Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

American estate-tax crusader sees a good fight ahead

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 04:09 PM PDT

By Nanette Byrnes, Reuters.com

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Aug 8 (Reuters) – It has been a good year for Dick Patten, the leading opponent of estate taxes in the United States. A bill to end federal estate tax is taking shape on Capitol Hill. Victories in the states are adding momentum to the fight he leads through his Washington-based lobbying group, the American Family Business Institute.

Buoyed by an anti-tax mood that helped turn governors’ mansions and statehouses Republican in 2010 and that fueled the debt-ceiling debate in Congress, states are taking action despite weak economies that would seem to make revenue sources sacrosanct. Ohio axed its estate tax. Maine doubled the size that an estate must be before it can be taxed. Oregon and North Carolina fought off plans to increase estate taxes.

Questions about whether the estate tax was driving well-to-do Ohioans out of state were a big part of debate over the issue there this year. Towns and villages objected strenuously to the repeal. Under Ohio law, the towns and villages got 80 percent of the tax, or $269 million last year. The mayor of Columbus, Mike Coleman, called the repeal effort “immoral.” Newspapers called for a gradual repeal.

Patten flew in twice to testify, and along with leading national anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, pushed Ohio Governor John Kasich to end the tax. “Voters in Ohio gave complete control of the Ohio legislature and the governor’s office to the Republicans to make hard choices and serious reforms…. The conditions for repeal will never be as favorable as now,” the pair wrote to Kasich in April.

THE “NORQUIST OF ESTATE TAX”

In 2004, Patten effectively became the Grover Norquist of estate tax. He borrowed an idea from Norquist’s No-Tax-Increase Pledge and began pushing candidates for Senate to promise they would vote to repeal the estate tax if elected. He poured money and time into critical battles like that of signer John Thune’s successful run against South Dakota veteran Tom Daschle. Of 11 Senate candidates who signed, 7 were elected.

To read more, visit:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/08/usa-tax-estates-idUSN1E77608Q20110808

Massacre changes Norway’s thinking on personal liberty

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 04:05 PM PDT

From: TheWashingtonTimes.com

OSLO — If a man walks into a drug store along one of this city's winding streets and buys three boxes of aspirin, there would be no reason to take notice.

But when Anders Behring Breivik visited 20 drug stores a day for four days and bought three packages of aspirin at each stop – then separately ordered six tons of fertilizer, chemicals and a semiautomatic rifle – he still largely escaped attention.

Now, after the massacre of 77 people in a meticulously planned rampage, Norwegian authorities are forced to look at what they could have done to prevent or identify Mr. Breivik's pattern of purchases and other suspect behavior.

Figuring out how government should respond will present a tough test. It pushes up against laws protecting personal freedoms and the likelihood that, even with more forceful intelligence, an isolated and thorough plotter such as Mr. Breivik will remain exceeding difficult to stop.

Mr. Breivik says in his 1,518-page manifesto that he bought the aspirin to obtain acetylsalicylic acid, which he combined with other chemicals to build the truck bomb he planted in central Oslo.

He was painstaking in arranging his purchases – creating elaborate cover stories including renting a farm and documenting a plan to grow sugar beets – to stay within the law and the norms of doing business.

To read more, visit:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/7/massacre-changes-norways-thinking-on-personal-libe/

Google Blames Human for Robot Car Crash

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 04:03 PM PDT

From: NBCBayArea.com

UPDATE: A woman claiming to have witnessed the accident involving one of Google’s robot-controlled cars says that five cars were involved, not two, as Google asserts in a statement.

There was “a huge screeching noise,” according to Tiffany Winkelman, and Google’s Prius struck another Prius, which then struck her Honda Accord that her brother was driving. That Accord then struck another Honda Accord, and the second Accord hit a separate, non-Google-owned Prius.

Google’s original statement reads: “Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car.”

Winkelman also told NBC Bay Area that an ambulance was in traffic behind the accident and also stopped at the scene.

Google spokesman Jay Nanacarrow responded with: “I would also point out that the cars have traveled 160,000 miles autonomously without incident. (The accident) was earlier this week in Mountain View. I’m afraid I don’t know (how many cars were involved)” but that when confirmed would make another statement.

Mountain View Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

To read more, visit:  http://www.nbcbayarea.com/blogs/press-here/Google-Blames-Human-for-Robot-Car-Crash-126845683.html

Facebook: Public Health Danger

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 03:59 PM PDT

By Dr. Keith Ablow, FOXNews.com

I have warned several times before—on Fox News programs and on this site—that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are causing psychological harm to large numbers of people by motivating them to publish profiles of themselves that resemble highly produced reality TV shows, while coaxing them into the erroneous belief that they are worthy of having thousands of friends or hundreds of followers.

In fact, Facebook itself is doing the heavy lifting. You needn't be very quick-witted or very kind or even very likeable in order to gather a whole troop of people ready to reassure you that you are all those things. Technology does that. It's no different than using a GPS system to get from one place to another. Trouble is, very few of us would contend that we have brilliant senses of direction because we can follow the turn signals emanating from our dashboards.

