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HOW DID HARRY REID GET RICH?

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August 15, 2012 4:00 A.M.

 

 

 

 

 

His career in public service has ended up being remarkably lucrative.

By Betsy Woodruff

Try this thought experiment. Imagine that someone grows up in poverty, works his way through law school by holding the night shift as a Capitol Hill policeman, and spends all but two years of his career as a public servant. Now imagine that this person’s current salary — and he’s at the top of his game — is $193,400. You probably wouldn’t expect him to have millions in stocks, bonds, and real estate.

But, surprise, he does, if he’s our Senate majority leader, whose net worth is between 3 and 10 million dollars, according to OpenSecrets.org. When Harry Reid entered the Nevada legislature in 1982, his net worth was listed as between $1 million and $1.5 million “or more,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. So, since inquiring minds inquire, let’s try to figure out how Reid’s career in public service ended up being so lucrative. He hasn’t released his tax returns, which makes this an imperfect science, but looking at a few of his investments helps to show how he amassed his wealth.

In 2004, the senator made $700,000 off a land deal that was, to say the least, unorthodox. It started in 1998 when he bought a parcel of land with attorney Jay Brown, a close friend whose name has surfaced multiple times in organized-crime investigations and whom one retired FBI agent described as “always a person of interest.” Three years after the purchase, Reid transferred his portion of the property to Patrick Lane LLC, a holding company Brown controlled. But Reid kept putting the property on his financial disclosures, and when the company sold it in 2004, he profited from the deal — a deal on land that he didn’t technically own and that had nearly tripled in value in six years.

When his 2010 challenger Sharron Angle asked him in a debate how he had become so wealthy, he said, “I did a very good job investing.” Did he ever. On December 20, 2005, he invested $50,000 to $100,000 in the Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Fund (IYE), which closed that day at $29.15. The companies whose shares it held included ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips. When he made a partial sale of his shares on August 19, 2008, during congressional recess, IYE closed at $41.82. Just a month later, on September 17, Reid was working to bring to the floor a bill that the Joint Committee on Taxation said would cost oil companies — including those in the fund — billions of dollars in taxes and regulatory fees. The bill passed a few days later, and by October 10, IYE’s shares had fallen by 42 percent, to $24.41, for a host of reasons. Savvy investing indeed.

Here’s another example: The Los Angeles Times reported in November 2006 that when Reid became Senate majority leader he committed to making earmark reform a priority, saying he’d work to keep congressmen from using federal dollars for pet projects in their districts. It was a good idea but an odd one for the senator to espouse. He had managed to get $18 million set aside to build a bridge across the Colorado River between Laughlin, Nev., and Bullhead City, Ariz., a project that wasn’t a priority for either state’s transportation agency. His ownership of 160 acres of land nearby that stood to appreciate considerably from the project had nothing to do with the decision, according to one of his aides. The property’s value has varied since then. On his financial-disclosure forms from 2006, it was valued at $250,000 to $500,000. Open Secrets now lists it as his most valuable asset, worth $1 million to $5 million as of 2010.

How Reid acquired that land is interesting, too. He put $10,000 into a pension fund his friend Clair Haycock controlled, to take over the 160-acre parcel at a price far below its assessed value. Six months later, Reid introduced legislation that would help Haycock’s industry, a move many observers said appeared to be a quid pro quo, though Reid and Haycock denied that the legislation was the result of a property deal.

We don’t know how much more money Reid has or how he made all of it. For that, we’d have to see his tax returns.

— Betsy Woodruff is a William F. Buckley Fellow at the National Review Institut.  http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314025/how-did-harry-reid-get-rich-betsy-woodruff

ARAB SPRING RUN AMOK: ‘BROTHERHOOD’ STARTS CRUCIFIXIONS

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WND EXCLUSIVE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opponents of Egypt’s Muslim president executed ‘naked on trees’.

By Michael CarlEmail  Michael Carl is a veteran journalist with overseas military experience and experience as a political consultant. 

The Arab Spring takeover of Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood has run amok, with reports from several different media agencies that the radical Muslims have begun crucifying opponents of newly installed President Mohammed Morsi.

Middle East media confirm that during a recent rampage, Muslim Brotherhood operatives, “crucified those opposing Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi naked on trees in front of the presidential palace while abusing others.”

Raymond Ibrahim, a fellow with the Middle East Forum and the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said the crucifixions are the product of who the Middle Eastern media call “partisans.”

