IS IT TRUE November 20, 2014

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IS IT TRUE the Reverend Al Sharpton, the civil-rights leader who has become a close confidant to President Barack Obama and New York City Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, has more than $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens outstanding against him and his for-profit businesses?…in spite of these tax liens the Reverend Sharpton has drawn a fabulous salary from MSNBC that includes first class air travel to places he goes on news assignments?…most recently he has been a visitor to Ferguson, Missouri to cover and opine on the controversial shooting where a grand jury will soon rule if charges will be filed?…the CCO would like to propose a new law for acting as an advisor to the President of the United States?…we do not think anyone who owes the government more than $100,000 in undisputed back taxes should be eligible to advise the President in any capacity at all?…Presidents are of course human beings and can choose their own friends but who they choose as friends most certainly tells us something about their own character?

IS IT TRUE A report from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes?…these people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share?…Forbes has furthermore reported that Federal employees are behind in their tax obligations?…that the fact is, 318,000 of them owe back taxes And the dollars that are due aren’t exactly a rounding errors?…the taxes owed by federal employees alone add up to $3.3 billion?…The CCO wants to know if federal employees should pay their taxes or should the get a pass to the good life like the Reverend Al Sharpton?

IS IT TRUE that the reality of the situation is that whether any political appointee to a City of Evansville is from the City or County there is apparently no vetting done prior to an appointee being assigned to their chosen commission?…this failure to VET has been haunting Evansville like a poltergeist in recent history?… Earthcare Energy LLC,  the Johnson Controls fiasco, and now a herd of political appointees are creating heartburn for the City of Evansville which still does not have a competent vetting process in place?…whichever way this idea of where on must live to serve as a political appointee goes, the candidates need to be vetted appropriately for the commission they are nominated to serve on?…if the appointees are not VETTED the song will remain the same and the deterioration and depopulation will continue?…as with Detroit, Evansville is headed toward an intervention but it will be the people of the city that resurrect the place if a resurrection is to occur?

IS IT TRUE Steve Schaeffer, Mayor Winnecke’s Chief of Staff has taken to the Facebook site Evansville Transparency to take on the assertion that the negative trending of the Sewer and Water Utility Bonds constitute a problem for the City and a lie from the mouth of Mayor Winnecke?…since the Standard & Poors report with the negative trending opinion was released after the Mayor made his rosy bond statement, his words cannot by definition be a lie?…choosing not to announce that particular piece of information after eagerly announcing the AA- rating affirmation in May was somewhat misleading by omission, but it was not technically a lie?…as for negative news having no impact, that is simply not the case?…a negative trending opinion does indeed raise a caution flag to bond investors and set the stage for a future downgrade if the fund balances that triggered the negative trend warning are not replenished?…Mr. Schaffer correctly pointed out that the balances in question were depleted by former Mayor Weinzapfel?…the reality is that under Mayor Winnecke, the balances have continued to be depleted so do not be surprised if more negative news is forthcoming following future audits?…we shall remind our readers that a 1% change in interest rates on an $800 Million sewer bond issue amounts to $8 Million more per year which is a sum of money worth looking the other way on public health hazards for according to the Evansville City Council?

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47 COMMENTS

  1. Why do I get the feeling we’re talking about preacher/show-host/publicity-hound Al Sharpton’s tax issues in the IIT in order to drive page views and page stickiness? Hey POV and CountryBoy and bong-smoking BrandonM…bite down real hard. Oh wait, it’s soft butter. No need.

    And you know, the idea for Editor to talk about some Obama staff members owing $833K in back taxes? This info just out? (No.) This is dug up from a news article from an old Andrew Malcolm IBD column from the year 2012. 2012!

    The anti-Obama diatribe is old…

    Immigration is on the table folks. The Republican Party is trying to make headway and acknowledge that hard working, family-oriented, church-going Latino families exhibit the ideal set of immigrant American values that flourish in the United States…And starts companies, and employs people, and improves our economy, and is just plain-old fashioned good for business. Which is why the Chamber of Commerce is for Republican immigration reform.

