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Thursday, August 14, 2008
A Personal Note from John O'Neill
A note received in email from fellow a Vietnam Vet Against John Kerry and SwiftBoat Veteran, John O'Neill about the Obamessiah.
A Personal Note from John O'Neill
Dear Friend,
Over the past couple of weeks, you may have received my letters, urging you to read The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate by National Review Online political reporter David Freddoso. I am happy to say this book is now #5 on the New York Times bestseller list. But we cannot relax for a moment: Obama still leads in the polls, and this is the book every voter needs to read to learn the truth about his record.
As you may recall, I was privileged to play a role in helping prevent John Kerry from being elected president when my fellow Swift Boat Veterans and I released the book Unfit for Command. As liberal as Kerry was, America faces an even more liberal threat today: Barack Obama. And I fully believe The Case Against Barack Obama is the 2008 version of Unfit for Command and could keep Obama out of the White House.
In The Case Against Barack Obama , Freddoso uncovers the stories the mainstream media has neglected, revealing Obama for who he really is: the U.S. senator with the #1 most liberal voting record in the Senate. And a politician whose rhetoric of "change" does not match the reality of his corrupt, "Chicago-machine politics" background.
As American citizens, it is our right and duty to question the background, character, and proposals of any candidate who could be our next commander in chief. Democrats and the media are not holding Obama accountable, so conservatives must. I'm grateful to David Freddoso and my publisher, Regnery, for finally revealing the man behind the myth.
I urge you to read the New York Times bestseller The Case Against Barack Obama . I also recommend that you buy copies for your friends and relatives who may consider voting for Obama. They deserve to know the truth, too.
Please click on one of the links below to order your copy today.
Sincerely,
John O'Neill
Categories: 2008 election info, Cross Posts (Yahoo, VDare, etc.), email, Guest Editorial, Obama - The Obamessiah
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Friday, August 08, 2008
Hell explained by a chemistry student
I received this in email. This was a ROFL moment. I googled it to try to give proper attribution. This has gone viral and is all over the net via email, over 79,000 listings on google.
HELL EXPLAINED BY CHEMISTRY STUDENT
The
following is an actual question given on a University of Washington
chemistry
mid term.
The
answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with
colleagues,
via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the
pleasure
of enjoying it as well :
Bonus
Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs
heat)?
Most
of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas
cools
when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however,
wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time.
So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving.
I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we ca n expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.
The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+
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Golf Humor
You may not get some or all of these if you are not a golfer. These are making the tour via email. No author was listed.
These are like the Murphy's Laws of Golf
but Murph didn't
carry it this far! ;)
Don't buy a putter until you've had a chance to throw it.
Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing.
When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls.
If you're afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.
The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about the golf swing.
No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse.
The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all of your many other errors
Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.
A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponents' luck.
It is surprisingly easy to hole a 50-foot putt. . . for a 10.
Counting on your opponent to inform you when he breaks a rule is like expecting him to make fun of his own haircut.
Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts
It's not a gimme if you're still away.
The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the centre of a very large tree.
You can hit a two acre fairway 10 per cent of the time and a two-inch branch 90 per cent of the time.
If you really want to get better at golf, go back and take up the game at a much earlier age.
Since bad shots come in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three.
When you look up, causing an awful shot, you will always look down again at exactly the moment when you ought to start watching the ball . . . if you ever want to see it again.
Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make two triple bogeys to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe.
If you want to hit a 7 iron as far as Tiger Woods does, simply try to lay up just short of a water hazard.
To calculate the speed of a player's downswing, multiply the speed of his back-swing by his handicap; I.e., back-swing 20 m.p.h., handicap 15, downswing = 300 m.p.h.
One of my personal favourites:
There are two things you can learn by stopping your back-swing at the top and checking the position of your hands: how many hands you have, and which one is wearing the glove.
Hazards attract; fairways repel.
A ball you can see in the rough from 50 yards away is not yours.
If there is a ball on the fringe and a ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker. If both balls are in the bunker, your's is in the footprint
It's easier to get up at 6:00 A.M. to play golf than at 10 a.m. to mow the yard
A good drive on the 18th hole has stopped many a golfer from giving up the game.
