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Administration Ignores ObamaCare Deadlines

August 20, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The Obama administration has missed half its own deadlines for implementing the health care overhaul, according to a report that suggests the recent delay of a key insurance mandate is hardly an outlier.

The finding was included in a Congressional Research Service report, and first published in an article on Forbes.com.

The nonpartisan congressional research unit examined 82 deadlines that the Affordable Care Act imposed on the administration, and found the administration missed exactly half of them.

The White House, according to the June report, did not meet nine of 12 deadlines from the first year after ObamaCare was enacted. It failed to meet 22 of 53 deadlines in the second year. In the third year, the administration missed 10 out of 17 deadlines.

That’s a total of 41 out of 82 deadlines missed.

One Republican lawmaker suggested this report should not surprise anyone.

“I think this is one of the obvious signs that ‘ObamaCare’ is doomed to fail,” Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Fox News. He also criticized the administration for using “blogs” to “communicate these delays” to the public.

He was referring in part to the recent announcement by the administration, via an official blog, that the requirement on mid-sized and large employers to provide health coverage for full-time workers was being pushed off by a year.

The Health and Human Services Department, though, defended the implementation and said a key part of the law — the so-called insurance exchanges where people can shop for various regulated plans — will launch on time.

“Millions of Americans are benefiting from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that are already in place, such as ending lifetime limits on coverage and requiring insurance companies to cover preventive care with no cost sharing,” HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said. “On October 1, the Health Insurance Marketplace will open on time, where millions of Americans will have access to quality, affordable coverage for the first time.”

According to Forbes.com, most of the 41 missed deadlines pertain to items that aren’t exactly critical to the law’s implementation. One of them reportedly pertained to the requirement on HHS to submit a report to Congress on the “appropriate level of diabetes medical education.”

But there are other high profile delays that are not included in this report — one of them being a delay in caps on out-of-pocket insurance costs.

Published August 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Doug McKelway contributed to this report.

Obamacare Penalty — Single Mom pays $8,173 For Marriage License

August 19, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Obamacare attacks the liberty and financial viability of the traditional family, and nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the system of federal subsidies it puts in place starting next year.

This system rewards people who don’t marry, don’t work and don’t take care of their own children. It punishes people who do marry, work hard and take care of their own children.

Under Obamacare, the federal government orders all Americans to have health insurance. Households with adjusted gross incomes of less than 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) will go on government-run Medicaid, and households with adjusted gross incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of FPL can qualify for a subsidy to help them buy their government-mandated health insurance — provided they do not qualify for Medicaid in their state and their employer does not offer them coverage.

As explained by the Congressional Research Service, the subsidy — which is technically a refundable tax credit — works as a cap on the percentage of income the household can be made to pay in annual health insurance premiums if they buy a “Silver” plan on their state exchange. (The exchanges will sell Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze plans, with Bronze being the cheapest and Platinum the most expensive.) If someone with a subsidy buys a more expensive plan, they must pay the additional cost out of their own pocket.

For a household earning an adjusted gross income between 100 percent and 133 percent of FPL, Obamacare caps their health insurance premiums at 2 percent of annual income. That cap incrementally increases as a household’s income increases, peaking at 9.5 percent for households earning between 300 percent and 400 percent of FPL.

When a household gets the subsidy, the federal government pays their insurance company directly for any amount the household owes that exceeds their percentage-of-income cap.

No one getting a subsidy ever pays more than 9.5 percent of their income in premiums.

But if a household earns as little as one dollar over 400 percent of FPL, the household no longer qualifies for a subsidy, and there is no longer a cap on the percentage of income they can be forced to pay for health insurance.

Married couples seeking the subsidy are required to file joint tax returns and whether their premiums are capped or not is determined by the couple’s combined income.

The law thus imposes a steep penalty on Americans who live in traditional families.

Take the hypothetical twin sisters Lucille and Linda, who live across the street from each other and who will buy health insurance on the same state exchange.

They are 50 years old, and their husbands have abandoned and divorced them and their three children. Each earns $47,100 per year, which is 200 percent of FPL for a family of four.

The Kaiser Family Foundation maintains an online “Subsidy Calculator” that “illustrates health insurance premiums and subsidies for people purchasing insurance on their own” in the exchanges.

This calculator estimates a Silver plan for a family of four headed by a single mom like Lucille or Linda would cost $11,140 in annual premiums. But because their income is just 200 percent of FPL, the government will cap the premiums Lucille or Linda would pay at 6.3 percent of their income. Thus, they would each pay $2,967 per year in premiums, and the government would make up the difference by paying $8,172 directly to their insurance companies.

But then Lucille falls in love with 56-year-old Bill. They decide to marry. Bill’s adjusted gross income is $63,300, which is more than 400 percent of FPL for a single person. Before marrying Lucille, Bill bought a Silver plan on the state exchange for what the Kaiser Family Foundation calculator estimates was $7,041.

Under Obamacare, as unmarried people, Lucinda and Bill pay combined health insurance premiums of $10,008 per year and receive total subsidies of $8,172 per year.

After their wedding, Bill and Lucille settle down in one home with Lucille’s three kids. They are now a five-person family with an adjusted gross income of $110,400 — just a bit more than 400 percent of FPL for a family of five.

Now, as a married couple, they look into buying a Silver family plan on the state exchange. The calculator says their new annual premiums will be $18,181 — and because Bill and Lucille and the three children are too wealthy to qualify for the Obamacare premium cap, they must pay every penny of the $18,181 out of their own pockets.

As a penalty for marrying, Bill and Lucille have lost Lucille’s $8,172 subsidy and must pay $8,173 more in annual health insurance premiums than the combined $10,008 they paid before they were married. Their federally mandated health insurance plan costs 16.5 percent of their family income.

Linda, after seeing the plight of Lucille and Bill, falls in love with Bill’s twin brother, Jack, who like Bill, earns $63,300 per year. Will she marry him?

By Terence P. Jeffrey — editor-in-chief of CNSnews.com

Obama Faces Dem Backlash Over New NSA Revelations

August 16, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The Obama administration faced a backlash from congressional Democrats on Friday following revelations that the National Security Agency broke privacy rules and overstepped its authority thousands of times since 2008.

The details were reported late Thursday in The Washington Post, based on an audit and other secret documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The report challenged claims by President Obama just last week that the NSA was not abusing its authority, and complicated his effort to reassure Americans and Congress that — with a little more oversight and transparency — the surveillance programs are nothing to be worried about.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the latest reports “extremely disturbing.”

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said: “Reports that the NSA repeatedly overstepped its legal boundaries, broke privacy regulations and attempted to shield required disclosure of violations are outrageous, inappropriate and must be addressed.”

Senior lawmakers said they had been unaware of the audit until they read the news on Friday.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he planned to hold another hearing in the wake of the report.

“The American people rely on the intelligence community to provide forthright and complete information so that Congress and the courts can properly conduct oversight. I remain concerned that we are still not getting straightforward answers from the NSA,” Leahy said in a statement. “I plan to hold another hearing on these matters in the Judiciary Committee and will continue to demand honest and forthright answers from the intelligence community.”

Obama has repeatedly said that Congress was thoroughly briefed on the programs revealed by Snowden in June. The two that were described vacuum up vast amounts of metadata — such as telephone numbers called and called from, the time and duration of calls — from most Americans’ phone records, and scoop up global Internet usage data.

Proposed legislation to dismantle the programs was narrowly defeated last month in the House, and at least 19 other pending bills are aimed at restraining NSA’s powers or changing how the agency is regulated, according to a count kept by the ACLU. The July legislative effort brought together Libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats who pressed for change against congressional leaders and lawmakers focused on security.

A week ago, Obama sought to soothe concerns by promising to consider reforms to NSA surveillance.

“It’s not enough for me to have confidence in these programs,” he said at a White House news conference. “The American people have to have confidence in them as well.”

He announced changes such as convening an outside advisory panel to review U.S. surveillance powers, although it is unclear how that would differ from the existing U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, mandated by Congress to monitor surveillance and constitutional concerns.

Obama also said the NSA would hire a privacy officer — though the NSA already has a compliance office. None of those measures would seem likely to stop the kind of inadvertent collection of information that was described in the NSA audit.

Most of the infractions revealed late Thursday involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order, according to the May 3, 2012 audit, and other top-secret documents.

