YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK

[Soldier4Christ]

I agree with the overall assessment of this article but as with most things today the historical content of it is wrong. It says that the national debt has been "Growing ever since" the Revolutionary War. This is not true. The U.S. has had a surplus on more than one occasion.

[HisDaughter]

Madoff leaves Atlanta lockup, headed to NC prison
Jul 14, 2009 (11:35a CDT)
By DEVLIN BARRETT  (Associated Press Writer)

WASHINGTON -  Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff left a federal prison in Atlanta on Tuesday to start serving an 150-year sentence behind bars in North Carolina.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Linda Thomas said the elderly Madoff left the penitentiary in Atlanta only a day after being transferred there Monday from a federal jail in New York City.

Thomas would not say where Madoff is headed, but a law enforcement official told The Associated Press Madoff is destined for a federal prison in Butner, N.C., to begin serving his sentence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person wasn't authorized to discuss prisoner transfers.

Madoff has a projected release date of November 14, 2139, assuming he gets early release credit for good behavior while in prison. He is listed in Bureau of Prisons records as prisoner number 61727-054.

The 71-year-old Madoff pleaded guilty in March to charges that his investment advisory business was a multibillion-dollar scheme that wiped out thousands of investors and ruined charities.

Authorities said Madoff had carried out the fraud for at least two decades before confessing to his sons in December that his investment business was a fraud and that he had lost as much as $50 billion.

The Butner Federal Correctional Complex, located about 45 miles northwest of Raleigh, includes two medium-security facilities, a low-security facility and a hospital, according to the Bureau of Prisons Web site. Within the federal prison system, it is perhaps best known for its hospital facility to treat elderly or ill prisoners.

Among the well-known criminals being held at Butner are:

_ John Rigas, founder of Adelphia Communications, and his son, Tim, the company's chief financial officer. They were convicted on multiple charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud.

_ Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel more than two decades ago.

_ Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the blind sheik, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for his role in a plot to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and blow up New York City landmarks, including the United Nations. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 and moved to Butner in 2007.

This is a good example of American Justice and I wanted to bring it up because as I read this I thought, should Barak O. be found eventually to be the imposter that we believe he is, be afforded anything less.  I don't see how he could be impeached since it would be proven that that he doesn't belong there anyway.  He couldn't be tried for treason since he is not an american citizen.  He should be imprisoned for the rest of his life for nothing short of Terrorizim, for that is what he is.

[HisDaughter]

Another note:  Isn't what Madoff did by bilking Americans out of billions of dollars, exactly what Barak O. is doing?

[nChrist]

Another note:  Isn't what Madoff did by bilking Americans out of billions of dollars, exactly what Barak O. is doing?

Sister, putting the entire picture together of how this was planned, orchestrated, and carried out IS A VERY UGLY PICTURE! To me, it's more than obvious that none of what we are watching now happened by chance or coincidence. I think we are watching a MASSIVE CONSPIRACY OF EVIL AT WORK. It's been at work for some time, and it isn't just this administration - MUCH MORE!

I would love to see JUSTICE DONE, but I think that Christians will be going HOME soon. WHAT A DAY OF REJOICING THAT WILL BE!

Love In Christ,
Tom

[Soldier4Christ]

Congressman warns of 'Big Brother dossier'
Bill would ensure citizens aren't forced to take extended Census survey

The Obama administration's extended Census survey intended for 3 million people is a plan to create a "government dossier on American citizens," charges a Texas congressman who has introduced a bill to make the lengthy questionnaire voluntary.

"The federal government has a constitutional duty to count the number of people in the United States every 10 years," Republican Ted Poe told WND, "but the federal government has no business keeping a comprehensive personal profile on every American citizen."

Poe fears the government can use the American Community Survey questionnaire to compile detailed information about individuals and "use that information for its own purposes."

"This is Big-Brother at its worst," he said.

Poe's bill, H.R. 3131, is co-sponsored by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who has announced she will not complete the census this year.

Bachman told the Washington Times she will only disclose the number of people in her household when responding to the 2010 census She fears ACORN, the community organizing group currently under indictment in several states for alleged voter registration fraud, will be part of the Census Bureau's door-to-door information collection efforts under the direction of the White House.

"A lot of Americans – myself included – have real concerns about the ultimate protection of our sensitive personal information," Bachmann told WND in an e-mail. "I am proud to partner with my colleague, Rep. Poe, on this important initiative that respects the American people's privacy."

WND contacted the White House press office for comment on this story but received no response.

The American Community Survey asks 11-pages of additional questions designed to supplement the 2010 Census all Americans will be asked to complete.

