Obama Tax Slash Smack

Obama administration cutting tax% for Corporations from 35 to 28%, and pay for it by chopping all-kinds of tax “loopholes”, some official said. Check it. Obama to propose lowering corporate tax rate to 28 percent. “The Obama administration will propose a major overhaul of the nation’s corporate tax code on Wednesday, an election-year gambit that aims to draw a contrast over a key policy issue with the Republicans vying to replace him.” -Washington Post

Check it. Obama to propose corporate tax rate cut.
“Laying down an election-year marker in the debate over taxes, the Obama administration is proposing to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, and to seek an even lower effective rate for manufacturers, a senior administration official says.
In turn, corporations would have to give up dozens of loopholes and subsidies that they now enjoy. Corporations with overseas operations would also face a minimum tax on their foreign earnings.” -CBSNews

Check it. The Paradox of Corporate Tax Reform.
“The White House is proposing to give the horribly pockmarked corporate tax system a major facelift today. The U.S. currently has one of the highest tax rates on corporate income in the world, but it raises a smaller share of GDP than the average developed country. Why? Loopholes, credits, exemptions and the ability to keep money overseas are part of the reason. The tax system is a piece of Swiss cheese that has become more holes than cheese, and the Obama administration is proposing a simple-sounding solution: We’ll give you a lower tax rate if you give back the loopholes.

Oh, but it’s so not that simple…” -The Atlantic

Science Announces Food Replication

Scientists announce they are growing meat from stem cells, making a hamburger in a lab.

Dr. Mark Post, head of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, announced his laboratory is producing skeletal muscle tissue from cow stem cells, with the goal of assembling a complete hamburger by this fall.

The Brisbane Times reports the project is funded by a “wealthy, anonymous, individual” aiming to slash the number of cattle slaughtered for food and to reduce a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

“Meat demand is going to double in the next 40 years and right now we are using 70 per cent of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock,” Dr. Post said in the post.

It will be unsustainable to feed future populations with present livestock farming methods.

In addition to lab-meat being a humane alternative to slaughtering animals, “Livestock farming is responsible for an estimated 14 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. A significant portion of these emissions come from methane, which, in terms of its contribution to global warming, is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The U.S. Food and Agriculture Organization says that agricultural methane output could increase 60 percent by 2030.” Check it.

Burger Replication

The first step in the Reality of food replication technology has been achieved. The Daily Mail Science correspondent Fiona Macrae breaks it down, “Meats could also be made extra-healthy by boosting their content of ‘good’ fats. Far fewer animals would have to be kept to satisfy the appetite for meat. The stem cell’s extraordinary ability to grow and multiply means that a cells taken from a single cow could produce a million times more burgers than if the animal was slaughtered for meat.” Check it.

The mass-production growing of meat in the lab will provide more humane and sustainable means of food production in the future.

Check it. Scientist tries to make first laboratory hamburger.
“Scientists in Holland have been trying to grow meat that they hope could be used to create the world’s first laboratory hamburger later this year.
Food scientists are trying to find a more environmentally friendly way to get meat than rearing animals.” -BBC

Check it. First test-tube hamburger ready this autumn, say researchers.
“The world’s first “test-tube” meat, a hamburger made from a cow’s stem cells, will be produced this autumn, Dutch scientist Mark Post told a major science conference.” -The Malaysian Insider

Pumping the celeb chef spin with Heston Blumenthal, speculation begins on the first test-tube burger tasty tester:

Check it. World’s dearest hamburger at €250000 will come from a lab.
“SCIENTISTS ARE soon to unveil the dearest hamburger in the world – a €250000 special not bought from a butcher but grown in a test tube. A Dutch researcher has developed a bovine cell culturing process and hopes to have celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal fry up the first burger when it arrives this October.” -Irish Times

Check it. Soon ‘test tube’ meat on dining table.
“By generating strips of meat from stem cells, researchers believe they can create a product that is identical to a real burger.” -Times of India

With the downer dissent, FoxNews does the mindseed for distrust from the get-go:

Check it. Few foodies are fired up over test tube meat.
“While the news of the world’s first “test-tube meat” made from a cow’s stem cells may be a break through for the scientific community, the thought of a petri dish hamburger is bound to turn the stomach of many Americans.” -FoxNews

Watch it. Lab-grown meat is first step to artificial hamburger.
“At a major science meeting in Canada, Prof Mark Post said synthetic meat could reduce the environmental footprint of meat by up to 60%.” -BBC

Dominion

Crusading Santorum gets drumming on the holy roll.

