Obama administration proposes race-based legal system in Hawaii

• "President Barack Obama’s administration has quietly suggested it is willing to create a two-tier race-based legal system in Hawaii."

• The system would include "one set of taxes, spending and law enforcement" to "govern one race, and the second set of laws will govern every other race."

• “This seems to be yet another case of the Obama administration ignoring the law to achieve its policy objectives,” said Carissa Mulder, a spokeswoman for two members of the federal Commission on Civil Rights.

Obama administration proposes race-based legal system in Hawaii

By Neil Munro  |  The Daily Caller  |  May 27, 2014

President Barack Obama’s administration has quietly suggested it is willing to create a two-tier race-based legal system in Hawaii, where one set of taxes, spending and law enforcement will govern one race, and the second set of laws will govern every other race.

The diversity proposal is portrayed as an effort to create a separate in-state government for people who are “native Hawaiians.”

If Obama succeeds, “what’s to prevent creating similar [self-governing racial] groups out of say, Cajuns, or Orthodox Jews or Amish?” said Gail Heriot, a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

“If you can do that with groups that are already part of the mainstream, you can balkanize the country,” said Heriot, who is a law professor at the University of San Diego.

Federal agency scraps employee rating system

• Not only is there virtually no accountability at many government agencies, there is also no real way to review performance.  The title says it all - "Raises all around."

• "Due to concerns with the system, everyone who scored a three or above, regardless of performance, will now be getting the top rating of five -- along with the corresponding retroactive pay raises that the top rating brings."

• "Going forward, the bureau is looking at using a new two-tiered rating system for at least two years while officials evaluate the old system."

• "But the retroactive payments raise the possibility that workers who slacked off could be rewarded the same as top performers. "

Raises all around? Federal agency scraps employee rating system

By Barnini Chakraborty  |  Fox News  |  May 28, 2014

WASHINGTON – America's new consumer watchdog agency has come up with a unique solution for its troubled employee-rating system: Give almost everyone a gold star.

The independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- created under the 2010 "Dodd-Frank" financial industry overhaul to serve as a consumer watchdog -- says it's scrapping its system of employee ratings in response to concerns that it was discriminatory.

That rating system assigned workers a score of between one and five. Due to concerns with the system, everyone who scored a three or above, regardless of performance, will now be getting the top rating of five -- along with the corresponding retroactive pay raises that the top rating brings.

More on Operation Choke Point

• Operation Choke Point is an abusive program where the government knows best and abuses it's authority through the use of intimidation.

• "This program, apparently, seeks to target businesses regarded as undesirable — like porn — by hitting them at a financial "choke point": their bank accounts."

• "A program that was built upon the goals of stopping financial fraud has devolved into a massive government overreach into private businesses that are operating within the law."

Justice Department shuts down porn money: Column

By Glenn Harlan Reynolds  |  USA Today  |  May 26, 2014

They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney, our moralistic Department of Justice would be trying to shut down porn stars. And they were right: I voted for Romney, and sure enough, the Department of Justice is trying to shut down porn stars. Along with a lot of other, perfectly legal businesses. But I'll bet if Romney were in the White House, there'd be more coverage in the press.

A while back, some adult performers noticed that banks were terminating their accounts. The reason, it turned out, was a Justice Department program called "Operation Choke Point." This program, apparently, seeks to target businesses regarded as undesirable — like porn — by hitting them at a financial "choke point": their bank accounts.

Operation Choke Point

The general outline is the DOJ and bank regulators are putting the screws
to banks and other third-party payment processors to refuse banking
services to companies and industries that are deemed to pose a “reputation
risk” to the bank

The ability to destroy legal industries through secret actions to deprive
them of banking services has obvious political consequences

Operation Choke Point

By Todd Zywicki  | The Washington Post  |  May 24, 2014

The Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point” initiative has been
shrouded in secrecy, but now it is starting to come to light. I first heard
about the program in January through this article and since then it has
been difficult to discover details about it. It is so named because through
strangling the providers of financial services to the targeted industries, the
government can “choke off” the oxygen (money) needed for these
industries to survive. Without an ability to process payments, the
businesses – especially online vendors — cannot survive.

The general outline is the DOJ and bank regulators are putting the screws
to banks and other third-party payment processors to refuse banking
services to companies and industries that are deemed to pose a “reputation
risk” to the bank. Most controversially, the list of dubious industries is
populated by enterprises that are entirely, or at least generally, legal. Tom
Blumer’s extremely informative post summarizing what is known to date
about Operation Choke Point reproduces the list, which includes things
such as ammunition sales, escort services, get-quick-rich schemes, on-line
gambling, “racist materials” and payday loans. Quite obviously, some of
these things are not like the other; moreover, just because there are some
bad apples within a legal industry doesn’t justify effectively destroying a
legal industry through secret executive fiat.

