Safest Restaurant in America : Rifle Colorado

This is really good - the safest restaurant in America located in Rifle Colorado. This so good the liberal socialist democrats have to be pissn' the pants in fear and outrage - how cool is that.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AhH25xLkvz8

Civic Duty to Stay Informed Declines : Under 30ers Opt Out

Those that believe it isn't important to stay informed will be the first to complain that the soup they have to eat is cold and having to wait in line to eat it is unacceptable.

Americans' Sense of Civic Duty Declining
Source: Connie Cass, "5 Things About Americans' Slipping Sense of Duty," Associated Press, December 29, 2014.

December 31, 2014

A new poll from the Associated Press and research company GfK reveals that Americans' attitudes toward civic duties are changing. The poll repeated questions from a 1984 University of Chicago poll, which surveyed Americans about their views on voting, volunteering, serving on a jury, reporting crime, speaking English and being informed. According to this year's poll:

• One-fourth of Americans under the age of 30 said that speaking English, volunteering or being informed about current events was not a civic duty.
• Young Americans felt most strongly about reporting crimes, with two-thirds calling it "very important." However, that is a drop from the 1984 poll when 86 percent of young Americans called crime reporting "very important."
• Less than one-third (28 percent) of respondents called volunteering a "very important obligation," compared to three-fourths of respondents who viewed voting that way.
• Americans under 30 considered volunteering more important than did their 1984 counterparts, with 29 percent calling volunteering "very important," compared to 19 percent in 1984.
• In 1984, 56 percent of Americans felt that keeping up with current events was very important; today, that figure is just 37 percent. One-fifth of respondents said there existed no civic obligation to be informed.
• Compared to the 1984 poll, respondents only ranked voting and volunteering as high as they did in the past. All other activities fell in importance compared to 30 years ago.

Despite the three-fourths of Americans who said voting was important, Connie Cass at the Associated Press notes that only 36 percent of eligible voters actually voted in the November 2014 midterm elections -- the lowest turnout since the Second World War.
 

Broken Window Theory Worked In NY : de Blasio A Nonbeliever

According to this article, the Broken Window theory works, and as a result those that are in control in New York City at this point in time are in the process of eliminating it. They theorize that if a program that demands responsibility from it's citizens isn't fair to others who don't want to take responsibility, and also will work as a determent to the ideology of progressive socialist theory that requires unrest and chaos to succeed. It is believed as a result all will be lost as progressives become irrelevant as a political force.

Little wonder then why New York City is disintegrating, caught up in total chaos. But who is to blame? Bill de Blasio, the people that actually voted for him or those that stayed home?

The Effect of Broken Windows Policing in New York City
Source: William J. Bratton and George L. Kelling, "Why We Need Broken Windows Policing," City Journal, Winter 2015.

December 31, 2014

Does "Broken Windows" policing work? Writing for the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton and Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow George Kelling say it does, arguing that the policy has brought order to New York City and sent crime rates downward.

The Broken Windows theory, explain Bratton and Kelling, is the idea that maintaining order reduces crime. The name comes from the idea that a broken window, allowed to remain unfixed, sends a message that crimes can go unchallenged, thus encouraging more crime and more serious vandalism. The concept, first put forth in the early 1980s, is that if officers make an effort to address relatively minor offenses -- creating a more orderly city atmosphere -- it will prevent the emergence of more serious offenses.

Does it work? According to Bratton and Kelling, New York's crime rates fell after the application of Broken Windows policing:

• New York had a murder rate of 26.5 for every 100,000 people in 1994.
• In 1994, Mayor Rudy Giuliani oversaw the implementation of Broken Windows policing across the city of New York. Today, the murder rate is four for every 100,000 people, lower than the national average.
• New York was responsible for 7.9 percent of American homicides in 1993; today, that figure is only 2.4 percent.
• The national murder rate has dropped by half since 1994, while the New York City murder rate has fallen by six times its 1994 level.

Similarly, Bratton and Kelling explain that New York City had 5,269 shootings in 1993. After officers began targeting low-level offenders, police often found that those offenders were also wanted for other -- and more serious -- crimes. Over the next four years of the Broken Windows approach, annual shootings in New York fell by 3,300. The same drop happened for murders -- in both 1994 and 1995, the city cut its murders by more than one each day.

Are the drops in crime merely coincidental? Bratton and Kelling cite a Rutgers University study which experimented with high-crime areas in Massachusetts and New Jersey. In the experiment, police continued their routine work in half of the high-crime areas while engaging in Broken Window-style policing in the other half of the high-crime areas. The drop in the crime rate was higher in the Broken Windows areas, and it was not displaced to nearby areas.

A Netherlands study also found support for the idea that order prevents crime. When experimenters from the University of Groningen placed an envelope full of cash in two separate mailboxes (one mailbox surrounded with trash and painted with graffiti, the other clean), 27 percent of those passing the dirty mailbox stole the money, while just 13 percent of passersby stole the money from the clean mailbox.

Contrary to claims that more aggressive policing results in over-incarceration, Bratton and Kelling say that arrests and imprisonment have fallen, not risen, due to the resulting drop in crime. Today, there are 60,000 fewer felony arrests in New York City each year than there were in 1990, the state's imprisonment rate has fallen by 25 percent since 2000 and the city's jail population has fallen by 45 percent since 1992.
 

Government Waste A Tool? : Spreading the Wealth

I hate to end the year with such bad news showing how bad our government wastes our tax dollars, but if we some how forget who and what we going to have to deal with next year and beyond, this little wake up call to arms is on point.

The question that remains is waste just ignorance or a tool to buy customers? Is this over the top, maybe, but spreading the wealth to interested people and groups works. Santa Clause is loved by everyone. Never forget our new socialist government is not here to help us, but it's here to get and keep us all under it's control.

Wasted Tax Dollars in 2014
Source: Kelsey Harris, "7 Ridiculous Projects the Government Spent Your Tax Dollars on This Year," Daily Signal, December 29, 2014.

December 30, 2014

Did the government spend your tax dollars wisely this year? Kelsey Harris of the Daily Signal has compiled a list of seven wasteful spending projects funded by tax dollars in 2014. These include:

• The government spent $804,254 to develop a smartphone game to instruct parents to convince their children to eat new, healthy foods.
• The Department of Defense overpaid $3.3 million for radios that it provided to the Afghanistan army.
• $10,000 was spent to monitor how quickly saltmarsh grass grows.
• The government spent $10 million to create a video game that requires the characters to eat healthy foods in order to escape from a town populated by obese residents.
• The federal government spent $400,000 in tax dollars to transport foreign journalists to different American breweries and distilleries.

According to a recent Heritage Foundation report, the federal government spent a whopping $3.5 trillion in 2014. For more on government waste, see Senator Tom Coburn's  (R-Okla.) "Wastebook."

Each year the Senator releases a compendium of wasteful Washington spending. This year's Wastebook noted the government spent $387,000 on Swedish massages for rabbits and $1 billion to destroy $16 billion worth of ammunition.


 

Gun Manufacturers Sued : GM / Ford etc Run for Cover?

I wonder who's going to get rich here and who will not be served under the law? If this does work as the lawyers intend, car manufactures will have to close their collective doors as well as all producers of alcohol. No one will be safe from the lawyer's reach for the wallets of others.

Victims File Lawsuit against Gun Manufacturer
Source: Pat Eaton-Robb and Dave Collins, "Families of Newtown victims sue rifle manufacturer," Associated Press, December 15, 2014; Steve Chapman, "The Newtown Families' Lawsuit Ignores Fact That Vast Majority of AR-15s Are Used Responsibly," Reason.com, December 18, 2014.

