Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Tea Party Leader Vows To Fight NYC’s “Tyrannical” Anti-Gun Agenda

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:34 PM PST

From:  Gothamist.com

Last month, Californian lawyer and influential Tea Party leader Mark Meckler was arrested for trying to board a plane at LaGuardia Airport with a handgun and ammunition. This week, Meckler pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct (reduced from felony criminal possession of a concealed weapon), but he wasn’t too happy about it. He made his displeasure known in a long entry on his website, in which he railed against “NYC's unconstitutional or tyrannical behavior:” “Until you have felt the handcuffs on your wrists, and until you have heard that cell door close behind you, it is impossible to understand what it means to actually lose your liberty.”

Meckler had a valid concealed carry permit for the semi-automatic handgun in California, but didn’t have permission to bring the weapon around NY, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. He was arrested trying to board a Detroit-bound Delta flight on Dec. 15; he was fined $250 after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct. His lawyer called the arrest—and by extension NY’s gun laws—outrageous:

“It’s the guy who’s doing the drive-by shootings you want to stop. These people aren’t the people you want to keep from committing gun violence. They’re people who are obeying the law.”

Meckler recounted the whole experience on his website, noting he was used to dealing with varying procedures on guns in different airports: “Unfortunately, that day, I didn't realize that I was about to cross paths with New York City's anti-Second Amendment stance.” Even after his case was closed, he hasn’t been able to get his gun back:

There is no law that allows them to confiscate a weapon in this manner. They simply say "no" when you ask for your weapon back. This is apparently their "policy." It is done regularly in New York. This is government robbery. Not only is New York City anti-Second Amendment rights, but they are depriving citizens of their legally owned property. My lawyer has advised me that I can attempt to pursue the return of my firearm, but that to do so would cost me more than the firearm is worth. I am not alone in facing this tyranny.

Meckler ends by vowing to fight “this sort of Constitutional abuse, Second Amendment and otherwise… It is time to stand for the plain meaning of the Constitution. Every word of the Constitution is important, and we must fight for them all.” He adds one last note at the end that every law enforcement officer he dealt with in NY was polite and professional: “They are not to blame for NYC's unconstitutional or tyrannical behavior. From my experience, they seem to be good people, just doing a difficult job.”

To read more, visit:  http://gothamist.com/2012/01/14/tea_party_leader_vows_to_fight_nycs.php

NH House seeks to enshrine personal income tax ban

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST

By Norma Love, Boston.com

CONCORD, N.H.—New Hampshire’s historic resistance to a personal income tax would no longer be left to politicians to uphold if a proposed prohibition against the tax is enshrined in the state constitution.

The House votes Wednesday on a constitutional amendment that would bar any new tax on personal income. Supporters say the amendment would not affect existing taxes but would stop lawmakers from levying new taxes directly or indirectly on someone’s income regardless of its source.

Opponents object that the proposed constitutional change would handcuff future legislatures dealing with changing economic conditions.

New Hampshire is one of nine states that does not tax personal income, though it taxes interest and dividends. New Hampshire and Alaska are the only states without taxes on either personal income or sales.

State Rep. Keith Murphy, R-Bedford, argues residents work hard for their money and “it would be an incredible injustice for the state to demand some portion of that money.”

“The language is very carefully chosen to forbid only new taxes on individual income. Existing taxes on income, such as the interest and dividends tax, will be unaffected unless first repealed,” he wrote in the House calendar in support of its passage.

To read more, visit:  http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2012/01/16/nh_house_seeks_to_enshrine_personal_income_tax_ban/

Among the Wealthiest One Percent, Many Variations

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:27 PM PST

By: Shalia Dewan and Robert Gebeloff, CNBC.com

Adam Katz is happy to talk to reporters when he is promoting his business, a charter flight company based on Long Island called Talon Air.

But when the subject was his position as one of America's top earners, he balked. Seated at a desk fashioned from a jet fuel cell, wearing a button-down shirt with the company logo, he considered the public relations benefits and found them lacking: "It's not very popular to be in the 1 percent these days, is it?"

A few months ago, Mr. Katz was just a successful businessman with five children, an $8 million home, a family real estate company in Manhattan and his passion, 10-year-old Talon Air.

