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Obama Prods Bush to Aid Detroit Cordial White House Meeting Included Discussion of Auto Makers' Condition By JONATHAN WEISMAN and JOHN MCKINNON President-elect Barack Obama met at the White House Monday with the man he will succeed in January, and pressed President George W. Bush to take immediate action to help stave off the collapse of the U.S. auto industry and to aid the economy more broadly. Mr. Obama's focus on the auto industry came as fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill started moving on their own to help Detroit gain access to federal rescue funds allocated for the financial sector....

As President-elect Obama prepares to enter the White House, he must ponder what to do about the world's trouble spots: Iran, Iraq, North Korea, the Caucasus. And, oh yes, Detroit. On Friday, General Motors and Ford announced more multibillion-dollar losses in the third quarter; closely held Chrysler doesn't publicly report results. When GM, which seems in the worst shape, was 45 minutes late releasing its results, rumors spread that a bankruptcy filing was imminent. It wasn't, but the company says it could run out of cash in the first half of next year. Make that the first quarter if the...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urging him to assist the Big Three auto makers by considering broadening the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to help the troubled industry. The two top Democratic leaders in Congress are likely to make the request in a letter to the White House, which could be forwarded as soon as Saturday afternoon, said individuals familiar with the matter. President-elect Barack Obama is generally supportive of the appeal, but at the moment is moving on his own track to assist the industry,...

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama's campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about possibly serving as White House chief of staff, officials said Thursday as the marathon presidential race entered its final, frenzied stretch with a Democratic tilt. The disclosure came as Republican John McCain, in need of a comeback, focused on pocketbook issues amid fresh signs of a recession. "Ohio is hurting now, people in Ohio are having trouble staying in their homes, keeping their jobs," he said as he set out on a two-day bus tour of the state.

The Obama Buffet of Unsavory People and Acts has added another entree!

"... the community organizer ... must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression.'     -- Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals "THERE IS ONLY THE FIGHT --- An analysis of the Alinsky Model."  -- Hillary Clinton, BA Honors Thesis, Wellesley College, 1969. "(Barack) Obama worked in the organizing tradition of Saul Alinsky, who made Chicago the birthplace of modern community organizing...."  -- The Nation  A psychopath is a person without conscience; someone who constantly breaks the moral rules of the community. Saul Alinsky was a "community organizer" who found a career that...

On Sunday (August 17) a Muslim mob stormed a church service in Cipayung, East Jakarta, forcing Christians to flee and then erecting banners in the street declaring a ban on “churches and religious services.” As about 20 church members were celebrating the nation’s Independence Day at the service, the angry assailants arrived at the Pentecostal Church of Indonesia in Pondok Rangon village, Cipayung, at 9:30 a.m. shouting “Allahu Akbar!” or “God is greater!” Some in the mob were neighbors, but the majority were not local residents, according to pastor Chris Ambessa. Church members tried to close the gate leading into...

ROSENDALE - A Rosendale man said on Thursday that he plans to press charges against U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, alleging the congressman struck him on the head during an argument at the recent Rosendale Street Festival. "I do intend to press the issue," said Paul Lendvay, 46, who is the chairman of the Catskill Regional Friends of the National Rifle Association. Lendvay said he would file a criminal complaint against Hinchey, D-Hurley, with the Rosendale Police Department, but no complaint had been filed as of Thursday afternoon. A Hinchey spokesman said there is "absolutely no truth or validity to the...

Tucson open-borders official gloats about effigy-beating By Michelle Malkin • July 16, 2008 12:45 PM [See Picture at link--Oyarsa] Tucscon residents remain up in arms over the unhinged open-borders mob, led by reconquistadora Pima County (AZ) public defender Isabel Garcia, who beat and tore apart an effigy of tough, anti-illegal immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio at his recent book tour event. See the videos here in case you missed it yesterday. Garcia is now gloating about the incident–calling it “funny.” She has posted a bigotry card-playing response at her militant website, Derechos Humanos. Laugh line: “We stand for the principles of...

