There’s a new Sheriff on Wall Street , and she’s not going to take any bull from the shady CEO’s that have been ripping us off! According to The Huffington Post , Senator Warren’s seat win means she’ll rule and regulate the same people that spent millions to campaign against her: Nearly two years after Wall Street waged a successful campaign to keep consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren from running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the incoming senator will be tapped to serve on the Banking Committee, according to four sources familiar with the situation. It’s a victory for progressives who battled to win her a seat on the panel that oversees the implementation of Dodd-Frank and other banking regulations. Warren knocked out Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts in the most expensive Senate contest of 2012, with Wall Street spending heavily to beat Warren, a former Harvard law professor. Sources also told HuffPost that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) will be named to the panel. Warren’s ascension to the panel gives her influence over regulators and the industry that non-panel members don’t enjoy. Congratulations Senator Warren. Images via WENN
Piff Puffers out in Wisconsin just don’t give a fug cause they’re growing herb right in the middle of the state’s Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. This isht is getting so out of control that the U.S. Forest Service has asked hunters and fishermen to look out for mary jane while they’re out in the area. That sounds like a good plan. Make hunters with guns feel like they’re in a real-life version of Call of Duty . According to CNN : Since 2008, nine marijuana growing operations have been discovered on public land within the state. Most recently, in late August, a fisherman visiting the forest happened upon a marijuana field that netted more than 8,000 plants worth $8 million. “The fisherman was walking along the banks of the Oconto River and noticed these patches that had been cleared and disturbed. Trees were down, things didn’t look right, and he reported that to authorities, and a surveillance operation was established,” said Jane Cliff, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service eastern region. Approximately 150 federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement agents were involved in the sting that followed, leading to the arrest of seven people. All of the suspects pleaded guilty and are in prison awaiting trial. The suspects each face anywhere from 10 years to life in prison, a maximum fine of $10 million and five years to life of supervised release. But this isn’t the first time this has happened, the Forest Service says. It’s actually the third big bust in three years at the forest, resulting in the eradication of more than 80,000 marijuana plants that were cultivated by large drug trafficking organizations. That’s why authorities say they are reaching out to hunters in their regulation books and offering them training programs, warning them to be careful and asking them to note the GPS location of any suspicious areas and call the authorities as soon as they can. “Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is large, secluded and heavily roaded, so our personnel cannot by themselves keep an eye on every acre,” Cliff said. “That’s why we are relying on forest users to share information with us.” “We conduct aerial surveillance, and we have seen a change in the growers’ tactics. A number of years ago, there would be large multithousand plant fields concentrated in one area, and now they have a couple of hundred plants in one location and then another couple hundred plants a couple hundred yards away which makes aerial detection more difficult,” said David Spakowicz, the director of field operations for the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s criminal investigation division. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said he and special agents at the Wisconsin Department of Justice are “not only aggressively investigating and eradicating these grows, but also working with our local and federal partners to hold accountable the individuals responsible for operating such grow operations.” “That kind of aggressive eradication and enforcement ought to send a message to those who think they can profit from growing illegal drugs on Wisconsin’s public lands, threatening our natural resources and potentially the people who enjoy them,” he said in a statement to CNN. The concern is that a person walking through the forest will come across not only an illegal grow operation, but also heavily armed growers. “If they are protecting $10 million of marijuana plants, that’s a lot of money, and there have been gun battles with law enforcement in other states such as California,” Spakowicz said. “We worry that they will bring the same level of violence with them.” Because the concern for public safety is so great, the state attorney general’s office works in conjunction with the Department of Justice to strongly prosecute marijuana growers. “We believe we need to arrest people in order to send a message to these marijuana growers that they are not welcome in Wisconsin and that their activities will be not be accepted,” Spakowicz said. Wisconsin is targeting illegal marijuana growers because it has millions of acres of remote public land. According to the state Department of Justice, 32 people have been arrested for illegally growing marijuana since 2008, and most were non-U.S. citizens in the country illegally. All of the suspects are expected to serve their sentences before they are deported, the department says. Several suspects interviewed by law enforcement said they were recruited from California to come to Wisconsin. In some cases they were told openly that they are to work in a marijuana growing operation, while in other cases they came believing they were to work in a restaurant. Some suspects also said they didn’t even know what state they were in. “They are large, drug trafficking organizations; they are not mom and pop operations,” she said. “These are people doing this to make a lot of money.” That’s some pretty bold and stupid isht right there. Images via Wisconsin DOJ