Golf is the perfect thing to do on Sunday because you always end up having to pray a lot.
A good golf partner is one who's always slightly worse than you are. That's why I get so many calls to play with friends.
If there's a storm rolling in, you'll be having the game of your life.
Golf balls are like eggs. They're white. They're sold by the dozen. And you need to buy fresh ones each week.
It's amazing how a golfer who never helps out around the house will replace his divots, repair his ball marks, and rake his sand traps.
If your opponent has trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an eight (or worse).
It takes longer to learn to be a good golfer than it does to become a brain surgeon. On the other hand, you don't get to ride around on a cart, drink beer, and eat hot dogs if you are performing Brain Surgery!
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Saturday, August 02, 2008
Vets for Obama? Say it aint so...
I just received an email from an Obamessiah support group calling themselves, "Vets for Obama".
How can this be?
John McCain is supposed to be the POW super-vet, loved by the veterans organizations and active duty military.
It turns out that he voted against funding increases for the veterans four years running and doesn't want to talk about it in any townhall setting.
It's just his maverick side coming out to piss off another of his
constituencies that should be a gimme. 
John, it is getting down to just you and your illegal alien buddies, at least those who have wangled a state drivers license and false voter registration.
Is John McCain going to turn out to be the Republican Neo-Democrat version of socialist Democrat John Kerry?
I can not support either of the two stooges (Moebamessiah and CurleyCain) still standing.
===
note: I did a quick google search and found out that there is a Vets for McCain too. We all know what socialist Democrats do to military funding, rules and regs, personnell, etc. They bury morale. Today's socialist Democrat Party is not your grandfather's Democratic Party, the party of Thomas Jefferson.
Vets For McCain
...and finally, remember the Vietnam Vets against John Kerry? There are the Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain. And many of the names are still the same.
Vietnam Vets Against McCain
http://vietnamveteransagainstmccain.com/
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
BoA buying Countrywide, pays off Dodd
In a RedState.com email alert:
In breaking news, the Washington Examiner is reporting this afternoon that Bank of America, which is buying Countrywide Financial, gave Senator Chris Dodd $70,000.00 in campaign contributions over the past year.
According to the Examiner, after Bank of American paid Senator Dodd, the Senator let Bank of America's lobbyists write the mortgage bailout legislation. Senator Dodd already received a sweetheart deal from Countrywide Financial.
and from the Washington Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/a-1449448~Bank _of_America _PAC_money _behind_Dodd_s _Countrywide_loan.html
Commentary - Bank of America PAC money behind Dodd's Countrywide loan
By Timothy Carney, Examiner
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - "We call it the 'Bank of America bill on steroids.'" A House staffer told me that, demanding anonymity, but speaking on behalf of aides to GOP members of the House Financial Services Committee.
He was talking about the bill whose Senate version has been brought to the floor this week by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CN, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL. Dodd-Shelby would let mortgage lenders off the hook for bad loans, shifting the burden ultimately to taxpayers. Dodd has received approximately $70,000 in campaign contributions from Bank of America in the last year-and-a-half.
Dodd-Shelby hit the Senate floor this week amid controversy over sweetheart loan deals Dodd and other powerful politicians received from Countrywide Financial, the lender with the most exposure to subprime mortgages at risk of default.
Some journalists and Republican lawmakers are asking if Countrywide bought a bailout bill with its VIP loans to Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. But when asking cui bono? about Dodd's bill, we need to look to Bank of America.
Bank of America agreed in January to buy Countrywide, and the deal is near completion. House and Senate staffers opposing the measure say Bank of America operatives wrote that chamber's version of the bailout.
One Senate staffer was told by a lobbyist, "the bailout section is exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted." The Senate staffer added "its obvious they got what they asked for."
Bank of America was able to buy Countrywide for around $7 per share. Countrywide's exposure to default is why Bank of America would benefit so acutely from a subprime mortgage bailout like Dodd-Shelby.
Countrywide's VIP loan to Dodd, which saves the Banking Committee chairman $75,000 over 30 years, smells like a potential quid-pro-quo now that Dodd has pushed a bill that will save the company from itself, but what about Bank of America's behavior?
