Big Sister Intimidation: TSA to investigate OPT-OUT man

The TSA has announced that they will investigate the man that Opted-out of a full-body scan and explained "If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested."

Did Aguilar [,chief of the San Diego TSA office,] feel the TSA was set up?
"I don’t know that it was an actual set up," said Aguilar, "but we are concerned that this passenger did have his recording prior to entering the checkpoint so there is some concern that it was an intentional behavior on his part."  READ MORE

First of all, this is a dangerous trend that is becoming more and more common.  The trend is that the government, and agencies working directly for the government, feel that a citizen is not ALLOWED to make recordings of events that transpire involving them.

Recordings are one of the few ways we can obtain an unbiased view of events that transpire involving the government, and it's a primary means to hold the government accountable.

Next, we should see this event for what it is: a show of force by the government, in many ways it's like the government picking out the one tough guy in the prison yard and beating the snot out of him to send a message, but also it sends a big message to all of the other travelers, don't you dare OPT-OUT or we'll make an example of you too.

Video with audio of the encounter added:

Reuters: Backdoor Middleclass Tax Increase (& story pulled--How convenient)

I know you probably didn't catch this story unless you were trolling for news, but lucky for you I caught it.

Let this be a lesson to you all, if you see a story and you have even the slightest inclination that it might be rescinded or deleted entirely PRINT IT OUT. It's the problem with the digital age. In the days of newspapers editors would have to print a retraction, but even then they could be assured that nearly all of the readers had already seen it.

Here's the story in question.

By Terri Cullen Terri Cullen – Mon Feb 1, 4:09 pm ET<

NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration's Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.

If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.

Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 -- though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year's levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy -- the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:

* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;
* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;
* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;
* Individuals who don't itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;
* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

From this link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100201/bs_nm/us_budget_backdoortaxes

Only four hours after the story was posted this was posted up:

Mon Feb 1, 8:07 pm ET
The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week.

And in case you forgot, this is what the President Obama campaigned on amongst other things.

Obama’s Comprehensive Tax Policy Plan for America will:

• Cut taxes for 95 percent of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples.
• Provide generous tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth.
• Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses, cut corporate taxes for firms that invest and create jobs in the United States, and provide tax credits to reduce the cost of healthcare and to reward investments in innovation.
• Dramatically simplify taxes by consolidating existing tax credits, eliminating the need for millions of senior citizens to file tax forms, and enabling as many as 40 million middle-class Americans to do their own taxes in less than five minutes without an accountant.

Under the Obama Plan:

• Middle class families will see their taxes cut – and no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase. The typical middle class family will receive well over $1,000 in tax relief under the Obama plan, and will pay tax rates that are 20% lower than they faced under President Reagan. According to the Tax Policy Center, the Obama plan provides three times as much tax relief for middle class families as the McCain plan.
• Families making more than $250,000 will pay either the same or lower tax rates than they paid in the 1990s. Obama will ask the wealthiest 2% of families to give back a portion of the tax cuts they have received over the past eight years to ensure we are restoring fairness and returning to fiscal responsibility. But no family will pay higher tax rates than they would have paid in the 1990s. In fact, dividend rates would be 39 percent lower than what President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut.
• Obama’s plan will cut taxes overall, reducing revenues to below the levels that prevailed under Ronald Reagan (less than 18.2 percent of GDP). The Obama tax plan is a net tax cut – his tax relief for middle class families is larger than the revenue raised by his tax changes for families over $250,000. Coupled with his commitment to cut unnecessary spending, Obama will pay for this tax relief while bringing down the budget deficit.

Now, I realize that this "tax increase" is really out of Obama's hands technically.

However, President Obama has shown that he has a lot of political clout and he can push legislators into action (what happened to our Checks & Balances?), so if these tax cuts expire on his watch President Obama will be to blame. After all, his party has a majority in Congress.

And just in case the Obama administration is feeling a little Orwellian...

Specter Sends Out Email Blast with hopes of Avoiding Senate Walk of Shame

Senator Specter send out an email the night of the vote to continue consideration of the "Health Care Reform" bill.

Dear Friends,

The Congress is continuing its work to try to get healthcare reform legislation, and I believe the prospects are reasonably good that we will produce a bill. I hope that the bill will have the public option - and a robust public option. We will have a cloture vote tonight and I believe that we should be able to get 60 Senators at least to agree to start the debate.

