I AM A DIASPORAL JEW OF THE ASHKENAZ TRIBE AND I HEREBY DECLARE BUELAHMAN AND LYNDA OF BUELAHMAN'S REDSTATE REVOLT TO BE ABSOLUTELY FREE OF ANTI-SEMITISM OF ANY KIND. THEIR VIEWS ON AMERICA'S ISRAEL POLICY IS THE SAME AS MINE. IT IS THE SAME AS WELL OVER 30% OF THE ISRAELI PEOPLE AND OVER 70% OF THE DIASPORAL ASHKENAZ COMMUNITY IN THE WORLD OUTSIDE BOTH THE UNITED STATES AND ISRAEL.
Archive for the ‘Campaign for America's Future’ Category
Facts
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States.
By the fall of 1621 only half of the pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived. The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to give a thanksgiving feast.
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada.
The Plymouth Pilgrims were the first to celebrate the Thanksgiving.
The pilgrims arrived in North America in December 1620.
The Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America.
The pilgrims sailed on the ship, which was known by the name of ‘Mayflower’.
They celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day in the fall of 1621.
They celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The drink that the Puritans brought with them in the Mayflower was the beer.
The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.
The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford, had organized the first Thanksgiving feast in the year 1621 and invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians also to the feast.
The first Thanksgiving feast was held in the presence of around ninety Wampanoag Indians and the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, was also invited there.
The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.
President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in the year 1789 and again in 1795.
The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817.
Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor with a magazine, started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827 and it was result of her efforts that in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer.
Abraham Lincoln issued a ‘Thanksgiving Proclamation’ on third October 1863 and officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving. Whereas earlier the presidents used to make an annual proclamation to specify the day when Thanksgiving was to be held.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt restored Thursday before last of November as Thanksgiving Day in the year 1939. He did so to make the Christmas shopping season longer and hus stimulate the economy of the state.
Congress passed an official proclamation in 1941 and declared that now onwards Thanksgiving will be observed as a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November every year.
People are people everywhere we go aren’t they. I had prior looked into a company called ‘PLUG’ and it actually has stock– it is wave energy. Now listening to this I kept answering outloud… ” Hell we can’t get people to stop killing people and you want to change people into tree planters. Well and good but in a world gone mad… well, really… what are we doing??? and for heavens sake… Carbon Credits exchanged globally– and Carbon swopping??? Geeeeeeeeece
All you people falling for the corptocracy view that universal healthcare would ruin what we have (causing you to have poor healthcare), you must be so far gone that you, yourself, are in urgent need of mental healthcare (either that or you are so wealthy or never had a health issue, which just makes you a callous asshole). Surely you understand that some of the best run “socialized” organizations are government funded (and run). And that we are already funding most of American’s health through some kind of tax payer funded system.
So many people believe that the vast amount of people in America are covered through employee based systems, but the numbers don’t jive and when you break it down the way Sara Robinson does in her Campaign for America’s Future article entitled, “Goverment-Funded Health Care? We’re Already Two-Thirds There“, you see that in reality, we already have government funded health insurance for 2/3’s of Americans.
32%
The percentage of Americans who receive employer-based insurance.
68%
The percentage of Americans who already receive some form of publicly supported health care; 43 percent directly; 25 percent indirectly because they are uninsured and thus the cost of their care is subsidized.
Sara then goes on to break it down:
This is the kind of fact that most of us know in our bones has to be true somehow. But it turns out there’s no “maybe” about it. Let’s look at the numbers.
The Fortunate 43 Percent: The Ones We Cover Directly
About 43 percent of all Americans are already getting health care that’s directly paid for, one way or another, by some level of government. Here’s the breakdown:
In addition, there are an estimated 10 million+ full-time federal contract workers. They’re getting their insurance from their own employers; but since these are government contracts, we’re still paying their bills in the end.
(Note, however, that this 32 million figure doesn’t include these workers’ dependents. I made the conservative assumption that most government employees pay an extra out-of-pocket premium for dependent coverage. To the extent that that assumption is wrong, we may also be covering at least some of these workers’ spouses and kids.)
