Did Rudy Guiliani Bury Cost Of Trips To Mistress?

Report: Giuliani Billed Security Expenses To Obscure NYC Agencies

Rudy Giuliani’s campaign is once again fending off new questions about an old affair.

According to Politico.com, in 2000 – as Giuliani was beginning the not-so-secret extramarital marital relationship with Judith Nathan, the woman who eventually became his third wife – he billed obscure city agencies thousands of dollars in expenses for his police security detail in the Hamptons off Long Island, where Nathan was living.

For example, in one instance, $34,000 worth of travel expenses were placed in the budget for the New York City Loft Board.

“These were records that the city comptroller tried to get in the past, but the mayor’s office said they couldn’t be released because of security,” Politico.com’s Mike Allen told CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts.

Giuliani’s campaign had this response, calling the story a non-issue.

“This is common practice,” the campaign said in a statement. “The NYPD is responsible for providing security for the mayor of New York around the clock.”

“It’s clearly the responsibility of the NYPD to provide the mayor’s security around the clock and that’s what they did,” Giuliani spokesperson Maria Comella told CBS News.

But the question isn’t about his security detail. It’s about how the expenses were billed.

“It’s coming out at the worst possible time for Rudy Giuliani, just as voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are beginning to make up their minds finally,” said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato. “It reinforces his biggest problem, which is not just his liberal positions on social issues, but also the fact that he’s had a very messy private life.”

More here. 

Stephen Colbert For President: Ahead of Kucinich, Richardson, and Gravel!

 

He may be running as a joke, but Stephen Colbert has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into the upcoming election.

New polls show the Colbert ahead of some presidential hopefuls as Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel!

Colbert for President?!

He’d likely do a better job than Bush!

Bin Laden’s beard is real, video is not

by Robert Vamosi

On the Friday before the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Osama bin Laden appeared in a new video, his first since prior to the U.S. presidential elections in 2004. In analyzing the video, Neal Krawetz of Hactor Factor, an expert on digital image forensics, said in his latest blogs that the video contained many visual and audio splices, and that all of the modifications were of very low quality.

Most striking is bin Laden’s beard, which has been gray in recent images. For this video it is black. “As far as my tools can detect, there has been no image manipulation of the bin Laden portion of the image beyond contrast adjustment. His beard really does appear to be that color.” The Washington Post has the full video here.

Krawetz says the inner frame of bin Laden was resaved at least twice, and not at the same time. The images show fine horizontal stripes on bin Laden and a background indicating these came from interlaced video sources. In contrast, the text elements, such as the As-Sahab logo, appear to be from non-interlaced sources.

The September 7 video shows bin Laden dressed in a white hat, white shirt and yellow sweater. Krawetz notes “this is the same clothing he wore in the 2004-10-29 video. In 2004 he had it unzipped, but in 2007 he zipped up the bottom half. Besides the clothing, it appears to be the same background, same lighting, and same desk. Even the camera angle is almost identical.” Krawetz also notes that “if you overlay the 2007 video with the 2004 video, his face has not changed in three years–only his beard is darker and the contrast on the picture has been adjusted.”

More important though are the edits. At roughly a minute and a half into the video there is a splice; bin Laden shifts from looking at the camera to looking down in less than 1/25th of a second. At 13:13 there is a second, less obvious splice. In all, Krawetz says there are at least six splices in the video. Of these, there are only two live bin Laden segments, the rest of the video composed of still images. The first live section opens the video and ends at 1:56. The second section begins at 12:29 and continues until 14:01. The two live sections appear to be from different recordings “because the desk is closer to the camera in the second section.”

Then there are the audio edits. Krawetz says “the new audio has no accompanying ‘live’ video and consists of multiple audio recordings.” References to current events are made only during the still frame sections and after splices within the audio track.” And there are so many splices that I cannot help but wonder if someone spliced words and phrases together. I also cannot rule out a vocal imitator during the frozen-frame audio. The only way to prove that the audio is really bin Laden is to see him talking in the video,” Krawetz says.

Another bin Laden video was released on September 11 and was much more straightforward. There was a still image of the black-bearded bin Laden (oddly, using a frame not used in the previous video), and then, as has been a tradition at al-Qaida , there was a long, unedited video of a statement read by Azzam Al Amriki, also known as American-born Adam Pearlman, who is currently being sought for treason and thought to be living in Pakistan. That doesn’t mean the 9/11-released video wasn’t doctored.

Click here and mouse over the image to see Krawetz’s 75 percent error level analysis of one image. The white frame around Azzim reveals that his video was composited against the drawing of the World Trade Center being attacked. As Krawetz presented at this year’s Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, al-Qaida has a history of doctoring background either to present propaganda or simply to disguise locations. In a separate interview, Krawetz talks with CNET News.com about some of the tools he used in his analysis.

Giuliani Compares Welfare Recipients to Animals in Racist Video from 2000

Giuliani Compares Welfare Recipients to Animals in Racist Video from 2000

A Plea to Fix the Health Care System in the United States

This man brings tears to my eyes and reaffirms the need for a solid universal health care system in America. I want all American citizens to be protected.

Mitt Romney Shows That He Is a Misogynist and a Bigot.

Here is Mitt Romney with one of his bright supporters. The picture on the right shows Mitt, himself, holding up that same sign. Maybe someone should tell them that Osama Bin Laden isn’t running for president of the United States. Oh, and that “momma” or “mama” is the correct spelling.