These aren't bank tellers funding Dodd, either, as contributors include Bank of America's director of government affairs John Collingwood and Barbara Desoer, who oversees the merger with Countrywide and will "run the combined companies' mortgage operations," according to The Los Angeles Times.
Only Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have received more Bank of America money than Dodd during the current election cycle. Republican nominee John McCain slightly trails Dodd, with $64,000 in reported Bank of America contributions.
[go to Examiner to read the whole story]
===
Okay, I am convinced that BoA is buying votes of every available politician wherever/whenever. In McCain's case, he has a proven track record with involvement in bank scandals and giving political cover to Democrats. The bases have been covered, millions spread around liberally, and politicians bought. The "fix" is in.
I have a question: What is Shelby's involvement beyond giving Dodd (very little) cover? How much money did Shelby take from Countrywide/BoA to be the GOP frontman for this bailout? It is another shakedown of the taxpayers. Crooks in government line their pockets at taxpayer expense. SSDD
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Saturday, May 17, 2008
Run, Cole, Run
This guest editorial was received in email!
[ed: The moderate Republican wing tries to portray the refusal of conservatives to support Liberal John McCain as suicide, when it is really moderates playing russian roulette with a revolver with one cylinder empty.]
In this article:
- Republicans finally realize they're in big trouble (duh!)...
- So they're talking about getting new leaders, replacing ones like Rep. Tom Cole (well, that's a start)...
- But they seem to be as clueless as ever about what they really need to do...
- It's going to take more than shuffling the deck chairs on the G.O.P. Titanic
Run, Cole, Run
By Richard A. Viguerie
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)-the core GOP committee responsible for getting Republicans elected to the House, with majority control always as the ultimate goal.
Well, Cole and his NRCC haven't been doing so well lately, as you know if you've been watching the news at all. The Republicans have lost three straight special House elections this year-in Illinois, Louisiana, and most recently Mississippi-in three of the most conservative House districts in the nation.
That portends disaster in November. Predictably, a lot of House Republicans are calling for Cole's head. They want him replaced as chairman of the NRCC.
I have no problem with that. For over two years I've called for the wholesale replacement of Republican leaders in the Senate, the House, and the various GOP committees from the Republican National Committee on down. Cole is definitely on my "X" list.
But it's not enough to just shuffle the deck chairs on the G.O.P. Titanic. Yes, the current pilots of the ship headed the Republican Party directly toward the iceberg with their welfare-warfare policies, but it does no good to simply replace them with another set of navigators following the same charts.
The current Republican leadership must be replaced by principled small-government conservatives who will recreate the GOP as the Conservative Party. Only that will get the conservative base out of the lifeboats and back on board.
Make no mistake about it, Democrats didn't win in those three special House elections this year because their districts had suddenly turned liberal. The Republicans lost because the base of the GOP-conservatives-is so discouraged and angry over the big government policies of the national party.
And Rep. Tom Cole just doesn't get that.
Asked a year ago why the Republicans lost the House in 2006, Cole responded: "Oh, I don't think the problem was spending. People who argue that we lost because we weren't true to our base, that's just wrong."
He pooh-poohed the idea that the GOP was hurt by appropriating federal money for bridges to nowhere in Alaska.
Well, Congressman, how are you doing without your base?
"I think we've hit our floor," Cole said a year ago. "For us to lose more seats, it's going to take a catastrophic presidential election."
Well, Congressman, it looks like you're headed right for that perfect storm-a catastrophic presidential election and, according to current estimates, a loss of 20 more GOP seats in the House and equally disastrous results in the Senate.
By all means, fire Cole and all the rest of the Republican leadership. But if the Republicans are taking their "Change you deserve" antidepressant pills, and are no longer suicidal, they must replace the Coles with leaders who understand one simple axiom:
You lose by rejecting your conservative base and trying to buy elections with liberal big-government bribes. You win by energizing your conservative base and then reaching out to like-minded independents.
--30--
NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation magazine) and one of the "conservatives of the century" (The Washington Times). His latest book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books), which Jerome Corsi wrote in WorldNetDaily, is "destined to become a classic of conservative thinking" and "may be the most important conservative book written in the last quarter century."
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Friday, May 16, 2008
Senators From a Different Planet
Cross posted to "No Amnesty - Got It?"
