Category Archives: Uncategorized

Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Rep. Brady’s Stunning Mischaracterization of the Estate Tax

Pants on Fire Liars!

Only the richest 0.14 percent of estates pays any estate tax at all. Only the estates of the wealthiest 0.14 percent of Americans — fewer than 2 out of every 1,000 people who die — now owe any estate tax whatsoever, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC), because the tax is levied only on the portion of an estate’s value that exceeds $5.25 million per person (effectively $10.5 million per married couple).

via Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Rep. Brady’s Stunning Mischaracterization of the Estate Tax.

Man dies after Roseburg police use pepper spray, stun gun on him | OregonLive.com

Man dies after Roseburg police use pepper spray, stun gun on him | OregonLive.com.

ROSEBURG — The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says a man police arrested by using a stun gun and pepper spray has died.

The sheriff’s department said in a statement Monday two officers from the Roseburg police were trying to take the man into custody Saturday afternoon because he was jumping on vehicles near the Douglas County Courthouse.

The officers said the man wouldn’t comply, and soon after the use of the stun gun and spray he had what the sheriff’s office called “a medical emergency” and died.

An autopsy is planned this week. The sheriff’s office said it would lead an investigation.

The man’s identity was withheld until his relatives are notified.

When I Decided To Become a Lebanese Expat

A sad day for Lebanon when one of its sons decides that he will leave it to make his way in the world. Bon voyage when the time comes and pray in meantime that Lebanon finally wakes up to its greatness before that time.

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

“The last time I was this scared was 2006,” she told me this afternoon, moments after she crossed into the Northern part of a city ravaged with battles. I guess that’s saying something given that the person in question spent a good part of the war that year in a 3×2 ditch that her family calls a shelter.

The matter to immigrate out of Lebanon was always a matter of if with me. Today, becoming an expat is no longer a matter of if. It’s simply matter of when. And with each passing day, that “when” doesn’t seem to get here soon enough.

I tried as much as I can to disassociate myself from what was happening in my country lately. It was time not to be constantly negative, I said. I’m better off than most people in this country, I convinced myself. But then I realized that the standard of…

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Egyptian Shiites Massacred in Giza

The worst kind of sectarianism – encouraging violence and mob psychology for political benefit and to distract from inability to actually run Egypt effectively.

Egyptian Streets

[WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES]


In an unparalleled event, four Shiite Muslims were killed by angry Salafists in Giza. At least 3000 angry locals attacked the houses of Shiites, killing four and injuring 32. Five houses owned by Shiites were also completely torched.

The deaths came on the 15th night of Mid-Shaaban, a holy Islamic night for both Sunnis and Shiites. A top Shiite leader, Hassan Shehata, had been visiting the local village of Abu Muslam in Giza, when angry locals stormed the house he was visiting, throwing Molotov Cocktails and dragging each family member out onto the streets.

Sheikh Hassan Shehata was dragged in the streets after being stabbed and killed. Images showed Shehata being beaten and kicked as his lifeless body was being dragged for show.

The other victims have been identified as the 55-year-old brother of Sheikh Shehata and 45-year-old Abd Al-Kader Hassanein Amr. The fourth victim has…

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