LAWYERBRUCE

Friday, April 1, 2011

Resignation at the White House!

April 1, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

April 1 is … One Cent Day

I hope you believe everything I write today. It has got to be worth a one cent on one cent day, at least.

Reports are running rampant that President Barrack Obama is going to resign in a

Nationally broadcast speech at noon central time today. The resignation is apparently related to his birth place. NBC News is reporting it has confirmed that President Obama was not born in the United States or any of its territories thereby making him unconstitutionally qualified to serve as President. The NBC News report has been confirmed by ABC News, CBS News, the AP, CNN and Fox News. The White House will not confirm the resignation but has confirmed President Obama will speak to the Nation at noon central time “on a matter of national importance.”

Numerous news outlets have reported that First Lady Michelle Obama and the couple’s two children have left Washington DC. Chicago news organizations are reporting a flurry of activity around the Obama’s Chicago home. Other reports have stated Vice-President Joe Biden has been in the White House for over twenty-four hours. He has cancelled all public appearances through April 5, 2011 as has President Obama. The VP’s family has been seen at his Washington DC home, including the children rarely seen in the public eye.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff have called for a session to commence at ten a. m. this morning. The Supreme Court has delayed all Court arguments until two p. m. today. The ramping up of security around the White House is obvious as well as increased security around Vice-President Joe Biden and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner.

This riveting turn of events is apparently related to the long discussed reports surrounding the birth place of President Obama. The President has refused to release an official copy of his Birth Certificate. He claims he was born in Hawaii. His mother is dead and never confirmed his birth place while alive. His father has made conflicting statements regarding the location of his son’s birth. President Obama and his father did not have regular contact while the President was growing up and still do not have much to do with each other. Obama’s father is not American and that has never been an issue.

Hawaiian officials have never been able to confirm the birth location because of State law. President Obama could allow the State to release the Birth Certificate but he never has authorized the release. The Tea Party and many Republicans have been harping on the birth certificate issue since before President Obama was elected.

The Internet is the home to many web sites dedicated to ‘birthers’, people who are convinced President Obama was not born in America. Many of these sites have posted Birth Certificates they claim prove he was born in India, Africa, Indonesia and many other places. If the news reports of the resignation prove accurate and the reason is the birth location, this will prove to be a boom for the internet, the Tea Party and the Republicans. It could also set race relations back fifty years.

The repercussions of the resignation of President Obama, if it is for the reasons being reported, are enormous. All presidents take an oath of office. The oath is short and to the point. The person taking the oath generally inserts his name after “I”. The Constitutional Oath of Office is: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The oath has an underlying assumption that the person taking the oath is constitutionally qualified to be President. The oath states the President will “… preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” It is hard to defend the Constitution if you violate the Constitution by taking the Oath of Office. This could result in President Obama being criminally liable for perjury. His defense is he did not where he was born. Good luck with that defense. Who does not know where they were born? It could also call into play the legality of all actions taken by Obama as President.

The country does have precedence for this situation. President Richard Nixon resigned from the Presidency on August 9, 1974. About a month later, on September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford gave Nixon a “full, free and complete” pardon.

It has generally been accepted that although no one is above the law, the former President of the United States does not go to jail after office absent a violent, murderous crime. We do not have a prison designed to house a former President. He could not be housed in a typical prison or with the general population. Additionally, former Presidents of the United States of America do not go to jail because it does not look good from a public relations viewpoint. Former Presidents of banana republic’s or corrupt African nations go to prison, not former US Presidents.

Fox News is also reporting every individual with press credentials has been ordered to turn them in to the White House press liaison. Every new President picks which press people he will deal with. Another sign a change is eminent.

The ramifications from this decision, if resignation occurs, will be earth shattering. The Democratic Party could cease to be a major player on the national scene for decades. Health care reform will come back with a vengeance. The wars we are involved in will be revisited. The failing economy and the widely viewed filed policies of the Obama Administration will be back in play. Nothing will be sacred. While the Nation is consumed with this scandal, the Republicans and Tea Party could ram legislation through Congress affecting everything from entitlement programs, Social Security, immigration and the defense budget; all while the citizens are recovering from the Obama fiasco.

