HEADLINES

Monday, October 4, 2010

Controversial Museum Exhibit Portrays Jesus Christ in Pornographic Pose

Some may call it art, but others are are outraged and declaring it blasphemous.

A Loveland, Co., public art museum has sparked a heated debate among the town's residents after highlighting an exhibit which seems to feature Jesus Christ in a tawdry sex act.

The controversial piece is part of a 10-artist exhibit called, "The Legend of Bud Shark and His Indelible Ink." The lithograph showing the son of God engaged in a sexual act is called, "The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals," and was created by Stanford University professor Enrique Chagoya.

"It is visual profanity," said art gallery owner Linda King, in an interview with the Loveland Reporter-Herald. "It disgraces the God of all creation."

Donna Rice, a member of the Loveland City Council, told the Denver Post that the "taxpayer-supporter, public museum" was meant to be family-friendly. "This is not something the community can be proud of," she says.

Though many protestors hoped the city council would cut off funds to the museum over the issue, the city's attorney has indicated that a painting of Christ engaged in oral sex "does not meet the criteria of public obscenity."

The artist has defended his work, claiming to be surprised by the public's outcry. "My intentions are not to offend anybody," Chagoya told the Associated Press. "The main intention of my work is to express my personal concerns about religious institutions, not about the actual religious beliefs, which I respect."

Nearby Denver seems to boast more supporters of the art, including Carol Ware told the Post she thought the work was "provocative and thought-provoking."

But many local Christians say the museum exhibit is nothing more than taxpayer-funded pornography that defiles Christ and their religion. "We don't think our savior should be put in those kind of poses," Steven Gregory told Fox-Denver. "I love art, but this isn't art."

To view the lithograph, click here.








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Nearly 200 LA County workers earned more than $250,000 in 2009, according to a list released to the




SO IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE? Reuters: Super-rich investors buy gold by ton. “The world’s w

SO IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE? Reuters: Super-rich investors buy gold by ton. "The world's wealthiest people have responded to economic worries by buying gold by the bar — and sometimes by the ton — and by moving assets out of the financial system, bankers catering to the very rich said on Monday."









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Pelosi Set to Punish Democrats Who Criticize Her


Don't cross Ma Pelosi.
The unpopular Speaker is set to punish those unruly democrats who criticise her.
The Politico reported, via S & L:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has become a punching bag for struggling Democratic House colleagues this fall, but some mouthy members have hit below the belt, raising questions about whether they'll face a Pelosi punishment after the elections.

Pelosi has blown off the public slights from the likes of Texas Rep. Chet Edwards, who recently said he would not commit to backing Pelosi for another term as speaker, and Alabama Rep. Bobby Bright, who recently predicted Pelosi could "get sick and die" before the next Congress. Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina even suggested that he might run for the position of speaker himself.

But will Pelosi be yanking committee seats or chairmanships after the election? It's unlikely. Pelosi's form of punishment has been more subtle — usually a cold shoulder and a behind-the-scenes admonishment — but being frozen out by your leader can be costly, especially in campaign fundraising. (See: Nancy Pelosi not bothered by Dem desertion)

"She uses her power deftly in ways a 21st-century speaker does. This is a powerful speaker who can impact how many campaign dollars you can get," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant who served in the Clinton White House as communications counsel.








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Timeline: How the Alabama bingo corruption investigation unfolded

This timeline looks at how the investigation unfolded over the past five months since it became public April 1.

Gallery preview

This timeline looks at how the investigation unfolded over the past five months since it became public April 1.


[See parallel timelines involving Alabama state senators, according to the indictment, here:


April 1: Federal investigators inform lawmakers that they are investigating corruption centering on the electronic gambling bill.


April 2: The FBI confirms that federal prosecutors in Washington, not in Alabama, are in charge of the corruption investigation.


April 6: State Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, confirms to The Birmingham News that lobbyist Jarrod Massey, representing Country Crossing bingo casino near Dothan, had approached him in mid-2009 and offered $250,000 if he would commit to voting yes on any bingo bill in the 2010 legislative session. Sanford rejected the offer and went to the FBI. Attorneys for Massey denied the allegation.


April 10: Two lawmakers confirm that they wore listening devices, commonly called wires, to allow law enforcement officials to eavesdrop on their conversations with lawmakers, lobbyists and others interested in passing gambling legislation.


April 21: Amid controversy over the investigation, the electronic bingo bill quietly dies in the Legislature.


April 22-23: Lawmakers and others begin receiving subpoenaes ordering them to appear before a federal grand jury in May.


April 25: State Sen. Steve French, R-Mountain Brook, tells The News he was cooperating in the probe after being made "certain offers" that he considered inappropriate to support the bingo legislation. He was among the "no" votes.


May 4: Grand jury convenes in Montgomery.


May 6: Grand jury hears wiretap of a conversation between gambling magnate Milton McGregor and Montgomery lobbyist Robert Geddie.


May 25: Lobbyists representing gambling interests report to the federal courthouse to deliver records subpoenaed by the grand jury.


Sept. 28: Montgomery lobbyist Jennifer Pouncey, a partner of Massey, pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy.


Oct. 1: Grand jury issues sealed indictments against 11.


Oct. 4: Indictments are unsealed and arrests are made: Milton McGregor; Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley; lobbyists Robert Geddie, Thomas Coker and Jarrod Massey; state senators Harri Anne Smith, Larry Means, James Preuitt and Quinton Ross; Country Crossing employee Jarrell Walker; and Joseph Crosby, a staffer for the Legislative Reference Service.








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This could be interesting: Tehran, Damascus plot Hizballah grab of Beirut right after Ahmadinejad’s

Are things over there actually this unstable?

The presidents of Iran and Syria agreed in Tehran Saturday, Oct. 2, to support a Hizballah military takeover of Lebanon's power centers, including the capital Beirut, right after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ends his controversial two-day visit to the country on October 13-14.

Ahmadinejad and Assad also decided to continue to harass Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri by de-legitimization of his government, intimidation and humiliation to force him to dissolve the Special Tribunal for Lebanon-STL which has brought charges against Hizballlah officials for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005.

I sure hope not.  It would really undermine Obama's open-hand diplomacy, and make him look really weak.

Smirk.








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Holder outright lies to the American people!!

RWBNews:  Another liar filled with Obama bs.  His story has more holes in it than Obama's campaign promises.