Now, the colossal gap between the very rich and everyone else — the 1 percent versus the 99 percent — has become a rallying point in this election season. As President Obama positions himself as a defender of the middle class, and Mitt Romney, the wealthiest of the Republican presidential candidates, decries such talk as "the bitter politics of envy," Mr. Katz has found himself on the wrong end of a new paradigm.

As a member of the 1 percent, he is part of a club whose name conjures images of Wall Street bosses who are chauffeured from manse to Manhattan and fat cats who have armies of lobbyists at the ready.

But in reality it is a far larger and more varied group, one that includes podiatrists and actuaries, executives and entrepreneurs, the self-made and the silver spoon set. They are clustered not just in New York and Los Angeles, but also in Denver and Dallas. The range of wealth in the 1 percent is vast — from households that bring in $380,000 a year, according to census data, up to billionaires like Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates.

To read more, visit:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/46004250

Homeland Security Is Reading and Recording Every Keystroke

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:24 PM PST

WRITTEN BY JOE WOLVERTON, The New American

With so many of our most essential liberties under attack from the oligarchy on the Potomac, it is little wonder that the freedom of the press and speech are next on the government guillotine.

The Department of Homeland Security's National Operations Center (NOC) released its Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative last year and in that report the intelligence-gathering arm of the DHS, the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) gives itself permission to "gather, store, analyze, and disseminate" data on millions of users of social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and business networking sites (Linkedin).

Specifically, the Initiative sets out the plan and purpose behind the DHS's collection of personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters, or anyone else who posts articles, comments, or other information to many popular web outlets. The report defines the target audience as anyone who may use "traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed."

Journalists and bloggers need not worry, however. DHS promises that it will not routinely gather and use Personally Identifiable Information (PII). From the abstract of the Initiative:

While this Initiative is not designed to actively collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII), OPS is conducting this update to the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) because this initiative may now collect and disseminate PII for certain narrowly tailored categories. For example, in the event of an in extremis situation involving potential life and death, OPS will share certain PII with the responding authority in order for them to take the necessary actions to save a life, such as name and location of a person calling for help buried under rubble, or hiding in a hotel room when the hotel is under attack by terrorists.

In other words, the government promises that all the personal electronic data that it monitors and records will only be used in "narrowly tailored" circumstances, saving a life, for example. There is no requirement that the data be used only in those instances, but there is a promise that it will be.

To read more, visit:  http://thenewamerican.com/tech-mainmenu-30/computers/10540-homeland-security-is-reading-and-recording-every-keystroke

Colbert Ad Airing in S.C. Attacks Romney For Being A ‘Serial Killer’

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:21 PM PST

From: ABC News

The harshest attack against Mitt Romney to yet hit the South Carolina airwaves is coming not from his GOP rivals, but from comedian Stephen Colbert , whose Super PAC is up with a 60-second spot accusing Romney of being a "serial killer."

The harshly-worded ad spares no drama, showing a butcher carving up a carcass and a limp pair of feet being ominously dragged around a dark corner. But coming from the Comedy Central funnyman, the ad seems more like a tongue-in-cheek jest than a legitimate character attack.

"Mitt Romney has a secret," says the narrator, John Lithgrow, who played a serial killer on the Showtime series "Dexter." "As head of Bain Capital he bought companies, carved them up, and got rid of what he couldn't use. If Mitt Romney really believes 'corporations are people, my friend' then Mitt Romney is a serial killer. He's Mitt the Ripper."

The ad is airing on the CBS station in Colbert's hometown of Charleston, South Carolina and comes just days after Colbert transferred control of his PAC to fellow comedian Jon Stewart and announced he would launch an exploratory committee to find out "if there's a hunger" for him to run for president in South Carolina.

The pro-Colbert PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, spent $7,600 to air the ad 11 times on CBS Charleston. Beginning last Sunday, the ad will air twice per day until Thursday, once during the morning news and once during the nightly news, said CBS affiliate WCSC's General Manager Rita Scott.

So far the station has heard no complaints about the "serial killer" ad, Scott said.

