China to literally own U.S. I'm not even exaggerating

China Wants to Build a 50 Square Mile City in the US

Original Post: EU Times

Thanks to the trillions of dollars that the Chinese have made flooding our shores with cheap products, China is now in a position of tremendous economic power. So what is China going to do with all of that money? One thing that they have decided to do is to buy up pieces of the United States and set up “special economic zones” inside our country from which they can continue to extend their economic domination. One of these “special economic zones” would be just south of Boise, Idaho and the Idaho government is eager to give it to them. China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach for short) plans to construct a “technology zone” south of Boise Airport which would ultimately be up to 50 square miles in size. The Chinese Communist Party is the majority owner of Sinomach, so the 10,000 to 30,000 acre “self-sustaining city” that is being planned would essentially belong to the Chinese government. The planned “self-sustaining city” in Idaho would include manufacturing facilities, warehouses, retail centers and large numbers of homes for Chinese workers. Basically it would be a slice of communist China dropped right into the middle of the United States.

According to the Idaho Statesman, the idea would be to build a self-contained city with all services included. It would be modeled after the “special economic zones” that currently exist in China.

Perhaps the most famous of these “special economic zones” is Shenzhen. Back in the 1970s, Shenzhen was just a very small fishing village. Today it is a sprawling metropolis of over 14 million people.

If the Chinese have their way, we will soon be seeing these “special economic zones” pop up all over the United States.

So exactly who is “Sinomach”?

The following description of the company comes directly from the website of Sinomach:

With approval of the State Council, China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH) was established in January 1997. SINO-MACH is a large scale, state-owned enterprise group under the supervision of the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

As you can see, Sinomach is basically an arm of the Chinese government.

The borrower is always the servant of the lender, and now China is buying up America.

The reality is that Sinomach is not looking only at Idaho. Sinomach is in discussions to develop “special economic zones” all over the United States.

Sinomach has recently dispatched delegations to Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania to explore the possibility of establishing “special economic zones” in those states.

Will such “self-contained communities” soon start appearing from coast to coast?

According to Dr. Jerome Corsi, the U.S. government has already set up 257 “foreign trade zones” across America. These “foreign trade zones” will apparently be given “special U.S. customs treatment” and will be used to promote global free trade:

“The FTZs tend to be located near airports, with easy access into the continental NAFTA and WTO multi-modal transportation systems being created to move free-trade goods cheaply, quickly and efficiently throughout the continent of North America.”

So what do our politicians think about all of this?

Most of them are greatly in favor of it.

“Idaho’s the last state that should say we don’t want to do business with Asia,” Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little said last year. “Asia’s where the money is.”

So will all of this “foreign investment” really bring jobs back to the American people?

Perhaps a few, but the truth is that these “special economic zones” that the Chinese are setting up are designed to be self-contained communist Chinese communities. Some Americans will likely be employed in these areas, but not nearly as many as our politicians would have you to believe.

In addition, these “special economic zones” represent a massive national security threat. The communist Chinese could potentially be able to bring in and store massive amounts of military equipment virtually undetected.

In the days of the Cold War, we would have never dreamed of giving the Russians a 50 square mile city in the middle of Idaho.

But today we have become convinced that the communist Chinese want to be our great friends.

The following quote originally appeared in the Idaho Statesman, but has since apparently been taken down:

“The Chinese are looking for a beachhead in the United States,” said Idaho Commerce Secretary Don Dietrich. “Idaho is ready to give them one.”

Indeed.

If relations between the U.S. and China go south someday, we will deeply regret giving China so many open doors.

The truth is that you can never fully trust the communist Chinese. Their top military officers talk about a coming conflict with the United States all the time. China is extremely interested in North America. In fact, the Chinese and the Mexicans have even been holding talks on military cooperation.

But even if you don’t consider the communist Chinese to be a military threat, you should be deeply concerned about the economic implications of what is happening.

Today, tens of millions of Americans are wondering why the economy is so bad.

Well, there are a lot of reasons, but the fact that we have sent China thousands of our factories, millions of our jobs and trillions of dollars of our national wealth is a major contributing factor.

