By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made $42.7 million over the past two years and paid $6.2 million in taxes, according to documents released Tuesday by his campaign.

Romney and his wife, Ann, filed a joint 1040 reporting $21.7 million in 2010 income and $3 million in federal taxes. They also said their 2011 income was $21 million and tax bill was $3.2 million.

Over the two years, Romney’s effective tax rate — the percentage of his income that he owed in federal income taxes — was just under 14%. (continue reading…)

by Ray Sabb, Editor

January 19, 2012 – You just got to love this:

• Earlier an angry Newt Gingrich chastised CNN for starting off with a question about reports that he offered his then-second wife a choice of an open marriage or divorce when he revealed to her he was having an affair with the woman he later made his third wife.
• “To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine,” Gingrich told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, the moderator of the debate.

Now Newt, let me understand this, you cheated on wife #1 while in office and started seeing then another women before you were divorced (Marianne). Then got your divorce from a wife that had cancer and married a few months later #2 who later on in her life was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. You then cast her in the gutter and started seeing the blonde Callista before you were divorced from Marianne. You then divorced Marianne and married Callista. Whom you are still married to and is President of your production company.

So now you are trying to convince me that you had some personal hurt in the past (yeah right) and want me to vote for a guy who was sanctioned and fined by the House with an overwhelming vote to fine your sorry pathetic ass.

• Eighty-four ethics charges were filed against Gingrich during his term as speaker. After extensive investigation and negotiation by the House Ethics Committee, Gingrich was sanctioned $300,000 by a 395–28 House vote. It was the first time in history a speaker was disciplined for ethical wrongdoing.

YOU CHEATED ON AMERICA, YOU CHEATED ON YOUR WIVES.
GO HOME….. I WOULDN’T TRUST YOU TO CLEAN UP MY DOGS POOP.

My hat is off to John King for putting him on the spot. Should have kicked him in the ass.

Interesting link on Newt: http://www.realchange.org/gingrich.htm

Commentary:

Isn’t it just hilarious that Evangelical groups are asking Perry and Gingrich to withdraw their bid for the White House.
Comical to see their own party members fighting with nasty commercials about each other where he did this, he did that is spelled out with $$$$.

For crying out loud folks, if you as a party cannot get behind someone then drop out. Now you watch and see, after all this in the house fighting when a nominee is chosen they will all be best friends kissing each others asses or porking someones wife. Which quite frankly is what they do better than most people.

-Ray Sabb, Editor

by Ray Sabb, January 5, 2012

Cromwell, CT – Finding it frustrating dealing with insurance companies when you have to deal with the doctors office too?

Here is an experience I just encountered.

I go to my Cardiologist. He complains to me about how it cost him $500 an hour to run his office. Then he complains to me about how the sample drug he is giving me is taking away from other patients after he tells me my insurance company doesn’t pay well at all.

Then of all the damn things to do he withheld some very important information like I had some very blocked arteries and should be in the hospital and considered for open heart surgery. Didn’t say a freaking word.

Go figure, 10 days later after I had a follow-up with him I have a heart attack that night.

Only then to my surprise do I find out that his recommendation was to have Open Heart Surgery. Why didn’t he tell me. Why did he tell me the other crap about what it cost him to run his office…

I don’t care what it costs him. I care what it cost me to see him.

Well, I had the Open Heart and changed doctors.

Thank you Henry.

I guess he must have had a senior moment that day in the cath lab when he did a heart study on me and told me that my heart was ok.

I guess with 4 blockages there wasn’t anything wrong when the protocol for something like that is to recommend to the patient that he check into the hospital because he is at risk of dropping dead.

I guess I should sue him…. But for what… He is a good doctor. Maybe he had a bad day at my expense.

Whatever…I have a new Cardiologist. So now he hasn’t got to worry about me, or does he !

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’). (I love that one)

(continue reading…)

By the CNN Wire Staff

State College, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Joe Paterno, whose tenure as the most successful coach in major college football history ended abruptly in November amid allegations that he failed to respond forcefully enough to a sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant, died Sunday, a family spokesman said. He was 85.

The longtime Penn State head coach was diagnosed with what his family had called a treatable form of lung cancer shortly after the university’s Board of Trustees voted to fire him.

He had been hospitalized in December after breaking his pelvis in a fall at his home and again in January for what his son called minor complications from his cancer treatments.

“It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today,” the family statement said. “His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled.”

Paterno, who was affectionately known as “JoePa” by generations of his players and football fans alike, was widely admired in football circles for what he called his “Grand Experiment” — his expectation that big-time college football players could succeed on the field while upholding high academic and moral standards away from the gridiron.

Under his leadership, the Nittany Lions won two national championships, went undefeated five times and finished in the top 25 national rankings 35 times, according to his official Penn State biography.

At the same time, the program never fell under NCAA sanctions for major infractions while producing 13 Academic All-Americans since 2006. In 2009, according to the university, the Nittany Lions posted an 85% graduation rate.

