Lesson on Your Social Security Card

 Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older ones) didn't know this. It's easy to check out, if you don't believe it. Be sure and show it to your family and friends. They need a little history lesson on what's what and it doesn't matter whether you are Democrat or Republican. Facts are Facts.

Social Security Cards up until the 1980s expressly stated the number and
card were not to be used for identification purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the message, NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION, was removed.

An old Social Security card with the "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" message.

Our Social Security
Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be
Completely voluntary,

No longer Voluntary


2.) That the participants would only have to pay
1% of the first $1,400 of their annual
Incomes into the Program,

Now 7.65%
on the first $90,000


3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year,

No longer tax deductible


4.) That the money the participants put into the independent 'Trust Fund' rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and,

Under Johnson the money was moved to The General Fund and Spent


5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed
as income.

Under Clinton & Gore
Up to 85% of your Social Security can be Taxed

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to 'put away'
-- you may be interested in the following:

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ----

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent 'Trust Fund' and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate.

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -----

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the 'tie-breaking' deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the US

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?

A: Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it!

------------ -- ------------ --------- ----- ------------ --------- ---------

Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it! If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe changes will evolve.

Truancy And Crime Link In Chicago

Of 182 boys and young men recently locked up in Illinois' three medium-security youth prisons, at least 135 used to miss so much school that they were labeled chronic truants.
Nearly 60 percent couldn't even read at the third-grade level when they were booked in.

At the largest of the three facilities, the Illinois Youth Center St. Charles, all but nine of the 72 youths had dropped out of school entirely by the time they were incarcerated.

These figures, calculated by the Tribune from newly obtained state prison data, serve as a grim reminder that absence from school in the early grades is often the first warning of criminal misconduct that can destroy young lives as well as burden society with the costs of street violence, welfare and prison.

The records underscore the stark consequences of a crisis in K-8 grade truancy and absenteeism in Chicago that officials long ignored but have promised to address in the wake of a Tribune investigation that found tens of thousands of city elementary students miss a month or more of school in a year.

The prison data consist of raw numbers, but behind them is a ragged parade of youths whose cases fill the docket in Cook County Juvenile Court.

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For Second Time, DMV Denies ICUHAJI License Plate

CHESAPEAKE

An Iraq war veteran's quest to recover personalized license plates that some Arab Americans found offensive is not over.

After a judge ruled in November that the Department of Motor Vehicles couldn't deny a tag on the grounds that it denigrated individuals of a particular nationality, the state has come up with a new reason to revoke Sean Bujno's ICUHAJI plate.

In a letter from the DMV to Bujno, the agency said the tag - it can be read, "I see you, haji" - condones or encourages violence and is obscene or otherwise vulgar in nature.
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The Final Countdown

Governments have refused to accept the necessity of a period of economic re-adjustment following the credit-bubble. The bubble burst about five years ago and economic progress has been effectively suspended ever since. The consequences of this refusal to accept reality are at a minimum to make this adjustment unnecessarily drawn out and needlessly painful, without offering a better eventual outcome.

Reduced to its bare bones, the choice has been either to accept that unviable businesses and over-extended banks must go bust, or to ignore the problem and hope it goes away. We are familiar with this dilemma as investors: a business that refuses to adapt to new realities will eventually fail. Before it does, its investors have the chance either to sell their shares and perhaps reinvest their money more profitably, or to refuse to accept an early loss on their investment. Most of us, being human, take the latter course and usually regret it.

The lesson, if we care to learn it, is that the product of time and money is more valuable than the desire to avoid a book loss. In economic terms, it is better for resources to be deployed efficiently than to tie them up in inefficient or unwanted activity. This is a decision for markets, not governments, which brings us back to the necessity for economic re-adjustment. Governments have simply not faced up to the reality that we are in a post-credit-bubble mess: they still hope the problem will be resolved by time.

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COLUMBINE SURVIVOR PENS BOLD OPEN LETTER TO OBAMA REJECTING GUN CONTROL: ‘WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?’

Columbine survivor Evan Todd released an open letter to President Barack Obama on Wednesday in which he offers a point-by-point analysis of proposed firearms control initiatives, dismissing them as ineffective and dangerous to Americans’ rights.

