Merry Christmas

 

Here is the most amazing documentary. Please spend 90 minutes to watch it.

AGENDA:Grinding America Down-Tracing The Socialist Mentality Of Americans

This documentary walks us through the inception of socialism's roots on American soil, how it has functioned and flourished in American culture and how it has permeated, using various propaganda puppets, American society and our very belief system to the point that is is acceptable to be anti-Constitutional and the path leads right to the door of the White House!

Genetic Roulette - The Gamble of our Lives

 

Movie to see: Genetic Roulette - The Gamble of our Lives

When the US government ignored repeated warnings by its own scientists and allowed untested genetically modified (GM) crops into our environment and food supply, it was a gamble of unprecedented proportions. The health of all living things and all future generations were put at risk by an infant technology.

After two decades, physicians and scientists have uncovered a grave trend. The same serious health problems found in lab animals, livestock, and pets that have been fed GM foods are now on the rise in the US population. And when people and animals stop eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), their health improves.

This seminal documentary provides compelling evidence to help explain the deteriorating health of Americans, especially among children, and offers a recipe for protecting ourselves and our future.

More information can be found at: http://geneticroulettemovie.com
and http://responsibletechnology.org

Order the DVD at: http://seedsofdeception.com/store/dvdcd?product_id=124

Donate to support the The Institute for Responsible Technology: http://www.responsibletechnology.org/donategr

Pro-Family Group Warns of Agenda Behind SPLC’s “Mix It Up” Day

Dave Bohon
The New American
October 19, 2012

The American Family Association (AFA) is warning parents about an upcoming “entry level” diversity program being promoted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) under its “Teaching Tolerance” project. On October 30, at over 2,000 schools across the nation, the SPLC will activate its annual Mix It up at Lunch Day, which it describes as a campaign, established a decade ago, that “encourages students to identify, question and cross social boundaries.”

The SPLC explains that in its surveys, “students have identified the cafeteria as the place where divisions are most clearly drawn. So on one day — October 30 this school year — we ask students to move out of their comfort zones and connect with someone new over lunch. It’s a simple act with profound implications. Studies have shown that interactions across group lines can help reduce prejudice. When students interact with those who are different from them, biases and misperceptions can fall away.”

According to the SPLC, the goal of the Mix It up Day (MIU) is to get students to reach out and dialogue with others they feel uncomfortable with, such as students from other cultures, races, and ethnicities. But in a recent Action Alert, the AFA warned that the event is also a thinly disguised attempt to promote the homosexual lifestyle among elementary and junior high school students. “MIU is a project of the fanatical pro-homosexual group, Southern Poverty Law Center,” the AFA explained. “This is the same organization that launched hateful and malicious rhetoric toward the Family Research Council just prior to the August shooting of a security guard by an SPLC sympathizer.”

The AFA said the SPLC is using its MIU day “to bully-push its gay agenda, and at the same time intimidate and silence students who have a Biblical view of homosexuality.” In a follow-up alert the AFA said that “many school administrators were offended to learn that their school was listed as a ‘participating’ school on the SPLC website and ordered it removed immediately. In some cases, students or teachers independently signed the school up without approval, leaving principals and superintendents unprepared for phone calls from concerned parents.”

Full Story

US Debt Over $16 Trillion now!

At 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury reported that as of the close of business on Friday, Aug. 31, the U.S. debt had reached $16,015,769,788,215.80.
 
That marks the first time in the nation’s history that the federal government’s debt had exceeded $16 trillion.

The result of chronic government deficits have poured more than $50,000 worth of red ink onto federal ledgers for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Obama has presided over four straight years of trillion dollar-plus deficits.

President Obama, during his 2008 campaign, criticized President Bush for taking “out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents … so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back.”
 
But Obama has been unable to slow the rapidly mounting debt. The nation owed $10.6 trillion on Jan. 20, 2009, when he was sworn in, and has added another $5.4 trillion since – more than Bush piled up in two terms.

July 2012 Oklahoma Employment Numbers

Unemployment

Initial claims rose from 2,326 week ending 7/7/2012 to 2,343 the week ending 7/28/2012, or an increase of 17 new claims filed during July.

Continued claims increased by 96 from 23,261 from the 6/30/2012 week to 23,357 for the week ending 7/21/2012.

According to the BLS the number of unemployed persons in July decreased by 4,125 from June to 92,307. This is almost an 4% increase from June. This brings the July Unemployment Rate to 5.1% in Oklahoma. This is over 3% lower than the national rate reported as 8.3%

Employed

The total number of employed persons declined by 6,671 from June to July bringing the total employed to 1,718,230 in July in Oklahoma.

The labor force decreased by 10,796 persons in July to 1,810,537 from the 1,821,333 in June.

 

Definitions

Labor force (Current Population Survey)The labor force includes all persons classified as employed or unemployed in accordance with the definitions contained in this glossary.