Active duty service members also get free coverage for their dependents. Assuming a ratio of one dependent per active duty service member, that adds another 700,000 Americans getting their care from military doctors.
3 million miscellaneous—This includes 2.3 million Americans in county, state, and federal prisons; 200,000 whose insurance is subsidized by state high-risk pools; and 400,000 Native Americans whose care is provided through tribal health services subsidized by some combination of their own tribal governments and the federal government.
TOTAL: This adds up to about 120,200,000 Americans whose health care coverage is directly paid for by the government. I’m sure there were pockets that were missed by this accounting, and I encourage readers to write and tell me about thtme.
I should now interject (read the entire article breakdown there) and explain that when someone says, “Government funded” that means YOUR MONEY! You know that, right?
Then, when you add those that are uninsured (like I am about to be), then it will be YOUR MONEY that helps pay for my burden on the scam system. The very best way to control costs is to cut out that bloated blood sucker, health insurance companies. They make it far more expensive and far less effective than many other places in the world.
Thirty-two percent. If private employer-based insurance plans aren’t even serving a third of the country any more, why on earth should Congress put the least bit of time or money into preserving them? And as long as so many of us now depend on this broad patchwork of federal, state, local, single-payer, socialized, private-insurer based plans—all paid for, one way or another, with our tax dollars—how much money could we save by simply putting everyone on Medicare, and calling it good?
Sixty-eight percent. Government-funded care is already working well for 43 percent of us, and could be working far better (on much less money) for the other 25 percent.
We are only propping up a blood-sucking leech of a system by keeping health insurance (in any form of the healthcare system) in this country. Cut them off and do this right. (I’m talkig to you, Marsha Blackburn and all the rest of you supposeded “representatives”).
I plan to document my family’s slow death spiral because of it (including the latest story of my mother-in-law who has been in the ER and shipped 1.5 hours to Memphis 3 times in the last month). And yet without a diagnosis. My family drove over 5,000 miles last year for doctor’s visits because you cannot get the care closer. I spent $23,940 last year (and I haven’t figured in the gas or the mileage).
It is a money-making scheme more than any desire or “oath” to help people get well (and run as imbecilic as humanly possible as well). My entire history in healthcare has been a huge cluster f#ck with one sole exception, Dr Richard David at Vanderbilt Hospital.
47 years of healthcare and one good example. Yeah, we have the good shit here, right… dumbass.
Let Bill Maher speak for me and explain how nice it would be to actually have some sort of competent “socialized” agency working healthcare, say like firefighters or policemen or dare we say it, even the post office.
The Obama Promise Tracker is an electronic tool with which to follow all the promises the new President has made – 895 by its inventor Todd Smiths count. Of these 895 promises, made between February 10 2007 – the day he announced his candidacy – and November 4 – the day he was announced President-elect – 14 are tagged under “Foreign Policy, Israel”.
The first, “I will bring to the White House an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security”, is a commitment hard to define. Obama also promised to make the peace process “a key diplomatic priority”. This is easier to check, and one Obama is evidently serious about. Proof: the appointment of George Mitchell as special envoy to the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Mitchell is not new to this contentious conflict. He was in the Middle East over eight years ago, appointed by President Bill Clinton, to report on the raging second intifada. The report was not very helpful. The intifada continued. One of his recommended measures was not well received by the Israeli government: to halt development in the settlements, including measures taken to meet the needs of “natural growth”.
“We can’t ask people not to have children. We can’t ask the children not to live with their families,” Israeli opponents claimed.
Mitchell is coming back to a different Middle East. In the past eight years Yasir Arafat died, the intifada was defeated, Israel evacuated Gaza and Hamas was elected. Mitchell will find a Palestinian leader who is willing but incapable and a new Israeli government that needs time to organize. A realistic, modest approach will have to be formulated. One thing can ignite some friction: the man who wanted a total settlement freeze cannot be expected to let Israel off on illegal outposts. The promise that Israel made to evacuate them will have to be executed. This might be possible for a government of the right-centre (more likely) or centre-left (less so, according to polls). It will be very difficult for a government of the right, headed by Likuds Binyamin Netanyahu and supported by right-wing parties only. Netanyahu knows that for his own good, he needs Labor, Kadima or both as part of his coalition.