Today is going to be an interesting day, to say the least.

The Governor of Wisconsin is backing down. Apparently he pulled a major April Fool’s Day joke on the State. According to the Huffington Post, a Wisconsin judge on Thursday did what thousands of pro-union protesters and boycotting Democratic lawmakers couldn't, forcing Republican Gov. Scott Walker to halt plans to implement a law that would strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights and cut their pay. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi, who had issued an order intended to block implementation of the law while she considered a challenge to its legitimacy and warned of sanctions for noncompliance, amended her order Thursday to clarify that the law had not taken effect, as Republican leaders argued it had. The governor's top aide, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, later issued a statement saying Walker would comply with Sumi's order and halt preparations that were under way to begin deducting money from most public workers' paychecks, but that the governor's administration still believes the law took effect after a state office unexpectedly published online.

April Fools on the President Obama story! Just Kidding!

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.

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Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.

http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/497984-ebook.htm

www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.

www.kobo.com

https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius, on Learning

Thursday, March 31, 2011

What did Virginia Tech do wrong?

March 31, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

March 31 is … Bunsen Burner Day and National Clams On The Half Shell Day

Wednesday afternoon my daughter, a student at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, had a particularly tough, long day. She was up at 5:00 a. m., had to work, go to class, write a paper and run a service project function last night. Around 4:00 p. m. she sent my wife a text explaining her day and ending with; “Been a tough day but all is well with the world, I am sitting at a U of I baseball game.” It was just a reminder to me , my wife and all of us to to enjoy the little things in life.

Slaughter in America revisited. I wrote about this in December, 2010. Authorities are investigating possible human remains found on a Long Island barrier beach where the bodies of four online escorts were discovered late last year, police sources tell FoxNews.com. A Suffolk County police spokeswoman said the remains were found Tuesday east of the area where the original remains were discovered during a day-long search of the area using helicopters and dogs. "We have not confirmed whether or not they are human," a police source said. Investigators from Suffolk County were searching the area Tuesday for 24-year-old Shannon Gilbert of New Jersey, who was last seen in May 2010 in a shorefront community nearby. Gilbert was not among the four bodies found on a Long Island beach in December. The bodies, all wrapped in burlap bags, were identified as 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, of Norwich, Conn.; 24-year-old Melissa Barthelmey, of Bronx, New York; 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello, of Long Island, N.Y.; and 22-year-old Megan Waterman of Maine. All four women were escorts who advertised themselves on the Craigslist website. Police theorize a serial killer may have been responsible for the deaths. No suspects have been identified in the deaths of the women. The medical examiner's office is working to determine whether the remains found Tuesday are human.

I know my mother and father loved me but I don’t know if they loved me this much. Of course, I never put them in the situation where they had to make the choice these Ohio parents made. According to a story written by the Aol crime reporter; the body of a missing mother of three has been recovered from an underground septic system behind a rural Ohio church after the woman's mother-in-law told authorities where to find the corpse, according to police.

Authorities had been searching for 25-year-oldAuthorities Summer Inman since March 22. She was in an alleyway behind a bank that she was cleaning when two men forced her into a car, police in the town of Logan said. Authorities in Ohio have recovered the body of Summer Inman from inside an underground septic system behind a rural church. "The body was very much intact [and] we're very comfortable with the identification," Logan Police Chief Aaron Miller told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday. Police investigated the incident as an apparent kidnapping and focused on Inman's estranged husband, William Inman II, 26. The couple, who were married in 2004, had been separated for about a year. Summer Inman had filed for divorce and obtained an order of protection. According to court documents obtained by a local TV station, 10TV News, she said her husband had "threatened to kill" her. Police last week filed kidnapping charges against Inman and his parents, William Inman, 47, and Sandra Inman, 46. According to Miller, authorities recently conducted a search of the parents' Jackson County home, during which they said they found "significant evidence" of their involvement in the crime. Miller said Sandra Inman came forward Tuesday with information in the case. "[She] asked to speak with her attorney," Miller said. "Shortly thereafter, [she] revealed the location of Summer Inman's body. Officers arrived at the location at about 8:50" Tuesday night. Miller said police were led to an underground septic tank at Faith Tabernacle Church, off U.S. 33 in Nelsonville. "Her body was in a septic system at the rear of the church," he said. Police say they have received information indicating that the Inmans may have been members of the church at some point.

