Friday, May 27, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says

Posted: 26 May 2011 03:49 PM PDT

By Spencer Ackerman, Wired.com

You think you understand how the Patriot Act allows the government to spy on its citizens. Sen. Ron Wyden says it's worse than you know.

Congress is set to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the surveillance law as early as Thursday. Wyden (D-Oregon) says that powers they grant the government on their face, the government applies a far broader legal interpretation — an interpretation that the government has conveniently classified, so it cannot be publicly assessed or challenged. But one prominent Patriot-watcher asserts that the secret interpretation empowers the government to deploy "dragnets" for massive amounts of information on private citizens; the government portrays its data-collection efforts much differently.

"We're getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says," Wyden told Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. "When you've got that kind of a gap, you're going to have a problem on your hands."

What exactly does Wyden mean by that? As a member of the intelligence committee, he laments that he can't precisely explain without disclosing classified information. But one component of the Patriot Act in particular gives him immense pause: the so-called "business-records provision," which empowers the FBI to get businesses, medical offices, banks and other organizations to turn over any "tangible things" it deems relevant to a security investigation.

"It is fair to say that the business-records provision is a part of the Patriot Act that I am extremely interested in reforming," Wyden says. "I know a fair amount about how it's interpreted, and I am going to keep pushing, as I have, to get more information about how the Patriot Act is being interpreted declassified. I think the public has a right to public debate about it."

That's why Wyden and his colleague Sen. Mark Udall offered an amendment on Tuesday to the Patriot Act reauthorization.

To read more, visit:  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/secret-patriot-act/

A 62% Top Tax Rate?

Posted: 26 May 2011 03:45 PM PDT

By STEPHEN MOORE, WSJ.com

Media reports in recent weeks say that Senate Democrats are considering a 3% surtax on income over $1 million to raise federal revenues. This would come on top of the higher income tax rates that President Obama has already proposed through the cancellation of the Bush era tax-rate reductions.

If the Democrats’ millionaire surtax were to happen—and were added to other tax increases already enacted last year and other leading tax hike ideas on the table this year—this could leave the U.S. with a combined federal and state top tax rate on earnings of 62%. That’s more than double the highest federal marginal rate of 28% when President Reagan left office in 1989. Welcome back to the 1970s.

Here’s the math behind that depressing calculation. Today’s top federal income tax rate is 35%. Almost all Democrats in Washington want to repeal the Bush tax cuts on those who make more than $250,000 and phase out certain deductions, so the effective income tax rate would rise to about 41.5%. The 3% millionaire surtax raises that rate to 44.5%.

But payroll taxes, which are income taxes on wages and salaries, must also be included in the equation. So we have to add about 2.5 percentage points for the payroll tax for Medicare (employee and employer share after business deductions), which was applied to all income without a ceiling in 1993 as part of the Clinton tax hike. I am including in this analysis the employer share of all payroll taxes because it is a direct tax on a worker’s salary and most economists agree that though employers are responsible for collecting this tax, it is ultimately borne by the employee. That brings the tax rate to 47%.

Then last year, as part of the down payment for ObamaCare, Congress snuck in an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax on “high-income earners,” meaning any individual earning more than $200,000 or couples earning more than $250,000. This brings the total tax rate to 47.9%.

But that’s not all. Several weeks ago, Mr. Obama raised the possibility of eliminating the income ceiling on the Social Security tax, now capped at $106,800 of earnings a year. (Never mind that the program was designed to operate as an insurance system, with each individual’s payment tied to the benefits paid out at retirement.) Subjecting all wage and salary income to Social Security taxes would add roughly 10.1 percentage points to the top tax rate. This takes the grand total tax rate on each additional dollar earned in America to about 58%.

To read more, visit:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576343611464445594.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Pawlenty Makes His Pitch as Top Fiscal Hawk in GOP Field

Posted: 26 May 2011 03:41 PM PDT

By Carl Cameron, FOXNews.com

Trying to position himself as the model fiscally conservative Republican presidential candidate, Tim Pawlenty spoke at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute in Washington and refused to either endorse or reject the budget proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.

"In general the direction is positive, but I'm going to have my own plan," the former Minnesota governor said.

"We're going to have some differences."

Pawlenty says he will have a budget proposal in the coming weeks and plans a different Medicare overhaul than Ryan, and unlike Ryan would also reform Social Security by raising the eligibility age and blocking cost of living increases for wealthier seniors.

It's been a bold rollout for Pawlenty. He announced his presidential candidacy on Monday in Iowa and told Hawkeyes their ethanol subsidies had to be phased out, then on Tuesday went to Florida where he told seniors Social Security needed to be adjusted. Wednesday brought him to Washington to talk about cutting the benefits and pay of government employees and he will end the week on Wall Street by calling for an end to bailouts.

Fiscal hawks complain that Pawlenty accepted Obama administration stimulus money for his state and backed cap and trade climate legislation, which he now says was a mistake.

Across town, Bill Clinton headlined an economic summit of top federal budget wonks with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who recently officially dropped out of 2012 GOP presidential contention, explaining his family is more important than a run at the White House. Daniels' decision not to run for president has the rest of the GOP field scrambling for the mantle of top economic conservative.

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/25/pawlenty-makes-pitch-fiscal-hawk-gop-field/

Gender class teaches, he, she, both, neither

Posted: 26 May 2011 03:37 PM PDT

By Joshua Rhett Miller & Claudia Cowan, FOXNews.com

A gender diversity lesson at a California elementary school that featured single-sex geckos and transgender clownfish has angered conservative critics, who question its appropriateness for in-class instruction.

