2012 Presidential Election

Some residents blame the former White House strategist for a lack of jobs on the South Side Excerpt from: Rahm Emanuel gets earful during listening tour of Chicago

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Rahm Emanuel gets earful during listening tour of Chicago

Democratic primary day in the District had troubles at the beginning and end Tuesday — keeping the mayor’s race between Mayor Adrian Fenty and top challenger Vince Gray in doubt well into the early hours on Wednesday. There were malfunctions at the start with some of the newly purchased electronic voting machines and two precincts…

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Election board problems mar D.C. mayor’s race, delay results

Proving once again that the sexually-obsessed Islamists have no concept about what constitutes “hallowed ground,” the fast-diminishing Imam Rauf clearly doesn’t understand that the clubs and businesses in lower Manhattan he finds objectionable anteceded 9/11 — which in any case was not perpetrated by pole dancers acting in the name of ecdysiasm. Just don’t expect the mosque-rooting Mayor and the New York Times to point this out.

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On ‘Hallowed Ground,’ and Imam Rauf’s Misunderstanding of It

3 pm ET! Today on the Ed Morrissey Show (3 pm ET), Jim Geraghty brings us his Ledge Report look at all of the election news from the midterm campaign, and beyond.  We’ll talk about Rahm Emanuel’s almost-certain bid for Mayor of Chicago, and what the Obama White House will want in a replacement.    PPP tells Democrats Read this post

Jobs. The one-syllable word remains a central theme in D.C. elections, where two Democrats, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, are vying to remain employed as the employment situation for other residents remains grim. When Mr. Gray and Mr. Fenty were campaigning for their respective …

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Fenty, Gray talk unemployment

Chris Matthews must really be getting tired of watching the man that used to give him tingles up his leg continue to get crushed in the polls, for on Friday he recommended a serious shakeup in the Obama administration. First, he want’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates to be replaced by Hillary Clinton. “With her at the Pentagon, he would forge confidence in Middle East policy,” said the “Hardball” host. But the real surprise was Matthews calling for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to either replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner or Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (video follows with transcript and commentary): CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Let me finish with tonight with a plan to strengthen America’s ability to solve its problems. It’s tough and it’s water tight. President Obama has many strengths as this country’s head of state. He’s clear minded, gifted in intellect, artful in presenting issues and his vision of leadership. However, these past two years have been a shakedown cruise. We have seen the weaknesses in this ship of state. It’s come time to shake up. This president needs to put a firm Democratic brand on his defense policy. He was smart to keep Robert Gates in the Pentagon, but Gates is a holdover from the Bush era. There’s no real connection between what the country voted for in 2008 and what we’re getting in terms of security policy. Obama needs to bridge that gap, and he needs to pick a Democratic ally as defense chief. That Democratic ally is Hillary Clinton. With her at the Pentagon, he would forge confidence in Middle East policy. Friends of Israel would know we have someone in charge of America’s military forces who has an instinctive concern for the Jewish state. A proven track record of support, it will help get the deal cooked over there and getting that deal is the very stuff of American greatness. Now to the tough one, the economy. There’s one person in this country with a track record, the communications pizzazz to help make, carry out and market the historic recovery program still needed. His name is Michael Bloomberg. Look, you can say this is outlandish that he would never take the job at Treasury or as White House chief of staff, but there is a precedent. James Baker. He made Reagan a success and Barack Obama needs a Jim Baker, someone to focus the energies of this administration on economic reconstruction, period. Someone to lay down the same strong chain of command on domestic policy that Hillary Clinton will define on the national security front. This is the answer. Enough of the solo act. President Obama needs to build a team, a phalanx, a political policy power that takes his idealism and makes it deliver in strength abroad, jobs and renewed economic confidence at home. Makes you wonder what’s happened to Matthews since Tuesday. After all, on that evening’s “Hardball,” he called Obama “almost pluperfect.” How can someone so spectacular on Tuesday need a shakeup in his administration three days later?

