The Republican Thread

[Balta1701]

Sen. Lamar Alexander will resign from his influential Republican leadership post in January, a stunning decision by the former two-time presidential candidate who has played a central role shaping GOP strategy during President Barack Obama’s time in office.

 

In a letter sent Tuesday morning to Republican senators — first reported by POLITICO — Alexander said he will cut short his leadership term by quitting as Republican Conference chairman, the No. 3 job, and abandoning his hopes to ascend to the powerful Senate Republican whip job in the next Congress.

 

Alexander says the decision was rooted in his desire to foster consensus in the gridlocked Senate, a role he felt constrained playing while spearheading the partisan Senate GOP messaging machine.

 

“Stepping down from leadership will liberate me to spend more time working for results on the issues I care most about,” he said in the letter. “I want to do more to make the Senate a more effective institution so that it can deal better with serious issues. There are different ways to provide leadership within the Senate. After nine years here, this is how I believe I can now make my greatest contribution. For these same reasons, I do not plan to seek a leadership position in the next Congress.”

 

Alexander — the 71-year-old former Tennessee governor and U.S. education secretary under President George H.W. Bush who unsuccessfully sought his party’s presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000 by portraying himself as a populist crusader — will still serve in the Senate and plans to run for reelection for a third term in 2014.

 

Alexander has already informed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of his decision but kept the news closely guarded until he informed his colleagues Tuesday morning.

 

By deciding to return to the rank and file, Alexander has reordered the Republican pecking order in the Senate.

 

Next in line to fill his third-ranking spot would be Sen. John Thune, the 50-year-old South Dakotan who decided against mounting a run for the Republican presidential nomination and currently sits at the No. 4 post as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the 59-year-old orthopedic surgeon who has quickly jumped the party hierarchy since he joined the Senate in 2007 and now serves as vice chairman of the conference, could then ascend to Thune’s position.

 

Thune told reporters Tuesday morning he plans to run for conference chairman in January.

 

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/...l#ixzz1YW2Se0pU

[Balta1701]

I hadn't heard this one yet...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-20...-like-meat.html

One of the people discussed there filled in the ellipsis. It doesn't change the view of Rahm and Larry, but this seems like an important omission.

One of the most striking quotes in the book came from former White House communications director Anita Dunn , who was quoted as saying that, “this place would be in court for a hostile workplace. . . . Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

 

Dunn says she was quoted out of context and told The Post on Friday that she told Suskind “point blank” that the White House was not a hostile work environment.

 

On Monday, Suskind allowed a Post reporter to review a recorded excerpt of the original interview, which took place over the telephone in April. In that conversation, Dunn is heard telling Suskind about a conversation she had with Jarrett.

 

“I remember once I told Valerie that, I said if it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” Dunn is heard telling Suskind. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

Link.

[mr_genius]

One of the people discussed there filled in the ellipsis. It doesn't change the view of Rahm and Larry, but this seems like an important omission.

Link.

 

obama was obviously enabling their behavior. do you think hillary should challenge Obama for the 2012 dem nomination?

Edited September 21, 2011 by mr_genius

[southsider2k5]

So much for working for everyone...

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...0,4724416.story

 

All it took to give nearly two dozen labor leaders from Chicago a windfall worth millions was a few tweaks to a handful of sentences in the state's lengthy pension code.

 

The changes became law with no public debate among state legislators and, more importantly, no cost analysis.

 

Twenty years later, 23 retired union officials from Chicago stand to collect about $56 million from two ailing city pension funds thanks to the changes, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation found.

 

Because the law bases the city pensions on the labor leaders' union salaries, they are reaping retirement benefits that far outstrip the modest salaries they made as city employees. On average, their pensions are nearly three times higher than what the typical retired city worker receives.

 

No one from either the state Legislature or city government will take credit for the law, which passed in 1991, and the process of drafting pension legislation in Springfield is so shrouded in secrecy that there's no way of knowing exactly whom to hold responsible.

 

The Tribune and WGN-TV found that Senate President John Cullerton was one of only 10 lawmakers on the committee that inserted the changes into a much larger bill. He's also the only one who is still in office.

 

Cullerton, who declined to be interviewed for this story, denied being involved in the changes and issued a statement that acknowledged the law now looks like a bad idea.

