Free Republic

Evil political wizard Karl Rove seems to be tasting blood. His analyzes the president's stuff for Obamacare in the Wall Street Journal and concludes that the pitcher is in a jam. There are no polling data or focus groups on earth that can help Mr. Obama out of this jam. He has set in motion events he appears unable to control and commitments he cannot keep. It can't be that bad. With his stratospheric intelligence (especially compared to the notoriously deficient President Bush) the president's supporters can still be confident that he'll pull a rabbit out of a hat. The...

I once had a minor medical procedure done in Mexico. The doc wanted to be paid in cash, and I obliged. Then I asked for a receipt. What followed was Keystone Cops. It took a while for me to realize I was being stupid. By asking for a receipt in the double economy of Mexico I was asking the doc to sign a confession to the tax police. He was right, I was wrong, and I learned something about the underground economy in socialized medicine. Welcome to Mexico, friends, where the people are warm and wonderful, the drug gangs ruthless...

A former exotic dancer who allegedly made about $80,000 in tips during one year is now facing multiple felony charges for failing to report the money as income. Stephanie Antes, 28, of Albertville, is charged with five felony counts and one gross misdemeanor count of failing to file and pay income taxes and filing a false income tax return, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue. Antes worked as an exotic dancer and waitress at Rick's Cabaret in Minneapolis between 2004 and 2006. A tipster called the Department of Revenue to report that Antes had made around $80,000 per year...

Casselberry, FL The Winter Springs Civic Center 400 N. Edgemon Ave Winter Springs, FL. 32708 We will meet this month at The Winter Springs Civic Center. There will be a presentation of the FairTax followed by a Q&A and a discussion of recent volunteer activities. For more information, please contact Larry Walters at 407-949-2959. Date: Thursday, August 14, 2008 Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM This event does not require an RSVP. Registered users can request event reminders. Register

According to an IRS spokesperson in an article about anti-war tax resistance, 16.3% of Americans are in non-compliance with their taxes according to the Associated Press.That isn't fudging the numbers or coming up with creative tax deductions; it's simply evading taxes outright. While the story about the anti-war movement calling on people to not pay taxes to protest the war is interesting, the fact that a growing number of Americans are simply evading taxes is startling. According to IRS estimates, that means there is $345 billion in uncollected taxes per year or roughly 2.6% of the national GDP. As a...

Shortly after dawn, the day laborers began gathering beneath a San Diego Freeway overpass in West Los Angeles. A house painter pulled up in a pickup, looking for an assistant. He offered $12 an hour. A worker jumped in. The work is undertaken by men from Mexico and Central America. Most are in this country illegally. The jobs, which last only a day or two and pay cash, are all but invisible to the state and federal governments. No one has to fill out paperwork, follow safety regulations or pay taxes. Yet what happens here is far from marginal. The...

With not that many jobs to be had, many workers in Orange say they'd rather risk arrest seeking employment on their own. When Orange police recently arrested undocumented day laborers in a Home Depot parking lot, the incident touched off the usual reprimands and praises from different sides of the illegal immigration debate. But it also raised a question:

Thousands of illegals are marching in Chicago insisting Americans do it their way.

Incomes and population were underestimated by census, says a study that could make retailers and bankers take note. A study of central Santa Ana released Monday found that it is home to more people, with more money, than previously documented. It shows the neighborhoods surrounding downtown are home to 9.5 percent more people and 32 percent more household income than U.S. Census projections. Santa Ana city leaders, who requested the study, hope these findings will help it attract more retailers and banks to the area. The study was done by Social Compact, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research group that gets...

The opening of a formal center for day laborers in Herndon on Wednesday brought a new fervor to a debate that has raged since August, drawing roughly as many demonstrators as laborers to the site. Even before sunrise, demonstrators had installed themselves at the perimeters of the Herndon Official Workers Center at 1481 Sterling Road. Two ideologically opposed groups stood intermingled: those protesting the center, and those protesting the protesters. The demonstrators, bracing themselves against temperatures in the low teens, did not at first verbally confront each other, letting the battle play out in the air above them. “Change Your...

