or the (COMMUNIST) UN hotline ... maybe that's Alan Keyes angle with the lawsuit ... is it possible that a gracious Obama would name Keyes "Edu-ma- cation Secretary ... if this happens I'll shit, but anything is possible in D.C. [District of Collusion].
Calling all O'Piles, calling all O'Piles...please pick up the Clinton hotline for your change. hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Now, now, hold your teasing tongue, Cyni.
If truth be told, Clinton Retread Bill Richardson was chosen only because Obama's first pick for Commerce turned him down. And my what a fresh new face Penny would have been. Not! Pritzker is a diehard IsraelFirster Zionist ( per Philip Weiss blog) in addition to her other business related pitfalls.
"I don't want to be commerce secretary: Penny Pritzker"
WASHINGTON -- Penny Pritzker, the Chicago billionaire who played a key role in President-elect Barack Obama's political career, said Thursday she does not want to be considered for commerce secretary, issuing a statement after her name had been mentioned for the Cabinet spot.
Pritzker, a member of the Obama transition team, chaired his presidential finance committee and helped raise money for earlier campaigns...
The position would have required Senate confirmation. A potential controversy she may have faced would have the 2001 failure of the Superior Bank in Hinsdale, which her family controlled. Pritzker was the former chairwoman of the bank.
A member of one of the nation's wealthiest families, which controls the Hyatt hotel chain, Pritzker is chairwoman of TransUnion, the credit company; chairwoman of the Parking Spot (whose CEO, Marty Nesbit was the treasurer of Obama's presidential campaign), and chairwoman of Classic Residence by Hyatt.
Richardson threw in his lot with Obongo even tho he owed the Clintons big time.
One way or another he is going to pay for that gross error. The Clintons are NOT forgiving people.
Well someone's going to have to take the fall for not turning around this recession doomed economy in the next 4 years and it ain't going to be the Messiah or his Treasury Secretary, Timothy Gothenstein ( whatever), so I wager that the Fickle Finger of Fate will point at the Commerce Secty - old Chuckles Richardson.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.Samuel Adams
Do the BHO fanboys still believe in their Messiah's promise to fight the "Washington insiders?"
Their delusion is very strong.
Camelot or bust..
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.Samuel Adams
Bill Richardson is connected by blood and marriage to various ruling cliques in Mexico and Central America. His father can essentially be considered to have been THE face of Citibank in Mexico.
Today Citibank will officially begin to operate under that name in Nicaragua, after having acquired the Uno Financial Group. www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Citibank_starts_operations_in_Nicaragua - 45k - Cached - Similar pages
Citibank got the approval of the Salvadoran authorities to integrate the operations of Banco Uno Bank and Cuscatlan Bank. www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/El_Salvador_Citibank_operations_approved_in_El_Salvador - 44k - Cached - Similar pages More results from www.centralamericadata.com »
NEW YORK -- Citi announced today that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Grupo Financiero Uno ("GFU") in Central America after receiving the ... www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services/4536898-1.html - 64k - Cached - Similar pages
The consecutive acquisitions of a retail bank and a credit card issuer go a long way towards answering how Citi will fulfill its pledge in Central America... microcapitalmonitor.com/cblog/index.php?/archives/530-Citis-Central-American-Strategy-Emerges-with-1.5-billion... - 23k - Cached - Similar pages
Oct 27, 2008 ... The product scope of the functions covers both Retail and Cards products in Central America. MAJOR ACTIVITIES: ... jobsearch.ihispano.com/careers/jobsearch/detail?jobId=12815970&source=google - 34k - Cached - Similar pages
"As of now, Citi is no longer a niche player in Central America. We've become a general bank that will attend to and satisfy the needs of all its Central... centralamericalink.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=222:citibank-breaks-out-from-its...in... - 28k - Cached - Similar pages
And the wide range of products that Citi offers can help you do just that. ...Central America. Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Panama ... www.citibank.com/ - 39k - Cached - Similar pages
The regions and countries participating in the Citi Network Strengthening Program are: China, India, Philippines; Central America, Ecuador, Mexico; ... www.citi.com/hungary/homepage/sajtoszoba/hirek/080402_e.htm - 20k - Cached - Similar pages
Jun 28, 2007 ...Central America Credit Bureau and Scoring Analyst 07030928 ...Citi Inc, its subsidiaries and their affiliates ("Citi") are equal ... https://citi.taleo.net/servlets/CareerSection?art_ip_action=FlowDispatcher&flowTypeNo=13&pageSeq=2&re... - 32k - Cached - Similar pages
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.Samuel Adams
BillRichardson is a political climber who may become Al Gore's vice-presidential running mate in 2000. Richard has moved from the position of US ambassador to the United Nations to head of the Dept of Energy, where he has tried to take all the credit for solving the espionage problem. His life and political career are profiled.
