'Almost Orwellian' -- Why Judge Leon Is Right About Massive NSA Spying Program

“Almost Orwellian” -- that’s the description a federal judge gave earlier this week to the massive spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on virtually all 380 million cellphones in the United States.

In the first meaningful and jurisdictionally grounded judicial review of the NSA cellphone spying program, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee sitting in Washington, D.C., ruled that the scheme of asking a secret judge on a secret court for a general warrant to spy on all American cellphone users without providing evidence of probable cause of criminal behavior against any of them is unconstitutional because it directly violates the Fourth Amendment.

Readers of this page are familiar with the purpose of that Amendment and the requirements it imposes on the government. The Framers intended it to prevent the new government in America from doing to Americans what the British government had done to the colonists under the king.
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US Existing-Home Sales Tall To 4.9M Pace, 3rd Straight Decline And Weakest In Nearly A Year

WASHINGTON – The number of people who bought existing U.S. homes in November declined for the third straight month. Higher mortgage rates have made home-buying more expensive, while the lingering impact of the October government shutdown may have deterred some sales.

The National Association of Realtors says home sales fell 4.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.90 million. That's the weakest pace since December 2012, and the first time since April that the pace has slipped below 5 million.

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Colorado Bill Would Use Tax Credits To Offset ObamaCare Penalty

Two Republican lawmakers in Colorado plan to introduce a proposal that would make it easier for residents to opt out of ObamaCare by creating a tax deduction to offset the federal penalty for not purchasing health insurance.

State Reps. Dan Nordberg, R-Colorado Springs, and Jared Wright, R-Fruita, announced this week that they will introduce the Healthcare Liberty Act when the state's 2014 legislative session convenes in January, KDVR.com reported.

Under the proposal, anyone who is fined for failing to purchase health insurance would be given a state tax deduction in an amount equal to the federal tax penalty. The deadline for avoiding penalties under ObamaCare is March 31.
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Is the U.S. Government Changing The Amount In People’s Financial Accounts With Its Offensive Cyber Capabilities?

Hidden in the report which the White House panel on NSA released today is a stunning implication: that the U.S. government has been using its massive offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts and otherwise manipulating financial systems.

Specifically, the panel’s report states (page 221):

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No Seats, No Seatbelts, No Unenclosed Coastal Highway Cruising

City council approved the first reading this week of a code revision that would ban passengers riding without seats or seatbelts in the unenclosed areas of vehicles.

Specifically, the policy targets the unmistakable phenomenon of early June in the resort, where high-school students cruise Coastal Highway in the beds of pickup trucks, despite the obvious safety concerns involved – and the annoyance for residents.

“I like the idea that it’s going to cut down on the rowdiness,” said Councilman Brent Ashley. “I think this is two-fold. Public safety number one, and quality of life number two.”

The change will become law if it receives a second favorable vote at the Jan. 6 council session.
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The Boston Tea Party?

Today is the 240th anniversary of the act of civil disobedience against taxation, corporatism, and colonialism known as the Boston Tea Party.

The economics of the situation that precipitated the event were quite complex, however, and about more than a simple tax increase on tea. As noted here by Edmond Bradley, a monopoly over the tea trade had been granted to favored corporate interests by the British Crown, which made the price of tea artificially high to begin with.

Charles Beard in his The Rise of American Civilization frames the conflict as a matter of “Colony vs Metropolis” in which the metropolitan center of government power in London exploited the people in the colonies through crony capitalist/corporatist policy.

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A Service Dog Meets Pluto Aboard The Disney Fantasy

CBO On SS - Another 29' Crash?

The Congressional Budget Office is out with its annual review of Social Security. It's a long report - here's all you need to know:

 [10]

This result is no surprise. SS's finances deteriorate every year. What I found interesting is the extent of the deterioration. 2013 was the best year since 2008 for the broad economy. We had fairly steady growth in the economy, and the job market improved significantly. But the red ink at SS rose very rapidly.

