The Tax Policy Center claims that it is objective in evaluating tax proposals?
Labels: Taxes
Welcome! Follow me on twitter at @johnrlottjr or at https://crimeresearch.org. Please e-mail questions to johnrlott@crimeresearch.org.
Labels: Taxes
The more coverage they include, the greater the subsidies from the federal government for the poor and near-poor who qualify for aid. It will be tempting to exploit the open-ended nature of these subsidies. The catch is that the millions of workers whose coverage isn't subsidized will see the squeeze on their wages intensify, while their employers may be put at a disadvantage with less generous states. . . .
Labels: healthcare, Regulation
Democratic reaction to the news that Waste Connections, a $3.6-billion company and major Sacramento-area employer, is headed to Houston to seek a friendlier business climate tells other businesses all they need to know about the attitudes of those who run California's government.
State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, gave these clueless and snarky remarks in response to the news: "In this instance you have a company that is, in fact, profitable, making significant revenue gains in 2011 and 2010. That doesn't speak to a bad business climate here in California when a good company is able to thrive in that way. So whatever Mr. Middelstaedt's (company CEO) reasons are to leave the great state of California, I know I'm pushing back." . . . .
Is it really the Senate president's role to determine the proper profit margin for a privately owned company? Talk about arrogance. . . .
Labels: Democrats
As far as having any basis whatsoever in fact or science (that the electronic signals from all your equipment might interfere with anything on the aircraft's systems), the answer is a resounding NO.
Confused? So is the FAA, which has essentially refused to undertake the appropriate research on this issue since cell phones popped up in the mid-80's.
Back then, when handheld cell phones were as big as a brick and put out a whopping five watts of analog power, the FAA turned to the Federal Communications Commission and asked whether such devices were safe. "Does it look like we have wings?" was the unofficial response of one FCC staffer at the time -- an individual who helped draft the letter back to FAA pointing out none too delicately that things that flew were the FAA's responsibility, not the FCC's.
The FAA disagreed, of course, and after more than a quarter century, both federal agencies are still in a standoff with neither willing to put forth the funds and the time to determine once and for all whether passenger electronics have any scientifically-proven potential of disrupting an airliner's equipment to the degree of compromising safety. . . .
In fact, despite thousands of pages written on the subject, there has never been a single U.S. incident of interference investigated and scientifically confirmed beyond question. Not one.
On every commercial flight, every hour of every day, there is at least one cell phone still on during takeoff and landing. People forget, they refuse or they just don't know how to turn the things off. How do we know? The devices ring!
There are 32,000 commercial flights per day over the U.S. alone. That means we test the hypothesis that personal electronics can interfere with aircraft systems 32,000 times per day just over the U.S., and yet we have not a single, solitary confirmed instance.
But here's the outrageous part: If there was even a slight chance that personal electronics could be dangerous -- and knowing that people don't turn all of them off in flight -- why would any sane regulator or airline allow even one device aboard with the battery attached?
Labels: Regulation
And in response to Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) questioning about the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights, McConnell was evasive and refused to declare that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, individual liberty. . . .
Stopping Your Tax Dollars From Funding Anti-Gun Studies
One of the protections expanded and strengthened can be found in Sec. 218 of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (Labor-H) division of the bill. This section prevents the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from using taxpayer dollars to promulgate junk science designed to paint legal gun ownership as a public health hazard. Since 2002, the NIH has spent nearly $5 million on this “research” even though their counterparts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have been prevented from funding similar studies since being blocked in 1996 by a NRA-backed provision. . . .
No Tax Dollars to Lobby and Promote Gun Control
The second is a new NRA-backed provision that is found in Sec. 503 of the Labor-H division. This section prevents federal funds from being used for lobbying efforts designed to support or defeat the passage of legislation being considered by Congress, or any state or local legislative body. Too often, community action groups are utilizing federal money to lobby for increased regulation of firearms including trigger locks, bans on semi-automatic rifles, regulated magazine capacity, etc. This funding subverts the Second Amendment and allows anti-gun Administrations to fund grassroots gun control efforts using taxpayer dollars. . . .
The president also objected to a section aimed at blocking health, climate, auto policy and urban affairs "czars" from being employed by the White House and a provision that bars health officials from advocating for gun control. The signing statement also objects to a portion of the omnibus that limits funding for the Copyright Office. . . .
