RWC Unfiltered 9-15-11

• FEMA Foul-Up.

• Cherokee’s Tell Feds to Back Off On Blacks

• Post Weiner Winner Republican as Obama Loses Two Congressional Seats
• Krugman’s “Krud”
• Satellite Will Crash Into West Coast
• Israel Will Blast Iranian Nuke - Cheney
• Feinstein “Shocked” By Campaign Scandal
• HARPS finds “Super Earth”
• Insulin Nasal Spray Could Help Alzheimers
• Where are Assad’s WMD’s

• Max8ne Waters Admits Obama Jobs Plan Stinks

Obama’s SSN Doesn’t Pass E-Verify Check. Sending the social security administration into a blue panic to “correct” its error.

The bureaucrats at the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has folks in Alabama on the warpath over its regulations about the Tornado Shelters it rushed to build after last Spring’s Tornadoes ripped through killing scores and injuring more. Any schools were destroyed and are now housed in temporary trailers. FEMA rushed in to build tornado shelters capable of withstanding 250 mile per hour winds and capable of sheltering hundreds of students at each school.

The wrinkle is that after those schools are fully rebuilt the school district has to buy the FEMA shelters or tear them down. FEMA says it will pay the districts the costs of bulldozing the shelters.

 When queried about the peculiar regulation FEMA could only mumble about the senseless regulation.

The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.

 The nation’s second-largest Indian tribe said on Tuesday that it would not be dictated to by the U.S. government over its move to banish 2,800 African Americans from its citizenship rolls.

“The Cherokee Nation will not be governed by the BIA,” Joe Crittenden, the tribe’s acting principal chief, said in a statement responding to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Crittenden, who leads the tribe until a new principal chief is elected, went on to complain about unnamed congressmen meddling in the tribe’s self-governance.

The reaction follows a letter the tribe received on Monday from BIA Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk, who warned that the results of the September 24 Cherokee election for principal chief will not be recognized by the U.S. government if the ousted members, known to some as “Cherokee Freedmen,” are not allowed to vote.

The dispute stems from the fact that some wealthy Cherokee owned black slaves who worked on their plantations in the South. By the 1830s, most of the tribe was forced to relocate to present-day Oklahoma, and many took their slaves with them. The so-called Freedmen are descendants of those slaves.

After the Civil War, in which the Cherokee fought for the South, a treaty was signed in 1866 guaranteeing tribal citizenship for the freed slaves.

The U.S. government said that the 1866 treaty between the Cherokee tribe and the U.S. government guaranteed that the slaves were tribal citizens, whether or not they had a Cherokee blood relation.

The African Americans lost their citizenship last month when the Cherokee Supreme Court voted to support the right of tribal members to change the tribe’s constitution on citizenship matters.

The change meant that Cherokee Freedmen who could not prove they have a Cherokee blood relation were no longer citizens, making them ineligible to vote in tribal elections or receive benefits.

Besides pressure from the BIA to accept the 1866 Treaty as the law of the land, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is withholding a $33 million disbursement to the tribe over the Freedmen controversy.

Monday Obama ranted at Congress to pass his “Jobs Act” urging folks to phone, email, fax or sky-write to demand Congress immediately pass it even though he hadn’t delivered his so-called jobs plan to Congress.

Tuesday was the special election in disgraced Congressman Tony Weiner’s NYC District. Republican Turner won Weiner’s seat in the heavily Democratic district for four reasons: Its the first time in 90 years a Republican has held the seat.

• 1. a huge lead with independents and a large amount of crossover support. He’ was ahead by 32 points at 58-26 with voters unaffiliated with either major party.
• 2. And he won nearly 30% of the Democratic vote, holding Weprin under 60% with voters of his own party, while losing just 10% of Republican partisans.
• 3. Former NYC Democrat Mayor Ed Koch Endorsed Republican Turner
• 4. Perhaps most important - Obama is dragging down Democrat like a semi trailer being pulled by a Vespa scooter.

Turner’s win on Tuesday was largely due to the incredible unpopularity of Obama dragging his party down in the heavily Jewish district. Obama won 55% there in 2008 but now has a staggeringly bad 31% approval rating, with 56% of voters disapproving of how he performing as President. It’s a given that Republicans don’t like him but more shocking are his 16% approval rating with independents and the fact that he’s below 50% even with Democrats at 46% approving and 38% disapproving. Obama trails Mitt Romney 46-42 in a hypothetical match up in the district and leads Rick Perry only 44-43.

In Nevada the Republican won by an overwhelming 22% margin dealing a two body punch salvo to Obama. The Democrat spin is they wanted Turner to win to wake-up Obama.

The Uber-Liberal Daily Kos website has published Texas governor Rick Perry’s college transcripts. Perry was no scholar at Texas A&M University. He was a C student. Does that disqualify Perry for the presidency. No one, as far as I know has seen any part of Obama’s college transcripts. We have been led to believe that Obama is something of a whiz-kid. Perry Jokes he was 10th in his class — of 13.

