Monti Says: Hey Maxine, you are nothing but a corrupt, low-life political hack. All you have to do is look in the mirror to see all the blame for your disgraceful behavior.
FoxNews.com
August 13, 2010
Embattled Rep. Maxine Waters on Friday blamed the Bush administration for her ethics problems — saying she had to intervene with the Treasury Department on behalf of minority-owned banks seeking federal bailout funds — including one tied to her husband — because the Treasury Department wouldn’t schedule its own appointments.
The California Democrat said in a Capitol Hill news conference — an event rarely held during a congressional recess — that she reached out to then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in late 2008 when his department failed to respond to the National Bank Association’s request for a meeting.
“The question at this point should not be why I called Secretary Paulson, but why I had to,” she said. “The question at this point should be why a trade association representing over 100 minority banks could not get a meeting at the height of the crisis.”
But the House ethics committee, which is investigating Waters for allegedly improperly using her position for personal gain, says in its report of charges that when the meeting was held, the officers of only one bank came — OneUnited.
That’s a problem for Waters since her husband, Sidney Williams, served as a member of OneUnited’s board of directors from January 2004 until April 2008, and was a stockholder in the bank.
OneUnited eventually got $12 million of the $50 million in bailout money it requested, enough to keep the bank afloat. The ethics panel says that kept Waters’ family stock from becoming worthless, which the committee says shows that she personally benefited by using her office.
Waters said she wasn’t concerned about her husband’s stocks in the bank, which were worth about $350,000 at the time and which her husband still owns, if only because he can’t unload them.
“No one wants to buy them,” she said.
Waters said the media need to distinguish between making a call on behalf of one bank and making a call for an entire trade association. She added that even Paulson told the ethics committee that she never approached his office to speak about only one bank.
“When Paulson responded as a witness, he didn’t tell anybody I called him and asked for a meeting with OneUnited,” she said.
The 10-term representative from Los Angeles, insisted that she hasn’t done anything to violate House rules, and she “will not cut a deal.”
“I am teetering on a border here. What I am doing here is rare and unprecedented. I won’t go behind closed doors,” she said.
Waters pushed for a speedy trial, slamming the ethics committee for not setting a date for the hearing.
“Such a delay is unacceptable, considering that the investigation has dragged on for almost one year,” she said. “It does not provide due process.”
She added that neither her staff nor she “engaged in any improper behavior.”
“We did not influence anyone and we did not gain any benefit,” she said, reading from a written statement.
Waters, who holds a senior position on the Financial Services Committee, is the second prominent Democrat lawmaker facing ethics charges during a fiery election season. New York Rep. Charles Rangel of New York is facing 13 charges, including failing to disclose assets and income and delayed payment of federal taxes.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
Oliver Stone: ‘Jewish-Dominated Media’ Prevents Hitler from Being Portrayed ‘in Context’
Monti Says: If any Jew or friends of Jews goes to any more Oliver Stone movies, they put their selfish need of entertainment above respect for humanity. Hey Stone, you are a piece of human garbage!
NewsBusters
By Alana Goodman
07/25/2010
Director Oliver Stone belittled the Holocaust during a shocking interview with the Sunday Times today, claiming that America’s focus on the Jewish massacre was a product of the “Jewish domination of the media.”
The director also defended Hitler and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and railed against the “powerful lobby” of Jews in America.
Stone said that his upcoming Showtime documentary series “Secret History of America,” seeks to put Hitler and Communist dictator Joseph Stalin “in context.”
“Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support,” Stone told reporter Camilla Long during the interview, which can be found behind the paywall on the Sunday Times’ website.
Stone said that, “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed].”
The Sunday Times interviewer then asked why there was such a focus on the Holocaust.
“The Jewish domination of the media,” responded Stone. “There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years.”
The director, who recently met with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, also slammed the U.S. policy toward Iran as “horrible.”
“Iran isn’t necessarily the good guy,” said Stone. “[B]ut we don’t know the full story!”
The Scarface screenwriter had even more encouraging words for socialist Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who Stone called “a brave, blunt, earthy” man. The director has recently been promoting his Chavez-praising documentary called “South of the Border.”
When the interviewer pointed out that Chavez has had a less-than-stellar record on human rights, Stone immediately dismissed the criticism.
“The internet’s fully free [in Venezuela],” said Stone. “You can say what the hell you like. Compare it with all the other countries: Mexico, Guatemala, above all Colombia, which is a joke.”
While Stone has not been as blunt about his views on Jews and the Holocaust in the past, he has been outspoken in his fondness for Chavez and his disagreements with the U.S.’s policy on Iran.
On ABC’s Good Morning America on July 28, the director told anchor George Stephanopoulos that he “absolutely” believes Chavez is a good person, and claimed that there was “there’s no pattern of censorship in this country [Venezuela].”
Stone also said that if the U.S. pursued sanctions against Iran, “it’s going to be like North Vietnam again.”
Union Memo Hints At Gov.’s Death
Monti Says: I bet this left wing-nut is part of the same crowd that believes school prayer should be outlawed. Hey Joe, I just wanted to let you know that government pensions are my favorite form of compensation 
April 9, 2010
HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBS) ― New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie isn’t laughing about a teachers union’s memo that hints of his death.
