● US Under Terrorist Attack From Within... ● Business’ given Green Light to terminate current employees and hire new ones to gain tax credits.... ● Beware of IRS’ 2010 “Dirty Dozen” Tax Scams... ● CBO Update... ● Obama threatens veto on intelligence activities bill that hold him accountable to congress.... ● More Reform, Same Corrupt Government - Dodd's Financial Regulation... ● House Dems may try to pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it... ● Nancy Pelosi's strategy for passing health-care reform... ● Curbing earmarks: Even with new restrictions, for-profits get paid. Dems mislead to save thier jobs.... ● Early races for Congress may give forecast for November...
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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Government'

US Under Terrorist Attack From Within

March 17th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Government Control, Greed, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Attack

House Democrats’ tactic for health-care bill is debated

By Amy GoldsteinWashington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

An obscure parliamentary maneuver favored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suddenly ignited Tuesday as the latest tinder in the year-long partisan strife over reshaping the nation’s health-care system, triggering debate over the strategy’s legitimacy and political wisdom.

Republicans condemned Pelosi’s idea — in which House members would make a final decision on broad health-care changes without voting directly on the Senate version of the bill — as an abuse of the legislative process.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) called it “the ultimate in Washington power grabs.” Pelosi shot back: “I didn’t hear any of that ferocity when the Republicans used this, perhaps, hundreds of times.”

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Business’ given Green Light to terminate current employees and hire new ones to gain tax credits.

March 17th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Greed, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Social Security, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason, Unemployment

Senate clears jobs bill for Obama’s desk

Updated 11:29 a.m.  By Ben Pershing

The Senate cleared an $18 billion jobs bill for President Obama’s signature Wednesday, a down payment on what Democrats hope will be a significant election-year investment in boosting the economy.

The measure passed 68-29, with 11 Republicans joining all but one Democrat present — Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) — in support. The bill had already passed the Senate once but the House tweaked it, requiring the second Senate vote before it could go to the White House. President Obama has praised the legislation in the past and plans to sign it.

Though relatively small compared to last year’s economic stimulus package, the measure represents the first clear legislative shot in months aimed squarely at persistent unemployment, and a rare bipartistan achievement from a Congress plagued by partisan squabbling. After getting bogged down in the health-care debate, Democrats are eager to pivot to the economy, which polls regularly identify as Americans’ most pressing concern.

“The beauty of this bill: It’s simple, it’s focused on private-sector job growth and it’s paid-for,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a co-author of the measure. “It’s modest, but … it’s almost a legislative dream.”

The centerpiece of the bill is a new program giving companies a break from paying Social Security taxes for the remainder of 2010 on any new workers they hire who had been unemployed for at least 60 days. Employers would also get a $1,000 tax credit for each of those workers who stays on the payroll for at least one year.

Aside from that program, the measure includes a one-year extension of the law governing federal transportation funding, and would transfer $20 billion into the highway trust fund. The bill also extends a tax break allowing companies to write off equipment purchases, and expands the Build America Bonds program, which helps state and local governments secure financing for infrastructure projects.

Some critics have questioned whether the package approved Wednesday is big enough to make a dent in the nation’s persistent unemployment problem, arguing that the new payroll tax break is unlikely to spur much new hiring that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred.

Separately, many Republicans suggest the bill uses accounting sleight of hand to make the measure appear budget-neutral.

“This isn’t so much a jobs bill as it is a debt bill,” complained Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).

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Beware of IRS’ 2010 “Dirty Dozen” Tax Scams

March 16th, 2010 · Fraud Alert, IRS

Videos
Dirty Dozen: English
Message for Tax Preparers: English | ASL
Choosing a Tax Preparer: English | Spanish | ASL
For this and other videos: YouTube/IRSVideos

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued its 2010 “dirty dozen” list of tax scams, including schemes involving return preparer fraud, hiding income offshore and phishing.

