Bloomberg Scurries Into The Climate Change Game

By, Chris Rossini

No one should be shocked with this one:

Congrats @MikeBloomberg on joining UN to fight global warming & help cities make global impact as Special Envoy for Cities & Climate Change.
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) January 31, 2014

Mayor @MikeBloomberg knows how to get things done. We need more leaders like him here at the @UN.
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) January 31, 2014

This is such a no-brainer. "Climate Change" is a hotbed for people who lust to dominate others with force. What a perfect place for Nanny Bloomberg.

Could you imagine if Bloomberg had the power to ban something worldwide?

What a rush!!

---

Chris Rossini is on Twitter, Facebook & Google+

Lifetime Ban for Bernanke?

Outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is a big baseball fan, so someone created a Bernanke "baseball card."

I say we continue the metaphor and ban him for career long abuse of green ink,thus, keeping money supply growth on steroids.

Money supply growth under Bernanke:

Full Text of Letter Alleging Christie Knew About The Lane Closures as They Were Going on

[My highlight-RW]

Law Offices of Alan L. Zegas
552 Main Street
Chatham, New Jersey 07928

phone:
fax:

973-701-7080
973-701-7081

website: www.zeoaslaw.com

Alan L. Zegas (NJ and NY Bars)
Judson L Hand (Nl, E.D.N.Y. and S.O.N.Y. Bars)
Stephanie G. Forbes (NJ and PA Bars)

january 31,2014

By Email and Regular Mail

Darrell Buchbinder
General Counsel
The Port Authority of New York and New jersey
225 Park Avenue South
1Slh Floor
New York, NY 10003



Re: David Wildstein

Dear Mr. But:hbinder:

I am writing in response to your email of january 24, 2014, in which you deny the December 13, 2013, request of Mr. Wildstein for the Port Authority to pay for his legal representation in connection with legislative proceedings where Mr.Wildstein was subpoenaed to appear and provide documents and testimony. You state that "[Based on the current facts and circumstances, it is apparent that the Port Authority's provision of legal representation .... would not be warranted under the Port Authority's By-Laws. Copied on your email were Scott Rechler, Patrick Foye, and Deborah Gramicclonf.

You had previously written to Mr. Wildstein on December 27, 2013, and, in addition to the foregoing persons who had been copied, was David Samson, whose
name does not appear on your January 21, 2011, correspondence.

I would request that you kindly reconsider the Port Authority's decision to deny Mr. Wildstein payment of his legal fees and indemnification. I would also request that the Port Authority pay for the legal fees of Mr. Wildsteln and Indemnify him for any civil lawsuits that are Instituted against the Port Authority where Mr.Wildstein is named or any proceedings In which Mr. Wild stein is a party or a person under investigation as a result of conduct occurring while he was employed by the Port Authority.

The By-Laws specifically provide for the indemnification of Port Authority employees. Although you state that it is •apparent" that Mr. Wildstein is not entitled to indemnification or payment of his legal fees, you do not offer one single reason why your statement is apparent. Mr. Wild stein submitted his request for Indemnification and payment of his legal fees after now-resigned Port Authority Commissioner, William Baront had submitted a similar request According to press reports, Mr. Baroni's request is still "under consideration·. What about Mr. Wildstein's circumstances is so "apparent""? He refused to answer substantive questions put to him by the Transportation Committee on Constitutional grounds, yet Mr. Baront, who responded to questions of the same committee, albeit not under oath, stated that the George Washington Bridge Lanes had been closed because of a traffic study, answers directly at variance with the testimony of Mr. Foye, who, as noted above, was copied on your correspondence to Mr. Wildstein, as well as to others who appeared before the TransportationCommittee when Mr. r:oye did.

The person counseling Mr. Baroni for the appearance before the Transportation Committee was an attorney working under you at the Port Authority. At the time, it was not known whether Mr. Baroni wou ld be sworn on the day of his appearance. The counseling, as I understand it, was conducted over a period of four to five days, and Mr. Wildstein was present for much of it Indeed, it was his understanding that the same attorney representing Mr. Baroni was representing him. I have to assume you are fully aware of all this. Subsequent to Mr. Wildstein testifying. There have been reports that certain Commissioners of the Port Authority have been connected directly or indirectly to land deals involving the Port Authority, that Port Authority funds were allocated to projects connected to persons who supported the administration of Governor Chris Christie or whose political support he sought, with some of the projects having no relationship to the business of the Port Authority, and that Port Authority funds were held back from those who refused to support the Governor.

