Jeff Duncan questions IRS rifle usage - Tal Kopan - POLITICO.com:
"As chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed agents training with the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.
“When I left there, it’s been bugging me for weeks now, why IRS agents are training with a semi-automatic rifle AR-15, which has stand-off capability,” Duncan told POLITICO.
“Are Americans that much of a target that you need that kind of capability?”"
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
What is a derecho? Meteorologist explains
What is a derecho? Meteorologist explains | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com:
"A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm associated with a band or shelf of rapidly moving thunderstorms.
By definition, a derecho has to be at least 240 miles long and have winds of at least 58 miles per hour or greater."
"A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm associated with a band or shelf of rapidly moving thunderstorms.
By definition, a derecho has to be at least 240 miles long and have winds of at least 58 miles per hour or greater."
Ex-Ficano aide, 41, to get $96k pension
WXYZ News: Ex-Ficano aide, 41, to get $96k pension:
"Matt Schenk isn't your average retiree.
He's 41, works full-time and collects $196,000 a year at the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
But as soon as next month, he'll start collecting an estimated $96,000 annual pension, courtesy of an early retirement incentive offered to Wayne County appointees.
It had no age restriction.
Before moving to the water department, Schenk was Robert Ficano's former chief of staff.
He admits he doesn't need the cash, and said he wanted to wait another five years before drawing his lucrative pension.
But last month, he says, the retirement board notified him that he needed to enroll now or lose out on the benefit."
"Matt Schenk isn't your average retiree.
He's 41, works full-time and collects $196,000 a year at the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
But as soon as next month, he'll start collecting an estimated $96,000 annual pension, courtesy of an early retirement incentive offered to Wayne County appointees.
It had no age restriction.
Before moving to the water department, Schenk was Robert Ficano's former chief of staff.
He admits he doesn't need the cash, and said he wanted to wait another five years before drawing his lucrative pension.
But last month, he says, the retirement board notified him that he needed to enroll now or lose out on the benefit."
If the GOP is this stupid, it deserves to die
If the GOP is this stupid, it deserves to die | The Daily Caller
If the GOP is this stupid, it deserves to die
Posted By Ann Coulter On 6:27 PM 06/12/2013 In Opinion | No Comments
Democrats terrify Hispanics into thinking they’ll be lynched if they vote for Republicans, and then turn around and taunt Republicans for not winning a majority of the Hispanic vote.
This line of attack has real resonance with our stupidest Republicans. (Proposed Republican primary targets: Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio.) Which explains why Republicans are devoting all their energy to slightly increasing their share of the Hispanic vote while alienating everyone else in America.
It must be fun for liberals to manipulate Republicans into focusing on hopeless causes. Why don’t Democrats waste their time trying to win the votes of gun owners?
As journalist Steve Sailer recently pointed out, the Hispanic vote terrifying Republicans isn’t that big. It actually declined in 2012. The Census Bureau finally released the real voter turnout numbers from the last election, and the Hispanic vote came in at only 8.4 percent of the electorate — not the 10 percent claimed by the pro-amnesty crowd.
The sleeping giant of the last election wasn’t Hispanics; it was elderly black women, terrified of media claims that Republicans were trying to suppress the black vote and determined to keep the first African-American president in the White House.
Contrary to everyone’s expectations, 10 percent more blacks voted in 2012 compared to 2008, even beating white voters, the usual turnout champions. Eligible black voters turned out at rate of 66.2 percent, compared to 64.1 percent of eligible white voters. Only 48 percent of all eligible Hispanic voters went to the polls.
No one saw this coming, which is probably why Gallup had Romney up by 5 points before Hurricane Sandy hit, and up by 1 point in its last pre-election poll after the hurricane.
Only two groups voted in larger numbers in 2012 compared to 2008: blacks aged 45-64, and blacks over the age of 65 — mostly elderly black women.
In raw numbers, nearly twice as many blacks voted as Hispanics, and nine times as many whites voted as Hispanics. (Ninety-eight million whites, 18 million blacks and 11 million Hispanics.)
