Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party |
- HOUSE GOP MOVES TO CUT FUNDS TO TSA‘S ’NAKED BODY’ SCANNERS
- Ron Paul to launch W.H. bid
- White House raises stakes in cybersecurity debate
- How much do oil companies really pay in taxes?
- Gold and silver coins being proposed as SC tender
- California Balks at Public Display of American Flag
| HOUSE GOP MOVES TO CUT FUNDS TO TSA‘S ’NAKED BODY’ SCANNERS Posted: 13 May 2011 06:55 AM PDT
By Associated Press, The Blaze WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans controlling the Transportation Security Administration's purse strings are moving to cut off funding for those advanced airport scanners that have sparked outrage over their revealing images of travelers' bodies. Draft legislation released Thursday by the Appropriations homeland security subcommittee denies the Obama administration's $76 million request for an additional 275 of the scanners, which many travelers dislike because TSA employees can view full body images of travelers. The GOP move wouldn't affect the 500 or so machines already in place at 78 of the nation's airports or the 500 just funded in a recent spending bill. Efforts are under way to solve the privacy concerns with new computer software. TSA currently gives passengers the option of a pat down in private – a choice that most people find even more intrusive. Panel chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., said his move was sparked by budgetary factors rather than protests from privacy advocates. And it comes as the TSA is trying hard to modify the machines so that they won't produce revealing images. Instead, the agency is trying out new software that would have the machines read the images and alert airport screeners when there's a potential weapon or other threat. The screener would then see the location of the threat as shown on a stick figure of the body. To read more, visit: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/house-gop-to-cut-funds-to-tsas-naked-body-scanners/ |
| Posted: 13 May 2011 05:06 AM PDT By ANDY BARR, Politico Ron Paul is set to officially launch his presidential campaign Friday morning, a Paul source told POLITICO. The Texas congressman will make his announcement from New Hampshire during the 7:00 a.m. hour of ABC's "Good Morning America." Paul is then scheduled to speak at 10:00 a.m. in Exeter, part of a two-day swing through New Hampshire following a stop in Iowa. Paul will also be keynoting the Grafton County Republican Memorial dinner on Friday night. To read more, visit: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54836.html |
| White House raises stakes in cybersecurity debate Posted: 13 May 2011 05:04 AM PDT By Gautham Nagesh, The Hill The White House on Thursday issued long-awaited legislative recommendations for fortifying U.S. computer networks in a proposal that notably omitted any talk of a "kill switch" for the Internet. No previous administration had ever released legislative guidance on cybersecurity, which has become a pressing issue now that computer networks have become an essential part of most industries, including transportation and communication. Government and military officials have issued warnings for years about increasing attacks on U.S. networks from enemy states and criminal organizations. Experts are in wide agreement that the nation's digital security laws are badly outdated and have failed to keep pace with technological change. The recent turmoil in Egypt and Tunisia heightened the "kill switch" fears, as the regimes in both countries succeeded in blacking out Internet access in an attempt to quell internal revolts. To read more, visit: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/160941-white-house-raises-stakes-in-cybersecurity-debate |
| How much do oil companies really pay in taxes? Posted: 12 May 2011 03:16 PM PDT By Steven Mufson, Washingtonpost.com Just how much do big oil companies pay in taxes? Exxon Mobil says it pays plenty — more in U.S. taxes than it earned in the United States last year. Not so, say critics of the oil industry; the Center for American Progress says the oil giant's effective federal income tax rate is about half the 35 percent standard for U.S. companies. The liberal-leaning think tank, citing Exxon Mobil's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, says the corporation didn't pay any federal income tax in 2009. It all depends on how you count. Exxon Mobil counts everything — not just federal income taxes, but also local property taxes, state taxes, gasoline taxes and payroll taxes. The Center for American Progress (CAP) and other analysts count only the company's federal corporate income taxes. "We pay our fair share of taxes," said Kenneth Cohen, Exxon Mobil's vice president for public affairs, who in a conference call recently lumped more than $6 of sales, state and local taxes together with every $1 of federal income tax paid in 2010. But Exxon Mobil's tax rate is "lower than the average American's," Daniel Weiss, an energy expert at CAP, countered in an analysis that put the company's U.S. federal income tax rate in 2010 at just 17.2 percent. The tax debate may turn into the most combustible issue when top executives from five oil giants appear before a congressional committee on Thursday. To read more, visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-much-do-oil-companies-really-pay-in-taxes/2011/05/11/AF7UNutG_story.html?hpid=z2 |
| Gold and silver coins being proposed as SC tender Posted: 12 May 2011 03:12 PM PDT By Fraendy Clervaud, Midlandsconnect.com COLUMBIA (WACH) — South Carolina lawmakers are proposing a bill that would give the state another form of legal tender. Sen. David Thomas, a Republican from Greenville, wants to make gold and silver coins another option in the Palmetto State. Lawmakers are calling it the Sound Money Legislation. “I’m no financial expert but am I smart enough to know that you can’t keep printing money when it has no backing,” says SC Republican Representative Mac Toole. Thomas also wants a special joint committee to study the need and process for establishing an alternate currency. Read the entire bill here. "For those of you who think this is a way to re-establish secession, the bill was passed in Utah and it's currently law there,” SC Republican Representative Mike Pitts. A similar bill has been introduced in the House. Both bills have been referred to committee. To read more, visit: http://www.midlandsconnect.com/news/politics/story.aspx?id=616413 |
| California Balks at Public Display of American Flag Posted: 12 May 2011 03:03 PM PDT BY JEFFREY H. ANDERSON, weeklystandard.com In the small town of Orcutt, California, a private association has raised donations to erect a flagpole and monument between a highway exit and a park-and-ride lot, at the entrance to the community's Old Town section. The pole would hang the American flag, encircled by five pillars, one each for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), however, has stymied the effort, calling it an impermissible act of "public expression." The Orcutt Pioneer reports that, although the Old Town Orcutt Revitalization Association (OTORA) "intends its flag as a tribute and symbol of freedom" — which would seem to be how most Americans would view their nation's flag — "CalTrans sees it as a form of speech or expression, something more personal than patriotic." OTORA, a typical Tocquevillean-style private civil association, has been fundraising for over a year to collect the necessary $60,000 to build the flagpole and monument, above which would wave a 12-by-18-foot iteration Stars and Stripes. But CalTrans has declared that its policy forbids such efforts. In a letter to OTORA, CalTrans explains that it developed its policy in response to a ruling released by a 3-judge panel of the notorious Ninth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, a ruling that was issued in response to impromptu flag-hanging in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The panel's ruling demanded "viewpoint neutrality." That is, if CalTrans was going to allow the hanging of the American flag on public land, then it must also allow the hanging of all flags — whether the British flag, the Nazi flag, or the Jolly Rogers — as well as "expressive banners" of all sorts. In its letter to OTORA, CalTrans writes, To answer your question regarding the court's decision in Brown v. California Department of Transportation pertaining to flying the American Flag in the State right of way, it was established that, "The display of the United States flag constituted expressive activity, within the meaning of the First Amendment." The concern that we have in this situation is that, whether a flag hanging on a bridge [not OTORA's proposal], or a monument placed within a park and ride lot [the proposal], we would be placed in a position of having to permit all forms of expression as encroachments in the right of way if we were to allow yours. As such, the department has determined that the state highway system is not a forum for public expression except as expressly allowed. To read more, visit: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/california-balks-public-display-american-flag_559436.html |
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