A million bucks to operate the Senate barbershop. Another million to pay staffers at the Capitol Hill gift shops. Up to a thousand dollars per month, per person, to pay for vehicle leases for House members.
These are among the litany of expenses tied to the day-to-day operation of Capitol Hill -- expenses that one senator says should be put under the microscope, now that other agencies are cutting back due to sequester.
"As the federal government manages sequestration, Congress should finally do what it has avoided doing for so long - identify fiscal priorities - and there is no better place to start than within Congress's own halls," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wrote in a letter this week to House Speaker John Boehner. "Congress must lead by example."
It is impossible to understand the Obama administration's uniquely hostile treatment of Fox News without understanding the self-image of the Obama team. On the one hand, the targeting of Fox News for isolation and surveillance suggests an administration so lacking in competence that it cannot tolerate criticism or scrutiny. On the other, the attacks suggest hubris, a confidence that few would ever object to its conduct.
That contradiction has a religious quality to it. Indeed, President Barack Obama has led an administration that has, at times, been more of a religious movement than a governing body. Obama has made miraculous promises of political and planetary transformation; he has encouraged a cult-like following, even among formerly skeptical journalists; and he has constructed a demonology of his opponents, real and imagined.
BERLIN -- Months after a tough fight to stay in its traditional location on Main Street, the Berlin Farmers’ Market will be moving next month to the nearby Berlin Fire Company (BFC).
The original plan from the town to re-locate the market had been fiercely opposed, but this new idea, which came from the market vendors, is being endorsed by all sides.
“I think it’s a great location for them … we’re very supportive and we think that it’s an excellent move,” said Mayor Gee Williams.
Though the farmers had been extremely reluctant to leave their usual location on Main Street across from Stevenson United Methodist Church, where they have setup for the last 19 years, Williams noted that the new site in the BFC’s extensive parking lot will only be a stone’s throw from where they were and the move will open more public parking to Berlin’s bustling downtown. More
Since 2009, bailed-out mortgage-backer Fannie Mae has sold nearly three quarters of a million repossessed properties. And considering that there are plenty of investors and speculators looking to snap up bottom-dollar homes with the hopes of eventually reselling at a profit, someone with inside information could be tempted to put a premium on that data, even if doing so is against the law. Earlier this year, an employee at a Fannie Mae office in Irvina, CA, was arrested in a sting operation and accused of attempting to sell the company’s foreclosure listings to a real estate broker from Tucson, AZ, for $11,200 in cash.
OCEAN CITY -- Two local business owners, indicted by a New York grand jury earlier this month for allegedly being the “ringleader” and “enterprise treasurer” for a vast cigarette smuggling and money laundering scheme with possible links to terrorism, have plead not guilty and are being held in the New York’s Department of Corrections without bond.
In mid-May, federal officials concluded an investigation into a vast multi-million dollar cigarette smuggling operation with raids on two locations in and around the resort area including the West Ocean City homes of local residents Basel Ramadan, 42, who is being called the “ringleader” and “boss” of the enterprise, and Samir Ramadan, 40, who is Basel Ramadan’s brother and has been called the “enterprise treasurer.” Federal officials also raided the Ramadan’s offices over the Subway restaurant they owned at Sunset Drive near 26th Street in Ocean City on the same day.
At the Ramadans’ West Ocean City homes in the Oyster Harbor community, $1.4 million in large black bags was recovered, along with 20,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes. Also seized were numerous vehicles and other property belonging to the Ramadans. More
Today, we will take a closer look at how and why the Holder Department of Justice is still stopping Ohio’s Conservative Chief Election Officer from doing his job and eliminating voter fraud in the Buckeye State.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s website confirms that the state’s theoretical elections buck should stop with him: “The Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s office also compiles and maintains election statistics, political party records and other election-related records. More
Make no mistake, Vernon Hershberger won a huge victory in today’s early morning hours in Baraboo, WI. “It’s a beautiful day,” Hershberger told me this morning, after a few hours of sleep following the 1 a.m. jury decision that acquitted him of three of four criminal misdemeanor charges. Yes, it was a beautiful day, for farming and for food rights. The State threw everything it had at this humble father of ten children, and when it was over, its guys in the dark suits scampered out of the courtroom in the darkness of the night after a jury of twelve ordinary Americans handed them their heads on a platter. After less than four hours of consideration, those Americans told the hot-shot lawyers that their thousands of pages of legal documents and computer forensic experts and five days of arguing had failed miserably to convince a single one of them that Hershberger should be required to have any of three retail and dairy licenses insisted upon by the State. Hershberger has already heard through the grapevine that the jurors didn’t give a moment’s thought to going with the state’s charges. “They tried their best to set me free,” he said. The jurors convicted Hershberger only of something he publicly admitted to before and during the trial – that he had cut the regulators’ tape placed on his coolers and food shelves June 2, 2010 so as to keep his food from rotting and to feed his 200 food club members – in other words, violated a holding order.