Los Angeles County's underground cash economy is expanding rapidly, eroding the work force and sapping an estimated $2 billion a year from city, state and federal coffers, according to a key finding in a major regional report scheduled to be released today. Driven by what the report authors call economic desperation, the region's cash-only work force has grown about 5 percent in the past four years to nearly 680,000 workers - nearly half of them in the city of Los Angeles alone. They account for about 15 percent of the total Los Angeles County work force, according to the report...

JOBS AMERICANS CAN'T WORK Not WON'T Work We hear it every other day--America needs the Mexicans to do the jobs that Americans won't do anymore. It is just another lie meant to malign, degrade, and paint Americans as lazy, spoiled, and too high falutin' to do "real" work anymore. And, yes, I said it's a lie. The jobs we work today have nothing to do with "won't" and everything to do with "can't." After all, we're the real Americans... that means we have to pay for things that immigrants--including/especially illegals--get for free so long as they have a pulse and...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, SEPT. 3, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Around 200 million people have used drugs at some point in the last 12 months. This was one of the findings presented June 29 in the 2005 World Drug Report, issued by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The UNODC report, which covers data up to 2003, estimates that there are 160 million marijuana users. The number of those using amphetamines and ecstasy, termed as ATS users by the report, is 26 million and 8 million, respectively. The number of opiate users is estimated to be around 16 million. Cocaine users number almost...

Going Underground: America's Shadow Economy By Jim McTague Baron's | January 6, 2005 America has two economies, and one is flourishing at the expense of the other. First, there's the legitimate economy, in which craftsmen are licensed and employers and employees pay taxes. Then there's the fast-growing underground economy, where millions of nannies, construction workers and others are paid off-the-books, their incomes largely untaxed. The best guess as to the size of the output of this shadow economy is about $970 billion, or nearly 9% that of the real economy. It should soon pass $1 trillion. What is largely fueling...

U.S.-Latin American policy has been marked by erratic and often discontinuous relations with its southern neighbors, betraying an ambivalence toward the region that does not augur well for its future political development. All too often, Washington’s desire to protect narrowly defined U.S. interests has relegated Latin America’s authentic democratization and development requirements to a legislative and budgetary sideline, leaving unaddressed some of the region’s most grave economic, political and social concerns. The White House’s monetary priorities (mainly longstanding anti-drug, national security and anti-terrorism interests) have encouraged its pursuit of paper thin policies ranging from claims of dedicated commitment to Latin...

My name is Jason Mrochek and I live in Menifee. The biggest incentive for illegal aliens to come to the United States is to find work. If there are no employers willing to hire the illegal aliens, the flood of illegal aliens will subside. For too many years, these employees have gotten away with federal crimes. If we are a nation of laws, we MUST expect our citizens to obey them, especially when the consequences of disobeying the laws are so great: increased costs to federal and state social programs that aren’t paid for, increased traffic along with the lost...

Rep. Dave Buhlman, R-Hudson Immigration bills to be introduced soon Published: Monday, Jul. 18, 2005 The two stories in the Sunday Telegraph on July 10 about illegal immigration should contribute to people getting a better understanding of the situation. One aspect that was not mentioned, however, is that the state of New Hampshire has a number of laws on the books regarding illegal immigration. Based on these, members of the New Hampshire House Republican Immigration Caucus will introduce bills in September that will support the law enforcement efforts of Chief Chamberlain of New Ipswich and Chief Gendron of Hudson....

Overcrowding complaints focus on HispanicsAsk an elected official in Manassas to name some of the city's biggest challenges, and chances are residential overcrowding -- or too many people sharing too little living space -- will be near the top of the list. It's been just over a year since the city rolled out a code enforcement strategy designed to tackle the problem. A look at data compiled by the city's residential overcrowding program shows Hispanics are much more likely to be reported for overcrowding, and that overcrowding complaints are reported more often in some areas of the city. City...