Employed persons (Current Population Survey) Persons 16 years and over in the civilian non-institutional population who, during the reference week, (a) did any work at all (at least 1 hour) as paid employees; worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family; and (b) all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs. Each employed person is counted only once, even if he or she holds more than one job. Excluded are persons whose only activity consisted of work around their own house (painting, repairing, or own home housework) or volunteer work for religious, charitable, and other organizations.

Unemployed persons (Current Population Survey) Persons aged 16 years and older who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.

EPA’s “Sue and Settle Rulemaking” Criticized in New Report

 

As pointed out in yesterday’s post “Attorney General Pruitt Leads Effort to Uncover EPA’s Apparent “Sue and Settle” the EPA has devised a loophole to usurp state authority and federally impose a strict new set of emissions. The following is taken from the “EPA’s New Regulatory Front: Regional Haze and the Takeover of State Programs.”

The EPA’s Regional Haze program, established by the Clean Air Act in 1977, seeks to remedy visibility impairment at federal national parks and wilderness areas. But because the rule is an “aesthetic regulation, and not a public health standard,” Congress stressed that the states, not the federal agency, should impose regulations that govern it, says the chamber’s July 13 report titled “EPA’s New Regulatory Front: Regional Haze and the Takeover of State Programs.”

“However, EPA—with some help from its friends at special interest groups and the controversial ‘Sue and Settle’ Rulemaking process—has devised a loophole to usurp state authority and federally impose a strict new set of emissions controls that cost 10 to 20 times more than the technology the states would otherwise have used,” alleges the report authored by William Yeatman, an assistant director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the free-market think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Here’s how it works: In five Consent Decrees negoiated with environmental groups, EPA has willingly committed itself to deadlines to act on the states’ Regional Haze strategies. On the eve of any given deadline the agency, due to the Consent Decree, determines that it cannot approve a state’s strategy to reduce haze due to alleged procedural inadequacies. Then, EPA claims that it has no choice but to impose its preferred controls through a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) in order to comply with the
Consent Decree.

Already, EPA has used this pretextual rationale to impose almost $375 million in annual costs on six coal-fired power plants in New Mexico, Oklahoma,and North Dakota. It has similarly proposed $24 million in annual costs on a coal-fired power plant in Nebraska. Unfortunately, the agency is only getting started. In the near term, EPA is poised to act in Wyoming, Minnesota, Arizona, Utah, and Arkansas. Its real goal is to impose another costly regulation on electric utilities and force them to shut down their coal-fired generating units. Ultimately, all states could be subject to EPA’s Regional Haze power grab.

In spite of the legal and regulatory history, which demonstrates that Congress wants states to call the shots on Regional Haze, EPA is now implementing a program that tramples over the states’ authority. EPA’s approach to Regional Haze appears to be less about cleaning up haze and more about furthering EPA’s agenda to shut down coal-fired power plants.

The heart of the matter is that the states, after years of deliberation, selected specific emissions controls to comply with the Regional Haze regulation. In each of these states, EPA prefers different, more stringent, and more costly controls. And EPA is determined to force the states to implement these more costly controls over any and all objections.The problem is that the law provides primacy for the states—not EPA—to address regional haze within the states’ borders.

Enter Sue and Settle. Beginning in 2009, a group of nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations—Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians,Environmental Defense Fund, National Parks Conservation Association, Montana Environmental Information Center, Grand Canyon Trust, San Juan Citizens Alliance, Our Children’s Earth Foundation, Plains Justice, and Powder River Basin Resource Council—filed lawsuits against EPA alleging that the agency had failed to perform its nondiscretionary duty to act on state submissions
for regional haze. Rather than defend these cases, EPA simply chose to settle. In five Consent Decrees negotiated with environmental groups—and, importantly, without notice to the states that would be affected—EPA agreed to commit itself to various deadlines to act on all states’ visibility improvement plans.

What EPA did next is Washington politics at its worst.On the eve of the deadlines that EPA had set for itself in the Consent Decrees, the agency found that it could not approve the states’ submissions due to alleged procedural problems, such as inadequate cost estimates. The Consent Decree deadlines do not afford states sufficient time to correct the alleged procedural inadequacies.

By second-guessing these states’ cost-effectiveness calculations, EPA in the ordinary course could forestall the approval of a state’s Regional Haze implementation plan,but it could not on its own impose its preferred emissions controls. But by combining this tactic of delaying approval of the state plans with Sue and Settle and a court-imposed deadline to act, EPA has manufactured a loophole to provide itself with the ability to reach into the state haze decision making process and supplant the state as decision maker. EPA has, effectively, engineered a way to get around the protections of state primacy built into the Regional Haze statute by Congress.

The Obama administration has made no secret that it seeks to use regulations to put the coal industry out of business. The strategy is simple: Impose the most burdensome controls on all coal-fired power plants regardless of whether or not they are necessary. While campaigning for the presidency in January 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle that “If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

It appears the EPA has found a means to do just that and - as this administration is apt to point out- usurp the constitution to get their way.

