Keystone Cops Wag The Dog

October 17, 2011 by Bob Livingston 

UPI FILE

The Administration of President Barack Obama saved the announcement that an assassination plot had been thwarted for the same day a Congressional investigation announced Attorney General Eric Holder was being subpoenaed over his lying testimony about Fast and Furious.

With investigations into U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s complicity in the Fast and Furious guns to Mexico criminality gaining steam, and public appetite for another U.S. war in another Mideast nation waning, President Barack Obama needed a big play.

What he got was a four-base error.

At a news conference last week announcing a thwarted assassination plot, Holder said the plot was the work of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the guardian of Iran’s 32-year revolution, and the Quds force, its covert, operational arm, according to a Reuters report.

“High-up officials in those (Iranian) agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot,” Holder told the news conference.

If so, they must have planned it about four hours into a booze- and cocaine-fueled night of poker, because it is one of the most convoluted, pathetically inept, unprofessional hits ever concocted. A 10-year-old semi-literate could have devised a plan with a better chance of success.

The “plot,” such as it was, came to light in early summer. Press reports say President Barack Obama was briefed on it in June. The “mastermind,” an Iranian-American used-car salesman said to have a penchant for alcohol and prostitutes and described as scatterbrained, was arrested in September. But the Obama Administration saved the announcement for the same day a Congressional investigation announced Holder was being subpoenaed over his lying testimony about Fast and Furious.

The problem for Obama and Holder is that not even their normally fawning press corps is buying the story, simply because it is so ridiculous.

NBC's Isikoff Warns Cain's 9-9-9 Plan May Mean 'More Pain' for 'Struggling Families'

On Saturday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Michael Isikoff filed a report recounting criticisms of GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, as Isikoff asserted that "critics see more pain, not gain, for struggling families." His report continued:

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: A family of four with an income of $50,000 could face a tax hike of more than $5,000, says one tax analyst.

PROFESSOR EDWARD KLEINBARD, USC SCHOOL OF LAW: Anybody who works for a living and has an income below six figures a year is going to find him or herself very sorry that they live in a 9-9-9 tax environment.

The NBC correspondent soon featured a soundbite of Cain advisor Rich Lowrie which did not address the charge that the poor would pay more, as Lowry was instead shown arguing in favor of eliminating the capital gains tax to help increase investment.

But, on the same night's Huckabee show on FNC, host Mike Huckabee allowed guest Cain the chance to argue that his plan would not cause the poor to pay higher taxes because the 9-9-9 plan would also eliminate hidden taxes that increase the prices of consumers goods, thus allowing prices to drop as the sales tax is introduced.

Returning to NBC, Isikoff undermined Cain's plan as he concluded the report:

Nobody disputes that the 9-9-9 plan would radically change current policy. But while Cain says it will recharge the economy, his critics say there's no guarantee of that, and that his proposal would unfairly shift the tax burden away from the wealthy and onto working class Americans.

Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2011/10/16/nbcs-isikoff-warns-cains-9-9-9-plan-may-mean-more-pain-struggling-fam#ixzz1axRuZGH4

Salary increases? In this economy? They can’t be serious, can they?

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 | 2 a.m.

When we read recent reports that many Clark County government workers were receiving salary increases, we had one thought: Seriously?

Yes, seriously.

As the Las Vegas Sun’s Joe Schoenmann has reported, Clark County has been working with unions representing its employees to try to whittle down costs and has received concessions from several unions over the past few years. However, many county employees have still seen their wages increase over the past three years. (You can find coverage here.)

For example, county officials said members of the Service International Employees Union received average wage increases of 12.6 percent over that time. A spokesman for the SEIU, which is negotiating its contract with the county, disputed the number and said the union was doing its own analysis.

County officials have been accused of overstating wages before. This year, county officials said prosecutors had received total wage increases of 15 percent over three years. As Schoenmann noted, District Attorney David Roger complained, saying the county had grossly overstated the increases. However, an audit backed the county, saying the number was 14.6 percent.

Regardless, the squabbling over numbers misses the larger point: Times are tough. Thousands of workers in Clark County have lost their jobs, and many workers have taken pay cuts. Nevada continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the nation. And an untold number of others have gone years without pay increases. 

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/oct/13/salary-increases-economy-they-cant-be-serious-can-/

‘We are caught in a systemic debt trap’

Our world faces a large, profound, and very important problem: systemic debt.

We are each and all in debt, whether or not we have actually borrowed from anyone.

This is because our financial system is based on debt and interest on debt.

Our individual interest payments are disguised as taxes and hidden in the inexorable price inflation we each experience.

You are already directly in debt if you are a citizen of a country in debt, and all countries are in debt. The fact of your citizenship makes you liable even if you don't think you are personally in debt to anyone.

The collateral for each country's interest-bearing debt is the ability of its inhabitants to work and pay taxes. The taxes are used to cover the nation's interest payments, and since the interest is compound interest our financial system is biased toward unstoppable exponential growth reflected in price inflation.

So it becomes imperative to grow the economy in line with exploding interest-bearing debt so that money does not lose its purchasing power in terms of goods and services.

But real world growth is limited by the laws of physics (broadly construed) and ecology, since we live in nature; and by the laws of psychology and sociology since we live in cultures and are all real beings with finite needs. For example, no single person can live in a thousand houses. And we can each eat only so many meals in a day.  


http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/we-are-caught-in-a-systemic-debt-trap-1.1153270

139 central Pennsylvania officials tout membership in the $100k club

School district superintendents make the list. So do principals. But surprises on the local government top-earners list in the capital region came from police officers, firefighters, a borough manager and an athletic director. The first-ever snapshot of earnings paid out by 75 local government agencies in the Harrisburg area — county governments, townships, boroughs, cities and school districts — shows 139 officials can tout membership in the coveted $100,000 Club. Sixty-six others earning between $95,000 and $100,000 were close to knocking on that clubhouse door. 
    
The data compiled by The Patriot-News through Right-to-Know requests is from the end of 2009. Many of the people on the list have since left their jobs. 
    
But this survey shows the payroll for the 17 school districts, four county governments and 53 townships, boroughs or cities included in the survey totaled just over $755 million for nearly 23,000 full- and part-time employees. 
    
Former Harrisburg School District Superintendent Gerald Kohn topped the list of salaries at $235,431. Following him was his former deputy superintendent Julie Botel, who made $204,790. They were the only ones to top the $200,000 mark. 
    
A few, including former Harrisburg fire chiefs Donald Konkle and Daniel Soulier, made the list only because their earnings included the leave pay-outs they received when retiring that year, which they had accrued over decades of service. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/10/139_central_pennsylvania_offic.html

Biden: Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party Have Frustration in Common

Vice President Joe Biden today likened the Occupy Wall Street protests to expressions of grassroots frustration by members of the Tea Party.

“Let’s be honest with one another,” Biden told an audience on camera at the Washington Ideas Forum. “What is the core of that protest? The core is: The bargain has been breached. The core is the American people do not think the system is fair, or on the level. That is the core is what you’re seeing with Wall Street.

“There’s a lot in common with the Tea Party,” he said. “The Tea Party started, why? TARP. They thought it was unfair.”

Biden cited Bank of America’s recent decision to impose a $5 monthly fee on some debit card users as an example of new perceived unfairness related to the banking sector that has fueled more popular frustration.

“The middle class folks, these guys with the debit cards, are on their back. And [banks] are going to charge them $5 to use the cards? At minimum, they are totally tone-deaf,” Biden said.  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/biden-occupy-wall-streettea-party-have-frustration-in-common/