Close vote looms in U.S. House on big Republican food-stamp cuts

Food-stamp defenders appealed for two dozen Republican defectors to help kill their party's proposed $40 billion cut in the main U.S. antihunger program as a close vote nears later this week in the House of Representatives.

The reforms pushed by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and fiscal conservatives would end benefits for roughly 10 percent of recipients. They would restrict eligibility for a program that has doubled in enrollment and tripled in cost since 2004.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Tuesday "we do know of several Republicans" who opposed the cuts, but she declined to name them. Republicans control the House 233-200, so Democrats need at least 17 cross-overs to defeat the bill and Republicans need a party-line vote to pass it.

David Beckman, leader of antihunger group Bread for the World, said activists were talking to more than 20 Republican lawmakers in the hope of persuading them to oppose the bill. Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, a leader in the group Food Policy Action, said: "We need 20 House members to do the right thing." Read more >>

Missouri House Votes for Gold and Silver Tender

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

On Thursday, HB1637, the Missouri Sound Money Act passed the House, making Missouri one of two states with a sound money still alive in 2012. South Carolina is the other, and is scheduled to vote on their bill next week. The bill simply adds gold and silver as legal tender alongside Federal Reserve notes, giving the citizens of Missouri a choice in currency:

“The Missouri Sound Money Act of 2012 is established which changes the laws regarding legal tender as follows: (1) Specifies that gold and silver issued by the federal government is legal tender in Missouri;”

It was not smooth sailing in the Show Me State. A significant number of representatives attended a press conference at the Governor’s mansion when the morning vote was held. Thus, the opposition erupted in celebration when they unexpectedly defeated the bill by a single vote, after which the morning session was immediately adjourned. More...

Ron Paul: Use silver, gold as currency to defeat the Fed

Image via WikipediaAs the incoming chairman of the House monetary policy subcommittee, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will hold the bully pulpit when it comes to the nation's money woes.

He's not wasting any time getting right to the heart of the matter.

The libertarian-leaning conservative has long been a critic of the US Federal Reserve and central banking as a whole, but this may be a new one: speaking with CNBC recently, Paul said he views the Fed as a "monopoly" that could benefit from the introduction of competition.

"We should start ending the Fed by allowing competition," he said. "I don't like the fact that they have monopoly control. It's a cartel: they print the money. The Constitution really doesn't give them that authority. The Constitution said that only gold and silver can be legal tender. I want to legalize competition and allow individual Americans to use gold and silver in competition, as money. Today if you do that, you can go to jail. More...

That's right - The Economy Still Sucks

Kevin Drum
Here's the latest from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. It shows the number of people who have experienced various kinds of economic distress over the past year. In their latest poll, 44% have seen reduced wages, 41% have lost their job, 28% have lost their health insurance, and 22% have fallen behind on their mortgages. Every single one of these numbers is up since the beginning of the year.

And the political result? About what you'd expect: a year ago people trusted Democrats over Republicans by 14 points to manage the economy and by 9 points to manage the deficit. Today they trust Republicans by 13 points and 18 points respectively.

Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest.

Today Americans are ruled by propaganda. Americans have little regard for truth, little access to it, and little ability to recognize it.

Truth is an unwelcome entity. It is disturbing. It is off limits. Those who speak it run the risk of being branded “anti-American,” “anti-semite” or “conspiracy theorist.”

Truth is an inconvenience for government and for the interest groups whose campaign contributions control government.

Truth is an inconvenience for prosecutors who want convictions, not the discovery of innocence or guilt.

Truth is inconvenient for ideologues.

Today many whose goal once was the discovery of truth are now paid handsomely to hide it. “Free market economists” are paid to sell offshoring to the American people. High-productivity, high value-added American jobs are denigrated as dirty, old industrial jobs. Relicts from long ago, we are best shed of them. Their place has been taken by “the New Economy,” a mythical economy that allegedly consists of high-tech white collar jobs in which Americans innovate and finance activities that occur offshore. All Americans need in order to participate in this “new economy” are finance degrees from Ivy League universities, and then they will work on Wall Street at million dollar jobs.