“Arabic media call them ‘supporters,’ ‘followers,’ and ‘partisans’ of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Ibraham said.

Ibrahim also says the victims can be anyone, including Egyptians and Christians.

“It’s anyone who is resisting the new government,” Ibrahim said. “In this particular case, the people attacked and crucified were secular protesters upset because of Morsi’s hostile campaign against the media, especially of Tawfik Okasha, who was constantly exposing him on his station, until Morsi shut him down.”

Ibrahim said extra brutality is reserved for Christians, but the crucifixions are because of Islamic doctrine, and are required by the Quran. The time and other details about the crucifixions were not readily available.

“Mideast Beast: The Scriptural Case for an Islamic Antichrist” sorts out what this clash of civilizations is all about

Center for Security Policy Senior Fellow Clare Lopez cited chapter and verse from the Quran to explain that crucifixions are not simply normal for Islam; they’re demanded.

“Crucifixion is a hadd punishment, stipulated in the Quran, Sura 5:33, and therefore an obligatory part of Shariah,” Lopez said. “It’s been a traditional punishment within Islam since the beginning, even though it’s not exclusively Islamic. The Romans used it too.

“So, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood haven’t the option to not include crucifixion within their legal code. It’s obligatory to comply with Shariah. And yes, it’s for shock value also to be sure,” Lopez said.

Lopez includes a warning for Egypt’s Christians and compares the coming treatment of the Christians to the Jews in Germany.

“The Copts must get out of Egypt as soon as possible – for the many millions who will not be able to get out, I expect things will continue to deteriorate – just as they did for Germany’s and Europe’s Jews from the 1930s onward,” Lopez said.

“The warnings were there long before the ghettos and round-ups and one-way train trips to the concentration camps began in the 1940s,” Lopez said.

If you think this is just an Egyptian problem, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. Read “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America”

Author Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, an analyst of the Middle East and Islam, fully agrees and also cites the Quran.

“The Christians are in serious trouble because the Quran in Sura 9:29 commands Muslims to wage war against them and subjugate them, and they’re also identified with the hated West and the U.S.,” Geller said. Geller also turned to Sura 5:33.

 “These are Islamic hardliners who do everything by the Quran. The Quran says, ‘Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land,” Geller said.

 

NOTE: This article has been reduced to show the LOVE and TOLERANCE toward those of other faiths. In Islam, there is no room for anyone who disagrees with them. Full article at http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/arab-spring-run-amok-brotherhood-starts-crucifixions/

 

KHAMENEI: ZIONIST REGIME WILL DISAPPEAR FROM MAP

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By HERB KEINON, JOANNA PARASZCZUK  08/15/2012 23:25

 Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that he was confidant “the fake Zionist (regime) will disappear from the landscape of geography,” Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported. Khamenei made the comments during a meeting with veterans of the Iran-Iraq War.

 “The light of hope will shine on the Palestinian issue, and this Islamic land will certainly be returned to the Palestinian nation,” Khamenei was quoted as saying.

 Earlier on Wednesday Brig.- Gen. Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s Passive (civil) Defense Organization and a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, during a speech ahead of Al-Quds Day, an anti-Israel event initiated by Iran, said that in order to liberate Palestine there was no other option but to destroy Israel.

 “[Al-Quds Day] is a reflection of the fact that no other way exists apart from resolve and strength to completely eliminate the aggressive nature and to destroy Israel,” Jalali said, according to a report by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

 Al-Quds Day is an annual Iranian anti-Zionist event established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini and which falls this year on August 17. Iran also seeks to export the event to other Muslim countries.

 Jalali said that the message of Khomeini’s Al-Quds  Day initiative was that the Muslim world must support the “oppressed people of Palestine” in a show of resistance against “the Zionist usurpers.”

 The Passive Defense Organization head added that the Islamic Revolution was a “beacon of light” and that the plight of the Palestinians was not forgotten.

 Calling on Muslims to rally on Al-Quds Day, he expressed hope that the Islamic world would be “strong against the Zionist threat,” adding that the “Islamic front in Syria has been strengthened,” presumably a reference to Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

An Israeli government official responded to Jalali’s comments by saying it was simply a “reaffirmation of what we continually hear from the Iranian leadership.”Jpost.com staff contributed to this report.