This week combines two of the most controversial radio shows we have ever done. Both 30 minute radio shows are one that are ones that will leave you with your jaw hanging on the floor. Our first guest, Joe Wolverton II, J.D. of the New American magazine draws profound connections to political policies being discussed on Capitol Hill today and the political structures that lead to the Nazi regime. Wolverton even points out how unbelievably close even the wording used in Nazi Germany echoes the wording used by today’s political figures such as Eric Holder and Nancy Pelosi.
Wolverton addresses the Second Amendment issues that have been reverberating across the United States for some time now. He makes it a point to show us how we are setting ourselves up to follow the very footsteps of historically one of the most hated and feared political parties to ever come into power.
For the second half of the show, Bill and Brian are joined by a real criminal. But wait...what is his crime? Keeping chickens. That’s right. He is facing criminal charges for keeping chickens in the town of Garden City, Michigan. What started off as an ordinance violation was magically transferred into a criminal case.
During the interview we asked a question we should never have had to ask. We asked the criminal, Randy Zeilinger, “Now someone from the court system came to your place and they saw chickens?” Randy replied, “No.” So this criminal case is started because of an angry neighbor and is being heard by a disgruntled prosecutor who wants to “make an example” of Randy.
Listen to the connection of today’s political playground to the start of the Nazi regime and the story of the criminal chicken farmer today.
The City Council has scheduled an additional Budget Session for Friday, May 31, 2013 (tomorrow) in Conference Room 306 of the Government Office Building (125 N. Division Street).
The Budget Session will be held from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon, and is open to public attendance.
BERLIN -- Despite an 11th hour request, the Berlin Fire Company (BFC) will not be included in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget for the town of Berlin, but the Mayor and Council did agree to continue a dialog and left open the option of revisiting the budget.
Unanimously passed Tuesday, the FY14 budget for Berlin will total $13,514,462, a 2-percent decrease from last year’s budget. However prior to the budget being voted on Tuesday night, BFC representatives asked that the council meet with company leadership with the goal of being included in the budget for FY14
BFC attorney Joe Moore acknowledged that the relationship between the town and the company has been frayed over the last year, but advised Mayor Gee Williams and the council that everyone should move on to reach a mutually beneficial situation. More
Vote fraud is no big deal, right? It hardly ever happens. It’s so rare that it’s not even worth discussing. Anyone who claims to take the integrity of our ballots seriously is cynically exploiting phantom fears for the purpose of suppressing the Democrat-loving minority vote.
To keep that silly narrative alive, it’s important not to read the Sunday edition of the Columbus Dispatch, in which readers were informed that “more than one out of every five registered Ohio voters is probably ineligible to vote.”
Furthermore, “in two counties, the number of registered voters actually exceeds the voting age population: Northwestern Ohio’s Wood County shows 109 registered voters for every 100 eligible, while in Lawrence County along the Ohio River it’s a mere 104 registered per 100 eligible.”
Protesters rallied Wednesday outside of local media outlets nationwide, including at The Baltimore Sun, as an outcry over what they're calling a local media heist.
The Sun is one of 12 newspapers or TV stations under the ownership of The Tribune Company, but they could be taken over by Bill and Charles Koch, brothers who head a controversial major national conglomerate that the protesters say has a clear ideological bias.
