Politics, Supreme Court

Gingrich’s biggest benefactor is a casino mogul, a hardliner on Israel and very, very rich

He’s an ardent supporter of Israel. A megabillionaire casino mogul whose Las Vegas Sands Corp. is under federal investigation. And the self-proclaimed “richest Jew in the world.”

Sheldon Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich’s surging Republican presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich that is run by the former House speaker’s onetime aides. Campaign finance experts say the two $5 million contributions are among the largest known political donations in U.S. history.

No other candidate in the race for president appears to be relying so heavily on the fortune of a single donor. It’s been made possible by last year’s Supreme Court rulings — known as Citizens United — that recast the political landscape by stripping away restrictions on contributions and how outside groups can spend their money.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/gingrichs-biggest-benefactor-is-a-casino-mogul-a-hardliner-on-israel-and-very-very-rich/2012/01/26/gIQA3ydESQ_story.html

This and the Pelosi circus regarding known Gingrich secrets...leads me to believe he is not the next candidate. I must be getting old and cynical but to me, all of these politicians seem to have the same agenda and it all looks very planned and theatrical. lol...ill go drink more coffee.

wait for the late rise of..jeb?

Pentagon hides $3 billion in budget accounting maneuver

The Pentagon's new budget request moves $3 billion of military pay and benefits out of the base budget into the war budget in an accounting maneuver experts and congressional staffers say is meant to get around legally mandated budget caps and bolster the administration's plan to cut the size of the Army and Marines.

According to the military personnel section of the Pentagon's fiscal 2013 budget request, released Feb. 13, the cost of pay and benefits for the military next year will go down by $6 billion in the "base budget," which is meant to fund the ongoing costs not related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in the war-funding section of the budget request, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, next year's request for military personnel goes up by $3 billion, even though the actual costs of paying for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would have no reason to rise as the United States withdraws.

What the Pentagon did was simply to move $3 billion from its regular budget to the war budget, where it does not count against the discretionary spending caps put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and where it does not count against the deficit.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/15/pentagon_hides_3_billion_in_budget_accounting_maneuver

always messin with the numbers. I would imagine there is a lot of laundry hittin the news as Whitney Houston's death continues to be a top story. Never waste a crisis.

It's a $3 billion accounting trick that allows the Pentagon to wiggle out of the spending caps by manipulating the war budgets, as it has done for years, said Gordon Adams, the former head of national security budgeting at the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton administration, now a professor at American University.