Quotes of the Week

What would you think tax returns, cheerleaders, and the Three Stooges have in common? Well, I'll tell ya'.... Here are a few quotes from this week that just have to make you laugh:

On Taxes -

Censured reprobate US Rep. Charles Rangel thought he would put his 2-cents in about Romney's May 2012 statement that 47% of our citizens do not pay taxes with his own official statement on his House.gov website. I have linked to the entire statement, but here are two quotes that are just laughable knowing the source:

"Before he judges other people about paying federal income taxes, Gov. Romney should come clean about the tax returns he's hiding from voters."

Oh, and this -

"[Mr. Romney] has absolutely no moral authority to accuse nearly half of the American people of being irresponsible and freeloaders".

He actually used the term "moral authority". This from the man who was censured by the House in December 2010 for among other thing, failing to pay his income taxes. Well, okay, in all fairness to Rep. Rangel, he did not say that Romney said that 47% of our citizens FAIL to pay taxes like he does. He just said that Romney was wrong to say that 47% DON'T pay taxes.

On cheerleaders -

Current Vice President Joseph Biden landed safely (no pedestrians maimed or killed) at Newport High School in New Hampshire this week to talk (inexplicably) to some high school atheletes about who knows what. Good Ol' Joe scanned the crowd and asked which sports were represented. After all the regular team sports were accounted for, a group of cheerleader shouted out their participation too. And this is how the man who is a breath away from being leader of the free world responded:

“Guess what, the cheerleaders in college are the best athletes in college. You think, I’m joking, they’re almost all gymnasts, the stuff they do on hard wood, it blows my mind.” [emphasis added]

As always, this was one of Joe's unscripted and a just plain WTH moment. Oh, I know, that's just Joe being the creepy Uncle Joe with whom young girls are scared to be alone.

And finally On The Three Stooges -
Here is a quote from a Three Stooges classic (Slippery Silk 1937) that I saw this morning that just seemed appropriate. [Yes, I watch the Three Stooges!]:

Man: "Is this work in competent hands?"
Curly: "Soitainly, we're all incompetent!"

It is almost as if they knew there would one day be an Obama Administration...

[+] Read More...

[-] Collapse Post...

Do You Miss Charlie Rangel Yet?

Yesterday, Charlie Rangel lost his Chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee after one too many bouts with corruption. Rangel, an important ally of Nancy Pelosi stepped down after doing everything short of sleeping with young boys. If they had more money, he would have done that too, but they didn’t so he didn’t. Ding dong the witch is dead! No one could ever miss Rangel, right? Well, the Democrats are about to put that to the test with new Committee Chair Pete [expletive] Stark.

With an elitist education and having founded the $100 million Security National Bank, Fortney Hillman “Pete” Stark Jr. is your standard stinking rich progressive hypocrite.

He is the sixth most senior member of the House, having first descended upon Congress in 1973. He represents Alameda County, which is Oakland Raiders country. This is actually quite fitting as Stark’s as loony as Raiders owner and noted-vampire Al Davis, and he’s about as big of an a~hole as any five Oakland Raiders combined.

He’s been voted the most liberal member of Congress twice in recent years. He also helped found the Congressional Progressive Caucus, an organization dedicated to destroying freedom. His views are, to say the least, questionable, and I’m pretty sure he eats his own feces.

Here are just a few reasons you shouldn’t rush to hit the brakes if he steps out in front of your car (try to remember that this turd is a Congressman):

• In 1990, Stark attacked Bush HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan, an accomplished doctor and medical researcher who also happens to be black, by saying he is “a disgrace to his race and his profession.” The Congressional Black Caucus didn’t raise a peep, though Sullivan responded: “I guess I should feel ashamed because Congressman Stark thinks I am not a ‘good Negro.’” Yep.

• In a 2001 hearing on abstinence promotion, racist Stark referred to Oklahoma Republican J.C. Watts, another black, as “the current Republican Conference Chairman whose children were all born out of wedlock.” Again, not a peep from the Congressional Black Caucus. Maybe they were too busy cleaning up to please Biden or learning to talk in non-negro dialects to please Harry Reid?

