Giuliani

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York city comptroller's office in 2002 raised red flags about former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's $34,000 in security and travel spending on trips to the Hamptons.

Former New York Mayor and current presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani says he has no direct knowledge of how the spending records were handled.

The charges were spread among departments under his control, city records show.
The comptroller's office questioned the expenses after Giuliani -- now a Republican presidential candidate -- left office.
Asked about the controversy during Wednesday night's Republican debate, sponsored by CNN, Giuliani said he was not responsible for how the expenses were reported.
"They took care of me, and they took care of their records, and they handled them in the way they handled them," he said "I had nothing to do with the handling of their records. They were handled, as far as I know, perfectly appropriately."
Giuliani said he had a 24-hour security detail for the entirety of his two four-year terms as mayor.
Earlier Wednesday, a Giuliani adviser told CNN the mayor was constantly accompanied by bodyguards, whether at work or on vacation.
"These were all legitimate expenses incurred while protecting the mayor, which is a 24/7 enterprise," said Tony Carbonetti, who was deputy chief of staff and chief of staff during Giuliani's tenure as mayor. He said he did not know why the costs were allocated to agencies within the mayor's office and not the New York Police Department, which provided officers to protect Giuliani, but said the Giuliani campaign would look into the issue.
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But the comptroller's office questioned why the expenses were charged to offices such as the city's Loft Board, which regulates the conversion of industrial buildings into housing. During a 2002 audit, the agency's director denied the board incurred $34,000 in travel costs on its books, City Comptroller William Thompson wrote in a letter to Giuliani's successor, Michael Bloomberg.
Giuliani's office had refused to provide details of the expenses when questioned, the auditors said Wednesday.
"The comptroller's office made repeated requests for the information in 2001 and 2002, but was informed that due to security concerns the information could not be provided," spokesman Jeff Simmons said in a written statement to CNN.
In their 2002 letter, Thompson's auditors also raised questions about more than $500,000 in non-local travel expenses billed to other arms of the mayor's office in the 2000 and 2001 budget years, urging Bloomberg to investigate further. They included the Office of Emergency Management and the Office for People with Disabilities.
Bloomberg's office did not respond to inquiries from CNN about the matter.
The issue was first reported by the Washington Web site Politico.com, which said it obtained the comptroller's records under New York's freedom of information laws. CNN obtained the same documents

New Hampshire Primary Date Set

The residents of New Hampshire can finally sleep easy knowing that we still have the first presidential primary election. We decided on January 8th, the earliest date ever for a primary. For a while, people thought that we were going to have to move the date to sometime in December, which would have been unheard of.

While this is the first primary, Iowa has set the date of their causus to January 3rd, five days before New Hampshire votes. The decision was made by New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who had been waiting to hear what the state of Michigan was going to decide on for a primary date. This past Wednesday, November 21, Michigan decided on the date of January 15th to vote, opening the door for New Hampshire to set their date to remain the first presidential primary for the 2008 election.

Information from MSNBC.COM

Are they serious?

This week Rudy and Mitt got into it. Rudy accused Mitt of appointing a judge who is soft on hard crimes. Judge Tuttman recently released a convicted murder, who killed two of his neighbors. In response Mitt gave a statement about how he, "...can't believe that Rudy would say something like that...". Mitt's people also released a statement that the Judge was well qualified, and released the convict on the basis of bail policy, etc. Mitt's people further responded with bringing forth the police chief Rudy put into place who is now being indicted on tax fraud.

Talk about fighting fire with crap. A few things: First of all, what does it say about Mitt, that he is doing the same thing that he "couldn't believe" Rudy was doing. It says that he is just a politician. A "do whatever-it-takes" politician. It reflects poorly on him that he came back with the exact same type of dig that Rudy made on him.

Second, Mitt and Rudy are both humans. How would they know every aspect of everything going on in the heads of the people they appoint. More often than not, people in their positions don't even do the research on the appointees themselves. It isn't Rudy's fault that his police chief MAY have committed tax fraud, and Mitt probably had no idea that Judge Tuttman planned on releasing that particular convict. It is something that she has in her power to do, and she was put into that position with the understanding that she would be making decisions on her own.

Why can't we all get along.



This information was taken from New Channel 7.

To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq

This is the joint resolution passed by the Senate and House...

H. J. Res. 114

Mitt Romeny on a role in NH and Iowa

I found this article on CNN.com to be interesting and the possible impact Iowa and NH might have .

By Paul SteinhauserCNN deputy political director



(CNN) -- He may be down in national polls, but Mitt Romney is on a roll in the two states that kick off presidential voting.