If you do not know the truth about how badly the Chinese economy is wiping the floor with the Americen economy then you need to read this article: “40 Signs The Chinese Economy Is Beating The Living Daylights Out Of The U.S. Economy“.

Beautiful new infrastructure is going up all over China today, and meanwhile many of our once great manufacturing cities are turning into rotted-out war zones.

China would not be what they are today if we had insisted that they abandon the communist system and respect basic human rights before we ever opened up trade with them.

But that did not happen. Instead we enthusiastically welcomed China into the WTO and we let the predatory Chinese system run wild.

In 2010, China had a “current account balance” of over 272 billion dollars, which was the largest in the world.

In 2010, the United States had a “current account balance” of negative 561 billion dollars. According to the CIA world factbook, that put us in last place in the entire world. In fact, our negative current account balance was more than 9 times larger than anyone else in the world. If you go check out this chart it will give you a really good idea of how nightmarish our trade situation has become.

The world is changing and nothing is ever going to be the same again.

Just ask the residents of Boise, Idaho – they are about to have a 50 square mile self-contained communist Chinese city plopped right into their backyard.

NASA scientist says aliens will wipe us out because of global warming...still has a job

Could global warming lead to alien intervention? Scientists say yes.

Original Post: io9

he unchecked rise of greenhouse gasses could spell destruction for the human race — but not in the way you might expect. In a recently published paper, a NASA scientist speculates that rising levels of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere could attract unwanted attention from intelligent extraterrestrial life.

The report, written by Shawn Domagal-Goldman — of NASA's Planetary Science Division — and academics from Penn State University, explores a broad range of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) contact scenarios and their varying consequences for humanity.

In one of these scenarios, "universalist" ETI (universalism in this case being comparable to our concept of environmentalism, only on a cosmic scale) notice changes in Earth's atmosphere. Upon observing humanity's rapid and destructive expansion on Earth, the ETI decide to intervene when they become concerned with our civilization's trajectory. The authors write:

Perhaps ETI believe that rapid expansion is threatening on a galactic scale. Rapidly (maximally) expansive civilizations may have a tendency to destroy other civilizations in the process, just as humanity has already destroyed many species on Earth. ETI that place intrinsic value on civilizations may ideally wish that our civilization changes its ways, so we can survive along with all the other civilizations. But if ETI doubt that our course can be changed, then they may seek to preemptively destroy our civilization in order to protect other civilizations from us. A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand. Humanity may just now be entering the period in which its rapid civilizational expansion could be detected by an ETI because our expansion is changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere (e.g. via greenhouse gas emissions), which therefore changes the spectral signature of Earth. While it is difficult to estimate the likelihood of this scenario, it should at a minimum give us pause as we evaluate our expansive tendencies.

Could global warming lead to alien intervention? Scientists say yes.The scenario is just one of many outlined in the report, which examines in creative and compelling detail how such encounters might benefit or harm humanity.

It's important to note that while one of the authors does have a NASA affiliation, this report is not actually sanctioned by NASA (which is a shame, because any official NASA report containing references to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — which this report does — would almost definitely go down in history as one of science's greatest achievements ever) . Having said that, its in depth exploration of the implications of an ETI encounter is still a valuable one, and certainly makes for a thought provoking read.

Is America doing poor Orwell?

I just finished reading a couple of rather well known George Orwell books. Wow. Just wow. They are timeless and could have easily be written today. So, in that vein I decided to help prove him right by taking some of my favorite quotes of his and placing them into a modern day context by putting them up against actual events or phrases spoken by American "leaders".

Animal Farm

Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white.
Women faint at Obama rally
Obama head swings from side to side to two teleprompters

The pigs did not actual work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership.
Obama goes golfing after America's downgrade

It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.
$30,000 to go to Obama's birthday party

This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.
Obamacare end of life counseling not voluntary

It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune.
Obama gets Osama

...Squealer was soon able to convince them that their memories had been at fault.
I inherited this mess
Bush's unemployment rate

The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.
We can't keep our thermos at 72.