Obama isn’t taking any isht from the GOP anymore! POTUS just nominated Susan Rice as his candidate for Secretary of State and, while she may be the current Ambassador to the United Nations, some shady azz Republicans like John McCain are already throwing false accusations her way. According to The Huffington Post : In a series of media appearances on Wednesday, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) pledged they would do everything in their power to block the possible nomination of Susan Rice, the current ambassador to the United Nations, as secretary of state. The senators have based their objection on Rice’s role in disseminating the White House’s version of events in the days immediately after the September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. At the time, Rice told several television stations that the attack, which left four Americans including the U.S. ambassador to Libya dead, was not believed to be related to terrorism. Administration officials later acknowledged that this was incorrect, and said the misleading information was the product of incomplete “talking points” from the intelligence community, although Republicans on Capitol Hill believe the White House knew the truth sooner. To McCain, Graham, and a small cadre of colleagues, this is enough to disqualify Rice from a cabinet-level job. “Susan Rice should have known better, and if she didn’t know better, she’s not qualified,” McCain said Wednesday during an appearance on Fox News. “I will do everything in my power to block her from being the United States secretary of state.” In his press conference Wednesday afternoon, Obama took umbrage with this line of attack. “If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after someone, they should go after me,” he said. “And I’m happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the United Nations ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intel she had received, and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous.” Obama also said Rice never had a choice about whether to appear on the talk shows to discuss Benghazi. “She made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her,” he said. Some Democrats have said that the Benghazi-related attack on Rice brings to mind another secretary of state nominee, Condoleezza Rice: Her appointment by the Bush administration was opposed by those who felt her advancement of the mistaken notion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq similarly disqualified her from the office. During a 2002 appearance on CNN, Condoleezza Rice had said that while “there will always be some uncertainty” about the intelligence, “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” When she was later nominated for secretary of state, by which point it had become clear that there were no WMD in Iraq, both McCain and Graham publicly defended her appointment despite the misstatements. Graham and his allies denounced this comparison, saying that Condoleezza Rice’s statements at the time reflected the widely agreed upon understanding of the intelligence community, while Susan Rice should have opted not to speak on the subject without more certainty.”When it comes to Condoleezza Rice, we’re not the only country that thought he was trying to get weapons of mass destruction,” Graham said. These guys just keep making themselves look more and more ridiculous! Images via Getty
‘I love you, John McCain,’ the ‘Jersey Shore’ star says after a shout-out from the senator. By Christina Garibaldi, with additional reporting by Andrew Jenks Snooki Photo: MTV News
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and state Senator Vincent Fort stopped by our stations today and engaged in a heated debate over the T-Splost transportation referendum.…
RELEASE: McCaskill Opens Kansas City Campaign Office at Event with Volunteers and Supporters Office Will Serve As Hub of McCaskill’s Grassroots Campaign in Support of Missouri’s Middle Class Families Kansas City, Mo. — Today, Senator Claire McCaskill joined supporters and volunteers at the opening of the Missouri Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign office in Kansas City. At the event, Claire thanked… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Show Me Progress – Front Page Discovery Date : 03/06/2012 16:35 Number of articles : 2
When raging homophobe and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum rolls into Cumming, Georgia, to a campaign stop, the puns are almost too easy. Still, this headline, first posted on Buzzfeed , defies description: For more on Rick Santorum, a real “family values” conservative who has shot to the top tier of the GOP race against all odds, just Google Rick Santorum . It’s eye-opening, the etymology of the former Senator’s name. Well played, Internet … and CUMMING headline writer.
As an Ohioan, Chris Matthews fawning “you’re the best there is on this argument” is not what I hope for from my senator. I am impressed, though, with the way Sherrod Brown knows what every wealthy American is going to buy! Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Big Government Discovery Date : 19/02/2012 04:15 Number of articles : 2
Check out the video premiere for Cassie‘s latest single “King 0f Hearts“! The 25-year-old singer shot the video with director Chris Sims in a majestic mansion. PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Cassie “Happy Valentines Day my loves!!” Cassie wrote on her Twitter account. “Thank u 4 all of the support & love.” “King Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Just Jared Discovery Date : 14/02/2012 09:00 Number of articles : 3
This morning, Budget Director Jeff Zients went before the Senate Budget Committee to testify about the Obama proposed budget. The Senate Budget Committee Republican staff found that the proposed budget would raise spending by $1.5 trillion. With that statistic in hand, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the committee, asked Zients a simple Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Big Government Discovery Date : 14/02/2012 16:57 Number of articles : 3
