PRESIDENT OBAMA OBVIOUSLY THINKS THAT SENATOR OBAMA WAS AN IDIOT: Obama now defends surveillance programs he opposed.
Archive for 2013
June 11, 2013
SMART DIPLOMACY UPDATE: In Light of PRISM, Furious European Politicians to Fight Back Against U.S. Surveillance Overreach.
Related: Ai WeiWei: NSA surveillance: The US is behaving like China. “Both governments think they are doing what is best for the state and people. But, as I know, such abuse of power can ruin lives.”
WHAT KIND OF OPERATION WAS HILLARY RUNNING? State Dept. Inspector General: U.S. Ambassador to Belgium ‘Solicited Prostitutes, Including Minors.’
Plus: “Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy ordered the investigation ceased, and the ambassador remains in place, according to the memo. Gutman was a big Democratic donor before taking the post, having raised $500,000 for President Obama’s 2008 campaign and helping finance his inaugural.”
ACCOUNTABILITY: Watchdog: Thousands of feds sign off on own travel costs. “Employees at the U.S. Department of the Interior routinely violate federal policy by approving their own travel and charging thousands of dollars in unsupported costs to the government, according to auditors. The department’s review system is so lax that supervisors sign questionable expense reports without requiring any proof for inappropriate costs, said the auditors for the Interior Inspector-General.”
A MILLIONAIRE? You still can’t afford to retire.
Efforts by the Fed and others to stimulate the economy by keeping interest rates low have produced cheaper mortgages, but they have also hit savers hard. As the report notes, benchmark Treasury yields have remained below four percent since the beginning of the financial crisis. If an ordinary American’s portfolio income is below four percent, withdrawing that much annually, combined with inflation, will bleed his portfolio over time.
Even millionaires in the top eight to ten percent of American households now need to be more careful with their retirement plans. The only safe retirement advice remains: save more than you think you should, and plan to work longer.
With people living well into their eighties and beyond, retirement at 65 is now out of the question for most Americans. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Work is natural to human beings and keeps us mentally and physically more healthy. And besides, the social goal of mass retirement in the mid-sixties is simply not possible anymore. All of us need to make the attitude adjustment that 70 or even 72 is the new 65.
Welcome to the Senior Squeeze. Related: Obama Recovery Going So Well That Two-Thirds Are Delaying Retirement.
UPDATE: Reader J. Johnson writes:
In re the squeeze on seniors (of which I am one), you might want to mention that Bernanke’s ‘Zero Interest Rate Policy’ ZIRP has decimated the savings of people like me because we now earn essentially no interest on the money we saved for a lifetime, so we must dip into principal to pay our bills. Meanwhile, the TBTF banks wallow like hogs at the Fed window to get no-interest money they can use to ramp up the stock market and give Obama talking points about how the economy is recovering because stock prices are up. I don’t think this is going to end well for anybody.
Probably right.
AUDIO: IRS Agent Tells Group To “Keep Your Religion To Yourself.” Really. “A pro-life legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, released audio today of a 2012 phone call between an IRS agent and the head of a Texas pregnancy counseling group. During the phone call, IRS agent Sherry Wan is heard lecturing Ania Joseph about how she can’t have a tax exemption and also push her religious beliefs— a bit of advice that would be quite interesting to every church in America.”
People should probably consider taping every interaction with the IRS. It’s your constitutional right.
THIS IS PROBABLY A GOOD TIME TO RE-REFERENCE DANIEL SOLOVE’S ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy. It’s the #1 paper on SSRN for all-time downloads, and with good reason.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Obama Revolving Door: Ken Salazar to lobbying/law firm Wilmer Hale, Lieberman to Kasowitz.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: The College Admissions Process Is Unfair — Get Used To It. “There is only a tiny fraction of the pie that is reserved for Asians. They want you to fight for this slice: to die for it.”
AT AMAZON, up to 70% off Men’s Casual Shoes.
Also, today only: Smallville: The Complete Series, $114.99 (66% off).
MY USA TODAY COLUMN FOR TODAY: Obama’s Power Grab.
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 32.
SCANDALPALOOZA INDEED: Psst: There are four separate scandals going on at EPA right now.
PROF. JACOBSON: Lasciviousness In The Defense of Liberty Is A Vice. “As this plays out, it’s not clear that Snowden has added a lot to what we already knew, as Mandy pointed out this morning, but it does cause us to focus our attention on the potential for abuse particularly in light of the IRS targeting.”
Plus: “Flashback: NSA personnel would trade clips of eavesdropped phone sex between US soldiers abroad and wives in US.”
UPDATE: Related: Spy center missed bomb suspect, watched JP peace activists. “A controversial police spy agency overlooked the alleged Boston Marathon bombing mastermind, but kept secret files on local peace activists—possibly including marathon rescue hero Carlos Arredondo. The Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), an anti-terrorism agency run by the Boston Police Department with state and federal support, was the focus of Congressional scrutiny this month for failing to know anything about the late marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, both before and immediately after the April 15 attack, despite the Russian government warning the FBI about his possible terrorist training activities.”
WHEN LAW PROFESSORS DO GOOD: A Family For Feleke. I tried to hire Kyle Logue for UT years ago when he was just starting out, but Michigan enticed him away.
ED DRISCOLL INTERVIEWS RICH LOWRY about Lowry’s new book, Lincoln Unbound: How An Ambitious Young Railsplitter Saved The American Dream — And How We Can Do It Again.
IN 2005, HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN EMAIL WAS BEMOANING “a secret program that spies on Americans.”
SHOCKER: FISA Court Surveillance Rejections Extremely Rare. “The FISC has declined just 11 of the more than 33,900 surveillance requests made by the government in 33 years, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. That’s a rate of .03 percent, which raises questions about just how much judicial oversight is actually being provided.”
Related: Pew: Democrats Suddenly Cool With NSA Data-Diving Now That a Democrat Is President.
CHANGE: Chinese Spaceship Blasts Off From Gobi Desert. “A Chinese spaceship blasted off Tuesday from a launch center in the Gobi Desert, carrying three astronauts on what is expected to be the Asian giant’s longest crewed mission yet.”
Reader Doug Levene writes: “The last American space launch was 2 years ago. When they write the history of the 21st century, and note how a rising China left behind a stumbling America, this will be one of the moments they note.” Well, tempering that is how well the commercial space sector is doing.
BYRON YORK: Kelly Ayotte, GOP star, changes mind on immigration. I’ve noticed a lot of anger on Twitter.
PETER INGEMI: IRS Scandal: The Left Sees James Taylor. Not the singer, the one from Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.