1984

'Who controls the past,' ran the Party Slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.;
Tea Party shouldn't be given equal time

It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes.
Obamacare rations healthcare for elderly

Nor was it a satisfactory solution to keep the masses in poverty by restricting the output of goods.
Cap and Trade

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-for ever.
"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join me as we try to change it." - President Obama

Comrades! President Obama Is Just Another Black Man Redlined By Racist Credit Agencies!

Original Post: Big Government
I would like to think Der Kimmissar is being ironic, but based on lefty rhetoric as of late I doubt it.

by Der Kommissar

Racism! That’s what is to blame, comrades, for Standard & Poor’s dastardly downgrade of America’s credit rating. Don’t be fooled by the benign appearance of “AA+”. Those A’s are meant to make us feel better. But we know when we’re being graded on a curve just for the sake of affirmative action. We hear the racist condescension in that “plus.”

What S&P really meant to say was “F”–to which, comrades, we must declare: “F you, too!”

Decades of reckless federal spending and expanding government–and now the rating agencies have a problem with it?

Robert Henderson, Jr. said it best at The Grio–NBC’s segregated, er, special section for black opinion and commentary: “…America’s credit will have been downgraded for the first time, with a black man in the White House, potentially reinforcing the stereotype that black people are poor money managers.”

Could the racism be any more obvious? The moneylenders and their media–yeah, I said it!–have put up with the profligacy of irresponsible white presidents forever.

Every single white president for generations has raised the debt ceiling over and over again. George W. Bush declared war on the world at a cost of trillions of dollars we simply didn’t have. Along comes a black president–and look what happens. Panic! Downgrade!

Comrades! President Obama predicted this, long before his glorious victory, when he warned that our enemies would tell voters he “doesn’t look like all those presidents on the dollar bills.” Now that he has won, they are attacking the dollar bill itself!

Of course the Tea Party terrorists are partly to blame. They are racist to the core, the reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan in the post-Civil War South, imitating the Nazi party, which leveraged its political minority into absolute power.

But the Teabaggers are being manipulated by larger forces–by the very capitalists who invented racism to divide the poor, by the rating agencies that created the subprime mortgage crisis to begin with!

Our president is a victim of the same tricks that the rating agencies and the big banks used for decades when they redlined entire neighborhoods out of the mortgage market. They said it was for economic reasons, but the real motive was primitive racism.

Our heroic president lent his legal talents to ACORN when they took on the big banks and their economic apartheid back then. They’ve wanted their racist revenge ever since.

And they’re getting it. They’re foreclosing on the very people that Obama and ACORN helped to get housing loans in the first place. Now we’re told those homeowners should never have received mortgages because they couldn’t pay them back–because some of them didn’t even have jobs.

Oh, yeah? Does Mitt Romney have a job? Or how about George W. Bush, who bankrupted every business he ever ran? Did he get a house? RACISM!

And let’s not mention a $2 trillion error that S&P made when they announced their downgrade. (Never mind the fact that $2 trillion is basically a rounding error when you consider the long-term liabilities that decades of white presidents have left us.) That $2 trillion “mistake” is no accident–it’s just proof the rating agencies care about race more than they care about the numbers.

Comrades: there’s only one solution to the racism of the rating agencies. We can no longer trust the U.S. government–we have to go straight to the United Nations, where so-called white nations are a small minority.

We must demand the UN General Assembly pass a Communism Reinvestment Act that will force international lenders to devote a portion of their assets to helping countries that have chosen big government policies. They must spread the wealth around!

Comrades! We must put an end to ratings agency redlining and racism! We must pass a Communism Reinvestment Act! We must never let the racist Republicans repossess our country!

A detailed report on Prosser supposedly choaking Bradly

Original Post: National Review

More Details Emerge in Wisconsin’s ‘Chokegate’

By Christian Schneider

With the Wisconsin Supreme Court devolving into a storyline only Vince McMahon could love, rumors are still swirling about what actually happened when two justices engaged in a physical confrontation behind closed doors on June 13. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley claims Justice David Prosser “choked” her. Prosser denies he choked Bradley, and claims she initiated physical contact. In the past two days, multiple sources with first-hand knowledge of the incident have been able to provide more details as to what exactly happened behind closed chamber doors.