Labels: ObamaGunControl
Labels: 2012election, 2012RepublicanPrimary, poll
The State Department announced Dec. 2 that it will re-consider its stance against allowing M-1 Garands into the United States if South Korea offers another sale.
“The Department will consider a new request from the Republic of Korea (ROK) to transfer its inventory of approximately 87,000 M-1 Garand rifles into the United States for sale on the commercial market,” a spokesperson at the U. S. Department of State said to Guns&Patriots on Dec. 2. “We have not yet received that request.”
“These M-1 Garand rifles date back as far as 1926 and remain a legacy of decades of U.S.-South Korean security partnership. The ROK intends to use the net proceeds of the sale, estimated to be between $2 million - $10 million depending on the condition of the rifles, to upgrade its Homeland Defense Mobilization Reserve components with more modern rifles,” said the spokesperson. . . .
Labels: ObamaGunControl
The City of Los Angeles, in particular, has a notorious reputation for denying and rejecting licenses to carry concealed weapons (“CCW”), despite the fact that multiple lawsuits have been filed over the years against the city to challenge its arbitrary CCW licensing procedures, stonewalling tactics, and bureaucratic obstruction.
To best understand the long held position Los Angeles has taken with respect to CCW permits, one should examine an issued statement released by the city circa 1974. The language in the statement, entitled "Board Policy Concerning Licenses to Carry Concealed Weapons," reads:
By operation of California law, Penal Code Section 12050, the Board of Police Commissioners has discretionary authority to issue a license to carry a concealed weapon... However, experience has revealed that concealed firearms carried for protection not only provide a false sense of security, but further that the licensee is often a victim of his own weapon or the subject of a civil or criminal case stemming from an improper use of the weapon... For these reasons, considering the dangers to society resulting from possession and use of concealed weapons, it is the policy of this Board that 'good cause' for the issuance of any concealed weapons licenses would exist only in the most extreme and aggravated circumstances.
Although this statement violated the Penal Code Section 12050, it was the overt consensus amongst city officials, the LAPD and their affiliates up until 1992 when a lawsuit was filed, Lake v. City of San Fernando and City of Los Angeles, challenging the "Arbitrary practice of denial without a legitimate basis, despite meeting all of the required requisites to obtain a carry concealed license." . . .
The first legal action is to force the LAPD to reinstate its agreed-to policy of providing applications and copies of its written policy at all LAPD station houses, something it has neglected to do over the years.
And the second legal action is a new lawsuit, Davis v. City of Los Angeles. The nine plaintiffs in this suit have all been subjected to the same stonewalling tactics and mistreatment as previously rejected applicants (the ones who filed similar lawsuits), i.e. failures to respond to inquiries regarding the status of applications, failures to acknowledge the availability of the Citizens Advisory Review Panel as a method of appealing denial, and failure to give any weight to recommendations by the Citizens Advisory Review Panel.
As a result of those two new legal actions, earlier this month a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ordered the City of Los Angeles to produce documents relating to the LAPD’s policies and procedures for processing applications for CCW permits. . . .
Labels: ConcealedCarry
Bank of America Corp. will pay $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers, in the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history.
The agreement, announced on Wednesday, involves more than 210,000 minority borrowers who were charged higher fees or who could have qualified for a prime mortgage, one offered to borrowers with the best credit histories, but instead were steered into a more costly subprime loan.
The case is the first by the Justice Department that accuses a lender of steering borrowers to more costly mortgages. The agreement also ends a separate discriminatory lending lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in state court in June 2010.
Bank of America neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the settlement. The bank said it settled to resolve issues tied to Countrywide's practices before Bank of America's July 2008 purchase of the lender. The bank said it is "committed to fair and equal treatment of all our customers." . . .
Labels: financialmarkets, mortgagecrisis, obamadoesntunderstandeconomics
Gunshots ring out in the dead of night, and not a single person reports it. Yet police know exactly where the shots came from, even before they arrive on the scene.
It sounds like a scene from The Minority Report, but it's real. A new technology called ShotSpotter enables law enforcement officials to precisely and instantaneously locate shooters, and it has been quietly rolling out across America. From Long Island, N.Y., to San Francisco, Calif., more than 60 cities in the U.S. have been leveraging ShotSpotter to make their streets safer. . . .
“If You Fire a Gun, We Will Find You.”
