Showing posts with label Nancy Pelosi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nancy Pelosi. Show all posts

Thursday, May 26, 2011

If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people want no part of it, esp. Union members? Barone: O Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies

The Beltway story du jour involves the ever-reliable and observant Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner explaining something in detail that you may have heard a little about about on the radio or TV, but never got an adequate explanation for -the overwhelming evidence of favoritism among Obama supporters in gaining waivers from provisions of Obamcare they said everyone had to obey.
Or as he puts it,
"Examples of crony capitalism, bailout favoritism and gangster government."

-----
Washington Examiner
Obama Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies
A Commentary By Michael Barone
Thursday, May 26, 2011

Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.

Answer: They are all among the 1,372 businesses, state and local governments, labor unions and insurers, covering 3,095,593 individuals or families, that have been granted a waiver from Obamacare by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
Read the rest of the essay at:

Sunday, October 17, 2010

New film re the U.S. economy under Obama titled “I Want Your Money" has cartoons, yet deserves serious scrutiny; Aventura Mall's new kids-free nights

"I Want Your Money" Official HD Movie Trailer



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEPPHjKIZps

www.IWantYourMoney.net.

Theater locator: http://www.iwantyourmoney.net/theaterlocator/


I'm probably going to see it this week down the street at the AMC 24 cineplex at the Aventura Mall, which has been so much in the news of late because of the near-riot there in late August, resulting in their just-announced kids-free curfew on Friday and Sunday nights after 9:30 p.m.

Before you read the past articles on how this came to be, I think it's important to say for the record that nobody currently working at the Aventura Mall looks like Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083929/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Times_at_Ridgemont_High
only the most beautiful "girl at the Mall" ever, no matter where in America you lived.

Ever!

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20270976_10,00.html

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2010/07/remember_the_80s_fortresslike_malls_are_back_in_vogue_again.php

------

Excerpt from an email of mine sent on August 29th:

Unless you frequently check the
Miami Herald's poky website over the course of the day, you wouldn't know about this but...

At 10:17 a.m. Sunday morning, the Herald posted this City of Aventura blog post of the
story:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/28/1797299/brawl-outside-of-theater-results.html

This story had
160 reader comments as of 10 p.m. Sunday night -in chron order- multiples of the usual Herald stories not involving the Dolphins or Hurricanes.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/28/1797299/brawl-outside-of-theater-results.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1

On Sunday night at 8:
24 p.m., the Herald posted this version of the story: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/29/1798041/aventura-mall-evacuated-after.html

Reader comments for second version, in chron order:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/29/1798041/aventura-mall-evacuated-after.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1#none

-----


That was all the predicate for this bit of news on Monday:

Miami Herald

Aventura Mall adopts 'parental escort policy' for teens

By Jared Goyette

October 11, 2010

Starting this week, teens hoping to hit Aventura Mall on a Friday or Saturday night will have to bring along a companion -- their mom or dad.

Anyone under the age of 18 in the mall after 9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays must be accompanied -- at all times -- by a parent or legal guardian on Friday and Saturday.

This comes a little more than a month after a brawl between minors in front of the theater resulted in the arrest of 12 teenagers on Saturday, Aug 28.

Joe Szymaszek, vice president of retail operations for Turnberry Associates, which runs the mall, said the new rule was not related to the incident and had been under consideration for some time.

"We're committed to giving our customers a family friendly shopping, dinning and entertainment experience, and we believe this new policy supports that initiative.''

The AMC 24 movie theater and several restaurants are the only part of the mall still open at that hour, though some stores extend their hours during the holiday season.

The mall's new "parental escort policy,'' which starts this Friday, will likely irritate teenagers.

But many adult shoppers and moviegoers, however, may be glad to hear the news.

For Angelica Doval, 24, of Miami, the new rule is the right approach.

"I think it's a good idea just because for older people, like myself, if you're going on a date or whatnot, you're going to want to come and enjoy it,'' she said while visitting the mall during a recent weekday. "A lot of time minors kill the atmosphere with their immaturity, with their noise, just being childish. So I think if they have a guardian with them, they'll be better behaved.''

Andy Cunningham, 44, of Aventura, had a similar opinion.

"It will make my movie-going experience as an adult so much more pleasant because I won't have all of the nonsense these kids bring into the movie theater,'' he said.

Other malls around the country have adopted similar measures. In March, a theater in the Dallas area implemented a "family night'' policy that said no one under 17 was allowed in after 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday without a parent or legal guardian. In 2008, a theater in Harrisburg, Penn., barred anyone under 17 from attending movies after 9:30 p.m.

Those under 18, of course, had a different take on the issue.

North Miami Beach resident Rebecca Sonn, 17, said the rule was presented during a school assembly at North Miami Beach Senior High.

She thinks that the policy could ruin dates for younger students, and that it's fundamentally unfair.

"The kids that are mature shouldn't be punished for what a few immature kids did,'' she said.