It has also come to light that a person within the Christie administration communicated the Christie adminislration's order that certain lanes on the George Washington Oridge were to be closed, and evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie of having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the Governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference he gave immediately before Mr. Wildstein was scheduled to appear before the Transportation Committee. Mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the Governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some. Deborah Gramiccioni, now the Depuly Director of the Port Authority, who is copied on your January 24, 2014, correspondence, had held a high level position within the Christie Administration. The Governor's current Counsel comes from the same firm that is now representing Mr. Baroni. In light of the foregoing. There are palpable conflicts at every level of the Port Authority's hierarchy, which demand that the Port Authority pay for Mr. Wildstein's legal representation and indemnify him with respect to all matters that are pendingg or that may arise, which relate to the period when Mr. Wildstcln had been employed by the Port Authority.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Alan L. Zegas

(Letter via NYT)

BREAKING: Christie Knew About Lane Closures on Bridge

A former appointee of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is alleging that the Republican knew about the politically motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, according to The New York Times.

A letter by the attorney for David Wildstein, who was Christie's appointee on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, says the governor knew about the lane closures, which are at the heart of a political scandal threatening the governor's political future.

The letter by Alan Zegas describes "the Christie administration order" and said "evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference."

"Mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some," the letter says.

(Via USA Today)

.

Former TSA Agent: Dear America, I Saw You Naked (And, Yes We Were Laughing)

Dear America, I Saw You Naked
And yes, we were laughing. Confessions of an ex-TSA agent
By Jason Edward Harrington

On Jan. 4, 2010, when my boss saw my letter to the editor in the New York Times, we had a little chat.

It was rare for the federal security director at Chicago O’Hare to sit down with her floor-level Transportation Security Administration officers—it usually presaged a termination—and so I was nervous as I settled in across the desk from her. She was a woman in her forties with sharp blue eyes that seemed to size you up for placement in a spreadsheet. She held up a copy of the newspaper, open to the letters page. My contribution, under the headline “To Stop a Terrorist: No Lack of Ideas,” was circled in blue pen.

One week earlier, on Christmas Day 2009, a man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had tried to detonate 80 grams of a highly explosive powder while on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He had smuggled the bomb aboard the plane in a pouch sewn into his underwear. It was a masterpiece of post-9/11 tragicomedy: Passengers tackled and restrained Abdulmutallab for the remainder of the flight, and he succeeded in burning nothing besides his own genitals.

The TSA saw the near-miss as proof that aviation security could not be ensured without the installation of full-body scanners in every U.S. airport. But the agency’s many critics called its decision just another knee-jerk response to an attempted terrorist attack. I agreed, and wrote to the Times saying as much. My boss wasn’t happy about it.

“The problem we have here is that you identified yourself as a TSA employee,” she said.

Read the rest here.

Goldman Sachs Backlash in Denmark; Six Ministers Walk Out

Now, if we only could get Americans as riled up when Lloyd Blankfein and his lieutenant cronies visit the White House.

Bloomberg reports:

As night turned to day on Jan. 30, Denmark’s biggest newspapers were predicting Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s coalition would survive a dispute over letting Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) buy part of Dong Energy A/S.

By 10 a.m., the Socialist People’s Party had quit her minority coalition and Danes were trying to understand how a Wall Street bank could have shaken the political landscape in their Scandinavian haven. Thorning-Schmidt said she will appoint a new Cabinet “soon” to replace the six ministers who walked out over the dispute.

The 48-year-old Social Democrat watched her coalition fall apart yesterday after pushing a $1.5 billion sale of an 18 percent stake in Dong to Goldman. The deal, opposed by 68 percent of Danish voters in a Megafon poll for TV2, dominated headlines after it emerged Goldman would get some veto powers in exchange for its investment. Goldman has said it views the stake as a long-term holding and will support the strategy of the current management.

Scary

Paul Krugman writes:

 I have 200 students registered for my course on the Great Recession

I wonder if he will start off with his confused and dishonest rendition of the babysitting coupon tale?

Can we get an Austrian in the class, so that he/she can ask incisive questions at key moments, to expose this fraud?

Anheuser-Busch to Salute Government Trained Killers in Super Bowl Ad

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Lt. Chuck Nadd knew something was up when Anheuser-Busch's private jet flew him from Fort Drum in New York to his hometown in central Florida within hours of his return from a tour in Afghanistan in early January.

The 24-year-old Army helicopter pilot and operations officer had been told he was on a public affairs assignment to give a speech to a Veterans of Foreign Wars group in his hometown. But when he got to downtown Winter Park, hundreds of residents, relatives, teachers and friends greeted him with a surprise parade complete with tickertape and Anheuser-Busch's Clydesdale horses.

