Entitlement | Federalist Press | Defending Liberty

$6.3 TRILLION TO FUND AMNESTY

May 6, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The comprehensive immigration overhaul being taken up in the Senate this week could cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion if 11 million illegal immigrants are granted legal status, according to a long-awaited estimate by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The cost would arise from illegal immigrants tapping into the government’s vast network of benefits and services, many of which are currently unavailable to them. This includes everything from standard benefits like Social Security and Medicare to dozens of welfare programs ranging from housing assistance to food stamps.

The report was obtained in advance by Fox News.

“No matter how you slice it, amnesty will add a tremendous amount of pressure on America’s already strained public purse,” Robert Rector, the Heritage scholar who prepared the report, said in a statement.

The numbers could raise additional concerns for Republicans as a Senate committee prepares to consider the legislation later this week.

The comprehensive study also factored in the cost of public education and other services like highways and police. The government is already providing some of those services to illegal immigrants, so the $6.3 trillion figure would not represent all new costs.

But most of that cost would be new spending, according to Heritage, as illegal immigrants gain access to additional government benefits. The study acknowledges that, for a 10-year period, illegal immigrants seeking a reprieve would be barred from these benefits. After that window, though, Heritage forecasts the costs skyrocketing.

On an annual basis, the report estimates the cost will be $106 billion after the interim phase is over. In the course of their lifetime, the report estimates that illegal immigrant households would receive an average of $592,000 in government benefits.

The $6.3 trillion figure is based on what illegal immigrants would cost the government over the course of their lifetime. It factors in the expected taxes they’d pay to the government.

Supporters of immigration legislation have been skeptical of efforts to assign a cost to the immigration bill. Proponents argue that the value of bringing millions of illegal immigrants out of the shadows and presumably into the taxpaying workforce is immeasurable.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a key co-author of the legislation, has also stressed that illegal immigrants applying for legal status would not have access to federal benefits while they are applying.

Their eligibility, though, would change once they get a green card.

The legislation also might not legalize all 11 million illegal immigrants. Some could be disqualified if they have a felony record or other problems in their background

Heritage claims its estimate is on the conservative end.

“Those who claim that amnesty will not create a large fiscal burden are simply in a state of denial concerning the underlying redistributional nature of government policy in the 21st century,” the report said.

Published May 06, 2013 / FoxNews.com

States: ‘Blindsided’ by Plan to Shift Obamacare Costs to Them

May 4, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Thousands of people with serious medical problems are in danger of losing coverage under President Obama’s health care overhaul because of cost overruns, state officials say.

At risk is the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, a transition program that’s become a lifeline for the so-called uninsurables — people with serious medical conditions who can’t get coverage elsewhere. The program helps bridge the gap for those patients until next year, when under the new law insurance companies will be required to accept people regardless of their medical problems.

In a letter this week to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, state officials said they were “blindsided” and “very disappointed” by a federal proposal they contend would shift the risk for cost overruns to states in the waning days of the program. About 100,000 people are currently covered.

“We are concerned about what will become of our high risk members’ access to this decent and affordable coverage,” wrote Michael Keough, chairman of the National Association of State Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans. States and local nonprofits administer the program in 27 states, and the federal government runs the remaining plans.

“We fear…catastrophic disruption of coverage for these vulnerable individuals,” added Keough, who runs North Carolina’s program. He warned of “large-scale enrollee terminations at this critical transition time.”

The crisis is surfacing at a politically awkward time for the Obama administration, which is trying to persuade states to embrace a major expansion of Medicaid under the health care law. One of the main arguments proponents of the expansion are making is that Washington is a reliable financial partner.

The root of the problem is that the federal health care law capped spending on the program at $5 billion, and the money is running out because the beneficiaries turned out to be costlier to care for than expected. Advanced heart disease and cancer are common diagnoses for the group.

Obama did not ask for any additional funding for the program in his latest budget, and a Republican bid to keep the program going by tapping other funds in the health care law failed to win support in the House last week.

Brian Cook, a spokesman for the HHS agency overseeing the health care law, took issue with idea that thousands of people could lose coverage, though he did not elaborate.

“These actions are part of our careful management of the program to ensure that there is a seamless transition … for enrollees, and that funding is spent appropriately,” he said in a written statement.

The administration has given the state-based plans until next Wednesday to respond to proposed contract terms for the program’s remaining seven months.

Delivered last Friday, the new contract stipulated that states will be reimbursed “up to a ceiling.

“The `ceiling’ part is the issue for us,” Keough said in an interview. “They are shifting the risk from the federal government, for a program that has experienced huge cost overruns on a per-member basis, to states. And that’s a tall order.”

State officials say one likely consequence of the money crunch will be a cost shift to people in the program, resulting in sudden increases in premiums and copayments. Many might just drop out, said Keough.

If a state and HHS can’t come to an agreement, the federal government will take over that state’s program for the rest of this year. Amie Goldman, director of the Wisconsin program, said that would be an unneeded and possibly risky disruption for patients who’ll have to change insurance next year anyway, when the pre-existing conditions plan formally ends.

Goldman said in her state, for example, the University of Wisconsin hospital isn’t part of the federal government’s provider network. “My colleagues in other states have similar concerns about holes in the network,” she said. “I think it puts people at medical risk.”

At his news conference this week, Obama acknowledged the rollout of his health care law wouldn’t be perfect. There will be “glitches and bumps” he said, and his team is committed to working through them. However, it’s unclear how the pre-existing conditions plan could get more money without the cooperation of Republicans in Congress.

The program got off to a slow start, partly because insurance isn’t cheap. It offers policies at market rates, and that can mean premiums of $500 a month for someone in their 50s. The first inkling of financial problems came in February, when HHS announced a freeze on new applications.

The plan was intended only as a stopgap until the law’s main push to cover the uninsured starts next year. Subsidized private insurance will be available through new state-based markets, as well as an expanded version of Medicaid for low-income people. At the same time, virtually all Americans will be required to carry a policy, or pay a fine.

States are free to accept or reject the Medicaid expansion, and the new problems with the stopgap insurance plan could well have a bearing on their decisions.

Bomber Texted ‘LOL’ When Friends Saw Pics on TV

May 2, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

When the alleged Boston Marathon bomber was told by one of his friends that he resembled one of the suspects in the widely released surveillance video, he sent a chilling response: “Lol, you better not text me,” an affidavit unsealed Wednesday said.

The brief interaction between bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his friend Dias Kadyrbayev occurred three days after the April 15 bombing, the affidavit said. Kadyrbayev was among three others charged Wednesday for allegedly conspiring to get rid of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s incriminating backpack filled with gutted fireworks.

He also texted Kadyrbayev to say, “Come to my room and take whatever you want,” according to the affidavit.

“Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the marathon bombing,” the affidavit reads. “Kadyrbayev decided to remove the backpack from the room in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble.”

The exchange came just a few hours before the Tsarnaev brothers would carjack a Chinese immigrant, murder an MIT police officer and engage in a wild shootout with police through the streets of Cambridge and Watertown, police say. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died April 19, after a shootout hours after authorities showed the brothers on surveillance video and named them as suspects.

Documents based on interviews with the young men reveal Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly dropped sinister hints before the attack, telling his friends a month before that he had learned how to make a bomb. However, it wasn’t until the FBI released a surveillance photo of the suspects that the friends realized Tsarnaev may have been involved.

The FBI claims this prompted Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakova both 19-year-old natives of Kazakhstan and friends of Tsarnaev at UMass-Dartmouth, to go to Tsarnaev’s dorm and take a laptop, the backpack and some Vaseline that may have been used in making the deadly pressure cooker bombs that killed three and injured more than 200 at the race. Police believe the bombs were packed with shrapnel and gunpowder removed from fireworks.

