Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Who is Newt Gingrich’s base? Tea party districts sour on tea party and doggy health care
Whooping Cough Outbreak Spreads On Long Island
S&P Downgrades Dozens of Global Banks
Facebook Reaches Deal Over Deceptive Behavior Allegations
Tea Party Alleges Double Standard by Occupy-Friendly Mayor in Virginia
Idea of civilians using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA
Wurzelbacher speaks at to crowd of 50 at Fremont Airport

Who is Newt Gingrich’s base? Tea party districts sour on tea party and doggy health care

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 07:37 AM PST

By Scott Clement, The Washington Post

In surging to the top in the race for the Republican nomination, recent polls find Newt Gingrich has built a coalition of three high-turnout groups: older Republicans, tea party supporters and conservatives.

Overall, Gingrich has tripled his support from 8 to 24 percent in CNN polls of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents conducted in October and November. His support grew most sharply among Republicans ages 65 and older, from 12 to 45 percent. He has leapfrogged Mitt Romney (24 percent) among this group and now leads by 21 points.

Tea party supporters swung strongly to Gingrich, from 11 percent in October to 31 percent in November, while Romney held steady at 19 percent. Conservatives show an identical swing, from 10 to 30 percent, in CNN polls from October to November.

On top of powering his rise, Gingrich's base groups are some of the most likely to actually show up and vote in GOP primaries. Media exit polls in 2008 showed conservatives making up a majority of Republican primary or caucus voters in states that hold the first contests in 2012 (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida), including 88 percent of Iowa Caucus participants. Seniors made up about a quarter of voters in South Carolina and Iowa and a third of voters in the Florida primary.

Tea party supporters accounted for two in three Republican voters in the 2010 midterm elections. And while the movement has lost support since then, tea partiers continue to make up a substantial and highly engaged segment of the Republican electorate.

Whooping Cough Outbreak Spreads On Long Island

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 07:34 AM PST

From CBSNewYork.com

LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – An alarming rise in a potentially fatal bacterial infection known as whooping cough has prompted a warning from the Suffolk County Health Department.

It's a tell-tale sign winter is coming — children and their colds.

But what's going around this year is a potentially fatal bacterial cough known as pertussis or whooping cough, reports CBS 2's Emily Smith.

It's a chronic cough, almost a barking sound, that can last more than three months, and it is spread easily through droplets.

"My wife is on a bus, educational bus, so she is with kids all the time every day. But she hasn't been sick yet," local resident Steven Piering said Tuesday.

S&P Downgrades Dozens of Global Banks

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 07:28 AM PST

By Dunstan Prial, FOXBusiness.com

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday cut its credit ratings for many of the world's largest banks, including Citigroup (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).

The move follows S&P's shift, announced earlier this month, in the methods it uses for rating the banks.

Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp. each had their long-term credit rating downgraded a single notch to A- from A. Similar cuts were applied to JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

Dozens of other banks were also affected by S&P's new criteria and many of the downgrades stemmed from the affected banks' exposure to the European debt crisis. S&P cited weaker confidence in governments’ ability to bail out struggling banks.

The new criteria for rating banks comes in the wake of criticism leveled at all three major rating firms – Moody's and Fitch's are the other two — that they rubber stamped their highest ratings on investment products loaded with subprime mortgages in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

Facebook Reaches Deal Over Deceptive Behavior Allegations

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 07:26 AM PST

By Associated Press | FOXNews.com

WASHINGTON – Government regulators are sharing some alarming information about Facebook: They believe the online social network has often misled its more than 800 million users about the sanctity of their personal information.

The unflattering portrait of Facebook’s privacy practices emerged Tuesday in a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging that Facebook exposed details about users’ lives without getting legally required consent. In some cases, the FTC charged, Facebook allowed potentially sensitive details to be passed along to advertisers and software developers prowling for customers.

To avoid further legal wrangling, Facebook agreed to submit to government audits of its privacy practices every other year for the next two decades. The company committed to getting explicit approval from its users — a process known as “opting in” — before changing their privacy controls.

The FTC’s truce with Facebook, along with settlements this year with Google and Twitter, is helping to establish more ground rules for online privacy expectations even as Internet companies regularly vacuum up insights about their audiences in an effort to sell more advertising.

Although Facebook didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the legal papers it signed with the FTC, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was more contrite in a blog post Tuesday.

Tea Party Alleges Double Standard by Occupy-Friendly Mayor in Virginia

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 02:37 PM PST

By Perry Chiaramonte | FoxNews.com

A Tea Party chapter in Virginia is alleging that it was audited by the City of Richmond after it complained that the local Occupy movement was receiving special treatment by the mayor.

The Richmond Tea Party said the city charged it $10,000 to hold three rallies in Kanawha Plaza — where Occupiers have been allowed to reside at no charge.
Now the Tea Partiers are crying foul and demanding their money back. But shortly after complaining to the city, the Tea Party group said it received notice of the tax audit.

"As the Occupy mob sprang up, the City of Richmond allowed them the use of the park at no charge. Mayor Dwight Jones of Richmond is a liberal Democrat, who even visited the Occupy Mob, encouraging them," the group said in a statement released Monday. "In one of the most outrageous political double standards, the city of Richmond, Va., is now demanding an audit of the Richmond Tea Party.”

