Labels: Memorial Day 2010, TAPS
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Labels: fallen heroes, Memorial Day 2010
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Labels: global war on terror, Memorial Day 2010
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His name was Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Wilson - although I did not know it when his life brushed mine on March 25 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Lance Cpl. Wilson was not there in the terminal that afternoon; at age 24 and newly married, he had been killed in Afghanistan on March 22 by a roadside bomb. A coincidence of overbooked flights led our lives to intersect for perhaps an hour, one I will never forget.
I did not meet his family that day at the airport, either, although we were there together that evening at the gate, among the crowd hoping to board the oversold flight. I did not know that I had a boarding pass and they did not. I did not know they were trying to get home to hold his funeral, having journeyed to Dover, Del., to meet his casket upon its arrival from Afghanistan.
I also did not know that they already had been stuck for most of the day in another airport because of other oversold flights. But I did not need to know this to realize what they were going through as the event unfolded and to understand the larger cause for it. No matter how we as a nation have relearned the lesson forgotten during Vietnam - that our military men and women and their families deserve all the support we can give them - despite our nation's fighting two wars in this decade, it is all too easy for most of us to live our lives without having the very great human cost of those wars ever intrude.
But it did intrude heartbreakingly that day at the airport gate. It began simply enough, with the usual call for volunteers: Anyone willing to take a later flight would receive a $500 flight voucher. Then came the announcement none of us was prepared to hear. There was, the airline representative said, a family on their way home from meeting their son's body as it returned from Afghanistan, and they needed seats on the flight. And there they were, standing beside her, looking at us, waiting to see what we would decide. It wasn't a hard decision for me; my plans were easily adjusted. I volunteered, as did two women whom I later learned sacrificed important personal plans.
But we three were not enough: Six were needed. So we stood there watching the family - dignified and mute, weighed with grief and fatigue - as the airline representative repeatedly called for assistance for this dead soldier's family. No one else stepped forward. The calls for volunteers may have lasted only 20 or 30 minutes, but it seemed hours. It was almost unbearable to watch, yet to look away was to see the more than 100 other witnesses to this tragedy who were not moved to help. Then it did become unbearable when, in a voice laced with desperation and tears, the airline representative pleaded, "This young man gave his life for our country, can't any of you give your seats so his family can get home?" Those words hung in the air. Finally, enough volunteers stepped forward.
I had trouble sleeping that night; I could not get out of my mind the image of the family or the voice pleading for them.When I met my fellow volunteers the next morning at the airport, I found I was not alone. One had gone home and cried, and another had awakened at 3 a.m.; all of us were angry and ashamed that our fellow passengers had not rushed to aid this soldier's family and consequently had forced them to be on public display in their grief. We worried that this indifference to their son's sacrifice added to their sorrow.
It turned out my destination was his hometown, so I was able to learn his name and more. I learned he had been a talented graffiti artist and had married his sweetheart, Hannah, the day before he deployed to Afghanistan. They planned a big wedding with family and friends for after he returned home. I learned how proud he was to become a Marine in January 2009. I learned that he and his fellow Marines liked to give the candy they received from home to Afghan children. In sum, I learned that he was the kind of honorable, patriotic young person we want defending our country and how great our loss is that he had to give his life in doing so.
I posted a message to his family on the online condolence book. I told them I was sorry for what they went through in trying to see their son's body home, but because of it, many more people were going to have heard of Justin and his dedication to his country: I was going to tell everyone I knew about what I had witnessed and tell them his name. And I have.
I thought that was enough, until I received a thank-you note from Lance Cpl. Wilson's father-in-law.It was a completely humbling experience; he wrote that he was glad I had been able to learn about Justin, and he wanted me to know that Justin "served knowing the risks, but felt it was his obligation and privilege to serve his country." At that moment, I realized that in this day of an all-volunteer military and a distant war that touches so few of our lives directly, more people should hear the story of Lance Cpl. Wilson and his family.