“Taxpayers should be wary of anyone peddling scams that seem too good to be true,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said. “The IRS fights fraud by pursuing taxpayers who hide income abroad and by ensuring taxpayers get competent, ethical service from qualified professionals at home in the U.S.”

Tax schemes are illegal and can lead to imprisonment and fines for both scam artists and taxpayers. Taxpayers pulled into these schemes must repay unpaid taxes plus interest and penalties. The IRS pursues and shuts down promoters of these and numerous other scams.

The IRS urges taxpayers to avoid these common schemes:

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Obama threatens veto on intelligence activities bill that hold him accountable to congress.

March 16th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Deception, Ethics, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The White House has renewed its threat to veto the fiscal 2010 intelligence authorization bill over a provision that would force the administration to widen the circle of lawmakers who are informed about covert operations and other sensitive activities.

When the bill passed the House on Feb. 25, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), hailed it for improving “congressional oversight by strengthening certain disclosure requirements of intelligence activities to the House and Senate intelligence committees.” Lawmakers had spent the previous six months working out provisions that the White House still opposes.

Under the House plan, which is similar to one passed by the Senate, the White House would have to inform all members of both intelligence committees of the “main features” of activities disclosed in detail to the Gang of Eight — the speaker and minority leader of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Senate and House intelligence committees.

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More Reform, Same Corrupt Government – Dodd’s Financial Regulation

March 16th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, Senate, Terrorism from Within

Concessions on financial reform bill yield few gains in Senate

By Brady Dennis Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate banking committee, introduced a revised bill on Monday to overhaul financial regulation that included compromises forged with Republicans in recent months but fell short of winning endorsement from conservatives, including members in his own party.

Even though Dodd whittled the scope of his initial November bill to address concerns that the proposals could give government too heavy a hand in the financial markets, it remains unclear whether he can find the votes to shepherd the legislation through the Senate.

“Our regulatory structure, constructed in a piecemeal fashion over many decades, remains hopelessly inadequate,” Dodd said at a news conference. “There hasn’t been financial reform on the scale that I’m proposing this afternoon since the 1930s. . . . It is certainly time to act.”

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House Dems may try to pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it

March 16th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Government Control, Healthcare Industry, House, Insurance Industry, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate’s health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers “deem” the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic — known as a “self-executing rule” or a “deem and pass” — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

“It’s more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know,” the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. “But I like it,” she said, “because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.”

Republicans quickly condemned the strategy, framing it as an effort to avoid responsibility for passing the legislation, and some suggested that Pelosi’s plan would be unconstitutional.

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Nancy Pelosi’s strategy for passing health-care reform

March 15th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Government Control, House, Non-Transparency, Terrorism from Within

“My biggest fight has been between those who wanted to do something incremental and those who wanted to do something comprehensive,” Nancy Pelosi said in a meeting with reporters this morning. “We won that fight, and once we kick through this door, there’ll be more legislation to follow.”

Easier said than done, as anyone who’s been watching this process knows. Democrats have been on the verge of passing health-care reform for many months now, but for all the doors they’ve kicked in, they’ve found more doors waiting on the other side. But today, Pelosi made her clearest statements yet on how she means to finish this bill. The issue is how to sequence the Senate health bill, which the House doesn’t like, with the package of fixes (including, Pelosi said, the elimination of the Nebraska and Florida deals, the delay of the excise tax, more affordability and oversight provisions and more funding of community health centers), which the House does like. There are a number of procedural options on the table, but today, Pelosi said that she favors the “deem and pass” strategy.

Here’s how that will work: Rather than passing the Senate bill and then passing the fixes, the House will pass the fixes under a rule that says the House “deems” the Senate bill passed after the House passes the fixes.

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Curbing earmarks: Even with new restrictions, for-profits get paid. Dems mislead to save thier jobs.

March 15th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within, Wisconsin

By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 15, 2010

Twice in recent years, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) helped obtain earmarks totaling $3.2 million for a home-state university to study how to make military jet fuel from plants. Standing behind that nonprofit work, however, is a for-profit Chicago firm that often partners with universities to reap part of their earmark benefits.

