http://www.bethechangeinc.org/…

ServiceNation Summit Co-chairs:

• Vartan Gregorian, President, Carnegie Corporation of New York
  
• Caroline Kennedy, Vice-Chair, New York City Fund For Public Schools
  
• Bill Novelli, CEO, AARP
  
• Alma Powell, Chair, America’s Promise Alliance
  
• Rick Stengel, Managing Editor, TIME Magazine

ServiceNation Leadership Council:

• Andi Bernstein
• Tom A. Bernstein, President and Co-founder, Chelsea Piers
• Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor, New York, NY; Chairman, National September 11 Memorial and Museum
• Cory Booker, Mayor, Newark, NJ
• Richard H. Brodhead, President, Duke University
• Neil Bush, CEO, Global XS
• Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone
• Mortimer Caplin, Former Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service
• Vice Admiral Richard Carmona, Former U.S. Surgeon General
• Jean Case, CEO, The Case Foundation
• Richard Celeste, President, Colorado College
• Ray Chambers, Amelior Foundation
• Richard Cizik, Vice President, National Association of Evangelicals
• Glenn Close, Actress
• William Cohen, Former Secretary of Defense; Former U.S. Senator
• Janet Langhart Cohen, Author; Founder, Citizen Patriot Organization
• Scott Cowen, President, Tulane University
• Tom Daschle, Former U.S. Senator
• John J. DeGioia, President, Georgetown University
• Manny Diaz, Mayor, Miami, FL
• John Dilulio, Former Director, Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; Author, The Godly Republic
• Melinda Doolittle, Recording Artist
• Paul Fireman, Founder, Reebok
• Al From, Founder and CEO, Democratic Leadership Council
• Susan Fuhrman, President, Teachers College, Columbia University
• Mark Gearan, President, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• David Gergen, Professor of Public Service and Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University
• Michael Gerson, Columnist, The Washington Post
• Stephen Goldsmith, Former Mayor, Indianapolis, IN
• Jennifer Granholm, Governor, Michigan
• Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Theologian; Author, The Jewish Way; Founding President, Jewish Life Network
• Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
• Lee Hamilton, Former Congressman; Former Co-chair, 9/11 Commission and Iraq Study Group
• Jenny Chin Hansen, President, AARP
• Gary Hart, Former U.S. Senator
• Admiral James R. Hogg, USN (Ret), Director, Strategic Studies Group, Naval War College
• James J. Jensen
• Martin Luther King, III, Chairman, Realizing the Dream
• Joel Klein, Chancellor, New York City Public Schools
• Sherry Lansing, Founder, The Sherry Lansing Foundation
• Jim Leach, Former Congressman; John L. Weinberg Professor of Public and International Affairs, Woodrow   Wilson School, Princeton University
• Anthony Marx, President, Amherst College
• Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Chairman, American Red Cross
• Sam Nunn, Former U.S. Senator
• Michael Nutter, Mayor, Philadelphia, PA
• Martin O’Malley, Governor, Maryland
• Lt. General Dave R. Palmer, USA (Ret), Former Superintendent, U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Author
• David Paterson, Governor, New York
• Kal Penn, Actor
• Gregg Petersmeyer, Former Assistant to the President; Director, Office of National Service under George H.W. Bush
• Peter G. Peterson, Founder and Chairman, Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Co-founder, Blackstone Group Management
• Rob Portman, Former Congressman; Former Director, Office of Management and Budget
• Samantha Power, Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy, Harvard University; Author
• Marc Racicot, Former Governor, Montana
• Susan Rice, Foreign Policy Advisor, Obama for America
• Bill Richardson, Governor, New Mexico
• David Shaw, Managing Partner, Black Point Group
• Rodney Slater, Former Secretary of Transportation; Chair, United Way of America
• Laurie M. Tisch, President, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
• Paul Vallas, Superintendent, New Orleans Recovery School District
• David Walker, President and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
• Silda Wall, Founder, Children For Children
• Rick Warren, Senior Pastor, Saddleback Church; Author, A Purpose Driven Life
• Harris Wofford, Former U.S. Senator; Former CEO, Corporation for National & Community Service

Is it surprising that a large portion of those in support are directly or indirectly government bureaucrats?

