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Las Vegas Courthouse Shootout Was About Social Security

Las Vegas Courthouse Shootout Was About Social Security

Technorati
January 5, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7HiFbJyrzk

A spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told reporters that a man who began shooting in a federal courthouse was killed by gunfire from seven employees of the U.S. Marshals Service. Authorities believe he acted alone and the gunman was dressed only in black.

Johnny Lee Wicks, the 66-year-old shooter, opened fire Monday morning in a federal courthouse in Vegas, killing one security officer and wounding a deputy marshal. They say he was angry about losing his social security benefits.

Read Full Article Here

 



‘United States’ Means ‘Federal Corporation’

U.S. is a ‘Federal Corporation’ British Crown Colony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRXS1jlAr5g

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Itvml2mgQ

 



The United States is Not a Country, it’s a Corporation

United States is Not a Country, it’s a Corporation

 



Our $100 Trillion National Debt

Our $100 Trillion National Debt

Lew Rockwell
August 7, 2008

The “official” debt of the United States is only around $10 trillion dollars as of August 6, 2008. This is a manageable number; we could pay it off in a few decades if we quit buying luxuries like food and clothing, and take a few other minor economy measures. Unfortunately, the “$10 trillion” number was produced by government accounting, which among other things allows one to ignore Social Security, Medicare, and the new prescription drug benefit. This is like ignoring rent, food, and utilities in your household budget… it will lead to a few bounced checks. Our real debt is about ten times higher.

Who says so? The President of the Dallas Federal Reserve, Richard W. Fisher. In a May speech at the Commonwealth Club of California, he states that the US national debt is close to $100 trillion. You can read his whole speech at the Federal Reserve web site.

The Real Debt

Here is what he said regarding the actual US debt:

“Add together the unfunded liabilities from Medicare and Social Security, and it comes to $99.2 trillion over the infinite horizon. Traditional Medicare composes about 69 percent, the new drug benefit roughly 17 percent and Social Security the remaining 14 percent.”

Interested readers will notice that the new prescription drug benefit is projected to be more fiscally crushing than all of Social Security.

Mr. Fisher points out that this $99.2 trillion will be a bit of a burden to pay off:

“Let’s say you and I and Bruce Ericson and every U.S. citizen who is alive today decided to fully address this unfunded liability through lump-sum payments from our own pocketbooks, so that all of us and all future generations could be secure in the knowledge that we and they would receive promised benefits in perpetuity. How much would we have to pay if we split the tab? Again, the math is painful. With a total population of 304 million, from infants to the elderly, the per-person payment to the federal treasury would come to $330,000. This comes to $1.3 million per family of four—over 25 times the average household’s income.”

You do have $1.3 million in your pocket, right? What, are you some kind of deadbeat?

Speaking of deadbeats, the “$99.2 trillion” estimate does not include the subprime bailout. So for those who like large round numbers, by the end of 2008 the real National Debt should be large, round, and about $100 trillion.

Read Full Article Here

Recent News:

U.S. Headed Toward Bankruptcy, Says Top Budget Committee Republican
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=33574

U.S. crude futures fall below $112
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/225..n-3-below-112.html

Home foreclosure filings up 55 percent in July
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080814/bs_nm/usa_foreclosures_dc

Subprime Losses Top $500 Billion on Writedowns
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ne..7&sid=aSKLfqh2qd9o&refer=worldwide

Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll..13/METRO/808130360

Federal budget deficit nearly tripled in July to $102.8 billion
http://www.usatoday.com/news/w..udget-deficit_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

How to Conceal Massive Economic Collapse
http://www.congresscheck.com/20..to-conceal-massive-economic-collapse/

Inflation Highest Since 1991
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a8b27794-6a04-11dd-83e8-0000779fd18c.html

Consumer Prices Rise At Double The Expected Rate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20..rvHZMh.hDDbWuXtRZZaJZJv24cA

1/3 Owe More On Homes Than They’re Worth
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/n..id=a3uzhDOF9FXI&refer=worldwide

Greenspan sees house price bottom in 2009: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN1350807020080814

GAO: Most U.S. Corporations Don’t Pay Income Taxes
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=11377

FDIC Fund Strained By Bank Failures
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new..z7p4wU&refer=worldwide

Wachovia to close mortgage offices in 19 states
http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2008/08/11/daily11.html

UK home repossessions rise by 48%
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7548877.stm