But the city denies any double standard.

"Any allegations are just completely unfounded," Tammy Hawley, a city spokeswoman, told FoxNews.com. She said City Hall was completely unaware of the Tea Party chapter's claims until receiving inquiries from various media outlets.

Idea of civilians using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 02:32 PM PST

By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times

Drone aircraft, best known for their role in hunting and destroying terrorist hide-outs in Afghanistan, may soon be coming to the skies near you.

Police agencies want drones for air support to spot runaway criminals. Utility companies believe they can help monitor oil, gas and water pipelines. Farmers think drones could aid in spraying their crops with pesticides.

“It’s going to happen,” said Dan Elwell, vice president of civil aviation at the Aerospace Industries Assn. “Now it’s about figuring out how to safely assimilate the technology into national airspace.”

That’s the job of the Federal Aviation Administration, which plans to propose new rules for the use of small drones in January, a first step toward integrating robotic aircraft into the nation’s skyways.

The agency has issued 266 active testing permits for civilian drone applications but hasn’t permitted drones in national airspace on a wide scale out of concern that the pilotless craft don’t have an adequate “detect, sense and avoid” technology to prevent midair collisions.

Wurzelbacher speaks at to crowd of 50 at Fremont Airport

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 02:29 PM PST

By Daniel Carson, The News-Messenger.com

FREMONT– Joe Wurzelbacher describes himself as a right-and-wrong, black-and-white kind of guy, and he made it clear Sunday night that he intends to run his congressional campaign that way.

“There’s not a lot of gray in my life,” Wurzelbacher said as he spoke to about 50 people at the American Patriots Against Government Excess’ monthly meeting at the Fremont Airport.

Wurzelbacher, known as “Joe the Plumber,” is running as a Republican for Ohio’s U.S. House 9th District seat, a position held by Democrat Marcy Kaptur.

While he acknowledged that most of the people at Sunday’s meeting probably were not residents of his district, Wurzelbacher laid out his views on the economy, the U.S. tax system, regulatory agencies, abortion and a host of other national issues to a supportive crowd.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

The Gary Johnson Rule: Official Version

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 05:54 AM PST

By David Weigel, Slate.com

Gary Johnson, two-term governor of New Mexico, can’t make it in to any more debates. The polling thresholds manage to catch Huntsman, and exclude him, in no small part because a lot of polls don’t ask about him. Johnson couldn’t score an invite to one debate because the price of entry was attendance at three TV debates — he’s made it into two. So Johnson’s started exploring his legal options, and today his campaign got a letter from the RNC explaining why it won’t go to bat to get him behind those podiums.

Dear Governor Johnson:

Thank you for your letter to Chairman Priebus of October 20, 2011. As you know the Republican National Committee does not decide which candidates are invited to participate in every one of the presidential debates. Those decisions generally are made by the debate sponsors.

The RNC has, however, become involved in a limited fashion through the sanctioning of certain debates. Acting through the Committee on Presidential Debates, the RNC has set objective criteria to guide our decision as to which debates to sanction. Such criteria are necessary given how many individuals have declared candidacies for president. For example, 21 Republican candidates have filed in New Hampshire.

We simply have to have some minimum criteria in order for candidates to participate in these debates.

Otherwise, the debates would be utter chaos and unhelpful to Republican voters as we select our nominee. The criteria chosen were aimed primarily at ensuring that only candidates exhibiting minimum indicia of viability would be allowed to participate. A candidate can establish that he or she has met this threshold by hitting certain fundraising targets or achieving a minimum level of support in public polling. The latter would allow candidates whose campaigns are more grassroots-oriented to still demonstrate viability even if they had not raised substantial money. The third quarter threshold for fundraising was one million dollars, and the polling threshold, based on the RealClearPolitics average, was three percent. Eight candidates met at least one of these criteria.

We will strongly encourage the debate sponsors to allow those candidates that meet that requirement to be included. With respect to non-RNC-sanctioned debates, you have to meet the criteria of the debate sponsors.

I understand the problem you and others have had with respect to being excluded from certain public polls. The RNC will work with various pollsters to encourage them to include as many candidates as possible in the polling.

We do not take your concerns lightly, and we appreciate your contacting us to raise the issues. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely, John R. Phillippe, Jr.

Chief Counsel

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Low-Tax Cigarettes, Made in Store, Draw City Lawsuit
MF Global Trustee Says Shortfall Could Exceed $1.2 Billion
Gingrich Spars With Ron Paul After He Calls Patriot Act “Unpatriotic”
Fresh round of hacked climate science emails leaked online
Scientists Weaponize Deadly Bird Flu, Consider Releasing Results Necessary to Create Bioweapon
Troop levels, Iran prompt GOP sparring in CNN National Security Debate
Tea Party PACs help bankroll Ted Cruz Senate bid
Obama Urges Congress to Prevent Payroll Tax Hike After Deficit Panel Failure
Supercommittee Failure Poses Risk to U.S. Economy Even as Rating Affirmed
Harold Rodman, TSA worker, arrested for sexual assault

Low-Tax Cigarettes, Made in Store, Draw City Lawsuit

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:53 AM PST

By SAM ROBERTS, NYTimes.com

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Freud supposedly said, but when is a cigarette a cigarette?