I hope this is an internet rumor. Even if is not, President Obama and his people will spin it so it does not appear to be what it is. Obama made has a policy that NO U.S. SERVICEMAN CAN SPEAK AT ANY FAITH-BASED PUBLIC EVENTS ANYMORE. So much for Freedom of Speech; where’s the ACLU on this one? Why do military personnel give up Constitutional Rights even though they are the ones doing the real fighting to preserve them for United States citizens?

To the City of Lights we go, down the beautiful streets of Paris, under the Arc de Triumphe and there, before us, the site of one of the world’s most photographed and well-known landmarks, the Eiffel Tower. It was on this day in 1889 that the structure opened in Gay Paree. A beautiful sight, no? Well, not so to writers, Guy deMaupassant and Alexandre Dumas, who condemned the Eiffel Tower as a “horrid nightmare.” Well, no pleasing some people, we guess... The Eiffel Tower was named after its designer, architect, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel who built the structure for the Paris Exhibition of 1889.

You heard the old joke:

Why did the French plant shade trees to line street that passes under the Arc de Triumphe?

So invading Armies can march into Paris in the shade.

A woman turned a few heads when she walked into a rural Virginia courthouse with a tiny monkey clad in a pink-and-white dress tucked in her bra. The woman brought the palm-sized marmoset to Amherst County Courthouse on Thursday for a hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. Officials apparently didn't notice the monkey until the woman went to an office to complete some paperwork. In an interview with The News & Advance of Lynchburg, the woman says the marmoset is 7 weeks old and requires constant attention. The woman tells the newspaper she bought the animal on an online auction site and had its clothes specially made in West Virginia.

While that was going on, the government has found another way to avoid doing its job while passing the buck and charging a few bucks also. Virginia Tech will have to pay the maximum $55,000 fine for violating federal law by waiting too long to notify students during the 2007 shooting rampage, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday. Department officials said in a letter to the school that the sanction should have been greater for the school's slow response to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The $55,000 fine was the most the department could levy for Tech's two violations of the federal Clery Act, which requires timely reporting of crimes on campus. "While Virginia Tech's violations warrant a fine far in excess of what is currently permissible under the statute, the Department's fine authority is limited," wrote Mary Gust, director of a department panel that dictated what punishment the school would receive for the violation. The university could have lost some of its $98 million in federal student aid. The department has never stripped a school of federal funding for such a violation.

A university spokesman said Virginia Tech would appeal the decision. "We believe that Virginia Tech administrators acted appropriately in their response to the tragic events of April 16, 2007, based on the best information then available to them at the time," spokesman Larry Hincker said in a statement. The department issued its final report in December, finding that Virginia Tech failed to issue a timely warning to the Blacksburg campus after student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed two students in a dormitory early on the morning of April 16, 2007. The university sent out an e-mail to the campus more than two hours later, about the time Cho was chaining shut the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more students and faculty, then himself.

The report also determined that the school failed to follow its own procedures for providing such notification. The report said Tech's failure to issue timely warnings "deprived its students and employees of vital, time-sensitive information and denied them the opportunity to take adequate steps to provide for their own safety."

We pay a lot of taxes. One of the primary obligations of the government, one of the primary reason we pay the government taxes, is for it to provide security and National Defense. Why pay the government the tax dollars if all they are going to do is make laws that pass the buck to private or public entities not designed for that purpose?

