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Rick Santorum

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Wikipedia - Jan. 04 (Special Report) - Richard John "Rick" Santorum (born May 10, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives (1991-1995) and the U.S. Senate (1995-2007). As a Senator, Santorum was the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, making him the third-ranking Senate Republican from 2001 to 2007. Santorum is considered both a social and fiscal conservative.[2] He is especially well-known for his strong social conservative positions,[3] his role in enacting welfare reform, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in 1996,[4] and his views on U.S. foreign policy towards Iran.[5] Since leaving public office, Santorum has worked as an attorney, served as a Senior Fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and been a contributor to Fox News Channel. Santorum is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in the 2012 election. He formed a presidential exploratory committee on April 13, 2011, and formally announced his candidacy on June 6, 2011. After running in the bottom tier of candidates for months, Santorum gained significant momentum in the weeks before the Iowa caucuses, and scored a significant second-place finish in the caucuses with just eight votes fewer than the first-place finisher Mitt Romney.

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Mondragon Corporation

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Oct. 23 (Special Report) - The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. Founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956, its origin is linked to the activity of a modest technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters. Currently it is the seventh largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2010 it was providing employment for 83,859 people working in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. The MONDRAGON Co-operatives operate in accordance with a business model based on People and the Sovereignty of Labour, which has made it possible to develop highly participative companies rooted in solidarity, with a strong social dimension but without neglecting business excellence. The Co-operatives are owned by their worker-members and power is based on the principle of one person, one vote.[1] Great idea but little capital? Consider a worker-owned collective. Biggest industrial group in Spain is worked-owned: http://bit.ly/2idDL8 Ideas for Ireland (ideasforireland) http://twitter.com/ideasforireland/status/28062763091

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Taxation in the United States

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 30 (Special Report) - The United States is a federal republic with autonomous state and local governments. Taxes are imposed in the United States at each of these levels. These include taxes on income, property, sales, imports, payroll, estates and gifts, as well as various fees. Taxes are imposed on net income of individuals and corporations by the federal, most state, and some local governments. Residents are taxed on worldwide income and allowed a credit for foreign taxes. Income subject to tax is determined under tax rules, not accounting principles, and includes almost all income from whatever source. Most business expenses reduce taxable income, though limits apply to a few expenses. Individuals are permitted to reduce taxable income by personal allowances and certain nonbusiness expenses, including home mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable contributions, and medical and certain other expenses incurred above certain percentages of income. State rules for determining taxable income often differ from federal rules. Federal tax rates vary from 15% to 35% of taxable income. State and local tax rates vary by jurisdiction, and many are graduated. State taxes are generally treated as a deductible expense for federal tax computation. Certain alternative taxes may apply. Payroll taxes are imposed by the federal and all state governments. These include Social Security and Medicare taxes imposed on both employers and employees, at a combined rate of 15.3% (13.3% for 2011). Social Security tax applies only to the first $106,800 of wages in 2009 through 2011. Employers also must withhold income taxes on wages. An unemployment tax and certain other levies apply.

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Progressivity in United States income tax

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 25 (Special Report) - The United States federal income tax is considered to be progressive because rates of tax increase as taxable income increases. In general, the U.S. income tax is progressive, at least with respect to individuals that earn wage income. The lowest earning workers, especially those with dependents, pay no income taxes as a group and actually get a small subsidy from the federal government because of child credits and the Earned Income Tax Credit.[citation needed] "Progressivity" as it pertains to tax is usually defined as meaning that the higher a person's level of income, the higher a tax rate that person pays. In the mid-twentieth century, marginal tax rates (the rate applied to the last bit of income) in the United States and United Kingdom exceeded 90%. As recently as the late 1970s, the top marginal tax rate in the U.S. was 70%. In the words of Piketty and Saez, "... the progressivity of the U.S. federal tax system at the top of the income distribution has declined dramatically since the 1960s".[1] They continue, "... the most dramatic changes in federal tax system progressivity almost always take place within the top 1 percent of income earners, with relatively small changes occurring below the top percentile." Progressivity, then, is a complex topic which does not lend itself to simple analyses. Given the "flattening" of tax burden that occurred in the early 1980s, many commentators note that the general structure of the U.S. tax system has begun to resemble a partial consumption tax regime.[2]

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Doris Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 12:18:59 -0700

Wikipedia - Apr. 03 -

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2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wikipedia - Mar. 11 (Research) - The 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami was an 8.9-magnitude megathrust earthquake that created tsunami waves of up to 10 metres (33 ft). The earthquake focus was reported to be off the Oshika Peninsula, the east coast of Tōhoku on 11 March 2011, at 05:46 UTC (14:46 local time) at a depth of 24.4 kilometres (15.2 mi). News reports by Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) indicate that at least 300 people have died and another 530 are missing in six different prefectures, although it is feared the total number of dead could be far higher. The magnitude of 8.9 made it the largest earthquake to hit Japan in recorded history and the seventh largest in the world since records began.