He recently outlined why he fervently disagrees with the gun control policies that have been proposed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. TheBlaze interviewed Todd earlier this week and subsequently detailed how his experience being shot back in 1999 has shaped his views on the issue.

The letter, which speaks directly to the president, covers a number of key facets in the gun control debate. On universal background checks, Todd expresses his fears that “universal registration can easily be used for universal confiscation.” Additionally, he says his belief that assault weapons bans are ineffective and argues that the first law did little to stop violence when it was in effect from 1994 until 2004; he cites Columbine as a prime example.
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QUOTES OF THE DAY

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

“And so it goes…”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies-”God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

WHY IS MEXICO ASKING THE U.S. SENATE FOR A REGISTRY OF U.S. GUN OWNERS?

Mexican lawmakers will ask the U.S. Senate to create a registry of all commercialized firearms in border states, which includes California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Mexico says it will make it easier to trace guns used in violent attacks.

The measure was reportedly approved on January 9 by Mexico’s Permanent Commission, a government entity that meets when Mexico’s Senate and the Chamber of Deputies is in recess. Gun owners in Arizona are calling the proposal “foolish” and an “invasion of privacy.”
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WHAT IS 7.6 BILLION HOURS WORTH?

Abolish The Income Tax: You Won’t Believe Who Is Getting Away With Paying Zero Taxes While The Middle Class Gets Hammered
By Michael, on February 18th, 2013

The federal income tax is a bad joke and it needs to be abolished. All over the nation, hard working American families are being absolutely crushed by oppressive levels of taxation, and our politicians are constantly coming up with new ways to extract money from all of us every single year. Meanwhile, many ultra-wealthy Americans and many of the most profitable corporations in the country pay little to nothing in taxes.

In fact, as you will see below, there are dozens of very prominent corporations that make billions of dollars in profits and yet don’t pay a dime in taxes. Tax avoidance has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Those that have the resources to “play the game” use shell companies, offshore tax havens and the thousands of loopholes in our tax code to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible. Meanwhile, the rest of us get absolutely hammered. This is fundamentally unfair.

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Russia Wants Adopted Child Back After Brother Dies in U.S.

Russia is seeking to repatriate the brother of a three-year-old boy who died in Texas after being adopted by a U.S. family, less than two months after Moscow banned all adoptions by Americans.

“We have every reason to demand the return of the boy to his homeland,” Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, told reporters in Moscow today. “If adoptive parents have committed a crime, we are entitled to demand the child come home.”

The toddler died on Jan. 21 after an alleged fatal beating by his adoptive American mother. He and his two-year-old brother were adopted at the end of last year from an orphanage in the Pskov region in the country’s northwest. Astakhov said he had been asked by the boys’ biological mother to help get the child back to Russia. The woman says she has found a job and stopped her “antisocial lifestyle,” according to Astakhov.
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A Comment Worthy Of A Post 2-20-13

Anne Taylor has left a new comment on your post "Tonight On WMDT":

My business Parker Place survived downtown for almost 15 years, with NO HELP from the city. Our city isn't business friendly, PERIOD! The Mayor and the City Council need to be more aggressive trying to bring new businesses downtown, and they need to work with people. A great example would be Berlin and what Michael Day has done. I voted for Ireton 4 years ago,(AGAINST THE ADVISE OF MANY) because he used the magic word "CHANGE".....I am still waiting.

