PK's NOTE: It just keeps getting better, doesn't it.
OMB: Obama First President to Spend $4 Trillion in One Year
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released figures with President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget that reveal he will become the first president in U.S. history to spend $4 trillion in a single year.In fiscal 2016, the OMB says Obama will spent $4.0898 trillion and $4.2474 trillion in fiscal 2017. Obama will vacate the Office of President four months into fiscal 2017 on January 20, 2017. OMB projections indicate the budget will never balance under Obama’s budget plan.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/11/OMB-Obama-Will-Be-First-President-Ever-To-Spend-4-Trillion-In-One-Year
Chained CPI means higher income taxes for middle class
Is anyone still keeping track of broken Obama promises? If they are, they might want to include his vow only to raise taxes on the "rich" and not the "middle class."Americans for Tax Reform report:
The White House has confirmed that President Obama's forthcoming budget contains an income tax increase on middle class Americans.
During a Friday, April 5 White House press briefing, spokesman Jay Carney replied "I'm not disputing that" when asked if a particular Obama budget proposal would raise income taxes on the middle class.
The proposal in question is known as "Chained CPI." The term is a Beltway euphemism for measuring inflation at a different, slower pace. Many tax and budget items are indexed to inflation, so slowing inflation's measured rate of growth has both spending cut and tax increase implications.
On the tax side, all income tax brackets are subject to inflation. Slowing down the inflation rate slows down the annual rate of growth in all income tax brackets.
This means the Obama budget contains a tax increase on 100 percent of middle class taxpayers--anyone who pays the federal income tax.
Many other tax provisions--the standard deduction, the personal exemption, PEP and Pease, IRA and 401(k) contribution limits, and many others--are also tied to how CPI is measured.The Senate is not likely to approve a chained CPI this year. But if the GOP takes control in 2014, it will almost certainly be part of any entitlement reform for Social Security.
Chained CPI as a stand-alone measure (that is, not paired with tax relief of equal or greater size) is a tax increase and a Taxpayer Protection Pledge violation. Various reports peg the tax increase amount as exceeding $100 billion over the next decade.
This little exchange between press secretary Carney and Major Garret is interesting:
GARRETT: And to critics who would say to this President, looking at this proposal, this is the last and possibly worst time -- from their point of view -- to raise taxes on the middle class, inflict benefit cuts on elderly on fixed incomes, even in the pursuit of deficit reduction, the President would say what?
CARNEY: The President would say that as part of a balanced approach that asks the wealthy and well-to-do and well-connected to contribute their fair share through tax reform, elimination of special tax breaks that average folks don't get, that we can also include entitlement reforms that allow us to achieve deficit reduction in a balanced way and allow us to continue to invest in our economy in ways that will help it grow and create jobs.Obama has gone from "spread the wealth" to "spread the pain." I wonder if that will be as popular with his supporters?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/chained_cpi_means_higher_income_taxes_for_middle_class.html#ixzz2QAtMFp3G
Obama: ‘Prohibit’ Americans from Saving More Than $3M in Retirement Accounts
President Barack Obama’s proposed budget would simultaneously compel Americans to enroll in a tax-deferred retirement account and “prohibit” them from saving more than $3 million in such accounts. That sum, Obama’s budget argues, is all that is “needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving.”Under current law, American who save money in tax-deferred retirement accounts are taxed on the money in such accounts when they withdraw it--and are charged an additional tax penalty if they withdraw it before retirement age.
Obama’s plan to simultaneously compel enrollment in a retirement account and prohibit Americans from saving more than what he believes is a “reasonable” amount in such an account is published in part of his budget that deals with what the president calls “rebalancing the tax code.”
Although the budget would “automatically” enroll Americans in a retirement account—even if they did not want to enroll—it would allow them to “opt out” of actually making contributions to that account.
“About half of American workers have no workplace retirement plan,” says Obama’s budget. “Yet fewer than 1 out of 10 workers who are eligible to make tax-favored contributions to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) actually do so, while nearly 9 out of 10 workers automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan continue to make contributions. The Budget would automatically enroll workers without employer-based retirement plans in IRAs through payroll deposit contributions at their workplace. The contributions would be voluntary—employees would be free to opt out—and matched by the Saver’s Tax Credit for eligible families.”
