Land Of The Flea

Security experts say new electronic voting machines can be hacked

"The 2010 discovery of the Stuxnet cyberweapon, which used a thumb drive to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and spread among its computers, illustrated how one type of attack could work. Most at risk are paperless e-voting machines, which don’t print out any record of votes, meaning the electronically stored results could be altered without anyone knowing they had been changed. In a tight election, the result could be the difference between winning and losing. A Monitor analysis shows that four swing states – Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, and Florida – rely to varying degrees on paperless machines." Continue reading →

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60 Minutes: The new tax havens

"Companies searching out tax havens is nothing new. In the 80s and 90s, there was an exodus to Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, where there are no taxes at all. When President Obama threatened to clamp down on tax dodging, many companies decided to leave the Caribbean, but instead of coming back home, they went to safer havens like a small, quaint medieval town in Switzerland called Zug. Hans Marti, who heads Zug's economic development office, showed off the nearby snow-covered mountains. But Zug's main selling point isn't a view of the Alps: he told Lesley Stahl the taxes are somewhere between 15 and 16 percent." Continue reading →

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Police Arrest 60-Year-Old Woman Speaking At City Council Meeting

"A Riverside woman is facing misdemeanor charges following her arrest for speaking too long at a Riverside City Council meeting, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. The incident unfolded after Wright exceeded her allotted three minutes to speak at the lectern while commenting on a sludge hauling contract. Wright, 60, was initially handcuffed by two officers while she was on her knees. Wright can be heard yelling in pain as officers tried to bring her to her feet. 'Can you see my wrists? You’re pulling and jerking on my wrists!' she said. 'I cannot get up without putting my hands down!' Wright was later led out of the building." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice Arrest 60-Year-Old Woman Speaking At City Council Meeting

Bernard von NotHaus: ‘Rosa Parks’ of the Dollar

"He was convicted more than a year and a half ago of 'counterfeiting,' because he issued silver coins, which he called 'Liberty dollars,' and sold them at a price much lower than they would command in United States currency [today]. The case throws into sharp relief an astonishing irony — that a man who issued money that has sharply appreciated in value is facing the rest of his life in prison while the officials who issue the official Federal Reserve Notes, the value of which has in four years plunged in half, to less than a 1,750th of an ounce of gold, are walking around free." Continue reading →

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Yes, Virginia, Social Security Really Is Going Bankrupt.

"At the heart of every defensive of Social Security's actuarial solvency is a series of lies. It is difficult to know who started the lie, but if you follow the lies, you always get back to the truth, and the truth is admitted by the Trustees of the Social Security trust fund. This is the best-case scenario. There is a worse-case scenario: the inevitable one." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYes, Virginia, Social Security Really Is Going Bankrupt.

Arizona to vote on taking control of Grand Canyon

"Arizonans will vote next month on a ballot proposal to give the state control over the Grand Canyon – the latest move in the so-called 'sagebrush revolt' in which western states are trying to reclaim federal land. The issue was put on the ballot after the proposal passed the Republican-controlled legislature. It would amend the state constitution to give Arizona sovereignty and jurisdiction over not just the Grand Canyon but all the 'air, water, public lands, minerals, wildlife and other natural resources' within its boundaries." Continue reading →

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Video Shows San Antonio Police Beating Pregnant Woman

"Did San Antonio Police Officers use excessive force on a pregnant woman? That's what the Department is looking into tonight, after a Fox San Antonio viewer shot video of three officers holding down a pregnant woman. One of those officers hits her repeatedly. According to a police report, 21-year-old Destiny Rios was arrested for prostitution and resisting arrest. 'Whether it was four or five or whether it was 8, it's really irrelevant if the officer felt he needed to strike her 8 times in order to get her to comply and put handcuffs on, then that's how many times he struck her,' said Chief William McManus, San Antonio Police." Continue reading →

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Craigslist mob steals nearly everything from foreclosed family’s home

"A mob of people showed up at a home in Woodstock, Georgia on Wednesday, responding to a Craigslist ad that promised free items in the home's small driveway. But when the man who posted the ad arrived at the sale, he discovered that the mob had barged inside the home and was taking everything the family owned. Michael Vercher, whose family lived there for 20 years before recently losing the home to foreclosure, looked like he hardly knew what hit him. 'They came in and just tore the place up. Everyone was inside the house; they were taking out items. There were cars around the block. It was like ants in and out of the house.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCraigslist mob steals nearly everything from foreclosed family’s home

‘Liberty Dollar’ Creator Awaits His Fate Behind Bars

"His name is Bernard von NotHaus, and he is a professed 'monetary architect' and a maker of custom coins found guilty last spring of counterfeiting charges for minting and distributing a form of private money called the Liberty Dollar. Described by some as 'the Rosa Parks of the constitutional currency movement,' Mr. von NotHaus managed over the last decade to get more than 60 million real dollars’ worth of his precious metal-backed currency into circulation across the country — so much, and with such deep penetration, that the prosecutor overseeing his case accused him of 'domestic terrorism' for using them to undermine the government." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘Liberty Dollar’ Creator Awaits His Fate Behind Bars