Unhinged in Arizona: Open-borders mob, led by public official, ravages Joe Arpaio effigy By Michelle Malkin • July 15, 2008 03:34 PM Scroll down for updates…Jon Justice has more… Reader Tim C. in Tucscon sent me an e-mail about some completely unhinged open-borders activists who mobbed a book event for Sheriff Joe Arpaio. A group of young pro-illegal alien protesters repeatedly beats an effigy of Arpaio as Isabel Garcia–local reconquistadora and an official from the Pima County legal defender’s office–eggs them on. She then parades around with the effigy’s head as onlookers cheer and hoist up the rest of the...

A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl in Pakistan has been forced to marry a man of 24 to punish her father for eloping with a neighbour’s daughter. Nazia Nawaz, who lives in the village of Babrianwala in rural Punjab, described last week how a mob of 30 men, led by a mullah and the local council, stormed her family home and demanded that she and her seven-year-old sister marry two male relatives to settle the dispute. The forced marriage of Nazia to her adult cousin had just been completed when other family members arrived to stop the wedding of her younger sister, Shazia....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MrVup9Dl4U For over twenty years, "Patriot Pastor" Garrett Lear has strode the halls of New Hampshire's legislature...serving as a voice for his faith and his Revolutionary War ancestors. Today he talks with us about Real ID, the liberty deficit among Christians and his colorful outfit. Pastor Lear's church is in Wakefield, New Hampshire. What do *you* think? Is Real ID the Mark of the Beast? A precursor to it? A bad thing? A good thing?

There’s a certain poetic quality to this final act of Spitzer's. His extraordinary popularity with members of the press (now presumably extinguished) was rooted in his willingness to leak, sotto voce, allegations of misconduct in the personal lives of the subjects of his investigations. The press loved the juicy headlines. His motivation was apparently to embarrass and intimidate the subjects of his investigations so that they would be forced to comply. We admit to enjoying the spectacle of watching a man so given to the high moralistic tone brought low by such a misdeed. As one commenter on the New...

Mob Sweeps in NYC, Italy Target Gambinos TOM HAYS NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities arrested dozens of people Thursday in a sweeping Mafia takedown aimed at closing the book on decades-old gangland killings and other crimes and knocking out what's left of the once-mighty Gambino family. A federal indictment in Brooklyn named 62 people, including the three highest-ranking members of the Gambino clan and the brother and nephew of the late John Gotti, the notorious boss who ran the family in its heyday. State prosecutors separately charged 26 others with running a gambling ring that took nearly $10 million in...

The process developed by Somark involves a geometric array of micro-needles and an ink capsule, which is used to 'tattoo' an animal. The ink can be detected from 4 feet away. A startup company developing chipless RFID ink has tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats. Somark Innovations announced this week that it successfully tested biocompatible RFID ink, which can be read through animal hairs. The passive RFID technology could be used to identify and track cows to reduce financial losses from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) scares. Somark, which formed in 2005, is located at the Center...

IT IS the army's recruitment season in Yantai, a port in Shandong province in northern China. A poster in one fishing village calls on citizens to report any attempt to secure one of the coveted vacancies by paying bribes or forging papers. But the Yantai authorities are far more worried about what happens when servicemen are discharged. Here and elsewhere angry ex-soldiers have been taking to the streets. Over the past couple of years protests by demobilised soldiers have become a potent challenge to local governments trying to keep the lid on unrest during a period of wrenching social and...

A snake-rescue drive conducted by NGO Plants and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS) for the past two weeks has cost them dearly, as a mob attacked their on-duty animal ambulance on Friday and beat up the driver and volunteers. According to Sunish Subramanian, member secretary of PAWS, their office received a tip-off that a snake basket had been left abandoned near a hutment in Kalwa (E) on Friday at around 8.30 pm. Following the call, he along with a team of two volunteers and the driver left in their rescue ambulance. After rescuing the snake, the group was on their way...