I've thought a lot about what happened that day in the airport, and I choose to believe my fellow passengers were not unfeeling in the face of a soldier's death and a family's tragedy. They were just caught off guard - they were totally unprepared to confront the fierce consequences of the war in Afghanistan on their way to Palm Beach on a sunny afternoon.And I believe it was for this reason that people did not rush to the podium to volunteer their seats. It was not that they did not want to, and it was not that they did not think it was the right thing to do. Rather, it was because they were busy trying to assimilate this unexpected confrontation with the irrevocable cost of war and to figure out how to fit doing the right thing into their plans - to fit it into their lives not previously touched by this war. In the end, enough of us figured out how to do the right thing, and it turned out as well as such a painful situation could.
But still I wonder: Barring some momentous personal event that necessitated a seat on that flight, how could any of us even have hesitated? How could we have stopped to weigh any inconvenience to our plans against the sacrifice Lance Cpl. Wilson and his family had made for our country? In such circumstances, it is not a question of recognizing the right thing to do; we should know it is the only thing to do.
From what I have learned of him, in his short life, Lance Cpl. Wilson created a legacy of courage and patriotism that will not be forgotten by those who knew him. I hope there's a greater legacy as well. I hope through this account of his family's struggle to see him home, if ever again the war intrudes unbidden on my life or yours, we will know what we must do, and in their honor, and for all those who serve and sacrifice, we will do it.
Labels: afghanistan, airport, Dover, escort, MARINE CORPS, overbooked, standby, USMC HEROES, Washington Times
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Labels: 9/11 first responders, global war on terror, Memorial Day 2010
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Labels: Memorial Day 2010, Tomb of the Unknown
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Labels: Memorial Day 2010, Vietman War
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Labels: Korean War, Memorial Day 2010
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Labels: Memorial Day 2010, World War II
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Labels: Flanders Field, Memorial Day 2010, WW I
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Labels: Johnny Cash, Memorial Day 2010
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Labels: Memorial Day 2010
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He repeated the administration argument that the enemy is not "terrorism," because terrorism is a "tactic," and not terror, because terror is a "state of mind" -- though Brennan's title, deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, includes the word "terrorism" in it. But then Brennan said that the word "jihad" should not be applied either.
"Nor do we describe our enemy as 'jihadists' or 'Islamists' because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children," Brennan said.
Labels: disinformation, Islam religion of peace my ass, islamic terrorism, Jihad
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Has it really come to this? Yahoo News' Brett Michael Dykes reports that BP paid busloads of temporary cleanup workers to show up as stage props for President Obama's visit to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup operations on Grand Isle.
Dykes quoted Jefferson Parish councilman Chris Roberts who said "the overnight contingent of workers was there mainly to furnish a Potemkin-style backdrop for the event — while also making it appear that BP was firmly in command of spill cleanup efforts. New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU reports that the workers were paid $12 an hour and came mostly from neighboring Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes."
For more, go here.
Obama was enjoying a bit of a recovery in the presidential approval numbers earlier in the week, after hitting the lowest point of his presidency. You think BP also paid those four percentage points to show up for the president in the latest Rasmussen polling?
HT: Examiner contributor Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com.
Read more at the Washington Examiner:
Labels: bp, drill drill drill, drill baby drill, Glenn Reynolds, instapundit, lenin, louisiana, marxist tactics, new orleans, pajamasmedia, potemkin, stalin
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Labels: census
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Labels: government news outlet, leftist propaganda, leftist stalinist tactics, Liberal agenda, Marxism, Media bias, media lies
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The United States was not the only country in the Americas to use DDT to great effect. Table 1 details the dramatic impact of DDT on malaria cases in selected countries in the Americas. Notably, success was greatest in island countries, where the vector could be contained most easily. In 1955, WHO launched its own malaria eradication program, based on the extraordinary successes seen thus far with DDT. The program was funded mostly by the U.S. government.
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Labels: Alabama 5th District, Les Phillips
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Last week, Nina Easton, the Washington editor of Fortune, wrote a column about the SEIU and National People's Action. The two
progressive [Marxist] groups had sent roughly 500 protesters to Easton's Chevy Chase neighborhood on May 16th to picket the front yard of Bank of America's Greg Baer. Easton had just put her 2-year-old son down for a nap, and stepped outside to ask the protesters to quiet down. They didn't. Easton wrote a column. And now she's become the target of the SEIU and Media Matters for America.
Why? Because Easton, by "refusing" to disclose her husband's relationship with Bank
of America, was misleading her audience at Fortune, and the viewers of FOX News, where she commented on the protest. The only problem? There is no relationship between Easton's husband and Bank of America.
