What Did Bill Clinton Do To Get $15M From Ron Burkle?

The campaign press statement accompanying the release on Friday of Hillary Clinton's 2000 - 2007 tax returns includes some useful summary data for the media: Bill and Hillary Clinton's total income over the past 8 years, $109 million; her Senate salary, $1.1 million; his presidential pension, $1.2 million; her book royalties, $10.5 million; his book royalties, $29.6 million; and his speaking fees, $51.9 million.

One big line item is missing from the press summary however: the $15 million paid to Bill Clinton between 2003 and 2007 by Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund.

In fact, the Burkle payments, buried deep in the income tax forms themselves, were the only real news in tax documents, which were made public for the first time.

The Clintons' huge book profits, her salary and his speaking fees, were all well known. Hillary Clinton has been required to disclose details on many of those sources of income in the annual financial disclosure statements she has to file as a member of the U.S. Senate.

But until the release of the tax returns on April 4, the only disclosure Hillary Clinton had made about her husband's financial relationship with Burkle was the fact that Bill Clinton earned "more than $1,000" annually from the partnerships.

HUD Secretary Creates Task Force to Battle Texas Foreclosures

Chief Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson announced today that he planned to launch a foreclosure task force specifically for dealing with the rising rate of Texas foreclosures. Texas has one of the highest rates of foreclosure in the country in many of its cities, and one of the largest inventory of foreclosure properties overall.

Jackson formed the partnership with lending and banking industries, such as Wells Fargo, Neighborworks America, and the Texas department of Housing and Community Affairs, all of which will donate money to the task force to help slow down the amount of defaults that eventually become foreclosures across the state.

The task force’s primary function will be to provide homeowners with information, assistance and resources to turn to when they face default, so that they can know how to deal with it and avoid becoming a statistical victim of the foreclosure boom. Homeowners of Texas foreclosure homes will be instructed on working with lenders, refinancing dangerous mortgages, and selling to avoid foreclosure. Since Texas is one of the easiest states for lenders to pursue a foreclosure in, this extra effort is well needed by homeowners.

Tell Us What You Really Think About Politicians

I'm so sick of politicians bs, this pic is perfect for all of them.

Corporate oil giants scramble to plunder Iraq’s energy reserves

When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki finally sent the so-called “oil law” to be passed by the parliament in July, George Bush phoned to congratulate him personally. Maliki’s failure to push the legislation through had been a source of growing frustration and anger in Washington for more than a year. The law was needed to legitimise one of the main aims of the illegal US invasion of Iraq—to allow foreign corporations to assume control over the country’s state-owned energy resources on the most lucrative of terms.

Bush’s congratulations—made on behalf of the major oil corporations and their share-holders—were premature however. The rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions of the Iraqi ruling elite have still not agreed on the legislation due to their bitter and increasingly intractable differences over how to divide the revenues that would flow to the Baghdad government. Five months after the law was sent for ratification, it is still tied up in debates within a parliamentary committee, with few indications as to when, or in what form, it will to be passed.

$1B In Military Equipment Missing In Iraq

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Tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, crates of machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are just a sampling of more than $1 billion in unaccounted for military equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces, according to a new report issued today by the Pentagon Inspector General and obtained exclusively by the CBS News investigative unit. Auditors for the Inspector General reviewed equipment contracts totaling $643 million but could only find an audit trail for $83 million. The report details a massive failure in government procurement revealing little accountability for the billions of dollars spent purchasing military hardware for the Iraqi security forces. For example, according to the report, the military could not account for 12,712 out of 13,508 weapons, including pistols, assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

The report comes on the same day that Army procurement officials will face tough questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding their procurement policies. One official, Claude Bolton, assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology has already announced his resignation on the heels of sharp criticism of army contracting. Bolton’s resignation is effective Jan. 2, 2008. The Army has significantly expanded its fraud investigations in recent months.


