It’s Good To Be The King

Jacob Hornberger: More Judicial Deference on National-Security State Murder

"Continuing the long tradition of deference to the national-security state by the U.S. federal judiciary, a federal judge recently dismissed a lawsuit by the sons of a man named Frank Olson seeking damages for the CIA’s murder of their father. The excuses that the judge used to dismiss the case were the statute of limitations and a previous settlement that had been entered into regarding the case. The CIA confessed to its LSD experiment on Olson, but the confession, along with all the remorse and regret, were nothing more than a highly sophisticated way to cover up the fact that the CIA had actually murdered Olson by pushing him out of that high-rise New York City hotel room." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJacob Hornberger: More Judicial Deference on National-Security State Murder

Congress to get Obamacare exemption

"Under the law, popularly referred to as Obamacare, lawmakers and their aides were required to source health insurance 'created' by the law or offered through one of its exchanges; and without the subsidies they currently have, the members of Congress would have faced thousands of dollars in additional premium payments each year, the reports said. However, the Office of Personnel Management now plans to rule that the government can continue to make a contribution to the health-care premiums of the lawmakers and their staff, according to unnamed congressional sources and a White House official." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCongress to get Obamacare exemption

Bill Bonner: Why do we have this credit-based money?

"Because governments are essentially a way for the insiders (who control the police power of the state) to take power and money from the outsiders. Cicero once described the two groups as the 'Optimates' on one side and the 'Populares' on the other. You might also think of them as the elite and the hoi polloi...or the privileged classes and the riff-raff. The critical difference between the two is that the elites...the optimates...the insiders...have the government in their pocket. The others do not. Bullion-based money is a natural limitation on the ability of the elite to rob the rest of the population." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Why do we have this credit-based money?

Iowa law enforcement agent fired after reporting Republican governor’s car for speeding

"Hedlund’s problems at the department began on April 26, when he radioed dispatchers about a vehicle traveling 'a hard 90' miles per hour. Troopers, who clocked the car at 84 m.p.h., pulled over the SUV and discovered that it was a being driven my a fellow trooper, who was transporting Gov. Branstad. They waved the vehicle on, but shortly after, Hedlund filed a complaint with his supervisor, DCI Dir. Paulson. His superiors in turn filed a formal complaint against Hedlund and on April 30 and he was suspended from duty at the behest of Public Safety Commissioner K. Brian London." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIowa law enforcement agent fired after reporting Republican governor’s car for speeding

IRS employee union: We don’t want Obamacare

"IRS employees have a prominent role in Obamacare, but their union wants no part of the law. National Treasury Employees Union officials are urging members to write their congressional representatives in opposition to receiving coverage through President Obama’s health care law. The NTEU represents 150,000 federal employees overall, including most of the nearly 100,000 IRS workers. Like most other federal workers, IRS employees currently get their health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which also covers members of Congress." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIRS employee union: We don’t want Obamacare

NSA Official: Privacy Of NSA Employees Should Remain Despite Hampering Leak Detection

"Privacy mandates that prevent the government from monitoring the personal data of National Security Agency employees should not be altered to stop insider threats, despite leaks of Top Secret information, a senior NSA official said on Thursday. 'This is a case where I wouldn't advocate a change of laws,' NSA Technical Director Boyd Livingston said. 'It's very difficult to do insider threat monitoring -- there are a whole other set of federal laws having to do with personal identification information, PII, and your Social Security [number], that prohibit various monitoring.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA Official: Privacy Of NSA Employees Should Remain Despite Hampering Leak Detection

Tax watchdog: IRS travel costs are ‘excessive’

"A handful of Internal Revenue Service officials spent most of their time traveling for work in 2011 and 2012 and amassed thousands of dollars in seemingly excessive costs for transportation, hotels and meals, the tax-collecting agency’s watchdog said in a report on Tuesday. 12 IRS officials claimed more than $60,000 a year in travel expenses for fiscal year 2011 and nine executives surpassed that figure in 2012, mostly in travel to Washington, said the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the IRS watchdog. Some executives traveled for more than 80 percent of their working days in the past two years, the report said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTax watchdog: IRS travel costs are ‘excessive’

Snowden’s surveillance leaks open way for challenges to programs’ constitutionality

"At least five cases have been filed in federal courts since the government’s widespread collection of telephone and Internet records was revealed last month. The lawsuits primarily target a program that scoops up the telephone records of millions of Americans from U.S. telecommunications companies. Such cases face formidable obstacles. The government tends to fiercely resist them on national security grounds, and the surveillance is so secret that it’s hard to prove who was targeted. Nearly all of the roughly 70 suits filed after the George W. Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping was disclosed in 2005 have been dismissed." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnowden’s surveillance leaks open way for challenges to programs’ constitutionality

The European Parliament’s Pro-Tax Politicians Should Go After their Own Tax-Protected Salaries

"What’s the most noxious example of hypocrisy from the political class? Our old friend Dan Hannan from the European Parliament has another contestant. His tax-hungry colleagues (like their American counterparts) are bashing Apple, Google, and other multinationals for legally minimizing their tax burdens. Yet as Dan explains, parliamentarians from 24 out of 27 nations get a sweetheart deal and pay a very low flat tax. But I must say none of these examples of hypocrisy can compete with the bureaucrats from the OECD and IMF, both of whom get completely tax-free salaries while pushing for higher taxes on the rest of us." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe European Parliament’s Pro-Tax Politicians Should Go After their Own Tax-Protected Salaries

The Overworked and the Idle

"Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) unions who recently went on strike, paralyzing public transit for 6.5 million inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay Area, were apparently caught off guard by the public animosity to their demands for 23% raises on top of their 50%-above-market base salaries and unavailable-at-any-private-job benefits. Memo to BART union members: the overworked earn on average slightly over half ($47,000) of what you earn for 'driving' an automated train and staffing station offices ($80,000), and those who earn more than you in the private sector often work 50% more than your 37 hours a week in highly stressful jobs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Overworked and the Idle