Organized Labor has a long history with extortion and the mob. Federal prosecutors have put most of those mob bosses behind bars, but unions haven’t renounced using blackmail to get what they want. They simply use more sophisticated methods to do the same thing. Take the way unions exploit environmental concerns through Project Labor Agreements. Under PLAs, businesses promise to hire only union members — or else. Why would businesses sign such agreements? Because unions threaten to use environmental regulations to shut them down unless they sign the PLA.< >So why the shift toward, well, green blackmail? Because competition is...

NEW YORK - In early 2004, mob veteran Vincent Basciano took over as head of the Bonanno crime family. The reign of the preening, pompadoured Mafioso known as Vinny Gorgeous lasted only slightly longer than a coloring dye job from his Bronx hair salon. Within a year, the ex-beauty shop owner with the hair-trigger temper was behind bars - betrayed by his predecessor, a stand-up guy now sitting down with the FBI. It was a huge blow to Basciano and the once-mighty Bonannos, and similar scenarios are playing out from coast to coast. The Mafia, memorably described as "bigger than...

ExclusiveDaily News probe finds WTC contractors with mob ties, fraud BY GREG B. SMITHDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERSunday, September 9th 2007, 4:00 AM   Seven contractors cited for everything from mob ties to tax fraud to fatal accidents are getting a slice of the $16 billion reconstruction at Ground Zero, a Daily News investigation has found. The problem firms are found every day working the bulldozers, cranes, jackhammers and pile drivers rebuilding the site of the World Trade Center.All of the companies work for the Port Authority, the Dormitory Authority or the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. on taxpayer-funded contracts worth millions...

ExclusiveJoke's on mob wife  Mrs. Louie Ha Ha signed prenup with jailed capo and judge backs it  BY JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERSaturday, August 11th 2007, 4:00 AM Erica Attanasio says she'll be left destitute now that the divorce is pending and the judge has backed a prenuptial she signed in 1997. Erica Attanasio with mobster Louis (Louis Ha ha) Attanasio.  A murderous Mafia gangster known as Louie Ha Ha is getting the last laugh - on his estranged wife.Bonanno capo Louis Attanasio is tossing the missus and her 89-year-old mother out of their New Jersey townhouse after...

Saturday, September 15March on WashingtonEND THE WAR NOW!Check out Sept15.org A message from Ramsey Clark The People of Baghdad Have No Water Join MAS Freedom Sept. 15 for D.C. Rally and Iftar Join Iraq war veterans, active duty servicemembers and their families on September 15 Monday, September 17 Peoples March Inside Congress -- organizing group is CODEPINK. Come to Washington DC on September 15 for a large antiwar protest timed to coincide with the report by General Petraeus on the "Surge" in Iraq. Click here for more information and to get involved.Initial sponsors of the march include:The ANSWER Coalition; Ramsey Clark; Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation;...

NEW YORK -- The FBI is investigating allegations that veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on basketball games over the past two seasons, including ones in which he officiated. Defense attorney John Lauro confirmed Donaghy is under investigation but refused to comment on the allegations or the case. According to a law enforcement official, authorities are examining whether the referee made calls to affect the point spread in games on which he or associates had wagered. The law enforcement official, who spoke to The Associated Press on Friday on the condition of anonymity, said the referee was aware of the...

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney can claim he is exempt from certain executive orders, but one House Democratic leader says it should cost him. Cheney's office has refused for the last four years to obey a presidential order requiring all executive branch entities to report annually on the information they keep secret, according to recent reports. Cheney argues that because he is also president of the U.S. Senate, he isn't a member of the executive branch, according to those accounts. Which is why House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., announced this weekend he wants to strip funding for...

June 20, 2007, 12:30PM Angry crowd kills man riding in car that struck child By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON Associated Press AUSTIN — A crowd attacked and killed a passenger in a vehicle that had struck and injured a child, police said today. The man who was killed Tuesday night had been trying to stop the group from attacking the vehicle's driver when the crowd turned on him, authorities said. The Austin Police Department identified the victim as David Rivas Morales, 40, of Austin. The child was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The beating began after the car...