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/…

Paul Hogan is best known as Crocodile Dundee, but he is now getting publicity for his fight against the tax-hungry Australian Tax Office. The Australian reports on the case, and quotes Hogan’s justified complaints about the government’s rigged rules. Hopefully Hogan will prevail, much as he did the last time he was subject to a shakedown attempt:

A defiant Paul Hogan had a typically plain-spoken and blunt message for the Australian Taxation Office yesterday: “Come and get me, you miserable bastards.” As the ATO enlisted the help of the Internal Revenue Service in the US to pursue the actor for allegedly undisclosed tax liabilities, a bemused Hogan insisted he had paid more than enough tax - a figure he estimated to be in excess of $100million - in Australia. …”I’d like to make a deal with the tax office that I’ll give them every cent I made, both me and (partner John “Strop”) Cornell, if they give me every cent they made out of my movies. As a guy who brought millions into
Australia, they should build a statue at the tax office to me and send me a Christmas card. I lived in America and still paid tax in Australia for 4 1/2 years when I could have paid tax in America, and it would have been cheaper, because I thought we needed the money back home more than they needed it here.” …Hogan railed against Operation Wickenby, a taskforce headed by the Australian Taxation Office, working in conjunction with other agencies such as the Australian Crime Commission. “If you become a victim or a target for the ACC, the crime commission, you’re not allowed to say you are, you’re not allowed to say anything they said to you or that you’ve even been questioned, or you can go to jail,” Hogan said. “If the ACC interrogated me, then I couldn’t tell you what they asked me or I can’t even admit they did because I could go to jail, but the ACC has some dickhead who can leak information to the press and anyone else who’s interested.” Hogan said he was being targeted only because he was “high-profile and because I’ve got money”.

Awesome. If only Wesley Snipes had reacted like this.

I’m sure Hogan is going to screwed but at least he’s talking a good game and raising awareness.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/…

The Internal Revenue Service is taking the unprecedented step of seeking Swiss bank records in search of what it suspects could be up to $20 billion worth of assets hidden by U.S. taxpayers.

Justice Department lawyers said late Monday that they had filed court documents in Miami asking a judge to allow the IRS to get information from the banking giant UBS. U.S. investigators are seeking permission for the first time to serve what are called “John Doe” summons to obtain information about possible tax fraud against taxpayers whose identities are not known.

Information stemming from a guilty plea by a former UBS banker last week in Miami suggests the Zurich-based bank had “undeclared” accounts of U.S. taxpayers estimated at about $20 billion. U.S. tax laws require any accounts abroad worth more than $10,000 to be reported — and penalties call for up to half of the amount in a hidden account to be forfeited.

The U.S. government is trying to cooperate with the Swiss government and the bank, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John DiCicco said. But he added, “We are prepared to seek enforcement if that process is not successful.”

Enforcement? What the hell does that mean? World court or troops? It’s sad the latter is the first I think of.

http://www.freedomworks.org/…

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd’s 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill’s managers without debate this week, would require the nation’s payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: “This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay’s PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America’s small businesses are breathtaking.”

“Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government’s purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.

From the Senate Bill Summary:

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. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions. Use of an account number or other indicia associated with a payment card will be treated in the same manner as a payment card. A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations. The proposal applies to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2010. Back-up withholding provisions apply to amounts paid after December 31, 2011. This proposal is estimated to raise $9.802 billion over ten years.

That third party exception appears to apply to places like Paypal but don’t many people use credit cards for their money source? Seems the government would end up getting that info anyway from the first party sources. Not to diminish how serious this proposal is but even if that isn’t the case having this on the books would just give them an incentive to expand on the idea later. I can see the reasoning now: “We need to make sure that terrorists aren’t laundering money through these payment proxies. Don’t worry… the data will be secure. We won’t use this for anything else. You’ve nothing to worry about if you’ve done nothing wrong. Right?”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

Three full months after GOP-Libertarian candidate Ron Paul announced his presidential campaign would be “winding down”, he’s actually throwing in the towel for real. Yes, the man who spent over a year pledging to dismantle the United States military has finally ended his quest to be elected its Commander in Chief. Often times portrayed as “crazy”, “batshit crazy” and “absolutely freaking nuts”, Paul marched to the beat of his own drummer. A drummer that supported building a 700 mile fence along the Mexican border because immigrants are the cause of all our welfare problems.

Ron Paul never did get his chance to abolish the IRS, but his hilarious cranky old man antics certainly did abolish a little bit of the sadness in all our lives. Let’s take a look back at the magical year we shared together.

I understand that 23/6 is a satirical site. However, while some may disagree, The Huffington Post isn’t. Do a search for Ron Paul on huffingtonpost.com and you’ll find this supposedly satirical story along with legit news. At least Google News has the decency to include a “satire” tag on all sites which are. This is nothing more than a pot shot and an obvious one at that. For being the only anti-war candidate to make it this far you’d think they’d at least show some support. I suppose their desire for more powerful centeralized government overtakes their supposed wish not to kill innocent individuals who posed no threat to any of us and any idea of individual freedom.

They could have at least been factual in their smear. He does not support building a fence. He supports ending welfare, for everyone in the long run and illegal immigrants in the short term, to remove any basis for blame on them for the ailing welfare state and then allowing far easier means to cross the border. Anyone who paid any attention to his dialog noticed he treaded lightly on the subject in order to pander to both sides. Did it bother me he kept his position a bit ambiguous in order to pick up support? Yes. But that doesn’t change the fact his true position was pro-immigration.