The Clean Air Act explicitly directs states to weigh costs against visibility benefits when they decide how to implement the Regional Haze program. Accordingly, Oklahoma declined to impose the most expensive sulfur dioxide controls on six power plants subject to Regional Haze requirements, because the capital costs—almost $1.8 billion—were deemed unreasonable in light of the imperceptible benefits (see the photo comparison above). Instead, Oklahoma proposed an alternative plan that would achieve even
greater emissions reductions by fuel switching from coal to natural gas.

EPA, however, refused to approve Oklahoma’s Regional Haze plan, because the agency objected to the state’s cost-effectiveness analysis. On the basis of alternative cost estimates prepared by a paid consultant who routinely serves as a witness for the very same environmental groups that sued to obtain the Regional Haze Consent Decrees and who had not visited the power plants at issue, EPA concluded that the most stringent sulfur dioxide controls were cost-effective and imposed them on December 28, 2011.

According to Oklahoma Gas & Electric, EPA’s imposed rule would “likely trigger the largest customer rate increase in OG&E’s history, while the resulting impact on regional haze would be practically imperceptible.”

Attorney General Pruitt Leads Effort to Uncover EPA’s Apparent “Sue and Settle” Strategy

 

Attorney General Scott Pruitt and 12 other attorneys general sent a federal records request Friday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, requesting access to documents related to the agency’s apparent new “sue and settle” strategy with environmental groups.

The request, sent under the Freedom of Information Act, is in response to multiple lawsuits filed by environmental organizations against the federal government during the past three years. In some instances, the EPA entered a consent decree the same day the lawsuit was filed, demonstrating prior knowledge. The agreements have led to new rules and regulations for states without allowing attorneys general to enter the process to defend the interest of states, businesses and consumers.

“This appears to be a blatant strategy by the EPA to go around the process and bend the rules to create environmental regulations that have failed in Congress,” Pruitt said. “We are investigating the pervasiveness of this tactic, and have requested documents to help in that effort. If the EPA is making backdoor deals with environmental groups to push their agenda on the American people while bypassing the states and Congress, we need to know.”
The FOIA letter requests electronic and print documents that involve several organizations, including Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, WildEarth Guardians, Sierra Club and the AFL-CIO.

Out of the 45 settlements made public, the EPA has paid nearly $1 million in attorneys’ fees to the environmental groups, while also committing to develop sweeping new regulations. One EPA consent decree led to the EPA’s costliest regulation ever – the Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

“Not only does EPA’s action harm and jeopardize the States’ role as a partner with EPA, but it harms the interests of the citizens of the Requesting States,” the attorneys general wrote in the request letter.

“Our citizens rely on and expect the States to implement federal environmental law. Often, these implementation efforts require the States to design plans to meet the individual circumstances of the State, while protecting and advancing the environmental goals and requirements of federal environmental law. When EPA coordinates with non-governmental organizations regarding how federal environmental law should be applied and implemented in an individual State and excludes the State from that effort, the State and its citizens are harmed.”

Attorneys general said a written justification from the EPA may help avoid litigation.

Once the documents are received, the requesting states will analyze the data and produce a report as part of the ongoing review of the EPA’s operations. The report will be disseminated to each state as well as to the news media and Congress as a component of the AGs’ active involvement in state efforts to address environmental issues.

For a copy of the request, go online to www.oag.ok.gov.

Three of Four Major Revenue Sources Show Big Gains

 

Oklahoma kicked off Fiscal Year 2013 with positive revenue growth in July, as three of the four major revenue sources showed substantial gains, state Finance Secretary Preston L. Doerflinger announced Tuesday.

"Weakness in energy prices, plus rebates, led to a reduction in the rate of growth in total collections, but we made up for that in other areas as consumer confidence remained high," Doerflinger said. "That helped total receipts to beat the official estimate by more than 5 percent."

Sales tax collections to the General Revenue Fund outstripped last year's receipts by more than 9 percent, while motor vehicle tax receipts, reflecting car and truck sales, were up more than 19 percent. Combined individual and corporate income taxes climbed more than 20 percent.

"Our recovery from the Great Recession over the past two years was fueled by a boom in the oil patch, created by enhanced drilling techniques and attractive prices for oil and liquid forms of natural gas," Doerflinger said. "So we closely monitor energy prices and are hopeful they will continue their recent improvement. Of course, we are talking about commodities which can be volatile and subject to unpredictable national and international forces.

"However, I’ve been amazed so far by the resiliency of the Oklahoma economy, in midst of the ups and downs of some areas. Our July General Revenue Fund collections provide more evidence that our recovery from the recession has been more broad-based than some may think."

Doerflinger cited Oklahoma's unemployment rate of 4.7 percent, fourth lowest in the country, and a manufacturing growth rate of 5 percent, more than double the national rate of 1.9 percent.