The brewer, which played a central role in putting the parade together, has fashioned an ad around the event. It will run during Sunday's Super Bowl, and Nadd says he hopes it gets people talking about honoring returning soldiers.

"I hope the visibility it gets starts a conversation about recognizing those who have served and served in a greater capacity than I have," Nadd said Thursday. "I would hope this commercial helps people look for those heroes in their communities."[...]

In Winter Park, a well-heeled city of 30,000 known for its boutique shops and high-end restaurants along tony Park Avenue, city officials were contacted by the local film commission with a question: Could they put together a parade in two weeks? They were told the parade was for a local soldier and sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, working with the Defense Department.

Here's some of the work of  "those who have served":

BREAKING: Suspicious White Powder Found at 7 Hotels Near Super Bowl

Developing...

Return to this post for updates.

UPDATE 1

FBI investigating after white powder was delivered to former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani's office & 7 hotels near the Super Bowl.

UPDATE 2

Via NyPo:

Bomb squads and hazardous material teams fanned out across New Jersey on Friday after packages containing a suspicious white powder were delivered to as many as seven hotels near the site of the Super Bowl on Friday, according to multiple reports.

 Authorities also were testing white powder contained in oa letter sent to the Manhattan office of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, law enforcement officials told CNN. The letter opened in the mail room, contained white powder, according to law enforcement officials.
 No injuries were reported in either case, and NBC 4 reported that none of the New Jersey hotels were hosting the athletes who will be playing at MetLife.

 WABC 7 reported the packages went to an Econo Lodge on Washington Avenue in Carlstadt, the Renaissance Meadowlands Hotel on Rutherford Avenue in Rutherford, the Homewood Suites by Hilton on Route 17 in East Rutherford and the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights Meadowlands on Terrace Avenue in Hasbrouck Heights.

UPDATE 3

Via NYT

Carlstadt Police Det. John Cleary says someone at an Econo Lodge found the substance in an envelope on Friday.

Cleary says similar mailings arrived at the Homestead Inn in East Rutherford and a Renaissance Inn in Rutherford. He says investigators intercepted additional envelopes from a mail truck before it reached a Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn in Carlstadt.

UPDATE 4

 Preliminary field tests indicate suspicious letters contain non-toxic material, Further tests underway.

CNBC's John Carney Moves To The Wall Street Journal

John Carney is headed to the Wall Street Journal to write for "Heard On The Street."

Carney was the editor of CNBC's "NetNet" blog.

I think the "Heard" column is one of the most powerful on Wall Street.

Good luck, John!

The Changing of the Money Printers

Today is Ben Bernanke's last day as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Janet Yellen will be sworn in as Chairman on Monday. The money printing, no doubt, will continue.

Crony Businessmen in NYC Support the Mayor's Plan for a Hike in Taxes

WSJ explains:

Mayor Bill de Blasio has lately been rolling out endorsements from New York City business execs for his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for universal pre-school. These putative leaders of industry cite the need to provide equal opportunity for the city's poor, but we suspect many are motivated mostly by self-interest.

Mr. de Blasio in recent weeks has extracted, er, garnered endorsements from such real estate mavens as Jed Walentas, principal of Two Trees Management; David Kramer, principal of the Hudson Companies; Mitch Draizin, owner of Longview Capital Advisers; Charlene Gayle, owner of the Macon Realty; Leonard Litwin, principal of Glenwood Management; and Don Peebles, CEO of Peebles Corp.

Few industries are at the mercy of city hall as much as real estate, whose growth depends on city zoning rules and building permits. Mr. de Blasio has made clear that he intends to expand the city's stock of affordable housing, which could be a business opportunity or killer. Any surprise that the developers are trying to make nice with the new mayor?

Also backing the tax hike is Matthew Daus, former chairman of New York's taxi and limousine commission and president of the International Association of Transportation Regulators. The association, which has a friendly relationship with local car-service companies, has proposed guidelines that would effectively regulate the start-up Uber out of business.

Then there's Jim Walden, an attorney at the white-shoe law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher who defends "corporate and individual in high-stakes governmental investigations, regulatory actions, and civil disputes." Mr. Walden hosted four fundraisers for Mr. de Blasio's mayoral bid, and Gibson Dunn even represented the former public advocate last year in a pro bono lawsuit to block the closures of two Brooklyn hospitals. That would seem to make Messrs. Walden and de Blasio good buds.

For Mr. Walden and the others, supporting the tax hike is an essentially free way to buy the mayor's good will and head off shakedowns. The endorsements are also unlikely to influence the political machinations in Albany, which must sign off on any tax hike.

