government BS. Obama's BS. This is ALL BS!
Dec 4, 2012 10:42am
Anna Wintour Reportedly on Obama Short List for US Ambassador
As part of a second-term shakeup of his diplomatic corps, President Obama is reportedly considering the appointment of Vogue editor-in-chief and major campaign donor Anna Wintour as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain or France.
Sources cited by Bloomberg News’ Hans Nichols said Wintour, 63, is among a handful of top Obama financiers interested in the posts, which have become choice presidential rewards for elite political supporters.
Obama is also said to be eyeing campaign finance chairman Matthew Barzun and investment banker Marc Lasry for diplomatic appointments, according to Bloomberg.
All three figures – Wintour, Barzun and Lasry – are Obama bundlers, each raising more than $500,000 for his 2012 re-election bid, according to estimates provided by the Obama campaign.
Vogue spokeswoman Megan Salt would not confirm whether Wintour has been approached about a diplomatic job, or whether she’d consider it, telling ABC News that Wintour is “very happy with her current job.”
Neither Lasry nor Barzun, 42, the former U.S. ambassador to Sweden, could be reached for comment. A White House official did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.
Rumors of an official post for Wintour have swirled for months, following her high-profile role in hosting star-studded Obama fundraising events and pushing a grassroots campaign fundraising contest.
Wintour, actress Gwyneth Paltrow and designer Tom Ford hosted a $15,000-per-plate fundraiser for Obama in London Sept. 19, according to an invitation obtained by the Sunlight Foundation.
She also co-hosted a $40,000-per-plate fundraising dinner at the New York City home of actress Sarah Jessica Parker in June and a $35,800-a-head event at the Connecticut home of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in August. Obama attended both events.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama spoke out against the influence of special interests inside the executive branch, criticizing those who had “turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.”
Still, as iWatch News reported last year, many of Obama’s 2008 campaign bundlers received prestigious appointments and exclusive access.
Telecom executive and Obama financier Donald Gips became the ambassador to South Africa. The current U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis Susman, was a fundraising machine for Obama’s 2008 run.
And in April, Obama nominated Timothy Broas, who also raised more than $500,000 for Obama four years ago, to be the next ambassador to the Netherlands.
Re: government BS. Obama's BS. This is ALL BS!
Perhaps this is the type of activity that made the Governor in Walking Dead write in his journal as such:
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Re: government BS. Obama's BS. This is ALL BS!
Obviously he had an OCD problem.
LOL
Re: government BS. Obama's BS. This is ALL BS!
This fiscal cliff is BS, all of it. DAMNED BS.
Some of the people involved need to take a leap off a 'physical cliff' and stop screwing with the American Public.
Obama: No fiscal cliff deal without higher rates
President Barack Obama says there will be no deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans drop their opposition to raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
http://seattletimes.com/ABPub/2012/12/04/2019824792.jpg
http://seattletimes.com/art/ui/1024/...ns/enlarge.gifPABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / AP
National Governors Association (NGA) Vice Chair, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, center, talks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, Tuesday, following a meeting between the NGA executive committee and President Barack Obama regarding the fiscal cliff.
Boehner signaled in discussions with Obama in 2011 that he was willing to accept up to... (December 4, 2012, by cougdev) MORE
Did I cover everything? You forgot to include the birthers, but your post pretty... (December 4, 2012, by cougdev) MORE
"That will surely be brought up by some unbalanced commenter here." Yes... (December 4, 2012, by AlanRey) MORE
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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says there will be no deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans drop their opposition to raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.
However, Obama is signaling flexibility on where the rates eventually wind up. Obama says he knows he won't get everything that he wants in negotiations with congressional Republicans. He made the comments Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The president campaigned for re-election on a plan to raise the rates on the top 2 percent of income earners to 39.6 percent, which is where they were under former President Bill Clinton. Obama administration officials have indicated they would be open to keeping the rate lower if the same amount of revenue can be achieved through closing tax loopholes and other measures.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Republicans are proposing a "fiscal cliff" plan that revives ideas from failed budget talks with President Barack Obama last year, calling for raising the eligibility age for Medicare, lowering cost-of-living hikes for Social Security benefits and bringing in $800 billion in higher tax revenue.
The counter to a White House plan last week relies more on politically sensitive spending cuts and would raise half the $1.6 trillion in revenue proposed by Obama over the coming decade.
