The Republican Thread

[Rex Kickass]

The worst thing anyone who wants to make a Presidential run can do is run for VP, especially if the candidate loses. If they aren't entrenched in a state's party, it can really create a carpetbagger vibe the next time they want to run at home.

[Balta1701]

Back on the Awlaki case...the legislation to fix that issue, which is disturbingly similar in structure to what I described, will be introduced shortly (by a Republican from Pennsylvania).

Shortly, I will be reintroducing similar legislation to allow the Department to investigate the actions of American citizens who take up arms against the U.S. and make an administrative determination if the individual intended to renounce his or her citizenship. Following that determination, the individual can challenge the findings in federal court.

[southsider2k5]

http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/10/obama-at...l-street-dough/

 

Despite his rhetorical attacks on Wall Street, a study by the Sunlight Foundation’s Influence Project shows that President Barack Obama has received more money from Wall Street than any other politician over the past 20 years, including former President George W. Bush.

 

In 2008, Wall Street’s largesse accounted for 20 percent of Obama’s total take, according to Reuters.

 

When asked by The Daily Caller to comment about President Obama’s credibility when it comes to criticizing Wall Street, the White House declined to reply.

 

Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer says the distance between the president’s rhetoric and actions makes him look hypocritical.

 

“It’s almost as if President Obama won’t cross across a Wall Street picket line except to get inside with [his] hand out, so he can raise money,” Fleischer told TheDC, referring to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who the president has been encouraging over the past week. “That sort of support causes him to look hypocritical.”

 

Fleischer continued by saying that President Obama and Democrats, such as New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who has received approximately $8.7 million from Wall Street since 1989, should stop taking campaign donations from Wall Street banks if they are so offended by their actions.

 

“They can’t say we hate Wall Street, but we love their money,” Fleischer said. (RELATED: White House: Millionaire tax isn’t enough)

 

Being Wall Street’s campaign cash king is hardly the image President Obama has been trying to project in public, where he has been setting himself up as the champion of the progressive Occupy Wall Street movement and as the avenger of jilted Bank of America customers.

 

“Banks can make money,” Obama said last week, responding to questions during an interview with ABC News about Bank of America’s decision to levy a $5 monthly fee on debit card users. “They can succeed, the old-fashioned way, by earning it.”

 

In fact, the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks lobbyist spending and influence in both parties, found that President Obama has received more money from Bank of America than any other candidate dating back to 1991.

 

An examination of the numbers shows that Obama took in $421,242 in campaign contributions in 2008 from Bank of America’s executives, PACs and employees, which exceeded its prior record contribution of $329,761 to President George W. Bush in 2004.

 

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wall Street firms also contributed more to Obama’s 2008 campaign than they gave to Republican nominee John McCain.

 

“The securities and investment industry is Obama’s second largest source of bundlers, after lawyers, at least 56 individuals have raised at least $8.9 million for his campaign,” Massie Ritsch wrote in a Sept. 18, 2008 entry on the Center for Responsive Politics’s OpenSecrets blog.

 

By the end of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, executives and others connected with Wall Street firms, such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, UBS AG, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, poured nearly $15.8 million into his coffers.

 

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/10/obama-at.../#ixzz1aOtTZSKG

[southsider2k5]

Links to pictures of the differences in signatures are included at the story's link.

 

http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2011-...-primary-ballot

 

Clinton, Obama Indiana primary petitions tainted by forged signatures

October 08, 2011|By ERIN BLASKO & KEVIN ALLEN, South Bend Tribune Staff Writers, RYAN NEES, Howey Politics Indiana | By ERIN BLASKO & KEVIN ALLEN, South Bend Tribune Staff Writers, RYAN NEES, Howey Politics Indiana

 

SOUTH BEND -- The signatures of dozens, if not hundreds, of northern Indiana residents were faked on petitions used to place presidential candidates on the state primary ballot in 2008, The Tribune and Howey Politics Indiana have revealed in an investigation.

Several pages from petitions used to qualify Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the state's Democratic primary contain names and signatures that appear to have been copied by hand from a petition for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Schellinger. The petitions were filed with the Indiana Election Division after the St. Joseph County Voter Registration Office verified individuals' information on the documents.

 

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak's name appears twice on the Clinton petitions. After The Tribune faxed one of the signatures to him, Dvorak identified that signature as his own and confirmed that he had signed the petition. Dvorak did not respond after a copy of the second signature on the same petition was faxed to him by The Tribune.

 

Spokeswoman Lora Bentley later said the prosecutor could no longer comment on the matter because it was now under investigation. Falsifying a ballot petition is a Class D felony in Indiana. According to Dale Simmons, co-legal counsel for the Elections Division, the statute of limitations for Class D felonies is five years.