December 30, 2014

In 2012, crazed gunman Adam Lanza used an AR-15 to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The families of nine of those victims have now filed a lawsuit against makers and sellers of the AR-15.

Pat Eaton-Robb and Dave Collins of the Associated Press report that a 2005 gun law protects manufacturers from lawsuits when their products are used by criminals. However, there is an exception: when someone should know that a weapon would likely be used in a way that could injure others, the person can be subject to suit for "negligent entrustment." But the Wall Street Journal reports that negligent entrustment generally involves one individual entrusting another with something (such as a person loaning their car to a drunk person), not the broader idea of a manufacturer or seller making a gun available to the public.

Steve Chapman, writing at Reason.com, notes that the plaintiffs focus on the AR-15's ability to shoot quickly and its high-capacity magazine. But Chapman says that countless other firearms have those same characteristics -- if this particular AR-15 lawsuit could succeed on a negligent entrustment theory, he contends other suits could force most guns out of the market. Moreover, he writes that "the vast majority of AR-15s have not been misused," rather they have been sold to individuals for entirely lawful uses.

This is why Congress passed the 2005 law protecting gun manufacturers from liability, says Chapman. The idea of holding firearm companies responsible for crimes committed with guns, he says, "was the equivalent of suing Budweiser for alcohol-fueled violence or General Motors for traffic fatalities."
 

Years Events Tracked On Twitter : Conservative & Liberal

Interesting stuff here - but just why things turned out the way the did and how people reacted tells a story of the thinking of the general public. Still in some aspects the results are kind of head scratchers and chin pullers.

What Americans Really Cared About In 2014
Posted on December 29, 2014 by John Hinderaker in Culture, Media

Or what they tweeted about, anyway. Twitter provides a fascinating, objective look at what people are discussing. Tracked over the course of the year, it tells us a little about the news, and quite a lot about us. People may claim to have lots of high-minded interests, but what are they actually talking about? Donald Sterling. Here it is: 2014, as documented on Twitter. Click to enlarge:

The results are quite striking. What was the number one tweeted topic? The Ferguson grand jury, not indicting Darren Wilson. What was number two? Darren Wilson shooting Michael Brown. So why does a local crime story, without any apparent broader implications, grip the national imagination? Sure, race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Eric Holder promoted the Ferguson narrative, but there has to be more to it than that. Something in the story obviously resonated with a lot of people.

Story number three was the midterm election. No surprise there. But look at some of the other contenders: the State of the Union, a surprise to me. Was there anything notable about Obama’s sixth such speech, any reason why millions of people would be talking about it? Maybe these spectacles are more important than I thought.

Then we have the soft news stories. Why was Donald Sterling fascinating to so many people? Yes, the story involved professional sports. But it also involved race; maybe that is a common denominator. A similar soft news story was the Ray Rice controversy. I was one of the few people, as far as I could tell, who stuck up for Mrs. Rice. Evidently it was an event about which many had strong feelings. Again, though, was there a racial subtext?

The remaining tweet peaks relate to appropriate breaking news stories–Crimea, Hobby Lobby, the vanished Malaysian airliner, ebola, Sony and Cuba. So maybe we really do care about the news. Still, looking at quantitative data on Twitter tends to support the idea that, however much we may claim to be concerned with the national debt, global warming, and so on, it is the more personal stories–the ones that take on a mythic cast–that really hold our attention.
There are lots more data here, including this comparison of the most talked about stories by conservative and liberal activists:

Keystone - Whipping Boy for Progressive Democrats : It's Just More Politics

Goodness Fred, common sense has nothing to do with approving the Keystone Pipeline. Don't you find it interesting that the Obama administration lives and dies by the poles except when the polls don't favor a current agenda. Approval or disapproval of the pipeline has nothing to do with jobs or revenue, it's all about the politics and always has been.

Still, even though the environmental nut jobs that currently inhabit the movement is extremely small, Mr Obama still kowtows to them. Why? With the current oil price dropping by the day, it would seem the time is right for the Keystone pipeline to be approved, but mark my words, this will not happen.

Affording people cheap energy is not acceptable to the ideology of Mr Obama and the progressive socialists. Personal prosperity is an agenda killer to the socialists. For the socialist to succeed, a failing economy and rampant poverty must be the order of the day.

Delaying Keystone Makes Little Sense
Source: Fred Barnes, "The Pipeline and the Damage Done," Weekly Standard, January 5, 2015.

December 30, 2014

For six years, President Obama has delayed approving the Keystone pipeline, which would carry oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast. The delay, writes Fred Barnes, editor of the Weekly Standard, has continued, despite evidence that it would do little to harm the environment.

Barnes explains that approval of the Keystone pipeline will have no bearing on whether Canadian oil is transported and refined; if the United States refuses to approve the pipeline, Canada will extract and ship the oil elsewhere -- it will not stay in the ground. But despite a report from the U.S. State Department confirming that the pipeline would not hurt the environment, the president has continued to delay approving the pipeline:

• President Obama says the project would do little for job creation, despite State Department estimates that Keystone would create 42,000 jobs and inject $3.5 billion into the American economy.
• He has said the pipeline would have no impact on American gas prices, but Barnes notes that oil markets are global, and any increase in supply can push prices downward.

Barnes cites a recent USA Today poll finding that just 25 percent of Americans oppose the pipeline, while 60 percent are in favor.
 

Best Country to Do Business : American Ranked 18th & Falling

America in decline. What is the problem here? Obliviously it's the form of government that we have now, and for the last 6 years, that is driving us to destruction, the progressive socialist liberal democrats. Yet, and for all of it's failures, millions of citizens still fall prey to it's song of 'voting for us is a vote for more free stuff'.

Please tell me Gruber wasn't right.

What's the Best Country for Business?
Source: Kurt Badenhausen, "U.S. Slides Again As Denmark Tops Forbes' Best Countries For Business," Forbes.com, December 17, 2014.

December 30, 2014

Forbes recently released its list of the best countries for business, and the United States has found itself far down the list. Kurt Badenhausen reports that America fell four spots this year, dropping to 18th place. While the country was second on the list in 2009, it has declined every year since.
Why the decline? Badenhausen offers a number of reasons:

• The U.S. government has expanded in size, bringing with it a host of new regulations in the health care and finance industries.
• Since 2009, there have been 130 new major federal regulations for starting businesses, costing $60 billion annually.
• For seven years in a row, the United States has dropped in the "economic freedom" rankings, as compiled by the Heritage Foundation, and its "monetary freedom" ranking is eighty-first out of 146 countries.
• America's corporate tax rates are the highest in the developed world, and the tax system is incredibly complex. The World Bank ranks the U.S. corporate tax system forty-third among 146 nations.

Which nation topped the Forbes list? Denmark. Badenhausen explains that its few regulations make it easy -- and relatively inexpensive -- to start new businesses in the country. Following Denmark and rounding out the top 10 were Hong Kong, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland and Finland.
 

California Outlaws Volunteerism : Government in Chaos

If one is looking for a definition for insanity, look no further then California. It appears that the government of this state is so far out of the realm of commons sense that the average person cannot comprehend it's functions in the real world. To try and understand the reasons for what California does is to ensure your quick trip to a rubber room. Your head just explodes.

The question that remains is how do the permanent residence survive in such a chaotic and dysfunctional system?

California Forces Small Winery to Shut Down
Source: Scott Shackford, "Wine Workers," Reason Magazine, January 2015.