• In 2005, Stark tried to shout down Colorado Republican Scott McInnis during a committee hearing on pensions, repeatedly calling him a “fruitcake” and a “c*cksucker.” When McInnis told him to be quiet, Stark responded: “Oh, you think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp? Come on. Come over here and make me. I dare you. You little fruitcake.” Not a word of protest was heard from any gay groups despite the use of these supposedly gay slurs.

• In 1995, sexist Stark called Connecticut Republican Nancy Johnson “a whore” for the insurance industry and suggested that her knowledge of health care came solely from “pillow talk.” No feminists objected of course.

• In 1991, anti-Semite Stark singled out “Jew colleagues” for causing the Persian Gulf War and referred to Democrat Stephen Solarz as “Field Marshal Solarz in the pro-Israel forces.”

• In 1999, Stark attacked California state welfare director Eloise Anderson by complaining that she would “kill children if she had her way.”

• In May 2004, when Army National Guardsman Daniel Dow faxed a letter to Stark’s office objecting to his refusal to support a non-controversial bill expressing support for American troops, Stark called his house, leaving a message on Dow’s machine calling Dow an “idiot” and stating: “Probably somebody put you up to this, and I’m not sure who it was, but I doubt if you could spell half the words in the letter and somebody wrote it for you. So I don’t pay too much attention to it. . . But I’ll call you back later. [To] let you tell me why you think you’re such a great, god-damned hero.”

• In a townhall meeting in 2009, he told one constituent: “I wouldn't dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn't be worth wasting the urine.”

• Twice, Stark claimed his lakefront Maryland (East Coast) home as his primary residence to avoid real estate taxes. . . while representing the people of California.

• Stark is the first openly atheistic member of Congress. I have no problems with that, as it’s not my place to judge someone else’s religion unless they try to impose it on others. But in January 2007, Stark issued a statement saying: “I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social service."

• He is one of two Congressmen who support the draft.

• In August 2009, Stark said that moderate Democrats were “for the most part. . . brain dead.” I guess he can't always be wrong? But then he laughably continued, “they’re just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right-wing agenda.”

• In October 2007, Stark said this about the Iraq war:

“I’m just amazed [Republicans] can’t figure out [how to] pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war? You don’t have money to fund the war on children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if he can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.”

I wonder if he was serious about starting a war on children?

So that’s Stark: an anti-Semite, a racist, the worst kind of sexist, an idiot, a tax cheat, and a hateful sack of sh*t. That's the "man" who will now run the most power committee in the Congress.

I told you that you would miss Charlie Rangel.

Oh, and if you didn’t think Al Davis and the Raiders weren’t reason enough to nuke Oakland, maybe Stark will make you reconsider.


*** UPDATE *** They announced a little bit ago that Saunder Levin (D-Mich) will take over the committee instead. There is no word on how this decision was made, but it's a much better one. Now they just need to drive a guy like Stark out of their party.

[+] Read More...

[-] Collapse Post...

New York State of Mind

Snow, snow and more snow...City Hall this morning.





I love it when it snows in New York City. Up to 20 inches of snow was reported in Central Park yesterday and it was just beautiful. Well, beautiful until the city grime started to blend with the mounds of snow. The phrase "pure as the driven snow" means something entirely different in Manhattan than in the rest of the world. 'Cause once it's been driven over a few times, the only thing that's pure is the schmutz! However for that first hour or so, it's like a giant pastry chef sprinkled powdered sugar all over the city and made the biggest confection in the world. It's downright magical.

Anyway, on to other news -

Sports - New Jersey Nets have won 5 out of 57 games this season. They are on track to have THE worst season in professional basketball history. Go Team!!

Local - Former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik was sentence this week to four years in Federal prison for eight counts of corruption, conspiracy, and tax fraud. The judge actually gave him a harsher sentence than was recommended because some of his crimes were committed while he was "the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has." Kerik has fallen a long way since his stellar performance along side Mayor Guiliani in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Very sad.