    * The first section of the ACS asks for the full name of each person living in the household, the total number of people in the household, how the people are related to each other, the date of birth of each person in the household, the sex and race of each person in the household and whether any of the people in the household are of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin.

    * The second section surveys housing, asking whether the household lives in a mobile home, a one-family detached home, a one-family home attached to one or more houses, an apartment or a boat, RV or van.

    * Then the ACS asks what year the building was built, when "Person No. 1" from the housing section moved into the home; how many acres the home is on; what agricultural products were sold from the property in the last 12 months; whether the property was used as a business; how many separate rooms are in the house; whether the house has hot and cold running water; whether the house has a flush toilet, a shower or bathtub, a sink with a faucet, a stove or range, a refrigerator, and a telephone; how many cars, vans and trucks are kept at the property; and what fuel is most used at the property – gas, electricity, fuel oil or kerosene, coal or coke, wood, solar energy, or "other."

    * Further, the housing section asks what was last month's bill for energy, the cost of water and sewage for the housing unit in the last year, whether anyone in the household received food stamps in the last year, the monthly rental or mortgage cost of the unit, an estimate of the resale value of the housing unit, the unit's annual property taxes, and the annual cost of fire, hazard and flood insurance on the property.

    * Person No. 1 in the household, the ACS wants to know if that person is a citizen, if the person was born in the U.S. or when the person came to the U.S.; whether the person had attended college in the last three years and what is the highest level of education completed; the person's ancestry or ethnic origin; whether the person speaks a language other than English at home, and if yes, what language; whether the person lived in the housing unit or an apartment a year ago; whether the person is covered by health insurance, and if so, by what type of health insurance.

    * Next, Person No. 1 must answer if he/she is deaf or has difficulty hearing; if the person is blind or has serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses; if the person has difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions because of a physical, mental or emotional condition; whether the person has serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs; whether the person has difficulty bathing or dressing; whether the person has difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor's office or shopping because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition; what is the person's marital status; whether the person has given birth to any children in the past 12 months; whether the person has any grandchildren under the age of 18 in the house or apartment; whether the person has ever served on active duty in the U.S. armed forces; whether the person has a Veterans Administration service-connected disability rating, and if yes, what percentage is the VA disability rating.

    * The ACS also asks whether Person No. 1 worked last week for pay; at what address, town, city and country did the person work last week; how did the person get to work and if by car, bus, railroad, taxi, motorcycle, bicycle or on foot; whether the person, if unemployed, has been actively looking for work in the past four weeks; whether the person, if unemployed, was available to start work if offered a job or recalled to work in the past week; and how many weeks the person worked in the past year and how many hours per week.

    * Finally, Person No. 1 must disclose whether their most recent work was for a private for-profit company, a private not-for-profit, a local government, a state government, or the federal government, or whether the person was self employed in their own incorporated or not-incorporated business, or whether the person worked without pay in a family business or on the family farm; the name of the employer; the type of business; whether the business was manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, or other; the exact job description of the person and their most important duties; their income over the past 12 months and the amount of that income that came from wages, salary, commission, bonuses or tips; whether the person received any Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits, or any other type of public assistance in the past 12 months; and the person's entire income over the past 12 months, both from employment or public welfare sources.

The American Community Survey is available in English or Spanish on the Census Bureau's website.

[Brother Jerry]

Now I have to say this.  I do not like the idea.  I am going over the questionairre currently to see what I can see on it.  However to be honest this is not an Obama invention...ACS was established in 2005 with the intentions of collecting more detailed information during the 2010 census. 

As I peruse the survey.
Question 5 on the people section...Is Person x of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin...then down in question 6 it is asking for race.  It makes no sense to segregate out the Hispanic portions of things.

The second section is Housing
Which best describes this building? About when was this building first built? When did Person 1 move into this house?
All of these questions are irrelevant to the purpose of the census.  The even ask what sort of fuel is most used for heating in this building.
They even ask for the utility bill amounts...they want to know how much did electricity cost.

Third section is back to the people
At any time in the last 3 months has this person attended school or college?
Did this person live in this house or apartment 1 year ago?
Where did this person live 1 year ago?
how many times has this person been married?
During the past 12 months did this person work 50 weeks or more?
Again crazy questions that have no relevance on a census.

Nope...don't like it. 

[Soldier4Christ]

I didn't see a whole lot of significant changes from the last census either. However I don't like it any less than I did then. I refused to fill it out then and I refuse to fill it out now. Being that I am in government housing though the government already has all the pertinent data on me already but I still refuse to fill out the census just on the principle of it.

