Steve understands that while we’re trying to work our way out of this economic crisis, we have to hold the financial industry accountable to prevent the next one. That’s why Steve wrote a bill that would have taken back the bonuses paid to top executives at Wall Street firms – like AIG – that received federal bailout funds. (Source: Steve Israel For Congress Website)

Did you ever wonder where a self-proclaimed corporate raider and Occupy Wall Street supporter such as Congressman Steve Israel gets his campaign donations from?

According to Open Secrets, Israel has raised $1,581,081 for this election cycle (2011-2012), of which $15,790 comes from small donors, the “average Joe” like you and me.

Another $965,850 was raised from his top 100 donors, an all-star team of big labor and big business; many of those businesses from industries, which based on his committee assignments, Israel is supposed to be overseeing (including those Wall Street firms he talks about on his campaign site). The following takes a look at the donations to his reelection campaign and political action committee (PAC).

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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO)released a study telling Americans if they want a raise, they should go work for the federal government, because federal workers are compensated much better than those in the private sector. The CBO did an apples to apples comparison of federal and private sector employee salaries and benefits from 2005-2010. The compared workers who were similar in the following characteristics:

• Level of education
• Years of work experience a
• Occupation
• Employer’s size,
• Geographic location (region of the country and urban or rural location)
• Demographic characteristics (age, sex, race, ethnicity, marital status, immigration status, and citizenship).

…and what they found was staggering.

Salary:

• Federal civilian workers with no more than a high school education earned about 21 percent more, on average, than similar workers in the private sector.

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After three years of criticizing President Barack Obama’s anti-Israel policies, and a special election in New York last September during which he supported the Republican candidate, former Mayor Ed Koch has once again decided to be an advocate for Obama in the Jewish community–without any clear changes in Obama’s positions.

This is not Koch’s first such reversal. During the 2008 Democratic Party primary season, Koch had worried that a Barack Obama would not be a friend to Israel:

Hillary recently attempted to warn Iran that were it to launch nuclear weapons against Israel, the U.S. “would be able to totally obliterate them.” Hillary’s comments were totally in keeping with the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction which kept the Soviet Union at bay during the Cold War when it threatened its European neighbors and members of NATO.

Instead of joining Hillary in a similar warning to Iran, Senator Obama on “Meet The Press” criticized Hillary stating, “It’s language reflective of George Bush…This kind of language is not helpful.”

Koch concluded:

We now know just how far Senator Obama is prepared to go to defend our friends and allies. It is not far enough.

Just four months later, without any change in Obama’s positions, Koch endorsed Barack Obama.

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We all have to count our blessings. One of my new blessings is that I do not attend Temple Beth El, in Stamford Ct., because the last person I would want teaching my children is their rabbi, Joshua Hammerman.

Hammerman is behaving like a different kind of “RINO,” a Rabbi In Name Only. Writing in this week’s issue of the progressive New York Jewish Week, Hammerman has displayed bigotry unworthy of the pulpit. (His article has since been pulled from the website. If you still wish to read the rabbi’s original post, you can check out the cached version here.)

Hammerman admits he has a Tim Tebow problem:

A poster boy of the Christian right, Tebow steadfastly thanks Jesus after every game and, while in college, often inscribed biblical messages on his eye paint. Homeschooled in Florida, this child of missionaries turned down his selection as a Playboy All American because it was, well, Playboy. His trademark prayerful touchdown celebration (imagine Rodin’s “Thinker” on bended knee, or your grandfather davening Tachanun with a football) has become a verb.

Funny — whenever something really special happens in my life I pause and say a Jewish prayer.

The prayer translates to:

Blessed are you, our God, who rules the universe, granting us life, sustaining us and enabling us to reach this day.

I wonder if that would scare the rabbi? If not, than it’s clear that Tim Tebow scares him solely because he is Christian.

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When it is all said and done, historians may look back on this GOP primary season and conclude that Mitt Romney lost his chance at the nomination on a bet.

During Saturday night’s debate, Texas Governor Rick Perry challenged Romney on a passage in his first book, claiming an early edition had said the Massachusetts Romneycare program should be a model for the national plan. Romney disputed the claim, and when Perry persisted, he jokingly offered a $10,000 bet. “Rick, I’ll tell you what:10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet? “Perry didn’t take the bet, “I’m not in the betting business.”