According to SEIU blogger John Vandeventer, “one Google search” reveals that Easton’s ”husband is Russell Schriefer, Republican strategist and consultant to several big corporate interest groups. In fact, her husband’s client list includes the Business Roundtable, a special interest group that counts Bank of America and other Wall Street banks among its members.” Media Matters’ Brian Frederick reprinted the same intel, citing Vandeventer. Both writers suggested that Easton had committed journalistic malpractice by not revealing her husband’s business doings.
But according to a source close to the family, both writers are wrong. Yes, Russell Schriefer worked with the Business Roundtable–once, during the 90s. And yes, he’s worked for the Chamber of Commerce, but not since 2006. Currently, his firm “primarily does media for Republican senate, governor and presidential candidates”–not Bank of America.
Labels: bank of america, fortune magazine, media lies, nina easton, screw SEIU
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“The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.”
“The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.
The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.”
Labels: Czech Republic, evil, fools, Prager Zeitung, Prince of Fools
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Zero owes us a country. What an arrogant, self-centered piece of dog crap.Washington, DC -- May 25, 2010 - Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Obama Justice Department to obtain documents related to the agency’s decision to dismiss the claims against several members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense who were accused of engaging in voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential campaign (U.S. v. New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense).
Judicial Watch filed its original FOIA request on May 29, 2009. The Justice Department acknowledged receiving the request on June 18, 2009, but then referred the request to the Office of Information Policy (OIP) and the Civil Rights Division.
On January 15, 2010, the OIP notified Judicial Watch that it would be responding
to the request on behalf of the Offices of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, Associate Attorney General, Public Affairs, Legislative Affairs, Legal Policy, and Intergovernmental and Public Liaison.
On January 15, the OIP also indicated that the Office of the Associate Attorney
General found 135 pages of records responsive to Judicial Watch’s request, but that all records would be withheld in full. On January 26, the OIP advised Judicial Watch that the Office of Public Affairs and Office of Legal Policy completed their searches and found no responsive documents. On February 10, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division indicated that after an extensive search it had located “numerous responsive records” but determined that “access to the majority of the records” should be denied. On March 26, the OIP indicated that the Office of Legislative Affairs and the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison completed searches and found no documents.
Judicial Watch appealed the determinations of the Office of the Associate Attorney General and the Civil Rights Division. To date, Judicial Watch has received neither a
response regarding searches conducted by the Offices of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, nor responses to its two administrative appeals prompting its lawsuit. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an independent, bipartisan unit of the federal government charged with investigating and reporting on civil rights issues, has also initiated a probe of the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss its lawsuit.
The Justice Department originally filed its lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and several of its members following an incident that took place outside of a Philadelphia polling station on November 4, 2008. A video of the
incident showing a member of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense brandishing police-style baton weapon was widely distributed on the Internet.According to multiple witnesses, members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense attempted to block access to polling stations, harassed voters and hurled racial epithets. Nonetheless, the Justice Department ultimately allegedly overruled the recommendations of its own staff and dismissed the majority of its claims.
“The Obama administration owes the American people an explanation. How can the Justice Department dismiss a clear-cut case of voter intimidation involving the use of a weapon? Are voting rights important at the Justice Department? If there is nothing to hide, then Eric Holder should release this information as the law requires. And this is just one more example of how Obama’s promises of transparency are a big lie,” said Judicial Watch Tom Fitton.
Labels: black panther, black racists, Doctor Zero, Dr Utopia, eric holder, judicial watch, racists
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Only by returning to the Islam of the founders could the umma -- the Muslim Nation -- reverse its political, economic and social torpor. This would require faithfully implementing the divine law, sharia.Read more at the Washington Examiner:
With sharia's injunctions firmly in place, the Muslim Nation would inevitably rise to the hegemony that was Allah's due. "It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be
dominated," Banna taught. The mission of Islam is "to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." (Emphasis mine)
Labels: Andrew McCarthy, dcexaminer, islamic terrorism, muslim brotherhood, sharia law
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Labels: alabama, Rick Barber, Tea Party
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Labels: Chris Muir, contest, Cooking With the Troops, cox and forkum, Delta Bravo Sierra
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Labels: From The Halls To The Shores, Iraqstar, Mike The Marine
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Labels: American Flag, fox news, poll, public schools, vote
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A Kansas research project says this about our 6-eyed friend:
"Brown Recluse spiders are the Navy seals, the Green Berets...and the Top Guns of the spider world."He will also bite as he is being crushed by a foot sliding into a shoe. I know a man who was bitten by a brown recluse, (in Missouri, of all places), in the late 60's. He never fully recovered, and he walked with a limp til the day he passed away some 30 years later. He was bitten on his toe as he was putting his slippers on. He never saw the spider. He thought it was a piece of trash that had fallen into his slipper and caused a slight pin prick as his foot slid in. He almost lost his leg.