China Cracks Down on Tangshan City Gang Boss JUNE 20, 2007 04:01 The Chinese authorities cracked down on a gang boss in Tangshan, Henan Province yesterday. The thug and his men reportedly were using armored vehicles to extort money from people. According to Chinese media coverage, Chinese law enforcement officials arrested 40 gangsters yesterday in the city. The gang members had reportedly armed themselves with guns and military armored vehicles, and extorted almost $10 million from business owners and residents. The authorities impounded 4 armored vehicles, 38 rifles, 12 grenades and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Gang boss Yang, according to...

ELIZABETH, N.J. Authorities said mobsters gained control of two labor unions, cheating taxpayers with no-show jobs on public projects. The reputed gangsters and two union officials were among 25 people accused today in a variety of schemes, including illegal gambling and loansharking operations.

An elderly woman was lynched after villagers accused her of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies. Police in Guyana, South America, say they have arrested three people and are questioning several others over the killing. The victim's remains were found in a village 15 miles east of the capital Georgetown. The mob apparently believed she was an "Old Higue" - a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals. She was beaten to death with a broom and her body circled with white rice to imprison the evil spirit. A...

Hillary Clinton’s FEC report today reveals that the campaign has raised the highest amount of money in its first quarter of any presidential candidate ever – and has by far the most cash-on-hand to spend in the both the primary and general elections of any in the ’08 field. “These numbers indicate the tremendous support for Senator Clinton from every walk of life and every part of America, and assure that we will have the resources needed to compete and win,” Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle said today. Following are key details of the FEC report being filed today:...

Giuliani's Legal Past Hints At Future NEW YORK, Apr. 9, 2007 (AP) Long before he became mayor of New York or the Republican front-runner for the presidency, Rudy Giuliani made a name for himself as a crime-busting federal prosecutor in Manhattan, taking on the mob and white-collar criminals in a manner that hinted of bigger things to come. During a nearly seven-year stretch ending in 1989, Giuliani steered dozens of high-profile cases to completion, garnering more than 4,000 convictions. He tangled with mob bosses, Wall Street executives and corrupt politicians _ and was never afraid to invite the bright lights...

Are you absolutely sure you paid the exact amount of income tax you owed last year -- not too much and not too little? I am willing to bet the vast majority of those reading this paid either too much or too little -- not because they intended to but because the tax code is so complex it is almost impossible to know precisely the right number. As Americans sit down to file their taxes before the April 17 deadline, most will feel some anxiety and many will feel trapped. It is not only the taxpayer who is trapped, but...

Did the local Mafia once use a state rep who was the nephew of a gangster to push through a ban on nude dancing in Revere? And did La Cosa Nostra make its morality play because the biggest strip joint in the city decided to buy “protection” from Whitey Bulger rather than the Mafia? The answers are yes and yes, according to an until-now undisclosed 1975 FBI report. It’s shocking, isn’t it, to imagine the Mafia in cahoots with Massachusetts legislators? Try not to let this destroy your faith in the integrity of the Mafia. The fact is, shortly before...

A boy of 16 was stabbed to death by a gang of teenage boys and girls for his dog, according to police. The group of attackers were dressed in school uniforms and were shouting "kill him, kill him" as they pursued him. They are said to have set two of their own dogs on the boy after he was stabbed in the heart and leg. The victim was walking his Staffordshire bull terrier when he was chased along Hammersmith Grove by the group. Some were said to be as young as 14. Residents told of their shock at the attack...

Police raid Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters over shooting death of rival gangster Investigators enter the headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi in Nada-ku, Kobe, on Monday morning. KOBE -- Police raided the headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang on Monday over the shooting death of a senior member of a rival affiliate of the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate, investigators said.This is the second raid that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has conducted over the incident following its search of the headquarters of the Kokusui-kai, an affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi.Investigators suspect that at least one organization under the umbrella of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation's largest crime syndicate,...