So, naturally, the Republican Party’s entire battle plan going forward is to win slightly more votes from 8.4 percent of the electorate by giving them something they don’t want.
As Byron York has shown, even if Mitt Romney had won 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, he still would have lost. No Republican presidential candidate in at least 50 years has won even half of the Hispanic vote.
In the presidential election immediately after Reagan signed an amnesty bill in 1986, the Republican share of the Hispanic vote actually declined from 37 percent to 30 percent — and that was in a landslide election for the GOP. Combined, the two Bush presidents averaged 32.5 percent of the Hispanic vote — and they have Hispanics in their family Christmas cards.
John McCain, the nation’s leading amnesty proponent, won only 31 percent of the Hispanic vote, not much more than anti-amnesty Romney’s 27 percent.
Amnesty is a gift to employers, not employees.
The (pro-amnesty) Pew Research Hispanic Center has produced poll after poll showing that Hispanics don’t care about amnesty. In a poll last fall, Hispanic voters said they cared more about education, jobs and health care than immigration. They even care more about the federal budget deficit than immigration! (To put that in perspective, the next item on their list of concerns was “scratchy towels.”)
Also, note that Pew asked about “immigration,” not “amnesty.” Those Hispanics who said they cared about immigration might care about it the way I care about it — by supporting a fence and E-Verify.
Who convinced Republicans that Hispanic wages aren’t low enough and what they really need is an influx of low-wage workers competing for their jobs?
Maybe the greedy businessmen now running the Republican Party should talk with their Hispanic maids sometime. Ask Juanita if she’d like to have seven new immigrants competing with her for the opportunity to clean other people’s houses, so that her wages can be dropped from $20 an hour to $10 an hour.
A wise Latina, A.J. Delgado, recently explained on Mediaite.com why amnesty won’t win Republicans the Hispanic vote — even if they get credit for it. Her very first argument was: “Latinos will resent the added competition for jobs.”
But rich businessmen don’t care. Big Republican donors — and their campaign consultants — just want to make money. They don’t care about Hispanics, and they certainly don’t care what happens to the country. If the country is hurt, I don’t care, as long as I am doing better! This is the very definition of treason.
Hispanic voters are a small portion of the electorate. They don’t want amnesty, and they’re hopeless Democrats. So Republicans have decided the path to victory is to flood the country with lots more of them!
It’s as if Republicans convinced Democrats to fixate on banning birth control to win more pro-life voters. This would be great for Republicans because Democrats will never win a majority of pro-life voters, and about as many pro-lifers care about birth control as Hispanics care about amnesty.
But that still wouldn’t be as idiotic as what Republicans are doing because, according to Gallup, pro-lifers are nearly half of the electorate. Hispanics are only 8.4 percent of the electorate.
And it still wouldn’t be as stupid as the GOP pushing amnesty, because banning birth control wouldn’t create millions more voters who consistently vote against the Democrats.
Listening to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus burble a few weeks ago on “Fox News Sunday” about how amnesty is going to push the Republicans to new electoral heights, one is reminded of Democratic pollster Pat Caddell’s reason for refusing to become a Republican: No matter how enraged he gets at Democratic corruption, he says he can’t bear to join such a stupid party as the GOP.
Ann Coulter is an author and political commentator.
This line of attack has real resonance with our stupidest Republicans. (Proposed Republican primary targets: Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio.) Which explains why Republicans are devoting all their energy to slightly increasing their share of the Hispanic vote while alienating everyone else in America.
It must be fun for liberals to manipulate Republicans into focusing on hopeless causes. Why don’t Democrats waste their time trying to win the votes of gun owners?
As journalist Steve Sailer recently pointed out, the Hispanic vote terrifying Republicans isn’t that big. It actually declined in 2012. The Census Bureau finally released the real voter turnout numbers from the last election, and the Hispanic vote came in at only 8.4 percent of the electorate — not the 10 percent claimed by the pro-amnesty crowd.