The memo is the latest salvo in a war of words between Christie and the union over wage and benefits concessions.
The Record of Bergen County obtained the Bergen County Education Association memo that includes a closing prayer:
“Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”
Association president Joe Coppola says the “prayer” was a joke and was never meant to be made public.
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak says there’s nothing professional about the group.
The New Jersey Education Administration also spoke out against the memo.
NJEA President Barbara Keshishian issued the following statement this morning:
“NJEA condemns the inappropriate ‘prayer’ contained in a letter sent by the NJEA Bergen County regional offices and our Bergen County affiliate. Language such as that has no place in civil discourse. It was intended as humor, but it is not funny. Our ongoing discussion with Gov. Christie is centered on serious issues of significant importance to the state, and that must be the focus of all our conversation. We deeply regret that the ‘prayer’ reference was included in the letter, and we apologize to Gov. Christie for both the content of the ‘prayer’ and the lack of respect it demonstrated.
“I will be reaching out to Gov. Christie’s office to apologize personally on behalf of all NJEA members.”
Meanwhile, Drewniak says the governor is also considering reopening union contracts to try to get salary concessions at the institutes of higher learning.
Unionized employees at the schools deferred a 3.5 percent increase last year when former Gov. Jon Corzine reopened their contracts.
College and university officials are considering cuts to staff and programs to offset a $173 million cut to higher education in Christie’s proposed budget.
On Tuesday, Christie extended a deadline for school districts to receive additional state aide in exchange for teachers agreeing to wage freezes.
Las Vegas Mayor Goodman rejects Obama invitation
Monti Says: Guess who was just added to Monti’s Love List?
13 Action News Las Vegas
February 18, 2010
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) – Mayor Oscar Goodman has refused an invitation to meet with President Obama when he arrives in town on Thursday. Mayor Goodman called President Obama a slow learner after he told Americans not to blow money on a weekend in Las Vegas if they were saving to put their kids through college.
“I’ve got other things to do quite frankly for my constituents here in Las Vegas who rely on me to do the right thing as a mayor,” explained Mayor Goodman.
Mayor Goodman has more important things like attend budget meetings during a major shortfall than meet with President Barack Obama when he visits Las Vegas Friday, even though he’s invited by the White House.
“Were you surprised to get that invitation in light of comments you’ve made before and your opinion on him and what he says,” asked Action News reporter Heather Klein.
“A little bit in the sense I would think they would know that I would say I’m not coming,” said Mayor Goodman.
They say time heals all wounds but not this time. Mayor Goodman not backing down after the president used Las Vegas the example of where not to go if you’re saving money.
This is strike two for the mayor.
“We are hurting, we have people in foreclosures, we have people having a hard time feeding their families and we can’t stand to have a flippant statement made,” said Mayor Goodman.
“I haven’t heard an apology, I haven’t heard a response, all I do is get invitations,” Goodman went on to say.
Invitations Mayor Oscar Goodman respectfully or depending on your point of view not so respectfully declines. The mayor says his presence isn’t necessary its more protocol than anything else. However, he says all it will take is a simple phone call and he will be there ready to move on.
Senator: VP comments ‘insulting’
Monti Says: Go get ‘em Scott!
Politico44
February 15, 2010
Carol E. Lee
Sen. Scott Brown thinks Vice President Joe Biden was “off base” when he suggested Sunday that the Massachusetts Republican get his facts straight on the legal procedures for military tribunals.
“It was insulting,” said Brown, who frequently jabbed the administration during his Senate campaign for giving suspected terrorists legal representation.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation” last weekend, Biden shot back that he doesn’t “know whether the new senator from Massachusetts understands: When you get tried in a military tribunal, you get a lawyer, too.”
“He’s trying to give me a lesson on military law, and I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Brown told POLITICO. “And I thought he was off base when it comes to explaining to the American people that somehow I need a lesson on whether people get attorneys — of course they get attorneys. There’s a difference as to what type of attorney they’re going to get and when they’re going to get that attorney, and how are they treated, and what rights do they, in fact, get.”
Brown said he is particularly incensed by Biden’s remarks because he’s served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard for more than 30 years and is currently the Guard’s top defense attorney in New England.
“I know the military rules and regulations and procedures from A to Z,” Brown said.
Brown said he was spending time with his younger daughter, Arianna, who was home from Syracuse University, Sunday when he learned that Biden had taken a swing at him.
“I was actually surprised,” said Brown. When Biden swore him into office they had a nice chat, Brown said, and the vice president told him he could visit the vice presidential residence.
“I would have thought that he would have reached out personally rather than go through the media,” Brown said. “I’m not quite sure what the message to me was, but I felt that it was important enough to respond.”
Biden’s comments came as part of the White House’s effort to defend its move to try alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a federal court, as well as the decision to read Miranda rights to the accused Christmas Day bomber.
Brown pushed back Monday on one of the White House’s talking points about the handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: that the Bush administration handled Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, in the same way.