 

'Terribly obvious'

 

The Tribune has talked with more than 30 people besides Dvorak whose names are on both the Clinton and Schellinger petitions. All but one of them have confirmed their purported signatures on the Clinton petition are not genuine.

 

Erich Speckin, a forensic document analyst, examined the petitions at the request of The Tribune and Howey Politics.

 

He said there is clear evidence, based on the consistency of the handwriting, that about 10 pages in the Obama petition were filled in by the same person, and another person apparently filled in nine pages. He said it's possible another two people filled in several more pages. Each page in the petition contains up to 10 signatures.

 

"It's obvious. It's just terribly obvious," Speckin said, pointing to one of the writer's idiosyncrasies repeated throughout the petition's pages.

 

Consequences

 

The full extent of the fakery, which appears to be limited to the state's 2nd Congressional District and specifically St. Joseph County, is not yet known. The situation, however, calls into question whether either Clinton or Obama, both of whom were U.S. senators at the time, should have been on the Indiana primary ballot.

 

Candidates for president, senator and governor must submit ballot petitions signed by at least 500 registered voters in each of Indiana's nine congressional districts to quality for the statewide ballot.

 

Clinton edged Obama by about 2 percentage points in the Indiana primary but lost the overall Democratic nomination. Obama, of course, went on to be elected president, defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in the general election.

 

County voter registration offices are responsible for verifying that those who sign the petitions are registered voters in that county. Staff in the offices check to make sure each signer's name, birth date and home address match the information on his or her voter registration card.

 

The chairs of the two major parties, Democrat and Republican, each appoint one member to serve on the two-member voter registration board in the county. They also appoint a first deputy and three staff members each to work in the voter registration office.

 

In St. Joseph County, certified petitions are stamped, initialed and signed by both members of the board -- Republican Linda Silcott and Democrat Pam Brunette, in the case of the Obama and Clinton petitions -- and then returned to the person who submitted the petition.

 

That person is then responsible for delivering the petition to the state Election Division by noon on the final day candidates can declare they're running for office. In 2008, that deadline was Feb. 18.

 

The front of the Clinton and Obama petitions bear a stamp and the initials "pb" for Brunette, whose signature appears on the back of the petitions beside Silcott's.

 

Brunette said she had not heard any complaints about invalid signatures on the 2008 presidential petitions. She said the office's employees typically wouldn't know if a signature had been forged unless someone else calls attention to it.

 

"We're not handwriting analysts," she told Howey Politics, "so our job is basically making sure that the papers are complete."

[EvilMonkey]

Links to pictures of the differences in signatures are included at the story's link.

 

http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2011-...-primary-ballot

But, but, but, vote fraud just doesn't happen!

[Rex Kickass]

But, but, but, vote fraud just doesn't happen!

 

Petition fraud and vote fraud are two different things.

[EvilMonkey]

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/post/1...-with-a-useless

 

Um, Classical Studies? Just what the *ck DID you think you would get a job doing?

 

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/post/11300019170

 

Ok, you are complaining that you pay too much in taxes, and want (tax) money help rom the government, who has to tax people (you and others, the rich alone wont cover it) to spend ANYTHING. So, should they raise your taxes? And, you are 26 and already making $52k a year, STFU already!

 

There are others, TONS with misspelled words that can't be attributed to fat fingers typing like me, and so on.

[DukeNukeEm]

 

Oh god.

[Texsox]

http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/10/obama-at...l-street-dough/

So Republicans love Obama also?

[bigruss]

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/post/1...-with-a-useless

 

Um, Classical Studies? Just what the *ck DID you think you would get a job doing?

 

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/post/11300019170

 

Ok, you are complaining that you pay too much in taxes, and want (tax) money help rom the government, who has to tax people (you and others, the rich alone wont cover it) to spend ANYTHING. So, should they raise your taxes? And, you are 26 and already making $52k a year, STFU already!

 

There are others, TONS with misspelled words that can't be attributed to fat fingers typing like me, and so on.

Yea I gotta agree here, you are free to go after any major you want to (or can go for) but don't go complaining if your degree doesn't intrigue recruiters.

 

And that second one, your paying $1000 in rent!? For a place over 30 miles each way from your place!?

[EvilMonkey]

Yea I gotta agree here, you are free to go after any major you want to (or can go for) but don't go complaining if your degree doesn't intrigue recruiters.

 

And that second one, your paying $1000 in rent!? For a place over 30 miles each way from your place!?

I just think that a lot of these people should be pissed at their colleges for selling them useless degrees at ball-breaking prices instead of banks actually expecting them to get paid back on money they lent out.

[Y2HH]

I just think that a lot of these people should be pissed at their colleges for selling them useless degrees at ball-breaking prices instead of banks actually expecting them to get paid back on money they lent out.