Robel Phillipos, of Cambridge, Mass., also 19, was charged with willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation.

The affidavit filed in support of a complaint said Kadyrbayev was the one who carried out the disposal of the backpack after the three saw the fireworks that had been hollowed out and emptied of gunpowder.

Although the three new suspects initially appear to have stonewalled authorities, Phillipos came clean in a fourth interview, conducted April 26. He confessed that the three took the backpack out of their friend’s dorm room, according to the affidavit. Phillipos allegedly told investigators that the two others “started to freak out” after seeing Tsarnaev identified on television.

Robert Stahl, an attorney representing Kadyrbayev, said his client denies the allegations and added that Kadyrbayev assisted authorities in their investigation.

“He is just as shocked and horrified by the violence that took place in Boston as the rest of the community is,” Stahl said. “He did not have anything to do with it.”

Prior to the latest development, authorities had named only the brothers as suspects in the bombing at the finish line of the world-famous race.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov face maximum sentences of five years in prison and fines of $250,000. Phillipos, a U.S. citizen, faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Kadyrbayev’s attorney, Robert Stahl, says his client will be transported to the federal courthouse later Wednesday to appear on new criminal charges. On Friday, Yerlan Kubashev with the Consulate General for Kazakhstan in New York confirmed in a statement to Fox News that the consulate is helping the young men with legal representation. Both Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov will plea not guilty, according to their attorneys.

Kubashev said the two men are “shocked at the bombings,” and “they express sorrow to the bombing victims and their families.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is in a prison hospital after being wounded in the shootout with police as he and his brother made their getaway attempt. He is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, a crime that carries a potential death sentence.

Authorities have searched the Rhode Island home of the parents of Katherine Russell, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow.

Published May 02, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Pamela Browne and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

3 More Suspects Arrested In Boston Marathon Bombings

May 1, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

BREAKING STORY The Boston Police Department arrested three more suspects connected to the bombings at last month’s Boston Marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

The police made the announcement with a Twitter message Wednesday morning.

Three new suspects have been taken into custody in the Boston Marathon bombings investigation, the Boston Police Dept. tweeted Wednesday morning.

The development comes as investigators have continued to scrutinize two of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s classmates at UMass-Dartmouth.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s alleged associates are natives of Kazakhstan and have already been detained by U.S. immigration officials for alleged immigration violations.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev were in federal immigration court earlier Wednesday morning on those matters, a government source said; however, the court hearing was delayed.

Authorities were not immediately saying who the three detained were or if Tsarnaev’s two classmates were part of the new group of suspects.

An attorney for Kadyrbayev has told media outlets that the two young men have been interviewed by FBI agents and that they were cooperating.

The Boston Police Dept. broke the news in a tweet, writing, “Three additional suspects taken into custody in Marathon bombing case. Details to follow.”

The Boston Police Dept. says there is no threat to the public.

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, two ethnic Chechen brothers from southern Russia, are accused of planting two explosives near the marathon finish line April 15, killing three people and injuring more than 260.

Tamerlan, 26, was killed during a getaway attempt in Watertown. Dzhokhar, 19, was transferred Friday from a Boston hospital to a federal prison medical center in Devens.

Five FBI agents paid a visit Monday to the family home of Katherine Russell, the widow of Tamerlan, Bomber No. 1. Investigators spent an hour and a half inside the North Kingstown, R.I., home. According to the Wall Street Journal, investigators collected Russell’s DNA.

In the last two weeks, the FBI has visited the Russell home four times. Monday was the first time they’ve left with evidence, including an agent seen holding a pair of scissors in a clear plastic bag, which may indicate the feds took a hair sample.

Russell’s lawyer claims she had no prior knowledge of the attacks and is doing everything she can to help the investigation.

Female DNA was found on bomb components used in the attack this month on the Boston Marathon, a source familiar with the investigation confirmed to Fox News, though the source cautioned that it is too early to draw hard conclusions from that evidence. “No one should expect that the investigation is over,” the source told Fox News in confirming the development first reported by the Wall Street Journal, adding that it is just one piece of evidence that investigators are looking at.

The revelation about female DNA came on the same day that the FBI went inside the Rhode Island home of bomber Tamerlan’s widow’s parents, and the nearby family of a man identified as his mysterious mentor hired a family spokesman to keep the media at bay.

FDA: Morning-after Pill to Move Over-the-Counter — OK for Teens

April 30, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON – The Plan B morning-after pill is moving over-the-counter, a decision announced by the Food and Drug Administration just days before a court-imposed deadline.

Tuesday, the FDA lowered to 15 the age at which girls and women can buy the emergency contraceptive without a prescription — and said it no longer has to be kept behind pharmacy counters.

Instead, the pill can sit on drugstore shelves just like condoms, but that buyers would have to prove their age at the cash register.

Earlier this month, a federal judge had ruled there should be no age restrictions and gave the FDA 30 days to act. The FDA said its latest decision was independent of the court case.

Published April 30, 2013 / Associated Press

Abortion Trial: Babies Treated Worse Than Dogs

April 30, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Closing arguments in the murder trial of an abortion provider alternated between the defense’s insistence that Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s office was no “house of horrors” to the prosecution’s brutal depiction of the deaths of a woman and four viable babies.

Gosnell had declined to testify in his defense or even call witnesses at his capital murder trial. Instead, his attorney, Jack McMahon, offered a passionate, often angry defense of his client, blaming the intense media interest in the case and the prosecution for creating a “tremendous rush to judgement.”

“Never in my life have I seen the presumption of innocence more trampled on, stomped on, than in this case,” McMahon said, arguing that the overdose death of the woman at his West Philadelphia clinic was a “tragic accident” and that there was “no scientific evidence” that Gosnell, 72, killed babies after they were born alive.

But Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron, in his closing argument, told a story about taking his sick dog to the veterinarian to be put down, with a shot to induce sleep first. “These babies didn’t even get that,” he said.

“My dog was treated better than he treated babies and women,” Cameron said. “And that’s because he didn’t care. He created an assembly line, with no regard for these women whatsoever.”

A string of former employees have testified that Gosnell relied on untrained staff to sedate and monitor women as they waited for abortions.

Authorities have also said the abortion clinic was operated in filthy conditions, and a grand jury report called it a “house of horrors.”

But during closing arguments Monday, defense attorney Jack McMahon showed photographs of a relatively neat waiting room and other areas in Gosnell’s clinic, saying that pictures don’t lie.

He said the clinic wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t the criminal enterprise that prosecutors claim.

Prosecutors say Gosnell killed viable babies born alive after putting a steady stream of often low-income, minority women through labor and delivery. Former employees have testified that Gosnell taught them to “snip” babies’ necks after they were delivered to “ensure fetal demise.”

Gosnell is also charged in the overdose death of a patient, 41-year-old refugee Karnamaya Mongar, of Woodbridge, Va.

The jury must now weigh the five murder counts, along with lesser charges that include racketeering, performing illegal abortions after 24 weeks, failing to observe the 24-hour waiting period and endangering a child’s welfare for employing a 15-year-old in the procedure area.

A lawyer for 56-year-old Eileen O’Neill, Gosnell’s co-defendant, said Monday that prosecutors didn’t prove their case against her.

O’Neill, of Phoenixville, is charged with theft and isn’t licensed to practice medicine, but defense attorney James Berardinelli told the jury in closing arguments Monday that prosecutors failed to prove that O’Neill billed as a licensed doctor.

He likened O’Neill’s charge – theft by deception – to a “scam.”

“There is no criminal charge called ‘practicing without a license,’” he said. “It’s not their license; it’s their experience — that’s what you’re paying for.”