Economists who were once respectable took money to contribute to this myth of “the New Economy.”

And not only economists sell their souls for filthy lucre. Recently we have had reports of medical doctors who, for money, have published in peer-reviewed journals concocted “studies” that hype this or that new medicine produced by pharmaceutical companies that paid for the “studies.”

The Council of Europe is investigating the drug companies’ role in hyping a false swine flu pandemic in order to gain billions of dollars in sales of the vaccine.

The media helped the US military hype its recent Marja offensive in Afghanistan, describing Marja as a city of 80,000 under Taliban control. It turns out that Marja is not urban but a collection of village farms.

And there is the global warming scandal, in which NGOs. the UN, and the nuclear industry colluded in concocting a doomsday scenario in order to create profit in pollution.

Wherever one looks, truth has fallen to money.

Wherever money is insufficient to bury the truth, ignorance, propaganda, and short memories finish the job.

I remember when, following CIA director William Colby’s testimony before the Church Committee in the mid-1970s, presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan issued executive orders preventing the CIA and U.S. black-op groups from assassinating foreign leaders. In 2010 the US Congress was told by Dennis Blair, head of national intelligence, that the US now assassinates its own citizens in addition to foreign leaders.

When Blair told the House Intelligence Committee that US citizens no longer needed to be arrested, charged, tried, and convicted of a capital crime, just murdered on suspicion alone of being a “threat,” he wasn’t impeached. No investigation pursued. Nothing happened. There was no Church Committee. In the mid-1970s the CIA got into trouble for plots to kill Castro. Today it is American citizens who are on the hit list. Whatever objections there might be don’t carry any weight. No one in government is in any trouble over the assassination of U.S. citizens by the U.S. government.

As an economist, I am astonished that the American economics profession has no awareness whatsoever that the U.S. economy has been destroyed by the offshoring of U.S. GDP to overseas countries. U.S. corporations, in pursuit of absolute advantage or lowest labor costs and maximum CEO “performance bonuses,” have moved the production of goods and services marketed to Americans to China, India, and elsewhere abroad. When I read economists describe offshoring as free trade based on comparative advantage, I realize that there is no intelligence or integrity in the American economics profession.

Intelligence and integrity have been purchased by money. The transnational or global U.S. corporations pay multi-million dollar compensation packages to top managers, who achieve these “performance awards” by replacing U.S. labor with foreign labor. While Washington worries about “the Muslim threat,” Wall Street, U.S. corporations and “free market” shills destroy the U.S. economy and the prospects of tens of millions of Americans.

Americans, or most of them, have proved to be putty in the hands of the police state.

Americans have bought into the government’s claim that security requires the suspension of civil liberties and accountable government. Astonishingly, Americans, or most of them, believe that civil liberties, such as habeas corpus and due process, protect “terrorists,” and not themselves. Many also believe that the Constitution is a tired old document that prevents government from exercising the kind of police state powers necessary to keep Americans safe and free.

Most Americans are unlikely to hear from anyone who would tell them any different.

I was associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal. I was Business Week’s first outside columnist, a position I held for 15 years. I was columnist for a decade for Scripps Howard News Service, carried in 300 newspapers. I was a columnist for the Washington Times and for newspapers in France and Italy and for a magazine in Germany. I was a contributor to the New York Times and a regular feature in the Los Angeles Times. Today I cannot publish in, or appear on, the American “mainstream media.”

For the last six years I have been banned from the “mainstream media.” My last column in the New York Times appeared in January, 2004, coauthored with Democratic U.S. Senator Charles Schumer representing New York. We addressed the offshoring of U.S. jobs. Our op-ed article produced a conference at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and live coverage by C-Span. A debate was launched. No such thing could happen today.

For years I was a mainstay at the Washington Times, producing credibility for the Moony newspaper as a Business Week columnist, former Wall Street Journal editor, and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. But when I began criticizing Bush’s wars of aggression, the order came down to Mary Lou Forbes to cancel my column.