The average American household has an income of $59,800 (gross) which means that Romney was not only breaking Mormon doctrine, which recommends against gambling, but he was also being casual with the equivalent of 1/6th of the cash the average family lives on. He might have just as well been amazed by a supermarket scanner as George H.W. Bush was, or suggested to the unemployed, “Let Them Eat Cake,” because Mitt Romney just announced that he was totally out of touch with the American people.

Barack Obama’s attacks on the GOP centers around a supposed lack of concern for the middle class. Should Romney get the nomination, expect to see that clip over and over, because whether true or not, last night Mitt Romney gave Barack Obama the ammunition he needs to show the former Massachusetts governor has no idea about the plight of the average family. That will probably include the first segment of the answer, when he talked about growing up wealthy. “I didn’t grow up poor,” Romney said. “But I grew up with a dad who had been poor and my dad wanted to make sure I understood the lessons of hard work.”

Almost immediately after Romney’s gaffe, former Obama aide Bill Burton, who now runs a Democratic party super PAC, was tweeting a preview of future Obama attacks.

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Christmas is right around the corner and Hanukkah is even closer.  If you are like me, you will want to go shopping for presents that say “thank you” to some of our favorite political figures and news people who worked so hard during the past year to make our lives more—interesting.  I thought I would help you folks out and come up with a list of suggested items to get for some of my favorites.  I have given my list much thought but, sadly, I can’t afford to buy anything because of the lousy economy.  Yet, that doesn’t mean you guys can’t:

• Nancy Pelosi - An electric broom (what else do you get a witch who has everything?)

• Eric Holder - Hooked on Phonics. You ever see him at a committee hearing? All he ever says is, “no I didn’t read that.” It’s obvious that the guy can’t read.

• Mitt Romney – Not a waffle iron or a pair of flip-flops; that would be too easy. Like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, I want to get him a brain, not because he isn’t smart, but so he can understand why people are looking to nominate anybody but him.  I don’t think he gets it.

• Political Adviser David Axelrod - You know, I can’t think of anything he likes.  You will have to figure it out yourself.

• Former Vice President Al Gore - A heating pad… so he can honestly say it’s getting warmer… somewhere.

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Warning: This Post Uses a Few Words of the Mamaloshen (slang for Yiddish, means the mother tongue) So Zei Gezunt (be healthy) and continue reading.

On Yom Kippur, the rabbi stops in the middle of the service, prostrates himself beside the bema, (the platform from which services are conducted) and cries out, “Oh, God. I am not worthy!” Saul Rosenberg, president of the synagogue is so moved by this demonstration of piety that he immediately throws himself to the floor beside the rabbi and cries, “Oh, God! “I am not worthy” Then Chaim Pitkin, a tailor, jumps from his seat, prostrates himself in the aisle and cries, “Oh God! I am not worthy!” Rosenberg nudges the rabbi and whispers, “So look who thinks he’s not worthy.”

I’m not sure if this is just an American phenom or not, but here in the US Jewish Community everyone thinks they are a “macher” (big shot), not necessarily for the weight they have in the secular world but for the weight they think they have in the Jewish Community. In most cases the people who think they are “machers” are really “pisks” (nobodies). Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairman of the DNC is that kind of “pisk.”

Yesterday almost all the GOP candidates addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition in a candidates forum. The lone exception was Ron Paul who was not invited for his own health. The RJC was worried that the aged Paul would suffer undue stress being in a room with so many Jews (that is my theory, not the RJC’s rationale).

One by one the candidates spoke, each telling the truth about Obama’s anti-Israel policies, and his weak responses to the Iranian nuke program. Although Israel is an issue important to all Americans,  it is especially important to the ones of the Jewish faith.

Every candidate promising they would treat Israel like the valuable ally she is (based on their track records probably true). Many of them even promising to move the US embassy to Jerusalem (don’t hold your breath on that one, George W Bush failed to come through on that promise  and he was probably the most Pro-Israel president in my lifetime).

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The concept of one man one vote is essential to the freedoms of the American Republic. Allowing people to vote more than once, or allowing people to vote who by law don’t have that right, partially disenfranchises those Americans who are legally voting. The weight of the legal votes is watered-down by the inclusion of illegal votes. I would argue that protecting the concept of one man one vote should be a top priority of our government.

Progressive politicians and organizations of the progressive persuasion argue that making people prove their eligibility to vote, will suppress voter turnout, especially in the minority community.  But the only minority who will be disenfranchised will be people who have no legal right to vote.

