Destroying E-commerce the Congressional Way

Fundamental to electronic commerce is the willingness of purchasers to trust that the seller will protect the privacy of the transaction and of their credit card information. Millions upon millions of dollars have been spent to provide a process that customers can trust and now in one sweeping move all of that will be swept away by an act of Democrat/socialist controlled Congress.

Buried deep within the massive, 630-page housing bailout bill that is close to being passed and signed are some rather interesting tidbits. For instance, there is this:

Payment Card and Third Party Network Information Reporting. The proposal requires information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions. Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction. Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. [READ MORE]

In a nutshell, this bill will require all credit card companies, eBay, Amazon, Google and other payment gateway companies to report to the Federal government any purchase you make using a credit or debit card. All of this information will be kept in a database controlled by the Federal government. Given the Feds past record with securing data, this has to raise an immediate concern over security and privacy.

Beyond the very real concerns regarding security and privacy, one has to wonder why is the Fed doing this, what are they going to do with the data and why does the Fed want to know what you might have sold or purchased on eBay or any other ecommerce web site or even at a local business? You also have to ask what right does the Fed have to collect this information in the first place?

We also must ask why was this provision inserted into this housing bailout bill WITHOUT debate and without allowing the public -- that's you and me folks -- time to react and contact our Federal representatives? What the heck is Sen. Christopher Dodd, DEM - Connecticut, doing and why does he want the give the Federal government this level of power and control over the America people and America business?

Consider how this information can be used. Everything you buy using a credit or payment card will be known to the government (and any hackers that steal the data from the government). EVERYTHING folks. This will also make known to the government any political contributions you make using your plastic ending the sanctity and privacy of political donations.

While the popular wisdom holds that it is the evil conservatives that seek to take away our rights, this bill clearly shows that it is liberals who strive to control every facet of our lives.

This bill will pass, after all it is an election year and housing bailout is a politically popular issue. When it does pass, this provision will become law. How much damage will this provision do to electronic commerce is yet to be seen but I for one will be rethinking the use of the credit and payment cards and the use of ecommerce web sites.

"Friends don't let friends vote liberal"

Barry's Big Adventure or Something Wicked This Way Comes

In case you hadn't heard, the "Magic Negro Tour" featuring the New Messiah of Politics continues to chug across the middle east and Europe. Of course, about the only way you would not be aware of this is if you spent the last week or so deep inside a cave in the Rocky Mountains as mainstream media has engaged in 24 x 7, all-Obama, all the time coverage. In fact, if you could stomach the nightly news cast for a few minutes, you would undoubtedly hear how huge throngs everywhere gathered to pay homage to the New Messiah.

But not everything is sunshine and lollipops in Obamaland.

The Huge Berlin Crowd
While the American media minions reported the crowd in Berlin for Chebama's speech at 200,000 German Public Television reports during the event put the crowd at a much smaller number: 20,000. [READ MORE].

"Minutes later, Obama was on stage. And a half hour after that, he was gone again. By 8 p.m. -- as the crowd filed out, obediently following the order to disperse given over the loud-speaker system -- the number being cited had grown to fully 200,000. As this German timeline indicates, the original source for the rapidly growing estimates was in fact the rally organizers: i.e. the Obama team. The 200,000 figure would also be attributed to the Berlin police -- which might represent the first time in modern history that the police and the organizers of a political rally agreed on their estimates of crowd size."

Rewriting History - Again
One year ago in South Carolina, Obama was asked:

"[W]ould you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?". [READ FULL ANSWER]

His answer at that time was:

"I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous."

Now it seems that Obama has much different recollection of his answer. [READ MORE]. Give us a break Chebama, our memories aren't that short.

Oops
It is well documented that Obama becomes somewhat tongue tied when he is not reading a prepared speech from a teleprompter. [READ MORE]. Heck, it is now becoming obvious that he has a problem getting things right anytime he speaks. In Israel he referred to the Senate Banking Committee as "his committee" but in actuality he is not a member of said committee.

