Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s son Seif el-Islam is proposing a resolution to the Libyan conflict that would entail his father relinquishing power for a transition to constitutional democracy under his son’s direction, a diplomat with close ties to the Libyan government said Sunday, citing “eminent people” in Tripoli.
See that’s not democracy. Having some spoiled brat born into wealth take over the reigns of government from his father after a short period of time — without actually winning an election? No self-respecting nation would ever legally sanction that sort of crap without five Supreme Court justices available to rubber-stamp it. Learn how its done properly Tripoli.
Wachovia and the Mexican Drug Money A new Guardian exposé points an accusing finger at Wachovia Bank, which was recently purchased by Wells Fargo, for its alleged negligence in allowing the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel to launder billions of dollars through the U.S. banking system. —JCL The Guardian: On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel. During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo. The authorities uncovered billions of dollars in wire transfers, traveller’s cheques and cash shipments through Mexican exchanges into Wachovia accounts. Wachovia was put under immediate investigation for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme. Of special significance was that the period concerned began in 2004, which coincided with the first escalation of violence along the US-Mexico border that ignited the current drugs war. Read more
A new Guardian exposé? points an accusing finger at Wachovia Bank, which was recently purchased by Wells Fargo, for its alleged negligence in allowing the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel to launder billions of dollars through the U.S. banking system. —JCL
The Guardian:
On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel.
During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo.
The authorities uncovered billions of dollars in wire transfers, traveller’s cheques and cash shipments through Mexican exchanges into Wachovia accounts. Wachovia was put under immediate investigation for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme. Of special significance was that the period concerned began in 2004, which coincided with the first escalation of violence along the US-Mexico border that ignited the current drugs war.
Robert Kuttner: Changing the Tone in Washington “I ran for president to do two things — to change the tone of bitter partisanship in Washington, and to accomplish constructive economic change so that more Americans can share the blessings of prosperity.” That’s what the leader I thought I was voting for would say. When Obama eventually gets a budget deal, it doesn’t matter to him that it’s mostly on Republican terms. The bounce in the polls that he enjoyed in the aftermath of a craven tax cut deal is used as the object lesson in the value of the president as compromiser in chief. But that bounce has pretty well evaporated.
Pro Gun Group Claims Obama Has Secret ‘Freedom Crushing Plan’ For Second Amendment When it comes to the thorny issue of guns, President Barack Obama is finding it difficult to please anyone. Gun control groups are dissatisfied with his progress on the issue, though a recent meeting with Obama administration officials about reducing…
Lawyer For Ex-ACORN Employee To James O’Keefe: You’re No Ashton Kutcher A lawyer for a former employee of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) who was secretly recorded by James O’Keefe is calling bull on O’Keefe’s claims that the First Amendment protected his actions.
911 Call Alleges Bradley Manning Threatened Stepmom With Knife A Frontline investigation reveals that alleged Wikileaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning threatened his stepmother with a knife in 2006. Manning’s father, Brian Manning, in an interview with Frontline said the incident spawned from a discussion of Bradley Manning needing to…
Early Polls Still Matter Nate Silver makes the case that “contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, national polls of primary voters — even this far out from the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary — do have a reasonable amount of predictive power in informing us as to the identity of the eventual nominee. That doesn’t mean that these polls are the only thing you should look at, or even necessarily the first thing, but they are a perfectly valid way to do some initial handicapping.”
Huckabee Wins Straw Poll in South Carolina Mike Huckabee won a presidential straw poll in South Carolina over the weekend, despite showing few signs of wanting to mount another bid for the nation’s highest executive office, CNN reports.
Huckabee got 23% of the vote in the straw poll. Following him were Newt Gingrich with 11% support and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) with 10%.