Just a minute or two into his Senate testimony on June 9, secretary of energy BillRichardson began scolding members of the intelligence committee sitting before him. "This amendment would undermine my authority," he said of a plan to enhance weapons-lab security in the wake of the China spy revelations. "I understand that some modifications have been made to the amendment in the last day, which I think shows that the amendment was not carefully drafted."
That brash comment raised eyebrows throughout the room. The changes had actually been made at Richardson's own request. Republican senator Jon Kyl of Arizona shot back, "I'm really astonished at your testimony." Democratic senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska also returned fire: "We're a nation of laws. You referred to [the Energy Department] as yours several times . . . You are the secretary of energy for the moment, and, you know, at some point you're not secretary of energy and somebody else is."
Richardson is surely thinking of that moment, when he's no longer secretary of energy. Ever since he came to Washington as a junior aide in Richard Nixon's State Department, he has been a climber, contemplating his next move. He launched his political career as a carpetbagger in New Mexico, and throughout his 14 years in the House he constantly pondered running for senator or governor. He took a series of much-publicized trips to negotiate hostage releases, in Iraq, Kashmir, North Korea, and elsewhere, often with success. In 1996, President Clinton asked him to replace Madeleine Albright as ambassador to the United Nations. Last summer, Richardson moved again, this time to head the Department of Energy. Earlier this year, that became unexpectedly one of the most high-profile jobs in Washington.
Already there is speculation that Al Gore may tap Richardson to join the Democratic presidential ticket next year. The choice could make sense: Depending on how successfully Richardson handles the current spy scandal-early signs are mixed-he could inoculate Gore against what may be one of the GOP's most effective avenues of attack. He's also the most prominent Hispanic politician in the country at a time when Republicans appear eager to nominate George W. Bush, a Texan who polls surprisingly well among Hispanics, a vital Democratic constituency.
Actually, Richardson, a 51- year-old who looks like John Belushi, is only half Hispanic. His late father was a Citibank executive from Boston working in Mexico City, his mother a well-to-do Mexican socialite. Richardson was born in Pasadena, Calif., but spent his early years south of the border. He later jetted off to an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts and went to college at his father's alma mater, Tufts. (He was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics baseball team, but a bum elbow forced him to quit the sport.) After graduation, Richardson held several minor political jobs in Washington, but what he really wanted to do was run for office himself. Without a real hometown in the United States, however, he had nowhere to go. Or, to look at it another way, a lot of options.
He selected New Mexico, taking a position there with the state Democratic party in 1978. As a Spanish-speaker, he had a natural rapport with many of the state's voters. More important, New Mexico stood to gain an additional seat in Congress following the 1980 census. To make a name for himself, Richardson challenged Rep. Manuel Lujan (later interior secretary in the Bush administration) and displayed the remarkable energy that he is famous for even today. During the campaign, he set a goal of shaking 1,000 hands per day and wound up in the Guinness Book of World Records for gripping 8,551 of them in a single 24-hour period (the previous recordholder was Teddy Roosevelt). He lost to Lujan, but barely.
And he never stopped campaigning. By 1982, New Mexico had its third House seat, and Richardson was the favorite to win. That year, however, he faced his first serious ethical questions. His campaign literature claimed he had spent "three years working as Hubert Humphrey's top foreign affairs aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff." In reality, he had worked only two years for Humphrey, had served on a subcommittee rather than the full committee, and hadn't even headed the subcommittee staff. Richardson was forced to admit that his boasts were "incorrect." He also appeared to lack the financial resources to obtain a $100,000 campaign loan he signed for, generating complaints from Common Cause and a federal probe. It turned out that his mother, still living in Mexico City, had helped him secure a certificate of deposit- calling unwelcome attention to his privileged upbringing. He won anyway.
Once in Washington, Richardson earned a reputation for taunting or trying to intimidate his opponents, often in handwritten notes-a practice he keeps up today, according to recent recipients. Last April, he played the race card to fend off uncomfortable inquiries into the Chinese spy scandal, absurdly hinting that something akin to Japanese internment loomed on the horizon if "those who have questioned the patriotism of Asian-Pacific Americans" didn't hush up. He never pointed out who was doing the questioning. (Answer: No one.) And he had played the race card before. "I represent a minority within my own country, as you do," he told Sudanese warlord Kerubino Kwanyin Bol in 1996 on a trip to negotiate the release of three Red Cross workers. (He succeeded, by promising to deliver four jeeps, five tons of rice, several radios, and medical assistance to the hostage-taking guerrilla leader.)