The city filed suit last week against a "roll your own" cigarette shop in Chinatown and a related one on Staten Island, where a pack of cigarettes can cost less than $5, because the stores are not collecting cigarette taxes. The stores, both called Island Smokes, do not sell packs of Marlboros and Newports. Instead, they sell loose tobacco and cigarette papers, and have machines that let customers fabricate their own cigarettes.

Such stores operate in a legal gray area, arguing that because they do not sell prepackaged cigarettes, they are subject only to taxes on loose tobacco, which are far less. But according to the city, the shops are effectively selling cigarettes and should be forced to charge the full state and city taxes — currently $5.85 per pack, which has pushed the cost of most packs in New York City to more than $10.

"By selling illegally low-priced cigarettes," said the city's lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, "defendants not only interfere with the collection of city cigarette taxes, they also impair the city's smoking cessation programs and impair individual efforts at smoking reduction, thereby imposing higher health care costs on the city and injuring public health."

Jonathan Behrins, a lawyer for the companies that own the shops, said Monday that the stores were not obligated to charge cigarette taxes because "we are not producing cigarettes for resale."

"We are selling the contents that produce the cigarette," he said, "and it's up to the user to make them."

MF Global Trustee Says Shortfall Could Exceed $1.2 Billion

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:44 AM PST

BY MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED AND BEN PROTESS, DealBook.NYTimes.com

The amount of customer money missing from the collapsed trading firm MF Global may be more than $1.2 billion — double previous estimates — the trustee dismantling the firm's brokerage unit said on Monday.

But the surprise finding, which caught regulators off guard, may be overstated, according to a person briefed on the investigation. Some regulators say they believe that the trustee double-counted $220 million that had been transferred between units of MF Global, this person said.

Still, the much higher number highlights the disarray of MF Global's records and raises significantly the hurdle for tens of thousands of customers seeking to get their money back. The trustee's estimate represents a significant portion of customer funds held by MF Global.

Regulators suspect that as investors and customers fled MF Global in the last week of October, the firm used some of the customer money for its own needs — violating Wall Street rules that customers' money be kept separate from the firm's funds. Much of that money may never return.

Now the challenge has grown for investigators trying to determine exactly what happened in those last frantic days. Just days ago, investigators believed that they were closing in on what they thought was about $600 million in missing customer funds, according to people briefed on the matter. Regulators were relying on estimates from the firm and the CME Group, the exchange where MF Global did most of its business.

But after weeks of reconstructing MF Global's books, forensic accountants from Deloitte and Ernst & Young working for the trustee concluded that the account shortfall was much greater than originally estimated. Regulators have yet to verify the new numbers. While they are expected to raise their estimate above $600 million, it is unlikely to reach the trustee's $1.2 billion figure.

Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for the trustee's office, stood by that figure, but he noted that it was preliminary.

Gingrich Spars With Ron Paul After He Calls Patriot Act “Unpatriotic”

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:40 AM PST

From: Real Clear Politics

GOP candidates Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul debate the merits of extending the Patriot Act to secure our country.

“The Patriot Act is unpatriotic because it undermines our liberty,” Ron Paul said at the GOP debate in Washington, DC on Tuesday night. “I’m concerned as everybody is about [a] terrorist attack.” Transcript of Ron Paul below.

PAUL: I think the Patriot Act is unpatriotic because it undermines our liberty. I’m concerned, as everybody is, about the terrorist attack. Timothy McVeigh was a vicious terrorist. He was arrested. Terrorism is still on the books, internationally and nationally, it’s a crime and we should deal with it.

We dealt with it rather well with Timothy McVeigh. But why I really fear it is we have drifted into a condition that we were warned against because our early founders were very clear. They said, don’t be willing to sacrifice liberty for security.

Today it seems too easy that our government and our congresses are so willing to give up our liberties for our security. I have a personal belief that you never have to give up liberty for security. You can still provide security without sacrificing our Bill of Rights.

BLITZER: I want to bring others in, but do you want to respond, Mr. Speaker?

GINGRICH: Yes. Timothy McVeigh succeeded. That’s the whole point.

Fresh round of hacked climate science emails leaked online

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:34 AM PST

By: Leo Hickman, The Guardian

A fresh tranche of private emails exchanged between leading climate scientists throughout the last decade was released online on Tuesday. The unauthorised publication is an apparent attempt to repeat the impact of a similar release of emails on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit in late 2009.

The initial email dump was apparently timed to disrupt the Copenhagen climate talks. It prompted three official inquiries in the UK and two in the US into the working practices of climate scientists. Although these were critical of the scientists’ handling of Freedom of Information Act requests and lack of openness they did not find fault with the climate change science they had produced.

Norfolk police have said the new set of emails is “of interest” to their investigation to find the perpetrator of the initial email release who has not yet been identified.

The emails appear to be genuine, but the University of East Anglia said the “sheer volume of material” meant it was not yet able to confirm that they were. One of the emailers, the climate scientist Prof Michael Mann, has confirmed that he believes they are his messages. The lack of any emails post-dating the 2009 release suggests that they were obtained at the same time, but held back. Their release now suggests they are intended to cause maximum impact before the upcoming climate summit in Durban which starts on Monday.

