"We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free. Ronald Reagan Farewell Address 1989
Democrats lock Republicans out of committee room — Hit the Road Jack: Oversight Democrats Run Away From Countrywide Bribe Program Vote Video — Friends of Angelo: Countrywide’s Systematic and Successful Effort to Buy Influence and Block Reform Staff Report — PHD Real Estate Home Loans 101 by Virginia Bravo Countrywide Video) — It still reeks — Ray Charles – Hit The Road Jack (Live 1981) Video
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present.
Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.
For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans showed up while Democrats chairs remained empty.
Republicans charged that Towns canceled the meeting to avoid the subpoena vote. Democrats first claimed the mark-up was canceled due to a conflict with the Financial Services Committee. Later they said it was abandoned after a disagreement among Democratic members on whether to subpoena records on the mortgage industry’s political contributions to Republicans.
A GOP committee staffer captured video of Democrats leaving their separate meeting in private chambers after the mark-up was supposed to have begun. He spliced the video to other footage of the Democrats’ empty chairs at the hearing room, set it to the tune of “Hit the Road, Jack” and posted it on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s minority webpage, where it remained as of press time.
Towns’s staffers told Republicans they were not happy about the presence of the video camera in the hearing room when they were not present. Issa’s spokesman said the Democrats readily acknowledged to Republicans that they changed the locks in retaliation to the videotape of the Democrats’ absence from the business meeting even though committee rules allow meetings to be taped…]
Democrats Committee Members:
Chairman, Edolphus Towns, New York
Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Rep. John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri
Rep. Diane E. Watson, California
Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee
Rep. Gerry Connolly, Virginia
Rep. Mike Quigley, Illinois
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rhode Island
Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas
Rep. Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire
Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, Connecticut
Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont
Rep. Bill Foster, Illinois
Rep. Jackie Speier, California
Rep. Steve Driehaus, Ohio
Friends of Angelo:
Countrywide’s Systematic
and Successful Effort to Buy
Influence and Block Reform
Staff Report
U.S. House of Representatives
111th Congress
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Darrell Issa, Ranking Member
March 19, 2009
Executive Summary
With Countrywide-originated loans serving as fuel and Government-Sponsored Enterprises (“GSEs”) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac acting as a furnace, the alliance of the companies created an enormous fire that eventually consumed the American economy. Many of the people in position to reform the GSEs and extinguish the flames before the danger spread were receiving perquisites from a VIP loan program operated by Countrywide under the supervision of Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo. These included Fannie Mae Chief Executive Franklin D. Raines and two Senators with legislative jurisdiction over the issues at the heart of the emerging financial crisis – Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad.
To augment its voice in the GSE-reform debate, Countrywide dispensed favors to VIPs who it believed might be worthwhile to the company. This group of borrowers included legislators, congressional staffers, lobbyists and other opinion leaders. Countrywide also distributed benefits to business partners, local politicians, homebuilders, entertainers and law enforcement officials. Countrywide’s voice was heard in the debate on Capitol Hill about reforming the GSEs. When reform was considered by the 108th Congress, Members publicly expressed faith in Fannie and Freddie. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), for example, described them as “not facing any kind of financial crisis.” He was wrong.
Countrywide’s VIP loan program was a tool with which the company built its relationships withMembers of Congress and Congressional staff. It was also a tool it used to protect its relationship with Fannie Mae. Senior Countrywide officials as well as the company’s lobbyists openly and explicitly weighed the value of relationships with potentially influential borrowers against the cost to Countrywide in terms of forfeited fees and payments. Preferential treatment for these potentially influential borrowers, the most important of whom were referred to internally as “Friends of Angelo,” was part of an expansive effort by Countrywide to “ingratiate [Countrywide] with people in Washington who might be able to help the company down the road.”
Countrywide loan officers waived fees and knocked off points for VIP borrowers at no cost, amounting to thousands of dollars in savings. For VIPs, Countrywide fast tracked the loan process and ignored their own documentation policies. Countrywide customers ordinarily paid hundreds of dollars in upfront fees. Not the VIPs. Regular customers paid one percent of the total amount of the loan to reduce the interest rate by one point. But not the VIPs.
When Congress considered reform of the GSEs, the company hoped their “Friends of Angelo” would respond. Fannie and Freddie reform legislation was never passed, let alone voted on by Congress.
Borrowers whose loans were processed by Countrywide’s VIP loan unit were aware they received preferential treatment. Countrywide VIP account executive Robert Feinberg testified VIP loan officers explicitly communicated to “Friends of Angelo” they were receiving special pricing and preferential treatment. Documents obtained by the Committee confirm this. VIP borrowers were informed Angelo Mozilo priced their loans personally and they relied on their status as “Friends of Angelo” to guarantee preferential treatment for themselves and others. In case borrowers had any doubt about which department was processing a loan, Countrywide loan officers attached business cards to loan documents clearly indicating the officers processing the loan worked in the VIP unit.
Accepting the discounts made exclusively available to “Friends of Angelo” violated applicable ethical rules for certain VIP borrowers. Senate rules prohibit acceptance of loans at discounted rates not available to the general public. The Fannie Mae Code of Conduct applicable to directors and executives bars any gift made in order to influence behavior, especially when accepting such a gift appears to create a conflict of interest.
Involvement in the VIP loan program casts a cloud of suspicion over the actions – or in many instances non-actions – of those charged with policy-making, legislative, or oversight responsibility for the mortgage industry and the GSEs. The scope and intent of the “Friends of Angelo” and other VIP programs at Countrywide Financial Corporation represent a systematic attempt by the mortgage giant to gain favor from those entrusted to protect the public’s interests through oversight and regulation of the home mortgage industry.
Findings
In 1999, Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson and Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo reached a strategic agreement giving Fannie Mae exclusive access to many of the loans originated by Countrywide in exchange for a discount on fees Fannie charged when buying loans. The agreement linked the growth and success of Countrywide to Fannie Mae’s continued desire to acquire a large volume of loans.
Fannie Mae’s strategy to acquire and hold a large volume of mortgages betrayed its congressionally-mandated mission to increase access to home ownership. This strategy, which relied on the GSEs’ borrowing advantages and may have been motivated by a desire to reach earnings levels to trigger executive bonuses, exposed Fannie Mae to increased risk. Fannie Mae’s new direction fundamentally changed the home lending industry, encouraging originators like Countrywide to aggressively market subprime loans.
Because the growth and success of Countrywide was tied directly to Fannie Mae’s continued hunger for acquiring and holding loans and Wall Street’s continued investment in mortgage-backed securities composed of subprime mortgages, Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo offered a key group of VIPs preferential treatment through a special loan division. Countrywide gave preferential treatment to legislators, Congressional staff, cabinet members, Fannie Mae executives, lobbyists, and others wellconnected in Washington. Countrywide also gave preferential treatment to business partners, local politicians, homebuilders, entertainers and law enforcement officials.
At the same time the “Friends of Angelo” VIP loan program was affording preferential treatment to Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and lobbyists, Congress was considering legislation to reform the GSEs. The most notable reform effort died in the Senate Banking Committee, where Senator Christopher Dodd was a member. Reform legislation was never passed, let alone voted on by Congress.
Countrywide’s VIP loan program was a tool with which Countrywide built its relationship with Congress and protected its relationship with Fannie Mae. Senior Countrywide officials and lobbyists openly and explicitly weighed the value of relationships with potentially influential borrowers against the cost to Countrywide in terms of forfeited fees and payments.
Countrywide’s Washington lobbyist Jimmie Williams identified influential borrowers for VIP treatment. Williams justified his referrals to the director of the VIP program by explaining the borrower’s position and how he or she could be valuable. Among others, Williams referred the Chief Counsel to the House Financial Services Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee Clinton Jones, HUD SecretaryAlphonso Jackson’s daughter Annette Watkins, U.S. Rep. Melvin Watt’s Chief of Staff Joyce Brayboy, and former Democratic National Committee official and Director of White House Political Affairs under President Clinton Minyon Moore.
Countrywide loan officers waived fees and knocked off points for VIP borrowers at no cost, amounting to thousands of dollars in savings.
Countrywide charged non-VIP borrowers hundreds of dollars in upfront fees. Non-VIP borrowers paid one percent of the total amount of the loan for an interest rate reduction of one point. In many cases, Countrywide facilitated and expedited the loan process for VIPs by ignoring company policies.
Countrywide’s internal software calculated rates for borrowers based on established industry criteria, including loan-to-value ratio, debt-to-income ratio, and credit history. If the terms of a loan violated company policy, the software would instruct the loan officer to “correct and resubmit.” Countrywide loan officers performed manual overrides to apply the reduced rates specified by Angelo Mozilo. Manual overrides were also necessary to breach company policy in order to accommodate VIP borrowers.