Mr. de Blasio will point to the endorsements to suggest that his tax hike enjoys broad-based support, even among the city's well-to-do

Yellen Congressional Testimony Set

Incoming Fed Chair Janet Yellen has been scheduled to appear at a House hearing on February 11.

Who Is the Pope Talking To All Day Long?

Rolling Stone magazine has a 7,700 word cover story out on the Pope, written by Mark Benelli.

Part of the story fills in some blanks about the Pope and how he got to be the Pope, while other parts of the story add new mystery.

We learn from the story that the Pope was something of a compromise candidate when chosen to be Pope:

Going into the conclave, there were three acknowledged front-runners, says Father Reese, who covered the event for the National Catholic Reporter. Bergoglio was not among them. Nearly every Vatican watcher assumed that even though he'd been runner-up to Ratzinger in the 2005 conclave, he'd aged out of any serious consideration. "If they had been united around one candidate, it would have been all over," Reese says. "The problem was, it looked like each group hated the other two groups." Because of the infighting, in Reese's estimation, none of the three front-runners would throw their votes to their rivals, so they wound up backing the dark horse.

But, somehow, conservatives Cardinals who voted for the new Pope are now surprised by his socialist-leaning positions. They thought he would not make any waves:

By all accounts, the papal conclave that elevated Bergoglio assumed it was electing a fairly anodyne compromise candidate. Cardinals liked the idea of a pope from Latin America, one of the Church's leading growth markets. They also responded well to a stirring three-minute speech Bergoglio gave during the conclave, in which he said the Church, in order to survive, must stop "living within herself, of herself, for herself."

But he gave no other indication that he'd be any kind of change agent. In the days after his election, most newspapers described him as a safe, conservative choice. Bergoglio himself had already picked out a retirement spot back home in Argentina, where he fully expected to return after participating in the conclave as a voter.

The conservative Cardinals should have taken much more seriously the warning of the important economist Sir Peter Bauer, when he said:

By the year 2050 there will be only two True Believer Marxists left on planet Earth and they will be two nuns in Brazil.

South America is a hot bed of Catholic-socialist thinking. And make no mistake, Pope Francis is a socialist. The RS cover story provides us with more damning quotes from the Pope's recent  Evangelii Gaudium:

[The Pope] in Evangelii Gaudium, lashes out at "ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace . . . reject[ing] the right of states . . . to exercise any form of control" and calls the deification of the free market "a new tyranny . . . which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules."

RS informs:

Whatever his true feelings back then, as pope, Francis has made his sympathies clear: Last September, he invited the Peruvian founder of the [Liberation Theology] movement, Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, to visit him at the Vatican.

Murray Rothbard called  liberation theology a flirtation between Marxism and the Church:

Marxism is a religious creed. This statement has been common among critics of Marx, and since Marxism is an explicit enemy of religion, such a seeming paradox would offend many Marxists, since it clearly challenged the allegedly hard-headed scientific materialism on which Marxism rested. In the present day, oddly enough, an age of liberation theology and other flirtations between Marxism and the Church, Marxists themselves are often quick to make this same proclamation.

 RS also tells us:

Now, while Francis' days in some ways follow an expected papal itinerary – early rising and prayer, morning Mass, visits with dignitaries and heads of state, the occasional off-site trip to a hospital or a church – the space he's carved out for himself has allowed for an unprecedented degree of independence. While past popes maintained detailed public schedules, Francis handwrites his own agenda in a private datebook. "This is unheard of," a senior Vaticanisti who wishes to remain anonymous tells me. "Aides who'd ordinarily know what's going on have to piece things together by talking to other people." Confirms Father Lombardi, the Vatican press secretary, with the hint of a sigh, "Before, I was in contact with the Curia and could ask them what the daily agenda is. Now, we have to discover what the agenda is. He is very free in organizing it."

By most accounts, Francis is constantly on the telephone (landline; he's never owned a mobile phone or a computer), consulting with trusted friends and colleagues. "John Paul II and Benedict both had an inner circle, so this is very disconcerting to people on the inside," the Vaticanisti says. "Does Francis have a war room? No, probably not. But who is he talking to back there? No one really knows."

(ht  Jay Stephenson)

10 Minute Sundance Movie Gaining Libertarian Fans

Chris Vognar writes for the Dallas Morning News:

Dallas’ Toby Halbrooks just got from the Sundance Film Festival, where he showed his new short film “Dig.” What’s it about? a guy (Dallas’ Jonny Mars) digs a hole in his backyard. He draws attention. Kids watch him. A permit is demanded. He doesn’t have one. The police arrive. And that’s about it.

