Fox Valley, Wisconsin – Local mom’s make custom purses and baby ‘must haves’ to beat the economy. Why can’t our Government follow their lead and make “Made In America” mean something again?
I give a lot of credit to these ladies. 2 of them have full time jobs and 1 a full time stay at home mom. How do they find the time to sew?
Good luck to them. You can visit their site at http://rosebudcreations.com and keep “Made in America” alive.
Tags: Taking Back America
By T.W. Farnam- Thursday, September 9, 2010; 12:17 PM
Capitol Hill employees owed $9.3 million in overdue taxes at the end of last year, a sliver of the $1 billion owed by federal workers nationwide but one with potential political ramifications for members of Congress.
The debt among Hill employees has risen at a faster rate than the overall tax debt on the government’s books, according to Internal Revenue Service data. It comes at a time when some Republican members are pushing for the firings of government workers who owe the IRS and President Obama has urged a crackdown on delinquent government contractors.
The IRS data does not identify delinquent taxpayers by name, party affiliation or job title and does not indicate whether any members of Congress are among the scofflaws. It shows 638 employees, or about 4 percent, of the 18,000 Hill workers owe money, a slightly higher percentage than the 3 percent delinquency rate among all returns filed nationwide.
The average unpaid tax bill is $12,787 among the Senate’s delinquent taxpayers and $15,498 among those working in the House.
IRS debt among government workers has surfaced as a political issue repeatedly over the years, most recently when Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced legislation this year to fire federal workers who owe back taxes unless they have entered into a payment plan. Eight Republicans co-sponsored the bill. No Democrats have signed on, and some have said firings would reduce the government’s prospects of being paid.
“If you’re on the federal payroll and you’re not paying your taxes, you should be fired,” Chaffetz said in an interview. He said the policy should apply across the board and “there should be no special exemptions.”
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Financial overhaul’s unexpected fallout: Closing of D.C.’s Small Savers day care
By Lisa Rein Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2010; 10:47 PM
Washington’s battle for regulatory reform wasn’t supposed to have this kind of collateral damage.
President Obama and Congress fought Wall Street for a year to push through a law to reform the country’s banks. But now they’re facing another fight they never expected – steps from the White House – against the toddler set and their high-octane parents.
The new law is threatening the existence of the Small Savers Child Development Center, which has operated for 24 years in the basement of the Office of Thrift Supervision at 1700 G St. NW. The bank watchdog that failed to police the country’s savings and loans is being closed – and its property dissolved. That means Small Savers has to go, too.
Small Savers parents – who include White House staffers, World Bankers, lobbyists, lawyers and journalists - have quickly become a lobbying juggernaut to save the small Washington institution under G Street.
“It will be a real tragedy if the financial crisis and the whole great economic soap opera claimed this day care center, too,” said Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of the New Republic magazine, whose 8-year-old son spent “four very happy and rich years” at Small Savers. “It may turn out the only thing working [in the building] was the day care center.”
Tags: Another Dem Reform Bill·Disillusioned Government·Government Incompetence·Making History Tops Ethics·Obama-Nation·Something To Hide
Islamic protesters burned US Flag and chanted "Death to America."
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 9, 2010; 12:02 AM
For almost a decade, the annual commemoration of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been seen as a day of national unity and sober remembrance. This year, contentious issues of religious freedom and national identity threaten to color the ninth anniversary of those tragic events.
Controversies over calls to burn the Koran and an ongoing debate over a proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York are drawing particular attention as the anniversary nears, sparking questions about how 9/11 became so politicized.
Islamic Radicals did THIS!
The reality is that, with rare exceptions, the meaning of those attacks has rarely been free of political overtones or debate. Common ground in the months after the attacks quickly gave way to partisan division over combating terrorism. What may be different this year is that earlier debates about who was “strong” in the fight against terrorism and who was not have been supplanted by questions about Islam and religious freedom.
Terry Jones, the pastor of a small church in Florida, wants to build a bonfire out of copies of the Koran on Saturday. That has brought condemnation across the spectrum. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has warned that images of Islam’s holy book in flames could endanger the lives of U.S. forces. Both the White House and conservatives such as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin have criticized Jones’s plan.
But experts on public opinion say the controversy does not represent a significant new shift in attitudes. Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said fresh signs of a backlash against Muslims are not showing up broadly in national surveys. “Attitudes are mixed and not as positive as they were eight years ago,” he said, “but there’s no sign of an upswing in anti-Muslim fervor.”
Jones may epitomize the ease with which someone on the political fringe can draw attention and spark controversy. The debate over the proposed Islamic center represents more genuine divisions in the country over the limits of religious freedom and the sacred nature of the ground around where the World Trade Center once stood.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that two-thirds of Americans oppose building the Islamic center near the former site of the twin towers. Four in five of those opposed say their opposition is strictly because of the location. But 14 percent of the opponents (or 9 percent of all Americans) say they would oppose building it anywhere in the country.
Tags: A Threat To America·Destroying the American People·Disillusioned Government·Empty Promises·Fix US First then others·Government Circus·Government Incompetence·Not an Obama Priority·Obama-Nation·Terrorism·Voice of the People
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 9, 2010; 12:05 AM
Afghan President Hamid Karzai intends to impose rules restricting international involvement in anti-corruption investigations, a move that U.S. officials fear will hobble efforts to address the endemic graft that threatens support for his administration in Afghanistan and the United States.
Karzai wants to circumscribe the role of American and other foreign law enforcement specialists in two key anti-corruption organizations in the Interior Ministry by not allowing them to have direct involvement in investigations.
“The management will be Afghan, and the decision-makers will be Afghan, and the investigators will be Afghan,” Mohammad Umer Daudzai, Karzai’s chief of staff, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. Foreign advisers, most of whom work for the U.S. Justice Department, will be limited to “training and coaching, but not decision-making,” he said.
Concern about Karzai’s willingness to root out corruption has emerged as a flashpoint in the U.S.-Afghan relationship, with American officials arguing that he has not done enough to demand accountability and Karzai maintaining that the problem has been fueled by the influx of billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
The planned changes have alarmed U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington and prompted efforts to try to persuade Karzai and his advisers to soften the restrictions.
“What he’s proposing would effectively neuter these two bodies,” said a U.S. official involved in Afghanistan policy.
Daudzai said Karzai also plans to prevent the U.S. government from influencing the selection and augmenting the salaries of the Afghan investigators and prosecutors who serve in the two groups.
In June, U.S. officials involved in anti-corruption investigations told The Washington Post that senior officials in Karzai’s government had derailed investigations of politically connected Afghans. “Above a certain level, people are being very well-protected,” one senior U.S. official told The Post.
Tags: A Threat To America·Afghanistan·Disillusioned Government·Empty Promises·Fix US First then others·Government Circus·Not an Obama Priority·Power Hungry·Something To Hide·Wasteful Spending
The following has been added to CBO’s Web site:
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