Dishonoring The Corps

Dishonored and disarmed: Bolts are clearly missing from these Marine rifles during President Obama’s inauguration parade. This is an unmistakable insult to the honor of the Marine Corps.
David Codrea has revealed that President Obama has so little regard for the United States Marines risking their lives under his command life that they were forced to dismantle their already empty parade rifles for his second inauguration parade. This is nothing less than a slap in the face of the Corps:
“Didn’t know the Marines had to take the bolts out of their rifles for the Inaugural,” an email forwarded to Gun Rights Examiner from a United States Marine Corps source observed. “Wonder if someone can explain why [they] would be marching in the inaugural parade with no bolts in their rifles!”
The email linked to a YouTube video of the 57th Presidential Inaugural Parade, embedded in this column, featuring Bravo Company Marines from the Marine Barracks Washington. Sure enough, the observation in the email is confirmed by watching the video, with screen shots provided in the photo and slide show accompanying this article.
This prompted an internet search to see if others had also noticed, and the Blur-Brain blog had.
“The bolts have been removed from the rifles rendering them unable to fire a round,” the post stated. “Apparently Obama’s Secret Service doesn’t trust the USMC. Simply searching each guy to make sure he didn’t have a live round hidden on him wasn’t enough, they had to make sure the guns were inoperable.
Obama doesn’t trust the very men who put their lives on the line to serve their country. I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a shock. Untrustworthy people find it very difficult to believe that other men have honor.

Jake Day Receives "Ultimate" Endorsement

Salisbury city council candidate Jake Day kicked off his campaign by tying himself to mayor Jim Ireton:

One of the problems is the council majority, which includes Campbell, and its lack of vision for the city, Day said.  “I think we have a great example with the mayor, but he doesn’t have a partner on the City Council,” he said.

As Day concludes the first phase of his quest for public office, Day has received the endorsement of another Salisbury icon - Barrie Parsons Tilghman.

Salisbury taxpayers should be reminded that Tilghman plunged the city into deep debt.  The city is in the process of paying for Tilghman's waste water treatment plant TWICE.  Why?  Tilghman's "Dream Team" council simply RUBBER STAMPED her every whim.  Day is on record as wanting to join councilwomen Laura Mitchell and Shanie Shields in being Ireton's rubber stamp.

Let's review a few accomplishments of Day's latest champion:

• A DOUBLE DIGIT tax hike.

• A highly questionable city land purchase which yielded "unknown" owners a nearly HALF MILLION dollar profit in four months for the Salisbury fire house property.

• Millions of dollars in developer reimbursements.

• A questionable annexation for the "Sassafras Meadows" parcel, formerly (?) owned by rubbber stamp councilman Mike Dunn and family.

• The piece de resistance - the FAILED Waste Water Treatment Plant.  The grandchildren of city ratepayers will be ponying up for this one.

Salisbury taxpayers KNOW they can't afford another Barrie Tilghman.  Are their pockets deep enough to afford Jake Day?

USDA WHISTLEBLOWER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT CONTROVERSIAL ‘CULTURAL SENSITIVITY TRAINING’ SEMINAR

A whistleblower from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) joined Glenn Beck on TheBlaze TV Tuesday to discuss a disturbing “Cultural Sensitivity Training” program that encouraged federal workers in attendance to chant racially-charged and controversial phrases. The training was reportedly part of “a broader effort towards cultural transformation at USDA.”

As TheBlaze previously reported, video of the sensitivity training session, conducted by the USDA, was published last week by Judicial Watch after the group was tipped by a whistleblower. Critics have accused the USDA of allowing their workers to be indoctrinated.

Beck began Tuesday’s show by recapping some of the most outrageous statements made by the seminar’s diversity awareness trainer Dr. Samuel Betances. Here’s your refresher course:

“I want you to say, America was founded by outsiders. Say that. Who are today’s insiders, who get very nervous about today’s outsiders. I want you to say, the pilgrims were illegal aliens. Say the pilgrims never gave their passports to the Indians.”

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Minimum Wage: Who Decided Workers Should Fall Behind?

It was encouraging to see President Obama propose an increase in the minimum wage in his State of the Union Address, even if the $9.00 target did not seem especially ambitious. If the $9.00 minimum wage were in effect this year, the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage would still be more than 2.0 percent lower than it had been in the late 1960s. And this proposed target would not even be reached until 2015, when inflation is predicted to lower the value by another 6 percent.

While giving a raise worth more than $3,000 a year to the country’s lowest paid workers is definitely a good thing, it is hard to get too excited about a situation in which these workers will still be earning less than their counterparts did almost 50 years ago. By targeting wage levels that roughly move in step with inflation we have implemented a policy that workers at the bottom will receive none of the benefits of economic growth through time. In other words, if we hold the purchasing power of the minimum wage fixed through time, as the country as a whole gets richer, minimum wage workers will fall ever further behind.