The shooter in the Virginia Tech Massacre was not an American or a citizen. Born in South Korea, Cho arrived in the United States at the age of 8 with his family. He became a US permanent resident as a South Korean national. Virginia Tech is a university providing high quality post high school education. It is not in the security business. Even though the shooter was not a citizen, he had Constitutional Rights the university could not infringe upon. The government should not either but regularly does. Virginia Tech did not authorize this mass murderer to live in the United States, the federal government did. Now, after a tragic crime, the government blames the university and imposes a fine. What sanctions will be imposed on the government for failure to do its job and keep us citizens safe? Who will impose these sanctions? We all know the answer to those questions. How can we keep the United States citizens in the United States safe while we are fighting three wars we started to safeguard others rights and safety and while we are busy arming the Mexican drug cartels so they have the modern weapons needed to kill innocent people and drug agents?

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.

Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com

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www.lawyerbruce.wordpress.com

http://www.brucebrennanattorney.com/

www.bruceabrennananddekalbilandtheworld.blogspot.com

www.lawyerbruce.blogspot.com

www.lawofficeofbruceabrennan.yolasite.com

www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com

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http://www.lawyerbruceabrennan.webstarts.com

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http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/497984-ebook.htm

www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.

www.kobo.com

https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard

"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." - William James

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Libya is expensive desert property; too expensive.

March 30, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

March 30 is … I Am In Control Day

I previously mentioned how quickly money adds up when every time you fire a cruise missile it costs $2,000,000.00. They are expensive bullets. The Pentagon agrees with me. They released preliminary figures on Tuesday that put an early guess on the cost of picking on Libya. The military intervention in Libya has cost the Pentagon an extra $550 million so far, mostly for bombs and missiles, officials said Tuesday. The figure is not a full picture of the price tag for the operation in that it does not include such money as pay for U.S. sailors, airmen and other forces, who would have been deployed somewhere in the world anyway, officials said. But it is the first official figure released on the cost of setting up the no-fly zone in the North African nation and protecting civilians from strongman Moammar Gadhafi as he resists a movement to oust him.

Of the $550 million in added spending through Monday, about 60 percent was "for munitions, the remaining costs are for higher operating tempo" of U.S. forces and of getting them there, Cmdr. Kathleen Kesler, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Tuesday

From this day on, surgery would no longer painful, at least, while it was being performed. Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first operation while a patient was anesthetized by ether on this day in 1842 as he removed a tumor from the neck of a boy. Crawford had been observing several party-goers under the influence of nitrous oxide and sulfuric ether. Those folks were feeling no pain. And Crawford’s patient literally felt no pain as the good doctor removed a tumor from the man’s neck using the party concoction. This event has been celebrated as Doctor’s Day since this day in 1933. The idea of setting aside a day to honor physicians was conceived by Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond. Doctors throughout the United States celebrate in Dr. Crawford W. Long’s honor and, in honor of ether as an anesthetic.

Give a doctor a red carnation today. It’s the official, designated flower of Doctors’ Day.

This next story should be the biggest news of the day but it won’t be. The White House is already spinning away from this claiming they were not involved in the decision making process and our Attorney General did not authorize this activity. Well, if they were not involved and did not OK this moronic plan, who did?

From Fox News: Congress and the Department of Justice appear to be headed for a showdown this week over documents detailing Operation Fast and Furious, the botched gunrunning sting set up by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that funneled more than 1,700 smuggled weapons from Arizona Mexico. The Justice Department has until Wednesday to deliver to congressional investigators a stack of records and emails naming the individuals responsible for the gun trafficking operation that may have killed dozens, if not hundreds of Mexicans, and is becoming a growing embarrassment for the Obama administration. Under Project Gunrunner and the Phoenix off-shoot, dubbed Fast and Furious, the ATF encouraged gun store owners to sell to straw buyers consumers who they suspected of working on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.

Project Gunrunner purposely allowed the straw buyers to illegally buy and export guns only to see where they surfaced in Mexico. Using this investigative technique, the ATF hoped to take down the entire gun trafficking organization. Instead, records show it allowed more than 1,700 guns, including hundreds of AK-47s and high-powered, armor-piercing .50-caliber rifles to be trafficked to Mexico

Buying guns for non-personal use is illegal. Yet gun store owners were assured by ATF agents the buyers were under investigation and the guns were being intercepted before crossing into Mexico. AFT's gunrunning investigations were supposed to stem the flow of guns, like these, bought by U.S. straw buyers and sold in Mexico. Instead, whistleblowers say the guns were allowed "to walk."

