Just like a politician. Chances of reelection are not looking good for Chafee as an Independent, so the once Republican will now switch to the Democrats.
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I) intends to run for reelection as a Democrat, according to two people familiar with his decision, a move that suggests that the first-term governor does not see a path to reelection as an independent.
Chafee, a former Republican senator, won the governorship in 2010 in a competitive three-way race. His prospects for a second term have looked dim, as polling shows his numbers are downright bad. Chafee’s made no secret about the fact that he has been considering switching to the Democratic Party. His decision signals that he believes his best chance for survival is competing in what is expected to be a competitive Democratic primary.
Chafee is expected to announce his decision shortly, possibly as soon as this week, the people familiar with his decision say.
U.S. stocks surged Tuesday as investors digested stellar economic data that appeared to put the housing and financial crises far in the rearview mirror.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high of 15,409.39, after gaining more than 100 points, or 0.7%. (Tracking the Dow 30).
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, and the Nasdaq added 0.9%.
At the same time, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note surged above 2.1% — its highest level in more than a year.
I never understood why she was in Congress anyway. A rock placed in her seat would have been more productive for the American people.
Then again, a rock placed in any Congressional Republican’s seat would produce more than the sorry group occupying those seats today.
Michele Bachmann, the firebrand conservative 2012 presidential contender, announced Wednesday she will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, did not rule out another run for the Republican presidential nomination.
She said in a video posted on her campaign website that four two-year terms was enough time for anyone to serve in the House. She gave no other specific reason for not running for a fifth term.
Bachmann faced a House challenge from Democrat Jim Graves who came within one percent of beating her in 2012. But fear of a difficult race in 2014 was not her reason for leaving the House, she said in the video.
Bachmann’s campaign for the 2012 nomination, which centered around charges that President Barack Obama was putting the U.S. “on the road to socialism,” brought her wide attention. But much of it was negative thanks to regular misstatements of fact.
Did you hear the one about the Republican congressman who is milking the government for personal farm subsidies, then turns around and voted against food stamp benefits for the poor?
Using Agriculture Department data, researchers at the Environmental Working Group found that Representative Stephen Fincher, a Republican and a farmer from Frog Jump, Tenn., collected nearly $3.5 million in subsidies from 1999 to 2012. The data is part of the research group’s online farm subsidy database from which the group issues a report each year.
In 2012 alone, the data shows, Mr. Fincher received about $70,000 in direct payments, money that is given to farmers and farmland owners, even if they do not grow crops. It is unclear how much Mr. Fincher received in crop insurance subsidies because the names of people receiving the subsidies are not public. The group said most of the agriculture subsidies go to the largest, most profitable farm operations in the country. These farmers have received $265 billion in direct payments and farm insurance subsidies since 1995, federal records show.
During debate on the farm bill in the House Agriculture Committee last week, Mr. Fincher was one of the biggest proponents of $20 billion in cuts to food stamps in the legislation. At times he quoted passages from the Bible in defending the cuts.
“We have to remember there is not a big printing press in Washington that continually prints money over and over,” Mr. Fincher said during the debate. “This is other people’s money that Washington is appropriating and spending.”
With just a few weeks before his second degree murder trail is set to begin, George Zimmerman’s defense team has hit another barrier. Earlier today (May 28) a judge barred the admission of Trayvon Martin’s text messages, social media posts, and other records during the trial.
Zimmerman’s team wanted to use the evidence to paint Martin as more of an aggressor than a victim. In looking into his previous school suspension records, alleged Mary Jane smoking, and other damaging actions, the defense hoped to prove that the accused killer shot Martin, 17, out of self defense.
“There’s is certainly enough evidence….that’s going to suggest Trayvon Martin involved himself longingly with fighting with other people,” Zimmerman’s lead attorney Mike O’Mara said.
Although the ruling is a blow, it may not be permanent.
Judge Debra Nelson said that during the trial she will consider motions to admit details as evidence on a case-by-case basis, outside the presence of jurors who will decide if Zimmerman is guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Martin.
