Bled white and destroyed by Barack Obama’s “hope and change,” hundreds of thousands of Americans have been forced to use tax refunds to pay the filing costs of their bankruptcies. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reports that bankruptcy lawyers have seen an increase in personal bankruptcies filings which follow this pattern: many clients are filing bankruptcy soon after receiving their tax refunds.
This has been especially true since a law passed in 2005 made bankruptcy more costly and more difficult. For some people, in Barack Obama’s upside down America, as fast as money comes in, it goes to buy a bankruptcy file number. There are no plans for vacations or buying a new car for many people. As one bankruptcy lawyer explained the situation, “If people are expecting a big refund, they go as fast as they can to a tax preparer. They need the money so they can afford to file for bankruptcy.”
Filing costs that averaged around $ 921.00 before the law now cost most filers $1477 if not more. Of course, as usual, the big winners from this law are lawyers who get to charge higher fees based on more time spent to verify the facts presented by the individual seeking relief. The changes in the law were made to combat fraud, which is a worthy goal, but raising the filing fees has resulted in punishing many legitimate people who only want to have their debts cancelled so they can go on with their lives.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-17 13:40:342016-04-11 11:30:13Thanks To Obama, How Many Bankruptcy Filers Are Paying With Their Tax Refunds?
(Reuters) – Neighbors of George Zimmerman say he had bandages on his nose and head the day after he shot dead Trayvon Martin, supporting statements by the neighborhood watch volunteer that he was beaten in a confrontation with the black Florida teenager.
The extent of Zimmerman’s injuries could be crucial to his legal defense under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law, which allows the use of deadly force when someone has the reasonable belief he could face death or great bodily harm.
Police said Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the racially charged case, was bleeding from the nose and the back of his head and was treated by medics before being taken to Sanford police station after the February 26 shooting.
But public doubts were later raised by the release of a grainy surveillance video from the police station in which no injuries were readily visible.
Zimmerman later sought medical treatment for injuries including a broken nose, his former lawyers have said.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta flies home to California almost every weekend, racking up costs for the American taxpayer roughly equal to the cost of the General Services Administration’s junket to Las Vegas that has Congress fuming mad this week.
The AP reported earlier this month that Panetta, who has been commuting to his northern California home each weekend for decades, has made at least 27 round trips on government airplanes since becoming defense secretary and only reimburses the taxpayer $630 of the $32,000 cost of each trip. He is only legally required to reimburse the government for the commercial coach class fare.
Obama administration officials say Panetta likes to recharge his battery and often makes side trips to military bases while he’s out West. Regardless, the optics of the expense don’t look good at a time when the United States is in the middle of a fiscal crisis and Congress is searching hard to eliminate waste in government spending.
At Monday’s Pentagon press briefing, Panetta was asked about the travel expenses, which now total about $860,000.
“For 40 years that I’ve been in this town, I’ve gone home because my wife and family are there and because, frankly, I think it’s healthy to get out of Washington periodically just to get your mind straight and your perspective straight,” he said, noting that as defense secretary, he is not permitted to fly commercial and must be always reachable.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-17 13:27:192016-04-11 11:30:14Panetta’s weekend commute costs as much as GSA Vegas junket
It is easy to (falsely) accuse Ron Paul of anti-Semitism because of his daily rants on the floor of Congress about the war on Iraq being fostered by Jewish lobbyists in America. Widespread suggestions make the connection and the so-called neocon movement clearly advanced the project. Paul opposes foreign aid to everyone in general and to Israel in particular. But Israel is not a product of the initiatives or the imagination of American or Israeli Jewish lobbyists and to assume it is as is widespread today in American academia and globalist pop culture is itself anti-Semitic and virulently nihilistic. And these positions have tragically been fostered and nurtured by the American state department under Secretary Clinton and President Barack Obama. But you won’t find that in Ron Paul. Rising political forces in Israel like Moshe Feiglin’s “Jewish leadership” faction have long called to a breaking free from American aid to Israel much as Paul does.
Business Insider recently interviewed Dr. Paul claiming he “shocks campaign staff with new position on Israel.” When Paul was asked whether he would sign an Executive Order to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a major policy objective for Israeli hardliners and many leaders in the Christian Right, he said, “The real issue here is not what America wants, but what does Israel want. If Israel wants their capital to be Jerusalem, then the United States should honor that. How would we like it if some other nation said ‘We decided to recognize New York City as your capital instead, so we will build our embassy there?'”
From the Business Insider essay: “Ironically, Paul and Newt Gingrich are now the only presidential candidates who have said that they are in favor of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. Embassy there. President Barack Obama has postponed moving the Embassy. Romney ‘would like to see the U.S. Embassy eventually moved to Jerusalem,’ campaign spokesman Andrea Saul said in a statement emailed to Business Insider.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-04-17 04:20:082016-04-11 11:30:14Paul & Gingrich: the only candidates demanding that Jerusalem be recognized as Israel’s Capital
In 2006 Barack Obama took a trip to Kenya on the taxpayer’s dime.
