truesee's Blog

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The lawsuit contended the California law usurped a federal prohibition on giving educational benefits based on residency to illegal immigrants but not all U.S. citizens.

College students who are in the country illegally are barred from government financial-aid programs. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected eventually to decide whether the lower tuition rates also violate federal law.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/11/15/2010-11-15_three_soldiers_in_colorado_busted_during_attempt_to_rob_medical_marijuana_shop_v.html

Miller/NewsFormer Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is running for mayor of Chicago, and may have presidential aspirations down the road.

Egan-Chin/NewsWhether they admit it or not, Mayor Bloomberg and Sarah Palin (below) have eyes for the White House.

Reinke/AP

CHICAGO - This time it was Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, making the speech that he hopes is the start of everything for him. This time it was Emanuel, a White House insider turned into a political outsider this fast, standing in the Coonley Elementary School, talking about a vision for the future for his city and really talking about himself.

"The question in this election is who has the experience, imagination and strength to see a better future," he said.

He is the tough guy from the Obama administration who now wants to be mayor of Chicago, then see where he can go from there. But you know he sees Chicago as just the beginning of something grander for him. This is American politics now, in the age of Barack Obama. The Obama who came from Chicago and really nowhere to become President.

They all think they can make it happen fast, as fast as the country turned around on Obama. The smart guys, and there is nobody around smarter than Emanuel, understand this has become Attention-Deficit America now, our society flattening out faster than it ever has in history, voters unable to distinguish between message and messengers in the age of Twitter and the Internet and the demagoguery, left and right, of cable TV.

You think Rahm Emanuel doesn't think he can be President someday? Think again. You think Michael Bloomberg doesn't see a way to the White House for him in 2012 with the country this dizzy? Think again.

Bloomberg never wanted a third term because he thought the city needed him to save it from financial doom. He needed to keep himself in play. He needed to buy himself time, which means one more thing Bloomberg has bought, starting with influence. Mostly he needed a little more time to figure out if he can make his run before he is too old.

Suddenly nothing is impossible in American politics. All over the country there are on-the-make Republicans assessing their chance to make their run at Obama in 2012, from young congressmen like Eric Cantor from Virginia to Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, to a talking hairdo like Rick Perry in Texas. Chris Christie of Jersey, one of the most interesting guys around even though he looks like Gov. Ralph Kramden, keeps saying he isn't going to make his own run. We'll see about that.

There has rarely been a time more fluid than this, the politics of change in 2008 producing more change in 2010, even though all this change never seems to help voters, especially the ones from the middle class.

But they all see you can come from nowhere the way Sarah Palin, drum majorette for the Tea Party, has. Get big fast. Kirsten Gillibrand looked like some cute lightweight from upstate when David Paterson named her to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. Now you better watch Gillibrand, whether you think she has anything to say or not. She is young and good-looking and a moderate Democrat and before long, you will start to hear about her making her own run, whatever she says about that.

Two years ago, in the middle of the most thrilling race for the Democratic nomination the country had ever seen, Hillary Clinton was the most famous woman in the world. Now she is secretary of state and still Wife of Bill, and Palin, with the substance of a Hallmark card, has gone past her so fast it is as if Clinton has fossilized in front of our eyes.

You don't think things change fast? Suddenly George W. Bush is viewed as more of a statesman than Winston Churchill. And for what? Telling us he couldn't send troops into New Orleans after Katrina because it would have made the governor of Louisiana mad? Go back to Texas.

Nothing that happened with Bush is his fault. He sounds like the cowboy version of Isiah Thomas. But less than two years from when he officially left office, with approval ratings you could fit inside a shot glass, you get the idea that he could run against Obama's record - the way Obama ran against his record - and win.

Not long ago, somebody challenged Obama about his reliance on rhetoric over substance and he said, "Speeches got me here." They did. But as a Chicago political guy I know said Sunday, "Name one speech he's given as President that compares with what he did as a candidate."

This weekend Rahm Emanuel, one of Obama's inside guys, is the one who gave a speech in Chicago. Only it wasn't about Chicago. It was about him. A little guy thinking as big as you can, the way the mayor of New York does these days. The way they all do.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/15/2010-11-15_quick_change_rahm_just_latest_political_little_guy_who_thinks_big.html#ixzz15Mlajw7v

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/25776608/detail.html

Lyons/Getty

Two short years ago, one of the presidential tickets had the wisdom to not only acknowledge the climate crisis, but also to present credible solutions to address it.

If elected, the tandem told Americans, they intended to do what the Bush administration would not: establish "a cap-and-trade system that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions" and pursue "alternatives to carbon-based fuels." The result, they said, would be "a better future for our children."

The candidates were John McCain and Sarah Palin.