“I’ve always felt that suspected terrorists should be tried in military tribunals and not civilian court, and as a matter of fact so do the majority of Americans,” Brown said. “The big difference is are we going to pay $1,000 an hour for a private attorney and treat him as a civilian or ordinary criminal in a criminal court, or are we going give him a military attorney who’s going to be paid as a captain, major or lieutenant colonel, and obviously go through the military tribunal process?”
World may not be warming, say scientists
Monti Says: The Al Gore Global Warming scam is crumbling just like the Obama presidency.
Times Online
February 14, 2010
Jonathan Leake
The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution.
In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was “unequivocal”.
It warned that greenhouse gases had already heated the world by 0.7C and that there could be 5C-6C more warming by 2100, with devastating impacts on humanity and wildlife. However, new research, including work by British scientists, is casting doubt on such claims. Some even suggest the world may not be warming much at all.
“The temperature records cannot be relied on as indicators of global change,” said John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a former lead author on the IPCC.
These stations, they believe, have been seriously compromised by factors such as urbanisation, changes in land use and, in many cases, being moved from site to site.
Christy has published research papers looking at these effects in three different regions: east Africa, and the American states of California and Alabama.
“The story is the same for each one,” he said. “The popular data sets show a lot of warming but the apparent temperature rise was actually caused by local factors affecting the weather stations, such as land development.”
The IPCC faces similar criticisms from Ross McKitrick, professor of economics at the University of Guelph, Canada, who was invited by the panel to review its last report.
The experience turned him into a strong critic and he has since published a research paper questioning its methods.
“We concluded, with overwhelming statistical significance, that the IPCC’s climate data are contaminated with surface effects from industrialisation and data quality problems. These add up to a large warming bias,” he said.
Such warnings are supported by a study of US weather stations co-written by Anthony Watts, an American meteorologist and climate change sceptic.
His study, which has not been peer reviewed, is illustrated with photographs of weather stations in locations where their readings are distorted by heat-generating equipment.
Some are next to air- conditioning units or are on waste treatment plants. One of the most infamous shows a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
Watts has also found examples overseas, such as the weather station at Rome airport, which catches the hot exhaust fumes emitted by taxiing jets.
In Britain, a weather station at Manchester airport was built when the surrounding land was mainly fields but is now surrounded by heat-generating buildings.
Terry Mills, professor of applied statistics and econometrics at Loughborough University, looked at the same data as the IPCC. He found that the warming trend it reported over the past 30 years or so was just as likely to be due to random fluctuations as to the impacts of greenhouse gases. Mills’s findings are to be published in Climatic Change, an environmental journal.
“The earth has gone through warming spells like these at least twice before in the last 1,000 years,” he said.
Kevin Trenberth, a lead author of the chapter of the IPCC report that deals with the observed temperature changes, said he accepted there were problems with the global thermometer record but these had been accounted for in the final report.
“It’s not just temperature rises that tell us the world is warming,” he said. “We also have physical changes like the fact that sea levels have risen around five inches since 1972, the Arctic icecap has declined by 40% and snow cover in the northern hemisphere has declined.”
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts has recently issued a new set of global temperature readings covering the past 30 years, with thermometer readings augmented by satellite data.
Dr Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office, said: “This new set of data confirms the trend towards rising global temperatures and suggest that, if anything, the world is warming even more quickly than we had thought.”
Democratic Sen. Bayh Will Not Seek Re-Election This Year
Monti Says: Another Democrat coward decides not to run for re-election instead of standing up for what he believes in. Personal decision? Nonsense! Bye, bye…Bayh!
FOXNews.com
February 15, 2010
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this November, an unexpected decision that hands Republicans an opportunity for a pick-up in a year when Democrats are already defending several open Senate seats.
The two-term senator is known as a moderate Democrat. Former GOP Sen. Dan Coats had been planning to challenge Bayh in November — but a senior Democratic source told Fox News that recent polling showed Bayh way ahead of Coats, and that the retirement must have been a personal decision.
Bayh’s staff said the latest polling showed Bayh ahead of Coats by 20 points.
In prepared remarks published by The Indianapolis Star, Bayh said he was “confident” about his prospects for re-election, but discouraged in his work on Capitol Hill by excessive partisanship.
“After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so in Congress has waned,” he said, according to The Star.
Sources told Fox News that Indiana Reps. Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth are possible Democratic contenders to vie for Bayh’s vacant seat.
The timing of the expected Bayh announcement creates a dilemma for Democrats, though, since the deadline for candidates’ petitions to be submitted is Tuesday. That means Bayh’s name could still be on the ballot in May’s Democratic primary — Democrats will have another opportunity to pick a candidate through a separate nominating process.
The retirement decision comes after Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., both announced their retirements in January. Democrats are trying to defend open seats in Delaware and Illinois as well.
Republican incumbents are abandoning seats in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio. More Senate Democratic incumbents are considered vulnerable, however.
Bayh is a former Indiana governor and secretary of state. An e-mail from the National Republican Congressional Committee suggested that resistance to the Democratic energy agenda, which includes a cap-and-trade policy for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, is contributing to Democratic problems in Indiana and elsewhere in the region.
Fox News’ Major Garrett, Trish Turner and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
