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Treasury Knew Last Spring
About IRS Targeting Conservatives

See House panel launches inquiries into IRS targeting of conservative groups, The Washington Post, May 17, 2013, by Ed O'Keefe: "J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s top tax watchdog, said Friday he had informed top Treasury officials starting last spring about problems related to the special attention the agency was paying some conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. George said he shared the information with the Treasury’s general counsel in June and with Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin 'shortly thereafter.'"

See IRS hearing: The takeaways, Politico, May 18, 2013, by David Nather, Lauren French and Kelsey Snell: "The ousted head of the IRS was grilled for four hours Friday, but we still don’t know how the tea party targeting really started. ...What we do know from the first hearing since the scandal broke: IRS officials haven’t convinced lawmakers they played it straight with Congress. It’s not over for the IRS workers. And witnesses are being beat up too much for these to be “just the facts” hearings."

Also See Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller defiant as GOP attacks, Politico, May 17, 2013, by Lauren French and Kelsey Snell.

Pentagon approves iPhones,
iPads for military use

See Pentagon approves iPhones, iPads for military use, The Washington Post, May 17, 2013, by Hayley Tsukayama: "The Defense Department said Friday that it has approved Apple devices for use on its networks, meaning that it can issue its employees iPhones and iPads at the office.

"With the announcement, Apple joins Samsung and BlackBerry on a short list of commercial smartphone makers that the Pentagon says are secure enough for its workers to use. Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS 6 meet that standard, the Defense Department said in a release."

Obama Tries To
Reestablish Agenda

See Obama visits Baltimore, tries to turn focus to efforts to help middle class, The Washington Post, May 17, 2013, by David Nakamura: "Capping one of the most difficult weeks of his tenure, Obama leaves the Beltway to talk about jobs."

Watch GOP overreach warning signs: 'Behind the Curtain', Politico, May 16, 2013, by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen -- 1:54.

Huge Asteroid to Fly
Past Earth This Month

See Huge Asteroid to Fly Past Earth This Month, Space.com, May 17, 2013, by Mike Wall: "A big asteroid will cruise by Earth at the end of the month, making its closest approach to our planet for at least the next two centuries.

"The May 31 flyby of asteroid 1998 QE2, which is about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) long, poses no threat to Earth. The space rock will come within 3.6 million miles (5.8 million km) of our planet — about 15 times the distance separating Earth and the moon, researchers say."

Also See Biggest Solar Flares of the Year Erupt from Active Sun (Video), Space.com, May 13, 2013, by Tariq Malik.

Apple CEO Cook to
propose tax overhaul

See Apple CEO Cook to propose tax overhaul, The Washington Post, April 16, 2013, by Cecelia Kang: From the newsletter: "Apple chief executive Tim Cook plans to propose a 'dramatic simplification' of corporate tax laws when he testifies for the first time before Congress next week, just as lawmakers are eying an overhaul of the tax code.

"In an interview with The Washington Post, Cook said he will present specific proposals at a Senate hearing Tuesday aimed at encouraging companies to bring back foreign earnings to the United States and invest that money into creating jobs as well as research and development."

---

84 Percent of NYC Fast Food
Workers Report Wage Theft

See 84 Percent of NYC Fast Food Workers Report Wage Theft, AlterNet, May 16, 2013, by Steven Hsieh: "The report arrives in the midst of a national movement in the industry for better wages and the right to unionize."

Corporations Have Shifted Costs
of Running Our Nation Over
to Workers While Profiting Wildly

See Ayn Rand USA: In 20 Years Corporate Profits Are Up 4X and Their Taxes Have Fallen by 50% -- Meanwhile the Workers' Payroll Tax Has Doubled, AlterNet, May 12, 2013, by Paul Buchheit: PE -- Paul Krugman has largely proven that what is happening to the middle class versus the rich is largely the result of political pressure and influence.

Man Brought Back From
Dead After 40 Minutes

See Man Dead For 40 Minutes Brought Back To Life With New CPR Technique, The Huffington Post, May 14, 2013, by Cavan Sieczkowski. "Fiedler is one of seven cardiac arrest patients in Australia treated with the technique and one of three revived after being declared dead for 40 to 60 minutes, the Herald Sun notes."