 

"Municipal pensions should be for the hard-working municipal employees, who typically toil in obscurity, loyally contribute to the pension funds and aren't about to get rich off of their retirements," he said in a prepared statement. "Outliers such as those highlighted by the WGN and Tribune reports should be corrected in order to help restore the system's fiscal and public integrity."

 

Making changes won't be easy, however. That's because the state constitution says pension benefits cannot be diminished once they are earned.

 

Pension experts from around the country say they've never heard of such a perk for union leaders. They warn that it not only creates opportunities to scam the system but also robs the city of its ability to control pension costs. The city doesn't set union salaries, the most important ingredient in determining the size of the leaders' pensions.

 

What's more, none of the labor officials retired in the traditional sense. Even as they collected their inflated city pensions, they held on to their high-paying union jobs. A decade ago, those public pension funds were flush, but they're now in such deep financial trouble that they threaten to burden taxpayers and dues-paying union workers alike.

 

"At a time when the public is going to be asked to pay higher taxes for fewer services, the revelation that there are benefits being paid for work that doesn't directly relate to official city business is outrageous," said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan policy research group.

 

"It also undermines the hardworking government employees when state statutes are manipulated to benefit a handful of people," he said.

 

Since the 1950s, city workers who take leaves of absence to work full time for unions have been able to remain in city pension funds if they choose. The time they spend at their union jobs counts toward their city pensions.

 

But few labor leaders took the deal until the law was changed in 1991 to base those workers' city pensions on their union salaries instead of their old city paychecks, dramatically boosting the amount they could receive.

 

And every year, those city pensions grow by 3 percent. Records show the top earners are:

 

•Liberato "Al" Naimoli, president of the Cement Workers Union Local 76. He retired last year from a $15,000-a-year city job that he last held a quarter-century ago. Today, Naimoli receives more than $13,000 a month from the city laborers' pension fund even as he continues to earn nearly $300,000 annually as president of Local 76. His city laborers' pension will pay him about $4 million during his lifetime, according to a Tribune/WGN-TV analysis based on the funds' actuarial assumptions.

 

•James McNally, vice president of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. He receives nearly $115,000 a year even though at the time he retired, in 2008, he had not worked for the city in more than 13 years. He was only 51 when he started collecting a city pension. By the time he turns 78, he will have received roughly $4 million from the city laborers' fund.

 

•Dennis Gannon, former president of the Chicago Federation of Labor. In 2004, he began receiving more than $150,000 a year after retiring at age 50 from a $56,000-a-year city job that he had left nearly 13 years earlier. He received his city pension while collecting a salary of about $200,000 from the federation. During his lifetime, the city municipal pension fund will pay him approximately $5 million. Gannon told the Tribune that he was only following the law in filing for a city pension.

[Jenksismyhero]

So much for working for everyone...

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...0,4724416.story

 

Sigh. I f***ing hate this state.

[Cknolls]

So much for working for everyone...

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...0,4724416.story

 

 

And neither Cullerton who was on the committee nor Daley(John) remember anything about this. Unreal.

[Texsox]

Why? Usually there is at least a good cover reason. I'm not seeing at all how the city would benefit.

[mr_genius]

Obama attempts to gain credibility by channeling the intellect of the mighty and knowledgeable Rush Limbaugh.

 

http://nation.foxnews.com/rush-limbaugh/20...plagiarized-him

[StrangeSox]

"established me as one of the nation’s great thinkers"

 

lol

[mr_genius]

"established me as one of the nation’s great thinkers"

 

[southsider2k5]

Obama attempts to gain credibility by channeling the intellect of the mighty and knowledgeable Rush Limbaugh.

 

http://nation.foxnews.com/rush-limbaugh/20...plagiarized-him

 

Damn even Obama has to clear his agenda with Rush.

[StrangeSox]

 

that manages to top Moore's recent "most feared and hated man in the country" claim for oblivious egoism.

[mr_genius]

that manages to top Moore's recent "most feared and hated man in the country" claim for oblivious egoism.

 

yea but Rush Limbaugh is cool and hilarious. Michael Moore just seems like a whiny fatso to me.