President Obama, speaking for the first time about the growing scandal, conceded last week Fast and Furious may have been "a serious mistake," but he claimed, "I did not authorize it; Eric Holder, the attorney general, did not authorize it. He's been very clear that our policy is to catch gunrunners and put them into jail." But an investigation by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, could show otherwise. The ATF operates under Justice Department, and two assistant U.S. attorneys in Phoenix authorized virtually every wiretap, affidavit and investigation conducted in Operation Fast and Furious.

Some, like Issa, wonder how Holder could not have known about an investigation that size. "One of the questions we always ask is who is lying," Issa told Fox News. "We lose our credibility if we don't come clean and make the changes necessary to save lives on both sides of the border." If the Justice Department and ATF refuse to deliver the records Issa requested, as it already has done with similar requests by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Issa can subpoena the records. "We will subpoena if we have to, we'll hold hearings if we have to, we'll call in officials if we have to. But at the end of the day, the two Americans likely to have died as a result of this action pale in comparison to the countless numbers of Mexicans who have been killed," said Issa. He is referring to Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jamie Zapata. The guns used to kill both men were bought in the U.S. and investigators will now see if they are linked to Project Gunrunner.

Humberto Trevino, a senior Mexican lawmaker, says at least 150 people have been shot with ATF-monitored guns. Two of the gun stores involved were Carter's Country in Houston and J&G Gun Sales in Prescott, Ariz. "Let me tell you something about Carter's Country. They have been co-operating with ATF from the get-go," says Carter's County attorney Dick Deguerin.

"They were told to go through with what they considered to be questionable sales. They were told to go through with sales of three or more assault rifles at the same time or five or more 9-mm guns at the same time or a young Hispanic male paying in cash. It's all profiling, but they went through with it." Both gun stores felt burned by the ATF first by leaked records to The Washington Post that showed the two stores responsible for dozens of guns found at Mexican crime scenes, and now by Operation Fast and Furious. "You assumed they had your back," added J&G President Brad Desaye. "Absolutely, we felt like partners with ATF in a lot of ways." Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said in a Feb. 4 letter the operation's purpose was "to dismantle the entire trafficking organization, not merely to arrest straw purchasers." "The allegation -- that ATF 'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico -- is false," he wrote.

Holder also says his department policy is not to "let guns walk."

Thinking outside of the box is one thing; thinking with your head up your ass is another. These guys act like they are trying to catch seventeen year-old high school dropout gangbangers on the west side of Chicago. They aren’t. They are dealing with professionals; professionals apparently smarter then they are.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.

Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com

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www.lawyerbruce.wordpress.com

http://www.brucebrennanattorney.com/

www.bruceabrennananddekalbilandtheworld.blogspot.com

www.lawyerbruce.blogspot.com

www.lawofficeofbruceabrennan.yolasite.com

www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.law.officelive.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.webs.com

http://www.lawyerbruceabrennan.webstarts.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/attorneybruceabrennan

http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/497984-ebook.htm

www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.

www.kobo.com

https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard

"Happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence." - John F. Kennedy

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Smoke and mirrors.

March 29, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

March 29 is … Festival of Smoke and Mirrors Day

Gadhafi was made for this day as are most politicians, including our President. I hope President Obama didn’t pay much for that commercial he read last night. It was not very informative or news worthy in my thinking. The speech belonged on a Sunday morning talking heads program not prime-time, speak to the nation time slot.

The wonderful Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on Margaret Langdon’s novel, Anna and the King of Siam, opened this night in 1951 on Broadway. The King and I starred Yul Brynner in the role of the King of Siam. The king, along with his subjects, valued tradition above all else. From this day forward, the role of the King of Siam belonged to Yul Brynner and no other.

