GREAT idea but how much?

https://recovers.org/

Rare Peak into justice Dept leak probe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare-peek-into-a-justice-department-leak-probe/2013/05/19/0bc473de-be5e-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html

Sorry too tired to shorten it.

May 20, 2013: Some first rough draft notes, originally posted one year 10 months ago

a nation of laws

At the signing of our Declaration of Independence, We the People agreed to be a nation of laws; starting with the Constitution of the United States, and its accompanying Bill of Rights. To break the agreement among ”free men and all of the population,” as they say, reverts us to the pre-Magna Carta days, when the King was Kong. Nobody wants that again, but with Magna Carta having been watered down regarding usury already, and with a few other twists and turns along the way, the moneylenders chosen of the king back in those earliest times are the neo-kong on Wall Street, even unto this day.

As intrinsic to the establishment of our more perfect union (revolution), We the People could reestablish an even better usury-free Magna Carta, and set our first priorities as: 1. Nationalize banks whose depositors’ assets are protected by government guarantees; 2. Nationalize housing agencies that are in any way connected to government guaranteed loans, and 3. Shut down all remnants of, and completely and totally and absolutely nationalize Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation).

See the WIKIpedia® definition, and some good examples of successful Nationalization.

The 9/11 Phone Calls: Disturbing Irregularities Uncovered in the Calls that Flashed around the World

☛ http://bit.ly/10eDcdT

PRN.fm – The 9/11 Consensus Panel offers four evidence-based Points about the alleged phone calls from the 9/11 flights. The famous “let’s roll” drama of the passenger revolt on UA 93 was relayed by passenger Todd Beamer’s 13-minute unrecorded seat-back call to GTE telephone supervisor Lisa Jefferson, who reported Beamer as strangely tranquil, declining to speak to his wife. Eerily, Beamer’s line remained open for 15 minutes after the crash. Oddly, the Verizon wireless record shows that 19 calls were made from Beamer’s cell phone long after the crash of UA 93. Initial media reports and FBI interviews detailed more than a dozen cell phone calls from the planes at high elevation. Yet in 2001, a telephone spokesperson stated that sustained mobile calls were not possible above 10,000 feet. Thanks, and cc: @DannySchechter – News Dissector

[Cross-posted in the AmpedStatus/Network 9/11 Investigation discussion group archives.]

The News Dissector – Monday, May 20, 2013

[✓] MediaChannel.org has been updated with the latest media news and analysis. Please visit

Scandal Time, AP Says Spying Chills News Gathering, We Still Don’t Know What Groups Were Targeted by IRS, Terror War Goes On, Syria War Escalates, Funny: The Butchering of the National Anthem, and Mo’ Nooze

☛ http://bit.ly/161F69s

if you missed Sunday’s edition, click HERE!

The News Dissector – Monday, May 20, 2013

[✓] MediaChannel.org has been updated with the latest media news and analysis. Please visit

Scandal Time, AP Says Spying Chills News Gathering, We Still Don’t Know What Groups Were Targeted by IRS, Terror War Goes On, Syria War Escalates, Funny: The Butchering of the National Anthem, and Mo’ Nooze

☛ http://bit.ly/161F69s

if you missed Sunday’s edition, click HERE!

the ”journalism” discussion continues…

”Lengthy piece on IRS reveals overwhelmed unit, taking foolish shortcuts, flagging groups on Right AND Left. Underscores need for reform, clarity so de facto campaign groups can’t use tax code to hide millions in donations AND grab tax breaks!” Thanks, and cc: @DavidAxelrod ☛ http://nyti.ms/10bRnUd #News

[Cross-posted in dxm’s AXELROD-OBAMA DAILY NEWS discussion group archives.]

As requested! US seeks proxy war with Syria

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/17/304017/us-seeks-a-bloody-proxy-war-in-syria/

Following up on our AS/N ”journalism” discussion:

HEAR guest Al Giordano on Authentic Journalism, on Danny Schechter’s Progressive Radio Network (PRN.fm) broadcast HERE!

Also read Al’s requiem for the Boston Phoenix ☛ http://bit.ly/10Rj3MR ”The Last American Newspaper”

The News Dissector – Saturday, May 18, 2013

[✓] MediaChannel.org has been updated with the latest media news and analysis. Please visit

Questions for Saturday: Is There Really A Sandal Trifecta? Was IRS Really on a Political Crusade? Is FBI Involved In Hacking? Who Is Behind Attack on SEC? Trains Collide, and Mo’ News/Views

☛ http://bit.ly/14AzU7U

if you missed Friday’s edition, click HERE!

The News Dissector – Saturday, May 18, 2013

[✓] MediaChannel.org has been updated with the latest media news and analysis. Please visit

Questions for Saturday: Is There Really A Sandal Trifecta? Was IRS Really on a Political Crusade? Is FBI Involved In Hacking? Who Is Behind Attack on SEC? Trains Collide, and Mo’ News/Views

☛ http://bit.ly/14AzU7U

if you missed Friday’s edition, click HERE!

Fair Taxation and Free Drugs

Adding to my list of what makes for modern times Utopia, see Fair Taxation and Free Drugs. And what have drugs to do with taxes? How about a feeling of well being? How about euphoria?