Citing Dominion Theology, Rick Santorum calls global warming a “hoax”, advocates heavy fossil fuel usage and preaches,“We were put on this Earth as creatures of God to have dominion over the Earth, to use it wisely and steward it wisely, but for our benefit not for the Earth’s benefit.”
“We are the intelligent beings that know how to manage things and through that course of science and discovery if we can be better stewards of this environment, then we should not let the vagaries of nature destroy what we have helped create.”

Blasting the science of global warming as some liberal conspiracy, Santorum preaches a fundamental fanatical interpretation of the Bible as some license to destroy the Environment.

Check it. Rick Santorum Urges Teaching Of Creationism In Public Schools
“Rick Santorum says the “left” and “scientific community” have monopolized the public school system’s curriculum, only permitting the teaching of evolution and leaving no room for the introduction of creation-based theories in the classroom.”

In 1654, based on Biblical Chronology, Archbishop of The Church of Ireland, James Ussher calculated the date of the Creation of the Earth to have been nightfall on 23 October 4004 BC.

Scientific consensus is that the earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old (4.54 × 109 years ± 1%). This is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples.

With complete disregard for Science, Logic, Reason, as well Article 6 of the Constitution and the First Amendment, Santorum would prefer a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis to teach Science.

Revealing his Theocratic intentions, Santorum talks about Crusading American Christian soldiers and “national religion.” Asserting that Christianity had not shown any “aggression” to the Muslim world and that American intervention in the Middle East helps promote “core American values.”

Check it. Santorum: Left hates ‘Christendom’
“Rick Santorum launched into a scathing attack on the left, charging during an appearance in South Carolina that the history of the Crusades has been corrupted by ‘the American left who hates Christendom.’”

There is no place in American politics for those wishing to impose religious law over secular. It is dangerous and forbidden by the Constitution.

Check it. Rick Santorum’s Quotes On Man’s Dominion Over Nature, the Crusades and Christendom.

Check it. Santorum and Gingrich dismiss climate change, vow to dismantle the EPA.

Check it. Santorum Defends ‘Phony Theology’ Remarks, Doubles Down On Religious Critique Of Obama
“Rick Santorum doubled down on several controversial, and religiously laden, remarks”

Check it. Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Church and State

(Opinion) Rick Santorm promotes fundamental extremist views that are dangerous to individual Freedom, a insult to Liberty and Unconstitutional.

During a town hall meeting in Iowa, Rick Santorum said Americans should suffer more, “Suffering, if you’re a Christian, suffering is a part of life. And it’s not a bad thing, it is an essential thing in life … There are all different ways to suffer. One way to suffer is through lack of food and shelter and there’s another way to suffer which is lack of dignity and hope and there’s all sorts of ways that people suffer and it’s not just tangible, it’s also intangible and we have to consider both.” Check it.

Christianity is based on compassion, which is “suffering with”, to have empathy and help others to alleviate suffering. To seek and endorse suffering is just insane. These are not conservative views, these are extremist views of a fanatic and they should not be labeled as Social Conservative.

The Constitution forbids State Religion.

The First Amendment of the United States Consitution Reads:

“Amendment I

The No Religious Test Clause of the United States Constitution found in Article VI, states that:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

A Secular Nation.

Thomas Paine was a deist. As was Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Jefferson made his own version of the Bible, cutting and pasting from English, French, Latin and Greek, his favored translations, and removing the supernatural events of the New Testament.

In 1802 Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”

Thomas Paine said on religion, “I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”

The Constitution forbids State Religion recognizing the danger of fanatic zealots yearning to impose their perverted views by rule of law.

Rebelling from the Theocracy of the Divine Right of Kings, the United States was built on a foundation Separating Church and State.

Check it. Santorum Defends ‘Phony Theology’ Remarks, Doubles Down On Religious Critique Of Obama.
“Rick Santorum doubled down on several controversial, and religiously laden, remarks”

Check it. 9 controversial Rick Santorum quotes.

Check it. Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists.

Sanctum Santorum

Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum Questions Obama’s Christianity. Check it. Rick Santorum is fueling and feeding religious fanaticism that spreads intolerance, fear and ignorance.

Rick Santorum thinks that rape that results in pregnancy is “a gift in a very broken way” and rape victims who become pregnant should “make the best out of a bad situation”. Check it.

