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Sunday, March 31, 2013

BET Founder Slams Black Unemployment Rate


President Obama may not be addressing the nearly 14 percent unemployment rate in the black community, but that’s not stopping BET founder Bob Johnson from speaking up. ViaCNS News:
“This country would never tolerate white unemployment at 14 and 15 percent. No one would ever stay in office at 14 or 15 percent unemployment in this nation, but we’ve had that double unemployment for over 50 years,” Johnson said while speaking at the National Press Club about the gap between whites and blacks in America.
“The national average is 7.7 percent, and African-American unemployment is 13.8 percent. To be honest, it’s probably greater than that when you count the number of African-Americans who have simply given up on finding employment,” said Johnson, who is also founder and chairman of The RLJ Companies. […]
Johnson said the challenge was to figure out why the unemployment rate for blacks has been so high, “and if that doesn’t change, somebody’s going to have to pay— 34 million African-Americans are not going to leave this country, millions of African-Americans who don’t have jobs.”
“Somebody’s going to have to pay for them. Somebody’s going to have to take care of them, and if somebody’s going to have to take care of them, that money’s got to come from somebody. And whoever’s paying for it is going to be upset about it, and they’re going to start looking for somebody to blame,” Johnson said.
Fifty percent of African-Americans blame the failed education system for minorities/African Americans, according to a poll commissioned by Johnson. Indeed--our public education system is failing far too many students in this country. For just one example, take a look at New York City where 80 percent of high school graduates need to relearn basic skills such as reading, writing and math before they can enter the City University’s community college system. But just as Johnson is right about needing to figure out the root causes for such high unemployment in the African-American community, the same argument can be made for failing schools. Some say it all begins with the breakdown of the traditional family in the black community. Crystal Wright weighs in:
In his 1965 research paper The Negro Family: the Case for National Action, Daniel Patick Moynihan then Assistant Secretary of Labor revealed the breakdown down of the black family was contributing to higher black dropout and incarceration rates and lower wealth achievement compared to whites. Moynihan warned, “The white family has achieved a high degree of stability and is maintaining that stability. By contrast, the family structure of lower class Negroes is highly unstable, and in many urban centers is approaching complete breakdown.”
Moynihan further noted there was an alarming trend in the number of black families headed by single women and the rise in illegitimate births among blacks. In 1964, 23.6% of black births were to unwed mothers today it’s 72%. Moynihan reminded us of what holds true today, when teenagers have children they are less likely to finish high school and climb the economic ladder.
The unemployment rate for black teens in 1965 was 29%, today it’s 40%. Since the days of Johnson, Democrat policies like welfare have only worsened the problem for blacks by rewarding black women with taxpayer dollars for raising fatherless children. Moynihan’s report it reads like it was written yesterday rather than nearly 50 years ago. “In a word, the tangle of pathology is tightening,” wrote Moynihan. Indeed it is. The destruction of the black family is where blacks should be firmly directing their outrage…”

 http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2013/03/31/bet-founder-slams-black-unemployment-rate-n1553716

CNN's Piers Morgan Falsely Claims Newtown Shooter Was an NRA Member Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-vespa/2013/03/28/cnns-piers-morgan-falsely-claims-newtown-shooter-was-nra-member#ixzz2PAUxWUV3

NBC did a report telling about all the guns "HE" had in the house with all the bullets. They failed to mention they all belonged to his Mother! What Idiots on reporting!


Note to Piers Morgan: Journalism isn't rocket science and making a few phone calls can go a long way.
Giddy about a Newtown search warrant that showed there was an NRA certificate found in the Lanza household,  Morgan tweeted giddily: 
Yet, this is an abject lie.
Emily Miller of the Washington Times noted today in a piece responding to Morgan’s egregious and misleading tweets that:
In the search warrants of the Lanza’s mother’s house, it showed a receipt for a shooting range along with a NRA certificates for both Adam and Nancy Lanza. These are given when a person takes a course in gun safety or training by an NRA-certified instructor.
The police also list a handbook published by the NRA. The book covers topics include safely using a pistol safely, shooting fundamentals, cleaning, storage and transportation.
[…]
The certificate was made out to Nancy Lanza, according to  LaPierre explain what checks they made on Adam Lanza before sending him a @NRA certificate. #Newtown
The NRA was forced to put out a statement clarifying for those in the media that people NRA certificates don’t indicate membership in the organization: “There is no record of a member relationship between Newtown killer Adam Lanza, nor between Nancy Lanza, A. Lanza or N. Lanza with the National Rifle Association. Reporting to the contrary is reckless, false and defamatory.”