However, President Obama would not allow Americans to opt out of his prohibition on retirement-account savings that exceed the “reasonable level” of $3 million.
The second bullet point in Obama’s plan to “rebalance the tax code” is entitled: “Prohibit Individuals from Accumulating Over $3 Million in Tax-Preferred Retirement Accounts.”
“Individual Retirement Accounts and other tax-preferred savings vehicles are intended to help middle class families save for retirement,” says the Obama’s budget—which does not define exactly what a “middle class family” is, nor explain why someone who does not have a family is not intended to be helped by these type of accounts.
“But under current rules, some wealthy individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving,” the budget continues, without explaining who exactly a “wealthy individual” would be, or how a “wealthy individual” would differs from a “wealthy family.”
“The Budget would limit an individual’s total balance across tax-preferred accounts to an amount sufficient to finance an annuity of not more than $205,000 per year in retirement, or about $3 million for someone retiring in 2013,” says the budget.
The budget says that if this part of Obama's plan is enacted, the Treasury will tax away about $9 billion from American savers over the next ten years.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-prohibit-americans-saving-more-3m-retirement-accounts
Safe from Sequester: $704,198 for Gardening at NATO Ambassador’s Home
Just over a week after sequestration took effect, the State Department allotted more than $700,000 for gardening at a U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Brussels, Belgium. On March 11, State awarded a contract to provide gardening services at an “official residence” of the U.S. Mission in Belgium.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNSNews.com that the contract is for Truman Hall, a historic property that serves at the residence of the Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The current U.S. ambassador to NATO is Ivo H. Daalder, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2009.
The total award comes to $704,198.30, including $134,744 for the base year and four one-year option periods thereafter. A State Department spokesperson said that Truman Hall regularly hosts visitors from the 28 NATO nations and other Alliance partner countries around the world and is a valuable platform for America’s diplomacy. The award provides for grass cutting, edging, trimming, weeding, and other gardening and landscaping services. It will also mandate the planting of 960 violas, tulips, and begonias.
Truman Hall, named after former President Harry S. Truman, was built in 1963 by Architect B.A. Jacquemotte and Landscape Architect René Pechère. The 28-acre property consists of several gardens, meadows and a lawn pavilion.
The award came just 10 days after automatic across-the-board cuts, known as the sequester, took effect on March 1. Prior to the cuts taking effect, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the sequester could “seriously impair our ability to execute our vital missions of national security, diplomacy and development.”
In a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) on Feb. 11, Kerry said sequestration means $2.6 billion less in fiscal year 2013 for State Department programs. "These cuts would severely impair our efforts to enhance the security of U.S. government facilities overseas and ensure the safety of the thousands of U.S. diplomats serving the American people abroad," he said.
In addition to Truman Hall, the State Department is currently soliciting gardening services for U.S. Embassies in Jakarta, Indonesia; Santiago, Chile; Maseru, Lesotho; and Bangkok, Thailand. The solicitation for the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta places a maximum amount of $500,000.
A State Department spokesperson said the award for Truman Hall was made at the lowest price technically acceptable, at a total cost of $704,198.30. The contract was awarded to Iris Greencare, a landscaping company based in Brussels.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/safe-sequester-704198-gardening-nato-ambassador-s-home
Gov't Spends $214K on 'Home-Based' Tampon Testing for Cervical Cancer
The federal government is spending over $200,000 for what it calls a “novel approach” to detecting cervical cancer, in which tampons -- used to obtain tissue samples -- are mailed in for testing. Louisiana State University received $214,672 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute to study the effectiveness of using tampons to test for human papillomavirus (HPV).
“Medically underserved women are generally at higher risk for many health problems including cervical cancer,” the grant’s description reads. “Solutions can often be found by utilizing resources within the community. An academic-community partnership has been formed to develop a novel approach to screening for cervical cancer.”
The grant explains that HPV can be detected from samples obtained from self-swabbing of the vagina, urine testing, or the insertion of tampons. “These methods could be performed in the community or at home by women,” it says, “which is useful for the group of women not visiting the gynecologist to receive recommended testing.”
The study will compare traditional methods of Papanicolaou (Pap) testing for HPV, with the “novel approach” using tampons. “Given the ease of home use, it is hypothesized that home-based Tampon testing for HPV DNA will be equal or superior to the annual Pap testing,” the grant says.