Mitt Romney came in way ahead of his rivals for the GOP presidential bid in a new survey of Ohio Republicans.

A new survey of Iowa Republicans out Monday puts Romney more than 20 points ahead of his closest rivals.
The former Massachusetts governor is at 36 percent in the University of Iowa Hawkeye poll. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the GOP front-runner in most national polls, places second at 13 percent and is in a virtual tie with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is in fourth place at 11 percent and Arizona Sen. John McCain trails with 6 percent. The Republican survey carries a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points.
The University of Iowa poll surveyed 285 likely Republican caucus-goers by telephone from October 17-24 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points.
Romney has topped just about every poll done in Iowa since the summer, but his 23-point lead in this new survey is much larger than in others. He leads most polls in New Hampshire, but by a much smaller margin.
Romney's front-runner status in the Iowa and New Hampshire polls is very different from his standings in national surveys, where he averages around 12 percent in most recent polls.
So what's the secret of Romney's success in Iowa and New Hampshire? Part of it could be money well spent.
Romney has raised more campaign cash than any other Republican candidate so far. He's spent a lot of that money on television ads. Romney leads all candidates, Republican and Democrat, in TV ad spending. He's spent more than $8.7 million and his commercials have aired more than 12,000 times, mostly in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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Iran becoming new Iraq on campaign trail
"Mitt Romney is following a traditional path to the White House by focusing on Iowa and New Hampshire," CNN political editor Mark Preston said. "It is not clear if this will be the only road to the GOP nomination, but it certainly is one way there and right now he owns it."
One possible troubling sign for Romney in Iowa could be his support from the 44 percent of Republican caucus attendees who consider themselves evangelical Christians.
According to the new poll, Romney holds only an 8-point lead among those voters over Huckabee, a Baptist minister. But among Republicans who don't consider themselves evangelical, Romney's lead widens dramatically.
Iowa's caucuses kick off the presidential primary calendar. This year they'll be held earlier than ever -- Thursday, January 3.
The poll in Iowa comes as Romney grabs a major endorsement in New Hampshire, which traditionally directly follows Iowa and holds the nation's first primary.
One of New Hampshire's top Republicans, Sen. Judd Gregg, announced at a rally Monday in Concord that he would back Romney. The two men then walked to the New Hampshire Statehouse, where Romney formally filed to put his name on the state's primary ballot.
In a statement, Gregg said Romney "embodies New Hampshire's values -- values that stress government living within its means, lower taxes, a stronger military and stronger families."
Gregg is a three-term senator and a former governor of New Hampshire. The state's other senator, Republican John Sununu, has said he doesn't plan to endorse a candidate in the primary.
As a former governor of a neighboring state, winning New Hampshire is essential for Romney. "Coming in first in New Hampshire is a must for Romney as it was for John Kerry in 2004," CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said. "And Kerry won the Granite State by first winning in Iowa. Coming out on top in New Hampshire is essential for a candidate from Massachusetts."

Hot Topic Among Candidates: Iran

One of the major hot topics for the candidates seems to be the topic of Iran and how to approach them. Some of the democratic candidates seem worried that the actions by the current president are simply a precursor to what they feel now is almost an inevitable war. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois says that he feels it is important to have sanctions on Iranian groups that support terrorism. but "these sanctions must not be linked to any attempt to keep our troops in Iraq, or to take military action against Iran."

Many democrats are upset with the stance that New York Senator Hillary Clinton took on this topic. She voted in favor of a senate resolution that labeled Iran Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Many people feel that this resolution is a precursor to a war in Iran. Clinton defended herself by saying that she did agree with the sanctions put down in the resolution, but feels that the White House needs to engage in "robust diplomacy" with Iran before they take any sort of action.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is taking a very hard stance on the issue of Iran. He feels that we need to be ready in case the sanctions we place on the Revolutionary Guard don't do anything. He says that we "have a number of options, from blockade to bombardment of some kind."

Here is a link to a video of Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul discussing his position on Iran.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tejYLlrL4c

Iraq War

i agree with the statement made by rlavalay26 on Hilary, Iraq war and health care should be addressed when asked about, right now the war especially is making people angry or for it day in and day out, as we are hitting our low 20s thsese topics are in our minds for the future years, i believe the war needs to be talked about to gain votes from the communities, say it continues for years and a draft is needed, that could be me in a few years who gets picked to go over there, now the chances of that are small but its still a thought, it will be nice to hear how each candidate would go about the war if they were elected.....i dunno those are my thoughts, not saying im right