The nuances matter, but the differences between the Democratic vision on energy policy and the McCain-Palin platform are relatively minor. In fact, if the White House were prepared to open negotiations with a Republican-led House next year, President Obama could do worse than starting with the McCain-Palin plan.

With that in mind, why doesn't he do just that? What better way for a Democratic President to demonstrate a commitment to bipartisanship than by embracing specific Republican proposals?

The conventional wisdom is that Obama is in a nearly untenable position in the wake of the midterm elections. He could continue to fight for his top priorities, butt heads with GOP lawmakers intent on destroying his presidency, and run into inexorable gridlock. Or he could drift to the right, concluding that more conservative policies are better than a stagnant government, running the risk of alienating his liberal base.

But there's an alternative behind door #3: embrace the handful of Republican ideas he already likes, effectively challenging the GOP to take "yes" for an answer.

There are more such ideas than you may realize.

Energy policy is arguably the easiest area for common ground, given the McCain-Palin agenda of 2008. Obama could endorse it with relative ease. Though it's unlikely today's GOP, which has lurched far to the right, would appreciate the gesture, it would be somewhat more challenging for Republicans to characterize a plan presented by their own party's presidential ticket as some kind of communist plot.

Second, there's immigration. The White House's vision of a comprehensive reform plan is already in line with the last administration's approach on the same issue. The President can keep the bipartisanship going by endorsing the Bush-Cheney immigration proposal, almost to the letter.

Likewise, the Dream Act, intended to help children of illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship, was written in large part by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Republicans want to make cuts to government spending? No problem - several prominent GOP lawmakers, including hard-line conservatives like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), have recently endorsed trimming the enormous Pentagon budget, an idea Obama could also get behind.

Social Security judges facing more violent threats

SAM HANANEL

(11-14) 08:03 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/11/14/national/w061042S72.DTL#ixzz15HYvaTzE

Shuler on Pelosi: If 'she doesn't step aside, I will challenge her'

 

 

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) countered Pelosi would stay, saying she had led Democrats to the land "of milk and honey."

 

Blue Dog Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.) said on Sunday that he will run for House Democratic Leader if Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) doesn't drop her bid for the top-ranking position.

Though he said he doesn't "have the numbers to win," Shuler told CNN's Joe Johns on "State of the Union" that his caucus deserves to have a moderate candidate to vote for when the caucus elects their leaders on Wednesday.

“If it comes down to this coming week, and she doesn’t step aside, then I will challenge her," Shuler said.

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) was firm that Pelosi would not drop her bid to retain her status as the No. 1 ranked House Democrat.

"She's made the declaration ... and we all know that she will be a candidate and as Heath Shuler just said, if he were to get in the race, he would not be successful," Clyburn said on CNN following his junior colleague's interview.

Clyburn and Pelosi reached an agreement on Friday night to avert a divisive battle in the caucus when they created a new No. 3 ranking leadership position for Clyburn. Instead of serving as whip in the minority, Clyburn would take on the title of Assistant Leader.

The House's highest-ranking African-American lawmaker was locked in a fight with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for the No. 2 ranking leadership spot in the 112th Congress.

Leading up to the late-night deal brokered by Pelosi, Clyburn said that some Democrats told him they would not go to the leadership meeting if they had to choose between Clyburn and Hoyer or Clyburn and Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.).

"Some told me if a vote came up and they were in the room that they would leave the room, so what we did was look at this issue and see how we could best keep our caucus together," Clyburn said on CNN.

Shuler said that Clyburn should remain in a leadership post, but Pelosi needs to go.

“Let’s be realistic about it, there’s very few numbers of (moderates) left, the entire House is being pushed further and further apart in their different viewpoints and the moderates have to bring our country together to move our country forward. I would really hope that [Pelosi] would step aside to allow Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn -- those gentlemen-to step forward in the leadership positions that they held in the majority, to be the leader and to be whip,” Shuler said.

Shuler believes that his party didn't get the message on Election Day when voters kicked Democrats out of majority control of the House if his caucus keeps Pelosi at the top of their leadership team.

"I hope that with so many members that we need to go in a different direction, that we have to be able to recruit or get back those members of Congress that lost, and I just don’t see that path happening if she’s at the top of the Democrats,” Shuler said.

Clyburn said, however, that Pelosi led Democrats to the land "of milk and honey" back in 2006 when her party regained the majority after 12 years of GOP rule. Shuler was elected to the House in the class of 2006 -- the lawmakers who Pelosi has referred to as her "majority makers."

Officials seek to learn how retirement home resident got into walk-in freezer

The woman, 94, was hospitalized after being found in the cold storage locker at the upscale Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas. She is back 'safe and sound' and 'corrective action' has been taken against two employees, a facility official says.

Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times November 12, 2010|7:37 p.m.

http://goodmenproject.com/2010/11/08/study-of-the-day-men-can-fake-it-too/

Nancy Pelosi averted showdown between Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn by announcing she will create a new post for the latter. | AP Photo

JONATHAN ALLEN | 11/13/10 11:43 AM EST Updated: 11/13/10 7:12 PM EST 

 

House Democratic leaders maneuvered Saturday to lock down a lineup that would look exactly the same in the minority as it did in the majority, even as junior and disaffected rank-and-file lawmakers clamor for change at the top.

Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi averted a Wednesday showdown between her top two lieutenants by announcing that she will create a new post for Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who was expected to lose a race for minority whip to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md. Clyburn would become "assistant leader" and would remain the third-ranking person in the Democratic leadership, Pelosi said in a letter to caucus members.

That may help Pelosi avoid a revolt from black lawmakers anxious to make sure that Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, isn't booted from the leadership or demoted in rank. Moreover, the deal does little to alleviate the frustrations of a scattered but sizable set of junior Democrats who believe Pelosi and her senior allies exercise too much control over caucus structures, including campaign, policy and committee-assignment apparatuses. Those lawmakers are working to rewrite internal rules to take power away from the septuagenarians who run the party.

"You have a bunch of senior citizens at the buffet at closing time, fighting over the last piece of meat," said one veteran Democrat who talked about the "frustration of the younger generation" of talent that's upset at the prospect of keeping "the status quo."

Both Hoyer and Clyburn endorsed the deal, but one member of the younger generation, Heath Shuler of North Carolina, told a local newspaper in his district, the Clay County Progress, this week that he would challenge Pelosi for the leadership. He had previously said he would challege her if no one else did.

Despite losing control of the House and likely more than 60 seats in all, Pelosi contends that forces beyond her control are to blame for Republicans' success at the ballot box earlier this month.

"The reason the election results are what they are is because we have 9-1/2 percent unemployment in our country. We didn't lose the election because of me," Pelosi told National Public Radio on Friday. "The reason they had to try to take me down is because I've been effective in fighting the special interests in Washington, D.C. I'm also the most significant attractor of support for the Democrats. So I'm not looking back on this. [Democratic colleagues] asked me to run. I'm running. And again, our members understand they made me target because I'm effective."

Indeed, Pelosi is a monster fundraiser, a favorite of nearly every identifiable Democratic interest group, and an indefatigable activist for her party's legislative and political goals.

It's a message that's resonating with liberals in her caucus and outside Congress, particularly those who blame the White House for failing to adequately communicate with the public about the benefits of major Democratic agenda items. And Pelosi, who has not drawn a challenger yet, appears poised to win election as minority leader in a caucus that has become more liberal because its electoral losses were heavily concentrated in centrist districts.

But she's not taking anything for granted. Pelosi won letters of support from EMILY's List, the Sierra Club and 32 House Democratic women on Friday. Her continued effort to demonstrate backing from core Democratic constituencies — and the strange late-Friday announcement of the agreement with Clyburn — led some Democratic sources to suggest she's not entirely comfortable with her standing right now. Pelosi's office put tremendous pressure on the women lawmakers to sign the letter, according to two party sources, and still didn't win the support of 18 House Democratic women.

There's a strong undercurrent of dissent building within Democratic ranks. It may not be enough to topple Pelosi or the other elected leaders — Hoyer, Clyburn, Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut and Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra of California — but Democratic insiders say diffuse calls for change could gather when lawmakers congregate in groups next week for the first time since the election.

Sources point to a handful of meetings this week that could lay the groundwork for a rebellion -— major or minor — against the existing power structure. For example, the chiefs of staff for members of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition are scheduled to meet Monday, CBC members gather Monday night and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) has called for a discussion among midwesterners on Tuesday.

Kaptur and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) are authors of a letter calling on Pelosi to postpone Wednesday's party leadership elections — a proxy vote for whether Pelosi and her lieutenants have a problem on their hands.

Meanwhile, Blue Dogs are working on a series of potential rules changes that would tear away Pelosi's authority to essentially appoint the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the co-chairmen of the Steering and Policy Committee, which hands out legislative committee assignments to rank-and-file lawmakers.

Pelosi's control over campaign strategy has come under fire in the wake of the election, in part because she was demonized as a symbol of voter frustration with Washington. Her name and image were used in tens of millions of dollars of campaign ads in districts across the country, prompting some Democratic incumbents and challengers to declare they would not vote for her to lead their party in the next Congress. She is deeply unpopular with the public at large — including independents whose approval of her rests in the high single digits — though she won reelection overwhelmingly in her San Francisco-area district.

The Steering and Policy Committee, run since 2003 by Pelosi confidants George Miller (Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) despite a two-term limit, has been criticized for a perception that it rewards only Pelosi loyalists with choice committee assignments, leaving important decisions to an ideologically and politically monolithic group.