There seems to be a complete disconnect between Senators in DC and the working citizens of the USA. This is nothing new though because the three remaining presidential candidates, the Three Stooges (Moebama, HilLarry, and CurleyCain), are all supreme panderers to the illegal alien component of all the immigrants that they want to flood the country with. The dearest wish of all these politicians is to kick all current workers out of their jobs and replace them with no-wage/low wage workers/slaves. Sounds a bit facetious but it is true nonetheless. They will deny it with words but will vote for it in committee and on the senate floor.
Message from Roy Beck, NumbersUSA.com...
THE INCREDIBLE INGREDIENTS OF THE SENATE'S NOXIOUS AMNESTY STEW
Rosemary Jenks (our Vice President, Government Relations) just called me after finishing reading the Iraq supplemental spending bill as it came out of committee. It would:
Grant a three-year work visa followed by a permanent greencard to all illegal aliens who have been working as shepherds, goat herders and dairy herders.
Grant a five-year work visa to the estimated 1.3 million illegal aliens working in other agricultural jobs -- plus all of their families. There is no instruction on what happens after the five years.
Grant a tripling of the maximum number of H-2B visas for lower skill, non-agricultural seasonal workers.
Grant industries an extra 218,000 additional permanent green cards for skilled foreign workers.
Friends, perhaps you are thinking what I'm thinking: Don't these Senators know that we are in an economic recession, or close to it? Don't they know that unemployment rates have been going up and that industries across the country are shedding both skilled and unskilled jobs?
If ever you doubted that U.S. Senators live lives disconnected from ordinary Americans, you could see it Thursday as 17 of them fell all over themselves to drastically increase the number of foreign workers allowed to hold U.S. jobs!
RIDICULOUS CLAIMS ABOUT RUNNING OUT OF FOOD WITHOUT AN AMNESTY
Senators Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) led the way to protect our economy from having to figure out ways to hire some of the 14 million-plus American workers who are trying to find a job but can't.
Especially interesting is their claim that we will fail to harvest crops and feed the world this year without an amnesty for illegal aliens. They made the same claim in each of the last four years. Each time that we beat back the amnesty, the harvests still happened! How many times does Feinstein have to cry wolf (or rotting crops) before people stop paying attention?
Of course, the outlaw businesses that scream for illegal aliens do have more to fear this year because various enforcement policies (federal, state and local) are beginning to drive more and more illegal aliens home.
What we have to constantly remind everybody, though, is that each of these outlaw growers at any time can come clean, go straight and become a legal, patriotic member of the business community by importing any needed foreign ag workers through the H-2A temporary worker program. There is no limit on how many they can import as long as they pay them decently and ensure that they go home.
The North Carolina Growers Association has used the H-2A visa program for years and opposes all efforts at amnesty for illegal alien ag workers. If the program works fine for North Carolina farmers, why do farmers in other part of the country insist that only illegal aliens will fit the bill?
THE VERY LOW CRITERIA FOR QUALIFYING FOR AN AG AMNESTY
Rosemary says you don't have to have spent much time in the fields to qualify for Feinstein and Craig's amnesty.
You only have to meet ONE of the following three criteria to get the amnesty:
Earned $7,000 working in agriculture during the 2004-2007 period.
Or worked 863 hours in agriculture during the 2004-2007 period.
Or worked at least a little bit in agriculture on 150 different days during the 2004-2007 period.
That amounts to an average of $1,750 per year ...
... or 216 hours per year (the equivalent of 4 hours per week) ...
... or parts of 37 days per year.
DO THEY THINK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STUPID AND THAT WE COULD POSSIBLY ACCEPT THAT ILLEGAL ALIENS WORKING THAT LITTLE IN AGRICULTURE ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF AGRI-BUSINESS IN AMERICA!!!!!!
The answer is that they really hope we are that stupid or just incredibly unfocused. All the right-wing business lobbyists, leftist organizations, religious groups and news media who tried to force the amnesty last year are cheering this thing on.
We beat them last year because the American people FOCUSED for a few weeks and told the U.S. Senators who is their boss.
Will you please do everything you can to enlist a small army in your community to fight this?
Please keep coming back to our home page several times a day to read the latest news on the Senate amnesty battle.
