Month: September 2010

Florida’s Republicans are Just a Mess

Buck Banks

elephant hanging

The Republican Party of Florida is, to use a technical political term, all messed up.

It started with former chairman Jim “Big Jim” Greer’s treating the party’s coffers like his personal piggy bank and then setting up a shell business to skim “commissions” off donations. He is now under indictment on theft and money-laundering charges, though it seems his lawyers might be successful in pushing his trial to 2011 — after the midterms.

Meanwhile, as Greer apparently works through guilt counseling or something, he has apologized for accusing President Obama of trying to indoctrinate schoolchildren into socialism by telling them to study and do their homework last year. Said Greer in a text message: “Many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the president for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our party today.” Hey, how did a disgraced Republican get Obama’s cellphone number to send him a text message, anyway?

Meanwhile, the RPOF is considering suing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for travel and other expenses he incurred in 2007-09 back in the good old days when he was a Republican. Last weekend a committee voted to expand an audit of the party’s books with an eye toward recouping some shekels from the now-independent Tanned One. Said Crist: “I think it’s the typical political-season stuff that we’re going to see this season. It’s just sad … I don’t even know what they’re talking about.”

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GOP Fails to Stop Obama’s Small-Business Credit-Relief Bill in Senate

Jon Ponder

Huffington Post:

In a win for President Barack Obama and his political allies, Senate Democrats on Tuesday won a crucial vote to clear the way for a bill to create a $30 billion government fund to help open up lending for credit-starved small businesses.

Democrats cracked a GOP filibuster of the bill with the help of two Republicans: Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and George LeMieux of Florida.

The 61-37 tally sets the stage for a final vote later this week to return the measure to the House, which is likely to approve it for Obama’s signature.

The bill is probably the last piece of Democrats’ ambitious jobs agenda that would become law before midterm elections, which will determine whether Democrats keep their majorities in the House and Senate…

The new fund would be available to community banks with less than $10 billion in assets to encourage lending to small businesses. The bill would combine the fund with about $12 billion in tax breaks aimed at both large and small businesses over the coming decade.

Democrats say banks should be able to use the lending fund to leverage up to $300 billion in loans, helping to loosen tight credit markets.

The bill is paid for by adding a new option that allows individuals to convert 401(k)s into Roth accounts in which taxes are paid up front and then the money is released tax-free upon retirement.

Obama Reduced Federal Deficit By $103.6 Bil – Down 13% from 2009

Jon Ponder

More signs that Pres. Obama and the Democrats are succeeding in slowing or bringing the GOP-Bush Recession to an end, via Bloomberg:

The U.S. government posted a smaller budget deficit in August compared with the same month last year, helped by rising tax receipts.

The excess of spending over revenue totaled $90.5 billion last month, smaller than the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and down 13 percent from $103.6 billion in August 2009, according to a Treasury Department report issued today in Washington. The gap for the fiscal year that started in October was $1.26 trillion compared with $1.37 trillion last year at the same time.

The economic recovery has helped generate more tax revenue for the Treasury, even as the Congressional Budget Office forecasts the deficit this fiscal year will reach $1.34 trillion, the second-largest on record. The Obama administration faces the challenge of trying to limit the shortfall while stimulating an economy with joblessness close to 10 percent.

“We’re seeing the revenue coming back,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. “The cumulative deficit for the fiscal year is a bit smaller, but still fairly wide. It doesn’t signal a lot of improvement.”

Hey, haters: Presidents get blamed when the economy goes bad, even when, as was the case here, the president is not responsible for the policies that caused the downturn. Conversely, they also get credit when things go well — especially when, as is the case here, their policies caused things to turn around.

So don’t even start.

In Addition to the Mosque in Ground Zero’s Tower 2, Muslims Also Prayed at the Top of Tower 1

Jon Ponder

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

On Friday, we pointed to a story buried deep in the New York Times, in the Religion section, about a mosque in the World Trade Center, where, as likely as not, Muslims were praying on Sept. 11, 2001, the day the madmen jet-bombed the buildings.

There was also an area set aside for prayer on the stairwell on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower that was used by workers in the tourist restaurant on the top floor.

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Verbatim

Trish

In the year since I issued a prepared statement regarding President Obama speaking to the Nation’s school children, I have learned a great deal about the party I so deeply loved and served. Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the President for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our Party today.

Former Republican Party of Florida Chair Jim Greer, who led a nationwide campaign last year to prevent the the president from “indoctrinating” youths by asking them to work hard and stay in school. Greer was later indicted for grand theft, money laundering, and fraud, and faces up to 75 years in prison.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

He’s trying to appeal to the fringe of people who don’t believe the President was born in this country. You would normally expect better from someone who held the position of Speaker in the House. But look, it’s political season.

— White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, in an interview on ABC News, condemning Newt Gingrich’s assertion that President Obama can only be understood through his “Kenyan, anti-colonialist behavior.”