The American corporate media does not serve the truth. It serves the government and the interest groups that empower the government.

America’s fate was sealed when the public and the anti-war movement bought the government’s 9/11 conspiracy theory. The government’s account of 9/11 is contradicted by much evidence. Nevertheless, this defining event of our time, which has launched the US on interminable wars of aggression and a domestic police state, is a taboo topic for investigation in the media. It is pointless to complain of war and a police state when one accepts the premise upon which they are based.

These trillion dollar wars have created financing problems for Washington’s deficits and threaten the U.S. dollar’s role as world reserve currency. The wars and the pressure that the budget deficits put on the dollar’s value have put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. Former Goldman Sachs chairman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is after these protections for the elderly. Fed chairman Bernanke is also after them. The Republicans are after them as well. These protections are called “entitlements” as if they are some sort of welfare that people have not paid for in payroll taxes all their working lives.

With over 21 per cent unemployment as measured by the methodology of 1980, with American jobs, GDP, and technology having been given to China and India, with war being Washington’s greatest commitment, with the dollar over-burdened with debt, with civil liberty sacrificed to the “war on terror,” the liberty and prosperity of the American people have been thrown into the trash bin of history.

The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off.

Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. His latest book, HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Increasing No. of homeowners pay big bucks for "panic rooms"

Mark David

Is This the Safest House in the World?

Nowadays, increasing numbers of homeowners are spending big bucks to have panic rooms, safe cores and other sorts of high-tech security systems installed in their home to ensure their family and possessions are kept safe from intrepid intruders and other calamitous events.

Hurwitz James Company

One residence, located high in the hills above Los Angeles, goes several steps further than a simple but effective panic room. The lavish and luxurious appointments of the sky-high mansion discreetly hide and disguise a security system so tight that it just may be the safest house in the world.

Modern-Day Fortress

The modern-day fortress was designed and built in 2002 by Al V. Corbi, a renowned authority on residential and yacht security. Corbi's stock in trade is designing integrated systems with detection, deterrence, defensive and offensive options. The heavily fortified and super secure residence occupies an easily defended promontory with 360-degree views. The well-defended dwelling stands five stories tall, measures almost 8,000 square feet and includes 32 rooms that all sit atop a virtually impenetrable batcave-like garage that will hold six, preferably armored, cars.

Hurwitz James Company

Safe and Luxurious

When not aiding the defense and security of its occupants, the fortress-like home functions like any other well-appointed mansion with deluxe creature comforts such as an elevator for whisking folks from the garage level to the living levels, a gourmet kitchen with granite counter tops and commercial grade appliances, two offices, a wine cellar and a home theater.

Buy Some Peace of Mind

The home's real luxury is, of course, the ensured safety of its inhabitants. Should an intruder manage to breach the extensive exterior security measures that include comprehensive surveillance abilities, there are two hidden panic rooms and two architecturally invisible "safe cores."

The safe cores consist of entire sections of the residence that can be isolated from the rest of the home and where the homeowner can retreat in complete safety -- not to mention luxury -- from an outside threat that might include an intruder, a natural disaster or even a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.

Hurwitz James Company

The homeowner declined to discuss some of the specifics of the heavy-duty security set up out of obvious concern that it could compromise the overall system. This means they're not going to tell this writer or anyone else but the next owner that the property is equipped with semi-automatic weaponry that can be remotely controlled from the panic room(s). It may not be, but then again, maybe it is.

Room for Refugees

In addition to the handicap-accessible guest suite, the seriously safe house has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms including a master suite with panoramic views, a fireplace, a luxurious bathroom and a custom-fitted dressing room that would satisfy any clothes horse with a penchant for high-powered security systems.

Whirly-Gig Accessible

The sprawling and tiled terrace on the roof takes full advantage of the 360-degree views that include Mount Baldy, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. There is also a built-in barbecue center and a spa situated under the heliport designed for emergency evacuations in the event of a home intrusion or for fire emergencies.