Berardinelli says O’Neill consulted with Gosnell for any patient she saw and she mostly treated geriatric patients and wasn’t involved in surgical abortions.

Prosecution witnesses say they got prescriptions from O’Neill pre-signed by Gosnell and never knew she wasn’t licensed.

Berardinelli concluded his statements by going over contradictions in witness testimony regarding the prescriptions, and stressing that the burden of proof is on the prosecution.

“This is a decent, law-abiding, honest person. That’s her reputation,” he said, asking the judge to acquit O’Neill of her charges.

McMahon has argued that there were no live births at the clinic, and he found some support from a prosecution witness, Philadelphia’s top medical examiner. Dr. Sam Gulino, who examined 47 aborted fetuses stored in freezers at the clinic, said he could not definitively say if any had taken a breath because the lung tissue had deteriorated.

The prosecution’s other evidence to support the live birth argument comes from former employees, who testified that they saw aborted babies move, breathe or even cry. McMahon challenged them on cross-examination, questioning whether they had instead seen post-mortem spasms.

“You have to have definite, voluntary movement,” McMahon argued.

The jury has seen a graphic photograph of some of the aborted babies and a worker testified that Gosnell joked that one was so big “it could walk to the bus.”

Lynda Williams, Adrianne Moton and Sherry West, all untrained clinic workers, and unlicensed doctor Stephen Massof have each pleaded guilty to third-degree murder charges and testified against Gosnell. And four others have pleaded guilty to lesser charges, including Gosnell’s wife, Pearl.

Gosnell did not testify, but could take the stand in the penalty phase if he is convicted of first-degree murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors say Gosnell is a misogynist for the way he treated female patients while the inner-city doctor described himself as an altruist in a 2010 interview with the Philadelphia Daily News.

“I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community,” Gosnell said.

Fox News’ Kirstin Brown and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Black Voter Turnout Rate Passed Whites, Elected Obama

April 28, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON – America’s blacks voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and by most measures surpassed the white turnout for the first time, reflecting a deeply polarized presidential election in which blacks strongly supported Barack Obama while many whites stayed home.

Had people voted last November at the same rates they did in 2004, when black turnout was below its current historic levels, Republican Mitt Romney would have won narrowly, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press.

Census data and exit polling show that whites and blacks will remain the two largest racial groups of eligible voters for the next decade. Last year’s heavy black turnout came despite concerns about the effect of new voter-identification laws on minority voting, outweighed by the desire to re-elect the first black president.

“The 2012 turnout is a milestone for blacks and a huge potential turning point.” – Andra Gillespie, political science professor at Emory University

William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, analyzed the 2012 elections for the AP using census data on eligible voters and turnout, along with November’s exit polling. He estimated total votes for Obama and Romney under a scenario where 2012 turnout rates for all racial groups matched those in 2004. Overall, 2012 voter turnout was roughly 58 percent, down from 62 percent in 2008 and 60 percent in 2004.

The analysis also used population projections to estimate the shares of eligible voters by race group through 2030. The numbers are supplemented with material from the Pew Research Center and George Mason University associate professor Michael McDonald, a leader in the field of voter turnout who separately reviewed aggregate turnout levels across states, as well as AP interviews with the Census Bureau and other experts. The bureau is scheduled to release data on voter turnout in May.

Overall, the findings represent a tipping point for blacks, who for much of America’s history were disenfranchised and then effectively barred from voting until passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

But the numbers also offer a cautionary note to both Democrats and Republicans after Obama won in November with a historically low percentage of white supporters. While Latinos are now the biggest driver of U.S. population growth, they still trail whites and blacks in turnout and electoral share, because many of the Hispanics in the country are children or noncitizens.

In recent weeks, Republican leaders have urged a “year-round effort” to engage black and other minority voters, describing a grim future if their party does not expand its core support beyond white males.

The 2012 data suggest Romney was a particularly weak GOP candidate, unable to motivate white voters let alone attract significant black or Latino support. Obama’s personal appeal and the slowly improving economy helped overcome doubts and spur record levels of minority voters in a way that may not be easily replicated for Democrats soon.

Romney would have erased Obama’s nearly 5 million-vote victory margin and narrowly won the popular vote if voters had turned out as they did in 2004, according to Frey’s analysis. Then, white turnout was slightly higher and black voting lower.

More significantly, the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and Colorado would have tipped in favor of Romney, handing him the presidency if the outcome of other states remained the same.

“The 2012 turnout is a milestone for blacks and a huge potential turning point,” said Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University who has written extensively on black politicians.

“What it suggests is that there is an `Obama effect’ where people were motivated to support Barack Obama. But it also means that black turnout may not always be higher, if future races aren’t as salient.”

Whit Ayres, a GOP consultant who is advising GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a possible 2016 presidential contender, says the last election reaffirmed that the Republican Party needs “a new message, a new messenger and a new tone.” Change within the party need not be “lock, stock and barrel,” Ayres said, but policy shifts such as GOP support for broad immigration legislation will be important to woo minority voters over the longer term.

“It remains to be seen how successful Democrats are if you don’t have Barack Obama at the top of the ticket,” he added.

In Ohio, a battleground state where the share of eligible black voters is more than triple that of other minorities, 27-year-old Lauren Howie of Cleveland didn’t start out thrilled with Obama in 2012. She felt he didn’t deliver on promises to help students reduce college debt, promote women’s rights and address climate change, she said. But she became determined to support Obama as she compared him with Romney.

“I got the feeling Mitt Romney couldn’t care less about me and my fellow African-Americans,” said Howie, an administrative assistant at Case Western Reserve University’s medical school who is paying off college debt.

Howie said she saw some Romney comments as insensitive to the needs of the poor. “A white Mormon swimming in money with offshore accounts buying up companies and laying off their employees just doesn’t quite fit my idea of a president,” she said. “Bottom line, Romney was not someone I was willing to trust with my future.”

The numbers show how population growth will translate into changes in who votes over the coming decade:

–The gap between non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black turnout in 2008 was the smallest on record, with voter turnout at 66.1 percent and 65.2 percent, respectively; turnout for Latinos and non-Hispanic Asians trailed at 50 percent and 47 percent. Rough calculations suggest that in 2012, 2 million to 5 million fewer whites voted compared with 2008, even though the pool of eligible white voters had increased.

–Unlike other minority groups, the rise in voting for the slow-growing black population is due to higher turnout. While blacks make up 12 percent of the share of eligible voters, they represented 13 percent of total 2012 votes cast, according to exit polling. That was a repeat of 2008, when blacks “outperformed” their eligible voter share for the first time on record.

–Latinos now make up 17 percent of the population but 11 percent of eligible voters, due to a younger median age and lower rates of citizenship and voter registration. Because of lower turnout, they represented just 10 percent of total 2012 votes cast. Despite their fast growth, Latinos aren’t projected to surpass the share of eligible black voters until 2024, when each group will be roughly 13 percent. By then, 1 in 3 eligible voters will be nonwhite.

–In 2026, the total Latino share of voters could jump to as high as 16 percent, if nearly 11 million immigrants here illegally become eligible for U.S. citizenship. Under a proposed bill in the Senate, those immigrants would have a 13-year path to citizenship. The share of eligible white voters could shrink to less than 64 percent in that scenario. An estimated 80 percent of immigrants here illegally, or 8.8 million, are Latino, although not all will meet the additional requirements to become citizens.

“The 2008 election was the first year when the minority vote was important to electing a U.S. president. By 2024, their vote will be essential to victory,” Frey said. “Democrats will be looking at a landslide going into 2028 if the new Hispanic voters continue to favor Democrats.”

Even with demographics seeming to favor Democrats in the long term, it’s unclear whether Obama’s coalition will hold if blacks or younger voters become less motivated to vote or decide to switch parties.