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Social Security Trust Fund

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wikipedia - Feb. 21 (Special Report) - The Social Security Trust Fund is the means by which the federal government of the United States accounts for excess paid-in contributions from workers and employers to the Social Security system that are not required to fund current benefit payments to retirees, survivors, and the disabled or to pay administrative expenses. The trust fund contains the securities that will be redeemed to make benefit payments in the future when contributions derived from payroll taxes and self-employment contributions no longer are sufficient to fully fund then-current benefit payments. (The controversy over its meaningfulness is a topic of the sustainability of the unified Federal budget.) Paid-in contributions that exceed the amount required to fully fund current payments to beneficiaries are invested in securities issued by the federal government. The securities issued under this scheme constitute the assets of the Social Security Trust Fund. Because under current federal law these securities represent future obligations that must be repaid, the federal government includes these securities within the overall national debt.[1] The portion of the national debt that is not considered "publicly held" represents the obligations incurred by the government to itself, the bulk of which consists of the government's obligations to the Social Security Trust Fund.

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Fox News Channel controversies

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Wikipedia - Nov. 16 (Research) - Critics of Fox News Channel have accused the network of having a bias favoring the political right and the Republican Party. Fox News has publicly denied such charges, stating that, while its commentators are self-described conservatives, the reporters in the news room provide separate, neutral reporting.

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United States Consumer Price Index

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Nov. 01 (Research) - The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a time series measure of the price level of consumer goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which started the statistic in 1919, publishes the CPI on a monthly basis. The CPI is calculated by observing price changes among a wide array of products in urban areas and weighing these price changes by the share of income consumers spend purchasing them. The resulting statistic, measured as of the end of the month for which it is published, serves as one of the most popular measures of United States inflation; however, the CPI focuses on approximating a cost-of-living index not a general price index.

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Core inflation

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Nov. 01 (Research) - Previously the Federal Reserve had used the US Consumer Price Index as its preferred measure of inflation. The CPI is still used for many purposes, for example, for indexing social security. The equivalent of the CPI is also commonly used by central banks of other countries when measuring inflation. The CPI is presented monthly in the US by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This index tends to change more on a month to month basis than does "core inflation". This is because core inflation eliminates products that can have temporary price shocks (i.e. energy, food products). Core inflation is thus intended to be an indicator and predictor of underlying long-term inflation.

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Inflation

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Nov. 01 (Research) - In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit of account in the economy. A chief measure of price inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index (normally the Consumer Price Index) over time.

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United States public debt

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 27 (Special Report) - The United States public debt is presented by the United States Treasury as two calculations: "Debt Held by the Public", defined as U.S. Treasury securities held by institutions outside the United States Government, and the "Gross Debt," which includes intra-government obligations (e.g., the Social Security Trust fund).

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First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 17 (Special Report) - The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. Originally, the First Amendment only applied to the Congress. However, starting with Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925), the Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including any local government.

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List of helicopter prison escapes

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 17 (Special Report) - A helicopter prison escape is made when an inmate is taken from a prison by means of a helicopter. The helicopter's vertical lift is ideal for prison escapes because of the limited space to land and take off in prisons. This list includes prisoner escapes where a helicopter was used in an attempt to free prisoners from a place of internment, a prison or correctional facility. One of the earliest instances of using a helicopter to escape a prison was the escape of Joel David Kaplan on August 19, 1971 from the Santa Martha Acatitla in Mexico.[3] Kaplan was a New York businessman who successfully not only escaped the prison but escaped Mexico and went on to write a book about his experience, The 10-second jailbreak.[4] France has had more recorded helicopter escape attempts than any other country, with at least 11.[5] One of the most notable French jail breaks occurred in 1986, when the wife of bank robber Michel Vaujour studied for months to learn how to fly a helicopter. Using her new found skills, she rented a white helicopter and flew low over Paris to pluck her husband off the roof of his fortress prison. Michel was later seriously wounded in a shoot out with police, and his pilot wife was arrested.[2] The record for most chopper escapes goes to escape artist, Pascal Payet, who has used helicopters to escape from prisons in 2001, 2003, and most recently 2007.[6] Another multiple chopper escapee is Vasilis Paleokostas who on February 22, 2009 escaped for the second time from the same prison.[7] Because of this, many prisons have taken precautions such as nets, or cables strung over open prison courtyards.