 

The college isn't forcing those degrees on them, so they shouldn't get pissed at the college, they should get pissed at themselves for paying to learn a useless skill set.

 

I don't feel sorry for people like that. They fall into the "love what you do no matter what the drawbacks are" category of bulls*** that I hear spewed all the time. If you love what you do that much, don't complain about the money...and if you do complain about the money, it means you actually "love" money more than what it is you ended up doing, so maybe you should have thought about that before.

 

People have poor planning skills and no future mindset, and that's their own problem...not societies. Society has created opportunity, a whole bunch of opportunity, just because you chose the wrong one in terms of what they pay, "because you love it", don't then turn around and blame society for creating "too much choice" for you. After all, you could have been lucky enough to have been born in China, where you could work at Foxxconn building iPhones for 2$ a day, instead.

[Rex Kickass]

The college isn't forcing those degrees on them, so they shouldn't get pissed at the college, they should get pissed at themselves for paying to learn a useless skill set.

 

I don't feel sorry for people like that. They fall into the "love what you do no matter what the drawbacks are" category of bulls*** that I hear spewed all the time. If you love what you do that much, don't complain about the money...and if you do complain about the money, it means you actually "love" money more than what it is you ended up doing, so maybe you should have thought about that before.

 

People have poor planning skills and no future mindset, and that's their own problem...not societies. Society has created opportunity, a whole bunch of opportunity, just because you chose the wrong one in terms of what they pay, "because you love it", don't then turn around and blame society for creating "too much choice" for you. After all, you could have been lucky enough to have been born in China, where you could work at Foxxconn building iPhones for 2$ a day, instead.

 

For a lot of people, it should be said, what you learn in college doesn't really factor much into what you do. My degree is in French. I have had almost (but not quite) 0 use for my degree in my professional world. The subject matter of your degree matters less in the professional world than you would think.

[Y2HH]

For a lot of people, it should be said, what you learn in college doesn't really factor much into what you do. My degree is in French. I have had almost (but not quite) 0 use for my degree in my professional world. The subject matter of your degree matters less in the professional world than you would think.

 

I agree, I've never once used my actual degree. It's in the IT field, which I'm in, but my degree is in programming, and I've never once programmed professionally. That said, my core knowledge is still in IT, and marketable.

[mr_genius]

$500,000 a year pension.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44872639/ns/us...e/#.TpY2jt7qMVA

[bigruss]

I agree, I've never once used my actual degree. It's in the IT field, which I'm in, but my degree is in programming, and I've never once programmed professionally. That said, my core knowledge is still in IT, and marketable.

Your degree may not matter once you have a job, but it sure as hell matters when applying for jobs.

[bigruss]

The college isn't forcing those degrees on them, so they shouldn't get pissed at the college, they should get pissed at themselves for paying to learn a useless skill set.

 

I don't feel sorry for people like that. They fall into the "love what you do no matter what the drawbacks are" category of bulls*** that I hear spewed all the time. If you love what you do that much, don't complain about the money...and if you do complain about the money, it means you actually "love" money more than what it is you ended up doing, so maybe you should have thought about that before.

 

People have poor planning skills and no future mindset, and that's their own problem...not societies. Society has created opportunity, a whole bunch of opportunity, just because you chose the wrong one in terms of what they pay, "because you love it", don't then turn around and blame society for creating "too much choice" for you. After all, you could have been lucky enough to have been born in China, where you could work at Foxxconn building iPhones for 2$ a day, instead.

I was going to post the same thing. You have every right and freedom to go after the major you want to (well, as long as you qualify), but don't go complaining if you chose an obscure major that doesn't have much in job perspectives. The school should have resources available to tell students what to expect, but ultimately it's up to the students to actually take this info into account.

[EvilMonkey]

I was going to post the same thing. You have every right and freedom to go after the major you want to (well, as long as you qualify), but don't go complaining if you chose an obscure major that doesn't have much in job perspectives. The school should have resources available to tell students what to expect, but ultimately it's up to the students to actually take this info into account.

Just like it was up to home owners to realize that maybe it was a bad idea to take out that $400,000 interest only loan so we can live in a house 3x larger than we need AND take that trip to Bermuda? Seems that when you replace schools with banks, it is suddenly predatory lending. I think the schools didn't to anything to persuade students that just maybe they might want to reconsider that double degree in Art History and Latin. With the government backing student loans and making them easier to get, the schools just kept jacking up the tuition and lowering the bar to get in, chasing the all mighty dollar.

 

And FYI, I agree with you that people SHOULD take job prospects into account when trying to choose a major. But after all the years of the liberal education establishment telling them they are special, to do what they LIKE and making it so there are no 'winners' and 'losers' with 'participation' trophies and such, can you blame them for thinking it is all someone else's fault?