While visiting Kenya as a guest of the government Obama campaigned for socialist Raila Odinga, who claims he is Obama’s cousin.
Odinga’s opponents said Odinga was using Obama “as his stooge.”
Here’s the video:
Raila Odinga was later elected prime minister of Kenya – after days of bloodshed.
There’s more…
Since he moved into the White House Obama’s still helping Odinga.
Kenya is enjoying a spike in Obama administration funded projects.
Trade Aid Monitor reported:
Kenyan businesses lately are increasingly becoming recipients of U.S. government largesse, as the Obama Administration, among pursuing other endeavors, aims to expand “livestock-related economic opportunities” in that nation. Although this and other recently released presolicitation notices for unrelated programs serve as advance alerts to potential vendors—and therefore do not offer cost estimates and other details— a review of U.S. government contracting actions nonetheless indicates a spike of activity in Kenya in a variety of sectors.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-16 13:59:382016-04-11 11:30:14Shocker: Obama Sends Millions of US Dollars to Kenya – Where His Socialist “Cousin” Is Prime Minister
Romney’s own hot-mic moment… At Florida fundraiser (overheard by NBC’s Garrett Haake), Romney singles out HUD for possible elimination and says he wants to cut the Education Dept… He and his wife also were giddy about the Hilary Rosen flap… And Romney revealed he wants a “Republican DREAM Act” to help woo Latinos… Senate to vote on Buffett Rule at 5:30 pm ET… Team Obama rakes in $53 million in March… Anonymous donor writes Crossroads $10 million check… NYT on White House’s access to big donors… Romney, meanwhile, promises his own donors access at “Presidential Inaugural Retreat!!!
*** Romney’s own hot-mic moment: In an interview with the Weekly Standard earlier this year, Mitt Romney said he learned this advice from his unsuccessful 1994 Senate race against Ted Kennedy: don’t get too specific. “One of the things I found in a short campaign against Ted Kennedy was that when I said, for instance, that I wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, that was used to suggest I don’t care about education,” he said. “So I think it’s important for me to point out that I anticipate that there will be departments and agencies that will either be eliminated or combined with other agencies.” But at a Florida fundraiser Romney attended last night — which NBC’s Garrett Haake overheard because he was sitting on a seawall outside the home — the former Massachusetts governor got MUCH MORE specific. Indeed, it was in a way Romney’s own hot-mic moment, where he was more open about his plans than he’s been to voters and reporters to date.
*** Eliminate HUD, cut Education Department: He singled out HUD for possible elimination. “I’m going to take a lot of departments in Washington, and agencies, and combine them. Some eliminate, but I’m probably not going to lay out just exactly which ones are going to go,” Romney said. “Things like Housing and Urban Development, which my dad was head of, that might not be around later.” He said he’d cut the Education Department, though not eliminate it entirely, referring again to that 1994 Senate defeat. “The Department of Education: I will either consolidate with another agency, or perhaps make it a heck of a lot smaller. I’m not going to get rid of it entirely.” Romney also identified specific loopholes and deductions that he’s eliminate to finance his across-the-board tax cut. “I’m going to probably eliminate for high income people the second home mortgage deduction,” Romney said, per Haake, adding that he would also likely eliminate deductions for state income and property taxes as well.
*** Giddy over the Rosen flap: At the fundraiser, Haake adds, both Romney and his wife Ann remained absolutely giddy about last week’s Hilary Rosen flap. “It was my early birthday present for someone to be critical of me as a mother, and that was really a defining moment, and I loved it,” Ann Romney said. The candidate went further, calling the episode a “gift” that allowed his campaign to show contrast with Democrats in the general election’s first week. But while Romney said last week that “all moms are working moms,” that doesn’t apply to mothers who are welfare recipients, the Boston Globe says. Romney said at a Jan. 4 campaign stop in Manchester, N.H.: “Even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work,” Romney describing his position as Massachusetts governor. “And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless,’ and I said ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’”
*** Romney wants a “Republican DREAM Act”: Here’s a final bit of news from last night’s Romney’s fundraiser: He said the GOP must offer its own policies to woo Hispanics, including a “Republican DREAM Act,” to give Hispanic voters a real choice between the two political parties. So Romney here is admitting the obvious: He and his party have A LOT of work to do with Latinos. Why? Consider this: Obama can get to 270 electoral votes (275 to be specific) by winning the following battleground states: Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Virginia. Under the scenario of this Hispanic path (CO, NM, NV, and VA), Obama doesn’t need to win Florida, Ohio, Iowa, or New Hampshire. That’s right — this is a viable path to 270 that does not include EITHER Florida or Ohio. It’s pretty stunning.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-16 13:51:012016-04-11 11:30:14Romney’s Own Hot-Mic Moment
The scandal surrounding the Secret Service continues to get notice from the media — and from Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told CBS earlier today that he doesn’t plan on opening a separate investigation into the matter, at least not yet. However, Issa pledged to “look over the shoulder” of the Inspector General as the DHS office conducts a probe into how one or more prostitutes penetrated the secure zone that the Secret Service had set up for President Obama’s trip to the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia:
“What we see is that this story is larger than eleven individuals,” said Issa on “CBS This Morning” on Monday. “It’s part of what has been, told to us, as a pattern of behavior that’s built up, so called ‘wheels up’ parties and the like and clearly you have an elite unite that we count on to have the greatest of security not just for the president but for the cabinet for other officials and we need to know that they’re living up to on a broad basis.”