The group called on the paper's publisher and president to come out against the sale of the media group to the billionaire oil barons. Representatives with Common Cause Maryland said their main concern is media consolidation and its effects on democracy. Read more
People traveled to America’s wide open spaces to create economic opportunity for themselves, escape religious persecution, and live a life they couldn’t possibly have imagined living in their homelands, a life of freedom and opportunity. From sea to shining sea they tamed what once was harsh, unforgiving wilderness, blazed trails across dangerous land, planted stakes in the ground that symbolized that most precious of commodities, land they could call their own.
There they built cabins, then towns, then cities, then skyscrapers. There they created the most liberty-based government known to man, a government that encouraged, nay required rugged individuals, acting in their own self-interest, to work hard in order to prosper, so that their communities would prosper in kind.
As with all good things, it was not to last forever.
Human government has a history of running in cycles. Like the rise of the Roman Republic and the birth of America hundreds of years later, new forms of self-government are often born from man’s yearning for freedom. After that initial birth, a golden age follows, with dramatic increases in inventions and prosperity. The golden age may last a couple hundred years, but it inevitably ends. People begin to grow complacent and, generation by generation, more and more decadent, lazy, content. Instead of traditional self-reliance, they want someone to take care of them. Instead of freedom, they want security.
ANNAPOLIS -- The Maryland Board of Public Works signed off on a $58 million plan Wednesday to move a state agency to a leased building in Prince George's County, despite protests that Maryland was wasting money leaving a state-owned building.
The board, made up of Gov. Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp, unanimously approved the move of the Department of Housing and Community Development from a state-owned building in Anne Arundel County to a new location near the New Carrollton Metro station.
The move would bring the 380 employees of the Housing Department -- most of whom live in Anne Arundel or Baltimore City or County -- to Prince George's County. More
It is now clear that the IRS knowingly targeted conservative groups, turning the tax agency into a political weapon. Multiple investigations into the government wrongdoing are expected to begin by the time lawmakers return to session next week.
While most people, both on the left and right, are understandably outraged by the abuse of power, others are not. In fact, some people — hopefully the small minority — are actually thankful.
Conservative pundit Caleb Bonham traveled to Colorado University in Boulder and asked several people to sign a “thank you” card to thank the IRS for unfairly targeting conservative groups. The giant poster board read: “Thank You IRS! Tea Party Deserves It!”
One guy said the whole thing was just a “fake scandal” and it makes sense that the IRS would specifically target conservative tax-exempt organizations.
“I think it’s pretty rad,” another guy says in the video.
Fox News joined several other major media outlets Thursday in refusing to send a representative to a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder on the department's surveillance of reporters if Holder continues to insist that the session be off the record.
Michael Clemente, Fox News' executive vice president, decided that Fox News will not attend the off-record talks. Fox News had been invited to a Friday session at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington.
With the decision, the two news outlets known to have been targeted by the Justice Department for surveillance -- the other being the Associated Press -- are now declining to participate in the first phase of Holder's internal review over the controversy. Several other outlets are also refusing to attend.
More than two dozen conservative groups sued the IRS, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday accusing them of slow-walking approval of the groups’ tax-exempt status and, in some cases, for disclosing private information.
The lawsuit comes even as Congress announced it will hold a hearing next week to take testimony from some of the groups targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, giving them a platform to detail the kinds of questions they were asked.
Wednesday’s lawsuit, filed by the American Center for Law and Justice in a federal court in Washington, demands that the IRS be forced to recognize the groups and asks the court to rule that IRS officials violated the groups’ constitutional rights.
Establishment media avoid identifying culprits The nightly rioting in Stockholm that establishment media ascribes merely to “youths,” is being carried out by Muslim immigrants.
Muslim immigrants in Sweden now total slightly more than 6 percent of the population, providing additional support for the maxim that a Muslim population of 5 percent is a tipping point for political turmoil. In other countries, Muslim immigrants at that point have begun to seek concessions, including, typically, the right to govern themselves by Shariah, or Islamic law.
Fracking — the process of obtaining natural gas and other resources through the use of hydraulic fracturing — is a controversial and divisive issue, with proponents claiming it is a clean and safe way to tap needed fuel sources while opponents say fracking wreaks havoc on the environment and ecosystem. In Germany, some of the biggest names in beer have joined together to ask the German government to stop fracking there until it can be proven that it won’t taint the groundwater — and by extension, German beer.