Minority turnout tends to drop in midterm congressional elections, contributing to larger GOP victories as happened in 2010, when House control flipped to Republicans.

The economy and policy matter. Exit polling shows that even with Obama’s re-election, voter support for a government that does more to solve problems declined from 51 percent in 2008 to 43 percent last year, bolstering the view among Republicans that their core principles of reducing government are sound.

The party’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” report released last month by national leaders suggests that Latinos and Asians could become more receptive to GOP policies once comprehensive immigration legislation is passed.

Whether the economy continues its slow recovery also will shape voter opinion, including among blacks, who have the highest rate of unemployment.

Since the election, optimism among nonwhites about the direction of the country and the economy has waned, although support for Obama has held steady. In an October AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of nonwhites said the nation was heading in the right direction; that’s dropped to 52 percent in a new AP-GfK poll. Among non-Hispanic whites, however, the numbers are about the same as in October, at 28 percent.

Democrats in Congress merit far lower approval ratings among nonwhites than does the president, with 49 percent approving of congressional Democrats and 74 percent approving of Obama.

William Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, says that in previous elections where an enduring majority of voters came to support one party, the president winning re-election — William McKinley in 1900, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and Ronald Reagan in 1984 — attracted a larger turnout over his original election and also received a higher vote total and a higher share of the popular vote. None of those occurred for Obama in 2012.

Only once in the last 60 years has a political party been successful in holding the presidency more than eight years — Republicans from 1980-1992.

“This doesn’t prove that Obama’s presidency won’t turn out to be the harbinger of a new political order,” Galston says. “But it does warrant some analytical caution.”

Early polling suggests that Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton could come close in 2016 to generating the level of support among nonwhites as Obama did in November, when he won 80 percent of their vote. In a Fox News poll in February, 75 percent of nonwhites said they thought Clinton would make a good president, outpacing the 58 percent who said that about Vice President Joe Biden.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP, predicts closely fought elections in the near term and worries that GOP-controlled state legislatures will step up efforts to pass voter ID and other restrictions to deter blacks and other minorities from voting. In 2012, African-Americans were able to turn out in large numbers only after a very determined get-out-the-vote effort by the Obama campaign and black groups, he said.

Jealous says the 2014 midterm election will be the real bellwether for black turnout. “Black turnout set records this year despite record attempts to suppress the black vote,” he said.

Obama Admin Paying for Labor Unions Worldwide

April 27, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Senate Republicans say the Labor Department appears to be spending millions in taxpayer dollars to establish labor unions and promote collective bargaining in foreign countries and is asking top Obama administration officials for a full audit.

The request was sent by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the leading Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“At a time when our federal budget is deteriorating rapidly … it is troubling to us that the department appears to be spending millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to establish labor unions and promote collective bargaining in foreign countries,” they said in a letter to acting Labor Secretary Seth Harris.

The purported activities were conducted by the agency’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs.

The bureau for the past several years has purportedly made numerous awards — worth millions of dollars — to the United Nations, the Solidarity Center and other similar groups, “whose stated objective is to help establish labor unions in foreign countries,” the senators said.

They also said the bureau recently awarded a Colombian labor organization $1.5 million to help workers improve their collective bargaining rights and $2.2 million to the Solidarity Center, an AFL-CIO organization, to strengthen unions in Haiti and Peru.

In addition, the bureau purportedly awarded a $1.5 million grant to an international development company in 2011 to assist labor unions in Vietnam engage in collective bargaining, the lawmakers said.

The letter was also sent to Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. The BILA did not return a request Saturday for a response.

The bureau’s stated mission is to “help ensure that workers around the world are treated fairly and are able to share in the benefits of the global economy.”

The agency also states it focuses on protecting workers’ ability to exercise their rights and addressing the workplace exploitation of children and other vulnerable populations.

Published April 27, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Feds Arrest Man for Ricin Letter Sent to Obama

April 27, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

A Mississippi man has been arrested by federal agents in connection with the ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and two other public officials, Fox News confirmed Saturday morning.

The suspect Everett Dutschke, 41, is a martial arts instructor. He was taken into custody by U.S. marshals at his home in Tupelo, Miss. Federal investigators dropped charges Tuesday against their first major suspect, Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis.

Dutschke was arrested without incident by the FBI at about 12:50 a.m. Saturday, and handed over to the U.S. Marshals Service. His home and business were previously searched as part of an investigation into ricin-laced letters allegedly sent to President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and a judge.

Dutschke’s attorney, Lori Nail Basham, did not immediately respond to phone or text messages Saturday. Earlier in the week, Basham denied any involvement by her client in the letters. Dutschke also denied involvement.

“My family knows I don’t have anything to do with this,” he said earlier. “The people who actually know me, know I don’t have anything to do with this.”

There are reports of an ongoing feud between Curtis and Dutschke.

Curtis’ attorney, Christi McCoy, said Saturday: “We are relieved but also saddened. This crime is nothing short of diabolical. I have seen a lot of meanness in the past two decades, but this stops me in my tracks. ”

Judge Sadie Holland, who was also allegedly sent a letter, is a common link between the two men who have been investigated, and both know Wicker.

Holland was the presiding judge in a case in which Curtis was accused of assaulting a Tupelo attorney in 2004. Holland sentenced him to six months in the county jail. He served only part of the sentence, according to his brother.

Holland’s family has had political skirmishes with Dutschke.

Her son, Steve Holland, a Democratic state representative, said he thinks his mother’s only other encounter with Dutschke was at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.

Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which Holland says he did.

Steve Holland said he doesn’t know if his mother remembers Curtis’ assault case.

Ryan Taylor, a spokesman for Wicker, said Saturday that “because the investigation is still ongoing, we’re not able to comment.”

Published April 27, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dem Officials Guilty in Obama-Clinton Ballot Petition Fraud

April 26, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

A jury in South Bend, Indiana has found that fraud put President Obama and Hillary Clinton on the presidential primary ballot in Indiana in the 2008 election. Two Democratic political operatives were convicted Thursday night in the illegal scheme after only three hours of deliberations in South Bend. They were found guilty on all counts.

Former longtime St. Joseph County Democratic party Chairman Butch Morgan Jr. was found guilty of felony conspiracy counts to commit petition fraud and forgery, and former county Board of Elections worker Dustin Blythe was found guilty of felony forgery counts and falsely making a petition, after being accused of faking petitions that enabled Obama, then an Illinois Senator, to get on the presidential primary ballot for his first run for the White House.

Morgan was accused of being the mastermind behind the plot.

According to testimony from two former Board of Election officials who pled guilty, Morgan ordered Democratic officials and workers to fake the names and signatures that Obama and Clinton needed to qualify for the presidential race. Blythe, then a Board of Elections employee and Democratic Party volunteer, was accused of forging multiple pages of the Obama petitions.

“I think this helped uphold the integrity of the electoral system,” the prosecutor, Stan Levco told reporters.

“Their verdict of guilt is not a verdict against Democrats, but for honest and fair elections,” he said.

The scheme was hatched in January of 2008, according to affidavits from investigators who cite former Board of Registration worker Lucas Burkett, who told them he was in on the plan at first, but then became uneasy and quit. He waited three years before telling authorities about it, but if revelations about any forgeries were raised during the election, the petitions could have been challenged during the contest. A candidate who did not qualify with enough legitimate signatures at the time, could have been bounced from the ballot.

The case raise questions about whether in 2008, then candidate Obama actually submitted enough legitimate signatures to have legally qualified for the primary ballot.

“I think had they been challenged successfully, he probably would not have been on the ballot,” Levco told Fox News.