The sleeping giant of the last election wasn’t Hispanics; it was elderly black women, terrified of media claims that Republicans were trying to suppress the black vote and determined to keep the first African-American president in the White House.
Contrary to everyone’s expectations, 10 percent more blacks voted in 2012 compared to 2008, even beating white voters, the usual turnout champions. Eligible black voters turned out at rate of 66.2 percent, compared to 64.1 percent of eligible white voters. Only 48 percent of all eligible Hispanic voters went to the polls.
No one saw this coming, which is probably why Gallup had Romney up by 5 points before Hurricane Sandy hit, and up by 1 point in its last pre-election poll after the hurricane.
Only two groups voted in larger numbers in 2012 compared to 2008: blacks aged 45-64, and blacks over the age of 65 — mostly elderly black women.
In raw numbers, nearly twice as many blacks voted as Hispanics, and nine times as many whites voted as Hispanics. (Ninety-eight million whites, 18 million blacks and 11 million Hispanics.)
So, naturally, the Republican Party’s entire battle plan going forward is to win slightly more votes from 8.4 percent of the electorate by giving them something they don’t want.
As Byron York has shown, even if Mitt Romney had won 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, he still would have lost. No Republican presidential candidate in at least 50 years has won even half of the Hispanic vote.
In the presidential election immediately after Reagan signed an amnesty bill in 1986, the Republican share of the Hispanic vote actually declined from 37 percent to 30 percent — and that was in a landslide election for the GOP. Combined, the two Bush presidents averaged 32.5 percent of the Hispanic vote — and they have Hispanics in their family Christmas cards.
John McCain, the nation’s leading amnesty proponent, won only 31 percent of the Hispanic vote, not much more than anti-amnesty Romney’s 27 percent.
Amnesty is a gift to employers, not employees.
The (pro-amnesty) Pew Research Hispanic Center has produced poll after poll showing that Hispanics don’t care about amnesty. In a poll last fall, Hispanic voters said they cared more about education, jobs and health care than immigration. They even care more about the federal budget deficit than immigration! (To put that in perspective, the next item on their list of concerns was “scratchy towels.”)
Also, note that Pew asked about “immigration,” not “amnesty.” Those Hispanics who said they cared about immigration might care about it the way I care about it — by supporting a fence and E-Verify.
Who convinced Republicans that Hispanic wages aren’t low enough and what they really need is an influx of low-wage workers competing for their jobs?
Maybe the greedy businessmen now running the Republican Party should talk with their Hispanic maids sometime. Ask Juanita if she’d like to have seven new immigrants competing with her for the opportunity to clean other people’s houses, so that her wages can be dropped from $20 an hour to $10 an hour.
A wise Latina, A.J. Delgado, recently explained on Mediaite.com why amnesty won’t win Republicans the Hispanic vote — even if they get credit for it. Her very first argument was: “Latinos will resent the added competition for jobs.”
But rich businessmen don’t care. Big Republican donors — and their campaign consultants — just want to make money. They don’t care about Hispanics, and they certainly don’t care what happens to the country. If the country is hurt, I don’t care, as long as I am doing better! This is the very definition of treason.
Hispanic voters are a small portion of the electorate. They don’t want amnesty, and they’re hopeless Democrats. So Republicans have decided the path to victory is to flood the country with lots more of them!
It’s as if Republicans convinced Democrats to fixate on banning birth control to win more pro-life voters. This would be great for Republicans because Democrats will never win a majority of pro-life voters, and about as many pro-lifers care about birth control as Hispanics care about amnesty.
But that still wouldn’t be as idiotic as what Republicans are doing because, according to Gallup, pro-lifers are nearly half of the electorate. Hispanics are only 8.4 percent of the electorate.
And it still wouldn’t be as stupid as the GOP pushing amnesty, because banning birth control wouldn’t create millions more voters who consistently vote against the Democrats.
