Issues
The Dietary Supplement Labeling Act of 2011, S. 1310, would clarify “conventional foods” and place the FDA in the role of defining which products are foods, and which are health aids and therefore subject to regulation as dietary supplements for FDA policing.
Has the Sinaloa drug cartel of Mexico replaced Whitey Bulger as the U.S. federal government’s most favored gang (MFG)?
I don’t know Peter Gadiel, and he apparently knows absolutely nothing about me. But that hasn’t stopped him from attacking me in a recent article (Influential Conservative is Dangerously Wrong on E-Verify). His article makes some outrageous statements about me, even to presume he can tell you what motives are in my head when I take a position.
Recently, I released an article entitled “E-Verify and the Emerging Surveillance State.” My opposition to E-Verify is that it is a major tool in the creation of a surveillance society; will give the government the power to decide who works and who doesn’t in America; will be a great burden on both worker and business; and will do absolutely nothing to protect us from illegal immigration or terrorism. In short, E-Verify represents another false promise of security and a greater threat to our freedom.
Angered over what they perceive to be a violation of free speech, hackers in California launched an online attack against a California transit agency after it turned off cellphone service at its stations in an effort to prevent a potential protest last week.
The hackers are apparently frustrated by efforts taken by police in San Francisco to jam cellphone communications so that protesters could not move forward with their protests. Gawker.com explains: "Protesters had planned to gather at a San Francisco BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit] station during rush hour to protest the fatal July shooting of Charles Hill by a BART police officer. But the protest never materialized. One reason, possibly, is the extreme lengths police went to make sure potential protesters couldn't communicate."
The latest ranking of contractors providing services to the federal government reveals that at least nine of the top 10 are tied to the Department of Defense and took in nearly $70 billion of the government’s money in 2010. Leading the pack as it has for the past 17 years is Lockheed Martin, with $17 billion, followed by Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Dynamics.
The top 27 contractors each received at least $1 billion in contracts from the government last year, with Number 100 on the list, Teledyne, getting $170 million. This reflects the enormous growth of government spending in general, and on outside vendors in particular, growing from $207 billion in 2000 to $535 billion last year.
Seattle, Washington, is one of 25 communities that received $20 million from the Stimulus program as part of “Retrofit Ramp Up” — an initiative of the Department of Energy in which stimulus dollars are utilized to make homes more energy efficient. The program was touted as one that would create 2000 “green” jobs in the city of Seattle and retrofit at least 2000 homes. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But there’s just one problem. The program is a massive failure.
“Retrofit Ramp-Up,” according to Vice President Joe Biden who announced the program, sought to accomplish the following:
It’s about making our homes and our office buildings more efficient and more comfortable and more affordable, replacing windows and doors. I have visited, along with some of the people in the front row, new window and door factories making incredibly -- incredibly energy-efficient windows and doors, which can save billions of dollars over time. Putting in new air conditioning or heating units that are much more efficient. Sealing up cracks and openings where air can leak into and out of your home.
A new U.S. military report — which will give additional credence to those advocating an end to foreign aid and interventionism — reveals that America has been funding her enemies to the tune of $360 million. After a careful examination of combat support and reconstruction contracts, researchers determined that the U.S. tax dollars had ended up with the Taliban and other enemies whom the United States has been fighting for the past decade.
The Blaze observes:
The losses underscore the challenges the U.S. and its international partners face in overcoming corruption in Afghanistan. A central part of the Obama administration’s strategy has been to award U.S.-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve quality of life and stoke the country’s economy.
The investigation into the contracts, led by U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, reveals many connections between the Afghan companies and their subcontractors to groups which the military would classify as “malign actors.”
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has declared that the United States should cut off aid to Israel on the grounds of “human rights violations.” As head of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on foreign operations, Leahy is promoting a bill that would suspend U.S. assistance to three units in the Israeli Defense Forces, asserting that they are involved in human rights abuses in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. According to The Blaze, “Leahy’s legislation would seek to withhold assistance from the Israeli Navy’s Shayetet 13 unit, the undercover Duvdevan unit and the Israeli Air Force’s Shaldag unit.”
Leahy was the key sponsor of a 1997 bill that prohibits the United States from giving aid or military assistance to any foreign military suspected of human rights abuses or war crimes and now wants the new clause pertaining to the IDF to become part of the U.S. foreign assistance legislation for 2012.
Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz reports:
President Barack Obama has been traveling in style — Canadian style — while riding through the Midwest to talk about creating jobs in America. The New York Post reported Wednesday that the $1.1 million bus — one of two purchased for the Secret Service — carrying the President through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, was made by the Quebec company, Prevost. It is the top of the line, VIP H3-45 model used by many rock bands and country music acts, Christine Garant of Prevost told the Post.
"That's the more luxurious model," Garant said. "When we have the Country Music Awards, we sometimes see a lot of them," she said, naming Kid Rock, David Lee Roth and Kenny Rogers among the owners of the luxury vehicles.
Like the presidential limousine, made by General Motors and nicknamed "The Beast," the bus carrying the President has armored doors. Inside is a large, flat-screen TV, chairs, sofas and electronic equipment that allows the President to teleconference with people in any part of the world. It has a bathroom, but unlike the buses used by many of the big-name entertainers, it has no bedroom or sleeping area. Its Secret Service code name is "Stagecoach" when the President is on board, sources told ABC News.
While the private-sector is drowning under a perpetual recessionary storm, U.S. regulatory agencies are flourishing. "If the federal government’s regulatory operation were a business, it would be one of the 50 biggest in the country in terms of revenues, and the third largest in terms of employees, with more people working for it than McDonald’s, Ford, Disney and Boeing combined," writes John Merline of Investors.com.
Indeed, the federal regulatory business is thriving, and if there is one "victory" President Obama can declare, this is it, because government regulation has grown rapidly under his watch. From Investors.com:
