Crickets Chirping

The Gaystopo Strikes Again

2012-02-02T19:22:00.001-08:00

Instead of celebrating, the hate continues.

Not One Mention Of The Islam Death Cult

2012-01-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

Take off the gloves ISLAM=DEATH

Afghan Family, Led by Father Who Called Girls a Disgrace, Is Guilty of Murder
By IAN AUSTEN
Published: January 29, 2012

OTTAWA — It began with a puzzling and grisly discovery in 2009: a car submerged in a 19th-century canal lock with the bodies of three teenage girls and a middle-aged woman inside. On Sunday, the father, the mother and a brother of the girls were each convicted of four counts of first-degree murder.
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Reuters

Mohammad Shafia, front, his wife Tooba Yahya and their son Hamed were convicted of first-degree murder in Canada.
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The verdict concluded a complex, three-month trial in which prosecutors described the crimes as “honor killings.” The defendants — Mohammad Shafia, 58; Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21 — and the victims belonged to a family of Afghans who had moved to Canada two years before the crime, in June 2007, under a program for affluent immigrants. Both the woman in the car, Rona Amir Mohammad, and Ms. Yahya were married to Mr. Shafia.

During the investigation of the deaths, police wiretaps recorded Mr. Shafia repeatedly expressing the view, often in graphic, vulgar language, that the girls had disgraced his family by dating and by wearing revealing clothing. Other evidence showed that at least one of the dead girls was so frightened of her father that she sought help from the police to escape the household and be placed in foster care with her sisters, without success.

Mr. Shafia’s solution, prosecutors said, was to murder three of his seven children and Ms. Amir Mohammad, and to try, improbably, to make it look like an auto accident; they presented evidence that the car in the canal, a Nissan Sentra, was pushed there using the family’s Lexus, and that someone in the household had searched the Internet for advice on how to conduct a murder.

The jury delivered its verdict after 15 hours of deliberation. Afterward, Justice Robert L. Maranger of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice raised the cultural issues surrounding the case, which, while rarely mentioned directly in court, had become a widespread topic of discussion in Canada, particularly in Quebec, where the family lives.

“It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime,” the judge told the defendants in a courtroom in Kingston, Ontario. “The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor, a notion of honor that is founded upon the domination and control of women.”

All three defendants said they were innocent. Ms. Yahya said in court after the verdict: “I am not a murderer and I am a mother — a mother!” Her lawyer, Andrew Crowe, said she would appeal.

Under Canadian law, first-degree murder carries a compulsory sentence of life in prison, with no chance of parole for the first 25 years.

A Parks Canada employee spotted the Sentra in the Rideau Canal when he arrived for work at a lock station near Kingston in June 2009. Inside were Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, ages 19, 17 and 13, and Ms. Amir Mohammad, 53, who entered Canada claiming to be Mr. Shafia’s cousin when in fact she was his other wife.

The family stopped in Kingston on the way back to their home in Montreal after a brief holiday trip to Niagara Falls; they bought the Sentra secondhand the day before the trip. Mr. Shafia and Ms. Yahya told police and reporters that Ms. Amir Mohammad and the girls had taken the car on a late-night joy ride organized by Zainab, who did not have a driver’s license. But the police were immediately suspicious.

Evidence presented at trial did not establish exactly how the woman and three girls died. But there were indications that the four victims were already dead when the car went into the canal.

The prosecution built part of its case on conflicting statements and missteps by the defendants — they booked accommodations for only six people in Kingston, even though the family numbered 10 before the killings — but the most compelling evidence came from police wiretaps.

“I say to myself, ‘Would they come back to life a hundred times, for you to do the same again,’ ” Mr. Shafia said about his daughters on one recording. “They violated us immensely. There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this.”

Defense lawyers argued that the remarks were prompted by the discovery days after the deaths of a photo album showing the girls with boys, although the family displayed what appeared to be the same album to television crews shortly after the deaths.

A diary kept by Ms. Amir Mohammad, who apparently could not bear children, indicated that Ms. Yahya treated her as a servant, and described beatings by Mr. Shafia and by his son Hamed when Mr. Shafia was away on business trips. Evidence at trial suggested that he was also brutal to the girls and feared by them.

Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo Is A Tool

2012-01-17T19:24:00.000-08:00

That's right asshole, you are a fucking tool.

Someday they'll come after you and you will be on your own.

Look Hard To Find The Word Muslim

2012-01-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

This is a Google search of the latest Islamic massacre of Christians. Note how few times the word Muslim is used. Not once in a headline. Click to enlarge.

Fuck Wordpress

2011-12-30T16:48:00.000-08:00

Fuck them in their fucking asses.

Abortion, Fiscal Responsability

2011-02-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

A picture is worth 1,000...

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3042209951564896126&postID=2756121476967521414

Just Because Somebody Farts, Let 'em Finish Singin'. OK?

2011-02-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

Classic!

What's behind the left's deranged hatred.

2011-01-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Palinoia, the Destroyer By JAMES TARANTO

Why does their hatred of her burn so hot?

Ask them, and they'll most likely tell you: Because she's a moron. But that is obviously false. To be sure, her skills at extemporaneous speaking leave much to be desired. But that can be said of a good many politicians on both sides of the aisle, including George W. Bush, John Kerry and, yes, Barack Obama. And don't get us started on the man who defeated her for the vice presidency.
[botwt011911] Associated Press

She drives them crazy.

Whether or not she is presidential timber--and we are inclined to think that she is not--there is no denying that she is a highly accomplished person. She is also a highly accomplished woman, what in an earlier age would have been called a feminist pioneer: the first female governor of the malest state in the country, the first woman on the presidential ticket of the party on the male side of the "gender gap." Having left politics, whether temporarily or permanently, she has established herself as one of the most consequential voices in the political media.

They say she is uneducated. What they mean is that her education is not elite--not Harvard or Yale, or even Michigan or UCLA. They resent her because, in their view, she has risen above her station.

In this respect we identify fully with Palin, for we have been on the receiving end of similar disdain. Our education, like Sarah Palin's, consisted of too many years at inferior state universities, although unlike her, we never even got around to graduating. The other day Paul Reidlinger took a shot at us for featuring one of his restaurant reviews under our "Wannabe Pundits" heading last month: "I was even denounced by noted high school graduate James Taranto." (For the record, our high school diploma is a GED.)

"Denounced" is far too strong a word; "mocked" is more like it. Reidlinger writes for San Francisco Bay Guardian, whatever that is. He doesn't say, but we surmise that he possesses advanced degrees from Stanford or the University of California, both very fine institutions. He observes that "it is a writer's job to afflict the comfortable and complacent." That would be an insufferably pretentious way to describe our job as a political columnist for an elite newspaper. What is a restaurant critic going to "afflict the comfortable" with? Food poisoning?

Professional jealousy and intellectual snobbery, however, only scratch the surface of the left's bizarre attitude toward Palin. They explain the intensity of the disdain, but not the outright hatred--not why some people whose grasp of reality is sufficient to function in society made the insane inference that she was to blame for a madman's attempt to murder Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

This unhinged hatred of Palin comes mostly from women. That is an awkward observation for us to offer, because a man risks sounding sexist or unchivalrous when he makes unflattering generalizations about women. Therefore, we are going to hide behind the skirts of our friend Jessica Faller, a New Yorker in her 30s of generally liberal politics. Over the weekend, she wrote us this analysis of Palin-hatred, which she has generously given us permission to quote:

I am starting out with a guess that this stems from her abrupt appearance on the national scene during the McCain-Obama race. She appeared out of nowhere and landed squarely in a position of extreme attention and media power. Her sex appeal might not have been as much of an issue had she been a known entity with a tremendous, watertight political résumé.

Even lacking that, her sex appeal might not have been such an issue if her demeanor on the campaign trail had been more, well, conservative. But here is this comely woman, in a curvy red suit, giving "shout-outs" during the debate with Joe Biden, giving controversial interviews without apology, basically driving in there, parking the car, and walking in like she owned the place.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But she couldn't have pulled it off if she were a gray mouse in a pantsuit, and because the devil in the red dress wasn't orating like a professor, it roused an unquenchable forest fire of rage and loathing in the breasts of many women, perhaps of the toiling gray mouse variety, who projected onto her their own career resentments and personal frustrations.

I am amazed at how people still abhor her. I personally do not. I don't feel she would be a good choice to run this country, but she does not deserve the horrific treatment she gets. I can tell you, being privy to the endless, incendiary rants this past week about her, coming from hordes of liberal women--age demo 25 to 45--they rip her to pieces, they blame her for everything, and the jealousy/resentment factor is so clear and primal. I've never seen anything like it.

We'd say this goes beyond mere jealousy. For many liberal women, Palin threatens their sexual identity, which is bound up with their politics in a way that it is not for any other group (possibly excepting gays, though that is unrelated to today's topic).

An important strand of contemporary liberalism is feminism. As a label, "feminist" is passé; outside the academic fever swamps, you will find few women below Social Security age who embrace it.