Listening to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus burble a few weeks ago on “Fox News Sunday” about how amnesty is going to push the Republicans to new electoral heights, one is reminded of Democratic pollster Pat Caddell’s reason for refusing to become a Republican: No matter how enraged he gets at Democratic corruption, he says he can’t bear to join such a stupid party as the GOP.
Ann Coulter is an author and political commentator.
Obama Restricts Spying In Mosques While Spying Everywhere Else
Obama Restricts Spying In Mosques While Spying Everywhere Else - Investors.com:
"Homeland Insecurity:
The White House assures that tracking our every phone call and keystroke is to stop terrorists, and yet it won't snoop in mosques, where the terrorists are.
That's right, the government's sweeping surveillance of our most private communications excludes the jihad factories where homegrown terrorists are radicalized.
Since October 2011, mosques have been off-limits to FBI agents.
No more surveillance or undercover string operations without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the Sensitive Operations Review Committee.
Who makes up this body, and how do they decide requests?
Nobody knows; the names of the chairman, members and staff are kept secret."
"Homeland Insecurity:
The White House assures that tracking our every phone call and keystroke is to stop terrorists, and yet it won't snoop in mosques, where the terrorists are.
That's right, the government's sweeping surveillance of our most private communications excludes the jihad factories where homegrown terrorists are radicalized.
Since October 2011, mosques have been off-limits to FBI agents.
No more surveillance or undercover string operations without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the Sensitive Operations Review Committee.
Who makes up this body, and how do they decide requests?
Nobody knows; the names of the chairman, members and staff are kept secret."
Fake savings: The 2013 House farm bill
Fake savings: The 2013 House farm bill
As reported in the AEI paper, “Field of Schemes Mark II: The Taxpayer and Economic Welfare Costs of PriceLoss Coverage and Supplementary Insurance Coverage Programs,” authored by Bruce Babcock, Barry Goodwin, and myself, the PLC program would provide farmers raising major crops such as wheat, corn, peanuts, rice, barley, and soybeans with very substantial subsidies if crop prices move from their current record (or near record) levels towards relatively recent historical levels
As reported in the AEI paper, “Field of Schemes Mark II: The Taxpayer and Economic Welfare Costs of PriceLoss Coverage and Supplementary Insurance Coverage Programs,” authored by Bruce Babcock, Barry Goodwin, and myself, the PLC program would provide farmers raising major crops such as wheat, corn, peanuts, rice, barley, and soybeans with very substantial subsidies if crop prices move from their current record (or near record) levels towards relatively recent historical levelsOrr tells crowd: 'We have to break our addiction to debt'
Orr tells crowd: 'We have to break our addiction to debt' | Crain's Detroit Business:
"Leasing the park is just one step proposed by Orr to help the city deal with a budget deficit nearing $386 million and to restructure $9.4 billion in long-term debt. "
"Leasing the park is just one step proposed by Orr to help the city deal with a budget deficit nearing $386 million and to restructure $9.4 billion in long-term debt. "
What 'direct access' means
What 'direct access' means:
The term 'direct access' seems to be the central issue when it comes to the coordinated PR campaign from Silicon Valley, and a new article from The Washington Post seems to clarify it all quite a bit. "Intelligence community sources said that this description [i.e., direct access], although inaccurate from a technical perspective, matches the experience of analysts at the NSA.
From their workstations anywhere in the world, government employees cleared for PRISM access may 'task' the system and receive results from an Internet company without further interaction with the company's staff."
This seems to explain why the leaked official documents speak of 'direct access' even though the companies themselves deny it.
The leaked documentation probably wasn't written by a technical expert, so he simply used a term that describes the end result (i.e., access whenever, wherever, whatever), but not the actual technical workings (i.e., the system does not directly tap into the companies' own servers).
Update: The Guardian has released a new slide from the NSA slide deck: it speaks of "collection directly from the servers" of several US companies, like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and so on.
It also mentions directly tapping into the very cables that carry data to and from the US.