"We have had a net gain of almost 41,000 jobs in the last 12 months, an indication that Governor Fallin's policies are succeeding in creating a better climate for job-creating businesses to prosper," the finance secretary said.

Governor Mary Fallin said, "With the fourth-lowest unemployment rate in the nation and third-best rate of job growth, the Oklahoma economy remains strong and resilient. With three of the four major revenue sources showing significant gains over last year, it's clear the state is moving in the right direction. Looking ahead to next year, we can continue to build that forward momentum by focusing on the kind of pro-business, pro-growth policies that will attract new jobs and more investment to Oklahoma."

Doerflinger said he continues to be pleased with "the fantastic growth in sales taxes. This is a leading indicator of economic well being. In Fiscal Year 2012, sales tax growth averaged 9.7 percent and we're off to a good start in FY-13.

"While it is unrealistic to expect such a hefty growth rate to continue indefinitely, our economic advances over the past two years led to restoring our state savings account to a near record level," he said. "We’ve gotten our fiscal house in order to help deal with any national events that could drag down our economy."

Doerflinger said he and his team are most concerned at the present time with political events in Washington. D.C. and the impact they may have on Oklahoma's economy and the state budget. "I’m talking growing pessimism that Congress will be unable to address the so-called 'fiscal cliff,' which would trigger trillions of dollars in budget cuts and tax increases."

Oklahoma's constitutional Rainy Day Fund was drained from $596.6 million to $2.02 during the recession, but is back up to $556 million after a record $306.8 million deposit in July.

In July, total collections for the General Revenue Fund were $389.1 million, up $6.4 million and 1.7 percent from a year ago. The amount collected for the month was $20 million and 5.4 percent above the estimate.

Major tax categories in July contributed the following amounts to the General Revenue Fund:

Income taxes – The total collected from individual and corporate income taxes in the month of July was $160.9 million for the FY-2013 General Revenue Fund, which was $27.6 million or 20.7 percent more than prior year collections and $39.1 million or 32.1 percent above the estimate.
Individual income tax receipts of $157.4 million were $27.1 million and 20.8 percent above the prior year and $40.3 million or 34.5 percent above the estimate.
Corporate tax collections contributed $3.6 million to the General Revenue Fund for the month, which was $530,000 or 17.5 percent above July 2012 collections and $1.3 million or 26.2 percent below the estimate.

Sales tax – Sales tax collections in July produced $164.5 million for General Revenue Fund, which was $13.8 million or 9.1 percent more than the prior year and $13.8 million or 9.1 percent above the estimate.

Gross production tax – Gross production tax collections from natural gas and oil in July made no contribution to the General Revenue Fund. Refunds and other required distributions absorbed collections from natural gas; and, as required by statute, the first Gross Production Oil Tax collections were distributed to specified funds – primarily for education

Motor vehicle taxes – This tax source produced $17.2 million from July collections, which was $2.7 million or 19.1 percent above the prior year and $504,610 or 3 percent above the estimate.

Other Revenue – Other revenue produced $46.6 million in July. This amount was $3.1 million or 6.2 percent below the prior year and $3.4 million or 6.8 percent below the estimate.

On The November 2012 Ballot – Governor and Pardon and Parole Board

 

State Question 762 amends Section 10 of Article 6 of the Oklahoma Constitution. It changes current law, decreasing the power and authority of the Governor by removing the Governor from the parole process for persons convicted of certain offenses defined as nonviolent offenses. It enlarges the power and authority of the Pardon and Parole Board by authorizing that Board, in place of the Governor, to grant parole to persons convicted of certain offenses defined as nonviolent offenses.

The Legislature defines what offenses are nonviolent offenses and the Legislature may change that definition.

The measure authorizes the Pardon and Parole Board to recommend to the Governor, but not to itself grant, parole for persons convicted of certain offenses, specifically those offenses identified by law as crimes for which persons are required to serve not less than eighty-five percent of their sentence prior to being considered for parole and those designated by the Legislature as exceptions to nonviolent offenses. For those offenses for which persons are required to serve a minimum mandatory period of confinement prior to being eligible to be considered for parole, the Pardon and Parole Board may not recommend parole until that period of confinement has been served.

On The November 2012 Ballot – Oklahoma Public Welfare Commission Repeal

 

HJR 1092 sends to a vote of the people a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal Sections 2, 3 and 4 of Article 25 of the State Constitution that created the Oklahoma Public Welfare Commission and the Director of Public Welfare position. The measure would authorize the Legislature to create and direct by law the administration of the Department of Human Services. In addition, the measure grants the Legislature the authority to create and direct by law the administration of a department(s) to provide for public welfare for Oklahomans.

This is State Question 765.

On The November 2012 Ballot – Intangible Tax Exemption

 

State Question 766 exempts certain intangible personal property from property tax. This measure would exempt all intangible personal property from property tax. No person, family or business would pay a tax on intangible property. The change would apply to all tax years beginning on and after January 1, 2013.