By Mike Levine for FoxNews.com  http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/10/04/holder-vows-equal-enforcement-calls-allegations-contrary-simply-false

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday pushed backed against those who accuse the Justice Department of enforcing civil rights laws based on race, saying people need to just "look at the facts."

"The notion that we are enforcing any civil rights laws — voting or others — on the basis of race, ethnicity or gender is simply false," Holder said.



Click here to view the embedded video.

For more than a year, Republicans and others have been questioning why the Obama administration reversed course on a federal lawsuit against two members of the New Black Panther Party, who were videotaped outside a Philadelphia polling station on Election Day 2008. The two were dressed in military-style uniforms, and one was holding a nightstick. The issue escalated after a former Justice Department attorney and, more recently, a current Justice Department attorney alleged it was all part of an Obama administration policy to avoid prosecuting minorities, an allegation the Justice Department has repeatedly denied.

Asked why a current Justice Department attorney would make such a claim about his own employer, Holder said, "I have no idea, but there's no basis in fact for that charge."

Speaking during an unrelated press conference in Washington, Holder said he's trying to fix the Justice Department, not politicize it.

"People have to understand the way in which … the Civil Rights Division was run, and how it was politicized, and how hiring was done, and the way in which enforcement occurred," he said. "Some people want to go back to those old days and want to have a Civil Rights Division that is not nearly as effective as it is now or as it has traditionally been. I am not going to allow that to happen."

Holder said previous politicization of the Justice Department is "documented in inspector general reports from the past." In fact, a 2008 report by the Justice Department's inspector general said a top Civil Rights Division official "inappropriately considered political and ideological affiliations in hiring experienced attorneys" and "considered political and ideological affiliations in transferring and assigning cases to career attorneys."

Three weeks ago, the Justice Department's inspector general announced he would launch an investigation into "more broadly the overall enforcement of civil rights laws by the Voting Section" of the Civil Rights Division, including "information about cases such as the New Black Panther Party matter and others."

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, led by a conservative majority, are also looking into the matter.
In July, the former Justice Department attorney, current conservative blogger J. Christian Adams, told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights there was an "open hostility toward equal enforcement in a colorblind way of the voting rights laws."

Three weeks ago, Christopher Coates, a current Justice Department attorney who was heavily involved in the initial filing of the New Black Panther Party case, echoed that allegation, telling the commission there has been a "hostile atmosphere" within the Civil Rights Division "against race-neutral enforcement" of voting rights laws. Coates also said he attended a lunch meeting in September 2009, during which a top Justice Department official told those gathered that the Obama administration was only interested in prosecuting voting rights cases that would help minorities.

The Justice Department tried to block his testimony, citing "longstanding Department of Justice policy" to avoid disclosing "confidential internal deliberations."

After Coates' testimony, a Justice Department spokeswoman said the commission's "so-called investigation is thin on facts and evidence and thick on rhetoric."

"The Department makes enforcement decisions based on the merits, not the race, gender or ethnicity of any party involved," spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said in a statement. "We are committed to comprehensive and vigorous enforcement of the federal laws that prohibit voter intimidation. … We are committed to enforcing our nation's civil rights laws, and we are going to continue to do so without respect to politics."

She called the Bush administration's politicization of the Justice Department "a disgrace to the great history of the [Civil Rights] division," adding, "We have changed that."

In a letter sent to the commission in August, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Tom Perez, pointed to "our ongoing work in Mississippi," where the Justice Department recently filed a motion to stop Democratic officials from discriminating against white voters.

But in his testimony to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Coates said he believes the New Black Panther Party case was "gutted" because "the people calling the shots" at the time "were angry" at the filing of the Mississippi case and the New Black Panther Party case.

A month after the Justice Department won a default judgment against the two New Black Panther Party defendants in April 2009, the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss charges against one of the men, saying a lack of sufficient evidence meant the case against him wouldn't stand up in court. The Justice Department successfully pursued an injunction against the man seen holding a nightstick. That injunction bars him from visiting a polling station in Philadelphia for the next two years.

On Monday, The Washington Post editorial page agreed, saying the Justice Department made the "right call."

"Much of the controversy that has surrounded this case for more than a year has been fueled by partisan hyperbole, conspiracy theories and misinformation," a Washington Post editorial said. "Far from acting recklessly, the Justice Department did what every law enforcement entity is ethically obligated to do: press only those charges that are supported by the evidence

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/10/04/holder-vows-equal-enforcement-calls-allegations-contrary-simply-false#ixzz11Ri8LJ4k

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Gillian Anderson Was a Y2K Moonbat Before She Was a Global Warming Moonbat


There has been much controversy over a video created funded by the British Government and created by the group 1010. The controversy over this anti-global warming video (now called splattergate) stems from the fact that the opening scene shows children blowing up. In fact everybody who is a climate change skeptic in the movie gets blown up. Gillian Anderson (of X-Files fame) does the some of voice-over for the almost four minute film and is its last "victim."

(if you cannot see video below click here)



(The Blaze has more on the controversy here)

This is not the first time Ms. Anderson has been all over a moonbat the earth is going to die craze,  back in 1999 the she appeared on the Letterman Show, warning of the dangers of the Y2K end of all computer life as we know it.

 (if you cannot see video below click here)



GILLIAN: Actually, you know what? I actually have been doing a lot of research on Y2K. I have indeed. Did you... Do have a specific question? Am I interrupting?
...
LETTERMAN: Give us an example of how bad things might be. This is a conjecture, it's conjecture, but it might be.


GILLIAN: Well, you know, there's a possibility that there could be a huge food shortage in stores, that...


LETTERMAN: Born of what? Why is there... What is the computer thing have to do with food shortage?


GILLIAN: Well, because in terms of, like... In terms of getting the food in the trucks to go to all the different cities around, and if the computers aren't working to regulate that system, then...


LETTERMAN: Everything breaks down.


GILLIAN: Then everything kind of breaks down.


LETTERMAN: So dependent have we become on the computer.


GILLIAN: Oh, absolutely-- which is so ironic, because I think what this is about right now is, this is an opportunity for us to get back to basics in a sense, and for us to unite as communities to help each other, so that eventually, if there is a devastating effect, that at least we can join together with the people around us, instead of, you know, acting out of fear and robbing our neighbors for food, or for money, or whatever, because there's nothing around. And the ironic thing is that... Why are you guys laughing?
 I don't know what it is with Gillian Anderson, maybe she spent too much time on the set of the X-Files, but it seems that every time there is a rumor that the world is going to end...she is involved.
Please email me at yidwithlid@aol.com to be put onto my mailing list. Feel free to reproduce any article but please link back to http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com







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Sen. Jeff Sessions warns of massive budget bill looming, direction of NASA

Sessions told chamber of commerce members this morning that Congress' failure to pass any of its 13 appropriations bills before adjourning for the fall recess will result in a massive all-in-one bill that will be rushed through in December.







