What’s happening at McClatchy and why I think we should care?

The McClatchy Newspaper Group is one of the last major newspaper groups in America still controlled by a family trust. Other Newspapers that have family control have included the New York Times and Washington Post. Previously the Wall Street Journal and LA Times had family control before selling out to Corporations.  For nearly a century a small group of wealthy families protected their papers from Stockholder control. Stockholders actually had very had little to no say in the running of the papers. The families provided cover for editors wishing to set the standard high for journalistic integrity and solid journalism.

It was no secret that the last McClatchy to run the paper group was a Democrat with some progressive tendencies (although he was not fond of Unions).  As The McClatchy Newspaper Group has recently purchased more newspapers, I have to believe that those newspapers are now providing the more balanced reporting practiced by the original Bees (Sacramento, Modesto, and Fresno).  This more balanced reporting can have affect on local races where the Democratic Candidate is finally getting some mention in the local press.

In Bushes world you have to be very very rich to get any IRS paybacks from our government.

How about no audits? Work for you?

Changes from 2005 to 2007 in IRS Business audits:
Small Business Audits  - up 41%
10 to 50 million dollar asset companies – audits up 29%
Companies with $250 million or more in assets  - audits DOWN 40%

The FY 2007 audit rate for the nation's largest corporations has plunged to its lowest level in the last 20 years, less than half what it was in FY 1988, according to IRS data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

The potential impact of all of these shifts for the nation as a whole is considerable. In FY 2007, for example, the audits of the giants were responsible for the majority of the recommended additional taxes that taxpayers of all kinds were asked to pay. In concrete terms, the additional taxes the auditors said the large corporations owed came to $24 billion or 54% of the total. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University

This just in from Bloomberg news, the FBI has instructed its staff to not open any new financial crimes or environmental cases (most likely until the end of the Bush Regime).  The green light is being sent to Republican criminals that its go-go-go, steal and pollute all you can until Bush is gone.

The 26 field offices were told to temporarily suspend opening new cases dealing with price fixing, mass marketing, wire fraud, mail fraud and environmental crimes, Carter said.  ... ``We're just saying, `Don't open any new cases,''' he said. Bloomberg

Laws being suspended by this action include those affecting: price fixing, mass marketing, wire fraud, mail fraud and environmental crimes.

My guess: The Clinton Campaign is Bankrupt.

Best estimate: $60 mil
$30 mil owed to small businesses, colleges, community centers, staff and others.
$10 mil owed to Senator Clinton.
$20 mil owed in advances from contributors that must be refunded because those contributors had already maxed out for the primary election. The general election campaign loaned (probably improperly) millions to the primary campaign.

Basis for my hunches: Last month they owed $20 to $30 million.  I suspect they were using "off the balance sheet" accounting for the General election money.  And they spent a fortune in the last month.

Clinton Team Acknowledges $20 Million Debt
By Anne E. Kornblut
Monday, May 12, 2008; Page A04
CLARKSBURG, W.Va., May 11 -- With her campaign falling ever deeper into debt, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton spent a rainy Mother's Day seeking votes ahead of Tuesday's primary here, turning a deaf ear to calls for her to leave a Democratic presidential contest she has little hope of winning. WA Post

more ranting and her latest email letter below

It’s nice to be generous with other people’s money.  Pay your staff for two weeks NOT to work.  

Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

As a taxpayer this bothers me.  And another big reason I am glad she won’t be our President.  Her actions symbolize to me why Republicans don’t trust the Democrats to spend their money wisely. It’s really not true (Republicans waste money on a scale that make Democrats look like penny pinchers).

The OPM factor leaves me with a bad taste for how this Clinton handles money

Update: This Diary not about paying people severance pay they deserve, it’s about who is paying for it, and could that money be better spent.

The Brad Blod has a great article on how to vote in Indiana if you do not have a picture ID issued by the State of Indiana. It has much deatail about what may be a real story of voters not being able to vote on Tuesday.