But for most Israelis, Obama’s commitment will not be tested in Palestine, but rather in Iran. Smith’s Promise Tracker notes three promises: “incentives” for Iran to abandon its nuclear program; a promise to “tighten sanctions”; and “direct diplomacy, without preconditions”. This will be enough only if Iran agrees.
Obama has not always been consistent regarding Iran. Earlier this week, I sent Smith a quote from my May 2007 interview with Obama: “I don’t think it would be appropriate for us to engage in full-scale diplomatic discussions without some progress or some indication of good faith on the part of the Iranians,” the then senator said. “I do think the US needs to send a signal to Iran that if they change their behavior that they have avenues available to them for improved international relations.”
This assertion somewhat contradicts his later promise for unconditional high-level talks. Smith will add the quote to the next edition of the Obama Promise Tracker. This will present a dilemma to those following these promises: do they want the first promise to materialize, or the second?
Well, after watching ‘history’ today… I noticed a topic I do desire to ask all of you about. Bear with me as I set this topic up and then ask a few questions. Do those who chose to be the ones ‘recording’ history for our country as well as the world have the right or obligation to alter the ‘realism’, truth of reflection regarding it? To delete, or ignore parts etc out of it as a rationalization of using kindness or respect? Sounds nice and right– but I disagree! I can recall critics of the Statue of Iwo Jima [which was made after the photograph of those who actually did raise the flag]… say that that statue should of reflected a black, an Indian and a woman. Well that to me would have been a distorted reflection and not true at all.
So– when the reality of the history today was recorded… those who held the power over the audio and cameras decided to not pan the masses when Bush was announced… and turned down the audio. This to me was not a ‘real’ entry into the ledger of history. No matter the day– the chips should of fell the way he himself had caused his presence to effect the people of this country. Obama didn’t hedge in his speech regarding those that failed the country. He even made many pointed remarks about Bush in my opinion.
>
“…a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some,…”
“…false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics….”
“…that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply…”
“..And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government….”
“…we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals…” [I love that nice way of calling someone a liar]
This only took 8 years to do!!
“..”Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].” <
So, whatever did or didn’t happen in that slice of time will only be told by those there… independently.
If we demand that Cheney turn papers over for historical reasons, we demand truth in all things, then I personally took offence to the fact that the media decided to edit anything. The media must join the train of change… and what led us all to the gates of hell prior to this day, was our own complacency. Today was not the day to not expect the true reflection of all things about this day that made it what it was.
Our troops in Afghanistan prove they’ve retained their
sense of humor with the following:
“YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF….”
1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral
objection to beer.
2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher,
but you can’t afford shoes for your kids.
3. You have more wives than teeth.
4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider
bacon “unclean.”
5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and
suicide.
6. You can’t think of anyone you haven’t declared Jihad
against.
7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry
explosives in your clothing.
8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses
other than setting off roadside bombs.
9. You have nothing against women and think every man
should own several.
10 You’ve always had a crush on your neighbor’s goat.
I wonder how many of you remember 1975? I was young, but I remember the recession and how it affected my family and how we almost lost everything (and my dad owned a drugstore and was a Pharmacist. I remember the 21% interest rate. I remember the hard times, even though I was too young to hold a job (even though I worked at our drugstore for $.50/hour). All the kids old enough (13 or 14) worked at that store for peanuts. We had to, to get by. I even remember my dad bartering as much or more with medicines in our poor community for eggs, beef, sausage and auto repair (which barely scratches the list).
Folks, if you still deny how serious things are, then you simply are ignorant and there is nothing that can be done for you. However, if you are aware and are concerned or down-right frightened, you should be and at least you are thinking about it.