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Federal Court Rules Against Hamas Linked, Muslim Brotherhood CAIR Islamic Supremaists Must Answer to

"The evidence has long suggested that CAIR is a criminal organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further its aims of stealth Jihad in the U.S.," Mr. Yerushalmi said referring to the fact that CAIR has been named by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial

The Islamic supremacist Hamas-linked CAIR who masquerades as a "civil rights" group has been victimizing Muslims. Hate sponsor CAIR misused Muslims who came to them for help, CAIR  treated  them with contempt. Islamic supremacist CAIR wears a civil rights mask only to impose Islam on a secular society and the public square. Manufactured victimhood is their weapon of change.

Real Muslims with real problems were given the shaft and defrauded.

Huge props to my lawyer David Yerushalmi who scored this huge victory today against the treasonous, subversive jihadist CAIR. Yerushalmi is representing me in my freedom speech lawsuit against Detroit,  defending me against a 10 million dollar lawsuit from a CAIR connected lawyer for Rifqa bary's fundamentalist parents and my SIOA trademark lawsuit aginst the US government.

And we won our free speech lawsuit against the NYC MTA for my Ground Zero bus ads.

Send him a contribution - he does this pro-bono!

District Court Judge Denies CAIR Motion to Dismiss Federal Fraud Complaints by African American and Pakistani-American Muslims

WASHINGTON , Oct. 4  A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia has denied a motion to dismiss complaints by five former clients of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).  

CAIR is a Muslim organization previously named as a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in the federal criminal trial and conviction of a terrorist funding cell organized around one of the largest Muslim charities, the Holy Land Foundation, which raised funds for violent jihad on behalf of Hamas.  

CAIR had asked federal court judge Paul L. Friedman to dismiss the fraud cases on several grounds, but the judge refused CAIR's request in its entirety.

(Judge Friedman did dismiss one duplicative claim of consumer fraud based on D.C. law because he allowed an identical claim under Virginia law, ruling that Virginia law applied in the case).

The five former clients had earlier this year filed two separate lawsuits in federal court alleging common law and statutory fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and intentional infliction of emotional distress against CAIR, a self-described Muslim public interest civil rights law firm. These two lawsuits follow an earlier lawsuit which had also alleged that CAIR's fraudulent conduct amounted to racketeering, a federal RICO crime. In that case, the court dismissed the RICO counts concluding that CAIR's conduct as alleged was fraudulent but not a technical violation of RICO.  

The two new federal civil complaints were filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia on January 6, 2010, and served on January 13, 2010.  CAIR filed its motion to dismiss on February 26, 2010, and the matter was fully briefed by May 15, 2010.

Both lawsuits arise out of the same facts and as a result the court has consolidated the two cases.

The lawsuits allege that Morris Days, the "Resident Attorney" and "Manager for Civil Rights" at the now defunct CAIR-MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was in fact not an attorney and that he failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for legal representation.  CAIR knew of this fraud and purposefully conspired with Days to keep the CAIR clients from discovering that their legal matters were being mishandled or not handled at all.

While attorney David Yerushalmi represents the five plaintiffs in these two lawsuits, three of whom are Muslim Americans, the complaints allege that according to CAIR internal documents, there were hundreds of victims of the CAIR fraud scheme.

According to the complaints, CAIR knew or should have known that Days was not a lawyer when it hired him. But, like many criminal organizations, things got worse when CAIR officials were confronted with clear evidence of Days' fraudulent conduct. Rather than come clean and attempt to rectify past wrongs, CAIR conspired with Days to conceal and further the fraud.

To this end, CAIR officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law enforcement, the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations, and the media. When CAIR did get irate calls from clients about Days' failure to provide competent legal services, CAIR fraudulently deceived their clients about Days' relationship to CAIR, suggesting he was never actually employed by CAIR, and even concealed the fact that CAIR had fired him once some of the victims began threatening to sue.

"The evidence has long suggested that CAIR is a criminal organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further its aims of stealth Jihad in the U.S.," Mr. Yerushalmi said referring to the fact that CAIR has been named by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial. In addition, several of CAIR's top executives have been convicted of terror-related crimes. As a result, the FBI has publicly announced that it has terminated any outreach activities with the national organization, which bills itself as "America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization."

"As it turns out, CAIR is America's largest Muslim criminal organization whose criminal activities know no bounds," Yerushalmi continued.

"According to the facts as carefully laid out in both complaints," Yerushalmi explained, "CAIR has engaged in a massive criminal fraud in which literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized and because of the CAIR cover-up they still don't realize it. The fact that CAIR has victimized Muslims and non-Muslims alike demonstrates that CAIR is only looking out for CAIR and its ongoing effort to bilk donors out of millions of dollars of charitable donations thinking they are supporting a legitimate organization."

The complaint also alleges that in addition to covering up the fraud scheme, CAIR forced angry clients who were demanding a return of their legal fees to sign a release that bought the client-victims' silence by prohibiting them from informing law enforcement or the media about the fraud. According to the agreement, if the "settling" clients said anything to anyone about the fraud scheme, CAIR would be able to sue them for $25,000.

This enforced code of silence left hundreds of CAIR's victims in the dark such that to this day they have not learned that Days was not an attorney and that he had not filed the legal actions on their behalf for which CAIR publicly claimed credit. Days has since died of a lung complication.

CAIR's motion to dismiss argued that the failure to name Morris Days and CAIR-MD/VA as "indispensable" party-defendants was grounds to dismiss.  The court saw through this ruse by noting that Mr. Yerushalmi had pointed out that Days was dead.  Insofar as there was no probate of any estate, Days likely died intestate and poor.  Similarly, CAIR-MD/VA, as alleged in the complaints, was shuttered and rendered defunct by CAIR to try and cover-up the crime.  Unsuccessfully, CAIR's motion to dismiss had strategically and dishonestly ignored those facts.  

CAIR also argued that it could not be held liable for Days' criminal behavior.  The Court dismissed this defense as well pointing out that there was more than enough evidence to show Days acted for and on behalf of CAIR.

