Extortion By Any Other Name is Still Extortion

And this is the man that visits and advises Obama on a regular basis?

Sharpton gets paid to not cry ‘racism’ at corporations

Want to influence a casino bid? Polish your corporate image? Not be labeled a racist?

Then you need to pay Al Sharpton.

For more than a decade, corporations have shelled out thousands of dollars in "donations" and "consulting fees" to Sharpton’s National Action Network. What they get in return is the reverend’s supposed sway in the black community or, more often, his silence. (HUSH MONEY?..OM)

Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal met with the activist preacher after leaked e-mails showed her making racially charged comments about President Obama (Free speech and Free thought police...OM). Pascal was under siege after a suspected North Korean cyber attack pressured the studio to cancel its release of “The Interview,” which depicts the assassination of dictator Kim Jong-un.

Pascal and her team were said to be “shaking in their boots” and “afraid of the Rev,” The Post reported.

No payments to NAN have been announced, but Sharpton and Pascal agreed to form a “working group” to focus on racial bias in Hollywood. (Would someone PLEASE point out what "racial bias"? If any bias exists, its against CONSERVATIVES...OM)

                             Sony exec Amy Pascal leaves her hotel after a meeting with Sharpton.                    Photo: ZUMAPRESS

Sharpton notably did not publicly assert his support for Pascal after the meeting — what observers say seems like a typical Sharpton “shakedown” in the making. Pay him in cash or power, critics say, and you buy his support or silence.

“Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him. Put simply, Sharpton specializes in shakedowns,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal & Policy Center, a Virginia-based watchdog group that has produced a book on Sharpton. (Isn't this what Organized Crime does? Since, these businesses do business across state lines & Sharpton extorts them, is this not a case of violation of RICO?...OM)

And Sharpton, who now boasts a close relationship with Obama and Mayor de Blasio, is in a stronger negotiating position than ever. (And large contributions to the Socialist Democratic Party?...OM)

“Once Sharpton’s on board, he plays the race card all the way through,” said a source who has worked with the Harlem preacher. “He just keeps asking for more and more money.” (That's why you don't don't pay extortionists....OM)

Horse in the race

One example of Sharpton’s playbook has emerged in tax filings and a state inspector general’s report. (Sharpton filed taxes, but doesn't pay them...OM)

In 2008, Plainfield Asset Management, a Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund, made a $500,000 contribution to New York nonprofit Education Reform Now. That money was immediately funneled to the National Action Network.

The donation raised eyebrows. Although the money was ostensibly to support NAN’s efforts to bring “educational equality,” it also came at a time that Plainfield was trying to get a lucrative gambling deal in New York.

Plainfield had a $250 million stake in Capital Play, a group trying to secure a license to run the coming racino at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Capital Play employed a lobbyist named Charlie King, who also was the acting executive director of NAN.

Sharpton has said that most of the Plainfield contribution went to pay King’s salary.

King’s company, the Movement Group, was paid $243,586 by NAN in 2008, tax records show.

Harold Levy, a former New York City schools chancellor who was a managing director at Plainfield at the time, has denied the contribution was made to curry favor with Sharpton or anyone else. But a year later, as the battle for the racino license heated up, NAN raked in another $100,000 from representatives of the AEG consortium, which was the successor company to Capital Play.

One AEG member e-mailed another in 2009 saying, “Sharpton lobbied [then-Gov. David Paterson] hard over the weekend on our behalf,” according to the state inspector general’s 2010 report on the corrupt racino licensing process.

In order to discredit SL Green, one of the rival bidders whose plan included a Hard Rock Hotel, an AEG executive sent another e-mail outlining tactics to conscript local leaders to its cause.

“We are going to need it, and we are going to need . . . Sharpton to piss on hard rock,” according to the undated e-mail cited in the IG’s report.

Sharpton denied he lobbied on behalf of AEG.

The donations, meanwhile, came at an opportune time for Sharpton, as NAN was deep in debt to the IRS in 2008. It owed $1.3 million in unpaid federal, state and city payroll taxes including interest and penalties.

AEG viewed its payments to Sharpton as more of an insurance policy so he wouldn’t scuttle its chances by criticizing the group, said a source familiar with the racino controversy.

Cost of doing business

Sharpton raised $1 million for NAN at his 60th birthday bash in October, with donations rolling in from unions and a corporate roster of contributors including AT&T, McDonald’s, Verizon and Walmart.

Companies have long gotten in line to pay Sharpton. Macy’s and Pfizer have forked over thousands to NAN, as have General Motors, American Honda and Chrysler.

NAN had repeatedly and without success asked GM for donations for six years beginning in August 2000, a GM spokesman told The Post. Then, in 2006, Sharpton threatened a boycott of GM over the planned closing of an African-American-owned dealership in The Bronx. He picketed outside GM’s Fifth Avenue headquarters. GM wrote checks (Remember the Federal bail out? So I guess the money to NAN was taxpayers' money...OM) to NAN for $5,000 in 2007 and another $5,000 in 2008.