Under state law, presidential candidates need to qualify for the primary ballots with 500 signatures from each of the state’s nine congressional districts. Indiana election officials say that in St. Joseph County, which is the 2nd Congressional district, the Obama campaign qualified with 534 signatures; Clinton’s camp had 704.

Prosecutors say that in President Obama’s case, nine of the petition pages were apparently forged. Each petition contains up to 10 names, making a possible total of 90 names, which, if faked, could have brought the Obama total below the legal limit required to qualify. Prosecutors say 13 Clinton petitions were apparently forged, meaning up to 130 possibly fake signatures. Even if 130 signatures had been challenged, it would have still left Mrs. Clinton with enough signatures to meet the 500 person threshold.

Levco said a total of “100 to 200” signatures had been forged on Obama’s and Clinton’s petitions.

An Indiana State Police investigator said in court papers that the agency examined the suspect Obama petitions and “selected names at random from each of the petition pages and contacted those people directly. We found at least one person (and often multiple people) from each page who confirmed that they had not signed” petitions “or given consent for their name and/or signature to appear.”

Numerous voters told Fox News that they never signed the petitions.

“That’s not my signature,” Charity Rorie, a mother of four, told us when we showed her the Obama petition with her name and signature. She was stunned, saying that it “absolutely” was a fake.

Charity told Fox News that her husband’s entry was also a forgery, and that they have never been contacted by investigators or any authorities looking into the scandal.

“It’s scary, it’s shocking. It definitely is illegal,” she told us.

Robert Hunter, Jr. told Fox news that his name was faked, too.

“I did not sign for Barack Obama,” he told us. As he examined the Obama petition in his hands, Hunter pointed out that “I always put ‘Junior’ after my name, every time…there’s no ‘Junior’ there

Even a former Democratic Governor of Indiana, Joe Kernan, told Fox News that his name was forged.

“This is a bitter sweet moment for free and fair elections,” observed Ryan Nees, the Indiana born Yale “University senior who first exposed the scheme in the independent political newsletter, Howey Politics Indiana and South Bend Tribune.

Nees said the multiple guilty verdicts were “bitter, because a five-person conspiracy succeeded in illegally placing two presidential candidates on the ballot, but sweet because they were exposed, tried for their crimes, and convicted.”

Nees previously told Fox News that the fraud was clearly evident, “because page after page of signatures are all in the same handwriting,” and that nobody raised any red flags “because election workers in charge of verifying their validity were the same people faking the signatures.”

By Eric Shawn / Published April 26, 2013 / Fox News’ Meredith Amor contributed to this report.

Muslim Preacher Tells Followers: Getting Welfare Cash For Holy Wars Is Easy And Right

April 25, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

A Muslim preacher has been secretly recorded explaining to followers how to receive government assistance they can use to fund a Muslim holy war.

Calling it a “Jihadi Allowance,” cleric Anjem Choundary, 45, has four kids, brings in £25,000, or just under $39,000 U.S. in benefits himself, and says that this is the way it is supposed to work according to Islamic law.

Recorded by both the U.K. Sun and Telegraph, Choundary says:

“We are on Jihad Seekers Allowance, we take the Jizya (protection money paid to Muslims by non-Muslims) which is ours anyway.
“The normal situation is to take money from the [non-Muslims] isn’t it? So this is the normal situation.”
“They give us the money. You work, give us the money. Allah Akbar, we take the money. Hopefully there is no one from the DSS (Department of Social Security) listening.”
“Ah, but you see people will say you are not working. But the normal situation is for you to take money from the Kuffar (non-Muslim) So we take Jihad Seeker’s Allowance.”

Choudray goes on in a separate videos to mock English workers performing 9 to 5 jobs, and tells followers that some of the most famous Islamic figures worked only one or two days a week.

“The rest of the year they were busy with jihad [holy war] and things like that,” he says, according to The Telegraph. “People will say, ‘Ah, but you are not working.’”

“But the normal situation is for you to take money from the kuffar [non-believers].”

“So we take Jihad Seeker’s Allowance. You need to get support.”

He the tells a crowd of about 30 followers: “We are going to take England — the Muslims are coming.”

“These people are like a tsunami going across Europe. And over here we’re just relaxing, taking over Bradford brother. The reality is changing.”

By Robert Johnson

Video of Anjem Choundary

Tax-Funded Jihad

April 24, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Tamerlan Tsarnaev - American Life of Boston bombing suspect

One of the men behind last week’s deadly attack on the Boston Marathon had received Massachusetts welfare benefits until recently — during the same period that the alienation he apparently felt as a Chechen in America coincided with a growing embrace of radical Islam.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his family were living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits as recently as last year, the Boston Herald reports, though it remains unclear what kind of benefits they were receiving.

State officials confirmed to the newspaper late Tuesday that Tsarnaev, who was killed during a gun battle with police on Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter.

His younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured Friday night and charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. The 19-year-old could face the death penalty if convicted.

The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s welfare benefits ended in 2012 when the family stopped meeting income eligibility limits. His wife’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home, the newspaper reports.

“The brothers were not receiving transitional assistance benefits at the time of the incident and have not received any transitional assistance benefits this year,” Massachusetts Health and Human Services communication director Alec Loftus told the newspaper in a statement. “The Tsarnaevs’ parents are former recipients of transitional assistance benefits, and both Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev received benefits through their parents when they were younger. Separately, Tamerlan and his family received benefits until 2012, when the family became ineligible based on their income.”

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance works “to assist low-income individuals and families to meet their basic needs, increase their incomes and improve their quality of life,” the agency’s website says.

The benefits offered include food assistance, job assistance, emergency shelter, help for victims of domestic violence, cash aid for families with children, emergency assistance for the elderly and disabled.

Loftus declined to specify to the Herald the type and amount of assistance Tsarnaev and his family were receiving.

Published April 24, 2013 /FoxNews.com

Price of Political Correctness

April 24, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

People are defined by their deeds, their actions. Not their words. But the way we communicate can be both reflective of our behavior and an influence on it going forward.

What we call political correctness, for example, reflects societal behavior, how our culture has changed. It also influences societal behavior. In that sense, it reinforces the trajectory of that cultural change.

That makes it a powerful way to understand where we are and where we’re going as a nation, as an economy, and as people. It also shows the effect our words have on how we lead, how we work, and how we live.

How the trend toward political correctness came into being is anyone’s guess. At this point, it doesn’t really matter. It’s everywhere. It’s pervasive. The only way to deal with it is to understand what it is:

It’s collectivism, which destroys individualism. Competition is bad. Everyone’s a winner. Everyone has to be included and treated the same. Singling out individuals as special or unique excludes others, so that’s out. Lost is individual responsibility and accountability, the drive to compete and win, the motivation to be recognized for achievement and superior performance.

It levels the playing field, brings everyone down to the lowest common denominator. Star performers have to take it down a notch so everyone can be included. Like when you bring slower students into a gifted class, everything has to be dumbed down. It diminishes team performance and organizational effectiveness.

Everything has to be filtered to ensure no one is offended or gets into trouble. That slows down information processing, waters down communication, strips out critical data, and dilutes meaning. As a result, it undermines genuine understanding and effective decision-making.

Now, here’s the confusing part. Finger pointing and blaming others is tolerated, even encouraged. Leaders blame their predecessors; parents blame teachers; society blames victims. It’s everybody’s fault but whoever is really responsible. That’s because nobody is accountable. There are no enemies or bad guys. That wouldn’t be inclusive. Including them will fix them.

In short, it’s Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged come to life. It’s a nightmare. And its implications are far reaching.

The Boston Marathon bombing wasn’t the fault of some sick, twisted, cowardly, barbarian terrorists, “It was tax day,” according to former Obama advisor David Axelrod. And former Congressman Barney Frank used it as an opportunity to make a political argument for a “well-funded” government.