Over a lengthy 24-page opinion, the Court surgically dissected and dismissed CAIR's arguments for dismissal on all counts.

Mr. Yerushalmi made clear that "the evidence in this case will finally put to rest the myth that CAIR is a legitimate Muslim American civil rights organization when in fact it is little more than an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood and a recipient of huge donations from operatives of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC)."  

Mr. Yerushalmi concluded, "Why this organization is allowed to exist as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization at all is mind-boggling."  

For those interested in a fact-intensive tutorial on CAIR's foreign government agency connections in the context of possible violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, the same law used recently to arrest and deport a large sleeper cell of Russian spies, they need only visit www.CAIRObservatory.org, where the actual documents evidencing potential crimes are on full display for the reader to judge for him or herself.









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Over $11 Million in California Welfare Funds Spent in Vegas Casinos

Millions more were spent in Hawaii, Miami, Guam and elsewhere.  In all, the LA Times has learned that $69 million in California welfare funds meant to help the needy have been spent outside the state in recent years on a variety of luxuries, including Las Vegas slot machines, Hawaiian vacations and cruise ships sailing from Miami.

Round-trip flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Orbitz.com Sunday started at $419 — more than 80% of the average monthly cash benefit for a single parent of two on CalWorks, the state's main aid program.

"How they can go somewhere like Hawaii and be legit on aid … they can't," said Robert Hollenbeck, a fraud investigator for the Fresno County district attorney's office. "This is money for basic subsistence needs." …

Of the nearly $12 million accessed in Las Vegas, more than $1 million was spent or withdrawn at shops and casino hotels on, or within a few blocks of, the 4.5-mile strip. The list includes $8,968 at the Tropicana, $7,995 at the Venetian and its Grand Canal Shoppes, and $1,332 at Tix 4 Tonight, seller of discount admission for such acts as Cirque du Soleil.

Although many Las Vegas casinos block the use of welfare cards in ATMs on gambling floors, more than $34,700 has been spent or withdrawn from the ATM at a 7-Eleven in the shadow of Steve Wynn's new Encore casino and a couple of blocks south of Circus Circus. …

The data show addresses of stores and ATM locations where the cards have been used and the amounts of the transactions by year. They do not reveal the identities of the welfare recipients or show how many users visited a given retailer.

Of the $1.5 million accessed in Florida, $13,109 was spent or withdrawn in South Beach, most of that at bars and restaurants along trendy Lincoln Road. More than $7,000 was withdrawn from ATMs a few hours north, at Walt Disney World.

The data also show $16,010 withdrawn from 14 cruise ships sailing from ports around the world — Long Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Beijing. Eight sail primarily from Miami.

This out-of-state spending accounts for less than 1 percent of the state's $10.8 billion welfare fund, but repeated abuses have raised questions among fraud investigators.  "If it's a one-time thing in Miami, we would never check that out," said John Haley, commander of the financial crimes division of the San Diego County district attorney's office, who said 24% of all new welfare applications in his jurisdiction contain some form of fraud. "We look for patterns of abuse."








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Super-Rich Investors Purchasing Gold By The Ton…

RWB News:  With gold prices reaching all time highs breaking $1,300 an ounce, many would think the gold bubble is ready to pop… Not so for some of the super wealthy investors, who still see gold as a great investment… 

As Reported By: Reuters

Fears of a double-dip downturn have boosted the appetite for physical bullion as well as for mining company shares and exchange-traded funds, UBS executive Josef Stadler told the Reuters Global Private Banking Summit.

"They don't only buy ETFs or futures; they buy physical gold," said Stadler, who runs the Swiss bank's services for clients with assets of at least $50 million to invest.

UBS is recommending top-tier clients hold 7-10 percent of their assets in precious metals like gold, which is on course for its tenth consecutive yearly gain and traded at around $1,314.50 an ounce on Monday, near the record level reached last week.

"We had a clear example of a couple buying over a ton of gold … and carrying it to another place," Stadler said. At today's prices, that shipment would be worth about $42 million.

Julius Baer's chief investment officer for Asia is also recommending that wealthy investors park some of their assets in gold as a defensive stance following a string of lackluster U.S. data and amid concerns about currency weakness.

"I see gold as an insurance," Van Anantha-Nageswaran said. "I recommend 10 percent as minimum in portfolios and anything more than that to be used for trading purposes, to respond to short-term over-bought or over-sold signals."

ULTIMATE BUBBLE?

Billionaire financier George Soros, echoing comments from investment guru Warren Buffett, last month described gold as the "ultimate bubble" because it is costly to dig up and has no real value except its market price.

But a rising price for the precious metal has in itself generated more and more demand from investors looking for a way to hedge against a fresh recession. Gold bears no yield and is uncompetitive in an environment of rising interest rates.

The uneasy outlook for inflation, hard currencies and global growth has triggered a five-fold increase in a physical gold fund launched by Pictet one year ago, the Swiss private bank said.

UBS's Stadler said the precious metal has become a staple of investors' portfolios, despite questions about whether it makes for a smart long-term investment.

"If you talk to ultra-high net worth individuals, that level of uncertainty has never been higher in the last two, three, four years," he said. "If they ask me, 'Is inflation going up or are we entering a deflationary cycle?,' I don't know. But obviously nobody knows."

Anthony DeChellis, managing director of Credit Suisse's Americas private banking unit, said at the Reuters summit in New York that clients are more interested in capitalizing on the rise in gold prices than using the precious metal as a safe-harbor investment.

"They're asking, 'If it's a bubble, how far can I ride that bubble,'" he said. "I cannot say we've seen a spike in gold interest, but there's an interest in the phenomenon of it."

Samir Raslan, Citigroup Inc's regional head for central, eastern and northern Europe, Africa and Turkey, said clients were not going overboard on gold.

"I wouldn't say that clients are over-investing. It's part of an asset allocation, but it's not something that they are deciding all of a sudden," he said.

And not all bankers are recommending exposure to gold.

Andreas Wolfer, head of private banking at UniCredit Group, attributed the run-up in the price of gold to frayed investor nerves after the 2008 financial crisis as well as concerns about sovereign debt in the euro zone.

"We have seen it but we have not overweighted it in our asset allocation," Wolfer told the Reuters summit in Geneva, which has emerged as a major trading hub for precious metals as well as other physical commodities.

"We strongly believe in an asset allocation having a clear and diversified portfolio, which sounds a bit boring but in the end it brings the best returns," Wolfer said.