The week before the legislature was set to re-pass the collective-bargaining provision, three of the four conservative justices were ready to issue a ruling reinstating the union law as originally passed. Prosser, on the other hand, wanted to wait longer, to avoid the appearance that the court was rushing their decision through. Prosser thought he had an agreement with liberal Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson to delay release of the opinion until Tuesday of the following week.

As Monday arrived, there was no word from Abrahamson on whether the decision would be issued the next day. At 5:30 p.m., Prosser and the other conservative justices marched around the chambers, looking for Abrahamson, who was found in Justice Bradley’s office. Prosser stood outside Bradley’s door, talking to the justices in Bradley’s office. The discussion got heated, with Prosser expressing his lack of faith in Abrahamson’s ability to lead the Court.

According to one witness, Bradley charged toward Prosser, shaking her clenched fist in his face. Another source says they were “literally nose to nose.” Prosser then put his hands up to push her away. As one source pointed out, if a man wants to push a woman who is facing him, he wouldn’t push her in the chest (unless he wants to face an entirely different criminal charge). Consequently, Prosser put his hands on Bradley’s shoulders to push her away, and in doing so, made contact with her neck.

At that moment, another justice approached Bradley from behind and pulled her away from Prosser, saying, “Stop it, Ann, this isn’t like you.” Bradley then shouted, “I was choked!” Another justice present replied, “You were not choked.” In a statement following the incident, Bradley maintained Prosser “put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold.”

On Monday night, Bradley called Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs to talk to him about the incident. On the morning of Wednesday, June 15, Tubbs joined the justices in a closed-door meeting, where he discussed “issues relating to workplace violence.”

During the meeting, Chief Justice Abrahamson actually reenacted the incident on Chief Tubbs — no doubt an amusing sight, as the diminutive Abrahamson mimicked choking the tall, portly police chief. During her demonstration, Abrahamson emphasized that Prosser had exerted “pressure” on Bradley’s throat.

“There was no pressure,” interrupted the justice who had initially broken up the incident between Bradley and Prosser. “That’s only because you broke us apart,” shot back Bradley. This exchange led several meeting attendees to believe Bradley was making up the charge, as they took her rejoinder as an admission that there was no pressure applied to her neck.

During the Wednesday meeting, Bradley urged the justices present to take a vote on whether Prosser should be forced into anger-management counseling. The threat was implicit — if they didn’t vote her way, she would be forced to “take the next step” against Prosser, which they took to mean filing a restraining order against him. The other justices balked, wondering whether they even had the authority to order Prosser into any type of counseling. Some thought it would be “demeaning” to Prosser to have to go to counseling when he had done nothing wrong. In the end, Bradley realized she didn’t have enough justices on her side and no vote was taken.

To date, Bradley has not filed any kind of charges against Prosser. Instead, the story was leaked to the George Soros–funded Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, who used three anonymous sources to back up Bradley’s story. There were six justices present at the time of the incident, four of whom would be more likely to back Prosser’s version of the story. That leaves Abrahamson and Bradley as the only two remaining justices present. One source present speculated the third source may have been Bradley’s law clerk, who likely didn’t actually see the confrontation but may have head Bradley shout “I was choked.”

Speculation is abundant as to why Bradley decided to forgo a criminal complaint against Prosser, deciding instead to go to the press ten days after the event. Some say Bradley’s complaint wouldn’t have stood up if given the scrutiny of a criminal investigation. Furthermore, others speculate that if any formal criminal proceedings had moved forward (a restraining-order filing, for instance), Prosser would be afforded evidentiary hearings, testimony, and discovery.

Furthermore, sources unanimously believed that it was Shirley Abrahamson who has been the impetus behind the story, managing the press operation from behind the scenes. Justices had been working together regularly since the incident without any signs of rancor until Abrahamson decided to make this an issue, sources believe.

While Bradley has not filed any charges against Prosser, an investigation was initiated by the Capitol Police, who then quickly turned the case over to the Dane County Sheriff, David Mahoney — who once actually appeared in a campaign ad supporting the reelection of Chief Justice Abrahamson. The ad also included not-yet-famous circuit-court judge Maryann Sumi, whose ruling the Supreme Court had to vacate in order to allow Scott Walker’s collective-bargaining bill to stand.