A US company has launched a chipless RFID (radio-frequency identification) Ink that can be used to track both animals and humans. Visible or invisible Ink "Tatoos" can be applied to the skin and tracked by RFID readers positioned a few feet away. The Company, Somark...said it had successfully tested it's Biocompatible Chipless RFID Ink product....

Outrage mounts over 'lynch mob' hanging By Neil Tweedie Last Updated: 2:01am GMT 02/01/2007 The execution of Saddam Hussein – widely condemned yesterday as more an exercise in lynch law than judicial punishment – was rushed through by the Iraqi government despite American requests for a delay. A senior Iraqi source said the US ambassador in Baghdad wanted the hanging to be postponed for two weeks but relented when the Shia dominated government rushed through documents approving it. It appeared that the United States was anxious the execution should not be carried out with unseemly haste. The disclosure follows a...

Mob rap in bagel boom   Feds tie S.I. attack in '01 to gangland rivals  BY ERNIE NASPRETTO and JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS  My Deli in Staten Island was the target of a firebomb attack in 2001. Only in New York would a Mafia associate nicknamed The Irishman allegedly provide a bomb used to destroy a Pakistani immigrant's deli that was competing with a bagel store protected by the mob. The feds yesterday charged reputed Gambino crime associate Edward Fisher with orchestrating the December 2001 arson attack on My Deli and Grocery in Staten Island. Police had...

The US-based human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned a mob of 300 Muslims killed six Christians in early October while 15 others were left seriously wounded by the attack during a midnight worship service in Beshasha, a town located in the Agaro province in Ethiopia. On 14 October, a group of three hundred Muslims, carrying guns and knives approached the church where the Orthodox Christians were holding a midnight worship service. When the locked doors prevented the mob from entering the church they forced the congregation out of the church by pouring gasoline around the building. The...

Carrying a wad of 100s and 50s as fat as a ball of mozzarella, Carmen Salvatore DiNunzio was busted by state police yesterday in the North End near the spot where the alleged Boston Mafia kingpin runs a cheese shop, authorities said. DiNunzio, 49, of East Boston was charged with extortion, maintaining or organizing a gaming operation and conspiracy to maintain gaming operation, said Essex District Attorney Jon Blodgett. “It went down peacefully,” a state police source told the Herald last night. DiNunzio said nothing when police grabbed him from his car at the corner of Cooper and Lynn streets...

When the Hells Angels trial began, I wondered how a collection of bikers who insisted on sporting their notorious club colors around the federal courthouse could actually find a fair and impartial jury. Few things in this life say "bad ass approaching" like the Hells Angels' trademark winged skull symbol. The last I checked, not even the mafia wore an official jacket. The average baggy pants barrio gang kills more homeboys in a year than the worldwide Hells Angels does in a decade, but the Harley-Davidson riders enjoy legendary status in America's outlaw mythology. Just days into the trial of...

The FBI's top counterterrorism official harbors lots of concerns: weapons of mass destruction, undetected homegrown terrorists and the possibility that old-fashioned mobsters will team up with al-Qaida for the right price. Though there is no direct evidence yet of organized crime collaborating with terrorists, the first hints of a connection surfaced in a recent undercover FBI operation. Agents stopped a man with alleged mob ties from selling missiles to an informant posing as a terrorist middleman. That case and other factors are heightening concerns about a real-life episode of the Sopranos teaming with Osama bin Laden's followers. "We are continuing...

New Jersey Democratic chairman Joe Cryan this morning pledged "absolute" support for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's campaign, which late yesterday severed ties with a top campaign fund-raiser who was overheard in a taped telephone conversation repeatedly asking a Hudson County vendor to make a hire as "a favor" to Menendez. "I can absolutely unequivocally assure you we are working harder to get him elected," said Cryan in a telephone interview from a dentist's chair. "This is nothing we didn't expect. We're going to win this thing." Menendez is in a close race with Republican state Sen. Tom Kean, who has...