Nobody can blame President Obama for our out of control debt and sluggish economy. Of course not. It’s former President Bush’s fault.

Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton isn’t responsible for the Benghazi attacks and four murdered Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens; it’s a congressional funding problem.

Business leaders and managers are less willing to give employees genuine feedback because they’re afraid of being sued or accused of harassment, discrimination, or being a bully. You can’t even compliment how someone looks or show any genuine emotions anymore. That might create a hostile work environment.

When you remove personal responsibility by telling people they’re doing great when they’re not and giving them stuff for doing nothing, in time, they feel like they deserve it. That’s where our growing entitlement culture is coming from.

And when we fail to provide people with incentives to work hard and live in a fiscally responsible way as a means to long-term happiness and security, guess what they do? They sit on their butts all day and Tweet, like, update, play games, watch reality TV, and get fatter and fatter.

And how about our growing youth violence problem? If you don’t teach children personal responsibility – adult responsibility – they never grow up. And what do children do when you don’t give them attention? They throw tantrums. And any good shrink will tell you, if children can’t get positive recognition, they’ll take negative attention instead. Anything that’s self-affirming, that feeds their egos.

While it’s clear that political correctness is reflective of our societal norms, it also influences where our culture is heading. If I’m not mistaken, it’s turning us into a nation of people who look like adults but act like entitled children, who act out when they don’t get what they want or feel they deserve.

How do we stop that from happening? Don’t be politically correct. Here’s how:

Behave like an adult.

Hold yourself and others accountable.

Don’t try to be something you’re not.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Have a sense of humor, humility, and perspective.

Work hard, play to win, and respect the competition.

Don’t be afraid to do the right thing, no matter what.

Be proud of yourself, your loved ones, and all your accomplishments.

By Steve Tobak, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consultant and former senior executive of the technology industry. Contact Tobak; follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

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Online Tax is Washington Money Grab That Will Hurt Small Business

April 23, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

One of the most controversial pieces of legislation currently making its way through the Senate is the Marketplace Fairness Act. In essence, it would allow states to collect taxes from online purchases even if the online store doesn’t have a physical presence in the state. Brick-and-mortar stores claim the bill levels the playing field with online retailers while opponents say it would put undue regulations on online businesses while making the tax code even more cumbersome. Guess which side the White House agrees with.

The Hill reports that the White House has formally announced its support for the Marketplace Fairness Act. The newfound endorsement was a key factor in the Senate voting in favor of the bill during a procedural vote on Monday evening.

The idea of an online sales tax is nothing new. Retail stores, represented by the National Retail Federation, have been pushing for an online sales tax bill for years after the Supreme Court ruled in Quill Corp v. North Dakota that a state could not levy sales tax against a company if it had no physical presence in the state. Numerous online retailers use this to get around sales tax, and retail stores say this gives them an unfair advantage.

The White House completely agrees. In a statement to the press on Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the bill would level the playing field for brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers:

“This administration has carefully considered the legislation, and our team has met with a broad array of people on the issue. And we have heard overwhelmingly from governors, mayors and the business community on the need for federal legislation to level the playing field for our businesses and address sales tax fairness.”

The Nation Retail Federation isn’t the only group pushing for the Senate to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act. Governors around the country, including Chris Christie of New Jersey and Rick Snyder of Michigan, have voiced their support for the bill. States are hurting for revenue, and they feel that a national mandate on sales tax will bring billions of revenue back to the states. Carney echoed the governors by saying that the potential tax revenue would help states fund “K-12 education, police and fire protection, access to affordable health care, and funding for roads and bridges.”

Even if the bill is able to pass the Senate during a final vote later this week, it faces plenty of opposition. The Republican-controlled House is just one of the many challenges the Marketplace Fairness Act faces as it progresses through the legislature. Obviously online businesses are coming out against it. Ebay has been especially hostile towards the legislation, and has even started recruiting its sellers to protest the bill.

The common complaint from Ebay and other businesses opposed is that the bill would put undue burdens on online retailers. The current tax system has created a symbiotic relationship between online companies and the states. The states attract online companies to set up a physical presence in a state through a number of perks while the company brings tax revenue and jobs to the state in question. A universal online sales tax destroys that relationship by making online companies collect sales taxes for states that they receive no benefit from.

The current legislation offers sales exemptions to online businesses that make less than $1 million annually. Ebay is currently lobbying Senators to add an amendment that would up this exemption to $10 million.

One company that’s already benefiting from that symbiotic relationship has come out strongly in favor of the bill though. Amazon, which has a number of distribution centers across the country, says that it favors the bill because it creates a unified national framework for tax collection.

Despite the Senate’s overwhelming support of the bill, TechDirt points out that Sen. Ron Wyden has come out strongly against it saying that it negatively impacts innovation.

Another group standing in the bill’s way is Wall Street as it argues that the legislation, as it stands, could negatively affect financial transactions. One group in particular, the Financial Services Roundtable, says that a sales tax on financial transactions would hurt just about everyone:

“A transaction tax on financial services products will hurt retail investors, retired Americans, and small businesses, effectively making it more expensive for them to invest and plan for the long-term. Without hearings, these implications and others will not be properly addressed.”

It should be noted that the Marketplace Fairness Act isn’t a done deal in the Senate. Monday’s vote was only procedural. Now the Senate will get to work on adding amendments to the bill with a final vote scheduled for Thursday or Friday.

Unless something disastrous happens, the bill will probably pass the Senate without much of a fight. A glowing endorsement from the White House has made sure of that.

During the debate in the Senate and the House, you’re likely to see the following argument – Do we even need an online sales tax bill? Is there any real reason to throw a bone to the retail businesses that implement stupid strategies like a $5 window shopping fee.

One compelling argument is that retail stores should find ways to better compete with online businesses. The retail store still has a few advantages over online businesses, but are they really capitalizing on those advantages?

At this point, it’s too early to tell exactly what kind of damage, if any, the Marketplace Fairness Act would cause. It could possibly do nothing, but some are right to fear that it would legitimately hurt the operations of online retailers.

Do you think that retail stores need a level playing field? Will the Marketplace Fairness Act negatively affect small online businesses?

Zach Walton is a Writer for WebProNews. He specializes in gaming and technology. Follow him on Twitter, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Google+ +Zach Walton

Obama Phones Cost $2.2 billion

April 23, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

What started out as an effort by President Reagan to help poor people in rural areas have a phone in cases of emergency has mushroomed into what critics suspect is a new welfare program.

“The cost has gone from $143 million a few years ago to $2.2 billion today,” Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter said, noting that today’s cost is 15 times what it was.

The cost of the program increased dramatically after cellphones were added in 2008. Only low-income people on welfare and food stamps legally qualify, but some lawmakers say the program is out of control.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, was incensed when she got an offer of a free phone.

“I got solicitation for a free phone at my apartment, which is certainly not a building where you’re going to have people who are qualified for free phones. … There is clearly money being wasted here.”

And Vitter adds, “The FCC, itself, said in a recent year there were 270,000 beneficiaries that had more than one of these subsidized cellphones. That’s completely against the law right there.”

Funded by a small tax on all phone bills, the program has exploded — with companies advertising free phones and offering 250 minutes.

Harold Feld of a group called Public Knowledge notes, “you have a lot of these prepaid-phone, no-contract options that are obviously very popular.”

The FCC told lawmakers the top five companies can’t verify the eligibility of 41 percent of those who get phones.

“I hear from law enforcement that these phones are often found at crime scenes and are used in drug deals,” Republican Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas said. “Why? It’s because you can’t trace them.”

“Just handing out phones willy nilly and allowing them to be sold on the black market,” Sen. McCaskill said. “This isn’t the way to do it, and we need to stop.”