Kansas State University - Brown Recluse Research Project
I used to drive a moving van when I was younger. I got to meet a lot of interesting and educated people. I moved one of the engineers who helped developed the Space Shuttle program for NASA down to Houston after the first successful shuttle launch. His exact quote to me was; "We now have an official Buck Rogers spaceship"
I also got to meet an entomologist from VaTech. We rolled up in the house ready to go to work, and he has jars and jars of dead spiders that need to be packed. My brother, whose fear of spiders is unmatched in the known universe, refused to handle the glass specimen jars with the dead spiders inside. I made an off-hand comment about not being afraid of any spider except a Black Widow, and the good doctor proceeded to introduce me to Mr Brown Recluse, a spider I had never heard of before then. What the good doctor told me has caused me to develop a habit of shaking everything I pick up before I put it on, and to always check my shoes or boots before slipping my feet into them.
In a short period of time, the venom in a Brown Recluse spider bite has the ability to cause major tissue necrosis. Necrosis is the death of living cells. The venom comes into contact with the living cells and they simply die. The result is a very painful and gruesome "flesh-rotting" open wound.
Fatalities are rare, but are most common with children, the elderly, and those in poor physical condition. The severity of the bite wound can vary greatly with some bites going unnoticed while others (though rare) reach the size of dinner plates. The amount of venom the spider injects can vary and tests indicate the spider is able to control the amount of venom injected.
Brown Recluse spider bites can be difficult to diagnose, even by physicians. Diagnostic tests to detect Brown Recluse venom in tissue are not readily available.
Labels: black widow, brown recluse, entomology, NASA, poison, space shuttle, spider, united van lines, venom
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Labels: arizona, atlanta, AZ, border, border patrol, Obama terrorism, terrorists
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The incredible reporting by my colleagues at Big Government and Big Journalism on the shameful demonstration of intimidation by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and her purple-shirted thugs this past Sunday in Washington DC has brought to light so many revelations exposing the corrupt nature of this union and their bought and paid-for allies.
Labels: Big Government, Big Journalism, Breitbart, screw SEIU, union thugs
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“Waving signs denouncing bank “greed,” hordes of invaders poured out of 14 school buses, up Baer’s steps, and onto his front porch. As bullhorns rattled with stories of debtor calls and foreclosed homes, Baer’s teenage son Jack — alone in the house — locked himself in the bathroom. “When are they going to leave?” Jack pleaded when I called to check on him.This behavior is totally unacceptable. These people need to be arrested. This is NOT FREE SPEECH, this is public endangermnent and a violation of private property rights.
Baer, on his way home from a Little League game, parked his car around the corner, called the police, and made a quick calculation to leave his younger son behind while he tried to rescue his increasingly distressed teen. He made his way through a din of barked demands and insults from the activists who proudly “outed” him, and slipped through his front door.
“Excuse me,” Baer told his accusers, “I need to get into the house. I have a child who is alone in there and frightened.”
Imagine what you would have done if your child were inside that house and that mob was on your front lawn as you tried to reach him
According to [MCPD Cpl] Friz, “members of protest groups know how far to push the envelope” and wait for “the key words” – for example, the property owner’s request that they leave – in order to avoid arrests or citations. For example, protesters are required to keep on the move, since a standing protest violates a Montgomery County code. And, while photographs clearly suggest that many of the SEIU protesters were stationary, the District police don’t have any authority to enforce Montgomery County laws.