The May audit counted 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications. Most were reported to be unintended, and many involved failures to take sufficient care or violations of standard operating procedure. They ranged from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interceptions of U.S. emails and telephone calls.

The most serious incidents included a violation of a court order and unauthorized use of data about more than 3,000 Americans and green-card holders.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, backed up the administration on its claims, releasing a lengthy statement on Friday afternoon claiming that most the compliance problems at the NSA happen when the agency inadvertently collects records on a non-American who enters the U.S., a point when the NSA is supposed to follow different procedures.

“The majority of these ‘compliance incidents’ are, therefore, unintentional and do not involve any inappropriate surveillance of Americans,” she said. “As I have said previously, the committee has never identified an instance in which the NSA has intentionally abused its authority to conduct surveillance for inappropriate purposes.”

Late Friday, the White House issued a statement saying, “the majority of the compliance incidents are unintentional. The documents demonstrate that the NSA is monitoring, detecting, addressing and reporting compliance incidents.”

It directed questions to the National Security Council, and NSC spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden directed questions to the NSA.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said the number of incidents in the first quarter of 2012 was higher than normal, and that the number has ranged from 372 to 1,162 in the past three years, due to factors such as “implementation of new procedures or guidance with respect to our authorities that prompt a spike that requires `fine tuning,’ changes to the technology or software in the targeted environment for which we had no prior knowledge, unforeseen shortcomings in our systems, new or expanded access, and `roaming’ by foreign targets into the U.S., some of which NSA cannot anticipate in advance but each instance of which is reported as an incident.”

“When NSA makes a mistake in carrying out its foreign intelligence mission, the agency reports the issue internally and to federal overseers — and aggressively gets to the bottom of it,” Vines said.

Published August 16, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Economist Says True US Debt $70 Trillion

August 15, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The federal government has been low-balling the public for years on how much debt it actually has, a University of California, San Diego economics professor says, adding that the real amount is $70 trillion – not $16.9 trillion.

James Hamilton’s claim the United States is in a much deeper financial hole than many realize comes as Congress gets ready for another budget battle when lawmakers return in September. Both sides have been digging in on their policy positions over the debt, spending and the country’s future fiscal health.

Hamilton believes the government is miscalculating what it owes by leaving out certain unfunded liabilities that include government loan guarantees, deposit insurance, and actions taken by the Federal Reserve as well as the cost of other government trust funds. Factoring in those figures brings the total amount the government owes to a staggering $70 trillion, he says.

Hamilton believes important areas of federal off-balance-sheet commitments include loans for post-high school education, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve System.

“The biggest off-balance-sheet liabilities come from recognition of the fiscal stress that will come in the form of an aging population and rising medical expenditures,” Hamilton says, adding, “It is worth noting that there are many historical episodes in which off-balance sheet liabilities ended up having quite significant on-balance sheet implications.”

For example, he says, fiscal problems stemming from the saving and loans crisis from the 1980s.

“Losses at these institutions ended up dwarfing the capabilities of the now-defunct Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation to honor its promise to guarantee depositors,” he says.

The final on-balance-sheet cost to taxpayers honoring those guarantees came out to $124 billion.

Hamilton isn’t the first economist to say the government understates how much it owes. Claims that the real liability facing the government is $70 trillion date back several years.

David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative, made similar claims in 2012. Walker’s calculations include unfunded Social Security, Medicare and retiree pension promises.

Boston economists Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns warned in a 2008 Forbes article about what could happen if the government doesn’t curb its spending.

“The earthquake will come via a collapse in the market for U.S. government bonds as domestic and foreign investors realize that the only way Uncle Sam can meet his future spending obligations is to print massive quantities of money,” they said. “The result will be sky-high inflation and interest rates and, most surely, a prolonged reduction in output and employment. This could happen today. It could happen tomorrow. But it will happen here just as it has happened in every other country that tried to spend far beyond its ability to pay.”

Published August 15, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Senator: Mexican Asylum Request ‘Abuses’ Taint Immigration Bill

August 13, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Accounts that U.S. border officials are facing a surge of Mexican immigrants claiming asylum by using a few key words prompted a top Republican senator to call for the pending immigration bill to be put on hold “until these abuses are ended.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of the most vocal critics of the comprehensive immigration overhaul being pushed on Capitol Hill, said the surge in asylum requests “has exposed another grave flaw” in the implementation of federal immigration law.

Documents obtained by Fox News show Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been paying for hotel rooms for dozens of recently arrived families to relieve overcrowding at processing centers in the San Diego area. Some ICE employees are working overtime and others have been asked to volunteer to work weekend shifts.

Sessions pointed to the wave of asylum requests in arguing that, while the Senate has already passed an immigration bill, the House should not proceed until the issue is addressed.

“The House cannot allow such actions to continue,” Sessions told FoxNews.com in a written statement. “They must use every power they have to end this absurdity. No immigration bill should advance until these abuses are ended.”

Sessions, as well as the unions representing some immigration officials, have made similar arguments before about other alleged enforcement gaps — like the practice of not deporting illegal immigrants accused of low-level offenses. They claim the bill, as drafted in the Senate, does not address these gaps.

Supporters of a comprehensive immigration bill claim it would be a boon for the country on several levels. President Obama, asked about the bill during his press conference last Friday, said the economy would be “a trillion dollars stronger” if the bill is passed, allowing millions of illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and work on the books. He also pointed to boosted border security measures.

“We know that the Senate bill strengthens border security, puts unprecedented resources on top of the unprecedented resources I’ve already put into border security,” Obama said.

The president said that if the bill makes its way to the House floor, “it would pass.” House leaders, though, have signaled interest in taking up a series of smaller bills instead.

The reports about a surge in asylum requests have raised new concerns, amid claims that illegal immigrants have learned they can attempt to get asylum by using a few key words — namely, by claiming they have a “credible fear” of drug cartels.

Julie Myers Wood, a former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security under the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News the requests are “suspicious.”

“While we welcome the U.S. being a place where refugees and (asylum seekers) can come, it’s troubling, and you have to think about asylum fraud in this instance,” she said.

She noted that claiming “credible fear” is just a first step in the process. She said what’s “concerning” is that if they are released from detention, “maybe they won’t show up for their hearings” and go under the radar.

Myers Wood called for the administration to create a “task force” to look at the possibility of asylum fraud.

“This clearly has to have been orchestrated by somebody,” said former U.S. Attorney for Southern California Peter Nunez. “It’s beyond belief that dozens or hundreds or thousands of people would simultaneously decide that they should go to the U.S. and make this claim.”

Sources say one day last week, 200 border-crossers came through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry claiming asylum, while as many as 550 overflowed inside the processing center there and in nearby San Ysidro.

Fox News spoke to four agencies responsible for the San Diego situation last week. All deferred to the Department of Homeland Security press office in Washington, D.C., which issued this statement:

“Credible fear determinations are dictated by longstanding statute, not an issuance of discretion. The USCIS officer must find that a ‘significant possibility’ exists that the individual may be found eligible for asylum or withholding or removal.

“If the credible fear threshold is met, the individual is placed into removal proceedings in Immigration Court. The final decision on asylum eligibility rests with an immigration judge.”

A spokesman for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the leading Republican advocates for an immigration bill, said Tuesday that the administration’s “failures to enforce immigration laws and the resulting distrust in the federal government” are among the biggest obstacles to passing a bill.

But spokesman Alex Conant said the Florida senator is hoping to use such a package to “end the status quo of de facto amnesty.”

Published August 13, 2013 / FoxNews.com / FoxNews.com’s Judson Berger and Fox News’ William LaJeunesse contributed to this report.

Obama Throws Tantrum, Sows Seeds of Discontent

August 13, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

It is a sign of the twisted times that we have the misfortune of living in. It is a symptom of the advanced state of moral and social decay that in America today that celebrities are afforded the reverent status that they are. Take for instance our clowns, specifically the liberal clowns. Silly comedians the likes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher provide a mixture of jokes, shtick, political mockery and real news mixed with interviews and enjoy an astounding degree of popularity. That these court jesters are taken with any degree of seriousness is a clear example of not only how poorly that the mainstream media has served its purpose but also of the depravity of the American soul during this ongoing downtrend. Now there is El Presidente Barack H. Obama showing up on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this week. So much for the dignity of the office.