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House Of Delegates Takes Important Step Towards Offshore Wind Power

Today, the Maryland House of Delegates made progress towards passage of the offshore wind bill put forward by Gov. Martin O’Malley (HB 226), the Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act of 2013. The House voted to move the bill to the final stage of voting, called “3rd Reader.” In response, Tommy Landers, the director of Environment Maryland issues this brief statement:

“Gov. O’Malley and the Maryland House of Delegates are doing the right thing for our kids, our air, our climate, and our economy. The offshore wind industry is coming to our region, and this bill will put Maryland on the cutting edge of states ready to embrace and reap all of its benefits. Our climate is changing, extreme weather is becoming more damaging, and dirty air is still endangering our children. For Maryland, offshore wind is a critical part of the solution to the many challenges created by our ongoing addiction to fossil fuels. Congratulations and many thanks to Speaker Busch, Chairmen Davis, and their colleagues in the House of Delegates for moving this vital policy forward.”

Heterosexuals Need Not Apply: DOD Extends Benefits Only to Gay Unmarried ‘Partners’

Outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has unilaterally issued a directive stating that the U.S. military will now extend certain benefits to unmarried domestic partners that were formerly reserved for married couples—but will only do so if the domestic partners certify in writing to the Department of Defense that they are of the same sex.

Heterosexual unmarried partners do not qualify for the benefits—and thus are treated unequally by Panetta’s directive on the basis of their sexual orientation.

Panetta issued his directive in a Feb. 11 memorandum to the secretaries of the military departments and the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. The subject line on the memo said: “Extending benefits to same-sex domestic partners of military members.”
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North Dakota Senate Passes “Personhood” Bill Granting Legal Rights to Fertilized Eggs

What is going on in North Dakota?

The state successfully passed yet another restrictive, Supreme Court-baiting antiabortionmeasure, this time voting to define a “person” as “an individual member of the species homo sapiens at every stage of development” — including human embryos.

In short: They have endowed fertilized eggs with the same rights as a living, breathing person. A move that would restrict all abortions except in narrowly defined cases where a woman’s life is at risk.

According to the abortion rights group Parents Against Personhood, the bill:


Contains an exception for “medical treatment of life-threatening conditions of pregnancy”, for “contraception administered before clinically diagnosable pregnancy,” and for “screening, collecting, preparing, transferring, or cryopreserving of a human being created through in vitro fertilization for the purpose of being transferred to a human uterus.

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Legislators Introduce Hands-Only CPR School Requirement

ANNAPOLIS, Md. —State legislators in have introduced a law that will make learning hands-only CPR training a high school graduation requirement.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is life-saving emergency procedure.

"Only 11 percent of people who have sudden cardiac arrest out of the hospital survive and survival is dependent upon somebody in the area who sees that person's arrest, who knows CPR and immediately initiates CPR until the paramedics come," said Michaeline Fedder with the American Heart Association.
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Maryland Among Most Vulnerable To Fed Budget Cuts

Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., are among the most vulnerable to looming federal budget cuts in defense as well as nondefense spending, according to a report released Monday in Annapolis by Wells Fargo Securities.

The report examines parts of the country that would feel the most pain from $85 billion in cuts set to automatically start taking effect March 1 without a bipartisan deal on sequestration.


Actual cuts may be around 13 percent for defense and 9 percent for other programs because lawmakers delayed their impact, requiring savings over a shorter period of time.

Defense spending has been estimated to account for 9.8 percent of the combined District, Virginia and Maryland economies in 2010, the report noted.

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Gas Prices Climb For 33rd Straight Day

Gas prices continued to climb for a 33rd straight day Tuesday, the longest streak of price increases since February and March 2012, according to AAA.

Some local businesses are feeling the pressure.

Walkersville florist Lori Himes had to slowly raise her delivery charge from $4.95 to $7.95 over the past several years because of the cost of gasoline, and is concerned that she may have to raise prices again.

She said that if gas prices top $4 per gallon, she will probably have to raise her delivery charge by 50 cents.
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