I wonder how long Silicon Valley will continue to lie and/or legalese around the issue.
Man up for once.
The term 'direct access' seems to be the central issue when it comes to the coordinated PR campaign from Silicon Valley, and a new article from The Washington Post seems to clarify it all quite a bit. "Intelligence community sources said that this description [i.e., direct access], although inaccurate from a technical perspective, matches the experience of analysts at the NSA.
From their workstations anywhere in the world, government employees cleared for PRISM access may 'task' the system and receive results from an Internet company without further interaction with the company's staff."
This seems to explain why the leaked official documents speak of 'direct access' even though the companies themselves deny it.
The leaked documentation probably wasn't written by a technical expert, so he simply used a term that describes the end result (i.e., access whenever, wherever, whatever), but not the actual technical workings (i.e., the system does not directly tap into the companies' own servers).
Update: The Guardian has released a new slide from the NSA slide deck: it speaks of "collection directly from the servers" of several US companies, like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and so on.
It also mentions directly tapping into the very cables that carry data to and from the US.
I wonder how long Silicon Valley will continue to lie and/or legalese around the issue.
Man up for once.
Dorothy Dugger, Ex-BART General Manager, Made $330,000 While No Longer Working For Agency
Dorothy Dugger, Ex-BART General Manager, Made $330,000 While No Longer Working For Agency:
"A top official for the agency that manages the San Francisco Bay Area's BART system earned more than $330,000 last year – even though she didn't work a single day for the public transit agency, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Bay Area Rapid Transit general manager Dorothy Dugger resigned under pressure in May 2011, but stayed on the payroll for another 19 months and was BART's highest-paid employee in 2012, the Bay Area News Group (http://bit.ly/102JORG) reported."
"A top official for the agency that manages the San Francisco Bay Area's BART system earned more than $330,000 last year – even though she didn't work a single day for the public transit agency, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Bay Area Rapid Transit general manager Dorothy Dugger resigned under pressure in May 2011, but stayed on the payroll for another 19 months and was BART's highest-paid employee in 2012, the Bay Area News Group (http://bit.ly/102JORG) reported."
Muskegon County Jail architect: Planning process to ‘accelerate from this point forward’
Muskegon County Jail architect: Planning process to ‘accelerate from this point forward’ | MLive.com
"The total cost of the new jail and juvenile transition center is estimated to be $35 million to $41 million.
County officials have said construction could start before the end of 2013 if everything goes as scheduled and county commissioners give their approval."
"The total cost of the new jail and juvenile transition center is estimated to be $35 million to $41 million.
County officials have said construction could start before the end of 2013 if everything goes as scheduled and county commissioners give their approval."
Western Promises
Western Promises | National Review Online:
"And if all of America were absorbed by the Sacramento Commissariat, all of America would have A.B. 32, the Golden State’s ambitious carbon-curbing initiative, and all Americans would be wearing dumb smiles as we marched over the edge into an economic abyss."
"And if all of America were absorbed by the Sacramento Commissariat, all of America would have A.B. 32, the Golden State’s ambitious carbon-curbing initiative, and all Americans would be wearing dumb smiles as we marched over the edge into an economic abyss."
The Education Bubble Has Burst
Articles: The Education Bubble Has Burst:
"Concurrently, Moody's in 2013 gave a negative financial outlook for all universities.
Recent studies have indicated that over 50% of all colleges and universities are projected to close, merge, or shut down in the next 50 years"
"Concurrently, Moody's in 2013 gave a negative financial outlook for all universities.
Recent studies have indicated that over 50% of all colleges and universities are projected to close, merge, or shut down in the next 50 years"
University of Chicago Removes Pews from 88 Year-Old Chapel to Accommodate Muslim Prayers
University of Chicago Removes Pews from 88 Year-Old Chapel to Accommodate Muslim Prayers | The Gateway Pundit:
“The pews were recently removed from the chapel in order to offer Muslim students a place to pray, a symbolic gesture of religious tolerance,” according to an official description of the exhibit which includes a “set of repurposed pews from the University of Chicago’s campus church.”
