Over the last 30 years Social Security taxes have produced more revenue than was needed to pay benefits. In other words, there has been a surplus in the Social Security trust fund for the last 30 years.
What have the pompous peacocks in Congress done with this surplus? Well, anyone with the financial acumen above that of a six year old would have put the surplus aside to pay future benefits.
But OUR Congress doesn't have the collective brain of a six year old, no, it has the intelligence of a two year old. OUR Congress has spent every dime of the surplus.
So NOW that we are, starting this year, looking at deficits as far as the eye can see OUR Congress will turn their self-righteous gaze on us again and piously tell us we need to pony up more money because otherwise old people will die in the streets. How long will we tolerate this incompetence and corruption?
http://taxingtennessee.blogspot.com/2010/10/congress-has-finally-milked-social.html
FBI asks how subway bomb defendant was radicalized
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI agents who ensnared a suburban father in a terrorism sting involving a fictional subway bomb plot have turned their attention to figuring out what may have made the Pakistani-born U.S. citizen turn against his adopted country.
Law-enforcement officials said they believe Farooque Ahmed was radicalized in the United States, becoming the latest in a string of U.S. citizens radicalized here, and charged with plotting terrorist attacks.
FBI agents were tipped off to Mr. Ahmed in January, when a source inside the Muslim community said the 34-year-old telecommunications worker was asking around, trying to join a terrorist group and kill Americans overseas, the officials said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation continues.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FBI has tried hard to build relationships inside the Muslim community. The White House has made combating homegrown terrorism part of its national security strategy.
"We need to build this trust factor within the community," acting FBI Assistant Director John Perren said Friday. "The fight against terrorism is a multi-dimensional approach and we want to have the community help us."
At a hearing Friday that lasted less than two minutes, Mr. Ahmed's attorney said he would not contest pretrial detention. Mr. Ahmed, who wore a green prison jumpsuit and a full beard, said nothing.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Mr. Ahmed arrived in the U.S. in 1993 and became a citizen in 2002, officials said. He worshipped at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, which is known for its mainstream Islamic congregation. Mr. Ahmed has not been back to Pakistan since 2005 and has no ties to terrorist groups there, officials said.
Mr. Perren said Mr. Ahmed is part of a growing trend of would-be terrorists who don't receive formal training abroad and operate without direction from al Qaeda leaders overseas. On Thursday, the FBI and Homeland Security Department issued a law-enforcement bulletin saying they remained concerned about homegrown terrorists.
"They know the geography. They're astute to Western culture," Mr. Perren said.
Like many would-be terrorists and sympathizers, Mr. Ahmed was potentially influenced by Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Muslim cleric who preached in northern Virginia until 2002 and now lives in hiding in Yemen, officials said. But while Mr. Ahmed listened to al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, officials said the two were not in contact and they're not sure how influential those sermons were.
In April, Mr. Ahmed thought he had found what he wanted: a pair of al Qaeda operatives who would help him carry out a bomb attack on the nation's second-busiest subway system, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. But the operatives were really undercover investigators, the officials said. And the meetings at local hotels were all staged with the FBI's cameras rolling.
What followed was an elaborate ruse in which Mr. Ahmed was given intelligence-gathering duties and coded information in a Koran as part of the supposed plot to kill commuters. Mr. Perren said the lengthy sting was necessary for the FBI to determine whether Mr. Ahmed was serious about wanting to kill Americans.
"We wanted to assess his intent and his capability," he said, adding that by the end of the sting it was clear, "he was willing and able and wanted to help."
The FBI searched Mr. Ahmed's house on Wednesday, pulling out guns and ammunition, officials said.
Farooque Ahmed was a married father with a good job with a telecommunications company. He was also, authorities say, eager to fight Americans in Afghanistan and committed to becoming a martyr.
Mr. Ahmed was arrested Wednesday, just weeks before, the FBI says, he planned to make the annual religious pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Ahmed faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
Prosecutors say he videotaped four northern Virginia subway stations, suggested using rolling suitcases instead of backpacks to pack the explosives and said he wanted to donate $10,000 to help the overseas fight.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/29/fbi-asks-how-subway-bomb-defendant-was-radicalized/
Court allows use of fake Social Security Number
The Colorado Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of a man who admitted using someone else's Social Security number to obtain a loan, concluding that the defendant wasn't really trying to assume a false identity.
