Photo Credit: Scott SadyThe US Senate on Monday passed a bill aimed at ending tax-free shopping on the internet but the move looks set to face fierce opposition before it becomes law.
The Marketplace Fairness Act, which has cross-party supporter and the backing of powerful retailers, would give states the power to require retailers with sales over $1m to collect state and local sales taxes for online purchases.
The bill has the support of president Barack Obama the majority of senators including Republican John McCain but Marco Rubio, seen a potential Republican presidential hopeful, and Rand Paul both voted against the bill.
The bill passed the Senate by 70 votes to 24 but faces a second test in the House of Representatives where internet retailers and conservatives are already lobbying against the tax. House leaders have yet to schedule hearings or votes on their version of the measure.
The legislation would overturn a 1992 supreme court ruling that said a state could not force a retailer to collect sales tax unless the retailer had a physical presence in the state.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-07 01:51:232016-04-11 11:21:57Senate Passes Internet Sales Tax Bill Amid Opposition from Conservatives
The news from the Benghazi whistle-blowers is starting to create the type of firestorm that could spell the beginning of the end of the Obama Administration.
Among the shocking revelations from Rep. Darrell Issa on Face the Nation this weekend, Gregory Hicks, the senior Foreign Service Official at the US embassy in Tripoli, stated that Ambassador Stevens called and told him personally that they were under attack, NOT under siege by demonstrators.
Hicks insisted that he knew from the beginning that the attack was a terrorist attack and he “reported an attack on the consulate.”
And Hicks wasn’t the only one. According to CBS, embassy personnel repeatedly asked,
“Send reinforcements!”
But they were told immediate help wasn’t available.
Embassy personnel say they repeatedly asked the Defense Attache on site in Tripoli for military assistance.
“Isn’t there anything available?” one Embassy official says he asked. “But the answer was ‘no.'”
“What about Aviano?” the official pressed, referencing the NATO air base with US assets in northeastern Italy. “No,” was the answer.
The whistle-blowers that came forward with these firsthand accounts continue to be exposed to intimidation and “threats of retaliation.”
Americans are getting sick and tired of this Administration’s lies, whether they’re about the supposed Benghazi reaction to a stupid YouTube video, or the lies told in an attempt to cover-up Obama’s and Hillary’s responsibility for the fiasco.
So let’s hope the truth comes out in this week’s hearings. Assuming the testimony is consistent with what we’ve heard from the whistle-blowers so far, the House should seriously consider impeachment proceedings. Any president that consciously turns his back on Americans in conflict, when he has available resources and no national security reason to remain passive, must be held to the highest account.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:26:082016-04-11 11:21:57Benghazi Investigation May Turn Into Impeachment Proceedings, if House Believes Whistle-Blowers
During an interview with CNN this past week, a retired FBI counter-terrorism agent let it slip that the U.S. government is recording all cell phone conversations.
The interview concerned the FBI’s investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow, Katherine Russell, and what, if anything, she knew about the Boston Marathon bombings. The CNN panel speculated on the FBI’s efforts to determine if Russell were a part of the conspiracy.
The CNN host, Erin Burnett, thinking that the feds could gain access to Russell’s old voice mails but couldn’t actually listen to her old phone calls, observed, “there’s no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them.”
The former agent, Tim Clemente, disagreed:
No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.
Burnett knew immediately that Clemente was referring to Russell’s old phone calls and asked incredulously, ” So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.”
Clemente answered, “No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”
The former counter-terrorism agent’s revelation is not the first time former federal officials have admitted that Washington is engaged in extensive warrantless surveillance of all US citizens. This past fall, NSA whistle-blower William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the NSA was widely interviewed about his work that allowed federal agencies to conduct near-universal surveillance of digital communications.
In his interviews, Mr. Binney voiced sincere regret for his contribution to this Orwellian eavesdropping program, noting that he intended it for use internationally, not domestically:
Additionally, in a federal court case several weeks ago, the FBI admitted to the use of another warrantless tool that selectively targeted cell phone conversations and revealed the participants’ locations.
And Congress seems to be going right along with it. In March, experts testified before the House arguing that federal law should be changed to explicitly permit the permanent storage of virtually all of Americans’ text messages and emails.
