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AGAINST US SEC lawyer had ties to Madoff David M. Becker, general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was involved in determining the compensation for victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Thing was, he himself received an inheritance from a Madoff account! SEC chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro had kept Becker from testifying to Congress […]

WITH US OBAMA WIELDS THE BIG STICK A newly combative, no-compromise President Obama, laid out a plan on Monday to reduce the federal budget deficit by more than $3 trillion in the next decade. He also promised to veto any bill that enacts spending cuts without tax increases. “I will not support any plan that […]

AGAINST US HELPING THE U.S. WON'T GET YOU A GREEN CARD A sweeping law bars immigrants from permanent residency in the U.S. even if they have worked to aid American interests, leaving thousands of asylum seekers previously granted political asylum or refugee status in this country in limbo thanks to their past affiliations. “It is […]

WITH US ANTI-DEMOCRATIC SUPREME COURT DECISION HAS AN UPSIDE Turns out last year's Citizen United Supreme Court case decision allowing nearly unlimited campaign donations from corporations and unions has an democratic upside, too: the ruling upholds disclosure requirements because "transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and […]

AGAINST US FREE AK-47 WITH THAT? A credit-card equipment and processing company in Florida has hit upon a new way of enticing customers – by giving away Free AK-47 assault rifles. Based on the size of your order, you can redeem a voucher worth up to $750 toward the cost of a gun. On its website, […]

WITH US DADT finally expires Tuesday After almost 18 years, the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule ended Tuesday. The bill was repealed in December 2010 and, as of midnight on September 20, gay and lesbian troops are able to serve openly. [Washington Post]

AGAINST US BACHMANN: ARAB SPRING RADICAL (IN A BAD WAY) In a speech to California GOP activists, presidential contender Michele Bachmann called the Arab Spring "radical" – and she didn't mean it in the Tea Party sense. Even though the revolutionary uprising has ousted three dictators and tapped the democratic aspirations of millions of people […]

WITH US W.H. to buy in bulk, save millions The White House is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to federal spending: a move to buying federal agencies' supplies – printers, scanners, copiers, Blackberries – in bulk will save the government up to $600 million in the next four years. [Washington […]

AGAINST US PERRY MADE HIS MONEY THE OLD-FASHIONED POLITICAL WAY GOP presidential frontrunner Rick Perry is not all that rich by the standards of presidential candidates, but he is worth over a million dollars, and he gained his wealth the time-honored political way – by getting in on profitable deals involving political friends and their […]

WITH US Google blows off Santorum GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum recently asked Google to help fix his little "problem," whereby a search query for "Santorum" turns up a bunch of stuff about anal sex. Santorum wants the pages taken down; Google says it's not the company's place to be taken pages down and that […]

WITH US Hikers freed from Iranian jail Two American hikers have been freed after spending two years in Iranian jail on espionage charges. [New York Times]

AGAINST US Police using outdated law to arrest Wall Street protesters The Occupy Wall Street protests took over the streets in downtown Manhattan this week, hoping to draw attention to the crimes of banks headquartered there. Despite demonstrating peacefully, at least seven protesters have been arrested using an outdated 1845 law that bans wearing masks […]

WITH US FEDS CLOSING IN ON EX-GOLDMAN HONCHO Federal prosecutors are coming closer to bringing charges against Rajat Gupta, a former director at Goldman Sachs who allegedly leaked inside information about the firm during the financial crisis. The SEC and Manhattan U.S. attorney's office are waiting for the Department of Justice to bring charges against […]

AGAINST US Rick and Rupe have dinner During a recent trip to New York City, Rick Perry met with Jewish and Hispanic voters, Donald Trump and News Corp. (and thus Fox News) supremo Rupert Murdoch. The pair dined at The Post House, just a few days after Perry published an op-ed piece in Murdoch-owned Wall […]

WITH US Obama goes after farm pork This year, the farming industry is expected to rake in $103.6 billion in net income, up 31 percent from 2010. Yet taxpayers pay $4.7 billion annually in direct cash subsidies. The president's debt reduction plan, unveiled this week, proposes cutting this support by 22 percent. [Politico]

AGAINST US $16 MUFFINS AT JUSTICE Between October 2007 and September 2009, the Department of Justice spent over $490,000 food for conferences, according to a government report cited by Bloomberg. "Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending," the report said. At one conference, […]

WITH US CLINTON SLAMS GOP ON CLIMATE Bill Clinton spoke at the seventh annual Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday, hammering GOP candidates on their opposition to acknowledging man-made climate change. “If you’re an American, the best thing you can do is to make it politically unacceptable for people to engage in denial” about climate change, […]

AGAINST US BACHMANN WANTS TO LET FOOD SAFETY SLIDE At a stop at a meatpacking plant in Iowa this week, GOP contender Michele Bachmann called for the goverment to get out of the food-processing industry's business. "That's part of the problem, the overkill [of regulation,]" Bachmann told reporters. "And when they make it complicated, they […]

WITH US WARREN DEMOLISHES 'CLASS WARFARE' CHARGE At a recent campaign stop in Massachusetts, consumer advocate and senate candidate Elizabeth Warren tried to make the case for a fairer economy, including raising taxes on the very rich, per President Obama's recent proposal. And … she killed it!  See for yourself. "There is nobody in this […]

WITH US Turkish mortuary installs alarms to detect life A morgue in central Turkey has installed a warning system in its refrigerators to detect signs of life among the bodies inside. Any motion inside will set off an alarm in the morgue, and the refrigerator doors are now equipped with interior handles. [BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15010888]

AGAINST US D.C. Diplomats rack up $500K in parking and traffic tickets Foreign diplomats in Washington, D.C. owe over half a million dollars in unpaid tickets from the past 40 years, according to a WTOP/WJLA report. The 7,000-plus tickets total $340,047 in fines, with the majority of tickets accruing late fees. New York City is […]

WITH US No, you won't get hit by satellite debris this weekend NASA has predicted that its 5.7-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will re-enter the atmosphere on Friday, and that some 500 kilograms of debris will fall somewhere on Earth. Not to worry, though: there's only a 1-in-21-trillion chance that the debris will hit […]