December 29, 2014

California is not known for being business-friendly. Indeed, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently issued its Small Business Policy Index and placed the state in last place, ranking it as having the "least friendly policy environment" for small business and entrepreneurship in all of the United States.

Scott Shackford of Reason Magazine reports on one such example of a small business struggling to survive in the Golden State. In Castro Valley, California, a man named Bill Smyth owns the Westover Winery with his wife. It's a tiny business that is open for just 10 hours each week and takes in only $11,000 in annual profits. For help, Smyth takes volunteers, whom Shackford says were sort of like interns -- many of them were learning to make wine and volunteered at Westover as a learning experience.

Unfortunately, the state did not see it the same way: California prohibits for-profit businesses from using volunteer labor, and the state charged Mr. Smyth $115,000 for the violation -- an amount it would take his business 10 years to amass in profits.

As a result, Smyth is now closing his small business at the end of this year. Shackford reports that small wineries often use volunteers, but, in response to Smyth's experience, have sent them home.
 

Health Savings Accounts Work : A Problem for ACA?

The reason the progressive socialist hate the HSA's is they, the program, they work to aid the individual's cost for health care. This is one of the reasons ObamaCare was jammed down everyone throats is to eliminate anything that might be seen as relief from health care costs other then the lies from the Obama administration ; ACA will reduce costs by $2500 dollars and you can keep your doctor, etc.

What nonsense and worse they knew it was a lie from the beginning. Mr Gruber.

Health care savings accounts work and have for decades to bring down costs. From the perspective of Mr Obama, this was the best reason to make them ineffective.

How Do Health Savings Accounts Work?
Source: Brittany La Couture, "Health Savings Accounts and the Affordable Care Act," American Action Forum, December 17, 2014.

December 29, 2014

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) give health care consumers more control over their own health spending, and they're one of the reasons cited for the recent slowdown in health care costs. In fact, one estimate concludes that American families who enroll in HSA plans see a 21 percent drop in health care costs during their first year. In a new report from the American Action Forum, Brittany La Couture explains how HSAs work:

• An HSA is an account into which individuals can contribute pretax dollars. The tax-advantaged accounts allow holders to use those funds for medical expenses, and the money rolls over from year to year.
• The money is never taxed as long as it is used for "qualified medical expenses" (these range from dental care to LASIK surgery, prescription medications, long-term care costs and hearing aids, among others).
• HSAs are available with high-deductible health plans (plans with an individual deductible of at least $1,250 or a family deductible of $2,500).
• Individuals can contribute up to $3,300 annually to their HSAs, while families can contribute $6,550.

How do HSAs work under Obamacare? La Couture notes that one of the changes the law made to HSAs was the removal of over-the-counter drugs from the list of "qualified medical expenses," meaning that tax-free HSA funds cannot be used to purchase nonprescription drugs.

NCPA Senior Fellow Devon Herrick recently authored a report on this issue. Herrick explained that nonprescription drugs are the cheapest and most popular way to treat medical maladies, and they reduce the number of doctor's office visits, bringing down health care costs.

Under Obamacare, over-the-counter medicines can only be purchased with HSA dollars if they are prescribed by a physician, thus requiring a trip to the doctor and defeating the cost savings from using nonprescription medicine.
 

Social Security System in Chaos : Who Cares?

What this article points out, and I believe an absolute, SS has waste and fraud as a result of a system  problem in our out-of-control government. When an organization becomes so big that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, chaos will ensue.

And chaos means employees find themselves just a number and can't find any reason to be responsible. It's just easier to go right to the end product without digging for the facts first. 'Why should I care when the entire system is mired in dysfunction.' Take the money and run.

Overpayments in the Social Security Program
Source: Elizabeth Harrington, "Social Security's Student Benefit Program Is a Mess," Washington Free Beacon, December 17, 2014

December 29, 2014

When a child's parent dies, he is eligible to receive Social Security benefits up to the age of 19, as long as he is enrolled in an elementary or secondary school full time. Unfortunately, the program is flawed: according to a new audit report from the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General, the government has overpaid students and issued funds without verifying school enrollment.

Elizabeth Harrington at the Washington Free Beacon reports that the Social Security Act requires the government to verify a student's full-time enrollment status before distributing funds. But a federal audit reveals that the government has paid benefits without verification and made a number of overpayments. Based on an analysis of a random sample, the report estimates:

• From January 2007 to December 2013, 106,336 students received $225.3 million in Social Security overpayments.
• There were 246,252 beneficiaries who received $968 million in benefits even though the Social Security Administration had no evidence that they attended school.
• The report estimates there could have been up to $345 million in overpayments as well as $1.3 billion in benefits that were not supported by evidence that the children were eligible for them.

Harrington offers an example of one student who received $5,328 in overpaid benefits from September 2012 to May 2013 because he reported being enrolled in school from May 2012 to May 2013. In reality, the student attended school for just 18 days in the 2012-2013 school year before dropping out.
 

ObamaCare Depends On Unemployment : Gruber Designed the Mandate

I believe this is how ObamaCare was designed to work - driving as many people into unemployment and poverty as possible, swamping the system, and when the entire system collapses, here comes Mr Obama to the rescue with 'single payer'.

Our only hope now is the supreme court ruling the mandate must be sustained as written which will drive ObamaCare out of existence. We can't rely on the Republicans as they are just democrat lites.

Thank you Mr Gruber!!

ObamaCare Premiums Surge in 2017 : 40 Million Uninsured by 2027

Goodness - still more bad news about our guiltless leader's promises for a socialist utopia. Mr Obama's agenda and ideology is not that much different then what we have seen from the liberal democrats in the past, it's just that Mr Obama has no fear about the people not liking his vision for our health care, or for that matter, what the people think about his push to "fundamentally change" the country from a representative federalist society to a progressive socialist liberal democracy. The few controlling the many.

He believes he has the authority, a mandate, because the people voted for him twice even in the face events that have caused domestic destruction to our country, and his vision for foreign affairs have plunged the world into total chaos. The people are living the pain caused by Mr Obama and yet they voted for him again.

And to make sure his plans for change come true, he wants to rewrite our Constitution to reflect his forward thinking, a constitution that is changeable and more representative of a nation where we are just one of many. A living document.

If Mr Obama believes our country needs to move forward, 'single payer health care', but his vision is hampered by the  Constitution, under this new document he will have the power to change it without the people or congress becoming involved. Why bother with what the people want or believe when he already knows what's best for everyone.

Fortunately the last election is casting some light on the darkness that is progressive socialism movement and the people might just have a say concerning in his vision after all. But don't hold your breath. Once the ship of state is moving in one direction it becomes very hard to change directions.

Expect a Big Premium Hike in 2017
Source: Stephen T. Parente, "A Lull Before the ObamaCare Rate Storm," Wall Street Journal, December 16, 2014.

December 29, 2014

Are your Obamacare premiums lower than you expected this year? Don't celebrate quite yet. Stephen Parente, health finance professor at the University of Minnesota, says premiums are lower than they would otherwise be because of two temporary Obamacare programs that help insurers keep costs down. But those programs expire in 2017, and that's when Parente says big rate hikes will come.

Risk corridors and reinsurance are two Obamacare programs that are slated to run through 2016. Risk corridors transfer funds to insurers whose costs are higher than expected, while reinsurance compensates insurers whose enrollees have medical costs above $45,000 in a single year. Senior Fellow John R. Graham recently explained how these programs work in an NCPA report.

Ultimately, taxpayers are on the hook for these programs. Parente says the programs allow insurers to charge lower premiums, because insurers will be compensated if costs are too high. However, on January 1, 2017, the reinsurance program and risk corridors expire. What will happen?