In the new release a 173MB zip file called “FOIA2011″ containing more than 5,000 new emails, was made available to download on a Russian server called Sinwt.ru today. An anonymous entity calling themselves “FOIA” then posted a link to the file on at least four blogs popular with climate sceptics – Watts Up With That, Climate Audit, TallBloke and The Air Vent. The same tactic was used in 2009 when the first 160MB batch of emails were released after being obtained – possibly illegally – from servers based at the University of East Anglia, where a number of the climate scientists involved were based.

One marked difference from the original 2009 release is that the person or persons responsible has included a message headed “background and context” which, for the first time, gives an insight into their motivations. Following some bullet-pointed quotes such as “Over 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day” and, “Nations must invest $37 trillion in energy technologies by 2030 to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions at sustainable levels,” the message states:

“Today’s decisions should be based on all the information we can get, not on hiding the decline. This archive contains some 5.000 emails picked from keyword searches. A few remarks and redactions are marked with triple brackets. The rest, some 220.000, are encrypted for various reasons. We are not planning to publicly release the passphrase. We could not read every one, but tried to cover the most relevant topics.”

Scientists Weaponize Deadly Bird Flu, Consider Releasing Results Necessary to Create Bioweapon

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:29 AM PST

By: Anthony Gucciardi, ActivistPost.com

It sounds like something out of a bizarre science fiction comic book, but scientists have weaponized the H5N1 bird flu virus, and are actually considering releasing the research.

The experiments, which involved mutating the virus a total of 5 times, made the strain highly contagious between ferrets — the very animal model used to study human flu infection.

Of course many scientists are now warning that if such research was made public it could result in the construction of deadly bioweapons.

Making the virus highly contagious could result in widespread infection. The H5N1 virus has been infecting birds and other animals in recent years, though it has also infected around 500 people.

The reason that it has not become an epidemic is due to the fact that affected humans are usually not very contagious. Therefore, altering the virus to become highly contagious is quite possibly the deadliest tweak which could be done.

It seems that these scientists are just asking for the new weaponized bird flu virus to infect the public.

Troop levels, Iran prompt GOP sparring in CNN National Security Debate

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:22 AM PST

By Peter Hamby, CNN.com

Washington (CNN) — A Republican presidential debate on Tuesday focused on national security issues exposed deep fault lines within the GOP over how to grapple with the nation’s challenges overseas.

The eight Republican candidates who took to the CNN debate stage in downtown Washington differed on a range of issues confronting the United States, including the war in Afghanistan, aid to Pakistan and cuts in defense spending.

The issue of illegal immigration also arose again as the newest Republican front-runner, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, called for a “humane” approach to immigration policy, a position at odds with many conservative activists who dominate key nominating contests in Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.

Gingrich stressed the importance of securing the United States border with Mexico and penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants.

But he expressed sympathy for people who entered the country illegally and since became contributing members of society.

“I don’t see how the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families which have been here a quarter-century,” Gingrich said. “And I am prepared to take the heat for saying, let’s be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship, but finding a way to give them legality so as not to separate them from their families.”

Tea Party PACs help bankroll Ted Cruz Senate bid

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:14 AM PST

From: Chron.com

Tea Party organizations that championed the congressional upset victories of Michele Bachmann in Minnesota, Scott Brown in Massachusetts and Marco Rubio in Florida now have their eyes – and their pocketbooks – aimed at Texas.

Tea Party political action committees are targeting U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz as their conservative of choice, offering support and campaign spending to bolster his bid to succeed retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas.

The SuperPAC arms of their fund-raising organizations have already spent over $100,000 to promote Cruz, according financial disclosure data.

Senate Conservatives Fund, the Tea Party aligned independent group led by South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, boasts investing $280,000 to elect Cruz.

Calling for an "all-out SCF Surge" in fund-raising efforts for Cruz, DeMint challenged his donor base to reach their goal of raising over $200,000 to rival Cruz's opponent, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who has self-financed just under half of his campaign.

"Ted is running against a well-known Republican with deep pockets," DeMint posted to the group's website. "SCF members helped launch Josh Mandel's campaign in Ohio this past June by investing over $110,000 in his campaign in just over 48 hours, and now we need to do the same for Ted Cruz in Texas."

Obama Urges Congress to Prevent Payroll Tax Hike After Deficit Panel Failure

Posted: 22 Nov 2011 02:42 PM PST

FOXNews.com

President Obama, after watching the deficit Super Committee collapse under the weight of partisan discord, on Tuesday urged Congress to prevent that failure from resulting in a payroll tax increase at the end of the year.

Some on the so-called Super Committee were hoping to include the payroll tax extension, along with an extension of unemployment aid, in a final agreement to cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion. The provision, passed last year, was one of Obama’s signature policies and something he has pushed for as part of a larger jobs package that has yet to attract widespread support in Congress. Without a deficit deal, the future of the cut and numerous other provisions is unclear.

Obama, on a visit to Manchester, N.H., warned that taxes would go up by about $1,000 for the average family if Congress does not act.

“This payroll tax is set to expire at the end of next month. … If we allow that to happen, if Congress refuses to act, then middle-class families are going to get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time,” Obama said. “We can’t let that happen, not right now.”

