Local Regulations Keep You Unemployed

Local politicos and their backroom "business partners" are creating phoney licensing scams to keep you out of work. Check out your local licensing regulations and see if any of them are based in reality. Fight for your right to work!

Amplify’d from www.ncpa.org

Proponents of such requirements justify these barriers by endlessly parroting the same worn-out phrase: public health and safety.  Yet if public health and safety were truly at risk, we would expect to see florists regulated in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., not just in Louisiana as they are now.

State legislators largely seem oblivious to the counterproductive effects of the licensure schemes they create.  This spring there was a ray of sunshine in the gloom of occupational licensure when Florida's new governor, Rick Scott, proposed a list of 20 occupations ripe for deregulation. Read more at www.ncpa.org

 

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EFF Campaign Increases the Number of TOR Relays

Amplify’d from www.eff.org

There is an acute need for circumvention technologies in authoritarian regimes - and even activists in many would-be progressive societies may feel safer if they can avoid the electronic gaze of authorities.

Our gratitude goes out to the hundreds of individuals who set up relays and donated bandwidth to help strengthen the network. They are true defenders of online freedoms. Read more at www.eff.org

 

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The Stimulus that Didn't

It should also be noted that 'official' unemployment figures ignore the completely disenfranchised who do not 'qualify.'

Amplify’d from www.ncpa.org

Myth 1: Stimulus spending can jump start the economy and fix unemployment.

Since the enactment of the stimulus bill in February 2009, the unemployment rate has not approached pre-American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) levels, even though $382 billion has been made available by government departments and agencies (on top of tax credits and other tax-related items).

In fact, unemployment recently edged up, from 9 percent in April to 9.1 percent in May.

Myth 2: Additional infrastructure spending is an effective way to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

politicians rarely include infrastructure spending in stimulus bills.

Instead, they spend money on items like transfers and tax cuts.

Only 3 percent of the last stimulus went to infrastructure. Read more at www.ncpa.org

 

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The War on Food: are we Winning or Losing?

Federal, State and Local governments continue to pour money and manpower into the War on Food, but who's winning?

Here's a brief selection of examples from 2011 to 2008:



"Government regulation ... requires costly procedures that drive small producers out of the market without necessarily improving the quality of food." http://drewt333.amplify.com/2010/12/21/get-a-taste-of-some-nutritious-freedom/



“Mandatory menu labeling did not promote healthier food-purchasing behavior.” http://reason.com/blog/2011/07/07/washington-post-food-nannyism



"Growing too many vegetables is illegal" http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/10/weird_zoning_laws



The War on Lunch: http://blog.mises.org/13894/the-great-food-truck-lobbying-race/



Hot Dog Wars http://reason.com/blog/2008/02/08/las-bacon-wrapped-hot-dog-wars



"Nationwide, fancy juices and venti mocha Frappuccinos remain almost completely untouched by sin surcharges, while a bodega bottle of Sprite brings down the wrath of the taxman. " http://reason.com/archives/2009/09/29/5-myths-we-need-to-can-about-s



Regulation and enforcement? Failed.

Minimalist "education?" Failed.

"Sin tax?" Failed.



While waving the flag of "health concerns" Federal, State and City governments grow steadily more "obese" at the tax trough while protecting their business partners.

Small business, local producers and tax-payers are not welcome at the table.

Amplify’d from www.latimes.com

America continues to get fatter, according to a comprehensive new report on the nation's weight crisis. Statistics for 2008-2010 show that 16 states are experiencing steep increases in adult obesity, and none has seen a notable downturn in the last four years. Read more at www.latimes.com

 

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Privitized Oppression

You may think this is about Xe, or Blackwater, or top secret torture camps. It's not.

Amplify’d from wikileaks.org

For six months now, five major US financial institutions, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Western Union and the Bank of America have tried to economically strangle WikiLeaks as a result of political pressure from Washington. The attack has blocked over 90% of the non-profit organization’s donations, costing some $15M in lost revenue. The attack is entirely outside of any due process or rule of law. In fact, in the only formal review to occur, the US Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy C. Geithner found, on January 12, that there were no lawful grounds to add WikiLeaks to a financial blockade. Read more at wikileaks.org

 

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OECD Draft of Internet Policy-Making Principles Raises Questions with Civil Society Coalition

Amplify’d from www.eff.org

EFF has joined with a coalition of more than 80 global civil society groups which have declined to endorse a set of Internet Policy Principles presented today in Paris by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). EFF and the other members of the OECD’s Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council (CSISAC) were unwilling to accept the high profile OECD Communiqué on Internet Policy-making because it could encourage states to use Internet intermediaries to police online content, undermining freedom of expression, privacy and innovation across the world. Read more at www.eff.org

 

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The Greek Bailout: Who Profits?

Defaults and bailouts. The dominoes are falling.

Amplify’d from esr.ibiblio.org

Lost in the eye-glazing babble about maturity extensions, haircuts, and which acronymic organization is going to funnel the money into place is the real magnitude of the stakes here. It’s not just the Greeks’ opera-bouffé parody of the modern redistributionist state that is circling the structural-insolvency drain; what really terrifies our political class is the prospect that, very soon, the investors simply won’t buy government bonds anymore – and massive borrowing through bond issues is the only thing keeping the redistributionist state afloat.

Everywhere, the gap between political spending commitments and revenue has been covered by borrowing. The entire system of redistributionism, in which the political class buys the consent of the governed with ever-increasing handouts, has come to depend on the assumption that the bond markets will always be there to be tapped for cash to fund next week’s bread and circuses. Read more at esr.ibiblio.org

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Know Your Rights: Protect Yourself from Illegal Searches

Amplify’d from www.eff.org

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects you from unreasonable government searches and seizures, and this protection extends to your computer and portable devices. In EFF's "Know Your Digital Rights" guide, we outline various common scenarios and explain when and how the police can search the data stored on your computer or portable electronic device -- or seize it for further examination somewhere else -- and give suggestions on what you can and can't do to protect your privacy. Read more at www.eff.org

 

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