• China’s Latest To Help Lebanese Military
• China Buffaloes Obama
• GCC Pulling Back From USA Over Obama’s Iran Bungling
• The Culmination of New Deal-Great Society Liberalism
• Legal-Zoom.com Zips Out of Town
• China - Volcker Agree: Fed Bond Buy Bogus
• Does Obama Understand/Care About Tuesday’s Message?
• Will Obama Deal Israel Mortal Blow?
• Obama Style Triangulation U. S. vs. China vs. India
• Israel Kills Top Al Qaeda Leader In Gaza
• Recovering Canadian Leftist Obama Observations.
• Taxes On Medical Pot Proposed Around California.
• Judge Rules Jessica’s Law Unconstitutional.
• AARP Employees Health Insurance Rates Rise

The federal government has paid out well over $1 billion to 250,000 dead people- and can’t figure out how to fix the problem, according to a new report from Sen. Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma

China has become the latest country to help Lebanon’s military.

China has reported the transfer of a range of non-combat military supplies to Lebanon. On Oct. 27, the Chinese embassy in Beirut relayed $118 million worth of equipment to the Lebanese Army.

“The Chinese embassy in Lebanon donated eight million yuan worth of batteries, tents and other military supplies to the Lebanese Army,” the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said.

This marked the first reported Chinese transfer of military equipment to Lebanon. Officials said China held a series of meetings over the last year to review Lebanon’s military requirements.

So far, the United States has been the largest supplier to Lebanon’s military and security forces. Since 2006, Washington has relayed more than $720 million in military aid, more than one-third of that being relayed in 2010.

The Chinese supply took place during a ceremony in Beirut attended by Beijing’s ambassador to Lebanon, Liu Zi Ming. At the ceremony, Liu and Lebanese Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Elias Hanna signed an agreement for the Chinese equipment.

“Liu praised the role of the Lebanense Army in maintaining the security and stability of Lebanon,” Xinhua said. “He also said that China pays close attention to the development of both countries and armies.”

Inexplicably the Chinese general in charge of Beijing’s military during the 1989 Tiananmen massacre has been given an award by the United Nations for “world harmony.” Based on the evidence that is now available, it seems plausible that about 2000 soldiers and policemen were killed, along with 1000 to 3000 civilians under his generalship on that April day in 1989. Now the architect of that horror is honored by the U. N.

Few expected the military might of our globe to change so drastically in 1910 to 2010. The change in 2011 to 2111 will no doubt be far greater.

We cannot go on ignoring the glaring threat to our existence coming from the “People’s Republic of China,” which disregards public opinion, manages to get away with violating basic human rights of its own citizens, keeps amassing its military might by stealing the U.S. secret military technology and attracting the best scientists from other countries. The PRC already is powerful enough to challenge international laws to its own advantage: all that in view of the entire world!

“I dread to think,” says Lev Navrozov of the Center for the Survival of Western Democracies, “that the process may become irreversible, that there won’t be a free country left which would be able to resist the China military giant. Judging by the ineptitude of the U.S. President Obama

, who keeps pandering to PRC to advance his own Marxist agenda so that he could borrow from it more and more money thereby getting our country deeper and deeper in debt, makes the picture gloomy.

There’s still time for the people of these United States to stop Obama in his tracks and elect another President Roosevelt, who will put an end to Obama’s policy of defeatism and self-destruction.”

He concludes with, “Now is the time to get a closer look at PRC aggressive behavior and save the U.S. and other free countries. ”

That Obama will spend 10-days in India, Indonesia. South Korea and Japan tip toeing around the PRC is no accident. Rather it is indicative of a White House completely flummoxed, and intimidated by the Maoist Chinese regime .

PRC sympathizers abound around Obama and they are seeking to roll back U. S. policies that sought to make India a counterweight to China.

Instead they are working to appease China by adopting policies that are either favored by Beijing or that will not antagonize the communist leadership.

On as many as 10 different issues in U.S.-India relations, the pro-China faction is seeking to downgrade the program launched by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and that has India wary and worried about relying on Obama and hence the U. S. as it faces China as well as Pakistan.

The collapse of U. S. foreign policy is having profound long term impact. There are reports that China and Russia are allied to oppose Japan and force it away from its northern islands panicking Japan that is pressing “team” Obama for secret talks about China’s military surge particularly its blue water Navy.