Grand Inquisitor Santorum questions the faith of the President who does not share his fanatical views:

Check it. Rick Santorum questions Obama’s Christian values.
Santorum preaching the pulpit in Ohio said Obama’s agenda is based on “some phony theology. Not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology.”

Check it. Santorum rakes Obama on religion.
Ranting that Obama’s agenda is, “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phoney ideal, some phoney theology.”

Santorum has no tolerance for those that do not share his extreme fundamentalist views.

Rick Santorum does not believe in evolution or the science of global warming. Check it.

The belief in God and science are not mutually exclusive. It is no longer the 1830’s and the Earth is no longer flat.

Rick Santorum blames Catholic priests raping and sodomizing children on liberal society and compares homosexuality to bestiality. Check it.

These are not the comments of a Social Conservative, these are the comments of a zealot fanatic who would wish to impose a version of Sharia law in the name of Conservative Christianity.

There is no place in American Politics for such intolerance and fanaticism.

The founding Fathers specifically wrote of a Separation of Church and State to prevent Fanatics from imposing cruel interpretation of stone age laws upon the masses.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” and Article VI specifies that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Check it. 31 Rick Santorum Quotes That Prove He Would Be A Destructive President.

Check it. The Bill of Rights.

Italian police seize SIX TRILLION DOLLARS! of fake U.S. Treasury Bonds

Italian cops said on Friday they seized $6 TRILLION! worth of fake U.S. Treasury bonds N other shit in Switzerland, N arrested eight Italians accused of international fraud N other financial crimes.

Check it. Italy Confiscates $6 Trillion in Fake US Bonds.
Authorities in Italy have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit US bonds and arrested eight people for fraud and other crimes.

Check it. Italian police seize $6 trillion in fake U.S. Treasury bonds.
The high-value equivalent of $3 carnival bills, the seized documents allegedly were part of a scheme to defraud Swiss banks. Eight suspects are arrested.

Check it. Italian police seize $6 trillion in fake T-bonds.
Italian police said on Friday they had seized about $6 trillion worth of fake U.S. Treasury bonds and other securities in Switzerland, and arrested eight Italians accused of international fraud and other financial crimes.

~~Basically~~ admitting the whole financial ~~game~~ market is a scam, U.S. bond traders joked about the news, “If there’s that much less supply now, Treasuries should be rallying,” chuckled a fixed-income strategist at Morgan Stanley. Reuters also reports a trader at Citigroup said he had swapped jokes with colleagues about the seizure, which would not move markets. “It’s kind of like fake inflation I guess, if you take it to the max…” Check it.

Keystone Passe

Promising ~~a Centillion of~~ jobs and light sweet crude from our neighbors up North, the House passes the pipeline bill. Check it. Pro Keystone heads say the pipeline increases energy security and reduces dependence on foreign oils.

Check it. “Opponents of Keystone pipeline are threatening US jobs.”
Sen. Dick Lugar preaches, “The pipeline would bring crude from the vast oil sands deposits in Canada to American refineries along the Gulf, creating thousands of private sector jobs.
It would help protect United States national security interests. It comes at no taxpayer expense. And it will strengthen our vital ties with our ally Canada.”

Check it. Keystone Pipeline Bill Passes House, Lacks Match in U.S. Senate.
“Legislation that would force U.S. approval of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline and open Atlantic waters to offshore drilling passed the House, a measure that the Senate doesn’t plan to consider.”

Check it. US House passes Keystone bill, Senate action uncertain.
“The US House of Representatives passed an energy bill on Thursday that would wrest control of a permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline away from President Barack Obama”

Opponents cite Environmental concerns, inflated job estimates and desire to move away from Oil dependency to clean and renewable re-sources.

Proponents argue the Oil will be extracted in Canada regardless whether or not the US is a buyer, the pipeline extension can provide up to 1.1 million barrels per day for the US oil needs and shipping via tanker, train and barge is less safe and more energy consuming than the pipeline.

Dissent counters and says it is time to look ahead and start moving away from oil.