That is because what used to be called feminism--the proposition that women deserve equality before the law and protection from discrimination--is almost universally accepted today. Politically speaking, a woman is the equal of a man. No woman in public life better symbolizes this than Sarah Palin--especially not Hillary Clinton, the left's favorite icon. No one can deny Mrs. Clinton's accomplishments, but neither can one escape crediting them in substantial part to her role as the wife of a powerful man.

But there is more to feminism than political and legal equality. Men and women are intrinsically unequal in ways that are ultimately beyond the power of government to remediate. That is because nature is unfair. Sexual reproduction is far more demanding, both physically and temporally, for women than for men. Men simply do not face the sort of children-or-career conundrums that vex women in an era of workplace equality.

Except for the small minority of women with no interest in having children, this is an inescapable problem, one that cannot be obviated by political means. Aspects of it can, however, be ameliorated by technology--most notably contraception, which at least gives women considerable control over the timing of reproduction.

As a political matter, contraception is essentially uncontroversial today, which is to say that any suggestion that adult women be legally prevented from using birth control is outside the realm of serious debate. The same cannot be said of abortion, and that is at the root of Palinoia.

To the extent that "feminism" remains controversial, it is because of the position it takes on abortion: not just that a woman should have the "right to choose," but that this is a matter over which reasonable people cannot disagree--that to favor any limitations on the right to abortion, or even to acknowledge that abortion is morally problematic, is to deny the basic dignity of women.

To a woman who has internalized this point of view, Sarah Palin's opposition to abortion rights is a personal affront, and a deep one. It doesn't help that Palin lives by her beliefs. To the contrary, it intensifies the offense.

It used to be a trope for liberal interviewers to try to unmask hypocrisy by asking antiabortion politicians--male ones, of course--what they would do if their single teen daughters got pregnant. It's a rude question, but Palin, whose 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy coincided with Mom's introduction to the nation, answered it in real life.

Recently we were at a party where a woman in her 60s, a self-described feminist, called Palin a "moron" for having encouraged her daughter to carry her child to term and "to marry the sperm donor." Even apart from the gross language, this was a completely irrational thing to say. First, that Palin's values are different in no way reflects on her intelligence.

More important, why is Bristol Palin's decision to carry her child to term any of this lady's business? Those who claim to be champions of privacy and choice need to do some serious soul-searching if they have so much trouble tolerating the private choices of others.

What about male Palin-hatred? It seems to us that it is of decidedly secondary importance. Liberal men put down Palin as a cheap way to score points with the women in their lives, or they use her as an outlet for more-general misogynistic impulses that would otherwise be socially unacceptable to express.

Liberal women are the active, driving force behind hatred of Sarah Palin, while liberal men's behavior is passive and manipulative. In this respect, feminism has succeeded in reversing the traditional sexual stereotypes. If this is the result, you have to wonder why anyone would have bothered.

More Nutty Progressives

2011-01-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
Published: 01/15/11 4:45 pm | Updated: 01/15/11 4:45 pm

Authorities say one of the victims of the shooting rampage in Tucson has been arrested after he threatened a tea party leader during a town hall meeting for a television show.

James Eric Fuller, who was shot in the knee and the back, objected to something Trent Humphries said during the forum Saturday. Authorities say the 63-year-old Fuller took a picture of Humphries and yelled "you're dead."

Pima County sheriff's spokesman Jason Ogan says Fuller has been arrested on disorderly conduct and threat charges. Ogan says while Fuller was being escorted out, deputies decided he needed a mental health evaluation and he was taken to a hospital.

The town hall was being taped for an ABC special.

Where do you live?
Tucson, Arizona

Hypnosis Experience:
No Hypnosis Experience

What are you looking for on this site?
KIndred spirits and an opportunity to advocate my personal agenda promoting social justice and common sense.

Areas of Specialty:
I use extraordinary persuasive charisma to interest blase, apathetic, oblivious and at times hostile voters to listen to the voice of justice and consanguinity. My experiences encountering public figures and many affluent travelers in person has led me to believe that we all are to blame for George W. Bush.
As Plato stated, "The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves."

About Me:
Non-deep pocket with a lot of heart. Began life as a computer operator, military service leading to non-physical disability, unable to resume career, left main stream and lived in small towns for a decade studying library books and piano, moved into Tucson in 1994 and worked as a Chauffeur for most of 10 years, presented state-wide initiatives at libraries, worked elections, in '09 worked at the Census Bureau as a field rep and a clerk. Non drinker for one year, non smoker for 40 years.

Hobbies:
Piano, bicycling, tennis, proselytizing

Website:
http://thornking@msn.com

The Crazy Left

2011-01-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

Always looking for an excuse.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

2011-01-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

When Rep. Nancy Pelosi lost 19 Democrats on Wednesday's vote to be House speaker, it marked the worst showing for a party's nominee in more than 80 years.

Mrs. Pelosi won the support of 173 Democrats, but 18 others voted for someone else and one voted "present." Rep. John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, won the vote with the support of all 241 Republicans who voted.

According to figures from the House historian's office and the Congressional Research Service, the last time a party's nominee for speaker lost that much support was in 1923. On the first ballot that year the GOP's nominee, Frederick H. Gillett, saw 23 lawmakers support other Republicans. Mr. Gillett still ended up winning the speakership on the ninth ballot.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2011/jan/5/anti-pelosi-vote/

Could Sarah Palin be right about Michelle Obama?!

2011-01-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

By Mario Rizzo, Guest blogger / January 2, 2011

In an editorial the Wall Street Journal criticizes Sarah Palin for criticizing Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign. The point seems to be that such talk from the Ms. Bully Pulpit is innocuous or benign. The writer makes an analogy with Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign.

Now if Michelle Obama were just a Chicago-based community activist who was organizing a nation-wide propaganda campaign to urge people to eat healthily I would have no objection.

Although Ms. Obama does not hold any official office she is a spokesperson for the White House and her husband, the president. Nothing she does or says happens without political vetting, approval, strategizing and so forth. In this sense she is an arm of the executive branch.

I do not believe it is the job of the federal government to teach us anything. It is simply part of the apparatus of compulsion and coercion whose job it is, at most, to main the basics of social order. When we allow it to become our Teacher we are elevating it to a role for which it has no comparative moral authority. Why should itsvalues be authoritative? Why not my values? Why not your values?

It is not as if this advice emanates from a source (the White House, including President Obama) that has a reputation for moral integrity. The deceptions surrounding Iraq and Afghanistan policy come readily to mind. (When were the troops supposed to come home?)

And yet not even this is the main point. The advice comes from a person who has decided to devote her life to accomplishing goals by the political means. These goals are not the gradual reduction of political power (obviously) but its increase. It is wrong to think that granting moral authority, as all teaching authority must be, to such people is benign. One of the main differences between conservatives and classical liberals is that liberals do not look up to the state. They look down to it as a necessary evil.

Of course, what comes from the White House is rarely just advice but is part of an overall strategy encouraging the dependence of people on the state. We are weak. We must be helped in every area of our lives by our “betters” – those who wield power but so generously give of themselves to us.

If I weren’t a “health nut” I would eat some potato chips in protest.

'We really deserved that.' -- TE Vernon Davis on NFC West title

2011-01-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Posted by Danny O'Neil

Wrong team made the playoffs, Niners say
By David White, San Francisco Chronicle

The 49ers president Jed York said he thinks the 49ers would be in the playoffs had he made a coaching change sooner, promoting Jim Tomsula sooner. San Francisco tight end Vernon Davis said the 49ers were better than the Seahawks, who finished a game ahead of the 49ers and won the division title. That prompted a hilarious response from Ben Hamilton, the Seahawks left guard who suffered a season-ending concussion on Oct. 31. Hamilton tweeted: "I don't think that word means what you think it does, enjoy your offseason!"

Ted Williams- Homeless man with a golden voice

2011-01-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

Abandoning Net Neutrality: When There's No Such Thing as a Free Internet

2011-01-04T16:45:00.000-08:00

When all bits are not considered equal, bandwidth becomes a traded commodity. A Free Market, not Net Neutrality is in store for the continuing evolution of the Internet.

By Jason Perlow | January 3, 2011, 1:32pm PST

When all bits are not considered equal, bandwidth becomes a traded commodity. A Free Market, not Net Neutrality is in store for the continuing evolution of the Internet.

While many of you like myself were out of town during the holiday break enjoying some time away from work, or partaking of the mind-numbing substance of your choice to tide away the chilling weather and/or snowpocalypse that kept us all inside through the New Year, the Federal Communications Commission issued the 87-page long Open Internet Order.

The Open Internet Order imposes certain limitations on what they believe (emphasis on believe, because the FCC still needs to prove in court that they can actually enforce these rules) service providers can and cannot do regarding your connectivity as a broadband and wireless Internet services user.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/abandoning-net-neutrality-when-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free-internet/15340?tag=nl.e539

6 in 10 Greeks Don't Pay Income Taxes

2011-01-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

December 31, 2010|By Katy Byron, CNN

More than 5 million Greeks did not pay income taxes for 2008, according to public documents released by the struggling nation's finance ministry.

More than six in 10 taxpayers earn less than 12,000 euros per year and are not required to pay income taxes under the Greek tax system, the press office of the Greek Ministry of Finance said Thursday.