Original Story: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6932NR20101004

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Democrats Abandon the Field With Trillions in Tax Increases Looming

It is remarkable that the Democratic Congress has adjourned without taking any action with regard to the tax increases that will occur on January 1, 2011. No doubt the Democrats expect they will slink back into Washington after the election and selectively block tax increases on behalf of their favored constituencies. Still, it is rather stunning that they are willing to face the voters in four weeks with trillions of dollars in tax increases pending. The Hill sums up what is at stake:

If Congress does nothing on taxes by the end of the year:

- The estate tax will return to pre-2001 levels, socking estates worth more than $1 million with a 55 percent tax.
- The capital gains tax on most assets will jump from 15 percent to 20 percent.
- Dividends currently taxed at 15 percent will skyrocket to individual tax rates that go as high as 39.6 percent.
- The Making Work Pay tax break will cease to exist.
- The Alternative Minimum Tax will hit the middle class for 2010 tax returns.
- A slew of tax breaks that expired last year, including credits for research and development expenses and relief for college tuition, will not be available for 2010 tax returns.
- The Child Tax Credit will revert from $1,000 to $500.

When combined with inaction on the Bush tax cuts affecting marginal rates, taxpayers would be hit with a tax increase that easily tops $4 trillion over the decade if all the tax issues are untouched. Next year's increase alone would amount to over $200 billion, according to Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee.

They couldn't adopt a budget, and now they can't make up their minds about trillions of dollars in taxes. It is hard to overstate the disarray of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Democrats. They are unfit to govern. Remember that on November 2.








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DHS Mission: Wealth Redistribution

Under Obama, the primary purpose of NASA is to help Muslims feel good about their nonexistent for centuries scientific accomplishments. What do you suppose the purpose of the Department of Homeland Security might be? Comrade Obama gave the answer to Joe the Plumber: to spread the wealth around.

The Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency created by President George W. Bush to keep the nation safe from terrorists, also spends millions of taxpayer dollars helping hungry and homeless people in "communities impacted by unemployment."
DHS announced on Thursday that it has handed out $2.6 billion in stimulus funding since President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law on Feb. 17, 2009.
Nearly $100 million of that money was distributed through the Emergency Food and Shelter Program to more than 10,450 local organizations across the country to provide "immediate relief to communities impacted by unemployment."

Why are so many impacted by unemployment? Because Big Government has sucked all the money out of the economy to pay for wasteful "stimulus" projects.

At least passing out our money provides a pastime for the useless bureauweenies at DHS while they are assiduously not defending the border from constant incursions.

janet.jpg
Finally Big Sis has a way to spend her time.

On a tip from G. Fox.








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ObamaCare Preview: IRS Answered Only 8.8% of 352,758 Telephone Calls From Deaf Taxpayers

But don't worry, folks! ObamaCare will be different. Really. Pay no attention to the graph below (via TaxProf via Instapundit):
From TaxProf:
During the 2010 Filing Season, the IRS exceeded its key toll-free telephone assistance performance measurement goals. However, hearing- and speech-impaired callers that used the IRS Text Tele-typewriter/Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TTY/TDD) telephone line experienced a low Level of Service and had difficulty reaching an IRS assistor. ...The Level of Service for the TTY/TDD toll-free telephone line for the 2010 Filing Season was 8.8%, the lowest Level of Service since the 2003 Filing Season when it was 6.2%. The TTY/TDD product line Level of Service has consistently provided the lowest Level of Service among all of the Customer Account Services Enterprise product lines.
Ignore it! Also, ignore the fact that social security is paying out more than it's taking in and will be bankrupt in 20 years. Or that Medicare will be bankrupt in 7 years. Or that the Post Office is bankrupt and needs continual bailouts. Or that Amtrak is bankrupt and needs continual bailouts. Or that Medicaid is bankrupt... oh you get the idea!

Somehow, in what will be nothing short of a miracle, you will get that liver transplant without all the red tape. On time and on budget. Really. Obama promises!







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Video report: U.S. Man Gunned Down in American/Mexican Waters

This is what happens when our government abdicates its responsibility to protect our border. The man was apparently shot on the American side of a lake that is shared with Mexico:
The drug cartel and now pirates rule the border on either side. And in a twist of absurdity, Mexican criminals are running roughshod over our border, but we can't go into Mexico to claim the body of a murdered US citizen.

More from moonbattery: Mexicans Kill American, Fire on His Wife in American Waters
How bad will it have to get before we rise up and replace the gang of looters in Washington with a legitimate federal government that will defend our borders from foreign incursions? Hopefully it won't have to get any worse than this:
Gunmen presumed to be Mexican drug gangsters opened fire Wednesday on a couple riding personal watercraft on the binational Falcon Lake reservoir, striking the husband in the head and chasing his frantic wife into U.S. waters.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said the McAllen tourists were exploring the area around Old Guerrero, a once-submerged town on the Mexican side of the lake, when they came under a spray of bullets by two boatloads of men.
David Michael Hartley, 30, was shot in the head. His wife, Tiffany Hartley, 29, circled back to pull her husband onto the watercraft, using it as a shield, but the gunmen continued shooting at her, even after she crossed back to the U.S. side, Gonzalez said. …
..."They have no regard for international boundaries. They've got no regard for law enforcement. They don't care," he added. "The border's wide open. Contrary to what Secretary (Janet) Napolitano says, the border's wide open."
Mexican pirates often prey on Americans on Falcon Lake. Sometimes they are dressed as Mexican law enforcement officers. Texas had better not do anything about it, or the Obama Administration will unleash a flurry of lawsuits on behalf of the invaders, like it did in Arizona.
Good grief...