Brynner appeared in this part in more than 4,000 performances on both stage and screen (the Broadway show was adapted for Hollywood in 1956).

Anna, the English governess hired to teach the King’s dozens of children, was portrayed by Gertrude Lawrence. Ms. Lawrence and Mr. Brynner acted, danced and sang their way into our hearts with such memorable tunes as Getting to Know You, Shall We Dance, Hello, Young Lovers, I Whistle a Happy Tune, We Kiss in a Shadow, I Have Dreamed, Something Wonderful, A Puzzlement and March of the Siamese Children.

The King and I ran for a total of 1,246 outstanding performances at New York’s St. James Theatre.

I mentioned this was going to happen in my blog of March 26, 2011. It will likely get worse. Elizabeth Taylor left an enduring legacy of great films and even greater acts of philanthropy. She also amassed a huge fortune estimated between $600 million and $1 billion, most of that from her savvy business dealings. Already, the fighting has begun as to who will get to manage that bounty along with all the money she's destined to make in death. Her last wish was for her lucrative jewelry collection, valued at a staggering $150 million in 2002, to be auctioned off and the proceeds given to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and amfAR. "Elizabeth also made arrangements to split the rest of her fortune between her four children and other charities that she cared so much about," a close friend of the stars has reportedly stated. "But what is causing all the problems is not the money she made during her life, but rather what should happen to the millions she is going to make after her death." the close friend confided. Beauty product giant Elizabeth Arden has already announced they'll continue selling Liz's still-popular fragrances, they made $77 million last year alone, and there are countless other opportunities, like film re-releases and merchandising that the estate could profit greatly from. "The one thing she didn't do was understand that, much like Elvis and Michael Jackson, she might be worth more in death," a source says. "This is what has already started to cause friction between family, business managers and the many charities that meant so much to Elizabeth." The two-time Oscar winner has been worth a lot of money for decades. In 1996, when she divorced her last husband, Larry Fortensky, documents showed her net worth was $608.4 million. The New York Post reported that during the 1990s, Taylor earned about $2 per second, or about $63 million per year. Her perfume, White Diamonds, has never stopped selling.

This is going to make the fight between the NFL owners and the NFL players look good before it is over. The rich are fighting over becoming richer. Lawyers love it.

Everybody knew this was going to happen even though our Congressional leaders said a compromise would be worked out during the time the temporary resolution passed two weeks ago granted all involved. More lies from our leaders once again. The specter of a partial government shutdown looms again as Congress returns to Washington with Democrats and Republicans as far apart on a bill to keep the government running as they were two weeks ago. Despite mounting pressure and a deadline looming, talks have stalled, with Democrats accusing GOP leaders of catering to tea party forces and Republicans countering that the White House isn't offering serious proposals to cut spending. The vehicle for the debate, left simmering when lawmakers went back to their districts last week, is must-do legislation to bankroll the day-to-day operating budgets of federal agencies including military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. Other major tests will soon follow, as House Republicans unveil a blueprint to attack the broader budget mess next week and a must-do measure to maintain the government's ability to borrow money to meet its responsibilities. Last month, House Republicans passed a measure cutting more than $60 billion from the $1.1 trillion budgeted for such programs last year. All the savings were taken from domestic programs and foreign aid, which make up about half of the pot. Democrats in the Senate killed the measure as too extreme, citing cuts to education, health research, food inspection and other programs and services. Reaching agreement between Democrats and Republicans is proving difficult enough. Then comes the harder part for House Speaker John Boehner: convincing his many tea party-backed GOP freshmen that the sort of split-the-differences measure Obama could sign isn't a sellout. The shutdown scenario was mostly set up in last year's midterm election campaign, when Republicans emphasized sharp spending cuts to attack mounting federal deficits and won control of the House, enough additional political clout to more strongly challenge President Obama on budget issues. The GOP promised that it would ratchet spending down to 2008 levels and force Obama to backtrack on generous budget increases made on his watch. To meet the promise, GOP leaders initially pressed for about $35 billion in cuts in a proposal that took account of the fact that the budget year was almost halfway over. That idea didn't sell with tea party activists, and House Speaker John Boehner was forced to almost double the size of the cuts, driving away any potential Democratic support. But that meant the halfway point between the House-passed measure and a proposal advanced by Democrats controlling the Senate was roughly where Boehner started out in the first place. "The speaker knows that when it comes to avoiding a shutdown, his problem is with the tea party, not Democrats," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Time is running short. Staff-level negotiations last week ran aground, and the principals are going to have to pick up the pace to have any chance of making an April 8 deadline to avoid a partial shutdown of the government. Right now it appears that the shutdown that both sides have sworn to avoid is possible - if not probable.