The researchers also want to see if a “high risk population” will be accepting of tampon testing and if they are able to “correctly follow instructions.” “In order to achieve these aims, a group of women will be asked to administer the Tampon sampling at home and return via mail.”
Inquiries to LSU for comment on this topic from CNSNews.com were not answered before this story was posted.
The grant, entitled, “Feasibility of Community Based Tampon Self-Sampling to Prevent Cervical Cancer,” was given to the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. In 2012 LSU received $200,000 from the head office of the NIH, the Office of the Director, and $14,672 from the National Cancer Institute.
The project began in September 2012, and lists an end date of August 2014. The grant says the study has “public health relevance” because not enough women go to the gynecologist regularly.
“Because cervical cancer can be prevented through regular Papanicolaou (Pap) testing and follow-up with treatment of abnormal findings, the rates of cervical cancer have been dramatically reduced in the past decades,” it says. “Yet many women, particularly older women who no longer use gynecological services, do not receive the recommended testing which results in what would have been preventable cases of cervical cancer.”
“Self-administered, home-based sampling for HPV testing is an opportunity to reach those women who are not visiting the gynecologist for cervical cancer screening.”
Inquiries to NIH for comment on this particular grant from CNSNews.com were not returned by publication of this story. The NIH did e-mail a standard response about their work, stating, "NIH research addresses the full spectrum of human health across all populations of Americans. Research into unhealthy human behaviors that are estimated to be the proximal cause of more than half of the disease burden in the U.S. will continue to be an important area of research supported by NIH. Only by developing effective prevention and treatment strategies for health-injuring behaviors such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, drug abuse, inactivity and poor diet, can we reduce the disease burden in the U.S. and thus, enhance health and lengthen life, which is the mission of the NIH. The details of the specific grant that you are inquiring about, including funding amounts and project start and end dates, can be found on NIH Reporter."
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/govt-spends-214k-home-based-tampon-testing-cervical-cancer
DOJ Spent $58M on Conferences in FY 2012
The U.S. Justice Department spent more than $58 million on conferences in Fiscal Year 2012 -- and that doesn't include spending on conferences that cost less than $20,000, the DOJ inspector general told Congress on Wednesday.
Inspector-General Michael E. Horowitz told a House judiciary subcommittee that conference spending is one area the DOJ "should scrutinize" as it tries to reduce waste and inefficiency in a tight budget climate.
"Although the Department has reported reducing these expenditures by $7 million in the last year and $33 million in total over the last two years, it nevertheless reported spending over $58 million on conferences in FY 2012, and that number excludes spending on conferences that cost less than $20,000 and conferences that were not predominantly for DOJ attendees," Horowitz said in his prepared testimony.
"We believe that the current budgetary environment demands that the Department search for adequate alternatives to conferences, such as video conferencing, and that it strongly consider restricting its conference spending even further."
The IG said the Justice Department's most pressing problem is the growing cost of the federal prison system, which houses "a continually growing and aging population of federal inmates" -- 218,000 inmates in October 2012, an increase of more than 13 percent since FY 2006.
"The federal prison system is consuming an ever-larger portion of the Department’s budget, making safe and secure incarceration increasingly difficult to provide, and threatening to force significant budgetary and programmatic cuts to other DOJ components in the near future," Horowitz said.
The IG said the DOJ should make better use of existing programs to realize cost savings and reduce overcrowding. He mentioned a program that allows certain foreign inmates to return to their home countries to complete their sentences; and a compassionate release program that allows the release of prisoners under "compelling conditions," such as terminal illness.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/doj-spent-58m-conferences-fy-2012
National Park Service to Spend $40,000 Looking for Bat Caves in California
The National Park Service is setting aside $40,000 in taxpayer funds for a “potential partner to collaborate on a project to identify the location of bat hibernacula within Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.”
According to the grant, there are “almost 300 identified and geo-referenced caves” in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks “of which many are undoubtedly used as bat hibernacula” – the winter quarters of the hibernating animal.
“Our goal is to determine which of the almost 300 caves in the parks are actually used by bats, in particular those caves which are used by sensitive species such as Townsend’s big-eared bat. Because many of these caves are located in steep, mountainous terrain at elevations up to 10,000 ft, some technical climbing/caving skills may be necessary,” the grant said.