The law defined intangible property as cash on hand, deposits, stocks and bonds and the like.

Tax Commission analysis date May 22, 2012, indicates the resolution amends Section 6A of Article X of the Oklahoma Constitution to provide that, beginning January 1, 2013, intangible personal property will not be subject to ad valorem taxation or to any other tax in-lieu of ad valorem taxation.

The estimated revenue impact of removing intangibles from central/unit valued companies is a $50,139,999 loss of ad valorem revenue to local taxing jurisdictions.

On The November 2012 Ballot – Anti-Discrimination Law

One of the items Oklahoma voters will be voting on November 6th is State Question 759. Senate Joint Resolution 15, by state Sen. Rob Johnson and Osborn, submits a proposed constitutional amendment to a vote of the people. The proposed amendment declares, “The state shall not grant preferential treatment to, or discriminate against, any individual or group on the basis of race, color, sex, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.”

The resolution further states “The remedies available for violations of this section shall be the same, regardless of the injured party’s race, color, sex, ethnicity or national origin, as are otherwise available for violations of the antidiscrimination laws of this state.”

Gender and race discrimination would be allowed if affirmative action is needed to keep or obtain federal funds.

"This proposed constitutional amendment makes clear that all men are created equal and should be treated as such by their government,” said state Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Tuttle. “If voters approve this constitutional amendment, state government will not be allowed to discriminate against Oklahoma citizens based on race or gender – period.”

“Government employment and contracting decisions should be based on merit alone,” Osborn said. “If we are going to guarantee all citizens have the opportunity to compete, government must treat them all equally. I believe Oklahoma citizens will overwhelmingly approve this constitutional amendment at the polls and take a stand for equality.”

June 2012 OK Employment Statistics

 

Unemployment

Initial claims rose from 2,450 week ending 6/2/2012 to 2,997 the week ending 6/30/2012, or an increase of 547 new claims filed during June.

Continued claims decreased by 11 from 22,470 from the 6/2/2012 week to 23,261 for the week ending 6/30/2012. AS the image below shows, the number has been increasing since the second week of June.

According to the BLS the number of unemployed persons in June rose by 9,487 from May to 96,477. This is almost an 11% increase from may, although it is still lower than the beginning of this year.

Employed

The total number of employed persons rose by 18,958 from May to June meaning that there were 18,958 more people with jobs in June that there were in May.

The reason for an increase in both unemployment and those employed is due to the increase of 28,445 in the labor force from May to June. As the image below shows, the labor force and number of employed persons has continued to grow in Oklahoma this year.

The final image below shows the labor force, employed and unemployed changes throughout this year in Oklahoma.

While the data shows the labor force has grown faster than the available jobs a growth of nearly 19,000 jobs is good news to a lot of Oklahomans!

Supreme Court Sets Precedent - Teachers Can Bully Students

 

These days we are more sensitive to the bullying that students dole upon one another in school. Apparently, the teachers can bully students with verbal assaults as long as the student is a Christian.

Nearly every day in class, James Corbett, who had taught at the school for the past 20 years, would ridicule and harass Chad Farnan about his Christian and creationist views.  One of the statements made by Corbett in the classroom in front of Farnan’s fellow students was,“When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can’t see the truth.”

After repeated verbal abuse in front of his classmates, Farnan filed suit against the teacher in December 2007.  He accused the teacher of promoting hostility to Christians in the classroom and in promoting ‘irreligion over religion’ which is a violation of the First Amendment.

The case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the most liberal court in the entire US.  In keeping with their liberal history, the Ninth Circuit Court overturned the District Court’s ruling declaring that the teacher had a qualified immunity since there was no precedent of any case where a teacher had been held liable for anti-religious statements and those statements been ruled to be unconstitutional.

Based on his belief that there was no justifiable reason for his attacks on his student, the judge ruled in favor of the student but the victory was short-lived as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals predictably ruled to the left of center and overturned the district judge.
 
The case then appealed to the US Supreme Court in hopes that they would make a precedent setting ruling to defend the religious rights of students in public schools.  In March this year, the US Supreme Court announced that they will not hear the case, thus making the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling will stand as the final decision.
 
A precedent in this case has been set, but not the one hoped for.  The precedent that was set allows teachers to verbally abuse, ridicule and harass the religious beliefs of any student and they can do so in the classroom in front of other students.

UN Calls on Countries to Impose Global Taxes

 

The United Nations on Thursday urged countries to impose international taxes to raise more than $400 billion a year, such as a carbon tax, a currency transaction tax and a billionaire’s tax, to offset cutbacks in aid by many countries amid global economic turmoil.

The report states that flows would need to more than double in order to meet the long-standing United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of donor-country gross national income. Remember the Global Poverty Act, supported by then congressman Obama, was aiming for this target in 2008 when it died in congress.

In a clear attempt to pluck at the heartstrings of humanity, the U.N. World Economic and Social Survey said the needs of developing countries were not being met, more money was needed to fight challenges like so-called climate change and new taxes would help "donor countries overcome their record of broken promises."