The fact is that they (the TV, Politicians, punditry, etc) will not say these things because they are so gloomy and we are not to be panicked. But we must face reality and if anyone in their right mind thinks that getting $500 in “incentives” will help you, then there is no real help for you, the insane. How many of you are planning on donning the orange vest and hold a flag as we rebuild the roads in America (I think it pays about $8/hr)?
The US private sector shed 693,000 jobs in December, according to a closely watched survey of business employment published on Wednesday.
The monthly ADP Employer Services survey, which tracks private non-farm payroll employment, was much worse than economists expected and a surprising increase from the 476,000 jobs lost in November.
The decline was the worst in the history of the survey, which began reporting in 2001. If the results are matched by the official government labour report, due on Friday, it would be the biggest employment drop since the 1975 recession.
“It’s just a bad sign and shows that things are definitely going to get worse before they get better,” said Ben Herzog, senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisors.
The services sector was hit the hardest, shedding 473,000 jobs in December, followed by the goods-producing sector which lost 220,000 jobs and manufacturing which lost 120,000.
B’Man: Please note that December is one of the months not normally ‘grow’ the service sector, because more stores normally hire sales help. And as the article explains, this is across the board. Small, medium and large companies are struggling and laying off, downsizing or closing altogether.
“The drop in ADP employment in December is staggering and suggests that our original projection of a 500,000 decline in payrolls in December is too small,” wrote John Ryding and Conrad DeQuadros, economists at RDQ Economics in a research note.
The official employment numbers on Friday could show that as many as 700,000 jobs were lost in December, according to Ian Sheperdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics. That would be the biggest drop in 59 years.
“This is shockingly awful,” Mr Sheperdson said. “We await Friday with trepidation.”
B’Man: Please read the entire article if you want to get your head out of the sand.
FRANCISCO – Users of all current versions of Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer browser might be vulnerable to having their computers hijacked because of a serious security hole in the software that had yet to be fixed Monday.
The flaw lets criminals commandeer victims’ machines merely by tricking them into visiting Web sites tainted with malicious programming code. As many as 10,000 sites have been compromised since last week to exploit the browser flaw, according to antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc.
The sites are mostly Chinese and have been serving up programs that steal passwords for computer games, which can be sold for money on the black market. However, the hole is such that it could be “adopted by more financially motivated criminals for more serious mayhem — that’s a big fear right now,” Paul Ferguson, a Trend Micro security researcher, said Monday.
“Zero-day” vulnerabilities like this are security holes that haven’t been repaired by the software makers. They’re a gold mine for criminals because users have few ways to fight off attacks.
The latest vulnerability is noteworthy because Internet Explorer is the default browser for most of the world’s computers. Also, while Microsoft says it has detected attacks only against version 7 of Internet Explorer, which is the most widely used edition, the company warned that other versions are also potentially vulnerable.
Microsoft said it is investigating the flaw and is considering fixing it through an emergency software patch outside of its normal monthly updates, but declined further comment. The company is telling users to employ a series of complicated workarounds to minimize the threat.
Many security experts, meanwhile, are urging Internet Explorer users to use another browser until a patch is released.
Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Published: December 10, 2008 | Updated: December 13, 2008
Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Our investigation so far has shown that these attacks are only against Windows Internet Explorer 7 on supported editions of Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, and Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 on all supported versions of Microsoft Windows are potentially vulnerable.
This update to the advisory contains information about a new workaround and a recommendation on the most effective workarounds.
The vulnerability exists as an invalid pointer reference in the data binding function of Internet Explorer. When data binding is enabled (which is the default state), it is possible under certain conditions for an object to be released without updating the array length, leaving the potential to access the deleted object’s memory space. This can cause Internet Explorer to exit unexpectedly, in a state that is exploitable.
At this time, we are aware only of limited attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability against Windows Internet Explorer 7. Our investigation of these attacks so far has verified that they are not successful against customers who have applied the workarounds listed in this advisory. Additionally, there are mitigations that increase the difficulty of exploiting this vulnerability.