Dems Run, But Can't Hide from ObamaCare

• For years, Democrats promised that the public would eventually fall in love with ObamaCare once they realized all its wonderful benefits

• A month ago, President Obama said debate about the law was over because it was such a huge success — once 8 million people allegedly signed up for coverage

• As recently as this spring, Nancy Pelosi was bragging that ObamaCare will be a "winner" for Democrats, that Democrats "embrace" and are "very proud" of it, that "we couldn't be more thrilled"

Dems Run, But Can't Hide from ObamaCare

Investors.com Editorial | May 27, 2014

Denial: Six months ago, Rep. Nancy Pelosi promised Democrats would "stand tall" for ObamaCare. But as November elections near, more Democrats want to pretend ObamaCare never happened. And for good reason.

Georgia's Senate candidate, Michelle Nunn, refuses to say whether she would have voted for ObamaCare had she been in Congress in 2010. Ditto Kentucky's Alison Lundergan Grimes and Nebraska House candidate Pete Festersen.

Montana's Sen. John Walsh, who is trying to keep the seat he was appointed to in February, wants everyone to know that he was far, far away from Washington when ObamaCare votes were cast, "preparing soldiers and airman to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan."

Even Pelosi is trying to downplay ObamaCare for the midterms, saying in an interview over the weekend that "we're not running on or from the Affordable Care Act."

Really? For years, Democrats promised that the public would eventually fall in love with ObamaCare once they realized all its wonderful benefits.

A month ago, President Obama said debate about the law was over because it was such a huge success — once 8 million people allegedly signed up for coverage.

As recently as this spring, Pelosi was bragging that ObamaCare will be a "winner" for Democrats, that Democrats "embrace" and are "very proud" of it, that "we couldn't be more thrilled."

Well, perhaps someone showed Pelosi recent polls.

6 ways to keep your passwords safe

By Jolie Lee | USA Today | May 22, 2013

USA TODAY Network lists six tips for you to keep your passwords safe.

1. Use a different password for every website you visit.

We know it seems like password overload but it is a lot less work than dealing with getting hacked.

2. Use a combination of upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols.

The more original you are the better. According to Norton, some of the most common passwords created by online users last year were password, 123456, qwerty, 111111 and monkey.

3. Change your passwords every three months.

4. If it's hard to remember all your passwords, try a password manager.

5. Make sure your computer has an anti-virus program.

Several companies offer some sort of all-in-one suite of protections. Some of the more popular ones are Avast,Bitdefender, Norton, Webroot,McAfee and Kaspersky.

6. Set up two-step log-ins

Two-step authentication asks you to sign in with your password, and then add a second sign-in — a numeric code sent by text, e-mail or a phone call. Think of it as a double password.

Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft all recommend two-step authentication.

Revealed: How a taxpayer bail out that could run into BILLIONS was built in to Obamacare to protect insurance companies if they lost out in reform

• The Affordable Care Act included a way for insurance companies to recoup their losses from covering everyone regardless of their health
• If insurers lose money, the government's funds – taxpayer dollars – cover between 50 and 80 percent of the losses for three years
• Premiums for 2015 are expected to skyrocket before the November elections, and Democrats hope the payments will keep prices down
• When the Obamacare law passed in 2010, it omitted the authority for the government to make these 'risk corridors' payments
• But in a bit fo regulatory sleight-of-hand last week, the Health and Human Services Department quietly issued a regulation authorizing them

A taxpayer bail out that could run into BILLIONS was built in to Obamacare to protect insurance companies

By David Martosko | The Daily Mail | May 21, 2014

Health insurance companies are poised to have access to billions of taxpayer dollars in what Republicans are calling an Obamacare 'bailout.'

In a little-noticed regulation issued late last week, the Department of Health and Human Services authorized massive payments to insurers that lose money because of the Affordable Care Act's requirement that they cover even the oldest and sickest Americans.

A provision of the Obamacare law known as 'risk corridors' provides the safety valve for insurance companies if they keep rate hikes modest but still wind up in the red.

According to that system, insurers whose claims in 2014 are 3 per cent higher than what was projected will recover half of the different from the government.

If claims are 8 per cent or more above projections, taxpayers cover 80 per cent of the company's losses.