How to cast a ballot in Indiana, if you don't currently have a state-issued ID:

Find your birth certificate or passport. If you don't have either, you might be able to apply to the state to get a copy of your birth certificate, if you happened to have been born there, for just $12. A passport may cost you $100 UPDATE: BRAD BLOG commenter Mary Mancini points out Indiana's requirements for a copy of your birth certificate, require you to have......you guessed it...a Photo ID!

Get yourself to a Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Don't let the fact that you don't drive, or have a car, or have access to public transportation, as in many counties in Indiana, stop you from getting to the BMV before Election Day.

Do the above every four years, without fail, or risk not being able to vote like everyone else at the polls in Indiana on Election Day
Brad Friedman 4/29/2008

There is a strong possibility of a stock and bond rally before the crash, and here is why.

The Bu$hCo team has a bedrock core belief that King Bush II not be blamed for ruining the economy in the last year of his Presidency like King Bush I was.

Many of the players are still there from King Bush I's term and they remember the cruel fate that befell their beloved King Bush I. They remember that he was ridiculed for destroying the economy when:
(1)  they believed his team had already fixed it and
(2) Clinton got all the credit for what they had done.

Unfortunately for Americans the current Bush team does not care about:

(1) How many people lose their homes and jobs next year
(2) That the poor will suffer
(3) That they did not fix the health care (or any system) while they were in office

Bu$hCo will continue, at an accelerated rate, to lie cheat and steal their way to 2009. Virtually any Government statistic between now and January 2009 should be discounted.

What does this mean for you? below the fold....

The email:

It is a bedrock American principle: we are all equal in the voting booth. No matter where you were born or how much money you were born into, no matter the color of your skin or where you worship, your vote deserves to count.

But millions of people in Florida and Michigan who went to the polls aren't being heard. The delegates they elected won't be seated at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August -- and that's just not fair to those voters.

The people of Michigan and Florida must have a voice in selecting our nominee for president. I have repeatedly called for seating their delegates.

Click here to join me in showing our support for seating Florida and Michigan delegates at the convention.

This is such an important principle, and I appreciate you standing up with me.

Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton

My response back to them:
Please STOP sending me this crap
I DO NOT and WILL NEVER support you after all the crap you have done

What if the Obama and Clinton campaigns both agree to spend 30% of their:
mail,
radio,
and TV
ad buys on ads attacking McCain for the next 10 primaries?

Wouldn’t that serve as an immunity pill for voter backlash against the negative and destructive campaign under way? Wouldn’t that ensure that the Democrats win those states in the fall?  Wouldn’t that be a better use of precious campaign dollars?

The current negative campaign is a classic mutual destruction campaign.  I hate it.  Some good must come from it, hence my suggestion.

Got two emails this morning at the same time.  

The first from the extreme right wing group Move Forward America (and likely paid for by a DOD contract) about the bad demostrators against the war, their "great" new ad, annd with a fundraising pitch.

The second from the moderate group Move On encouraging me to call my Senator about bringing the troops home. A call to action likely to taken up by tens of thousands of  patriots nationwide.

Both emails below the fold.

On 2/11 I posted a diary titled: FL-13, Democratic Congress sadly sells out All Voters, and immediately lost my TU (trusted user) status. The diary made the High Impact list for that day and was generally well received.

Since joining DK in Sept 2006 I have posted 112 diaries.  Nearly half made the High Impact Diary list. The subject of my diaries has been:
Gas Prices – 2
MD-04 -2
Election Integrity – 6
OH-18 - 5
FL-13 – 24
Economy – 9
NV-Gov - 3
CA-Gov -1
Burma – 4
CA-11 – 2
Healthcare – 3
Other - 51

Three of my diaries, maybe four, made the Recommended list.

UPDATE: While commenting on this diary my TU status came back. (True story).  Thank You DK community! Whatever you did seemed to have worked.

UPDATE: Now that I have my TU status back, went to my diary and found an adiitional nine comments that i could not see because the first comment was TU'd from that person. Wonder if that affected my status? Thanks for a great discussion.