Obama wants to extend the payroll tax cut — and then expand it to cut taxes by another $500 for the average working family. He said a vote on the measure is coming up next week in the Senate.

House Speaker John Boehner said in a written statement Tuesday afternoon that Republicans are ready to discuss the payroll provision.

Supercommittee Failure Poses Risk to U.S. Economy Even as Rating Affirmed

Posted: 22 Nov 2011 02:38 PM PST

By Heidi Przybyla, Bloomberg.com

The implosion of the congressional supercommittee is likely to delay any major deficit-reduction agreement until after the next presidential election and may pose an immediate threat to the struggling U.S. economy.

The committee's failure to reach a deal means several tax programs, including a payroll tax holiday, risk expiring at the beginning of next year, weighing on the household spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the world's largest economy.

The panel's inability to agree on $1.2 trillion in budget cuts stoked doubts about U.S. lawmakers' ability to overcome partisan gridlock and deal with the nation's fiscal future.

"They could not agree even on the smaller challenge of $1.2 trillion," said former White House budget director Alice Rivlin, among a coalition of officials who pushed the panel to "go big" and find $4 trillion in savings, in an e-mail. "I do not see a way to get to the big deal before the election, if then. It is really discouraging!"

Still, Standard & Poor's reaffirmed that it would keep the U.S. credit rating at AA+ after stripping the government of its top AAA grade on Aug. 5. Moody's Investors Service reaffirmed its AAA rating with a negative outlook.

Fitch Ratings noted in a statement that it said in August that a supercommittee failure would probably result in a "negative rating action," likely a revision of its outlook to negative, and that a review would be concluded by the end of this month.

Harold Rodman, TSA worker, arrested for sexual assault

Posted: 22 Nov 2011 02:33 PM PST

By Gail Pennybacker, WJLA.com

A Transportation Security Administration employee is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Manassas.

The suspect, Harold Glen Rodman, 52, allegedly was wearing his uniform and displayed a badge to the victim, a 37-year-old woman.

Police arrested Rodman on Nov. 20. He is charged with aggravated sexual battery, object sexual penetration, forcible sodomy and
abduction with intent to defile.

A TSA spokesperson confirmed that Rodman works for the agency but wouldn't say in what capacity or where.

Police said the victim reported that she and a friend were in the 10500 block of Winfield Loop in Manassas when the suspect approached them. The suspect flashed a badge and sexually assaulted the victim before fleeing on foot, police said.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

177 Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested
Rand Paul: Automatic cuts may be the only way
Follow Your Heart: Darpa’s Quest to Find You by Your Heartbeat
TSA Claims X-ray Scanners are Safe as Europe Bans Scanners for ‘Health, Safety’
Ron Paul urges GOP not to ‘capitulate’ on pledge not to raise taxes as he refuses to rule out running as independent
Ron Paul’s strength in Iowa shows it’s too soon to write him off
Gingrich, Romney Tied; Former Speaker Cites Tea-Party Appeal

177 Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:19 PM PST

By RICHARD ESPOSITO, ALAN FARNHAM and SUSANNA KIM, ABCNews.com

New York City activists, angry at having been evicted from their encampment, began a “Day of Action” Thursday in an attempt to disrupt the New York Stock Exchange and transit in the city. Police arrested about 177 Occupy Wall Street protesters by the end of the day for actions like obstructing traffic and resisting arrests, officials say.

One protester who was arrested threw a liquid that stung, possibly vinegar, in the faces of officers, said police.

Protest organizers claim today’s events, falling on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy movement, will be their biggest yet. A New York City deputy mayor said yesterday that officials are bracing for the possibility that thousands may try to clog subways and bridges. Occupy protesters in other US cities are also planning disruptions.

“Otherwise it was orderly, with employees and residents using IDs to enter Wall St in vicinity of the exchange,” said one senior New York City official, after the NYSE opened without incident. At nearby Zuccotti Park, police in riot gear held back a crowd of several hundred protesters.

Christopher Guerra, who formerly worked at the “information desk” at Zuccotti Park before protesters were evicted, gathered with others near the stock exchange.

“I say we shut the whole country down,” Guerra said.

The group in a news release announced it would rally near the New York Stock Exchange, then head to subways and march over the Brooklyn Bridge. “Resist austerity. Rebuild the economy. Reclaim our democracy,” the group wrote.

Rand Paul: Automatic cuts may be the only way

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:18 PM PST

By: Kevin Liptak, CNNPolitics.com

(CNN) – Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator who was elected with strong support from the tea party, said Sunday the automatic cuts that would follow a super committee failure may be the only way for Congress to reach a debt-cutting deal.

"Automatic cuts (sequestration) are sort of like telling your children that, you know, if you don’t clean up your mess, or else," Paul said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"Maybe we need the 'or else' because Congress isn’t behaving the way they should be behaving. Maybe sequestration is our only way we will get any kind of cuts," Paul said.

Paul said the major cuts to budget of the Department of Defense wouldn't actually amount to spending cuts, only cuts in proposed expenditures.