According to Parente's research with the University of Minnesota, premiums after 2016 will increase quickly, especially for cheaper plans. Bronze family plans could rise by 45 percent (from $9,000 to $13,000) while individual plans could skyrocket by 96 percent (from $2,000 to $4,000). What will result?

 A rise in the uninsured rate. Parente estimates a 13 drop in the size of the individual health insurance market in 2017 alone, followed by a 1 percent decrease each year for the next decade. That would mean the uninsured rate could reach 40 million within 10 years -- 10 percent higher than the uninsured rate today.
 

Pennies & Nickels Not Worth the Cost?

Interesting in that one never gives a second thought to the cost to produce money. But as with everything else like food, the cost to bring the products to market is driving the food prices to go up. Also we can that some heart in that with the price of fuel going down maybe the price of food will follow soon.

I think we could get by without the penny without seeing any drastic damage down to the economy.

It Costs More to Make Pennies and Nickels than They're Worth
Source: Christopher Ingraham, "It cost 1.7 cents to make a penny this year, and 8 cents to make a nickel," Washington Post, December 15, 2014.

December 17, 2014

It costs the United States nearly twice as much to make a penny as that penny is actually worth, writes Christopher Ingraham for the Washington Post, reporting that it costs the government 1.7 cents to make a penny. And pennies aren't the only problem: it costs the government more than 8 cents to make a nickel.
A new report from the U.S. Mint reveals that it's still not cost-effective to make pennies and nickels. Pennies and nickels used to be profitable in the early 2000s, says Ingraham, but the cost of producing the coins began rising in 2006 and has only gone up. While currency costs fell overall this year due to declining copper prices, the two coins still cost more than their face value.
The rest of American currency is doing alright:

• It costs 5.4 cents to make a dollar bill.
• It costs 8.95 cents to make a quarter.
• It costs 3.91 cents to make a dime.

Ingraham writes that America could save $100 million each year simply by getting rid of the penny and the nickel, noting that Americans lost $105 million in 2013 due to their production. While, alternatively, the United States could save money by changing coins' metal makeup, such a move would require vending machines to be upgraded across the country, costing billions.
 

Americans Believe the Christmas Story : Americans Believe Gov Has Failed

Have we fallen so far from our founding that we are now in a position to say we cannot believe that our government is actually here to help?

Have we become 'enemies of the state'? Have we fallen so far into that progressive socialist abyss that we have to hide from government's overreach that is an invasion into our personal lives to control all outcomes?

Is this what millions voted for, twice? It was bad enough the first time, but even after all of the disasters that have driven our great country that has seen prosperity of unparalleled excellence, millions willingly voted again for more disintegration of our way of life domestically, and for those else where in the world that believed we were are the last hope of man kind for the freedom to chose would now see us as just more of the same corruption that has infected so many other countries?

The lessons that should have been learned from the first four years of Mr Obama and his ilk with the progressive socialist ideology that believes that America should not be any better than anyone else in the world, there is no such thing as American Exceptionalism, and that citizens should not have the option to secure a better life for themselves or their families. Government assurances that they can be all things for all people for security is enough.

The socialist agenda of "each according to their needs and each according to their abilities" has not worked to secure prosperity and personal freedom. Where ever it has been tried it has failed. Why would million believe that it world work this time?

State Legislators Take Bribes to Stop Voter ID : Democrats All

When State democrat legislators that are more then willing to subvert the Constitution and their personal integrity for just 'walking around money', an Al Sharpton quote on how life in the fast lane has to be lived, goes a long way explaining the disintegration of the democrat party.

 If it wasn't bad enough for the black community already given the leadership of it's national personalities, this complete duplicity is so damaging to the recovery from a  break down in the relationship between right and wrong that has persisted for decades in big city democrat politics.

And, according to those involved in the bribery, the progressive socialist liberal democrat party is wholly involved and complicit. Will we see headlines demanding recovery from the democrats for their involvement? Fat chance! This is who they are, always have been and always will be.

"Love means you never have to say you're sorry", and being a democrats means you never have to take responsibility.

Two Legislators Indicted for Voter ID Bribes in Case Attorney General Refused to Prosecute
Hans von Spakovsky / @HvonSpakovsky

A grand jury convened by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has indicted two Democratic state legislators for accepting bribes in exchange for voting against a voter ID bill, among other legislative actions.

The grand jury findings also represent a withering rejection of the unjustifiable behavior of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who shut down the three-year investigation that caught state Democratic legislators on video and audio tapes taking bribes. Williams stepped in and successfully prosecuted the case.

As the grand jury reported, it had 26 recordings featuring Rep. Ronald G. Waters, who accepted nine cash payments from a confidential informant  totaling $8,750. The grand jury had 24 recordings of Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown accepting five cash payments totaling $4,000. Waters agreed to vote against Pennsylvania House Bill 934, a voter ID bill, in exchange for $2,000. Brown also agreed to vote against House Bill 934 for the same amount.

Brown was so eager to vote the way she had been paid by the informant that she offered to “get up and speak” on the floor of the Pennsylvania House in opposition to the bill. Both “representatives testified before this Grand Jury and admitted their criminal conduct.”

Waters, who currently serves as the Secretary for the House Democratic Caucus, was “ecstatic” about receiving the cash bribes and told the CI “I’m going to tell you the f*****g truth. You have money, then you can get something done.” Brown told the grand jury she took the money because of financial pressures, including being told that if she didn’t raise $100,000 for her next election, “the Democratic Party would run someone against her in a primary.”

Because Waters, Brown and other legislators involved in the bribery scheme are black, Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane shut down the investigation in March. She claimed that the investigation was “poorly conceived, badly managed and tainted by racism…[and] had targeted African-Americans.” Williams, who also is black, was particularly incensed by this claim, saying that he was “disgusted that the attorney general would bring racism into this case. It’s like pouring gasoline on a fire for no reason, no reason at all.”

The Philadelphia grand jury, which was made up of a cross-section of Philadelphia citizens, actually reviewed those allegations, saying its members were “particularly sensitive to the explosive charge that the defendants were racially targeted.” But the grand jury found “the claims of racism in this instance were simply false.” An extensive review of the evidence showed “that there had never been any factual basis for the charge of racism.” In fact, it was the guilty bribe-takers who were responsible for the targeting because they were the ones telling the CI “who they thought would play ball with him and by introducing him to them. The informant, in effect, was passed from one public official to another.”

The grand jury also reviewed a “comprehensive” report prepared by Kane’s office that supposedly confirmed her racism claims. The grand jury complained that the comprehensive report had never been shared with the public. Also, “on repeated occasions, the Grand Jury was assured that it had received all relevant materials [of this report], only to receive significant additional materials upon judicial intervention. Each new document dump, of course, indicated that the prior representations [by the AG’s office] had been false.”

In a scathing indictment of Kane’s claims, the grand jury found that it was her “review, rather than the underlying investigation, that appeared flawed.” In fact, Kane:

[F]ailed to examine a wealth of internal documents – documents created by and in the possession of the OAG – that contradicted the report’s assumption. The review also failed to include interviews of agents assigned to the investigation or others whose knowledge would have refuted the report’s preferred conclusion.

In other words, Kane’s justification for ending the investigation was false, and her office then crafted a severely flawed report designed to support her claims that ignored the actual evidence in the case.

As the grand jury concluded, the evidence of bribery was “unusually damning, consisting as it does not only of eyewitness accounts, but of hours of tape recordings, and of detailed admissions by the subjects of the investigation themselves.”