NEW YORK - As he languished in a federal prison in 2003, John "Junior" Gotti had plenty to worry about. The jail, he told visitors, was crawling with informants. He had money problems. Old friends were getting indicted. Other members of the Gotti clan were stealing his money. But at the root of his troubles was this: The modern mob, he lamented, was losing its manliness. "Now are we men? Or are we punks or rats or weasels? You tell me," he angrily asked one friend while serving a racketeering sentence. Gotti's conversations were routinely recorded before his release from...

Former president Bill Clinton is blasting the ABC 9/11 docudrama “The Path to 9/11” for being inaccurate and unfair. You’ve got to love the irony of that. Wasn’t he the guy who hired Hollywood filmmakers to create a campaign biopic of his life? Sure, “The Path to 9/11” makes up dialogue, invents scenes and creates a composite character or two, but sometimes you have to craft the facts in a certain way to tell a complicated story. Just like sometimes you have to reconsider what the definition of “is” is when you don’t want people to know you’ve had an...

MARSHVILLE, North Carolina (AP) -- An angry mob fatally beat a man whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the disappearance of their friend, shortly before police arrested and charged another person in the crime, police said. Union County Sheriff's deputies found Tony Lorin Blakeney at his home with serious injuries Friday. He later died at a hospital. Ten men, ages 16 to 30, were charged with murder in the attack. They were being held without bond until an October 4 court date. "This is the worst beating attack I've ever seen," Sheriff Eddie Cathey said. Authorities said they don't...

Howard Gensler | Madonna to Russian mob: Shove-sky this MADONNA MAY BE a kidnapping target of the Russian mob. According to a report in the London Sun, Russian gangsters have threatened the Material Girl and her two children with abduction should Madonna go ahead with her Confessions tour in Moscow next month. But tough-gal Madonna is like "Law & Order's" Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), refusing to bow to Russian mob pressure. "Madonna is well aware of the kidnap threats," said a source, "but she is brave and even a little nonchalant when it comes to her own safety." Her husband...

When is asking "is it good for Israel" not so good for Israel? Democrats and Republicans, politicking hard ahead of midterm elections that could end Republican control of the US Congress, are battling over which party was more supportive of Israel in its war with Hizbullah in Lebanon. "Republicans only offer support to Israel when they think that they'll get something for it," Democrats howled after the Republican-led Congress feted Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister who stood with Hizbullah in the recent conflict. A ranking Democrat "is publicly supporting a terrorist organization," Republicans barked back after Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.)...

British children, possibly as young as six, will be subjected to compulsory fingerprinting under European Union rules being drawn up in secret. The prints will be stored on a database which could be shared with countries around the world. The prospect has alarmed civil liberties groups who fear it represents a 'sea change' in the state's relationship with children and one that may lead to juveniles being erroneously accused of crimes. Under laws being drawn up behind closed doors by the European Commission's 'Article Six' committee, which is composed of representatives of the European Union's 25 member states, all children...

To quote the old Mercedes Benz airbag commercial: “Some things in life are too important not to share.” The National Education Association’s national convention begins today at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. Outside, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (a Washington State think tank) is parking a truck with a billboard highlighting some of the expenditures the NEA listed on its 2004 federal financial disclosure forms. The billboard is too important (and good) not to share:

Still On the Waterfront: Long plagued by Johnny Friendlys, dockworkers fight to take back a mob-infested union by Tom Robbins June 27th, 2006 12:21 PM Just south of the Statue of Liberty, the huge white shipping cranes of New Jersey's container terminals arch into the sky. Even in the summer haze, the cranes still dominate the horizon. Their 200-foot-tall white hoists slant up and east, offering a kind of silent salute to the torch clenched in the statue's upraised arm. Most of New York's shipping is conducted on the Jersey side of the harbor now. More than $130 billion in...