A couple of items caught my eye this morning, one on Drudge Report the other on the Weekly Standard's website.
According to Drudge, Karl Rove, now a conservative commentator and former senior advisor to President George W. Bush, gave a speech at Johns Hopkins University on November 16. During his talk, Occupy movement protesters heckled him, but had nothing to say.
Rove responded, “If you don’t have the courage to stand here and then ask a question, you’re just showing your moral cowardice. He went on, “Do not be so arrogant and presumptive to think that you’re the only person who has a First Amendment right that needs to be heard. Who gave you the right to occupy America? Nobody.”
15 people were removed from the auditorium. No one was arrested. The university says they weren't students and that Hopkins was warned about this. But it seems the university didn't warn Rove.
I mention this incident because it's an offshoot of the situation in New York, where thousands of "protesters" amass on Wall Street daily, but none seem to have a valid reason or point. As for me, I think I clearly understand why they're all there. They've got absolutely nothing else they're qualified to do.
Then there was this item in The Weekly Standard regarding GE's filing a monstrous 57,000-page electronic federal tax return earlier this year, but not paying taxes on $14 billion in profits. Had the return been printed on paper it would have stacked 19 feet high.
House budget committee chairman, Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin, used the filing to make the case for corporate tax reform, saying "GE was able to utilize all of these various loopholes, all of these various deductions-it's legal." He noted that nine billion dollars of GE's profits came from overseas, outside U.S. tax law jurisdiction, and $5 billion in U.S. profits weren't taxed because GE utilized numerous deductions and tax credits, including tax breaks for investments in low-income housing, green energy, research and development, as well as depreciation of property.
I mention this because, in February 2009, Jeffrey Immelt, GE's chairman, was appointed as a member to the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the president and his administration with advice and counsel in fixing America's economic downturn. While retaining his post at GE he's become, Chairman of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, a newly named panel that President Obama's creating by executive order. Despite the fact that in July 2011 Immelt's General Electric announced it's in the process of relocating its X-ray division from Wisconsin to China. Immelt had previously referred to China as GE's "second home market".
What's more, since Immelt took over, GE's stock has dropped nearly 60%. He's also been recently criticized by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly for business transactions between GE and Iran, the country which has reportedly been attacking U.S. forces in Iraq. O'Reilly went as far as to say, "If my child were killed in Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt". However, GE's website claims that the company stopped doing business in Iran in 2005, and finished all contracts by 2008.
So, when you sort it all out you have business as usual conducted by the White House. The president goes all over the country making speeches several times every day wherein he blames each and every mistake he's made on anyone or thing he can think of. Yet, when you look at the facts you find he's at the bottom of every pile of factual negative information you ever read through.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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