Europe teeters on the brink of recession
Fed: More Banks Tightening Lending Standards
Who Made 270 million On Collapse of Bear Stearns
EUR/USD Drops Towards $1.4639 Support
RBS slumps to £691m loss
Fannie Mae Posts Massive $2.3B Loss
Greenspan Says Federal Company Would Best Ease Crisis

U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive

 



U.S. VA documents 73,846 deaths from Iraq Wars

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs documents 73,846 deaths from Iraq Wars as of May 2007

The Canadian
April 6, 2008

U.S. media organizations like CNN, NBC, FOX and others recently reported that the death total of U.S. combatants in Iraq War had just reached 4,000. The problem is that this data seems to be an intentional distortion. Indeed, official U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs data indicates that the death total from the attrition of Iraq Wars had already reached 73,846, as of May 2007. In comparison Sky News reports that during the Vietnam War, 58,000 soldiers were killed between 1964 and 1973, an average of 26 a day. LINK

It is indeed, a well known fact that in a so-called free society, the U.S. President George W. Bush administration has banned media organizations from photographing most of the coffins, along with the maimed military personnel returning into the U.S. from Iraq. And, if you think that the U.S. President Bush administration has followed “freedom of the press” in Iraq, you have made a sudden mistake.

Journalists in Iraq, who have not prostituted themselves into disseminating the Bush administration’s public relations on the “overall success” of the Iraq War, are being subjected to oppressive persecution.

Journalists have complained of fascist-style harassment.

Is this the action of a U.S. President, who is fighting for democracy, that fundamentally relies on transparency toward supporting a critically informed public?

Indeed, award-winning independent Journalist Dahr Jamail reports that “when the United States handed over power to a ’sovereign’ Iraqi interim government, [Paul] Bremer [former U.S. administrator in Iraq] simply passed on the authority to Ayad Allawi.” LINK

Mr. Dahmail further documents that, Mr. Allawi is the “U.S.-installed interim Prime Minister, who has had longstanding ties with the British intelligence service MI6 and the CIA.” LINK

Investigative Journalist Dahr Jamail, also reports that Allawi’s “media commission had sent out an official ’order’ for news organisations to “stick to the government line on the U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah, or face legal action.” The warning was sent on the letterhead of Mr. Allawi.

The result is that Iraq has become under the Bush administration, a far worse “modern Stalinist” police state, than Iraq had ever been under Saddam Hussein. Over 1 million people in Iraq have been reportedly killed, as the direct result of the Bush regime’s pre-emptive War in Iraq. This is in addition to the over 73,000 U.S. military personnel already killed, as documented by U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Mr. Bush has coordinated an effort to limit the American public’s understanding of the current Iraq War, based upon the myth-making presentation of the War. That myth-making” has sought to convince Americans, in part, that the war is taking a far less toll of American lives.

Indeed, it is apparent that the U.S. Bush administration, is anxious to “declare progress” and “victory” in Iraq, so that it can pursue its further military expansionist agenda against Iran. Seymour M. Hersh has sounded alarm bells about the Bush regime’s nuclear war ambitions against Iran. LINK

But, “The Bush administration has rejected comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, which traumatized Americans a generation ago, with a sad procession of military body bags and television footage of grim wartime cruelty,” observed China Daily. LINK

The intellectual inspiration for the U.S. Bush administration’s public relations management of the Iraq War, is Leo Strauss. Wikipedia notes that “Strauss asks his readers to consider whether it is true that noble lies have no role at all to play, in uniting and guiding the polis.” LINK

In 2003, the magazine Foreign Policy In Focus, noted that thanks to the “Week in Review” section of the 4 May 2003 edition of the New York Times and another investigative article in a recent New Yorker magazine, “The cognoscenti have suddenly been made aware that key neoconservative strategists behind the Bush administration’s aggressive foreign and military policy, consider themselves to be followers of Strauss. LINK

Two other very influential Straussians, noted by Foreign Policy in Focus in May 2003, “include Weekly Standard Chief Editor William Kristol and Gary Schmitt, founder, chairman, and director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). This is a six-year-old neoconservative group whose alumni include Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon [then] chief Donald Rumsfeld, as well as a number of other senior foreign policy officials.” LINK

“PNAC’s early prescriptions and subsequent open letters to President George W. Bush on how to fight the war on terrorism, have anticipated to an uncanny extent precisely what the administration has done.” LINK

The Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), notes that a leading “Straussian” advisor to the Bush Administration has been “Paul Wolfowitz, who was trained by Strauss’ alter-ego and fellow University of Chicago professor Allan Bloom. EIR specifically noted that Wolfowitz has helped champion the “war party” within the civilian bureaucracy at the Pentagon. LINK

Strauss emphasized that ’myths’ are “vitally needed” to “give people meaning and purpose and to ensure a stable society”; and even though he was Jewish, he praised Nazi Germany for embracing the power of myth to control the development of “liberal tendencies” in society. In the view of Strauss, presenting the truth harms society, by liberating “the governed” as “free thinkers” from the “necessary” social control of “elites”.

The Bush administration is inspired by the neo-fascist ideology of Leo Strauss, and has sought to dupe the American public into ignorance about the human suffering of U.S. military personnel in Iraq, by using Straussian techniques of political manipulation.

Shadia Drury, in Leo Strauss and the American Right (1999), argues that Strauss taught different things to different students and inculcated an elitist strain in American political leaders, that is linked to imperialist militarism and to Christian fundamentalism.

Drury accuses Strauss of teaching that “perpetual deception of the citizens by those in power is critical, because they need to be led and because they need strong rulers to tell them what’s good for them.”

Nicholas Xenos in “Leo Strauss and the Rhetoric of the War on Terror,” Logosjournal.com similarly argues that Strauss “was not an anti-liberal in the sense in which we commonly mean ’anti-liberal’ today, but an anti-democrat in a fundamental sense; a true reactionary. Strauss, was somebody who wanted to go back to a previous, pre-liberal, pre-bourgeois era of blood and guts; of imperial domination, of authoritarian rule, and of pure fascism.”

The U.S. President Bush administration’s stated goal of staying in Iraq, to guide Iraq into democracy, and also to combat “terrorists” who threaten American and international security interests, is an apparent clever Straussian ruse. The Bush administration seeks an apparent agenda in Iraq which is far from being the affirmation of democracy and peace.

The lives of Americans have been lost not in the defence of democracy and toward global peace, but as apparent “ritual sacrifices” to the messianic Eugenic ideology of America’s ruling elites. The War on Terrorism appears to being used as a pseudonym for a Eugenics War, that seeks to use the pre-text of terrorists, to execute genocide against Iraqis, through the exploitation of and the “sacrifice” of more than 73,000 U.S. military personnel.

Get the full U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs report: PDF LINK

 

What military spending is doing to our economy

Daily Kos
March 31, 2008

Massive federal deficits, not enough money for social programs. Where have all our tax dollars gone? The charts below (click for full page versions) show how our income tax dollars were spent in FY2007, which ended last September 30 (data from Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2009, Table 8.7). As you can see, 52.7% of these discretionary funds went to the military.

These charts exclude expenditures for Social Security, Medicare, and federal highways since these programs are paid from dedicated taxes maintained in separate trust funds. They also exclude interest paid on the national debt since that spending is “mandatory”, not “discretionary”. These charts show the part of the federal budget that Congress and the President directly allocate each year (with the funds derived from our income taxes, corporation taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes).

 

5 Years Too Many

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iah-ESLQHTs

Army War Tours To Be Cut From 15 To 12 Months
http://news.yahoo.com/s/a..B4gvEERKqU0pNgLpu.WwvIE

Blackwater Contract In Iraq Renewed Another Year
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/200..x1VSlDa396qFhpEJ9lOzZa7gF

Iraq War Is A Eugenics Orchestrated Genocide
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/03/29/02304.html

Iraqi casualties at highest level since August
http://www.rawstory.com/new..st_level_s_04012008.html

 



Tom Ridge Questioned On CFR & Bohemian Grove

Tom Ridge Questioned On CFR & Bohemian Grove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuls3SiqGU0

 



New Secure Social Security Cards Proposed

New Secure Social Security Cards Proposed

Lee Rogers
Rogue Government
March 4, 2008

Two Illinois Congressmen are now proposing reforms to secure Social Security cards under the guise that these reforms will help against identification theft. This is ironic because this is the same excuse that Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff used to justify the Real ID Act which mandates standardized Real ID compliant driver’s licenses. The Real ID Act is of course nothing short of a mandated national ID card system but like all government programs that erode liberty, they use the excuse that it is for the public good. Since the federal government has had a tremendous amount of difficulty implementing their national ID card agenda via the Real ID Act with states refusing to go along with the program, it appears as if they are now going with plan B to implement their national ID card agenda. If forcing states to make their driver’s license compliant with the Real ID standards fails, they will simply use these new so called secure Social Security cards as the national ID card. Even worse, we could have both a nationally standardized driver’s license and a nationally standardized Social Security card which will both serve as a national ID card.

