The snowballing troubles of Jesse Jackson Jr. took a new turn Friday with the revelation that federal investigators have launched a probe into "suspicious activity" in the South Shore congessman's finances.
Focusing on a completely new area of scrutiny for the son of the famed civil rights leader, the investigation is not related to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's attempted sale of a U.S. Senate seat, a scandal that has ensnared Jackson in the past, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Rather, the probe -- based in the Washington, D.C., FBI field office --is focusing on "suspicious activity" involving the congressman's finances related to his House seat and the possibility of inappropriate expenditures, the sources said.
The probe was active in the weeks prior to Jackson taking a leave from his U.S. House seat on June 10, a leave his office ultimately attributed to his need for treatment for bipolar disorder, the sources said. It was unclear whether the investigation involved the congressman's official House spending account or his campaign finance account. But one source said it was an account monitored by Congress. Postage stamps?
All members of the U.S. House receive an allowance to operate offices in Washington and in their districts. The allowances for rank-and-file members ranged from $1.4 million to $2 million in 2010, according to the House website.
Jackson's congressional spokesman Frank Watkins said he was unaware of any investigation, had no comment and had no immediate way to get a hold of the congressman.
One of Jackson's attorney's, Paul Langer, repeatedly said "no comment," when asked whether Jackson was under investigation related to his finances. When asked if he was still representing Jackson or if the congressman had retained another attorney, Langer said:
"I can't even comment on that."
News of the probe -- first disclosed by the Sun-Times -- comes as questions increasingly swirl around Jackson's absence from not only his official duties in Washington, but the campaign trail as the Nov. 6 election nears.
Heard it was a bit of partaking in BOTH 'eye', 'nose' and 'horse' candy. Something about him having a "mental breakdown due to his marriage falling apart" due to extraneous wimmen and blow. Also that he may have tried offing himself. Hence the media blackout.
If it was simply depression, the family would be a lot more open about it to the press.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/14/2012 11:00 Comments ||
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#5
He's not depressed because he's a scumbag. He's depressed because he got caught being a scumbag.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/14/2012 23:38 Comments ||
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HealthBridge Management and CareOne, related companies that own and operate nursing homes in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and two other states, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the New England Health Care Employers Union, also known as Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199NE, and United Healthcare Workers East, also an affiliate of SEIU.
The lawsuit claims the unions violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act through the use of threats, sabotage, and intimidation in a "shake-down" to coerce the companies to accept union demands. The health care companies charge that SEIU's use of the help of politicians and liberal activists to intimidate them amounted to criminal extortion.
Approximately 600 SEIU members, from six nursing homes, have been striking since July over pay, health insurance benefits, and HealthBridge contributions to their pensions. HealthBridge hired 450 replacement workers, and, in addition, some strikers returned to work. HealthBridge claims that, for 17 months, the union made "untenable demands, while refusing to engage" in negotiations.
In Connecticut, several politicians, including Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-WFP), Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman (D-WFP), and Attorney General George Jepsen (D-WFP), walked picket lines with 1199NE employees in a show of support for the strike.
In July of this year, Gov. Malloy accused HealthBridge Management of New Jersey of violating labor laws in its five branches in Connecticut.
"Let's be honest. What HealthBridge is attempting to do illegally is to break the union. That's what they want to do," Malloy said. "They want to be the new model in the state of Connecticut, and we don't want them to be."
Attorney Rosemary Alito, of the firm K & L Gates, in New Jersey, and sister of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for New Jersey. The lawsuit focuses on alleged corrupt intimidation practices of the unions and their political allies.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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No surprise that the people who hold old, sick people hostage to their thuggish greedy union demands, and the people who want death panels, are in the same party.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
10/14/2012 14:41 Comments ||
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State officials in Illinois have revealed that they paid over 1,100 inmates more than $2 million in unemployment benefits while they are in jail.
According to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said one inmate in the Cook County jail in Chicago was able to collect nearly $43,000 in unemployment benefits, however most of the inmates were paid less than that.