An aide to a member of the House Republican leadership told MailOnline that the risk corridor system was calculated to cushion the blow of rate hikes until President Barack Obama is out of office.

'They set the risk corridors to expire in three years,' the staffer said. 'Guess who will be long gone from the White House by then?'

'This is just another taxpayer-funded subsidy for big businesses. If the Obamacare system were fair, it would force insurers to price their policies according to reality. Of course, if that happened, rates would double and you'd see well-deserved panic in the streets.'

White House says Obama only learned of VA wait-list scandal on TV (just like the IRS, Fast and Furious and reporter snooping scandals)

• White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the president didn't know about explosive Veterans Administration scandal until he saw news reports
• Earlier in the day a report emerged showing the VA itself warned Obama's transition team about it after the 2008 election
• Obama and his surrogates have claimed he learned of several other scandals from broadcast or print news stories
• They include Operation Fast and Furious, the IRS's targeting of tea parties and a DOJ seizure of two months of Associated Press phone records
• VA medical centers stand accused of keeping secret off-the-books waiting lists in order to cook the books and boost performance stats
• As many as 40 veterans died in Phoenix when they were denied critical care because their names didn't appear on official waiting lists

White House says Obama only learned of VA wait-list scandal on TV

By David Martosko | The Daily Mail | May 19, 2014

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wound up with egg on his face Monday as he told reporters that President Barack Obama first learned from a TV news report that his Veterans Administration was denying medical care to vets with secret off-the-books-waiting lists.

But new evidence emerged this morning that his transition team was notified five years ago about how VA medical centers' official wait-list times bore little resemblance to reality and risked denying military heroes critical health care. 

The Washington Times reported Monday that waiting times at veterans' medical facilities were known to be wildly inaccurate at the end of the George W. Bush administration. By the time Obama's transition team got a post-election briefing from the VA at the end of 2008, scheduling failures were already reaching a critical point.

The newspaper received a copy of that briefing through a Freedom Of Information Act request.

Obama has come under fire before for saying he was made aware of scandal-worthy shortcomings in his own administration by watching television, including the IRS tea party-targeting scandal that rocked Washington 12 months ago and the Operation Fast and Furious saga that has tainted his Justice Department for years.

A CNN reporter asked Carney on Monday when the president was 'first made aware ... of these fraudulent lists that were being kept to hide the wait times' at VA medical centers.

'You mean the specific allegations,' Carney asked, 'that I think were reported first by your news network out of Phoenix, I believe?'

'We learned about them through the reports. I will double check if that is not the case. But that is when we learned about them and that is when I understand Secretary Shinseki learned about them, and he immediately took the action that he has taken.'

Many swimmers come up short in water-safety skills

Many swimmers come up short in water-safety skills

By Frank Pompa and Jeff Dionise | USA Today | May 20, 2014

Only 56% of adults who say they can swim can perform five critical water-safety skills that could save their lives, according to a new American Red Cross survey.

Competency with all five — floating or treading water for one minute without a flotation device; stepping or jumping into water over your head and returning to the surface; treading water or floating in a full circle and then finding a way out of the water; exiting a pool without using a ladder; swimming 25 yards (the length of a standard pool) without stopping — is essential to being able to help yourself in a pool or open-water emergency, says Connie Harvey, a Red Cross water safety expert.

With Memorial Day and the start of many water-related summer activities days away, the non-profit group is broadening its annual message about learning to swim and making smart choices around the water (such as always swimming in designated areas supervised by lifeguards and always swimming with a buddy) to emphasize the importance of knowing these "basic safety and survival skills."

Keep politics out of the courthouse

Keep politics out of the courthouse

By Ruth McGregor and Randall Shepard | Washington Post | May 18, 2014

Ruth McGregor is a retired chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court and Randall Shepard is a retired chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. They are members of the board of directors of Justice at Stake, a nonpartisan network working to keep courts fair and impartial.

The chaos surrounding the execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett was not just a wake-up call on capital punishment and how it is administered. The final hours also saw political efforts to bully and weaken Oklahoma’s courts. Similar battles are playing out around the country, threatening the ability of our courts to be fair and impartial.

When Lockett’s attorneys filed a lawsuit seeking information about the drug mixture that ultimately failed, the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a stay to grant more time for review. But the governor announced that she would disregard the court’s ruling. A legislator introduced a resolution to impeach the five justices who had voted for the stay, alleging “a willful neglect of duty and incompetence.” The Supreme Court ultimately dissolved its stay and allowed Lockett’s execution to proceed.