At Least 71 Kids 12 & Under
Have Been Killed
By Guns Since Newtown

See Kids Killed by Guns Since Newtown, Mother Jones, May 9, 2013, by Mark Follman: "In the last five months there have been at least 71 of them. None older than 12, several as young as five or six months, all of their lives ended by a bullet." PE -- 40 pf them were 'accidents' and 31 or them were homicides. Special ire is directed at a gun manufacturer, Crickett Firearms, whose weapons are made specifically for children, and whose sales have been increasing in recent years.

New Libya Developments

What, No Benghazi Conspiracy?

See Full White House Benghazi Email Undermines GOP’s Cover-Up Claims, ThinkProgress, May 14, 2013, by Hayes Brown: "CNN has obtained the full email from a White House official on the Benghazi talking points, which undermines claims that the administration acted deliberately to change the intelligence community’s assessment."

See Obama spokesman accuses Republicans of leaking falsified Benghazi e-mail, The Washington Post, May 14, 2013, by Karen DeYoung: PE -- The title about says it all. Obama also accused House Speaker John Boehner of being obsessed with making a political killing over the Benghazi mess.

Watch Dianne Feinstein worries politics are a motivating factor behind the Republican interest in Benghazi, NBC News Meet the Press, May 13, 2013, by NBC News. Senator Feinstein: "'My concern is when Hillary Clinton's name is mentioned 32 times in a hearing, that the point of the hearing is to discredit the secretary of state who has very high popularity and may well be a candidate for president.'" Yesterday's (5-12) News on the Benghazi tragedy mainly involves a rather late recognition that the mission was a CIA operation and was not the State Department's. So all this gunning after both Obama and certainly Hillary was mainly just vicious. See Benghazi Talking Points: Petraeus’ Revenge, emptywheel, May 11, 2013, by emptywheel. See Police stations bombed, British embassy cuts Libya staff, Reuters, May 11, 2013, by Jessica Donati and Ghaith Shennib.

Obama: Make Medicare More
Expensive, Combine Parts A & B
(Big Rate Hikes Coming
with Implementation of Obamacare)

PE -- This is ten day old news but it sure as heck is flying under the radar. See update below. Read Left boils as Obama floats major change to Medicare, The Hill, May 4, 2013, by Elise Viebeck: PE -- Combining Medicare Parts A and B would result in higher costs to consumers. First Republican reactions seem receptive. The deal is, combine Parts A and B, causing less government expense (but) also causing a higher deductible. In return the GOP will drop it's plans to privatize Medicare. See Talk of Medicare Changes Could Open Way to Budget Pact, The NY Times, March 28, 2013, by Jackie Calmes and Robert Pear. UPDATE by PE -- Everybody with paid health insurance may find themselves infuriated by coming large price jumps in premiums. See Obamacare Oversight: The Looming Premium Rate Shock, House Energy and Commerce Committee, March 14, 2013 and ongoing. PE -- Rate Hikes range from a 10 percent premium jump to in some states stunning figures like 55 percent. I only with to God that wouldn't be so, but it looks like it will be.

SCOTUS Rules for Monsanto
Says The Have Control
of the Genetics of Life

See Corporate Win: Supreme Court Says Monsanto Has 'Control Over Product of Life', Common Dreams, May 13, 2013, by Jacob Chamberlain: "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of biotech giant Monsanto, ordering Indiana farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman, 75, to pay Monsanto more than $84,000 for patent infringement for using second generation Monsanto seeds purchased second hand—a ruling which will have broad implications for the ownership of 'life' and farmers' rights in the future."

FBI Wants 'Wiretap Ready' Internet

See FBI’s Latest Proposal for a Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed, Wired.com, May 10, 2013, by Julian Sanchez: "The FBI has some strange ideas about how to “update” federal surveillance laws: They’re calling for legislation to penalize online services that provide users with too much security.

"I’m not kidding. The proposal was revealed in The Washington Post last week — and a couple days ago, a front-page story in The New York Times reported the Obama administration is preparing to back it.

"Why? Federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI have long feared their wiretap capabilities would begin “going dark” as criminals and terrorists — along with ordinary citizens — shift from telephone networks, which are required to be wiretap-ready under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), to the dizzying array of online communications platforms available today."

PE -- I read, in an early edition of "Windows XP for Dummies" that the FBI stores an untouchable, untraceable cookie on any PC or other machine that has ever connected to the internet.

Is it time to push the Button
On Intervention in Syria?