To read more, visit:  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/colbert-ad-airing-in-s-c-attacks-romney-for-being-a-serial-killer/

Zappos Says Hackers Accessed 24 Million Customers’ Account Details

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:18 PM PST

By: Andy Greenberg, Forbes.com

Twenty-four million Zappos customers are getting an unpleasant Sunday-evening surprise.

The Amazon-owned e-commerce firm has revealed that it was the target of a cyber attack that gained access to its internal network, including the accounts of 24 million of its users. Though the company says that no complete credit card numbers were revealed in the breach, the intruders may have accessed customers' names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, addresses, the last four digits of their credit card numbers, and encrypted passwords. Zappos says it's taken the precaution of resetting the passwords of all its customers and directing them to set a new password upon visiting the site.

"We were recently the victim of a cyber attack by a criminal who gained access to parts of our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky," chief executive Tony Hsieh wrote to Zappos employees in an email posted to the site, declining to offer more information about the breach. "We are cooperating with law enforcement to undergo an exhaustive investigation."

Even after choosing a new Zappos password, users should be careful to also change their passwords on any site where they've used a similar or identical password, in case Zappos' intruders are able to decrypt the scrambled passwords they've stolen. Zappos is also warning affected customers to watch out for phishing emails that will use their stolen email addresses to spoof official Zappos emails and ask for account credentials or financial details.

Hsieh wrote in his all-hands email that every employee at Zappos' Henderson, Nevada headquarters will be assisting in the customer response to the breach, and that the company will only be responding to emails rather than phone calls in its effort to answer the massive number of queries that it expects to receive. "We've spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers. It's painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident," he wrote in the email. "I suppose the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers' critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed."

To read more, visit:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/01/15/zappos-says-hackers-accessed-24-million-customers-account-details/?partner=yahootix

Teachers monitor New York students electronically in anti-obesity drive

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:16 PM PST

From: FOXNews.com

A group of students in New York will soon be wearing controversial electronic monitors that allow school officials to track their physical activity around the clock in a bid to combat obesity.

The athletics chair for schools in Bay Shore, N.Y., ordered 10 Polar Active monitors, at $90 a piece, for use starting this spring. The wristwatch-like devices count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits.

The information is displayed on a color-coded screen and gets transmitted to a password-protected website that students and educators can access.

The devices are already in use in school districts in St. Louis and South Orange, N.J., and have raised privacy concerns among some parents and observers.

But Ted Nagengast, the Bay Shore athletics chair, said, “It’s a great reinforcement in fighting the obesity epidemic. It tells kids, in real time, ‘Am I active? Am I not active?’ We want to give kids the opportunity to become active.”

In the South Orange-Maplewood School District, where earlier versions of the devices have been used for two years, upper-grade students’ marks in physical education classes are based in part on heart-rate monitors and activity sensors.

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/16/teachers-monitor-new-york-students-electronically-in-anti-obesity-drive/

Reid on bipartisanship: Republicans, drop the Tea Party ‘extremism’

Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:11 PM PST

From: FOXNews.com

Saying it’s time to rebuild America by working together to create jobs, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday prepared for Congress’ return to Washington this week with a warning to Republicans to leave Tea Party “extremism” behind and “learn what legislation is all about.”

“I would hope that they understand that everything doesn’t have to be a fight. Legislation is an art of working together, building consensus, compromise. And I hope that the Tea Party doesn’t have the influence in this next year that they had in the previous year,” Reid said.

Repeating three times his claim that Republicans are engaged in “obstructionism on steroids,” the Nevada Democrat said President Obama for two and a half years “bent over backwards” to reach out to Republicans, only to find a fist rather than a hand to shake. Reid said he’d prefer that Democrats not have to go it alone in the Senate this year, but since last September they have succeeded on moving several items without minority cooperation.

“I don’t think … anyone can question or they should question our having reached out to Republicans,” Reid said. “We’ve done everything we could to work with them. We’re going to continue to do that. In spite of the obstructionism, we have been able to accomplish a lot of good things in the last Congress. …

“I think we can build upon that. This Congress isn’t over. All I ask is for the Republicans to understand what legislation is all about.”

Reid said since last September Democrats in Congress have forged ahead alone pushing the president’s jobs bill and demanding tax hikes on millionaires.

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/15/reid-on-bipartisanship-republicans-drop-tea-party-extremism/?test=latestnews
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