However, there is wide speculation that many Greeks are not accurately reporting their income.

Most workers and professionals earned more than 12,000 euros in salary in 2008, according to the data provided by the Finance Ministry this month. The average salaried income was 19,234 euros for taxpayers and professionals earned 29,569 euros on average for the year. Farmers, ranchers and fisherman made 11,500 euros per year on average, but those workers only accounted for 390,000 people in the workforce.
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The Finance Ministry's operations have been under scrutiny since the European Union and the International Monetary Fund agreed to bailout the struggling economy of the Mediterranean nation in May.

When asked if taxpayers are accurately representing their income bracket, the finance ministry said that "Greeks are paying the taxes assessed, though some are failing to declare all their earned income by operating in the shadow economy (e.g. by failing to issue a receipt)."

"Over the past year, the Ministry of Finance has undertaken many far-reaching initiatives to reduce tax fraud and increase compliance," which include tougher laws, improved computer systems and reorganization of the tax collections system, said Diomidis Spinellis, a general secretary with the Finance Ministry.

Finance Ministry Secretary General Dimitris Georgakopoulos told Greek press this fall that there would not be an overhaul of the Greek tax system or any new tax measures put in place.

"I don't believe that new taxes will be imposed, and more taxes cannot be imposed because then the market will be suffocated even more, beyond the difficulty today, and the result will not be the anticipated one" he said, according to Athens Times.

In May, as the EU-IMF bailout was being negotiated, the Finance Ministry released the names of more than 150 doctors in Athens being investigated for tax evasion.

Later in the month, a number of tax administration improvement measures were announced, including the replacement of directors in tax offices and the launch of an internal inquiry into cases of bribery, forged documentation, smuggling and other illegal activities.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-31/world/greece.taxes_1_income-taxes-greek-press-tax-evasion?_s=PM:WORLD

Unions are Evil Entities

2010-12-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

Sanitation Department's slow snow cleanup was a budget protest

By SALLY GOLDENBERG, LARRY CELONA and JOSH MARGOLIN
Last Updated: 12:37 PM, December 30, 2010
Posted: 2:34 AM, December 30, 2010

These garbage men really stink.

Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.

The Five Best Arguments Against Sharia in the United States

2010-12-30T14:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=1684

Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 12:28 am

I shouldn’t have to write this essay. But a judge in Oklahoma forced me into it.

Last month, 70% of the voters in Oklahoma approved State Question 755, which bans Sharia law (and international law) from being used in the state’s legal system. Almost immediately afterward, CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) sued to have the vote overturned, based on the bizarre claim that the measure is “unconstitutional.” U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange then sided with CAIR and issued an injunction preventing the measure from taking effect until all lawsuits against it are resolved. Since the suits will likely take years to play out, the new measure (and the will of the voters) will be stymied for the foreseeable future.

Those who oppose Sharia in the United States often argue their point by highlighting how misogynistic, backward, cruel and discriminatory Islamic law can be under most interpretations. And while all that may be true, it is the wrong argument to make. I get so frustrated watching pundits, politicians and bloggers making the weakest argument in what should be a slam-dunk debate that I’ve decided to write this brief outline of what I think should be the prioritized hierarchy of arguments against the use of Sharia in the United States.

In order, these are the arguments that Sharia’s opponents should be using, not just in Oklahoma but anywhere else in the country where the same issue crops up:

Unlawful Search And Seizure

2010-12-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/12/aurora-not-returning-money-it-seized-despite-a-court-order.html

Aurora: $190k seized because brothers were drug suspects
December 10, 2010 3:23 AM | 87 Comments | UPDATED STORY

Two brothers who say police unlawfully seized more than $190,000 from them during a traffic stop had been under surveillance and were suspected of drug-dealing, a lawyer for the city of Aurora said today during a court hearing.

Though neither Jose nor Jesus Martinez is charged with a crime, authorities are seeking forfeiture of $190,040 found in Jesus' truck when he was stopped by an Aurora police officer on Oct. 18.

A Kane County judge ordered the money returned, but the city has refused.

The Aurora residents claim the money was family savings earned from a remodeling business. But during the hearing, an attorney disclosed reports from an Illinois State Police drug task force saying police had received court permission to tap the brothers' phones on the suspicion they were involved in drug trafficking.

Chicago attorney John Murphey, who is representing Aurora, said the city had not been at liberty to discuss the case until today.

"We were constrained by a live, serious investigation," said Murphey, who said he had been informed that the phase of the investigation involving the Martinez brothers was over.

Attorney Patrick Kinnally, who is representing the brothers, said the allegations did not change his assertion that the money had been unlawfully seized.

"Not a bit," he said. "Let's just see how the evidence plays out."

The new documents allege that North Central Narcotics Task Force officers were listening in on a call between the Martinez brothers in which they discuss Jesus' planned meeting with a man named Charlie in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Aurora.

According to the report, Jose tells Jesus, "The package is ready," though there is no explicit mention of drugs.

The report said police observed Jesus Martinez arrive in the parking lot at 8:07 p.m. on Oct. 18 and talk with another man for a minute before both left in separate vehicles. No exchange is reported between the men, and police apparently did not stop the second driver, who was in a gray minivan.

"I noticed the gray minivan turn from westbound Indian Trail to northbound Orchard Road and leave the area," a task force officer noted in the report.

Jesus Martinez was stopped by an Aurora police officer working with the task force about four minutes later. He and his passenger were questioned, and Jesus Martinez consented to have his vehicle searched.

Police brought in a drug dog but no drugs were found. However, they did find a sack of cash.

Aurora police were only involved in an intermediary fashion, Murphey said. After questioning Jesus Martinez at the Aurora police department and giving him a receipt for the money, Aurora police say they transferred the money that same night to the drug task force, which reported handing the money over the following day to the Department of Homeland Security.

The brothers have denied being involved in drugs, and neither has a criminal record. But another brother and a cousin had been convicted of drug charges following a 2002 arrest. Those convictions were overturned on appeal, and the charges were later dropped.

Kinnally filed a complaint on behalf of the brothers about a month after the seizure. In late November, Kane County Judge Michael Colwell signed a temporary injunction against Aurora, ordering the city to return the money because it had been seized unlawfully.

Since then, Colwell has retired. Judge Thomas Mueller, who has taken over the case, set Jan. 5 for a hearing.

A call to the North Central Narcotics Task Force was not immediately returned.

Wave goodbye to Internet freedom

2010-12-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/2/wave-goodbye-to-internet-freedom/

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to add the Internet to its portfolio of regulated industries. The agency's chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced Wednesday that he circulated draft rules he says will "preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet." No statement could better reflect the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of Obama administration policies.

With a straight face, Mr. Genachowski suggested that government red tape will increase the "freedom" of online services that have flourished because bureaucratic busybodies have been blocked from tinkering with the Web. Ordinarily, it would be appropriate at this point to supply an example from the proposed regulations illustrating the problem. Mr. Genachowski's draft document has over 550 footnotes and is stamped "non-public, for internal use only" to ensure nobody outside the agency sees it until the rules are approved in a scheduled Dec. 21 vote. So much for "openness."

The issue of "net neutrality" is nothing new, but the increasing popularity of online movie streaming services like Netflix have highlighted an area of potential concern. When someone watches a film over the Internet, especially in high definition, the maximum available capacity of the user's connection is used. Think, for example, of the problems that would arise at the water works if everyone decided to turn on their faucets and take a shower simultaneously. Internet providers are beginning to see the same strain on their networks.

In some cases, heavy use of this sort slows the Web experience for everyone sharing the same lines. That has prompted some cable Internet providers to consider either charging the heavy users more or limiting access to the "problematic" services. Of course, if cinema buffs find themselves cut off from their favorite service, they're going to be mad. If companies don't act, they're just as likely to find irate customers who don't want their experience bogged down by others.

It's not clear why the FCC thinks it needs to intervene in a situation with obvious market solutions. Companies that impose draconian tolls or block services will lose customers. Existing laws already offer a number of protections against anti-competitive behavior, but it's not clear under what law Mr. Genachowski thinks he can stick his nose into the businesses that comprise the Internet. The FCC regulates broadcast television and radio because the government granted each station exclusive access to a slice of the airwaves. Likewise when Ma Bell accepted a monopoly deal from Uncle Sam, it came with regulatory strings attached.

No such rationale applies online, especially because bipartisan majorities in Congress have insisted on maintaining a hands-off policy. A federal appeals court confirmed this in April by striking down the FCC's last attempt in this arena. "That was sort of like the quarterback being sacked for a 20-yard loss," FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell told The Washington Times. "And now the team is about to run the exact same play. ... In order for the FCC to do this, it needs for Congress to give it explicit statutory authority to do so."

Freedom and openness should continue to be the governing principles of the Internet. That's why Mr. Genachowski's proposal should be rejected and Congress should make it even more clear that the FCC should stop trying to expand its regulatory empire.

© Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

It's Time.

2010-11-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

TSA ejects Oceanside man from airport for refusing security check

By Robert J. Hawkins

Originally published November 14, 2010 at 12:07 a.m., updated November 14, 2010 at 2:06 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — John Tyner won't be pheasant hunting in South Dakota with his father-in-law any time soon.