State - Well, it's official. Governor David Patterson had THE shortest gubernatorial campaign in history. On Wednesday, he formally announced that he was running for Governor and on Friday, he formally announced that he was dropping out amid great pressure from his own party. In all fairness, with what he had to work with, he has done a pretty decent job. He was thrust into the hotseat by Client #9 Elliot Spitzer and inherited a multi-billion dollar deficit and a recalcitrant Legislature. As one of his first acts, he had to appoint a replacement for Hillary Clinton. Admiringly, he went against Obama's wishes by appointing Kirsten Gillibrand rather than President Obama's patronage appointee, Caroline Kennedy. An act that caused President Obama to shortly after publically request that Patterson not make a run for Governor. Even though Obama was publically chastised for interfering in New York state business by Charlie Rangel [we'll get to him in a minute], he got the revenge he wanted. Now the Democrats' heir-apparent Andrew Cuomo has a clear field for the race for Governor.

Federal - Finally some movement in the ongoing investigations into Charles Rangel's alleged ethics violations. The House Ethics committee decided on Thursday that Rangel knew or should have known that he accepted corporate gifts in the form of Caribbean trips in violation of House ethics rules. Of course he denies any wrong doing and refuses to step aside (or down) as Chairman of the House Ways and Means committe claiming that "his staff never told him about [any] corporate sponsors." Yes, Charlie used the old "When in trouble, blame the incompetant assistant" ploy. The Ethics committee stopped short of recommending any punishment, but then they still have to complete the numerous investigations on Rangel's other alleged violations reported on earlier posts.

Even though Rangel refuses to step aside, the good news is now Democratic members of the House are requesting (dare I say, demanding) that he step aside or resign his Chairmanship until the investigations are completed. Speaker Pelosi continues to side-step the issue, but then, maybe she thinks they are over. In the Fall of 2008, she stated emphatically that these investigations would be completed by January 2009. I predict [or wishfully think] that Charlie may do a Evan Bayh and "decide" to not run for re-election this November for the good of the nation.

One more parting shot -

For those of you who may not know, today marked the first anniversary of the Tea Party demonstrations and we marked it with, you guessed it, a demonstration!
[+] Read More...

[-] Collapse Post...

Top 10 Scandals of 2009

Every year has its share of scandals. It might surprise you that 2009 was no different. In fact, there were dozens of scandals. But I've picked out the ten biggies of 2009. So without further adieu, here are the top ten scandals of 2009. . . in no particular order.

1. Fake Stimulus Jobs

Democratic President Obama’s sole “achievement” to date has been the massive “stimulus” package. But the stimulus didn’t create any jobs. So Obama came up with the idea that it would “save OR create” jobs. That still didn’t work. So they put together a list of nearly 700,000 jobs that they claimed were saved. But an examination of that list quickly found that many of the jobs did not exist. Then it was discovered that stimulus money was spent in Congressional districts that did not exist. And sometimes, it was spent on people who were owed money by members of Team Obama. At this point, at least 20% of the 700,000 have turned out to be fake.

2. Taxes Are For Little People

Democratic President Obama came to office promising a higher level of competence and ethics. But five of his nominees were blasted right out of the gate for not paying their taxes. Tom Daschle was forced to withdraw his nomination after it was discovered that he failed to pay $140,000 in back taxes, as was appointee Nancy Killefer.

Tim Geithner managed to get confirmed despite not paying his taxes, though he’s now involved in a new scandal. Apparently, Geithner directed AIG to delay publicly disclosing that tax dollars were used to pay $62 billion in insurance-like bets owed to major American and foreign banks, so that the disclosure would not interfere with his nomination.

But taxes weren’t the only problems for Obama nominees. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination after it was disclosed that Richardson was involved in pay-to-play allegation related to bonds issued by the state of New Mexico. According to Bloomberg, a federal grand jury was investigating the relationship between Richardson and a company called CDR Financial Products, Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority after donating $100,000 to Richardson.

3. ACORN

Democratic ally ACORN first came to public attention in 2008, when its workers registered a whole lot of fake people to vote. In 2009, ACORN was exposed as an all around criminal organization that used Federal funds for who knows what. The final straw came when ACORN volunteers around the country advised two reporters, posing as a prostitute and her pimp, how to get away with human trafficking and tax evasion. This caused the Census to drop ACORN’s involvement in the 2010 Census and Congress to cut off their funding, an act ACORN is now challenging in court.