ShotSpotter relies on wide-area acoustic surveillance and GPS technology to triangulate the source of gunshots. Sensors are fixed to buildings and poles to provide coverage over a fixed area. With audio-analysis software, it can identify whether a shooter is stationary or moving -- meaning police officers can be equipped with information on the speed and direction of, say, a vehicle from which a shot was fired.
It can also “hear” the acoustic signature and distinguish between calibers and types of firearms. Similarly, it can hear different explosions and classify them, from vehicle backfires to fireworks to bombs.
The ShotSpotter Gunfire Alert system then relays the location and data to the police or a dispatch computer within moments, enabling a more rapid response time for both police and first responders.
The best part: ShotSpotter works. It's accurate to 10 to 15 feet, and some police departments are reporting accuracy to within five feet. In Long Island’s Nassau County, gun violence was reduced by a whopping 90 percent at the close of this year’s first quarter. . . .
The subscription-based implementation called ShotSpotter Flex costs as much as $60,000 per square mile. . . .
Labels: Crime, GunControl, Guns, technologysolvingcrime
Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that a challenge to his government by Sunni politicians could destroy the ethnic and sectarian power-sharing system that underpins Iraq's democracy—and take more power into the hands of the Shiite majority.
The threat signals the most dire political crisis Iraq has faced since an agreement on a governing coalition one year ago smoothed over a long-running conflict that has re-emerged with the official pullout this month of U.S. forces from Iraq.
The latest faceoff was triggered when a judicial panel issued a warrant for the arrest of Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on Monday, as the Ministry of Interior aired televised confessions by members of his security detail allegedly implicating him in ordering and funding attacks against Shiites. . . .
In a final tactical road march, the last U.S. troops in Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait on Sunday morning, ending almost nine years of a deadly and divisive war. . . .
Dozens of people were killed on Thursday in a series of coordinated explosions that struck several neighborhoods in the Iraqi capital, within days of the U.S. military withdrawal from the country, amid a political crisis that has renewed fears of an outbreak of sectarian and ethnic warfare.
The attacks during the morning rush hour targeted Sunni, Shiite and mixed neighborhoods, hitting mostly civilian targets, including an elementary school. Some bore the hallmarks of bombing campaigns by al Qaeda-linked Sunni militants. . . .
Labels: ForeignPolicy, Iraq
As we came by the checkpoint line, Schneier described one of these aspects: the ease with which people can pass through airport security with fake boarding passes. First, scan an old boarding pass, he said—more loudly than necessary, it seemed to me. Alter it with Photoshop, then print the result with a laser printer. In his hand was an example, complete with the little squiggle the T.S.A. agent had drawn on it to indicate that it had been checked. “Feeling safer?” he asked. . . .
Krugman outdid himself for outrage in 2011. Every year, the Media Research Center collects a panel of conservative journalists and talk-show hosts and puts them on ride through the worst media bilge of the last 12 months to arrive at the Best Notable Quotables. Krugman sat in the sulfurous center with three other "bests." . . .
Labels: paulkrugman
In the weeks that followed, party leaders came up with a plan. Working with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — a national arm of the party that provides money and support to Democratic candidates — members were told to begin “strategizing about potential future district lines," according to another email.
The citizens’ commission had pledged to create districts based on testimony from the communities themselves, not from parties or statewide political players. To get around that, Democrats surreptitiously enlisted local voters, elected officials, labor unions and community groups to testify in support of configurations that coincided with the party’s interests.
When they appeared before the commission, those groups identified themselves as ordinary Californians and did not disclose their ties to the party. One woman who purported to represent the Asian community of the San Gabriel Valley was actually a lobbyist who grew up in rural Idaho, and lives in Sacramento.
In one instance, party operatives invented a local group to advocate for the Democrats’ map. . . .
Labels: Fraud, redistricting
Mitt Romney refused to be pinned down Wednesday on how Congress should break an impasse that threatens to raise taxes for 160 million workers — the latest pressing policy debate the Republican presidential hopeful has sidestepped. Rival Newt Gingrich, in contrast, castigated Congress for "an absurd dereliction of duty." . . .
In Iowa, Gingrich called a two-month extension "insufficient" and scolded the Democratic-controlled Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama's administration for "lurching from failure to failure" and marveled: "They can't figure out how to pass a one-year extension, so the Senate leaves town?"