These so called secure Social Security cards will be modeled after the Common Access Card issued by the Department of Defense to members of the military. These identification cards contain a photograph, fingerprint, computer chip, bar code and magnetic strip. In effect these new cards will in fact be a national ID card because it is standardized, contains personal biometric data and a picture. The notion that these new cards will protect against identification theft is ridiculous. These cards have more data on them and as a result, if a card does get compromised it opens up an even larger can of worms. These new cards will contain even more of your personal information on them and could be ripe for abuse by tech savvy criminals. The proposal requires anyone over the age of 15 to have one of these new Social Security cards. So the vast majority of the population would be forced to accept one of these new cards.

Why should we trust the government with more of our information? In 2006, sensitive information of military veterans stored on a laptop was incompetently mishandled by the VA. Over in the UK, the government mishandled information on millions of taxpayers. The incompetence of government is proven and we should resist any effort by the government to demand more information from us. These new Social Security cards are just another incremental step by the establishment to further enslave the American people.

Strangely enough, the press conference announcing this proposal was held on February 11th, 2008. On January 11th 2008, Chertoff made the announcement that individuals with non-compliant Real ID driver’s licenses would be subjected to additional security screenings. The deadline for this to take effect is May 11th, 2008. It is clear that these people have some sort of sick obsession with the number 11. Maybe they think they get great power out of announcing and implementing great evil on the 11th day of a month.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_UA72rwOy9I

More details on this story to come in the next few weeks. Special thanks to Gary Franchi from Republic Magazine for bringing this story to our attention.

 

Truth Be Tolled; WOAI 4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KaVEolCxKB0

Social Security Surveillance Act Enters House
http://www.restoretherepublic.com/content/view/627/

Feds Warn States Of Real ID Deadline
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23456198/

Local British Columbia Council Passes Motion to Halt SPP
http://www.opednews.com/artic..4_local_british_columb.htm

Joint Statement By Ministers Of SPP
http://www.thought-criminal.org/article/node/1342

 



Montana Governor Forments Real ID Rebellion

Montana Governor Forments Real ID Rebellion

Wired
January 18, 2008

Fbiiraqisbein_mn

Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (D) declared independence Friday from federal identification rules and called on governors of 17 other states to join him in forcing a showdown with the federal government which says it will not accept the driver’s licenses of rebel states’ citizens starting May 11.

If that showdown comes to pass, a resident of a non-complying state could not use a driver’s license to enter a federal courthouse or a Social Security Administration building nor could he board a plane without undergoing a pat-down search, possibly creating massive backlogs at the nation’s airports and almost certainly leading to a flurry of federal lawsuits.

States have until May 11 to request extensions to the Real ID rules that were released last Friday. They requires states to make all current identification holders under the age of 50 to apply again with certified birth and marriage certificates. The rules also standardize license formats, require states to interlink their DMV databases and require DMV employee to undergo background checks.

Extensions push back the 2008 deadline for compliance as far as out 2014 if states apply and promise to start work on making the necessary changes, which will cost cash-strapped states billions with only a pittance in federal funding to offset the costs.

Last year Montana passed a law saying it would not comply, citing privacy, states’ rights and fiscal issues.

In his letter (.pdf) to other governors, Schweitzer makes clear he’s not going to ask for an extension.

“Today, I am asking you to join with me in resisting the DHS coercion to comply with the provisions of REAL ID, ” Schweitzer wrote. “If we stand together either DHS will blink or Congress will have to act to avoid havoc at our nation’s airports and federal courthouses.”

But Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner says DHS has no intention of blinking.

“That will mean real consequences for their citizens starting in may if their leadership chooses not to comply,” Keehner said. “That includes getting on an airplane or entering a federal building, so they will need to get passports.”

Keehner says DHS’s policy won’t change even if Georgia — one of the 17 states that has signaled strong opposition to the rules — declines to apply for an extension.

If that scenario came to pass, every Georgian who flies out through the nation’s busiest airport — Atlanta-Hartsfield International — would have to be patted down by Homeland Security agents and have his carry-on bag hand-screened, likely resulting in massive delays.