Like most progressive organizations, the NAACP will do just about anything to ban states from requiring ID to vote (or register), so their latest tactic is to get the UN to call the requirement for voter identification, (hold on you may be surprised by this) racist!

The organisation will this week present evidence to the UN high commissioner on human rights of what it contends is a conscious attempt to “block the vote” on the part of state legislatures across the US. Next March the NAACP will send a delegation of legal experts to Geneva to enlist the support of the UN human rights council.

Wait a second. The UN Commission on Human Rights?? No worries for the state legislatures, they will blame it on Israel like they always do.

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Before Politico broke the sexual harassment story they spent 10 days repeatedly trying to get the Cain campaign to respond directly about whether he ever faced allegations of sexual harassment when he was at the Restaurant Association. The campaign was  also asked about specific reports confirming there were financial settlements in two cases in which women leveled complaints.

Not only did the campaign refuse to answer the questions, but even more disastrous is they had a ten-day-lead to figure out a strategy to address the charges and did absolutely nothing. When the charges were made public, Cain bungled his answers and evaded the questions.

Cain said he has “had thousands of people working for me” at different businesses over the years and could not comment “until I see some facts or some concrete evidence.” His campaign staff was given the name of one woman who complained last week, and it was repeated to Cain on Sunday. He responded, “I am not going to comment on that.”

He was then asked, “Have you ever been accused, sir, in your life of harassment by a woman?”

He breathed audibly, glared at the reporter and stayed silent for several seconds. After the question was repeated three times, he responded by asking the reporter, “Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?”

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On Sunday, former Secretary of State under George Bush, and purported Conservative visited with Christiane Amanpour on the Sunday news show This Week. Powell made some interesting comments about America’s founding fathers and compromise.

So Elmer Fudd Barney Frank announced yesterday that he would not be running for re-election in 2012.  His stated reason was that his district was gerrymandered, which is true.  But Frank was no longer safe in a  safe-district. Remember it took a last-minute infusion of DNCC money to save Barney Frank in 2010 and even then, his 54% of the vote was the lowest he had ever received since his first election in 1980. Frank is retiring because he is chicken, he almost lost last time, and doesn’t have the guts to try again.

In his 31+ years in the House of Representatives Frank was always there to remind people why term limits should be added to the constitution. Be it the brothel that was operated out of his house, his lover that worked for Freddie Mac which led to his unbridled support of Fannie and Freddie which helped cause the housing bubble and great recession, his progressive stances which would make the most avid socialist proud, or that unexplained arrogance (he has nothing to be arrogant about).

Today is a good day for America because Barney Frank’s days in Congress are numbered, to understand why he was so bad for the country, I put together this video “tribute.”

In the video below Frank sits in a 9/10/03 House Financial Services Committee hearing and says Fannie and Freddie are sound, and there is no housing disaster coming.

Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there’s a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios.

Here Congressman Fudd Frank stood up on the floor of the House of Representatives and told America that there is undue concern about the housing market and even though prices were growing very quickly the housing market is not like the Dot.Com industry, the housing bubble will not burst.

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Some of my friends criticize me because they believe I am too hard on President Obama. They say they can’t believe that there is not one of his policies which I supported wholeheartedly. Even a broken clock is right two times a day they say, isn’t there one policy you can say, “lets help Obama on this one?” And I would reach down to the bottom of my soul and really try to come up with something, but I always failed-until today. I have finally found something we should all help Obama implement, he doesn’t like talking to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu every day, all of America should be behind our President insuring that he doesn’t have to talk to Bibi every day.

During the G20 meetings, President Barack Obama and French President Sarkozy got caught talking in front of a microphone that was accidentally left on.

The conversation began with President Obama criticizing Sarkozy for not having warned him that France would be voting in favor of the Palestinian membership bid in UNESCO despite Washington’s strong objection to the move. But then the two got personal:

“I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama. The POTUS replied: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”

Nothing leads to good political pundit material  like pair of catty politicians accidently speaking  in front of an open mike.  In true Los Angeles Times fashion  the “journalists” in the room agreed not to report the comments (remember during the 2008 campaign the Los Angeles Times withheld a potentially damaging video tape of Barack Obama toasting his friend and former PLO press spokesman Rashid Khalidi).  Then all of the reporters in the room signed a pledge to withhold the damaging information (although there is no truth to the rumor that Abe Foxman of the ADL insisted on the written pledge).