We have little time to turn this around. The enormous, unlawful power that the central government is accumulating is a real threat to the constitutional freedoms entrusted to us by our Founders.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:25:392016-04-11 11:21:57Retired FBI Counter-Terrorism Agent Confirms NSA Whistle-Blowers: Feds are Recording All Cell Phone Conversations (+videos)
Israel rushed to beef up its rocket defenses on its northern border Sunday to shield against possible retaliation after carrying out two airstrikes in Syria over 48 hours – an unprecedented escalation of Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war.
Syria and its patron Iran hinted at possible retribution, though the rhetoric in official statements appeared relatively muted.
Despite new concerns about a regional war, Israeli officials signaled they will keep trying to block what they see as an effort by Iran to send sophisticated weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia ahead of a possible collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to intervene in the Syrian civil war to stop the transfer of what it calls “game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah, a Syrian-backed group that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.
Since carrying out a lone airstrike in January that reportedly destroyed a shipment of anti-aircraft missiles headed to Hezbollah, Israel had largely stayed on the sidelines. That changed over the weekend with a pair of airstrikes, including an attack near a sprawling military complex close to the Syrian capital of Damascus early Sunday that set off a series of powerful explosions.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:21:152016-04-11 11:21:57Syria, Iran Hint at Retaliation for ‘Unprecedented Escalation’ of Israeli Airstrikes in Civil War (+video)
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore During ABC’s This Week, James Carville and former Senator Jim DeMint talked about Ted Cruz.
Demint, who has just completed visiting over two dozen cities across the United States, remarked that the mere mention of Cruz’s name puts people on their feet.
Carville appeared to agree, stating that Senator Cruz “is the most talented and fearless Republican politician [he’s] seen in thirty years.” All panelists seemed to agree that Cruz is not “squishy.”
Some on the panel concluded that Cruz is likely presidential material and could end up in a primary versus Rubio.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:20:392016-04-11 11:21:58James Carville: Ted Cruz “is the Most Talented and Fearless Republican Politician I’ve Seen in 30 Years” (+video)
Photo Credit: senorgloryIn an effort to infect another generation with his socialist views, Obama preached at Ohio State University’s Class of 2013, admonishing them to reject liberty-minded Americans who fight to “gum up the works” of government or who warn of impending tyranny.
He goes on to suggest that these bad people are actually fighting representative government because they really believe “self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.” Obama concludes that, fortunately, “we understand that this democracy is ours.”
Obama, of course, knows that the Ruling Class has supplanted the people as the power-brokers of the nation. And he also knows – and fears – that the liberty-minded patriots in this nation are seeking to return government to the Rule of Law and oversight of the People.
Obama and his elitist allies – in both parties – are doing everything they can to prevent this type of populist uprising in the next election cycle.
So how do people like Obama fight these threatening forces? You tell the biggest lie about them that you can: that they are enemies of the very liberty that they are trying to preserve.
Unfortunately, this type of dishonesty is exactly what we’ve come to expect from the political class:
“Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems.
Some of these voices also do their best to gum up the works.
They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.
You should reject these voices.
Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted . . . we understand that this democracy is ours.”]
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:18:012016-04-11 11:21:58Obama Attacks Liberty-Minded Americans During University Commencement Speech (+video)
Photo Credit: Jerome PhillipsThis weekend, domestic terrorist Bill Ayers was the keynote speaker at the commemoration of the National Guard Shootings at Kent State in 1970. He answered questions of reporters following the speech.
Ayers, an extreme leftist, has a long relationship with Obama. According to a retired federal employee, the Ayers family put Obama through school. Additionally, Ayers himself has directly contradicted the President in claiming to have put on at least one political fundraiser for Obama. There are allegations of many other intimate connections between Obama and Ayers as well.
During his speech at Kent State, Ayers defended the Weather Underground bombings implying that they were morally superior to the Boston Marathon Bombings in that no one was killed. He then analogizes Newtown to innocent shooting at a range to prove his point: ““How different is the shooting in Connecticut from shooting at a hunting range? Just because they use the same thing, there’s no relationship at all.”
