Friday, August 12, 2011

Contract for the American Dream; Unemployment benefits creates jobs?; Maker of "Certificate of Live Birth" says he made it and it is a forgery; Public comments invited on salary info collection; Feds may investigate Hollywood access to Bin Laden death; National debt comparison; Philly perps from Oprah-supported charter school; Push for Ernie & Bert to marry on Sesame St.; AZ asks Supremes to take immigration law question; Most anti-business and anti-American administration; Obama community health centers won't ask for immigration status: $8.5 million; London considers sprayed dye

The Hill reveals: Representatives of MoveOn.org, Rebuild the Dream and the Center for Economic Policy and Research joined Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) on Tuesday to launch a progressive “Contract for the American Dream” to urge the administration and Congress to turn away from budget cutting and focus on job creation.
In 10 bullet points, the contract calls for massive new spending and taxes.
At the top of the list are items Obama has been calling for: investing in infrastructure, clean energy, strengthening public education. These “winning the future” items were included in Obama’s 2012 budget, which was rejected unanimously in the Senate after it become focused on budget cutting.
The contract also calls for a crackdown on corporations to enforce equal pay for equal work, reforming Social Security by lifting the cap on payroll taxes, accelerating the pullout of troops from Afghanistan and overhauling the campaign finance system.
On taxes, the groups are calling for an end to Bush-era tax rates, a new higher tax bracket for millionaires and a surcharge on Wall Street trades of 1/20th of 1 percent. Schakowsky has proposed a 45 percent tax rate for millionaires and a 49 percent tax rate for billionaires. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/176047-liberals-consolidate-fall-goals-in-new-contract
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Real Clear Politics reports: "I understand why extending unemployment insurance provides relief to people who need it, but how does that create jobs," Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler asked Jay Carney at Wednesday's WH briefing.
Carney responded: "Oh, uh, it is by, uh, I would expect a reporter from the Wall Street Journal would know this as part of the entrance exam."
"There are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance," Carney said.
Carney answers the question: "It is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are unemployed and obviously aren't running a paycheck are going to spend the money that they get. They're not going to save it, they're going to spend it. And with unemployment insurance, that way, the money goes directly back into the economy, dollar for dollar virtually."
"Every place that, that money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/08/10/carney_unemployment_benefits_could_create_up_to_1_million_jobs.html
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Patriot Update writes: When the White House posted online an image of President Obama’s purported long-form birth certificate, it also linked to the previously circulated “Certification of Live Birth,” the short-form version that had been presented as the only birth documentation available.
However, the short-form certificate to which the White House linked April 27 was a forgery, claims research expert Ron Polland, Ph.D., who says he made the image himself.
“I made the birth certificate image that was given to the media at the White House press conference held on April 27, 2011,” Polland told WND.  http://patriotupdate.com/10691/i-created-obamas-certification-of-birth
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CNS News writes: The U.S. Labor Department is inviting the public to comment on its plan to collect information on salaries, wages and other benefits paid to employees of federal contractors and subcontractors.
The new "compensation data tool" is intended to improve the government's ability to find evidence of possible pay discrimination.
The Labor Department is seeking public input on 15 questions, including what kind of payroll data should be requested, how the data should be collect, how the data should be used, which contractors should be required to submit compensation data -- and "how the tool might create potential burdens for small businesses."
The public comment period runs for 60 days. The deadline for receiving comments is Oct. 11. The proposed regulation is printed in the Aug. 10 edition of the Federal Register. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-administration-proposes-regulation
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The Hill writes: Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) has called for a federal investigation into allegations that White House officials are providing Hollywood filmmakers with “top-level access” to information surrounding the successful mission that killed 9/11 terrorist Osama bin Laden.
 In King’s letter, he references an opinion column written by The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd over the weekend, in which she states that acclaimed movie director, Kathryn Bigelow, has been receiving “top-level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the Bush administration.”
 http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/176287-lawmaker-wants-probe-into-white-house-involvement-in-bin-laden-film
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An email making the circuit makes it easier to understand: 
And we wonder why we have been, and will continue to be, downgraded bond rating-wise

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:
U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.
Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from Jones family budget: $385
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The Blaze reports: A new video of Philadelphia street attacks has surfaced—and this time the teen perps are students from a charter school that received a $1 million donation from Oprah Winfrey, according to Fox 29, which obtained the footage. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/philly-street-mob-from-school-that-got-1m-from-oprah/
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ABC News reports: Thousands of same-sex couples have been married in New York since gay marriage was legalized in the Empire State in July. Now an online petition is pushing to have one more twosome join the line at City Hall – Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie.
That's right – the muppets. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/light-legalized-sex-marriage-york-online-petition-urges/story?id=14275363
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Politico reports: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced late Wednesday she has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to consider her state’s appeal to a lower court ruling that put on hold key parts of Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law.
“I am hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will choose to take this case and issue much-needed clarity for states, such as Arizona, that are grappling with the significant human and financial costs of illegal immigration,” Brewer said in a statement released by her office. “For too long the Federal government has turned a blind eye as this problem has manifested itself in the form of drop houses in our neighborhoods and crime in our communities. SB1070 was Arizona’s way of saying that we won’t wait patiently for federal action any longer. If the federal government won’t enforce its immigration laws, we will.”
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Real Clear Politics opines: Senator DeMint:We saw within a few days that this president was going to be heavy-handed, he was going to implement his agenda and pay back his political allies. And then we quickly saw with the stimulus that he moved into spending literally $1 trillion on what was effectively a government spending plan, and it just went on from there to ObamaCare and then to Dodd-Frank. It has been the most anti-business and I consider anti-American administration of my lifetime.  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/08/11/sen_demint_obama_administration_most_anti-american_in_my_lifetime.html
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CNS News reports: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded $28.8 million to 67 community health centers with funds from the Obamacare health reform law. 
Of that $28.8 million, "approximately $8.5 million will be used by 25 New Access Point awardees to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers," Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Spokeswoman Judy Andrews told CNSNews.com. HRSA is a part of HHS.
Andrews said that grant recipients will not check the immigration status of people seeking services. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/hhs-awards-85-million-obamacare-money-25
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Inforwars writes: In addition to shutting down Twitter and BlackBerry messaging during civil disturbances, the government is suggesting rioters be sprayed with dye.
The tactic was used in apartheid South Africa against protesters. In 1989, the government deployed a water cannon to indiscriminately spray dye on anti-apartheid demonstrators who would then be later identified and arrested for the crime of marching on parliament. The incident became known as the “Purple Rain Protest.”  The technique is designed to identify large numbers of people attending political rallies, not looters and vandals mixed in larger crowds of bystanders and others not engaged in criminal behavior.  http://www.infowars.com/cameron-suggests-purple-rain-for-rioters/
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