We are actively working with partners in our
Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) and our Microsoft Security Response Alliance (MSRA) programs to provide information that they can use to provide broader protections to customers. In addition, we’re actively working with partners to monitor the threat landscape and take action against malicious sites that attempt to exploit this vulnerability. Current trending indicates that there may be attempts to utilize SQL Injection attacks against Web sites to load attack code on those Web sites. If you’re a Web site operation, please review Microsoft Security Advisory (954462), which provides information on tools you can use to analyze your Web site’s code to help protect against SQL Injection attacks.We are actively investigating the vulnerability that these attacks attempt to exploit. We will continue to monitor the threat environment and update this advisory if this situation changes. On completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include providing a solution through a service pack, our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.
Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow the “Protect Your Computer” guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Additional information can be found at
Protected Mode in Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 in Windows Vista limits the impact of the vulnerability.
•
By default, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 runs in a restricted mode that is known as
Enhanced Security Configuration. This mode sets the security level for the Internet zone to High. This is a mitigating factor for Web sites that you have not added to the Internet Explorer Trusted sites zone.
•
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less affected than users who operate with administrative user rights.
•
Currently known attacks cannot exploit this issue automatically through e-mail.
For the last two weeks I have wondered where the f– the web-mail log-ins with odd names were coming up for. I kept thinking : Has my server changed?” Thank goodness I just clicked onto something else.
This drives me NUTS! In my field of Social Work [years ago]… I can not even begin to tell you how many soldiers were lost due to PTSD ‘after’ being placed into unjust wars much less insane circumstances. WWI saw this very same thing– as well as WWII. No one wanted to se it for what it is. It is about time someone woke up and made this program a reality! It should of been S.O.P. anyway years and years ago!
Filner Advocates ‘De-Boot Camp’ for GIs
November 22, 2008The Washington Post
A key House leader is proposing to establish a “de-boot camp,” where returning service members would undergo mandatory diagnosis for brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in order to reduce instances of domestic violence and suicide.
Rep. Bob Filner, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said Wednesday he will lobby the Obama administration for the de-boot camp and other new initiatives for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as veterans from the Vietnam era.
“There were more suicides [postwar] by Vietnam veterans than those who died in the war. We cannot make the same mistakes again. Mental illness is an injury that has to be dealt with,”Mr. Filner said during an editorial board at The Washington Times. “We all have to understand what they are facing. We all have to understand PTSD.”
The California Democrat said he wants the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to reduce a backlog of claims by granting all claims made by Vietnam veterans who say they suffer illnesses from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.
He said he also advocates a “radical” new approach to veterans health care that would allow veterans living in rural areas to have more choices to access health care, even private alternatives, rather than travel hundreds of miles to veterans hospitals.
Mr. Filner, who is not a veteran himself but represents a large veterans constituency in the San Diego area, said he would even support privatizing psychological care for veterans suffering from PTSD.
Many active-duty personnel are returning home as veterans who are “wounded psychologically,” he said during an hourlong meeting with editors and reporters. “If they don’t kill their wives or themselves, they end up homeless.”
“Something is going on that we are not dealing with,” said Mr. Filner, 66.
With a survival rate at 95 percent, nearly 1 million new veterans will emerge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The psychological wounds are going to last a very long time,” Mr. Filner said. “The public has to support the new veterans.”
After the Vietnam War, there was a failure to distinguish between the war and the warrior that lead to social displacement, mental disorders, homelessness and even suicide, Mr. Filner said.
News reports suggest that as many as 1,000 veterans a month attempt suicide. A third of those diagnosed with PTSD have committed felonies, Mr. Filner said.
“This is a moral issue, and I think [President-elect Barack] Obama will agree with that,” he said.
The “de-boot camp” Mr. Filner envisions could last weeks, even a month, to prepare the military and National Guardsmen to re-enter society. It would include mandatory evaluations by medical professionals to diagnose brain injuries and PTSD.