The biggest problem I have is not whether it is obama's, Bush's or even Clinton's doing behind the choice of questions but rather the change of procedure for handling those questions and what they will be used for.

[nChrist]

The answer to many of those questions is N.B.

NUNYA BUSINESS!

[Soldier4Christ]

I like that answer and may even use it.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mexican agents headed for U.S.?
Federal drill to focus on response to terror

Agents for Mexico soon could be roaming the roads of several southern states – along with representatives of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom – under a Federal Emergency Management Agency exercise that is going to focus "exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection."

The event is called National Level Exercise 2009 and is part of an annual series of exercises formerly called TOPOFF, for Top Officials, under the National Exercise Program that "serves as the nation's overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises."

The idea has some bloggers stunned.

"Imagine, armed Mexican troops protecting us from 'terrorism' in the United States! Don't you feel safer already? ¿Dónde están sus documentos?" wrote an alarmed blogger at TargetFreedom.

"Rumors of foreign troops on our soil have been circulated for a long time. BUT this is not a rumor. It is a blatant fact as stated by FEMA on their government website. THIS IS AN INVASION," the blogger wrote.

For the rest of this article and links to further information on this:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104348

[Soldier4Christ]

THIS IS AN INVASION

Yes, this is an invasion and it started on Capital Hill!

[nChrist]

Yes, this is an invasion and it started on Capital Hill!

This is INSANE, and there has to be several ulterior motives. NO THANKS! - We have our own law enforcement and State Guards. I wonder if anyone bothered to check if this is legal and Constitutional! NO! Everyone needs to file an IMMEDIATE COMPLAINT with their REPRESENTATIVES. THE STATES HAVE SOVEREIGNTY, AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS THE SERVANT TO THE STATES!

[HisDaughter]

Pentagon eyes accelerated "bunker buster" bomb     

reuters

The Pentagon is seeking to speed deployment of an ultra-large "bunker-buster" bomb on the most advanced U.S. bomber as soon as July 2010, the Air Force said on Sunday, amid concerns over perceived nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran.

The non-nuclear, 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, which is still being tested, is designed to destroy deeply buried bunkers beyond the reach of existing bombs.

If Congress agrees to shift enough funds to the program, Northrop Grumman Corp's radar-evading B-2 bomber "would be capable of carrying the bomb by July 2010," said Andy Bourland, an Air Force spokesman.

"The Air Force and Department of Defense are looking at the possibility of accelerating the program," he said. "There have been discussions with the four congressional committees with oversight responsibilities. No final decision has been made."

The precision-guided weapon, built by Boeing Co, could become the biggest conventional bomb the United States has ever used.

Carrying more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. it would deliver more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor, the 2,000-pound BLU-109, according to the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which has funded and managed the seed program.

Chicago-based Boeing, the Pentagon's No. 2 supplier by sales, could be put on contract within 72 hours to build the first MOP production models if Congress signs off, Bourland said.

The threat reduction agency is working with the Air Force to transition the program from "technology demonstration" to acquisition, said Betsy Freeman, an agency spokeswoman.

Both the U.S. Pacific Command, which takes the lead in U.S. military planning for North Korea, and the Central Command, which prepares for contingencies with Iran, appeared to be backing the acceleration request, said Kenneth Katzman, an expert on Iran at the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress.

"It's very possible that the Pentagon wants to send a signal to various countries, particularly Iran and North Korea, that the United States is developing a viable military option against their nuclear programs," Katzman said.

But he cautioned against concluding there was any specific mission in mind at this time.

BIGGEST BOMB

The MOP would be about one-third heavier than the 21,000-pound (9.5 million kg) GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- dubbed the "mother of all bombs" -- that was dropped twice in tests at a Florida range in 2003.

The 20-foot-long (6-metre) MOP is built to be dropped from either the B-52 or the B-2 "stealth" bomber. It is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet (61 meters) underground before exploding, according to the U.S. Air Force.

The suspected nuclear facilities of Iran and North Korea are believed to be largely buried underground to escape detection and boost their chances of surviving attack.

During a visit to Jerusalem last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought to reassure Israel that a drive by President Barack Obama to talk Iran into giving up its nuclear work was not "open-ended."

Iran says its uranium enrichment -- a process with bomb-making potential -- is for energy only and has rejected U.S.-led demands to curb the program.

For its part, North Korea responded to new United Nations sanctions, imposed after it detonated a second nuclear device, by vowing in June to press the production of nuclear weapons and act against international efforts to isolate it.