[bigruss]

Just like it was up to home owners to realize that maybe it was a bad idea to take out that $400,000 interest only loan so we can live in a house 3x larger than we need AND take that trip to Bermuda? Seems that when you replace schools with banks, it is suddenly predatory lending. I think the schools didn't to anything to persuade students that just maybe they might want to reconsider that double degree in Art History and Latin. With the government backing student loans and making them easier to get, the schools just kept jacking up the tuition and lowering the bar to get in, chasing the all mighty dollar.

 

And FYI, I agree with you that people SHOULD take job prospects into account when trying to choose a major. But after all the years of the liberal education establishment telling them they are special, to do what they LIKE and making it so there are no 'winners' and 'losers' with 'participation' trophies and such, can you blame them for thinking it is all someone else's fault?

I do think mortgages are harder for people to understand, but yes same principle. Personal finance classes should be mandatory in every state for high school students, understand just how much those student loans will cost you, or how much that mortgage really costs.

 

In terms of the "liberal education," I went through all that and I personally think that's overblown. There are lots of people out there who have that mentality, but in many advanced and AP courses I saw more competition and drive than anything. Everybody knew that we were all competing against each other for those top schools. And one more point, this is why high school athletics are so important, having that extra competitiveness for students really teaches them hard work and effort can pay off.

[NorthSideSox72]

I do think mortgages are harder for people to understand, but yes same principle. Personal finance classes should be mandatory in every state for high school students, understand just how much those student loans will cost you, or how much that mortgage really costs.

In terms of the "liberal education," I went through all that and I personally think that's overblown. There are lots of people out there who have that mentality, but in many advanced and AP courses I saw more competition and drive than anything. Everybody knew that we were all competing against each other for those top schools. And one more point, this is why high school athletics are so important, having that extra competitiveness for students really teaches them hard work and effort can pay off.

I've harped on the bolded before, many times. It shocks me that people graduate high school in this country without understanding the basics of a checking account, credit card, mortgage, car loan, and basic investments.

 

[Balta1701]

I've harped on the bolded before, many times. It shocks me that people graduate high school in this country without understanding the basics of a checking account, credit card, mortgage, car loan, and basic investments.

It doesn't shock me at all. Have you actually tried to read an understand the fine print on a finance contract? I filled out a couple hundred when I was in sales and I couldn't figure out at least 1/3 of the material in it.

[EvilMonkey]

It doesn't shock me at all. Have you actually tried to read an understand the fine print on a finance contract? I filled out a couple hundred when I was in sales and I couldn't figure out at least 1/3 of the material in it.

I read thru the leasing contracts every time I upgraded my copiers. they always try to slip something in there, which CAN be negotiated out. The big one is they keep trying to put in there that if you choose to not renew the lease, that you have to ship the copier to their headquarters in NY, at your cost, using only approved carriers. That ends up costing you over $1k in freight to get it there, even when it came to ME from the warehouse in Schaumburg. I always get that stricken before I sign. but you are correct, they are tough to follow. Damn lawyers and their legalese!

[StrangeSox]

The bankers are supposed to be the experts on financial risk anyway. The problem came from derivatives, which meant loan originators didn't care if you could pay out back because their profits were not going to come from waiting court 30 years for you to repay.

[NorthSideSox72]

It doesn't shock me at all. Have you actually tried to read an understand the fine print on a finance contract? I filled out a couple hundred when I was in sales and I couldn't figure out at least 1/3 of the material in it.

 

You are missing the point. You don't have to understand every piece of fine print in a 100 page document like that. Your lawyer at closing is supposed to do that. What I am saying is, you could avoid a large percentage of the financial trouble people get into, if they simply understood the basics of mortgages, can loans, etc.

 

The bankers are supposed to be the experts on financial risk anyway. The problem came from derivatives, which meant loan originators didn't care if you could pay out back because their profits were not going to come from waiting court 30 years for you to repay.

 

I don't understand this post. It looks like you are trying to say that loan originators didn't care about risk because they were going to make money via "derivatives" anyway... which makes no sense at all, as no such thing was occuring.

 

[Balta1701]

You are missing the point. You don't have to understand every piece of fine print in a 100 page document like that. Your lawyer at closing is supposed to do that. What I am saying is, you could avoid a large percentage of the financial trouble people get into, if they simply understood the basics of mortgages, can loans, etc.

I get what you're saying. As usual I have a slightly different perspective of the motivation though.

 

In my view...most of the official documents put out by the finance industry are designed to make it impossible for an average person even with a good education to figure them out. That way, you can get a whole lot of people to take deals that are terrible for them without them even realizing it. From the other side...even if you know the basics like you're saying people don't...what good is that if you can't figure out how to convert the language in the documentation into simple terms like you're saying people aren't taught?