"It's game-playing," added the former House speaker, who stopped short of criticizing House Republicans and their leader Ohio Rep. John Boehner. Gingrich also did not criticize Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader from Kentucky who signed off on the short-term extension.
The different postures over the payroll tax extension played out against a backdrop of intensifying rancor - and a dispute over negative advertising - between Romney and Gingrich with the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses drawing close. . . .
Labels: NewtGingrich, Romney, RonPaul, Taxes
Labels: ConcealedCarry
Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. . . .
The Volt subsidies flow through multiple companies involved in production. The analysis includes adding up the amount of government subsidies via tax credits and direct funding for not only General Motors, but other companies supplying parts for the vehicle. For example, the Department of Energy awarded a $105.9 million grant to the GM Brownstown plant that assembles the batteries. The company was also awarded approximately $106 million for its Hamtramck assembly plant in state credits to retain jobs. The company that supplies the Volt’s batteries, Compact Power, was awarded up to $100 million in refundable battery credits (combination tax breaks and cash subsidies). These are among many of the subsidies and tax credits for the vehicle.
It’s unlikely that all the companies involved in Volt production will ever receive all the $3 billion in incentives, Hohman said, because many of them are linked to meeting various employment and other milestones. But the analysis looks at the total value that has been offered to the Volt in different aspects of production – from the assembly line to the dealerships to the battery manufacturers. . . .
GM has estimated they’ve sold 6,000 Volts so far. That would mean each of the 6,000 Volts sold would be subsidized between $50,000 and $250,000, depending on how many government subsidy milestones are realized.
If battery manufacturers awarded incentives to produce batteries the Volt may use are included in the analysis, the potential government subsidy per Volt increases to $256,824. For example, A123 Systems has received extensive state and federal support, and bid to be a supplier to the Volt, but the deal instead went to Compact Power. The $256,824 figure includes adding up the subsidies to both companies.
The $3 billion total subsidy figure includes $690.4 million offered by the state of Michigan and $2.3 billion in federal money. That’s enough to purchase 75,222 Volts with a sticker price of $39,828. . . .
Labels: bailout, Environment, GM
Contrary to the EPA’s claim that the rule will provide particular benefits to children, the premature deaths the EPA says will be averted are modeled to accrue to people with an average age of 80 years, who would live weeks or months longer, if at all, as a result of the regulations. This modeling is also suspect, because the EPA assumes causality where none can be explained, and makes other assumptions that overstate effects.
Also disingenuous is the EPA’s claim that the “rule will provide employment for thousands, by supporting 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term utility jobs.” First, this estimate quantifies only the jobs necessary to comply with the new rules, and ignores jobs lost, despite its recognition that “the industries that use electricity will face higher electricity prices as the result of the toxics rule, reduce output, and demand less labor.”
Second, a careful reading of the fine print reveals that even the employment effects the EPA claims are not different statistically from zero.
These new regulations will be among the most expensive regulations ever issued. The estimated $11 billion per year in costs will be borne by all Americans who will pay more for electricity and anything that uses it. Further, due to the EPA’s rosy assumptions and failure to consider how the requirements will make the electricity grid more susceptible to power outages, this cost may well be understated. . . .
Labels: book, Environment, EPA, Regulation
Attorney General Eric Holder’s list of Operation Fast and Furious critics has grown over the past several days, as four more have signed on to a resolution of “no confidence” in him.
Republican Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Kevin Brady of Texas, Tim Griffin of Arkansas and Tim Walberg of Michigan have all now signed on as co-sponsors of Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar’s “no confidence” resolution.
Though it’s not directly a call for Holder to step down, the resolution alleges that the nation’s top law enforcement official’s actions have proven he is not “competent, trustworthy and beyond reproach,” and that he has sought to “cover up” mistakes rather than cooperate with Congress “in disclosing the events and circumstances and transparently addressing the issues.”
Griffin told The Daily Caller he signed on to the resolution because Holder has not actively held anyone accountable for Fast and Furious.
“Attorney General Holder’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month confirmed what I already believed: the Department’s Operation Fast and Furious and his mismanagement of the aftermath, including his unwillingness to hold people accountable, raise serious concerns about his ability to fulfill his duties as our nation’s top law enforcement officer,” Griffin said in an email. . . .