Ironically Japan pushed the US off of Okinawa forcing it to retreat back almost 1,500 miles back to Guam increasing the difficulties in any faceoff with China.

People’s Republic of China President Hu Jintao has replaced President Barack Obama at the top of Forbes magazine’s annual list of “The Most Powerful People in the World.”

The six GCC (officially Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf) states do not want to be seen as aligned with Obama’s Washington in any military effort against Iran. Several GCC states were being pressured to join the ABM ( anti-ballistic missile) network to ensure the most efficient configuration against Iran’s massive ballistic missile arsenal that now include thousands of missile along the Gulf shore.

“The Gulfies have been very careful about any move that would openly expand the U.S. footprint in the region,” an official said. The GCC includes: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar.  Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates

Collectively and individually they worry because of perceived confusion in Washington DC and Obama’s unreliability and the maltreatment of other allies including: Poland, the Czech Republic and of course Israel.

As if anybody was asking Howard Dean says he definitely will not run against Obama in 2012.

“President Obama has lost more than the midterm election. He has lost his moral and political legitimacy,” says radio host, Washington Times and World Tribune columnist Jeffrey T. Kuhner. What follows are my edits to his Saturday article.

 ”On Tuesday, voters repudiated Mr. Obama’s socialist policies. The Democrats lost the House of Representatives

in a historic landslide. The GOP picked up at least 60 seats. In the Senate, the Democratic majority has been substantially reduced. The liberal governing agenda is dead.”

Obama misread his 2008 electoral mandate. The president embarked upon erecting a European entitlement state. Rather than fixing the economy, he chose the path of personal glory - and hubris: cementing his reputation as the most radical president in U.S. history.

His $814 billion stimulus was a radical experiment in neo-Keynesianism. Before the bllod has even clotted from Tuesday blood bath he proposed and multi-billion dollar free college for all initiative.

Obama nationalized the auto sector, the insurance industry, the banking system and the student loan business. Bailouts are now permanent feature of the economy and will likely be expanded to states sympathetic to his politics.

The Environmental Protection Agency ruled that carbon is a “pollutant,” paving the way for massive environmental regulations on industry and manufacturing. It achieves the seminal goal of “cap-and-trade” - reducing carbon emissions and driving up the costs of energy use - through the back door.

Public spending accounts for 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and debt will soon exceed it.

Obama’s two years are the culmination of New Deal-Great Society liberalism. The Democratic Party has been captured by post-1960s radicals and ideological fanatics.

Obama has said he would rather be a “great one-term president” than a “mediocre two-term” president. By “great,” Obama means one who imposes utopian socialism.

Obama knows liberalism fosters a culture of dependency and victimization. It champions state power as the ultimate source of human fulfillment. In essence, faith in government replaces faith in God.

Voters likely will have to finish in 2012 the task they have just begun: ending this historic assault on American institutions.

Defeated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is using one of the most shop worn political claims to run for an office saying Friday she is being encouraged by others to run for minority leader in the new Congress, even as some moderate and conservative Democrats insisted she should step aside. Her decision sets up a game of musical chairs. First Steney Hoyer who is majority leader now says he won’t run against her but he’ll run against James Clyburn (the current Majority Whip) in the race to be Minority Whip. Clyburn says he will contest. Yaada, yaada.

Legal-Zoom.com Inc. is about to leave Hollywood after failing to settle a long-running dispute over its business tax rate. The booming online legal documents company led the fight for an Internet business tax bracket, which was adopted by the City Council last month. But LegalZoom won’t qualify for the full discount provided by the lower rate.

LegalZoom, which employs almost 400 people, has notified its landlord that the firm will move from its 50,000-square-foot offices at 7083 Hollywood Blvd. when its lease expires in June. A for-lease sign has already gone up on the building. The company may move to a neighboring city, possibly West Hollywood, Burbank or Glendale where tax rates are lower. It has also opened a new office in business-friendly Austin, Texas.

Similarly the Creators Syndicate that represents writers is in a fierce battle over its business tax rate in Hollywood too and has repeatedly threatened to leave.