In light of those findings, it is difficult to come up with any reason for Kane’s actions other than a political one. Thankfully, Williams was not deterred from seeking indictments for crimes that strike at the very heart of the legislative process. Kane may not be interested in trying to clean up state politics, but Williams certainly is.

Harry Reid's Last Act Political : Always Progressive, Always Reid

Understanding who and what Harry Reid is tells us all we have to know about the agenda of the progressive socialist liberal democrats. Reid's total commitment to subverting the Constitution and it laws is legend.

His duplicity and hypocrisy is on display for all to see as it always has been for decades, but he appears unaware of it all as he continues to his willingness to pronounce ground breaking proposals that reward his state alone clothed as patriotic.

Worse, of course, millions still believe.

How Harry Reid’s Last Act as Majority Leader Directly Benefited His State
Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97          

In his final move as majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid ushered through a series of tax breaks that directly benefit residents of his home state of Nevada. Called tax extenders, the package retroactively renews expired tax breaks, including a state sales tax deduction and the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act.

The Senate passed the tax bill 76-16 earlier this week—the last legislation it would vote on before the end of the 113th Congress and Reid’s tenure as majority leader.

“Congress needs to pursue sweeping tax reform that creates opportunity and fairness for everyone,” says @DanHoller

The inclusion of two provisions were beneficial to both Reid’s home state and Florida, states without a state income tax and where residents were hit hard by the housing market crash.

The state sales tax deduction allows Nevada residents to deduct state and local taxes.

In addition, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act relieves homeowners from paying taxes on forgiven debt. Reid touted his work in pushing through the tax extenders legislation in a press release Wednesday, saying his position as Democratic leader helped him deliver “on a number of priorities to grow Nevada’s economy.” “These deductions will save Nevada families and taxpayers millions of dollars and are important to renew as our state’s economic and housing security continue to recover,” the majority leader said. “I will continue to ensure these tax cuts are protected for Nevada.”

(Senator Coburn farewell speech)

One More Year of Tax Extenders: Paving the Way for Reform in 2015
The senator’s office did not return The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
The tax extenders received criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, but Heritage Foundation tax and economic policy expert Curtis Dubay said the legislation was a “mixed bag of sound policies and policies that Congress should have abolished long ago.”

“Given the desire of the Senate and President Obama to retain the unjustified policies, a one-year extension is sensible because it prevents a tax hike and keeps in place many policies necessary for a better functioning tax system,” he said.

Reid’s pronounced devotion to continue delivering legislation that directly benefits his state comes just one week after Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma delivered a farewell speech warning senators to heed their oath of office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xuy1jW1ddUc#t=0

“It’s nice to be able to do things for your state, but that isn’t our charge,” he told his fellow senators. “Our charge is to protect the future of our country by upholding the Constitution and ensuring the liberty that’s guaranteed there is protected and preserved.”

Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal that the tax code should benefit all Americans, not just a select subset.

“Our tax code is riddled with distortions,” he said. “Rather than continually rearranging a chaotic code with tweaks that reek of favoritism, Congress needs to pursue sweeping tax reform that creates opportunity and fairness for everyone.”

 A Taxpayer’s Guide to the Lame-Duck Session

UN Arms Trade Treaty IS Dangerous : America At Risk

This treaty is just one more step that the progressive socialist liberal democrats are using to disarm the American people. There is no other way to gain control over the population except by disarming them. An armed population will resist.

This Terrible Anti-Gun Treaty Goes Into Effect Christmas Eve
Ted Bromund / @Bromund          

Today, on Christmas Eve, the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty takes effect, giving Americans a lump of coal in their stockings this holiday season.

The ATT is a bad idea that keeps getting worse. In theory, it’s about stopping the sale of guns to terrorists and mass murderers. But in practice, it’s about preventing Israel from defending itself, allowing left-wing activists to dictate U.S. foreign policy and giving anti-gun advocates a leg up.

The treaty takes effect 90 days after it’s ratified by 50 nations. That happened on Sept. 25, so the ATT enters into force on Christmas Eve. That’s not likely to be a coincidence: Treaty advocates pretend the ATT is a present of peace to the world, so the timing suits their propaganda perfectly.

The administration made a serious mistake when it signed the ATT in 2013, and since then, it’s been heavily criticized in the Senate, led by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and in the House, where Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., has taken the lead. The administration has argued the treaty is nothing more than a restatement of the existing U.S. system of export controls and that it’s irrelevant to firearms ownership in the U.S.

If only. The U.S. firearms market is international, and the treaty certainly can affect U.S. imports. Moreover, the campaign for it was led by organizations and individuals with a long record of hostility to private firearms ownership. And the UN has weighed in by trying to link the agreement to other initiatives that are explicitly designed to restrict firearms ownership.

The claim that the ATT has no implications for U.S. arms exports also is wrong. If we followed the terms of the treaty, we wouldn’t be able to waive our human rights screening requirements to arm rebels in Syria. And in fact, the treaty advocates are already criticizing the administration and Congress for doing exactly that by arguing that the U.S. is violating the ATT.

The long run game of the treaty advocates is simple: Claim the ATT is international law and that it therefore binds the U.S., even if the Senate never ratifies the treaty. They want to sneak the treaty into the U.S. through the back door, because the Senate has nailed the front door shut.

But the activists are wrong: The ATT will have no legal effect on the U.S. after Dec. 24. And if Congress continues to show leadership, the U.S. can resist the creation of treaty precedents and procedures that would restrict our sovereignty.

At bottom, the ATT is a promise of hope and change, a pile of tightly wrapped Christmas presents under the tree. But as we’ve learned over the past six years, those promises aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. And until you actually unwrap your presents, you don’t know what you’re getting for Christmas.

Dish Network Blocks Fox News : Just About Money?

This is interesting as to why Dish would balk on what is seen as business as usual for renewal contracts. One might wonder if  Dish has issues with Fox other then cost.

Why Dish Network Isn’t Carrying Fox News Right Now
Kate Scanlon / @scanlon_kate          

What did you watch this weekend? If you have Dish, it wasn’t Fox News.
After contract negotiations came to a halt between 21st Century Fox and Dish Network, the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network went dark for Dish customers on Saturday and remain dark still.

21st Century Fox is the parent company of FNC and FBN, as well as several sports and entertainment channels. Dish Network is a satellite TV provider with more than 14 million customers and – until recently – a distributor of Fox.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a “senior Fox News executive” told them that “there are currently no talks between the two companies.”
Contract negotiation between Dish Network and 21st Century Fox stalled when Dish refused a fee increase for Fox’s other channels, a price Fox calls standard for the changing news industry.
Warren Schlichting, the senior vice president of programming at Dish, said in a statement that “It’s like we’re about to close on a house and the realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well.”
Schlichting accused Fox of using its news channels as “leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract.”

Tim Carry, the executive vice president of distribution at Fox News Channel, told the Wall Street Journal that Dish “did not want to accept terms and commitments that have become customary in a Fox News renewal.”
In a statement, Carry added that:

“It is unfortunate that the millions of Fox News viewers on Dish were used as pawns by their provider… Hopefully they will vote with their hard-earned money and seek another one of our other valued distributors immediately.”

This is not the first time Dish customers have lost access to channels because of stalled negotiations. In October, channels such as CNN, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies were blacked out for a month as Dish negotiated with Turner Broadcasting. Earlier this month, customers also temporarily lost access to CBS and its affiliates.