Labels: BATF
According to a Public Policy Polling survey of New Mexico conducted Dec. 10-12, Johnson as a Libertarian candidate could impact the vote in his home state.
PPP found Johnson would draw between 26 and 30 percent of GOP votes, between 12 and 16 percent of Democratic votes and win independents, in a race with either Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich as the GOP nominee.
Johnson on the ballot would help Obama win New Mexico, typically a swing state, by a 17-point margin, PPP found.
Labels: 2012election
On a recent morning, Maurizio Compagnone, an employee of Italy’s internal revenue service, stood before a classroom of middle school students in a leafy neighborhood here, preaching the virtues of paying taxes.
“You may think, ‘I’m 13, why should I care about taxes?’ ” he said with earnest enthusiasm as the students looked on, slightly bored. “But you can take a step in the right direction. You can change the behavior of the people around you, your parents and friends.” . . . .
The tax authorities say Italy loses an estimated $150 billion a year in undeclared revenues, while the national statistics authority places the underground economy to be about 17.5 percent of gross domestic product — the third highest in Western Europe after Malta and Greece but before Spain. Other experts place the percentage much higher.
To tackle the issue, Prime Minister Mario Monti’s new $40 billion austerity package, which received final approval on Thursday in the Senate, includes tougher measures that will allow tax officials to peer into Italians’ bank accounts to check declared income against bank deposits — not to mention yacht, car and home ownership — under a new cross-referencing initiative.
The measures also prohibit cash transactions above $1,300 — common in Italy, where low credit-card use keeps private debt low but evasion high — and lower the threshold for which tax evasion becomes a criminal offense. The government has also set an additional 1.5 percent tax on assets repatriated under an earlier tax amnesty, raising the levy for those requesting anonymity.
Italy is filled with colorful anomalies. According to tax officials, nearly half of boats larger than 35 feet are registered to people who declare income of less than $26,000 a year, and 604 airplane owners declared annual income between $26,000 and $65,000. . . .
In spite of Mr. Monti’s approval ratings, there is widespread skepticism that the anti-evasion measures will work. Asked why Italy had had so much trouble cracking down on evasion, Bruno Tinti, a former prosecutor turned journalist specializing in the black economy, had a simple answer: “Tax evaders vote, that’s the problem.”
. . . The recovery from the 2008-09 recession has been the slowest since any recession in the post-World War II era. It has taken nine calendar quarters since the recession ended in the second quarter of 2009 for real gross domestic product to climb back to its fourth-quarter '07 peak. Assume the same rates of growth during the recoveries from the two previous recessions that rank second and third in severity since World War II -- '81-'82 and '74-'75 -- and the recovery from the recent recession should have taken half as long.
Try other comparisons. In the more than 41 years since 1970, the average quarterly rate of growth, calculated on an annual basis, has been 2.8% -- and that includes all negative quarters in recessions. By contrast, over the recent nine quarters of recovery, the annual rate of growth has averaged just 2.4% -- and as mentioned in last week's column, the Blue Chip consensus forecast calls for more of the same through 2012. Following the recessions of '74-'75 and '81-'82, the first nine quarters of growth averaged, respectively, 5.1% and 6.3%.
Try special excuses. Yes, it's true that the government portion of GDP usually increases year-to-year, and over the past nine quarters there was a small decrease. It's also true that rebounds in housing usually make significant contributions to GDP growth after recessions, and over the past nine quarters residential investment has also been running slightly negative. . . .
The claim that House Republicans' budget would end Medicare is the "lie of the year," according to the fact-checking website Politifact.
According to Politifact's analysis, saying the Ryan plan "ends Medicare" overlooks the fact that its changes would not affect people 55 and older. Politifact also said Medicare would remain in existence, but in a different form — which Ryan's critics say is the same thing as ending Medicare.
Democrats and liberals slammed the decision and stood by the contention that Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) proposal would end Medicare. . . .
"The very definition of the Medicare program is a national health insurance program for seniors which House Republicans would abolish under their budget," the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in an earlier rebuttal of Politifact's analysis of the Ryan plan. . . .
Labels: ObamaDishonest
Labels: deficits
Reactions were typical of Washington. Partisan Democrats groused, knowing their ability to demagogue this issue had just taken a hit.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said, “The Wyden-Ryan scheme” — note the cleverly derisive word — would “end Medicare as we know it for millions of seniors.” Baloney. The only thing certain to end Medicare as we know it is the status quo of Medicare itself.