“Given the significance of the caves and the wildlife they provide habitat for, a monitoring program is desirable for detecting changes in the cave ecosystems,” the grant added.
Many of the species found in the caves include species that are “of significant conservation concern” including three bat species – Spotted bat, Pallid bat, and Townsend’s big-eared bat – all of which are listed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as Species of Special Concern and by the Western Bat Working Group as High Priority Species.
The National Park Service (NPS) is hoping to get the project started as soon as possible ahead of the arrival of White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), a disease that causes mass mortality specifically in hibernating bats. NPS wants assistance with “prioritizing caves for investigation, using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, literature reviews, and expert opinion, etc.”
NPS also hopes to get help “conducting summer site visits to evaluate caves for evidence of bat occupancy (guano, urine stains, etc.), conducting acoustic surveys of caves with evidence of bat occupancy to determine relative activity levels, and for the caves in which significant activity is detected, conducting follow-up investigations to identify species present.”
Once the initial inventory is done, the park will be able to revisit the bat caves in the future as part of a long-term monitoring program. The closing date for applications is April 10. The project will be initiated in September and may span multiple years, according to the grant description. Calls to the National Park Service were not returned at press time.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/national-park-service-spend-40000-looking-bat-caves-california
USC Prof. Caught on Camera Blasting ‘Stupid’ and ‘Racist’ Republican ‘Losers’
Tyler Talgo was fed up. For two years the University of Southern California student had listened to the classroom ranting of liberal professors. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Darry Sragow, his political science professor, launched into an anti-Republican tirade on the first day of class.
“I knew that this was going to be a professor that was very left-wing, very biased,” Talgo told Fox News. “I knew this would be one of those classes where the professor would be biased all the time.”
So Talgo decided to fight back. “As soon as I got back to my dorm, I decided to video his lectures,” he said. “I got inspired.”
The 20-year-old political science major bought a hidden camera disguised as a shirt button. And that’s how he was able to secretly videotape every single lecture delivered by Professor Sragow. “It’s one thing to say this happened,” Talgo said. “It’s another thing to show that it happened.”
Talgo culled 15-minutes worth of Republican, Tea Party and conservative ranting from Sragow’s lectures and shared them with Campus Reform reporters Oliver Darcy and Josiah Ryan.
“On the first day of class he talked about how Republicans prevent blacks from voting,” Talgo said. “He also said that he used to work for Democratic candidates and it was his job to kill Republicans.”
The video shows Sragow peppering his lectures with curse words and ridicule for Republicans – with his teaching assistant joining in on the attacks. “They’re really stupid and racist,” Sragow said at one point. “The Republican party is increasingly the last refuge of old, angry white people who don’t like what’s going on in this country.”
“Old white guys are stubborn sons of b*tches,” he noted.
Professor Sragow told Fox News that he has absolutely no regrets over any of his classroom lectures.“I have said them many times to many audiences, and if the student had told me he was taping my comments I still would have said them,” he told Fox News. “I had had this exact conversation with many of my Republican colleagues and friends.”
Sragow said it is possible Talgo may have violated the student code of conduct by secretly taping his classes. “While I am very candid and direct, I never say anything unless I am willing to have it repeated with attribution,” the professor said. “If he thought he was playing a dirty trick by taping me, it lacks creativity and the effort deserves maybe a C-plus.”
The video shows the professor opining on a number of issues ranging from Mitt Romney to accusations that the GOP suppressed the black vote.
“Republicans are trying to prevent people of color and people of lower income from voting by requiring voter I.D.,” he said.
During one lecture, a student asked how to stop Republicans from voting. The teaching assistant chimed in, “Put up Panthers outside of the polling place.” The professor responded, “Yeah, yeah. You can do that.”
He also railed on the Bush-Gore presidential campaign and claimed Republicans had stolen the election.
“Al Gore won the presidency of the United States,” he told students. “He didn’t get to be president. That’s power. He got more votes, right? We all know he got more votes. That’s a fact. You think the Bush people did what they did in Florida for fun? The presidency was at stake.”
“There are tens of thousands of people who are now dead because George Bush, even though he got fewer votes, became the president of the United States,” the professor said. “That’s a fact.”
