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The FBI has beefed up its surveillance of Syrians living in the United States ahead of a possible US military attack on Syria, The New York Times reported Sunday. The domestic intelligence agency and the Department of Homeland Security have also alerted federal agencies and private firms that any US strike could trigger cyberattacks, according to the report. Hackers who claim to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and collectively known as the Syrian Electronic Army, have made several disruptions in recent months on American companies, including the Times. The newspaper said FBI agents are set to interview hundreds of Syrians...

WASHINGTON - The prospect of the American economy careening off a cliff overshadowed a tax increase that takes effect immediately, rich or not. Even with the deal on Capitol Hill, the so-called payroll tax is scheduled to bounce back up to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent in 2011 and 2012. In practical terms, this amounts to a $1,000 tax increase for someone earning $50,000 a year and a $2,200 tax increase for someone earning $150,000. Even workers taking home less than $20,000 annually will be impacted, paying roughly $100 more. "I think it will have a negative effect," says Neil...

The long, sad faces you’re seeing from our corrupt media have nothing to do with the bad news the unemployed received this morning (my wife among them). Nope, the media is sad for Barack Obama because job creation in June was way below expectations and the overall trend is downward. Thanks to Obama's failed policies, this great big beautiful country of ours created only 80,000 jobs last month, way below estimates that ranged in the 100,000 mark, some as high as over 150,000. Hit hardest were the unemployed in the black community, where the unemployment rate increased from 13.6% in...

Since taking office three years ago, President Barack Obama has signed into law twenty-one new or higher taxes on the American people: 1. A 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco: On February 4, 2009, just sixteen days into his Administration, Obama signed into law a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack. The median income of smokers is just over $36,000 per year. 2. Obamacare Individual Mandate Excise Tax (takes effect in Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an...

Not all George Soros-funded groups are alike. Both Center For American Progress (CAP) and the “media watchdog” it helped to create, Media Matters for America (MMFA), have been roundly criticized for their use of anti-Semitic memes. Most recently the focus has been on the use of the term “Israel-firster” a term meant to portray Jewish Americans as somehow less loyal to the United States than other religious groups. While CAP seems to have taken the charges to heart, and is seeking to change its ways, the Obama/Soros-”firsters” at MMFA are digging in their heels. This dual-loyalty charge, like most anti-Semitic...

I hope you like higher taxes. Much higher taxes. Last night I couldn't figure out at first blush how Boehner/Reid managed to get their "numbers" to work. Well, when I looked at it again this morning, it snapped into focus, along with a backhanded comment and, yes, math. Ok, ok, not really math. It was just a calendar. See, the Bush Tax Cuts and the FICA holiday expire at or before the end of 2012. And guess who's going to be President then - either having just been re-elected or much worse, as a lame duck?

Obama's recent Nixonian speech on the budget

When Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. won election as governor in 2002, he was faced with a tricky problem. He had campaigned on a pledge to build the long-delayed Intercounty Connector in suburban Washington. The highway project would cost a fortune, far more than the state could afford out of its Transportation Trust Fund, and the Republican Ehrlich had taken a hard line against new taxes. He had to come up with some way to pay the $2.6 billion it would eventually cost. The answer? He would make it a toll road. And to give his policies a semblance of geographical...

For whom do the tolls toll? They toll for area motorists, who are threatening to avoid the toll plazas as the state continues to propose substantial fee hikes at its bridges and tunnels. Maryland Transportation Authority officials came to Severn River Middle School yesterday to hear how Anne Arundel County residents felt about a plan to raise $77 million by increasing the tolls at the Bay Bridge and other crossings. Passenger cars at the Bay Bridge would pay $5 by October and $8 by 2013. Vehicles with three or more axles would be paying $24 to $60 at the crossings...