Obama took to the air to schmooze with Leno and to dispense his political lies and disinformation on a number of topics. One of course being of Russia’s refusal to turn over NSA contractor Booz Allen leaker Edward Snowden for torture and a show trial. Obama and dirty Eric Holder, still pissy over Friday’s embarrassing smackdown by the bear accused Russia of having a “Cold War mentality” for not immediately rolling over and conceding to his majesty’s requests. In the new American century it is intolerable for any country to not acquiesce to the wishes of the U.S. empire, for the smaller ones there are threats of withholding of economic support, non- inclusion in global trade agreements, support of that regime’s political opponents and when all else fails, send in the drones. With Russia, still an extremely powerful nation with a military and nukes of it’s own it is a special type of retaliation that is merited. The U.S. President debases the office he holds, shows up on a celebrity clown show, mocks Putin and the next day in a proclamation that is promulgated by state media Obama throws a tantrum and cancels his September Summit with the Russian leader. Now there’s some stellar leadership, the type that is befitting of a kindergarten sandbox.

Someone get that man a pacifier.

Obama’s snit over Russia only further cements the image of the U.S. of A as the global spoiled brat that it has become after years of abysmal leadership. The pope of hope can stamp his feet all that he wants and here in Der Homeland it will be eaten up by most lemmings as well as his legions of adoring, low-information zombies but once again the country is exposed on the world stage as exactly what it has become which is a petulant, immature, self-absorbed, hypocritical bully led by a pathological narcissist. We are no longer held in high esteem by those outside of our borders where the electronic narcosis of television used to keep the population distracted, placid and stupid. There was a time when our democratic form of government, civilized and moral society and advanced sciences were the envy of the world but that era recedes into the past quicker than revisionist history is able to keep its image alive through lies, trickery and propaganda. Thanks to a succession of amoral cheats and cheap hustlers, of which Obama is only the latest we have become the new evil empire and continue to expand our global footprint of degeneracy and blight.

While on Leno, in addition to talking about his “bromance” with John McCain (retch) Obama also used the opportunity to blatantly lie about his NSA surveillance machine.

“We don’t have a domestic spying program…What we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an email address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat.”

While I seriously doubt that the man has more than an inkling of the true nature of this growing menace that will soon consume all privacy except as Orwell put it his prophetic 1984 “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull” he is a useful idiot. Most of it is above Obama’s paygrade, he will be gone long before the final phase of the eradication of the Constitution will occur. He is a malleable fool, a dunce and an amiable, smiling front man for the empire. He serves his purpose for the time and by showing up on Leno’s show he is selling the sizzle while obscuring that the steak is made of horsemeat.

As for the terrifying Al Qaeda, risen like a phoenix from the ashes to which Obama himself not so long ago relegated it the propaganda just gets more ridiculous by the day. I heard some yutz on the Chris Matthews show the other night (it may have been Washington adjunct Richard Engle spreading the absurd tale that devious Al-Qaeda was planning to attack targets by carrying surgically implanted bombs that are able to evade detection. Hey, I saw the Dark Knight too where the Joker was able to sucessfully pull this off and blow up the Gotham City Police Department but come on now, when does this stuff just become so over the top that it is rejected outright as the horseshit that it is? Now with the wonderful idea that this is actually a threat it will allow an already run amok TSA to unleash the government goon squad on those who appear to have medical issues, humiliating them in public and seizing them for strip searches. A massive big government agency already comprised of thugs, miscreants, wanna-be-cops, perverts and control freaks is about to get even more aggressive. Nice country isn’t it.

And all of this recent hullabaloo is because one man was able to break free from the systems of control and reveal top secret rogue government information about widespread unconstitutional spying. The subsequent self- immolation of the Obama administration’s competence and the tearing down of their star spangled facade of lies that covered their tyranny was just too much to take.

So the vainglorious ass that is the sitting U.S. Emperor is now taking his case directly to the sheeple, first there was Leno, what’s next Obama? Jersey Shore? A sit down with Honey Boo Boo? There is no level to which he won’t descend when it comes to selling out his country for chump change.

By Donn Marten

Juan Williams: Why I’m Calling Out Civil Rights Hustlers Sharpton and Dyson

August 9, 2013 By Editor 1 Comment

Editor’s note: The following is based on a monologue delivered on the July 30, 2013 edition of Fox News Channel’s “The Five” and an op-ed that appeared previously in Fox News Opinion.

Race has been the topic over the last couple weeks, but if we’re going to do this right, if we’re going to have an honest discussion among people who care about the problems inside the black community, we have to be dealing with honest brokers. Unfortunately, a lot of people in the so- called civil rights community are frauds, outright hucksters.

Two of the worst: civil rights activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton and Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson. Their goal: demonize white people, especially conservatives like Bill O’Reilly, so they don’t have to deal with the real problems that continue to plague the black community. Making an older, conservative white guy like O’Reilly a boogie man is easy for these hustlers.

If you truly love people, and want to help those in need, how does it help to go after conservatives, Bill O’Reilly and other white people, rich people?

But do they ever confront the real problems and threats in the minority community? No.
High murder rates? How about that? What about high dropout rates? What about the breakdown of the family?

I bet you think I’m exaggerating. Well, here’s this from Michael Eric Dyson:

“Why is it that when we say we want to have a conversation on race, you want a conversation on blackness? You don’t want to have a conversation on race. You don’t want to have a conversation on white privilege, unconscious bias. You don’t want to talk about the collective world we made as black, brown, red, yellow and white people. You want to lecture black people.

So, Mr. O’Reilly, I’d love to have that conversation about protecting yourself behind white picket fences and Fox News and having digital courage. Come in the streets where you went to Sylvia, and you were surprised that black people don’t throw bananas at each other or swing from trees.”

Can you believe that? This is unbelievable on so many levels. But let me just start by saying this: Dyson is making the charge basically that O’Reilly is portraying black people as animals. And, of course, this never happened. This is not true.

In the whole episode (when he visited Sylvia’s restaurant), which O’Reilly and I talked about on the radio, was going on about defeating racial stereotypes in this society. But that’s not what Michael Eric Dyson wants to do here. He wants to hold up somehow that Bill O’Reilly is a racist and target of the conversation and therefore we should be about, somehow, going after Bill O’Reilly.

Well, who does that help? Let’s think about that for a second. If this is a real conversation about helping people, if you truly love people, and want to help those in need, how does it help to go after conservatives, O’Reilly, white people, rich people? Let’s go to the people who need help and give them help.

But that’s not what Michael Eric Dyson is doing. Oh, no. When you start asking questions like well, are you doing anything to help the schools in the inner-city? No.

What about the carnage on black streets with kids shooting each other? No.

What about, you know, any of the issues attached to family breakdown, 70 percent of children born out of wedlock? What about that? No.

So what we’re doing here is a huge distraction. Yes, there’s legitimate rage in the black community over the Zimmerman verdict, but the idea that we have to use the power that exists in this country to help people who are in need in the black community, that is an ongoing and longer story and you can’t pull away from that by making Bill O’Reilly into your target and somehow beating him up. That’s craziness.

So what can we do, what should we do to start helping people who are in need in the African-American community today? I wrote about this in my book, “Enough” and recently in an opinion piece for FoxNews.com.

Here’s the message I would like to see expressed in America today. I think it would be especially powerful if it could come from the black man with the highest level of credibility in black America since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – President Obama.

1. Stay in school and graduate from the highest level of school – but absolutely, no excuses, graduate from high school.

2. Take a job and hold it, no matter what job, no matter if your friends put you down for ‘flipping burgers.’ Use the job to get experience, make contacts with business people, and build a resume.

3. Marry after you have finished your education and while you have a job.

And the final step is important for you and for the future of your family and your community:

4. Don’t have children until you are at least 21-years-old and married.

Imagine if President Obama repeated that message over and over, ignoring the phonies who want to focus only on “systemic” racism as the reason for high rates of poverty, involvement with crime, and incarceration among black men.

Imagine if the president delivered that message despite attempts to intimidate him by civil rights leaders.

Imagine if he decided to deliver that message and by-passed the so-called ‘racial experts’ and academics who prefer to look at America’s troubled racial history – slavery and legal segregation.

The answer is the president could make a difference in millions of lives and build a legacy on par with Dr. King.