"I think we need to be honest about it," Paul said. "The interesting thing is there will be no cuts in military spending. This may surprise some people, but there will be no cuts in military spending because we’re only cutting proposed increases. If we do nothing, military spending goes up 23% over 10 years. If we sequester the money, it will still go up 16%. So spending is still rising under any of these plans. In fact, if you look at both alternatives, spending is still going up. We’re only cutting proposed increases in spending."

Last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sent a letter to lawmakers describing the potential cuts as "devastating," saying the impact would be substantial upon the armed services.

Follow Your Heart: Darpa’s Quest to Find You by Your Heartbeat

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 03:57 PM PST

By Adam Rawnsley, Wired .com

The U.S. military can see you breathing on the other side of that wall. It can even see your heartbeat racing while you crouch behind the door. But if you think running farther away or hiding in a crowd will make you invisible to the Defense Department's sensors, you might be in for a surprise. The Pentagon's geeks are looking to tweak their life-form finder so they can spot your tell-tale heart no matter what you do.

Darpa, the Pentagon's mad-science shop, announced last week that it's looking to improve on technologies that sniff out biometric signatures like heartbeats from behind walls. Dubbed "Biometrics-at-a-distance," the program seeks to build sensors that can remotely identify humans from farther away and tell them apart in a crowd.

Seeing or "sensing" human life through walls can be a pretty helpful trick. For troops that have to clear houses in search of terrorists or insurgents, it's always nice to know what's on the other side of that door. Picking up "life-form readings" may sound like science fiction straight out of Star Trek, but the Defense Department has been able to do it for years now.

In 2006, Darpa developed Radar Scope,which used radar waves to sense through walls and detect the movements associated with respiration. A year later, the Army invested in LifeReader, a system using Doppler radar to find heartbeats. More recently, the military's been using devices like the AN/PPS-26 STTW ("Sense Through the Wall") and TiaLinx's Eagle scanner, which can sense the presence of humans and animals through walls.

Handy though these gadgets may be, Darpa wants to one-up them with some new and better capabilities.

First off, Darpa wants its biometric device to be able to work from farther away. Right now, it says the accuracy of most systems taps out at around eight meters. And while some see-through devices can see through up to eight inches of concrete, they don't do as well in locations with more or thicker walls. So Darpa's looking for the next system to push that range past 10 meters, particularly in cluttered urban areas.

TSA Claims X-ray Scanners are Safe as Europe Bans Scanners for ‘Health, Safety’

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 03:41 PM PST

By: Anthony Gucciardi, InfoWars.com

The European Union has decided to ban all X-ray scanners from EU airports in order to protect the health and safety of EU citizens, yet the TSA still claims that the scanners are completely safe. The ban comes after the recent media outburst regarding the 1998 report that linked the X-ray scanners to cancer. The report found that the machines could be causing 100 cases of cancer per year conservatively.

It is quite clear that the TSA is clinging on to the X-ray scanners for dear life, while the EU is taking the appropriate steps in protecting the health of travelers. This is evidenced by how differently the two governing bodies responding to the X-ray scanner cancer issue.

The European Union, following the news that the scanners are causing a threat to public health, decided to address the threat by removing the scanners. The European Commission issued a press release on November 14th calling for members of the European Union to remove X-ray scanners from its airports to avoid risking "citizens' health and safety." The United States on the other hand, went back on a promise to launch an independent safety into the machines.

Instead of commissioning the independent review, TSA administrator John Pistole has declared a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 'draft' that focuses primarily on the upkeep and maintenance of the machines to be sufficient evidence that the machines are safe. The draft has not yet been released, though Pistole assures the American people that it is very conclusive and reassuring. In fact, Pistole actually states that it is his 'belief' that the scanners are safe during a Senate hearing that was to be centered around hard evidence regading X-ray scanner safety.

'My strong belief is those types of machines are still completely safe,' Pistole said. 'If the determination is that this IG study is not sufficient, then I will look at still yet another additional study.'

Of course there is hard evidence that the machines are posing a risk to the health of citizens, just as the European Union has stated.

Ron Paul urges GOP not to ‘capitulate’ on pledge not to raise taxes as he refuses to rule out running as independent

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 01:40 PM PST

By DAILY MAIL

Ron Paul has warned his Republican colleagues in the Congress that they better keep their pledge to not raise taxes.

He says if they do ‘capitulate’ on taxes then people will make them pay.

‘If we fall back on these promises after having done so well and getting control of House again, if we capitulate, they will punish the Republican party.

‘They better not do it, or they won’t be very happy with themselves.’ he told Fox News host Sean Hannity during his radio show.

Of a third-party run if he does not get the Republican nomination, Paul said: ‘I have no intention of doing that,’

However, when asked several times by Hannity to rule out an independent bid, he would not.

Paul says he and his staff were ‘annoyed’ by the fact that he only received 89 seconds to speak at the last 90 minute Republican debate.

Ron Paul’s strength in Iowa shows it’s too soon to write him off

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 01:38 PM PST

By Brad Knickerbocker | MinnPost.com

To most pollsters and pundits, any mention of Ron Paul typically comes with an implied asterisk. Whether they say it outright or not, they don't think the Texas congressman has a chance of being the GOP presidential nominee. Too far outside mainstream, tea party, or born-again socially conservative Republicanism, they say.
More libertarian than anything else.