“This is the third time in as many months that Dish customers have suffered through a blackout due to Dish’s intransigence,” Carry told the Wall Street Journal. “Dish’s record speaks for itself and makes its rhetoric about ‘reasonable’ agreements ring hollow.”
Fox launched a website, keepfoxnews.com, where it encourages Fox fans to switch TV providers. Viewers can enter their ZIP codes and discover TV providers that still offer Fox. The website also encourages Fox fans to call and email Dish to register their complaints about losing the networks, and to use the hashtag #DontBlockFOXNews.

Carry told Bloomberg that the website has “generated 22,000 e-mails and 7,000 phone calls requesting that Dish reinstate the channel.”

Dish has also launched its own website dishstandsforyou.com, where it tells customers “We regret that Fox has chosen to remove their programming from DISH customers.”

Vigilantes Invade the Freeway - Milwaukee : Freedom to chose Nagated

Interesting - these few people believe they are in charge and that my rights, as a citizen under our Constitution, must be negated for the greater good as they understand the situation. One has to believe the basic rule of civility among any group, 'majority rule and minority right' is founded in common sense which is the only way that preserves any hope for debate.

But when the few, the minority, decide they can demand others to willingly relinquish their rights, the majority, you have to understand problems will eventually arise for the minority that leaves little room for debate.

Vigilantes on the Freeway

By Rick Esenberg -
Published: 7:24 AM December 22, 2014

 

 

Friday afternoon protestors blocked I-43 in a protest related to the shooting of Dontre Hamilton. I don't know whether charges are appropriate in the Hamilton case. You can only know this if you have spent the time necessary to review the evidence – much of which is not yet public. You cannot infer the need for charges based on whether or not the police officer "should have" patted him down, how many times he was shot or that he has no history of (he was indisputably behaving violently here) or how you feel about other cases of police-involved deaths. 

 

The numbers do not come close to establishing that there is anything like an epidemic of police violence against African Americans (or, for that matter, anyone else) But even if you believe that there is, that belief tells you precisely nothing about what happened here.

 

On the other hand, you cannot infer that charges should not have been issued because Hamilton suffered from mental illness or because the shooter was a police officer. You can be a staunch supporter of the police and believe that they do a wonderful job. You can believe that certain past cases – such as those involving Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin – have been abused by racial demagogues. But that won't tell anything about the facts of this case,

 

So I don't know what should be done and neither does almost everyone who has expressed an opinion on the matter,

 

But I do know this.

 

Whether or not charges should be issued does not depend on who can pitch the biggest fit or is willing to block traffic. We don't charge people with crimes because the crowd demands it. The history of vigilantes storming the barricades and demanding someone's head on a pike has not been edifying. What we didn't want for Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, we shouldn't want for Christopher Manney in Milwaukee.

 

There is nothing admirable about blocking traffic on the freeway over something that you feel rather than know. It is, at best, an assertion that your sentiments are more important than anyone else. It is to say that they are worth causing accidents, obstructing emergency vehicles and provoking violent confrontations. 

 

I appreciate that those those who chose to do this regard themselves as selfless crusaders for justice. But their moral self-congratulation is itself a sign that they’ve got it wrong. What they did is nothing but a misguided act of self-absorption and utter disregard for everyone else.

Christmas Twin Style : One Nuaghty and One Nice?

I wonder witch one of the twins is the good one and witch one is the naughty one?

'Freedom Means Having Nothing Else to Lose' : A Gift From God

Oh my goodness - the jolly fat man takes a wrong turn this year - yikes

In any case I hope your Christmas has a better outcome then what is about to befall the bearer of fun and games.

Merry Christmas to all of you and a healthy and prosperous new year. God has blessed us with so much especially freedom to chose.

As the saying goes, "Freedom means having nothing else to lose". This is greatest gift of all.

Ferrari Lapping @ Monza : Watch & Weep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SazDE2PnI3E

Restaurant Service Special : Dog Served Dinner

This is really good no matter if your a dog lover or not, take a minute or so to let your imagination run wild, smile or laugh out loud at just how human this is. Heaven knows we need some humor given the catastrophic events that transpired over the last 6 years.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/ub1Dc3NHZ3s?autoplay=1&cc_load_policy=1

Al and Barack Skate On Cop Killing : "Not My Fault" I Didn't Know!

I wonder how Al and his buddy Obama will spin the murder of the two cop in New York, especially in light of these up-standing citizens called for the mob in New York to do the killing.

How do these two get a pass?

No Child Left Behind : Reform Needed

The frustration level in the country is high due to so many problems that abound that never get resolved, they are just past on while the politicians fight for the microphone to extol all  they ABOUT  to do for all of us. WOW - what nonsense, but it works year after year.

The program has been demonized by current politicians but now seem to embrace what was started under Bush but now up to be reauthorized? Reform is needed but what actually will transpire remains to be seen.

Reforming No Child Left Behind
Source: Lindsey Burke, "Reauthorizing No Child Left Behind: Four Recommendations to Advance Federalism in Education," Heritage Foundation, December 8, 2014.

December 19, 2014

Lawmakers are looking to reauthorize the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, but Lindsey Burke, education policy fellow at the Heritage Foundation, says reauthorization of the program must be accompanied by major reforms.

NCLB is a federal accountability law for education that sets certain standards for school districts related to academic achievement, but the program has ballooned in size and imposes burdensome requirements on school districts. Burke offers four suggestions for reforming the program:

• Allow states to opt out of NCLB programs so that they can better take measures and spend funds to meet their students' needs.
• Reduce NCLB cost and program size. While the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act was just 32 pages long and cost $1 billion, NCLB is 600 pages long, costs $25 billion annually and includes dozens of programs. Educational outcomes have not improved with the increased spending.
• Get rid of burdensome requirements. NCLB includes a number of mandates aimed at accountability and transparency, but Burke says many of them are merely burdensome and require high levels of state spending in order to receive federal funding.
• Title I education funds are distributed via a formula that is supposed to send education funds to low-income areas. However, the formula is confusing and often fails to achieve that goal. Burke suggests simplifying the formula as well as making the funding "portable," allowing states to send Title I dollars to the school of a parents' choice.

Burke notes that Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) will chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee in January and has announced his intention to reauthorize NCLB before the summer.
 

Europe Crushed by Climate Change Protocol : No End to Insanity

The Kyoto Protocol is about income redistribution. Those that are prosperous must pay for those that are not and worse, the Chinese and Indians don't have to be part of this insanity and they are worst contributors for carbon emissions. Who knew?

Why would anyone with any commons sense knowingly and willingly sign on to something that completely politically motivated and devoid of fact??? Climate change is about theft, stealing from the ignorant.

Customers Face High Energy Prices Thanks to European Climate Agenda
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, "Harmful Consequences of EU Climate Policy," Heartland Institute, December 5, 2014.

December 19, 2014

Despite 18 years of no global warming, European nations have continued to push a climate change agenda, to the detriment of consumers, writes Sterling Burnett of the Heartland Institute.

The European Union agreed to the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, pledging to reduce its carbon emissions to 8 percent below 1990 levels. But, forced to comply with emissions limits not imposed on other parts of the world, Burnett writes that many European businesses fled, moving to countries with lower energy costs and no emissions limits.

Climate change policy has been extraordinarily expensive for Europe:

• From 2004 to 2013, EU states spent $882 billion on renewable energy projects.
• By 2030, Germany -- whose citizens face some of the highest energy costs in all of Europe -- could alone spend $1 trillion transitioning to renewable energy.
• Electricity prices in Europe are twice that of the United States.
• Relative to Europe, the U.S. manufacturing -- operating with lower energy prices -- saved $130 billion in 2012.

Burnett notes that the EU seems to have recognized that its unilateral carbon dioxide reductions have only hurt its own member states. The EU has agreed to further reduce its emissions by 2030 but only if the United Nations completes a binding climate treaty that would require other nations to make similar reductions.
 