Tyner was simultaneously thrown out of San Diego International Airport on Saturday morning for refusing to submit to a security check and threatened with a civil suit and $10,000 fine if he left.

And he got the whole thing on his cell phone. Well, the audio at least.

The 31-year-old Oceanside software programmer was supposed to leave from Lindbergh Field on Saturday morning and until a TSA agent directed him toward one of the recently installed full-body scanners, Tyner seemed to be on his way.

Tyner balked.

He'd been reading about the scanners and didn't like them for a number of reasons, ranging from health concerns to "a huge invasion of privacy." He'd even checked the TSA website which indicated that San Diego did not have the machines, he said in a phone interview Saturday night.

"I was surprised to see them," said Tyner.

He also did something that may seem odd to some, manipulative to others but fortuitous to plenty of others for whom Tyner is becoming something of a folk hero: Tyner turned on his cell phone's video camera and placed it atop the luggage he sent through the x-ray machine.

He may not be the first traveler tossed from an airport for security reasons but he could well be the first to have the whole experience captured on his cell phone.

During the next half-hour, his cell phone recorded Tyner refusing to submit to a full body scan, opting for the traditional metal scanner and a basic "pat down" -- and then refusing to submit to a "groin check" by a TSA security guard.

He even told the guard, "You touch my junk and I'm going to have you arrested."

That threat triggered a code red of sorts as TSA agents, supervisors and eventually the local police gravitated to the spot where the reluctant traveler stood in his stocking feet, his cell phone sitting in the nearby bin (which he wasn't allowed to touch) picking up the audio.

According to TSA at the time the controversial body scanners were installed, travelers would have the option to request walking through the traditional metal detector but that option would be accompanied by a "pat down."

Why Tyner was targeted for a secondary pat down is unknown.

Asked if he thought he looked like a terrorist, Tyner said no. "I'm 6-foot-1, white with short brown hair," he said Saturday night.

Was he singled out for "punishment"?

Before Tyner was told he was getting a "groin check," a TSA agent is heard on the recording telling another agent "I had a problem with the passenger I was patting down. So I backed down. He was obnoxious."

Tyner is sure he was talking about someone else. On the whole, with a single final exception, he found the agents "professional if standoffish."

He did marvel that while his own situation was being deliberated, many passengers passed through the metal detector and on to their flights with no pat-down. "One guy even set off the alarm and they sent him through again without a pat-down," he said.

Once he threatened to have the TSA agent arrested though, events turned surreal.

A supervisor is heard re-explaining the groin check process to Tyner then adding "If you're not comfortable with that, we can escort you back out and you don't have to fly today."

Tyner responded "OK, I don't understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying."

"This is not considered a sexual assault," replied the supervisor, calmly.

"It would be if you were not the government," said Tyner.

"By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights," countered the TSA supervisor.

"I think the government took them away after 9/11," said Tyner.

"OK," came the reply.

More senior TSA administrators showed up, and one San Diego police officer. Tyner's personal information was taken down and then he was escorted out of the security area. After he put his shoes back.

His father-in-law, a 40-year retired deputy sheriff, can be heard pleading in the back ground for some common sense.

Tyner went over to the American Airlines counter where an agent, to his amazement, refunded the price of his non-refundable ticket.

Before he could leave, however, he was again surrounded by TSA employees who told him he couldn't leave the security area. One, who kept insisting he was trying to help Tyner, told him that if he left he would be subject to a civil suit and a $10,000 fine.

Tyner asked if the agents who had escorted him from the security area would also be sued and fined.

The same man who told Tyner he would be sued and fined if he left, also insisted that he did not tell him he couldn't leave.

So Tyner left.

Two hours later he wrote the whole experience up on his blog and posted the audio files to YouTube.

You could say it has gone viral.

By Saturday evening, 70,000 people had accessed the entry and 488 comments were posted to the blog item. Those comments are divided over Tyner's experience. "Only 5 percent say I'm an idiot," he said.

Far more applaud him for "standing up" to the security forces. Many more people share his disdain for how airport security is conducted.

"People generally are angry about what is going on," said Tyner, "but they don't know how to assert their rights....there is a general feeling that TSA is ineffective, out of control, over-reaching."

If Tyner has touched some undercurrent of resentment, he doesn't want to be the guy who leads the charge to overturn the machines. "I'm not so sure I'm the right person to start a movement," he said.

If he isn't, he can sound at times like he's auditioning for the job.

Tyner points out that every terrorist act on an airplane has been halted by passengers. "It's time to stop treating passengers like criminals and start treating them as assets," he said.

Thurston County Protects Special Pocket Gophers

2010-11-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

Posted by Scott Roberts - November 09, 2010
Evergreen Freedom Foundation

If Thurston County has their way, 500 square miles of land will be so heavily regulated that you may have to ask permission to have pets. If you believe the Thurston County Commissioners, humans, cats and dogs are enemies of the Mazama Pocket Gopher. And the Commissioners are out to save the gophers, under the banner of conservation, and on the backs of private property owners that live on the prairie.

The Mazama Pocket Gopher has been listed as a ‘Candidate Species’ since 2002 on the Federal list of Endangered Species and as a ‘Species of Concern’ on the State’s endangered species list. The Feds warn that they may escalate the pocket gopher listing to ‘Threatened’. These listings energized Thurston County to start quietly writing protection ordinances. The County alleges the pocket gopher’s preferred habitat is the prairie lands mostly found in South Thurston County and have aimed their land restriction ordinances there.

I was curious, what is so special about the Mazama Pocket Gopher? Certainly this species must be highly important. I found an explanation by Kelly McAllister. She’s a District Wildlife Biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. She writes, “The main difference between the gopher of eastern Washington and the gopher of western Washington is quite simple. The western Washington species, Thomomys Mazama, has a bigger penis. Its penis averages twice the size of its eastern Washington counterpart. In fact, the Mazama Pocket Gopher has the largest penis of any member of its family.”

If you spot a pocket gopher in Thurston county, now you know which one is protected.

Thin Crowd for Cleveland Campaign Rally

2010-10-31T17:47:00.000-07:00

A man gets on his knees next to a car carrying U.S. President Barack Obama as he pulls away from Valois restaurant in Chicago, October 31, 2010
REUTERS/Larry Downing

CLEVELAND — President Obama wrapped up a weekend of last-minute campaigning in Ohio on Sunday, addressing Democrats in an indoor arena that, in a sign of the “enthusiasm gap” that the president is working so hard to close, was little more than half full.

About 8,000 people attended the Democratic National Committee’s Moving America Forward’ rally at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, a hall where the capacity is 13,000. The rafters were largely empty.

Organizers noted the president was competing on a Sunday afternoon with church, football and Halloween. And Mr. Obama drew a huge crowd of about 35,000 when he was in nearby Columbus, Ohio, in an earlier October rally. Still, the thin crowd was perhaps a foreboding sign in the waning days of the midterm races, when Mr. Obama, who was joined Sunday by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., considers getting Democrats to the polls his most important mission.

SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/thin-crowd-for-cleveland-campaign-rally/

An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh and His Listeners — With Notes on the Democrat Civil War Already In Progress

2010-10-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

When Obama and the DNC attacked Hillary and her supporters, they permanently alienated tens of millions of us from the party. I know for a fact I am not the only guy with a picture like this on his wall who is working every day to bring down the Obama White House and Democrat Party. Not for Hillary, though I love the woman, but for America...because I love this country even more.

Dear The Left: A Breakup Letter

2010-10-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

Dear The Left: A Breakup Letter, by E. A. Hanks
by EA Hanks on January 20th, 2010

Dear The Left,

It's interesting that you couldn't keep Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat. I'm taking it for granted that you understand that I don't mean "interesting" at all, but rather "detestable."

This latest event brings me to new levels of apathy, in part because it confirms my suspicion that you cannot accomplish your most reasonable and expected responsibility: empowering the political party that most closely matches your platform. You couldn't ensure that Senator Kennedy's replacement is a liberal Democrat? Enjoy the tar pits of irrelevancy.

I don't think this one race serves as a marker on What Americans Really Think Of Health Care Reform, or even What Americans Think Of Obama, two subjects I couldn't care less about-not to say I don't care passionately about health care or Obama. Or Americans.

But it seems to be this fallacy, this mirage of What Americans Really Think is all you seem to want to talk about these days. More precisely, the past ten years.

Which is to say, we're over. Yep, sorry. We're through.

It's not even that I don't agree with you, because I do, on all the big ones, at least: Teddy Kennedy's legacy, gays, abortion, endless wars for the profit of private companies, drowning polar bears, the works. I'm not running off to declare nonsense as truth like, "Health Care Will Kill Us All!" or anything like that.

But, you know what? I don't think you're good for me. Or for America, for that matter.

There was a moment, after the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th President (the one you take credit for) when there was an in-coming wave of people singing.

As the noise got closer, those words made famous by Bananarama became clear and rang out, golden over the Mall: "Na Na Na / Na Na Na / Hey Hey Hey / Goodbye!"