Mr. President it is your move.

Juan Williams is a Fox News political analyst. He is the author of several books including “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It” and “Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate.”

Can Tea Party Plan Solve Budget Woes?

August 7, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

As Congress faces a fast-approaching deadline on passing a federal spending bill, Republican lawmakers are reviving a Tea Party-backed plan with a catchy title that they claim could balance the budget.

The so-called “Penny Plan” would, according to its sponsors, balance the federal budget in two years by using just a 1 percent reduction in spending.

The lawmakers are pitching the plan in the simplest terms — cutting a penny from every dollar the government spends so that spending will soon equal revenue. They cast the plan as a pick-and-choose alternative to the sequester’s across-the-board budget cuts.

“Everybody should be able to live with one percent less in order to help bring this country back from the brink of catastrophic failure,” bill sponsor and Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi said in submitting the legislation just before August recess.

Enzi is joined by fellow GOP Sens. Rand Paul, of Kentucky; John Barrasso, of Wyoming; Jim Risch, of Idaho; David Vitter, of Louisiana; Johnny Isakson, of Georgia; and Marco Rubio, of Florida. Republican Georgia Rep. Austin Scott introduced similar legislation in the House.

Senate sponsors warn that federal spending over the past 11 years has increased from 18 percent of the country’s GDP to nearly 23 percent. And without intervention, they say, the national debt will go from roughly $16 billion to $25 billion by 2023, increasing interest payment so much that balancing the budget will go “beyond the reach of Congress.”

The 1 percent cut would last two years, followed by a cap on total annual spending — equal to roughly 19 percent of GDP. Supporters say it also will cut spending over roughly 10 years by about $5.8 trillion, based on currently projected levels.

The senators say only that the plan takes a “worst first” approach to the cuts — in other words, leaving it to lawmakers to cut what they deem the most wasteful items first — as long as the overall 1 percent cut is achieved.

Enzi has frequently talked about reducing spending by eliminating ineffective, outdated and redundant federal programs.

“You don’t need five agencies doing the same thing, especially when their programs could be combined or cut,” Enzi spokesman Daniel Head told FoxNews.com.

However, the bill singles out only entitlements.

“Absent reform, the growth of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other health-related spending will overwhelm all other federal programs,” the bill states.

This is not the first time the plan has surfaced on Capitol Hill.

Enzi proposed similar legislation in 2011 with then-Florida Republican Rep. Connie Mack that also got Paul’s support.

Paul refreshed the idea in March during his Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.

The idea is backed largely by conservative groups including FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Patriots. It also garnered support during its Capitol Hill debut from former Clinton administration aide Lanny Davis, who said the plan also needs a revenue-raising component but was “practical” and seemed like “a good place to start.”

Still, the plan does not appear to enjoy widespread support among progressives.

Jim Dean, chairman for Democracy for America, called the plan “one of the more idiotic pieces of legislation” put forth by Congress’ Tea Party-aligned lawmakers.

“Americans are smart enough to see it for what it really is: a stealth effort to gut our dwindling retirement security by slashing over $1 trillion from Social Security and more than $200 billion from Medicare,” he told FoxNew.com.

Washington has meanwhile made progress on cutting the federal deficit, largely through recent spending cuts and tax increases, including the hike in January on Americans’ highest earners.

After topping $1 trillion for four straight years, the budget is projected to fall to $642 billion in the budget year ending in September and shrink even further in the next several years before starting to grow again at the end of the decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

However, the Republican senators warned that entitlements if left unchecked will “consume” the additional tax revenue.

By Joseph Weber / Published August 07, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Switzerland Warning Against Obama Regime Stuns Russia

August 6, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is reporting today that Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) is proposing that the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) issue an immediate “Situation: Grave, Do Not Travel” warning for the United States upgrading that North American nation from its current status as “Stable” and on par with a similar warning issued for the war torn Middle Eastern country of Syria.

According to this report, millions of data files on counter-terrorism operations from both MI6 and the CIA were stolen this past December (2012) by a senior computer technician of Swiss citizenship who planned to release them to Wikileaks.

These highly classified documents stored on NDB servers, this report continues, were stolen by what was described as a “very talented” still unnamed NDB technician senior enough to have “administrator rights,” giving him unrestricted access to most or all of the NDB’s networks.

The December, 2012 theft of these top secret British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) files, GRU intelligence analysts in this report say, came on the heels of a similar theft barely two years prior when MI6 spy Daniel Houghton, also a highly trained computer technician with “administrator rights,” was arrested while attempting to, also, release to Wikileaks thousands of top-secret MI6, MI5 and CIA electronic files.

Raising the fears of the NDB, however, this report says, were US National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) documents obtained from Edward Snowden by the GRU which show a “conclusive and provable link” between the man now known as the United States most wanted person, the still unnamed NDB spy, MI6 spy Houghton and US Army Private Bradley Manning, all of whom constitute what Swiss intelligence analysts say are the “iceberg tip” behind the largest theft of Western top-secret documents in modern history.

To whom the power behind these Western computer spies with unlimited “administration rights” and top security clearances, who have been releasing and/or attempting to release to the world these most secretive of documents, this GRU report quotes from NDB documents, Swiss intelligence analysts point to what they describe as a “cabal” of US military officers “fully intent” upon destroying the Obama regime, even if it means war.

Important to note is that this past February (2013) the Federal Security Services (FSB) had warned of the US military plan to assassinate Obama in what Russian intelligence analysts say will be a takeover of the United States similar to the coup currently being undertaken in Egypt; and the GRU had further warned this past November (2012) that the Obama regime’s war against its own generals was, also, likely to end in a military coup after the Washington D.C. gun battle toppled the top US military leader, former Four-Star Army General and CIA director David Petraeus, of this planed takeover.

The “main tactic” being used by the Obama regime against its top military leaders, according to the NDB, has been the leaking of their private emails by the NSA/CSS as revealed by Snowden whose leaked documents prove that US intelligence operatives loyal to the Obama regime have been tapping everything done online by all Americans.

Of the greatest concern to the NDB, however, this GRU report says, was the Obama regimes targeting this past week of the renowned American statesman, retired four-star general in the United States Army, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the 65th United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, whom the NSA/CSS has threatened with the release of his private emails alleging an affair with a Romanian diplomat, which is the same tactic used to destroy the reputation and career of General Petraeus.

Unlike General Petraeus, however, this report continues, the NDB in their report note that General Powell has secretly notified the Obama regime of his intention “not to go down without a fight” and which led to forces loyal to the Obama regime opening fire on and destroying two F-16 fighter jets nearing Washington D.C. airspace Thursday evening (23:00 hrs EDT 1 August) believed to be headed towards the White House.

As to if these F-16 fighter jets were indeed targeting Obama, this report says, it is not certain, but the reaction by the Obama regime to this event has been unprecedented in that within hours of them being shot down the US issued a world-wide travel alert to last until 31 August and ordered the closing of at least 17 of its overseas embassies.

The shock announcement yesterday that the US would be closing these embassies, this GRU report says the NDB has discovered, is due to the Obama regimes fears that more computer thefts of top-secret documents relating to the Obama regimes collusion with extreme Islamic terrorists groups are going to be released and will allow them time to purge all of their embassy servers of incriminating information, especially those files relating to the true events of the 2012 Benghazi Attack led by rogue CIA operatives whom US Congressman Trey Gowdy warned yesterday were being kept from testifying, being relocated and given new identities.

Unbeknownst to the American people about the Obama regime, this report says, has been its tens of millions of dollars in funding of al-Qaeda terrorists to create an Islamic Emirate in Syria and its over $8 billion in secret funding to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood radicals, both forces who are currently being defeated on the battlefield and in the streets.

Equally unknown to the American people is that Snowden, a “high-level member,” according to the NDB, of the US military cabal threatening the Obama regime, had offered to return to America to face the charges leveled against him knowing that if were able to survive the citizens of his country would learn the full horrors of the monsters ruling over them, an offer that was rejected by the US.

Snowden’s fears for his safety have, indeed proved valid since the Obama regimes assassinations of Michael Hastings, Aaron Swartz and Barnaby Jack and as we reported on in our 29 July report revealing how the Russian military is currently preparing for all-out war.

