Faltering markets, the weakening euro and spreading debt have led European leaders to take dramatic steps to contain the crisis. A look at the economies of the 27 EU member states, 16 of which have adopted the euro.
A large percentage of social spending in the European Union goes toward supporting labor market policies such as unemployment benefits and pension systems, says economist Willem Adema, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a 31-nation group that promotes international cooperation and economic growth.
People march during a protest in Marseille, southern France, last month. Workers nationwide were striking to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60. Sweeping reforms to France’s money-losing pension system is part of efforts around Europe to cut back on growing public debts.
“With the dynamics of an aging population and the increase in life expectancy, and with the financial pressures, raising retirement ages is going on across many different European countries,” he says.
The European Union, people say, was built on three pillars: peace, growth and a shared social vision. If one of those pillars collapses, how long will the other two remain standing?
Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, the man patterning an immigration law for Utah similar to the one recently passed in Arizona, says he doesn’t expect to see any opposition from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints due to the Church’s stated (Lukewarm) neutrality. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=11576096&hl=11
I’m just an average man with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey, hell, I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone?
Then the late Micheal Jackson busts in wailing, “I always feel like somebody’s watching me!” Which takes the creepy level over the top — stop haunting me, Jacko, I’ll never buy a copy of “Thriller”!
Who is watching me? WHO? Well, Rockwell was worried about his neighbors and the mailman, but more than 25 years later digital paranoids are more concerned with Big G — the Google, which is still stamping out the fires raised by its admission that it “inadvertently” collected private data such as passwords over unencrypted wireless networks with its Street View cars. (For the record, I think it was an accident — collecting such data only caused Google problems).
In celebrating “F*ck Google Week,” the Free Art and Technology (FAT) Lab is hailing a browser plugin that signals a visual and audio alert every time you send data to Google.
On the video, the browser hits numerous websites, from Google itself to Vimeo to Twitter to the FAT homepage — and the alarm goes off every time, in a variety of tones from air raid to air horn. A tracker in the upper right-hand corner keeps track of the number of websites you visit where Google takes some data versus the total number of sites. Below that is a checklist of Google programs — Analytics, AdSense, etc. — that are snatching info from you.
Are you paranoid or paranoid enough? FAT asks: “Even outside Gmail and YouTube you are constantly sending Google your information through their vast network of ‘tracking bugs’: Google Analytics, Google AdSense, YouTube embeds, API calls… all of this data can be used to monitor & track your personal web browsing habits.”
But beyond cynicism (or maybe its ultra cynical) this is a fine effort for boosting transparency. Most consumers don’t realize how much information is being collected while they surf the web. They also don’t realize that it’s pretty much anonymous and innocuous. Honestly, this is good for Google — browsers should have a better idea of when their data is getting snatched online… Which is pretty much all the time.
There is no such thing as a free lunch my pappy taught me. Consumers have to understand there’s a trade-off — to use neato services like Google, you’ve got to give up some data. It’s fair because Google is a service of convenience, not necessity — though many may argue to keep up in our modern times, it is the latter.
Consider this — when you walk down a city street, your image is captured a ridiculous amount of times by various security devices. Is somebody watching you? Probably not — you’re being recorded and only if there’s some kind of suspicious activity will a corporate jockey look at your mug.
There’s an unspoken agreement with most of the general public that this is an acceptable measure of safety — sure, you may see signs that say “This store is under surveillance” but have you ever decided not to enter a store because of that?
The surveillance state is alive and well, though it’s not what Philip K. Dick predicted in books like “A Scanner Darkly.” People can’t keep track or process the giant swaths of data — images, IP addresses, online purchases — collected but computers can. How is it used then? To target ads.
It’s not like gathering and selling information is a new enterprise — it’s just more profitable than ever in the Internet age. Companies like Axciom were collecting offline data long before they moved online and Bizo CEO Russell Glass noted that perfectly legal offline targeting techniques are far more unsettling than online.
Are you being watched? Yep. The real question is: are you aware you’re being watched? And then can you accept that in exchange for the for the many splendors of the Internet?
The IRS is offering a one-time relief program for certain nonprofit organizations that are at risk of losing their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required forms for 2007, 2008, and 2009. Two types of relief are available for these exempt organizations – a filing extension for small organizations required to file Form 990-N, Electronic Notice, and a voluntary compliance program (VCP) for small organizations eligible to file Form 990-EZ, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax.
Small organizations required to file Form 990-N simply need to go to the IRS website, supply the eight information items called for on the form, and electronically file it by October 15. That will bring them back into compliance. Under the VCP, tax-exempt organizations eligible to file Form 990-EZ must file their delinquent annual information returns by October 15 and pay a compliance fee. Details about the VCP and the Form 990-N relief are on the IRS website along with frequently asked questions.
The IRS has created a a special page on its website which includes the names and last-known addresses of these at-risk organizations, along with guidance about how to come back into compliance.
In a interview with Ralph Nader on C-SPAN’s Book TV to promote his book Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should have been indicted for “torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrant.”
The judge believes that it is a fallacy to say that the US treats suspects as innocent until proven guilty. “The government acts as if a defendant is guilty merely on the basis of an accusation,” said Napolitano.
A federal judge dealt a serious rebuke to Arizona’s immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation’s toughest-in-the-nation law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge’s order overturned.
But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions that angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.
The judge also delayed parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places — a move aimed at day laborers. In addition, the judge blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.
“Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked,” Bolton, a Clinton appointee, said in her decision.
She said the controversial sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigration statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
The law was signed by Brewer in April and immediately revived the national debate on immigration, making it a hot-button issue in the midterm elections. The law has inspired similar law elsewhere, prompted a boycott against the state and led an unknown number of illegal immigrants to leave the state.
Lawyers for the state contend the law was a constitutionally sound attempt by Arizona to assist federal immigration agents and lessen border woes such as the heavy costs for educating, jailing and providing health care for illegal immigrants. Arizona is the busiest gateway into the country for illegal immigrants, and the border is awash in drugs and smugglers that the state badly wants to stop.