Check it. An Oil Sand Marriage?
Christopher F. Jones in the Huffington Post breaks it down,
“Pipelines are like marriages: they are meant to last several decades. We have to ask ourselves not only whether we want such a pipeline now, we have to determine whether we want to spend the rest of our lives with it…
Most debates about the Keystone pipeline are focused on the present. If you listen to the advocates of the Keystone pipeline, you’ll hear claims mostly about the pipeline’s short-term benefits. They emphasize the creation of lucrative construction jobs and access to a source of oil that is controlled by a friendly government…
We must consider whether we would still be happy with our decision in twenty, forty, and even sixty years. From this long-term perspective, the Keystone pipeline looks worse and worse.”

How Many Jobs will Keystone Create?

CEO of TransCanada Russ Girling says “20,000 US jobs” and implores environmentalists to “check the facts”. Check it.

An independent study conducted by the Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute says, “Keystone XL would result in 2,500 to 4,650 temporary construction jobs”. Check it.

Washington Republican Doc Hastings claims, “This legislation would create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs for American workers.” Check it.

A 2010 study by The Perryman Group boasts Keystone will create, “hundreds of thousands of jobs due to the stable oil supplies it will make available” Check it.

Check it:
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce: The Keystone XL Pipeline.
“The Keystone XL pipeline is a proposed $7 billion, nearly 1,700-mile, 36-inch crude oil pipeline that will stretch from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast, bringing significant new oil supplies to refineries in the U.S.”

Check it.
EPA Emergency Response and Preparedness Keystone Pipeline Project.

Underwear Bomber Gets Lifesentence

Justice deals terrorman Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab sentence to die in Prison for tryin to blow up a passengerplane w/ a bomb in his drawers @Detroit Christmas 2009.

Check it. ‘Underwear bomber’ gets life in prison.
“A Nigerian man on a suicide mission for Al Qaeda was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for attempting to blow up an international flight with a bomb in his underwear as the plane approached Detroit on Christmas 2009.”

Check it. Detroit underwear bomber gets life sentence.
“A federal judge Thursday imposed multiple life sentences on failed underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day 2009.”

Check it. Underwear bomber Abdulmutallab sentenced to life.
“A Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb a US-bound flight on Christmas Day 2009 has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.”

US Retail Sale$ Making Loot Means Recovering Economy

Experts say an uptick in the retail sales reports suggest the beginnings of the end of the Economic wobbla.

Check it. Retail sales up modestly but recovery advances.
“Retail sales rose less than expected in January, hurt by discounting in the auto sector, but a rebound in an underlying measure of sales suggested a solid underpinning for the economy’s recovery.”

Check it. US Census Bureau News (pdf*) – JANUARY 2012.
“Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Servies
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $401.4 billion, an increase of 0.4 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 5.8 percent (±0.7%) above January 2011.”

Dissent:

Check it. Unadjusted January Retail Sales Post Biggest Sequential Plunge In History.
“…the Census Bureau may ramped up its seasonal adjustment “fudge factoring” because when looking at the January headline retail sales data, which naturally was a smoothly continuous line on a Seasonally Adjusted basis, rising from $399.9 billion in December to $401.4 billion in January, something rather odd happened in the Unadjusted data set: the plunge from $459.8 billion in December to $361.4 billion in January, or -$98.5 billion in one month, was the biggest one month drop in retail sales in history. “

Budget from Obama Promises to be the shitfight of this taxin election-year

Obama is lookin for spending loot to boost growth w/ higher taxes on the Rich. Teachin at the pulpit for America to ~~step up and~~ fix its fucked up infrastructure in a ~~scheme~~ budget thats catchin heat from GOPs for failing miserably. Check it.

Check it. Obama’s budget: Where it cuts.
“The EPA, USDA and NASA are all targeted for an outright budget cut.”

Check it. Obama’s Budget Shifts Burden of Deficit Reduction.
“A $3.8 trillion spending plan for 2013 that shifts the tax burden to wealthier Americans in attempts to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade –$1.5 trillion of the deficit reductions in tax increases on the wealthy and by removing certain corporate tax breaks.”

Check it. Obama’s budget focuses on job creation.
“The $3.8-trillion plan calls for more spending on community colleges and job training, and blows past the president’s promise to cut the deficit in half. The U.S. ‘can’t cut our way to growth,'” says da Prez.

Check it. Obama budget sets up election-year showdown over tax and spending.
“…proposes investment in domestic projects and tax increases on the wealthy, but plan is unlikely to get past GOP …”

Check it. Analysis: Obama sets up clash with GOP in budget.
“..calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on job-creating programs and higher taxes on the wealthy, … contrasts sharply with Republicans’ opposition …”