And in one of the most shameful acts against the American people by their own mainstream press, their refusal to publish, let alone mention, Edward Snowden’s fathers open letter to Obama will stand forever as an indictment against those elites seeking to enslave these once great people forever, and as we can all read in its entirety:

July 26, 2013

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20500

Re: Civil Disobedience, Edward J. Snowden, and the Constitution

Dear Mr. President:

You are acutely aware that the history of liberty is a history of civil disobedience to unjust laws or practices. As Edmund Burke sermonized, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Civil disobedience is not the first, but the last option. Henry David Thoreau wrote with profound restraint in Civil Disobedience: “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.”

Thoreau’s moral philosophy found expression during the Nuremburg trials in which “following orders” was rejected as a defense. Indeed, military law requires disobedience to clearly illegal orders.

A dark chapter in America’s World War II history would not have been written if the then United States Attorney General had resigned rather than participate in racist concentration camps imprisoning 120,000 Japanese American citizens and resident aliens.

Civil disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act and Jim Crow laws provoked the end of slavery and the modern civil rights revolution.

We submit that Edward J. Snowden’s disclosures of dragnet surveillance of Americans under § 215 of the Patriot Act, § 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments, or otherwise were sanctioned by Thoreau’s time-honored moral philosophy and justifications for civil disobedience. Since 2005, Mr. Snowden had been employed by the intelligence community. He found himself complicit in secret, indiscriminate spying on millions of innocent citizens contrary to the spirit if not the letter of the First and Fourth Amendments and the transparency indispensable to self-government. Members of Congress entrusted with oversight remained silent or Delphic. Mr. Snowden confronted a choice between civic duty and passivity. He may have recalled the injunction of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.” Mr. Snowden chose duty. Your administration vindictively responded with a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Espionage Act.

From the commencement of your administration, your secrecy of the National Security Agency’s Orwellian surveillance programs had frustrated a national conversation over their legality, necessity, or morality. That secrecy (combined with congressional nonfeasance) provoked Edward’s disclosures, which sparked a national conversation which you have belatedly and cynically embraced. Legislation has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate to curtail or terminate the NSA’s programs, and the American people are being educated to the public policy choices at hand. A commanding majority now voice concerns over the dragnet surveillance of Americans that Edward exposed and you concealed. It seems mystifying to us that you are prosecuting Edward for accomplishing what you have said urgently needed to be done!

The right to be left alone from government snooping–the most cherished right among civilized people—is the cornerstone of liberty. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson served as Chief Prosecutor at Nuremburg. He came to learn of the dynamics of the Third Reich that crushed a free society, and which have lessons for the United States today.

Writing in Brinegar v. United States, Justice Jackson elaborated:

The Fourth Amendment states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

These, I protest, are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. And one need only briefly to have dwelt and worked among a people possessed of many admirable qualities but deprived of these rights to know that the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance disappear where homes, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.

We thus find your administration’s zeal to punish Mr. Snowden’s discharge of civic duty to protect democratic processes and to safeguard liberty to be unconscionable and indefensible.

We are also appalled at your administration’s scorn for due process, the rule of law, fairness, and the presumption of innocence as regards Edward.

On June 27, 2013, Mr. Fein wrote a letter to the Attorney General stating that Edward’s father was substantially convinced that he would return to the United States to confront the charges that have been lodged against him if three cornerstones of due process were guaranteed. The letter was not an ultimatum, but an invitation to discuss fair trial imperatives. The Attorney General has sneered at the overture with studied silence.

We thus suspect your administration wishes to avoid a trial because of constitutional doubts about application of the Espionage Act in these circumstances, and obligations to disclose to the public potentially embarrassing classified information under the Classified Information Procedures Act.

Your decision to force down a civilian airliner carrying Bolivian President Eva Morales in hopes of kidnapping Edward also does not inspire confidence that you are committed to providing him a fair trial. Neither does your refusal to remind the American people and prominent Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate like House Speaker John Boehner, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann,and Senator Dianne Feinstein that Edward enjoys a presumption of innocence. He should not be convicted before trial. Yet Speaker Boehner has denounced Edward as a “traitor.”

Ms. Pelosi has pontificated that Edward “did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents.” Ms. Bachmann has pronounced that, “This was not the act of a patriot; this was an act of a traitor.” And Ms. Feinstein has decreed that Edward was guilty of “treason,” which is defined in Article III of the Constitution as “levying war” against the United States, “or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

You have let those quadruple affronts to due process pass unrebuked, while you have disparaged Edward as a “hacker” to cast aspersion on his motivations and talents. Have you forgotten the Supreme Court’s gospel in Berger v. United States that the interests of the government “in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done?”

We also find reprehensible your administration’s Espionage Act prosecution of Edward for disclosures indistinguishable from those which routinely find their way into the public domain via your high level appointees for partisan political advantage. Classified details of your predator drone protocols, for instance, were shared with the New York Times with impunity to bolster your national security credentials. Justice Jackson observed in Railway Express Agency, Inc. v. New York: “The framers of the Constitution knew, and we should not forget today, that there is no more effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and unreasonable government than to require that the principles of law which officials would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally.”

In light of the circumstances amplified above, we urge you to order the Attorney General to move to dismiss the outstanding criminal complaint against Edward, and to support legislation to remedy the NSA surveillance abuses he revealed. Such presidential directives would mark your finest constitutional and moral hour.

Sincerely,

Bruce Fein

Counsel for Lon Snowden

Lon Snowden

Posted by EU Times on Aug 3rd, 2013

Orwell Alert–White House Creates ‘Nudge Squad’ to Reshape Behavior

July 30, 2013 By Editor 1 Comment

The federal government is hiring what it calls a “Behavioral Insights Team” that will look for ways to subtly influence people’s behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.

While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

“Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals,” reads the government document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply for positions on the team.

The document was emailed by Maya Shankar, a White House senior adviser on social and behavioral sciences, to a university professor with the request that it be distributed to people interested in joining the team. The idea is that the team would “experiment” with various techniques, with the goal of tweaking behavior so people do everything from saving more for retirement to saving more in energy costs.

The document praises subtle policies to change behavior that have already been implemented in England, which already has a “Behavioral Insights Team.” One British policy concerns how to get late tax filers to pay up.

“Sending letters to late taxpayers that indicated a social norm — i.e., that ‘9 out of 10 people in Britain paid their taxes on time’ — resulted in a 15 percent increase in response rates over a three-month period, rolling out to £30 million of extra annual revenue,” the document reads.

Another policy aimed to convince people to install attic insulation to conserve energy.

“Offering an attic-clearance service (at full cost) to people led to a five-fold increase in their subsequent adoption of attic-insulation.”

[Read the full document here]

Such policies — which encourage behavior subtly rather than outright require it — have come to be known as “nudges,” after an influential 2008 book titled “Nudge” by former Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein and Chicago Booth School of Business professor Richard Thaler popularized the term.

The term “nudge” has already been associated with the new program, as one professor who received Shankar’s email forwarded it to others with the note: “Anyone interested in working for the White House in a ‘nudge’ squad? The UK has one and it’s been extraordinarily successful.”

Richard Thaler told FoxNews.com that the new program sounds good.

“I don’t know who those people are who would not want such a program, but they must either be misinformed or misguided,” he said.

“The goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government by using scientifically collected evidence to inform policy designs. What is the alternative? The only alternatives I know are hunches, tradition, and ideology (either left or right.)”

But some economists urge caution.

“I am very skeptical of a team promoting nudge policies,” Michael Thomas, an economist at Utah State University, told FoxNews.com.

“Ultimately, nudging … assumes a small group of people in government know better about choices than the individuals making them.”

And sometimes, he added, government actually promotes the wrong thing.

“Trans-fats were considered better than saturated and unsaturated fats in the past. Now we know this is an error.”

Every intervention would need to be tested to make sure it works well, said Harvard economics professor David Laibson, who studies behavioral economics and is in touch with the people in government setting up the program. He added that the exact way the team will function is currently unknown.

“We have to see the details to be sure, but this could work out very well,” he said.

Asked about details, Dan Cruz, spokesman for the U.S. General Services Administration (the department which the team will be a part of) told FoxNews.com: “As part of the Administration’s ongoing efforts to promote efficiency and savings, GSA is considering adding some expertise from academia in the area of program efficiency and evaluation under its Performance Improvement Council.”