Not so, with Facebook. It makes you think you're a star. And we all know just how well a fair number of stars are behaving these days. They value acting, not actualizing. They think the law doesn't apply to them. They think sex and drugs are the answer.

Facebook feels good, just like every drug of abuse. You turn your computer on, click on the friendly icon and are invited into a world you control, with favorable feedback that inflates your ego (or you can block it), sometimes with hundreds of photos of yourself to remind people how fun or fabulous you are (and to remind yourself).

Just like ecstasy and cocaine, Facebook also promises to make it easier to leap boundaries and find sexual partners. It actually greases sexual gears and allows people to become intimate while intoxicated by the anonymity of the Internet.

Reality actually requires mutuality, empathy and real effort—whether to achieve success or connect romantically. But, like heroin addicts learn about their next injection, when fantasy is only a click away, it's very hard to resist.

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/08/08/facebook-public-health-danger/

Iowa Caucus: Bachmann, Romney and Paul on Top

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 03:55 PM PDT

From: Rasmussenreports.com

In the Iowa caucus race for the Republican presidential nomination, five candidates are in double digits, and many voters are open to changing their mind before caucus day arrives.

The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Iowa's Likely Caucus Participants shows that Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann attracts 22% support, while former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney earn 21%. Just slightly behind is Texas Congressman Ron Paul at 16%, followed by Texas Governor Rick Perry at 12% and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty at 11%.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich picks up five percent (5%) of the vote, businessman Herman Cain wins four percent (4%), and former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman is at two percent (2%). Seven percent (7%) would prefer some other candidate.

Nationally, Romney, Perry, and Bachmann lead the pack.

Overall, just 28% of potential Iowa Caucus participants are absolutely certain of how they will vote, while the rest could change their mind. Among those who are certain of their vote, Ron Paul is on top at 27%.

Fox News and the Washington Examiner will sponsor a GOP debate this Thursday night. On Saturday, the Iowa State Fair straw poll will be held. While that straw poll is not terribly predictive, it does offer lesser known candidates an opportunity to gain some traction. Four years ago, Mike Huckabee's performance in the straw poll gave him the chance to become a top-tier candidate.

To read more, visit:  http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/iowa/iowa_caucus_bachmann_romney_and_paul_on_top

Conservatives strike back against ‘Tea Party downgrade’ label, call it ‘Obama downgrade’

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 03:50 PM PDT

By Matthew Boyle, DailyCaller.com

Tea partiers aren't too happy with MoveOn.org, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod or Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry for labeling the first-ever downgrade of America's credit rating by Standard & Poor's as the "tea party downgrade."

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe told The Daily Caller that liberals are using the slogan to distract Americans from the bad economic numbers he says President Obama's policies have caused. "Well of course they want to say that," Kibbe said of how the Obama administration is attempting to blame the tea party movement for the credit downgrade. "They don't want to talk about how Obama's fiscal policy led to this and 9.1 percent unemployment."

Kibbe noted that Obama never provided his own debt plan and added that he believes it was Democrats and liberal Republicans who perpetuated the "out-of-control spending" that led Standard & Poor's to downgrade the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ with a negative outlook for the first time in the nation's history.

Let Freedom Ring executive director Alex Cortes said the reason his organization launched TheObamaDowngrade.com is to point out how it's largely the president's fault for the credit downgrade. Like Kibbe, Cortes says both political parties are responsible for overspending through the years. But, he argued, Republicans are the "only ones" who have put "serious reforms" on the table in recent months.

Cortes said he thinks Cut, Cap and Balance — which passed the House due to Republican support — was the only plan put forth that fit Standard & Poor's criteria for averting a downgrade. He also argued that entitlement reform was essential in order to prevent future downgrades.

"It's because of the tea party that we got any cuts whatsoever," Cortes told TheDC. "The president requested a clean debt ceiling increase with no spending cuts or reforms. I think it's clearly Obama's downgrade and that's what our campaign says."

To read more, visit:  http://dailycaller.com/2011/08/08/conservatives-strike-back-against-%E2%80%98tea-party-downgrade%E2%80%99-label-call-it-%E2%80%98obama-downgrade%E2%80%99/

29 percent of voters say tea partiers are terrorists

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 03:45 PM PDT

By: Alex Pappas, DailyCaller.com

Vice President Joe Biden caught some flak recently after he and other Democrats reportedly compared tea partiers to terrorists during the debate to raise the debt ceiling.

But it turns out only 29 percent of Americans agree with him, according to a Rasmussen poll released Monday. Fifty-five percent disagree.

Rasmussen's poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters on Aug. 5 and 6, asking them, "Some people have accused the Tea Party of acting like economic terrorists during the budget debates. Are members of the Tea Party economic terrorists?"

A spokesman for Biden, who according to Politico joined other Democrats in a closed-door meeting in making the comparison, distanced the vice president from the reports.

"The word was used by several members of Congress," spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff told the publication. "The vice president does not believe it's an appropriate term in political discourse."

Well known tea party groups jumped on Biden's remarks and called them insensitive.

To read more, visit:  http://dailycaller.com/2011/08/08/29-percent-of-voters-say-tea-partiers-are-terrorists/
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