What happened next is what usually happens in cases like this.

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You’ve gotta feel sorry for Jesse Jackson; his time is so far gone, people don’t even remember when his time was. He reminds me a little of Willie Mays playing for the Mets in 1973–the best all-round baseball player who ever graced a baseball diamond, looking like a minor league-er, an all-time great who hung around one season too long.

Jackson is a civil rights leader desperately looking for a following to reclaim the good old days, but in his feebleness, he lives in yesterday and doesn’t quite “get” today, nor does he realize he should have hung it up after he threatened Obama’s private parts during the 2008 campaign.

Over the weekend, this shell of a leader went to help the Occupy Atlanta protest and explained his presence by slandering his friend, mentor, and the man whose dying blood he smeared all over his sweater, the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

About 60 people gathered around Jackson as he told them their movement was an extension of the last movement organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Poor People’s Movement.

“It’s not the size of the crowd, it’s the substance of the discussion,” that is important, he told them.

In an interview, Jackson said the protesters were voicing dissatisfaction with banks, with government policies that favor the rich, with Washington gridlock and lack of action to help average Americans.

“This is the cup running over,” he said. “People can’t take it anymore.”

A extension of  Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.??? Give me a break!! (more…)

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) have never tried to hide their leftist leanings.  In fact at times each of the groups have put its progressive politics ahead of its duty to the Jewish Community.  Now these groups have a message to the Jewish Community, “If you don’t support Barack Obama, Shut The Heck Up!

On Monday, the two organizations released a joint statement asking Jews not to make Israel a political Issue

The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have joined together in an effort to encourage other national organizations, elected officials, religious leaders, community groups and individuals to rally around bipartisan support for Israel while preventing the Jewish State from becoming a wedge issue in the upcoming campaign season. Join the ADL and AJC in taking the “National Pledge for Unity on Israel” — and sign our pledge.

This is the most anti-Israel administration in the 63 year history of the Jewish State.  Israel is at a crucial point in her history, she is surrounded by terrorists who are appeased by most of the world, and her historic friendship with the United States is being abused by a President who, because of incompetence or intention,  is throwing the Jewish state to the wolves.

Although the prose in their pledge is pretty, its real purpose is to shut up Jews who wish to point out the failings of Barack Obama’s Israel policy. These organizations have a vested interest in ensuring that the Jews continue to vote Democratic and re-elect this president—Political Power.

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Sometimes it seems as if every time someone in the Tea Party breathes, the mainstream press finds a way to label it as racist or promoting violence. Yet all of the anti-Semitic posters, chants and comments, as well as the ones demonizing Israel made by the Occupy Wall Street protesters, are virtually ignored my the media. Making matters worse, the media has been negligent in performing its investigative duties, because with just a little research they would discover that the anti-semitism may be a symptom of the fact that there are virulent Jew haters and Israel bashers in the ranks of OWS’s founding “fathers.”

Take Adbusters, for example.  In a post dated June 9, 2011 Adbusters issued the original Occupy Wall Street “call to arms”:

When it comes time to discuss Israel, Adbusters finds a way to describe the Jewish State in the most offensive of terms. While not specifically mentioning Jews, Adbusters substitutes other terms to make false and border-line anti-Semitic comments and tries to set up the Jews/Israel as the scapegoat for America’s problems. (more…)

The Chairman of The DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) Steve Israel, who is supposed to be representing NY’s 2nd Congressional District (where I live), never met a Progressive anti-Semitic or anti-Israel group that he did not embrace.  The Long Island Congressman’s latest “love affair” is with Occupy Wall Street whose members have displayed a hatred of both the Jews and the Jewish State.

The DCCC run by Israel features a petition supporting Occupy Wall Street which is looking for 100,000 signatures in support of Occupy Wall Street

Its hard to believe that Congressman Israel hasn’t seen any of the news reports of hatred coming out of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

For example this New York Protester who claims that one small minority controls the banks, the judiciary, American Politics, and represent over 50% of all billionaires in the country.

“The Jews who represent only 2% of the population…have pooled their money together an now control all the the finances of America”

On Friday Former President Bill Clinton spoke at the dedication of a bridge at his Presidential library.  During his address he complained that Republicans try to take too much credit for his welfare reform legislation and for balancing the budget. The two parties can argue about who was behind welfare reform, but no one deserves credit for balancing the budget.  The truth is  the United States federal budget was not balanced in any of Bill Clinton’s eight years as President. Not once!