— Christian Schneider is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

China to U.S. "Bitch, stop spending all that damn money!"

Original Post: Yahoo

World leaders to confer on debt crises this weekend

By Paul Taylor and Melanie Lee

PARIS/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Global leaders on Saturday arranged a round of emergency calls to discuss the twin debt crises in Europe and the United States that are causing turmoil in financial markets.

The European Central Bank's policy-setting council will hold a rare Sunday conference call to talk about the euro zone problems, ECB sources said.

Markets are anxiously looking for the central bank to start buying Italian and Spanish debt on Monday to stabilize prices, a move that has split the ECB governing council.

But more pressure on the bonds of the two countries after last week's steep sell-off could undermine an already damaged European banking system and lock Italy, the world's eighth largest economy, out of the market.

Worsening the outlook was the Standard and Poor's downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating late on Friday on concerns about its budget deficits and growing debt burden.

While not totally unexpected, the loss of top-tier AAA status by the world's economic superpower drew fierce criticism from China, a huge holder of U.S. debt, and promised more anxiety for global financial markets.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the G20 group of the world's leading economies, will discuss the financial situation in light of the U.S. downgrade with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday evening, his office said.

Finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 group of major industrialized nations will confer by telephone on Saturday or Sunday, a senior European diplomatic source said.

Their deputies from the broader G20 were due to hold a call on Saturday evening, a Brazilian finance ministry source said.

GRIDLOCK IN WASHINGTON

China bluntly criticized the United States after the S&P ratings cut to AA-plus, saying Washington had only itself to blame and calling for a new stable global reserve currency.

"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.

After a week which saw $2.5 trillion wiped off global markets, the S&P move deepened fears of an impending recession in the United States as euro zone countries struggle with a debt crisis of their own.

S&P blamed the downgrade in part on gridlock in Washington, saying politics was preventing steps to address the debt and deficit problems. Amid a vitriolic fight between Democrats and Republicans, U.S. lawmakers reached a last-minute debt deal last week to avoid an unprecedented default by the government.

President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to set aside partisan politics, saying they must work to put the nation's fiscal house in order and stimulate the stagnant economy. He called on Congress to give tax relief to the middle class, extend jobless benefits and pass long-delayed trade pacts.

The European source said the U.S. downgrade, added to the situation in Europe, raised the need for international policy coordination.

"The G7 will confer by telephone. It's not yet confirmed whether it will be in one stage or in two stages, tonight and tomorrow," the source said.

French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, who would chair any meeting under France's G7 and G20 presidency, said it was too soon to say whether there would be an early G7 gathering.

Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said: "I am in constant contact with colleagues in other countries and am following the development of the financial markets closely."

China and Japan have called for coordinated action to avert a new worldwide financial crisis. India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters: "There is no need to unnecessarily press the panic button."

"DEBT ADDICTION"

Recrimination flew thick and fast among U.S. politicians, with each side seeking to blame the other for the downgrade and the impasse over how to solve the fiscal crisis.

Senator Jim Demint, a Republican, said Obama should demand the resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama believes "it is important that our elected leaders come together to strengthen our economy and put our nation on a stronger fiscal footing."

Xinhua scorned the United States for a "debt addiction" and "short sighted" political wrangling. China, it said, "has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets."

"International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country," Xinhua said.

In contrast, France's Baroin said France had faith in the United States to get out of this "difficult period." Friday's U.S. unemployment numbers were better than expected and so things were heading in the right direction, he said.

"One should not dramatize, one needs to remain cool-headed, one should look at the fundamentals," he told France's iTele.

"There is no need for panic," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. "We will see in August, and maybe more intensively in September what the effects for the world economy will be."

Because the S&P move was expected, the impact on markets may be modest when they reopen on Monday. But the ratings cut may have a long-term impact for U.S. standing in the world, the dollar's status and the global financial system.

"The consequence will be far reaching," said Ciaran O'Hagan, fixed income strategist at Societe Generale in Paris.