See Nyet! Now Russia Won’t Sell Badass Missile to Syria, Wired.com, May 10, 2013, by William Ackerman: "Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, ended nervous Washington and Pentagon speculation today by telling the ITAR-TASS news agency that the Kremlin isn’t actually going to sell the S-300 air defense missile to Assad. "Whatever other arms deals Russia will honor Syria with, the S-300 won’t be included. ...U.S. officials had worried to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the Russians were prepared to ship Assad as many as 144 operational 3-000s, along with six (presumably mobile) launchers. Syria already has about five times the air defenses that Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya did, packed within a fifth of Libya’s territory,"

See Exclusive: Turkish PM Erdogan: Syria has crossed red line, used chemical weapons, NBC News World News, May 9, 2013, by Stacy Connor: Video and text: PE -- However it was a murky statement by Turkey and implied that Turkey may have been referring to an earlier, well-known use of chemical weapons by Syria. Also See A beginning for Syria talks, The Washington Post, May 8, 2013, by David Ignatius (Opinion): "...Secretary of State John Kerry has finally gotten Russia to back the peace plan on Syria that it endorsed in principle last June." PE -- For a human perspective on the war, watch People & Power : Syria: Behind Rebel Lines, Aljazeera English - 25 minutes.

GOP-backed ‘workplace flexibility’
bill is designed to kill
overtime pay

See Advocate: GOP-backed ‘workplace flexibility’ bill is designed to kill overtime pay, The Raw Story, May 9, 2013, by Kay Steiger: "The House of Representatives passed a Republican-sponsored bill on Wednesday evening purporting to offer greater flexibility to working families, but the bill has been vehemently opposed by women’s groups and labor unions who say the only “flexibility” offered by the bill is given to the employers and not the employees. The bill passed by a vote of 223-204 along party lines." SIGN THE PETITION against this here.

Fannie Mae to Pay
$59.4B to Treasury

See Fannie Mae to pay $59.4B to Treasury, The Washington Post, May 9, 2013, by Zachary Goldfarb: "Fannie Mae on Thursday said it would make a $59.4 billion payment to taxpayers as a result of its renewed financial strength, a move that budget forecasters say makes it even more likely that the deadline to raise the federal debt limit will be pushed back until around Oct. 1.

Social Security:
Payments to be Cut?

See Social Security's Explosive Injustices, Truthout, May 7, 2013, by Richard D. Wolff: "People over 65, a growing share of the US population, are suffering a crisis-ridden capitalist system. High unemployment, reduced private pensions, fewer job benefits, less job security, high personal debt levels, and falling real wages make Social Security payments more important than ever. Yet President Obama and Congress recently agreed to bargain over how much to reduce Social Security payments from current levels." PE -- In my opinion this may be necessary on the face of it, but all that is really needed is for Congress to man up and raise the cap (above $113,000) beyond which no taxes are paid to Social Security. This alone would put Social Security in a surplus situation.

Everything We Knew About Time
May Be Wrong

See ‘Time Crystals’ Could Upend Physicists’ Theory of Time, Wired.com, April 30, 2013, by Natalie Wolchover of Simons News Service: "In February 2012, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek decided to go public with a strange and, he worried, somewhat embarrassing idea. Impossible as it seemed, Wilczek had developed an apparent proof of “time crystals” — physical structures that move in a repeating pattern, like minute hands rounding clocks, without expending energy or ever winding down. Unlike clocks or any other known objects, time crystals derive their movement not from stored energy but from a break in the symmetry of time, enabling a special form of perpetual motion."

General Electric
& Corporate Responsibility

General Electric had $144.8 billion in sales last year (2012). The profits were $14.68 billion. The taxes they paid on that: ZERO. Many years they get a huge refund. In 2011 GE claimed a tax REFUND of $3.2 billion. That tax return was 57,000 pages long. Finally, according to a Politico newsletter from April 27th, GE spent $5.2 million on lobbying in the first quarter of this year. THIS is corporate responsibility.

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Adam, Smith
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From Wealth of Nations -- 1776: "It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more in proportion."

Jesus Christ on Riches:
It is easier for a camel to pass through
the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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"Not only will the broader U.S. economy be negatively affected by the $1.2 trillion in federal budget cuts, but in 2013 alone communities large and small will face a total of $85 billion in cuts." -- Center for American Progress

(29) And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

(30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

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Jack E. Evans: RIP
1925 -- 2012

I will always love you, Jack,
and think of you so very highly!

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