SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) – By a single vote, Illinois lawmakers approved a 66 percent increase to the personal income tax overnight, and soon, your paycheck will be shrinking.
But as CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, Democratic state lawmakers have said the tax hike is necessary to get the state’s outstanding bills paid. Lawmakers also say cuts and spending limits will be part of the plan.
The hike increases the state’s personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent.
In real numbers, if your gross income is $50,000 a year, your state income taxes will rise from $1,500 to $2,500 a year.
* Step 1 - wait for tragedy to occur, or actually create the tragedy.
* Step 2 - spread propaganda through the media, so everyone believes your story about the tragedy
* Step 3 - pass laws, or institute policies, that take away people's freedoms.
* Step 4 - justify the increased Tyranny by citing the propaganda in step 2.
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2011/01/transparency-in-age-of-obama-by-cindy.html
...
The political chattering classes were championing his credentials; many talking heads on the 'liberal left' were predicting the closure of Guantanamo, amendments to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 removing the suspension of habeas corpus, thorough Congressional investigations into warrantless wiretapping etc etc. The 'wish list' was endless, the previous president had spent the majority of his time in office eroding our Constitutional rights and civil liberties at home and tarnishing our image abroad - all sandwiched between his primary pursuit in office: family holidays at Kennebunkport.
Obama was going to be different, he planned to send Mr Lobbyist out of Washington, government was going to be clean, efficient and focused on public good. He knew exactly the dirty secrets of government, an Obama '08 document entitled Restoring Trust and improving Transparency states "Oil and gas executives met with Vice President Cheney to write our energy laws, with the goal of increasing their profits and saddling the public with their environmental and public health costs; Cheney went to the Supreme Court to keep the names of these lobbyists secret." The gig was up for backdoor deals and the time of what Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig calls 'institutionalised corruption', was over. A new sheriff was coming to town.
...
Whether Obama came into Office with a naive agenda of liberating the US Public from the hold of the Lobbying Industry, or if he played the Left like Yo-Yo Ma plays he Cello, doesn't really matter. What matters is we are essentially experiencing the third term of G W Bush minus a few wins on the domestic front for the centre left - albeit wins by the two branches of Government Obama doesn't reside in. The status quo has had us gripped for over a decade now, it's time for a change.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was injured and five others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, member station KJZZ in Phoenix has confirmed.
The Pima County, Ariz., sheriff's office told news director Mark Moran the 40-year-old Democrat was killed.
I suspect the only regret some people would have is that the story is set so far into the future.
A short (26 min) film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's 2081 Universal Absurdity depicts a dystopian future in which, thanks to the 212th Amendment to the Constitution and the unceasing vigilance of the United States Handicapper General, everyone is "finally equal...." The strong wear weights, the beautiful wear masks and the... intelligent wear earpieces that fire off loud noises to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.
The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.
Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.
In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.
The banks in this group, which is affiliated with a new derivatives clearinghouse, have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available....
full sources:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40628316
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/business/12advantage.html
http://www.infowars.com/a-secretive-banking-elite-rules-trading-in-derivatives/
So what was crazy/conspiracy-theory talk just a few years ago is now ... "mainstream" news.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a public speech in January 2010 championing Internet freedom as a vital tool to open governments and promote transparency, while criticizing "dictatorships" who seek to target those who use technology to expose their transgressions.
"In many respects, information has never been so free," Clinton said at the Washington, D.C. Newseum. "There are more ways to spread more ideas to more people than at any moment in history. Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable."
"This challenge may be new, but our responsibility to help ensure the free exchange of ideas goes back to the birth of our republic," she added, invoking the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.
Her remarks cast a harsh light on the United States' fiercely negative response to the unauthorized leak of classified State Department cables last week by the transparency website Wikileaks, which revealed misdeeds and secrets of various governments around the world.
The Obama administration's Justice Department has opened an "active, ongoing criminal investigation" into Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, seeking to prosecute him under the Espionage Act. Clinton also condemned the leak in strong terms.
"Let's be clear: This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests," she told reporters last week. "It is an attack on the international community -- the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity."
Most governments of advanced nations issued similarly critical responses. Assange was arrested Monday in London by British authorities on charges of sexual molestation issued by Sweden.
In her January 21 speech, Clinton warned that "technologies with the potential to open up access to government and promote transparency can also be hijacked by governments to crush dissent and deny human rights."
She lamented that while the internet can be used to incite hatred and violence, "these challenges must not become an excuse for governments to systematically violate the rights and privacy of those who use the internet for peaceful political purposes."
Criticizing countries such as Saudi Arabia, China and Vietnam for seeking to restrict internet freedom, Clinton hailed the "courage" of the protesters during Iran's election last year -- who used Twitter and other internet tools to expose government crimes -- and said they were "redefining how technology is used to spread truth and expose injustice."
"As in the dictatorships of the past, governments are targeting independent thinkers who use these tools," Clinton said.
Five GOP leadership aides, speaking anonymously because a decision isn't final, say incoming House Speaker John Boehner has discussed ways to prevent [Ron] Paul from becoming chairman [of the House Financial Services Committee panel that oversees monetary policy] or to keep him on a tight leash if he does.
(designed to put you to sleep)
Usage of Federal Reserve Credit and Liquidity Facilities
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/reform_transaction.htm
(if you stayed awake this long, the names and amounts are in the 96kb & 208kb files)
Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF)
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/reform_cpff.htm
/conspiracy-theory
talk just a few years ago is now ... "mainstream" news. 