So, let’s sum this up: A caravan of SEIU buses receive a Metropolitan (D.C.) Police Department escort to a private home in Maryland where the protesters, from all appearances, violate Montgomery County law by engaging in a stationary protest. The Montgomery County police were not informed by their cross-jurisdictional colleagues of the impending, unusually large protest pending in their jurisdiction.
What’s up with that? Had the mob decided to torch the house, the D.C. police would not have been authorized to intervene. Not their jurisdiction. They’re just escorts. Meanwhile, a teenage boy is home alone, frightened by what’s happening outside his front door.
There’s something very wrong with this picture.
Labels: barbarians, marxist tactics, private property, public endangerment, rules for radicals, saul alinsky, screw SEIU, union thugs
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Labels: clancy, Dr Utopia, Dr Zero, hundyai, koontz, ludlum, marxist tactics, North Korea, oil rigs, South Korea, submarines, tin foil hat
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Labels: creeping sharia, homegrown jihadis, islamist nutjobs, Jihad, jihadists, more dead tangos, Political Islam, Radical Islam, sharia law
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In the age of Attorney General Eric Holder - who not only won't pursue the case against the New Black Panther Party, who won't investigate the allegations that Joe Sestak was illegally offered inducements by the Obama administration to drop his primary challenge against Arlen Specter, who won't investigate similar offers made by the Obama team to former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff to drop his primary challenge to Senator Michael Bennett, who won't investigate ACORN on possible racketeering charges, who has a blase approach towards terrorism and who cannot even utter the words "Islamic terrorism" - should we be surprised that John Morton, who heads U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, proudly declare he won't process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona state officials?
This team is looking at the November elections and realize their refusal to enforce federal laws can reap political payoffs.
From the New York Post's Capitol Punishment blog:
The country's top federal immigration enforcement cop says his agency won't be doing its job . "John Morton, who heads U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said his agency will not necessarily process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona officials. The best way to reduce illegal immigration is through a comprehensive federal approach, not a patchwork of state laws, he said.‘I don't think the Arizona law, or laws like it, are the solution,' Morton said during a visit to the Chicago Tribune editorial board.
And Morton's opinion is relevant how exactly? Well, it is relevant in the sense that a senior Homeland Security official has openly declared that he won't be doing his job. Morton has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of the United States. He is not allowed to pick and choose which ones he likes and which he doesn't.
Perhaps Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano could do something right for a change and fire this guy.
For this administration, Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold and whether a law is
enforced is determined by identity politics and one's level of savings.
Labels: american thinker, arizona, AZ, DHS, eric holder, ICE, illegal immigration, napoleontano
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The trick with any global warming bill is to convince enough people that everything will change but nothing will hurt. You need enough details to appease environmentalists, while using enough sleight of hand so that no one else can tell what you're doing. This is why politicians have abandoned a straight carbon tax - it's too obvious. It's no surprise that Congress hasn't passed a global warming bill - this is a pretty hard trick to pull off.
Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, (he served in Viet Nam) and Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Independent, have unveiled their latest effort, the American Power Act, which tries to put a new face on an old illusion. Instead of using the same, tired, global warming rhetoric the American people have soundly rejected, the Kerry-Lieberman bill is supposedly about national security or energy independence. However, the core of bill is the same cap-and-trade proposal that would drive up energy costs, cripple domestic industries and cost American jobs - with one key difference.
Kerry-Lieberman changes the landscape by using a sector-based approach. The bill targets any source with more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, which the authors estimate would affect 7,500 sources. These sources are then divided into three sectors: power plants, manufacturers and transportation. This is cap and trade via divide and conquer. By establishing separate programs for these major sectors, Kerry-Lieberman attempts to use giveaways to buy off enough opposition in each sector to pass the bill.
However, Kerry-Lieberman is more similar to Waxman-Markey than it is different. Both bills threaten green tariffs on countries that don't self-inflict austerity measures. They both include massive subsidies for politically favored energy sources and use welfare-style energy rebates to buy off consumer outrage.
Both bills also fail to put caps on either agriculture or forestry. The reasons are twofold. Simply put, farm state lawmakers would never support a bill that attacks agricultural emissions. This played out in the Waxman-Markey process when House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, Minnesota Democrat, successfully obtained absolution for farmers in exchange for his caucus' votes.