Currently, the military only offers a two-hour lecture in which “kids are falling asleep,” Mr. Filner said. “It’s so boring.”
While diagnosis would be mandatory, seeking psychological help would be voluntary. Such help would include educational and vocational counseling and would involve spouses and family.
Mr. Filner said he would like to see more access to necessary private hospital care for seriously wounded veterans in rural areas where they may not have the major medical facilities that are available in urban centers.
“In terms of access to that care for rural veterans, who may be away from main centers where their community may have good care, they ought to be far more open to specialties that may not be available within their locale, then we ought to get them into the private system as quick as we can,” he said.
Unfortunately, VA hospital officials all too often are “very hesitant about doing it” because of cost considerations, he said. “They don’t want” care delivered outside the VA hospital system “because if everyone is going to the Mayo Clinic, it’s going to cost a lot.”
But Mr. Filner said he favors expanding access to private care “in certain situations for rural veterans in some specialty areas,” adding that “they’ve got to be far more open and quick about allowing that to happen.”
Mr. Filner also addressed The Washington Times/ABC News investigation into ethical questions about experiments that involve human subjects — specifically, the smoking-cessation drug Chantix that has been linked to dozens of suicides and suicidal behavior.
A study that specifically targeted veterans suffering from PTSD included more than 100 who were taking the drug, but the VA failed to notify the participants of the new Food and Drug Administration warnings until nearly three months later.
“There has got to be really tight kinds of controls on this kind of research,” said Mr. Filner, who expressed disappointment that the VA did not pull the program, which he said was “problematic” for “fragile” veterans.
The entire culture at the VA must be overhauled, Mr. Filner said.
“For a lot of veterans, VA means advisory instead of advocate,” he said. “People in there are really good people, they just need to be inspired.”
It was in the mid-eighties when I had watched the made for TV Movie about Steven Stayner. To this day it has had an impact on me. I had always felt that the man that had abducted him was the one who ran him over, because he was out of jail prior to the upcoming trial… and Steven was the ONLY star witness as to all that had been done to himself as well as others. Anyway– the story just reopens may thoughts I have about how fucked up our system is. I don’t know what the answer is… but I just can’t understand , for example, why the man in Florida who tortured then buried alive that little girl is still breathing?
AND– Stevens brother got so screwed up upon Stevens return and that entire situation, no one seemed to notice the red flags all around him. He was the one who ended up killing that mother, daughter and daughters best friend in the National Forest a few years back. Geeeeeeeeeeeece.
Former AT&T technician Mark Klein and internet expert Brian Reid describe an NSA listening room that Klein discovered while working at the company’s operations center. In “Spying on the Home Front” FRONTLINE talks to intelligence insiders and asks: Is the Bush administration’s domestic war on terrorism jeopardizing our civil liberties?
In “Spying on the Home Front,” Reporter Hedrick Smith presents new material on how the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program works and examines clashing viewpoints on whether the President has violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and infringed on constitutional protections.
In another dramatic story, the program shows how the FBI vacuumed up records on 250,000 ordinary Americans who chose Las Vegas as the destination for their Christmas-New Year’s holiday, and the subsequent revelation that the FBI has misused National Security Letters to gather information. Probing such projects as Total Information Awareness, and its little known successors, Smith discloses that even former government intelligence officials now worry that the combination of new security threats, advances in communications technologies, and radical interpretations of presidential authority may be threatening the privacy of Americans. ,
THIS IS A ‘MUST READ’ IF YOU ARE TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE TAX SYSTEM WORKS…
Bar Stool Economics…..
This is ‘crystal’ clear…
EXACTLY how the system works (or… FAILS ! ! ! ) whether you like beer or not is immaterial…
Never did I have it explained to me as eloquently and succinctly as the professor explained below!
Having beer in the story makes it even better and more personal!
Bar stool economics:
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.’
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers?
How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.
But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before.
And the first four continued to drink for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten
times more than I.’
‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man.
‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all.
The system exploits the poor!’
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.
The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen , Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
BuelahMan
Lynda
kelsosnuts