The evolution of sneaker stores in Romania, in general, has grown to be a more sophisticated entity. What are some of the things You can find at Adidasi Nike - Adidasi Haine ? Adidas, Bobbito’s quick strikes, All-Star Af1’s, Crocs, Nike, Puma, Supremes, Air Max’s, A variety of different packs including the back to school, anything supreme or premium, Air Jordan, just come in and check it out..

Nokia 888
A cell phone which lets you to morph into any design you wish, roll it, bend it, clip it, whatever. It is light, and cool and most important You can change the form of the body and the color. The bracelet-like 888 is envisioned to use a liquid battery, feature a touch sensitive body cover, speech recognition, a flexible touch screen. It looks like there is a ready market for the phone if Nokia is able to move it from concept to mass-market commercial product. More about this concept on Telefoane. I hope to see this phone by the end of this year but I'm not holding my breath. If you are in Romania and you want to buy cheap cell phones I recommend Magazin Telefoane and Telefoane Samsung .

Giuliani: Everything I Won't Disclose is Aboveboard

Rudy Giuliani has nothing to hide about his business dealings. Or, rather, he wants everyone to know that if the press finds what he's hiding, everyone will agree that everything's been "totally legal, totally ethical."

Every time reporters press Giuliani on his work with Giuliani Partners, his booming consultancy (Guiliani took home $4.1 million last year and his stake is worth anywhere from $5 million to $25 million), he's got the same answer: I'm not telling, but you should ask the firm. Then the reporter diligently calls over to Giuliani Partners to get the brush-off from its spokeswoman. That's what happened to The Wall Street Journal when the paper had questions about the firm's contract with Qatar. The Chicago Tribune got the same treatment when it asked about the firm's work for a developer's casino resort in Singapore.

Barack Obama is paying no price for aggression

During the early fall panic period, when Barack Obama supporters worried Hillary Clinton was leaving him in the dust, those who argued he should be more aggressive clashed with those who argued that scrapping would trip him up. He was the candidate who had written and spoken at great length about a new kind of politics. To really take on Clinton, he would have to raise questions about her honesty and candor, because that's where voters see her as weak. But that would double the risk of taking a swing, since such attacks can seem personal and voters don't like that, particularly in Iowa where Obama has been closest to catching Clinton in the polls.

Zogby Analyst Says Ron Paul Strongest Contender to Beat Hillary

Zogby's Director of Communications and polling analyst Fritz Wenzel says that Congressman Ron Paul is the strongest of the Republican frontrunners to go up against Hillary Clinton, underlining the fact that the rest of the field are just ringers as the establishment prepares to install Clinton and prolong the Bush-Clinton power monopoly.

"Among Democrats, yes, he would be a much stronger candidate than any of the other three (Romney, Giuliani, Thompson)" Wenzel told the Alex Jones Show yesterday.

A new Zogby poll commissioned by Jones Productions found Ron Paul the GOP winner in a blind poll that included Democrats, Republicans and Independents nationwide.
"He is anti-war and the majority of Democrats are anti-war, he has some other ideas and policies and stances on issues more attractive to Democrats, particularly conservative Democrats," said Wenzel.

source: prisonplanet.com

"Even among independents, he is far and away a more attractive candidate," he added.

As we have highlighted before, Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate who will not seek to lead the U.S. into a military confrontation with Iran, something that leading Democrats Obama, Clinton and Edwards have all vowed to keep "on the table."

Ron Paul voted against the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, both of which were supported by Hillary Clinton.

US leads world in jailing children for life

THE United States has far more juveniles serving life terms than any other country — 2387. Israel, the only other country that imprisons juveniles for life, according to a new study by the University of San Francisco's Centre for Law & Global Justice, has seven — and has not issued such a sentence since 2004.

In the US, life terms have fallen disproportionately on non-white children, who are 10 times more likely than white children to be given life without parole, the report found.