Countless people were waving up at the sky, and when I craned my neck back I could see Marine One was taking the previous President away, forever. His time was done.

I started to wave and sing too, but before I could really give it my best, I burst into tears, The Left. You would have been proud.

When I looked up to try to chip off the frozen snot and salt water from my face, I noticed something: the 100 people in my immediate vicinity were also crying.

And I don't mean quiet, private, attractive tears.

People were sobbing, really going for it. There was more choking and heaving than a seventh grade girl's bathroom.

I caught an evanescent understanding of the meaning of catharsis.

It's not a pleasant, tidy emotional process, wherein one gets closure by having neat conversations that make you feel okay-it's the violent purging of the cancer that's been pulsating wetly in your guts for eight years.

I'm 27 years old. George W. Bush was elected my last year of high school and was re-elected my last year of college. The burgeoning of my political consciousness is entirely connected to his presidency.

I marched in protest against his war, I handed out flyers against his policies, I argued against his platforms, I volunteered against his campaign, and I mocked everything about him that I could-which, you know, was quite a lot.

But I standing on the National Mall, crying in the arms of that stranger from Georgia, I realized that the anger I had for President Bush gave me was nothing in comparison with the rage I felt for The Left.

I'll recover from my first dance with Sturm und Drang, hopefully with a skosh more wisdom and bucket loads less ego, but I'll never get over my complete and utter disillusionment with the Left.

The Left.

DailyKos and MoveOn and CodePink and yes, that other one, too. Grand-standing Congresspeople, bandana-ed prostesters and pontificating talking heads.

So much talking! So much feeling! And yet… nothing changed!

One can't get mad at an incontinent dog for pissing all over your nice carpet-but one can get mad at the person who doesn't put the dog outside to begin with.

So I choose not to get mad at George W. Bush (well, maybe a little). Rather, I choose to ask my self questions like:

Where was the Left in: the build-up to Iraq? The decimation of protective legislation for the environment? The steady beating-back of womens' rights?

Every time things got bad-and things got bad!-you seemed to lose power, rather than gain it.

When you should have had the gravitas of, I don't know, people who have irrefutable facts on their side (no WMDs, actual physical manifestations of climate change, gay people clearly performing as exceptional parents) you had the persuasiveness of a newly converted 15-year-old vegetarian: You guys, like, meat is murder. Thanksgiving is a celebration of murder, like, on so many levels, you don't even know.

You know what I think it is, The Left? I think you stopped focusing on actually stopping evil from happening, and started focusing on convincing people who would never agree with you that it was evil.

You stopped talking about the War, and started talking about how Fox was talking about the War. You focused so much attention on beating Fox! All of your energy was spent on seeing who could win the spin war, and suddenly we were all shouting "You're wrong! You're wrong! You're wrong!" together, to the point where we were just as hysterical and terrified as the other side! Probably even more!

Seriously, The Left, Keith Olbermann's impassioned rhetoric from the gaping wound of Ground Zero might have been a soothing balm seven years ago, but imagine what could have actually been accomplished if MSNBC had resisted standing up for The Left and simply just told the truth-without the grandiose indignation?

But this wouldn't be a good break-up letter if I didn't tell that it's not you, it's me.

And I guess that's true, in a way. When things were good with us, they were so good, right?

Remember the time we got run over by horses on that march in New York? Or that time we drove through the night to D.C., only to turn our backs on the inaugural parade, and then turn around and come home? We were dumb kids, in love with hating.

How about that time we chanted Cat Stevens songs outside the Federal Building on National Women's Day? I'm not lying when I say that's the deepest anyone's ever gone with me.

And yet here I go, changing everything between us. If I'm being honest, our relationship was all about placating my ego. All of it: the marches, the sit-ins, the phone trees, the whole shebang.

It was about glorifying my personal beliefs, and convincing myself that I was more against the war, more for gay rights, more serious about securing abortion rights, than anyone else.

If you think about it, it was pretty nifty thinking: It'll look like I'm selflessly placing myself in harm's way to make a point about how fucked up things are! Then everyone will know how serious I am, how serious I take things. Everyone will be super-impressed.

The only word I can think to describe it is masturbatory. My relationship with The Left was masturbatory.

Perhaps you're wondering where all this came from. I guess I owe an explanation, at least that much.

I had a realization-the sort of realization that happens when you get a window into how indulgent and celebratory you are of your own ignorance and privilege.

I have this friend who is gay who goes to places around the country most gay people flee from-maybe because they want more of a community, maybe because they want more people to bang and/or date, or maybe because they get harassed and they're afraid of getting the shit kicked out of them or worse.

Anyway, for work she has to go to the places in America that I (straight, white, bougie and now formerly lefty), would never go. And just by going, and doing her job, and being herself, whether the people she meets know she's gay or not, she does more for gay rights than I could ever do with the best sit-in in the history of sit-ins, or with the most informative flyer ever, or with the most fervent letter to my Senator.

And it's not because she's gay and I'm not. It's because she's not talking about making a choice to change America, she's just doing the right thing: being who she is and expecting everyone to respect it, and if they don't then they can totally eat it.

And that's why I'm taking this post-Kennedy moment to break up with you, The Left. I don't want to talk about how I want America to change. I want the inevitable changes that mark American's great march toward freedom for everyone to be manifested by my individual actions-by everyone's individual actions. What's the point in being a voice in a crowd that's screaming so loudly that no one has any idea what everyone's saying? (Even if it's a crowd I agree with!)

Someone who comes to mind, The Left, is Bob Dylan. (See, I told you we'd still agree on things!)

You know what you're like? You're like the people who booed him when he went electric. You're the pouting kid demanding more "protest songs," when they're all protest songs,

And who the hell boos Obam-I mean, Bob Dylan-anyway?

E.A. Hanks even used to work for the Huffington Post.

Sarah Palin to Lisa Murkowski

2010-10-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Individuals like Dan Fagan have a fundamental right to speak their minds without threats from the incumbent Senator from Alaska. It is hard to find a constitutional right Americans cherish more than the right to free speech. This was a right Joe Miller, as a decorated combat veteran – a tank commander tested in battle, was willing to die to defend. Dan Fagan has not always agreed with me, but I will gladly defend his right to speak freely on his radio show, which he has often used to criticize me. In fact, Fagan has actually used his radio show to attack and insult me, my husband, my children, and my family in just about every way possible. He was especially insulting to my son, who left for a war zone to defend Fagan’s right to attack our family. But when I was his governor, I never would have dreamed of threatening his right to free speech. I support him in this fight because this D.C. Beltway thuggery, as exemplified by Lisa Murkowski’s latest threat, is ruining our country. The powers that be want ordinary Americans to sit down and shut up and let the ruling class ride us right off the debt cliff we’re heading towards with Obama, Pelosi, and Reid steering the nation’s car. We can’t let them. Now is the time to put aside our past differences and stand up to the establishment powers.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/sarah-palin-to-lisa-murkowsky-lisa-you-can-sue-if-you-want-to-you-wont-be-the-first/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gatewaypundit2+%28Gateway+Pundit%29

Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Muhammad Yunus

2010-10-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Muhammad Yunus (left) is kissed by his daughter Dina after learning that he has been awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

What do they all have in common? FAILURE

Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Micro-Loan Pioneers
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061013-nobel-peace.html

India's Major Crisis in Microlending
Loans Involving Tiny Amounts of Money Were a Good Idea, but the Explosion of Interest Backfires
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304316404575580663294846100.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The Bill Gates Income Tax

2010-10-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

If Washington's most famous billionaires are really worried about their state's finances, they'd write personal checks to the government and leave everyone else alone.
By ARTHUR LAFFER
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520241519315372.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Framed on a wall in my office is a personal letter to me from Bill Gates the elder. "I am a fan of progressive taxation," he wrote. "I would say our country has prospered from using such a system—even at 70% rates to say nothing of 90%."

It's one thing to believe in bad policy. It's quite another to push it on others. But Mr. Gates Sr.—an accomplished lawyer, now retired—and his illustrious son are now trying to have their way with the people of the state of Washington.

Mr. Gates Sr. has personally contributed $500,000 to promote a statewide proposition on Washington's November ballot that would impose a brand new 5% tax on individuals earning over $200,000 per year and couples earning over $400,000 per year. An additional 4% surcharge would be levied on individuals and couples earning more than $500,000 and $1 million, respectively.

Along with creating a new income tax on high-income earners, Initiative 1098 would also reduce property, business and occupation taxes. But raising the income tax is the real issue. Doing so would put the state's economy at risk.

To imagine what such a large soak-the-rich income tax would do to Washington, we need only examine how states with the highest income-tax rates perform relative to their zero-income tax counterparts. Comparing the nine states with the highest tax rates on earned income to the nine states with no income tax shows how high tax rates weaken economic performance.

In the past decade, the nine states with the highest personal income tax rates have seen gross state product increase by 59.8%, personal income grow by 51%, and population increase by 6.1%. The nine states with no personal income tax have seen gross state product increase by 86.3%, personal income grow by 64.1%, and population increase by 15.5%.

It's striking how the high-tax states have underperformed relative to those with no income tax. Especially noteworthy is how well Washington has performed compared to states with no income tax.