“The acclaim for Joe Paterno has stemmed largely from the contrast between the high academic and moral standards he has tried to exemplify and the shameless conduct that often embarrasses and dishonors the college sport he cherishes,” author Michael O’Brien wrote in a 1999 biography of Paterno, “No Ordinary Joe.”

Paterno was born in 1926 in Brooklyn to second-generation Italian immigrants, according to O’Brien’s book.

He attended Brown University, where he played quarterback and cornerback, according to another Penn State biography.

He coached at Penn State as an assistant from 1950 to 1965 and became head coach in 1966.

Decked out in his soon-to-become trademark thick glasses, white socks and sneakers, Paterno quickly became a memorable fixture on the football field, leading the Nittany Lions to undefeated seasons in 1968, 1969 and again in 1973 and the first national championship of his tenure in 1982.

Named National Coach of the Year five times, Paterno was added to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, but his induction was delayed until 2007 because of injuries he suffered in a sideline collision.

He became the winningest coach in major college football history in 2011 with 409 victories.

In addition to his exploits on the sidelines, Paterno had a significant impact on the university’s academic programs.

Paterno and his wife, Suzanne, donated more than $4 million to the university over the years for faculty endowments, scholarships and building projects, according to the university.

“Penn State has been very good to both Sue and me,” he said in 1998, according to his university biography.

Honored with glowing words of praise from players and presidents alike — President Ronald Reagan said Paterno never forgot that “he is a teacher who’s preparing his students not just for the season, but for life,” according to a university biography — he received the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame Distinguished American Award in 1991.

In doing so, he became the first active coach to do so, according to the biography.

“What are coaches?” he said at the dinner celebrating his award, according to his university biography. “Number one, we’re teachers and we’re educators. We have the same obligation as all teachers at our institutions, expect we probably have more influence over our young people than anyone other than their families,” he said.

It was his perceived failure to meet those obligations that led to his downfall as the only coach many Penn State football fans had ever known.

In October, state authorities charged two university officials with misleading investigators and failing to report alleged sexual abuse in 2002, after a Penn State assistant told a grand jury he saw former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky performing what appeared to be anal sex on a boy in a shower at the football complex.

The assistant reported it to Paterno the next day, who said he passed the report along to then-Athletic Director Tim Curley and another university executive, Gary Schultz.

Curley and Schultz left their positions shortly after the grand jury report was revealed. The next month, the university fired Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier.

At the time, he said in a statement released by his son, Scott Paterno, that he was “distraught” over the sex abuse scandal.

In an interview with the Washington Post published January 14, Paterno said that he felt inadequate to deal with the allegations.

“I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was,” the Post quoted him as saying. “So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”

Dr. Mel passes away at 66

New Haven, Conn. (WTNH) – Long time Storm Team 8 Meteorologist Dr. Mel Goldstein passed away Wednesday. He was 66 years old.

Dr. Mel had been fighting Multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in his bone marrow, for many years.

“We not only lost a great journalist today, but a great humanitarian and close friend, ” VP and General Manager Mark Higgins said in an email to the WTNH News 8 staff.

Dr. Mel retired from News 8 in August of 2011 after years of dedicated service, and delivered his ‘farewell forecast’ in November. His love and enthusiasm for the weather and passing along his knowledge was apparent to anyone who met him. (continue reading…)

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, whose bid for the GOP nomination for president caught fire in the summer, but sputtered in recent months, has bowed out of the race after a disastrous sixth-place finish in the Iowa Caucuses. Bachmann, a conservative who made overturning President Obama’s health care plan her campaign’s cornerstone, won the Hawkeye State’s Ames Straw Poll, but barely registered in the more important caucuses. “Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, and so I have decided to stand aside,” Bachmann said. She called for the party to rally around one nominee, but did not offer an endorsement. Another contender, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said he is “reassessing” his effort after he also lagged behind the frontrunners in Iowa. Get More at MSNBC

This year has been a tough one not only for me but for many Americans.

The upside, we are out of IRAQ. At least for now. Now we have to get out of Afghanistan and bring all of our troops home.
Too many notable passing’s this year like Champions (Joe Frazer) and media legends (Mickey Rooney).

I hope that 2012 brings a better year than the past few, it is time for a break.

Happy Holidays.

MainAttraction

By DAN GELSTON
AP Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier has liver cancer and is under hospice care.

The 67-year-old boxer was diagnosed four or five weeks ago, Frazier’s personal and business manager said Saturday. Leslie Wolff told The Associated Press that doctors have not yet told Frazier how long he has to live. (continue reading…)

(Wire) - Legendary CBS News commentator Andy Rooney, known to millions for his witty essays on mundane topics, died Friday night in New York. He was 92.

He had been hospitalized after suffering complications following minor surgery last month.

“It’s a sad day at ’60 Minutes’ and for everybody here at CBS News,” said Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and the executive producer of ’60 Minutes.’ “It’s hard to imagine not having Andy around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. We will miss him very much.” (continue reading…)