Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, made his “fiscal cliff” position clear in a press conference today. “We are not going to do anything,” said Reid.
Reid added, “We are not taking up anything they are working on over there.”
The top Democrat in the Senate was explaining his inaction on the House plan, the proposal put forward by Republican John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Boehner’s plan is being referred to as ‘Plan B.’
“Boehner described his Plan B as a fallback option to prevent a sweeping tax hike when tax cuts from the administration of President George W. Bush expire at the end of the year. Sources said the Boehner measure also would include extending the current estate tax and alternative minimum tax, two steps sought by Republicans,” reports CNN.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-12-21 03:40:492012-12-21 03:40:49Harry Reid: ‘We Are Not Going to Do Anything’ On Fiscal Cliff
While billions of pieces of mail safely reached their destinations this year, postal employees in Georgia pocketed over 1,300 federal checks, pleading this month to stealing nearly $3 million in Treasury checks — including veterans checks, Social Security checks, and tax refunds.
Gerald Easton of Stockbridge, Georgia plead guilty to the theft in early December, which occurred while he was working as a supervisor at an Atlanta mail distribution center and to conspiring with another employee at the facility. Four other non-postal workers have plead guilty to their roles in the conspiracy.
Paul Bowman, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service in the Office of Inspector General, noted that Easton and his co-conspirator Deborah Fambro-Echols (who plead guilty in late November) are a few bad eggs among a group that is largely committed to fulfilling their mission.
“We take these cases very serious and investigate them to the fullest extent of the law. The majority of Postal Service employees are honest, hardworking, and committed to providing the timely and reliable service that customers expect and deserve,” Bowman said in a statement.
The Washington Guardian which first reported the theft Wednesday, added that between April and September 2012, 171 Postal Service employees were arrested for “theft, willful delay or destruction of mail.” Last year the service delivered 167.9 billion pieces of mail. The service employs 546,000 employees, The Guardian added.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-12-21 03:33:412012-12-21 03:33:41Former Postal Employees Plead Guilty to Stealing Millions in Treasury Checks
LITTLE ROCK – On Monday, Bill Clinton moderated a discussion about empowering the world’s women.
But the event was also clearly focused on the Clintons themselves. “Friend of Bill” Jerry Jones, senior vice president of Little Rock-based Acxiom, quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the group, reminding them of her words in Beijing to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”
Jones also lamented to the group that the United States, unlike many nations in the world, still hasn’t had a female president. (A possible hint about 2016?)
Hillary Clinton, who is recovering from stomach flu and a fainting spell that gave her a concussion, addressed the group via video before her husband entered the room. In the message, taped prior to her illness, Hillary Clinton praised the city of Little Rock, which this year renamed an airport in her and her husband’s honor, in her brief remarks.
She also said the topic of women was “near and dear to her heart,” especially “how to harness the power of women around the world.”
Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican and Marine combat veteran, called on Americans Thursday to boycott Mexico until that nation releases Jon Hammar, a former U.S. marine, from prison.
Mr. Hunter also said he is prepared to go to Mexico personally to demand Mr. Hammar’s release.
Mexican authorities are holding Mr. Hammer on weapons charges after he carried his grandfather’s antique shotgun across the border into Mexico in August.
Facing a rank-and-file GOP revolt, House Speaker John Boehner abruptly canceled a vote Thursday night on a plan to raise taxes for the wealthy, bringing the country closer to a plunge down the “fiscal cliff.”
The House then recessed until after Christmas. The development raises questions about whether Boehner could muster support among Tea Partyers in the GOP-controlled House for a broader deal to avert the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts on Jan.1.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the sudden development showed that Boehner must now work with Democrats to try to avoid the cliff.
“Speaker Boehner’s partisan approach wasted an entire week and pushed middle-class families closer to the edge,” Reid said. “The only way to avoid the cliff altogether is for Speaker Boehner to return to negotiations, and work with President Obama and the Senate to forge a bipartisan deal.”