Despite the endless blathering and squirming to the contrary on the part of Wired Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Cato Institute and other institutions that normally proclaim the truth of free-market economics, the Law of Supply and Demand applies to labor as much as to any other thing that is bought and sold.  That is to say, if one increases the supply of labor relative to demand, its price will fall. That price is your salary, friend.  And mass immigration is inexorably driving it down. Well, maybe not your salary personally, if you are lucky enough to work in...

n the many eulogies to Ronald Reagan since his passing, virtually all acknowledge his role in defeating Soviet communism and reviving America's self-confidence. But another aspect of Reagan's record that should not be forgotten was his commitment to keeping America open to trade and immigration. Reagan's vision of an America open to commerce and peaceful, hardworking immigrants contradicts the anti-trade and anti-immigration views espoused by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and many others who claim to speak for the conservative causes Reagan largely defined. Reagan's heart and head were clearly on the side of...

uly 10, 2005, 9:22PM THE WRONG TARGET Plan by Minutemen to videotape illegal immigrants seeking work in Houston misses the point. If the Minutemen, the group that wants to halt illegal immigration at the border, intends to videotape undocumented workers as they negotiate on the streets of Houston with prospective employers, they had better come armed with crates of cassettes. As anyone who drives North Shepherd or dozens of other streetside job fairs knows, the practice of hiring illegal immigrants as day laborers is widespread, conducted in broad daylight and tolerated by local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration agents.Exactly...

Huntsman aims to bring Utah, Mexico a bit closer It's the economy: Utah's governor hopes to make some connections to boost local business climate By Jennifer W. Sanchez The Salt Lake Tribune Utah's southernmost edge is about a six-hour drive from the U.S.-Mexico border, but no Mexican president has visited the Beehive State for as long as anyone can remember. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. wants to work on changing that with his first economic development trip outside the United States since taking office. Huntsman is scheduled to leave today for a short visit to Mexico City to meet with the...

Utahns to guv: Tackle immigration on trip As Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. heads south of the border this week to talk to Mexican leaders about business and tourism, Utahns say he should not ignore a big state issue - immigration. Many residents - from undocumented Mexicans living here to folks who want them out - say they hope Huntsman doesn't shy away from talking about the fast-growing Latino population here. They also want to see him figure out ways the state and Mexico can work together toward immigration reform. "It doesn't make sense that he goes to Mexico and doesn't...

Posted July 3, 2005 at 8:25 p.m. SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California's lawmakers will take up the debate over immigration when they return to work this week. On Tuesday, an Assembly committee will consider state constitutional amendments to deny benefits to illegal immigrants and create a state border police force. Assemblyman Mark Wyland of Del Mar says the state has to control its border if it hopes to make progress in solving California's problems. He's authored an amendment that would bar illegal immigrants from receiving health care, welfare, retirement and other benefits. The measure also would block the state from issuing...

CAFTA’s Threats to U.S. Independence (with supporting quotes directly from the CAFTA agreement as publicly available on ustr.gov)STOPCAFTA.comJune 29, 2005  CAFTA’s role as steppingstone to hemispheric integration and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). “[The governments of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the United States of America] resolved to: … CONTRIBUTE to hemispheric integration and provide an impetus toward establishing the Free Trade Area of the Americas.” (CAFTA Agreement, Preamble)   CAFTA’s subservience to the World Trade Organization (WTO). “[The governments of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua,...

Bush Encouraged Illegal Aliens, Congressman Says By Jeff Johnson CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer June 29, 2005 (CNSNews.com) -- The co-sponsor of legislation to make it more difficult for illegal aliens to find work in the United States said Tuesday that the Bush administration is encouraging the illegal entry by offering amnesty and is trying to cover up the proof of its actions. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) has consistently warned that the "Temporary Worker Program," proposed by President Bush in January, would, "encourage millions of people to come here illegally seeking his amnesty proposal." The White House denies that the...

40 percent of ID expiration notices undeliverableSALT LAKE CITY -- More than 40 percent of the expiration notices mailed to holders of a state ID card are being returned as undeliverable.The cards were issued to people who did not have a Social Security card but are expiring under a bill approved earlier this year. State Department of Public Safety spokesman Lt. Doug McCleve said the state will be taking a close look at why the notices are being returned."We need to look at that and determine why it's happening and if there's any criminal responsibility," he said.The new legislation, SB227,...