It seems to me the Department of Fairness could host a seminar on taxation and come up with the Goldilocks plan; not too hot, not too cold, aye, just right!

Our good friend, Carl Worden, who admittedly goes way, way off the rails from time to time, via e-mail dropped into The Dragonwyck to discuss taxes and drugs. Carl doesn’t have the answer, but he livens up the conversation. If it is decided that come the revolution We the People want to adopt some of his ideas, we can put it up for a vote; first among ourselves, and then we can take it up with our legislators, for them to do something to earn their pay.

THE WORST TAX SYSTEM ON EARTH
Carl F. Worden – May 17, 2013

The existing U.S. tax system is designed to fail for this simple reason: Nobody took human nature into account.

You, the taxpayer, are required to honestly divulge all income derived during the year. You are then allowed to deduct certain claimed expenses against that gross income. Then you, ”voluntarily”, file a tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. In turn, the Internal Revenue Service has over 90,000 people employed, many of them hired and trained to catch you when you cheat and claim less income, or more deductions, than you should.

Are you kidding me? That is undoubtedly the most flawed taxation system ever devised! With only 1.1% of, ”low to mid-income” returns audited, the temptation to be less than honest when filing that voluntary return is humanly impossible to resist, which is just one major reason why 45% of all taxpayers pay no federal income taxes at all right now.

Further, as more citizens receive multiple forms of welfare, including unemployment benefits, the rate of hiding their additional unreported income has skyrocketed to the point where the current tax system is virtually powerless to accurately tax anyone but employed citizens because the IRS forces their employers to deduct taxes from their pay before they get what’s left.

Most people think the bulk of tax evasion today is committed by drug dealers, prostitutes and other forms of criminality, but they are wrong. Senior citizens receiving Social Security benefits hide the income they earn from buying and selling used items, breeding pure-bred puppies and working for cash under the table. Auto mechanics earn extra unreported income by performing auto repairs on the side. All kinds of people earn all kinds of cash and other forms of remuneration that cannot be traced by the IRS, and unless the IRS performs a line-by-line audit (very time-consuming and costly) the chance of catching a low-to-mid income tax filer is very low. As a result, the IRS finds it much more expedient to audit high-income earners for the simple reason that the return on investment of their time & effort is most often rewarded.

Then we have the cases of Joe Banister and Vernice Kuglin. Banister was a gun-packing career IRS Agent who discovered there was no law that required him to file a tax return, so he stopped doing so after he left the IRS. Vernice Kuglin was a FedEx pilot who also studied the Tax Code and discovered the same as Banister did. Both Banister and Kuglin were charged with failing to file tax returns and offered to plead guilty if the federal prosecutor could show them the law that allegedly required them to file a tax return. When the federal prosecutors in both cases failed to produce the law, the juries hearing the cases had no other option than to acquit both defendants. You can independently verify the outcomes of both of these cases, and when you do, you will be asking yourselves two questions: Why am I still filing a tax return, and; why is the IRS still prosecuting people who don’t file when no rational, reasonable person working for the IRS can possibly be ignorant of the Banister/Kuglin cases?

The answers are quite chilling: In most alleged tax cheat cases, the jurors engage in reverse jury-nullification whether the prosecutor can produce the law or not. Put simply, those jurors voluntarily pay taxes and they expect their fellow citizens to do the same, so they usually vote to convict regardless of the facts of the case. The IRS has continued to prosecute non-filers, because in most cases, the tax-payer jurors can be counted on to find guilt for the above stated reasons. In other words, the IRS knows it can make life miserable for you whether the law says they can or not, so you better pay your taxes, law or no law, or you will be very sorry you didn’t. So much for the rule of law…

Another reason the current tax system is corrupt is the fact the IRS has been used to punish political opponents by both major political parties. President Nixon used the IRS against his enemies and it now appears President Obama and/or his appointed groupies have done the same. On top of everything else, the IRS has been tasked to implement and enforce ObamaCare, and based on their past achievements, I can’t wait to see how that convoluted mess turns out.

So in summary, there is a vast and growing amount of unreported income, there are almost limitless ways to hide income and claim deductions to evade income taxes, and the IRS is totally corrupted by whichever political party holds power.

Obviously, it is time to trash the existing income tax system because if someone wants to hide a large portion of their income, they can do so with little chance of getting caught. That kind of tax system will fail every time, because human nature guarantees that failure for the same reason the War on Drugs and Prohibition failed.

How would you like to virtually eliminate the IRS from your lives as well as ensure that nearly all income is taxed? Does that sound too good to be true? Well, it is not. A great deal of research has been done to perfect a federal sales tax system to replace all existing federal income taxes, and it will work because it takes human nature into account. In the various plans considered, no federal income taxes are taken from employees and there is no requirement to disclose income voluntarily because you pay the tax when you spend your income, not when you earn it. Look, even a pillowcase stuffed with cash makes for a lousy pillow, so there isn’t any motivation to just sit on your cash. You pay the tax as you spend the money, which means even the money earned by drug dealers and prostitutes gets taxed because you don’t get what you want unless you pay the tax at point of sale or investment. You pay the tax when you pay for college tuition or the emergency room. You pay the tax when you buy a home and buy groceries. There are no deductions, everyone pays the same rate of tax and there are no tax preparers to pay or IRS audits to answer, and to top it all off, taxes will go to the Treasury where no taxes had ever gone before!