The United Nations has no authority or mechanisms to enforce an international tax and can only urge its 193 members to do so. The world body plays a marginal role in economic issues, which is the realm of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"Donor countries have fallen well short of their aid commitments and development assistance declined last year because of budget cuts, increasing the shortfall to $167 billion," the survey's author, Rob Vos, said in a statement.

"We are suggesting various ways to tap resources through international mechanisms, such as coordinated taxes on carbon emissions, air traffic, and financial and currency transactions," he said.

The survey asserts that such a tax could raise $50 billion a year. The report notes that there are more than 1,200 billionaires across the world — 425 in the United States, 315 in Asia, and 310 in Europe — whose net worth is $4.6 trillion.

“The ’average’ billionaire would own $3.7 billion after paying the tax,” according to the report. “If that billionaire spent $1,000 per day, it would take him or her over 10,000 years to spend all his or her wealth.” The report actually asks- “ Would this hurt them?”

Some United Nations officials have made various global economic proposals such as replacing the U.S. dollar as the world's currency with IMF Special Drawing Rights, an idea that a number of countries have been pushing.

One suggestion made in The World Economic and Social Survey was that regular allocations of IMF Special Drawing Rights and use of idle Special Drawing Rights could produce about $100 billion annually to buy long-term assets that would then be used as development finance.

The survey also said a $25 per ton tax on carbon emissions in developed countries - collected by national authorities but allocated for international causes - could raise an estimated $250 billion a year.

The Guardian reported that the United States has an annual per person 20 metric tons of carbon emissions per year. Based on these figures, the tax would cost each of us $500.00 per year. A family of four could expect to pay $2,000 per year.

Another $40 billion a year could come from a 0.005 percent transaction tax on the four main currencies, the U.S. dollar, euro, yen and the British pound. A tax of 1 percent on billionaires could also be explored, the survey said.

"Realizing the potential of these mechanisms will require international agreement and corresponding political will, both to tap sources as well as to ensure allocation of revenues for development," Vos said.

The radical recommendations have drawn heavy criticism from groups such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which warns that compliance with the UN’s directives would mean yet a further loss of national sovereignty. Myron Ebell, CEI's director of energy and global warming policy, declared, "The chief ambition of the United Nations for many years has been to increase funding for their vast bureaucracy by creating some sort of new global tax that flows automatically without any control by the U.N.’s member governments.

"Such a taxing authority would thus be totally unaccountable to elected officials in the U. S. (or to officials in any other country for that matter). Money is power: hundreds of billions of dollars in additional annual revenue would allow the U.N. to create the institutions of global governance that are contained in several U.N. environmental treaties but that have never been realized due to lack of funding."

According to the UN Statistical Annex to SG report on funding, the United States donated $4.29 billion of our tax dollars to the United Nations in 2010.

Rise of the global tax collectors

The Constitution gives Congress the exclusive right to tax Americans at the federal level. Yet Congress continues to give away this most fundamental responsibility to international organizations, the most dangerous of which is the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Most Americans probably would not approve of their tax dollars being used to support an international organization that undermines their fundamental liberties and promotes giving their hard-earned money to other governments, often run by corrupt or dictatorial regimes. This is precisely what the OECD is doing, with the blessing of the majority members of Congress.

The OECD has just released a report bragging about its “progress” in getting countries to engage in automatic sharing of tax information. The report states: “The automatic exchange of information involves the systematic and periodic transmission of ‘bulk’ taxpayer information by the source country to the residence country concerning various categories of income (e.g., dividends, interest, royalties, salaries and pensions).” The Obama administration is actively supporting this effort.

This means that the most vile governments will receive financial account information automatically about individuals from other countries. Assume you are standing up to or protesting some corrupt or authoritarian regime in your own country - there are too many to name - and to protect your family, you have a bank account in the United States, Switzerland or some other nation that offers basic protections of civil liberties. Under automatic information-sharing, the thugs you are opposing will be receiving information about your finances from the U.S. government and other governments, which can put your property and your life at risk. The response from the bureaucrats in the OECD and Obama administration is “we protect confidential information,” as if they had never heard of Wiki-Leaks or the other never-ending hacks of government data. Again, we are told that governments will increasingly engage in “automatic” information-sharing and will “protect confidential information,” but please don’t notice the disconnect. Most people view their tax returns and bank account information as “confidential.” Would you voluntarily risk your life on the unenforceable promise of someone in government not to lose, misplace, sell or leak your financial information?

Read full article here

Tulsa Woman Has Garden Cut Down by City

 

    A Tulsa woman is suing the city's code enforcement officers after she said they cut down her garden with no cause.

Denise Morrison said she has more than 100 plant varieties in her front and back yards and all of them are edible and have a purpose.

She knows which ones will treat arthritis, which will make your food spicy, which ones keep mosquitoes away and treat bug bites, but she said none of that matter to city inspectors.