Second, cap-and-trade bills need to sell offsets as a supplemental way for covered sources to get under the cap. Both bills allow 2 billion tons in offsets per year. Land use, soil treatment and trees are the easiest ways to generate offsets. If agriculture and forestry were forced to account for their own emissions, they would simply consume all of their own offsets and would have nothing left to sell back to other regulated sources. Carbon offsets are the farm subsidies of the 21st century, which is sure to please hesitant farm state senators.
It's no wonder trust in government is at an all-time low. Citizens have seen this game before and they know what cap and trade means for them. It would be refreshing for a politician to embrace the true costs of the bill and not pretend central energy planning comes without significant pain.
Labels: cap and tax, carbon offsets, Carbon Tax, energy tax, jobs, John effing sKerry, oil jobs, wacky waxman, Wacky-Marxist
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"The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god."
In an e-mail to the Daily News, Williams was unapologetic - saying his comments were specifically aimed at the terrorists, which he described as "the animals of Allah."
"If CAIR equates terrorists with Muslims then they apparently have a little [political correctness] problem of their own now don't they?" Williams said.
Labels: 9/11 mosque, Mark Williams
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Sen. Christopher Dodd's "regulatory reform" bill, S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, has many contentious proposals that have members from both political parties on edge.
The bill cauterizes "too big to fail" by establishing a Financial Stability Oversight Council that would indentify politically important institutions, sending the signal that some companies are indeed too big to fail.
It creates a permanent bailout authority by authorizing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to "make available ... funds for the orderly liquidation of covered financial institutions."
snip/
However, one specific component that would make George Orwell say, "I told you so," is the establishment of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP). If the name of the agency is not enough to conjure up images of black helicopters, the description will certainly do the trick.
Established in Title 10, this new autonomous agency will be sheltered within the Federal Reserve, but will function independent of the currently established, traditional regulatory framework. Congress or any other agency will have no veto power over the BCFP.
This new agency's budget will be 12 percent of the 2009 Federal Reserve System operating budget, or approximately $646 million. In 2008, the Federal Reserve's operating budget was $2.5 billion but it increased $600 million to $3.1 billion for 2009. The 2009 budget baseline was used because it was the most inflated baseline in recent history. Rather than trimming the fat like many state budgets are forced to do in the current economic crisis, Mr. Dodd used the most inflated budget baseline
he could find to fund this agency.
This bureau is given the unprecedented authority to monitor personal bank transactions and uses personal financial data to regulate consumer choice.
Established in Section 1022 on Page 1028, the BCFP is given the authority to monitor consumer financial patterns and, "implement and, where applicable, enforce Federal consumer financial law." Specifically, Subsection C gives this agency authority to
"gather information and activities of persons operating in consumer financial markets."Further, Section 1071 allows the BCFP to "use the data on branches and [individual and personal] deposit accounts" and "shall assess the distribution of residential and commercial accounts at such financial institution across income and minority level of census tracts; and may use the data for any other purpose as permitted by law." Never before has the federal government actively sought to aggregate data on every single personal and business financial transaction in the U.S. until now.
Labels: banks, consumer spending, Dodd, invasion of privacy, privacy, Washington Times
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Labels: Brer Bear, Brer Fox, Brer Rabbit, Coast guard, cuba, key west, North Korea, South Korea, Tar balls, Tarbaby
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Forget about open-heart surgery or cutting-edge cancer treatments. Under Obamacare, you might have a hard time finding a hamburger. A statement released by White Castle, the Ohio-based burger chain, highlights how damaging Obamacare would be to small businesses and to Americans' job prospects.
White Castle reports that a single provision of Obamacare would cut its net income in half -- and then some. Jamie Richardson, a White Castle executive, says, "We’ve been working on this internally from a number of different perspectives. One [provision] that has [us] the most concerned is the $3,000 penalty that kicks in when an employee’s portion of a premium exceeds 9.5% of Household Income."Richardson elaborates, "In present form, this provision alone would lead to approximate increased costs equal to over 55% of what we earn annually in net income (based on [our] past 4-year average). Effectively cutting our net income in half would have [a] devastating impact on the business -- cutting future expansion and more job creation at least in half. Sadly, it makes it difficult to justify growing where jobs are needed most -- in lower income areas." And that's all from just a single provision in a 2,700-page act.