One can only hope that American voters are going to see through this sham campaign, the big media bias and the lies of the sycophant from Illinois before it is too late. With all of the problems large and small that we face, about the last thing we need in the White House is a marxist with no regard for the truth.

"Friends don't let friends vote liberal"

Congress: The Enemy Within Part 2

You could not write a script any better than this. No sooner are the efforts of Boxer, Oberstar and the rest of Democrat/socialist crew reported [READ EARLIER STORY], then yet another story pops up. The arrogance of the political elite is stunning.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV's "Money and Politics" last night, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., explained Democrats don't want to increase supplies of oil and gasoline because they want to wean Americans off of petroleum products.

Asked point-blank if Democrats in the Senate would consider how increasing the supply of oil would lower the prices that are pinching U.S. consumers, Cantwell replied: "Oh, we definitely want to move beyond petroleum. And so there will be a supply side offered by the Democrats and it will include everything from battery technology to making sure that we have good home domestic supply, and looking, as I said about moving faster on those kind of things like wind and solar that can help us with our high cost of natural gas." [READ MORE]

Can it be any clearer? Can even those who voted for the Democrat/socialists rulers still hide their heads in the sand or blame Bush? Are we the people going to put up with such arrogance and self righteous idiocy?

Write letters. Make phone calls. Send emails. Challenge your "representatives" in Congress. Demand that they expand drilling for American gas and oil NOW. Remind them that the search for alternative technologies is valid but will not meet the needs of this country for several decades.

Congress must be responsive to the needs and desires of the majority of her citizens. When we speak, our elected employees should listen. And if they don't listen it is up to us to fire the bums and send them back to where ever they came from.

Congress: The Enemy Within

Despite high gas prices and a huge majority of Americans supporting a drill now policy, the Democrat/socialist controlled Congress stil refuses to listen to the people. Instead, these elitists continue to push the pie-in-the-sky daydreams so popular with the neohippies. The most recent proof of this is found in the words of Senator Barbara Boxer:

“I don’t think that you throw the Alaskan [Arctic] National Wildlife [Refuge] into oil drilling,” Boxer said. “You don’t need to do it. If you look at what’s in there, it would keep us going for six months when you can do so much more. I mean, with the acreage that is already in the oil companies’ hands. So, I think there are certain American values and you don’t throw them away for something that is so obviously necessary.”’ [READ MORE]

Not only does Her Highness refuse to open the ANWR, she flippantly tosses out misleading and false facts [READ MORE]. While mounting her throne and making her pronouncements, Her Highness Boxer most importantly ignores the will of the majority of American taxpayers.

Perhaps if Her Highness Boxer were not financially supported by we the taxpayers she might be more willing to listen to our voices. Perhaps if she had to pump $4.00 a gallon gas and pay out of her own pocket she might get the message. But as a Congressional elite, the socialist senator from California live high on the government hog.

Not to be outdone, Democrat/socialists in the House led by Minnesota's own Congressman Oberstar (D-MN) are starting to lay the groundwork for an increase in the Federal gas tax to be used to fund their earmark highway programs [READ MORE]. The short and sweet of this is that rather than eliminate their pork barrel, earmark pet projects, the Democrat/socialist controlled Congress wants to raise OUR taxes.

The bottom line is that it is Congress and NOT the President who passes the laws that the rest of us have to live with. If we truly believe in freedom and individual rights, we must eradicate Congress of socialists such as Boxer.

It is your country America - are you going to decide to do something about the problems or are you going to continue to be led around on a leash by liberals and the mainstream media?

Friends don't let friends vote for liberals.

Chebama Works Alone

Every so often we while surfing the internet, we come across a quote or tidbit that catches our eye. This is one of those tidbits from Charles Krauthammer.

“Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself. There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements? Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted ‘present’ nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself. It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history—’generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment’ —when, among other wonders, ‘the rise of the oceans began to slow.’ As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, ‘Moses made the waters recede, but he had help.’ Obama apparently works alone.” —Charles Krauthammer

Barrack Hussien Obama, aka Chebama, is a product of the media, of the "American Idol" mentality. He is a shallow politician with little real achievement that he can point to as his own. His ever changing foreign policy is the product of a team of advisers numbering over 300. His words are those of his handlers and speech writers - when he speaks off the cuff he comes across as a bumbling fool.

One has to wonder how long it will be before the American people look behind the curtains and see the sham.

Bad news day for manmade global warming kooks

Despite the hysterical screeching of Al Gore calling for massive government programs to save the planet from the evils of man made global warming, MMGW, the tide continues to turn against Gore and his mindnumbed zealots.

Top science group breaks from the MMGW hysteria

Representatives of the American Physical Society, a group representing over 50,000 physicists, has announced that there is a:

"considerable presence within the scientific community" of experts who don't agree with the IPCC's contention human-produced CO2 emissions likely are the primary cause of global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.

Unlike the media talking heads and celebrity self-declared experts who toss about alleged facts without providing any support for the facts, physicists are real scientists. There is a better than average chance that they actually know what they are talking about. [Full story]

Arctic Ice INCREASES In 2008

If you were making plans to visit the North Pole by boat in the near future, I'm sorry but you'll have to put your plans on hold. The Arctic Ice Pack INCREASED in 2008.

Arctic sea ice extent on July 16 stood at 8.91 million square kilometers (3.44 square miles). While extent was below the 1979 to 2000 average of 9.91 square kilometers (3.83 million square miles), it was 1.05 million square kilometers (0.41 million square miles) above the value for July 16, 2007...

The report goes on to state that in some places there were decreases, in many more there were increases. This folks is the natuaral cycle and has nothing to do with MMGW. [Full story]

Al Gore's Stake In Electric Conversion Industry

Al Gore is a wealthy man. Much of his wealth has come from family dealings involving the oil industry (Occidental Petroleum), real estate and zinc mining in Tennessee. But the recent huge increase in his wealth has come from his man made global warming scam [Full story]. And now Gore the Green Crusader stands to cash in again on the gullibility of much of the human race.

The cornerstone of his proposed massive 10 year, taxpayer and consumer financed effort to save the earth from MMGW is to convert all of America's electrical production over to wind, solar and other so-called renewable resources by 2018. While Mainstream Media gushes and wets themselves over this latest brilliant proposal, they as usual neglect to look beyond the surface and dig up a few, easy to find facts. For instance, is it any coincidence that Gore is heavily invested in the industries that will most benefit from Gore's Folly? [Full story]

Reality Check

The earth warms, the earth cools. Has for millions of years and will do so long after we are bits of dust. The main force pushing this natural cycle is not man but is in fact the sun and other natural forces such as volcanoes. Unless Gore, his mainstream media cohorts and others of his ilk can come up with a plan to control the solar cycles and keep volcanoes and earthquakes from happening, man will never control the natural cycles. We can, and do, adapt but we can not control.

Hey UN - Kiss Our Sweet Patooties

Jose Medellin is a convicted rapist-killer. The victims were two young Texas girls, 14 and 16. Jose is currently on Death Row awaiting execution on August 5, 2008. However the UN's International Court of Justice's has called for stays in the cases of Medellin and four other Mexican nationals awaiting execution in Texas. [Read more]. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has made it clear that Texas plans to go ahead with the scheduled executions. Sadly, our Federal government is trying like heck to force Texas to follow the UN's ruling claiming that failing to do so will make it rough on US citizens in foreign prisons.

Hey, UN, kiss our sweet patooties. Take your crap and shove it where the sun don't shine. You do nothing to help our citizens abroad - how about those Mexican and Turkish prisons? These men killed American citizens on American soil. They are subject to American law, more specifically in this case Texas law. They were tried and found guilty. It is no business of the UN.

This is just the latest in a neverending stream of attempts by the UN to control the lives not only of American citizens but of freedom loving people everywhere.

It is long past time for Americans to tell the UN to pack up, get off our soil and kiss off.