Last August, Morrison's front and back yards were filled with flowers in bloom, lemon, stevia, garlic chives, grapes, strawberries, apple mint, spearmint, peppermint, an apple tree, walnut tree, pecan trees and much more.

She got a letter from the city saying there had been a complaint about her yard.

She said she took pictures to meet with city inspectors, but they wouldn't listen, so she invited them to her home so they could point out the problem areas.

"Everything, everything needs to go," Morrison said they told her.

When she heard they wanted to cut it all down, she called police. The officer issued her a citation so it could be worked out in court.

She said she went to court on August 15, and the judge told them to come back in October. But the very next day, men were cutting down most of her plants.

They even cut down some of her trees -– ones that bore fruit and nuts -– and went up next to her house and basically removed everything in her front flower bed.

"I came back three days later, sat in my driveway, cried and left," Morrison said.

Morrison said she had a problem at her last property with code enforcement, so this time, she read the ordinance, which says plants can't be over 12-inches tall unless they're used for human consumption. She made sure everything she grew could be eaten, which she told the inspectors.

"Every word out of their mouth was, 'we don't care,'" Morrison said.

Morrison said she used many of the plants that were destroyed to treat her diabetes, high-blood pressure and arthritis.

"Not only are the plants my livelihood, they're my food and I was unemployed at the time and had no food left, no medicine left, and I didn't have insurance," Morrison said. "They took away my life and livelihood."

Morrison finally went to court last week for the citation she got last August at another property. The garden portion of the citation was dismissed and she pleaded no contest to having an inoperable truck in her driveway.

She filed a civil rights lawsuit this week, accusing the inspectors of overstepping their authority.

The City of Tulsa said it hasn't received the lawsuit yet, so it couldn't comment.

See the article here with Pictures and Video

US Constitution 1st Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Pastor Goes to Jail for Hosting Home Bible Study

Michael Salman, the pastor from Phoenix who was fined and sentenced to jail for holding Bible studies in his home, started his 60-day jail sentence at 10 a.m. today.

The preacher asked for prayers as he left his wife and six kids to report to Maricopa County Jail.

"I have spent time with my family this morning praying, crying and saying our goodbye. My heart is broken, but glory to God," Salman wrote on his Facebook page this morning. "Our God wil take care of us and my family. Please pray for us! Until God opens the prison's door, I will be with you all in prayer and spirit."

Salman was found guilty of code violations for hosting Bible studies on his 4.6 acre property, which he has been doing for the past 7 years. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail along with three years probation and ordered to pay a $12,180 fine.

Read the article herehttp://www.christianpost.com/news/arizona-pastor-goes-to-jail-holding-home-bible-study-religious-freedom-77909/

Town repents after threatening to shut down Bible study

An Apple Valley couple was in shock after they were told their home Bible Study was in violation of town law, according to a citation found on their front door.

“I was appalled when I read the letter,” said M. Sharon Rogone, who leads the weekly study with her husband, Phillip. “Soon we will be an underground movement. If this is America, then where is our religious freedom?”

The “courtesy” citation, posted Wednesday by a code enforcement officer, stated the town’s code and a complaint “that church services are being held at this address.”

The citation also gave the Rogones until June 27 to comply, or else the town would take legal action.

“I wrote to Bill O’Reilly, FOX News, Glenn Beck and to as many people as I could,” said Rogone, who attends High Desert Church in Victorville and has hosted the study in the couple’s Choco Road home for the last seven years.

“There are about 15 of us, and we have about seven cars here that all fit in our driveway, or in front of our property,” Rogone said. “We’re not rowdy or obnoxious. We even invited the entire neighborhood over to hang out.”

Read the entire article here: http://www.vvdailypress.com/articles/shut-35120-study-apple.html

Oklahoma May Employment

Unemployment

After remaining fairly steady at an average of 2,558 new unemployment claims filed each week in Oklahoma, the number dropped by 96 for the first week of June. 

Continued claims increased by 117 for the week ending 5/26/2012 from the previous week.

According to the BLS the unemployment rate in Oklahoma rose slightly in May to 4.8 percent from the April 4.4 percent. The total number unemployed grew from 79,144 in April to 86,532 in May, or by about 9 percent. This may have to do with the labor force increase (as graduations came about) of 7,058 people during the same period. Over the past 10 years we have seen an increase in unemployment in May and June then a decrease during the fall months. The report shows that the number of people employed dropped by only 330 from April to May of this year. 

Employment

As noted above, the number employed in Oklahoma dropped by 330 from April to May, a trend we see happening each year at varying numbers. The total employed was, 1705,744 in May.

With the labor force growing from 1,785,218 in April to 1,792,276 in May, or 7,058 people, the number of available jobs could not keep pace.

The average hourly wage increased by $ .03 from April to May from $20.66 to $20.69. This is still a decrease from January $21.03 by $ .34 per hour. That equates to about $54.00 each month lost in wages since January.