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Matthews: Obama Should Replace Rahm Emanuel With Bloomberg, Gates With Hillary

Michael Bloomberg has had a busy summer. The NYC Mayor has been waging a pitched battle against the 71% of New Yorkers who want the Cordoba House mosque moved from its present site.  That event has gotten plenty of media coverage. But that fight may be nothing more than a part of a second, larger contest between Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg LP — a private company of which Mayor Bloomberg controls 85% — over control of financial news reporting  in the world of Islamic finance. The stakes in the Bloomberg-Reuters Middle East Islamic Finance war: The nearly 300 Islamic banks and financial institutions worldwide whose assets are predicted to grow to $1 trillion by 2013. “We have an aspiration at Bloomberg to become the most influential news organisation in the world.” Peter T. Grauer, Chairman and CEO of Bloomberg, July 31, 2010 “…. the growth of Islamic finance has been phenomenal in spite of the current difficulties that seem to be indicative of the situation visa vi the international economic community, the financial world seems to be turning its attention to Islamic finance.” Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Musa Hitam, Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation, CNBC interview, August 18, 2010 Two companies in the financial world turned their attention to Islamic finance and its phenomenal growth, Thomson Reuters (Reuters) and Bloomberg L.P. Simply put: if it ends up as Bloomberg’s market, Bloomberg’s financial news terminals — which are Bloomberg LP’s core profit center — will be the standard; if Reuters’ market, Reuters’ financial news portals will be used instead. Earlier we reported that we were cynical about Mayor Bloomberg’s motives for passionately defending the building of a controversial mosque near Ground Zero. Of particular concern: Bloomberg’s financial interests in the Middle East with Bloomberg L.P. establishing a financial information hub in Dubai at the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC). The five-year Bloomberg plan: to ‘double revenues by 2014″ in the Middle East. We’ve since learned we’d only skimmed the surface. A timeline of events over the last 26 months details the series of Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters moves and counter-moves that have been made in an attempt to gain the upper hand in the reporting of Islamic finance.  The pace has only accelerated since the 2008 crash.  With slow or no growth in Europe, the Americas and Japan, the Islamic financial world is being seen as the best bet for future profits by both combatants. This little matter may help explain the Mayor’s recent statement about the necessity of building the Park51 mosque to “send a signal around the world .” Was the Mayor thinking of sending a signal to the entire world–or just a particular part of it? Even more intriguing, Mayor Bloomberg’s reply to the question of whether the developer and the funds for the mosque should be investigated. On July 14, the New York Post reported: Bloomberg was asked Monday about GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio’s demands last week that Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo investigate the mosque being developed near the Sept. 11 attack site. The mayor has defended the mosque plans before. On Monday, he said investigating or vetting religious organizations goes against what the nation stands for. The mayor may think it is un-American to investigate the developers, but the media in New York City– especially the Post –has been admirable in picking up the slack. This week, the Post reported: “Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show.” Court records from several states other than New York indicate that Sharif El-Gamal has had more than his share of run-ins with the law over other legal issues . Court records  from Florida to New York state reveal that Sharif and his younger brother, Samir “Sammy” El-Gamal, 35, a partner with him in his company SoHo Properties, both have a history replete with intersections with tax and debt issues, dating back to at least 1994 and continuing into this year. In one case, a NYPD officer arrested Sharif in 1994 for “promoting prostitution.” (He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of disorderly conduct.) In another instance, Sharif told a court he didn’t hit a tenant from whom his brother and he were trying to collect back rent. He said to police, the tenant’s “face could have run into my hand.” As the debate has gotten more heated, Hizzoner’s rhetoric has gotten more bizarre — and hard to explain. Consider the following video which provides some background against which to judge a lot of Bloomberg’s otherwise-inexplicable statements. This video may also help explain that while the Mayor chooses to thumb his nose at a majority of his constituents over the mosque in New York City — the consequences of which will affect another, different battle half a world away.

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Follow the Money II: Could Mayor Bloomberg’s Media Business Interests in the Middle East Have Anything to Do with His Support of the Ground Zero…

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray squared off Wednesday in their latest face-to-face debate ahead of a sharply contested Sept. 14 Democratic primary. Mr. Gray, answering an early question about the future of public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, said he wouldn’t move forward on replacing …

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Gray hedges on school chief's fate in D.C. debate

Reuters – President Barack Obama, anxious to show he is still focused on the battered economy despite being on vacation, took time out of his golf game on Friday to chat about the growth situation with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg before they hit the course.

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Obama taps Bloomberg for views on economy during holiday golf
(Reuters)