With the latest development that the assault weapons ban amendment is ending in failure, it’s tragic to see alleged journalists like Morgan spew misinformation in order to smear an organization that is dedicated to defending civil rights, namely those protected by the Second Amendment.


Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-vespa/2013/03/28/cnns-piers-morgan-falsely-claims-newtown-shooter-was-nra-member#ixzz2PAVZeGWl

Giuliani Hammers Obama: “So Jesus is an Embarrassment?”


Back in 2009, Barack Obama refused to stand under a cross at Georgetown. He demanded that the“religious symbol” be covered up before he gave a speech. Yet, Obama recently had no problem giving a speech under a picture of notorious terrorist Yasser Arafat, a man with American blood on his hands. That didn’t sit well with former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who had some harsh words for Barack Obama on the Hannity show.
Obama bitter
“Eighteen years ago I threw Yasser Arafat out of the U.N. — concert at Beethoven’s Symphony Avery Fisher Hall. He was specifically not invited, we didn’t want to invite dictators, terrorists and murderers to this concert, so he wasn’t invited.
…When I was a U.S. attorney, I investigated him specifically for the murder of Leon Klinghoffer on Achille Lauro. …He ordered that murder of a Jewish man who was in a wheelchair who was thrown into the Mediterranean. I’m sorry. That was only one of 26 Americans that he murdered.
…And to me, when the President of the United States stands there with this guy’s picture in back of him, it says to me, does this man have any sense of history? Does he know what the heck he’s dealing with? This is a man who’s murdered at least 27 Americans, those are the tip of the iceberg, that’s I can count.
…So Jesus is an embarrassment and Arafat isn’t? I’m having a really hard time with that.”
Remember when we used to have Presidents of the United States who were embarrassed by being associated with terrorists, not Christians? Well, Americans wanted to change and they certainly got it.

Pastor at Obama’s Easter Service Criticizes “Captains of the Religious Right”

Pathetic Liberals!


The Easter sermon President Obama and his family heard today at nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church slammed conservatives as being racists, sexists, xenophobes and homophobes.
The AP story says the sermon, led by Rev. Luis Leon, was based on the Gospel of John and the Resurrection of Jesus, but the report managed to omit the part where Leon criticized the “captains of the religious right.”
Leon used his sermon to encourage parishoners to look forward and not be stuck in the past, and he added a political edge with criticism of some right-leaning conservative Christians.
“The captains of the religious right are always calling us back, back, back,” he said. “For blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet, and for … immigrants to be on their side of the border,” he said.
Obama has made immigration reform a goal of his second term, and the themes of women’s equality and gay marriage were major issues during his 2012 re-election campaign. 
Although the First Family has not officially joined any church in the District, they worship at St. John’s most frequently, according to the Washington Post

*Note: This post has been updated to reflect an account of the sermon by Reuters, which includes the reference to 'gays in the closet'. 


http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/03/awful-obama-accuses-conservatives-of-calling-for-blacks-to-be-back-in-the-back-of-the-bus-during-easter-sermon/

Finally.............It is Said Publicly. I have never seen the white side explained better! Pat Buchanan had the guts to say it. It is about time!!

BUCHANAN TO OBAMA
By Patrick J. Buchanan

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America .. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.... This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.. Jeremiah Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??

Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids...? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago. This needs to be passed around because, this is a message everyone needs to hear!!!

I'm for a better America…
I am
Not racist,
Not violent,
Just not silent anymore.