What happened after 9/11 - and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not - was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.-New York Time’s Paul Krugman wrote igniting criticism of him, and the NYT.

A brain eating parasitic amoeba (primary amoebic meningoencephalitis) that thrives in warm fresh water lakes, springs, ponds, spas and even mud puddles was first discovered in 1965 has killed three Americans this year. It enters through the nose travels up the olfactory nerve to the frontal lobe —  wear nose plugs.

Sometime between late September and late October there is a 1/3,200 chance of someone being hit by a piece of a falling 6 ½ ton NASA satellite that will hit some place between southern Canada and Southern South America. Folks at Vandenberg AFB are keeping an eye on it but will only have about two hours to predict when and where it will hit. Even then, officials say there will be a 6,000 mile margin for error. Most of it will burn up but 1,700 pounds will reach the earth’s surface. Wear your best tinfoil hat.

“Americans are tired of spending money we don’t have on programs we don’t want,” Governor Rick Perry.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney predicts that Israel will attack Iran to destroy its nuclear weapons if it judges the radical Tehran regime is about to assemble a nuclear warhead. Cheney did not reveal his source saying only that he had spoken with Israeli officials.

If Israel would attack Iran it would  doubtlessly send Obama to hide under his desk regardless of the reason or dangers it overcame.

“We have gone from a payphone world to a smart phone  world but Obama keeps jamming quarters into a payphone,” former Governor Mitt Romney.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she was “wiped out” by Kinde Durkee, a well-connected California Democratic political operative who served as treasurer for hundreds of state, local and federal campaign committees.

Durkee was arrested by the FBI on Sept. 2 on allegations of fraud surrounding the diversion of more than $670,000 from the reelection committee for a California state assemblyman, and a growing list of California Democrats, including Feinstein and Reps. Susan Davis and Loretta Sanchez, now appear to be  victims as well.

 ”I was wiped out too, we don’t know how much,” said Feinstein, indicating the losses in campaign funds could run into hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars. Feinstein, who is up for reelection next year, reported just over $5 million in the bank as of June 30, according to disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

“She did my ‘92 campaign, my ‘94 campaign, my 2000 [campaign], my 2006 [campaign] … my gubernatorial campaign,” Feinstein told POLITICO on Monday, describing her long relationship with Durkee. “I trusted her implicitly.”

Feinstein said she and her campaign staff have been unable to access all their bank records at this point because Durkee alone controlled access to the account, which has made it difficult for them to assess how much money is gone.

“It’s very painful,” Feinstein added.

Davis is missing more than $250,000 from her reelection committee. Loretta Sanchez has already declared her $379,000 campaign war chest was “nearly wiped out” by Kindee. The Los Angeles County Democratic Party reported that it lost at least $200,000, while California Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D) may be out as much as $677,000.

And dozens of other campaign committees have yet to declare whether they suffered losses as well.

Durkee has not been formally accused of any wrondoing in connection with missing funds from the campaign accounts of Feinstein, Davis or Sanchez at this time, but Justice Department officials allege that Durkee moved money from one of Solorio’s accounts into an account she controlled and then wrote a check for $125,000 to Sanchez’s campaign shortly before last November’s congressional elections.

In a letter sent by Davis on Sunday - first reported by the San Diego Union Tribune - the six-term House member told supporters that “we have been robbed!”

“Upwards of $250,000 in campaign funds have been stolen from us. Our treasurer was arrested and is accused of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe millions) to herself from our campaign, and the campaigns of many, many others,” Davis stated.

“The records we vigilantly kept and reported to the Federal Election Commission accurately reflect contributions that we received and monies we knowingly spent. However, the reports [Durkee] submitted to us about our account balances were false. As this scandal emerges, she may well become known as the Bernie Madoff of campaign finance treasurers.”

Durkee was one of the most widely sought after treasurers in California Democratic politics with dozens of state, local and federal clients. An FBI special agent told a federal judge in California that Durkee had access to “more than 400 bank accounts” at the time of her arrest, and the scale of alleged diversions of funds is only now starting to become clear.

Durkee reportedly used the money she is accused of diverted from Solorio to cover business and personal expenses, including payments for her mother’s nursing home.

Durkee  has been released  on a $200,000  bond on Friday under strict conditions that she not leave the region or involve herself in the affairs of her company, Durkee & Associates, or its clients.

Heterodox (HET-uhr-uh-doks) adjective: 1. Different from established beliefs or opinions. 2. Holding unorthodox opinions. Etymology From Greek hetero- (different) + doxa (opinion), from dokein (to think). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dek- (to take or accept), which is also the root of words such as paradox, orthodox, doctor, disciple, discipline, doctrine, dogma, decent, decorate, dignity, disdain, condign, and deign. Earliest documented use: 1619.

Close to 600 exoplanets have been found, with a further 1200 candidates identified by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. This week NASA announced the discoveery of 60 more including a “super Earth-like” planet 3.6 times the size of earth that is believed capable of supporting life. It is about 36 light years from Earth, in the constellation Vela. It is only the second planet found outside our solar system where the environment may be just right to host life.

