Dozens of police arrested Mongolia's former president, raiding a house in the capital at dawn Friday after he refused investigators' requests to answer questions about corruption charges.
Anti-corruption investigators first tried to arrest Enkhbayar Nambar on Thursday night. They stopped his car but were foiled by his bodyguards who took him to a nearby compound, beginning a standoff that ended with the raid.
Now an opposition politician, Enkhbayar was a formidable figure in the robust democracy of Mongolia, a resource-rich but largely poor country between China and Russia. Serving as prime minister and then president for most of a decade until losing office in 2009, he presided over a period of robust growth but also a widening wealth gap and, critics said, runaway corruption.
The head of the Independent Agency Against Corruption, E. Ambarbat, said the corruption involved the illegal privatization of a government-owned hotel. He said, "We have been investigating the corruption case involving Enkhbayar for a year. However, he never showed up for questioning. We had asked him often to come for questioning."
While he and other authorities said the arrest was legal, Enkhbayar's supporters said it violated the former president's immunity and was politically motivated. After losing re-election as president in 2009, Enkhbayar had formed a new opposition party and was contesting a parliament seat in June elections.
President Obama paid a total federal tax rate of 20.5 percent on a gross adjusted income $789,674, a rate that may come in below that of his secretary.
Obama has spent the past week touting the Buffett Rule, which calls on those who make $1 million just a little more than Obama made to pay at federal tax rate of at least 30 percent. The rule was inspired by Buffetts comment that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary.
The most recent information about salary regarding Obamas secretary is for his former secretary, Katie Johnson, who is listed by the White House as having made $90,000 in 2010.
According to Wikipedia, Johnson is 31 years old and now attends Harvard Law School. I dont know about her personal life or what her deductions would be, so I cant assume any children or deductions.
On a $90,000 salary, she would pay $16,578 in federal taxes, $3,780 to Social Security, and $1,305 in Medicare taxes.
That adds up to a total federal tax burden of $21,663 on $90,000 in adjusted gross income, or a tax rate of 24 percent, well above Obamas rate of 20.5 percent, even though Obamas 2011 salary was nearly nine times the 2010 salary of his secretary.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] With Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. 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's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... now all but assured of winning the Republican nomination, he embarks on one of his critical quests of the campaign: finding a running mate who can help him defeat President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... Mr Romney took a huge step toward securing the role of flagbearer when rival Rick Santorum ...candidate for president and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was a lawyer before becoming the Representative for suburban Pittsburgh in 1991. He lost his Senate seat in 2006 to Bob Casey, a Democrat machine politician and political dynast. Santorum is a social conservative whose primary attraction is seemingly that he is neither Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich... bowed out of the race Tuesday, and the chatter about who gets the nod from the former governor of Massachusetts has risen to a din.
But he quickly sought to dispel the notion that he might rush to find a partner for the ticket -- not after the controversy over Sarah Mama Grizzly Palin ... the babe libs love to hate ... , who was John Maverick McCain's ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... surprise running mate in their 2008 loss to Obama.
"No list yet," Mr Romney told Fox on Wednesday.
"That's a process which has not begun yet, but will probably begin pretty soon."
And so the "veepstakes" gathers steam, with Romney advisors eyeing potential Number Twos and poring over voting records and personal details in what is one of the most rigorous vetting processes endured by any politician.
Protracted strategizing over a vice presidential pick is standard, as a candidate mulls how his choice might impact the election.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Romney for Veep?
Well, beats Jo Jo.
(But not much)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/13/2012 0:37 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Alan West, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Bolton, Rummy, and I shall not discount others.. yet. It's going to be a wartime President no matter whom. Need a good right hand.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/13/2012 7:55 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"Alan West, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Bolton, Rummy"
I think we need to let Alan West, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio season a bit. Both are a little new to politics. I think to some extent the Palin name was tarnished before its time by throwing her into the meatgrinder too quickly.
Jindal somewhat killed his national career by pushing Intelligent Design as forcefully as he did. It might not be a killer, but combined with a Mormon on the ticket I don't think its a great idea (then again it might satisfy those that really don't like a Mormon on the ticket, perhaps some polling needs to be done there).
Either Rummy or Bolton would be fine in my eyes. Hopefully there are other names as well out there we haven't even thought of yet.
#11
I think Ryan would be awesome. West and Rubio should devlier FLA. Not sure about Jindal yet. Give Palin Sec Interior or Department of Energy and let her excel and rebuild her tarnished image.
#14
I'd hate to see West or Rubio waste themselves on Romney. The trail to the Presidency via a losing VP run is very narrow. The only one that made it to my recollection was FDR who ran for VP and lost in 1924.
#15
"Let the VeepStakes begin" > D *** NG, I THOUGHT IT DID ALREADY!
Newt + Ron have said they're in it to the end - to avoid a split GOP ticket + foster Party unity, I see Romney picking one of them, IMO more likely Ron Paul than Newt due to some of Newt's past criticisms + Newt's very strong personal charisma.
But ya never know - "POLITICS MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS". Would'nt surprise me at all iff Newt or Ron get a major Cabinet position.
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.