Keehner also suggests that patted-down citizens will turn their wrath not on the feds but on their state government.

For his part, Schweitzer wants Congress to step up and pass alternative legislation that would stop Real ID and re-instate a commission that was working on driver’s license rules before the REAL ID Act was slipped into must-pass defense legislation in 2005. That legislation assigned DHS the task of setting the rules single-handedly.

Keehner is adamant that the rules will make the country safer and that the price tag is not too high.

“The ability to get false identification must end, and Real ID is that step,” Keehner said.

Privacy groups counter that the rules create a de-facto national identification card and won’t stop terrorism or identity theft.

For his part, Schweitzer struck back at DHS statements he obviously considers arrogant.

“I take great offense at this notion we should all simply ‘grow up’,” Schweitzer wrote, referring to Thursday remarks from DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff about border rules regarding Canada. Schweitzer says those remarks “reflect DHS (sic) continued disrespect for the serious and legitimate concerns of our citizens.”

A DHS policy maker suggested earlier this week that Real IDs could also be required to buy cold medicine and to prove employment eligibility.

Schweitzer’s letter went out to the governors of Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.

 

Mainstream Media Acknowledges The National ID Card

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOQgerd0m2g

Status of Anti-Real ID Legislation in the Experts Challenge DHS Strategytates
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18118652

Status of Anti-Real ID Legislation in the States
http://www.realnightmare.org/news/105/

US.gov sets Real ID rules in stone
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/14/realid_changes_issued/

What is the ‘North American Union’?

 



Born After 1964 You Will Need Real ID

Born After 1964 You Will Need Real ID
By 2014 Americans under 50 must present a REAL ID-complaint driver’s license before boarding a plane, entering a federal building or driving a motor vehicle.

CNN
January 11, 2008

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=327505806198342590&hl=en

Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver’s licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials.The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to get government-issued identification. The effort once envisioned to take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of winning over skeptical state officials.Even with more time, more federal help and technical advances, REAL ID still faces stiff opposition from civil liberties groups.To address some of those concerns, the government now plans to phase in a secure ID initiative that Congress passed into law in 2005. Now, DHS plans a key deadline in 2011 — when federal authorities hope all states will be in compliance — and then further measures to be enacted three years later, according to congressional staffers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not yet been made. DHS officials briefed legislative aides on the details late Thursday.Without discussing details, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promoted the final rules for REAL ID during a meeting Thursday with an advisory council.“We worked very closely with the states in terms of developing a plan that I think will be inexpensive, reasonable to implement and produce the results,” he said. “This is a win-win. As long as people use driver’s licenses to identify themselves for whatever reason there’s no reason for those licenses to be easily counterfeited or tampered with.”In order to make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, according to Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan.The American Civil Liberties Union has fiercely objected to the effort, particularly the sharing of personal data among government agencies. The DHS and other officials say the only way to make sure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics like the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.In its written objection to the law, the ACLU claims REAL ID amounts to the “first-ever national identity card system,” which “would irreparably damage the fabric of American life.”The September 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes.The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had a total of four driver’s licenses and ID cards from three states. The DHS, which was created in response to the attacks, has created a slogan for REAL ID: “One driver, one license.”By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, with the notable exception of those more than 50 years old, Homeland Security officials said.The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.Among other details of the REAL ID plan:

  • The traditional driver’s license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that should someone be rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant’s photo would be kept on file and checked in the future if that person attempted to con the system again.
  • The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their cards.
  • Over the next year, the government expects all states to begin checking both the Social Security numbers and immigration status of license applicants.
  • Most states currently check Social Security numbers and about half check immigration status. Some, like New York, Virginia, North Carolina and California, already have implemented many of the security measures envisioned in REAL ID. In California, for example, officials expect the only major change to adopt the first phase would be to take the photograph at the beginning of the application process instead of the end.

    After the Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks, including state DMV offices checking with the State Department to verify those applicants who use passports to get a driver’s license, verifying birth certificates and checking with other states to ensure an applicant doesn’t have more than one license.

    A handful of states have already signed written agreements indicating plans to comply with REAL ID. Seventeen others, though, have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to it, often based on concerns about the billions of dollars such extra security is expected to cost.

 

Real ID Rules May Complicate Air Travel

Devlin Barrett
AP
January 11, 2008

Fbiiraqisbein_mn

Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver’s licenses. By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act’s rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.