If Washington passes Initiative 1098, it will go from being one of the fastest-growing states in the country to one of the slowest-growing. And passage of I-1098 will only be the beginning. Just look at Ohio, Michigan and California to see that once a state adopts an income tax, there is no end to the number of reasons that such a tax could be extended, expanded and increased.

Over the past 50 years, 11 states have introduced state income taxes exactly as Messrs. Gates and their allies are proposing—and the consequences have been devastating.
[artlaffer]

The 11 states where income taxes were adopted over the past 50 years are: Connecticut (1991), New Jersey (1976), Ohio (1971), Rhode Island (1971), Pennsylvania (1971), Maine (1969), Illinois (1969), Nebraska (1967), Michigan (1967), Indiana (1963) and West Virginia (1961).

Each and every state that introduced an income tax saw its share of total U.S. output decline. Some of the states, like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, have become fiscal basket cases. As the nearby chart shows, even West Virginia, which was poor to begin with, got relatively poorer after adopting a state income tax.

Washington's I-1098 proposes a state income tax with a maximum rate higher than any of those initially adopted by the other 11 states. In one fell swoop, Washington would move from being one of the lowest-tax states in the nation to being one of the top nine highest. It's economic suicide.

The states that have high income tax rates or have adopted a state income tax over the past 50 years haven't even gotten the money they hoped for. They haven't avoided budget crises, nor have they provided better lives for the poor. The ongoing financial travails of California, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan and New York are cases in point.

Over the past decade, the nine states with the highest tax rates have experienced tax revenue growth of 74%—a full 22% less than the states with no income tax. Washington state has done better than the average of the nine no-tax states. Why on earth would it want to introduce a state income tax when it means less money for state coffers?

What's true for those states with the highest tax rates is doubly true for the 11 states that have instituted state income taxes over the past half-century. They too have lost huge sums of tax revenue.

A final thought for those who want to punish the rich for their success: As the nearby chart shows, those states with the highest tax rates, and those states that have introduced state income taxes, have seen standards of living (personal income per capita) substantially underperform compared to their no-tax counterparts.

If Mr. Gates Sr. and his son feel so strongly about taxing the rich, they should simply give the state a chunk of their own money and be done with it. Leave the rest of Washington's taxpayers alone.

Mr. Laffer is the chairman of Laffer Associates and co-author of "Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status" (Threshold, 2010).

American Lindsey Vonn has to Forfeit her Gold Medal

2010-09-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

American Lindsey Vonn has to Forfeit her Gold Medal

The International Olympic Committee announced today that it has taken back the gold medal previously awarded to American skier Lindsey Vonn and given it to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Olympic officials said Obama deserved the medal more than Vonn because no one has ever gone downhill faster than he has.

Islam, The Religion Of Fatwa

2010-09-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

Cartoonist Molly Norris in hiding after terrorist threats.

Don't expect to see comics from Molly Norris any time soon.

The Seattle-based cartoonist landed on a terrorist hit-list this summer, and now her former employer confirms that she's "going ghost."

Norris garnered international attention earlier this year when she drew a cartoon calling for "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" The movement gained popularity on Facebook, causing Pakistan to temporarily block the site.

Seattle Weekly editor Mark Fefer wrote Wednesday that Norris' cartoons will no longer appear in that paper or in City Arts magazine.

"You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the paper this week," he wrote in this article. "That's because there is no more Molly."

Fefer wrote that Norris is essentially entering the witness protection program, but without government assistance. That involves "moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity."

He wrote that the cartoonist has a sense of humor about the situation:

Norris views the situation with her customary sense of the world's complexity, and absurdity. When FBI agents, on a recent visit, instructed her to always keep watch for anyone following her, she responded, "Well, at least it'll keep me from being so self-involved!" It was, she says, the first time the agents managed a smile. She likens the situation to cancer--it might basically be nothing, it might be urgent and serious, it might go away and never return, or it might pop up again when she least expects it.

Norris said earlier this year that she didn't think anyone would take her idea seriously. But after her plea gained a following online, a radical cleric in Yemen called her a "prime target" and said her "proper abode is Hellfire."

Thanks From All Of Us

2010-09-09T18:03:00.001-07:00

Adam and Eve (Muslim version)

2010-09-08T17:37:00.001-07:00

Only in America

2010-09-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

http://ericpetersautos.com/?p=312

Fat Thug Cops Assault old Man For Holding Impeach Obama Sign in Public
August 28, 2010
By eric

This first day of the 2010 Alaska State Fair starts with sunny skies and a brutal assault by security personnel on an elderly (and apparently disabled) LaRouche supporter.
At about 5pm Alaska Time, Thursday, August 26, 2010, security personnel approach Sidney Hill, a lone man peacefully displaying an Impeach Obama sign near Pioneer Plaza on the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer. Minutes later, a crowd assembles, additional security forces arrive, and they physically assault the man holding the sign. He’s taken to the ground with force and detained.

An unidentified Alaska State Trooper arrives to physically disperse the crowd, and at several points during the conflict, crowd members yell in support of the demonstrator’s right to speak his message. The demonstrator’s personal firearm is confiscated by fair security, and he is held captive until Palmer police arrive to escort the man away in cuffs.

Rachel Corrie's Parents Should Be Proud, Their Daughter Is A War Hero

2010-09-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.nwcn.com/news/Rachel-Corries-parents-could-face-men-who-killed-her-in-court-102294074.html

The civil suit into the death of Washington native Rachel Corrie continues in Israel.
The British newspaper The Guardian reports that Corrie's parents could face the men who killed her in court.
Twenty-three-year-old Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer seven years ago in Gaza.
A 2003 Israeli Army investigation found its troops weren't to blame for the American activist's death.
The civil trial started in March.

bobknows said on September 6, 2010 at 3:42 PM

Boo Hoo. Go to a war zone and stand in front of the battle. Smart move.

fidgit said on September 6, 2010 at 1:24 PM

Woman against the Vampire's military industrial complex!! Her muse is being duplicated one hundred million times...

coyotebmw said on September 6, 2010 at 12:13 PM

Well someone got it right! Ms Corrie picked a fight with a D9 Cat and lost. She could have moved, the wise thing to do since the driver probably could not even see her over the blade. She made a choice to stay in the dozers path, so why make her a hero? She made a unwise choice.

anonymoususer said on September 6, 2010 at 11:52 AM

She was aiding a terrorist organization and butting in where she had no business being.. She spent 15 hours on an airplane to go to another country just to cause trouble and got what she deserved.

Labor Day GTFO!

2010-09-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gore-school-20100906,0,719678.story

Los Angeles school named after Al Gore.

He's the first vice president to have an L.A. school named after him, sharing the honor with author Rachel Carson. Fittingly, the campus will be devoted to environmental themes. But there's a catch. Critics say the campus' location poses a long-term health risk to students and staff.

Construction crews were working at the campus up to the Labor Day weekend, replacing toxic soil with clean fill. All told, workers removed dirt from two 3,800-square-foot plots to a depth of 45 feet, space enough to hold a four-story building. The soil had contained more than a dozen underground storage tanks serving light industrial businesses.

Additional contamination may have come from the underground tanks of an adjacent gas station. A barrier will stretch 45 feet down from ground level to limit future possible fuel leakage.

An oil well operates across the street, but officials said they've found no associated risks. Like many local campuses, this school also sits above an oil field, but no oil field-related methane has been detected.

Groundwater about 45 feet below the surface remains contaminated but also poses no risk, officials said.

Because the district imported clean dirt, the school is probably safe at the moment, said Jane Williams, executive director of the Kern County-based California Communities Against Toxics. But she and other critics, including Robina Suwol, who heads the locally based California Safe Schools coalition, worry that the pollution sources have not been adequately identified and that the dirty groundwater could recontaminate the soil.

Fox News Poll: Americans Say Iraq War Worth It

2010-09-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Despite its contentious history, most American voters appear to have made a positive judgment about the country's efforts in Iraq. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) voters think, overall, the United States "did the right thing" by going to war, according to the latest Fox News poll.

A little over one-third of voters (35 percent) take the opposite view -- that the U.S. "did the wrong thing" by becoming involved militarily in Iraq. From a partisan perspective, there is still division -- as 54 percent of Democrats think the U.S. did the wrong thing in Iraq, while only 14 percent of Republicans feel the same way. A slim majority of independents (52 percent) think the U.S. did the right thing in Iraq.

The national telephone poll was conducted for Fox News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from September 1- September 2, 2010. For the total sample, the poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Click here for full poll results (PDF).

An even larger share of voters (71 percent) expresses some level of agreement with the view that the Iraqi people are better off today because of the U.S.-led action, while 19 percent disagree.

120 Days to Go Until the Largest Tax Hikes in History

2010-09-03T19:38:00.001-07:00

http://www.atr.org/days-thebr-largest-tax-hikes-history-a5370

http://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=3646

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

- The 25% bracket rises to 28%

- The 28% bracket rises to 31%

- The 33% bracket rises to 36%

- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care tax credit will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The top capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The top dividends tax rate will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave: Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

The Tanning Tax. This went into effect on July 1st of this year. It imposes a new, 10% excise tax on getting a tan at a tanning salon. There is no exemption for tanners making less than $250,000 per year.