4. Hiking the Appalachian Trail

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, seen by many as a strong candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012, gave us a new euphemism: hiking the Appalachian Trail. In our coarsened culture, there are affairs and then there’s just plain stupid, and Sanford gave us stupid in spades. The scandal began when people realized that no one knew where Sanford was, including his staff. He told them he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but in reality he was getting busy in Buenos Aires, Argentina with his mistress. . . sparking a national game of Where’s Waldo and killing any aspirations he had for higher office.

5. Max Baucus Falls In Love

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus too hiked the Appalachian Trail this year. He then recommended that his mistress and former campaign worker, Melodee Hanes, be appointed as the United States Attorney for Montana. This was after Baucus gave her a $14,000 raise after they became romantically involved.

6. Chris Dodd’s Sweetheart Deal

Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, the creature from Connecticut and Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which regulates the financial industry, was discovered to have gotten a sweetheart deal on a loan for a Capitol Hill townhouse from subprime lender Countrywide Financial. Dodd claimed he didn’t know he got a sweetheart deal.

Dodd also claimed he had nothing to do with the AIG bonusgate, though he later acknowledge that he had added the language to the stimulus bill that allowed AIG to pay those bonuses. Dodd also became infamous for insisting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sound and for refusing to reign them in. Not coincidentally, Dodd received more contributions from Fannie and Freddie than anyone else on earth.

All of this has caused Dodd to give up his re-election campaign.

7. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Salesman of the Year

Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached in 2009 after it was discovered that he tried to sell Obama’s seat in the Senate -- he had the power to appoint a successor. Obama initially claimed to have never heard of Blagojevich, but photos soon surfaced of the two doing everything together except hiking the Appalachian Trail. Even for a place as hopelessly corrupt as Illinois, this was a little too much.

8. Climategate

Perhaps the most important scandal of our time began when a hacker exposed a trail of e-mails between a small group of scientists who appear to have been manufacturing the global-warming crisis. (I will finally provide my long-promised article on this on Monday.) This scandal seems to have finally exposed the socialist/climate-change lobby.

9. Charlie “RICO” Rangel

Democratic Representative Charlie Rangel’s problems began years ago, but they really hit their stride in 2009. At the end of 2008, we learned that Rangel, who writes the United States tax code as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, failed to pay his taxes on various properties and that he took improper exemptions. He claimed ignorance. In August 2009, Rangel disclosed that he had previously failed to disclose $500,000 in assets and income, effectively doubling his declared net worth.

It was then discovered that a company called Nabors Industries was using a loophole Rangel was protecting (after fighting to close it for years) to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in taxes by opening a small outlet in Bermuda and calling themselves a foreign corporation. Nabors Industries, coincidentally, donated one million dollars to the Rangel Center at the City College of New York. Only four companies in the USA benefit from this loophole.

Then it was discovered that Rangel gave $80,000 in campaign funds to a company founded by his son that may not do anything.

In September, it was discovered that Rangel had prevented a bill from coming to a vote that would have prevented $2.8 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds from going to British alcohol giant Diageo to make rum in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rangel received significant campaign contributions from Diageo.

10. Bonusgate

After blowing trillions of dollars bailing out huge banks that over-extended themselves, it was revealed that team Obama allowed AIG, which taxpayers had bailed out to the tune of $170 billion, to pay out nearly $1.2 billion in bonuses, even though the company lost $61 billion. Team Obama initially tried to blame Bush, but this fell apart when somebody remembered that Geithner and Dodd made the decision. In fact, Dodd specifically changed the TARP bill to allow these bonuses, something Dodd claimed he did at the insistence of Obama and Geithner -- a claim he made after initially stating that he knew nothing about the issue. This caused the New Haven Register to refer to Dodd as “a lying weasel.”


And there you have it: 2009 was truly a scandalous year. We could hope that 2010 will be better, but with a less intelligent version of Al Capone in the White House there isn’t much hope for improvement. Soooooo grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride.

[+] Read More...

[-] Collapse Post...