The Obama administration's economic policy seems to involve dividing businesses into two categories: too big to fail, and too little to matter.
No wonder Ohioans support repeal of Obamacare by 19 percentage points (57 to 38 percent).
Labels: anti-business, business, healthcare costs, ohio, slider, too evil to care, weekly standard, White Castle
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An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.
His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as "the avenue of choice" for immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.
Trial continues Monday in the federal lawsuit, which seeks $32 million in actual and punitive damages for civil rights violations, the infliction of emotional distress and
other crimes. Also named are Mr. Barnett's wife, Barbara, his brother, Donald, and Larry Dever, sheriff in Cochise County, Ariz., where the Barnetts live. The civil trial is expected to continue until Friday.
The lawsuit is based on a March 7, 2004, incident in a dry wash on the 22,000-acre ranch, when he approached a group of illegal immigrants while carrying a gun and accompanied by a large dog.
Attorneys for the immigrants - five women and 11 men who were trying to cross illegally into the United States - have accused Mr. Barnett of holding the group captive at gunpoint, threatening to turn his dog loose on them and saying he would shoot anyone who tried to escape. The immigrants are represented at trial by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which also charged that Sheriff Dever did nothing to prevent Mr. Barnett from holding their clients at "gunpoint, yelling obscenities at them and kicking one of the women."
In the lawsuit, MALDEF said Mr. Barnett approached the group as the immigrants moved through his property, and that he was carrying a pistol and threatening them in English and Spanish. At one point, it said, Mr. Barnett's dog barked at several of the women and he yelled at them in Spanish, "My dog is hungry and he's hungry for buttocks."
The lawsuit said he then called his wife and two Border Patrol agents arrived at the site. It also said Mr. Barnett acknowledged that he had turned over 12,000 illegal
immigrants to the Border Patrol since 1998.In March, U.S. District Judge John Roll rejected a motion by Mr. Barnett to have the charges dropped, ruling there was sufficient evidence to allow the matter to be presented to a jury. Mr. Barnett's attorney, David Hardy, had argued that illegal immigrants did not have the same rights as U.S. citizens.
Mr. Barnett told The Washington Times in a 2002 interview that he began rounding up illegal immigrants after they started to vandalize his property, northeast of Douglas along Arizona Highway 80. He said the immigrants tore up water pumps, killed calves, destroyed fences and gates, stole trucks and broke into his home.
Labels: arizona, AZ, illegal aliens, rancher, Washington Times
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NEW YORK -- President Barack Obama promised Americans “health care reform.” So far, “health care form” is more like it.
ObamaCare is devolving into the Paper Industry Salvation Act of 2010. This new law spans 2,562 tree-killing pages. Far worse, it will force Americans to spend countless, irritating hours completing, transmitting, and filing endless reams of federal paperwork.
The scariest news for America’s forests may be a brand-new mandate that will compel each business — from General Electric to the neighborhood handyman — to file an IRS Form 1099 for every business on which it spends at least $600. Form 1099 today applies only to independent contractors, e.g. a graphic artist who earns $1,000 for designing a sales brochure. Come 2012, ObamaCare vastly will expand 1099s to sellers of goods as well as services, and not just the self-employed, but also businesses — large and small.
“This will create a two-fold whammy for small businesses,” predicts Rep. Dan Lungren (R – California) who is sponsoring legislation to repeal this provision. “They will have additional accounting costs that will consume time and money,” Lungren tells me. “They will be required to keep a running tab with every vendor, all the way from restaurants to anything they buy — a piece of equipment, an airline ticket, or a hotel room. And when they reach the $600 threshold, they will be required to file 1099s for each of those vendors.”
Labels: Deroy Murdock, Dr Utopia, Dr Zero, human events, ObamaCare, socialized medicine, ZeroCare
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Labels: 2011 budget, GOPLeader, House GOP, John Boehner, Obama budget, ohio, sneaky devious evil dhimmicrats
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Labels: Cooking With the Troops, Homes For Our Troops, Soldiers' Angels, The Hammer, Warrior Legacy
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Labels: Cooking With the Troops, Doc Thompson, Fisher House, Jimmy Barrett, Old Dominion Blog Alliance, Richard McCann, Warrior Legacy, wrva
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Labels: arizona, AZ, Big Government, big pharma, big tobacco, dcexaminer, editorials, illegal immigration, opinion
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Despite crediting the Pakistani Taliban with fostering the recent failed car bombing in Times Square, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was reluctant Thursday to say radical Islam was part of the cause of that and other recent attacks.