A Few more FB Post








http://townhall.com/tipsheet/LeahBarkoukis/2013/03/31/pastor-at-obamas-easter-service-criticizes-captains-of-the-religious-right-n1554014












Saturday, March 30, 2013

Hillary Clinton Placed Under House Arrest – Unconfirmed Report

I am only putting this out there from  hearing about it. Don't know how true it is?


Editors Note: Beforeitsnews is unable to confirm nor deny this report.)
Hillary Clinton Has Been Placed Under House Arrest
Date: Sunday, 17-Mar-2013 17:01:19

.
$660 TRILLION WORTH OF DERIVATIVES, OH MY!


http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=272005
 
HIGH Treason Traitor
Hillary Rodham Clinton

UNITED States of America - As Wanta-Reagan-Mitterrand Protocols implementation remains imminent with an April 1st U.S. Supreme Court ordered deadline, it can now be reported that former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been placed under house arrest by the U.S. military on charges of financial treason.

On week ago Friday, the same day Jack Lew was sworn in as U.S. Treasury Secretary, sociopath Hillary attempted to illegally divert $1.7 TRILLION of U.S. Treasury funds to a secret CIA proprietary account in the People's Republic of China.

Both Chelsea Clinton (Hillary's daughter) and former Citibank CEO and Clinton era Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin have power of attorney over the account.

Reference: Chelsea Clinton just the other day purchased a $10.5 MILLION apartment in New York City.

Note: The illegal THEFT of U.S. Treasury funds was enabled by the Dallas, Texas branch of the German Nazi Bush Crime Family controlled Commerzbank.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher became aware of this treasonous grand larceny and notified Federal Reserve Chairman Bernard Bernanke and sent criminal referrals to the U.S. FBI, the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
 
 http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/03/hillary-clinton-has-been-placed-under-house-arrest-2597608.html

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=272005

STATE AUDITOR: CA NET WORTH NEGATIVE $127.2 BILLION

The Liberals are running  California and Illinois the same. Whoe can spend the most and not give a crap about doing it!


At end of the week, California's State Auditor released its annual financial report for the state. The report, compiled by Auditor Elaine Howle, found the state has a net worth of -$127.2 billion. If the state were a business, it would be a candidate for liquidation. 

CA's financial situation deteriorated this year, largely because the state spent $1.7 Billion more than it collected in revenue. This over-spending worsened the state's debt picture. 
"Expenses that exceeded revenues and increased long-term obligations resulted in an 81.4 percent decrease in the total net assets for governmental and business-type activities from the 20-10-11 fiscal year," said the report.
While this report paints a bleak picture of the state's future, it is also unrealistically optimistic. The report does not include the state's unfunded liabilities for future employee pensions. It also doesn't include the $60 billion or more in unfunded health costs for future state retirees. 
The state's balance-sheet may look bad now, but the truth is far worse than even this report suggests. 

A Few More FB Post















Photo: Meanwhile, somewhere in the ocean near North Korea.... ~Cupcakes
Awesome picture


He took the same Oath, and he swore to uphold it......Why is Obama not doing the same?


















I'm sick of hearing this fair share crap coming from these two!








Thursday, March 28, 2013

100 Arrested at Union Protest of Mayor Emanuel

This POS Karen Lewis Says Rahm Emanuel is Racist??? I look at her as a Racist Pig for playing the race card! Lets use your Jewell stores as an Example. If they have some under performing stores, they must do something. They either cut staff or if it is not feasible to keep it open, they close. Some schools in Downstate Illinois closed because they were under performing and bleeding money due to  a low number of students. They closed them, transferred students and 2 years later, no complaints and the current schools are doing good! The Mayor is trying to save money by consolidating.


Chicago is set to close 54 public schools to help close a $1 billion budget gap. Yesterday teacher's unions gathered downtown to protest the closings, including acts of civil disobedience which led to over 100 arrests.