The findings are the result of an eight year observation program run by the European Southern Observatory using a sensitive spectrograph, called the High Accuracy Radial Planet Searcher (HARPS), attached to a telescope in Chile.

One light year is the distance light travels in one calendar year or 5,865,696,000,000 (trillion) miles.

They (government) keeps shoving on us what Government thinks we ought to have but not what we need or want. Paraphrase Will Rogers.

At first glance, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease may not seem to have much in common. But the latest research suggests that the same drug - insulin - that treats diabetes may also help stave off the symptoms of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s.

Led by Suzanne Craft, a psychiatrist at the University of Washington in Seattle and head of the memory disorders clinic at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, researchers conducted a small pilot study involving 104 men and women with mild cognitive impairment - a common precursor to more advanced dementia - as well as the early stages of Alzheimer’s itself.

The researchers gave each participant two daily doses of a nasal spray, randomly containing either insulin or placebo. The intranasal delivery - similar to the way nasal flu shots work - makes more sense in the context of Alzheimer’s disease because it sends the drug to the brain and central nervous system faster.

Over four months, the researchers found that those who took insulin improved or at least maintained their scores on tests of memory and general cognitive abilities; people who got a placebo did worse over time.

In 1865, the U.S. Secret Service was first established for the specific purpose to combat the counterfeiting of money, Approximately 40% of the U.S. paper currency in circulation then was counterfeit.

The United States insist that the regime of President Bashar Assad remains in control of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.

The State Department says the Assad regime, despite a revolt of nearly six months, has secured its weapons of mass destruction, including CW. Officials said Syria has a stockpile of CW agents that could be installed in ballistic missile warheads.

“We do believe that Syria’s chemical stockpile remains under government control and that there is no change in the lockdown status of those weapons,” State Department spokesman Victoria  Nuland said.

In a briefing on Aug. 30, Ms. Nuland responded to reports that both Israel and the United States were concerned over the prospect of the capture of Assad’s WMD stockpile by Sunni insurgents. Officials have acknowledged that Assad has already transferred a large amount of missiles from Syria to Hizbullah facilities in Lebanon.

“Syria has a stockpile of nerve agent and some mustard gas, and we will continue to work closely with like-minded countries to ensure that there is no proliferation of that material as well,” Ms. Nuland said.

Syria is said to have one of the largest CW stockpiles in the Middle East, including production of Sarin and VX gas. The Assad regime has long refused to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, meant to ensure international supervision and eventual destruction of CW agents and weapons.

“We are very concerned about the status of Syria’s WMD, including chemical weapons,” U.S. ambassador to Israel, Michael Oren, said. “Together with the U.S. administration, we are watching this situation very carefully.”

Officials said the Assad regime has been operating at least five CW facilities. They acknowledged that U.S. intelligence has found it difficult to track these sites, located in Aleppo, Damascus, Hama and Latakia. Hama and Latakia have been deemed the focus of the revolt against Assad.

Obama has imposed three sets of sanctions on Damascus. The latest sanctions, announced on Aug. 30, targeted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem, ambassador to Lebanon, Karim Ali, and presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban.

“He [Ali] has strong ties to Syrian intelligence,” Ms. Nuland said.

Saddam Hussein is believed to have transferred Iraq’s WMD stockpile to Syria sthe U. S. invaded. No inventory has been discovered but the concensus is that the weapons were or are stored in the Bachaa Valley that wind deep into Lebanon.

Every second, Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate

Ultra-liberal California Congresswoman Maxine Walters is on the wrong side of almost every issue except one: Obama’s jobs plan just stinks.

     Of California’s 12.1 percent unemployed, not many of them are teachers.  Teachers here, thanks to their powerful public employee union, are doing pretty good, pulling down well above average wages and excessive pension rights that taxpayers really cannot afford, which contribute mightily to our state government’s perpetual debt crisis, itself a huge drag on the economy in general.  Yet of the unemployed in California, almost 35% are young people in the recent high school graduate age category who are without work. Of those, about half of young black males are unemployed in California - three years into Barrack Obama’s presidency.  Over 21% of black Californians in general are unemployed. Where is their hope in Obama’s plan for a job?  Well, they have very little hope under Obama.

     The Obama national jobs plan outlined this week is pretty simple: hire more teachers.  But of course unemployed young black men in California don’t have the college education to qualify for the necessary teaching credential.  Oh, and Obama’s plan calls for continuing to pour more concrete in government road projects.  However, unemployed young black men, being new to the workforce, don’t have the skills to get admitted into the construction trade unions that might benefit from more stimulus spending on road construction, let alone the seniority in the union to actually get hired to work on a project.  Obama’s plan for small business is to offer more loan programs through the Small Business Administration.  However, what small businesses need is tax relief incentives to do more hiring, not bureaucratic loan programs that take weeks to apply forandcomplete the application forms and even then are impossible to meet the qualification regulations.  Not much hope there for any employment boost, including for black and Hispanic youth, where the unemployment problem is worst.