SAN DIEGO –  A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon’s policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.

SAN DIEGO –  A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon’s policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.

Sgt. Gary Stein will get an other-than-honorable discharge and lose most of his benefits for violating the policies, the Corps said.

The San Diego-area Marine who has served nine years in the Corps said he was disappointed by the decision. He argued that he was exercising his constitutional rights to free speech.

“I love the Marine Corps, I love my job. I wish it wouldn’t have gone this way. I’m having a hard time seeing how 15 words on Facebook could have ruined my nine-year career,” he told The Associated Press.

Gary Kreep, an attorney for Stein, said he would pursue administrative appeals within the Marine Corps but anticipates the effort will fail. He said he planned to file an amended complaint in federal court.

“As long as he wants to pursue this, we will be supporting him,” said Kreep, who is executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, an advocacy group.

The Marines acted after saying Stein stated March 1 on a Facebook page used by Marine meteorologists, “Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him.” Stein later clarified that statement, saying he would not follow unlawful orders.

Marine Corps Discharges Sergeant For ‘Facebook’ Post is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

“It is hard to sneak around and do what you want,” Michelle Obama said today. “I have done it a couple of times. But you know one fantasy I have, and the Secret Service they keep looking at me because they think I might actually do it, is to walk right out the front door and just keep walking.”

ARTICLE SOURCE: Be Elected.com

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Michelle Obama: “Fantasy” Is To Walk Out WH “And Just Keep Walking is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

MOBILE, Alabama — Mobile Police made their first arrest in the mob beating of Matthew Owens. 44-year-old Terry Rawls surrendered Wednesday on assault charges.

“This here is an ongoing dispute with neighbors, that’s what this is,” explained Corporal Chris Levy with the Mobile Police Department.

Police say the tension between Owens and Rawls had been escalating for three years. In fact, that wasn’t the first time police were called to Delmar Drive. Police say Rawls has attacked Owens before, but charges were never filed because they say Owens instigated it.

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Mobile Police Make First Arrest in Owens Beating Case is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

If, your household is trying to figure out its budget for the remainder of 2012, I hope you got a rather large and unexpected tax refund check. You may have to triple or even quadruple the amount of money currently going in to your fuel tank.

And, don’t look the current administration to provide you with any assurances or helpful guidelines. They will at least admit to fact of being completely ‘clueless’ about increased pressure and pain at the pump.

** FILE ** In an Aug. 27, 2008 file photo, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., seconds the nomination of Democratic presidential

“I don’t think anyone can speculate what will happen with respect to oil prices and gas prices because they are set on the global economy,” Salazar told reporters when asked if gas prices could reach $9 per gallon, as they have been in Greece. “Where it will all end, no one knows.

Article Source: BeElected.com Posted By John.

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Salazar: ‘No one knows’ if US headed to $9 a gallon gasoline is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

In one of the first tests of its willingness to show its muscle, the new agency created to protect consumers declined on Thursday to put up a fight.

 The agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, introduced a proposal that would make it easier for credit card issuers to charge fees before borrowers’ accounts were officially open.

The bureau, which began overseeing many consumer financial products last year, said it was issuing the proposed rule in response to a federal court decision that challenged how the Credit Card Act was being applied. The act, which took effect in February 2010, put several rules in place aimed at curbing abusive lending practices.

Part of the new law said that credit card issuers could not charge fees equal to more than 25 percent of the borrower’s credit limit in the first year after the account was opened. But after certain credit card issuers started charging application or processing fees before consumers’ accounts were opened, the Federal Reserve expanded the rule so that the fee limit would also apply to those upfront charges. That’s the piece of the rule that the consumer protection agency, which has since assumed regulatory authority, is proposing to eliminate.

The bureau declined to say why it took this course. But some consumer advocates said they believed that the consumer agency, led by Richard Cordray, may be backing down because it has decided to “pick its battles,” while trying to show that it is not unfriendly to business.

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Consumer Bureau Declines to Resist Upfront Credit Card Fees, Tax deductible? is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

The ancient adage; “if you want it done or done right, do it yourself.” If I want it done right and on time, I will hire a trusted professional. Then sometimes this does not work. Such as in the recent exposure of The Black Eyed Peas CPA, Mr. Larkin of Sherman Oaks, Ca. Who allegedly has not filed their tax returns for many years. The exception is, Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, who had hired a separate business manager for herself and has no IRS or State tax issues. Then we come to another adage, ” If you want it done, have a woman do it, or at least direct it.

(Getty)Lindsey Vonn, the skier who made a splash after winning alpine skiing gold at the Vancouver Olympics, found out she owes the government $1,700,000 in back taxes for the year she won that gold. According to the Detroit News, the IRS filed a $1,705,437 tax lien against Vonn and her estranged husband Thomas Vonn on April 2 with the Elko County Recorder in Nevada.