GREELEY - Prof. Norberto Valdez said the effects of North American Free Trade Agreement on the Mexican economy is a factor in the influx of unauthorized migrants to the United States in the past decade. Valdez, a Colorado State University associate professor in the anthropology department, recently talked about his time and studies in Chiapas, Mexico, studying the Zapatista movement. He said the presence of U.S. corporations in Mexico after NAFTA came into effect in 1994 has caused the a loss of jobs, land and the country's natural resources. As Mexicans lost jobs on farms and in rural areas, they...

Baby boom may add to Hispanics' electoral clout, study finds BY STEVEN THOMMA Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - (KRT) - A Hispanic baby boom could surge into American politics in the next few years, adding to the growing political clout of the nation's largest minority group, a new study predicted Monday.Two demographic trends are merging to produce the boom - immigration and a higher birthrate among Hispanic women than the rest of the population. Of America's entire population growth from 2000 to 2004, some 5.7 million people - or half the total - were Hispanics. Of them, one-third weren't yet...

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) today urged the civilian "Minuteman" border patrol organization not to begin operation along the Texas-Mexico border in October as planned, expressing concern that the group's activities could do more harm than good. "I would hope that everybody who is concerned about the porous nature of our borders would allow the federal government to act," Cornyn told 1200 WOAI news this morning. The Minuteman action "may actually not help solve the problem but may create a new and additional problem," Cornyn said. "So my preference would be to let the federal government do the job the...

Cornyn: Amnesty for illegal immigrants wouldn't pass in Congress ALICIA A. CALDWELL Associated Press EL PASO, Texas - An amnesty program to legalize undocumented immigrants in the United States is not a viable method to reform immigration, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Saturday.Such a plan is not going to pass in Congress, Cornyn told a group at the bi-national U.S.-Mexico Bishops conference on migration in this West Texas border town.Instead, a guest worker program to allow millions of migrants from Mexico and Latin America to enter the country and work legally is a better solution, said Cornyn, chairman of the...

Lawmakers seek to crack down on illegal immigrants Life for the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows in the United States could soon get even tougher as states and the federal government pass new legislation cracking down on them. In several states, legislators have proposed and in some cases passed bills barring illegal immigrants and their families from receiving health, welfare and other public benefits.Maryland will soon begin cutting off thousands of children of legal as well as illegal immigrants from health care benefits and may also cut immigrant pregnant women off the state's health rolls.Virginia...

Illegal-hiring penalties fall Agency's focus since 9/11 has been protection of U.S. infrastructure By Lisa Friedman LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON - Penalties against employers who hire illegal immigrants have all but disappeared since 1999, a federal homeland security investigator told Congress.Three U.S. employers were threatened with sanctions in 2004, compared with 162 the previous year and 417 in 1999, Richard M. Stana, director of the homeland security and justice team at the Government Accountability Office, testified Tuesday.Meanwhile, he said, the number of agents devoted to enforcing employer sanctions has dropped by more than half."Worksite enforcement has been a low...

Critics cite lax efforts to enforce federal worksite immigration laws U.S. employers continue to hire illegal immigrants because of lax enforcement efforts and the proliferation of fake documents, lawmakers and government auditors said Tuesday. The Homeland Security Department's bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is responsible for enforcing worksite immigration laws, shot back by issuing a fact sheet outlining numerous investigations conducted within the last year. ICE took responsibility for worksite enforcement when the Immigration and Naturalization Service was abolished in 2003. "Worksite enforcement was a low priority for INS and continues to be a low priority for...

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's government may be overestimating the amount of money sent home by migrants each year, an official said Monday, casting a pall over recent reports of an enormous increase in remittance money. Remittances usually refer to money sent home by migrants to help their families survive while their breadwinners are abroad. But what the government lists as "Family Remittances" may in fact be counting business payments between individuals as well. When narrowly defined, remittances may amount to only about US$9.65 (euro7.97) billion annually, much less than the US$16.6 (euro13.7) billion the government reported for 2004, said Rodolfo...

