Wednesday, July 29, 2015

SARCASM? YEAH. PROBABLY.

I tend to be on the conservative side. Saying that I am very unhappy with our President and the fact that in a speech, stated he was a pretty good President and if he ran again he thought he would get elected. But look at what the Republican party has put up as 2nd in command in case of an accident or death of the President. Let's see, there was Dan Quayle. Sarah Palin and Dick Chaney. My God! Is there NO ONE better qualified to lead our country in the event of the President dying in office? I know! Let's elect Donald Trump and he can ask Armando Ramirez to switch parties and be Vice President. But, and I am being serious now, let's not have the attitude of ANYBODY BUT HILLARY!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Strictly funny and a little scary!

For a little humor today, I offer this piece about a pompous, arrogant, elitist Socialist. Ready?

http://freebeacon.com/politics/obama-im-a-pretty-good-president-and-if-i-ran-for-a-third-term-i-could-win/

Monday, July 13, 2015

Another truth

But wasting water during a drought must be ok. Right?

Local

CBS2 Investigates: Federal Buildings In SoCal Caught Wasting Water Amid Drought

July 10, 2015 12:02 AM

David Goldstein

Investigative Reporter David Goldstein has been honored with the 2013...

Election Returns

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — While all Californians are under mandatory water restrictions, CBS2 News cameras went undercover and found some federal facilities may be wasting water for hours at a time.

And government workers weren’t happy when Investigative Reporter David Goldstein tried to get answers.

“Can you shut that off? Or I’m going to have to confiscate your cameras,” Lina Satele of the VA Public Affairs Office told Goldstein and a CBS2 cameraman.

“No, you won’t,” Goldstein replied.

Satele claimed that since the investigative team was on federal property she could take the cameras.

Hidden cameras outside the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles Medical Center caught workers setting up nearly a dozen water sprinklers – connected to the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s fresh water supply.

Under the City of L.A.’s Emergency Water Conservation Plan, the type of sprinklers used at the Veterans facility should not be used for more than eight minutes per watering day. And no DWP customer shall water between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

On Tuesday, June 2, CBS2 set up a time-lapse camera and watched the facility’s watering schedule.

The sprinklers started up at 8:41 a.m. and continue on well past eight minutes.

And past the 9 a.m. deadline.

The watering went on for more than two hours, with the valves being shut off at 10:44 a.m.

After they turned off the water, the lawn was so muddy with pooled up water that Goldstein had to put his boots on to walk across it – and this startling water waste is happening in the middle of California’s worst drought.

It wasn’t the first time. Last October, when water restrictions were already in place CBS2 caught them watering the same area at the VA facility for nearly six hours.

“How does that happen? Is that conserving water?” Goldstein asked VA grounds supervisor Willy Dye.

Dye claims they’ve cut back.

And you could certainly argue that going from six hours to two is saving water, but that’s still way more than what’s allowed.

The grounds supervisor says he was unaware of the over-watering.

“We had it two hours here – 120 minutes – and they recommend eight minutes?” Goldstein asked Dye.

He replied, “Well, what can I say?”

“But, you didn’t know? These are your men and women out here,” Goldstein pressed.

“Okay, I’m going to stop the interview right now. We’re going ahead and stop the interview,” Dye said.

At that point, Satele interjected, trying to stop the interview, because she didn’t know CBS2 had videotaped two hours of watering.

“I need you to stop,” she said.

Satele said the watering may have been done in June because the VA secretary was coming out from Washington D.C., and a few days later a ceremony was being held on the lawn, which wasn’t exactly green.

“The question is: Do you go by the guidelines of the local authority, which is DWP?” Goldstein asked Satele.

She interjected, “The interview is over.”

Goldstein continued: “Or is the federal government just saying, we don’t have to deal with that?”

“…I don’t know,” Satele said.

Satele later emailed saying the VA’s recommendation is to comply with LADWP and Governor Brown’s requirements. The facility, she claims, has cut back on water by 35 percent.

The VA facility in Loma Linda also claims it has cut back. But a CBS2 viewer sent in a video recorded on May 26 showing the VA property had a broken sprinkler head that sent water gushing up into the air and then down the drains.

CBS2 checked a few weeks later and saw it still wasn’t fixed.

Loma Linda facilities manager Jeff Schuller said it wasn’t repaired until CBS2 alerted them to it just last week.

Schuller said: “As soon as we’re aware of anything that’s broken or needs repair we get on it as fast as we can.”

“But it’s not my job to let you know. Shouldn’t one of your people have known that?” Goldstein told him.

“That’s true, it isn’t your job. But we appreciate the help,” Schuller said.

At Loma Linda they may appreciate the help, but in West L.A. all they wanted CBS2’s investigative team to do was leave.

Water Waste Tips: If you’ve seen water waste email your tips and video to David Goldstein at kcbstvinvestigations@cbs.com.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

SUNDAY HUMOR

A new addition to the periodic table of
chemical elements
Element Name: MAN
Symbol: XY
Atomic Weight: 180+
Physical properties: Solid at room
temperature but gets bent out of shape
easily. Fairly dense and sometimes flaky.

