A group of Tea Partyers is hoping Sarah Palin will challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in 2014, when he is up for reelection. “We know that, with Sarah in the Senate, conservatives across America can rest a little easier at night knowing that she’s at the watch,” said Todd Cefaratti of the Tea Party Leadership Fund, in a fundraising email to supporters.”You and I both know that Sarah Palin is a fighter who will stand up to Harry Reid and his pals in the Senate to protect our Constitution in issues like amnesty, gun control and our nation’s crushing debt,” Cefaratti wrote.But the Los Angeles Times, which obtained the email, reports that Palin might not have the “clear path” to victory that the Tea Party Leadership Fund says she does. A February PPP poll had Begich’s approval rating at 49 percent, and winning in a potential match-up against Palin by a margin of 54-37 percent.Continue Reading… … Read More
‘System of world credit rating agencies needs to be changed’
Another similar agency from the ‘Big Three’, Moody’s, also downgraded its forecast for the UK back in February. The latest downfall comes as UK Chancellor George Osborne backed the government’s austerity plan, saying it was “the right plan” and the economy was “healing”.“The UK has got so much spending going forward, but it has not got an ability to pay and therefore it will have to default in some way either by devaluing or not paying their bond,” Richard Hainthworth, President the GlobalRating Group and General Director of RusRating agency told RT Business.“The question is will they be able in two-three years to maintain their austerity program in the face of increased public anger. And there are already indications that there is a certain amount of anger and it is not helped by the fact that big companies such as banks are paying their top management very large bonuses when ordinary people are suffering you don’t expect top bankers to be getting very large bonuses.”The world needs to shift the parameters of the credit rating system and diversify the market for analysis, Mr. Hainthworth believes. “I think the credit rating system in the world is flawed. We have three big companies which have 98-99% of the market and all of them are based in one town, in New York. After all, a credit rating is an assessment of the future. Once you start making judgments, then you rely on the individuals. When you rely on the individuals, a lot depends on where they are. If they are in the United States, they have certain views about Europe, China, or Russia – Russia is communist and therefore there is something bad, China is even worse because there is still communism – and you get personal prejudices. What we need in the world now are different views because some people with a view from Asia-Pacific region or from the CIS view things in different way, we don’t look at the world the same way and we can see strengths as well as weaknesses.”Hainthworth noted that by creating similar agencies in various regions of the world, businesses can get broader perspectives and reliable prejudice-free estimations.“The system needs to be changed. There should be other points of view. Not just us [RusRating] but I believe its important there are another one or two new global agencies, which will be based in different parts of the world. We want to start one that is based in the BRICS countries using analysts and opinions from those places.” … Read More
Mr. President, don’t negotiate with yourself!
President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, is a politics-over-policy guy. So it was interesting to hear him confess to ABC News last week that he only had two “white knuckle moments” during the reelection push – and one of them was after the awful August 2011 debt-ceiling deal (the other was Obama’s poor showing in the first debate, which rabid Obama defenders insisted was a fiction made up by Chris Matthews).Of course, Messina’s reaction to the debt-ceiling deal had to do with politics, not policy, but it’s still revealing. “After the August debt-limit crisis … our numbers were, you know, historically low,” the political whiz said.Indeed. After Obama and GOP leaders made a deal to avert a default – resulting in the ugly sequester cuts that are currently taking their toll on the economy as well as on Obama’s popularity – the president’s approval rating reached an all-time low. Gallup tracking polls had him at 39 percent in mid-August, which was the first time he’d dipped below the treacherous 40 percent mark as president.Continue Reading… … Read More
A.M. Links: Obama Approval Rating Down Precipitously, White House Tours Canceled, Hugo Chavez Dead
President
Obama’s approval rating is at 43 percent,
down 7 points from two weeks ago, in the Reuters/IPSOS
poll.
Google is now
including information on the national security letters it
receives and how many users they affect (between one and two
thousand last year) in its Transparency Report, despite a gag order
that comes with the letters.
White House tours have been
canceled for the sequester.
Venezuelans in America
cheered the death of Hugo Chavez and are cautiously optimistic
about the country’s future.
The United Kingdom will be
sending body armor and armored vehicles to Syria’s rebels, as
the refugee population
tops a million.
The European Union fined
Microsoft $731 million over Internet Explorer. What is this, the
90s?
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Chris Christie Says Just a Few More Changes Needed to Legalize Online Gambling in New Jersey
New Jersey could imminently become
the first state in the union to legalize online gambling. The state
senate first passed a bill legalizing online gambling
in 2010 but faced hurdles put up by Governor Chris Christie,
who vetoed the most recent version of the bill
earlier this month. ;The legislature is now working on a
revised version and the governor
promises this time he could sign it the same day (“depending on
how my day is going”) if it contained the additions he sought.
Ante Up Magazine
explains Christie’s demands:
His conditions within the 31-page veto included a
change to the tax rate listed in the bill from 10 percent to 15
percent, with a portion of this revenue to go to entities that work
to help treat people with compulsive gambling problems and
addictions. This was one of his issues with the bill he vetoed last
year.
There’s also a part of the bill listed as Section 33, which
addresses the issue of interstate commerce through the gaming
act… This could open the door for offshore online gaming,
depending, of course, on the future rulings by the DOJ and
government.
Another notable point in the veto is the requirement that this
online gaming law be set to expire in 10 years, unless it’s
overridden by another law (state or federal).
While a poll last May showed 58 percent of
voters in New Jersey opposed to online gambling in the state,
Christie is enjoying a
record high 74 percent approval rating, which ought to help in
making legalized online gambling palatable in New Jersey.
Check out Reason TV’s “The Politics of Poker: Why It’s Time to
Legalize Online Gaming”:
; … Read More