And yet Rep. Paul soldiers on, and you know what? As other candidates – Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain – dash forward hare-like only to stumble or be run over by the next new thing, Paul is the perpetual tortoise in the race, mild-mannered, confident and unwavering in his positions (no flip-flopper he), advancing steadily toward the first real test in the Iowa caucuses six weeks from now.

Consider these recent headlines:

"Ron Paul is for real in Iowa. Seriously." (Washington Post)

"Niche Voters Giving Paul Momentum in Iowa Polls" (New York Times)

"Ron Paul's 19 percent in Iowa may indicate a path to the nomination" (Daily Caller)

"GOP outsider Ron Paul gaining traction in Iowa" (Associated Press)

"Ron Paul And Libertarians Can’t Be Discounted" (Forbes)

Gingrich, Romney Tied; Former Speaker Cites Tea-Party Appeal

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 01:35 PM PST

By FRANK JAMES, NPR

Newt Gingrich’s moment in the sun in the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination stretched into the Thanksgiving holiday week with a new USA Today-Gallup poll placing him and Mitt Romney in a statistical tie at 22 percent and 21 percent of support, respectively.

The poll of GOP and Republican-leaning registered voters was the latest of several national and state polls showing an unmistakable Gingrich surge.

Given the rise and fall of support for Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Herman Cain as a large number of Republicans continue to show their unhappiness with their choices, particularly the man thought to be the likeliest nominee, Romney, it would be an understatement to say that significant skepticism exists about Gingrich actually becoming the nominee.

Those doubts have only been enlarged by recent reports that the former House speaker’s companies have made millions of dollars through Gingrich’s “strategic advice” to a number of companies, including Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant.

Freddie Mac, like Fannie Mae, is despised by many conservatives who blame the government-sponsored entities for causing the housing meltdown. So Gingrich’s association with one of the GSEs isn’t helpful in his bid for the nomination, to say the least.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

GE Filed 57,000-Page Tax Return, Paid No Taxes on $14 Billion in Profits
Tea Party Groups Push GOP On Taxes
Paul: Obama health care more fascism than socialism
Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic flying bomb
Antibiotic-resistant infections spread through Europe
Tea parties unite to pick GOP candidate to take on Stabenow

GE Filed 57,000-Page Tax Return, Paid No Taxes on $14 Billion in Profits

Posted: 18 Nov 2011 11:17 AM PST

BY JOHN MCCORMACK, The Weekly Standard

General Electric, one of the largest corporations in America, filed a whopping 57,000-page federal tax return earlier this year but didn’t pay taxes on $14 billion in profits. The return, which was filed electronically, would have been 19 feet high if printed out and stacked.

The fact that GE paid no taxes in 2010 was widely reported earlier this year, but the size of its tax return first came to light when House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan (R, Wisc.) made the case for corporate tax reform at a recent townhall meeting. “GE was able to utilize all of these various loopholes, all of these various deductions–it’s legal,” Ryan said. Nine billion dollars of GE’s profits came overseas, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. tax law. GE wasn’t taxed on $5 billion in U.S. profits because it utilized numerous deductions and tax credits, including tax breaks for investments in low-income housing, green energy, research and development, as well as depreciation of property.

“I asked the GE tax officer, ‘How long was your tax form?’” Ryan said. “He said, ‘Well, we file electronically, we don’t measure in pages.’” Ryan asked for an estimate, which came back at a stunning 57,000 pages. When Ryan relayed the story at the townhall meeting in Janesville, there were audible gasps from the crowd.

Ken Kies, a tax lawyer who represents GE, confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD the tax return would have been 57,000 pages had it been filed on paper. The size of GE’s tax return has more than doubled in the last five years.

Ryan used the data point to underscore the irrationality of the corporate income tax code. He also contrasted GE with UPS to make the point that the corporate income tax code doesn’t make sense. “UPS paid a 34 percent effective tax rate,” while its biggest foreign competitor, DHL, paid a 24 percent tax rate, Ryan said.

Tea Party Groups Push GOP On Taxes

Posted: 18 Nov 2011 11:13 AM PST

By Kevin Bohn, WLKY.com

(CNN) — Several tea party-aligned groups are pushing Republican members of Congress not to support tax increases as a congressional super committee tries to come up with a proposal to cut at least $1.2 billion from the nation’s debt.

Republicans serving on the committee that is charged with cutting $1.2 trillion in federal spending over 10 years have proposed hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes balanced against a reduction in tax rates and tax reform.

Americans for Prosperity is pushing 40 House Republicans who have previously indicated a willingness to support new taxes to reverse course and is going up with a $50,000 radio ad campaign on Thursday targeting five House Republicans who serve on the Appropriations Committee. The ad says in part the members “recently joined 40 Republicans and 60 Democrats signing a letter asking the congressional super committee to consider ‘all options for mandatory and discretionary spending and revenues.’ Americans for Prosperity is concerned that this could make higher taxes. And, tax increases would be disastrous.”

The ad is airing in the districts of Reps. Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri; Charles Dent of Pennsylvania; Frank Wolf of Virginia; Steve LaTourette of Ohio; and Ander Crenshaw of Florida.