The frustration boiled over on Friday, with Republicans criticizing Democrats for not presenting significant cuts. An offer a few days earlier had ponied up just another $10 billion or so, GOP officials said, which prompted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to accuse Democrats of "negotiating off of the status quo and refusing to offer any sort of serious plan for how to cut spending." The tough rhetoric was matched by volleys from Boehner, R-Ohio, and other House GOP leaders. That prompted Democrats to accuse Republicans of blowing up a near agreement on a "top line" of spending cuts that would have likely given Republicans more than half of their $60 billion-plus in reductions.

"The division between the tea party and mainstream Republicans is preventing us from reaching a responsible solution and prevented negotiations from taking place over the weekend even as the clock ticks toward a government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday. Democrats also say that House Republicans insist on using House-passed legislation slashing more than $60 billion from the current-year budget as the starting point for talks, pulling back from an agreement with Boehner's office to work off a baseline essentially set at last year's levels. Boehner appears to be in a no-win situation. Any agreement with Obama is sure to incite a revolt among hard-line tea party figures who want the full roster of cuts and an end to funding for Obama's signature health care law. And social conservatives are adamant that the measure cut off money for Planned Parenthood clinics that provide abortions in addition to the family planning services the government funds. Any attempts to outmuscle Obama with legislation that pleases tea partiers, however, would surely incite a shutdown. One option circulating among Republicans is to use the Pentagon’s budget to pass a short-term measure to avoid a shutdown but carry stiffer spending cuts than the $10 billion in bipartisan cuts to earmarks and domestic accounts achieved so far.

On this date in history;

1882 Knights of Columbus chartered for Catholic men
1886 Chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise for Coca-Cola (with cocaine)

1951 Julius & Ethel Rosenberg convicted of espionage

1962 Jack Paar's final appearance on the "Tonight Show"

1971 1st Lieutenant William L Calley Jr found guilty in My Lai (Vietnam) massacre

1973 Last US troops leave Vietnam, 9 years after Tonkin Gulf Resolution

1976 8 Ohio National Guardsmen indicted for shooting 4 Kent State students

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

Faith will not die while seed catalogs are printed.

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In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.
Abraham Lincoln

Monday, March 28, 2011

Go see an endodontist today!

March 28, 2011

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

March 28 is … Something on a Stick Day.

Happy Root Canal Awareness Week. Think Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man.

From the Associated Press and Tampa Bay Online; a billionaire executive whose family has run SC Johnson for five generations was charged Thursday with having sexual contact with a now 15-year-old girl over the course of several years. Samuel Curtis Johnson III, who goes by Curt, faces a count of repeated sexual assault of a child. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Johnson, 55, is the former chairman of Sturtevant-based Diversey Inc., a cleaning-products company that was spun off from SC Johnson in the late 1990s. Privately held SC Johnson makes household products including Pledge, Glade, Windex and Ziploc. Johnson resigned from Diversey's board in February and was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons, the company said at the time. Diversey spokesman John Matthews told The Associated Press on Thursday that Johnson had retired effective the end of March and that his leave of absence immediately removed him from any role with the company. Johnson was replaced by his sister. The criminal complaint accuses Johnson of having inappropriate sexual contact with the girl 15 to 20 times, starting in the summer after she finished sixth grade. The girl told investigators that Johnson exposed himself, fondled her under her clothes and kissed her breasts and elsewhere. The girl's voice cracked and she began to cry as she described Johnson as having a "sex addiction" and "touching problem," according to the partially redacted complaint. Prosecutors said the girl confided about the abuse to her mother, who confronted Johnson. He allegedly admitted to fondling the girl's breasts and repeatedly apologized for his behavior.