The federal government has two types of debt public debt and intra-governmental debt.  Public debt is comprises securities held by investors outside the federal government, including that held by investors, the Federal Reserve System and foreign, state and local governments  Intra-governmental debt comprises Treasury securities held in accounts administered by the federal government, such as the Social Security Trust Fund.

Traditionally the annual federal government budget deficit or surplus is the cash difference between government receipts and spending, ignoring intra-governmental transfers. This is a trick as intra-governmental debt needs to be repaid just like the publicly held debt. This is also how Clinton claimed a surplus in three out of his last four years. (Source for all of the numbers below, US Treasury Direct).

These figures include the public debt but not the intra-governmental debt.  Its like paying off your American Express card while ignoring the fact that your Mastercard over the limit and months past due. Your Amex looks great but your budget is not balanced.

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Another opinion poll was released reporting s a deterioration of Barack Obama’s support in the Jewish Community.  What makes this set of results surprising is the poll was conducted by the American Jewish Committee, a group who’s leanings are so liberal,  it chastises more conservative Jewish organizations that criticize Obama’s Israel policy. Another surprise in the survey (at lease for those unfamiliar with Jewish voters) is that Israel is just one of the issues driving Jews away from Obama.

For the first time since his inauguration, the annual  AJC poll shows more Jews disapproving of Obama’s performance than approving. Approval of Obama’s performance declined to 45 percent, and disapproval rose to 48 percent. Last year’s AJC survey reported 51 percent approved, and 44 percent disapproved.

Key areas of  Jewish voter disapproval are the economy (duh), and immigration. Foreign policy is a wash and most Jews approve of  the President’s performance with National Security and Energy.

As expected, the President’s Israel Policy meets with disapproval.

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After hearing legitimate complaints that his tax and spend Jobs plan was nothing more than class warfare, the President responded that it wasn’t about class warfare it was about math.  In the end both sides are right, the President’s plan is about class warfare, and on top of that his math would get him an “F” in a 9th grade algebra class. The “F”  would probably be accompanied by a note that says:

Let’s start with his everyone paying their fair share shtick.  First of all there is not enough rich person income income to solve our massive debt problem over the short or long term. The top 3 percent of earners, those making $250,000 or more, have about $2.3 trillion in total annual income. So even if we took all their money it would only pay our bills for a bit over six months. it would only fund the government this year for just over six months. If you wanted to limit it a bit and only confiscate all the income of the 400 wealthiest Americans that would net only about $1.4 trillion, a pittance in the Obama budget. It would pay the federal government’s bills for about Four and a half months, which means neither the government nor those wealthy 400 would have anything left to buy guacamole dip for their Super Bowl Party (nor pay the electric so they can watch the game on TV).

The President also makes the argument that the rich pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes. Maybe he never looked at the numbers. According to an AP report, this year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent.

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The Barack Obama “Re-elect me because I offered a jobs bill that even my own party hates” tour continued today with a trip to the Brent Spence Bridge. No the POTUS wasn’t threatening to jump because the public doesn’t like his class warfare-inspired tax provisions, nor was he threatening to jump because voters trust the GOP more than Democrats regarding the economy. He wasn’t even threatening to kill himself rather than be subjected to Nancy Grace in a low-cut dress on Dancing With The Stars ever again. Thank Goodness he wasn’t even threatening to kill himself at all (although the Nancy Grace thing was pretty compelling).

This President visited the bridge because he was trying to make a point, partially to the voters but mostly to  the Republican leadership.  The Trent Spence Bridge rises above the Ohio River and spans John Boehner’s home state of  Ohio and Mitch McConnel’s home state of Kentucky. Obama was trying to tell these Republicans that he could go over their heads and directly to their constituents at any time and through the power of the Presidential “Bully Pulpit” he can make their lives very difficult.

What Obama doesn’t understand is that he has used the “Bully Pulpit” so many times that, just like the Trent Spence Bridge,  it is functionally obsolete. In the two states, his trip was seen as just another staged re-election event and a bit of a parody of itself.

The 50-year-old, 830-foot bridge is well past its prime and Obama supposedly used it as a way to showcase why Congress should back his “tax and spend” $450 billion dollar job plan which includes infrastructure spending.

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