[southsider2k5]

Too bad no one had enough testicular fortitude to go after this stuff while Daley actually mattered.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...,0,913026.story

 

Most city workers spend decades in public service to build up modest pensions. But for former labor leader Dennis Gannon, the keys to securing a public pension were one day on the city payroll and some help from the Daley administration.

 

And his city pension is more than modest. It's the highest of any retired union leader: $158,000. That's roughly five times greater than what the typical retired city worker receives.

 

In fact, his pension is so high that it exceeds federal limits and required the city pension fund to file special paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service to give it to him.

 

Gannon's inflated pension is a prime example of how government officials and labor leaders have manipulated city pension funds at the expense of union workers and taxpayers. Like other labor leaders, he was able to take a long leave from a city job to work for a union and then receive a city pension based on a high union salary.

 

But in a new twist, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found that Gannon is eligible for the lucrative pension deal only because City Hall rehired the former Streets and Sanitation Department worker for a single day in 1994, then granted him an indefinite leave of absence.

 

Gannon quickly rose to become one of the most powerful labor leaders in the city, speaking on behalf of more than 300 Chicago-area unions as president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

 

State law allowed Gannon to retire from the city in 2004, the year he turned 50; since then, he has received about $1 million from his city pension. He stands to collect approximately $5 million during his lifetime, according to an analysis based on the fund's actuarial assumptions.

 

Until last year, that pension came on top of Gannon's union salary, which had grown to more than $240,000. He now draws the pension while working for a hedge fund, Grosvenor Capital Management, that does work with public pensions, including the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois. The firm also was one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's largest campaign contributors.

 

Gannon declined to be interviewed for this story but issued a statement through a spokesman for the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, where he is a board member.

 

"I am extremely proud of my many years of service to the city of Chicago and the working men and women of organized labor," Gannon wrote. "I have always followed the pension laws governed by the state of Illinois statute as well as the city of Chicago municipal pension plan."

 

Terrance Stefanski, who oversees the city's municipal pension fund, confirmed that the city helped Gannon qualify for an inflated pension by hiring him for a day. But he said he has no control over city hiring and must follow the pension laws.

 

"Once the city rehired him and he went on a leave of absence to work for the union, he was eligible under the law," Stefanski said.

 

Streets and San officials provided a statement about Gannon's one-day hiring: "This was a personnel matter that happened more than 16 years ago, and at this time we don't have all of the details needed to determine exactly why these decisions were made."

 

Gannon's inflated city pension is one of at least 23 handed out to union leaders who have retired from the city, records uncovered by the Tribune and WGN-TV show. The joint investigation revealed Wednesday how the legislation that created the pension perk for union leaders found its way in to the state statutes with no transparency or accountability.

 

Gannon started his climb to the top of organized labor in 1973. He was 19 years old and made $6.95 an hour working for Streets and San as a steamroller engineer, compressing asphalt on city streets.

 

During the next 17 years, he worked his way into the role of hoisting engineer foreman, overseeing the use of heavy cranes at road construction sites at a salary of about $56,000. He also gravitated toward union politics. By 1990, Gannon had been tapped to become a business agent with Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

 

"It is with mixed emotions that I am requesting a leave of absence from my position as general foreman of hoisting engineers," he wrote to his bosses at Streets and San in December 1990.

 

Although he was leaving city service, Gannon moved to take advantage of the law that allowed him to stay in the municipal pension fund. In April 1991, records show, Gannon had Local 150's business manager write a letter on his behalf making that request.

 

Only a few months earlier, on his last day in office, Gov. Jim Thompson had signed into law the pension code changes that would allow Gannon's city pension to be based on his salary as a union official.

 

Gannon could have stayed on a leave of absence indefinitely because no one from Streets and San filled in an expiration date on the form. Then, on Oct. 12, 1993, he resigned from his city post and received a refund of the contributions he had made to the municipal pension fund, records show.

 

With that action, Gannon lost his eligibility to land an inflated city pension.

 

But on June 20, 1994, Streets and San rehired Gannon to his old job. It didn't last long. The very next day, he was granted a leave of absence to work for Local 150, even though records show that Gannon never left his union job in the first place.

 

That shuffling of a few pages of bureaucratic forms by city officials made Gannon eligible to re-enter the city pension fund, according to records and interviews. And eventually he would.