Video of the protests suggests that most of the crowd's ire was directed at Mayor Rahm Emanuel. When Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis mentioned the Mayor during her speech to the crowd, they booed loudly (scroll in 30 seconds):
Lewis went on to accuse Emmanuel of closing schools named after "African-American icons" like Crispus Attucks and Mahalia Jackson while opening up schools with "a living billionaire's name in the front."
At another point in her address Lewis, speaking of Emanuel, told the crowd, "when you have an unjust leader you must rise up." She also criticized the Mayor's record on crime. Last year Chicago had over 500 murders, the highest total in the nation (though not the highest murder rate per capita).
Another clip from the protest shows people locking arms in the street chanting"Hey hey, ho ho, Rahm Emanuel has got to go."
The 54 Chicago schools are being closed because of a $1 billion dollar budget gap. Closing the schools and consolidating students into fewer buildings will save the cityan estimated $560 million over 10 years.
http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/03/28/100-Arrested-at-Union-Protest-of-Mayor-Emanuel

WRONG AGAIN: OBAMA CLAIMS 40% OF GUN SALES DONE WITHOUT BACKGROUND CHECK


This Guy is such a lying POC it is unreal!


During his March 28 comments on "gun violence," President Obama once again claimed that 40% of gun purchases take place without a background check.

The claim is meant to apply to new gun sales and is patently false, as Breitbart News demonstrated when Obama first used the 40% figure during a speech on Jan. 16.
As Breitbart News explained then, many gun grabbers get the "40%" figure from a 2011 study by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, titled: "Point, Click, Fire: An Investigation Into Illegal Online Gun Sales."


The study claims "40% of guns are sold through private sellers." It also claims that "the sales--which take place in many venues, including gun shows, and, increasingly, on the internet...fuel the black market for illegal guns."
This is simply false, and it is as misleading as it is untrue.
For starters, the "40%" figure does not even refer to new guns but guns already in circulation, which are being resold on a secondary basis. This could be a neighbor who sells his hunting rifle to another neighbor, a father who sells his handgun to a daughter who is living by herself, or a mother who sells her late father's shotgun to a trap shooter or duck hunter.
Yet gun grabbers like Bloomberg and Obama have seized on this figure because they estimate about 40% of all guns in circulation were sold before background checks were in place, thus there is no paper trail on them--i.e., there is no way for the government to find, register, or confiscate them. 
They frame it in a way that makes it sound like 40% of all guns being sold right now--in 2013--are being sold without a background check being performed. And they do so in hopes of fueling more support for universal background checks to be implemented. 
Universal background checks will ban secondary gun sales and eventually allow the government to know where every gun is sitting and where every gun owner lives. That is the end game. 
This is why Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) says, "The proposals the president is calling for Congress to pass would primarily serve to reduce the constitutionally protected rights of law-abiding citizens while having little or no effect on violent crime."
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/28/Wrong-Again-Obama-Claims-40-Of-Gun-Sales-Done-Without-Background-Check

Cruz: Obama Using Sandy Hook Murders to 'Promote Agenda'


This morning, the president held a brief photo op in the White House surrounded by the mothers of shooting victims, and raised concern that the shock from the Newtown elementary school shooting could soon fade. 

"Less than 100 days ago that happened. ... Shame on us if we've forgotten," Obama said. "I haven't forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we've forgotten." 
This crisis should not go to waste, he seemed to be saying.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)  released the following statement on the president's gun control  lecture remarks:
In any conversation about how to prevent future tragedies such as Sandy Hook, our focus should be on stopping criminals from obtaining guns. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has failed to make this a priority — in 2010, out of more than 15,700 fugitives and felons who tried to illegally purchase a firearm, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted only 44. That is unacceptable.
It is saddening to see the President today, once again, try to take advantage of this tragic murder to promote an agenda that will do nothing to stop violent crime, but will undermine the constitutional rights of all law-abiding Americans. I am committed to working with Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and Jim Inhofe--and I hope many other colleagues--to use any procedural means necessary to protect those fundamental rights.

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/03/28/Cruz-Reacts-to-Obama-s-Saddening-Gun-Control-Remarks

US economy expands at 0.4 percent rate

The News media made this sound good,but if you check the years past gdp growth this Sucks!


WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a slightly faster but still anemic rate at the end of last year. However, there is hope that growth accelerated in early 2013 despite higher taxes and cuts in government spending.
The economy grew at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the October-December quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was slightly better than the previous estimate of 0.1 percent growth. The revision reflected stronger business investment and export sales.
Analysts think the economy is growing at a rate of around 2.5 percent in the current January-March quarter, which ends this week.
Steady hiring has kept consumers spending this year. And a rebound in company stockpiling, further gains in housing and more business spending also likely drove faster growth in the first quarter.
The 0.4 percent growth rate for the gross domestic product, the economy's total output of goods and services, was the weakest quarterly performance in almost two years and followed a much faster 3.1 percent increase in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was hurt by the sharpest fall in defense spending in 40 years.
For all of 2012, the economy grew 2.2 percent after a 1.8 percent increase in 2011 and a 2.4 percent advance in 2010. Since the recession ended in mid-2009, the economy has been expanding at sub-par rates as a string of problems from higher gas prices to Europe's debt crisis have acted as a drag on the U.S. economy.
Growth appears to be strengthening this year even after taxes increased on Jan. 1 and automatic government spending cuts totaling $85 billion started to take effect on March 1. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the combination of tax increases and spending cuts could trim economic growth this year by about 1.5 percentage points. The CBO is predicting just 1.5 percent growth for 2013.
But so far, the economy is showing signs of holding its own against the fiscal drag.
Employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month since November. That helped lower the unemployment rate in February to 7.7 percent, a four-year low.
Economists expect similar job gains in March, in part because a measure of unemployment benefit applications fell this month to a five-year low.
Sales of previously occupied homes rose in February to the highest level in nearly three years, while builders broke ground on more houses and apartments. Annual home prices jumped in January by the most since June 2006, according to a closely watched measure.
Stock prices have surged. On Wednesday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was within two points of its all-time high.
All of that is making consumers feel wealthier, which could lead to more spending. Consumer spending drives 70 percent of economic activity.
The Federal Reserve still thinks the economy needs aggressive measures to bolster growth. Last week it stood by its plan to keep a key short-term interest rate near zero until unemployment drops below 6.5 percent. The Fed also left unchanged its plan to keep buying $85 billion in bonds until it sees a substantial improvement in the job market.
The slowdown in business inventories trimmed 1.5 percentage point from growth in the fourth quarter and the reductions in defense spending cut another 1.3 percentage point from growth.
Consumer spending was growing at a 1.8 percent rate in the fourth quarter, slightly better than the 1.6 percent increase in the third quarter but down from last month's estimate that consumer spending was growing by 2.1 percent.
That revision was offset by upward revisions in business investment spending on structures and equipment and by stronger sales of U.S. exports.
The government first estimated two months ago that the economy had contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, a decline that was erased by the revisions.
The government will release its first look at first quarter growth on April 26.
http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2013/03/28/us-economy-expands-at-04-percent-rate-n1551591

CNN: Say, Did the White House Mislead Us on the Costs of Obamacare?

Wow....Are the Liberal Hacks in the Media Tired of hiding the truth or kissing Obama's Ass?


This report was prompted by two stories we've covered this week: (1) Kathleen Sebelius' belated admission that some Americans will, in fact, see their premiums rise due to the "Affordable" Care Act, and (2) the American Society of Actuaries' determination that insurers will see claim pay-outs on individual plans rise by 32 percent as a result of the law.  This wasn't how things were supposed to be, according to the administration's deeply dishonest sales pitch.  CNN aired this segment last night:
 

Yes, that report really included a clip of a White House lackey assailing a nonpartisan actuarial organization for rudely producing rigorous estimates that deviated from the president's preferred narrative.  Obama vs. math -- how thoroughly appropriate.  (Perhaps Obama's SuperPAC can run some ads accusing the bookkeepers of giving their numbers cancer. "These anti-women calculators are too extreme!").  In spite of the administration's churlish attacks, the professional accountants are standing by their politically- inconvenient numbers.  The concession from Sebelius is doubly notable because of her infamous 2010 threat against insurers who told the truth about Obamacare's impact on costs and premiums:
 