[HisDaughter]

Congressman wants government GPS in cars

wnd

An Oregon congressman says he wants to test having a government GPS unit in every car so a tax could be imposed on the miles driven.

The proposal, H.R. 3311, which calls for a test project costing $150 million-plus, was introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

"Oregon has successfully tested a Vehicle Miles Traveled fee, and it is time to expand and test the VMT program across the country," he said in a statement on his website. "A VMT system can better assess fees based on use of our roads and bridges, as well as during times of peak congestion, than a fee based on fuel consumption.

"It is time to get creative and find smart ways to rebuild and renew America's deteriorating infrastructure," he said.

His plan calls for the Department of the Treasury to study the plan with projects in every state.

Blumenauer said the Oregon test "charged drivers for the number of miles they traveled rather the fuel they consumed. The test was convenient for drivers, protected personal privacy, and proved to be easily administrable."

In a WND column, however, Henry Lamb raised several concerns unaddressed by the congressman.

For example, what other applications would there be for a GPS unit attached to each car in the nation?

What about "shutting down the vehicle when its allotted emissions cap had been reached."

"Why not?" Lamb wrote, "The current cap-and-trade bill would limit industrial emissions and force each business to pay an extra tax for the privilege of emitting additional carbon dioxide. Why not arbitrarily assign a weekly or monthly cap on auto emissions and shut down the vehicle when that limit is reached? The new Global Positioning Satellite device would have that capability.

"Every American ought to be outraged that such a system is even contemplated," he continued. "This system is the tool that makes slaves of every person who depends upon a vehicle. Every person should consider just how his life would be changed if he were required to get approval from the federal government to start his car."

Lamb said shutting down a vehicle would be among the less intrusive possibilities.

"The proposed GPS road tax system could easily be programmed to listen to and record conversations inside any vehicle. It could stop a vehicle, lock the occupants inside and notify the 'jack boots' that the occupants were en route to a tea party," Lamb wrote. "We would hope that the federal government would never sink to the level of paranoia that gripped Nazi Germany. But then, we also hoped that the federal government would never sink to the level of labeling legal, peaceful assemblies, such as the recent tea parties, as gatherings of potential terrorists."

According to a report at Landlinemag.com, the bill does not call for a removal of the "fuel tax" if a mileage tax is established.

"The current system of levying federal taxes on trucks is as discriminatory as it can be to small business, and harmful, but there are lots of unanswered questions with a VMT," Todd Spencer, vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told the magazine.

"And those questions need to be resolved before we start launching down that path," he said.

The bill, introduced July 23, has been assigned to the House Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation.

It states the subjects that need to be evaluated include "ease of compliance," "public acceptances," and "geographic and income equity."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported besides Oregon's test project, several other states also have considered checking out the idea.

Under the Oregon plan, a dashboard display, a GPS receiver and antenna, mileage counter and a radio were built into several hundred cars. When a driver pulled up to a pump at a specially equipped gas station, a radio sent information about the car's travels to the pump.

[HisDaughter]

Why Israel Is Nervous

online.wsj.

Tension is escalating between the U.S and Israel. The problem: The administration views the Israeli-Palestinian issue as the root of all problems, while Israel is focused on Iran’s nuclear threat, says Elliott Abrams..

The tension in U.S.-Israel relations was manifest this past week as an extraordinary troupe of Obama administration officials visited Jerusalem. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, National Security Advisor James Jones, special Middle East envoy George Mitchell and new White House adviser Dennis Ross all showed up in Israel’s capital in an effort to…well, to do something. It was not quite clear what.

Since President Obama came to office on Jan. 20 and then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 31, the main motif in relations between the two governments has been friction. While nearly 80% of American Jews voted for Mr. Obama, that friction has been visible enough to propel him to meet with American Jewish leaders recently to reassure them about his policies. But last month, despite those reassurances, both the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Anti-Defamation League issued statements critical of the president’s handling of Israel. Given the warm relations during the Bush years and candidate Obama’s repeated statements of commitment to the very best relations with Israel, why have we fallen into this rut?