From Gonzales (Democratic chair of the Committee) official web site, posted moments ago:

February 8, 2008: Task Force Dismisses Contest of 2006 Election
Washington, DC - This morning, the Committee on House Administration's Election Task Force unanimously passed a motion to dismiss the contest of the 2006 election in Florida's 13th Congressional District.  The Task Force arrived at the decision after the Government Accountability Office presented a final report that outlined the results of their own independent testing of the voting machines used in Sarasota County.  Their testing, conducted between November 27, 2007 and December 4, 2007, concluded with reasonable assurance that that the voting machines did not contribute to the large under vote.  
Gonzales

GAO Report

If we think wholesale election fraud could not occur in California, think again. The battles for election integrity are being fought nationwide, especially here in California.

Several southern Ca Republican controlled counties have joined ranks to sue the CA Secretary of State for putting requirements on electronic machines she decertified as ineligible for use in CA (and then provisionally certified for use in the 2008 elections).
 
The issue that the Republican counties are fighting the most: automatic recount of 10% of the ballots cast when elections are close.

Taken as a whole these developments confirm a coordinated effort among County officials, unelected Registrars of Voters and election systems vendors to defy the Secretary of State's efforts to restore California voters' confidence in their elections.Black Box Voting

Kern, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties are supporting San Diego County's lawsuit against Secretary of State Debra Bowen.  Their court documents use the typical argument that it costs too much money to verify that vote counts are correct.

court filings below the fold.....

Last night there was a lively discussion about whether the Diebold counting software used in New Hampshire could have been adjusted.  Either hacked by outsiders or modified by Diebold employees.  

Claims that electronic machine adjustments have been made are almost exclusively about Republicans adjusting election results.  

While there is little evidence about votes being changed in New Hampshire (polls not equal to results), how sure are we that our election systems are 100% accurate?  Have we "fixed" our election problems, or only swept them under the proverbial rug.

The Brad Blog

For the last several months I have skipped reading the Presidential Candidate diaries.  Edwards, Obama or Clinton will win.  I live in California so I won’t have much to say about who wins.

I absolutely love politics, but the battles between these three (all winners in my book) just bores me. Not sure why.  Can’t wait until the Candidate is chosen and we get down to fighting the war against the Republican Agenda. That will be fun and will get my juices flowing.

Since this will be in all likelihood my last diary of 2007 here are my favorite bumper stickers for this year. Remember WE are the invisible majority.  As WE speak up, OUR messages can be heard over the pro-corporate censorship of the traditional media.

The biased traditional media wants you to believe American jobs have been outsourced overseas.  In reality the money for those jobs has gone into excessive CEO pay.

For each CEO earning $200 million a year, 40,000 jobs paying $50,000 a year are lost.  In each community in which those workers live 9 more trickle down jobs are lost.  For the cost of 10 CEO’s it might be said 5 million American workers jobs are lost.

This is not how it has always been.  In the last 15 years something has gone horribly wrong. CEO greed exploded at the expense of ordinary worker jobs.

Ratio of CEO pay and an average worker’s pay
1965....24
1973....27
1978....35
1989....71
1995....100
2000....300
2005....262
Economic Policy Institute

Here is the ad placed in Iowa's top ten papers:

Nurses HealthCare Ad

The nurses spokesperson said: "All Americans deserve the kind of care that our Vice-President, President and Congress already have, but none of the candidate proposals can give it to them," said Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of CNA/NNOC and a vice-president of the AFL-CIO.

Vice President Dick Cheney sent out his spokesperson to call the latest healthcare ad "outrageous."  The Nurses responded with "We think it’s outrageous that people are dying in the richest country in the world because they can’t afford health insurance premiums."

Poltiico just sent out this email blast:

    Giuliani says he will not cut ties to his business if elected: "I'm not doing more than what is absolutely required."

America may have a tradition of Presidents being bought and sold, but rarely has any Candidate been so open about it (or see so little of what is wrong about it).

Rudy has a tell:

Rudi Has A "Tell" When He is Lying, See if you can spot it.

When in doubt Rudy bashes Gays:

Giuliani, who appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," said he did not believe homosexuality was aberrant. What is sinful are "the acts, not the orientation

More Sunday Afternoon "Take A Break on Rudy" fun continues....