Angelo Mozilo personally specified rates and fees for VIP borrowers. When the terms of a VIP loan violated Countrywide policy, Mozilo was notified and would personally authorize overrides. Mozilo substituted his familiarity with and the reputation of VIP borrowers for credit checks and reviews of debt and assets. According to the documents, no VIP borrower was ever given anything less than an “A-paper” loan.
Countrywide VIP account executive Robert Feinberg testified it was the practice of VIP loan officers to communicate to “Friends of Angelo” they were receiving special pricing and preferential treatment. Documents obtained by the Committee confirm this. VIP borrowers were informed Angelo Mozilo personally priced their loans and they relied on their status as “Friends of Angelo” to guarantee preferential treatment for themselves and others. Borrowers previously processed through the VIP department expected discounts on subsequent refinances. In case a borrower had any doubt about which department was processing a loan, Countrywide loan officers attached business cards to loan documents clearly indicating the officers processing the loan worked in the VIP unit.
Senators Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad received discounted loans from Countrywide. By waiving fees and reducing rates, Countrywide saved each Senator thousands of dollars. The loans made to the Senators were processed by the Countrywide’s VIP loan program and they were identified as “Friends of Angelo.”
Conclusion
Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo organized a deliberate and calculated effort to establish relationships with key participants in the GSE-reform debate by affording decision-makers and other influential opinion leaders preferential mortgage loan terms. This effort was successful.
His friends, who were known inside of Countrywide as “Friends of Angelo,” in many instances returned the favor. In Congress, for example, legislation adverse to Countrywide’s interests was blocked. At Fannie Mae, Chief Executive Franklin D. Raines – a “Friend of Angelo” – adopted strategies that assisted the continued growth of Countrywide.
Some of the people in Congress and at the GSEs who were in the best position to diagnose and prevent a colossal failure of the mortgage industry were targeted by Countrywide for special handling.
Members of Congress and leaders of GSEs are explicitly prohibited from accepting gifts and discounts for precisely this reason. Effective oversight requires objectivity, and forging a relationship with and accepting preferential treatment from a major stakeholder in the outcome of a reform effort compromises objectivity.
The gift and disclosure rules applicable to Congress do not merely prohibit quid pro quo exchanges of gifts in exchange for specific action. The rules prohibit accepting any gifts to avoid the appearance of a quid pro quo expectation. The rules are restrictive because the stakes are high. In this case, the health of the American economy was at stake.
We now know the economy was not adequately protected by some of the very people who could have made a difference – several influential “Friends of Angelo.”
New Post - By PAUL GREENBERG Last Updated: 7:58 PM, August 21, 2009
Gosh, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to mere mortals without their financial or political standing — or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide.
The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating “the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator.” But in the end, one hand washed the other, if not very well.
The senators on the committee have a point: This VIP program — called Friends of Angelo after Angelo Mozilo, the head of Countrywide at the time — seems to have been open to a wide, bipartisan range of politicians with pull as well as anybody Mozilo took a liking to.
To name a select few: A former housing secretary (Alphonso Jackson), a former secretary of health and human services and later university president (Donna Shalala), a former assistant secretary of state and still-diplomat (Richard Holbrooke), an adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign (James Johnson) and so prominently on.
How else could these preferential loans appear but improper?
Just because something is legal doesn’t make it right. When a senator is told he’s getting a favor, like a point off his interest rate, that ought to be enough to raise a warning flag — and keep him from accepting the deal.
Countrywide cast a wide net for its favoritism, but just how wide may never be known. It seems the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is refusing to issue a subpoena for Countrywide’s records of just who got these VIP loans and why. The committee chairman, it turns out, is one Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn), who himself received a couple of loans from Countrywide. What a coincidence.
Towns denies getting any special treatment, but without a look at Countrywide’s records, how can the public be assured of that? If he has nothing to hide, why isn’t he going after the records that would vindicate him?
Don’t expect him to answer such questions until, like Dodd and Conrad, public pressure forces him to. The loan officer at Countrywide who was in charge of such loans testified that both senators knew very well they were getting special treatment. Indeed, that it was standard practice to tell recipients of such loans they were getting a preferred rate.
Well, sure. What’s the point of doing influential people a favor if they don’t know about it? Let it be noted that Countrywide didn’t just give Dodd a VIP loan; it also contributed some $20,000 to his political campaigns.
Dodd now has acknowledged that he should have leveled with the public sooner about his relationship with Countrywide — “I think [my silence] contributed to people’s cynicism and distrust that maybe I wasn’t telling the truth . . .” Ya think?…]
Scozzafava calls cops on reporter who asked her about Card Check — Dick Armey to endorse 3rd party candidate over Republican in NY House race — The Importance of Doug Hoffman — Marco Rubio: I’m Running for Senate Video — Another Conservative Casts His Lot With Rubio — Jeb Bush on Rubio, Obama and running for president — Crist twist: Florida primary tightens
“Don’t take this to the bank, at least not yet. But somebody who seems to be in a position to know what’s coming down the pike in New York’s special election tells me that he’s hearing Sarah Palin will publicly endorse Conservative Doug Hoffman over Republican Dede Scozzafava.”
I donated to Doug Hoffman in New York yesterday and will also donate to Marco Rubio in Florida today. I called the National Republican Senatorial Committee in DC about Rubio and Hoffman and they basically told me to kiss it. The RNC and RCCC are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Scozzafava’s campaign. Money that were donated to support the Republican party platform, and are now being used fraudulently to oppose that very platform. Shame!
I called my Congressman Kingston’s office in DC and was told that he supports Scozzafava. I informed Kingston’s office that they can kiss it! Anybody that voted for TARP bailout, supports Scozzafava or supports any RINO should be removed from office. The RINOs did not learn anything on 9/12 and the Tea Parties are coming for you! I guess the MSM is still covering Balloon Boy and missing another story!
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free”
John McCormack is a reporter working for The Weekly Standard. Dede Scozzafava is the extremely liberal New York Assemblywoman running as a Republican to succeed Rep. John McHugh from the Empire State’s 23rd congressional district in the upcoming special election.
Scozzafava was speaking at a GOP dinner Monday evening. McCormack was reporting on Scozzafava’s campaign, including her recent pledge to the AFL-CIO to support Big Labor’s top legislative objective, the Card Check proposal – currently stalled in Congress – to abolish the secret ballot in workplace representation elections.
Scozzafava apparently didn’t appreciate being asked about her support of Card Check because after she left and McCormack went to his laptop to file a report on the evening’s event, the police showed up. What happened next is …. well, here’s McCormack’s description:
“Minutes later a police car drove into the parking lot with its lights flashing. Officer Grolman informed me that she was called because ‘there was a little bit of an uncomfortable situation’ and then took down my name, date of birth, and address.
“‘Maybe we do things a little differently here, but you know, persistence in that area, you scared the candidate a little bit,’ Officer Grolman told me. ‘[Scozzafava] got startled, that’s all,’ Officer Grolman added. ‘It’s not like you’re in any trouble.’”
In thug politics, this is what they call “delivering a little message.” You’re not in trouble, this time. Go here for the rest of McCormack’s report on an evening that says everything about why Scozzafava epitomizes the worst symptoms of Republican Disease.
Trail Blazers Blog/The Dallas Morning News: Dave Michaels
The special election to fill New York’s vacant 23rd congressional seat is perhaps the earliest test of the GOP’s chances to reclaim the House in 2010. Yet the GOP candidate, Dede Scozzafava, has struggled to line up Republican support, and has taken a pummeling from conservative groups that assert she’s liberal. The Club for Growth and Eagle Forum, among others, support her opponent, Doug Hoffman, who’s running on the Conservative Party ticket.
Add North Texas’ Dick Armey to the list of conservative stars backing Hoffman. The former House Majority Leader has confirmed to the Hoffman campaign that he’ll spend Thursday with them, said Rob Ryan, a Hoffman spokesman. “He is with us almost all day Thursday,” Ryan told me. “There will be a bunch of different events.” Armey’s endorsement of Hoffman is personal and wasn’t offered on behalf of FreedomWorks, the conservative foundation he chairs.
Armey’s support is a counterpunch to Scozzafava’s latest endorsement, from former Speaker Newt Gingrich. The move is another example of Armey’s willingness to buck his party when he disapproves of the GOP candidate’s conservative credentials. In Florida, for instance, Armey endorsed former state House Speaker Marco Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist. The two Republicans are vying to replace former Sen. Mel Martinez, who resigned and became a lobbyist (interestingly, Martinez joined the same law firm, DLA Piper, that Armey quit in August, after complaints about his dual role as a lobbyist and grassroots campaigner.)
Armey’s profile is higher than ever, thanks to his leadership of FreedomWorks and outreach to tea party groups. His endorsement of Hoffman is bound to cause headaches for establishment Republicans such as Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee and has had to defend his support of Scozzafava to conservative groups. Some Republicans are already worried that tea party activists may lead a revolt against incumbent Republicans who supported last year’s TARP bailout. “We’re not a partisan organization, and I think many Republicans are disappointed we are not,” Armey told Politico recently.