 

Six months later, Gannon became the assistant to Chicago Federation of Labor President Don Turner. A year after that, he was elected secretary-treasurer, the No. 2 spot, and his salary grew nearly 60 percent to $126,000.

 

With his pay increasing at a steady clip, Gannon sought to get back into the municipal pension fund in 1998. To do so, he would need to restore the money he had previously taken out and start making regular contributions again as if he were a city employee. He would also have to cover the contributions that normally come from the city.

 

Gannon applied to receive union service credits in January 1999. But in the months leading up to his application, questions arose over whether he could repurchase the pension credits he had given up earlier. Once again, he appears to have received help from city government.

 

On March 6, 1998, Gannon wrote a letter to Mayor Richard Daley's chief financial officer, Walter Knorr, who is now vice president of the University of Illinois System.

 

Knorr wasn't a trustee of the municipal pension fund. In fact, he played no official role in the fund's operations. Yet Gannon outlined his work history during the previous seven years so that Knorr could assist him in figuring how to get back into the fund.

 

"Hopefully, these numbers will assist you in calculating the portion of the monies I owe to the pension fund," Gannon's letter says.

 

Knorr said in an interview that he doesn't recall the episode and that he thinks he simply passed Gannon's request on to officials at the municipal pension fund.

 

"I have no specific recollection of that particular event," he said. "This was 13 years ago. I probably received a number of requests from all different directions."

 

The municipal fund's executive director at the time, Thomas Stack, wrote to Knorr in November 1998 to explain that Gannon could rejoin the pension fund "without returning to active city service." That's because Gannon had already been rehired for that one day in 1994.

 

But even if he hadn't been rehired, there's evidence that lawmakers and City Hall would have helped Gannon anyway. Stack ended his letter to Knorr by writing: "Therefore, it is our opinion that the proposed new legislation is not necessary."

 

The letter did not describe what that proposed legislation was about or who was backing it. Stack died in 2004. Knorr said he can't recall any such bill.

 

Under a state law passed in 1997, Gannon was able to retire from the city at age 50 because he had accumulated 30 years of service. The city credited him with 33 years of service even though he spent more than a third of that time working for private labor unions.

 

His pension was so big that the municipal fund had to ask permission from the IRS to pay it to him, according to Stefanski.

 

The roughly $130,000 pension Gannon received that first year came on top of his union salary because he went right on working for the federation. Under state law, his pension will grow by 3 percent a year for as long as he lives.

 

WGN producer Marsha Bartel and reporter Mark Suppelsa contributed.

 

[email protected]

[Texsox]

Do I understand this correctly? The city employees belong to a union? Further, this law allows city employees to accept positions with their union and continue to earn credit towards their city salaries? These guys are basically the city employees upper managers? Are they in some way connected to city workers while working these union jobs?

[Cknolls]

Do I understand this correctly? The city employees belong to a union? Further, this law allows city employees to accept positions with their union and continue to earn credit towards their city salaries? These guys are basically the city employees upper managers? Are they in some way connected to city workers while working these union jobs?

 

 

 

BINGO!

[mr_genius]

Rush Limbaugh gets joke stolen by some guy that was in the GOP debate.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/r...kusaolp00000008

 

NEW YORK -- Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson brought down the house at Thursday night's Fox News/ Google debate when he joked about how his "next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration."

 

The joke killed among the GOP faithful. But was Johnson the first to use it?

 

Just today, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh delivered a similar joke on air.

 

"My dogs have created more shovel-ready work than Obama has just this week alone," Limbaugh said.

 

[Texsox]

BINGO!

 

So when the city is negotiating wages with the union, at least part of the benefits are controlled by the city and not the union?

[southsider2k5]

Dean still doesn't know when to stop talking....

 

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com...under-obamacare

 

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman, and doctor, Howard Dean backed a McKinsey & Co. survey today that found that almost a third of private-sector employers will drop their employee health insurance coverage when Obamacare's government-managed insurance exchanges come online.

 

Dean told Morning Joe, "The fact is it is very good for small business. There was a McKinsey study, which the Democrats don't like, but I do, and I think its true. Most small businesses are not going to be in the health insurance business anymore after this thing goes into effect."