While the fraud happened in county jails all around the state, the majority of the fraud occurred in Chicago's Cook County jail system where nearly 296 inmates appear to have collected over $722,000 in benefits.
According to the AP, Greg Rivera, a department front man indicated it was possible inmates may not have known they were being paid the benefits and they state would attempt to get the money back.
"Assuming that the individual knew that benefits were being paid for him, we would first start with that individual, take a look at the circumstances, take a look at the length of the fraud and take a look at their willingness to cooperate in repaying the dollars, and we would consider all of that," Rivera said.
With the consistently high unemployment rate which has resulted in millions of people being unemployed for over a year or more, states are often overwhelmed with the number of cases they receive.
Unlike years ago when individuals had to meet with a person face to face to obtain benefits, today the process is mostly done online or by phone. Once benefits are approved all a person needs to do is go online or make a phone call every two weeks where they state whether or not they have looked for work and are available to work .
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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So who's gonna get fired?
Oh. Illinois? Nevermind...
A Danish wind turbine company whose subsidiaries received over $50 million in U.S. stimulus dollars announced on Friday it has cut more than 800 jobs in the United States and Canada this year and may be forced to lay off another 800 employees in North America.
This is yet another green energy ... the attempt to produce energy without using fossil fuel. The preferred methods are solar, wind, geothermal, phlogiston, philosophers' stones, and rattling bears' teeth. The approach with the most promise involves attaching generators to perpetual motion machines, but using Words of Power to summon energy-rich demons may also work. The green in the term refers to the vast number of greenbacks that have been thrown at the problem since 1973 with indifferent results... company that received wasteful stimulus funds and does not even have anything to show for it.
According to Rooters, Vestas, the wind turbine maker, saw its order intake go down by 24 percent during the first half of the year.
"The U.S. wind industry has slowed, largely due to the uncertainty surrounding the Federal Production Tax Credit extension," said Martha Wyrsch, head of Vestas-American Wind Technology, Inc.
Vestas said without more tax credits and stimulus funds, the company will have trouble competing.
Vestas executives, according to Rooters, told investors that "it would stop non-profitable projects," especially in Europe and America, where demand for its products have plummeted.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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Betcha O & Co, for all their Ivy League degrees, never heard of Danegeld.
#5
In a previous life, my former employer was courting Veatas to build the blades and the tools/molds; Vestas wanted a Cadillac at Chevy prices; the plan was to build then ship the tools to a new, as yet not finished plant in the Midwest.
When I left, they were still arguing about it, no doubt while still collecting stimubux.
The B.O. regime finalized a program Friday to fast-track solar energy projects on public lands in six Western states.
So that we can give away more money to Democratic Party insiders who can then go bankrupt and dodge the IRS...
The Interior Department set aside about 285,000 acres for commercial-scale solar in Arizona, Caliphornia, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The federal government will offer incentives for development, help facilitate access to existing or planned electric infrastructure and ease the permitting process in the 17 zones.
"Energy from sources like wind and solar have doubled since the president took office, and with today's milestone, we are laying a sustainable foundation to keep expanding our nation's domestic energy resources," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.
If fully utilized, Interior predicts the zones could produce 23,700 megawatts of solar energy, enough to power 7 million homes.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ... (D-Nev.) joined Salazar in finalizing the plan in Las Vegas.
Reid and President B.O. have been outspoken proponents of solar power, especially in the Southwest, with Obama often mentioning solar power's potential in campaign stops.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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I'm all for promoting NT but the tech is suppos to be better, more effective or efficient, + ultimately more cheaper in LR than the techs in the present.
Espec given my belief that OWG-NWO is akin to future SPACE GOVT-ORDER.
However, other than the NT being "Green", the Govt. has failed utterly to demonstrate the Consumer, Industrial, or other free market merits to any of the above.