"It will weigh on secure assets. The bigger reaction will be on risky assets, including equities and on agencies (Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae) and states backed directly by the federal government."

But he added: "U.S. Treasuries will remain a benchmark. This is a ship which takes a long time to turn around."

Norbert Barthle, a budget expert for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, said the downgrade would certainly provoke further turbulence in markets.

"I'm not surprised about the U.S. rating downgrade, rather I am astonished that, for weeks, international rating agencies have focused their attention on the European debt situation but not the American one," he said.

"For a while, there have been clear worries about America's economic woes but also the fact the U.S. is heavily indebted."

NO EARLY ITALIAN ELECTION

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday ruled out calling early elections to stem market panic that has pounded Italian assets and forced his government to bring forward austerity measures.

European policy makers are concerned that a debt emergency in the euro zone's third largest economy could completely overwhelm bailout mechanisms set up to help smaller troubled countries like Greece or Ireland.

Italy is due to go to the polls in 2013 but Berlusconi dismissed any suggestion of emulating Spain, where Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has called an early election to tackle the crisis.

"This has absolutely not been talked about," Berlusconi told reporters. "This has never been an option."

The European Union's top economic official praised Italy's decision to accelerate budget-balancing measures and structural reforms and said swift implementation was now crucial.

"I strongly support this announcement and call on the authorities to quickly translate it into concrete measures," European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The ECB sources said the central bank remains divided over whether to buy Italian government bonds but that even some of those who favor the move say Italy should do more to front-load austerity measures.

John Kerry tries to use media to censer TEA party free speech

Original Post: Real Clear Politics

John Kerry: Media Has "Responsibility" To "Not Give Equal Time" To Tea Party

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday that the media has the responsibility to not give equal time or credence to the Tea Party's views:

SEN. JOHN KERRY: "And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely. The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it's exercising today. The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual." It's clearly an absurd notion and you know it is because I say so. Big Brother knows what's best and to think otherwise is to be guilty of thoughtcrime.

"It doesn't deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. And the problem is everything is put into this tit-for-tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what's real, of who's accountable, of who is not accountable, of who's real, who isn't, who's serious, who isn't?"

E-mails Raise Questions About Truthfulness of Pasch Denial

Original Post: Media Trackers

By: Brian Sikma

UPDATE: This article was updated at 10:09 AM on August 3, 2011 to include more emails between Rep. Sandy Pasch and Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

As the barbecue for votes scandal involving Wisconsin Jobs Now! draws significant media attention, Rep. Sandy Pasch has spent the early days of this week attempting to distance herself from the organization. Pasch serves on the board of directors of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a liberal umbrella group that is the parent organization of Wisconsin Jobs Now! Interestingly, WJN is only operating within the 8th Senate District, where Pasch is attempting to unseat Sen. Alberta Darling in a recall election next Tuesday.

After Media Trackers brought to light Pasch’s connection with Citizen Action and WJN, questions were raised about whether or not Pasch and her campaign have coordinated with the liberal non-profit groups. Such coordination would be a violation of state election law. Speaking to the Milwaukee Press Club on Monday, Pasch denied having any involvement with the political activities of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, even though she serves on the group’s board.

The Journal-Sentinel reported that that Pasch “said she has had no contact with anyone at Citizen Action regarding any political activities.” A local reporter for the Foxpoint Patch news website quoted Pasch as saying:

“I have not had no [sic] contact with them about any political activities or any political plans that they’ve been making. I cut off contact with them.”

This theme was reiterated by Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Democratic Party of Wisconsin officials.

The truthfulness of Rep. Pasch’s statements are brought into question as a result of e-mails obtained by Media Trackers through an open records request on Rep. Pasch’s office. A number of the more than 1,500 e-mails obtained were from Robert Kraig, the executive director of Citizen Action, to his board members. Kraig used Pasch’s official e-mail address quite frequently when updating her on what Citizen Action of Wisconsin was doing, and what actions the board of directors needed to take.

