Obama’s White House staff rakes in the cash while US suffers

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Hide these numbers!

(New York Post):  Many Americans are suffering under the ailing economy — but not those lucky enough to be on President Obama’s executive staff.

Turns out the 454 people on the White House staff were paid a total of $37,121,463 this year.

Yes, that’s 15 fewer staffers and $1.7 million less than taxpayers shelled out for the president’s workforce last year.

But it’s seven bodies more than the White House employed during the last year of George W. Bush’s term — and at a cost of nearly $4 million, or 13%, more.

No wonder the Obama folks tried to bury the news late on a Friday this month: Nearly one in three White House staffers is earning a six-figure salary.

 

Read more here.

Gold hits record high over US debt concerns

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Gold prices top record $1,600

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Gold prices broke a new record Monday, topping $1,600 an ounce, driven by concerns over mounting debt in the United States and Europe.

Gold futures for August delivery settled at a new high of $1,602.40 per ounce. Earlier in the session, gold touched a fresh intraday high of $1,607.90 per ounce.

 

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Kagan’s Sworn Statements during Senate Confirmation Questioned

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House Probing Kagan’s Link to Obamacare

Newsmax (by Jim Meyers):  The House Judiciary Committee is launching a probe into Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s prior involvement with healthcare reform legislation that could determine she must recuse herself from future high court deliberations on Obamacare.

When President Barack Obama signed the healthcare bill into law, Kagan was still serving as his solicitor general and was responsible for defending the administration’s position in federal court cases.

In one series of email exchanges between Kagan and staffers, her top deputy says about legal challengers to Obamacare: “Let’s crush them.”

A federal law prohibits a Supreme Court justice from judging a case if while in previous government service he or she served as counsel or adviser on the case or expressed an opinion about its merits, CNS News reported.

During Kagan’s confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which began on June 28, 2010, Republicans asked her if she had ever been “asked about your opinion regarding the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to any proposed healthcare legislation … or the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to potential litigation resulting from such legislation.” They also asked her whether she had “ever offered any views or comments” on those subjects.

Kagan answered both questions: “No.”

 

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Both Sides Hardening in Debt-Limit Imbroglio

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The gulf between President Obama and a divided Congress grows ever wider as the debt-limit crisis stumbles toward a potentially catastrophic deadline.

Tempers flared Wednesday at the high-level negotiating session, with Obama walking out of the meeting at one point, angrily warning House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, “Don’t call my bluff. You know I’m going to take this to the American people.”

But apparently the president, who thinks he can tax his way out of this mess, is unaware that Americans are strongly behind Cantor and the Republicans on the issue of tax increases versus spending cuts.

The Gallup Poll reported Thursday that when people are asked how Congress should deal with the mountain of deficits and debt that threaten to sandbag our economy, 50 percent “prefer spending cuts to tax hikes.”

The nationwide poll showed 20 percent saying the debt should be dealt with only through spending cuts, while another 30 percent said “mostly spending cuts.”

Read More at Townhall by Donald Lambro, Townall

Gold Isn’t Money? Say What?

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Gold isn’t money? How could America get to this point we asked in astonishment upon hearing the Chairman of the Federal Reserve proclaim, “Gold isn’t Money.”

No wonder our leaders in Washington misspend our money. They don’t even understand what it is.

For those of you without a dictionary nearby, let’s start with the Webster’s definition, which says money is “something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment.”

The Webster’s definition even though inadequate still captures the essence. Money is a store of value that was created to facilitate barter or trade. It was a store of value because a farmer would accept it in exchange for his potatoes today, and next week he could spend an equivalent value to buy a pair of overalls.

If anyone reading this column doesn’t believe that gold is a good store of value, we will happily exchange your gold for some of Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve Notes. And that is exactly what owners of Federal Reserve Notes have been doing the world over. As a result, since 2001 the cost of Gold in Federal Reserve Notes has exploded from 300 notes per ounce of Gold to 1500 notes per ounce of Gold. That is a five times increase in ten years.

Read More at Floyd Reports By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, Floyd Reports

Napolitano’s V.I.P.R. Vows to “Dominate,Intimidate and Control”the American People

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Since its inception in 2002,the Department of Homeland Security has grown increasingly contemptuous of the rights of the American people. Indeed,the Gestapo-like tactics of one of the Department’s better known masters of overreach–the TSA–are responsible for countless examples of the organizations daily assault on the Constitution.

But recently,another of Janet Napolitano’s handmaidens of harassment has begun to make news…albeit only on the web,of course. It is the TSA’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response task force–or VIPR. Organized into mobile swat teams,VIPR has executed some 8,000 highly public searches in the past 12 months.

And what meaningful operations they have been.

In a Georgia Amtrac station,VIPR personnel “patted down”all travelers,children and adults,both entering AND LEAVING the station.

In Santa Fe,New Mexico,teams of VIPR agents were assigned to conduct searches at a high school prom.

Read More at Coach is Right By Doug Book, Coach is Right

Iran moving nuke facility deep into mountain in mad dash to create atom bomb

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Iran moves nuclear enrichment programme to underground bunker

The Telegraph (by Damien McElroy ):  Iran has begun efforts to shift its nuclear enrichment programme to an underground bunker where experts warn it could stage a last dash for a nuclear weapon.

Installation of centrifuge and other manufacturing equipment was at a preparatory stage at Fowrdow, a facility deep inside a mountain near Qom, the country’s holiest city, intelligence reports said.

Tehran disclosed the existence of Fordow, which is designed to withstand air and missile strikes, after Western intelligence detected the covert nuclear plant.

“They are preparing (for the centrifuges to be installed) in Fordow,” a diplomat briefed on the latest intelligence said.

 

Read more here.

Ruling Class Birthday Bash . . . While Rome burns

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GOP Debt Ceiling Ace in the Hole: Obama’s Birthday Bash

By Keith Koffler

 

Oh boy, this is going to look bad.

 

The Republicans may not realize it, but they have an extra point of leverage in the debt ceiling talks: Barack Obama’s birthday.

 

It’s on Aug. 4. The president is turning 50. He’s decided to have a quiet celebration with family and a few close friends.

 

NOT.

 

Instead, the president is planning an extravagant fundraising bash Aug. 3 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, including a birthday concert teeming with celebrities and – for couples contributing $35,800 – a private dinner with the president. All this just one day after the government is scheduled to run out of cash!

 

Undoubtedly, the sight of so much money getting thrown around and dissolute stars crooning to Obama will make a stirring contrast with a federal government bankruptcy featuring unpaid government workers, seniors and soldiers wondering how they’ll afford the groceries, shuttered national parks, and angry investors trying to cash out their Treasury Bills.

 

Read more HERE.

Video: Eat Your Own Damn Peas

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