There are some simple-minded folk who will tell you a so-called, ”Flat-Tax” is the answer, and they could not be more wrong! With a flat-tax, you still have to declare all income and file a tax return. The IRS will still be in your life to catch you when you don’t declare all your income, and all the currently illegal and unreported income will remain untaxed just like it is now. How could that possibly be better?

The same principle could be applied to our illegal immigration problem. We already know it is impossible to stop illegal aliens from sneaking into the U.S. for the same reasons it is impossible to stop illegal drugs from being smuggled into the U.S. What we can do is stop the illegal aliens from reaching their points of destination, those being our free emergency rooms, our free education, our welfare system and all the rest. If there is no reward for illegally entering this nation, illegal immigration slows to a trickle — voluntarily.

Another example of how human nature works is how Portugal solved its drug problem. Portugal used controlled legalization of all street drugs about 12 years ago by allowing those drugs to be sold in licensed pharmacies at no more than 15% over actual cost of manufacture. No advertising is allowed, and drug users have to ask the pharmacist for the drugs. This immediately ended to profit motive for smuggling drugs into Portugal for two reasons. First, the smugglers cannot sell their often dirty drugs because the users can purchase the same clean drugs at the pharmacy for less than the street cost, and secondly, there are no more street dealers getting people to try drugs because there is no return on their investment even if they do. As a result, Portugal’s heroin addict population dropped from 100,000 to 40,000 in just ten years. Portugal’s prisons no longer house drug violators because all drug addictions are now handled as medical, rather than criminal issues. Those are proven results, folks! It is no longer a mere theory that controlled drug legalization works, and yet in good-ol’ human nature form, if you ask some DEA guy or a drug cop about Portugal, their stock answer is, ”It won’t work here”, because a lot of people working in legal professions are dependent upon those drugs remaining illegal to sustain their own incomes. In pure self-interest, they will look right into the camera and claim that drug legalization will lead to more, not less, illegal drug use! The anti-gun nuts all claimed that if citizens were allowed to carry concealed guns, there would be wild-west-type shootings on the streets of America. That never happened either, and now something like 40+ states have shall-issue concealed gun laws on their books. The truth can only be suppressed for so long, no matter what the liars and nay-sayers come up with to hide it.

The current U.S. tax system is nothing but a government-enforced scam. If two separate juries found two different people innocent of willful failure to file a tax return, one of which was a career IRS Agent, because the prosecutors in both cases could not produce the law they allegedly violated, then there is no rule of law to follow. There are only three reasons we continue to voluntarily play this game, and they are ignorance of the law, fear of being wrongly convicted by stupid, ”patriotic”, jurors, or a sense of national duty. We have a tax-enforcement agency that has been used as a weapon for political reasons, and is therefore proven corrupt at least twice now, and that same corrupt agency has now been tasked to implement and enforce socialized medicine in the form of ObamaCare — and some folks don’t see a problem with that?

It is not reasonable to believe the IRS Agent who is charging you with failure to file a tax return, is ignorant of the Banister/Kuglin cases, so each and every one of them must surely know that they are charging people with violating non-existent laws when they do. But they continue to do so because a lot of stupid American jurors think everyone should pay their fair share (whatever that is) whether a law requiring the filing of a tax return exists or not. You also cannot expect a federal tax judge to be sympathetic to your arguments because they are paid with federal income tax dollars themselves. It is a self-perpetuating, corrupt nightmare that our tax system has become, and the only viable alternative is to adopt a federal sales tax to replace all other forms of federal income tax, and to reduce the role of the IRS to regulating and auditing only the establishments that collect the federal sales taxes. Do that, and the IRS would only need about 20,000 employees instead of the 90,000+ and growing they have now.

I have now established that adopting a federal sales tax system to replace all other federal income taxes, is a win-win-win for everyone except those still profiting from the current tax scam. The only two questions I have now are, ”Why wasn’t this already implemented”, and ”What is the real reason our legislators don’t want a system that will far-more efficiently tax nearly all income”?

Come the [R]évolutión

Shutting the two-way ”revolving door” (of government employment to the corporations, and from the corporations to government), public service as a field of study, and its respective graduates should be given preferential scoring in civil service recruitment. Same as with veterans; so’s to keep the ”service” in public and civil.

Thanks, and cc: @Alison re: The dangled promises and how money rules.

Lax state rules provide cover for sponsors of attack ads – State-level nonprofits, super PACs fly under the radar

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/05/16/12652/lax-state-rules-provide-cover-sponsors-attack-ads

While much criticism has been lobbed at the federal system for failing to adequately identify who is spending money to influence campaigns, 35 states have independent spending disclosure laws that are less stringent than federal election law.

In fact, in 30 states it’s impossible to total how much money outside groups are spending on campaigns, information that is mostly available when it comes to federal contests.