“We clearly have lost confidence and we need to get that confidence back by knowing that the system will be changed,” he warned.
Issa said he had heard many reports that Secret Service agents often celebrate once the president has completed a visit with a ‘wheels up’ party, but said this incident was not comparable.
“Okay, fine, that’s when you can sort of let your hair down. The question is in this case you had a pre-wheels down party. You had drinking, you had activities that clearly compromised the ring of security, at least some because you now had people inside the secure areas, people who could have come in with all kinds of microphones, or in fact could have done something or could have later on blackmailed,” said Issa. “All of this went on before the president arrived, so this really goes beyond what we’ve heard in the past. It’s an area of concern.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-16 11:49:452016-04-11 11:30:14Issa promises Congressional oversight on investigation of Secret Service scandal
BOSTON – Mitt Romney today revealed for the first time that he has put longtime adviser Beth Myers in charge of his vice presidential vetting process.
“I have selected someone who has been a counselor of mine for a number of years, Beth Myers. She was my chief of staff when I was governor,” the former Massachusetts governor told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview.
“I’ve asked her to be the person who oversees the process of the vice presidential selection and vetting an analysis and so she’s begun that process and is putting together the kinds of things you need to do to vet potential candidates,” Romney added.
Asked whether there is a deadline for choosing his running mate, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said he does have a deadline in mind but would not reveal the specifics.
“It would certainly be by the time of the convention,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve chosen the time we’d actually make an announcement,” Romney said during a stroll through Fenway Park, where he is scheduled to join two contest winners at a Red Sox game.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-16 11:43:432016-04-11 11:30:14Romney Picks Head of Veep Search, Says Talks Started This Weekend
Over the last several weeks, the shooting of Trayvon Martin has been front and center in the mainstream media and on talk shows, both conservative and liberal. The focus of the coverage has been on the supposed racial divide — fueled in part by the involvement of the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, the New Black Panthers and other “experts” like former heavyweight champion and convicted felon Mike Tyson.
Following close behind the racial overtones of the incident has been the expected effort by the anti-firearms crowd to use the shooting to argue against the laws in Florida and many other states that permit individuals to defend themselves with deadly force if placed in fear of their lives or of severe bodily injury — so-called “stand your ground” laws.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the media frenzy over the incident has been incredibly disingenuous. People seeking to make names for themselves have run in front of television cameras or microphones to make their opinions about the shooting known, no matter how irresponsible their remarks may be.
President Barack Obama, who is a self-proclaimed constitutional law expert, weighed in on the eve of the shooting, claiming strangely that if he had a son, “he’d look like Trayvon.” In an utterly idiotic stunt, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) tried to make comments about the shooting from the floor of the House of Representatives wearing a gray hoodie similar to that worn by Martin on the night he was killed.
In such an environment, it is not hard to see how comments and actions like these might fan the flames of political pressure on prosecutors in Florida to take action against George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Martin. Most prosecutors, however, take their sworn duty to follow the facts and the law seriously and don’t cave to political pressure or public cries for “action” and jump in and level serious charges based on such factors.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-16 11:23:132016-04-11 11:30:14Charge against Zimmerman reeks of unprofessionalism
The president’s acolytes have been working overtime to convince the American people there’s a “war on women.” They’re right—but it’s not being waged by the Republicans.
The real “war on women” is tied to the state of the U.S. economy, which is currently engaged in its most anemic recovery in the post-war period. President Obama’s policies of tax, spend, and regulate have prevented business expansion, produced layoffs, and led to nearly 3 million people dropping out of the workforce. Of those, women are the hardest hit.
Since Obama took office the nation has lost a net 740,000 jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, and unemployment had gone from 7.8 percent to as high as 10.1 percent in October 2009 before coming down to it’s current rate of 8.2 percent. And that’s only counting people still looking for work. Without them, it’s closer to 9 or 10 percent according to various estimates.
For women the picture is even bleaker. The bureau reports that the unemployment rate for women has increased from 7 percent to 8.1 percent and the number of female employees in the workforce has declined by 683,000. The female labor force participation rate fell in March from 57.9 percent to 57.7 percent.
The president’s failure to get a handle on the economy constitutes the real “war on women,” depriving them of opportunities to enter or remain in the workforce. In order to divert attention from these cold, hard facts, Obama and his allies—like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz—have tried to focus attention on the nonsensical idea that the Republicans want somehow to ban women’s access to birth control.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2012-04-13 13:24:122016-04-11 11:30:15Obama’s Economy and Hilary Rosen Lead the ‘War on Women’
