Taxation without recognition?
Although not recognised officially as housing, caravans will now be paying council tax.
The 2006 finance law introduces council tax for people living in mobile, land-based dwellings, mainly caravans and camping-cars. This aggravates existing discrimination and contradicts recent presidential and government statements.
The situation is pure dynamite. Will this blow it up?
All depends on what will happen during the next few months.
In fact, the law (...)
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Discrimination against mobile dwellers in France
18 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
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Sen. Harry Reid: DC "Overrun by Organized Crime"
17 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
5 commentsBy SEN. HARRY REID
In 1977, I was appointed chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. It was a difficult time for the gaming industry and Las Vegas, which were being overrun by organized crime. To that point in my life, I had served in the Nevada Assembly and even as lieutenant governor, but nothing prepared me for my fight with the mob.
Over the next few years, there would be threats on my life, bribes, FBI stings and even a car bomb placed in my family’s station wagon. It was a (...) -
Iraq war could cost US over $2 trillion, says Nobel prize-winning economist
14 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
– Economists say official estimates are far too low New calculation takes in dead and injured soldiers
by Jamie Wilson in Washington
The real cost to the US of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion (£1.1 trillion), up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert.
The study, which expanded on traditional estimates by including such costs as lifetime disability and (...) -
The $4bn industry that is America’s guilty secret
4 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
2 commentsBy Rupert Cornwell
Lobbying is Washington’s grubby secret. Some say lobbying is part of the democratic process. Others claim it is legalised bribery, even corruption. But love it or loathe it, it is the way Washington works.
Usually you hear little about the quiet meetings, the lavish lunches and junkets that lubricate American politics. But every once in a while something comes along to open the system to what it hates most: daylight. The case of Jack Abramoff, influence-peddler (...) -
Peak Oil and the End of Empire
4 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
3 commentsby Charles Sullivan
Peak oil is most likely a term most readers have not heard before. That is about to change. The concept is slowly making its way onto the mainstream stage. It is intruding into the fringes of the public conscience and soon it may occupy the greater part. When that time comes, as it inevitably will, and probably sooner than you think, the world as we know it will end.
Oil is the lifeblood not only of the U.S. economy-especially its terrible military capability-it is (...) -
Mark Weisbrot: Hidden turbulence could send economy into a recessionary tailspin in 2006
1 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentBy Mark Weisbrot
WASHINGTON — Will the U.S. economy do as well in 2006 as it did in 2005? That may well depend on whether we can make it through another year without any of the current economy’s big imbalances and unsustainable trends coming back to bite us. The median forecast for Gross Domestic Product growth in 2006, according to Bloomberg News’ latest survey of 71 economists, is 3.4 percent. This is a little less than estimates for 2005, although a significant slowing from last (...) -
Their two cents: Protesters hang up on tax for Iraq war
1 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
By Beth Potter
Peace activist Bill Sulzman in Colorado Springs protests the war in Iraq by refusing to pay the federal excise tax of about 50 cents on his monthly phone bill.
Sulzman also recruits others who are against U.S. military involvement in Iraq to stop paying the tax, which was first adopted in 1898 to pay for the Spanish- American War.
The tax raises about $5 billion a year, which activists say goes to fund war efforts. The Internal Revenue Service won’t confirm that the (...) -
50 indicted for stealing hundreds thousands of dollars from Red Cross Fund for Katrina Victims
27 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
Fraud Alleged at Red Cross Call Centers Contract Workers in Calif. Stole From Katrina Aid Program, Indictments Say
By Jacqueline L. Salmon Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 27, 2005; A02
Nearly 50 people have been indicted in connection with a scheme that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Red Cross program to put cash into the hands of Hurricane Katrina victims, according to federal authorities.
Seventeen of the accused worked at the Red Cross claim center (...) -
Impeach the Liar-in-Chief
23 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
The generation of American leaders who fought the American Revolution and crafted the United States Constitution examined the most important issues of government. They considered (1) war and peace, (2 ) the limits to government power vs. individual liberties, (3) how officeholders should be controlled by the citizenry and (4) the raising and management of public money. That generation devised impeachment to remove tyrants and corrupt officeholders from positions of public power based on (...)
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Bush fund-raisers cash in by giving - then receiving
22 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentBy JIM TANKERSLEY, JOSHUA BOAK, AND CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK BLADE STAFF WRITERS
First of three parts
President Bush’s corporate champions see the spoils of his administration in coal. And timber. And credit-card payments, Afghan electric lines, Japanese bank transfers, and fake crab.
America’s business leaders supplied more than $75 million to return Mr. Bush to the White House last year - and he has paid dividends.
Bush Administration policies, grand and obscure, have (...)