Corrected spelling
Just go. I have little good to say about the mean little bastid who turned partisan traitor to save his hide.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/14/2012 13:05 ||
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The ninth and last circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants, who perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery.
#8
Not surprised. Out of Congress, out of that Special health plan. Suddenly he's one of the little people.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/14/2012 19:43 Comments ||
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Hey I just googled "shameless political opportunism" and this is the #1 Image.
Posted by: regular joe ||
10/14/2012 19:48 Comments ||
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Like many of you I never cared for Specter but I also never read his entire bio before - an interesting mixed bag. Did some good things but overall too McCain-ish for me.
Anyone on here familiar w/Michael Smeerconish (sp?)? I was radio surfing on the way home one day and landed on his talk show (I was looking for Levin). Smeerconish seems like a nice enough guy and very civil to his callers but it was easy to tell that he's a total Rino or indy wuss. Not surprisingly he was going on about how a big Specter fan he was (puke).
There must be some probability between the usual zero and one where his success would fall. Given that he twice has been rejected as a presidential candidate -- in 1988 and 2008 -- Mr. Plugs, esq, as he prefers to the bare name, will likely find his presidential probability pegged hard to the zero end of things.
Before becoming vice president, Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... declared his intention to "restore the balance" between his office and that of the president. In his view, Dick Cheney had essentially created a separate power base, nearly independent of the Oval Office. Biden's vice presidency was going to restrain those impulses. He would integrate his role and staff more smoothly and fully with the White House, more in the style of Walter Mondale ...Former Senator-for-Life from Minnesota. He was Jimmy Carter's vice president, and was trounced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, losing every state except for his home state and the District of Columbia.... during Jimmy Carter's presidency and, to a degree, Al Gore in the Clinton years.
But Biden has hardly taken a back seat. Instead, he has become President B.O.'s workhorse on issues from war to budgets to economic recovery. The New Deal Democrat from coal-country Scranton has even become a liberal standard-bearer on same-sex marriage, nudging the president to publicly shift positions. While Gore was given unusually significant responsibilities on very specific areas such as the environment and government efficiency, Biden, much like Cheney before him, has had plenty of running room on an array of key administration policies -- a sort of de facto assistant president.
Unlike the grim Cheney often shunted to undisclosed locations, however, Biden has been a visible sidekick to Obama -- enough to keep speculation alive about his presidential aspirations for 2016.
In nearly four years as vice president, Biden has been the chief monitor of the economic recovery efforts, coordinating federal projects with mayors and governors. As Obama's emissary to the Republican congressional leadership during the 2011 debt-ceiling negotiations, he was nicknamed the "McConnell whisperer" by aides, according to Bob Woodward's new book. And he has overseen the U.S. military and reconstruction agendas in Iraq and Afghanistan, while encouraging Obama to hold fast to the troop-withdrawal timelines Biden has advocated since taking office -- a point he emphasized repeatedly in his debate with Rep. Paul Ryan ...U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, serving since 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party. He proposed an alternative to President B.O.'s 2011 budget and made himself the target of both Democrat and Republican verbal pies... (R-Wis.) on Thursday night.
While Biden showed distracting, Gore-like flashes of irritability toward Ryan, he filled in blanks that Obama had left unspoken in his own debate with Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals. More to the point, he isn't President B.O... , and he brought the discussion back to the Democrats' standard defense of the middle class. In so doing, he provided a tonic his party needed after the president's flat performance.
Although Obama and Biden were not close in the four years they overlapped in the Senate,
Eh? I thought our beloved president only spent a year practicing in the Senate before hitting the campaign trail in 2007.
according to Obama strategists David Axelrod ...a Chicago-based political hack, political adviser to Barack B.O. Obama since 2004. Following the 2008 election, he was appointed as Senior Advisor to Obama and we all see how well that worked out.... and David Plouffe, their candidate was impressed with Biden in the 2008 Democratic primaries. After he delivered uncommonly pithy answers in debates, other contenders onstage would begin their responses with variations of "Joe is right." And in a South Carolina debate, when asked whether he could control his wagging tongue, Biden's straight-faced, one-word answer -- "Yes" -- brought the house down.