She is in the middle of a divorce with Thomas, the man who was once her coach and mentor. She released a statement on her Facebook page promising to pay what she owed.
I am disappointed with this situation. I just recently became aware of the outstanding balance and I have done everything in my power to settle it immediately. The money owed was for the 2010 tax year, which was filed on time, and it has been paid in full. This is an important lesson for me. Not being in control of my finances and relying on someone else who you believed had your best interest at heart was a mistake and one I will not make twice.

Vonn made money from winning World Cup races and several endorsements.

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Lindsey Vonn Owes IRS Back Taxes is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

 

The 2012 tax deadline in the United States is Tuesday, April 17. researchers have discovered a grimmer connection: U.S. auto fatalities spike on the deadline day for filing income tax returns.
The stress of the tax deadline could be one reason for the increase in fatal accidents, along with altered traffic patterns, wrote the study’s authors, Dr. Donald Redelmeier and Christopher Yarnell.
“Although electronic submissions might be expected to lessen driving on tax day, we observed an increase rather than a decrease in fatal crashes in recent decades,” the study said.
Other factors might be lack of sleep, less tolerance of hassles and inattention. The typical crash victim was a young man driving “in a rural location,” it said.
The heightened crash risk is similar to that for Super Bowl Sunday, the day of the U.S. professional football championship game, another link that Redelmeier has studied.

He and Yarnell compiled crash statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1980 to 2009. They matched the crashes that took place on tax days against those that took place one week before and after.

The data showed that 6,783 people were killed on tax deadline days versus a total 12,758 on the other days.

ARTICLE SOURCE: Reuters.com

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Real Link Between Death and Taxes: Fatal Car Crashes is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

 

So what’s the easiest way to cheat on your taxes?

Run your own company. More specifically, as Greg Kyte, a Utah C.P.A., puts it, be the sole proprietor of a Schedule C business. Then you can buy stuff for yourself and probably write it off as a business expense. “You can look through your receipts for the year and say, ‘Here’s some stuff I bought at Home Depot,’ ” says Kyte (who, for the record, says he never does this). “The I.R.S. would have no idea if I bought that for my house or for my business.” There were more than 20 million Schedule C returns filed in 2009, with receipts of more than $1.2 trillion.

Upstanding Schedule C filers have options, too. They can legally write off payment for office work done by family members, even if they’re in middle school. “I’ve seen people with infant children claiming that their kids are doing work,” says Howard Rosen, a St. Louis-based C.P.A. “I’m talking about a 3-year-old doing filing,” Rosen says. “He didn’t even know the alphabet.”

How often do people cheat?

For 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, the I.R.S. collected 86 percent of what it was owed in taxes. Most of this $385 billion shortfall came from underreporting income, which is often more creative than it sounds. Gambling winnings, for example, are taxable, but losses are deductible — and some people greatly exaggerate their losses. “It’s not unheard-of for gamblers to go to the track and pick up tickets for losing bets that would be thrown on the floor,” says Mark Blood, a C.P.A. in Rochester. “I had an examination once where a number of tickets the client had given me to support losses had footprints on them.” The agent disallowed the deductions.

ARTICLE SOURCE: Be Elected.com

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What’s The Easiest Way To Cheat On Your Taxes? (Or the best way to file!) is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

I can’t believe this joker wanting to “do something about these Asians coming in.” It’s not like the ‘blacks’ couldn’t start up these business before or after the Asians arrived.

Barry: ‘We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in’

Ward 8 D.C. Councilman Marion Barry said Thursday that he was not trying to insult the city’s Asian community during remarks at a campaign event this week.

“We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops,” Barry said in remarks on Tuesday night first reported by WRC-TV. “They ought to go. I’m going to say that right now. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”

“I’m not ever going to condemn a group of people,” Barry told reporters gathered in his Wilson Building office Thursday. “My history is complete. It’s an excellent history with the Asian community.”

Barry said his criticisms of Asian businesses in his Southeast Washington ward were rooted in what he perceives as disengagement in the community by those companies.

“I’m not going to allow a group of people to exploit people in Ward 8,” Barry said.

He said he wants Asian businesses to operate in the area but he wants them to “come right.”

Susan Au Allen, the president of the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, said Barry’s comments concerned her.

“It’s regrettably inappropriate. I’m hoping he misspoke,” Allen said in an interview with The Washington Examiner. “We should be keeping our focus on how to make life better for everybody.”

Allen, who was a member of the city’s Minority Business Opportunity Commission while Barry was mayor, said Asians had sensed opportunity in Ward 8 when they chose to open their businesses.

“The Asian businesses are there because they see a place where there’s a need. They went in there to meet the demand,” Allen said. “They’re there to serve the needs of the residents.”

Read More at Washington Examiner

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Marion Barry Wants to Put Asian Crack Houses Out of Business in DC? is a post from: Be Elected- Politics and Legal News

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