By the end of September, 2010 more than 150 companies have fled Californmia this year. There are reports of U-Haul charging high premiums for trucks and trailers leaving California because of having to pay to bring them back into the state.

The Muslim activist group C. A. I. R. (Council on American-Islamic Relations) has sued Oklahoma after 70% of voters there voted to bar the consideration of Sharia or any international law from being considered in court decisions there. Less than 1% of Oklahomans are Muslim.

China said the U.S. Federal Reserve needs to explain its decision to purchase $600 billion in U. S. bonds to pump money into the world’s biggest economy or risk undermining the global recovery.

“Many countries are worried about the impact of the policy on their economies,” Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said at a press briefing in Beijing today. “It would be appropriate for someone to step forward and give us an explanation, otherwise international confidence in the recovery and growth of the global economy might be hurt.”

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker says the U.S. central bank’s plan to buy six hundred billions of dollars in government bonds to boost the economic recovery is just an illusion and will not work.

The Fed announced Wednesday that it would purchase $600 billion in Treasurys, aiming to lower long-term interest rates in an effort to spur spending and ultimately lower the U.S. unemployment rate, currently at 9.6 percent. The move comes on the heels of previous purchases of $1.7 trillion in mortgage and Treasury bonds.

Volcker told a business audience in Seoul, South Korea that the Fed’s bond plan is obviously an attempt to spur the U.S. economy but “is not the kind of action that’s likely to change the general picture that I’ve described as slow and labored recovery over a period of time.”

The government will pump an additional $600 billion into the economy. I guess they have to make up for what Meg Whitman isn’t spending anymore.- Leno

Not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as Obama is this week. Obama took both 747 Air Force One Term aircraft, a squadron of other aircraft and even stationed a U. S. wartship off the coast with some 3,000 people in tow renting every room in one of the world’s most luxurious hotels.

An Indian newspaper says it will cost U. S. taxpayers $200 million per day. The White House pooh-poohs that estimate but even at half it is still absurd given the state of joe six-pack back home. Few expect anything more substantive that some fancy sightseeing to result and some campaign style photo ops labelling the trip the first step in his 2012 reelection bid.

There are few signs that Obama will shift from his ultra-left positions or for that matter even gives a damn about the tens of millions of un and underemployed Americans.  With his press conference after the election, Ron Kessler said, “Obama demonstrated that he continues to believe he can put one over on the American people.”

Despite the election results and the polls Obama rejects any suggestion that Americans disapprove of his left-wing policies.. Obama claimed he is interested in hearing any ideas Republicans may have and will consider them. Obama made the same claim about the healthcare bill and then ignored or dismissed everything the Republicans proposed.

Obama has increased federal government employment by 10 percent and racked up trillions in debt, he claimed the problem is only that “people started looking at all this, and it felt as if government was getting much more intrusive into people’s lives than they were accustomed to.”

Perhaps most glaringly false was Obama’s claim “We’re funding global AIDS, and the other side is not.” But, in fact it was a Republican - George W. Bush - who began that effort. Under Bush, the U.S. put $15 billion into fighting AIDS and HIV in Africa where Bush is revered..

I loved how the different news networks covered the elections. On MSNBC, it was called “Election Night 2010: What Went Wrong?” At Fox News, it was “Election Night 2010: Party!” — Leno

 With the mid-term elections over, Obama will intensify pressure on Israel. The Center for Security Policy says Obama would threaten U.S. relations with Israel after the Democrat Party’s loss in congressional elections on Nov. 2. The Washington-based institute said Obama would press for the establishment of a Palestinian state over Israel’s objections.

“Once the 2010 elections are behind him, it is a safe bet that Obama

will revert to form by once again exhibiting an unmistakable and ruthless determination to bend Israel to his will,” the report, authored by Frank Gaffney, says.

Obama plans to increase pressure on Israel to unprecedented levels after his party’s historic defeat in congressional elections

  He said Obama had eased pressure on Israel in response to Democrat candidates who feared a Jewish backlash.

 ”Unfortunately, what the president has in mind for Israel after the election will make his previous treatment of the Jewish state look like the good old days,” the report, titled “Obama’s Not-so-hidden Agenda,” said on Oct. 26.