Difficult to find a pure sample. Due to rust,
aging samples are unable to conduct
electricity as easily as young samples.

Chemical properties: Attempts to bond with
WO any chance it can get. Also tends to
form strong bonds with itself. Becomes
explosive when mixed with KID (Element:
Child) for prolonged periods of time.
Neutralizes by saturating with alcohol.
Usage: None known. Possibly good
methane source. Good specimens are able
to produce large quantities on command.

Caution: In the absence of WO, this element
rapidly decomposes and begins to smell.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Ah, another Clinton blunder.

July 10, 2015 6:25 pm

Clinton’s stumbles fray Democratic nerves

Megan Murphy in Washington

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a campaign stop at the Iowa City Public Library, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

©AP

Tactical blunders. A strained relationship with the media. An insurgent rival drawing enormous crowds.

For Hillary Clinton, the past few weeks of her 2016 presidential campaign have brought back uncomfortable memories of her failed bid in 2008.

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Three months in to what should be one of the best funded, best organised campaigns in history, Mrs Clinton has been unable to draw a line under a series of controversies, or to generate the kind of grassroots enthusiasm that will be crucial to maintaining momentum in the gruelling months ahead.

As she prepares to outline her economic vision for the country in a high-profile address on Monday in New York, Mrs Clinton’s team is betting that a rollout of popular, middle-class friendly policies such as paid sick leave and universal prekindergarten provision will help to reset the debate.

But her rockier-than-expected start continues to unnerve some long-time allies and Democratic donors, who view the rise of rival Bernie Sanders, the 73-year-old self-proclaimed socialist who has galvanised progressives, as a symptom, rather than a cause, of so-called “Clinton fatigue.”

“We are worried about him, sure. He will be a serious force for the campaign, and I don’t think that will diminish,” Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign’s communications director,” acknowledged this week.

Aides have been quick to brush off speculation about the kind of disquiet that plagued her 2008 bid. Mrs Clinton started her campaign with huge advantages over the rest of the Democratic field, and her move to position herself as a liberal champion reflects an astute assessment of how issues such as income inequality and wage stagnation have risen up the national agenda.

Mr Sanders may be drawing huge crowds in progressive, predominantly white enclaves such as Madison, Wisconsin and Portland, Maine, but he will struggle to close the gap with Mrs Clinton with the more moderate Democrats that make up the majority of the primary electorate across the country, polls show.

We are worried about [Bernie Sanders, below], sure. He will be a serious force for the campaign, and I don’t think that will diminish

- Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton communications director

Among women and nonwhite voters in particular, Mrs Clinton holds an advantage she shows little sign of relinquishing, having prioritised policies such as expanding protections for unauthorised immigrants and improving the affordability of child care to help women back into the work force.

Her campaign raised an impressive $45m over its first three months, three times the size of Mr Sanders’ war chest, and she has built an army of volunteers across key early battleground states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Her message has been sharper and more disciplined than it was in 2008, casting herself as a warrior for the middle class and her Republican rivals as out of touch and out of date on issues such as same-sex marriage, healthcare access and gun control laws.

What has surprised some advisers from her 2008 campaign has been her failure to sidestep some basic tactical errors, given those advantages.

A social media storm over her campaign’s decision to rope off reporters like farm animals during an Independence day parade in New Hampshire was followed this week with an awkward nationally televised interview with CNN, where a stiff Mrs Clinton struggled to respond to claims that many voters do not trust her and blamed the “rightwing” for fomenting imaginary scandals.

US presidential candidate Senator Bernie...US presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (R)arrives for an event on the Trans Pacific Partnership on Capitol Hill June 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKIBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

©AFP

That lack of responsiveness may only exacerbate voters’ concerns that she is not being forthright on issues such as her use of a personal email server during her tenure as secretary of state and whether foreign oligarchs inappropriately courted her favour by making big donations to the Clintons’family charitable foundation, those close to her have warned.

“Painful to watch,” said one.

Some insiders are pushing for changes that would allow for a fuller discussion about what talking points her team is using to respond to attacks before they are put out. While Mrs Clinton’s social media team has been effective at crafting a friendlier, more down-to-earth image through outlets such as Instagram and Twitter, they have urged her to drop her reflexive defensiveness with the press corps.

And in spite of the early speed bumps, many senior Democrats are calling for calm. Mrs Clinton is still polling ahead of Republican rivals such as Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, and Florida senator Marco Rubio.

In fact, some of her strongest support this week came from a surprising source: Daniel Pfeiffer, the former senior adviser to President Barack Obama who helped to vanquish her campaign in 2008.

“While Clinton’s campaign to date hasn’t been perfect, she is doing exactly what she needs to do to ensure that she is the Democratic nominee,” Mr Pfeiffer said in an article.