Click below to hear my take on healthcare reform

It would be my hope that my colleagues would not draw lines in the sand or stay in inflexible positions. We need to move ahead, and doing nothing is not an option. The problems of so many millions of Americans uninsured and the problems of the rising healthcare costs makes it imperative that action be taken.

I think that the bill which has been proposed is a very, very good start. It is obviously subject to amendments and some modification. But the total cost has come in at about $850 billion over 10 years and is projected to save about $130 billion to reduce the deficit. In the second decade it is projected to save even more, up to as much as $650 billion. President Obama has committed not to sign a healthcare bill which adds to the deficit, and I’m committed not to vote for a healthcare bill that adds to the deficit.

It is my hope that the bill will emerge with very strong provisions on preventative care. That includes annual examinations without additional costs and encouraging people to have the annual exams to catch many problems at their early stages, like heart disease or ailments, before they develop into debilitating and expensive chronic diseases. I disagree with the recent recommendations to cut back on mammogram screenings or pap smears. I think that early detection is vital and well worth the cost. I can tell you from my personal experience: an MRI detected a brain tumor the size of a golf ball between my skull and my brain back in 1993. It could have been a very, very serious matter had that early detection not occurred.

Healthcare reform is vital and we’re determined to get a good bill.

Sincerely,

Arlen Specter

I'm composing my response to the Senator now.

I have absolutely no reason to expect that he will retract his current position and support a sane, fiscally responsible, and NO-COST solution which will not grow the size or power of government for health care reform that the majority of Americans will support.

Dems Get Their 60 Votes

Democrats in the senate got the 60 votes they were hoping for keep their "Health Care Reform" bill viable.  They've used a few of their old tricks to rope in one wary senator.

However, Sen. Ensign doesn't believe this is the kind of 'reform' that we need.

..."It's a massive increase in government, as shown by this bill," Mr. Ensign told a reporter off the floor later, spreading his arms wide as if to encompass the stack of papers that comes in at more than a foot tall and, according to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, weighs in at more than 20 pounds.

The bill contains the word "tax" 511 times and includes 18 tax hikes, according to Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative lobby group. It uses the word "require" more than 1,000 times, the word "shall" more than 3,500 times, and talks about studies required by the bill 150 times. READ MORE>>>

Daily Mail: Prisoners Have Better Diet Than Hospital Patients

From the Daily Mail...

Patients in Health Service hospitals are far more likely to go hungry than criminals in jail, scientists warned yesterday.

They say frail and elderly patients do not get the help they need with meals, and nobody checks whether they get enough to eat.

Despite years of Government promises to tackle poor hospital nutrition, food still arrives cold, and patients often miss out because meal times clash with tests and operations.

Meanwhile, prisoners are enjoying carbohydrate-rich, low-fat foods which in many cases are better than they would have been eating on the outside.

The Daily Mail has been highlighting the scandal of old people not being fed properly in hospital as part of its Dignity for the Elderly campaign.

Hospital meals are often taken away untouched, because they are either unappetising or are placed out of patients' reach.

The latest figures show 242 patients died of malnutrition in NHS hospitals in 2007 - the highest toll in a decade. More than 8,000 left hospital under-nourished - double the figure when Labour came to power.

Read More>>>

This in light of the claims that "England has great medical care..."

Don't listen to the lies flying out of your politician's mouth.

Healthcare reform needs to start with tort reform, medical savings accounts, moving back toward Medical Insurance (i.e. major medical coverage)... Not with so-called Obama care, a government owned 'insurance company', or government paid coverage of "40 million uninsured".

Healthcare Emergency (now with analysis)

Alan Korwin's blog has made a special post for this health care bill. He posted some commentary and Peter "Fleckenstein's" analysis of this monstrosity.

There's much too much to post here on my blog. I recommend you go to his blog (blog.flecksoflife.com) and read the original post.

Pg 241: SEC. 1121. SUSTAINABLE GROWTH RATE REFORM Line 6-8 HC Bill – Doctors, doesn’t matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same.

Pg 429: SEC. 1233. ADVANCE CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION Lines 13-25 – The Government will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

[NOTE: Read carefully, it doesn't have to be a doctor, it can be an undefined "physician assistant" appointed by an unelected federal bureaucrat. --Alan.]

Also check out the Liberty Counsel's compiled analysis of this bill. (http://www.liberty.edu/media/9980/attachments/healthcare_overview_obama_072909.pdf )

And LASTLY.... PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!

