Alternative News

Congratulations to Gay Americans Who Are Now Eligible for the Tax Code’s Marriage Penalty

"The CBO estimated that gay marriage in all 50 states would increase tax receipts by about $400 million a year if the George W. Bush tax cuts were extended and by about $700 million a year if they were not. Because those tax cuts ended up being mostly extended, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle, but closer to $400 million. The added revenue comes from the 'marriage penalty': Two-earner married couples where each spouse has a similar income tend to be taxed more heavily than they would be if both partners were single." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCongratulations to Gay Americans Who Are Now Eligible for the Tax Code’s Marriage Penalty

Innovation in legal highs leaves governments in the dust

"An explosion of hundreds of new 'legal highs' in recent years has left governments around the world in the dust as lawmakers struggle to keep prohibition laws updated as more and more never-before-seen drugs flood the black market. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Wednesday that more than 251 new psychoactive substances were available on the black market by mid-2012, a growth of more than 50 percent over 2009. The number of new psychoactive substances available on the black market today exceeds the number of controlled psychoactive substances currently prohibited by governments around the world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInnovation in legal highs leaves governments in the dust

Stock Market Guru Cody Willard Is Buying Precious Metals Coins.

"We can’t control when or where opportunity arises. And as you know with gold having crashed some 30% from its highs, I started rebuilding my own physical gold and silver assets in April, looking to take about 1-2 years to build up those assets to about 10%-15% of my portfolio to own/hedge/protect my family with forever. Which leads us to a little more on why I’m so bullish right now on gold and silver coins and bullion and why I am so against gold and silver exchange-traded funds and other precious metal ETFs. It’s my belief that the big banks who control the paper ETF and spot prices have less gold per promise than they’ve ever had in our lifetimes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStock Market Guru Cody Willard Is Buying Precious Metals Coins.

Ohio House Votes Overwhelmingly To Ban Traffic Cameras

"All red light cameras and nearly all speed cameras would be banished from Ohio under a bill that cleared the state House of Representatives Wednesday by a 61-32 vote. State Representatives Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) and Dale Mallory (D-Cincinnati) introduced the measure that would pull the plug on sixteen municipal automated ticketing programs currently in operation. 'Let's be candid about these cameras,' Maag said. 'Their main goal is to generate revenue and this is obvious for several reasons.' So far, residents in seven cities have circulated petitions and succeeded in overturning the decision of their city council to install red light cameras and speed cameras." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOhio House Votes Overwhelmingly To Ban Traffic Cameras

Evidence Snowden is Being Protected By the CIA?

"Apparently the Justice Department sent its documents to Hong Kong with the WRONG MIDDLE NAME for Snowden. I know government bureaucrats have little motivation to do their jobs well, but give me a break. It very well could be that they purposefully submitted incorrect documents to delay the process and allow him to get out. Perhaps more evidence that he's under CIA protection and is part of a turf war." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEvidence Snowden is Being Protected By the CIA?

The new-found desire for privacy is what’s driving all of this new business activity.

"Thankfully, there are companies, like those I’ve mentioned, providing private sector responses to these blatant affronts of our basic freedoms. And more have entered the fray, including TextSecure, a mobile app encryption service, and SpiderOak, a DropBox-like service that can’t see the content of user files. I hope that we will let our elected leaders know that spying on its citizens is not acceptable… and that it is no different than what the German government did post-World War II. I’m proud to say that we’ve been way ahead of the curve on matters of liberty, privacy and encroaching government tyranny." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe new-found desire for privacy is what’s driving all of this new business activity.

Don’t Leave Home Without This

"Since 1986, the U.S. State Department has been informing the IRS of all persons who renew their U.S. passports using a foreign address. Since passport renewals require an applicant’s Social Security number, this information is also used by the IRS to see if applicants have filed income tax returns. An IRS official speaking in Zurich said a special effort was being made by the agency to track all U.S. citizens who’ve renewed U.S. passports while living in Switzerland. So, now we have two out of control U.S. government agencies that have the ability to track your private financial activity and revoke your ability to travel freely through your U.S. passport." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDon’t Leave Home Without This

In WikiLeaks Probe, Feds Used a Secret Search Warrant to Get Volunteer’s Gmail

"The Justice Department used a secret search warrant to obtain the entire contents of a Gmail account used by a former WikiLeaks volunteer in Iceland, according to court records released to the volunteer this week. The warrant ordered Google to turn over 'the contents of all e-mails associated with the account, including stored or preserved copies of e-mails sent to and from the account, draft e-mails, deleted e-mails [...] the source and destination addresses associated with each e-mail, the date and time at which each e-mail was sent, and the size and length of each e-mail.' The warrant also ordered Google not to disclose the search to anyone." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIn WikiLeaks Probe, Feds Used a Secret Search Warrant to Get Volunteer’s Gmail

WikiLeaks Volunteer Was a Paid Informant for the FBI

"In 2011, a cherubic 18-year-old Icelandic man named Sigurdur 'Siggi' Thordarson walked through the stately doors of the U.S. embassy in Reykjavík, his jacket pocket concealing his calling card: a crumpled photocopy of an Australian passport, a man with a unruly shock of platinum blonde hair and the name Julian Paul Assange. Thordarson was long time volunteer for WikiLeaks with direct access to Assange and a key position as an organizer in the group. Thordarson served two masters, working for the secret-spilling website and simultaneously spilling its secrets to the U.S. government in exchange, he says, for a total of about $5,000." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWikiLeaks Volunteer Was a Paid Informant for the FBI

California man could face a decade in jail for chalking ‘no thanks big banks’

"A California man’s protest against banking excess could put him in jail for more than a decade, while apparently landing him in the middle of the ongoing feud between the mayor of San Diego and the city attorney. KFMB-TV reported on Tuesday that Jeff Olson has been charged with 13 counts of vandalism by City Attorney Jan Goldsmith for writing statements including 'No thanks big banks' and 'Shame on Bank of America' on the sidewalk outside a Bank of America location between February and August 2012. If convicted, Olson could spend up to 13 years in jail and be forced to pay the bank $13,000 in restitution." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCalifornia man could face a decade in jail for chalking ‘no thanks big banks’