Thread: Our Tax Dollars at Work

I just found a very interesting article where COSA is training legal observers to watch the Minutemen watching the illegal aliens at COSA job centers. What is even more disturbing, is the article makes it very clear that COSA is supported by our American tax dollars.

This groups is completely pro illegal alien, has offices, staff, their own in house attorneys, and our taxes are PAYING FOR IT...what is wrong with this picture?

I can imagine the reaction if we legal Americans went to our government and demanded matching funds to support our goals.

Pinto Bean

Legal observers eye Minutemen
By Keyonna Summers
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 24, 2006

http://washingtontimes.com/metro/200603 ... -3109r.htm



Maryland's largest immigrant advocacy group is training supporters to keep close watch on the members of an illegal-alien watchdog group as they monitor day laborers.
CASA of Maryland and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland have offered four training sessions for legal observers who would videotape and document interactions between the Maryland Minutemen and day laborers seeking work.
About 70 people, many of them law students, have attended the training sessions, organizers say.
"Both groups have the constitutional right to public right of ways and to free speech," CASA staff attorney Steve Smitson told about 20 people Wednesday at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Silver Spring. "But one group's rights cannot infringe upon one another, and that's what legal observers are there for."
Groups of two or three legal observers per site will photograph and document in notebooks any confrontations, gestures, name-calling or incidents of harassment by the laborers or the Minutemen.
CASA, which receives taxpayer funds, will provide videocameras, notebooks, jackets and other equipment to observers. Observers are discouraged from stepping in during arguments, and are told to carry cell phones to call police or CASA officials if they see a potential danger.
Mr. Smitson said the goal is to avoid confrontation and legal liability.
"We're not there to be arrested, commit civil disobedience or protest," he said. "You're not there as an advocate [or] holding a banner. The observer must maintain neutrality, which is not the same as a counterprotest."
The Maryland Minutemen, and a similar group in Herndon, aim to deter illegal immigration by videotaping employers hiring illegal aliens at day laborer sites and giving the information to federal and local tax and business licensing authorities.
CASA runs centers in Wheaton, Silver Spring and Takoma Park. Others are planned for Baltimore, Gaithersburg and Langley Park.
Officials have trained day workers to travel in groups and turn their backs if they do not want to be photographed.
Stephen Schreiman, president of the Maryland Minutemen, said his group is a "neighborhood watch" and the legal observers are trying to harass his members.

He also said CASA officials who photographed his group a few weeks ago were "polite but very intrusive" and "in our faces" nearly to the point of assault.
"They're trying to intimidate us, I believe," he said. But "I don't have a problem with them taking my picture. If they feel good about it, they're free to do that. We're not doing anything wrong [and] we've never taken the law into our hands. We've only observed and reported and that's the definition of a neighborhood watch."
CASA officials distributed ACLU fliers describing the history of the Minutemen and outlining the role of legal observers. They said the ACLU will not provide legal representation for observers who become liable for their involvement in confrontations.
Andrew Kleine, a member of CASA's board of directors, said CASA will not dispense observers to its centers unless the Minutemen "become a larger presence and more disruptive at the day laborer centers."
The group also is considering forming other groups that would picket the homes and businesses of Minutemen members, or would sing songs and hold signs supporting the laborers as they wait for work in the mornings.
CASA also is encouraging people to voice their opposition by hiring day laborers and writing letters of support to the Montgomery County Council.
Mr. Smitson said the Minutemen have been peaceful and cooperative with CASA and police. They even contacted officers before monitoring the Wheaton site, he said.
"The Minutemen have really toned down their vigilante label [and] are trying to portray a more community-based neighborhood watch image," he said. "We don't expect them to engage in unlawful acts. That is not the image they're portraying [but] we don't want to leave the workers feeling unprotected."

NO question you're on to something big here Pinto!!

Another example of the abuse of 501 C 3 "charitable contributions"

Pass the Fair Tax and end all this crap use of our tax dollars.

http://www.fairtax.org

Hastert supports it, so it's possible...this year.

I think he'd like to do something dramatic to show this Wackident who's boss...We the People!!

That's Casa de Maryland, not CoSa.

Casa de Maryland is the same group that threatened to protest the Minutemen at their children's schools a few weeks back.

Pass the Fair Tax and end all this crap use of our tax dollars.

Judy, I am sort of FOR the Fair Tax act but the one thing that holds me back is the fact that the illegal business owners who don't pay their sales tax now are not going to all of a sudden start paying, and the government isn't suddenly going to stop wasting the funds they get their hands on. When we can insure BOTH those issues, as well as crooked American businessnes who don't pay their sales tax, can be addressed, I can't see the Fair Tax Act as feasible. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on it.

That's Casa de Maryland, not CoSa.

Thank you PineStrawGuys. I had my wrists poised to start typing that very information. LOL

I like the Constitution Party's stand on taxes. If you don't know what they stand for you can find it here:

click the link in my signature


Check it out.

PinestrawGuys, it seems I'm stalking you today. LOL I am coming in right behind you on all posts so far.

I also like the Constitution Party's stand on what should be done with Tax money. But would you believe,

I tried to access you link eleven times and it shows an error message similar to the one I get here when I can't access our pages?

I find that interesting.

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

Junius:

Been getting that very message A LOT the last two days here.