The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Brand Name Drug Tax. Starting next year, there will be a multi-billion dollar tax assessment imposed on name-brand drug manufacturers. This tax, like all excise taxes, will raise the price of medicine, hurting everyone.

Economic Substance Doctrine. The IRS is now empowered to disallow perfectly-legal tax deductions and maneuvers merely because it judges that the deduction or action lacks “economic substance.” This is obviously an arbitrary empowerment of IRS agents.

Employer Reporting of Health Insurance Costs on a W-2. This will start for W-2s in the 2011 tax year. While not a tax increase in itself, it makes it very easy for Congress to tax employer-provided healthcare benefits later.

Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Until this year, a retired person with an IRA could contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.

Read more: http://www.atr.org/days-thebr-largest-tax-hikes-history-a5370#ixzz0yWauuCdr

Muslim Heritage in America

2010-09-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Barack OBAMA, during his Cairo speech, said:
"I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America 's story."

Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims
first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians.

Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving
day? Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.

Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution?

Declaration of Independence ?

Bill of Rights?

Didn't think so.

Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England ? No.

Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the
slaves in America ? No, they did not. In fact, Muslims to this day are
still the largest traffickers in human slavery. Your own half brother, a devout
Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black Muslims as "pug nosed slaves."
Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of your family's "rich Islamic heritage," doesn't it Mr. Obama?

Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present.

There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.

Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era? Again, not present. In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so, that often they are beaten for not wearing the 'hajib' or for talking to a man who is not a direct family member or their husband.
Yep, the Muslims are all for women's rights, aren't they?

Where were Muslims during World War II?
They were aligned with Adolf Hitler.
The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi's in killing Jews.

Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001?
If they weren't flying planes into the World Trade Center , the Pentagon or a field
in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East . No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world
celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news networks that day. Strangely,
the very "moderate" Muslims who's asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo , Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11.
To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day.

And THAT, Mr. Obama, is the "rich heritage" Muslims have here in America .

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates.
They were Muslim.

We can add November 5, 2009 - the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood by a Muslim major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan .

That, Mr. Obama, is the "Muslim heritage" in America.

And now we have the Park 51.
Our Constitution forces us to have a Muslim Heritage

Three Great Waves. New Taxes Coming

2010-09-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

By Joan Pryde

In just six months, on January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.

They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves.

On January 1, 2011, here’s what happens... (read it to the end, so you see all three waves)...

First Wave:

Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These will all expire on January 1, 2011.

Personal income tax rates will rise.

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).

The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.

All the rates in between will also rise.

Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.

The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

The 25% bracket rises to 28%

The 28% bracket rises to 31%

The 33% bracket rises to 36%

The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family.

The "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income.

The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.

The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax.

This year only, there is no death tax. (It’s a quirk!) For those dying on or after January 1, 2011, there is a 55 percent
top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones. Think of the farmers who don’t make much money, but their land, which they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of money. Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don’t have the cash sitting around to pay the tax. Think about your own family’s assets. Maybe your family owns real estate, or a business that doesn’t make much money, but the building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock, cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the government $275,000 cash! That’s 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million! Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the estate tax?

Higher tax rates on savers and investors.

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011.

The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011.

These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave:

Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

The "Medicine Cabinet Tax"

Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The "Special Needs Kids Tax"

This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.

There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.

Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.

Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike.

This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Third Wave:

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.

According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress' failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.

Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or "depreciate") equipment purchases up to $250,000.

This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can currently expense half of their purchases of equipment.

In January of 2011, all of it will have to be "depreciated."

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.

There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the "research and experimentation tax credit," but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.

The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.

Tax credits for education will be limited.

Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.

Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.

The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.

Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.

This contribution also counts toward an annual "required minimum distribution." This ability will no longer be there.

PDF Version Read more: ; http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171#%23ixzz0sY8waPq1

And worse yet?

Now, your insurance will be INCOME on your W2's!

One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be astonished!

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.

If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year.

For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."

- Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.
- Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Number 3 is what is above

That Darn George Bush!!

2010-08-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obama-is-a-victim-of-bushs-failed-promises---by-chuck-green---democrat/blog-330905/

Note this man’s background.

Here's an opinion piece by Chuck Green who writes "Greener Pastures" for the Denver Post Aurora Sentinel...one of the more liberal papers in the country. Additionally, Mr. Green is a life long Democrat...so this is rather a stunning piece...

Obama is victim of Bush's failed promises
Greener Pastures Column -- 5/ 15/10

Barack Obama is setting a record-setting number of records during his first year in office.
Largest budget ever. Largest deficit ever. Largest number of broken promises ever. Most self-serving speeches ever. Largest number of agenda-setting failures ever. Fastest dive in popularity ever.

Wow! Talk about change.

Just one year ago, fresh from his inauguration celebrations, President Obama was flying high. After one of the nation's most inspiring political campaigns, the election of America 's first black president had captured the hopes and dreams of millions. To his devout followers, it was inconceivable that a year later his administration would be gripped in self-imposed crisis.

Of course, they don't see it as self-imposed. It's all George Bush's fault.

George Bush, who doesn't have a vote in congress and who no longer occupies the White House, is to blame for it all.

He broke Obama's promise to put all bills on the White House web site for five days before signing them.

He broke Obama's promise to have the congressional health care negotiations broadcast live on C-SPAN.

He broke Obama's promise to end earmarks.

He broke Obama's promise to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent.

He broke Obama's promise to close the detention center at Guantanamo in the first year.

He broke Obama's promise to make peace with direct, no precondition talks with America 's most hate-filled enemies during his first year in office, ushering in a new era of global cooperation.

He broke Obama's promise to end the hiring of former lobbyists into high White House jobs.

He broke Obama's promise to end no-compete contracts with the government.

He broke Obama's promise to disclose the names of all attendees at closed White House meetings.

He broke Obama's promise for a new era of bipartisan cooperation in all matters.

He broke Obama's promise to have chosen a home church to attend Sunday services with his family by Easter of last year.

Yes, it's all George Bush's fault. President Obama is nothing more than a puppet in the never-ending failed Bush administration.
If only George Bush wasn't still in charge, all of President Obama's problems would be solved. His promises would have been kept, the economy would be back on track, Iran would have stopped its work on developing a nuclear bomb and would be negotiating a peace treaty with Israel . North Korea would have ended its tyrannical regime, and integrity would have been restored to the federal government.

Oh, and did I mention what it would be like if the Democrats, under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, didn't have the heavy yoke of George Bush around their necks? There would be no ear marks, no closed-door drafting of bills, no increase in deficit spending, no special-interest influence (unions), no vote buying (Nebraska, Louisiana).

If only George Bush wasn't still in charge, we'd have real change by now.

All the broken promises, all the failed legislation and delay (health care reform, immigration reform) is not President Obama's fault or the fault of the Democrat-controlled Congress. It's all George Bush's fault.

Take for example the decision of Eric Holder, the president's attorney general, to hold terrorists' trials in New York City . Or his decision to try the Christmas Day underpants bomber as a civilian.

Two disastrous decisions.

Certainly those were bad judgments based on poor advice from George Bush.

Need more proof?

You might recall that when Scott Brown won the election to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts , capturing "the Ted Kennedy seat", President Obama said that Brown's victory was the result of the same voter anger that propelled Obama into office in 2008. People were still angry about George Bush and the policies of the past 10 years. And they wanted change.

Yes, according to the president, the voter rebellion in Massachusetts was George Bush's fault.

Therefore, in retaliation, they elected a Republican to the Ted Kennedy seat, ending a half-century of domination by Democrats. It is all George Bush's fault.

Will the failed administration of George Bush ever end, and the time for hope and change ever arrive?

Will President Obama ever accept responsibility for something... - anything?

(Chuck Green is a veteran Colorado journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Denver Post.)

The Ecstasy of Empire. Infowars.com

2010-08-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
August 16, 2010

The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”

Without a revolution, Americans are history.

As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear on many occasions, an appearance of recovery was created by over-counting employment and undercounting inflation. Warnings by Williams, Gerald Celente, and myself have gone unheeded, but our warnings recently had echoes from Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff and from David Stockman, who excoriated the Republican Party for becoming big-spending Democrats.

It is encouraging to see some realization that, this time, Washington cannot spend the economy out of recession. The deficits are already too large for the dollar to survive as reserve currency, and deficit spending cannot put Americans back to work in jobs that have been moved offshore.

However, the solutions offered by those who are beginning to recognize that there is a problem are discouraging. Kotlikoff thinks the solution is savage Social Security and Medicare cuts or equally savage tax increases or hyperinflation to destroy the vast debts.

Perhaps economists lack imagination, or perhaps they don’t want to be cut off from Wall Street and corporate subsidies, but Social Security and Medicare are insufficient at their present levels, especially considering the erosion of private pensions by the dot com, derivative and real estate bubbles. Cuts in Social Security and Medicare, for which people have paid 15 per cent of their earnings all their lives, would result in starvation and deaths from curable diseases.

