishment.

And don’t be fooled folks: they don’t hate her because of her convictions – although they despise her convictions – rather, they hate her because they can’t control her.

Fortunately, the hatred the left holds for Palin is more than overcome by the love conservatives and right-leaning Independents have for her. They see in her a refreshing image that dares cast certain issues in the prism of right and wrong, just and unjust, American and un-American, etc.

Perhaps as a group, the Tea Party has come closest to receiving the kind of vindictive normally reserved for Palin alone. There’s no doubt they’re hated as she is hated, and equally no doubt that the hatred is a result of the fact that the MSM, the leadership of the Democrat Party, and the Republican Party establishment can’t control them.

For example, during the push to get Tea Partiers to “compromise” (which is political speak for check your convictions at the door) and support Boehner 3.0, an angry John McCain took to the Senate floor and referred to Tea Party conservatives in the House as “hobbits,” Senator Lisa Murkowski , whom Alaskans foolishly elected over Joe Miller last year, referred to them as “absolutists,” and John Kerry, the haughty one, described them as a group “of extremists, who don’t understand the implications even of what they’re doing.”

(I’m not 100% sure, but I think Kerry said similar things about Vietnam combat vets who risked life and limb in a war he was able to extricate himself from via a number of wounds no one can prove he received.)

Anyway, lucid readers see that the MSM, the Democrat Party, and the Republican Party establishment loathe the fact that Tea Partiers continue to stand their ground.

Of course we can’t overlook the fact that there is a fear factor involved here as well. One of the reasons the left hates that which it can’t control is because leftists fear what they don’t dictate. Thus, no matter what they said in order to give an air of confidence during the recent debt ceiling negotiations in the House, the bottom line was that Speaker Boehner had the power to sink Obama’s ship had he locked arms with Tea Party conservatives and stood his ground. (The MSM, the Democrat leadership, and the Republican Party establishment all knew this.)

And all their mockery and dismissive language toward Palin notwithstanding, the left likewise knows that when she and the Tea Party lock arms, no one’s seat is safe during a primary or a general election. (The November 2010 elections proved this beyond the shadow of a doubt.) And Palin knows it too, thus, during the House battle over Boehner 3.0 she sent a message via Facebook in which she encouraged conservatives to stand their ground and warned the squeamish: “Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”

Read more HERE.