Maya Shankar did not respond to questions.

Laibson added that he hoped the U.S. program would stay away from overly controversial subjects.

“Let’s say we want people to engage in some healthy behavior like a weight loss program, and then start automatically enrolling overweight people in weight loss programs — even though they could opt out, I’m guessing that would be viewed as offensive … a lot of people would say, ‘I didn’t ask for this, this is judging who I am and who I should be.”

But Laibson added that there are very real benefits to some “nudge” policies — such as one that increases the number of people registered as organ donors by making people decide when they apply for a drivers’ license.

Thaler, who is also an adviser to the British Behavioral Insights Team, said that his research also supports automatically enrolling people in retirement savings plans.

“Many people have struggled to save enough to provide for an adequate retirement. … Two simple design changes can dramatically improve the situation … automatic enrollment (default people into the plan with the option to easily opt out) and automatic escalation, where workers can sign up to have their contributions increased annually,” he said.

Jerry Ellig, an economist at the Mercatus Center, said that some “nudges” are reasonable, but warned about a slippery slope.

“If you can keep it to a ‘nudge’ maybe it can be beneficial,” he added, “but nudges can turn into shoves pretty quickly.”

By Maxim Lott / Published July 30, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Fiscal Expert: Detroit ‘Dug This Hole’

July 21, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The emergency manager appointed to fix Detroit’s unprecedented financial problems put the blame Sunday squarely on the city and defended his decision to file for bankruptcy, saying he had no other choice despite its impact on city pensioners.

“This is the only way,” emergency manager Kevyn Orr told “Fox News Sunday.” “We were compelled to file for bankruptcy.”

Orr steadfastly stuck to what he said was his appointed mission of getting Detroit out from under $19 billion in debt, declining to speculate on whether or if the federal government should bail out the city, once the worldwide hub of auto manufacturing.

He said his goal was to restructure the debt, including roughly $3.5 million in underfunded pension liabilities, and to get Detroit on its feet again by fall 2014.

Orr, appointed in March by Republican Gov. Rick Synder, also said he has appealed a judge’s decision Friday that the bankruptcy violates Michigan’s constitution, which protects government employee’s pensions.

He also said that his plan would extend full payments only to pensioners for the next six months and acknowledge the hardship it will cause.

“My mother is a pensioner,” Orr said.

Still, he said Detroit “dug this whole,” in part by not addressing its problems earlier.

With a population of 1.8 million in the 1950s, Detroit’s slow decline started with residents migrating to the suburbs in the 1960s and was accelerated by automakers leaving Detroit, which diminished the city’s tax base and made it difficult for officials to provide basic services such as law enforcement and police protection.

The filing Thursday makes the city the largest in the United States to file for bankruptcy.

Orr also defended criticism from the financial sector, saying potential investors will look at an improved Detroit, not the old one.

I remember when people said “nobody will ever buy a car from a bankrupt automaker,” Orr said.

Published July 21, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Detroit Hit By Jobs, Population Drop

July 20, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The bankruptcy filing for Detroit marks a final step in the chrome-plated city’s decades-long decline – which started with the country’s overall manufacturing slowdown and continued with the departure of U.S. automakers and residents, leaving behind a sprawling city trying to survive on dwindling coffers.

Detroit was in the 1950s a worldwide hub of auto manufacturing, making it the fourth-largest U.S. city with one of the country’s highest per-capita incomes.

However, the so-called Motor City’s decline started soon after with residents — following their counterparts in other U.S. cities – starting to move to the suburbs and take with them businesses, jobs and tax dollars.

Historians argue the deadly 1967 riot in Detroit, one of the many so-called “race riots” across the country in the 1960s, accelerated the trend.

And as the population dwindled from roughly 1.8 million to 700,000, city officials struggled to keep up with municipal services in the 142-square-mile city, with a tax base just half of what it was in the 1950s.

Meanwhile, auto companies began opening plants in other cities as Japan-made cars dominated the international market. By 2009, the U.S. auto industry collapsed with the entire economy, eventually pulling down Detroit with it.

The city’s efforts to provide and maintain such basic services as law enforcement and trash removal were further complicated by the costs of paying union contracts and benefits, which have contributed to nearly $15 billion in unfunded liabilities for the city.

State-appointed Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr on Thursday filed the bankruptcy, making Detroit the largest U.S. city to declare one, after failing to negotiate a restructuring of union contracts to lessen the city’s financial burden.

Orr, appointed in March by Gov. Rick Synder, appeared to have little choice, considering Detroit had a general fund in the red for roughly the past nine years and a fiscal 2012 deficit of $327 million.

In addition, Detroit has a roughly 18 percent unemployment rate, one of the country’s highest violent-crime rates and about 80,000 blighted or abandon buildings.

“Chronic budget problems have taken a significant toll on everyday life for citizens,” Snyder said recently. “Detroiters deserve to feel safe when they walk down the street, to have their street lights on, to have the bus show up to take them to work.”

However, the city also has a history of corruption that has led to its financial problems, including Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigning in a 2008 sex-and-perjury scandal that cost the city almost $9 million from a lawsuit and legal fees.

Published July 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Chicago Whistle-blower Implicates Top State Democrat

July 20, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

A former Chicago-area executive is blowing the whistle in the latest case to showcase what is derisively known as the “Illinois way” — politicians’ practice of doing business by dishing out favors to friends who contribute generously to their campaigns.

This time, a top-ranking Democrat has been implicated. The case involves Illinois’ most powerful Democratic leader — state House Speaker Michael Madigan — and the former head of the Chicago area’s commuter rail service, Metra. In a rare move earlier this week, Metra’s ex-CEO Alex Clifford came forward publicly to reveal specific details about how he says he was forced out of his lucrative job after refusing to cave to political pressure.

Clifford, who was hired from California in 2001, testified during a recent Regional Transportation Authority board meeting in Chicago. For two hours he spoke openly about what he calls serious “ethical and moral character flaws” from people who practice the “Illinois way” of doing business, including Madigan.

Clifford claims Madigan specifically wanted a pay raise for a Metra employee, Patrick Ward, who has been a generous contributor to Madigan’s campaign, according to state records. Clifford testified: “What is it that he (Ward) was doing so great and so different than other employees at Metra who have gone three years without a pay raise that would make this person special?”

Clifford ultimately rejected the request. In a statement, Madigan acknowledged sending a “recommendation to Metra senior staff that Mr. Ward be considered for a salary adjustment. … When notified Mr. Clifford had concerns about the appearance of the recommendation coming from my office, I withdrew the request.”

During a trip to the state Capitol in Springfield, Clifford says he was asked by Democratic state lawmaker Rep. Luis Arroyo to consider hiring somebody the Latino caucus sends him. Clifford says he told Arroyo “we have a process. Times are different today at Metra than they were under my predecessor. Every applicant, every employee will come in through the front door.”

Clifford went on to point fingers at those who intentionally “railroaded” him into a poor performance evaluation which led to the end of his contract — specifically Metra Chairman Brad O’Hallaron and another Metra board member. When Clifford approached O’Hallaron about his upcoming contract he claims O’Hallaron responded, “but we’re just dating.” Then said, “I need to get a meeting with Mr. Madigan and I need to find out what kind of damage you’ve caused to our potential for future funding.”

When it was his turn to testify, O’Hallaron denied Clifford’s accusations. O’Hallaron told the RTA board: “If as alleged by Clifford I was seeking to protect Speaker Madigan, why would I take his allegations immediately over to the OEIG (Office of Executive Inspector General) if I thought there was pressure from Speaker Madigan? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Clifford did not get the necessary votes to renew his contract earlier this year, but he left Metra with a $700,000 severance deal that some have characterized as “hush money” to keep Clifford quiet after threatening a lawsuit. Clifford denies that claim and says the money was “100 percent about my ability to get a job and how I’ve been damaged.”

Metra announced on Friday that it plans to hire a well-known former federal prosecutor in Chicago to perform an independent investigation into Clifford’s allegations and make recommendations concerning Metra’s hiring and contract policies. Metra’s board of directors must approve the hiring at a special meeting on Monday.

The man who oversees Illinois’ government watchdog group says even though there was no illegal activity involved with the Metra scandal, the case has lawmakers squirming a bit more than usual.