Sharpton targeted American Honda in 2003 for not hiring enough African-Americans in management positions. (Does education, qualifications mean anything? Or is it JUST the color of your skin?...OM)

“We support those that support us,” Sharpton wrote to the company. “We cannot be silent while African-Americans spend hard-earned dollars with a company that does not hire, promote or do business with us in a statistically significant manner.”

Two months later, car-company leaders met with Sharpton, and Honda began to sponsor NAN’s events. The protests stopped.

Sharpton landed a gig as a $25,000-a-year adviser to Pepsi after he threatened a consumer boycott of the soda company in 1998, saying its ads did not portray African-Americans. He held the position until 2007.

As for Sony, Sharpton denied that his meeting with Pascal resulted in a donation to NAN.

“I have had no discussion with her about money.” Sharpton told The Post. “There was never even a remote discussion about money.” (YEA RIGHT!...OM)

Source: http://nypost.com/2015/01/04/how-sharpton-gets-paid-to-not-cry-racism-at-corporations/  with additional reporting from Amber Jamieson

And So It Begins...Vietnam in Reverse

Flashback: Back in the late 1950's to early 1960's America sent military advisers and trainers to the the Republic of South Vietnam in order to train a fledgling military to fight the onslaught of the communist backed North Vietnamese.

Eventually, no "good" action goes unpunished and as more attacks by the North on the U.S. advisers continued, the only alternative left for the U.S. was send more and better armed troops and thus, the Vietnam War began.

Fast Forward: Just as in the case of Vietnam, the Socialists, Democrats saw that America was coming together on the War on Terror after 9-11 and THIS could not be allowed for their agenda of destruction of America to continue.

So what did the LEFT do, start undermining the war effort, both in Afghanistan and Iraqi till finally Americans became "war weary".

This "war weariness" would eventually lead to the American sheeple to elect Boo Boo Obama as our Clown in Chief with the promise that he would withdraw our troops from the Middle East.

Now, six years later, he is finally doing it and though the generals have advised against it, Boo Boo's socialist agenda ignored them.

As America and our allies withdrew combat troops, ISIS & other radical Muslims began their consolation and march to destroy everything America and our allies proudly fought and died for over the passed years.

As ISIS continued its savage march, Boo Boo finally and reluctantly sent advisers and trainers BACK to Middle East, with the "promise" that there will be "no combat boots" om the ground, although intelligent people KNOW that anytime American combat troops is in a hostile environment, they ARE combat boots on the ground.

American Sheeple never learn, they would rather believe that under Boo Boo and his Socialists, everything will be "lollipops and roses" and didn't listen or believe when many Patriots warned that sending "advisers" and "trainers" is just the beginning for our re-entry into another war in the Middle East.

American Troops Battle ISIS For First Time as Militants Attack Iraqi Base

A number of militants have been killed in Islamic State's very first battle with U.S. ground troops after the extremists attempted to overrun an Iraqi military base.

The militants attacked Ein al-Asad military base on Sunday where more than 100 U.S. military support troops are based.

Despite launching the surprise attack just after midnight, ISIS's offensive was swiftly repelled when U.S. troops and F-18 jets joined in the skirmish in support of the Iraqi Army.

Facing both Iraqi and US troops supported by F18 jets, an unknown number of ISIS attackers were killed during the two hour firefight before being forced to retreat.

Ein al-Asad came under repeated attack by ISIS troops in October, however, now bolstered by the U.S. assistance, it poses a much more formidable target.

Sheikh Mahmud Nimrawi, a tribal leader in the region, said 'US forces intervened because ISIS started to come near the base, which they are stationed in, so (it was) out of self-defense,' Shafaq News reported.

He added: 'We have made progress in (the) al-Dolab area, in which ISIS has withdrawn from.'

During the Iraq War, it was the largest airbase located within Iraq's Anbar province.

Although it scaled down in size following the conclusion of the war, it remains in use by the Iraq Army and is located deep within the remote areas on the front line against ISIS.

Meanwhile, Kurdish forces have launched an operation to retake the town of Sinjar in northwest Iraq after coalition planes pounded Islamic State positions overnight, Kurdish officials said.

The peshmerga fighters made gains against ISIS throughout the day, the officials said, driving the militants out of at least eight sub-districts in the Zumar area, east of Sinjar.

If the peshmerga succeeded in recapturing the town, it would open up a corridor to Sinjar mountain, where hundreds of minority Yazidis have been besieged by ISIS militants since August.

It would also be a symbolic victory for the Kurds, whose reputation as fearsome warriors was bruised after Islamic State overpowered the peshmerga in Sinjar and killed or captured hundreds of Yazidis.