Students in all grades at Oakland’s Redwood Heights Elementary School got an introductory lesson on the topic on Monday. Fox News was allowed to sit in on the lessons, which included teachings to kindergartners and fourth-graders.

The lessons were presented by an outside anti-bullying educational group called Gender Spectrum, paid for with a $1,500 grant from the California Teachers Union.

Joel Baum, director of education and training for Gender Spectrum, taught the classes. In the kindergarten class he asked the 5- and 6-year-olds to identify if a toy was a “girl toy” or a “boy toy” or both. He also asked which students liked the color pink, prompting many to raise their hands, to which he responded that that boys can like pink, too.

In the fourth-grade class, Baum focused on specific animal species, like sea horses, where the males can have or take care of the children. He suggested that even if someone was born with male "private parts" but identified more with being a girl, that was something to be "accepted" and "respected."

Students in the class were given cards, which included information on all-girl geckos and transgender clownfish, to illustrate the variations in nature that occur in humans, too.

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/25/gender-diversity-lesson-california-school-riles-critics/

Boisterous protest over airport-groping bill

Posted: 26 May 2011 03:32 PM PDT

By Mike Ward, statesman.com

A boisterous group of protesters angry over the Texas Senate's failure to vote on the airport groping bill tried to enter the public gallery this afternoon and were blocked by state troopers.

Shouting "treason" and "cowards" and carrying signs and placards, and led by radio talk show host Alex Jones, the group of perhaps as many as 100 people entered the State Capitol shortly after 3 p.m. and first went to the House chamber.

There, House members quickly informed the shouting group that it was the Senate that had failed to take action late Tuesday on House Bill 1937, which would have made it a crime for security checkpoint screeners to handle the private parts of anyone they screened.

The group then marched to the Senate side of the Capitol and tried to enter the third-floor public gallery. Troopers with arms folded blocked them from entry.

They stood outside for several minutes, chanting: "Co-wards, co-wards," Trea-son, trea-son," and shouted slogans accusing senators and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst of being "federal pimps" and "scallawag trash."

They vowed to vote out of office Dewhurst and the senators who opposed passage of the bill.

To read more, visit:  http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2011/05/25/protestors_try_to_storm_senate.html

US to store passenger data for 15 years

Posted: 26 May 2011 03:01 PM PDT

By: Alan Travis, guardian.co.uk

The personal data of millions of passengers who fly between the US and Europe, including credit card details, phone numbers and home addresses, may be stored by the US department of homeland security for 15 years, according to a draft agreement between Washington and Brussels leaked to the Guardian.

The “restricted” draft, which emerged from negotiations between the US and EU, opens the way for passenger data provided to airlines on check-in to be analysed by US automated data-mining and profiling programmes in the name of fighting terrorism, crime and illegal migration. The Americans want to require airlines to supply passenger lists as near complete as possible 96 hours before takeoff, so names can be checked against terrorist and immigration watchlists.

The agreement acknowledges that there will be occasions when people are delayed or prevented from flying because they are wrongly identified as a threat, and gives them the right to petition for judicial review in the US federal court. It also outlines procedures in the event of anticipated data losses or other unauthorised disclosure. The text includes provisions under which “sensitive personal data” – such as ethnic origin, political opinions, and details of health or sex life – can be used in exceptional circumstances where an individual’s life could be imperilled.

The 15-year retention period is likely to prove highly controversial as it is three times the five years allowed for in the EU’s PNR (passenger name record) regime to cover flights into, out of and within Europe. A period of five and a half years has just been negotiated in a similar agreement with Australia. Germany and France raised concerns this week about the agreement and the unproven necessity for the measure.

Britain has already announced its intention to opt in to the European PNR plan, in which the home secretary, Theresa May, played a key role, and is expected to join the US agreement this summer.

The Home Office minister Damian Green has said: “The power of PNR lies in the fact that by using an automated system and interrogating it intelligently, we are able to sift data quickly and in such a way that it reveals patterns and makes links that would otherwise not be readily apparent.”

To read more, visit:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/us-to-store-passenger-data

USDA fines Missouri family $90k for selling a few rabbits without a license

Posted: 26 May 2011 02:57 PM PDT

By: YahooNews.com

It started out as a hobby, a way for the Dollarhite family in Dixa, Mo., to teach a teenage son responsibility. Like a lemonade stand.

But now, selling a few hundred rabbits over two years has provoked the heavy hand of the federal government to the tune of a $90,643 fine. The fine was levied more than a year after authorities contacted family members, prompting them to immediately halt their part-time business and liquidate their equipment.

The Dollarhite's story, originally picked up by local Missouri blogger Bob McCarthy, has turned into a call to arms for critics of the government's reach and now has both Democratic and Republican lawmakers vowing to intervene.

John and Judy Dollarhite began selling rabbit meat by the pound in 2006, and as pets to neighbors and friends in 2008.

Raised on the three-acre lot on which their home sits, the rabbits were heralded by local experts for their quality and kept in pristine condition.

When a local pet store asked them to supply their pet rabbits, the Dollarhites had no idea they would be running afoul of an obscure federal regulation that prohibits selling more than $500 worth of rabbits to a pet store without a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Under the law, pet stores are exempt from regulation.

By by selling to pet stores for resale, the humble Dollarhites became "wholesale breeders of pet animals," said Dave Sacks, a spokesman for USDA who defended the fine, even while admitting it "looks curious" to the average person.

That's especially so since the Dollarhites face no accusation they mistreated any animals. Instead, they committed what's called in regulatory parlance a "paperwork violation" under the Animal Welfare Act, a 1966 law intended to prevent the abuse of animals.

To read more, visit:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110524/pl_dailycaller/usdafinesmissourifamily90kforsellingafewrabbitswithoutalicense
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