Ayers conveniently forgets the self-inflicted killing of his three friends, including his girlfriend Diana Oughton, who accidentally detonated a nail bomb they were assembling in Greenwich Village. He also omits that the presumed target of the horrific bomb was a military dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
With friends like this, nothing Obama does should surprise us.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:17:072016-04-11 11:21:58Obama’s Buddy, Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers, Says His Weather Underground Bombings Were Different than Boston Bombings
Photo Credit: Facebook In a Facebook post that has garnered national attention over the last several days, radio talk show host Adam Kokesh has announced an open carry march from Virginia into Washington, D.C.
Mr. Kokesh is advocating that participants carry their guns – loaded – on their backs and that they demonstrate peacefully, no matter what law enforcement does in response to their presence.
Although Virginia apparently allows open carry under certain circumstances, it appears demonstrators will run afoul of DC ordinances if they openly carry loaded firearms into the city.
Kokesh says he does not know what law enforcement will do but that he’ll “volunteer . . . to determine what their actual course of action with someone crossing the line will be. [A]t which point fellow marchers will have the choice of joining me one at a time in a peaceful, orderly manner, or turning back . . .”
Here’s his Facebook post in its entirety:
On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.
There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.
You are welcome to attend unarmed as a supporter, or armed with a recording device.
We especially invite law enforcement officers to stand with us armed however they feel is appropriate.
If this page gets to 10,000 attendees by June 1st, & we have the critical mass necessary to pull this off, (1,000 actual attendees) we will march. Please spread the word, share this event, & invite all your friends.
UPDATE Now that it’s undeniable that this is going to happen, allow me to make clear how. There will be coordination with DC law enforcement prior to the event. I will recommend that they do the best they can to honor their oaths and escort us on our route. Failing to provide that commitment to safety, we will either be informed that we will only be allowed up to a certain point where we would be arrested. If this is the case, we will approach that point as a group and if necessary, I will procede to volunteer myself to determine what their actual course of action with someone crossing the line will be at which point fellow marchers will have the choice of joining me one at a time in a peaceful, orderly manner, or turning back to the National Cemetery.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:14:512016-04-11 11:21:58Radio Host to Lead Armed, Open Carry March from Virginia into Washington DC on July 4th
Photo Credit: Getty ImagesAlthough the Benghazi debacle is far from the only scandal that has rocked the Obama administration, it has a very real potential of being the one scandal that could explode, blowing up right in the faces of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other top administration officials.
The Fast and Furious scandal is in all likelihood far worse than Benghazi. But due to the current political landscape where politicians and the news media are determined to keep the administration’s dirty little gun smuggling issue out of public view, Benghazi appears to be the one that has the most potential in unraveling public confidence in Obama, which already has been slipping in the polls over the past two months.
A myriad of questions came to the forefront of public awareness in the wake of the assassinations of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and his security detail at the Benghazi compound in Libya. Why were the pleas of Stevens for more security personnel ignored by the State Department? Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claims she saw no such requests. That’s funny, because others at the top levels at State knew full well that Stevens had practically begged for more security for nearly a year. And that leads to the next question. Where was Hillary? And why was she not aware of such requests? And if she were aware of the requests, why would she lie about it?
The last question is the easy one. Everyone in the administration lied about Benghazi because it was an election year and the campaign theme of the Obama machine was that Libya had been “liberated” and that al Qaeda had been practically castrated. None of that was true but it sure did sound good during a reelection campaign.
But more importantly, where was Obama? Either he was fully informed and aware of the events that went down on that horrific night when our diplomatic personnel were tortured and killed, or he wasn’t. If he was, then why was no action taken to get military reinforcements to the compound in time to save American lives? They had plenty of time to do so. And if Obama was not aware of the unfolding events, why not? If ever there were a 3 a.m. call that needed to be answered swiftly, this was it. But neither Obama nor Hillary were available to answer that call.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 02:14:242016-04-11 11:21:58Benghazi Scandal Set to Explode on Administration
Former senator and current Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint on Sunday predicted that the Gang’s of Eight’s immigration reform bill would be blocked “if people read the bill.”
“I think if people read the bill, that it will be blocked,” DeMint said on ABC’s This Week. “Because once you get into it, just like Obamacare, it is not the way it’s been advertised.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-06 01:30:482016-04-11 11:21:59DeMint on Immigration Reform: ‘If People Read The Bill, It Will Be Blocked’ (+videos)