'At 8.00 this morning the ground offensive began to liberate Sinjar town,' said one official in the Kurdish region's Security Council, adding that coalition planes had bombed the area for several hours beforehand.

'There's evidence that a lot of ISIS fighters abandoned their weapons and fled the area.'

Several other Kurdish security officials gave similar accounts.

U.S. President Barack Obama cited the duty to prevent an impending massacre of Yazidis by Islamic State militants as one of the main reasons for authorizing the first air strikes in Iraq this summer.

Final note: Air power DOES NOT/WILL NOT win a war, IT will take Warriors on the ground in mud, muck and blood to WIN. I only pray that the American sheeple will soon learn this and America will grow a set, elect TRUE LEADERS, who will unleash the Devil Dogs of hell and allow our military to do what they do best, KILL THE ENEMY, BLOW THINGS UP AND COME HOME!

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2878897/American-troops-battle-ISIS-time-attempted-attack-militants-Iraqi-base.html

Government Mismanagement at Pearl Harbor Memorial

Sunday will mark the 73rd anniversary of the "Day that will live in infamy" allegations of mismanagement at one the one of the nation's most hallowed sites, an underwater grave for more than 900 sailors and Marines killed when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and sank their ship in 1941.

Now, it's the scene of alleged rampant mismanagement.

An internal report from the National Park Service, which operates a visitors' center for a memorial at the battleship, said tour companies sold tickets with the knowledge of park officials even though tickets are supposed to be free.

Another pointed to substandard maintenance, including scuffed museum walls that languished un-repaired and bird feces that wasn't cleaned.

The revelations in documents released last month come just before crowds gather at Pearl Harbor on Sunday for an annual ceremony remembering more than 2,400 sailors, Marines and soldiers killed 73 years ago.

"To watch the desecration of a very sacred, very important place was very disheartening," said John Landrysmith, a former park service guide and 41-year-old Iraq war veteran.

He quit his job earlier this year after feeling his supervisor was punishing him for questioning the ticket policy and believing the park service failed to act on his complaints. He intends to file a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the park service.

Park superintendent Paul DePrey said the park service was trying to accommodate the tour companies, which bring busloads of people each day.

"It was not intended for a huge glut of tickets that were going to just the tour companies," he said "We tried to work that system the best we could. It was not successful."

The practice stopped when they realized it didn't comply with park service policy and wasn't working as intended, he said.

A new ticketing system starting next month, DePrey said, will do a better job laying out the terms and conditions of the permits commercial tour companies operate under. The park service will also start scanning tickets to get data on how they are being used.

The problems outlined in the reports are centered at the visitor's center, which anyone visiting the Arizona and the memorial must pass through. The $56-million complex, rebuilt four years ago, explains events leading up and during the attack with the help of museum exhibits and movie screenings.

Visitors then board boats to the white, open-air memorial that sits atop the Arizona's rusting hull.

There are only 4,350 boat tickets available each day. That amounts to less than 1.6 million tickets a year, even though the park service says 1.8 million people visit Pearl Harbor annually.

A September 2013 park service report said there was "at minimum" no transparency in the way tickets were distributed.

The report, which was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, outlined how park service employees gave walk-in tickets intended for independent visitors to commercial tour companies who then sold them.

Tickets were also given to Pacific Historic Parks, a nonprofit that runs a gift shop and raises money for the memorial. The organization gave some to people spending $7 to rent an audio tour from the nonprofit, and gave others to companies that would lead clients to the audio tours, the report said.

There were rarely enough tickets for independent visitors while this was going on, the report said.

DePrey said visitors pay the companies for the transportation they provide to Pearl Harbor from Waikiki hotels and other places not for the tickets.

Yet the report said uniformed commercial tour drivers were observed standing about 15 feet in front of the park service information desk - in full view of the park ranger - offering tickets to visitors who were already at Pearl Harbor.

Another anecdote said two visitors reported being sold tickets for $39 each by a tour company even though they drove their own rental car to the visitor's center.

A separate internal report listed a slew of maintenance issues. Photos from the report show peeling paint in the museum and accumulated bird droppings.

Some maintenance problems persist. Visitors to the museum today will see silver duct tape securing a black ribbon with the words "Exhibit Temporarily Unavailable" to an empty glass case that once held model of the Arizona. The exhibit's been down for a year.

Outside, an orange plastic fence surrounds a muddy spot where a water catchment basin isn't working as intended. The fence has been up since last December, the park service said.

The park service is trying to keep the facility in as good condition as it can, DePrey said.

"I'm not happy when I see aspects of the facility that are in poor condition. It's not something that I or my maintenance or the park rangers are proud of," DePrey said. "But we are realistic that these things will happen from time to time."

Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PEARL_HARBOR_MEMORIAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-12-05-07-33-59