So Democrats finally got a Republican to sign on to their health care bill that will saddle Americans taxpayers with more than $2.8 trillion in debt over the next 20 years. Don’t take my word for it. That’s the estimate of the Congressional Budget Office, which also estimates that the plan will add $1.8 trillion in new taxes over the next 20 years, as well as require $1.9 trillion to be pulled from Medicare and other programs.
With a political class in Washington that has set new highs for government spending and regulation, government debt, and a weak dollar that is now increasingly dependent on our “friends” the Chinese, should we be surprised that conservatives are looking for better options than the Republicans in Name Only who are helping dig our nation into what may be the worst period for our economy in more than a half century?
The best example of this is up in the special election to fill the House seat vacated by moderate Republican Rep. John McHugh. Republican Party bosses in upstate New York and the National Republican Congressional Committee may have thought it a good idea to put liberal state Rep. Dede Scozzafava on the Republican line. But as Politicoreports, conservatives — and even many Republicans — aren’t eating that dog food. A number of us are invested in the campaign of Doug Hoffman, who is challenging both the Republican and the Democrat in this race, because he represents something lacking in Washington right now: common sense when it comes to fiscal issues and the role of government in our daily lives. The fact that Republican Party leaders in NY-23 and the NRCC ignored just about everything that has taken place over the past six months — the fight over the Obama stimulus package, the tea party rallies, the health care debate — and put Scozzafava on the ballot, indicates that we need more, not less, common sense and conservative values in the Republican Party.
Hoffman represents conservatives’ best chance to send a national message to the Republican Party that they are a force to be reckoned with, and that Hoffman appears to have the energy from the grassroots to pull off a win and help lay the groundwork for a successful 2010 election cycle. As one Hoffman supporter told me yesterday, “The feeling of momentum is palpable. The race is between Doug and the Democrat…we hope Dede won’t be a spoiler for conservatives in this race.”
While his party leaders have lined up behind Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida’s Republican Senate primary next year, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) announced Monday that he was endorsing former state Speaker Marco Rubio.
“I enthusiastically support Marco Rubio in his campaign for U.S. Senate,” Inhofe said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “Marco is exactly the type of conservative leader Americans need in Washington today fighting for the principles of limited government, individual liberty and personal responsibility.”
In his endorsement, Inhofe also appeared to take an indirect shot at the more moderate Crist for backing President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan earlier this year.
“In the Senate, Marco will stand up for America’s taxpayers, not with President Obama and dangerous big government spending,” he said.
While Crist is backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rubio’s growing list of conservative endorsements includes Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), former Arkansas Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Florida GOP Reps. Jeff Miller and Ginny Brown-Waite.
Here’s more of what he had to say via a video conference link.
On Obama’s foreign policy:
Bush said he’s confused with Obama’s plan to scrap the long range missile defense program in Europe for a different system relying on a network of sensors and interceptor missiles based at sea, on land and in the air.
“I don’t understand the alternative he is proposing,” Bush said.
Bush said America’s relationship with some allies in eastern Europe could be diminished because of the move, which could be seen as a capitulation to the Russians.
He said he’s concerned with Obama’s foreign policy in general.
“I would argue that its creating quite a bit of uncertainty. Uncertainity creates problems. History is a pretty good judge of what is going to happen in future. Friends begin to doubt you and your enemies start to think they can take advantage of you.”
On Senate candidate Marco Rubio:
Asked if he had a favorite in the race between Gov. Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio for the U.S. Senate, Bush said he did not.
“I admire both of them,” Bush said.
But Bush then went on to praise Rubio as having a great life story and is being very articulate. Bush said national party leaders should not be trying to push Crist as aggressively as they have. He said Rubio deserved a fair shot against Crist in a primary.
“I think he should be given a chance. I think that the idea that the national party would pick a winner a year and a half before an election is the wrong way to go.”
On his running for office again:
Bush told the 100 people at the event that he’s focused on “making a living” not running for office.
Bush said he has been happy to travel the nation and promote his education reforms from when he was governor.
“I want to take my experiences and apply them in a place where I have passion, which is making sure children learn; to take conservative principles and apply them in this most important area. So I’m going to focus on education reform.”
On Bill McCollum for governor:
Bush praised Republican candidate for governor Bill McCollum as a person “who I think is a fantastic guy and is worthy of your support.”
On ACORN:
Bush said there should be investigations into ACORN.
“This is an incredibly corrupt group of people,” Bush said of ACORN. “They were incredibly active politically and I think corrupt.”
Almost from the moment he announced his bid for Florida’s open Senate seat, GOP Gov. Charlie Crist has been the odds-on favorite to win. He has more than $6 million in his campaign bank account, has the support of the national Republican establishment and leads all challengers in the polls.
Nevertheless, a question that once would have been unthinkable is starting to make the rounds — could Charlie Crist lose in the Republican primary?
While Crist still has a comfortable lead against his GOP opponent, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, there’s mounting evidence that the contest won’t be the cakewalk that many once predicted.
Polling released last week showed a significant deterioration in Crist’s once sky-high approval ratings, with an InsiderAdvantage survey showing his job performance rating dipping below 50 percent.
Meanwhile, Florida political insiders and the state media buzzed about an unreleased recent Chamber of Commerce poll said to show a closer-than-expected primary race.
For his part, Rubio is tapping into conservative grass-roots antipathy toward Crist. He has won nearly a dozen county straw polls across the state — often by landslide margins. In August, he won a Florida Federation of College Republicans poll, and in September, he won several straw polls conducted by local GOP women’s clubs.
Last week, Rubio defeated Crist in a decisive 90-17 vote in Palm Beach County.
“It’s created an appearance of momentum that has gotten people enthusiastic about him,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist with Florida ties. “Crist started the campaign with an air of inevitability, and Marco has chipped way at that.”
Rubio’s fundraising has also taken off — he announced earlier this month that his campaign had raised nearly $1 million in the third quarter, a significant boost over his $346,000 second-quarter performance. While Crist, a prolific fundraiser, took in considerably more — $2.4 million — Rubio’s haul was surprising given the expectations of many that his fundraising would dry up in the face of his uphill battle.
“There is definitely a buzz going on,” said Ana Navarro, a longtime Florida Republican fundraiser who is working for Rubio. “There has been a sea change.”
“It’s going to be a race. It’s going to be a dogfight,” said Mike Hanna, a veteran Republican strategist in the state. “It’s going down to the wire and will be a close race.”
“Marco has real momentum,” said Hanna. “People weren’t taking him seriously at first, but that’s changing now.”
Energizing the state’s activist GOP base has been the key to Rubio’s surge. He frames the primary as a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party, portraying himself as the real conservative and Crist as a squishy moderate who can’t be trusted.
Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, called Rubio “the future of the Republican Party.”
“The Republican Party has suffered from Republicans running as Republicans and governing as something else,” said Dinerstein. “If [Crist] is in the Senate, there will be a time he pulls a [Sen.] Olympia Snowe because he doesn’t have any core beliefs.”
Politico is reporting that the Senate Finance Committee members have been notified that the committee’s health reform bill was filed today. S. 1796 weighs in at 1,502 pages, according to a Senate Republican leadership source. PDF File (1502 Pages)
Will Be Updating as I find the time to read this crap…
Tax on Employer paid insurance begins this January!
From Section 6002 on page 1435: INCLUSION OF COST OF EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH COVERAGE ON W–2
The definition of taxable income is revised to include “the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage”. . . “The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2009.”
The actual rate is on page 1420 line 18.
“there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 40 percent of the 19 excess benefit.”
Note: This appears to be different than identified in the CBO analysis on October 7.
However, an exception to that “firewall” would be allowed for workers who had to pay more than a specified percentage of their income for their employer’s insurance—10 percent in 2013, indexed over time—in which case the employer could also be penalized. Under certain circumstances, firms with relatively few employees and relatively low average wages would also be eligible for tax credits to cover up to half of their contributions toward health insurance premiums. Beginning in 2013, insurance policies with relatively high total premiums would be subject to a 40 percent excise tax on the amount by which the premiums exceeded a specified threshold. In general, that threshold would be set initially at $8,000 for single policies and $21,000 for family policies (although a number of exceptions would apply); after 2013, those amounts would be indexed to overall inflation plus 1 percentage point.
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LB Note: Need to find the definition of “high cost states”???
The plan calls for “full federal funding” of Medicaid for new beneficiaries in only those states that had unemployment rates of at least 12 percent in August and whose Medicaid enrollment is below the national average. Only Nevada, Rhode Island, Michigan and Oregon meet that criteria. That prompted complaints from other lawmakers that their states would have to pay more.