    But some Tea Party people aren’t anti-immigration. They are just plain hate and anti-immigrant of any kind.

    • Funny how you are anti Taxed Enough Already citizens but side with Illegal aliens, law breakers, and believe Sharpton should have a 2 year statute of limitations on the reporting of his shirking paying his fair share.

      • Indiana Enoch…..I thought you were opposed to the use of the straw-man. (Which means I didn’t say nor do I agree with you)

        • You betcha Shem. There is no straw man except in your saying that the Tea Party favoring legal immigration makes them anti-immigration and xenophobes or that it is no longer current news if Sharpton has not paid his taxes yet holds the positions of confidence.

          • ….man, you’ve heard the “forest through the trees” I take it.

            The issue is NOT Al Sharpton and his tax problems. I think every single person in here will agree Sharpton is a loudmouth rabble-rousing, self-promoting person. I give him no respect. You creating a straw-man saying that I say I defend Al Sharpton is hilarious! (Oh, your use of the straw-man have me saying the other things…..I did not say those things nor do I agree with what your straw-man said.

            THE ISSUE is Editor, in a shallow and insignificant way you commonly see from Breitbart and Drudge (…and it appears, increasingly from the CCO in order to drive site traffic) creates an IIT with Obama’s name next to Sharpton to dirty Obama…but then goes to the length of “wanting to create new law” over while on Editor’s sleazy “Hannity-style” diatribe.

            Editor baited you Indiana Enoch. You should be proud. (Me too, cause I responded and spent time on the site. But Editor is spending personal and professional capital, not an expense, selling off Editor’s professional brand with hack behavior akin to the cheap, substance free shots you would normally see from the highly respected sidekick blondes who sit next to Sean Hannity on Fox News.)

            Oh. Let’s be clear. The Tea Party is not “anti-immigration.” The Tea Party is “ANTI-IMMIGRANT.” The GOP is right to dismiss their input.

          • If being pro-legal immigration makes one anti immigration, then you are defending Al Sharpton’s tax neglect. You really need to get over your tea-phobia of American’s exercising their constitutional rights.

          • I-E…you seem to be a smart guy. But your total lack of capacity to engage with the future of America in a more enlightened way…and this whole “rule of law” over a more compassionate approach to 5-10 million family people affected by the immigration problem is disheartening. You don’t have to be that way, and I would think you would be out front trying to help clearly hardworking family people. In a million years, you know Jesus would not hold your obstinate views about the Latino families seeking a better life in America. I know. I know. You’re mad at having to defend yourself as though you lack compassion. Eatin speaks louder’n words, I-E.

  2. Looks like a EO will happen today. A wave of a wand. Nothing to “correct” the illegal entry. Basically like a doctor giving a aspirin, instead of open heart surgery to fix the problem!

  3. Is it not true we have in the Holy Land called downtown, players that owe money?

    Is it not true there are coal companies with hefty safety fines still doing business, still in violation, still hurting their workers, while still making profits?

    Is it not true that business people can go in and out of bankruptcy under many business names unscathed?

    Is it not true that business can outsource, put in on our shelves thru our infrastructure without paying taxes?

    • Is it true that this poster has one debt that gets paid monthly at a local credit union?

      Loosely following that one commercial, what’s in your (debt)closet?

  5. EDITOR, please get your facts straight re: Waterworks Bonds.

    The date of the negative trend/ utility’s deteriorated financial position is dated 9/17/2013 (2013, not 2014–see below).

    The date of the Mayor’s rose colored glasses moment re: bond ratings was in May 2014, when the 2012 Fraudit was released. Unless, you know of an earlier rosy bond statement, prior to 9/17/2013.

    http://www.yieldandincome.com/bondsOnline/rating_doc.cfm?DA=view&RID=33064

  6. Al Sharpton, and Rush Limbaugh, have “neutered” themselves by their own “hands”,
    and have enjoyed filthy lucre for doing it on “Stage”.
    –“Ah, America what a Country”–Yakov Smirnoff

  7. Editor: the Standard & Poor’s report re: waterworks bonds negative trend was in September 2013; the Mayor’s infomercial about how great the bonds were was in C&P in May 2014, when the long-overdue city audit was released. Evansville Transparency did a great job of showing the May 2014 date on the left side of their photo, but they clipped the date on the S&P on the right side.