The report echoed previous assessments by the Israeli government and intelligence community of a crisis with the United States in the aftermath of the U.S. elections. The Israeli assessment envisioned that Obama would accelerate efforts to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank regardless of Israeli concerns.

“Worse yet, he will be able to take advantage of a vehicle for effecting the so-called ‘two state solution,’ no matter how strenuously Israel and its friends in Washington object,” the report said. “The Palestinians will simply unilaterally declare themselves a state and ask for international recognition - and Mr. Obama will accede to that request.”

During the spring of 2010, U.S.-Israel relations were said to have dropped to one of their lowest points in more than 50 years. Gaffney said Obama vilified Israel and forced it into territorial, political and other concessions to the Arabs.

“To be sure, ties between the United States and Israel - far and away America’s most important and loyal friend in the Middle East - have improved lately from the nadir to which Mr. Obama plunged them since he took office,” the report said. “That has nothing to do, however, with a change of heart or agenda on the part of the president and his administration.”

Gaffney said Obama could provide U.S. recognition to any unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence. Another option was that the president abstain from a resolution in the United Nations Security Council that would recognize a Palestinian state.

“The truth is that, either way, Obama will have dealt Israel a potentially mortal blow,” the report said. “Without control of the high ground and water aquifers of the West Bank, the Jewish state is simply indefensible and unsustainable.”

The report said Obama could also agree to deploy U.S. forces in the West Bank in wake of a declaration of Palestinian independence. Gaffney warned that international forces, including Americans, would soon protect Israel’s enemies in a policy similar to that of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

“The same is certain to eventuate in the West Bank as paramilitary forces the United States has foolishly trained and equipped become a standing army and fall under the sway of Hamas,” the report said.

 U.S. Voters say that 56% think of Israel as an ally, while just three percent (3%) view the country as an enemy to the United States. Thirty-six percent (36%) think Israel is somewhere in between an enemy and an ally of the United States. In August 60% called Israel an ally.

Just 10% think the 62-year-old relationship between the United States and Israel will be better in a year’s time, while 27% think the relationship will be worse. Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters think the U.S.-Israel relationship will be about the same a year from now.

All year long, the Democrats were telling people to “get out and vote.” Then people told the Democrats, “We voted, now get out!” - Leno

V.K. Krishna Menon, a communist, fellow-traveling, anti-American firebrand in India’s half-century of independence, did say one thing worth recalling: “You can say almost anything about India and it would be true.” He was referring to an incredible kaleidoscope of races, ethnicities, religions, languages, income disparities, lifestyles, freedom and repression that characterizes what will soon surpass China’s 1.3 billion as the world’s largest population.

It’s worth trotting out Menon’s old bromide for the visit of Obama with an accompanying huge business delegation this week. Obama hopes to consolidate a stuttering realignment of U.S.-Indian relations. But they likely will be stymied, at least temporarily, by these contradictions.

When the Soviet Union’s implosion weaned New Delhi away from Marxist economic

modeling, long-frustrated workers in the vineyard of Indian-American understanding thought a revolutionary turn was at hand. But the Soviet ghost, along with India’s vast native cultural overload and 350 years of British colonialism, continues to throttle policy turns.

 There has indeed been a repositioning of U.S.-Indian relations. Not least, this has been because the Indian-American community, now approaching 3 million, has doubled in the past decade. With the highest median income of any U.S. ethnic group, almost half have graduate degrees. One in three engineers in Silicon Valley is of Indian descent. That the ties run deep is evidenced by recent gifts totaling $60 million by two Indian industrialists to Harvard’s endowment.

This relationship has helped two-way trade to triple in the past decade. But at $50 billion, bilateral trade is only one-tenth of American trade with China, though far less troublesome as a political matter than Beijing’s huge payments surpluses. Ironically, India’s 2010 trade with China will surpass $60 billion, making Beijing New Delhi’s largest partner as well. An Indian industrialist’s $10 billion purchase of Chinese electrical generating equipment just capped it. No wonder an avalanche of cheap Chinese imports is raising New Delhi’s protectionist hackles.

Optimists hope new agreements will boost the U.S. prospects. Washington, swallowing hard, pushed through a detour around nonproliferation constraints permitting India access to worldwide nuclear technology - although the Europeans and the Russians may take the biggest slice of the new market. The Bush administration moved despite New Delhi’s refusal to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and offering only fuzzy promises of voluntary compliance.