It is important to keep in mind that the hourly wages from the BLS shown here are for all private industries. The fact that many new jobs have been made available will have an impact on the average hourly wage reported here.

Total Collections Grow in May as Gross Production Continues

Even though natural gas and crude oil prices are lower than expected, Oklahoma’s total revenue collections continue to rise, driven primarily by income and sales, State Treasurer Ken Miller said today as he released the monthly gross receipts report for May.

“With incomes climbing and sales tax collections on the rise, Oklahomans continue to show confidence in the economy in spite of renewed global uncertainty and a pullback in U.S. job growth,” Miller said.

May collections are up by 5.8 percent from May of last year, Miller said. That compares to average growth over the past 12 months of 9.2 percent. 

Watching natural gas and oil prices

In May, collections from gross production taxes on oil and natural gas were less than the same month of the prior year for a sixth consecutive month, and for the seventh time in eight months. Reflecting the continued downward slide in gross production collections, the 12-month running total for that revenue source turned negative this month.

The percentage of total gross production taxes generated by natural gas production has steadily fallen since last year. In October, 51 percent of gross production collections came from gas extraction. By April, the amount had dropped to 32 percent. The proportion of the tax produced by natural gas for May is not yet available.

Gross production collections in May reflect prices and production from March, when the spot price for natural gas at the Henry Hub in Louisiana, considered a benchmark for gas prices, averaged $2.06 per thousand cubic feet. April prices dropped to an average of $2.01, but May prices rose to an average of $2.51.

In the past month, the price of crude oil has also trended downward. From late February until the end of April, the spot price of West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil at Cushing stayed above $100 per barrel. In May, crude prices dropped throughout the month, closing May 31 at $86.53/bbl, levels not seen since last October.

Rig counts last week were set at 192 total, 22 higher than at the same time last year. However, active natural gas rigs have dropped from 122 last year to 53 this year. Active oil rigs have climbed from 48 last year to 139 this year.

“In the coming months, we will be keeping a close watch on natural gas and crude oil prices and any potential spillover effect on the Oklahoma economy,” Miller said.

Overall growth seen

Income tax collections have risen by double-digits from the same month of the previous year in nine of the past 12 months, while sale tax collections have averaged eight percent growth during the same time.

Since hitting the trough on revenue collections from the recession in February 2010, 12-month collections have increased by $1.63 billion and are now only $289 million below the peak in December 2008.

Miller pointed to the latest reports on state and local unemployment as bright spots.

“At 5.0 percent, the April unemployment rate for Oklahoma is more than three percentage points lower than the national rate. Oklahoma City’s rate of 4.0 percent is the lowest of the nation’s 49 largest cities and speaks to the strength of the rebounding economy,” he said. “Reports show 38,500 more Oklahomans have jobs now than a year ago.”

May collections

The revenue report for May sets gross collections at $858.9 million, up $46.7 million or 5.8 percent from May 2011.

Gross income tax collections, a combination of personal and corporate income taxes, generated $268.5 million, an increase of $35.2 million or 15.1 percent from the previous May.

Personal income tax collections for the month are $258.2 million, up $35.9 million or 16.1 percent from the prior year. Corporate collections are $10.3 million, down by $600,000 or 5.8 percent.

Sales tax collections, including remittances on behalf of cities and counties, total $335.5 million in May. That is $21.6 million or 6.9 percent above May 2011.

Gross production taxes on oil and natural gas generated $63.1 million in May, a decrease of $32.5 million or 34 percent from last May. Compared to April reports, gross production collections are up by $1.1 million or 1.8 percent.

Motor vehicle taxes produced $62.3 million, up by $6.5 million or 11.6 percent from the prior year.

Other collections, consisting of about 60 different sources including taxes on fuel, tobacco, horse race gambling and alcoholic beverages, produced $129.5 million during the month. That is $16 million or 14.1 percent more than last May.

Twelve-month collections

Between June 2011 and May 2012, gross revenue totals $10.99 billion. That is $923.1 million or 9.2 percent higher than collections from the previous 12-month period.

Gross income taxes generated $3.85 billion for the period, reflecting an increase of $420.5 million or 12.3 percent from the prior 12 months.

Personal income tax collections total $3.32 billion, up by $311.6 million or 10.3 percent from the June 2010 to May 2011 period. Corporate collections are $530.6 million for the period, an increase of $109 million or 25.9 percent over the previous period.

Sales taxes for the period generated $4 billion, an increase of $303.9 million or 8.2 percent from the prior 12-months.

Oil and gas gross production tax collections brought in $940 million during the 12 months, down by $15.5 million or 1.6 percent from the previous period.

Motor vehicle collections total $688.8 million for the period. This is an increase of $58.6 million or 9.3 percent from the trailing 12 months.

Other sources generated $1.51 billion, up $155.6 million or 11.5 percent from the previous 12 months.