Capping a slew of rulings on pre-trial motions, Nelson rejected a defense request for a trial delay and ruled that jury selection will begin June 10.
“This case has dragged on long enough,” prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda said in arguing for the trial to start as scheduled.
Over the course of two hours, Nelson granted numerous motions by prosecutors, who argued that details of the slain teen’s past are not be relevant to the Feb. 26, 2012, confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin and should not be discussed before the jury.
This isn’t the first time that Martin’s personal life has seeped into the media, as well as Zimmerman’s. Since the February 2012 incident, both have had unknown public records dragged into the spotlight, but it is unclear if any of the evidence will sway jurors in either direction.
Fifteen freight train cars derailed in an industrial area of Maryland this afternoon causing an explosion, the collapse of several buildings and leaving one person in serious condition, according to authorities.
The CSX train derailed in the White Marsh area around 2 p.m., according to officials.
“Several buildings collapsed at the site of the train derailment,” Baltimore County public safety information specialist Louise Feher told ABCNews.com.
Dole, who ran against President Bill Clinton in 1996 and was the leader of Senate Republicans for much of the 1980s and 90s, slammed the GOP for excessive obstructionism and for failing to convey a forward-looking agenda during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Never one to mince words, Dole did not absolve President Obama of the blame for the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., but he directed the lion’s share of his criticism at his own party.
“I think they ought to put a sign on the [Republican] national committee doors that says ‘closed for repairs’ until New Year’s Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas,” Dole said.
Asked whether Republicans of years past, many of whom had a more diplomatic approach to compromise and governance than today’s Republicans, would be able to make it in the modern GOP, Dole said, “I doubt it.”
“Reagan wouldn’t have made it. Certainly Nixon couldn’t have made it, because he had ideas,” he explained.
“We might have made it, but I doubt it.”
And much of the blame for the gridlock, Dole said, rests with a fractious Congress that seems more interested in partisan drama than doing its job.
“It seems to be almost unreal that we can’t get together on a budget or legislation,” Dole said, comparing today’s Congress unfavorably with the institution in which he served for decades. “We weren’t perfect by a long shot, but at least we got our work done.”
Well the weather hasn’t been great here in New Jersey so I stayed away from the shore this Memorial Day Weekend and spent Monday night at the movies with my friends. They talked me into seeing Fast and Furious 6; here is my short review.
What I liked:
There are two simple things that appeal to a teenage guy like me, fast cars and hot girls. This movie has them both so that part of me was satisfied.
This movie is a direct sequel to F&F 5 so there isn’t this hour of character introductions and back stories.
What I disliked:
It’s a direct sequel…so if you are just now jumping into the Fast and Furious series, well you’ll be totally lost and confused.
This movie is no Tokyo Drift. Tokyo Drift is the ultimate movie in this entire movie series; it encompasses everything Fast and Furious should be about: fast exotic cars, hot girls, and awesome street races
What in the world was I watching? Fast and Furious 6 seemed to have more love stories than Twilight, more explosions than Transformers, more cheesy one liners than any comedy movie, more car crashes than The Blues Brothers, and more gun fights than an old western.
Hey…uh where were the car races? There was one legitimate street race that lasted three or four minutes.
The plot gets even more unrealistic to the point it just doesn’t even make sense. (Spoiler Alert) You mean to tell me a car crew of internationally wanted cons aren’t able to be tracked down while hiding in the near open and hired by a crime fighting unit to take down a rival crew led by an ex SAS operative? Sure…
There’s going to be another next July. I can tell you already that Fast and Furious 6 was made to lead directly into the next one that’s already been confirmed. Now I understand the need to bring the story full circle but the plot is going to be the same just with a new “bad guy” in it who is another big name (ahem Jason Statham). I just hope they bring Fast and Furious back to it’s roots because this series is becoming as played out as Saw and Final Destination.
My final impressions? Well if you have that much free time, a little kid who wants to see it, or friends who will buy you your ticket then by all means go see Fast and Furious 6. Otherwise save yourself the $13 for a ticket and go buy lunch or dinner.
Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck made some news this year when he declared that water is a food that should be privatized, then went further by claiming that human beings should not be entitled to getting the life saving commodity. His claim is just another example of corporate greed over the most basic need of human life.
Here’s something original. Barry made over $92,000.00 filing 122 false income tax returns using the information of dead people.
In other news, Republican Senator Rand Paul recently defended Apple’s decision to cheat the American Government out of billions in taxes, by shipping their income overseas. Paul was heard saying that everyone game the system in some way, so Apple did nothing wrong.
The U.S. attorney’s office said in a release John M. Berry Jr. of Dunkirk, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Buffalo to making a false claim against the United States. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who is handling the case, said between Sept. 3, 2008, and March 25, 2009, Berry filed 122 false income tax returns for the tax years 2007 and 2008 with the IRS.
During that time, Berry obtained the personal and identifying information for 122 recently deceased individuals and then used that information to file federal tax returns. The defendant created fraudulent income and withholding information for the dead taxpayers and filed the returns electronically, Mango said.
The 122 tax returns sought refunds totaling $217,520 from the IRS, of which the defendant received $92,462.12. The refunds were deposited directly into Berry’s bank account, Mango said.
“This case should serve as a warning that our office, working with our law enforcement partners, will not tolerate attempts to either steal the identities of individuals, or the money of the taxpayers of this country,” U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. “That this defendant would rob the identities of deceased individuals is concerning, and could have brought additional grief and pain for their loved ones.”
Firefighters in eastern China have rescued an abandoned newborn baby boy lodged in a sewage pipe.
The infant was stuck in a pipe directly beneath a toilet commode, state television reported, in a case which has sparked anger on social media sites.
There are frequent reports in Chinese media of babies being abandoned, often shortly after birth.
Warning graphic content
Fight for survival: The newborn baby was rescued by firefighters after being flushed down a toilet from the fourth floor. Firefighters were able to hear faint cries and, exploring further, spotted a baby’s foot deep inside the pipe
Unbelievably, the baby survived the ordeal, which saw him having to be cut out of a pipe
Firefighters received a call from a landlady of a block of flats saying that she thought a baby was trapped in a toilet pipe in the building as she had heard it crying
The problem is attributed variously to young mothers unaware they were pregnant, the birth of an unwanted girl in a society which puts greater value on boys or China’s strict family planning rules.In the latest case the infant was found in the sewage pipe in a residential building in Jinhua in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang on Saturday afternoon.
The harrowing discovery came after residents reported the sound of a baby crying, state television said late on Monday.
The pipe was just four inches wide in diameter the China Daily newspaper said, according to the BBC.
Firefighters had to remove the pipe and take it to a nearby hospital, where doctors carefully cut around it to rescue the baby boy inside, the report said.
The firefighters worked quickly to dismantle the pipe and rescue the trapped youngster, who was heard wailing
It’s as if the party is driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with its eyes closed. Nothing good can come of this. They’ve already alienated a majority of people by voting down background checks. And now they’re making noise that they will reject an immigration bill that has wide support and will address serious deficiencies in our system. Siding with big business on tax reform would be a sweet third strike as we move into next year’s election season. In fact, 2010 will be seen as the swan song of the far right; the last gasp of a fading and rudderless movement that will take up residence in the south and fight the good fight, 150 years after the last major battles.
The Democrats, by contrast, are beginning to move out of the morass they found themselves in after the 2010 elections. Yes, they are presently mired in scandal muck, but this too shall pass. The scandals might slow down their momentum, but as the GOP will use them as an excuse to do nothing, the population will see their tactics for what they are, and have always been, and will vote accordingly. The Democrats will probably not take the House, but they will make inroads on the path to a majority in 2016. They’ll also hold on to the Senate, but perhaps by a smaller margin than today.
From there, it will be up to the Republicans who are left to either help make this country better or continue their obstruction. Yes, they have Rubio, Paul, Ryan and Christie. But up against O’Malley, Cuomo, Clinton and Malloy, they don’t stand a chance.
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