Witness Kathleen Sebelius's Thursday letter to America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group—a thuggish message even by her standards. The Health and Human Services secretary wrote that some insurers have been attributing part of their 2011 premium increases to ObamaCare and warned that "there will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases." Zero tolerance for expressing an opinion, or offering an explanation to policyholders? They're more subtle than this in Caracas. What Ms. Sebelius really means is that the government will prohibit insurers from doing business if reality is not politically convenient for Democrats. ObamaCare includes a slew of mandated benefits for next year, such as allowing children to remain on their parents' plans until age 26 and "free" preventative care (i.e., no direct out-of-pocket cost sharing for consumers). The tone of Ms. Sebelius's letter suggests that she doesn't understand that money is exchanged for goods and services, and that if Congress mandates new benefits, premiums will rise.  

The HHS Secretary's updated line is a classic exercise in goalpost-moving and expectations management, an even starker example of which we covered over the weekend.  Out: Legislative perfection!  In: (Hopefully) not a "third-world experience!"
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/03/28/cnn-say-were-we-lied-to-about-the-costs-of-obamacare-n1551196

France to tax companies 75 pct on $1.3M salaries

Wow...More Taxing the rich! It does not make sense.When will they say they had enough?


PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande may have finally found a way to tax the really rich: by making their companies pay.
In a televised interview Thursday night, he said he wants companies that pay their employees more than 1 million euros ($1.3 million) to pay 75 percent payroll taxes on those salaries.
The proposed tax, which still needs to be approved by parliament, replaces one of Hollande's signature campaign proposals: to tax individuals who earns more than 1 million euros at 75 percent. France's highest court has thrown out that plan and the government has been looking for a replacement.
Hollande said he hoped the new proposal would push companies to lower executive pay at a time when France's economy is suffering, unemployment is soaring and employees are being asked to take pay cuts.
While the president reiterated his goal of stopping the rise of unemployment this year and restarting growth, he offered no specific new economic policies.
"The tools are there. We need to use them fully," he said on France-2 television.
The new payroll tax would last only two years. On the highest salaries, companies already pay payroll taxes that add up to at least 50 percent of the paycheck.
"What's my idea? It's not to punish," Hollande said. "When so much is asked of employees, can those who are the highest-paid not make this effort for two years?"
Hollande's original plan for a 75 percent tax on individuals was also conceived as a largely symbolic measure. It was likely to have brought in only about 100 million to 300 million euros — an insignificant amount in the context of France's roughly 85 billion-euro deficit.
As Hollande's popularity slides, he has struggled to convince the French that he is doing enough to boost growth — or to redistribute wealth, as his leftist base wants. Going after high-earners may be an easy win for him with voters.
French growth has been stagnant for nearly two years, and unemployment has been rising for 19 straight months and is now at 10.6 percent — a level not seen since 1999. Consumer confidence slipped again in March after briefly starting to rise earlier this year. The national statistics agency, Insee, found this month that the French are more pessimistic about the economy's prospects for the coming year than they have ever been. (The survey was first taken in 1972.)
But some may wonder if adding another tax on companies as he is trying to encourage growth is the right message to be sending.
Despite the poor economy, Hollande has avoided imposing the deep spending cuts that other European countries like Greece and Spain have imposed. And he said again Thursday that he would not go down that path — even though France will miss its deficit target of 3 percent of gross domestic product this year.
"Prolonging austerity will risk not reducing the deficits and bring the certainty of having unpopular governments that populists will eat alive," he said.
France has largely avoided the unrest seen in European countries that are experiencing deep recessions, but the layoffs are piling up and have spawned some protests. On Thursday, around 100 workers from a factory that carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen wants to close stormed the offices of France's leading business lobby, Medef. Police said dozens were arrested.
http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2013/03/28/france-to-tax-companies-75-pct-on-13m-salaries-n1552093

CBO: Food Stamp Rolls Estimated to Hit Historic High

Lets tell these People the economy is on a strong Recovery. 