The Price of Safety

While it can be tough to put a price of the safety and security of one's family, in this case the tab is $7.25 million.

Thousands of Tea Party activists descended on Washington

Allen, Shiner

Thousands of Tea Party activists descended on Washington Thursday to protest the trillion dollar health care bill and government spending, holding signs protesting Barack Obama’s agenda while aiming chants of “you work for us” at the Capitol building.

The gathering was organized by local Tea Party groups around the country, who are arriving in Washington this morning by the busload. Conservative leaders in Congress, led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), have taken to the airwaves to encourage the activists to show up on the Capitol steps and demand meetings with members of Congress. The crowd grew to about 10,000 by noon – a significant gathering for a weekday but far less than the 9/12 protests earlier this fall. Bachmann has promised to lead some protesters to a press conference inside the Capitol to express their opposition to the health care bill in person to members of Congress.

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), actually invited the thousands of protesters to go into the House buildings to try to meet their member of Congress after the rally.

"I invite you, when the rally's over, to travel in those halls, look at the walls, find your (member) and walk in," she said. "Let them know how you feel about this bill."

Given the security of the Capitol complex, that might create a logistical nightmare, so it’s not clear how many of the protesters may actually enter House office buildings.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) was a surprise guest speaker this afternoon, holding up a copy of the Constitution as he rallied the protesters. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) demanded: “Madam Speaker, throw out this bill,” while some protesters chanted “burn the bill.”

Conservative leaders like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council showed up, along with celebrity conservatives Jon Voight and John Ratzenberger have also joined the protesters.

Voight invoked Rev. Jeremiah Wright in his speech, saying “the lies and deception are blatant... Maybe it was the 20 years of sub-conscious programming by Rev Wright to damn America."

They arrived as early as 8:30 a.m., by bus, car and plane — from Bluffton, S.C., Des Moines and Dorris, Calif. — to rally with conservative lawmakers and possibly roam the halls of Congress. Dozens of Republican lawmakers gathered shortly after noon to offer a prayer, say the Pledge of Allegiance and rally the crowd.

"Can you hear us now!" the protesters chanted from the foot of the Capitol, as they awaited the arrival of their heroine — Bachmann. The crowd also chanted “we want Michele!”

"She's very brave," said Nancy Holmberg of Dorris.

"Palin/Bachmann 2012," came a shout from the crowd. The crowd is also chanting Speaker Nancy Pelosi's name and demanding that she come address them on the steps of the Capitol.

Another hero of the movement, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), has been autographing tea bags for the crowd and is wearing a jacket covered in pins and stickers reading “Yes! Freedom!”

Pelosi obviously wasn’t going to address the crowd, and her spokesman said Democrats were busy trying to pass a bill while Republicans played the role of obstructionists.

“While the Party of No holds a rally to once again say no, our health insurance reform bill was endorsed by the AARP and the AMA, and on the House floor, we are debating bipartisan legislation to create jobs by extending unemployment benefits and extend the first-time homebuyer tax credit,” Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said. “We are continuing with our job or passing legislation that will help the American people.”

Speaking on conservative talker Laura Ingraham’s radio show this morning, Bachmann encouraged people listening to show up on the West Front steps, but she said they should show up with “cameras” instead of “pitchforks.”

In an unrelated incident, nine activists were arrested in the Hart building, and they are being processed at police headquarters, but Roll Call is reporting that these were protesters from the opposite end of the political spectrum – Code Pink. All the buildings in the Capitol complex remain open for now. (The original version of this story incorrectly reported which protesters were arrested).

The protesters, who are occupying the patch of grass only a few yards from where Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 20, have also chanted “you work for us!” Many are holding signs that echo their distrust of Obama and their belief that he is pursuing socialist policies.

One sign read: "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds," a reference to theories of Jewish world dominance centered around the prominent Jewish family of Rothschilds.

