Yearly Archives: 2013

Pentagon plans to fight ‘War on Terror’ for another 20 years

"Even after cutting off the head of al-Qaeda, the United States Department of Defense doesn’t believe an end to the war on terror is in sight. On Thursday, one Pentagon official predicted the mission against al-Qaeda could continue for another two decades. Speaking to the Senate Armed Services early Thursday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Michael Sheehan said the Pentagon has no plans to pull out of its almost 12-year-old war overseas. When asked for his take on how long the war on terror could go on for, Sheehan told lawmakers, 'At least 10 to 20 years.'" Continue reading →

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Drones are cheaper and more powerful. In US, that’s a problem, lawmakers told

"With much of Capitol Hill riveted by IRS audits, AP phone records, and Benghazi e-mails, top US scholars gathered to testify in a little-watched congressional hearing that unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the specter of a 'significant new avenue for surveillance of American life,' as Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, characterized it for lawmakers Friday. 'Many Americans are familiar with these aircraft – commonly called drones – because of their use overseas in places like Afghanistan and Yemen. But drones are coming to America,' he said." Continue reading →

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Paul Craig Roberts: Assault On Gold Update

"Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money? What happens when 500 tons of gold sales are dumped on the market at one time or on one day? Correct, it drives the price down. Investors who want to get out of large positions would spread sales out over time so as not to lower their sales proceeds. The sale took gold down by about $73 per ounce. That means the seller or sellers lost up to $73 dollars 16 million times, or $1,168,000,000. Who can afford to lose that kind of money? Only a central bank that can print it." Continue reading →

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Hedge funds selling gold ‘in a big way’

"Hedge funds and other big speculators in commodities have started selling gold in a big way, trade data showed on Friday, just a month after they had supported the precious metal amid a record tumble in its price. Money managers, including hedge funds, pulled $1.4 billion from the U.S. gold futures market for the week ended May 14 by trimming their net long positions in the metal, according to Reuters calculations of data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Open interest, a measure of market liquidity, fell more than 3 percent in the week to May 14 for gold contracts traded by money managers on the COMEX." Continue reading →

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The Truth: Chained CPI Is Worse Than You Thought

"The proposal to change the measure of inflation used for federal programs to chained CPI, which rises more slowly than conventional inflation measures, is usually framed as a Social Security cut. And it is. The CBO estimates that it will save $133 billion in Social Security costs over 10 years. But it’s also a tax increase. Currently, the cutoffs for different tax brackets rise with CPI-U, a non-chained measure of inflation. Chained CPI would cause the cutoffs to rise more slowly, pushing more and more people into higher tax brackets. That raises $99 billion over 10 years. So about 43 percent of the deficit reduction from chained CPI comes from increased taxes." Continue reading →

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IRS Scandal: And They Shall Eat Their Own …

"These three scandals in particular represent the power of what we often call the Internet Reformation. While scandals have always beset Washington, the breathtaking rapidity with which these blossomed and expanded may be indicative of how modern communication undermines damage control and resists minimization. And, yes, I would tend to believe the third reason – the power of the Internet itself – is driving the rapidity and evolution of these scandals. It is not enough anymore to claim executive privilege while attempting to conceal abuses of political privilege." Continue reading →

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‘We could lose everything’: Tea Party groups prepare to sue IRS

"ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow told FoxNews.com he'll likely file the civil suits next Wednesday or Thursday on behalf of more than a dozen Tea Party groups who say they were singled out by the IRS and had their tax-exempt status severely delayed or denied altogether. Sekulow said the number of plaintiffs in the civil suit are growing as is the list of who his organization wants held accountable. It’s still unclear whether the organization will file as a class-action or individually in the 17 different states where the complaints originate. Litigation could take months or years and for some like Devereaux, time isn’t on their side." Continue reading →

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Lawsuit Alleges IRS Improperly Seized 60 Million Personal Medical Records

"An unnamed healthcare provider in California is suing the IRS and 15 unnamed agents, alleging that they improperly seized some 60 million medical records of 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges on March 11, 2011. The search warrant for financial data pertaining to a former employee of the 'John Doe Company,' 'did not authorize any seizure of any healthcare or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter.' The medical records included information on psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual and drug treatment, and other sensitive medical treatment data." Continue reading →

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5th Cincinnati IRS worker allegedly connected to scandal

"Despite the claim of just two employees being involved, FOX19 has exclusively learned from two separate sources that there could be at least four Cincinnati employees involved. Those four employees, whose names we have chosen to withhold until they have been officially confirmed, have each worked in the IRS Exempt Organizations Department. While the IRS is pointing at 'two rogue employees,' the number of organizations that were singled out has swelled to nearly 500. In addition, on Friday FOX19 obtained documents of a fifth Cincinnati IRS agent who reportedly came after a pro-life group in 2009." Continue reading →

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