The constitutional crisis may have been brief, but it was profoundly disturbing. As lifetime jurists and former chief justices of the supreme courts of Arizona and Indiana, we believe our treasured American system of checks and balances is harmed when our courts are threatened with intimidation. Our courts were designed to be the branch of government most insulated from politics.

5 Tips for Protecting Your Privacy

5 Tips for Protecting Your Privacy

By ABC News | May 18, 2014

Although there is no single step that effectively blocks unwanted tracking on the internet, there are some steps you can take to help prevent it, and we asked independent researcher and consultant Ashkan Soltani for five tips to protect your privacy. Here they are below.

1) Ad Industry Opt-Out

The industry would have you opt-out of tracking using industry opt-out websites like the DAA/NAI ad choices webpage or individual sites like Google’s Ad Preferences Manager, which also lets you see what categories Google thinks you belong in.  Sadly though, many of the third-party trackers you encounter online aren’t a part of the Digital Advertising Association or Network Advertising Initiative, which means you won’t have a way to op-out from their tracking tools.  Additionally, even if you opt-out, the fine print often still allows the third party to track you for non-advertising purposes, such as website analytics or security.

What you need to know about online advertisers tracking you

What you need to know about online advertisers tracking you

By Jose Andrade | Engadget | May 16, 2014

Spend lots of time online? Then perhaps you've heard of targeted advertising, "Big Data" analysis and complaints of privacy violations by advertising companies. The ads above your Gmail inbox? Yeah, those. As it turns out, most people don't like being tracked by advertisers. Surprise! As such, a variety of tools exist to protect individuals. But what about a solution that anyone could use, that didn't require knowledge of cryptography or even a software install? That's where the Do Not Track initiative comes in.

Do Not Track (DNT) is explained by its own name: Don't track what I do online, including what I buy, what I read, what I say and who I communicate with. But how should it work?Therein lies the controversy. Since the subject is still being debated, now's the perfect time to learn about it, voice your opinion and request more control over your data. If you want more control, that is.

Amid Protests, FCC Advances Net Neutrality' Regulations

• The Federal Communications Commission moved forward with new regulations regarding so-called net neutrality, voting to advance rules that could have far-reaching implications on how Internet content is delivered and how much consumers pay to have it delivered

• The new regulations could allow big Internet service providers to charge more for faster and more efficient delivery of content.

• The critics say the FCC’s proposal would create a “fast lane” and a “slow lane” on the Internet

• The plan, according to the critics, would eliminate net neutrality -- the principle that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally

Amid Protests, FCC Advances Net Neutrality' Regulations

By Dunstan Prial | FOXBusiness | May 15, 2014

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday moved forward with new regulations regarding so-called net neutrality, voting to advance rules that could have far-reaching implications on how Internet content is delivered and how much consumers pay to have it delivered.

The new regulations, if approved after a four-month period of comment and review, could allow big Internet service providers such as Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to charge more for faster and more efficient delivery of content.

The vote was along party lines, with Democratic appointees Tom Wheeler, the chairman, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel approving the effort to develop new rules they argue will keep the Internet “open.” The FCC vote comes in the wake of two recent court rulings that struck down past FCC efforts to impose regulations on the Internet.

Republican appointees Ajit Pai and Michael O'Reilly voted against moving forward with the new regulations, saying the proposal reaches beyond the scope of the FCC’s responsibilities. Pai said if new regulations are needed, Congress should legislate them.

The vote  kicks off a 120-day rulemaking process, with public comments due July 15.

2+2=What? Parents rail against Common Core math

• Common Core is a set of English and math standards that spell out what students should know and when

• Critics say it fails to stress basic computational skills, leaving students unprepared for higher math.

• Parents trying to help their kids with math homework say that adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing has become as complicated as calculus

2+2=What? Parents rail against Common Core math

By Michael Rubinkam | AP | 05/15/14

An Iowa woman jokingly calls it "Satan's handiwork." A California mom says she's broken down in tears. A Pennsylvania parent says it "makes my blood boil."

What could be so horrible? Grade-school math.

As schools around the U.S. implement national Common Core learning standards, parents trying to help their kids with math homework say that adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing has become as complicated as calculus.

They're stumped by unfamiliar terms like "rectangular array" and "area model." They wrestle with division that requires the use of squares, slashes and dots. They rage over impenetrable word problems.

Stacey Jacobson-Francis, 41, of Berkeley, California, said her daughter's homework requires her to know four different ways to add.