Pinto Bean

JJ and ALIPAC: Re: Fair Tax

The collection of a national sales tax will be performed mostly by the states. The states decide if they want to collect it and be paid a handsome fee for doing so or if they want the feds to collect it. Most states will sign up because there is a profit to it for them to sign up to collect the sales tax. This will add a source of revenue to beef up sales tax collections, not only to get the federal sales tax, but the state and local sales tax revenues as well. Instead of wasting money on the IRS and accountants and tax programs and tax lawyers for individuals struggling with this outrageous process of filing a tax return and paying taxes in this manner, all efforts are at the register with businesses. There are fewer businesses to monitor than customers; it can all be computerized along the lines of existing sales taxes now; and because local cities and counties have a vested interest in collecting all the taxes to get their share....oh, I think local law enforcement would be checking on business licenses and ensuring that everyone with a store front or operation would be collecting and filing their sales tax monies in full and on-time.

There are so many regulations now on businesses that there would be no excuse really for not collecting 99.9999% of the sales taxes due. And this would open up the opportunity for local law enforcement and district attorneys and state attorney generals and all those valuable talented resources to "engage" in the enforcement of legal enterprises with legal owners and legal customers and sales tax collections.

It is a great solution to so many problems.

Surprisingly, Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives and in succession to become President following an Impeachment of Bush and Cheney, should there be one, supports the Fair Tax which to me reveals he thinks more like Americans than we might have otherwise thought and that he 1) recognizes a problem 2) is open to new alternatives and hopefully better solutions that make life easier and better for the American People and 3) realizes that to promote economic development in the United States we must find another way to encourage our companies to invest in America instead of running off to ThirdWorldLand.

Eliminating the corporate income tax, which has always been a burr in the bonnet of most fiscal conservatives becomes it is double taxation and unconstitutional to begin with, has a far reaching outcome that will create jobs; make companies more profitable without pursuing "cheap labor"; and get their executives and shareholders back to the lab and factory and out of DC.

Additionally, this will tax foreign influence in the United States. Right now, these people are getting away scott free on the backs of American Citizens. They influence our government, lobby our Congress, take over our companies, and are attacking the very fiber of American Society...without a dime of contribution to the cost of our country. They fly into our airports; drive on our highways; send their kids to our schools; benefit from our system; create social issues that have a cost like poverty, crime, disease, economic decline....and do not pay a dime of federal income tax.

The national sales tax will correct this anomaly.

In addition, 330,000,000 foreign visitors enter the United States legally every year and spend and enjoy and participate....and now they too will be paying for what they do and enjoy here.

The Fair Tax is the first addition to freedom in the United States since the War Between the States and women getting the right to vote.

Just think about going about your life NEVER AGAIN having to worry about a tax return; a receipt; a deadline; a report; NOTHING. You will be FREE!!

Now the IRS is going to approve your tax preparor to sell copies of your federal tax return with your consent. Most opponents to this believe that millions of Americans will unwittingy sign the consent form. I think it is worse than that. I think they will sell your return without your consent. How would you ever know?

Pass the Fair Tax and do it now!

Enhance your freedom, protect your privacy, and increase your Americanism.

The first step to taking your country back is getting the US government out of control over your daily life. Pass the FairTax and see how quick that starts to happen.

A side benefit is that without the corporate income tax, organizations like the National Council of Treason La Raza are OUT OF BUSINESS!! No longer can Globalists and anti-American interests hide in the conference rooms of treasonous organizations posing as "charitists" when they are in fact "endists" working to end the United States and obliterate the American People from the face of the map.

GO FAIRTAX!!

Don't know what I did wrong, but the link in my sig works...

I love the idea of everyone paying the same taxes and nobody getting a free ride. But the original premise was that the "poor" workers would get back a certain amount of the money as a monthly or annual stipend. Has that been ditched from the program? And, if so, won't there be some sort of welfare program that will still take care of these people with our tax dollars?

I still see mass numbers of retailers failing to report some of their income, thereby NOT paying their taxes as prescribed. Or have they re-vamped the point-of-sale issue to put the burden of collection on someone else? Like Importers or Factory Owners who sell their goods? That would be a disaster as well, wouldn't it? This is my one big bug-a-boo as it pertains to this program. It is unenforcable. When the people stop paying (and I will stop buying anything I don't absolutely have to have in order to not pay the tax) the gov't is going to start crying that there is no money for them to embezzle or lose or squander and the tax will go up.

Further, I see that something has changed since I first studied this issue and the STATES are going to be burdened with the responsibillity for collecting the taxes. That could be good and that could be bad. I'd have to think more on it but states like NY and CA are already notorious for wasting taxpayer money. How would they do if they had even more to squander. Some state officials aren't going to care that the money they collect isn't theirs. More and more state officials were put in place by groups like LaRaza and I don't think they are going to stop funding those groups because some have sworn a pact to get their own kind elected.

I dunno. It sounds great until you scratch the surface and know how much can go wrong if the right people aren' t handling the money. Not that our tax money isn't being stolen and squandered not, mind you. But I think a good education on this issue would be beneficial to all Americans and then they should put it up as a national bond issue and ask the voters, not the politicians if it should be done or not. In my opinion, it is about time the people started taking some responsibility for how things are going to be done on a federal level until such time as we can cleanse the filth off our politicians holding public offices and get some Americans into those jobs.