In 2012 a 'fix' for SS would have required an immediate and permanent tax increase of 1.95%. A year later the cost of the fix has risen to 3.36%. That's a 70% deterioration in twelve months. To right the SS ship a payroll tax increase equal to $180B would be required for 2014, and that higher tax rate would have to be sustained forever. A tax increase of this magnitude would sink the economy into a recession that the country would struggle to get out of.

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State Sees Sustainable Future Blowing In Wind Off Ocean City

State and national officials announced on Tuesday a proposed notice of sale for nearly 80,000 acres off Ocean City’s shoreline to be used for commercial wind farm development.

“Today’s announcement brings our state one step closer to harnessing the tremendous potential of offshore wind energy,” said Gov. Martin O’Malley, who made the announcement alongside Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Tommy Beaudreau in Baltimore.

“The development of offshore wind will drive economic development in Maryland, create high-quality, family-supporting jobs for Maryland residents and play a major role in reducing emissions and protecting the environment,” said O’Malley, a longtime champion of the project.
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Pennsylvania Fracking Clears Air In N.Y., But Gov. Cuomo In No Rush To Allow It

(CNSNews.com) – A long-delayed decision on fracking in New York isn’t expected any time soon.

“I want the right decision, not necessarily the fast decision,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a news conference on Monday. “It’s one of the most important decisions I think we will make as a government, with far-reaching consequences – good and/or bad.”

Calling it a “very controversial field with very high stakes,” Cuomo mentioned “potential health consequences, danger, risk -- versus economic benefit.” He’s leaving it to his advisers to work at their own pace.

Gov. Cuomo’s comments came several weeks after National Public Radio reported that fracking in Pennsylvania “helps clear the air in New York.”

On Nov. 28, NPR’s “Morning Edition” reported that New Yorkers are switching to natural gas while saving money and cleaning up the air.

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WOMEN ENTERING PRISON AT HIGHER RATES

WASHINGTON – Anna Davis spent four months this year in the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup, where she said she found herself in the same living pod as an inmate who raped another woman with a curling iron.

Pamela Griffith, now a psychology student, was imprisoned there several years ago after being convicted of theft. She had similar concerns about being housed with inmates from multiple security levels.

“There’s no way to physically separate the lifers from the others … These women have nothing to lose,” Griffith said.

Women are entering the U.S. prison system at a faster rate than any other group, and they face an array of issues that male inmates don’t, including pregnancy and higher rates of mental health issues stemming from the tangled web of trauma, homelessness, and sexual abuse. Drugs are often a way to cope. 
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Come See Santa Tonight from 6 Til 10pm

Christmas On Parker Place
It's going to be a beautiful night! We will have the lights on from 6 til 10pm. Santa will also be here shortly after 6pm so bring the family and camera and get a family picture with Santa and best of all this is a FREE family event! The weather for tomorrow night is not looking very good right now so we will post something on our facebook page tomorrow if we will not have the lights on.  Merry Christmas and we hope to see you soon!

Click HERE for directions to Christmas On Parker Place

Polls: 77 Percent Of Uninsured Don't Want Obamacare, Majority Of Voters Want Repeal

Two out of three voters want Obamacare delayed, including a majority of Democrats who now say they want the new healthcare law postponed — a surge in sentiment that has climbed 10 percent since October in the latest Fox News poll.

A majority said they would vote to have the new healthcare law repealed, if they were able, and they wish it had never passed and the old system was still in place, according to the poll taken Dec. 14-16 of 1,027 registered voters across the country.

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Missing POW's Remains Returned To His Widow 63 Years After His Death

Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt told his wife to remarry if he didn’t come back from the war. She told him no. He had a hard enough time getting her to say yes. He was it.

For 63 years, the World War II and Korean War veteran was missing in action and presumed dead, but Clara Gantt, 94, held out hope and never remarried.