According to a GOP source familiar with the vote coun, “the veto threat and opposition from the White House and the Senate Majority Leader made some members feel like they were taking a risky vote for no reason, even though the bill did not actually include a tax hike. Now, the President and Senate Majority Leader must find a solution to this crisis.”
The Benghazi Report has condemned the State Department for “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies.” Four officials have resigned, and a few more lesser heads are likely to roll. Secretary Clinton may have said she takes full responsibility, but she has successfully managed to avoid taking the blame. With the holidays fast approaching, she and senior White House officials can now wash their hands of the matter.
But the Benghazi report misses the point. The events of September 11 are a symptom of a much larger problem — the Obama administration’s entire Middle East policy has failed. And the problem is about to get much worse as the as yet unpunished but ascendant Al Qaeda and its affiliates contemplate what they might do next to attack Americans.
Less than two years ago, the entire region was at peace. Granted, it was an uneasy peace, but it’s a region where for thousands of years an uneasy peace was as good as it gets. Granted, many countries were governed by dictators, but at least they were pro-American dictators. Granted, some countries continually railed against Israel, but none of them were actually in a fighting war with Israel.
Fast forward to today. Everything has changed. The entire region is in upheaval. With our help, Egypt has replaced a pro-American dictator with what promises to be an anti-American Muslim Brotherhood dictator and Islamist constitution. We helped Libyan rebels topple their dictator, yet their new government is has failed to consolidate control. They are cowed by Al Qaeda affiliated militias and couldn’t – or wouldn’t – prevent the Benghazi attack and assassinations of our diplomats. Syria’s vicious civil war threatens to go from horrific to hellish as Al Qaeda sympathizers and Islamic extremists take over the rebel cause, chemical weapons go missing, and the ethno-sectarian violence spills over to infect Syria’s neighbors and threaten our NATO ally Turkey. Iran is on the cusp of becoming a nuclear power and the dominant power in the region. Any hopes that a post-Saddam Iraq would be a pro-American ally have vanished as Iraq falls increasingly into the Iranian orbit. We will end up fighting our way out of Afghanistan, as it descends into multiparty civil war once the last American soldier takes the last helicopter out. At best, countries will be governed by the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood. At worst, chaos will ensue. Political and economic chaos are waiting in the wings, and radical Islamists, terrorists and Al Qaeda expand their influence throughout the region.
If the chaos and upheavals continue, which seems likely, we could in a few years see a region stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to Pakistan which is anti-American and consumed by ethno-sectarian violence. The region extends from North Africa to the Middle East to the Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf to Central Asia. It’s home to terrorists, much of the world’s exported oil and our long time ally Israel.
CLERMONT — If you’re expecting packages shipped to your home this time of year, you may be worried about thieves grabbing them from your doorstep before you get home.
A number of missing packages in one Lake County neighborhood prompted neighbors to set up a sting, and now, police said they believe they’ve cracked the case.
Jessica Araujo runs a business from her Clermont home, where she regularly receives shipments. Over the last few months, she thought several packages worth more than $1,800 never arrived, but she said she didn’t suspect they were stolen.
That is, until last week, when her neighbors on Briar Run Drive reported they also had packages of gifts stolen from their front doorstep.
According to police reports, the packages included Barbie dolls, children’s makeup and children’s cell phones.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-12-21 02:41:482012-12-21 02:41:48Thief Who Stole Packages From Neighbor’s Doorsteps Turns Out To Be Eight-Year-Old Girl
A three-time U.S. Olympian who was publicity exposed on Thursday as an elite $600-an-hour escort has revealed that her husband knew about her double life and tried to put an end to it. Suzy Favor-Hamilton, a 44-year-old married mother of three, has been working with one of Las Vegas’ top agencies to book ‘dates’ across cities including Las Vegas, Chicago and Houston.
Despite using the name ‘Kelly Lundy’ as she advertised her services through Haley Heston’s Private Collection, her double life has been revealed after she told clients about her real identity, believing there was an unwritten rule they would not speak out.
