for life and liberty

Four Texas police officers charged with escorting loads of narcotics for pay

"Two deputies and two police officers in the Hidalgo County, Texas area have been charged with protecting drug smugglers’ shipments of narcotics through the area. According to a Dec. 13 statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Texas, two of the officers are with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) and two are with Mission Police Department (MPD) officers. Reportedly the men allegedly used their positions to get thousands of dollars for facilitating and protecting drug shipments. Two of the men are also reportedly the sons of high-ranking local police officials in the area in south Texas, west of Brownesville." Continue reading →

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Chicago cop whose home was raided is awarded $565,000 in damages

"When Chicago police broke into his Austin home with guns drawn and a search warrant, Markee Cooper Sr., a cop himself, and his family could only look on as drawers and closets were searched for crack cocaine based on an alleged informant's tip. On Friday, a federal jury awarded Cooper and his family $565,000 in damages after finding one officer at fault for a falsified warrant and two others responsible for the illegal 2007 search. Their two young sons, Markee Jr., 13, and Zion, 8, were traumatized at seeing their father confront a roomful of cops with guns before kneeling to the living room floor and handing over his badge and weapon." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChicago cop whose home was raided is awarded $565,000 in damages

Two women sue Texas Troopers for illegal roadside cavity search

"A federal lawsuit filed by two Irving women claims that Texas State Troopers humiliated them by performing illegal cavity searches on the side of the road after a cigarette butt was thrown out of their car window. Dashcam video shows Helleson searching the anuses and vaginas of both women with the same latex gloves in full view of other passing cars. And then the trooper performed the same procedure on Ashley Dobbs without changing gloves." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTwo women sue Texas Troopers for illegal roadside cavity search

20 Ways FATCA Will Catch Americans

"It may seem obvious, but Americans who have lived abroad for many years and not filed tax returns still sometimes do not realise that they will bring the IRS down on them like a ton of old tax records when they: 1. Register the birth of their child at a US embassy in the country where they now live, or 2. Renew a long-dormant US passport. 3. Appearing at a US airport with a non-US passport that reveals the bearer was born in the US is almost certain to set alarm bells clanging back at IRS headquarters in Washington. 4. [..]" Continue reading →

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Leszek Balcerowicz: The Anti-Bernanke

"As an economic crisis manager, Leszek Balcerowicz has few peers. When communism fell in Europe, he pioneered 'shock therapy' to slay hyperinflation and build a free market. In the late 1990s, he jammed a debt ceiling into his country's constitution, handcuffing future free spenders. When he was central-bank governor from 2001 to 2007, his hard-money policies avoided a credit boom and likely bust. Poland was the only country in the European Union to avoid recession in 2009 and has been the fastest-growing EU economy since." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLeszek Balcerowicz: The Anti-Bernanke

Portugal May Become the First of Europe’s Bankrupt Welfare States to Recover: Less Spending AND Lower Tax Rates

"The Portuguese government is seeking to cut its corporate tax rate for new businesses to one of the lowest in Europe as part of a plan to attract investment and revitalize ailing industries, the minister of economy said. The government is in talks with the European Commission’s competition agency in Brussels to get approval to cut the tax on corporate income for new investors to 10% from the current 25%, the minister, Alvaro Santos Pereira, said in an interview." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPortugal May Become the First of Europe’s Bankrupt Welfare States to Recover: Less Spending AND Lower Tax Rates

Everything that’s Wrong with the Tax System, in a Single Picture

"I used to think this image was a damning indictment of the internal revenue code. Or here’s another chart showing how the tax system has become more convoluted over time. But this new image may be the most effective of all of them. We don’t know what’s in the other 72,000 pages of tax code, but we’re all familiar with the basic 1040 tax form. Look at what the politicians have done to it over the past several decades." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEverything that’s Wrong with the Tax System, in a Single Picture

Treasury announces GM exit strategy; automaker buying 200 million shares from U.S.

"The Obama administration said Wednesday it will sell 40 percent of its remaining stake in General Motors Co. back to the automaker and announced plans to completely exit by March 2014. The exit timetable signals the end of one of the most extraordinary government interventions in the U.S. economy in history — the rescue and partial nationalization of two U.S. automakers and their finance arms supported by two U.S. presidents. Taxpayers will almost certainly lose billions of dollars in the $49.5 billion GM bailout. If the government sold the rest of its stock at current prices, taxpayers would lose more than $13 billion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTreasury announces GM exit strategy; automaker buying 200 million shares from U.S.

U.S. Government Asks Court Not To Consider Targeted Killing Challenge

"The U.S. government today filed its first response to a lawsuit challenging the targeted killing of the three U.S. citizens in Yemen last year, Anwar Al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman and Samir Khan. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the case on behalf of the families of the Americans who died, issued the following statement about the government’s motion to dismiss." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Government Asks Court Not To Consider Targeted Killing Challenge