Despite the insistence of Glenn Beck who has devoted a “restore honor” Rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday to honor the soldiers, this event is, indisputably, all about Glenn Beck.
Dubbed “Beckapalooza” Politico before, he had already won Beck countless hours of coverage and free media, but high or low rate of participation is, it is guaranteed to make Beck the center of attention for a few more tournaments and media next week. The man selling books - “arguing with idiots” comes in paperback SEPT 14 - free media is something of value.
Therefore, it is worth mentioning that the gathering on Saturday - and all the publicity that will come with it - will cost Peak per cent. Because it is being organized as a charity fund-raising for, and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. As the fine print at the bottom of the observations honor restore the site, “all contributions to the Foundation Special Operations Warrior (SOWF) will be applied to the first cost of assembly to restore honor.” Estimated one SOWF official assembly would cost 1 million dollars. The remaining funds will go to the SOWF, which says it provides scholarships for children of special operations troops who were killed in combat or in training.
Will Beck and Sarah Palin, the spokesman of his colleague back, and get the crowd to promote self-free, and SOWF will be rested, but has reportedly already raised 5 million dollars. Abolished in the later (and described the event as was originally unveiled a book pick a new so-called “plan”, which will determine what steps should be taken over the next 100 years “to restore our country great.” This is to focus on restoring the honor of vague.)
One catch is that the care SOWF - a charity that is exempt from taxes - means that this event can not be “political”, as the promotional literature Peck maintains.
But this does not mean that prevent Beck from making political statements. Cable, “said Brett, a lawyer in the financing of election campaigns arent Fox in Washington for the benefit of tax, non-political, I mean, in fact, non-partisan. “If the speakers endorsed specific candidates or political parties in this event, which could create a problem the IRS to charity,” said Kappel salon.
This may explain why Beck is free on Thursday, told the crowd: “This is a moment, quite frankly, I think we should restore the civil rights movement.” Tea party groups reportedly provided financial assistance for this assembly.
Reported today that the time has SOWF required speakers, including Palin, to sign an agreement “not to talk politics.” On Saturday, we’ll see what I mean, really.
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama wants to impose a $500,000 pay cap on executives whose firms receive government financial rescue funds, a dramatic intervention into corporate governance in the midst of financial crisis.
The new restrictions, described by an administration official familiar with the new rules, are to be announced Wednesday morning at the White House. The steps set the stage for the administration’s unveiling next week of a new framework for spending the money that remains in the $700 billion financial rescue fund.
“If the taxpayers are helping you, then you’ve got certain responsibilities to not be living high on the hog,” President Barack Obama said Tuesday.
The move comes amid a national outcry over extravagant bonuses for executives heading companies seeking taxpayer dollars to remain solvent.
Call it the maximum wage for some high-earners.
The administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the plan had not yet been made public, said the most restrictive limits would apply only to struggling large firms that receive “exceptional assistance” in the future. Healthy banks that receive government infusions of capital would have more leeway.
Firms that want to pay executives above the $500,000 threshold would have to compensate them with stock that could not be sold or liquidated until they pay back the government funds, the official said.
The president and members of Congress have been weighing various proposals to restrict chief executives’ compensation as one of the conditions of receiving help under the $700 billion financial bailout fund. The desire for limits was reinforced by revelations that Wall Street firms paid more than $18 billion in bonuses in 2008 even while struggling with the economic downturn.
Banks and other financial institutions that receive capital infusions, but are considered healthy, could waive the $500,000 salary cap and the stock restrictions under the new Obama rules. But the companies would have to disclose the compensation and submit the pay plan to shareholders for a nonbinding vote.
The administration will also propose long-term compensation restrictions even for companies that don’t receive government assistance.
According to the official, the proposals include:
• Requiring top executives at financial institutions to hold stock for several years before they can cash out.
• Requiring nonbinding “say on pay” resolutions - that is, giving shareholders more say on executive compensation.
• A Treasury-sponsored conference on a long-term overhaul of executive compensation.
Top officials at companies that have received money from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program already face some compensation limits. But elected officials want to place more caps.
“I do know this: We can’t just say, ‘Please, please,’” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who has proposed that no employee of an institution that receives money under the $700 billion federal bailout can receive more than $400,000 in total compensation until it pays the money back.
The figure is equivalent to the salary of the president of the United States.
Compensation experts in the private sector have warned that such an intrusion into the internal decisions of financial institutions could discourage participation in the rescue program and slow down the financial sector’s recovery. They also argue that it could set a precedent for government regulation that undermines performance-based pay.
“It’s not a government takeover,” Obama stressed in an interview Tuesday with CNN. “Private enterprise will still be taking place. But people will be accountable and responsible.”
Even some Republicans, angered by company decisions to pay bonuses and buy airplanes while receiving government help, have few qualms about restrictions.
“In ordinary situations where the taxpayers’ money is not involved, we shouldn’t set executive pay,” said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.
“But where you’ve got federal money involved, taxpayers’ money involved, TARP money involved, and the way they have spent it, with no accountability, is getting close to being criminal.”
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration’s ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information - an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.
Obama’s move, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.
The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since GOP President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.
“For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.”
WASHINGTON - After the flub heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office. Again. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night at the White House - a rare do-over. The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday’s much-noticed stumble, when Roberts got the words of the oath a little off, which prompted Obama to do so, too.
Don’t worry, the White House says: Obama has still been president since noon on Inauguration Day.
Nevertheless, Obama and Roberts went through the drill again out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called “an abundance of caution.”
This time, the scene was the White House Map Room in front of a small group of reporters, not the Capitol platform before the whole watching world.
“We decided that because it was so much fun …,” Obama joked to reporters who followed press secretary Robert Gibbs into the room. No TV camera crews or news photographers were allowed in. A few of Obama’s closest aides were there, along with a White House.
SJ-R.com political writer Bernard Schoenburg discusses Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief-of-staff John Harris being taken into custody on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008.
SPRINGFIELD, Va. – Warmed by the cheers of thousands, John McCain and Barack Obama plunged through the final weekend of their marathon race for the White House, the Republican digging for an upset while his confident-sounding rival told supporters, “We can change this country.”
“Yes we can,” he added, his slogan across 21 months of campaigning.
Both candidates were backed by legions of surrogate campaigners, door to door canvassers and volunteers at phone banks scattered across the country as they made their final rounds Saturday in a race that carried a price tag estimated at $2 billion.
Obama, ahead in the polls, maintained stride despite news that an aunt from Kenya, Zeituni Onyango, lives in the U.S. illegally. The Democratic candidate “has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed,” said a written statement given to The Associated Press, which reported the story.
The state of John McCain’s health is an issue of grave concern for all Americans, regardless of political persuasion. Given the fact that he has been treated for an invasive melanoma and other maladies, it is important that he release his full health records.
For a very brief three hours in May, McCain released 1,173 pages of his medical records to a carefully selected group of reporters. They were not allowed to make any copies or phone calls. Why such secrecy?
We have enlisted a group of doctors from around the country to lead the effort to make sure the public is able to see and make judgments for themselves. Secrecy is not of service to our democracy, transparency is. Please have other doctors sign the open letter.
Cancer is a serious issue. That’s why 30 medical doctors have already signed our open letter telling McCain to issue a full, public disclosure of all his medical records. Send this video far and wide to request that McCain release his full health records. Ask every medical doctor you know to sign onto the letter. McCain’s records must be made public and soon.
While McCain doesn’t really care about our health care, we all should care about the health of McCain.