 NOTE: We have omitted some of this post since our objective is to show that for Islam, the one and only final solution is the complete elimination of all Jews. You are about to witness the mother of all wars, yet a remnant of Israel will survive. You have Gods Word on it.

THE PORTRAIT OF A LAZY MAN

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By Ken Blue

 I am confident these Scriptures about the lazy man were not written to him. They were written to inform others about him. The reason is, very little can be done to help the lazy man because he does not want to change. 

 IMPERTINENT    Proverbs 26:16 “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”

First of all, you cannot give him a reason why he should change. He is too wise in his own conceit to listen to anyone. He will always have a ready answer to justify inaction. He is a fool, but too stupid to understand it. To him, everyone who challenges him is unreasonable, and below his level of wisdom.

 IGNORANT  Proverbs 6:6 “ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:”

Not only is the lazy man or woman wise in their own eyes, they are unable to learn from the clear lessons of nature. Even the smallest of God’s creation could teach him if he was teachable. The ants work as a team, and they prepare for the future. The lazy person cares not for the future. They only live for the excitement, entertain, amusement, and comfort of the moment. Only God can break through the wall of ignorance possessed by the lazy person.  

 INDIFFERENT Proverbs 6:9 “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?”

The lazy person is unconcerned about anything except his on fleshly comfort and desires. As far as he is concerned, the harvest can waste in the field, and the fruit can rot on the vine. He will lie in bed until noon or later during harvest time. He complains about being tired, when all he has done is sleep and sit. He confuses laziness with fatigue.

 IRRITATING Proverbs 10:26 “As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.”

Most of us have experienced the discomfort of smoke in the eyes from a campfire. Vinegar sets the teeth on edge and hinders the taste and bite. Both are a discomfort. So is the lazy person. You expect normal service for him, and discover he not only will not work, but also is a source of irritation and discomfort.

 IMPOVERISHED Proverbs 13:4 “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.”

The contrast here is between the diligent and the sluggard. The sluggard will have poverty, the diligent will have plenty. The truth is, what you sow, you also reap. The sluggard can’t figure out why life will not cooperate with him. He desires, but never can attain. He would like to have, but lives in a fool’s paradise. The difference between the have and the have nots, is the did and the did nots.

 IRRATIONAL Proverbs 20:4 “The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.”

The lazy person looks for reasons to delay or not do the needed task. Cold weather, clouds in the sky, and a perceive lion in the street are great excuses to not do it now. He is the great procrastinator. There is little hope for the lazy person. You cannot reason with them. You cannot shame them, and a rod to the back will not change them. Now you know.

WHOSE SPIRITS ARE REALLY SPEAKING TO PELOSI?

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Pelosi ‘Swears’ Spirit of Susan B. Anthony Spoke to Her in White House

By Eric Scheiner  August 8, 2012  Subscribe to Eric Scheiner’s posts

 (CNSNews.com)- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) told a recent gathering of the Women’s Political Committee that the spirits of suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul spoke to her at the White House. Pelosi said she heard them say: “At last we have a seat at the table”.

 A video recently posted on Youtube shows Pelosi speaking in May describing her first meeting with President Bush in the White House after becoming part of the Democratic House leadership.

 In the video Pelosi says, “He’s (Bush) saying something to the effect of we’re so glad to welcome you here, congratulations and I know you’ll probably have some different things to say about what is going on–which is correct. But, as he was saying this, he was fading and this other thing was happening to me.”

 “My chair was getting crowded in,” said Pelosi. “I swear this happened, never happened before, it never happened since.”

 “My chair was getting crowded in and I couldn’t figure out what it was, it was like this,” she said.

 “And then I realized Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, you name it, they were all in that chair, they were,” said Pelosi. “More than I named and I could hear them say: ‘At last we have a seat at the table.’ And then they were gone.”

 This was not the only time Pelosi has told this story. On June 6 of this year she told it during an event celebrating her 25 years of political service.

 Pelosi has also told the story when speaking at colleges, including at Trinity Washington University’s commencement on May 20, 2012. Pelosi’s website contains a transcript of the tale as related in her 2005 commencement address at Goucher College in Baltimore.

 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were activists in the women’s rights movement during the mid to late 1800’s. The Susan B. Anthony List, which works for pro-life women’s leadership in government, uses her as a namesake. The organization claims Anthony and Stanton were strong pro-life supporters.

 NOTE: We are not sure who the spirits were, but we are certain whose they were not. 1 Samuel 28:7-8. “Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.”