Washington won’t offer the same deal to Pakistan, its critical ally against terrorism, because of Islamabad’s history of nuclear transgressions. That has opened the door for China to complete a second power plant there and sign for two more despite Washington’s five-year, $10 billion aid program. But for the moment, everyone publicly will ignore the 800-pound gorilla in the Subcontinent: Pakistan’s “all-weather” alliance with China targeted at India.

Yet it’s certainly no secret that the Obama visit is linked to increasing Washington-Beijing friction. Geopoliticians the world over speculate on the likelihood of U.S. collaboration with China’s Asian neighbors - led by Japan and India - to contain Beijing’s growing economic and military assertiveness.

India’s near double-digit growth in gross domestic product is important to any such strategy. Although far from matching the gains of China’s state capitalism, New Delhi’s increasingly free-market policies, some hope, will produce steadier long-term growth. But this month’s long-awaited sale of a mere 10 percent stake of government-owned India Coal - even at $3.4 billion - typifies the country’s “babu” (government clerk) mentality and the protectionist drag on government privatization hopes.

India waffles, too, over relations with China, engaged in endless “make nice” negotiations. Border conflicts still fester a half-century after India’s nose was bloodied in a brief clash. India deploys aircraft at both ends of the 1500-mile border. But China continues Tibetan colonization and military buildup, bringing roads - and perhaps railroads - right up to India’s border and bringing fresh instability for Nepal and Bhutan. New Delhi also sees China’s construction of Indian Ocean ports - notably Pakistan’s Gaidar at the Persian Gulf entrance - as a growing backyard threat.

Nor does India lack for other problems. Side by side with Mumbai’s gleaming new skyscrapers are some of the world’s most horrific slums. Its 600,000 villages - even though now invaded by cell phones and TV - still lack safe drinking water. A wave of suicides by debt-ridden farmers has just been compounded by a freeze in the much-touted $133-million-a-week “microfinance” lending system. While a dozen Indian billionaire businessmen have become international stars, poverty, particularly among those at the bottom of the still-rigid caste system, is exploited in a dozen states by self-proclaimed Maoist guerrillas. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh characterized the guerrillas as the country’s principal security threat. And for New Delhi to demote archrival Pakistan to second place in the security pantheon takes courage. A $32 billion armaments program - Mr. Obama will sign a $3.2 billion deal for 10 C-17 transports, hoping to give U.S. companies a leg up in the upcoming $11 billion fighter contract - is also part of the current strategic mix.

Israel has killed an Al Qaida-aligned commander in the Gaza Strip. Mohammed Nimnim, 25, an Al Qaida leader in the aligned Army of Islam was targeted and killed in Gaza City on Nov. 3 in an air strike near Hamas military headquarters. Nimnim was personally involved in directing several terror attacks against Israeli targets in recent years. Most recently, Nimnim was involved with directing a terror attack against American and Israeli targets in the Sinai Peninsula, in cooperation with Hamas elements in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has acknowledged the death of Nimnim, who had been arrested by the Islamic regime. Hamas officials said an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle fired a rocket that killed Nimnim in downtown Gaza City.

“Palestinian ambulance workers and medical officials said they recovered one body from the site of an explosion that occurred early Wednesday evening near the Palestinian universities in the middle of Gaza City,” a Hamas statement said.

A 19-year-old Nebraska man’s Halloween breathalyzer costume proved particularly appropriate when he was arrested for DUI blowing a blood-alcohol content on a real one twice the legal limit.

Recovering Canadian leftist Howard Galganov has the following observations about Obama:

• Obama declared that America IS NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION;
• He heaped praises on Islam, and
• He compared the “plight” of the Palestinians to the Holocaust.
• The Russians think he’s a putz.
• The French think he’s rude.
• The Germans want him to stop spending.
• The Indians want him to keep his nose out of their environmental business.
• The North Koreans think he’s a joke.
• The Iranians won’t acknowledge his calls.
• The British can’t even come up with a comprehensive opinion of him.
• As for the Chinese, he’s too frightened to even glance their way.

He made these observation in 2009.