Call us cynical but we wonder whether Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s passionate backing of the building of a controversial mosque near Ground Zero stems as much from Bloomberg’s belief in America’s “freedom of faith” as it might from the Mayor’s belief in the “virtues of Islamic finance?” Does the Mayor’s unshakable support have anything to do with The Bloomberg (company) becoming a ‘single provider of information that caters to the Islamic business market’?  A Bloomberg five-year business plan for an Islamic finance portal via a Bloomberg hub at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is already a reality. Michael Bloomberg, has become a staunch supporter of the Cordoba House (Park51) Ground Zero Mosque.  In the process, the Mayor has lectured opponents on “religious liberty” and, by extension, implied that opposition to the mosque is largely based on bigotry. Lately, Bloomberg has become so insistent on the mosque’s being built at its planned location that The New York Post has labeled him Pro-Mosque Mike .” A defiant Mayor Bloomberg, saying there should be no compromise, insisted last night that a mosque be built near Ground Zero, declaring, “We must do what is right, not what is easy. While Bloomberg hasn’t been shy about questioning the motives of those opposed to the mosque’s location, the media has shied away from the Mayor‘s motivations.  But what of the Mayor’s motives? What might they be? Does a strong passion for religious liberty explain all? Some of Bloomberg LP’s officials may hold some clues. On October 2, 2009, The Dubai Chronicle reported Chairman and President of Bloomberg LP Peter T. Grauer met with UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at Maktoum’s Emirate office. According to the Dubai Chronicle, Grauer gave a presentation of Bloomberg future expansion plans in the ‘area of business information’ in the United Emirates, North Africa, and India. Grauer stated the UAE was a great place to expand, the UAE’s “logistic facilities” the ‘biggest incentive for investors and companies to expand their businesses in the country and the region beyond’. “Particularly since the meltdown of the western capitalist system, there has been an increasingly large focus on the virtues of Islamic finance. Today, there is no one single provider of information that caters to the Islamic finance market. So by Bloomberg being here, we are in the process  of building out an Islamic finance product. We are very confident that we can build a product that meets the needs of the market right now.” –Max Linnington, Regional Head of Bloomberg Middle East and South Asia on the company’s plan to build a Bloomberg hub in Dubai at the Dubai International Financial Centre(DIFC), October 29, 2009 Some details about the DIFC : The DIFC is the world’s fastest growing international financial centre. It aims to develop the same stature as New York, London and Hong Kong. It primarily serves the vast region between Western Europe and East Asia. Could the plans of Bloomberg LP have an influence on Bloomberg the Mayor? Recently he claimed, “We would send a signal around the world that Muslim-Americans may be equal in the eyes of the law, but separate in the eyes of their countrymen.” Might the Mayor be more interested–even just the tiniest bit–in some parts of the world than in others? Might Bloomberg’s speech have sent a signal to the Middle East – which by a great coincidence, is the site of the Dubai International Financial Centre, the location of one of Bloomberg LP’s ten worldwide hubs? On March 10, 2010, the Khaleej Times reported Bloomberg Set for Dubai expansion in bid to double revenues by 2014 . “Bloomberg, a leading global provider for financial data and news services, plans to “significantly boost regional operations from its Dubai hub as it is bullish about growth prospects of the emirate as a global financial center, a top executive said.” The coincidences continue: the Mayor’s company is banking on “doubling revenues by 2014″ in a region that just happens to be largely populated by Muslims. The Mayor, when he isn’t busy rallying support for a mosque opposed by a large majority in NYC and 70% of Americans at large, is in the newsgathering business. Bloomberg makes a lot of money providing financial news in a timely manner. One more coincidence: if you do a search for financial news from Dubai and the Middle East, chances are, your only sources–outside the Mayor’s own Bloomberg.com — are The National , the Dubai Chronicle or the Khaleej News . While we were able to easily access articles from the National , Dubai Chronicle or the Khaleej News about the Bloomberg Dubai hub, a search of Bloomberg.com came up empty.  Ten pages of results: nothing. Does it concern the Mayor that Bloomberg.com is getting scooped on news about Bloomberg LP? Michael Bloomberg has made billions of dollars being a savvy businessman. Might a savvy businessman consider it prudent to maintain good relations in the Muslim world–a part of the world where the Mayor’s company hopes to “double revenues by 2014?” How does Mayor Bloomberg’s support for the Ground Zero mosque — based, he says, on the issue of freedom of faith – square with the “virtues of Islamic finance” and an Islamic finance portal in Dubai with Bloomberg LP‘s aim of becoming “the world’s single provider of information that caters to the Islamic finance market?” One more important question: will the NYC media ask Hizzoner if he has any potential conflicts to act as an impartial broker on Park51? Doesn’t it seem just that the survivors and families whose loved ones lost their lives on 911 receive some answers — before receiving any more lectures from the tiny, Boston-born Democrat turned Republican turned Independent turned Republican turned Whatever Mayor of the City of New York? It’s easy to imagine the Mayor becoming enthusiastic over opportunities when billions of dollars are to be made. Enthusiasm is a hard emotion to contain. Even when a majority of his constituents remain opposed to the latest object of Bloomberg’s enthusiasm.

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Follow the Money: Could Mayor Bloomberg’s Media Business Interests in the Middle East Have Anything to Do with His Support of the Ground Zero…