Rebecca's mother, Teri Sonn, does not share her daughter's concern. While she thinks the movie theater will lose business, she believes the mall will be safer with the new policy -- and that her daughter can just make other plans on Friday and Saturday evenings.

"The mall is not a babysitting service,'' she said.

Prateek Sachdeva, 16 lives next to the mall. He said it's impossible for him to go to the mall during weekdays due to his class work, and he is concerned this will take away one of his few escapes. He thinks the mall administrators will regret their decision.

"I think when the mall realizes how much money it is losing due to this curfew, it won't take long till they revoke it,'' he said.

Prateek's father, Rajiv Sachdeva, also thinks the policy is unfair to his son. He said he'll try to plan weekends when they can go to the movies at the same time, but on some night's that won't be possible.

"I'm not in favor of that policy, it's a punishment for him,'' he said. `` We want to make him as independent as we possibly can. We have full faith in him.''

The rule will be enforced by both mall security guards and City of Aventura Police officers, who will be checking IDs inside the mall, Szymaszek said. While security staff will not be able to determine from the IDs checks whether an adult is the parent or legal guardian of the minor they are accompanying, Szymaszek said that ultimately the mall will have to depend on the "integrity of all patrons to which this policy applies.''

Zoila Marzo of Sunny Isles is 18, and was glad the policy won't affect her. She thinks it's "ridiculous'' and wonders what minors are supposed to do at night if they can't go to the mall.

"Young kids can't go out partying or clubbing, they come to the mall on weekends, so that will affect them a lot,'' she said. ``What else can they do? They're young.''

Student contributors Anthony Cave, Aly Garfinkle, and Eric Eidelstein assisted with this report.

Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/11/1868256/aventura-mall-to-adopt-parental.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1

-----

The latest version of the new rules:

Miami Herald

Parental guidance: Kids unwelcome without adults at Aventura Mall

Teens for the first time this weekend had to be escorted by adults or guardians after 9:30 p.m. at the mall in Aventura. And some didn't like it.
By Jared Goyette

October 17, 2010


It was 9:28 p.m. Friday and Lior Amar was standing at Aventura Mall's AMC 24 movie theater, about to buy tickets for a movie with a group of friends.


There was only one problem. Lior, from Miami, is only 13, and a security guard told her to leave. Effective this weekend, the mall became the latest to adopt a teen chaperon policy for Friday and Saturday nights.


Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/16/1877195/parental-guidance-kids-unwelcome.html

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

4/21/09 NY Times: U.S. Rep. Jane Harman Said to Have Agreed to Aid pro-Israel Lobbyists Under Investigation for Espionage

New York Times
Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists
By Neil A. Lewis and Mark Mazzetti

April 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — One of the leading House Democrats on intelligence matters was overheard on telephone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency agreeing to seek lenient treatment from the Bush administration for two pro-Israel lobbyists who were under investigation for espionage, current and former government officials say.

The lawmaker, Representative Jane Harman of California, became the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee after the 2002 election and had ambitions to be its chairwoman when the party gained control of the House in 2006. One official who has seen transcripts of several wiretapped calls said she appeared to agree to intercede in exchange for help in persuading party leaders to give her the powerful post.

One of the very few members of Congress with broad access to the most sensitive intelligence information, including aspects of the Bush administration’s wiretapping that were disclosed in December 2005, Ms. Harman was inadvertently swept up by N.S.A. eavesdroppers who were listening in on conversations during an investigation, three current or former senior officials said. It is not clear exactly when the wiretaps occurred; they were first reported by Congressional Quarterly on its Web site.

The official with access to the transcripts said someone seeking help for the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, was recorded asking Ms. Harman, a longtime supporter of its efforts, to intervene with the Justice Department. She responded, the official recounted, by saying she would have more influence with a White House official she did not identify.

In return, the caller promised her that a wealthy California donor — the media mogul Haim Saban — would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was expected to become House speaker after the 2006 election, if she did not select Ms. Harman for the intelligence post.

Ms. Harman denied Monday having ever spoken to anyone in the Justice Department about Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two former analysts for Aipac. Her office issued a statement saying, “Congresswoman Harman has never contacted the Justice Department about its prosecution of present or former Aipac employees.”

The statement did not, however, address whether Ms. Harman had contacted anyone at the White House or had participated in phone calls in which she was asked to intervene in exchange for help in being named chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee.

David Szady, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s former top counterintelligence official who ran the investigation of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman, said in an interview Monday that he was confident Ms. Harman had never intervened. “In all my dealings with her, she was always professional and never tried to intervene or get in the way of any investigation,” Mr. Szady said.

The officials who were familiar with the transcripts, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue involved intelligence matters, also said they knew of no evidence that Ms. Harman had intervened in the case.