Some recipients famously called them “Obama phones,” with one boasting to the media during the election that minorities should support the president precisely because he gave them free cellphones.

That is not true, and many are appalled by the abuse in the program. One supporter, however, argues cellphones are helpful because they’re not just for emergencies:

“It’s how we find jobs, it’s how we now participate in all the activities in the economy,” Feld said.

But McCaskill says those looking for work could simply check out a phone from the unemployment office or a shelter.

With so much abuse in the current program, she is now concerned about some new proposals: “What’s really worrisome to me is now the FCC wants to expand to this program into broadband. That’s a very bad idea, I think.”

She says such a waste of money makes taxpayers think government just isn’t paying attention. And she says the current program is so far out of control, we should simply scrap it and start over, not expand it.

By Jim Angle / Published April 22, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Dems Trying to Tax Online Shoppers

April 22, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday.

Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers a big advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

The bill would allow states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where shoppers live.

The Senate voted 74 to 20 to begin debating the bill. If that level of support continues, the Senate could pass the bill as early as this week.

Supporters say the bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for states. Opponents say it would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn’t have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.

“I believe it is important to level the playing field for all retailers,” said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill’s main sponsor. “We should not be subsidizing some taxpayers at the expense of others.”

In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state income tax returns. However, states complain that few people comply.

“I do know about three people that comply with that,” Enzi said.

President Barack Obama supports the bill, but its fate is uncertain in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. Heritage Action for America, the activist arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, opposes the bill and will count the vote in its legislative scorecard.

Many of the nation’s governors — Republicans and Democrats — have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales, said Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association. Those efforts intensified when state tax revenues took hit from the recession and the slow economic recovery.

“It’s a matter of equity for businesses,” Crippen said. “It’s a matter of revenue for states.”

The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. The National Retail federation supports it. And Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it, too.

“Amazon.com has long supported a simplified nationwide approach that is evenhandedly applied and applicable to all but the smallest volume sellers,” Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president of global public policy said in a recent letter to senators.

On the other side, eBay has been rallying customers to oppose the bill.

“I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea,” eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said in a letter to customers. “Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business.”

The bill is also opposed by senators from states that have no sales tax, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

“Supporters of this online sales tax bill are trying to muscle it through before senators find out how disastrous it would be for businesses in their states,” Ayotte said. “I will fight this power grab every step of the way to protect small online businesses in New Hampshire and across the nation.”

Baucus said the bill would require relatively small Internet retailers to comply with sales tax laws in thousands of jurisdictions.

“This legislation doesn’t help businesses expand and grow and hire more employees,” Baucus said. “Instead, it forces small businesses to hire expensive lawyers and accountants to deal with the burdensome paperwork and added complexity of tax rules and filings across multiple states.”

But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the bill requires participating states to make it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don’t have to send them to individual counties or cities.

“We’re way beyond the quilt pen and leger days,” Durbin said. “Thanks to computers and thanks to software it is not that complex.”

Published April 22, 2013 / Associated Press

Trial Begins for Dem Officials in Obama-Clinton Ballot Petition Fraud

April 22, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The trial is underway for a former Democratic official and a Board of Elections worker who are accused of being part of a plot that has raised questions over whether President Obama’s campaign — when he was a candidate in 2008 — submitted enough legitimate signatures to have legally qualified for the presidential primary ballot.

The two face charges of orchestrating an illegal scheme to fake the petitions that enabled then-candidates Obama, and Hillary Clinton, to qualify for the race in Indiana.

Former longtime St. Joseph County Democratic Party Chairman Butch Morgan Jr. faces multiple felony conspiracy counts to commit petition fraud, and former county Board of Elections worker Dustin Blythe is charged with nine felony forgery counts and one felony count of falsely making a petition of nomination. The proceedings began Monday in South Bend.

Morgan is accused of being the mastermind behind the plot, by allegedly ordering Democratic officials and workers to fake the names and signatures that Obama and Clinton needed to qualify for the presidential race. Blythe, then a Board of Elections employee and Democratic Party volunteer, has been accused of carrying out those orders by forging signatures on Obama’s petitions.

Two former Board of Elections officials have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme and could testify against Morgan and Blythe.

Former board worker Beverly Shelton, who allegedly was assigned the task of forging the petitions for Hillary Clinton, pleaded guilty in March to charges of forgery and falsely making a petition. The board’s former Democratic head of voter registration, Pam Brunette, pleaded guilty in April to felony forgery, official misconduct, and falsifying a petition.

The alleged scheme was hatched in January of 2008, according to affidavits from investigators who cite former Board of Registration worker Lucas Burkett, who told them he was in on the plan at first, but then became uneasy and quit. He waited three years before telling authorities about it, but if revelations about any forgeries were raised during the election, the petitions could have been challenged during the contest. Any candidate who did not qualify with enough legitimate signatures at the time could have been bounced from the ballot.

The Indiana trial has raised questions about whether in 2008, candidate Obama actually submitted enough legitimate signatures to have legally qualified.

Under state law, presidential candidates need to qualify for the primary ballots with 500 signatures from each of the state’s nine congressional districts. Indiana election officials say that in St. Joseph County, which is the 2nd Congressional District, the Obama campaign qualified with 534 signatures; Clinton’s camp had 704.

Prosecutors say that in Obama’s case, nine of the petition pages were apparently forged. Each petition contains up to 10 names, making a possible total of 90 names, which, if faked, could have brought the Obama total below the legal limit required to qualify. Prosecutors say 13 Clinton petitions were apparently forged, meaning up to 130 possibly fake signatures. Even if 130 signatures had been challenged, it would have still left Clinton with enough signatures to meet the 500-person threshold.

Numerous voters told Fox News that they never signed the petitions.

“That’s not my signature,” Charity Rorie, a mother of four, told Fox News when showed the Obama petition with her name and signature. She said it “absolutely” was a fake.

Charity told Fox News that her husband’s entry was also a forgery, and that they have not been contacted by investigators or any authorities looking into the scandal.

“It’s scary, it’s shocking. It definitely is illegal. A lot of people have already lost faith in politics and the whole realm of politics, so that just solidifies our worries and concerns.”

Robert Hunter, Jr. said his name was faked, too.

Even a former Democratic Governor of Indiana, Joe Kernan, told Fox News that his name was forged.

The allegations were first uncovered by Indiana native and Yale University senior Ryan Nees, who wrote about the revelations for the political newsletter, Howey Politics Indiana.

“What’s worrisome about this scheme is that it wasn’t a single bad actor going rogue. Rather, four people were charged as co-conspirators, and two of the four have already pleaded guilty,” Nees told Fox News.

Nees believes that had the petitions been challenged during the presidential election, “it’s unlikely either candidate would have qualified for the ballot.”

He said the fraud was clearly evident, “because page after page of signatures are all in the same handwriting.” He noted that no one raised any red flags “because election workers in charge of verifying their validity were the same people faking the signatures.”

Both Morgan and Blythe have pleaded not guilty, and when approached by Fox News in 2011, Blythe refused to talk about the case.

Morgan’s attorney declined our request for an interview, and Blythe’s attorney has not responded to our efforts for comment.

The petition process is vital to candidates’ campaigns.

In the 2012 presidential race, Republican candidate Newt Gingrich was tripped up by that process in Virginia. He failed to qualify for the GOP primary ballot in that state, because authorities said hundreds of signatures on his campaign’s petitions were faked. A Gingrich campaign worker has pleaded guilty, and another still faces charges.

Petition fraud also cost Michigan Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter his public office. McCotter, who also ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, has accused former campaign workers of intentionally faking his congressional primary race petition signatures. The result was that McCotter did not submit the legal number of signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, and that failure forced him to resign his congressional seat last July. While McCotter was not implicated in any wrongdoing, two former campaign aides pleaded no contest to criminal charges, and one pleaded guilty.