“This is a very big deal, this is the first time in anyone’s memory that Speaker Madigan has been implicated so directly in the workings of a public agency,” Better Government Association President Andy Shaw said. “Madigan and hundreds if not thousands (of politicians) do this every day. We just don’t hear about it very often, because it happens behind closed doors.”

Shaw admits any hope for changing this type of behavior has to come from voters. “This is only going to change in one of two ways. People coming out to vote and deciding who represents them. And secondly when a groundswell of public outrage forces public officials to impose higher ethics standards upon themselves.”

Illinois’ history with questionable political ethics is rich. The state practically became the poster child for corruption during the criminal trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich attempted to sell off Barack Obama’s coveted U.S. Senate seat in return for hefty campaign donations referencing it in the now infamous phone call saying, “I’ve got this thing and it’s f—— golden and I’m not giving it up for f—— nothing.”

Blagojevich is currently serving out his 14-year sentence in federal prison in Colorado.

By Marla Cichowski / Published July 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Charles Barkley ‘Agrees’ with Zimmerman Verdict

July 19, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Outspoken former NBA superstar Charles Barkley said he agrees with the verdict in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, but blasted the media for giving platforms to racists to “vent” their ignorance.

Barkley, 50, gave his assessment on the high-profile Florida murder trial to CNBC on Thursday, saying jurors simply did not have enough evidence to convict the former neighborhood watch volunteer in the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

“Well I agree with the verdict,” Barkley said. “I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. Something clearly went wrong that night — clearly something went wrong — and I feel bad for anybody who loses a kid, but if you looked at the case and you don’t make it — there was some racial profiling, no question about it — but something happened that changed the dynamic of that night.”

“I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him.” – Charles Barkley

Barkley recognized his take is “probably not a popular opinion among most people,” but said the evidence pointed to an acquittal.

“I just feel bad because I don’t like when race gets out in the media ‘cuz I don’t think the media has a ‘pure heart,’ as I call it,” Barkley continued. “There are very few people who have a pure heart when it comes to race. Racism is wrong in any shape [or] form — there are a lot of black people who are racist, too. I think sometimes when people talk about race, they act like only white people are racist. There are a lot of black people who are racist. And I don’t like when it gets out there in the media because I don’t think the media has clean hands.”

Barkley, originally of Alabama, was named one of the NBA’s all-time 50 greatest players in 1993, the same year he won the league’s Most Valuable Player award. The 11-time All-Star retired after the 1999-2000 season and then began a successful career as a basketball analyst for Turner Network Television. He has also flirted with the idea of entering politics, announcing in 2008 that he intended to run for governor of Alabama before later changing his mind.

“Like I said, I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but just judging by the evidence, I don’t think that guy should’ve went to jail for the rest of his life,” Barkley continued. “Mr. Zimmerman was wrong to pursue, he was racial profiling, but I think Trayvon Martin — God rest his soul — I think he did flip the switch and started beating the hell out of Mr. Zimmerman. But it was just a bad situation.”

Barkley then took aim at unnamed media personalities who allegedly allowed their own biases to show throughout coverage of the murder trial.

“The main thing I feel bad for is it gives every white person and black person who’s racist a platform to vent their ignorance,” he said. “That’s the thing that bothered me the most. I watched this trail closely and I watched these people on television talking about it. A lot of these people have a hidden agenda. They want to have their racist views, whether they are white or black … Their biases definitely come out. It was a bad situation. We all lost.”

Michael Skolnik, editor-in-chief of GlobalGrind.com and political director to Russell Simmons, disagreed with Barkley’s take, he told FoxNews.com in a statement.

“I think Mr. Barkley certainly has a right to his opinion of what he perceives the evidence to be,” Skolnik said. “However, there is absolutely no medical evidence that Trayvon was ‘beating the hell out of Mr. Zimmerman,’ as he received minor and insignificant injuries. With regards to race, as a member of the media, I encourage him to facilitate a dialogue about the effects that racial profiling have on young, black and brown teenagers, striving towards a future where we no longer profile someone to be a potential burglar because of the color of their skin, but instead profile them to be a potential president.”

By Joshua Rhett Miller / Published July 19, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Detroit Files for Largest Municipal Bankruptcy in US History

July 18, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday after steep population and tax base declines sent it tumbling toward insolvency.

The filing by a state-appointed emergency manager means that if the bankruptcy filing is approved, city assets could be liquidated to satisfy demands for payment.

Kevin Orr, a bankruptcy expert, was hired by the state in March to lead Detroit out of a fiscal free-fall, and made the filing Thursday in federal bankruptcy court.

“Only one feasible path offers a way out,” Gov. Rick Snyder said in a letter to Orr and state Treasurer Andy Dillon approving the bankruptcy. The letter was attached to the bankruptcy filing.

“The citizens of Detroit need and deserve a clear road out of the cycle of ever-decreasing services,” Snyder wrote. “The city’s creditors, as well as its many dedicated public servants, deserve to know what promises the city can and will keep. The only way to do those things is to radically restructure the city and allow it to reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations.”

Snyder had determined earlier this year that Detroit was in a financial emergency and without a plan to improve things. Snyder hired Orr in March, and he released a plan to restructure the city’s debt and obligations that would leave many creditors with much less than they are owed.

Orr was unable to convince a host of creditors, including the city’s union and pension boards, to take pennies on the dollar to help facilitate the city’s massive financial restructuring.

Some creditors were asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owed them. Underfunded pension claims would have received less than 10 cents on the dollar under that plan.

A team of financial experts put together by Orr said that proposal was Detroit’s one shot to permanently fix its fiscal problems.

The filing leads to a 30 to 90 day period that will determine whether or not the city of Detroit is eligible for Chapter 9 protection, and define the number of claimants who may compete for Detroit’s limited settlement resources. The petition seeks protection from unions and creditors who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and liabilities, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“The President and members of the President’s senior team continue to closely monitor the situation in Detroit,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement Thursday.

“While leaders on the ground in Michigan and the city’s creditors understand that they must find a solution to Detroit’s serious financial challenge, we remain committed to continuing our strong partnership with Detroit as it works to recover and revitalize and maintain its status as one of America’s great cities,” the statement read.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., remained positive about Detroit’s outlook in spite of the major blow that bankruptcy delivered:

“I know firsthand, because I live in Detroit, that our city is on the rebound in some key ways, and I know deep in my heart that the people of Detroit will face this latest challenge with the same determination that we have always shown,” the Senator said in a statement released Thursday.

In a press conference Thursday evening, Orr stated that bankruptcy is the “first step toward restoring the city,” and promised that “nothing changes from the ordinary citizen’s perspective.”

In the same conference, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he didn’t want the city to go bankrupt, but now that it’s happened, the people of the city “have to make the best of it.”

A number of factors — most notably steep population and tax base falls — have been blamed on Detroit’s descent toward insolvency.

Detroit was once synonymous with U.S. manufacturing prowess. Its automotive giants switched production to planes, tanks and munitions during World War II, earning the city the nickname “Arsenal of Democracy.”

Detroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. A population that in the 1950s reached 1.8 million is struggling to stay above 700,000. Much of the middle-class and scores of businesses also have fled Detroit, taking their tax dollars with them.

Detroit’s budget deficit is believed to be more than $380 million. Orr has said long-term debt was more than $14 billion and could be between $17 billion and $20 billion.

Published July 18, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Labor Statistics Chief: Jobs Numbers Misleading

July 18, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Think the economy is bouncing back quickly? Think again, says the former top number-cruncher in charge of the Washington Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Keith Hall tells the New York Post Thursday that the BLS, White House and media are wasting time focusing on an edited set of data and using it to paint an incorrect picture of the American jobs market on the mend. The current U.S. unemployment level is reported to be around 7.6 percent.

“Right now [it’s] misleadingly low,” Hall told the New York paper.

Hall, like many other economists, believes that the more accurate reading of Americans who want a job but can’t find one is north of 10 percent.

Hall is now a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

He says the jobless rate that grabs the most headlines — called the U-3 — doesn’t factor in people who have stopped looking for work, but does count employed people who have clocked in as little as an hour of work during the prior month.

Hall says another more accurate indicator of the country’s economic health is in the U-6 number, which factors in the underemployed. That number, he said, jumped in June to 14.3 percent from 13.8 percent the month before.