Hoyer said that, in providing for the general welfare, Congress had “broad authority.” “Well, in promoting the general welfare the Constitution obviously gives broad authority to Congress to effect that end,” Hoyer said. “The end that we’re trying to effect is to make health care affordable, so I think clearly this is within our constitutional responsibility.”
Hoyer compared a health insurance mandate to the government’s power to levy taxes, saying “we mandate other things as well, like paying taxes.” The section of the Constitution Hoyer was referring to, Article I, Section 8, outlines the powers of Congress, including raising taxes, but not the purchasing any type of product or service.
Excise Tax on High-Cost Health Plans. New 40% excise tax on health insurance plans to the extent they exceed $26,000 in cost ($9850 single). Exemptions made for over-55 retirees and “high-risk” professions; high-cost states phased in
Individual Mandate Tax. If you don’t sign up for health insurance, you will have to pay a tax in the following range:
Single
Family
100-300% FPL
$750
$1500
300% + FPL
$900
$1900
Employer Mandate Tax. $400 per employee if health coverage is not offered. Note: this is a huge incentive to drop coverage, as $400 is much less than the average plan cost of $11,000 for families or $5000 for singles (Source: AHIP)
Backdoor Death of HSAs. By requiring that all plans (besides the few that are grandfathered) provided actuarially-generous coverage for most services, there would be no HSA-qualifying plans available from the Massachusetts-like exchanges
Report Employer Health Spending on W-2. This is clearly a setup for the easy individual taxation of employer-provided health insurance down the road.
Cap Flex-Spending Account (FSA) Contributions at $2500. Currently unlimited.
Eliminate tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D
Medicine Cabinet Tax. Americans would no longer be able to purchase over-the-counter medicines with their FSA, HSA, or HRA
Increase Non-Qualified HSA Distribution Penalty from 10% to 20%. This makes HSAs less attractive, and paves the way for HSA pre-verification
Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting. Currently, only non-corporations providing property or services for a business must be issued at 1099-MISC. This would expand the requirement to corporations doing business with other businesses.
Various industry tax grabs based on market share. $2.3 billion PhRMA; $6 billion health insurance providers; $4 billion medical device manufacturers
Increase “haircut” of medical itemized deductions from 7.5% to 10% of adjusted gross income (AGI)
Say hello to “Medicare Part E” — as in, “Medicare for Everyone.” House Democrats are looking at re-branding the public health insurance option as Medicare, an established government healthcare program that is better known than the public option…
“It didn’t matter what they called Crystal Pepsi; no one wanted to drink it,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). “No matter how the Democrats ‘re-brand’ their government takeover of healthcare, the American people oppose it.” Republicans also note that Medicare is already $37 trillion in the hole and is projected to go bankrupt by 2018. “Has anyone noticed that Medicare is completely broke?”…]
“Wake Up People Before It Is Too Late…”
“The Elderly and the upcoming baby boomer retirees who paid their dues to SS and Medicare through payroll deductions are going to get screwed!
It looks like the GOP brass had a huddle over the weekend and decided to attack the base. The Raging RINOS have been at it for some time however this is only the beginning of a long fight for the soul of the GOP Party.
Bring it on now! Prime example is the below talking paper from Townhall.com by Carol Platt Liebau: (Emphasis Mine)
Given the public disenchantment with voter-ignoring, big-government-loving Democrats in Congress and The White House, next year’s elections could do much to restore some measure of fiscal sanity and common sense to Washington. But that will happen only if Republican leaders and grassroots Tea Party activists work together effectively. How – and whether – the two reconcile their different priorities and views will have profound consequences for any effort to beat back the Democratic vision of an ever-expanding, ever-more-intrusive federal government.
In recent days, there have been news reports about growing tensions between the Tea Partiers and GOP leaders. That’s understandable, because their priorities and motivations differ. While Tea Partiers are passionate activists committed above all to smaller government and (often) traditional social values, GOP leaders’ primary commitment is to winning seats for the party. But for a partnership to work, both sides will have to grow up.
Let’s start with the party leaders. No doubt there are places where conservative Republicans simply cannot win – in many parts of the Northeast, for example. But occasionally, there’s a laziness problem. Party leaders fail to examine the available alternatives or think about new and exciting candidates. Often, they settle on the candidate with the highest office or the most name identification at an early stage in the process, ignoring lesser-knowns who might be able to ignite real enthusiasm among the electorate in an off-year election. For example, in a year like this one, where anti-government sentiment runs high, it was a real mistake for the NRSC prematurely to endorse Governor Charlie Crist in Florida’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, completely overlooking former Speaker Marco Rubio, who has taken the race by storm.
Nor should party leaders use candidate selection as a covert way to impose their own political preferences on the local electorate. Sometimes, GOP leaders are more moderate than the mass of Republican voters in their area. Seeing newly-minted activists through the more “sophisticated” eyes of political pros, they are occasionally suspicious of, or even appalled by, their rawness and undiluted conservatism. Some are even ashamed of them.
It’s worth asking whether that dynamic was at work in upstate New York, where GOP elders in a conservative-leaning district selected as their congressional candidate a person with pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, pro-stimulus views, who favored making it easier for unions to organize as a Republican congressional candidate. (She has subsequently been endorsed by the NRCC.) Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, one of the local party chairmen involved in the decision dismissively characterized the other, more conservative potential candidate as “unelectable” because he “uniformly stands for all the conservative values of the far right.”
No doubt there are times and places when the official’s assessment (however inartfully phrased) could be true. But surely there are more respectful and responsive ways to handle those delicate situations – especially in a district that’s been 60%+ Republican over the last decade. And there’s a world of difference between choosing an “electable” candidate and selecting one who is essentially a “slap in the face” to the party’s most hardworking, passionate constituency.
On the other hand, Tea Partiers need to be realistic, and understand the limitations of political passion and zeal. Plenty of congressional districts wouldn’t support even a second Ronald Reagan, simply because they are irremediably liberal. Rather than allowing the “best” to become the enemy of the “good enough,” activists could best further their cause by supporting the most conservative candidate who can win, rather than the most conservative candidate, period – when it means that candidate will surely lose.
Those who oppose such a course are prone to claim that insufficiently conservative Republicans are the functional equivalent of Democrats. But they are wrong, for one fundamental reason. Compared to the status quo, every Republican – of whatever stripe – who heads to Washington next year will ultimately empower the most fiscally-responsible wing of the party. After all, it wasn’t the election of far-left liberals, like Charlie Rangel in the House or Ted Kennedy in the Senate, who brought Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to power. Rangel and Kennedy had been in Washington forever. Rather, it was the Democratic “moderates” from battleground districts and states in 2006 and 2008 – people like Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC) and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) – who ultimately handed the far-left Democratic congressional leadership the majorities needed to enact its agenda.
Let’s have no illusions. It’s predictable that, on occasion, Tea Partiers and Republican leaders will find themselves at odds. After all, they serve different functions and hold different priorities. But with good will and a commitment to fairness that builds trust on both sides, most disagreements can be resolved. That’s especially true when both sides remember that there is so much more that unites than divides them – above all, a commitment to returning government to its rightful place in American life, where it serves citizens rather than vice-versa.
Political power without principles is worthless. But principles alone – devoid of any political power to defend or enact them – don’t achieve much, either. If Tea Partiers and GOP leaders find a way to work together – with respect on both sides and without fear or suspicion on either – that will be the best test of whether a commitment to principle, rather than just petulance or the quest for pure power, is each side’s driving force.
Ms Platt Liebau, perhaps you should read the comments on your condescending article! Let me repeat from my post on Saturday:
Update: On one website yesterday I was called an “Ron-Bot Air Head” and on the Saturday Post I’m now identified as an “extremist”. Must have touched a nerve! The truth hurts! The GOP wants our money, support, and “shut up ” and do as they say!
Listen up, those on both the right and left, the TEA PARTY is here to stay. The “purity” theme is getting real old. Either do what we elected you to do or we kick all of you out of office.The rebellion has begun…
Poem of the week: Childhood by Anne Bradstreet — Clarkson on the midlife crisis — Testimony of Professor Jeffrey F. Addicott St. Mary’s University School of Law — Don’t miss the parade — Great Manifestation anti-avortement à Madrid — Navarre Catholic anti-abortion enclave in Spain — Neighbors thought dead man’s body was part of Halloween display — Scientists try to calm ’2012′ hysteria — Wiki: The Moody Blues
This Sunday Blog Post includes interesting cultural articles and photographs that I found during the week from England, France, Spain, and the USA. For this Sunday, I have chosen music from the Moody Blues including “Nights in White Stain”, “I Know You Are Out There Somewhere”, “The Story In Your Eyes”, “The Other Side Of Life”, “No More Lies”, “Tuesday Afternoon”, and “Go Now”.