Johnson's cash bail was set at $500,000. Messages left with both of Johnson's lawyers were not immediately returned. Family spokesman Harlan Loeb said Johnson is married with three children. "Obviously this is a personal matter for Curt," Loeb said. "Allegations of this nature are always deeply disturbing. The family is distraught and very much hopes for the best for everyone involved." Johnson's brother is the chairman and chief executive of SC Johnson, based in Racine. Company spokeswoman Kelly Semrau said Johnson had worked for the company as a general manager and in other roles in the 1980s and early 1990s but had no formal relationship with the company in almost 15 years.

How long has he really been gone from the company? I like the family spokesman saying “…this is a personal matter for Curt.” His wife and kids probably don’t think so. Since he was arrested and is being prosecuted, it is a matter of public record and no longer a ‘personal matter.’

I missed this anniversary on the 26^th day of March. Sorry. Sarah Anthony Morse Borden 1823-1863, first wife of Andrew J. Borden and mother of Emma Lenora, Alice Esther and Lizzie Andrew Borden. She was the sister of John Vinnicum Morse, born September 19, 1823 in Somerset, Massachusetts. Daughter of Anthony and Rhody (Morrison) Morse, she married Andrew on Christmas day, 1845. Sarah died in Fall River on March 26, 1863. R.I.P. Sarah died before her husband and his second wife were hacked to death by an unknown assailant. The killings Lizzie Borden was charged and acquitted of are still an unsolved, open case in Fall River, MA I do not believe the case is under active investigation. It remains the perfect murder(s).

On this date in 1964; Radio Caroline debuted as the first pirate radio station to broadcast off the coast of England. On this day in 1964, the combination of rock music and lively disk jockey patter played to a huge audience in Great Britain; but well out of reach of British authorities. However, that didn’t stop them from trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to shut down the radio station ship. Radio Caroline had become competition to the staid and usually dull British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Today, all that is different, as there is licensed radio competition throughout Great Britain. The BBC and the giant, government-owned network has caught up with the times by offering five different services to appeal to wide audiences. They are simply known as ‘Radio 1’ through ‘Radio 5’ ... No ‘Zees’, ‘Qs’ or ‘Bees’, just numbers that include a rock channel, a talk channel, a nostalgia/easy listening channel, a classical/fine arts channel and a news channel.

In 2009, Philip Seymour Hoffman starred in a movie titled Pirate Radio. It is a good movie, a comedy with social commentary woven in. The movie has a real good soundtrack if you like 1960’s music and who doesn’t? It is also fun laughing at the British government and their attempts to shut the pirate radio station down. The United States had the Viet Nam war to deal with; Britain was dealing with godless rock and roll.

While I was wrestling with writing this blog in 1905, Marlin Perkins, Carthage MO, TV host (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom) and director of the St. Louis Zoo, was born. Was Reba born in New England on this day in 1955? No. Reba Mc Entire was born in McAlester OK on this date in 1955. I do like redheads.

Notable deaths on this date:

1980 Jesse Owens (Olympics-gold-36), dies in Tucson AZ at the age of 66

1969 Dwight D Eisenhower 34th President/General (WWII), dies in Washington DC at 78

Significant events on this date through history:

1866 1st ambulance goes into service

1885 US Salvation Army officially organized

1910 1st seaplane, takes off from water at Martigues France (Henri Fabre)

1924 WGN-AM in Chicago IL begins radio transmissions

1957 1st National Curling Championship held

1979 Major nuclear accident at 3 Mile Island, Middletown PA (no deaths)

1994 Italy's right-wing alliance under Silvio Berlusconi wins election
1995 Julia Roberts & Lyle Lovett split-up

BRUCE A. BRENNAN