    Bottom line: Mayor knew fully well about the negative trend in Waterworks Bonds (Sept. 2013) when he made those statements in May 2014 while defending the changed audit opinion.

    • Wieneke in the confessional…… “Bless me father, I’ve lied more times than I can count, BUT I’m not gonna stop lying.

    • EVANSVILLE TRANSPARENCY:

      Please tweak your photo so that you include the date when S&P attached the negative trend to the waterworks bonds (which was 9/17/13). The juxtaposition with that date to the Mayor’s speech re: the bond ratings (May 2014 C&P article) ) will, literally, be worth a thousand words.

  8. When will this site change it’s name to “The National, City, &County Observer”, Joe? I believe you can surely understand that bright, talented people sometimes fall on hard times in their businesses. I think you will also agree that a business failure, or even a bankruptcy, does not negate brains and talent. Bankrupting businesses has become “big business” for many public figures, and the 2016 GOP frontrunner for the Presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, is one of them.
    Please understand that I am not defending Sharpton, who I consider to be an “entertainer” instead of a serious commentator. He is sort of a “Rush Limbaugh” for us lefties. I believe you are incorrect in portraying him as an advisor to the President, but that insinuation will kindle the fires burning in far-right hearts here in Evansville. The fact is that a lot of influential people of all political stripes owe the IRS money, especially the ones who have no plans to run for office. If they are not facing any criminal charges, it is their personal business. I don’t think owing the government money is justification for suspending anyone’s First Amendment rights. As for Sharpton’s agreement with MSNBC, I would think that a Libertarian would not be judgmental about a contract between an employer and employee.
    I think your defense of the Mayor’s “integrity” is really splitting hairs. There is little difference in a lie and making purposely misleading statements. Evansville Transparency is a great Facebook page, that is done with a lot of technical skill and great wit. I don’t think Steve Schaeffer has any business commenting there or here while he is “on the clock.”, though. ET is someone’s hobby, as it does not sell ads or collect donations, and I really don’t think well paid pubic officials should be spending the taxpayer’s time participating in someone’s leisure pursuits.

    • ….did Joe Wallace write today’s IIT? I don’t think so. If wrong, correct me.

      • He made very similar comments about the Mayor yesterday on Evansville Transparency, and he usually does most of the IIT. It surely doesn’t sound like Ron to me, but I could be wrong.

        • Sorry. I have read too many enlightened words from Joe Wallace to believe that he wrote this kind of twisted, tabloid politics crap. It looks more like the work of a CCO official trying to display an increase in site hits to advertisers. The next election ad cycle is too far away, so political ads are not paying any bills right now.

    • This business man has been there and fought his way out of it. The differences are that Sharpton has a steady income and I don’t see him fighting his way out of his tax issues.

      But here is an idea for both of us, I propose that we send Sharpton and Limbaugh to Ferguson and let them battle it out.

      Seriously LKB, if you secure the venue I’ll print the tickets and purchase a CCO Banner ad. We could buy our own Island with the proceeds. You live on the left, and I’ll live on the right.

      • What are those of us in the center supposed to do? Besides keep on ducking. Gets hard to work with all the darn fly by distractions Lately the recovered science shows we centrists should ally ourselves more to the left, the hard data shows the target acquisition might be a tad more accurate.

          • Does now, the right side shifting “to crazy town” and missed target acquisitions is not a good place to be in a “shithole” like your local region. Friendly fire, or not.

      • Spitballs at 30 paces? Jello pit “‘rasslin”? It’s kind of hard to find a fair way for these two to fight it out, but a war of words would just give the audience a huge headache!

        • __ord center type attractions for sure, probably attract the same small crowds, as well as , they’d all leave sporting a headache on exit from the dirge.