Striking image of a red rose pierced by a projectile fired by an air rifle precision.(Alan Sailer/Visual Press Agency)
Nights in white satin,
Never reaching the end,
Letters Ive written,
Never meaning to send.
Beauty Id always missed
With these eyes before,
Just what the truth is
I cant say anymore...
America’s first published poet turns a still-startling eye on life’s first stage
When their family home burned down in 1666, Anne Bradstreet and her husband Simon, later governor of Massachusetts, lost a library containing 800 volumes. Bradstreet had faced many setbacks and difficulties since leaving her luxurious estate in Northamptonshire for New England – not least her chronic ill-health and frequent pregnancies – but true to their traditions of Puritan fortitude, the couple rebuilt their lives yet again. And Bradstreet continued to write: she even wrote about the fire, countering despair with faith in the “hope and treasure” of the life to come.
This highly educated Englishwoman is usually considered to be the first published American poet. Her collection, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1659) was in fact printed in London, at the instigation of her brother-in-law, initially without her knowledge. She revised the book extensively for a later, posthumous edition.
I first came across her name in John Berryman’s 1971 masterpiece, “Homage to Mistress Bradstreet“. This monologue cast a shadow over Bradstreet’s work when I started to sample it. The various small anthologised selections always included at least one apology for her writing, love poems to her husband, and pious thoughts about her children – tame stuff after Berryman’s vigorous “homage”. To enter her world via the longer poems was a more rewarding experience. At last her own plain, brave voice became audible.
This week’s poem, “Childhood”, is the second section from her five-part sequence, “Of The Four Ages of Man“. “Lo now, four other acts upon the stage, / Childhood and Youth, the Manly and Old Age,”‘ the prologue begins. Whether Bradstreet was familiar with Shakespeare’s First Folio or had seen As You Like It performed, there’s little doubt that she is issuing a conscious challenge to Jacques’s famous speech, “All the world’s a stage”. Instead of “seven ages”, Bradstreet posits a cleanly-defined four. Her brisk couplets have a confident air, and her independent manipulation of the “stage” metaphor suggests that, while she knows she is no Shakespeare, she amply trusts the human knowledge she has, and the Puritan ethics by which she navigates.
Inventively, Bradstreet bases her “Four Stages” on the four Humours: phlegm, blood, choler and black bile. The case for seeing the child as phlegmatic is unsentimentally put: “Unstable, subtle, moist and cold’s his Nature.” Crowned with spring flowers and dressed in white, the child is imagined astride a hobby-horse and holding “an hour-glass new begun”.
Despite the props, the child is no more a real child chattering in his natural idiom than a shepherd in an Elizabethan pastoral speaks in rural dialect. Yet there is a realist note in much of his self-description, and the behind-the-scenes observation of a woman who knows small children all too well enlivens the moralising: “With weary arms she danc’d, and By, By, sung, /When wretched I (ungrate) had done her wrong.”
Carefree innocence is touchingly evoked by contrast with the machinations of political careerism. But, of course, thanks to Original Sin, the child himself is hardly guiltless: “A serpent’s sting in pleasing face lay hid.” From listing infantile sins, Bradstreet moves swiftly to the sufferings, the “vomits, worms, and flux … breaches, knocks and falls.” By the end, we can sense a palpable maternal anxiety: “At home, abroad, my danger’s manifold/ That wonder ’tis, my glass till now doth hold.”
That a 17th-century woman writer should have dared give such personal and realist “turns” to the literary and spiritual conventions is impressive. Bradstreet had survived the difficulties of her colonial exile, and learned that poetry was nourished not only by books, but from painful lived experience.
Childhood
Ah me! conceiv’d in sin, and born in sorrow,
A nothing, here to day, but gone to morrow,
Whose mean beginning, blushing can’t reveal,
But night and darkness must with shame conceal.
My mother’s breeding sickness, I will spare,
Her nine months’ weary burden not declare.
To shew her bearing pangs, I should do wrong,
To tell that pain, which can’t be told by tongue.
With tears into this world I did arrive;
My mother still did waste, as I did thrive,
Who yet with love and all alacrity,
Spending was willing to be spent for me.
With wayward cries, I did disturb her rest,
Who sought still to appease me with her breast;
With weary arms, she danc’d, and By, By, sung,
When wretched I (ungrate) had done the wrong.
When Infancy was past, my Childishness
Did act all folly that it could express.
My silliness did only take delight
In that which riper age did scorn and slight,
In Rattles, Bables, and such toyish stuff.
My then ambitious thoughts were low enough.
My high-born soul so straitly was confin’d
That its own worth it did not know nor mind.
This little house of flesh did spacious count,
Through ignorance, all troubles did surmount,
Yet this advantage had mine ignorance,
Freedom from Envy and from Arrogance.
How to be rich, or great, I did not cark,
A Baron or a Duke ne’r made my mark,
Nor studious was, Kings favours how to buy,
With costly presents, or base flattery;
No office coveted, wherein I might
Make strong my self and turn aside weak right.
No malice bare to this or that great Peer,
Nor unto buzzing whisperers gave ear.
I gave no hand, nor vote, for death, or life.
I’d nought to do, ‘twixt Prince, and peoples’ strife.
No Statist I: nor Marti’list i’ th’ field.
Where e’re I went, mine innocence was shield.
My quarrels, not for Diadems, did rise,
But for an Apple, Plumb, or some such prize.
My strokes did cause no death, nor wounds, nor scars.
My little wrath did cease soon as my wars.
My duel was no challenge, nor did seek.
My foe should weltering, with his bowels reek.
I had no Suits at law, neighbours to vex,
Nor evidence for land did me perplex.
I fear’d no storms, nor all the winds that blows.
I had no ships at Sea, no fraughts to loose.
I fear’d no drought, nor wet; I had no crop,
Nor yet on future things did place my hope.
This was mine innocence, but oh the seeds
Lay raked up of all the cursed weeds,
Which sprouted forth in my insuing age,
As he can tell, that next comes on the stage.
But let me yet relate, before I go,
The sins and dangers I am subject to:
From birth stained, with Adam’s sinful fact,
From thence I ‘gan to sin, as soon as act;
A perverse will, a love to what’s forbid;
A serpent’s sting in pleasing face lay hid;
A lying tongue as soon as it could speak
And fifth Commandment do daily break;
Oft stubborn, peevish, sullen, pout, and cry;
Then nought can please, and yet I know not why.
As many was my sins, so dangers too,
For sin brings sorrow, sickness, death, and woe,
And though I miss the tossings of the mind,
Yet griefs in my frail flesh I still do find.
What gripes of wind, mine infancy did pain?
What tortures I, in breeding teeth sustain?
What crudities my cold stomach hath bred?
Whence vomits, worms, and flux have issued?
What breaches, knocks, and falls I daily have?
And some perhaps, I carry to my grave.
Sometimes in fire, sometimes in water fall:
Strangely preserv’d, yet mind it not at all.
At home, abroad, my danger’s manifold
That wonder ’tis, my glass till now doth hold.
I’ve done: unto my elders I give way,
For ’tis but little that a child can say.
Around 1800, sailboats, 41st edition of the Barcolana regatta in the Gulf of Trieste, northern Italy. It is one of the largest sailing races in the world. (Franco/AP/SIPA)
As I career towards old age, there are many things which frighten me. All the hair on my head will start to grow out of my nose. My ear lobes will swell up. My bladder will cease to function. I will become even more baffled by new technology.
You’re middle-aged. You have children. Your life is so boring you actually look forward to the arrival of the milkman.
The greatest fear I face is that people, once they reach the age of 50, seem to lose their sense of humour. John Cleese is a prime example.
Perhaps the biggest difference between midlife cycling and sex is that the old girl underneath doesn’t mind being called a bike.
People who don’t have a PlayStation or an account with MyBook. People who don’t go out on a Saturday night. We’re called adults.
What worries me most of all is that [Richard] Hammond’s gonna go: “Oh it’s really brilliant, I can ride standing up and everything” – and I can’t, ’cause I’m too tall and I’m too old and I’m too fat and I hate it.
What I crave in my middle age is an empty diary. Page after page of nothing.
Everyone makes love at some point without knowing that they’ll never do it again. I think if they did, they’d put a bit more effort into the final performance.
[On why men can’t pretend to be younger than they are] We hear Barry Manilow had plastic surgery and what do we think? Poof. Mickey Rourke is said to have had Botox put in his face. Poof. Jay Kay wins a prize for most stylish man. Poof. AA Gill. Poof. Paul Smith. Poof.
I sometimes wonder what I’ve done already for the last time. Skied? Flown a fighter jet? Seen the dawn at a party? It always fills me with great sadness and a resolve that I must never, ever, allow myself to be bored. This is why I shall not be going to church any more.
When we reach 50… there are many, many things you would rather do at night than have sex. Sleeping. Reading. Being dangled from a tall building by what’s left of your hair even.