The day after the 2012 election, Sragow trumpeted a Democratic victory in California.
“I believe we will continue to allow Republicans to live here – but Republicans will be totally, completely, utterly irrelevant,” he said. “But we don’t need them anymore. They are totally irrelevant and clinically depressed.”
He also took pot shots at Mitt and Ann Romney. “Ann Romney to me looks like she’s out of 1955,” he told students. “I looked at Ann Romney during the convention and I thought, holy crap, this is the country club in 1955.”
As for Romney? “All campaigns have a message it communicates to voters,” he said. “Vote for Obama because he’s going to create jobs, keep the peace, and protect Social Security. Vote for Romney because Obama is all f***** up.”
Sragow suggested that his harsh words were meant as a wakeup call for the Republican Party.
“If the Republican Party in California doesn’t broaden its appeal, within the next few years there will be more independent voters in California than Republicans,” he said. ‘We need two strong parties in the state.”
Talgo, who is a registered Republican – but considers himself a libertarian, said his video is proof that university campuses are hostile places for non-liberals.
“There are definitely some classes where professors give no regard to the other side and it’s a class that slanders people who disagree with them,” he said. “It’s hard for students. The professors are often times so intimidating you can’t bring up your own point of view. And even if you do – you risk your grade being retaliated against.”
That’s why he waited until after the semester had concluded and after his grade had been posted before posting the video.
“I’ve been in many classes like that before and in those instances I tried to stand up to the professor – and by the time the test or essay grades came back, I always felt they were less than what I earned,” he explained.
The professor scoffed at the notion that conservative students aren’t given a fair shake. “If this student was offended, he knows perfectly well that I encourage an open debate and active student participation in my classes,” Sragow told Fox News. “He could have challenged me.”
Talgo said he hopes other students will take a stand and help expose other liberal professors.“My major concern is that these professors are indoctrinating students,” he said.
http://townhall.com/columnists/toddstarnes/2013/04/11/professor-calls-republicans-stupid--racist-n1564681/page/full/
Indoctrination by Crossword
Eighth-graders in Wisconsin’s Union Grove school district were assigned to fill out a “Liberalism vs. Conservatism” crossword puzzle, and they learned some new and very questionable “facts.”Students learned conservatism is “the political belief of preserving traditional moral values by restricting personal freedoms … ”
Conversely, they learned liberalism is “the political belief of equality and personal freedom for everyone, often changing the current system to increase government protection of civil liberties.”
See the photos here.
The crossword puzzle was part of a civics assignment that was forwarded to EAGnews by Tamara Varebrook, a local conservative activist whose eighth-grade daughter received the lesson at Union Grove Elementary School yesterday.
Varebrook said she posted the assignment on her Facebook page to share with other parents who might not be aware of the blatant political bias and effort at indoctrination, disguised as “civics.” “The definitions of conservatism and liberalism make me sick,” Varebook told EAGnews. “I think it’s horribly distorted and it’s biased.”
Varebrook, who serves on her local Republican Party board and has appeared in commercials promoting conservative values, said she was particularly disturbed by the definition of conservatism as “restricting personal freedom.” “It's insinuating conservatives don’t believe in people having civil liberties. That it’s only for old-fashioned fuddy-duddies,” Varebrook said. “That’s completely negative. It’s completely false.”
Last time we checked, it’s the big government progressives who are determined to restrict personal freedoms. You know, the bans on sugary drinks, fatty foods, snacks at school lunch time, salt intake, etc. But apparently that’s not the case, according to Sunburst Visual Media, the puzzle’s producer, or the Union Grove school district.
Varebrook said she doesn’t believe her daughter’s teacher is the problem, but rather the curriculum she’s forced to teach. “I don’t think her teacher is a radical indoctrinator, it’s the curriculum,” she said. “It’s not factual. Every piece of homework I’ve seen paints conservatism in a negative light. I can only imagine what high school is going to bring.”
On the back side of the crossword puzzle was a political survey students were required to fill out to identify their beliefs, something Varebrook believes is equally troubling. “It’s about guns, it’s about freedoms, it just goes on and on,” Varebrook said.
Varebrook said her daughter is 13 years old, and likely has little interest in political philosophy. “She didn’t pick up on (the bias), she was just happy to get it filled out,” Varebrook said.