There are more Americans today collecting food stamps than ever before, and that number is expected to rise steadily for the rest of the year, according to the CBO. The Wall Street Journal reports:
The financial crisis is over and the recession ended in 2009. But one of the federal government's biggest social welfare programs, which expanded when the economy convulsed, isn't shrinking back alongside the recovery.
Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as the modern-day food-stamp benefit is known, has soared 70% since 2008 to a record 47.8 million as of December 2012. Congressional budget analysts think participation will rise again this year and dip only slightly in coming years.
The biggest factor behind the upward march of food stamps is a sluggish job market and a rising poverty rate. At the same time, many states have pushed to get more people to apply for SNAP, a program where the federal government picks up the tab.
But there is another driver, which has its origins in President Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare overhaul.In recent years, the law has enabled states to ease asset and income tests for would-be participants, with the encouragement of the Obama administration, allowing into the program people with relatively higher incomes as well as savings.
The new rules were designed to encourage people to take advantage of the program before they became destitute. By expanding the pool of potential applicants, they are redrawing the landscape of government assistance. It is one reason why SNAP appears to have evolved from a program that rose and fell with the unemployment rate to a more permanent feature of the landscape.
Republicans are often portrayed as heartless advocates for cutting government programs that ostensibly help children, senior citizens, and the poor. But the truth is that many -- I daresay most -- of the people on, say, food stamps, really shouldn’t be. Because of poorly crafted policies (dating back to the Clinton era and continuing through the present day) more and more Americans are lining up to receive food-assistance benefits. Why? Because the government has perversely incentivized -- and recruited people -- to accept government hand-outs they don’t need. And while this certainly helps Democrats expand their voting rolls -- and win elections -- how does this promote a vibrant, healthy 21st century economy? Isn't that what we want above all else?
The key to eradicating poverty is crafting policies that empower citizens -- not making them dependent on “free” benefits. As meticulously detailed in Arthur C. Brooks’ book, “The Road to Freedom,” opportunity created via the free enterprise system is what lifts humanity out of poverty -- not government. Of course, we should absolutely have a social safety net that protects the poorest among us who can’t provide for themselves. But there must be realistic and stringent restrictions on receiving government benefits. Our public policies should encourage and promote working. After all, Big Government stifles innovation and traps people in poverty; it doesn’t create prosperity.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/danieldoherty/2013/03/28/cbo-food-stamps-rolls-estimated-to-hit-historic-high-n1551975

NEW SCANDAL THREATENS OBAMA, HILLARY


TEL AVIV – Has the White House been misleading the public by repeatedly denying it was coordinating arms shipments to the rebels in Syria, insurgents known to consist in large part of al-Qaida and other jihadist groups?
Other top U.S. officials and former officials, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have implied in congressional testimony that they didn’t know about any U.S. involvement in procuring weapons for the rebels.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/new-scandal-threatens-obama-hillary/#s5H2Dam9Q9pxgUZ4.99 