Reps. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) and Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), who have said publicly that they do not support Pelosi's effort to transition from speaker of the House to minority leader, are among those drafting proposals to loosen Pelosi's grip on party leadership structures.

Pelosi's aides have not yet said whether she might embrace any of the proposals to give more influence to the caucus in choosing who will serve in secondary leadership roles.

Chris Bosh drives past Semih Erden during the first half of the Miami Heat's game against the Boston Celtics at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010. CARL JUSTE / STAFF PHOTO

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/12/1921764/miami-heat-fans-fury.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz15BwxdM3y

POST WIRE SERVICES

7:22 AM, November 13, 2010

Sometimes it pays not to listen to experts. Pays $69 million, in fact.

A British couple once brought a family curio -- an ornate Chinese vase that they owned for decades -- onto the precursor of the "Antiques Roadshow" for a little bit of history about the heirloom.

The snooty curator of "Going For a Song" declared the 16-inch-tall porcelain vase nothing more than a "very clever reproduction."

Luckily, the couple, longtime residents of the working-class London suburb of Pinner, didn't listen to the "expert" some 40 years ago, and held onto the piece.

'POT' LUCK: An expert on the forerunner of "Antiques Roadshow" dismissed this $69 million vase as merely a "clever reproduction." AP

The vase went back to a bookshelf, and later to the dusty attic of their modest home.

The couple grew old, and eventually passed away. The vase was nearly forgotten.

Then this year, their surviving relatives, the 70-year-old sister of the husband and her adult two children, were cleaning out the attic.

They were hunting for family heirlooms and items to sell at a run-of-the-mill estate auction, like furniture or carpets.

"We were clearing her brother's house after he died, and I looked at the vase and said, 'Oh, that looks nice.' It had just sat on the bookcase doing absolutely nothing," David Reay, manager of the Bainbridges auction house, told the London Evening Standard.

"They told me it had been valued at just [$1,300] two months earlier. They also told me the owner had taken it on 'Going For a Song' on the BBC about 40 years ago. He was told it was a very clever reproduction."

Reay knew it was valuable, but he still had it sent to the Arts Club of London where it sat on a metal table in a busy kitchen in between public viewings.

Finally, experts evaluated the piece and estimated it could sell for over a million dollars, noting it was made around 1740 for the royal court of Qianlong, the fifth emperor of the Qing dynasty -- a period when Chinese porcelain-making had reached its zenith.

The two adult children, a brother and sister, believed it was "just an ornament" that had been in the family since the 1930s, and passed down from a relative who traveled internationally.

The auction house of Peter Bainbridge -- a tiny business with just three full-time employees -- went ahead with the auction on Thursday.

The vase had attracted worldwide attention, particularly from China's nascent but growing cadre of wealthy art collectors.

Bainbridge's modest auction house was packed.

"The room was crackling with excitement. The couple were down in the middle of the audience, but no one knew," said Bainbridge staffer Peggy Bates.

Then the bidding began.

Bainbridge, whose big gest sale to that point had been $160,000, kept his cool as bids pushed the price past $10 million, then $30 million, then $50 million, to finally close at $69.5 million after 30 minutes of in tense bidding.

"There was a si lence that wrapped it self around the sale as the figure grew slowly but surely up to the sky," Bainbridge said.

"I'm an auctioneer, so at that point, I'm just doing the professional job I'm paid to do. But once the hammer's down, you do take stock slightly, and think, Oh, wow, that's really rather a lot of money."

The couple had to run out of the room to catch their breath.

And Bainbridge himself had to pause to realize he'll collect a $13 million premium on top of the closing sale price.

Once Britain's value-added tax was tacked on, the final price was $85.9 million, won by an anonymous buyer in China who phoned in the bid.

The brother and sister were utterly stunned.

"She told me she wished it happened 30 years ago," Reay, the Bainbridge manager, said.

Bainbridge himself called it a "fairy tale" for an "utterly normal" family.

The couple, like the buyer, insisted on remaining anonymous.

Their sale was the most expensive piece of Chinese artwork ever. .

Little is known about the vase, but it was likely looted from a Peking imperial palace by British and French soldiers during the Second Opium War, some 150 years ago.

British troops were given free rein to loot Emperor Xianfeng's Summer Palace of Gold.

They then torched the place and marched away laden with tons of booty.

China's booming economy means new collectors are joining the market all the time, and wealthy buyers are keen to repatriate treasures from their heritage.

LINK TO VASE:

  http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/attic_curio_finally_urns_respect_wGuepWOHbm0DKcyIegeiZK#ixzz15Avur8Vc

NPR says it's 'imperative' that its federal funding not be cut