Similar collaborations between private companies and nonprofits will pose tricky questions under a policy intended to end earmarks to profit-making firms, which Obey helped shepherd through the House Democratic caucus last week. That new rule was widely touted as a crackdown, but in reality it could leave untouched almost 90 percent of typical earmarks.

The reason is that, like Obey’s earmarks, most of the billions of dollars in earmarks approved by Congress each year involve handing out funds to state or local agencies or to nonprofit institutions, which then dole out part of the money to private contractors.

As a result, the new Democratic rule, and a proposal by House Republicans to stop all earmarks for one year, are unlikely to significantly curb Washington’s booming earmark industry, experts said. Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonprofit that has criticized earmarking, called the new limits important but compared them to “squeezing a balloon.” Without more comprehensive restraints, he said, the money flow could simply move to new pathways.

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Early races for Congress may give forecast for November

March 15th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Politics

By Chris Cillizza Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 15, 2010

Circle May 18 on your calendar. What happens that day will tell us much about the mood of the electorate heading into the November midterm elections.

That third Tuesday in May is the de facto Super Tuesday of the 2010 cycle, with a slew of contested Senate primaries and special elections sure to be interpreted ad nauseam for omens of the races this fall.

To wit:

– Pennsylvania: Sen. Arlen Specter faces voters for the first time since switching from Republican to Democrat in the spring of 2009. He’s opposed in the primary by Rep. Joe Sestak, who has enough money to combat Specter’s always well-funded campaigns. To be seen is whether Specter’s strong support from the entirety of the state and national Democratic parties — up to and including the White House — will work in his favor or, in the anti-establishment mood that appears to be at work nationally, whether it will be a net neutral or even a negative.

House strategists will have their hands full, too, particularly with the special election to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D) in the state’s southwestern 12th District. Former Murtha district director Mark Critz will face off against businessman Tim Burns (R) in the only district in the country that was carried by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in the 2004 presidential race and by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) four years later.

– Arkansas: Liberals nationwide have invested their hopes (and money) in Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who is challenging Sen. Blanche Lincoln for the Democratic nomination. Halter has attacked Lincoln for her moderation — particularly on health care — and his campaign has been financially fueled by a seven-figure infusion from four liberal interest groups. Organized labor has also pledged to spend millions of dollars to defeat Lincoln, whose poll numbers over the past year have plummeted for both the primary and general election. Liberals have revolted against their own before. Will Arkansas 2010 be a rerun of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s defeat at the hands of Ned Lamont, a wealthy businessman, in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic primary?

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Gitmo’s Indefensible Lawyers

March 15th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Defense, Democrats, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Treason, War on Terrorism

Legal counsel to some of the detainees went far beyond vigorous representation of their clients. Doesn’t the public have a right to know?

Wall Street Journal – MARCH 15, 2010
By Debra Burlingame and Thomas Joscelyn

On the evening of Jan. 26, 2006, military guards at Guantanamo Bay made an alarming discovery during a routine cell check. Lying on the bed of a Saudi detainee was an 18-page color brochure. The cover consisted of the now famous photograph of newly-arrived detainees dressed in orange jumpsuits—masked, bound and kneeling on the ground at Camp X-Ray—just four months after 9/11. Written entirely in Arabic, it also included pictures of what appeared to be detainee operations in Iraq. Major General Jay W. Hood, then the commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, concurred with the guards that this represented a serious breach of security.

Maj. Gen. Hood asked his Islamic cultural adviser to translate. The cover read: “Cruel. Inhuman. Degrades Us All: Stop Torture and Ill-Treatment in the ‘War on Terror.’” It was published by Amnesty International in the United Kingdom and portrayed America and its allies as waging a campaign of torture against Muslims around the globe.

“One thread that runs through many of the testimonies from prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq, and from Guantanamo,” the brochure read, “is that of anti-Arab, anti-Islamic, and other racist abuse.”

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