Now, a starkly different picture is emerging, one that threatens the longstanding White House narrative that claims the Obama administration has only supplied nonlethal aid to the rebels.
Confirming WND’s exclusive reporting for over a year, the New York Times two days ago reported that since early 2012, the CIA has been aiding Arab governments and Turkey in obtaining and shipping weapons to the Syrian rebels.
While the Times report claims most of the weapons shipments facilitated by the CIA began after the latest presidential election, Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND have said U.S.-aided weapons shipments go back more than a year, escalating before the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi.
In fact, the Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND since last year describe the U.S. mission in Benghazi and nearby CIA annex attacked last September as an intelligence and planning center for U.S. aid to the rebels in the Middle East, particularly those fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The aid, the sources stated, included weapons shipments and was being coordinated with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Recruiting jihadists
Days after the Benghazi attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, WND broke the story that Stevens himself played a central role in recruiting jihadists to fight Assad’s regime in Syria, according to Egyptian and other Middle Eastern security officials.
Stevens served as a key contact with the Saudis to coordinate the recruitment by Saudi Arabia of Islamic fighters from North Africa and Libya. The jihadists were sent to Syria via Turkey to attack Assad’s forces, said the security officials.
The officials said Stevens also worked with the Saudis to send names of potential jihadi recruits to U.S. security organizations for review. Names found to be directly involved in previous attacks against the U.S., including in Iraq and Afghanistan, were ultimately not recruited by the Saudis to fight in Syria, said the officials.
Now the New York Times has bolstered WND’s reporting, citing air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders describing how the CIA has been working with Arab governments and Turkey to sharply increase arms shipments to Syrian rebels in recent months.
The Times reported that the weapons airlifts began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanding into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows.
The Times further revealed that from offices at “secret locations,” American intelligence officers have helped the Arab governments shop for weapons, including a large procurement from Croatia. They have vetted rebel commanders and groups to determine who should receive the weapons as they arrive.
The CIA declined to comment to the Times on the shipments or its role in them.
The Times quoted a former American official as saying that David H. Petraeus, the C.I.A. director until November, had been instrumental in helping set up an aviation network to fly in the weapons. The paper said Petraeus had prodded various countries to work together on the plan.
Petraeus did not return multiple emails from the Times asking for comment.
Both WND’s reporting, which first revealed the U.S.-coordinated arms shipments, and the Times reporting starkly contrast with statements from top U.S. officials who have denied aiding the supply of weapons to the rebels.
Last month, the White House flatly denied involvement in arming the Syrian rebels, going so far as to say the Obama administration rejected a plan by former Secretary of State Clinton and then-CIA Director Petraeus to help arm the rebels.
Nobody has ever raised that with me’
The exchange on the subject took place with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Paul asked Clinton: “Is the U. S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons, buying, selling, anyhow transferring weapons to Turkey out of Libya?”
“To Turkey?” Clinton asked. “I will have to take that question for the record. Nobody has ever raised that with me.”
Continued Paul: “It’s been in news reports that ships have been leaving from Libya and that may have weapons, and what I’d like to know is the annex that was close by, were they involved with procuring, buying, selling, obtaining weapons, and were any of these weapons being transferred to other countries, any countries, Turkey included?”
Clinton replied, “Well, Senator, you’ll have to direct that question to the agency that ran the annex. I will see what information is available.”
“You’re saying you don’t know?” asked Paul.
“I do not know,” Clinton said. “I don’t have any information on that.
In testimony last month, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked then-Defense Secretary John Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whether they had supported a plan “that we provide weapons to the resistance in Syria.”
“We do,” Panetta replied.
“You did support that?” McCain asked again.
“We did,” added Dempsey, who was sitting next to Panetta.
Neither Dempsey nor Panetta elaborated on their positions or commented on any actual arms shipments.
Rebel training
This is not the first time WND’s original investigative reporting on U.S. support for the Syrian rebels was later confirmed by reporting in major media outlets. Other WND reporting indicates support for the Syrian rebels that goes beyond supplying arms, painting a larger picture of U.S. involvement in the Middle East revolutions.
A story generating worldwide attention by the German weekly Der Spiegel earlier this month reporting the U.S. is training Syrian rebels in Jordan was exclusively exposed by WND 13 months ago.
Quoting what it said were training participants and organizers, Der Spiegel reported it was not clear whether the Americans worked for private firms or were with the U.S. Army, but the magazine said some organizers wore uniforms.
The training in Jordan reportedly focused on use of anti-tank weaponry.
The German magazine reported some 200 men received the training over the past three months amid U.S. plans to train a total of 1,200 members of the Free Syrian Army in two camps in the south and the east of Jordan.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper also reported U.S. trainers were aiding Syrian rebels in Jordan along with British and French instructors.
Reuters reported a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department declined immediate comment on the Der Spiegel report. The French foreign ministry and Britain’s foreign and defense ministries also would not comment to Reuters.
While Der Spiegel quoted sources discussing training of the rebels in Jordan over the last three months, WND was first to report the training as far back as February 2012.
At the time, WND quoted knowledgeable Egyptian and Arab security officials claimed the U.S., Turkey and Jordan were running a training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi in the country’s northern desert region.
Any training or arming of the Syrian rebels would be considered highly controversial. A major issue is the inclusion of jihadists, including al-Qaida, among the ranks of the Free Syrian Army and other Syrian opposition groups.



Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/new-scandal-threatens-obama-hillary/#s5H2Dam9Q9pxgUZ4.99