It's Your Money...

Cross posted from Debbie at Right Truth

An American citizen expresses his concerns over the U.S. Government taking from hard-working individuals and giving to others:

To the Editor of The Herald Gazette July 2008:

I would like to express my concern over an email I recently received about taxing retirement and gains on 401K. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who by the way is the third in line to be the Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces if the others are eliminated, has made a proposal.

Her proposal is a WINDFALL TAX on RETIREMENT INCOME, which means that the people of the United States would be paying more for those doing less. She was asked what this tax would do. her reply was, "We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profit taxes could go a long way to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as Americans."

If Speaker Pelosi wants to help Americans, here is a suggestion. Look at the retirement system for all of our congressman and Senators and adjust it accordingly to that of the American people. For example, put them on the social security and Medicare system as we the people are and see if that doesn't cut the fat out of the pork belly of those serving in office for the money and not the people. A Congressman or Senator that retires, gets his or her full pay and their spouse gets another $100,000 to maintain their living style. This does seem a bit much for us lowly Americans.

I wish any politician can show me or any American citizen why that is required. Who makes the laws for Congress? Who votes for their pay raises? Who makes the rules for the country? these are some things that the next President of the U.S.A. needs to look at, our dollars going down the drain. We need a Congress that will fight for us instead of us fighting for them.

All this I believe to be true to the best of my knowledge.

Herbert P. Barnes
Retired Military
Reagan, TN

I received an email this morning about Dave Walker, who until recently was the US Comptroller General (the government's chief auditor, and head of the 3,000-person US Government Accountability Office).

Well, a few months ago, Dave resigned his post to head up a new effort -- the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. And this nonpartisan foundation is about to begin spending $1 billion to build a grassroots army to convince Washington to finally do something about this problem.

If you're interested in learning more about our plans, please join us in our "How Screwed R U?" conference call with Dave at 2:00 pm EST on Tuesday, July 15th. Dave will provide you with an overview of the problem and what we intend to do about it, and of course, he will be happy to take questions. E-mail me and I'd be happy to send you the call-in info.

Also, our Foundation is supporting a feature documentary called "I.O.U.S.A.," which won acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theaters around the country in August.

You can check out the Peter G. Peterson Foundation yourself. Color me skeptical when the first thing they tell me is they are about to begin SPENDING $1 BILLION dollars ... But that could just be me.

Then there are those who want to reclaim our government (overthrow?)

I am talking about changing this country for the better. Do we have what it takes, or will you all just sit back, ignore what I've said, and return to that barn with all the other mindless sheep? Let us become free again. Let us reclaim our place as citizens of the United States of America, the true leaders of America.

ACLU to Sue Over FISA Bill - Blogburst

Stop the ACLU Blogburst:

The meltdown continues!

Today, in a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy, the Senate passed an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was approved by a vote of 69 to 28 and is expected to be signed into law by President Bush shortly. This bill essentially legalizes the president’s unlawful warrantless wiretapping program revealed in December 2005 by the New York Times.

I’m glad they included the reminder of the New York Times act of treason, revealing specifics on a secret program and informing our enemies of the tools we use against them. Of course the ACLU think this was a courageous act of “whistle blowing” and in their twisted world, an act of patriotism. In the real world it was an a cowardly act of treason.

Once again, Congress blinked and succumbed to the president’s fear-mongering. With today’s vote, the government has been given a green light to expand its power to spy on Americans and run roughshod over the Constitution,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “This legislation will give the government unfettered and unchecked access to innocent Americans’ international communications without a warrant. This is not only unconstitutional, but absolutely un-American.”

Of course the ACLU have made up all these accusations out of thin air, and can’t win any lawsuit they have launched against this program. They can’t provide any evidence to prove their claims and have been smacked down numerous times because they have absolutely no standing. Of course they have repeated their own lies so many times they believe them to be true now. That is what happens to the paranoid. The program is not designed to spy on innocent Americans, and the government would have no interest in those conversations anyway. The program is designed to listen to international phone calls that flagged to known terrorists and their financers. The program is designed to protect innocent Americans.

The bill further trivializes court review by authorizing the government to continue a surveillance program even after the government’s general spying procedures are found insufficient or unconstitutional by the FISC. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever information was gathered in the meantime. A provision touted as a major “concession” by proponents of the bill calls for investigations by the inspectors general of four agencies overseeing spying activities. But members of Congress who do not sit on the Judiciary or Intelligence committees will not be guaranteed access to the agencies’ reports.

Any information obtained on terrorists should be used, and when compromising…one must make concessions.

The bill essentially grants absolute retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that facilitated the president’s warrantless wiretapping program over the last seven years by ensuring the dismissal of court cases pending against those companies. The test for the companies’ right to immunity is not whether the government certifications they acted on were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that certifications were issued, all of the pending cases will be summarily dismissed. This means Americans may never learn the truth about what the companies and the government did with our private communications.

Blah, blah, blah. These telecom companies cooperated with the government and provided protection and prevention of terrorist attacks on many innocent Americans. What they did was their patriotic duty, and they should be seen as heroes, not criminals. Of course the ACLU are disappointed they can’t sue these rich companies to line their own pockets.

Still…the ACLU remain steadfast:

In advance of the president’s signature, the ACLU announced its plan to challenge the new law in court.

“This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”

Can’t wait to watch you guys get shot down again. Anyone know how we can sue the ACLU for continually thwarting the government’s efforts to protect us?

China bans bra, underwear, sex toy ads and more world news

Originally posted at Right Truth

No more advertisements for bras, sexy undies, sex toys, or related items in China. That goes for "llegal 'sexual medication' advertisements and other harmful ads [which] pose a grave threat to society." The sex police say, "no more for you!"