Mr. Holder, testifying to the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly balked at a half-dozen questions from Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the committee, about whether "radical Islam" was behind the attempted car bombing, last year's so-called "underpants bomber" or the killings at Fort Hood in Texas.
"There are a variety of reasons why people do these things. Some of them are potentially religious," Mr. Holder told the committee Thursday, though he would not go further than saying people who hold radical views may have "had an ability to have an impact" on Faisal Shahzad, the man the Justice Department says tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square.
Holder hasn't read Arizona law he criticized
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona's new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn't yet read the law and is going by what he's read in newspapers or seen on television.
Mr. Holder is conducting a review of the law, at President Obama's request, to see if the federal government should challenge it in court. He said he expects he will read the law by the time his staff briefs him on their conclusions.
"I've just expressed concerns on the basis of what I've heard about the law. But I'm not in a position to say at this point, not having read the law, not having had the chance to interact with people are doing the review, exactly what my position is," Mr. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee.
This weekend Mr. Holder told NBC's "Meet the Press" program that the Arizona law "has the possibility of leading to racial profiling." He had earlier called the law's passage "unfortunate," and questioned whether the law was unconstitutional because it tried to assume powers that may be reserved for the federal government.
Rep. Ted Poe, who had questioned Mr. Holder about the law, wondered how he could have those opinions if he hadn't yet read the legislation.
Labels: arizona, AZ, dead tangos, eric holder, extra crispy dead tangos, Islam, meet the press, more dead tangos, terrorists, times square
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Labels: Constitution, george will, mark alexander, patriot post, scotus, Wes Pruden
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Labels: brick, CMU, concrete, Cooking With the Troops, Doc Thompson, Fisher House, Jimmy Barrett, McGuire Hospital, Mologne House, mortar, patio, pavers, The Lee Brothers, walter reed, Warrior Legacy, wrva
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The FCC, a New Deal relic, derives its current authority from the Telecommunications Act of 1996. At the time the law was enacted, Congress wisely decided to take a hands-off approach to the Internet by creating a new "information service" category explicitly designed to remain free from the tangle of red tape that the agency layers on top of telephone service, cable, broadcast television and radio.
[FCC Chairman] Mr. Genachowski, however, is upset that this plain reading of the statute deprives him of the authority to "safeguard privacy," "empower consumers" and "lower the costs of investment." He seeks to remedy this by imposing new rules on the Internet's network infrastructure. In a rather Orwellian fashion, he claims these regulations would not involve regulating the Internet itself. Mr. Genachowski insists that he has no intention of meddling with online content.
Even if that's true, his proposal remains deeply troubling. If a federal agency is allowed to ignore court rulings and erase laws with which it disagrees, there would be no restraint on what a future chairman might do. Surely, if the federal government can provide a "good reason" to reclassify broadband services as telecommunications, it can come up with a "good reason" to prevent such bad language on the Internet or even extend its reclassifications to cover cable television programs on HBO and Showtime.
Absent legal constraints, the agency could even resurrect the Fairness Doctrine and apply it to the Internet. This rule, created during the 1940s, required that broadcast stations give equal time to both sides of controversial issues, but it had the unintended consequence of discouraging stations from discussing anything controversial. The scheme was ultimately canceled by President Reagan's FCC in 1987, a move that ushered in a revival of talk radio.
Neither President Obama nor his appointees have the authority to unilaterally rewrite the law when it suits their convenience. If Mr. Obama wants to impose controls on the Internet, he must go to Congress and ask for the new power - a request not likely to be granted. Members of Congress and the general public appreciate that the Internet's greatness lies in its unregulated, Wild West nature. As the FCC opens its proposals to public comment, we hope that readers deliver the clear message that federal "help" is neither needed nor desired online.
Labels: 1984, editorials, fcc, George Orwell, internet, net neutrality, Washington Times
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Labels: American Flag, calexico, california, flags, freerepublic, mexicali, mexico, respect for the flag
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If you think all conservatives wear suits you haven't met the United Conservatives of Virginia!
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