Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Property tax collections to start downward trend

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 06:13 PM PDT

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

More than five years after real estate prices began to tumble, Americans are finally starting to get property tax breaks on their devalued homes, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Cities, counties and school districts today collect 20% more in property taxes than they did in 2006 when home values were one-third higher than now. But the tax tide is slowly starting to recede.

Last year, property tax collections rose just 1.2% — and actually declined 0.9% when adjusted for inflation, according to data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s the first time property tax collections have fallen below the inflation rate since 1995 and only the third time in 40 years.

If the downward trend continues, property taxes may actually bring in fewer dollars this year than last even before adjusting for inflation. That hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.

Property taxes generated $436 billion last year, about $66 billion more than in 2006 when home values peaked. Public schools get about 40% of this money. The rest flows to other local governments.

Most states have complex laws that make property tax declines rare, small or long-delayed, even when home values plummet. This makes the property tax stable during economic turmoil, unlike the income or sales tax.

To read more, visit:  http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/story/2012-03-12/property-tax-revenue-decline/53501194/1

Obama defends energy policies amid gas price pain

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 06:10 PM PDT

By Alister Bull, Reuters.com

President Barack Obama launched the most comprehensive defense to date of his energy policies on Monday, pushing back against election-year attacks from Republicans who say they are to blame for high gas prices that are eroding his popularity with voters.

Heralding a report on energy security showing a big drop in U.S. oil imports, Obama acknowledged pain at the pump that analysts fear could lift gasoline to $5 a gallon in some parts of the country and pose a threat his Nov. 6 bid for re-election.

“Today’s high gas prices are a painful reminder that there’s much more work to do to free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil and take control of our energy future,” Obama said in a statement on the energy report. “We have made progress.”

The 20-page study, which highlighted rising domestic oil and gas production and Obama’s steps to lift fuel efficiency, showed U.S. oil imports declined to 8.4 million barrels a day by the end of 2011, versus 11 million barrels a day in January 2009.

The White House said his policies were tackling a troubling topic for many Americans. This was underlined by a new Washington Post-ABC poll, which showed disapproval of Obama’s handling of the economy increased to 59 percent, from 53 percent when the survey was taken last month.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled said they did not approve of his handling of the situation with gas prices.

To read more, visit:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/12/usa-energy-obama-idUSL2E8EC0VI20120312

While California persecutes raw milk farmers, France unveils raw milk vending machines for happy, healthy consumers

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 06:07 PM PDT

By: Mike Adams, NaturalNews.com

Thanks to the extraordinarily cruel and vindictive actions of the LA County and Ventura County District Attorneys’ offices, California is rapidly losing its reputation as a state that promotes a healthy lifestyle. Instead, the state is becoming increasingly known as “the torture state” where senior citizen farmers and fresh food advocates are imprisoned, tortured, and charged with felony crimes for making fresh milk available to customers. See our astonishing report on California’s latest assault on a 65-year-old “milk man” at:

http://www.naturalnews.com/035208_James_Stewart_torture_county_jail.h…

France, on the other hand, has embraced the health benefits of raw milk. There, innovative dairy farmer Michel Cantaloube has created a raw milk vending machine (see photo below). The vending machine is a tastefully-designed kiosk that blends right into the urban setting, allowing it to be set up on a street corner on a French town or even a major metropolitan area.

Customers can purchase whatever quantity of raw milk they wish, and unlike in the United States, they don’t even have to go through the bizarre paperwork of owning a “cow share.”

California declares war on raw dairy farmers

Back in Los Angeles, raw dairy farmer Sharon Palmer has been slapped with 38 felony counts drummed up by the county, which has a rogue DA office running a campaign of personal revenge against dairy farmers. Driven into near-bankruptcy by the fines and legal fees, Palmer has been unable to repay farm investors as planned, so when her repayments fell behind, the county charged her with financial fraud.

Keep in mind that when MF Global’s Jon Corzine stole billions of dollars from investors, he was never even charged with a crime. When Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs went broke making bad beds with other people’s money, the United States government gave them a trillion-dollar bailout! But when a small, organic raw milk farmer in California runs into financial trouble caused by the state itself, they get charged with 38 felony counts of fraud.

James Stewart, the 65-year-old “milk man” from California, was arrested nine days ago for the crime of merely “knowing” Sharon Palmer. His bail was set at the astonishing level of $1 million — an amount rarely used even for rapists and murderers. (Sharon’s bail was set at $2 million!) He was then subjected to extreme torture that nearly killed him in an LA County jail. This included food deprivation, sleep deprivation, hypothermia, interrogation, verbal intimidation and even flooding his jail cell with raw human sewage and forcing him to clean out the raw sewage himself. Read the full details at:

http://www.naturalnews.com/035208_James_Stewart_torture_county_jail.h…

So in France, raw milk is happily sold in vending machines on street corners, but in California — a state which used to represent a healthy, happy lifestyle — raw milk advocates are targeted by the state as criminals, then subjected to personal vengeance campaigns run by the DA’s office.

France = the “healthy food nation” of raw milk and red wine.

California = the “torture state” of total government brutality and oppression of farmers, along with the torture of raw dairy advocates.

To read more, visit:  http://www.naturalnews.com/035215_raw_milk_vending_machines_France.html

Tea Party Turns Up Heat on GOP Over ‘Fast and Furious’

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 05:59 PM PDT

From: FOX Nation

Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, appeared on Fox News this morning and called out top Republican leaders in Congress for their inaction on the Fast & Furious gunrunning scandal.

Phillips accused GOP leaders like John Boehner and Eric Cantor of just "sitting there" and "not picking a fight with the president" instead of making the case a priority.

Jamie Colby reminded viewers of Fast & Furious and its link to several deaths, including the murder of a U.S. border agent. She asked Phillips if the support of an investigation was a purely partisan one. Phillips said it goes back further than that, because the entire Fast & Furious operation was a partisan one.

He accused the Justice Department of running a "purely political operation" as opposed to a "law enforcement sting," suggesting that anyone who supported it bought into the belief that American guns are being sent into Mexico and that's what's causing all the gang violence, which Phillips said could ultimately lead to a push for stricter gun control legislation.

To read more, visit:  http://nation.foxnews.com/fast-and-furious/2012/03/12/tea-party-turns-heat-gop-over-fast-and-furious
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