BEIJING - China has banned television and radio ads for push-up bras, figure-enhancing underwear and sex toys in the communist government’s latest move to purge the nation’s airwaves of what it calls social pollution.

Regulators have already targeted ads using crude or suggestive language, behavior, and images, tightening their grip on television and radio a few weeks ahead of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress at which some new senior leaders will be appointed.

The latest move by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, or SARFT, also bans advertisements for sexual aids such as tonics that claim to boost performance in bed.

The notice indicated that regulators were concerned about both lascivious imagery and outrageous or insupportable claims about some products' benefits or effectiveness. [snip]

China has already also issued strict rules for TV talent shows, including the banning of "American Idol"-style mass audience voting by mobile phone text message or the Internet. [snip]

Regulators have also banned television shows about cosmetic surgery and sex changes, and a talent show that they deemed coarse. (AP via Peace and Freedom II)

That sounds like Iran rather than China. Now, on to other/more serious news:

Kingdom Urges New Approach to Middle East, Arab News

Addressing the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said the Israeli occupation of Arab territories was the main reason for the spread of extremism and terrorism in the region.

“Current circumstances in the Middle East are extremely dangerous. The Israeli occupation of Arab land continues to transform the whole region into multiple crisis zones (more)

Thanks to Caroline Glick, we get a reminder from Ahmadinejad - if you make up laws out of your own heads, you have put yourself in the position of God, Villagers With Torches

Mahmoud the bold, Yourish (hat tip Elder of Ziyon)

Lally Weymouth of the Washington Post - daughter of the late Katherine Graham - interviewed Mahmoud Abbas for the paper. The interview is here.

Elder of Ziyon is certainly correct that there’s nothing “moderate” in the positions he espouses.

Spin Dr. Rice, Time Blog, Middle East:

A state of denial about the real Middle East? A forced effort to salvage Bush's legacy? A stubborn determination to persist with flawed policies? What to make of Condi Rice's spin (such as here and here) in New York this week, as she rallied support for Bush's proposed international meeting on the Middle East and laid down her narrative of what the administration has accomplished in the region thus far. (more)

Confusing? Maybe. But we all need to get this right., World Wars

Figuring out where you stand in the confusing, semi-factual, frequently context-free torrent of charges and counter-charges [against the IDF/military] is hard for some to do. But absolutely essential if we’re going to stop terror. (more)

Islamic Thought Contagion, Infidel Bloggers Alliance

Memetically, Islam is a very successful memeplex (group of memes). Several embedded memes help make it so. For example:

If Muslims drift away from Mohammed's teachings, God will end the world. That makes converting others and promoting Islam a matter of survival. It also motivates Muslims, as Lynch points out, "to dissuade each other from losing faith." (more)

Islam: Increasingly Unpopular, The Truth Shall Set You Free

The public is becoming increasingly aware of the fact that Islam encourages violence. A full 45% now believe that Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions. (more)

A Dose of Reason On Iran, Mitchell Plitnick's Blog, TMP Cafe

Let’s start with this: Iran is a threat. Iran has long harbored ambitions of expanding its influence in the Middle East, and the destruction of Iraq removed the biggest barrier to their goals. Iran is the leader of the Shi’ite world, a part of Islam much smaller than the majority Sunni, but also a group whose people happen to be situated in several countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq) on top of large oil deposits. (more)

Iran Hegemony: What's not to like?,Spot On

... they [ Iran] have legitimate interests in the region could go a long way toward calming the place down. But Iran has to accept that the U.S. has interests, too, and those need to be taken into account as well. If the U.S. steps away from the zero-sum politics of the last 28 years, then Iran has a responsibility to do so as well. (more)

Islam’s incompatibility with democracy and equality, Muslihoon

This is most forcefully demonstrated by the fact that after Muhammad’s flight [from Mecca to Medina], Muhammad revelations take on a vastly more political tone (almost to the point of legal minutiae) and a much more intolerant tone (as, being the indisputed leader, he no longer had to tolerate or appease anyone). (more)

Ahmadinejad at Columbia, Jesse Larner, The Huffington Post

Iran is not a dictatorship. It's an oligarchy with certain aspects of democracy, including meaningful elections and a meaningful parliament with some real power. Sort of a hybrid system. It is true that, as the Iran-is-not-so-bad posters have it, women vote and have full political rights, and there are Jews and Christians and Zoroastrians in parliament. Ultimately, however, power rests with the Supreme Religious Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Guardian Council (which can overrule the parliament and which must approve all candidates for the presidency.) (more)

Iraq Thought-bites, Greg's Brain

Since most U.S. military services, formerly carried out by the U.S. military itself, are now privatized and handled by U.S. corporations using mostly non-Iraqi and non-U.S. citizens, much and possibly most Iraqi spending will go to them. Much of this spending will go to services that never get done or are done with much greater cost than was previously accomplished by U.S. military workers: (more)

It is my judgement that Iran, while blustering, IS FULLY confident of victory in any set of circumstances, and this guides their policy, Iran threatens counterstrike at Israel with 600-missile arsenal, Villagers With Torches

The Dripping Faucet Drips. Drip… Drip… Drip…, Islamanazi

The Israelis attacked a nuclear research facility at Dir a-Zour! Nowhere else but here on this blog and at two links only will you find Dir A-Zour listed on Google. Wikipedia has nothing at all on Dir a-Zour. The other Google link refers to the area as a source of oil exports and a “research facility”. A search for Syrian oil resources, research, exports and so on produces absolutely no mention of Dir a-Zour! (more)