Varebrook plans to email her daughter’s teacher about political bias in the assignment, but is skeptical of what good it will do. “My guess is most students got this done in class and didn’t bring it home,” Varebrook said. “I put it on my Facebook and people were just shocked. I think if it’s shared, parents will question their kids to see what’s going on in the schools.”
We certainly hope they do.
http://townhall.com/columnists/kyleolson/2013/04/11/indoctrination-by-crossword-n1563706/page/full/
School Apologizes to Santorum, Invites Him to Speak
A Michigan high school issued an apology to former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum after they canceled an upcoming speech because teachers were outraged over his support for traditional marriage.The principal at Grosse Pointe High School said students will need a permission slip from parents to attend the April 24th address. “I’ve learned some things here. I wish we could wind back the clock a bit on this,” Principal Matt Outlaw told The Associated Press.
“I spoke to the senator. I apologized for the situation,” Outlaw said. “He’s very excited to come here. He mentioned that he’s been to the Grosse Pointe community many times. … We think we’ll have a very large crowd.”
The former Pennsylvania senator and former presidential candidate had been invited by the high school’s Young Americans for Freedom club.
Langston Bowens, 18, the president of the YAF chapter, told Fox News that he was not surprised by the campus outrage.“They flooded my principal’s office and complained about how this bigoted, racist homophobic speaker was going to come to our school,” he said. “They were very offended. They threatened protests. They threatened not to show up to work – because he’s a conservative.”
Bowens said the young conservative student worked hard to raise the money to bring Santorum to campus and the school’s principal actually signed off on the address. It was the superintendent, he said, that pulled the plug. “Our school is liberal and not very conservative-friendly,” the teenager told Fox News. “We’re called bigoted, racist and stupid because we are conservatives.”
Although, Bowens said he can’t help but laugh when someone calls him a racist – that’s because he’s African-American. “It’s really funny to hear that phrase – ‘bigoted and racist’—when you are a conservative black American,” he said.
Tragone said it’s sad that Gross Pointe teachers don’t want to expose their students to different opinions. “Their job is to teach the students and cultivate minds – certainly to be the mediator of discussions,” he said. “It seems they don’t want to do that. They don’t want his opinions even articulated.”
Santorum posted a statement denouncing the school for initially canceling his speech."It’s a sad day when liberal educators are allowed to influence young minds – extending free speech rights only to those who share their liberal views,” Santorum said in a statement posted on Patriot Voices. “This has nothing to do with the content of a speech, but rather the context of my convictions.”
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/uncategorized/school-apologizes-to-santorum-invites-him-to-speak.html
IRS Violates Fourth Amendment
Wealth confiscation agency believes it is above and beyond the Constitution: We can read emails without warrant
The Internal Revenue Service believes it is not beholden to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and can read your email without a warrant, according to documents released to the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act request.The documents reveal that the wealth confiscation agency thinks it’s OK to poke around in the electronic version of your papers and effects if you store them in an email cloud service like Google Mail.
The IRS argues it has the right to violate the Fourth Amendment under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The act unconstitutionally permits government agencies to obtain emails older than 180 days without a warrant.
One IRS document released by the ACLU claims that “the government may obtain the contents of electronic communication that has been in storage for more than 180 days” without a warrant.
According a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2009, however, email enjoys “strong protection under the Fourth Amendment” and the government cannot simply demand access without a court-issued search warrant.
The agency has bent over backwards to justify its violation of the Fourth Amendment. In 2009, it produced a “Search Warrant Handbook” that stated it is not obliged to follow the Constitution and obey the law.
The IRS Criminal Tax Division’s general counsel said “the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Earlier this year, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont introduced legislation to revamp the outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act and require law enforcement and government agencies to acquire a search warrant instead of a subpoena when attempting to gain access to private electronic communications.
“Just think about the contents of your text messages and how much sensitive, personal and valuable information is contained there,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel in the Washington office of the ACLU said after the move by Lee and Leahy. “Imagine the government turning that into a permanent log that they, or private investigators or divorce attorneys, could look at any time in the future.”
Or, for that matter, the IRS snooping around looking for taxable income.
http://www.infowars.com/irs-violates-fourth-amendment/
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