The study, titled Sentencing Children to Die in Prison, also found that in California, black juveniles are 20 times more likely to receive such sentences.

"For many children, (life without parole) is an effective death sentence," said Michelle Leighton, chief author of the study, which found 51% of such children were first-time offenders.

The US Federal Government and 44 states permit life sentences without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.

"Among those states, 13 allow sentencing a child of any age to LWOP and one sets the bar at eight years or older," according to the study.

There are 18 states that could apply the sentence to a child as young as 10, and 20 states that allow it for children 12 or older. The minimum age is 14 in 13 other states.

The report asserts that "harsh sentences dispensed in adult courts do not take into account the lessened culpability of juvenile offenders… Psychologically and neurologically, children cannot be expected to have achieved the same level of mental development as an adult, even when they become teenagers."

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Ron Paul: Renew devotion to freedom, limited government

On the fourth day of July in 1776, a small group of men boldly told the most powerful nation on Earth they were free. They declared that all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights.

One then has to wonder how Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin would react to our current state of affairs.

We have lost sight of the simple premise that guided the actions of our founding fathers. That premise? The government that governs least is the government that governs best.
n our early history, it was understood that a free society embraced both civil liberties and economic liberties. But our government has significantly changed from one of limited power to one of pervasive intervention.

The practice of medicine is now a government-managed system, and very few Americans are happy with it. For decades, the U.S. health-care system was the envy of the world. Not coincidentally, there was far less government involvement in medicine during that time. Good medical care is delivered when the patient and the doctor are in charge.

We must also examine our foreign policy. Our troops are spread to the four corners of the Earth and stretched too thinly, meaning we may well have difficulty defending ourselves if we are ever threatened.

The situation in Iraq reminds us that we are to go to war only after a congressional declaration of war, as required by the Constitution. A coherent foreign policy is based on the understanding that America is best served by not interfering in the internal affairs of other nations.

We should also reclaim our national sovereignty by first securing our borders. By now, many have heard about the proposed "NAFTA Superhighway." This superhighway would connect Mexico, the United States and Canada, cutting a wide swath through the middle of Texas and through Kansas City. One proposed path takes the superhighway right through Iowa. This superhighway can be built only by sacrificing family farms through eminent domain.

Any movement toward a North American Union that erases the borders between the United States, Mexico and Canada would greatly diminish the ability of Americans to influence the laws under which they live.

Our economy is another victim of intense government intervention. The gold dollar of 1900 is now nothing more than a Federal Reserve note backed only by the promises of untrustworthy politicians and central bankers. No longer is there silver or gold available to protect the value of a steadily depreciating currency. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle- and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy.

Abolishing the Federal Reserve will allow Congress to reassert its constitutional authority over monetary policy and put the American people ahead of special interests.

We can reclaim our heritage of freedom, but it will require commitment, work and a willingness to stand firm for our beliefs, refusing to compromise with those who would continue to push for more taxes, more spending and more government solutions.

Just as devotion to freedom and self-determination brought forth our great nation, a renewed adherence to those principles can move us to new heights.

U.S. Rep. RON PAUL of Texas is seeking the Republican nomination for president.

Rudy Giuliani A NASCAR Fan?

Republican presidential hopeful, former N.Y. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, center,walks with his wife Judith, right, and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, left, prior to the start of the Ford 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup series auto race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democrats Face a Shock in November '08: They Could Lose

For Congressional Democrats, the train has already left the station--and they’re not on board.

A year after the election that gave them control of both houses of Congress, they are exposed as a feckless bunch of frauds posing as an opposition.

As long ago as last January, when the US death toll in Iraq was almost 1000 lower, and the civilian death toll in Iraq was over a hundred thousand lower, they could have brought an end to the conflict by simply refusing to approve any more money for the war.

Instead, they approved administration requests for several hundred billion dollars for expanding the number of troops from 140,000 to a current level of nearly 173,000—a post- invasion record.