Three guys were fishing on a lake one day, when Jesus walked across the water and joined them in the boat. When the three astonished men had settled down enough to speak, the first guy asked humbly, “Jesus, I’ve suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in the Vietnam War. Could you help me?”

“Of course my son,” Jesus said. When Jesus touched the man’s back, the man felt relief for the first time in years.The second man, who wore very thick glasses and had a hard time reading and driving, asked if Jesus could do anything about his eyesight. Jesus smiled, removed the man’s glasses and tossed them in the lake. When the glasses hit the water, the man’s eyes cleared and he could see everything distinctly.

When Jesus turned to heal the third man, the guy put his hands up and cried defensively, “Don’t touch me! I’m on long-term disability.”

The Los Angeles City Council voted 9 to 3 Wednesday for a ballot measure taxing medical marijuana at a $50 per $1,000 in cash or in-kind compensation for medical marijuana.

LA’s principal tax compliance officer, said medical marijuana collectives are classified as nonprofit organizations and cannot be taxed.

 The sponsor disputed the notion that the city would be taxing profits from the sale of medical marijuana.

 She said customers or patients give the nonprofits money to “reimburse” them for the cost of hiring workers, rent, utilities, and other expenses. She said the proposed ballot measure would enable the city to collect a tax of $50 out of every $1,000 of that money.

Several other cities are doing the same including San Jose and La Puente, the tax is $100; Oakland and Richmond, $50, Sacramento, $40; and Berkeley, $25. She added that Long Beach is considering a tax of $50.

Defacto taxpayers subsidize all non-profits by paying for providing services. Many say the unregulated medical marijuana businesses produce handsome profits for growers, prescribing doctors that charge high fees for the required pot prescription card, and others.

 Last Tuesday Californians rejected legalizing pot for recreational use for a fourth time.

The Washington DC based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is suing McDonalds  over its Happy Meals based on consumer protection laws, which say it is illegal to deceive consumers - in this case, children –  claiming  McDonalds is “effectively brainwashing” children.

A Los Angeles judge has ruled that the 2006 Jessica’s law that restricts how close California’s 63,000 sex offenders can live to parks or schools (where children gather) is unconstitutional.

Proponents of Jessica’s law say most parts of the state have ample housing for sex offenders that do not put them in close proximity to children. Advocates are confident the geographic rules would eventually be restored, and that the judge’s order might prompt local cities to impose their own rules on where sex offenders can live that might be more restrictive than Jessica’s Law. The recent double murder of two children by sex offender John Gardiner living across the them at his mother’s home has ignited the debate on this issue and the ruling poured gasoline on it.

In his opinion, the judge cited comments by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck that Jessica’s Law restrictions had resulted in “a marked increase of homeless/transient [sex offender] registrants.” In 2007, there were 30 homeless sex offenders on active parole in Los Angeles. By this September, that number had jumped to 259, Beck said. Most of the new cases were filed in the last six months and the court is being deluged with write of habeas corpus on behalf of child molestors and sex offenders in an effort to overthrow Jessica’s which they contend violate the sex-offenders - molester’s civil rights.

Hilary Clinton said she will not run for President in 2012 or 2016. She is 63-years-old now.

When the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) backed Obamacare they said it was because it would cover more people and lower costs. That support caused many members to burn their membership card in protest.

Now comes news that the AARP has announced a 13% increase in its own employees health insurance costs setting off something of an inside the beltway brouhaha that is oozing across America as more and more American workers face increased health care insurance premiums even before Obamacare fully kicks in and exactly the opposite of what Obama forecasted..

Contrary to all evidence to the contrary AARP says their health insurance premium increases would be much greater without Obamacare.

One of three Democrats financially backed by suspended MSNBC host Keith Olbermann is U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. co-chairman of a Marxist/socialist-founded bloc in Congress that works to “remove socialism’s stigma in the eyes of Americans ” Olbermann contributed $2,400 to him - the legal limit - and to two other Democrats: U.S. Senate candidate from Kentucky Jack Conway, who lost to Republican Rand Paul, and U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. The contributions were uncovered by Politico, which reported that Olbermann had financially backed the three Democratic candidates, despite a company policy that forbids an anchor from doing so without prior approval of the president of NBC News. MSNBC President Phil Griffin suspended Olbermann indefinately without pay.