Wolf’s spokesman Daniel Scandling said in reaction “Congressman Wolf does not support raising taxes. He does support closing loopholes and ending the practice of tax earmarks” and said Wolf “has been talking about putting everything on the table for almost six years.” Emerson’s chief of staff Jeffrey Connor told CNN in reaction to the ad: “Revenues are not necessarily taxes – revenue includes things like expanding offshore oil leases and selling unneeded federal lands, eliminating fraud in the Additional Child Tax Credit and bringing U.S. corporate revenues back to American shores.”

The offices of Dent, LaTourette and Crenshaw did not respond to requests for comment.

To read more, visit: http://www.wlky.com/r/29799162/detail.html

Paul: Obama health care more fascism than socialism

Posted: 18 Nov 2011 11:06 AM PST

By Paige Winfield Cunningham, WashingtonTimes.com

It’s doubtful whether anyone opposes President Obama’s health care law more than Ron Paul, but the Texas congressman said Wednesday that the sweeping legislation is not socialized medicine — contrary to claims made by his fellow presidential contenders Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain.

Instead, Mr. Paul called the Affordable Care Act "corporate medicine leading toward fascism," insisting that his definition was much worse.

"It’s not socialized medicine, but it’s characteristic and creates the same things," he said in comments before the Congressional Health Care Caucus, which invited him to speak on Capitol Hill.

"You always have shortages on socialized medicine, but you always have shortages when you have government intervention — like we do now.

"You keep the businessman involved, but the businessman makes a lot of profit and he’s in bed [with] and gets protection from the government," said Mr. Paul, one of a handful of doctors who serve in Congress. "That’s not a very good alternative. They’re both very bad and some of the bad aspects would overlap."

Mr. Obama had originally hoped for a universal health care system where a public option would compete with private plans on insurance exchanges, but was forced to compromise when his plan appeared politically untenable.

Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic flying bomb

Posted: 18 Nov 2011 11:02 AM PST

From: Google.com

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Thursday held a successful test flight of a flying bomb that travels faster than the speed of sound and will give military planners the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than a hour.

Launched by rocket from Hawaii at 1130 GMT, the “Advanced Hypersonic Weapon,” or AHW, glided through the upper atmosphere over the Pacific “at hypersonic speed” before hitting its target on the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands, a Pentagon statement said.

Kwajalein is about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii. The Pentagon did not say what top speeds were reached by the vehicle, which unlike a ballistic missile is maneuverable.

Scientists classify hypersonic speeds as those that exceed Mach 5 — or five times the speed of sound — 3,728 miles (6,000 kilometers) an hour.

The test aimed to gather data on “aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection technologies,” said Lieutenant Colonel Melinda Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

The US Army’s AHW project is part of the “Prompt Global Strike” program which seeks to give the US military the means to deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within an hour.

Antibiotic-resistant infections spread through Europe

Posted: 18 Nov 2011 10:55 AM PST

By: Jeremy Laurance, The Independent

The world is being driven towards the “unthinkable scenario of untreatable infections”, experts are warning, because of the growth of superbugs resistant to all antibiotics and the dwindling interest in developing new drugs to combat them.

Reports are increasing across Europe of patients with infections that are nearly impossible to treat. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) said yesterday that in some countries up to 50 per cent of cases of blood poisoning caused by one bug – K. pneumoniae, a common cause of urinary and respiratory conditions – were resistant to carbapenems, the most powerful class of antibiotics.

Across Europe, the percentage of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae has doubled from 7 per cent to 15 per cent. The ECDC said it is “particularly worrying” because carbapenems are the last-line antibiotics for treatment of multi-drug-resistant infections.

Marc Sprenger, the director, said: “The situation is critical. We need to declare a war against these bacteria.”

In 2009, carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae was established only in Greece, but by 2010, it had extended to Italy, Austria, Cyprus and Hungary. The bacterium is present in the intestinal tract and is transmitted by touch.

Resistant strains of E.coli also increased in 2010. Between 25 and 50 per cent of E.coli infections in Italy and Spain were resistant to fluoroquinolones in 2010, one of the most important antibiotics for treating the bacterium.

Tea parties unite to pick GOP candidate to take on Stabenow

Posted: 18 Nov 2011 10:41 AM PST

By: Marisa Schultz/ The Detroit News

Tea party groups in Michigan plan a statewide convention and straw poll to pick their GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in an unprecedented move of solidarity to avoid splitting their votes.

Organizers say the only way to ensure a true constitutional conservative defeats Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in the 2012 election is for tea parties to unite around one candidate.

For fiercely independent groups leery of a top-down power structure, a decision to work together on behalf of the straw poll winner reflects the urgency of their cause, organizers say, though some tea party supporters question whether the alliance weakens the freedom of the grass-roots cause.

“Our best chance … is if we unite and start now,” said Cindy Gamrat, of Plainwell, an organizer of the tea parties’ Michigan 4 Conservative Senate push. “It’s a big feat we are undertaking.”

With a rallying force Gamrat puts at 15,000 tea party members, the unification effort could be a big boost to a Republican challenger to former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland, a frontrunner who has netted endorsements from many prominent members of the GOP, but who has had difficulty convincing some tea party groups he’s conservative enough.

Several candidates vying for the Republican nomination say the chance to win a unified tea party endorsement is an enormous opportunity.

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

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