Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.) and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) with President Barack Obama. (Associated Press photo)
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Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.) and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) with President Barack Obama. (Associated Press photo)
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From CatholicOnlineWhen U.S. President Barack Obama visits Mumbai, the most populous City in India, it will cost a whopping $200 million a day. The majority of the expenses will go towards security.
"The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra Government, who had access to information about the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.
About 3,000 people, including Secret Service agents, U.S. government officials and journalists will accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and U.S. security agencies have already been in Mumbai for the past week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments.
"Except for personnel providing immediate security to the President, the U.S. officials may not be allowed to carry weapons. The state police [are] competent to take care of the security measures and they would be piloting the Presidential convoy," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The Navy and Air Force have been asked by the state government to increase patrols along the Mumbai coastline and airspace during the president's stay. The city's airspace will be closed half-an-hour before the President's arrival for all aircraft barring those carrying the U.S. delegation.
The personnel from SRPF, Force One, besides the NSG contingent stationed here would be roped in for the President's security, the official said.
The area from Hotel Taj, where Obama and his wife Michelle will stay, to the Shikra helipad in Colaba would be cordoned off completely during the president's stay.
While Democrats went out of their way to portray the Koch brothers as evil billionaires puppeteering this election, I’d venture they feel pretty good about the outcome. However, after last night I’d venture that that George Soros is one unhappy Hungarian.
Where the Kochs stood accused of funding some well-known grassroots political groups, Soros has been heavily invested in some pretty shady attempts at electioneering for Democrats. And fortunately, these efforts aren’t going very well.
The first notable thing is Soros’ funding of the Secretary of State Project — which is basically an attempt to elect Secretaries of State around the country willing to impose Democratic-friendly election laws in an attempt to tilt the playing field in their favor on election day.
Well, yesterday Republicans won 17 of 26 races for Secretary of State taking six of those offices (Arkansas, Ohio, New Mexico, Colorado, Iowa and Kansas) from Democrats. Republicans now control 25 offices to Democrats 22.
And then there was Soros’ backing of a measure in California to put control of redistricting back in the hands of the state legislature, a move that would obviously benefit Democrats. It failed, while another measure to give California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission increased authority over redrawing congressional districts:
California voters approved a ballot measure financed largely by Charles Munger Jr., son of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Charles Munger, that strips California lawmakers of responsibility for drawing the boundaries of congressional districts.
Proposition 20 was winning 65 percent to 35 percent, with 17 percent of precincts counted, according to the Associated Press. The measure puts the task of reshaping the districts represented by California’s 53 members of the House of Representatives into the hands of a Citizens Redistricting Commission.
Proposition 27, a competing measure backed by billionaire George Soros, unions and Democratic Party leaders to disband the commission and return districting powers to lawmakers, was losing, 61 percent to 39 percent.
I’m sure Soros will keep pushing his agenda, but for now, two big ticket items of his have been stymied.
[UPDATE]: The whole of the Maine legislator has flipped to the GOP. Several people I have talked to said such a deep and thorough shift to any one party has not happened in one election in the past 100 years.
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This is an unusual Morning Briefing because you need to understand what happened while you’ve been sleeping.
Republican gains are massive. And when I say Republican gains are massive, I mean tsunami.
No, the GOP did not take the Senate and some races are still outstanding, but the Senate GOP has moved to the right. More so, the Republicans picking up, in the worst case, seven seats is historically strong.
But consider that as you wake up this morning the Republican Party has picked up more seats in the House of Representatives than at any time since 1948 — that is more than sixty seats. Ike Skelton, Class of 1976, is gone. Many, many other Democrats are gone.
That, in and of itself, is significant. But that’s not the half of it. The real story is the underreported story of the night — the Republican pick ups at the state level.
There will be 18 states subject to reapportionment. The Republicans will control a majority of those — at least ten and maybe a dozen or more. More significantly, a minimum of seventeen state legislative houses have flipped to the Republican Party.
The North Carolina Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1870. Yes, that is Eighteen Seventy.
The Alabama Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1876.
For those saying this is nothing because it is the South, consider these:
The entire Wisconsin and New Hampshire legislatures have flipped to the GOP by wide margins.
The State Houses in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Montana, and Colorado flipped to the GOP.
The Maine and Minnesota Senates flipped to the GOP.
The Texas and Tennessee Houses went from virtually tied to massive Republican gains. The gains in Texas were so big that the Republicans no longer need the Democrats to get state constitutional amendments out of the state legislature.
These gains go all the way down to the municipal level across the nation. That did not happen even in 1994.
This was a tsunami.