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." To read more, visit:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/nyregion/roll-your-own-cigarette-shops-sued-by-new-york-city-in-tax-dispute.html?_r=1

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. To read more, visit:  http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/mf-global-trustee-estimates-shortfall-could-be-more-than-1-2-billion/?ref=business

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. To read more, visit:  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/11/22/gingrich_spars_with_ron_paul_after_he_calls_patriot_act_unpatriotic.html

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.” To read more, visit:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/22/fresh-hacked-climate-science-emails

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. To read more, visit:  http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/scientists-weaponize-deadly-bird-flu.html

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.” To read more, visit:  http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/22/politics/cnn-security-debate/index.html

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." To read more, visit:  http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/11/tea-party-pacs-help-bankroll-ted-cruz-senate-bid/

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. To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/22/obama-headed-to-new-hampshire-to-push-payroll-tax/

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. To read more, visit:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-22/supercomittee-failure-poses-threat-to-u-s-economy-even-as-rating-affirmed.html

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. To read more, visit:  http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/11/harold-rodman-tsa-worker-arrested-for-sexual-assault-69420.html

You are subscribed to email updates from RE Tea Party To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610