But that was before he discovered the joys of artificial laughter. He'll never dip his toe in the old river again.
While he may have caused the Obama team some anxiety in the general-election campaign with his freewheeling style, the running mates meshed quickly. Early on, Obama publicly called Biden the best vice president to date and told him he wanted him on the ticket again in 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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Yeah, it could happen. Of course, him being in a mental hospital could also happen...
For all of Bidens efforts against Ryan, it remains the presidents job in his debate rematch with Romney on Tuesday night to put their campaign back on track.
No doubt Mr. Whitcover's colleagues will be doing their utmost to help.
#11
He has a much better chance of being 'found' in Fort Marcy Park.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
10/14/2012 14:59 Comments ||
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This bunch in the WH has been lying to us for more than four years (counting the run-up to the election). For me, if a person lies once, their credibility is forever suspect.
President Barack Obama's campaign is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to consider the Ohio secretary of state's appeal in a dispute over early voting in the presidential battleground state.
Attorneys say in a court filing the campaign said it submitted Friday that the court should let a lower ruling restoring early voting rights stand and not hear Secretary of State Jon Husted's appeal.
Husted appealed a ruling reinstating early voting the three days before Election Day and returning discretion to local elections boards. The Republican also asked the court to delay the lower court ruling while it decides whether to take the case.
Obama's campaign and Democrats sued Husted over part of a law cutting off early voting for most residents the Friday evening before a Tuesday election.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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More to the point, the law that the lower court overturned stopped early voting the three days before Election Day except for US military personnel and their families. There are reasons to stop early voting for a period before an election so records can be verified and cross-referenced. There are reasons to allow people who may be on exercises unexpectedly to vote early at the last minute. We can guess hat the reasons for this litigation are.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/14/2012 4:48 Comments ||
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Summary: He's a lying liar who lied. Also -- geography. They feel strongly about both. Life is going to get ever more interesting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. over the next few weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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Talking points and facts aside, Biden's demeanor at a time that so closely followed the internment of the dead from Benghazi was indeed shameful.
#2
Via Wretchard's site comes a discussion that this whole mess was meant to be Obama's October Surprise. Sure, it's a conspiracy theory. But the pieces seem to fit.
#3
Bidens death rictus smile and feckless apologetics for Pharaohs regime make him the Mr. Sardonicus of our time. (Also: "Lunch Bucket Joe" has the record for the least charitable giving in the Exec. Branch)...a regulation prince of a guy.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A shot was fired Friday at a campaign office for President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... Very likely a false flag operation... in the western US state of Colorado, shattering a window but injuring no one, police said.
Staff were in the office when the incident occurred mid-afternoon.
"It looks like it was one shot that was fired into the structure," said Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez, cited by The Denver Post.
A photo posted online by the Denver Westword showed a window broken at the front of the office.
Police were searching for a "possible vehicle of interest," said Lopez, giving no further details.
Obama campaign officials did not immediately comment on the incident, which comes as Obama and Republican rival Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals. More to the point, he isn't President B.O... battle into the final weeks before the November 6 presidential election.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2012 00:00 ||
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I suspect incidents like this will occur times again iff the econ continues to worsen, + Politicos continue to refuse to explain the merits, the need, or even to vote on "Globalism" + OWG to the electorate.
"SMART POLITICS" = PCORRECTNESS-DENIABILITY IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD OR PROPER LEADERSHIP.
#3
When I lived in Knoxville, TN the republican office down the road from me got got up by more than just one round. It didn't exactly make a huge splash like this is.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
State officials in Illinois have revealed that they paid over 1,100 inmates more than $2 million in unemployment benefits while they are in jail.
The 
Harry Reid
President Barack Obama's campaign is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to consider the Ohio secretary of state's appeal in a dispute over early voting in the presidential battleground state.
