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Thursday, April 24, 2008
Government
- Increases in the National Debt Chart
- Graphic chart of increases in the National Debt Chart from 1776 to present
- US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
- National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.
- Bill Proposes Database of Offenders to Aid Dating
- Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, the San Francisco Democrat who is the majority whip, introduced a bill last week to create an online database of men and women convicted of domestic violence in California.
- Schwarzenegger: California will sue federal government
- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sue the federal government over its decision not to allow a California plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he announced Thursday.
- Google to Outspend US Government on Environment
- ...if you want to weigh Google’s proposed spending, check out my three part series on the US Budget. Check out Budget 09: How’d the Environment Do – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
- Safety agency slow to publicize hazards: report
- U.S. consumer safety regulators typically take almost seven months to inform the public of dangerous products in cases where the manufacturers were fined for not promptly reporting the defect, watchdog group Public Citizen said on Thursday.
- The TSA has a blog
- Our favorite federal administration, the TSA, has just launched a blog, called Evolution of Security. It kicks off with a cheerful message from Kip Hawley.
- Tighter driver's license rules coming out
- Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials.
- Top 10 Things Americans Want but Can't Have
- 10 Things Americans Want but Can't Have
- Marijuana ban failing just as Prohibition did
- The hearing on HB 1623, the bill to reduce penalties for marijuana possession, made for some interesting drama in the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
- FBI Wiretaps Dropped Due to Unpaid Bills
- Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.
- Techdirt: If The Fashion Industry Doesn't Get Special...
- ...we noted that the fashion industry was a near perfect example of a creative industry that thrived despite no copyright protection on clothing designs. It showed what a myth it was that creation and innovation would stop in the absence of copyright law.
- States of Opportunity - WSJ.com
- An old adage says high taxes don't redistribute income, they redistribute people. For new evidence look no further than migration patterns within the United States, as documented in a new survey by the moving company United Van Lines.
- Wesley Snipes to Go on Trial in Tax Case
- From 1999 to 2004, the actor Wesley Snipes earned $38 million appearing in more than half a dozen movies, including two sequels to his popular vampire thriller “Blade.” The taxes he paid in the same period? Zero.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Government News
- 9/11 commission leaders blast CIA on interrogation tapes
- The leaders of a US commission that examined the September 11, 2001 terror attacks accused the CIA Wednesday of having obstructed their investigation by withholding information about videotaped interrogations of terror suspects.
- The U.S. is Now an "Endemic Surveillance Society"
- The U.S. has been downgraded from "Extensive Surveillance Society" to "Endemic Surveillance Society," according to Privacy International's 2007 International Privacy Ranking
- U.S. Ruling Backs Benefit Cut at 65 in Retiree Plans
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.
- Tsunami aid 'spent on politics'
- Three years after Australians donated $400 million to rebuild Asian lives devastated by the 2004 tsunami, aid groups are under attack for spending much of the money on social and political engineering.
- Articles on Condoms and Safe Sex Resources, Relationship...
- One shortage that does not get as much press, however, is the condom shortage that is happening across the globe.
- The Spectrum Swindle - Mises Institute
- On January 24 a strange transaction will take place. At least $4.6 billion dollars will change hands between one or more firms and the FCC. The likely payoff is estimated to be somewhere between $10 and $30 billion.
- How to Safeguard Your Privacy Online
- I can live with the fact that national security concerns may warrant some invasion of privacy ...I am not comfortable giving up personal information as to how I think for the sake of companies and their marketing departments serving me relevant advertising.
- Protectionism and My Stuffy Nose - Mises Institute
- ...Congress and the administration passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005, which rations the amount you can buy and requires that you prove your identity and sign a special form.
- Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950 - New York Times
- A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.
- Immigration Ground Zero
- The new ground zero in the debate over illegal immigration is Arizona, where the nation's toughest and potentially most far-reaching crackdown on undocumented workers and their employers is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1