They could have brought administration assaults on the Constitution to a screeching halt by initiating impeachment hearings against the president, the vice president, or against both of these criminal usurpers. Instead, the House leadership threatened anyone who might file impeachment bills with various punishments, reportedly ranging from loss of committee chairmanships to loss of access to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee funding.

In the perverse “logic” of Democratic Party leaders, this do-nothing strategy was designed to bring Democrats a historic victory in 2008, when American voters, angry about the quagmire in Iraq, and disgusted with eight years of Republican misrule, would supposedly hand Democrats the presidency and health majorities in both houses of Congress. Continue..

Bush's homeland security adviser resigns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush's White House adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security has resigned, he announced on Monday, the latest in an exodus of top aides with 14 months left of his presidency.

Bush said in a statement that Fran Townsend "has always provided wise counsel on how to best protect the American people from the threat of terrorism."

"She has been a steady leader in the effort to prevent and disrupt attacks and to better respond to natural disasters," the president said. He gave no reason for her departure.

Townsend, who served 4-1/2 years in a post created after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, had also been a prosecutor in New York and deputy national security adviser.

Her resignation adds to a list of high-profile departures from the administration in recent months.

Senior Bush adviser Karl Rove left in August, White House press secretary Tony Snow resigned in September and White House counselor Dan Bartlett stepped down in June. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, another member of Bush's inner circle, resigned under pressure in August.

source: reuters.com

U.S. strikes killed pro-U.S. Iraq fighters - officer

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A group of gunmen killed in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq last week were pro-U.S. fighters, an American military officer said on Sunday, despite the military's public statements that they were insurgents.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. military officials had talked to Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs in Taji, just north of Baghdad, to express their regret for the loss of life in the attack, which took place last Tuesday.

"There was some confusion and we were not able to turn off the attack quickly enough," he said of the airstrikes that continued for several hours despite frantic phone calls from local tribal leaders to the U.S. base in Taji.

"We have talked to them and explained our sorrow over the incident and the loss of lives of volunteers trying to bring order to their neighbourhoods," the officer said.

The incident threatens to derail a carefully constructed relationship between U.S. forces and anti-al Qaeda Sunni tribes in Taji and has put the spotlight on operating procedures for tribal police units the U.S. military is forming around Iraq.

"If they (the U.S. military) do not give us a proper reason for what happened, we will withdraw from the Awakening Council and let al Qaeda return," said Sheikh Shathir Abid Salim, leader of the anti-al Qaeda group. His brother was among those killed.

The military said in a statement last week that it killed 25 suspected insurgents in operations targeting al Qaeda militants near the capital. Tribal leaders told Reuters U.S. warplanes had mistakenly bombed their men, killing 45.

The U.S. military officer told Reuters the men targeted in the airstrikes were a mixture of volunteers from the Taji Awakening Council and tribesmen loyal to Sheikh Shathir.
source: reuters.com

17 Most Bizarre Statues in The World

1.In front of the Ernst & Young building (Los Angeles)

2.Optimus Prime (Southern China)

3.The "Magic tap" (found in "Aqualand" of Cadiz, Spain), which appears to float in the sky with an endless supply of water. Actually, there is a pipe hidden in the stream of water that holds the whole structure.

4.A Mona Lisa made of computer chips (ASUS headquarters)

5.(Prague)

6.Baseball Man

7.(Oslo, Norway)

8.Santa Fe, New Mexico

9.(Potsdam, Germany)

10."Iron Lady", in front of the building Regentes (Netherlands)

11.(Salt Lake City)

12.(Singapore)

13.Keukenhof (Lisse, Holland)

14.In front of the Bukcheon Museum (Seoul, Korea)

15.A contemporary representation of Charles La Trobe in central Melbourne (This temporary installation was removed at the end of June 2006 and has been acquired by La Trobe University).

16.London Ink

17.A life-like statue of a man swimming through the grass on the South Bank of the River Thames is unveiled.