The truth behind the headline though is that our nation has been bleeding its freedoms away one bureaucratic paper cut at a time. The idea is that the NSA wishes to use the logical approach of government mandated monitoring of the flow of data to “protect” critical utility infrastructure and corporations from external attack. Unfortunately, the mentality of those in charge of the operation is best reflected in this quote from an “unnamed” military official from the Wall Street Journal report:
A U.S. military official called the program long overdue and said any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras.
Really unnamed U.S. military official? I don’t hold my credit card number up to traffic cameras. My spending habits and purchases, bills and personal pictures are not visible to the traffic camera. My personal emails are not visible to the traffic camera. My communications with my family are not visible on the traffic camera. If I wish to engage in lawful dissent the traffic camera does not pass judgment or use it as a perverted form of evidence against me in a trial. Apparently the attitude is that the real threat to America is not the cleansing sunlight of freedom, the ultimate disinfectant to prevent the disease of totalitarianism, but instead the free thoughts and actions of the United States citizen. This thought from above should disturb every patriotic American and chill them to the bone.
The story continues though, with further ideas being thrown against the wall, which will ultimately open Pandora’s Box and lead to the monitoring of not just “critical infrastructure” but the individuals who think they are living their lives as normal Americans, unaware that they are already being monitored but now able to put the friendly name of ‘Perfect Citizen’ as the software program which sponges up their activities on the internet and probably lift it off of their hard drives if you “trip” one of their sensors. This portion of the story is most disconcerting:
Some companies may agree to have the NSA put its own sensors on and others may ask for direction on what sensors to buy and come to an agreement about what data they will then share with the government, industry and government officials said.
1.) The law expands entitlement spending by over $1 TRILLION in order to “cover” $30 Million more people. What will that do to State Budgets? We only need to look at history to find out. Cases in point?
2.) It adds $500 Billion in new tax increases at a time in our nation’s history when a RECORD number of American’s pay NO INCOME TAXES! And if you believe the lie told by President Obama that your taxes will NOT increase if you make less than $200,000 as an Individual or $250,000 as a Married couple, you need to know the TRUTH!
Speaking of NEW taxes, if you are a Small Business owner. Here’s what’s coming for you thanks to Obamacare:
Research cited by the Obama administration as proof that it can cut wasteful healthcare spending and improve treatment at the same time proves no such thing, The New York Times reports.
The work by a group atDartmouth Collegesupposedly showed which hospitals charge more and give worse care than others.
But that’s not the case. “The Dartmouth researchers themselves acknowledged in interviews that in fact it mainly shows the varying costs of care in the government’sMedicareprogram,” The Times reports.
“Measures of the quality of care are not part of the formula.”
The Dartmouth group produced color-coded maps in the Dartmouth Atlas ofHealth Careto show where the wasteful spending is. Brown indicated hospitals and regions that offered expensive and inadequate care, and beige showed hospitals and areas where the reverse is true.
Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.
But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.
With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.
“We’re now in rescue mode,” said Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister. “But we need to transition to the reform mode very soon. The ‘reform deficit’ is the real problem,” he said, pointing to the need for structural change.
The reaction so far to government efforts to cut spending has been pessimism and anger, with an understanding that the current system is unsustainable.
Reality can be a real problem – in the real world. And Europe has begun to bump up against it.
Suffering a set back from the appellate court, the Obama administration is now soft peddling the idea through a back door approach. With the recent finding that George Soros has funded a group called Free Press, they recommend the development of a world-class government-run media system in the U.S.
Exactly what a free country needs. Perhaps the government will spend vast sums or our money determining how the likes of Hugo Chavez,Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-Il and or our friends in Iran are running their programs.
President Obama guaranteedAmericans that after health reform became law they could keep their insurance plans and their doctors. It’s clear that this promise cannot be kept. Insurers and physicians are already reshaping their businesses as a result of Mr. Obama’s plan.
The health-reform law caps how much insurers can spend on expenses and take for profits. Starting next year, health plans will have a regulated “floor” on their medical-loss ratios, which is the amount of revenue they spend on medical claims. Insurers can only spend 20% of their premiums on running their plans if they offer policies directly to consumers or to small employers. The spending cap is 15% for policies sold to large employers.
Lucky in the sense that they can benefit from such changes, whereas we in the United States are apparently required to do the precise opposite.
Actually, the NYT isn’t endorsing this plan (as the linked analysis at Hot Air suggests); it’s just reporting, neutrally, that this is the austerity plan forced on Greece by the IMF, EU, and European Central Banks.
Still: I’m sure the NYT doesn’t notice the irony that the program it urges for America is the exact program which must be undone in Greece to keep the country from going bankrupt.
As unions denounced the cost-cutting measures and pledged to take to the streets over the weekend and go on strike on Wednesday, Prime Minister George Papandreou said Greece must quickly adopt theinternational aid plan. “Today, the top priority is the survival of the nation,” he told Parliament on Friday. “This is the red line.”Greek officials close to the discussions said the deal would include as much as 130 billion euros in aid over the next three years at reasonable interest rates. In return, the I.M.F. asked Greece to cut public sector spending by 8 billion euros in the 14 months after the plan was adopted. Economists called that provision crucial because past reform programs by the government have relied too much on overly optimistic assumptions about the collection of unpaid taxes.
Union and government officials said Greece had also pledged to raise its value-added tax to 25 percent, to freeze civil servants’ wages and to eliminate public sector bonuses amounting to two months’ pay. They said the government intended to increase taxes on fuel, tobacco and alcohol.
Among the most significant features of the plan, a Greek government official said, would be a measure making it easier for the government to lay off some of the many thousands of public sector workers, whose low levels of productivity and high wages are a big contributor to Greece’s debt problem. Until now, the government has not been able to lay off civil servants, whose employment rights are in effect constitutionally guaranteed.
In America, they’re not constitutionally guaranteed per se, but they are politically guaranteed — one party is dedicated singlemindedly to expanding the government workforce and jacking up its already-generous compensation.
Suffering a set back from the appellate court, the Obama administration is now soft peddling the idea through a back door approach. With the recent finding that 