The deadline is an effort to get states to begin phasing in the REAL ID program. Citizens born after Dec. 1, 1964, would have six years to get a new license; older Americans would have until 2017.

Chertoff said that for any state which doesn’t seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

“The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can’t get one,” Chertoff said. “But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress.”

The plan’s chief critic, the American Civil Liberties Union, called Chertoff’s deadline a bluff — and urged state governments to call him on it.

“Are they really prepared to shut those airports down? Which is what effectively would happen if the residents of those states are going to have to go through secondary scrutiny,” said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s technology and liberty program. “This is a scare tactic.”

So far, 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the REAL ID Act’s provisions, many due to concerns it will cost them too much to comply. The 17, according to the ACLU, are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.

Maine officials said Friday they were unsure if their own state law even allows them to ask for a waiver.

“It certainly seems to be an effort by the federal government to create compliance with REAL ID whether states have an interest in doing so or not,” said Don Cookson, spokesman for the Maine secretary of state’s office.

Read Full Article Here

New Real ID Rules To Shut Down Nation’s Airports in May?
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/new-real-id-rul.html

States Will Get More Time For Real ID
http://www.washingtonpo..1/10/AR2008011003971.html

17 States Stuck In License Showdown
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20..9ndPir3KQRw3Adzf6zSs0NUE

U.S. readies “reasonable” ID card rules after debate
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/i..randChannel=10003

 



6 states opposing REAL ID cards

Only 6 states opposing ID cards. Welcome to 1984 America

USA Today
December 17, 2007

WASHINGTON — Six state legislatures are defying a federal law requiring new driver’s licenses that aim to prevent identity theft, fraud and terrorism.

The states have passed laws in the past two months, saying the federal law has a steep cost and invades privacy by requiring 240 million Americans to get highly secure licenses by 2013. The 9/11 Commission urged the first standards for licenses to stop fraud and terrorists such as the Sept. 11 hijackers, who lied on residency statements to get licenses and state IDs.

Lawmakers in Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington say new standards would be expensive to implement and result in a national ID card that compromises privacy. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that it will cost states more than $11 billion.

State resistance has drawn criticism from the Homeland Security Department. “I cannot imagine a state official anywhere that would want to have to testify before Congress about … how their non-compliant licenses contributed to a terrorist attack,” department spokesman Russ Knocke said.

Knocke said the federal government can’t force states to comply. But he said each state’s residents are likely to bring pressure on their local governments when they learn they’ll be barred from boarding airplanes because their state’s licenses don’t meet federal standards.

Airline passengers can use other government photo identification, such as passports and military IDs.

Some lawmakers say any inconvenience is outweighed by the cost and potential privacy invasion for each state to create a photo database of license holders.

“The people of New Hampshire are adamantly opposed to any kind of ‘papers-please’ society reminiscent of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia,” said Neal Kurk, a Republican state representative from New Hampshire. “This is another effort of the federal government to keep track of all its citizens.”

The federal law requires everyone to renew licenses by 2013 with documents showing their Social Security number and home address, and that they are in the USA legally. State Sen. Larry Martin, a Republican from South Carolina, said the law will overwhelm states by requiring agencies to verify documents such as birth certificates.

The defiance by six states could force Congress to reconsider the law, said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union. “You can’t have a national ID card if the residents of six states won’t have one,” Steinhardt said.

What is the ‘North American Union’?

 



National debt grows $1 million a minute

National debt grows $1 million a minute
US National Debt Expanding at Mind-Numbing Rate, Nearly $1.4 Billion Per Day

Tom Raum
Raw Story
December 3, 2007

Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It’s expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute.

What’s that mean to you?

It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.

Even if you’ve escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That’s because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt — now at relatively low interest rates — rolling over to higher rates, multiplying the financial pain.

So long as somebody is willing to keep loaning the U.S. government money, the debt is largely out of sight, out of mind.

But the interest payments keep compounding, and could in time squeeze out most other government spending — leading to sharply higher taxes or a cut in basic services like Social Security and other government benefit programs. Or all of the above.

A major economic slowdown, as some economists suggest may be looming, could hasten the day of reckoning.

The national debt — the total accumulation of annual budget deficits — is up from $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009.

That’s $10,000,000,000,000.00, or one digit more than an odometer-style “national debt clock” near New York’s Times Square can handle. When the privately owned automated clock was activated in 1989, the national debt was $2.7 trillion.