Blackhawk helicopter flies the ruins of the Mesopotamian Ziggurat of Ur, 300 miles south of Baghdad. This sacred temple, remarkably preserved, was built by Ur-Nammu in 2 100 BC and completed by his son Shulgi on the site of an older temple. At the top stood the sanctuary. (Ernest Sivia/AP/SIPA)
** Highly Recommended ** Excellent Audio of Dr Addicott’s speech at the San Antonio Country Club **
Program Archive: Jeffrey F. Addicott, Director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law
October 16, 2009 ·The World Affairs Council of San Antonio invited Jeffrey F. Addicott, distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law, to speak to their members and guests. He spoke on October 8, 2009 at the San Antonio Country Club. Addicott says that out of the 200 law schools across the country, the School of Law at St. Mary’s University is the only one with a terrorism law center. Professor Addicott is an internationally recognized authority on national security law, terrorism law and human rights law. Nancy Shivers, World Affairs Council of San Antonio Vice-President of Programs introduces Jeffrey Addicott.
Testimony of
Professor Jeffrey F. Addicott
St. Mary’s University School of Law
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.
More than 700 Adam and Eve in a Burgundian vineyard, but without a single fig leaf! This is the work of ephemeral art made the weekend at the request of Greenpeace by the American photographer Spencer Tunick, to alert the public against the dangers that global warming poses to the vine: hail , earlier harvest, less aromatic grapes, alcohol too high. Known since 1992 for his “installations” of naked people in public places, Spencer Tunick had already managed to bring in 7 000 in Barcelona in June 2003, 1 500 Lyon in September 2005 and 18 000 in Mexico City in May 2007. (Pierre Gleizes/Rea)
Don’t miss the parade
ENGLISH EDITION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
MIGUEL ÁNGEL AGUILAR
In Spain we have a Constitution, a flag, an anthem and a National Holiday —reason enough to consider ourselves “almost a country.” The flag is the result of a contest held in 1785 by Carlos III for a single flag to better distinguish Spanish men-of-war at sea. This was a bit late in the game: all the famous Spanish campaigns from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance — Byzantium, Italy, Flanders, America — had been conducted under various feudal banners of the king or of his various dominions.
The anthem is the old march of the Royal Guard, which has never had any convincing lyrics set to it, though in the days of Franco a musician called José de las Casas wrote an arrangement for it and then contrived to register the whole tune as his personal property, until it was nationalized in 1997. The date of the National Holiday, October 12, was also decided on fairly recently. For a National Holiday surely nothing could be more fitting than a military parade. But the parade carries plenty of baggage, because it began as a Civil War commemoration of the winners’ victory over the losers. For 40 years, under the Franco regime, the parade was called the Victory Parade, first held on May 10, 1939, 40 days after the defeat of the Republican forces was announced over the radio from Franco’s Nationalist headquarters in Burgos, in a message that began: “The Red Army now captive and disarmed…” The term Victory Parade was not dropped until after the signing of the democratic Constitution in 1978.
I still remember the efforts made by General Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado, then minister of defense in the first democratic government, to bring the high command’s loyalties over from Franco (i.e. his fascist heritage) to the king, and to substitute the term Victory Parade with Armed Forces Parade. These were difficult times in the creation of a new loyalty which all Spaniards might share. There had to be an end to victory marches, which rubbed the faces of other Spaniards in the humiliating memory of their defeat. To this end there was plenty of rummaging about in earlier Spanish history with the aim of finding martial scenarios that were not imbued with fratricide and civil war; instances in which all Spaniards had been united fighting on the same side, or at least not openly at each others’ throats with knife in hand. This wasn’t easy, because the winners of 1939, or those who set themselves up as their heirs, were still liable to stage courts-martial in which would-be reconcilers were charged with treason.
But reason prevailed. The armed forces ceased to form part of the threat hanging over civil liberties in Spain, and came to be the guardian of those same liberties. Spain ceased to be a country occupied by its own army, as had been the case in the time of the generalissimo (an old military superlative which, in recent times, was first used to underline Chiang-Kai-shek’s preeminence among the plethora of warlords in China, then quickly taken up by Franco’s propagandists). Franco made the army the guarantor of the continuance of fascism. In a speech to a gathering of Civil War ex-combatants in 1961, he promised that political matters in Spain would be “tied down tightly under the faithful guard of our army.” After his death this promise evaporated because the army, in the event, knew better than to attempt to keep it, and accepted the orders of the constitutional government.
Monday’s military parade coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Spanish armed forces’ first participation in international peace missions. During that time, our soldiers have served in Central America, the Balkans, Africa, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, undergoing the risks of their profession, and never stepping out of line. It is an honor to enlist in their ranks. They deserved the applause they received as they marched down the avenue.
Interpreters of the French theater company “Transe Express” hanging over Melbourne, Australia, Monday, October 12. The international art festival runs from October 9 to 24, in collaboration with 26 countries. (William Occidental/AFP)
Over one million people participated in this mobilization organizers said. They were protesting against the proposed liberalization of abortion which would abort freely within 14 weeks.
Seniors, families with children and strollers, groups of adolescents, religious and priests: A human tide has flooded the center of the Spanish capital. They were more than one million Catholics supported by the Church and the right to protest Saturday in Madrid against the proposed liberalization of abortion from the socialist government. The organizers have amounted to 1.5 million people participating in this event, while the Madrid region, ruled by conservatives, has put the figure of 1, 2 million participants.
The event was organized by the Family Forum, a platform of conservative Catholic organizations, which had already brought down hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets in 2005 to protest against the law allowing gay marriage. Here, it is going even further than the only criticism of the bill. “The basic message is that the debate will not end while there is only one abortion in Spain,” said its chairman, Benigno Blanco, the Catholic daily ABC.
Abortion minors, very controversial
Former conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar (1996-2004) and several elected from the right, including the president of the Madrid region, Esperanza Aguirre and the secretary general of the Popular Party (PP) Maria Dolores Cospedal attended in the walk.
The bill approved September 26 in Council of Ministers and will be discussed in November in Parliament, reform legislation of 1985 which had legalized abortion under certain conditions. It was inspired by legislation in force in most countries of the European Union. If adopted as is, women living in Spain may freely abortion within 14 weeks, and exceptionally up to 22 weeks of pregnancy in cases of “risk to life and health” the mother or “severe fetal abnormalities. It can finally be played without time limit in cases of “extremely serious disease and incurable fetal.
Currently, abortion is allowed only in cases of rape (up to 12 weeks of pregnancy), fetal malformations (22 weeks) or “danger to the physical or mental health of the mother (without limitation time). But in practice, the risk to the psychological health of the mother is the reason given by over 90% of women, which gave rise to very late abortions and controversial.
The bill contains a controversial provision, including voters on the left: the minor 16 and 17 can freely abortion without consent or prior knowledge of their parents. The majority of Spaniards are opposed to this provision when they are divided into camps almost equal between supporters and opponents of reform as a whole, according to polls.
Five blessed with the Jeanne Jugan French and Belgian Jozef Damian de Veuster, were canonized Sunday, October 11 at the Vatican by Pope Benedict XVI who asked to ‘open their eyes to the leprosy which disfigures humanity “. (Abaca)
Lefigaro.fr (Diane Cambon, Special Envoy in Pamplona) (English Translation)
About 1 million demonstrators marched Saturday in Madrid against a law relaxing the conditions for abortion.
Ten years later, Sara still dares not speak freely of the subject. No one in his entourage, or even her Spanish family knows she had to travel more than 200 kilometers to undergo an abortion at least twelve weeks of pregnancy. Pearl necklace and neat tailoring, Sara is no exception in Navarre. As some 700 other women have been forced to abort last year away from home. The Navarrese have borne the costs of transportation, operation and accommodation. “You feel like a criminal, especially one facing a very lonely time in a very sensitive cat,” says the woman, aged 43 years Saturday.
Here, in Navarre, the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (abortion) is banned. This is the only autonomous region of Spain where a doctor practicing in a public or private institution agrees to perform an abortion. All hide behind conscientious objection. Some allege this reason in moral conviction, others do not incur the wrath of the Church and especially of Opus Dei. This religious order, founded in 1928 by Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, established its fiefdom in Navarre and has been great pressure on institutions.
“We protect life”
Opus Dei runs the prestigious private hospital in Pamplona and the only medical school in the region, where abortion is one of the disciplines, with euthanasia, demonized. In the central building of the university campus, where the throne in the stern deck, a statue of the founder, Professor of Philosophy of Law Angela Aparisi returns on this local specificity: “Here we are Catholics and we protect life from fertilization. Our doctors are there to treat and relieve the patient, not to commit crimes, “said she.