Last night, Bachmann reasserted a claim that Pelosi was considering tightening security in preparation for the activists, which she warned "would be a huge mistake." There has been an increased police presence around the Capitol Thursday morning, and a Capitol Police officer told POLITICO that protesters are allowed to march on the West front lawn of the Capitol, but are not allowed onto the steps of the building.

Mary Beth Bishop of Monument, Colo., spent $500 on a plane ticket to lodge her complaints about the growth of government.

"We need to show up and uphold the Constitution," she said. "It wasn't written on toilet paper."

Police patrolled the gates and stone walls keeping the crowd in but there was little sign of trouble.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) shook hands at a wall line like a presidential contender.

"This is too great," he said.

Daniel Libit and Martin Kady II contributed to this story.

Fraud in home buyers' tax program includes IRS employees and 4-year-olds

I can't wait to see the myriad of scams erupt in healthcare reform. It's all downhill from here. All that remains of this country is waste water -- a giant cesspool of corruption.

By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer

Hundreds of millions of dollars may have been paid to people who fraudulently or mistakenly took advantage of a lucrative tax credit for first-time home buyers, including some who were employees of the Internal Revenue Service and even children, an IRS watchdog told a House panel on Thursday.

The findings, documented in a report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, come as debate heats up in Congress over whether to extend the $8,000 tax credit beyond its Nov. 30 deadline.

While the report alarmed lawmakers, supporters of the tax credit on Capitol Hill pressed forward with efforts to keep the refund alive. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is working on a proposal to extend the full $8,000 credit for four months and then gradually phase it out by the end of next year, according to his office.

Meanwhile, experts who are closely tracking the existing program say it's unlikely that the report released Thursday will undermine efforts to extend the credit given the bipartisan support it has received, especially from lawmakers representing states heavily hit by foreclosures. These lawmakers say the tax credit has helped boost home sales.

"There are simply too many Democrats and Republicans that want to see this program extended for it to get derailed by the inspector general's report," said Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at Washington Research Group.

4-year-olds claimed credit

The report found that more than 19,300 people claimed a total of $139 million on their 2008 tax returns before purchasing a home even though the law requires the purchase to take place first, J. Russell George, the inspector general, told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

Nearly 74,000 buyers -- including some IRS employees -- claimed a total of $500 million in tax credits despite indications that they may have owned a home before, George said. The law bans people from getting this credit if they have owned a home in the previous three years.

Even children claimed the tax credit, said George, adding that 580 taxpayers under age 18 -- including some 4-year-olds -- claimed $4 million, presumably so their parents could dodge the income limitations imposed by the program.

George went on to criticize the IRS for not requiring buyers to attach documents that verify when they purchased their homes, something his office has been advocating. The IRS's deputy commissioner for services and enforcement, Linda E. Stiff, said the agency does not have the ability to accept such documents electronically, nor does it have the legal authority to disallow a claim if the documents are not attached, which would make such a requirement moot. Lawmakers indicated they would look into granting that authority.

Both Stiff and George said that there's a chance that some of the suspicious tax credit claims may prove to be legitimate once they are more thoroughly examined.

About 1.4 million households have claimed nearly $10 billion in tax credits as of Aug. 22, and about 60 percent of them had adjusted gross income of less than $50,000, according to a Government Accountability Office report also released Thursday.

Stiff said all those claims have been resubmitted through a computer filter designed to catch potential problems. As a result, the IRS has identified more than 160 potential tax credit schemes that have resulted in scores of criminal investigations, and the agency has selected for reexamination 107,000 claims, some of which have been frozen. More...

Thousands Losing Unemployment Benefits Daily

by Adam Doster on October 16, 2009 - 10:27am

According to an analysis from the National Employment Law Project, 400,000 workers exhausted their federally-funded jobless benefits in September and another 200,000 will do so by the end of this month, resulting in an average of 7,000 workers a day seeing their benefits end. By year’s end, 1.3 million workers will exhaust their jobless benefits, reflecting today’s record rates of long-term unemployment.