The 10-year, $2.2 trillion proposal from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, resembles a framework similar to what Boehner supported last year, but Obama is pressing for additional tax increases and appears to be balking at spending cuts discussed in those talks and since.
Administration officials from Obama on down say it'll take money from raising tax rates on the rich - instead of GOP proposals to simply curb their deductions - to win Obama's approval of any plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
It has been nearly a week since Obama and Boehner talked directly about the looming cliff, though their staffs have been in contact. Boehner attended a congressional holiday party at the White House Monday night, but avoided the photo line where members get their picture taken with the president and have a few minutes to talk.
Obama met with a bipartisan group of governors, who sought assurances that any cuts in spending as part of an agreement on the fiscal cliff wouldn't shift the burden onto states. The governors said they wanted flexibility from the federal government on certain mandated programs like Medicaid to allow them to do more with less.
"We asked for flexibility on how the federal money is passed down to the states and the cuts that are passed down, that we could have some flexibility to do what's in the best interest of our states," said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican.
The governors said they were not endorsing any particular proposal but said they wanted to share their ideas on ways that states could play a role in helping reduce the deficit. The governors were meeting later in the day with congressional leaders and said they planned to work with Vice President Joe Biden in the coming weeks.
The governors said that states need certainty as they craft their budget proposals but Obama expressed to them an interest in reaching an agreement with congressional Republicans.
The Republican proposal Monday, while intended to break a stalemate in place since the administration last week angered Republicans with a $1.6 trillion plan that largely exempted Medicare and Social Security from budget cuts, sparked a predictable round of partisanship.
"To protect the middle class while reducing the deficit, simple math dictates that tax rates must rise on the top 2 percent of taxpayers next year," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. "The sooner Republicans grasp that reality, the sooner we can avoid the fiscal cliff."
The fiscal cliff is a combination of expiring Bush-era tax cuts and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts due to take effect in January. The cliff is a result of prior failures of Congress and Obama to make a budget deal.
The GOP proposal itself revives a host of ideas from failed talks with Obama in the summer of 2011. Then, Obama was willing to discuss politically risky ideas such as raising the eligibility age for Medicare, implementing a new inflation adjustment for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments and requiring wealthier Medicare recipients to pay more for their benefits.
Boehner called that a "credible plan" and said he hoped the administration would "respond in a timely and responsible way." The offer came after the administration urged Republicans to detail proposals to cut popular benefit programs like Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.
But Obama and his Democratic allies are less willing to look to these benefit programs for cuts after his re-election last month and believe Obama possesses far more leverage now than he did in secret budget talks with Boehner last year.
Monday's Republican plan contains few specifics and anticipates that myriad details would have to be filled in next year in legislation overhauling the tax code and curbing the growth of benefit programs.
Though the GOP plan proposes to raise $800 billion in higher tax revenue over the same 10 years, it would keep the Bush-era tax cuts - including those for wealthier earners targeted by Obama - in place for now.
GOP aides said their plan was based on one presented by Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of a deficit commission Obama appointed earlier in his term, in testimony to a special deficit "supercommittee" last year.
"The new revenue in the Bowles plan would not be achieved through higher tax rates, which we continue to oppose and will not agree to in order to protect small businesses and our economy," Boehner and fellow Republicans said in a letter to Obama. "Instead, new revenue would be generated through pro-growth tax reform that closes special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates."
By GOP math, the plan would produce more than $2 trillion in budget savings over the coming decade: $800 billion in higher taxes; $600 billion in savings from costly health care programs like Medicare; $300 billion from other proposals such as forcing federal workers to contribute more toward their pensions; and $300 billion in additional savings from the Pentagon budget and domestic programs funded by Congress each year.
Boehner signaled in discussions with Obama in 2011 that he was willing to accept up to $800 billion in higher tax revenues, but his aides maintained that much of that money would have come from so-called dynamic scoring - a conservative approach in which economic growth would have accounted for much of the revenue. Now, Boehner is willing to accept the estimates of official scorekeepers like the Congressional Budget Office, whose models reject dynamic scoring.
Using the administration's math, GOP aides said, the plan represents $4.6 trillion in 10-year savings. That estimate accounts for earlier cuts enacted during last year's showdown over lifting the government's borrowing cap and also factors in war savings and lower interest payments on the $16.4 trillion national debt.