“This has been a very slow, very bad recovery,” he said. “And I think the numbers have really struggled as a result. In fact, I’ve been very disappointed in the coverage of the numbers.”

The July monthly jobs report is scheduled to be released Aug. 2.

Published July 18, 2013 / FoxNews.com

IRS Lawyer Implicates Higher-Ups

July 18, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

House Republicans plan to ratchet up scrutiny of the IRS during a hearing Thursday morning where agency workers are expected to discuss the involvement of high-level officials in slowing down applications from Tea Party groups.

For the first time, the House oversight committee has invited two key agency officials to testify. Republican leaders of the committee claimed Wednesday that one of them recently revealed that the IRS chief counsel’s office — led by a political appointee — played a role, along with embattled IRS official Lois Lerner, in scrutinizing conservative groups.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the committee, told Fox News that agency officials in Cincinnati were taking their orders from Washington, and that the investigation needs to look next at both Lerner and the counsel’s office.

“As a part of this ongoing investigation, the committees have learned that the IRS Chief Counsel’s office in Washington, D.C. has been closely involved in some of the applications,” Issa and other Republicans wrote in a letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel.

They cited accounts given by Carter Hull, a recently retired IRS tax law specialist. Hull had previously come under scrutiny based on claims that he was closely involved in screening conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status — but Hull apparently claims that he, too, was taking his orders from above.

According to Republicans, Hull revealed that he tried to move forward with approving or denying applications, but Lerner ruled that the applications should go through a multi-layer review including the chief counsel’s office and Lerner’s senior adviser. According to Republicans, Hull indicated it was the first time in a nearly 50-year career that he had to send applications to Lerner’s senior adviser.

The hearing on Thursday is also expected to include testimony from Elizabeth Hofacre, a revenue agent who had previously complained about intervention from the higher-ups at the IRS.

According to transcripts of interviews reviewed by Fox News, Hofacre in June disputed the notion that this operation was the work of “rogue agents” in Cincinnati. When Lerner first acknowledged the scandal and blamed it on the Ohio office, Hofacre described it as a “nuclear strike on us.”

Lerner has so far refused to testify. She invoked her Fifth Amendment rights at one hearing, but Republicans later voted that she had in fact waived those rights by delivering a statement.

“We intend to have her back,” Issa told Fox News.

There could be fireworks at Thursday’s hearing, as Democrats also intend to use the forum to press their claims that Inspector General J. Russell George is suppressing details about other non-Tea Party groups being targeted. Democrats on Wednesday trumpeted comments from Werfel that George contacted him to object to documents being released that supposedly pertained to other categories of groups experiencing delays.

Some Democrats have argued that liberal groups received similar treatment, though George has generally denied that they were targeted like conservative groups were.

Published July 18, 2013 / FoxNews.com / George has also been called to testify on Thursday.

DOJ Trolling For Tips on Zimmerman

July 17, 2013 By Editor 1 Comment

More than a year after an FBI report indicated there was no evidence of racial bias in George Zimmerman’s history, the Justice Department is trolling for email tips on the former neighborhood watch volunteer as it weighs a possible federal civil rights case against him.

Amid pressure from the NAACP and several Democratic lawmakers to pursue Zimmerman, the department has set up a public email address asking for any tips or information regarding the case. The move appears to mark an expansion of the probe, after Attorney General Eric Holder said in an address Tuesday to the NAACP that his department would “consider all available information” before deciding whether to move forward.

The department also held a conference call with civil rights leaders on Monday.

The conference call included DOJ officials, along with representatives from the FBI and federal prosecutors. They spoke to civil rights leaders from Sanford, Fla., as well as others from around the country.

The call was convened by Tom Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.

A Justice official told Fox News that both the conference call and the email address asking for tips and information are fairly standard procedure when dealing with a high-profile investigation such as this one. The department has used such tip lines in the past, including in a probe last year of the Albuquerque, N.M., police department.

Some attorneys and analysts have cautioned that Holder would have a difficult time bringing a civil rights case against Zimmerman, particularly since the investigation so far is thought to have turned up no evidence or claims that Zimmerman exhibited racial bias. Martin was black.

But other lawmakers appear to have already made up their mind.

“We do know that Mr. Martin’s civil rights have been violated,” Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., said, as other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voiced similar views.

Holder has meanwhile gone beyond pursuing the investigation in the wake of the acquittal. On Tuesday, he also criticized “stand-your-ground” laws, which allow individuals to use lethal force when they believe their lives are in danger — even if they have the option of fleeing.

The NRA criticized Holder for the comments, saying self-defense is a “fundamental human right.”

Holder also, in his address to the NAACP, recounted his own past experiences with racial profiling.

By Jake Gibson / Published July 17, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Jimmy Carter Agrees Zimmerman Acquittal Was ‘The Right Decision’

July 17, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Former President Jimmy Carter broke with many liberal commentators yesterday when he told an NBC television affiliate that the jury’s acquittal of George Zimmerman was “the right decision.”

“I think the jury made the right decision based in the evidence presented. It’s not a moral question, it’s a legal question and the American law requires that the jury listens to the evidence presented.”

When asked if race was at the root of the shooting or of the jury’s decision, Carter elected to speak about the facts of the case, not a private interpretation. He explained that placing current racial tension in historical context, Americans are making good progress in the civil rights arena.

PUBLIUS

In 513 Days Between Trayvon Shooting and Zimmerman Verdict, 11,106 Blacks Murdered by OTHER BLACKS

July 15, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

With all of the outrage from the black ‘leadership’ in the nation about Trayvon Martin being killed in the act of attacking a neighborhood watch person, the fact remains that 93% of African-American murders are committed by other African-Americans.

In fact, nearly 9,000 African-Americans are murdered each year; 93% of them by other blacks–nearly 8,000–and that doesn’t account for the 1 million black babies that are aborted by ‘pro-black, pro-women’ groups each year.

So where are the black leaders on any given day, when 22 young blacks have been murdered by another young black?

As we reported in our article Zimmerman: The Subtext, July 8, 2013:

The truth is that liberals in America refuse to accept any part of the truth that blacks commit most of the crime in this country. Like Trayvon Martin, many young thugs wearing hoodies and pants below butt cracks terrorize whites and others, at will, threatening and attacking anyone who challenges their criminal or suspicious behavior. Their neighborhoods are virtual war zones, where bullets fly to enforce criminals territories.

Remember, blacks only account for 12% of our population, and young black men account for only about 4% of the US population. According to a report released by the New Century Foundation, The Color of Crime:

Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder, and eight times more likely to commit robbery.
When blacks commit crimes of violence, they are nearly three times more likely than non-blacks to use a gun, and more than twice as likely to use a knife.
Hispanics commit violent crimes at roughly three times the white rate, and Asians commit violent crimes at about one quarter the white rate.
The single best indicator of violent crime levels in an area is the percentage of the population that is black and Hispanic.
Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.
Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Forty-five percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are Hispanic. When whites commit violent crime, only three percent of their victims are black.
Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against a white than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.

These statistics evidence a very serious problem in our country–one that turning a blind eye won’t resolve–that many young black men are violent criminals. If this statement offends you–answer the question, who in America feels safe walking through a predominantly black neighborhood after dark? Do our African-American brothers and sisters feel safe walking though their own neighborhoods at night?

In fact, the entitlement policies of the left have bred a generation of criminals, and our black brothers and sisters are drowning in a sea of apathy and neglect. (See our article Dems Hurting Minorities, June 8, 2013) The same policies that have created the problem are being escalated annually, and the resulting difficulties of young black men have increased exponentially–nearly to the point where the majority of them have a better chance of going to prison than to college. The only thing that has prevented the escalation of crime rates in America is the abortion policies of the left, which are aimed directly at reducing the black population. (See our article Should GOP Rethink Abortion Policy?, Nov. 29, 2012)

George Zimmerman has given America a wake up call. He refused to turn a blind eye to the truth that skulking young blacks in hoodies and low-rider pants are suspicious in a middle-class neighborhood–a fact that every American knows, but the left has made a social crime to speak out loud. It is our hope that black “leaders” will redirect their feigned outrage to the real issues facing their constituents (the number of blacks that died at the hands of blacks in Chicago over the recent holiday should spark true outrage), and enlist the help of responsible politicians and citizens to begin the arduous process of rehabilitating an entire generation of lost black Americans.

PUBLIUS

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