(UPDATE 2:06 p.m.) The Maryland Transportation Authority took one step closer toward making it dramatically more expensive to utilize state tunnels and bridges after its board formally recommended Thursday the largest toll increase in state history. Under the proposal, tolls for passenger cars on the Bay Bridge would, beginning Oct. 1, increase from $2.50 to $5 and eventually would increase to $8 on July 1, 2013. In addition, the cost for a one-way toll on the Fort McHenry Tunnel, the Harbor Tunnel and the Key Bridge would jump from $2 to $3 on Oct. 1 and then $4 on July...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Metro report says fare increases have been a factor in decreased ridership. Over the summer Metro increased fares for bus and rail riders in an effort to fill a projected $189 million budget deficit. The hikes were expected to generate more than $100 million, but through October the agency is more than $11 million below where it projected it would be according to a new financial report...

Cinangka, Banten. The crater of Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait has expanded to a diameter of 25-26 meters, an Indonesian volcanologist says. The news comes as the frequency of eruptions of the volcano, once misidentified as Krakatoa, increases: On Friday there were 615 eruptions, on Saturday 623 eruptions, and on Sunday 668. Anton S Pambudi, a official from Banten province monitoring the eruptions, said the eruptions over the past two weeks had changed the shape of the crater. He said the team would continue to monitor the volcano. Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah said she believed that Anak Krakatau...

Amid the worst recession in modern history, the salaries of top Los Angeles County officials have shot up 12 to 45 percent in three years and some public servants are now making more than $400,000 annually in total compensation, according to county records. The analysis of a county salary database obtained through the California Public Records Act found 17,686 of the county's more than 100,000 employees make more than $100,000 annually in total pay. This includes a Coroner's Office executive secretary making $113,825 and a firefighter who collected a whopping $271,498 last year.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate promise to cut the deficit by almost two-thirds over the next five years, but their budget plan could threaten about 30 million people with tax increases averaging $3,700 in 2012 and after because of the alternative minimum tax. The alternative is tax increases elsewhere in the revenue code averaging up to $100 billion a year after 2011 to continue alternative minimum tax relief and also curb taxes on people inheriting large estates.

The workforce of bureaucrats in the NHS is growing six times as quickly as the number of nurses, according to official figures. While the number of health service managers went up 12 per cent in one year, the number of nurses increased by less than 2 per cent - and the number of health visitors plummeted. Since Labour came to power, the number of managers has almost doubled, partly as a result of the need to monitor stringent Whitehall targets on waiting times.

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- California's unemployment rate grew slightly to 12.5 percent in January, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. But the state also revised its December job numbers to show that about 300,000 additional jobs were lost that month. The state's unemployment rate in December was 12.3 percent. Officials had previously reported December's unemployment rate at 12.4 percent, but revised that figure Friday. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent. ... Despite the increase in unemployment in January, the state added 32,500 jobs. The construction industry saw the largest increase with an additional 16,200 jobs.

More Families Are Becoming Homeless Largest Increases in 2008 Came in Rural and Suburban Areas, Study Finds Alexi Mostrous Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 12, 2009 Louis Gill doesn't like to turn anyone away. The director of the Bakersfield Homeless Center in California has taken to laying out cots and mattresses between the shelter's 174 registered beds to cope with the rush of homeless families brought to his doors by the financial crisis. "Last year, we saw a 34 percent increase in homeless families and a 24 percent increase in homeless children," he said. "Why do we go beyond...

CHICAGO – The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer. The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts. Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's Treasury secretary is defending proposed tax increases on the wealthy, saying they are necessary to limit future budget deficits. Timothy Geithner responded on Wednesday to Republican criticism that the administration wants to increase taxes during a recession. Geithner noted that tax increases on couples making more than $250,000 per year would not take effect until 2011.

Politicians and governments seem to want more tax revenue almost at every turn. In response to rising deficits, the Media and the Democrats reflexively demand tax increases. In practice, politicians increase tax “rates,” i.e. income rates, sales tax rates and the like in pursuit of more tax revenue. Tax rate increases, however, yield less revenue over time than tax rate cuts. For instance, when the economy was bad in the early 1990’s, California raised tax rates and over a 3 year period, revenues actually dropped. By 1999, Bill Clinton’s tax rate increase resulted in the highest tax burden in our...