“A lot can change in the coming months, but at this point in the race, everyone should stop all the bed-wetting.”

ARMANDO RAMIREZ

News Osceola County News

Osceola clerk of court hired felon to perform foreclosure audit

By Henry Pierson CurtisOrlando Sentinelcontact the reporter

Osceola Clerk of Court hired felon's company to perform foreclosure audit

Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez hired a company owned by a felon — convicted in a $64 million scam in the 1990s that stole money from the U.S. government — to review county mortgage records last year.

Ramirez employed David Paul Krieger's company, DK Consultants LLC of San Antonio, in June 2014 and paid the company $34,500 to find out whether Wall Street banks had illegally foreclosed on hundreds of local homes, records show.

Foreclosures remain a hot-button issue in Osceola County, where slightly more than 58,277 owners have lost their homes since 2007. That's 45.6 percent of total housing, the country's second-highest foreclosure rate, according to RealtyTrac.com.

Ramirez selected Krieger's company to audit Osceola foreclosures without seeking other bids, records show. Krieger is director and managing member of the company, records show.

"[It] shall be for the purpose of supplying forensic evidence to the State's Attorney for criminal and eventual civil prosecution," according to the contract Ramirez signed July 12, 2014. "The clerk agrees that he has exercised care and due diligence in determining the competency of [Krieger] to conduct such a forensic examination."

But federal court records show Krieger took part in an anti-government movement in the 1990s that funded itself through nationwide mortgage fraud.

Known as Family Farm Preservation, Krieger and others sold fake money orders to those seeking to pay off government-insured mortgages, according to an indictment unsealed May 16, 1996, in federal court in Milwaukee.

That was the same day Krieger, now 62, was arrested in east Texas by FBI agents after a three-year investigation. Records show there were many involved in selling the money orders, but only nine were charged in the scheme.

Krieger was held for five days in the Smith County Jail in Tyler, Texas, and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and six lesser felony charges involving three counts of fraud and three counts of swindling.

The indictment stated that in a single week in 1993 Krieger sold and mailed $344,733 in bogus money orders for clients to banks, government offices and mortgage companies. Not just a dealer, Krieger used the worthless money orders to try to pay his own debts, including $5,984 owed in Kansas for child support, records show.

Krieger avoided prison by testifying during the federal trial in Milwaukee against his co-defendants, who received up to 16 years in prison. He was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and sentenced Feb. 5, 1997, to three months of home confinement followed by three years of probation and a $1,000 fine. The other charges against Krieger were dropped as part of the plea bargain.

Additionally, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development barred Krieger in 1997 from doing any business with HUD for three years.

"Subject was a minor player in a major scheme," HUD records state.

Krieger would not discuss the audit findings and did not respond to questions about his criminal history.

Since his conviction, Krieger has worked as a wedding entertainer and a voice-over specialist known as Airwave Dave, and he appeared as an Austin Powers impersonator more than 50 times a year at minor-league baseball and hockey games across the South, according to his websites and newspaper coverage.

A radio and TV reporter before his arrest, Krieger has written two self-published books on foreclosure and re-establishing credit and now works as a paralegal and consultant. He appears regularly on talk shows, including Alex Jones' "Infowars" and "The Power Hour" with Joyce Riley.

Ramirez recently declined to comment on how he checked Krieger's background. He did not respond to questions about when he learned of Krieger's past.

Krieger and a team of his handpicked auditors and assistants spent five days at the Osceola County courthouse from July 14 to July 18, 2014, copying records, records show.

Ramirez presented the findings Jan. 23 to Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton for prosecution, records show.

Days later, Ashton declined to prosecute.

"Mr. Ashton has gone on record that our office reviewed the report, but from the perspective of a criminal investigation — it did not meet certain criteria. There were no witness statements, no victims, no evidentiary trail," Ashton's spokeswoman Angela Starke wrote in February. "The issue should be first investigated by law enforcement, thus we provided the report to the Osceola County Sheriff's Office."

In mid-February, Ramirez turned over 17 cartons of property records for the Sheriff's Office to review.

The sheriff's Economic Crimes Unit has spent about 1,000 hours investigating Ramirez's claims without finding a single crime, spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain said Monday.

The investigation has cost taxpayers at least $23,700 for the Sheriff's Office man-hours on top of the $34,500 spent to hire Krieger's company and $985 to send certified letters to 152 alleged victims named in the audit, records show. That's a total price tag so far of $59,185.

"At this time, detectives have not identified any victims," Lizasuain said this week.

The sheriff's investigation continues.

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, who describes himself as a friend and political ally of Ramirez's, supports the audit.

"The audit showed the clerk's responsiveness to public complaints about fraud in mortgage company filings in his own office, as well as his concern about unnecessary and improper foreclosures," he said Thursday. "The clerk deserves praise for acting against mortgage fraud in a responsible manner, for the protection of the community and the integrity of his office."

RUMORS, INNUENDO & POLITICS