UPDATE #2: Another Fox News report:







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Commodities Rally Not Over, Gold to Hit $2,000: Rogers - CNBC

Commodities Rally Not Over, Gold to Hit $2,000: Rogers - CNBC

How Much Trouble Are We In?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/248708/how-much-trouble-are-we-veronique-de-rugy
We are in a lot of a trouble. The Senate Budget Committee GOP staff released a study last week that shows that balancing the primary deficit — balancing the budget minus the interest on the debt — won’t stabilize our debt problem like the president says it will. Why?
Under the proposals in the President’s budget, the total deficit would average about 5% of GDP each year from 2015-2020, and his budget would get nowhere near achieving primary balance in 2015 and thereafter. But even if Congress were to enact laws that achieved the goal the President gave to his Fiscal Commission (primary budget balance in 2015 and after), that would only slow the rate of growth in the stock of debt outstanding (compared to the growth rate of the debt under the President’s budget). To bring the growth rate of debt down to the rate of economic growth, the primary budget must be in surplus. In other words, the total deficit must be significantly smaller than a deficit that is equivalent to the level of annual net interest payments.
Talking about the payment on our debt, here are some scary facts. According to the CBO alternative scenario (which makes more realistic assumptions than the regular baseline scenario), interest rates on the ten-year are expected to increase from 3.4 percent in 2010 to 5.9 percent in 2016–2020. The average maturity is currently right around five years.
This chart shows how much of our GDP the payment of our debt will consume if the interest rate rises to the level predicted by the CBO (5.9 percent), just slightly above that (6 percent), and a full percentage point above that (7 percent):

The analysis is here.

BREAKING: Democrat Introduces Legislation to End Right-to-Work States

http://biggovernment.com/laborunionreport/2010/10/04/breaking-democrat-introduces-legislation-to-end-right-to-work-states/

BREAKING: Democrat Introduces Legislation to End Right-to-Work States

by LaborUnionReport
Back in June, we reported that California Congressman Brad Sherman (D) was circulating a letter to his fellow Democrats to introduce legislation to repeal “Right-to-Work” laws in 22 states.  Now, with less than a month before the mid-term elections and five weeks before a lame-duck session in Congress, Sherman has introduced legislation to eliminate state Right to Work laws all across America.
Currently, there are 22 states in the U.S. that have laws where workers who are employed at companies that are unionized have a choice whether or not to join or pay the union.  These states are known as Right-to-Work states.

On the other hand, in the 28 Non-Right-to-Work states (also called forced-dues states), it is legal for a union to negotiate a “union (income) security clause” that requires all workers covered by the union to pay the union does or ‘agency fees’ as a condition of employment.  If the workers refuse to pay the union, under a “union (income) security clause,” the union can have them fired from their jobs.
As background, in 1947, Congress amended the National Labor Relations Act with the Taft-Hartley Amendments which, among other things, gave states the right to establish “Right-to-Work” laws.  Until the Taft-Hartley Amendments, from 1935 to 1947, private-sector workers in all 50 could be required to pay dues to a union or, if not, be fired from their jobs. The ability of states to have Right-to-Work laws is contained in a single paragraph within the National Labor Relations Act (Section 14 [b]), which states:
(b) [Agreements requiring union membership in violation of State law] Nothing in this Act [subchapter] shall be construed as authorizing the execution or application of agreements requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment in any State or Territory in which such execution or application is prohibited by State or Territorial law.
As a result of this one section being inserted into the 1947 amendments, states (through their legislatures) could determine whether or not to be a Right-to-Work state, or a forced-dues state.

Therefore, the removal of this one section would make all 50 states forced-dues states, giving unions the ability to have workers fired for not paying union dues or fees.
From Congressman Sherman’s website [emphasis added]:
Today, Congressman Brad Sherman announced the introduction of dramatic legislation that would eliminate so-called “right-to-work” laws, which was applauded by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Sherman has a strong record of supporting working men and women and earned a 100% rating from the AFL-CIO.
Right-to-work laws require unions to represent non dues-paying employees, thereby undermining the basic premise and promise of union membership and creating free riders – people who are exempt from paying their fair share. Right-to-work laws create different standards for union membership in different states. This results not only in confusion over the regulation of union membership, but also places a higher cost on worker representation in labor rights states.
[snip]
“I do not believe that there should be a right to be treated unfairly or to endure unnecessary restrictions. Right-to-work laws strip unions of their legitimate ability to collect dues, even when the worker is covered by a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement. This forces unions to use their time and members’ dues to provide benefits to free riders who are exempt from paying their fair share,” said Congressman Brad Sherman. “These laws are harmful to states like California, which allows labor unions to organize, because now we have to compete with the race to the bottom as our companies have to compete with those where the workers would like better wages, working conditions and benefits but are unable to organize to get them.”
“With the introduction of legislation banning so-called right-to-work, Congressman Sherman has once again demonstrated his strong commitment to working families,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. “Right-to-work laws undermine the economy and weaken workers’ ability to bargain for better working conditions, which translates into lower pay and fewer benefits for everyone.”
While Brad Sherman’s statement about workers in Right-to-Work states not having the right to organize is patently false (the National Labor Relations Act does not discriminate on workers’ rights to organize in a Right to Work state), he is accurate that his state of California has been losing jobs.  However, there are a multitude of factors that have contributed to California’s demise—many of which were, ironically, caused by the unions that Sherman has so endeared himself.
Although Congressman Sherman introduced this legislation back in 2008, it had little chance of succeeding.  However, with the mid-term elections and a lame-duck Congress following, the chances that Democrats (who are taking hundreds of millions from unions), it is possible the chances that Democrats could vote to end Right-to-Work states.
As a result, now is as good a time as any to get Democrats (in both Right-to-Work states and forced-union states) to state their positions on whether they support an end to workers’ right to work.
[hat-tip: Projections, Inc.]
__________________
“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Vulnerable House Democrats run away from party’s legislative record

Democrats in tough races face an electorate that's skeptical of what the party has accomplished and rates Congress at historic lows.








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Alabama legislators, lobbyists, bingo casino owners charged on federal vote buying allegations (wit

Counrtry Crossing operator Ronnie Gilley surrenders

Ronnie Gilley(Press-Register/Bill Starling)Ronnie Gilley, seen here on Tuesday Nov. 17, 2009, has surrended to U.S. Marshals in Montgomery this afternoon.
FBI agents armed with arrest warrants today gobbled up 11 legislators, lobbyists and the owner of the state's largest electronic bingo casino, all indicted in a scheme to buy and sell votes that prosecutors called "astonishing in scope."
   
The indictments come six months after prosecutors and the FBI stunned legislative leaders by informing them that an investigation was under way into vote buying related to the successful effort in the Alabama Senate just days before to pass electronic bingo legislation.
   
U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors laid out the inducements this morning at a press conference in Washington.
   
"Today, charges were unsealed against 11 legislators, businessmen, lobbyist and associates who, together, are alleged to have formed a corrupt network whose aim was to buy and sell votes in the Alabama Legislature in order to directly benefit the business interests of two defendants, Milton McGregor and Ronald Gilley," said Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division. "The people of Alabama, like all our citizens, deserve to have representatives who act in the public's interest, not for their own personal financial gain. Vote-buying, like the kind alleged in this indictment, corrodes the public's faith in our democratic institutions and cannot go unpunished."