One of the officials said he was familiar with the transcript of “at least one phone call” in which Ms. Harman discussed weighing in with the department on the investigation of the Aipac officials and her possible chairwomanship of the Intelligence Committee. (She did not get the post.) He identified the California donor as Mr. Saban, a vocal supporter of Israel who turned the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into a global franchise.

The CQ article, citing unnamed present and former national security officials, said a preliminary review was halted by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales because he wanted Ms. Harman’s support in dissuading The New York Times from running an article disclosing a program of wiretapping without warrants conducted by the National Security Agency.

Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement Monday that Ms. Harman called Philip Taubman, then the Washington bureau chief of The Times, in October or November of 2004. Mr. Keller said she spoke to Mr. Taubman — apparently at the request of Gen. Michael V. Hayden, then the N.S.A. director — and urged that The Times not publish the article.

“She did not speak to me,” Mr. Keller said, “and I don’t remember her being a significant factor in my decision.”

Shortly before the article was published more than a year later, in December 2005, Mr. Taubman met with a group of Congressional leaders familiar with the eavesdropping program, including Ms. Harman. They all argued that The Times should not publish.

The former officials who spoke to The Times did not know about Mr. Gonzales’s reported role nor about Ms. Harman’s contacts with The Times. Aides to Mr. Gonzales declined to comment.

A spokesman for Mr. Saban did not return telephone calls. A spokesman for Ms. Pelosi said the speaker had no comment.

The possibility that Ms. Harman might be under investigation surfaced in news reports in 2006. The CQ report provided new details, including quotations attributed to the transcripts of one of Ms. Harman’s conversations. Ms. Harman, CQ said, told the person who requested her aid that she would “waddle in” to the matter, “if you think it would make a difference.” Before ending the call, CQ reported, Ms. Harman said, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

It is unclear when this conversation was supposed to have taken place, but Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were fired from Aipac in March 2005 and indicted a few weeks later. They were charged with violating the World War I-era Espionage Act when they shared with colleagues, journalists and Israeli Embassy officials information about Iran and Iraq they had learned from talking to high-level United States policy makers.

The trial of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman seems on track to begin in June in Alexandria, Va.

David Johnston and James Risen contributed reporting.

--------------------------------

For more info, see also

For a Top Democrat, Further Climb Seems Out, Oct. 24, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/us/politics/24intel.html

Next Chairman for Intelligence Opposed War, Dec. 2, 2006

No Catfight, Just Politics, Dec 23, 2006

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DA1131F930A15751C1A9609C8B63


Also see the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at

The Brookings Institution: http://www.brookings.edu/saban.aspx


The first time I met Neil Lewis was in the lobby of the New York Times

Washington bureau and I accidentally called him by the wrong name,

and he didn't give me a hard time about it.

(I thought he was Newsweek's Joe Klein.)


A few days later, her was on C-SPAN's Washington Journal for about

45 minutes to an hour and the error only magnified in my head as he

deftly answered questions and raised some of his own!


A really nice guy and it goes without saying, VERY smart, savvy and

well-connected.


Not mentioned above, of course, but well worth remembering,

is that one of the dumber arguments that occurred over the past

five years was when President Bush decided to name

U.S. Rep. and House Intelligence Committe Chair Porter Goss

of Naples as CIA Director, a lot of liberal Democrats roundly

criticized Ranking Democrat Harman for being so pro-Goss.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/porter_j_goss/index.html?scp=2&sq=Porter%20Goss&st=cse


Like who else would Bush pick that would also be:

a.) instantly acceptable to the Beltway's national security crowd,

b.) have the advantage of knowing all the players intimately, and

c.) being easy to confirm, and, for good measure,

d.) been a CIA agent himself in the past?


It would be hard to make the case that Goss wasn't the perfect

candidate at the time.

That it didn't only proves the value of the Robert Burns poem:

"Best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley."

(South Beach Hoosier trivia: One of my favorite all-time films is the original 1939 Lewis Milestone-directed Of Mice and Men, starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr., which I've only seen about thirty times. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031742/ The opening scenes just grab you from the word go, and you are immediately caught up in the crazy drama of George and Lennie running to catch a moving train and stay one step ahead of the law, with Aaron Copland's great music just sweeping you up in case you stumble. The scene of the two of them them pulling the train coach door shut, only to reveal the original line of Robert Burns poetic genius, from whence the title comes, is sheer magic! In my opinion, it's one of the best and most-stylized film scenes ever shot.

Not that I didn't really enjoy the 1992 version with John Malkovich, Gary Sinise and charter SBH favorite, Sherilyn Fenn, too. I absolutely adore Sherilyn Fenn, who STILL makes me dizzy when I watch Chiller specifically to see her in Twin Peaks repeats, along with repeats of her great Law & Order episodes. See http://www.flickr.com/search/?q="Sherilyn+Fenn"&m=text)

-----------------------------------------

Before I forget re Harman, see Wiretapping Rep Harman

by CQ Columnist & National Security Editor Jeff Stein.

http://innovation.cq.com/liveonline/54/landing