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Million Man March

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 17 (Special Report) - The Million Man March was a gathering of social activists, en masse, held in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1995. Under the leadership of Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan, African American men from across the United States converged on Washington in an effort to “convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male”[1] and to unite in self-help and self-defense against economic and social ills plaguing the African American community. The march took place within the context of a larger grassroots movement that set out to win politicians’ attention for urban and minority issues through widespread voter registration campaigns.[2] A parallel event called the Day of Absence, organized by female leaders in conjunction with the March leadership, occurred on the same date, and was intended to engage the large population of black Americans who would not be able to attend the demonstration in Washington. On this date, all blacks were encouraged to stay home from their usual school, work, and social engagements, in favor of attending teach-ins, and worship services, focusing on the struggle for a healthy and self-sufficient black community. Further, organizers of the Day of Absence hoped to use the occasion to make great headway on their voter registration drive.

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Casualties of the Iraq War

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 14 (Special Report) - Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 (beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and continuing with the ensuing occupation of Iraq coalition presence, as well as the activities of the various armed groups operating in the country) have come in many forms, and the accuracy of the information available on different types of Iraq War casualties varies greatly.

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The Holocaust

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Sep. 01 (Special Report) - The Holocaust (from the Greek ὁλόκαυστος [holókaustos]: hólos, "whole" and kaustós, "burnt"),[2] also known as The Shoah (Hebrew: השואה, Romanized HaShoah, "calamity"; Yiddish: חורבן, Romanized Churben or Hurban,[3] from the Hebrew for "destruction"), was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany.[4] The genocide of these six million people was a genocide of two-thirds of the population of nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust.[5] Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including Romani, people with disabilities, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and other political and religious opponents.[6] By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people.[7] The persecution and genocide were carried out in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labor until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Jews and Romani were confined in overcrowded ghettos before being transported by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were systematically killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Nazi Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal state".[8] Opinions differ on how much the civilian German population knew of the government conspiracy against the Jewish population. Most historians claim that the civilian population was not aware of the atrocities that happened in the camps. Robert Gellately however claims that the German government openly announced the conspiracy through the media, and that the German people were aware of every aspect of the conspiracy, except for the use of gas chambers.[9]

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9/11 conspiracy theories

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Aug. 21 (Special Report) - 9/11 conspiracy theories allege that the September 11 attacks in 2001 were either intentionally allowed to happen or were a false flag operation orchestrated by an organization with elements inside the United States government.[1] A poll taken in 2006 by Scripps Howard and Ohio University showed that, "More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East."[2] The most prominent theory is that the collapse of the World Trade Center and 7 World Trade Center were the result of a controlled demolition rather than structural weakening due to fire.[3][4] Another prominent belief is that the Pentagon was hit by a missile launched by elements from inside the U.S. government[5] or that a commercial airliner was allowed to do so via an effective standdown of the American military.[6][7] Motives cited by conspiracy theorists include justifying the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and geostrategic interests in the Mideast, including pipeline plans launched in the early 1990s by Unocal and other oil companies.[8] Published reports and articles by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Popular Mechanics and mainstream media have rejected the 9/11 conspiracy theories.[9][10] The civil engineering establishment generally accepts that the impacts of jet aircraft at high speeds in combination with subsequent fires, rather than controlled demolition, led to the collapse of the Twin Towers.[11]

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Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Aug. 03 (Special Report) - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a federal statute that was signed into law in the United States by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Along with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (signed into law on March 30, 2010), the Act is the product of the health care reform agenda of the Democratic 111th Congress and the Obama administration. The law includes a large number of health-related provisions to take effect over the next four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility, subsidizing insurance premiums, providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage/claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, and support for medical research. The costs of these provisions are offset by a variety of taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[2] there is also a tax penalty for citizens who do not obtain health insurance (unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons).[3] The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the net effect (including the reconciliation act) will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.[4] There was also a provision that buyers and sellers of gold would be subject to an additional tax on such items.[5]

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Unemployment

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Jul. 15 (Research) - The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures employment and unemployment (of those over 15 years of age) using two different labor force surveys[59] conducted by the United States Census Bureau (within the United States Department of Commerce) and/or the Bureau of Labor Statistics (within the United States Department of Labor) that gather employment statistics monthly. The Current Population Survey (CPS), or "Household Survey", conducts a survey based on a sample of 60,000 households. This Survey measures the unemployment rate based on the ILO definition.[60] The data are also used to calculate 5 alternate measures of unemployment as a percentage of the labor force based on different definitions noted as U1 through U6:

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Biofuel