On a cold, dark Friday morning on the Los Angeles International Airport tarmac, the widow stood from her wheelchair and cried as her husband’s flag-draped casket arrived home.
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Ben Carson: I Can't Find A Doctor Who Likes Obamacare

Renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson says he's been having "great difficulty" finding doctors who have anything good to say about Obamacare.

He told Fox News Channel's Stuart Varney that he's spoken to hundreds of doctors throughout the country about the Affordable Care Act, and not one of them "liked" President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

Asked if doctors are "in favor" of the huge changes in the health insurance system,
Carson that if they are "they're hiding from me, because I travel all over the country and talk to a lot of groups — including lots of doctors — and I'm having a great difficulty finding anybody who likes this.

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COMMUNITY GROUPS WORK TO OVERCOME LANGUAGE BARRIERS IN OBAMACARE SIGNUP

COLLEGE PARK – Community health organizations in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties are working to overcome language barriers that have prevented non-English speakers from completing Obamacare insurance applications.

The state’s online insurance marketplace, the Maryland Health Connection, only provides application materials in English and Spanish. To meet the needs of Spanish-, French- and Chinese-speaking residents, representatives from CASA de Maryland and the Asian American Health Initiative have attended outreach events and developed their own materials on purchasing Affordable Care Act insurance plans.

Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, D-Montgomery County, said organizations like CASA and AAHI should not be expected to fill the gap. Government entities like the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange should be responding to the concerns of non-English speakers, she said.
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Full-Time vs. Part-Time Workers

Does anyone else find this chart shocking?

Here’s the source. I was looking up the proportion of part-time versus full-time workers to see if the passage of ObamaCare had any noticeable impact.

(Note: Be sure to look carefully at the left and right axes. It’s not that the whole composition of the workforce has flipped.)

I don’t think you can pin the blame on ObamaCare in isolation (it passed in March 2010), but the so-called Great Recession has been qualitatively worse than the dot-com bust. My short explanation is that the combination of economic turmoil and “regime uncertainty” in general (not just ObamaCare) has made employers very reluctant to commit to a full-time hire.

Source

Profile Of The Original 'Welfare Queen'

Ronald Reagan told the story of a benefit stealing "welfare queen" back in 1976 to argue for smaller, leaner government. Liberals have complained about the generalization ever since. Paul Krugman called it a "bogus story" as recently as 2007.

It turns out there was a real welfare queen, and that name was given to her by the Chicago Tribune, not Ronald Reagan. According to an excellent piece by Josh Levin for Slate, stealing welfare under false names may have been the least of her crimes:

When I set out in search of Linda Taylor, I hoped to find the real story of the woman who played such an outsize role in American politics—who she was, where she came from, and what her life was like before and after she became the national symbol of unearned prosperity. What I found was a woman who destroyed lives, someone far more depraved than even Ronald Reagan could have imagined. In the 1970s alone, Taylor was investigated for homicide, kidnapping, and baby trafficking. The detective who tried desperately to put her away believes she’s responsible for one of Chicago’s most legendary crimes, one that remains unsolved to this day. Welfare fraud was likely the least of the welfare queen’s offenses.

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Former Eagles Cheerleader Rachel Washburn Now Stars For Army

As a Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader, Rachel Washburn toted pom-poms. As an Army intelligence officer with a special ops combat unit in Afghanistan, she carried an assault rifle and pistol. She was a pioneer in a special mission to relate to local women in ways that would be culturally inappropriate for male troops - including helping deliver an Afghan baby in a snowstorm.

Washburn, 25, who recently returned from her second tour in Afghanistan, will be honored Sunday night as a "Hometown Hero" by the Eagles at their home against the Chicago Bears.

Cheerleader turned soldier? Did that turn heads when she was in military training or living in a mud hut with Green Berets in a village in Afghanistan?
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WHOLE FOODS CEO: OBAMACARE 'ESCAPE CLAUSE' GOING TO CREATE PERMANENT AMERICAN PART-TIME WORKFORCE

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey on the Fox News Channel on Wednesday... GO HERE to view.