Uncovering the True Cost of Government Retiree Benefits
State and local governments across the nation are coming face to face with the true cost of post-retirement benefits thanks to an accounting rule change mandated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Under GASB Statement 45 of 2004, governing bodies have to disclose and determine the long term liabilities associated with post-retirement benefits other than pensions, also referred to as OPEB. Continue
Pastors Can Speak Out On U.S. Election Issues
Pastors and church leaders do not need to violate IRS regulations on political activity in order to impact the 2008 elections. There are a wide variety of permissible activities that will activate voters and encourage them to vote according to biblical values.
While churches may not endorse or oppose candidates for elective office, pastors can preach on biblical and moral issues, such as abortion and traditional marriage, can urge the congregation to register and vote, and can overview the positions of the candidates. Churches may distribute nonpartisan voter guides, register voters, provide transportation to the polls, hold candidate forums, and introduce visiting candidates.
Since 1954, when the political endorsement/opposition prohibition was added to the Internal Revenue Code ("IRC"), only one church has ever lost its IRS letter ruling, but even that church did not lose its tax-exempt status. Churches, unlike other nonprofit organizations, do not need an IRS letter ruling to be tax-exempt. That case involved the Church at Pierce Creek in New York, which placed full-page ads in USA Today and the Washington Times opposing then-Governor Bill Clinton for President. The ads were sponsored by the church and donations were solicited. The IRS revoked the church's letter ruling, but not its tax-exempt status.Full Story
Representative John LaBruzzo Proposes $1000 Incentive for Poor Women to be Sterilized
Representative John LaBruzzo (R) recently proposed fixing the welfare problem in New Orleans by offering poor women $1000 to be sterilized, a suggestion that New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes has condemned as "blatantly anti-life" and eugenic in nature.
Louisiana Rep. LaBruzzo proposed the plan last week, which may also include vasectomies for poor men as well as a tax incentive for richer, better-educated citizens to have more children. LaBruzzo aims to steer the demographic away from welfare recipients, who he claims are reproducing too fast, saying, "We're on a train headed to the future and there's a bridge out."
Archbishop Hughes slammed LaBruzzo for promoting the eugenicist's "selective breeding" mentality.
"The Catholic Church has consistently taught that direct sterilization is seriously wrong," said the Archbishop in a statement. "The recent proposal of Rep. LaBruzzo not only would make sterilization our public policy and require tax payers to pay for it, but would also constitute a form of eugenics that the Church and this country have always condemned as an egregious affront to those targeted and blatantly anti-life."
Louisiana Rep. LaBruzzo proposed the plan last week, which may also include vasectomies for poor men as well as a tax incentive for richer, better-educated citizens to have more children. LaBruzzo aims to steer the demographic away from welfare recipients, who he claims are reproducing too fast, saying, "We're on a train headed to the future and there's a bridge out."
Archbishop Hughes slammed LaBruzzo for promoting the eugenicist's "selective breeding" mentality.
"The Catholic Church has consistently taught that direct sterilization is seriously wrong," said the Archbishop in a statement. "The recent proposal of Rep. LaBruzzo not only would make sterilization our public policy and require tax payers to pay for it, but would also constitute a form of eugenics that the Church and this country have always condemned as an egregious affront to those targeted and blatantly anti-life."
The Nuts Behind Acorn
Unless you are in a cave and don't make or spend money, you know things are tough right now. There is more blame to go around then answers.Last week it was a high stakes game of "Deal or No Deal" and it's your money & future at stake.
As the house was burning, some stood dusting the furniture as Democrats in Congress managed to find time to slip language into the bailout legislation that would provide a dandy little slush fund for ACORN.
ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a busy hive of left-wing agitation and "direct action" that claims chapters in 50 cities and 100,000 dues-paying members.
ACORN really is a cesspool of 1960s leftovers who couldn't get a real job anywhere. But why would anyone even think of including these folks in on any deal like this? The attempted gift to ACORN (stripped out of the bill after outraged from Republicans) demonstrates how little Democrats understand about what and who caused the mess we are in.
All that "community organizing" you hear attached to Barak Obama was done through ACORN. That organizing included pushing for higher minimum wages, attempts to thwart school reform, attempts to unionize welfare workers (i.e., those welfare recipients obliged to work in exchange for benefits) and organization of voter registration efforts (always for Democrats of course).
In 2006, ACORN registered 1,800 new voters in Washington state. The only trouble was, with the exception of six, (YES 6!) all the names submitted were fake. The secretary of state called it the "worst case of election fraud in our state's history."
ACORN workers told state investigators that they went to the Seattle public library, sat at a table and filled out the voter registration forms. They made up names, addresses and Social Security numbers and in some cases plucked names from the phone book. One worker said it was a lot of hard work making up all those names and another said he would sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out the forms. (I guess that helps with making up creative names. How about Mary Wanna 123 Ganja St.)