Call AND Visit your Senators and Congressmen while they're home for the August recess and let them know that you DO NOT support this monstrosity and if they do they'll be out of a job come next election cycle.

WND & Wash. Times: Fed's Monitoring 'Right-wing-extremists'

Well I'd just like to take the time to say Hi! to all of our wonderful government friends that stop by from time to time to see what I'm blabbering about...

Let me be the first to extend a warm handshake to you.

WND Headline: Homeland Security on guard for 'right-wing extremists'

WASHINGTON – A newly unclassified Department of Homeland Security report warns against the possibility of violence by unnamed "right-wing extremists" concerned about illegal immigration,increasing federal power, , restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty and singles out returning war veterans as particular threats.

The report, titled "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," dated April 7, states that "threats from white supremacist and violent anti-government groups during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry out violent acts."READ MORE>>>

Let me just say to all of you spooks out there that this news is very troubling to me, and I'm perplexed to why it's not troubling to you as well.

First of all, let me clear a few things up for you.

I am not a white supremacist. I believe like many 'right-wing-extremists' that we were all created in the image of God, and frankly I cringe every time someone tries to label people as anything other than human. I am a member of one race (and one race only), the HUMAN RACE.

I am not a violent anti-government group nor am I a member of any afformentioned groups.

I am not against government; although, I do feel that we have too much government. Our government is a bloated and festering wound on the side of Lady Liberty. Here in lies the problem. Liberty and Government directly oppose each other. Government wants more control and Liberty wants less control. Yes, you can have liberty and government, but it's much like walking a tight rope. A careful balance must be achieved and then maintained to assure that we stay as citizens with liberty and not subjects owned by the government.

So you're probably wondering why the 'Right-wing-extremist' title then?

My name and URL was spurred by the late great Barry Goldwater and the perception that those that support American Sovereignty, Liberty, Gun Ownership, Smaller Government, Federalism, a Right To Life, and other Constitutional Issues as "right wing extremists".

Obama: Liar Or Just Schizophrenic?

So if you've caught Obama's speech on Tuesday night you might've heard something that sounded odd, to say the least, coming from the President (and if you're anything like me, you probably rolled your eyes).

He said, "... I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President's Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government -- I don't."

Check out the Illinois Review's take on all of this.

So our President says that he doesn't believe in big government, but he's been key to producing the largest government (with the largest debt) in American History, and basically campaigned on it.

The only way this makes sense is you agree to one of two things; Obama is either lying (and with a smile on his face no less) or he's borderline schizophrenic.

Now if our President isn't schizophrenic and is indeed lying to us, we shouldn't be surprised. After all, it's not shocking when you think about the countless numbers of scoundrels we've all helped to put in government.

In fact, Congressmen Ron Paul remarked that Barack Obama actually endorsed his support of big government during his inauguration speech,

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.”

We should've expected it, I did anyway, but what's more shocking is that if the President is indeed lying to himself and the American public about his unshaking belief in the Omnipotence of Government to fix any problem whatsoever he does it so flippantly that it seems as if it's second nature. The narcissistic ability to lie as if you actually wholeheartedly believe your own lie is a very desirious trait for a career politician (or lawyer) I should add.

The other option is that Obama is schizophrenic. He suffers from a disorder that disconnects him from reality and may even allow him to believe both in the Supremacy of Government and also believe that government doesn't need to grow. While this option isn't very entertaining--It's not like President Obama's running around like the Mad Hatter cutting cups of tea in half and serving his Chief of Staff today's security briefing slathered in raspberry preserves all the while singing "A Very Merry Unbirthday, To Us!"--it would explain his seemingly dual personality. His seemingly natural ability to speak out of both sides of his mouth as if it's second nature.

It would explain how he can promise that he has "...no intention of taking away folks’ guns." and yet act in a manner completely contradictory to his previous statement. You can see it with his lack of support for Heller in DC v. Heller; his support of IL's Handgun Ban; and his support for a NEW ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN (this one is WILL BE more invasive and WILL BAN a much greater number of firearms, and is expected to have no expiration date unlike President Clinton's Ban).

I'll end by just humbly asking you all to join me in prayer for mercy towards our country and our leader because we are in desperate need of both. This is not the land our founders killed and died to create and protect, and the only way we'll become a great free nation is with God's help.