McGregor was arrested at his Montgomery home. McGregor owns VictoryLand in Macon County, the state's largest electronic bingo casino. He has been a controversial figure for a quarter century, operating VictoryLand as first a dog racing track and later building and operating the Birmingham Race Course. McGregor has spent millions over the years trying to influence pro-gambling legislation.
   
Gilley, who turned himself in at the U.S. Marshal's Office in Montgomery this afternoon, is owner and operator of the state's newest electronic casino, Country Crossing in Dothan. Gilley spent millions building the facility, which opened late last year only to close its doors weeks later when Gov. Bob Riley's Task Force on Illegal Gambling attempted to raid it. It has remained shut down since Jan. 29.
   
Others indicted include four state senators -- Larry Means, D-Attalla, Jim Preuitt, R-Talladega, Quinton Ross Jr., D-Montgomery and Harri Anne Smith, I-Slocomb.
   
Federal prosecutors today said that Preuitt was offered $2 million to cast his vote in support of gambling legislation last April. Preuitt, who had a history of opposing the legislation, voted for it, providing a critical yes vote.
   
Jennifer Pouncy, a Montgomery lobbyist, pleaded guilty Sept. 28 to conspiracy and said she offered Preuitt the $2 million bribe, which Pouncy said Gilley's lobbyist, Jerrod Massey approved. She also said Massey and Gilley signed off on $100,000 offered to Means, another senator considered a critical swing vote on the issue.
   
Three other unnamed legislators are mentioned in the indictment as having received offers of bribes for supporting gambling legislation. The Birmingham News has reported that at least three lawmakers agreed to wear wires as part of the investigation. None of the three are charged with wrongdoing.
   
Last April, Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, said Massey offered him a $250,000 campaign contribution if he voted for gambling legislation. Sanford turned Massey down and voted no on the bill in April. Lawyers for Massey said at the time that Massey had done nothing wrong.
   
Also indicted are Jarrell W. Walker Jr., who works for Gilley, and Joseph Crosby, an analyst with the Alabama Legislative Reference Service whose duties included work on gambling legislation.
   
Also indicted and arrested Monday were two of Montgomery's most influential lobbyists, Bob Geddie and Tom Coker.
   
Geddie, along with partner Joe Fine, has headed one of the capital city's most influential lobbying firms. Fine and Geddie's list of clients make up a who's who of corporate interests, and the firm has been responsible for raising and handling out millions of dollars to various candidates for all manner of offices.
   
The gambling issue has dominated state politics like no other issue in recent years. Efforts by McGregor and Gilley to persuade lawmakers to pass legislation calling for a statewide vote on electronic bingo has come up against an increasingly hostile environment toward the games led by Riley and the Republican-dominated Alabama Supreme Court.
   
Riley formed his task force on illegal gambling more than two years ago after having become increasingly dissatisfied with Attorney General Troy King's legal opinions that the games were constitutional and the machines they were played on legal.
   
Eventually the issue tore Riley and King apart, and Riley's task force, led by Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, aggressively fought the casinos, attempting to raid VictoryLand and Country Crossing even while the Legislature had the gambling issue before it.
   
Many saw McGregor and Gilley as being in a battle to provide their lucrative businesses the additional protection of a statewide vote of approval before Riley and Tyson could succeed in shutting them down.
   
But news of the federal investigation, revealed April 1, doomed efforts in the Alabama House to pass the gaming bill. Pressure from the task force, supported by rulings form the Supreme Court, have shut down all non-Indian electronic bingo casinos in the state.

News staff writers Kim Chandler and Mary Orndorff contributed to this report.

Read:

Full list of those indicted

The full federal indictment here. WARNING: Parts of this document include very strong adult language.

The Alabama bingo files









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$69 Million in Ca. welfare monies cashed in Vegas, Hawaii and on Cruises

RWBNews:  I'm sure it's not just California with this happening.  Do you think there needs to be a welfare system overhaul?

By Jack Dolan for the LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-welfare-20101004,0,5787669.story

Reporting from Sacramento —

More than $69 million in California welfare money, meant to help the needy pay their rent and clothe their children, has been spent or withdrawn outside the state in recent years, including millions in Las Vegas, hundreds of thousands in Hawaii and thousands on cruise ships sailing from Miami.

State-issued aid cards have been used at hotels, shops, restaurants, ATMs and other places in 49 other states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services. Las Vegas drew $11.8 million of the cash benefits, far more than any other destination. The money was accessed from January 2007 through May 2010.

More than $69 million in California welfare money, meant to help the needy pay their rent and clothe their children, has been spent or withdrawn outside the state in recent years, including millions in Las Vegas, hundreds of thousands in Hawaii and thousands on cruise ships sailing from Miami.

State-issued aid cards have been used at hotels, shops, restaurants, ATMs and other places in 49 other states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services. Las Vegas drew $11.8 million of the cash benefits, far more than any other destination. The money was accessed from January 2007 through May 2010.

Welfare recipients must prove they can't afford life's necessities without government aid: A single parent with two children generally must earn less than $14,436 a year to qualify for the cash assistance and becomes ineligible once his or her income exceeds about $20,000, said Lizelda Lopez, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services.

Round-trip flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Orbitz.com Sunday started at $419 — more than 80% of the average monthly cash benefit for a single parent of two on CalWorks, the state's main aid program.

"How they can go somewhere like Hawaii and be legit on aid … they can't," said Robert Hollenbeck, a fraud investigator for the Fresno County district attorney's office. "This is money for basic subsistence needs."

The $387,908 accessed in Hawaii includes transactions at more than a thousand big-box stores, grocery stores, convenience shops and ATMs on all the major islands. At least $234,000 was accessed on Oahu, $70,626 on Maui, $39,883 on Hawaii and $22,170 on Kauai.

The list includes $12,433 spent at the upscale Ala Moana shopping center, $3,030 spent at a group of gift shops next to Jimmy Buffett's Beachcomber restaurant on Waikiki Beach and $2,146 withdrawn from ATMs on the island of Lanai, home to a pair of Four Seasons resorts and little else.

"If it's on Lanai, that should trigger an investigation," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. "California taxpayers, who are struggling to keep their own jobs, are subsidizing other people's vacations. That's absurd."