Angela Aparisi as about 5 000 other inhabitants of the province will participate this Saturday in Madrid to protest anti-abortion. The Great Walk, which are expected 1 million people, several prelates and members of the Conservative Party, including former Chief Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
This new offensive of the Spanish Church and ultra-conservative circles is the new law legalizing abortion. The current legislation, dating from 1985, not decriminalized abortion in three circumstances: in cases of rape, before the 12th week in cases of malformation of the fetus before the 22nd week in cases of “risk to health or physical psychic mother “… without time limit. Now, over 98% of candidates cite this third ground.
With the new law, women could freely interrupt their pregnancy until the 14th week, as is already the case in a dozen countries of the European Union.
In Navarre, the face of future legislation, the resistance of anti-abortion is raised a notch: leafleting, lectures in schools and public places. Dr. Pablo Sanchez, a gynecologist at Planned Parenthood of Pamplona, is one of the victims of lynching “defenders of life”. Since 1990, when, with two other doctors, he was prosecuted for having achieved a score of abortions legally, it has ceased operations. “We pressured our names were published in the press, and those patients too,” protested the doctor. For him, the future law is a national progress, but he believes it will have no impact in Navarre.
Pilgrims pray before the remains of St. Therese of Lisieux in Westminster Cathedral, containing the remains of his thigh bone and a foot. St. Therese of Lisieux, French Carmelite nun who died of tuberculosis in 1897, was described by Pope Pius X as “the greatest saint of modern times.” (Oli Scarf/AFP)
Los Angles Times: By Seema Mehta and Martha Groves
The body of 75-year-old man sat decomposing on his Marina del Rey balcony for days because neighbors thought the lifeless figure was part of a Halloween display and didn’t call police.
Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead since Monday with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment on Bora Bora Way, said cameraman Austin Raishbrook, who owns RMG News and was on the scene Thursday when authorities were alerted to the body.
Neighbors told Raishbrook that they noticed the body Monday “but didn’t bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy,” he said.
“The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex [and] they all didn’t do anything,” Raishbrook said. “It’s very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest.”
An investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the case is an “apparent suicide,” and declined to comment further.
Coroner’s officials were called to the complex at 6:42 p.m. Thursday, according to Capt. John Kades of the county coroner’s office. The official cause of death has not be announced. On Friday, Bora Bora Way was quiet with neighbors and workers going about their routines. From the street, which runs along a boat-filled marina, no evidence of the previous night’s discovery remained.
“I just knew him to say ‘Hello,’ and he was sweet and gentle,” Patricia Kingery, out for a walk, said of Zayed. “He was always well-dressed and obviously active.”
She pointed to what she said was Zayed’s corner apartment, with two balconies, one facing the marina and the other looking over a grassy area with a man-made brook and fountain.
The railing of the latter balcony was draped with what appeared to be bedding.
Earl Kepler, a UPS executive visiting from the Washington, D.C., area, said the complex seemed “a little lonely,” with few people out and about. He wasn’t surprised to hear that the dead man went undiscovered for a few days.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of community involvement,” he said.
Amused, curious or simply attracted by the very appetizing aromas from the kitchen to the edge, a polar bear strafed by tourists from a cruise ship in the waters of the archipelago of Svalbard has decided to invite themselves to dinner and d ‘inspect that the cook had just aired.(Andy Rouse/REX/ SIPA)
As an upcoming action movie fuels Internet rumors, several scientists make public statements: The world will not end in 2012, and Earth is not going to crash into a rogue planet.
Los Angles Times: By John Johnson Jr.
Is 2012 the end of the world?
If you scan the Internet or believe the marketing campaign behind the movie “2012,” scheduled for release in November, you might be forgiven for thinking so. Dozens of books and fake science websites are prophesying the arrival of doomsday that year, by means of a rogue planet colliding with the Earth or some other cataclysmic event.
Normally, scientists regard Internet hysteria with nothing more than a raised eyebrow and a shake of the head. But a few scientists have become so concerned at the level of fear they are seeing that they decided not to remain on the sidelines this time.
“Two years ago, I got a question a week about it,” said NASA scientist David Morrison, who hosts a website called Ask an Astrobiologist. “Now I’m getting a dozen a day. Two teenagers said they didn’t want to see the end of the world so they were thinking of ending their lives.”
Morrison said he tries to reassure people that their fears are groundless, but has received so many inquiries that he has posted a list of 10 questions and answers on the website of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific ( www.astrosociety.org).
Titled “Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru and Cosmophobia,” the article breaks down the sources of the hysteria and assures people that the ancients didn’t actually know more about the cosmos than we do.
“The world will not come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012,” E.C. Krupp, director of Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory, declared in a statement released Thursday by the observatory and Sky & Telescope magazine. Krupp debunks the 2012 doomsday idea in the cover story of the magazine’s November issue.
Morrison said he attributes the excitement to the conflation of several items into one mega-myth. One is the persistent Internet rumor that a planet called Nibiru or Planet X is going to crash into the Earth. Then there’s the fact that the Maya calendar ends in 2012, suggesting that the Maya knew something we don’t. Finally, end-of-the-worlders have seized upon the hubbub about the 2012 date to proclaim their belief that end times are drawing near.
Morrison, who heads the Lunar Science Institute at the Ames Research Center in Northern California, has coined a term for the phenomenon: “cosmophobia,” a fear of the cosmos. According to Morrison, for the most vulnerable among us, all of the things we’ve learned about the universe in the last century have only increased the number of potential threats to our existence.
Besides fearing a rampaging planet, the worriers think the sun might lash out at the Earth with some calamitous electromagnetic force. They also fear that some sort of alignment between the Earth and the center of our galaxy could unleash catastrophe.
Krupp said that the scare-mongers would have us believe that the “ancient Maya of Mexico and Guatemala kept a calendar that is about to roll up the red carpet of time, swing the solar system into transcendental alignment with the heart of the Milky Way, and turn Earth into a bowling pin for a rogue planet heading down our alley for a strike.”
According to Rosemary Joyce, a professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley, the Maya never predicted anything. The 2012 date is approximately when the ancient calendar would roll over, like the odometer on a car; it did not mean the end — merely the start of a new cycle.
Some authors have tried to merge that idea, Joyce said, with Maya mythology that said the Earth had gone through multiple ages of creation, each ending in a disaster. “But there’s no prediction,” she said. “They did not predict the end of the world.”
Morrison says it’s hard to know whether the people who have written to him with their fears represent a fringe or a larger cross-section of Americans who, distrustful of traditional sources of information and the authorities behind them, are falling victim to the Internet’s snake-oil salesmen…]
More gourmand than aggressive, the bear, all nostrils out, was saturated with odor before renouncing force the passage. Spectacular, this kind of incident is not rare in Svalbard where wildlife tourism continues to grow. Excellent and very agile swimmer, the plantigrade can easily reach the ship and attempt to board. (Andy Rouse/Rex/Sipa)
The band has had numerous hit albums in the UK, U.S., and worldwide. They remain active as of 2009. The Moody Blues have sold in excess of 50 million albums worldwide and have been awarded 14 platinum and gold discs.
The Moody Blues formed on 4 May1964, in Erdington, Birmingham, England. Ray Thomas, John Lodge, and Michael Pinder had been members of El Riot & the Rebels, a regionally-popular band. They disbanded when Lodge, the youngest member, went to technical college and Pinder joined the army. Pinder then rejoined Thomas to form the Krew Cats and enjoyed moderate success. The pair recruited guitarist/vocalist Denny Laine, band manager-turned drummer Graeme Edge, and bassist Clint Warwick. The five appeared as the Moody Blues for the first time in Birmingham in 1964. The name developed from a planned sponsorship from the M&B Brewery and was also a subtle reference to the Duke Ellington song, “Mood Indigo”.
Soon, the band obtained a London-based management company, ‘Ridgepride’, formed by ex-Decca A&R man Alex Murray (Alex Wharton), who helped them land a recording contract with Decca Records in the spring of 1964. They released a single, “Steal Your Heart Away” that year which made it onto the charts. But it was their second single, “Go Now” (released later that year), which really launched their career, being promoted on TV with one of the first purpose-made promotional films in the pop era, produced and directed by Wharton. The single became a hit in the United Kingdom (where it remains their only Number 1 single to date) and in the United States where it reached #10.
Their debut album The Magnificent Moodies, produced by Denny Cordell with a strong Merseybeat/R&B flavour, was released on Decca in 1965. It contained the hit single together with one side of classic R&B covers, and a second including four Laine/Pinder originals.