Labels: bipartisanship, healthcare, ObamaDishonest
The United States hopes to prevent and defuse conflicts by getting more women seated at negotiating tables around the world, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.
Clinton said a new U.S. plan, signed by President Barack Obama, would help train and give more voice to female community members who often have a strong sense of how to address dangers and strains in conflict zones. . . .
Women are "too often excluded" from talks that bring an end to conflict and from the military, police and other institutions tasked with maintaining order, she said, also suggesting they could provide useful insights on how to make peace stick.
"Women are bellwethers of society and, in fact, sometimes they do play the role of canary in the coal mine. They know when communities are fraying and when citizens fear for their safety," she told a Georgetown University event. . . . .
Labels: discrimination
Since as early as January 2011, and perhaps before then, Gov. Bev Perdue’s press office has received access to confidential employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics hours if not days before its scheduled release, quite likely in violation of federal law. The governor’s staff used its early access to massage the monthly employment press release that reported jobs data to the public.
Documents and correspondence obtained by Carolina Journal show that the Division of Employment Security, formerly known as the Employment Security Commission, sent a draft of the press release each month to Perdue’s press office. The governor’s spokesmen typically rewrote the text and added a positive spin, even if the data did not support Perdue’s talking points.
The glowing quotes were attributed to Lynn Holmes, director of the employment agency, but the documents show the quotes were approved and probably written by a Perdue press aide, either Chrissy Pearson or Mark Johnson.
In several instances, DES spokesman Larry Parker cautioned Pearson or Johnson against using extraneous or unverifiable information in a release to boost Perdue’s image. At times, the Perdue communications team would push back, and the release would undergo several revisions before final publication.
While the operation may sound like a harmless effort to add political spin to the release of jobs data, sharing confidential BLS estimates while they are protected by an embargo violates a federal law barring the early release of employment data. This is no small matter: A conviction for breaching the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 carries a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both. . . .
Labels: ObamaCorruption
Of that group of critics, Mr. Holder said he believed that a few — the “more extreme segment” — were motivated by animus against Mr. Obama and that he served as a stand-in for him. “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” he said, “both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.” . . .
House investigators have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to appear again before Congress to testify on "flaws in the management structure" at the Department of Justice (DOJ), with an emphasis on the decision making behind Operation Fast and Furious -- a series of questioning that may force Holder either to reveal who approved Operation Fast and Furious or risk appearing to lack control over DOJ."
The hearing will examine flaws in the management structure of the Justice Department as demonstrated in the genesis and implementation of ATF's Operation Fast and Furious," House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote to Holder last week. "Specifically, the hearing will focus on what senior Department officials could and should have done to put a stop to this reckless program, as well as the specific areas where failures in communication and management occurred."
Issa also elbowed Holder over submitting a letter to Congress -- since retracted due to inaccuracy -- that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) never let guns walk to Mexico. "The Department's February 4, 2011, letter to Congress will be but one example of these failures in management," Issa told Holder.
The hearing is tentatively schedule of January 24, 2012 . . . .
"The reason he is, he is one of the most incompetent Attorneys General in U.S. history. He is the guy who brought on gratuitously the fiasco of the KSM trial in New York that even the Democrats rebelled against. He's a guy that has led a Department that has been either totally ignorant or disingenuous or worse on the Fast and the Furious scandal. And now he plays the race card. I think it's, to use his word, 'a cowardly use of the race card.' And it's unbecoming. It also is dangerous in a country where it can stoke that kind of racial animosity. He shouldn't be using it and I say it with all due respect," Charles Krauthammer said on "Special Report" tonight. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Attorney General."
Labels: BATF
Overall, violent crimes were down 6.4%, while property crimes fell 3.7% when compared with figures from the first six months of 2010. . . . The FBI says all four offenses in the violent crime category -- murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault -- decreased in the first half of 2011. The number of murders declined 5.7%; rapes, 5.1%; robbery, 7.7%; and aggravated assault, 5.9%. . . .
Labels: Crime
Labels: Other
Labels: book, governmentwaste
Half of Britons (49%) and two-in-five Canadians and Americans (41% and 40% respectively) say they will spend less this year on gifts than they did in 2010. One-in-ten Americans (11%) say they will spend more than they did last year. . . .
Labels: Crime