Many Republicans give Richardson good marks for his performance as energy secretary. He merely inherited the spy scandal, they say. Since April, Richardson has initiated a series of security reviews and work stoppages. He has imposed an 18-month moratorium on the further declassification of Cold War-era documents (a policy started in 1993 by a predecessor, Hazel O'Leary, that may have done more to aid the Chinese than anything their agents actually stole). And he has ordered about 5,000 employees to undergo lie-detector tests.
He has also done everything possible to take sole credit for fixing the espionage problem, often jumping the gun and refusing to work with Congress. "Americans can be reassured: Our nation's nuclear secrets are today safe and secure," he said in May. A few weeks later, Clinton's own Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board said Richardson had spoken too soon. The White House has tried to blame most of the espionage damage on previous administrations, and it has an interest in Richardson as white knight, come in to save the day. So does Richardson himself. He has tried to keep Congress from reforming Energy all along. He vehemently opposed an effort by GOP senators to create a special agency overseeing the nuclear-weapons labs. According to Republican staffers, Richardson made angry phone calls to the Hill, threatening to cancel contracts with weapons-assembly plants in South Carolina and Texas. His efforts failed. "Making this personal was a big mistake," says one Senate aide. When defeat appeared likely, Richardson wound up reluctantly endorsing reform, which passed the Senate in July. Then, in August, he privately urged Clinton to veto the bill.
Richardson may not have fared well in that particular dustup, but some of his enemies aren't doing so well themselves. Victor Reis, an assistant energy secretary in charge of security, met with Richardson's wrath for supporting the Republican-backed reorganization plan. He was forced to resign in June. And in April, another top security official who had been highly critical of the administration's handling of the Chinese-espionage charges, Edward J. McCallum, was placed on administrative leave three days after the intelligence advisory board asked him to testify. McCallum, who has since been given a 90- day detail at the Defense Department, is charged with violating security procedures-"an obvious act of retaliation against the individual and the office that has tried to bring an increasingly distressing message of failed security at the laboratories forward," he says.
When it comes to controversial personnel decisions, Richardson may be best known for his role in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He held a job open at the United Nations for Lewinsky nearly two years ago. On the Tripp tapes, Lewinsky quotes Clinton as saying that Richardson is "willing to kind of create a position." Richardson denied any political dealmaking, but phone records revealed he had been in frequent contact with Vernon Jordan and that at least one call had been made from his extension to Lewinsky. (Richardson said his secretary often uses the extension, and she backed him up.) Aside from one article in The American Spectator, Richardson's role in the affair has received little scrutiny.
The energy secretary can expect plenty more scrutiny if he winds up on the national ticket. On a trip to Iraq in 1995, Richardson posed for a photo with Saddam Hussein. "This picture is going to cost me votes," said Richardson. Replied Saddam: "And you think I look good posing with you?" Al Gore may wonder the same thing next summer.
farkItButton ("N.M. Gov Admits He Wasn't Baseball Pick", "http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8E325882");
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Gov. Bill Richardson is coming clean on his draft recordthe baseball draft, that is, admitting that his claim to have been a pick of the Kansas City A's in 1966 was untrue.
For nearly four decades, Richardson, often mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate, has maintained he was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics.
The claim was included in a brief biography released when Richardson successfully ran for Congress in 1982. A White House news release in 1997 mentioned it when he was about to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. And several news organizations, including The Associated Press, have reported it as fact over the years.
But an investigation by the Albuquerque Journal found no record of Richardson being drafted by the A's, who have since moved to Oakland, or any other team.
Informed by the newspaper of its findings, the governor acknowledged the error in a story in Thursday's editions.
"After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter ... I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A's," he said.
Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos declined to comment when reached by the AP on Thursday.
Richardson, a right-handed pitcher who played at Tufts University, said he was actively scouted by several major league teams in the 1960s.
He insisted his name appeared on "a draft list of some kind" created by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates. He named team scouts, whom he said told him that he "would or could" be drafted. The scouts have since died.
Richardson later developed arm trouble, eliminating any possible pro career.
In the summer of 1967, he played for the amateur Cape Cod League's Cotuit (Mass.) Kettleers. The words "Drafted by K.C." appear next to his name on a faded team program, the Journal reported.
"When I saw that program in 1967, I was convinced I was drafted," Richardson said. "And it stayed with me all these years."
Then-general manager Arnold Mycock said the biographical information was supplied by players or their college coaches.
On a biographical sheet Richardson completed for Tufts in his junior year, he wrote, "Drafted by Kansas City (1966), LA (1968)." He said he wrote those words because he believed they were true.
"I never tried to embellish this," he said. "I never tried to mask it."
Richardson, elected governor in 2002, is seeking a second term next year.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.