By Eric Shawn / Published April 22, 2013 / Meredith Amor contributed to this report.

Wife of Dead Islamic Terrorist ‘Brainwashed’

April 22, 2013 By Editor 1 Comment

Federal investigators want to speak with the widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Muslim convert and mother of their 3-year-old daughter, according to the Rhode Island woman’s attorney.Investigators went to the suburban Rhode Island home of Tsarnaev’s in-laws Sunday evening, where Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, 24, has been staying. Lawyer Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press that she did not speak with them and they are discussing how to proceed.

“I spoke to them, and that’s all I can say right now,” DeLuca said. “We’re deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this.”

DeLuca also provided new details on Tsarnaev’s movements in the days following the bombings, saying the last day he was alive that “he was home” when Russell left for work. When asked whether anything seemed amiss to his wife following the bombings, DeLuca replied: “Not as far as I know.” He said she learned her husband was a suspect in the bombings by seeing it on television and did not elaborate.

“I saw her like a few months ago and she was just totally transformed. She was not the same person at all.”- Former classmate of Katherine Russell

DeLuca said Russell did not suspect her husband of anything, and that there was no reason for her to have suspected him. He said she had been working 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week as a home health care aide. While she was at work, Tsarneav, 26, cared for their toddler daughter, DeLuca said.

“When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family,” DeLuca told The Associated Press, adding that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was off at college and she saw him “not at all” at the apartment they shared with her mother-in-law.

All-American girl drops out and converts to Islam for terrorist husband

On Friday, the woman’s mother handed reporters a statement referring to the “horrible tragedy” that occurred at the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 176 others.

“Our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child,” the statement read. “We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. In the aftermath of the Patriots’ Day horror, we know that we never really knew Tamerlane [sic] Tsarnaev. Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted. Please respect our family’s privacy in this difficult time.”

Russell, according to reports, was “totally transformed” by Tsarnaev after meeting him. By age 21, she had married him and borne his daughter, Zahara, who is now 3 years old, the Daily Mail reports. She also converted to Islam and underwent a change so profound that few friends truly understood the sizable shift.

“I saw her like a few months ago and she was just totally transformed,” one former classmate told the newspaper. “She was not the same person at all.”

Another former classmate said the “All-American” girl had been “brainwashed” by her super-religious husband.

“Nobody understands what happened to her,” she told the newspaper of Russell. “None of us would have dreamed that she would marry so young or drop out of college and have a baby or convert or be part of any of what’s happened … She’s just not the same person at all.”

In 2004, Katherine Russell began studying at North Kingstown High School, where she was a member of the dance team and was recognized for a drawing of a cat in 11th grade. She also competed with fellow classmates during the school’s class color day.

“The thing that’s so shocking is that there was nothing at all that made Katherine different,” another classmate told the Daily Mail. “Her parents are nice people, her sisters are great girls. But she met this guy, I guess, and everything changed.”

Russell later met Tsarnaev while she was a student at Boston’s Suffolk University. Soon thereafter, she converted and her priorities seemingly changed, as she left the school in 2010 without graduating. Months earlier, in July 2009, Tsarnaev was arrested for allegedly assaulting Russell, who described Tsarnaev to authorities as a “very nice man,” the newspaper reports.

Russell, in her high school yearbook, provided a quotation that would seemingly coincide with the extremist views of her late husband.

“Don’t take anything for granted,” Russell wrote, before quoting a line from David Bowie’s Quicksand. “Don’t believe in yourself, don’t deceive with belief … Knowledge comes from death’s release.”

Published April 22, 2013 / FoxNews.com /The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Abortion Clinic Atrocities Trial

April 20, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The trial of the abortion doctor that the media are trying to keep away from the public

Five weeks into the murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a woman who was trained only as a medical assistant testified that she administered anesthesia to patients when she worked with Gosnell at his Women’s Medical Society clinic in West Philadelphia.

The assistant, Latosha Lewis, also testified Wednesday that she would sometimes cut the dosages of anesthesia and painkillers after seeing patients she feared would not wake up from sedation.

Lewis, 31, said that she stopped assisting with abortions in 2008, but continued to give out medications in her role as clerk.

Gosnell is accused of the 2009 overdose death of a female patient and the deaths of seven babies, who were allegedly born alive. His lawyer, Jack McMahon, says there were no live births at the clinic and argues the woman died of unforeseen complications.

Gosnell could face the death penalty, if he is convicted, on seven counts of first-degree murder.

The prosecutors may rest their case Thursday.

The charges against Gosnell, 72, include the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old Virginia woman who died in 2009 after seeking an abortion at Gosnell’s clinic. On Tuesday, Mongar’s daughter, Yashoda Gurung, testified about the painkiller and labor-inducing drugs her mother was administered while awaiting Gosnell to arrive and perform a second-trimester abortion.

Gurung, 24, said through a Nepalese interpreter that she had tried to see her mother before she was moved into the procedure room on Nov. 19, 2009.

“My mom was sleeping,” Gurung told jurors. “That’s what I thought. I tried to wake her up and the lady said, ‘Leave her alone.’”

Prosecutors allege Gosnell’s untrained, unlicensed staff gave Mongar a fatal combination of oral and intravenous drugs and failed to properly monitor her vital signs. She went into cardiac arrest and a coma and died the following day. McMahon has countered that Mongar, who was 19 weeks pregnant at the time, had unreported respiratory damage and died of complications.

Damber Ghalley, Mongar’s brother, testified Tuesday he was told Mongar’s situation was “bad” when she arrived for the procedure. Ghalley said she spoke to Gosnell as she was being led to an ambulance.

Abortion doctor on trial for murdering live birth babies during partial birth abortions

“He said, ‘The procedure was done,’” he told jurors. “Your sister’s heart stopped.”

Gosnell faces a third-degree murder charge in Mongar’s death.

Gosnell’s co-defendant is also calling witnesses Thursday.

Eileen O’Neill, an unlicensed doctor, of Phoenixville, is charged with racketeering and theft for allegedly billing as a doctor.

On Thursday, a prosecution witness testified that she waited hours for “the doctor” to show at the clinic, then received two pills from O’Neill for a non-surgical abortion.

The woman said on cross-examination that she did not know if O’Neill consulted with a doctor that day.

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

Grisly Details At Abortion Doctor Murder Trial

April 20, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

The Philadelphia abortion doctor accused of killing a patient and several babies failed to take basic precautions, according to an industry colleague who testified Monday as the trial of Kermit Gosnell entered its fifth week.

Dr. Charles Benjamin said he never performs abortions on women pregnant for more than 21 weeks, three weeks under the limit imposed by law in Pennsylvania. But Gosnell, who is charged with murder, is accused of terminating pregnancies much later, even causing the deaths of seven babies who were born alive. National interest in the trial, which threatens to expose the horror of the illegal abortion mills, continued to build Monday, with President Obama’s spokesman saying the commander in chief is aware of the stomach-turning allegations in the trial.

Gosnell, 72, was arrested two years ago, and faces the death penalty. Witnesses have told the court of infants being decapitated and baby feet being stored in jars at the clinic. Eight former workers at the clinic have been charged, and three have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. Defense lawyer Jack McMahon has maintained that no babies were born alive.

Several patients and former employees have testified about conditions at Gosnell’s clinic, some describing doing ultrasounds, giving intravenous drugs and helping with abortions despite having no training.

Prosecutors said Gosnell made millions over three decades by performing illegal, late-term abortions. They allegedly found about $250,000 in cash at his home in a low-income section of Philadelphia after a 2010 raid of his clinic.

by FoxNews.com

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