 

The reason Democrats fought so hard to dismiss the McKinsey survey when it was released is because its conclusion undermines two major claims Obama made during health care debate: "If you like your health plan, you can keep it" and "It will not add one penny to the deficit."

 

Fellow Morning Joe guest former New York Gov. George Pataki immediately hit the first point: "The only way its a help is if they drop coverage and their employees would all of a sudden have to go on the exchange, which is what of course the president promised wouldn't happen."

 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) premised their Obamacare score on the assumption that only 7 percent of employers would drop their employee health plans. If the percentage is closer to the 30 percent, as the McKinsey survey results predict, Obamacare's price tag would rise by almost $1 trillion.

[southsider2k5]

So when do we invade? Nevermind, we'll just send Sean Penn, he'll fix everything.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/world/meast/....html?hpt=hp_t2

 

CNN) -- Iran plans to send ships near the Atlantic coast of the United States, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting a commander.

 

"The Navy of the Iranian Army will have a powerful presence near the United States borders," read the headline of the story, in Farsi.

 

"Commander of the Navy of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran broke the news about the plans for the presence of this force in the Atlantic Ocean and said that the same way that the world arrogant power is present near our marine borders, we, with the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence, shall also establish a powerful presence near the marine borders of the United States," the story said. The reference to the "world arrogant power" was presumably intended to refer to the United States.

 

 

State-run Press TV said Sayari had announced similar plans in July. In February, two Iranian Navy ships traversed the Suez Canal in the first such voyages by Iranian ships since 1979.

 

U.S. Defense Department officials had no immediate reaction to Tuesday's announcement. The United States has deployed fleets to the Persian Gulf in the past.

 

State-run Press TV, citing IRNA, said Tuesday's announcement came as Iran also plans to send its 16th fleet of warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian vessels and oil tankers from pirates, who have hijacked dozens of ships and exchanged their crews for ransom.

 

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly assured that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that Tehran's defense doctrine is based only on deterrence, Press TV reported in a story in July about the deployment of submarines to international waters.

[southsider2k5]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/...hed-back-maybe/

 

Governor says congressional elections should be 'suspended,' maybe

By: CNN Associate Producer Rebecca Stewart

 

(CNN)-Maybe it was wishful thinking.

 

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue, whose second term in the governor's mansion is no guarantee, told a group of Rotarians Tuesday that she thinks "we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years."

 

The Democratic chief executive was elected in 2008 with a three-point advantage over her Republican opponent and is expected to face a tough battle for re-election.

 

But state politics weren't the talk of the hour when she spoke to the Rotary Club, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Perdue was discussing the economy, which she felt might be important enough to preclude elections…maybe.

 

"You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things," she said.

 

"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover."

 

And in what the article describes as a "level" tone, she said, "I really hope that someone can agree with me on that."

 

Press Secretary Christine Mackey pushed back at criticism blasting the governor for her seemingly-cavalier remarks in a statement saying, "Come on. Gov. Perdue was obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem: Washington politicians who focus on their own election instead of what's best for the people they serve."

[Balta1701]

So when do we invade? Nevermind, we'll just send Sean Penn, he'll fix everything.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/world/meast/....html?hpt=hp_t2

Really, you genuinely expect anyone to shiver in their boots over the Iranian navy? You can't possibly actually be scared of this, and yet you think that the Kenny "The Genius" Williams Liberal is the one to laugh at...not the threat of the Iranian navy.

[NorthSideSox72]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/...hed-back-maybe/

 

Well that's just f***ed up.

 

Really, you genuinely expect anyone to shiver in their boots over the Iranian navy? You can't possibly actually be scared of this, and yet you think that the Kenny "The Genius" Williams Liberal is the one to laugh at...not the threat of the Iranian navy.

 

I agree here, I couldn't care less.

 

[Balta1701]

Really, you genuinely expect anyone to shiver in their boots over the Iranian navy? You can't possibly actually be scared of this, and yet you think that the Kenny "The Genius" Williams Liberal is the one to laugh at...not the threat of the Iranian navy.

Wait, WTF did the Swear Filter do?

 

I think it was the word "H*llywood"

[NorthSideSox72]

Wait, WTF did the Swear Filter do?

 

I think it was the word "H*llywood"

I was wondering that the KW reference was about.