The opinion was written by Michael Bender, who was joined by Mary Mullarkey, Gregory Hobbs and Alex Martinez. A strongly worded dissent by Nathan Coats was joined by Nancy Rice and Allison Eid.
The case involved Felix Montes-Rodriguez, who was convicted of criminal impersonation for using another person's Social Security number on a loan application at an automobile dealership.
The Colorado Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of a man who admitted using someone else's Social Security number to obtain a loan, concluding that the defendant wasn't really trying to assume a false identity.
The opinion was written by Michael Bender, who was joined by Mary Mullarkey, Gregory Hobbs and Alex Martinez. A strongly worded dissent by Nathan Coats was joined by Nancy Rice and Allison Eid.
The case involved Felix Montes-Rodriguez, who was convicted of criminal impersonation for using another person's Social Security number on a loan application at an automobile dealership.
The ID Theft Center warns on its website, "A dishonest person who has your Social Security number can use it to get other personal information about you. Identity thieves can use your number and your good credit to apply for more credit in your name. Then, they use the credit cards and do not pay the bills. You may not find out that someone is using your number until you are turned down for credit or you begin to get calls from unknown creditors demanding payment for items you never bought."
Center Executiver Director Jay Foley said the court was overlooking the fact that there may be a multitude of people with the same name. The Social Security number is supposed to be the distinguishing characteristic.
"By supply either a fraudulent Social Security number or somebody else's, I am, in fact, identifying myself as somebody other than who I am," he said.
He said it was alarming that such a result would be coming from a state Supreme Court.
The Social Security Administration suggests that while it cannot fix problems from thieves using stolen Social Security numbers, consumers must pay attention to the possible problems.
"An identity thief might also use your Social Security number to file a tax return in order to receive a refund. If the thief files the tax return before you do, the IRS will believe you already filed and received your refund if eligible. If your Social Security number is stolen, another individual may use it to get a job. That person's employer would report income earned to the IRS using your Social Security number, making it appear that you did not report all of your income on your tax return."
Bankrate.com suggests, "The more people who see it, the more susceptible you are to identity theft, where you are victimized by someone fraudulently using your name and credit report to steal money."
In the Colorado case, the court's slim majority concluded that criminal impersonation is "when one assumes a false identity or a false capacity with the intent to unlawfully gain a benefit."
While Montes-Rodriguez "admitted to using the false Social Security number … he argued that he did not assume a false identity or capacity under the statute because he applied for the loan using his proper name, birth date, address and other identifying information."
L-R, Front: Gregory J.Hobbs, Jr., Mary Mullarkey, Alex J. Martinez. Back: Nathan B. Coats, Michael L. Bender, Nancy E. Rice, Allison Eid
A jury had convicted him and a lower appeals court affirmed the result.
But Bender explained the facts of the case: Montes-Rodriguez used another person's Social Security number because the car dealership required a number to check credit-worthiness before approving a loan. The court did not explain why Montes-Rodriguez did not use his own number, or whether he even had one.
But the opinion notes the defendant "impliedly asserted his power or fitness to obtain the loan, and his ability to work legally in this country, and thereby repay it."
"Although Montes-Rodriguez may have lacked the practical capacity to obtain a loan through Hajek Chevrolet because they could not check his credit without a Social Security number, he did not lack the legal capacity to obtain a loan," Bender wrote.
He ordered a judgment of acquittal entered.
Coats, Rice and Eid, however, noted that the majority was "slicing, dicing, parsing, distinguishing, and generally over-analyzing one short and relatively self-explanatory phrase."
"The defendant's deliberate misrepresentation of the single most unique and important piece of identifying data for credit-transaction purposes [is] precisely the kind of conduct meant to be proscribed as criminal," the dissent said.
"By claiming another person's Social Security number in a credit transaction, as the defendant did in this case, a person necessarily identifies himself as the person with the credit history associated with that number," the opinion said.
"Where the nature of the transaction is such that a false Social Security number is not merely incidental but is rather the single piece of identifying data upon which the fraud in question depends, it cannot be assessed as merely 'one of many pieces of identifying information," warned the dissent.
"For the purposes of the fraudulent transaction at issue, it is clearly the assumption of a false or fictitious identity."
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=221161
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