U.S.-Israel relations are often depicted as an extended honeymoon, but that’s a false image. Harry Truman, who was a Bible-believing Christian Zionist, defied the secretary of state he so admired, George C. Marshall, and won a place in Israel’s history by recognizing the new state 11 minutes after it declared its independence in 1948. Relations weren’t particularly warm under Eisenhower—who, after all, demanded that Israel, along with Britain and France, leave Suez in 1956. The real alliance began in 1967, after Israel’s smashing victory in the Six Day War, and it was American arms and Nixon’s warnings to the Soviet Union to stay out that allowed Israel to survive and prevail in the 1973 war. Israelis are no fans of President Carter and, as his more recent writings have revealed, his own view of Israel is very hostile. During the George H.W. Bush and Clinton years, there were! moments of close cooperation, but also of great friction—as when Bush suspended loan guarantees to Israel, or when the Clinton administration butted heads with Mr. Netanyahu time after time during peace negotiations. Even during the George W. Bush years, when Israel’s struggle against the terrorist “intifada” and the U.S. “global war on terror” led to unprecedented closeness and cooperation, there was occasional friction over American pressure for what Israelis viewed as endless concessions to the Palestinians to enable the signing of a peace agreement before the president’s term ended. This “special relationship” has been marked by intense and frequent contact and often by extremely close (and often secret) collaboration, but not by the absence of discord.

Yet no other administration, even among those experiencing considerable dissonance with Israel, started off with as many difficulties as Obama’s. There are two explanations for this problem, and the simpler one is personal politics. Mr. Netanyahu no doubt remembers very well the last Democratic administration’s glee at his downfall in 1999, something Dennis Ross admits clearly in his book “The Missing Peace.” The prime minister must wonder if the current bilateral friction is an effort to persuade Israelis that he is not the right man for the job, or at least to persuade them that his policies must be rejected. When Israeli liberals plead for Obama to “talk to Israel,” they are hoping that Obama will help them revive the Israeli Left, recently vanquished in national elections. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr. Obama and his team wish former Foreign Minister Tzipi L! ivni had won the top job and view Mr. Netanyahu and his Likud Party with some suspicion. The result, of course, is to make personal relations among policy makers more difficult, and to make trust and confidence between the two governments harder as well.

But the Obama administration has managed to win the mistrust of most Israelis, not just conservative politicians. Despite his great popularity in many parts of the world, in Israel Obama is now seen as no ally. A June poll found that just 6% of Israelis called him “pro-Israel,” when 88% had seen President George W. Bush that way. So the troubles between the U.S. and Israel are not fundamentally found in the personal relations among policy makers.

The deeper problem—and the more complex explanation of bilateral tensions—is that the Obama administration, while claiming to separate itself from the “ideologues” of the Bush administration in favor of a more balanced and realistic Middle East policy, is in fact following a highly ideological policy path. Its ability to cope with, indeed even to see clearly, the realities of life in Israel and the West Bank and the challenge of Iran to the region is compromised by the prism through which it analyzes events.

The administration view begins with a critique of Bush foreign policy—as much too reliant on military pressure and isolated in the world. The antidote is a policy of outreach and engagement, especially with places like Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and Iran. Engagement with the Muslim world is a special goal, which leads not only to the president’s speech in Cairo on June 4 but also to a distancing from Israel so as to appear more “even-handed” to Arab states. Seen from Jerusalem, all this looks like a flashing red light: trouble ahead.

Iran is the major security issue facing Israel, which sees itself confronting an extremist regime seeking nuclear weapons and stating openly that Israel should be wiped off the map. Israel believes the military option has to be on the table and credible if diplomacy and sanctions are to have any chance, and many Israelis believe a military strike on Iran may in the end be unavoidable. The Obama administration, on the other hand, talks of outstretched hands; on July 15, even after Iran’s election, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “we understand the importance of offering to engage Iran….direct talks provide the best vehicle….We remain ready to engage with Iran.”

To the Israelis this seems unrealistic, even naïve, while to U.S. officials an Israeli attack on Iran is a nightmare that would upset Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world. The remarkable events in Iran have slowed down U.S. engagement, but not the Iranian nuclear program. If the current dissent in Iran leads to regime change, or if new United Nations sanctions force Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program, this source of U.S.-Israel tension will disappear. But it is more likely that Iran will forge ahead toward building a weapon, and U.S.-Israel tension will grow as Israel watches the clock tick and sees its options narrowed to two: live with an Iranian bomb, or strike Iran soon to delay its program long enough for real political change to come to that country.

Israel believes the only thing worse than bombing Iran is Iran’s having the Bomb, but the evidence suggests this is not the Obama view.

If Iran is the most dangerous source of U.S.-Israel tension, the one most often discussed is settlements: The Obama administration has sought a total “freeze” on “Israeli settlement growth.” The Israelis years ago agreed there would be no new settlements and no physical expansion of settlements, just building “up and in” inside already existing communities. Additional construction in settlements does not harm Palestinians, who in fact get most of the construction jobs. The West Bank economy is growing fast and the Israelis are removing security roadblocks so Palestinians can get around the West Bank better.

cont.