      • Cage match! Think we could dust off Jackie Fargo & Tojo Yamamoto? Bearcat Brown, anyone? Peace!

        • Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, Jimmy Vallent?, Jimmy Hart, Iron Sheik, The midget tag teams.

      • If Rush had a tax problem the IRS would be all over him and he would probably be doing time. The IRS is so corrupt that the only way to fix it is to fire the old and hire some new. Ferguson is a preview of the future. This president has brought a level of corruption to our country not seen since Andrew Johnson. Taking an overall look at Obama, can anyone imagine a white person with so little experience or character being elected president? He’s the only president in recent history elected to this office without being the governor of some state. He’s an affirmative actions president with a 501-3c background sucking off HUD/DOJ grants and thinks this is what makes this country move forward. If liberals spend half as much time working and paying tax as defending Obama the national debt would be eliminated. He doesn’t have a clue, but he is smarter than Brad Ellsworth, reeled him in didn’t he.

        • Damn funny one mentions Andrew Johnson, look up “his Albert release”. Not surprising, but one has to say, see what I’m sayin. That was a mistake of the multitudes, made a lot of good men have to make excuses they actually had absolutely nothing to do with. Histories a bitch sometimes but unless your Joseph Stalin ,or Adolf Hitler its kind’a hard to erase. Intervention isn’t chaos, or is it?
          ************ * /\

        • Carter, Reagan, Clinton, G W Bush. Looks to me we need to stay away from all the governors!

  9. There is a difference between the IRS saying you owe taxes an you actually owing them. You can, an I have; dispute a tax bill and win. I can also assure you if you really owe the IRS you will pay or go to jail.
    Locally It seems you can get away with not paying property tax?

  10. I read the article in the New York Times about Sharpton. Also several other articles about it from credible news sources. He seems to be paying his tax liability down. Trying to pair Sharpton and Limbaugh is as bad a false equivalancy as the transparently goofy attempt to make a Sharpton/Obama connection in the minds of the weak. The Obama haters have no shame. They also have no one to sign the crap their dandy new legislature plans to pass.

    • “The Obama haters have no shame. They also have no one to sign the crap their dandy new legislature plans to pass.”
      Bing-O, Bulls eye, +1000! I was really expecting CCO to go full-force after POTUS on the anticipated EO to be announced tonight, so it surprised me to see the “gossip” piece on Sharpton. It would not have a great deal of merit even if the Reverend was an official advisor to POTUS, instead of the MSNBC commentator he is. I guess it must be an example of the belief that ” all African Americans are alike”, except for the Republican members of the group.

      • ‘Close confidant’ of the mayor of New York an the president will have to do. Bill de Blasio got included under the black wife exception.

        It’s sort of a shame but it’s what happens when somebody or something (all people in the eyes of the Supremes) starts believing their own self-generated press — there’s an award for that.

      • We are still expecting the Hey, hey Albert short, as well. Looks like that wagons found its band as well. Us centrists are going to keep or helmets on and look up when the frays passed. Field conditions are better sensed than tread upon, sometimes. That’s why they developed mine detectors, one supposes.
        “Applied Pathway Developments*, to somehow move in a positive direction.”

        • I think that Albert will make his first formal appearance here on one of the weekend open forum opportunities. Nice and clean that way.

          I have a periscope I use for investigating suspect terrain before sending my wife up and out on it for the final determination.

    • Here’s the real costly issue New York state has, increased thermodynamic incursions while climate migration continues to sport the new standards for infrastructure development. Like the Whitehouse is saying “build in some resilience!”. Note: The guy shoveling in over five feet of snow and expecting more, then note the fallen leaves ON TOP OF THE FREASH DRIVEN SNOW. That’s a Climate change migration facial demonstration. Next trick, a rapid warm-up and flash flooding da-boot..’s.

      http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/round-2-buffalo-braces-for-another-wintry-wallop/ar-BBeBktb

  11. damns i is a black liberal taxes donts applys to me……mes and barrys is above the law…….

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