New York State Bans Fracking : $Billions Lost - Insanity Reigns Supreme

The people be dammed. There is nothing more important then the ideology of the progressive socialists, and they are more then willing to exploit their power to control the population even in the face of over whelming facts that there is no environmental impact from fracking. Facts are of little importance when it comes to getting and keeping power.

Insanity reigns supreme among the progressives socialist democrats. Governor Cuomo of New York State is leading the charge against Fracking.

Still, it doesn't matter that $billions are lost in taxes and to make up the difference in lost revenue, those in power will just raise taxes even higher keeping the population on ropes of poverty to ensure they continue to vote like they are told.

New York Fracking Ban Will Cost the State Jobs, Revenue
Source: Erica Orden and Lynn Cook, "New York Moves to Ban Fracking," Wall Street Journal, December 18, 2014.

December 19, 2014

Despite the fact that fracking is lowering energy costs and raising American GDP -- with an ICF International study estimating American consumers saved from $63 billion to $248 billion in 2013 alone due to fracking -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) plans to prohibit fracking in the state of New York.

Erica Orden and Lynn Cook of the Wall Street Journal report that New York has had a fracking moratorium since 2009, but the ban would officially keep 12 million acres of resource-rich Marcellus Shale from being developed. As a result, New York will lose out on the economic benefits that its neighbors have reaped from shale drilling:

• Pennsylvania, which also lies atop the Marcellus Shale, has received over $2.1 billion in state and local taxes from energy companies due to the shale boom.
• From the first quarter of 2010 to the beginning of 2014, Pennsylvania saw its energy employment rise from 13,059 jobs to 28,229 jobs.
• Average salaries in Pennsylvania for energy-related jobs is $93,000 annually, much higher than the state's average $40,000 salary.

Landowners are unhappy with the decision. Orden and Cook interviewed one New York dairy farmer who was hoping to lease his land to energy companies in order to cover the costs of his property taxes. He told the Wall Street Journal, "The amount of shale available is more valuable than the surface of the land will ever be. The state controls the most valuable part of our farm."
 

Fraud And Waste Rampant : Tax Code Reform A Must

Fraud and waste seems to be a given in government, especially in a government that is so huge that it's easier to ignore the problems then try and convince those that are responsible for fixing the problems associated with tax cheating to actually do something to stop it.

To often the cheaters are grouped in certain areas that the representatives of those areas depend on for their reelection.

Tax reform should be front and center this year as many Republicans that won election, and now control both houses of congress, clamed if elected they would fix the tax code. But talk is cheap. Will they actually do it remains to be seen.

Fraud in the Tax Code
Source: "Tax Decoder," Office of Senator Tom Coburn, December 2014.

December 19, 2014

According to a new report from Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), America's tax gap -- the difference between the amount of taxes owed to the federal government and the amount actually received -- will be close to $483 billion in 2014. While complexity and inadvertent errors are a large part of the reason for the tax gap, some of the gap is due to fraud.

How much of the gap is due to fraud? It's not clear. While the IRS refers suspected tax fraud cases for investigation, Coburn's report says the agency does not actually track the outcomes of those cases -- how many of them turn out to be intentional wrongdoing is unknown. There are certain tax credits and deductions, however, with high "improper payment" rates:

• The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provides credits to working adults in poverty. In 2014, the EITC is estimated to cost taxpayers $69.2 billion. According to a 2013 government report, between $13.3 billion and $15.6 billion in improper payments were made in 2013. Between 2003 and 2013, between $124.1 billion and $148.2 billion improper payments were made.
• Since 2009, the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) has given credits -- up to $2,000 -- to students enrolled in higher education. But the Inspector General of the U.S. Treasury reported in 2011 that 1.7 million AOTC claimants received $2.6 billion in credits but offered no evidence they were actually enrolled in school, over 370,000 taxpayers received $550 million in credits but were not eligible for them and even 250 prisoners received the AOTC. The report concluded there were $3.2 billion "erroneous" education credits paid to 2.1 million taxpayers as of May 2010.
• Federal fuel tax revenues are used to fund the highway system, but taxpayers who use fuel for off-road purposes (such as fishing, farming, or nonprofit educational operations) can receive a credit for the taxes. Of the $176 million in fuel credits claimed in 2011, one-fifth "had questionable characteristics, such as little or no reported income from self-employment or farming," according to a government report.
• Divorce alimony payments can be deducted from a person's taxable income and must be reported in the recipient's income. In 2010, almost half (47 percent) of the 568,000 tax returns with alimony deductions did not match the amount reported by recipients. The government estimates that $2.3 billion in taxable income was never taxed.

In addition to these tax expenditures, Coburn notes that identity theft is a growing problem, with perpetrators using taxpayer information to claim refunds. More than 1 million tax returns filed in 2011 were identified as the product of identity theft. A government report found an additional 1.2 million returns that appeared fraudulent but were not caught by the IRS' fraud filters.
 

Christmas Greetings : Politically Correct

This comes around every year and it works every year to highlight the nonsense that is 'political correctness' that seems to invalid all aspects of our lives, especially at Christmas to completely destroy life as we know it.

(Author Unknown)
Please accept my wish in the spirit in which it is intended.
To All My Democrat Friends:
 
Please accept with no obligation, expressed or implied, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.  I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2015, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.  This is, of course, neither to suggest nor imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country; also, this is not to imply that "America," as noted herein, is the only America in the Western Hemisphere.  May these heartfelt wishes be received with equal intensity regardless of distribution of individual wealth, documented carbon footprint, or perceived social privilege among the wishees addressed herein.  This wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.

To all of my Conservative friends, Merry Christmas.

Affordable Care Act (ACA) Explained In 4 Sentences : Truth Is Simple

The Affordable Care Act Explained - simple and straight forward, understandable. Oh, and by the way, true.

 

(Author Unknown)

 

In order to insure the uninsured, we first have to uninsure the insured. 

 

Next, we require the newly uninsured to be re-insured.  

 

To re-insure the newly uninsured, they are required to pay higher premiums to be re-insured than they paid to be insured.  

 

The higher premiums are required so that the original insured, who became uninsured, and then re-insured, can pay to insure the original uninsured whose insurance will then be free of charge to them. 

Carbon Emission Cuts WILL Cause Energy Cost to Rise : It's The Ideology

Our over reaching and oppressive government demand that our industries do more with less energy regardless of the consequence to the nation. This is the prevailing ideology of Mr Obama the progressive socialist liberal democrats.

Understand, this is the very reason for all of the insane regulations that are being imposed on all fossil fuel development by the EPA.

Mr Obama and the progressive socialist democrats and the eco-fascist environmentalists have stated unequivocally they want to eliminate all fossil fuel use in America and rely on green sources of energy such as wind, solar and biofuels.

That this belief, stated by the Mr Obama and his surrogates, that the rest of the world will follow us into reducing our carbon emissions, even to the point of damaging our own economy, is nonsense And what's worse, they know it but it fits the ideology of reducing the influence of America in the world that the progressives believe is the cause of all problems in the world.

U.S. Carbon Emission Cuts Will Raise Energy Costs
Source: Tom Tanton, "To 'Beat' Climate Change, the U.S. Will Pick Up the World's Tab," Real Clear Markets, December 12, 2014.

December 18, 2014

United Nations' countries recently gathered in Lima, Peru, to develop a framework for greenhouse gas reduction. Tom Tanton, senior research fellow at the Reason Foundation, writes that the United States wants other nations to voluntarily reduce their carbon emissions. Already, the United States has pledged in an agreement with China to reduce its emissions by more than 25 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Moreover, American businesses face increasing numbers of costly environmental regulations.

