Similar haircuts would be made to underfunded pension and health benefits for retirees. Orr is hoping that the creditors and the unions that he will be negotiating with will accept this package. … Read More
UK lobbying EU to allow GM crops despite public skepticism
In the thrust of the speech that has been leaked to the Independent, the Conservative minister is expected to say that Britain risks being “left behind” if it fails to adopt increasingly widespread GM crops. “What we want to do is start a dialogue within Europe on GM based upon the science,” a senior source told the newspaper. “The point about GM is not simply about food production. There are wider potential environmental and economic benefits to the technology both in the UK and internationally.” Specifically, Paterson will argue that bioengineering could be used to create disease-resistant wildlife and develop new pharmaceuticals. The speech appears to be part of a concerted government campaign to overturn the EU’s strict reluctance to issue commercial licenses for GM crops, following a similar statement made by Science Minister David Willetts on Tuesday. “We believe that GM crops can help make agriculture more efficient and also just as importantly more sustainable, by, for example, reducing the use of pesticides and the use of fossil fuels,” he said. “There are just too many 21st-Century technologies that Europe is just being very slow to adopt… one productive way forward is to have this discussion as part of a wider need for Europe to remain innovative rather than a museum of 20th century technology.” Currently, each genetically-modified crop has to be authorized by an EU commission. As of now, Monsanto’s MON810 maize and BASF’s Amflora potato are the only two plants permitted for commercial cultivation in the bloc. Despite a large Europe-wide scientific report in 2010 concluding that bioengineered food poses no special hazard, eight EU member states have also banned the cultivation of genetically-modified crops altogether, with Italy expected to become the ninth. Less than 0.2 per cent of all food grown in Europe is genetically-modified, while 12 percent of all arable land around the world is planted with GM seeds. While previously low demand from consumers and farmers were cited as reasons for avoiding scientifically-engineered varieties, ministers are likely to use a just-published poll of 600 British farmers, 61 percent of whom say they would like to plant GM seeds. “Farmers are becoming more and more aware that climate change doesn’t mean a gradual rise in temperatures but rather a stream of extreme weather events. GM technology is one possible way of mitigating this,” said Martin Haworth, director of policy at the National Farmers Union. But the public remains skeptical. A YouGov poll released Wednesday shows that only 21 per cent of Britons are in favor of growing GM crops, with 35 per cent explicitly opposed to the technology. An estimated two million people, many of them in Europe, turned out for global anti-GM protests last month. Producers of bioengineered foods, which are often made by manipulating the DNA of plants and introducing foreign organisms into it, say that they increase yields, better resist disease, and decrease the need for pesticides. Opponents claim that they pose health risks and contaminate the environment. They also believe that patents on prominent GM crops give excessive power to corporations that develop them, primarily market leader Monsanto. … Read More
IRS wasted $50 mln on luxury hotels, alcohol and baseball tickets
The Internal Revenue Service allegedly spent nearly $50 million on about 200 employee conferences between 2010 and 2012, during which it frequently provided its workers with presidential hotel suites and allowed them to take dance classes and attend baseball games, according to excerpts from an inspector general’s report slated to be released Tuesday. An August 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif., cost the IRS $4 million. About 2,600 managers attended the event and stayed in presidential hotel suites that usually cost $1,500 to $3,500 per night. About 15 outside speakers were paid $135,000 each, one of which was hired to discuss “leadership through art”, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which released the excerpts. The IRS also failed to negotiate lower room rates, which is a standard practice for federal government agencies. Employees who attended the conference also received a number of costly benefits, including baseball tickets at taxpayers’ expense. “They ended up with free drinks, they ended up with tickets to games – basically kickbacks,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House oversight panel that released the excerpts, told NBC News. Over the weekend, a video surfaced online, showing about a dozen IRS employees line dancing before the Anaheim conference. The latest recording of the dancing workers cost the agency about $1,600 and portrays a lack of seriousness in the hours leading up to the conference. The “Cupid shuffle” line dance recording was released after two IRS video parodies of the “Star Trek” and “Gilligan’s Island” TV shows were publicized in recent weeks. The IRS allegedly spent about $60,000 in taxpayer funds to produce all three videos, ABC News reports. “It’s outrageous. Any kind of wasteful spending like this must be put down, particularly at these times,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told NBC. IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel admitted that the spending outlined by the inspector general’s report was excessive, but