When Homeland Security Comes Calling: A New Agency, Aggressive Prosecutors and Injured Parties Enforce Immigration Law in the Workplace By Daniel G. Webber Jr. & Matthew C. KaneINTRODUCTIONThere is something unsettling about the image of federal agents displaying “Homeland Security” badges as they enter your client’s place of business to question the legal status of employees. This scenario is happening today, and it is the way of the future. On Nov. 25, 2002, President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act into law.1 This legislation established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and set in motion the largest reorganization of...

Bear Stearns Says Government Vastly Underestimates Size And Cost Of Illegal Immigration (courtesy of John & Ken) The Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns has published a new report, “The Underground Labor Force is Rising to the Surface,” which claims that the illegal alien population is double the official government estimates. According to Bear Stearns analysts, Robert Justich and Betty Ng, the illegal alien population of the U.S. is about 20 million - roughly the population of New York State. The report asserts that there are between 12 and 15 million jobs in the U.S. currently held by illegal aliens,...

Printer friendly version of article username: username password: password Bits and pieces of the article: MEXICO CITY -- High taxes might be weighing on the California economy, but Mexico is proving that a low tax take could be worse. Tax collection in this country is meager, and it's sinking the nation's competitiveness. Mexico, though the world's 10th largest economy... Distrust of the government runs so deep, and the untaxed underground economy is so vast, that by some estimates as much as half of Mexico's potential tax take is lost to evasion. The country is paying dearly for its citizens' perpetual...

<p>New Yorkers can earn cash rewards for ratting out bodegas, groceries and individuals selling bootlegged cigarettes if a bill supported by Mayor Bloomberg wins approval.</p> <p>Under the bill, the city would give a "suitable" reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the detection of violations of the cigarette tax.</p>

<p>Aug. 18 issue — Like many teenage girls in Minneapolis, 17-year-old Stacey liked to hang out after school at the Mall of America, Minnesota’s vast shopping megaplex. Cute, blond and chatty, she flirted with boys and tried on the latest Gap fashions. One day last summer, Stacey, which isn’t her real name, says she was approached by a man who told her how pretty she was, and asked if he could buy her some clothes. “He was an older guy, dressed really well,” she recalls. “He said he just wanted to see me in the clothes.” Stacey agreed, and went home that night with a $250 outfit.</p>

<p>NEW YORK, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the last year, local and federal law-enforcement officials say they have noted a marked increase in teen prostitution in cities across the country, reports Assistant Editor Suzanne Smalley in the August 18 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, August 11).</p> <p>Law-enforcement agencies and advocacy groups that work with teen prostitutes say they are increasingly alarmed by the trend lines: the kids are getting younger; according to the FBI, the average age of a new recruit is just 13; some are as young as 9. And, while the vast majority of teen prostitutes today are runaways, illegal immigrants and children of poor urban areas, experts say a growing number now come from middle-class homes.</p>

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- In the opening statements of a Fort Lauderdale murder trial, one lawyer told jurors to be ready for the "bizarre, flamboyant and unusual." The trial is for two men, one who looks like a woman, both accused of killing a woman at a "pumping party" where they injected silicone to enlarge her buttocks. Mark Hawkins and Donnie Hendricks, who prefers to use the name "Viva," are accused practicing medicine without a license, and of injecting so much silicone into Vera Lawrence (pictured, left) that it caused her death. The pair is alleged to have injected 12,000...

With pot and porn outstripping corn, America's black economy is flying high Illegal migrants provide the muscle for US black market Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Friday May 2, 2003 The Guardian Marijuana, pornography and illegal labour have created a hidden market in the United States which now accounts for as much as 10% of the American economy, according to a study. As a cash crop, marijuana is believed to have outstripped maize, and hardcore porn revenue is equal to Hollywood's domestic box office takings. Despite laws that punish marijuana cultivation more strictly than murder in some states, Americans spend...