But now at least one of these clients has contacted The Smoking Gun, which in turn has revealed the details of Favor-Hamilton’s clandestine career, which she now calls a ‘huge mistake.’
Soon after the story appeared online, instantly sparking a furor in the media, Favor-Hamilton took to Twitter to offer her 3,183 followers her side of the story. In one missive, the 44-year-old mother explained that she was initially drawn to escorting ‘because it provided many coping mechanisms for me when I was going through a very challenging time with my marriage and my life.
‘It provided an escape from a life that I was struggling in. It was a double life,’ she wrote.
In another, Favor-Hamilton wrote that the reasons behind her decision to turn to a life of prostitution, while seemingly irrational now, ‘made sense at the time’ and were closely related to depression. ‘As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody,’ she said in one Twitter post.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-12-21 02:12:102012-12-21 02:12:10Three-Time Olympian Worked as $600/hour Escort
President Obama says he wants a “balanced” approach to the fiscal cliff. But critics argue the real problem is spending, which has far outstripped rising tax revenue as well as economic growth.
Federal government revenue rose from $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion from fiscal 1998 to 2012, slightly exceeding inflation. Revenue growth averaged 2.9% annually, despite two recessions, bear markets — and tax cuts.
But federal spending rose nearly twice as fast — 5.7% per year — surging from $1.6 trillion to $3.5 trillion over that same span.
The spending spike also exceeds growth in the population.
Some of the spending surge came during the Bush administration — the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, increases in non-defense discretionary spending and the creation of the Medicare prescription drug entitlement.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-12-20 03:55:222012-12-20 03:55:22Federal Spending Up 78% After Inflation Since 1998
Piers Morgan loses it in this exchange, calling 2nd Amendment patriot Larry Pratt “incredibly stupid,” among other things. What made Morgan so mad? Mr. Pratt ran circles around him:
MORGAN: Can you answer my question?
PRATT: I’m answering your question. I wish you could understand it. Because you’re talking against self-defense.
MORGAN: Would you like to see — would you like to see — would you like to see —
PRATT: You’re talking against people being able to protect themselves.
MORGAN: Would you like to see teachers armed —
PRATT: And you don’t want to hear it, that’s why you keep interrupting me.
MORGAN: No, no, I don’t mind hearing it. I think it’s complete nonsense. But I mind hearing it. You would like to see —
PRATT: Well, Brits tend to do that, don’t they?
MORGAN: Stop being so facetious. I just want you to answer this one question. Post what happened at Sandy Hook, your answer to this problem of repeated use of this weapon with these high-capacity magazines is to continue letting Americans buy them with impunity, and to not concern yourself with these mass shootings. Is that right?
PRATT: The Second Amendment means what it says, and meanwhile, you want to continue laws against self-defense. Laws that prohibit self-defense. Laws that prohibit teachers and other faculty, other members of the administration in schools from being able to defend themselves if they have a concealed carry permit. The laws prohibit them right now. We have been lobbying against those laws since they were put on. We will continue to do so, pointing out that that is where the problem is. And for you to support them means that you’re really blind to the role that that plays in enabling murderers to operate within impunity.
MORGAN: Yes, I know — I know why sales of these weapons have been soaring in the last few days. It’s down to idiots like you. Mr. Pratt, thank you for joining me. When we come back —
PRATT: Thank you for your high-level argument, Mr. Morgan. It’s really very good.
MORGAN: You know what, you wouldn’t understand the meaning of the phrase high-level argument. You are a dangerous man espousing dangerous nonsense. And you shame your country.
PRATT: Disarmament is dangerous. Ask Neville Chamberlain, your role model.
MORGAN: Yes. Sure. I know all about role models and you’re not one of them.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-12-20 01:50:492012-12-20 01:50:49Must Watch Video: Gun Owners of America Larry Pratt Skewers Anti-Gun Piers Morgan