argued that the agency has become more responsible since then. “This conference is an unfortunate vestige from a prior era,” IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement released Sunday, referring to the event in Anaheim. “While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting, many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and should not have occurred.” Werfel also claims that travel and training expenses have decreased by “more than 80 percent.” The Treasury Department released a statement alleging that the administration “has already taken aggressive and dramatic action to reduce conference spending.” IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge also said that spending on conferences with 50 or more participants was reduced from $37.6 million in 2010 to $4.9 million in 2012, AP reports. But news of the IRS’s spending history serves as further embarrassment after the agency has been exposed numerous times for its inappropriate conduct in recent weeks. The agency has come under fire for targeting tea party organizations and other conservative political groups more frequently for audits, which generated immense criticism toward the IRS from Americans of all political groups. The inspector general’s report also includes quotes from interviews with IRS employees, one of which said that “all my direction” in screening conservative groups came from an official in Washington, D.C. – a statement that further contradicts IRS officials’ initial claims that low-level employees ordered the targeted audits. Rep. Issa plans to hold a hearing on the conference spending on Thursday, two days after the full report is slated to be released. … Read More
25 Signs That Military Veterans Are Being Treated Like Absolute Trash Under The Obama Administration
Every year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Barack Obama and our other politicians make very nice speeches, but the truth about how they feel about our veterans can be seen in how they are treated every single day. … Read More
21 Facts About Rising Government Dependence In America That Will Blow Your Mind
Government dependence in the United States has reached a level never seen before. The federal government hands out about 35 cents for every dollar that American workers earn. … Read More
Turkey – Journalist given 13 months in jail for insulting Mohammed
Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the sentence of 13 and a half months in prison that an Istanbul magistrate’s court passed yesterday on Turkish-Armenian journalist Sevan Nisanyan for posting “insulting” comments about Mohammed in his blog. “Nisanyan’s jail sentence is a grave violation of freedom of information and sends a threatening message to fellow journalists and bloggers that is unacceptable,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It should be overturned on appeal. Suppression of (…) … Read More
House passes ‘Pay China First’ Act
House Resolution 807, The Full Faith and Credit Act, mandates rules to go into effect should Congress fail to raise the country’s borrowing limit and the debt ceiling is reached.If signed into law, the bill would outline an order in which the US would be required to pay off its debts: first people on Social Security and holders of US bonds would be compensated, and then items like Medicare and military benefits would be dealt with.Because the government would have to settle up its debt with bond holders first, foreign nations — particularly China — would be the first to receive payment in theory. Opponents of the bill has thus labeled HR 807 the “Pay China First Act,” a moniker that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) didn’t disagree with in an interview just days before it was passed.“Those who have loaned us money, like in any other proceeding, if you will, court proceeding, the bondholders usually get paid first. Same thing here,” Boehner told Bloomberg TV host Peter Cook on Tuesday.”Our goal here is to get ourselves on a sustainable path from a fiscal standpoint,” Boehner said. “I think doing a debt prioritization bill makes it clear to our bondholders that we’re going to meet our obligations.”But although a handful of Democrats in the House agreed to advance the bill, the largely left-leaning Senate is expected to shoot down the act when it arrives for discussion shortly. Additionally, the White House has warned that US President Barack Obama will veto the bill should it make it out of Congress and end up in the Oval Office.In a statement issued earlier this week, the White House wrote that the administration opposes HR 807 because it would result in Congress refusing to pay some obligations it has already agreed to, instead prioritizing payments in a way that won’t favor the American people.“American families do not get to choose which bills to pay and which ones not to pay, and the United States Congress cannot either without putting the Nation into default for the first time in its history,” the White House wrote. “This bill would threaten the full faith and credit of the United States, cost American jobs, hurt businesses of all sizes, and do damage to the economy.”Both the White House and Senate democrats have condemned the bill because national security and veteran benefits would be put on the backburner in lieu of compensating China, who held roughly 8 percent of the money borrowed by the US government as of last September.The House approved the act by a vote of 221-207. Congress has until around October to discuss how to pay the country’s bills — at which point it is expected to hit its borrowing limit. … Read More