One particularly fascinating exchange took place from June 1 through June 5 between a Citizen Action staffer, Jennifer Epps, and Pasch’s aide, Fred Ludwig. Citizen Action was looking to film promotional statements by liberal lawmakers opposed to Gov. Walker’s proposed reform to the Wisconsin Shares program. The exchange includes both sides working to nail down a time for Pasch to record the video statement, and also finds the Citizen Action staffer offering some helpful insight into a way Pasch could get on a radio show at WMCS to promote the issue.

Sandy Pasch announced her campaign to unseat Alberta Darling on May 6. The exchange about a promotional video and potential radio show appearance between Pasch’s office and Citizen Action of Wisconsin came nearly a month into the election. Clearly some measure of coordination was taking place, and it must be assumed that Citizen Action of Wisconsin was aware of the political value that Pasch could have put on having a video filmed by Citizen Action of Wisconsin shown to supporters.

Other e-mails discovered include talking points sent to Pasch’s office by Citizen Action of Wisconsin on February 12 outlining what Citizen Action believed to be effective ways of opposing the Budget Repair Bill. That e-mail also included a note that Citizen Action would be helping to lead the way on the massive protests that engulfed Madison in the following weeks.

Several e-mails were quick reminders about upcoming Citizen Action board meetings, including one hosted by WEAC. It also appears that the SEIU will be hosting a Citizen Action board meeting on December 9 at 260 E. Highland Avenue in Milwaukee.

One final e-mail of note was sent on March 18 to Rep. Pasch’s official e-mail address asking her to reply with her completed ballot regarding candidates that Citizen Action of Wisconsin should endorse in the Spring election. Robert Kraig reminded the board that, “You as the Board of Directors make the final decision on all endorsements.” Members were asked to include Matt Brusky, the treasurer of the dubious Wisconsin Jobs Now! group and political director for Citizen Action, on their reply.

Clearly the truth is not exactly as Rep. Sandy Pasch would have the public believe. Her statements to the press about her involvement with Citizen Action of Wisconsin would appear to be at best misspoken, at worst misleading. The e-mails obtained show a history of coordination between her official office and Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and they show the extent of the political duties involved in serving as a board member for Citizen Action.

The e-mails obtained by Media Trackers are only the tip of the iceberg. They only reveal a tremendous amount of communication between Rep. Pasch’s office and Citizen Action of Wisconsin. There is no way to judge, outside of a legal subpoena, how many e-mails are exchanged between Pasch, her treasurer Jackie Boynton, Matt Brusky, and Robert Kraig via personal or campaign e-mail addresses. Judging from the publicly available e-mails, it would appear to be incredible to believe that all of these parties have failed to communicate and coordinate on political activities.

PaschCitizenActionBoardPoliticalActions

E-mailPaschCitizenActionVideoCoordination

Citizen Action Board Meeting On May 13

Citizen Action Talking Points On Budget Repair Bill

Joe Biden collecting rent from Secret Service

Original Post: Yahoo

By Rachel Rose Hartman

Biden (Riccardo De Luca/AP)
Joe Biden is a landlord to the Secret Service.

That's right.

The Washington Times reports that Biden has collected $13,200 from the Secret Service since April to rent a cottage adjacent to his Wilmington, Del., home and continues to charge the agency rent. The Secret Service has agreed to pay $2,200 per month for use of the house in order to provide security to the Biden family, according to Edwin M. Donovan, special agent in charge at the Secret Service's Office of Government and Public Affairs in Washington.

(By the way, that's no discount on the rent--the Times reports that's the amount paid by the previous tenant.)

Some of the watchdog types interviewed by the Times questioned whether the agreement is appropriate, especially given Biden's deficit reduction leadership role. Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, said there's no question Biden deserves protection, "but this arrangement seems bizarre to me."

"You'd think the vice president, who shepherded the deficit committee, would think twice about charging the Secret Service rent. Why would he need the money? I don't get it."

The agency says it is a unique situation. "We don't pay rent to any other protectees," Donovan told The Ticket, but he added that the agency had wanted to be in close proximity to the vice president's house. Officials had been renting other properties in the area when Biden's cottage tenant moved out. So, the Secret Service reached out.

"The cottage was an existing rental property at the time the Secret Service signed its lease," Kendra Barkoff, press secretary for the vice president, informed the newspaper and wrote in an email to The Ticket.