By now everyone knows that the biggest portion of US household debt, besides mortgage debt, is a towering $1+ trillion in student loans, more than total outstanding credit cards or car loans, which is problematic for three main reasons: it is increasing at an unprecedented pace due to lax Federal lending standards, delinquent loans are soaring and are now well over $100 billion and rising at a pace of tens of billions each quarter, and it can not be discharged. At least that is conventional wisdom. But while points 1 and 2 are indisputable (and deteriorating), it is point 3 that is the more troubling for an entire generation of young men and women who are afraid to splurge on levered purchases such as houses due to an already insurmountable debt overhang, and a job market that is hardly hospitable to young entrants. Luckily, there may now be solution stamped in US case law.
With the implementation of Obamacare, doctors will soon be required to use roughly 122,000 new medical diagnostic codes to inform the federal government of injuries sustained by Americans, so says Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.
The new codes, Sen. Paul explained, include classifications for “injuries sustained from a turtle,” “walking into a lamppost” and “injuries sustained from burning water skis.”
“Your government just wants to take care of you,” he added, criticizing the new law’s 9,000-plus pages of new regulations. “They don’t think you’re smart enough to make these decisions.”
Love was in the air as NJ Governor Chris Christie won his new object of obsession, President Obama, a teddy bear while the lovebirds strolled along the boardwalk in NJ. With his administration mired in scandal, Obama is trying to play his greatest hits – revisiting all the places where he got a bump in the polls. But the media seems to be missing one of the biggest stories from the day, and only Glenn had it.
“TheBlaze is reporting this morning that afterwards, the two made a sand castle of the White House on the beach and then frolicked in the crashing waves, playfully and gently splashing wanter on one another for about an hour. Then after Chris Christie played a game of shirtless beach volleyball, just in jeans, while the President cheered him on, the two departed for a dinner meeting,” Glenn reported. More
Multiple pundits and journalists — including CBS’ Bob Schieffer — have speculated that President Barack Obama’s response to the multiple scandals currently plaguing his administration has been eerily similar to former President Richard Nixon’s management of Watergate. With that in mind,Revealing Politics sought out to see if the claims were legitimate.
Even as the 2012-13 school year winds down, several dozen Wicomico students have geared up to compete on a national level.
Last week, seven Wicomico Destination ImagiNation teams from six Wicomico schools competed at the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn. When the winners were announced Saturday, the DI-namic Peeps team from James M. Bennett High School finished 3rd in the nation for the second straight year. The other JMB team, the Juvenile DI-linquents, finished 9th. (A full list of team results from Global Finals is at the end of this release.)
This week, seventh-grader Khaled Mohamed of Bennett Middle is representing the Lower Shore at the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, D.C. To advance to the national level, Mohamed won the Eastern Shore Regional Spelling Bee sponsored by the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in March. He and 280 other spellers from around the country took a written vocabulary test Tuesday, and preliminary competition begins at 8 a.m. today. Semifinals and finals are on Thursday, live on ESPN2. This coming weekend, the academic team from James M. Bennett High will travel to Washington to compete in the National Academic Championships. The team qualified for the national contest after winning the Stephen Decatur Invitational Tournament (for the sixth year in a row) and making it to the final round in the TV quiz show "It's Academic." The team lost a close game in the final seconds to finish 2nd in the state.
Last month at our event in Santiago, Ron Paul told me that he used to keep a sign on his desk during his time in Congress that read: “Don’t steal. The government hates competition.”
These days, perhaps a more appropriate saying would be– “Don’t violate people’s civil liberties. The government hates competition.”
And I wish I could say I’m kidding. But in the Land of the Free, they actually want to make this a law.
Yes, that’s right. On the hallowed floor of the United States Senate, recently, bill S1057 was introduced.
It’s aim? “To prohibit the use of unmanned aircraft systems by private individuals to conduct surveillance of other private persons.”
And, just to be clear, by “unmanned aircraft systems,” they mean drones. The same ones that they use to assassinate people by remote control. And, of course, conduct surveillance on private citizens in the Land of the Free.
So what the esteemed Senators are telling us is that it’s bad (and hence should be unlawful) to invade people’s privacy. Unless the government is doing it, in which case it’s just fine.