“The pews were recently removed from the chapel in order to offer Muslim students a place to pray, a symbolic gesture of religious tolerance,” according to an official description of the exhibit which includes a “set of repurposed pews from the University of Chicago’s campus church.”
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Obama's EPA conducted Nazi-like experiments on human subjects
Lawsuit: Obama's EPA conducted Nazi-like experiments on human subjects:
"You have the story, documented by links to numerous credible sources, to fully document what is a shocking story.
I just found this story, and it's been out there a while and equally shocking is how the mainstream media have completely ignored this story and failed to report it to the public who clearly has a right to know that taxpayer dollars at the federal level are being spent to carry out sick Nazi-like experiments like this."
"You have the story, documented by links to numerous credible sources, to fully document what is a shocking story.
I just found this story, and it's been out there a while and equally shocking is how the mainstream media have completely ignored this story and failed to report it to the public who clearly has a right to know that taxpayer dollars at the federal level are being spent to carry out sick Nazi-like experiments like this."
'Pasha' Dingell and the rise of Washington power
'Pasha' Dingell and the rise of Washington power | The Detroit News:
"Democrats like Dingell position themselves as populist protectors of the common man.
But in truth, the massive regulatory bills that they write inside the D.C. beltway have reduced consumer choice and marginalized small business — while favoring big corporations that can afford the lobbyists necessary to navigate the capital’s thicket of rules."
"Democrats like Dingell position themselves as populist protectors of the common man.
But in truth, the massive regulatory bills that they write inside the D.C. beltway have reduced consumer choice and marginalized small business — while favoring big corporations that can afford the lobbyists necessary to navigate the capital’s thicket of rules."
Allen West Responds to Cosby
Allen West Responds to Cosby: "Cosby had written this:
I’m a Christian. But Muslims are misunderstood. Intentionally misunderstood. We should all be more like them. They make sense, especially with their children. There is no other group like the Black Muslims, who put so much effort into teaching children the right things, they don’t smoke, they don’t drink or overindulge in alcohol, they protect their women, they command respect. And what do these other people do?
They complain about them, they criticize them. We’d be a better world if we emulated them. We don’t have to become black Muslims, but we can embrace the things that work."
I’m a Christian. But Muslims are misunderstood. Intentionally misunderstood. We should all be more like them. They make sense, especially with their children. There is no other group like the Black Muslims, who put so much effort into teaching children the right things, they don’t smoke, they don’t drink or overindulge in alcohol, they protect their women, they command respect. And what do these other people do?
They complain about them, they criticize them. We’d be a better world if we emulated them. We don’t have to become black Muslims, but we can embrace the things that work."
Bridging the male education gap
Bridging the male education gap - latimes.com:
"The underinvestment in education by adolescent boys and young men stems in part from out-of-date masculine stereotypes.
Such things as a strong attachment to school, a feeling of closeness to teachers, an excessive interest in high academic achievement or a fondness for art or music are viewed by many young men as unmasculine."
"The underinvestment in education by adolescent boys and young men stems in part from out-of-date masculine stereotypes.
Such things as a strong attachment to school, a feeling of closeness to teachers, an excessive interest in high academic achievement or a fondness for art or music are viewed by many young men as unmasculine."
Vitamins: Good or Bad?
Vitamins: Good or Bad? - James Hamblin - The Atlantic:
"Bottom line, we understand the majority of people to be best off without any vitamin supplements.
Just because they are non-prescription and still live inside a "health halo," vitamins are not harmless.
They could shorten or extend your life; at this point, taking vitamins randomly is metabolic roulette. "
"Bottom line, we understand the majority of people to be best off without any vitamin supplements.
Just because they are non-prescription and still live inside a "health halo," vitamins are not harmless.
They could shorten or extend your life; at this point, taking vitamins randomly is metabolic roulette. "
Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic
Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
"A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable."
"A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable."
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