The film gained an immediate following, with one fan base is particular: The Ron Paul Website dailypaul.com has adopted it as a sort of libertarian manifesto. So there’s that.

(ht Jay Stephenson)

Cass Sunstein Warns about "Paranoid Libertarians"

He doesn't refute any of the concerns that libertarians have about, chiefly, the growth of the state. What he pretty much does is say trust the government that not much will get out of hand. That's it. He says this as the NSA monitors all our electronic communications, US drones fly in distant lands blowing up people, the New Jersey governor gets pissed of at someone and blocks traffic for days, local police are becoming more militarized, the TSA requires us to participate in its security theatre of the absurd at airport, Obamacare is about to destroy the health care system, the Federal Reserve prints and prints more money, and on and on and on, but,hey, nothing to be concerned about. You are paranoid if you are concerned, says the evil Sunstein.

Sunstein writes:

[P]aranoid libertarianism, [...] the general category is worth some investigation.

It can be found on the political right, in familiar objections to gun control, progressive taxation, environmental protection and health-care reform. It can also be found on the left, in familiar objections to religious displays at public institutions and to efforts to reduce the risk of terrorism. Whether on the right or the left, paranoid libertarianism (which should of course be distinguished from libertarianism as such) is marked by five defining characteristics.

The first is a wildly exaggerated sense of risks -- a belief that if government is engaging in certain action (such as surveillance or gun control), it will inevitably use its authority so as to jeopardize civil liberties and perhaps democracy itself. In practice, of course, the risk might be real. But paranoid libertarians are convinced of its reality whether or not they have good reason for their conviction.

The second characteristic is a presumption of bad faith on the part of government officials -- a belief that their motivations must be distrusted. If, for example, officials at a state university sponsor a Christian prayer at a graduation ceremony, the problem is that they don’t believe in religious liberty at all (and thus seek to eliminate it). If officials are seeking to impose new restrictions on those who seek to purchase guns, the “real” reason is that they seek to ban gun ownership (and thus to disarm the citizenry).

The third characteristic is a sense of past, present or future victimization. Paranoid libertarians tend to believe that as individuals or as members of specified groups, they are being targeted by the government, or will be targeted imminently, or will be targeted as soon as officials have the opportunity to target them. Any evidence of victimization, however speculative or remote, is taken as vindication, and is sometimes even welcome. (Of course, some people, such as Snowden, are being targeted, because they appear to have committed crimes.)

The fourth characteristic is an indifference to trade-offs -- a belief that liberty, as paranoid libertarians understand it, is the overriding if not the only value, and that it is unreasonable and weak to see relevant considerations on both sides. Wilentz emphasizes what he regards as the national-security benefits of some forms of surveillance; paranoid libertarians tend to see such arguments as a sham. Similarly, paranoid libertarians tend to dismiss the benefits of other measures that they despise, including gun control and environmental regulation.

The fifth and final characteristic is passionate enthusiasm for slippery-slope arguments. The fear is that if government is allowed to take an apparently modest step today, it will take far less modest steps tomorrow, and on the next day, freedom itself will be in terrible trouble. Modest and apparently reasonable steps must be resisted as if they were the incarnation of tyranny itself.

In some times and places, the threats are real, and paranoid libertarians turn out to be right. As Joseph Heller wrote in “Catch-22,” “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”

Societies can benefit a lot from paranoid libertarians. Even if their apocalyptic warnings are wildly overstated, they might draw attention to genuine risks, or at least improve public discussion. But as a general rule, paranoia isn’t a good foundation for public policy, even if it operates in freedom’s name.

Got that? A concern for freedom is paranoia. This guy is a piece of work.

(ht Ash Navabi)

Please Say It Won't Be So, Ron

Ron Paul’s leftover campaign million could end up supporting a Rand Paul 2016 presidential race.

Roll Call reports:

A former presidential candidate is sitting on almost a million dollars that could help his son in a 2016 presidential race.

The Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee of former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, reported it has $972,450 cash on hand as of December 31st.  During the fourth quarter of 2013, the committee raised $10 and spent $33,464, including $24,220 paid to Arent Fox LLP and LeClair Ryan for legal consulting.

Although a federal candidate may not use left over funds for personal use, and the campaign committee could only contribute $2,000 to another candidate per election, there may be nothing to prohibit a candidate from contributing all the left over funds to a super PAC. The super PAC could then make independent expenditures supporting or opposing a federal candidate. The PAC might even make independent expenditures encouraging a candidate to run, such as Ron Paul’s son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations relating to excess funds do not specifically prohibit left over funds going to a super PAC, but the FEC often handles issues relating to excess funds on a case by case basis.