Two officials from the U.S. embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, were shot at a strip club early Tuesday. Both men were shot in the abdomen after an altercation. Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The incident echoes a scandal last year when Secret Service agents in Cartagena, Colombia, got into an altercation with prostitutes they had hired. It prompted Secret Service to redo its manual for overseas visits. The State Department manual for overseas travel is considered by many to be the model to emulate. It is not known yet whether this trip to a strip club in Caracas was authorized.
Problems at a big Veterans Affairs hospital in Atlanta are causing a system-wide examination. Two inspector general reports last month found instances of mismanagement and poor patient care at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. Four patients died, one by an apparent suicide. The interim director has been replaced by Leslie Wiggins, a former deputy assistant VA secretary. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said legislation is needed to reform VA operations nationwide. One IG report found internal care problems. The second report found the hospital failed to track patients referred to outside mental health providers.
Momentum is building on Capitol Hill to reform and simplify the tax code. The support comes in the wake of revelations that the IRS held up conservative political groups applying for tax-exempt status. Rep. David Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said simplification would narrow IRS employees' discretion. He's been working with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Finance Committee. They hope to produce the first tax code reform since 1986. The IRS Taxpayer Advocate has been arguing for years that complexity is the biggest challenge facing both the IRS and the taxpaying public.
Law enforcement officers representing all of Worcester County will be on the run on Monday, June 3rdat 8:00am taking part in the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run Relay for Special Olympics Maryland. Their mission: to escort and protect the Special Olympics ‘Flame of Hope’ as it makes its way toward the opening of the 43ndAnniversary Summer Games at Towson University, June 7-9.
This year marks the 28thAnniversary of the Maryland Torch Run, a movement that began in 1986 with a handful of officers raising $5,000, and has grown into a true year-round effort that involves thousands of officers and sponsors raising over $3 million in 2012. Since its inception, the Torch Run has taken very seriously its role as “Guardians of the Flame”, and the Relay is an important and celebrated part of every Special Olympics competition.
The schedule for Ocean City/Worcester County’s portion of the Torch Run is as follows (all times are approximate and subject to change): Monday, June 3, 2013
8 – 8:30am: Pre-Event Ceremonies, 27thStreet and the Boardwalk, Ocean City, MD
8:30am: Torch Run Relay Begins. Run will proceed from 27thStreet to N. Division Street.
9:15 – 9:30am: Run Concludes at N. Division Street with Photo Opportunity and Refreshment.
*We will load bus to proceed to Historic Downtown Berlin, for the second leg of the Relay
10:00 – 10:15am: Meet at Worcester Preparatory School for Pre-Run Pep Rally
10:15am: Begin Second Leg through Historic Downtown Berlin
10:45-11:00am: Conclude Second Leg at Berlin Fire Department (approx. 1 mile run)
*More Refreshments and Photo Opportunities to follow run
This local portion of the Torch Run Relay is part of a much larger effort. Statewide, the Maryland Torch Run Relay consists of four different legs – Eastern, Western, Central and Southern – and throughout the entire week, thousands of Torch Run volunteers will cover hundreds of miles, eventually converging on Towson where the individual flames will be united in the Final Leg Ceremony and then officers from around the state will travel the final 2.5 miles to the Opening Ceremony at Towson University. It is there that the Flame is handed off to the Special Olympics athletes who have the honor of taking the final lap with the torch and then lighting the cauldron and officially declaring the 2013 SOMD Summer Games open.
Our local Torch Run Leg is always very well attended and is by far the most beautiful leg of the states Torch Run relay, incorporating the refreshing Ocean City boardwalk and the beauty and charm of historic downtown Berlin, Maryland.
Contact the Ocean City Police Department for more information and to learn how you can participate in this year’s event.
Thousands of Defense Department employees returned to work from a holiday weekend and were greeted with written furlough notices. A spokesperson told Gov Exec, supervisors hand-delivered the notices where possible and are doing so through June 5. Most civilian employees will have to take up to 11 days of furloughs beginning on July 8.
The Worcester County Sheriff's Office continues to search for Helen David missing from the South Point area of Worcester County since Monday afternoon. We are requesting that all residents from Berlin to West Ocean City, down the Rt. 611 corridor through South Point, search their properties including any out buildings for Mrs. David. If you locate her please call the Worcester County Sheriff's Office at 410-632-1111