Similar stories have been reported in Missouri, Michigan, Ohio and Colorado - all swing states by the way. ACORN members have been prosecuted for voter fraud in a number of states. (See www.rottenacorn.com)
Back to our current mess... ACORN recognized the opportunity presented by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. With "affirmative action" lending, they pressured banks to make subprime loans. That means they were forced to give loans to people that could not pay them back. Madeline Talbott, a Chicago ACORN leader, boasted of "dragging banks kicking and screaming" into dubious loans.
Talbott hired Barack Obama to train her staff - the very people who would later descend on Chicago's banks as shakedown artists. Obama later funneled money to the group through the Woods Fund, on whose board he sat with William Ayers, and through the Chicago Annenberg Challenge whose successful grant application was written in 1993 by William Ayers.
Ayers cofounded the violent radical left organization Weatherman. He and his group participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972.
Ayers hosted a meet-and-greet at his house during Obama's first Illinois state Senate campaign in 1995, and donated to Obama's campaign in April 2001.
I could spend weeks writing about this stuff. Yet the most troubling aspect of this is with the world economy on the brink and real people in danger, Democrats continue to try to fund their friends at ACORN. It has been stripped out of the Senate bill, but we must watch closely as the House takes up the matter. It would not surprise me if Pelosi & Company stick a funding provision for ACORN in again. Don't let that happen! There is much too much at stake.
What gall Pelosi has to step before the TV cameras to declare that "the party is over" for Wall Street. All while seeking to fund (with your tax money) the fools that brought us to this pass.
The fact is not everyone can afford a home. Not everyone wants a job or is even educated enough to hold to one. I'm all for helping people to get back on their feet when they get knocked down, however, I not in favor of rubbing their feet, paying for their home, food, children, beer & weed.
Even a acorn will turn into a tree in the right environment, but these people are just plain nuts.
As the house was burning, some stood dusting the furniture as Democrats in Congress managed to find time to slip language into the bailout legislation that would provide a dandy little slush fund for ACORN.
ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a busy hive of left-wing agitation and "direct action" that claims chapters in 50 cities and 100,000 dues-paying members.
ACORN really is a cesspool of 1960s leftovers who couldn't get a real job anywhere. But why would anyone even think of including these folks in on any deal like this? The attempted gift to ACORN (stripped out of the bill after outraged from Republicans) demonstrates how little Democrats understand about what and who caused the mess we are in.
All that "community organizing" you hear attached to Barak Obama was done through ACORN. That organizing included pushing for higher minimum wages, attempts to thwart school reform, attempts to unionize welfare workers (i.e., those welfare recipients obliged to work in exchange for benefits) and organization of voter registration efforts (always for Democrats of course).
In 2006, ACORN registered 1,800 new voters in Washington state. The only trouble was, with the exception of six, (YES 6!) all the names submitted were fake. The secretary of state called it the "worst case of election fraud in our state's history."
ACORN workers told state investigators that they went to the Seattle public library, sat at a table and filled out the voter registration forms. They made up names, addresses and Social Security numbers and in some cases plucked names from the phone book. One worker said it was a lot of hard work making up all those names and another said he would sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out the forms. (I guess that helps with making up creative names. How about Mary Wanna 123 Ganja St.)
Similar stories have been reported in Missouri, Michigan, Ohio and Colorado - all swing states by the way. ACORN members have been prosecuted for voter fraud in a number of states. (See www.rottenacorn.com)
Back to our current mess... ACORN recognized the opportunity presented by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. With "affirmative action" lending, they pressured banks to make subprime loans. That means they were forced to give loans to people that could not pay them back. Madeline Talbott, a Chicago ACORN leader, boasted of "dragging banks kicking and screaming" into dubious loans.
Talbott hired Barack Obama to train her staff - the very people who would later descend on Chicago's banks as shakedown artists. Obama later funneled money to the group through the Woods Fund, on whose board he sat with William Ayers, and through the Chicago Annenberg Challenge whose successful grant application was written in 1993 by William Ayers.
Ayers cofounded the violent radical left organization Weatherman. He and his group participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972.
Ayers hosted a meet-and-greet at his house during Obama's first Illinois state Senate campaign in 1995, and donated to Obama's campaign in April 2001.
I could spend weeks writing about this stuff. Yet the most troubling aspect of this is with the world economy on the brink and real people in danger, Democrats continue to try to fund their friends at ACORN. It has been stripped out of the Senate bill, but we must watch closely as the House takes up the matter. It would not surprise me if Pelosi & Company stick a funding provision for ACORN in again. Don't let that happen! There is much too much at stake.
What gall Pelosi has to step before the TV cameras to declare that "the party is over" for Wall Street. All while seeking to fund (with your tax money) the fools that brought us to this pass.
The fact is not everyone can afford a home. Not everyone wants a job or is even educated enough to hold to one. I'm all for helping people to get back on their feet when they get knocked down, however, I not in favor of rubbing their feet, paying for their home, food, children, beer & weed.
Even a acorn will turn into a tree in the right environment, but these people are just plain nuts.
$12.8 billion turnpike lease offer expires, as do Rendell's options
A group led by a Spanish toll road operator on Tuesday dropped its $12.8 billion offer to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike, rather than extend it and push for a legislative deal. Read More
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