China has the highest carbon dioxide emissions in the world, followed by the United States. However, American "emissions intensity" is better than most nations -- the United States uses a much smaller amount of energy than other nations producing a comparable amount of goods. Tanton notes that American companies can produce a dollar of goods using just 30 percent of the energy that Chinese businesses would use to produce a dollar of goods. Thanks to new technologies such as fracking, America's energy efficiency has increased in recent years; in 2013, the United States increased its electricity consumption yet its carbon dioxide emissions were 15 percent below 2005 levels.

Tanton writes that imposing emissions reductions domestically will only hurt the United States. With greater carbon dioxide regulation, domestic energy and production costs will rise, hurting the American economy. Moreover, says Tanton, most other nations will not require similar cuts to their carbon dioxide emissions. As such, energy-intensive businesses may flee overseas, offsetting any benefits from emission reductions in the United States.
 

Millennials Leaving Gov Service : Big Gov A losing Agenda?

Is there hope that the onslaught of the progressive socialist ideology is dying under it's own weight? If the results of the November election is any indication, it might be a true statement. But the true results will depend on how the Republicans deliver on the confidence the voters have shown.

Millennials Leaving the Government Workforce
Source: J.D. Tuccille, "'Pro-Government' Millennials Take Government Jobs, Discover They Suck, Move to the Private Sector," Reason.com, December 17, 2014.

December 18, 2014

How do millennials feel about government? J.D. Tuccille, managing editor at Reason.com, reports that the younger generation's perceptions of government may be changing.

According to a report in the Washington Post, just 7 percent of Americans employed by the federal government were under the age of 30, despite the fact that 25 percent of the American labor force is under the age of 30. Moreover, 9 percent of federal workers who left government employment in 2013 were under 30.

Why are they leaving? Tuccille points to a bureaucratic culture and limited opportunities after hiring.

According to a 2014 survey from the government's Office of Personnel Management, millennials do tend to feel less positive about their own work than those in other generations: just 63 percent of government millennial workers said their work gave them "a feeling of personal accomplishment," compared to 71 percent among other generations. Similarly, just 75 percent of millennials said that they liked the work that they did, compared to 83 percent for other generations.

Tuccille says the less favorable view of government extends beyond millennials' own employment experiences. Forty-two percent of millennials in 2009 said the government was "unusually inefficient and wasteful," compared to 60 percent of Americans over 30 who held that view. But this year, 66 percent of millennials agreed with the statement.
 

Single Sex Class Rooms : Gender Specific Ed A Good Thing?

I wonder what is the motivation to separate the sexes and then use gender specific educational materials? Other then at a certain age, especially young girls that are less aggressive then young boys, separating them would allow more concentrated studies.

The problem that corps up is the dedication of the teachers and their insistence of spreading a personal agenda that is ideology specific.

New Department of Education Rules Target Single-Sex Classrooms
Source: Lydia Wheeler, "Feds target 'sex stereotypes' in US classrooms," The Hill, December 13, 2014.

December 18, 2014

Some public schools use single-sex classrooms and teaching techniques based on students' genders, but the programs may not last. Lydia Wheeler reports for The Hill that the Department of Education has issued new guidance on the use of single-sex classrooms in the public school system.

In 2006, new regulations expanded the ability of public schools to offer education based on students' gender, allowing school districts to offer voluntary single-sex classes and schools. But various groups have been challenging the policies, arguing they violate federal law by not providing equal educational options. The ACLU has sued schools in four states and filed 10 complaints with the Department of Education's civil rights division:

• One of its lawsuits was filed in 2009 against a Louisiana middle school that offered all-girl and all-boy classes and in which the girls' classes included quizzes about bracelets while the boys were given quizzes that involved bikes.
• The school assigned the book "Where the Red Fern Grows" to boys and "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" to girls, which challengers say was based on stereotypes that boys like hunting, whereas girls prefer love stories.

But proponents of single-sex schooling say that using different teaching styles for boys and girls can be very effective for some students, and offering single-sex classes can allow teachers to engage those students. Boys, for example, tend to enjoy competing with friends, and school districts offering boy-only classes have employed competitive team activities in their classrooms. But the approach does not work as well with girls, says Leonard Sax, founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, who tend to enjoy competing against strangers, but not against their friends.

The new Department of Education rules will likely make single-sex education difficult to offer:
the rules require co-ed public schools to identify their objectives in offering single-sex classes and not rely on gender stereotypes. Programs must be evaluated every two years.
 

Dependence Only On Other People & Machines Creats Inferiority?

Do you feel left out, wondering how you have been excluded from the social loop? Do you feel that not even your smart phone isn't enough anymore to keep you connected to the world you believe is important, and your escape from all the stuff that you don't understand that is effecting how you live?

Take a look this clever depiction of how and why one becomes so dependent on others that when you must make a decision that demands native intelligence you are found to be wanting. You have little choice then but to feel inferior to the wisdom of others. And it's just easier to allow others to establish your direction.

But then, if you can't find the answers you need on your phone, pad or social contact, where do you find the information you need to survive in a world of social dependency?

It seems that the more dependent on others and a machine, that neither cares whether you succeed or fail, leaves little room for individual thought or your personal freedom to chose who you are and or what you want to be.

Truly, this is a sad state of affairs for so many among us today and worse, the number is growing by the minute.

Economic Pessimism Among the Population : People Don't Believe

If there is pessimism among the population about what a person is capable of accomplishing in our present economic condition it's because that is what our leadership in Washington has sought to establish for the last 6 years among the people.

There is no shining city on the hill and there never was, there can be no dream of future accomplishments to gain a better quality of life and the best anyone can hope for to be happy they have a warm house in the winter and enough food to feed their family.

To want anymore then this is unfair. Welcome to the world of progressive socialism.

Economic Pessimism after the Recession
Source: Karlyn Bowman, Jennifer K. Marsico and Heather Sims, "Public opinion and the American Dream," American Enterprise Institute, December 15, 2014.

December 18, 2014

How do Americans today feel about the American dream? Karlyn Bowman, Jennifer K. Marsico and Heather Sims of the American Enterprise Institute analyzed polls over the last several decades, finding that 13 percent of Americans in 1986 said the American dream had no meaning for them, according to a Wall Street Journal poll. When that same question was asked by the Washington Post and the Miller Center in 2013, that figure had risen to 19 percent. In both polls, over 60 percent of Americans said the American dream had meaning.

Much of the skepticism toward people's ability to succeed in today's economy has roots in the 2008 financial crisis, say the authors. According to polls:

• Just 29 percent of Americans believe the recession created temporary changes in the economy, while 71 percent believe the recession had created a permanent change in economic conditions.
• In 1952, just 8 percent of Americans believed that the average person had little opportunity to succeed in America. In 2013, 43 percent of respondents in a Gallup poll agreed with that statement.
• In 2000, almost three-quarters of Americans said that, compared to their parents, their opportunities to succeed were better, while 5 percent said they were worse. In 2014, 42 percent said their opportunities were better than their parents' opportunities, while 32 percent contended they were worse.
• In 1990, 50 percent of Americans believed the next generation of children would have a better life than the current generation; in 2014, just 21 percent of Americans agreed.

However, Bowman, Marsico and Sims note that there are certain consistencies across time in Americans' perceptions about the American dream. For example, 61 percent of Americans in 2012 rated their own standard of living as being better than their parents' standard of living. Two decades ago, 63 percent of people agreed.