Why Gov. LePage Can’t Erase History, And Why We Need a Fighter In The White House Maine Governor Paul LePage has ordered state workers to remove from the state labor department a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history. Among other things the mural illustrates the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston. It also…
VIDEO: Fox?s Brit Hume Is Left Speechless When Asked About G.E. Paying Zero Federal Taxes While any sober solution to the country’s deficit problem should include both revenue enhancement and spending cuts, conservatives have been completely unwilling to even consider tax increases, proposing steep cuts that will do little to solve the deficit, while doing much to hurt the middle class and the most vulnerable. Toeing that conservative line on […]
While any sober solution to the country’s deficit problem should include both revenue enhancement and spending cuts, conservatives have been completely unwilling to even consider tax increases, proposing steep cuts that will do little to solve the deficit, while doing much to hurt the middle class and the most vulnerable. Toeing that conservative line on Fox News Sunday today, Fox personality Brit Hume argued that cutting taxes will actually lead to increased tax revenue. Fox analyst Juan Williams responded by noting this is often not the case, citing the fact that G.E. — the nation’s largest company — paid nothing in taxes last year. Williams’ response flummoxed Hume, who appeared dumbfounded and at a loss for words. Host Chris Wallace had to jump in to smooth things over with a joke:
WILLIAMS: You’re going on as if, you know what, we don’t know how in America how to help our own deficit problem. We do! We just have to tax people.
HUME: Juan, Juan. What we need is not higher tax rates. What we need is higher revenue. And how do you get higher revenues? You get higher revenues from an expanding economy. That’s where the big money comes from.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, and G.E. paying no taxes? That’s good for America? Come on, you know that’s not right.
[Pause]
WALLACE: I just want to say, I pay all my taxes!
Watch it:
Paul Ryan Dodges Fox News’ Questions About Whether He’ll Eliminate Tax Breaks For Oil Companies On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) plans to lay out his proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Promoting his plan on Fox News Sunday this morning, Ryan made clear that his plan for deficit reduction would demand drastic spending cuts shouldered on the backs of low- and middle-income Americans without asking […]
On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) plans to lay out his proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Promoting his plan on Fox News Sunday this morning, Ryan made clear that his plan for deficit reduction would demand drastic spending cuts shouldered on the backs of low- and middle-income Americans without asking for similar sacrifice from the wealthy. Asked repeatedly by host Chris Wallace whether he’ll eliminate tax breaks for oil companies, Ryan hemmed and hawed without giving a clear answer:
WALLACE: A lot of Democrats that are already saying, even before they’ve seen your budget, that you do all of this balancing of the budget on the spending side, and unlike the President’s debt commission, you don’t do it on the revenue side. Do you eliminate tax breaks? Do you bring in new revenue by eliminating, for instance, tax breaks for oil companies?
RYAN: We don’t have a tax problem. The problem with our deficit is not because Americans are taxed too little. The problem with our deficit is because Washington spends too much money. … So we’re not going to down the path of raising taxes on people. […]
WALLACE: But for instance, you will not eliminate tax breaks for Big Oil and Gas?
RYAN: Those are the kinds of details that we’ll come out later with, that the Ways and Means Committee will work on. We’re not going to go into the little details of which tax expenditure goes and which tax expenditure stays.
Watch it:
Ryan has no problem discussing details of his budget plan that impose higher taxes on 90 percent of Americans and relies on cutting Social Security and squeezing Medicare and Medicaid. But when pressed on details about cutting corporate welfare, he had nothing to say. But previously, he’s been more blunt, calling the idea of ending taxpayer handouts to oil and gas companies “ridiculous economics.”
Ryan is wrong about one key point — there is, in fact, “a tax problem.” Federal tax receipts are at the lowest levels since 1950. As this graph produced by CAP’s Director for Tax and Budget Policy Michael Linden demonstrates, tax receipts as a percentage of GDP dropped precipitously following the Bush tax cuts:
According to the Office of Management and Budget, corporate tax receipts will account for just 7.2% of federal revenues in 2010, with large corporations contributing less than one-sixth as much as small business and individual taxpayers to the federal treasury. Exxon-Mobil, for instance, paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009, but not a penny of those taxes went to the American Treasury. Because oil and gas companies receive generous tax subsidies, the U.S. government loses about $4 billion in revenue a year.
Paul Ryan’s budget will demand that working Americans give up health care and pension benefits that they’ve earned, while asking nothing from hugely profitable corporations that are failing to meet their tax responsibilities.
The Hollywood Liberal is an anti-war, anti republican, from right here beautiful Hollywood California.
This site was originally started to help get The Worst President Ever G.W. Bush Jr. Out of office. Now that we have accomplished that
the goal is to get Obama to start acting like a Democrat, and not an butt kissing Republican Wannabee. We will continue to fight for that goal
. Thanks H.L.
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