The sign obviously groups the names of the two leading Democratic candidates with Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden.

We get it. You worked really hard to come up with a cute rhyme. I think the negativity, childlike scribbling, and the misspelling work against the cause. And if Mitt wants to portray an image of being thoughtful, a forward-thinker, or even literate then he needs to stop posing with signs like this one. Wait, I’m glad that he isn’t hiding the fact that he is a misogynist and a bigot. Keep on being an idiot, Mitt. You won’t get my vote.

Dangerous Territory in New Catholic Town, Ave Maria

Can a Catholic Town Create Catholic Laws Too?

The first immigrants ventured to the American colonies with the desire to worship freely. Religious wars and disputes within Germany and France, as well as, the English Civil War prompted Pilgrims, Puritans, nonconformists, and some Catholics to migrate to a new land. The religions of these new people were primarily Christian and were not guided by the desire to be tolerant of all religions, but the Constitutional Convention believed that a federally sanctioned church would tear apart, rather than bind, a newly formed union together. The prominent Baptist minister from New England, Isaac Backus, commented on the idea of government being run separately from church saying when, “church and state are separate, the effects are happy, and they do not at all interfere with each other: but where they have been confounded together, no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that have ensued.” The phrase “separation of church and state” is traced all the way back to 1802 when Thomas Jefferson famously wrote to the Danbury Baptists and referred to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as the foundation for having a “wall of separation” between church and state. In the year 2007, can the United States continue to delicately balance religious freedoms alongside a “wall of separation” between church and state when a wealthy, avidly Catholic man is seeking to establish an entire town centered on religious beliefs?  Keep reading…

Which Politicians Are Celebrities and Wealthy Corporate CEO’s Donating To?

It is no secret that celebrities and CEO’s have a great amount of expendable cash. Some celebrities are known for their over-the-top generosity, like Oprah Winfrey, Bono, and Jon Bon Jovi. The idea that celebrities and other known individuals of massive wealth donate large quantities of money to certain politicians isn’t unheard of, but you may be surprised at which celebrities and CEO’s are donating and who exactly they are writing checks to.

Adam Sandler, the quirky comedian, has made laughable movies like, “Billy Madison” and “Big Daddy” along with some movies that caused people question his comedic skills as in, “Little Nicky”. The funnyman has been an elite member of Hollywood since his successful days as a member of the cult hit television show “Saturday Night Live”. Fans probably assume that Sandler is a liberal democrat. That assumption would be incorrect. On February 6, 2007, Adam Sandler wrote a check to the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee Inc. for $2,100. Giuliani is a republican presidential candidate. Sandler’s donation almost reaches the maximum amount that is allowed to be donated to each candidate, which is $2,300. Sandler hails from Brooklyn, New York, so perhaps Sandler supports the Republican Giuliani because he is the former mayor of New York City.

The loud, brash comedic whit of Joan Rivers is likely to lead one to believe that she is certainly also an outspoken voice for women and which would lead to the obvious conclusion that she harbors democratic beliefs. Wrong. The last campaign contribution that Rivers made was in 1999. She donated $1,000 to republican Rudy Giuliani and another $1,000 to republican Steve Forbes for his presidential exploratory committee. Rivers’ total donations amount to $6,750 with a rough percentage breakdown of 44.4% republican, 48.1% going to special interest, and only 7.4% going to democrats.

Rosie O’Donnell has never been shy about her political stance. Rosie has a reputation for being quite generous, but people may be surprised at how much of her own money she has put into backing political candidates that she believes in. Since 1998 Rosie has penned checks for political donations amassing to $169,000. In February and March of this year, Rosie wrote checks to the following presidential candidates for the maximum of $2,300 each: Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. Rosie also gives generously to special interest groups, particularly the Human Rights Campaign, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and Emily’s List.

With so much interest being focused on the 2008 election, it is interesting to see which celebrities and CEO’s have already donated money to presidential hopefuls.  See the list of celebrity and CEO donations here.

A Comparison of George Bush and Adolf Hitler

“If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator,” George W. Bush.

Adolf Hitler said something very similar and then he became a dictator. The difference between a dictatorship and a democracy is that in a democracy the leaders are elected by the masses. A dictator comes to power by seizing the office through force, being appointed by an elite, or by assuming power, for example, through a fixed election. Sound familiar? The similarities between George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler are both frightening and astounding.

For starters, the Bush family has ties to Nazi Germany. The family tree can be traced back as recently as Prescott Bush, George W. Bush’s grandfather, to find the tie. Prescott Bush managed to get into a bit of trouble back in the 1940’s. Prescott Bush was a partner in Brown Brothers Harriman and was also one of the proprietors of the Banking Corporation Union. Both of these companies played a key role in financing Hitler on his way to power in Germany. While the American soldiers were fighting the Nazis in World War II, Prescott Bush’s companies were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act because they were selling fuel to and laundering money for the Nazis. On October 20, 1942 the government ordered the confiscation of Ranking Corporation Union (owned by Prescott Bush) and also seized the Dutch-US Trade Corporation and Seamless Steel Corporation both administered by the Bush-Hamman Bank. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on November 17, 1942, confiscated all assets of the Silesian American Corporation, which was also administered by Prescott Bush, for trading with the enemy.  Continue educating yourself here.