Wharton left the management firm and the group released a series of unsuccessful singles. In the summer of 1966, Warwick left the group. He was briefly replaced by Rod Clark but by October, Laine and Clark had also departed the group. They were immediately replaced by John Lodge, their bassist from El Riot, and Justin Hayward, formerly of The Wilde Three. Pinder phoned Hayward after reading his application to The Animals, and was impressed when Hayward played him his 45 rpm single “London Is Behind Me” during their car ride to meet the other members in Esher. After financial misfortune and a confrontation from an audience member, the band soon realised that their style of American blues covers and novelty tunes was not working for them, and they decided that they would only perform their own material. Their new style, featuring the symphonic sounds of Pinder’s mellotron and Ray Thomas’ flute, and incorporating distinct psychedelic influences, was to be developed in a concept album revolving around an archetypal day in the life of everyman.
Deram Records contract and founding of signature style
The Moody Blues’ contract with Decca Records was set to expire and they owed the label several thousand pounds in advances. They had the support, however, of Decca A&R manager Hugh Mendl, who had been instrumental in the recent establishment of London/Decca’s new subsidiary imprint Deram Records. With Mendl’s backing, The Moody Blues were offered a deal to make a rock and roll version of Antonín Dvořák‘s New World Symphony that would promote the company’s new Deramic Stereo Sound (DSS) formatman [2] in return for which the group would be forgiven its debt.
The Moody Blues agreed, but they insisted that they be given artistic control of the project, and Mendl (as executive producer) was able to provide this in the face of Decca’s notoriously tight-fisted attitude to its artists.The group were unable to complete the assigned project, which was abandoned. They managed to convince Peter Knight, who had been assigned to arrange and conduct the orchestral interludes, to collaborate on a recording that used the band’s original material instead.
Deram executives were initially skeptical about the hybrid style of the resulting concept album. Days of Future Passed (released in November 1967) became one of the most successful pop/rock releases of the period, earning a gold record award and reaching #27 on the British album chart (five years later it was to reach #3 in the U.S./Billboard charts). The album was a song cycle that (like James Joyce‘s Ulysses) took place over the course of a single day. In production and arrangement, the album drew inspiration from the pioneering use of the classical instrumentation by The Beatles, and took the form to new heights, using the London Festival Orchestra to provide full orchestral backing throughout the album, combined with rock instrumentation centred on Pinder’s Mellotron.
Decca staff producer Tony Clarke was chosen to produce the album, and the band carried on a durable working relationship with Clarke (sometimes known to fans as “the sixth Moody”) who went on to produce all of their albums and singles for the next eleven years. Engineer Derek Varnals would also contribute heavily to the creation of the early Moodies’ studio sound.
The album plus two singles, “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon” (as a medley with “Forever Afternoon,” listed as “Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)” on the album), became massively popular, as was the 1968 follow-up LP, In Search of the Lost Chord. Also included on this album is the song “Legend of a Mind“, a song written by Ray Thomas in tribute to LSD guru Timothy Leary which encompassed a masterful flute solo performed by Thomas. Justin Hayward began playing sitar and incorporating it into Moody Blues music, having been inspired by George Harrison. Graeme Edge found a significant secondary role in the band as a writer of poetry, and nearly all of their early albums from the late Sixties begin with Mike Pinder reciting poems by Edge that were conceptually related to the lyrics of the songs that would follow. The band’s music continued to become more complex and symphonic, with heavy amounts of reverberation on the vocal tracks, resulting in 1969′s To Our Children’s Children’s Children — a concept album based around the band’s celebration of the first moon landing. The album closes with “Watching and Waiting“, composed by Ray Thomas and Justin Hayward.
Although the Moodies had by now defined a somewhat psychedelic style and helped to define the progressive rock (then also known as ‘art rock’) sound, the group decided to record an album that could be played in concert, losing some of their full-blown sound for A Question of Balance (1970). This album, reaching #3 in the American charts and #1 in the British charts, was indicative of the band’s growing success in America. Justin Hayward began an artful exploration of guitar tone through the use of numerous effects pedals and fuzz-boxes, and developed for himself a very melodic buzzing guitar-solo sound. For their next two albums, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) and Seventh Sojourn (1972) (which reached #1 in the U.S.), the band returned to their signature orchestral sound which, while difficult to reproduce in concert, had become their trademark. Edge, the long standing drummer-poet, started writing lyrics intended to be sung, rather than verses to be spoken.
In late 1972, a re-issue of the five-year-old “Nights in White Satin” became the Moody Blues’ biggest U.S. hit, soaring to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming a certified million-seller; the song had “bubbled under” the Hot 100 charts on its original release. The song also returned to the UK charts, reaching #9, ten places higher than its original release in 1967.
The Moodies were also among the pioneers of the idea that a successful rock band could promote itself through its own label, following the Beatles‘ creation of Apple Records. After their On the Threshold of a Dream album (1969), they created Threshold Records, prompted in part by disputes with London/Deram over album design costs (their gatefold record jackets and expensive cover art were not popular with company executives). Threshold would produce new albums and deliver them to London/Decca who acted as distributor. The group attempted to build Threshold into a major label by developing new talent — most notably the UK hard rock band Trapeze and the Portland, Oregon, classical-acoustic sextet Providence — but these efforts proved unsuccessful and the Moodies eventually returned to more traditional recording contracts. They did lay the groundwork, however, for other major acts to set up similar personal labels and distribution deals including The Rolling Stones‘ own label and Led Zeppelin‘s Swan Song, and all of the Moodies’ studio releases from 1969 to 1999 would bear the Threshold logo on at least one of their format versions.
Reunion, 1977–1990
In 1977, as the group made a decision to record together again, London Records decided to release a somewhat poorly mixed then-eight year old recording of the band performing at the Royal Albert Hall, against their artistic wishes. London/Decca did this in an attempt to re-energise a somewhat waning public interest in the Moody Blues prior to their anticipated new album, but the crude sound of the concert from 1969 titled Caught Live + 5 would clash sharply with the lush and refined sound the modern Moodies were capable of producing in the studio. By this time Pinder had married and started a family in California, so for their reunion recording, the band decamped stateside with producer Clarke. The sessions were marked with tension and division (with Pinder dropping out before completion), but by the spring of 1978 Octave was ready for release. Pinder, citing his young family, excused himself from the touring commitments that were to follow.
During this period, the prog-rock band Yes had asked their keyboard player, Patrick Moraz, to leave. Moraz’s management had some contacts with the Moodies, and after a successful audition with the band in England in 1978, he was hired as keyboard player for the Octave World Tour that began in Germany in October. In spite of these difficulties, the album itself sold well and produced the hits “Steppin’ in a Slide Zone“, written by Lodge and “Driftwood“, written by Hayward. The music video produced for “Driftwood” features Moraz, although Mike Pinder was the one who played on the actual recording; the video for “Steppin’ in a Slide Zone” simply shows the other four members without Pinder.
The Moodies toured the U.S. and Europe during much of 1979. By 1980 they were ready to record again, this time bringing in producer Pip Williams. Moraz was retained as the band’s permanent keyboardist, though Pinder had originally understood that he would continue to record even if not tour with the band. Pinder attempted legal measures to prevent the new Moody Blues album from reaching the public without his contribution, but he was not successful, and ultimately, he never returned to the fold. Released in 1981, Long Distance Voyager was a colossal success, reaching #1 on Billboard and top 5 in the UK. The album yielded two hits, “The Voice“, written by Hayward, and “Gemini Dream“, written by Hayward and Lodge. By now, the mellotron had been set aside as their primary keyboard instrument and the band embraced a more modern, less symphonic approach. The marketing formula for the band demanded from this time forward that a Justin Hayward song would be used to lead off their studio albums, as his material was the most popular…]
Pilot Sean Tucker and Major Nathan Miller ( F/A18 Hornet U.S. Navy) flying over the whole bay of San Francisco, October 8. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP)
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How else could these preferential loans appear but improper?
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
With a political class in Washington that has set new highs for government spending and regulation, government debt, and a weak dollar that is now increasingly dependent on our “friends” the Chinese, should we be surprised that conservatives are looking for better options than the Republicans in Name Only who are helping dig our nation into what may be the worst period for our economy in more than a half century?
Image by: Matt Mahurin @ 
Striking image of a red rose pierced by a projectile fired by an air rifle precision.(Alan Sailer/Visual Press Agency)
Blackhawk helicopter flies the ruins of the Mesopotamian Ziggurat of Ur, 300 miles south of Baghdad. This sacred temple, remarkably preserved, was built by Ur-Nammu in 2 100 BC and completed by his son Shulgi on the site of an older temple. At the top stood the sanctuary. (Ernest Sivia/AP/SIPA)
Amused, curious or simply attracted by the very appetizing aromas from the kitchen to the edge, a polar bear strafed by tourists from a cruise ship in the waters of the archipelago of Svalbard has decided to invite themselves to dinner and d ‘inspect that the cook had just aired.(Andy Rouse/REX/ SIPA)
Pilot Sean Tucker and Major Nathan Miller ( F/A18 Hornet U.S. Navy) flying over the whole bay of San Francisco, October 8. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP)