Last week, the White House delivered to Capitol Hill its opening proposal: $1.6 trillion in higher taxes over a decade, a possible extension of the temporary Social Security payroll tax cut and heightened presidential power to raise the national debt limit without the approval of Congress.
In exchange, the president would back $600 billion in spending cuts, including $350 billion from Medicare and other health programs. But he also wants $200 billion in new spending for jobless benefits, public works projects and aid for struggling homeowners. His proposal for raising the ceiling on government borrowing would make it virtually impossible for Congress to block him going forward.
One of the few things the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans can agree on is a framework that would make a "down payment" on the deficit and extend all or most of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts but leave most of the legislative grunt work until next year.
Other participants in the Tuesday meeting between Obama and the governors included Republicans Gary Herbert of Utah and Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Democrats Mike Beebe of Arkansas and Mark Dayton of Minnesota.
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Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
Re: government BS. Obama's BS. This is ALL BS!
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/20264712/detroit-councilwoman-to-obama-we-supported-you-now-support-us
Video/audio at the site.
Detroit councilwoman to Obama: We voted for you, now bail us out
Posted: Dec 05, 2012 5:00 AM MST Updated: Dec 05, 2012 6:39 AM MST
http://WJBK.images.worldnow.com/images/20264712_BG1.jpg
By FOX 2 News Staff
DETROIT (WJBK) -- The city of Detroit faces a major financial crisis and one member of city council thinks President Barack Obama should step in and help.
City Council member JoAnn Watson said Tuesday the citizens support of Obama in last month's election was enough reason for the president to bailout the struggling the city. (Click the video player to listen)
"Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that," said Watson. "Of course, not just that, but why not?"
Nearly 75 percent of Wayne County voters pulled the lever for Obama in November.
"After the election of Jimmy Carter, the honorable Coleman Alexander Young, he went to Washington, D.C. and came home with some bacon," said Watson. "That's what you do."
Young served as Detroit's mayor for 20 years and served as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1977 to 1981.
The White House has expressed no plans to bailout the cash-crunched city that some experts say could run out of money by the end of the year.
The federal government has bailed out cities in the past, however. In 1975, President Gerald Ford extended more than $2 billion in credit to New York City to help it avoid a financial collapse.
Re: government BS. Obama's BS. This is ALL BS!
Prior to begining the impeachment process we must urge the US Supreme Court to OVERTURN Presidential Executive Order 13489
Prior to begining the impeachment process we must urge the US Supreme Court to OVERTURN Presidential Executive Order 13489.
by Brenda Battle Jordan on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Prior to begining the impeachment process we must urge the US Supreme Court to OVERTURN Presidential Executive Order 13489. The FIRST official act BHO did after he was sworn in was to “seal” ALL of his personal information from the public. Full Executive Order read here:http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-1712.pdf If BHO has nothing to hide, WHY was his FIRST OFFICIAL ACT to seal his records and personal info? If it found to be true that he IS NOT a natural born citizen, he must be REMOVED by force and tried for treason along with all accomplices. All Acts, Orders, Bills signed by BHO are NULL & VOID.
Defenders of the Constitution, We are a coalition dedicated to the preservation of America’s natural-born citizen requirement and to The Presidential Eligibility Act H.R.1503 bill. Thanks to your work we have helped introduce legislation in 13 states that will uphold our natural-born citizen requirement. However no matter where you are or what state you live demand your reps to hold America’s natural-born citizen requirement.
But right now our primary objective is to pass the AZ legislation HB 2177 and HB 1157 it is very close to passing the next few days will determine if it will or not. We need you to please send an email or make a call to one or all of the AZ reps who’s contact info will be provided in the link below! We need to help AZ get these bills passed….. It will have an effect on the 2012 election.
Donald Trump has taken a special interest in this particular legislation and has flown a team from AZ to NY to discuss this important legislation. We can not express on how important it is. If you have any questions please contact us! http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp?Body=Hhttp://www.azleg.gov/Me... This is Urgent. H.R.1503 COALITION hr1503coalition@yahoo.com
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-1712.pdf
www.gpo.gov
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Re: government BS. Obama's BS. This is ALL BS!
well, there IS a war going on. No one is noticing it yet though.