Thanks, Roy Beck NumbersUSA.com
===
note:
(May 16) At yesterday's markup of the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee committed an outrageous act of disrespect for our men and women in uniform and to the citizens of this country by adopting an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that gives amnesty to illegal-alien agricultural workers. The copy of the amendment obtained by NumbersUSA indicates a maximum of 1.35 million illegal aliens, plus their families, could obtain "emergency agricultural worker status" for a five-year period. However, the amendment also provides for an adjustment of status, which paves the way for permanent legalization.
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Thursday, April 03, 2008
Operation Chaos - Rev. Wright and Obama
This information was received in email from RedState.com
This whole story about Reverend Wright further demonstrates the fraud that is Barack Obama. Let's work the timeline on this:
Barack claims that he would have left the church in 2007 if Wright had not stepped down as an "active" pastor. (Note that he is still "senior" pastor and all sermons in the churrch bulletin are still copyright to Wright)
Of course in 2006, Barack gave his largest donation to the church ever, $22,500. That's 22,500 demonstrations of his support for the message and work of Rev. Wright when Barack would have us believe that he was struggling with Wright's words and leadership.
Of course, recall that when the Wright story broke Barack hadn't heard about these sermons. They didn't happen when he was there.
Let me offer another theory: we are watching a politician lie. Politicially, it is a convenient lie, because he is lying about his state of mind, something that it is very hard to disprove or corroborate.
This is the same kind of lie that Barack Obama told about his position on Israel. He used to support a radical liberal position on Israel, like the position taught be Rev. Wright. But then, in 2003 he pivots and suddenly becomes a fan of Israel. Why? When politicians change their position a year before an election, the most obvious theory is usually the correct one. They are, or were, lying.
On Israel and on Wright, Obama's stories don't work.
And that is not the sort of change we can believe in.
All the best,
Erick Erickson
Editor, RedState.com
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Tuesday, April 01, 2008
IRS Phishing Update
Have you noticed any increase in your spam and junk mail lately? I just received this notice about a fake IRS phishing email that is going around. I have seen several of these in my junk mail folder but just emptied the folder without looking at it.
This info came to me in email from:
Lt. James “EMO” Tichacek, USN (Ret)
Director, Retiree Assistance Office, U.S. Embassy Warden & IRS VITA Baguio City, RP
http://post_119_gulfport_ms.tripod.com/rao1.html
IRS Phishing Update 02 (3000% Increase in JAN)
IRS Phishing Update 02: E-mails that fraudulently claim to be from the Internal Revenue Service to trick taxpayers into giving up personal information have increased significantly this tax season, according to the IRS and a security vendor. For two years, the IRS has warned consumers about the fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo in "phishing" attempts" in which criminals try to gain access to consumers' financial information to steal their identities and access banking accounts. In 2006, the agency established the e-mail address phishing@irs.gov for victims to report incidents along with guidelines on how to do this at http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html As of March of this year, almost 34,000 emails were identified as phishing attempts -- 611 in the first few months of 2008. Of those attempts that occurred in 2007, the IRS was able to trace the code from the e-mails back to 862 individual phishing schemes. But that number is likely just a small portion of the total. "This is a self reporting group," said IRS spokeswoman Michelle Lamishaw. "The group of people actually receiving them is much larger." The total number of phishing incidents that have occurred this tax season is difficult to estimate, and those vary according to the source. Internet security software vendor Secure Computing says the number of phishing Web sites targeting the IRS increased 3,000% in January compared to JAN 07. Secure Computing, based in San Jose CA declined to provide the specific number of phishing attempts, saying they are proprietary.
The company also reported an increase in the number of phishing Web sites that are targeting the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. The majority were traced to locations in the United States. In terms of phishing attempts, Secure Computing identified 583 different fraudulent IP addresses sending e-mails on behalf of IRS.gov between 1 JAN and 5 FEB and more phishing scams in January than for all of the first six months of last year. "We're also noticing other sites that offer tax-related services getting targeted -- accountants and tax service businesses, for example," said Paula Greve, director of Web security research at Secure Computing. "These [scams are coming] at taxpayer citizens on all sides, gaining hold of their information." Phishing schemes have become more sophisticated, now including links that lead to fake but professionally designed Web sites and bogus interactive applications from the IRS. In one example, a link takes consumers to what appears to be the IRS "Where's My Refund" page, which asks taxpayers to check on the status of their tax refunds. The real IRS application asks for customers' Social Security number, filing status and the refund amount; the bogus page typically asks for additional personal information, including a bank account number.