It only gets worse.

Over the next 25 years, the number of Americans aged 65 and up is expected to almost double. The work population will shrink and more and more baby boomers will be drawing Social Security and Medicare benefits, putting new demands on the government’s resources.

These guaranteed retirement and health benefit programs now make up the largest component of federal spending. Defense is next. And moving up fast in third place is interest on the national debt, which totaled $430 billion last year.

Aggravating the debt picture: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could cost $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

Read Full Article Here

 



Comptroller: U.S. Facing Economic Collapse

Comptroller: U.S. Facing Economic Collapse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGpY2hw7ao8

 



Bush Employs Thousands of Undocumented Workers
August 24, 2007, 8:00 am
Filed under: Border Patrol, George Bush, Homeland Security, Immigration, Social Security

Top GOP Leader: Bush Employs Thousands Of Undocumented Workers
Bush hit over jobs for illegal workers

Washington Times
August 23, 2007

By Stephen Dinan – If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee.

A 2006 audit showed federal, state and local governments are among the biggest employers of the half-million persons in the U.S. illegally using “non-work” Social Security numbers — numbers issued legally, but with specific instructions that the holders are not authorized to work in the U.S.

“Let’s clean up our own house, let’s especially clean up the federal employment of all those working for the federal government,” said Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee.

The Social Security Administration used to, but no longer does, issue non-work numbers to legal aliens who were not authorized to work but needed a number to obtain a federal or state benefit or service. Still, hundreds of thousands of those immigrants used the numbers to get a job.

According to the 2006 audit by the Social Security inspector general, 17 of the 100 worst employers using employees with non-work numbers were government agencies: seven federal agencies, seven state agencies and three local governments. That means the government knows who those employees are, but usually does not go after them.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security and Commerce departments announced a new crackdown on illegal entry that includes stricter enforcement against employers. The departments said they will encourage businesses to use E-Verify to check employees’ Social Security numbers, and said the federal government will write new rules requiring all private contractors and vendors that do business with it to use E-Verify.

Under current law, neither business nor federal agencies are required to use E-Verify, formerly known as the Basic Pilot Program.

Mr. King said the administration shouldn’t wait for new rules to begin checking federal employees against the non-work list.

“There’s a lot more they can do, but the federal government’s at least got to run their non-work Social Security numbers against their own employee database, and then they’ve got to require states to do that, and local governments to do that,” he said.

The problem is broader than just federal hiring. The latest figures from the Social Security Administration, reported in March, found 521,426 non-work Social Security numbers had earnings credited to them for work done in 2005 and credited during calendar year 2006.

Social Security provides a list of those numbers to Homeland Security every year, but the department has been reluctant to use them for enforcement, arguing to Congress in testimony last year it would take a significant amount of resources and could distract from national security priorities. Homeland Security also says a high percentage of the non-work numbers turn out to be clerical errors or workers who later obtained authorization.

The inspector general says those cases do occur, but more often than not — about 60 percent of the time — the employees are in fact not authorized to work in the U.S. The audit said for government agencies, the percentage is slightly lower: 44 percent of the government workers identified in their sample were unauthorized for employment in the U.S. The inspector general did not name the 100 worst employers on its list.

The inspector general said as long as workers are using invalid numbers, homeland security is threatened, and said telling employers directly about employees using invalid numbers could help stem the flow of illegal workers.

In a sample of 275 individuals using non-work numbers, the inspector general found two were found to have warrants for deportation already lodged against them. The inspector general said it forwarded that information to Homeland Security for action.

Meanwhile, Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and presidential hopeful, says Mr. Bush is falling behind on construction of the U.S.-Mexico border fence that he signed into law last year.

In a letter to the president, Mr. Hunter said just 17.9 miles of the new double-tier fencing has been constructed as of Aug. 10 — putting the administration off the pace he said it needs to build 392 miles by May 30. All told, he said the fence is supposed to reach 854 miles which, because of the region’s geography, will seal off about 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Washington Times reported earlier this month the U.S. Border Patrol sent out a memo calling for agents to volunteer to help build fencing because they are going to fall short of their goal.

Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the White House, said they are trying to secure the border by adding Border Patrol agents and vehicle barriers. He said there are 100 miles of fencing on the border, and they want a total of 145 miles by September, though those figures include single-tier fencing and fencing that was built in prior years.