Of the nearly $12 million accessed in Las Vegas, more than $1 million was spent or withdrawn at shops and casino hotels on, or within a few blocks of, the 4.5-mile strip. The list includes $8,968 at the Tropicana, $7,995 at the Venetian and its Grand Canal Shoppes, and $1,332 at Tix 4 Tonight, seller of discount admission for such acts as Cirque du Soleil.

Although many Las Vegas casinos block the use of welfare cards in ATMs on gambling floors, more than $34,700 has been spent or withdrawn from the ATM at a 7-Eleven in the shadow of Steve Wynn's new Encore casino and a couple of blocks south of Circus Circus.

The store's owner, Rupee Chima, knows the California welfare cards well. He said the people using them don't look like high rollers. "They're not coming in with Rolexes," he said.

And it's possible, he noted, to pack a bunch of people in a car, drive four hours from Los Angeles and share a room at a down-market casino hotel for a relatively frugal vacation.

Californian Omar Mikhail, dining at Encore, said his parents paid their rent with welfare aid when they immigrated to the Bay Area from Afghanistan in the early 1980s. They would never have dreamed of driving to Las Vegas with their monthly check, he said.

"When I hear something like that, it's so disheartening," he said.

The data show addresses of stores and ATM locations where the cards have been used and the amounts of the transactions by year. They do not reveal the identities of the welfare recipients or show how many users visited a given retailer.

Of the $1.5 million accessed in Florida, $13,109 was spent or withdrawn in South Beach, most of that at bars and restaurants along trendy Lincoln Road. More than $7,000 was withdrawn from ATMs a few hours north, at Walt Disney World.

The data also show $16,010 withdrawn from 14 cruise ships sailing from ports around the world — Long Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Beijing. Eight sail primarily from Miami.

The out-of-state spending accounts for less than 1% of the $10.8 billion spent by welfare recipients during the period covered, and advocates note that there are legitimate reasons to spend aid money outside of California. From the data provided, it cannot be determined whether any of the expenditures resulted from fraud.

"I think when somebody hears it's in a fancy hotel in Hawaii or Vegas, it's too easy to assume the [welfare recipient] is visiting that place and it wasn't somebody who stole their card," said Jessica Bartholow, a legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty.

There is no rule preventing welfare recipients from leaving California, as long as they get clearance from their county case worker to be absent from the program's 32-hour-a-week job training requirement. County investigators, who state authorities say are responsible for rooting out fraud and abuse, typically don't question a recipient's whereabouts until transactions on a welfare card show that he or she has been gone for more than 30 days.

"If it's a one-time thing in Miami, we would never check that out," said John Haley, commander of the financial crimes division of the San Diego County district attorney's office, who said 24% of all new welfare applications in his jurisdiction contain some form of fraud. "We look for patterns of abuse."

In Los Angeles County, investigators hadn't been checking until a recipient was gone for three months, said Department of Public Social Services Director Philip Browning. The inability to do more was "really just a resource issue," he said.

Following questions from The Times, Browning said investigators would start inquiring once the data show that a recipient has been gone for more than 30 days.

Many recipients travel to other states in an emergency such as a death in the family, investigators say. But with government resources scarce, it's difficult to sort those cases from incidents of abuse.

An anti-fraud unit in Orange County, which won praise from state officials last year for saving the state millions, has since had to slash its budget and lay off 15 investigators, said Paul Bartlett, commander of the county district attorney's Bureau of Investigation.

Those cuts saved $900,000 in operating expenses but allowed "an estimated $9.6 million in suspected fraud payments out the door," according to an Orange County Grand Jury report released in May.

A state audit last year found that none of California's 58 counties was adequately following up on information that could help root out fraud, including monthly computer matches that list clients who are receiving duplicate aid from other states, those who are ineligible because they're in prison and others who have died.

swenbwr







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Dear President Obama, We The People…(video and transcript)

Click here to view the embedded video.

.

.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/Nospopulus

Transcript – We The People by Nos Populus

Dear President Obama,

"We The People" have stated resolutely we reject your vision for our country. You claim you have not heard us.

"We The People" have assembled across America resisting your efforts to subvert our constitution and undermine our liberty. You claim you have not seen us.

Since you have not acknowledged our message, let us here present it once more for if as President Wilson said, "a leader's ear must ring with the voices of the people," the time has come.

Our greatest treasure is freedom – the absence of restraints on our ability to think and to act. The corollary of freedom is individual responsibility. We believe in the power of the individual.

A few years ago President Bush said, "History moves toward freedom because the desire for freedom is written in every human heart." Let us add that we will preserve it only as long as devotion to freedom is expressed in the heart of our actions.

When President Lincoln dedicated Gettysburg National Cemetery he declared, "It is for us the living to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus so nobly advanced."

That unfinished cause for which our soldiers willingly go to battle and for which so many have given their lives is a free United States of America. It has been nearly one hundred fifty years and the work President Lincoln spoke of is not finished. In fact, that work will never be finished.

Freedom is the capacity of self-determination. It is not an entity but a condition and conditions change. Freedom can expand, yet so can it contract.

You promised change when you took office, Mr. President, but subjugation is not change we wanted or will accept.

You have expanded government, violated our Constitution, confounded laws, seized private industry, destroyed jobs, perverted our economy, curtailed free speech, corrupted our currency, weakened our national security, and endangered our sovereignty.

By compromising our nation's cultural, legal and economic institutions, you are ensuring that our children will never achieve the same quality of life as we enjoy today. Through generational theft you are robbing the unborn of opportunity.

This is not acceptable. Not in America. We did not become a strong nation through hope but rather through self-reliance.

No one better understands the relationship between individual achievement, dignity and strength than our armed forces. Through every war our soldiers have held this nation's destiny in their hands. They have not failed us. They cherish freedom enough that they are willing to die for it.

Our duty to them and to ourselves is to treasure freedom enough to live up to it.

We accept the challenge, Mr. President. That is why we are assembling across the land to deliver our message to you as often and in every way we can. Dismiss us at your political peril.

Our great nation is a Republic. We will not accept tyranny under any guise. Your policy to redistribute the fruits of our labor is Statism and will not be tolerated.

By our honor, Mr. President, we vow forever to resist coercive government in America. Patriots will not stand silent as you attempt to dismantle the greatest nation on earth. "We The People" will defend our liberty. We will protect our beloved country and America's exceptionalism will prevail.

God Bless the United States of America!

Sincerely,

We The People

swenbwr







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