Some phishing scams pull from current
events, such as claiming to relate to the economic stimulus package
approved by President Bush or targeting organizations that distribute
funds to other organizations or individuals. Often the scam e-mails
claim to be sent by the director of the exempt organization's area of
the IRS, asking recipients to click on a link to access a form that is
typically a phishing attempt or download information on tax law changes
that, in fact, downloads malicious code onto a taxpayer's computer that
then can take over the hard drive and access files containing personal
information. "Anybody can spoof a Web site," Lamishaw said. "It's not
that hard. They just capture all of the graphic elements and the font
and so on, and then manipulate the information and questions." No matter
how sophisticated the e-mail, Lamishaw warns consumers not to be fooled.
"IRS is not in the habit of sending unsolicited e-mails," particularly
those that ask for any account-related information. "The few e-mails we
send are of the newsletter sort -- where we're sending info to
stakeholders. No one should expect anything, no matter how legitimate it
looks."
[Source: GovExec.com newsletter 26 Mar 08 ++]
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Saturday, March 29, 2008
Email from Michigan State Senator Mike Bishop
Thanks for the 'heads up' on this from Saul Anuzis "That's Saul Folks"
SENATE TAKES ACTION TO SAVE TAXDOLLARS, SPUR HOUSING MARKET AND SET NEW ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS
It has been a very busy couple of months in the Michigan Senate. Since the beginning of the year, we have hit the ground running with our agenda (visit www.senate.michigan.gov/gop) of turning Michigan around with strong public policy and restraint in state spending.
In just this week alone, while the Michigan House of Representatives enjoyed a spring break, Senate Republicans passed the Senate originated budget bills, a homeowner stimulus package and legislation for renewable portfolio standards which will assist our state in decreasing its own dependence on foreign oil.
The 2009 budget process, thus far, has been in stark contrast to last year's statewide nightmare. The Senate Republicans have moved budget bills far BELOW the Governor's budget recommendations, SAVING TAXPAYERS $147 MILLION DOLLARS - and we're just getting started! The Senate originated bills are only half of the overall fiscal year budget. We look forward to finding continued savings on the House originated budget bills in the upcoming weeks.
With the housing market at its lowest level in decades, Senate Republicans were able to pass a homeowner stimulus package for the ailing industry, providing immediate relief. The Senate plan nullifies the "pop-up tax" (where a home's taxable value increases to its market value when the home is sold) by allowing a homeowner to claim their "pop-up tax" liability against their state income tax liability. For example, a family of four with an income of $70,000 would normally see a state income tax liability of $2,100. With the new legislation, after subtracting their "pop-up tax" credit and their homestead tax credits, their overall tax liability would be virtually eliminated ($2,100 income tax less homestead and pop-up). Also included in the legislation is an increase in the homestead property tax credit from $1,200 to $1,300, an increase in income thresholds by $10,000 - allowing more individuals and families to qualify for the credit and extends principal residence exemptions to unsold homes.
We also moved renewable portfolio standards legislation this week. This legislation asks that the state lead by example in consuming renewable energy, requiring the Department of Management and Budget (DMB) to enter into contracts with electrical energy providers to purchase 3 percent renewable energy by January 1, 2009, 10 percent by 2010, 20 percent by 2020 and 25 percent by 2025. Language was included to ensure the purchase is "economically feasible", which is defined as no more than 105 percent of the cost of non-renewable energy. The package also includes a $200 tax credit to consumers to offset the cost of utilizing renewable energy and requires utility companies to notify customers of their renewable energy programs and available tax credits. Government should not mandate to consumers and businesses standards it cannot itself abide by.
Although each issue mentioned above is of great importance, it is just a small portion of what we hope to accomplish for the taxpayers of this state in 2008. I look forward to continued savings, efficiencies and progress.
My continuing regards,
Michael D. Bishop
Senate Majority Leader
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