Tax increases make even less sense. It is widely acknowledged that the majority of households cannot survive on one job. Both husband and wife work and often one of the partners has two jobs in order to make ends meet. Raising taxes makes it harder to make ends meet–thus more foreclosures, more food stamps, more homelessness. What kind of economist or humane person thinks this is a solution?

Ah, but we will tax the rich. The rich have enough money. They will simply stop earning.

Let’s get real. Here is what the government is likely to do. Once Washington realize that the dollar is at risk and that they can no longer finance their wars by borrowing abroad, the government will either levy a tax on private pensions on the grounds that the pensions have accumulated tax-deferred, or the government will require pension fund managers to purchase Treasury debt with our pensions. This will buy the government a bit more time while pension accounts are loaded up with worthless paper.

The last Bush budget deficit (2008) was in the $400-500 billion range, about the size of the Chinese, Japanese, and OPEC trade surpluses with the US. Traditionally, these trade surpluses have been recycled to the US and finance the federal budget deficit. In 2009 and 2010 the federal deficit jumped to $1,400 billion, a back-to-back trillion dollar increase. There are not sufficient trade surpluses to finance a deficit this large. From where comes the money?

The answer is from individuals fleeing the stock market into “safe” Treasury bonds and from the bankster bailout, not so much the TARP money as the Federal Reserve’s exchange of bank reserves for questionable financial paper such as subprime derivatives. The banks used their excess reserves to purchase Treasury debt.

These financing maneuvers are one-time tricks. Once people have fled stocks, that movement into Treasuries is over. The opposition to the bankster bailout likely precludes another. So where does the money come from the next time?

The Treasury was able to unload a lot of debt thanks to “the Greek crisis,” which the New York banksters and hedge funds multiplied into “the euro crisis.” The financial press served as a financing arm for the US Treasury by creating panic about European debt and the euro. Central banks and individuals who had taken refuge from the dollar in euros were panicked out of their euros, and they rushed into dollars by purchasing US Treasury debt.

* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*

This movement from euros to dollars weakened the alternative reserve currency to the dollar, halted the dollar’s decline, and financed the US budget deficit a while longer.

Possibly the game can be replayed with Spanish debt, Irish debt, and whatever unlucky country is eswept in by the thoughtless expansion of the European Union.

But when no countries remain that can be destabilized by Wall Street investment banksters and hedge funds, what then finances the US budget deficit?

The only remaining financier is the Federal Reserve. When Treasury bonds brought to auction do not sell, the Federal Reserve must purchase them. The Federal Reserve purchases the bonds by creating new demand deposits, or checking accounts, for the Treasury. As the Treasury spends the proceeds of the new debt sales, the US money supply expands by the amount of the Federal Reserve’s purchase of Treasury debt.

Do goods and services expand by the same amount? Imports will increase as US jobs have been offshored and given to foreigners, thus worsening the trade deficit. When the Federal Reserve purchases the Treasury’s new debt issues, the money supply will increase by more than the supply of domestically produced goods and services. Prices are likely to rise.

How high will they rise? The longer money is created in order that government can pay its bills, the more likely hyperinflation will be the result.

The economy has not recovered. By the end of this year it will be obvious that the collapsing economy means a larger than $1.4 trillion budget deficit to finance. Will it be $2 trillion? Higher?

Whatever the size, the rest of the world will see that the dollar is being printed in such quantities that it cannot serve as reserve currency. At that point wholesale dumping of dollars will result as foreign central banks try to unload a worthless currency.

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

The collapse of the dollar will drive up the prices of imports and offshored goods on which Americans are dependent. Wal-Mart shoppers will think they have mistakenly gone into Neiman Marcus.

Domestic prices will also explode as a growing money supply chases the supply of goods and services still made in America by Americans.

The dollar as reserve currency cannot survive the conflagration. When the dollar goes the US cannot finance its trade deficit. Therefore, imports will fall sharply, thus adding to domestic inflation and, as the US is energy import-dependent, there will be transportation disruptions that will disrupt work and grocery store deliveries.

Panic will be the order of the day.

Will farms will be raided? Will those trapped in cities resort to riots and looting?

Is this the likely future that “our” government and “our patriotic” corporations have created for us?

To borrow from Lenin, “What can be done?”

Here is what can be done. The wars, which benefit no one but the military-security complex and Israel’s territorial expansion, can be immediately ended. This would reduce the US budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars per year. More hundreds of billions of dollars could be saved by cutting the rest of the military budget which, in its present size, exceeds the budgets of all the serious military powers on earth combined.

US military spending reflects the unaffordable and unattainable crazed neoconservative goal of US Empire and world hegemony. What fool in Washington thinks that China is going to finance US hegemony over China?

The only way that the US will again have an economy is by bringing back the offshored jobs. The loss of these jobs impoverished Americans while producing oversized gains for Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate executives. These jobs can be brought home where they belong by taxing corporations according to where value is added to their product. If value is added to their goods and services in China, corporations would have a high tax rate. If value is added to their goods and services in the US, corporations would have a low tax rate.

This change in corporate taxation would offset the cheap foreign labor that has sucked jobs out of America, and it would rebuild the ladders of upward mobility that made America an opportunity society.

If the wars are not immediately stopped and the jobs brought back to America, the US is relegated to the trash bin of history.

Obviously, the corporations and Wall Street would use their financial power and campaign contributions to block any legislation that would reduce short-term earnings and bonuses by bringing jobs back to America. Americans have no greater enemies than Wall Street and the corporations and their prostitutes in Congress and the White House.

The neocons allied with Israel, who control both parties and much of the media, are strung out on the ecstasy of Empire.

The United States and the welfare of its 300 million people cannot be restored unless the neocons, Wall Street, the corporations, and their servile slaves in Congress and the White House can be defeated.

Without a revolution, Americans are history.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

Will WA income tax plan drive people to Oregon?

2010-08-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

August 17, 2010

Look who wants to give Washington state an income tax.
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board,
8-14-2010

The battle between taxpayers and government unions will define the fiscal future of the 50 states, and the newest battlefield is Washington state. That’s where a few rich taxpayers led by Bill Gates Sr. and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are bankrolling a November ballot measure to create the state’s first income tax.

And not just a toe-in-the-water tax. They’re diving into the deep end with a proposal that would immediately impose a 5% tax rate on income above $200,000, or $400,000 for married couples. The rate would climb to 9% on single filers making $500,000, or $1 million for couples.

No state has introduced an income tax since Connecticut nearly 20 years ago, and that state’s experience has not been happy. The top rate in Hartford began at 4.5% but has since climbed to 6.5%. Washington wants to leap over that and achieve California and New Jersey heights in one giant step. Washington would move overnight from one of the nine states with no income tax to having the eighth highest rate in the country.

Mr. Gates, a wealthy lawyer whose son is among the richest men on the planet, is pitching the proposal as a chance for 97% of the voters to pay the state’s bills by socking it to the richest 3%. What he doesn’t say is that Washington’s lack of an income tax is among its main comparative advantages in luring those top 3%, along with their businesses and jobs, into the state.

In addition to Washington, the states without an income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Combined they had an average 18.2% growth rate in jobs over the past decade, more than twice the 8.4% job growth of the nine states with the highest income tax rates, according to a new report based on Commerce Department data by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The liberal Seattle Times accurately describes the state’s zero income tax as “a selling point. An asset. And more than that: It’s a bonus for living here.” Even liberal Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire begins her sales pitch to prospective business investors with the reminder: “No income tax.”

That’s an especially powerful attraction on the West Coast, where California and Oregon impose a top tax rate of 10.55% and 11%, respectively. Proponents say Oregon raised its income tax last year, so Washington should get in the game. But Oregon at least has no state sales tax. Washington has close to the highest sales tax burden in the nation, varying by area but reaching as high as 10% in Seattle depending on what you buy.

To win votes, the ballot measure resorts to all sorts of trickery. Unions describe the initiative as tax “relief” because it includes a mandatory cut in the hated property tax (only by 4%) and it eliminates various unpopular fees and taxes on business. Still, the overall impact of the measure is a $1.5 billion tax increase in 2012 and $2.5 billion a year by 2016. Small business taxes are cut, but they are also hit with a whopper of a new tax: a personal income tax paid out of their profits. Over half of the tax will be paid by Washington businesses.

The biggest deception is the description of the new income tax as “an excise tax on income.” This language is cleverly designed to dodge the state’s constitutional prohibition against an income tax and the requirement that any tax be “uniform upon the same property.” Obviously a tax that hits only 3% of taxpayers and applies graduated rates is anything but uniform. Proponents claim that because the tax is withheld from worker paychecks, the money was never the property of the person who earned it. That’s like saying if someone steals your paycheck, it’s not your property.

We hope Washington voters aren’t duped by the claim that only the rich will pay this tax. After two years, the law allows the legislature by simple majority to extend the tax to nearly everyone. The revenue from the tax will finance new spending, which will soar and lead to even higher deficits in the next downturn, which will create political pressure to expand the tax to the middle class.

Income taxes are always sold as a one-time way to reduce deficits, but they always become engines of greater spending, and eventually deficits. Just ask Californians. If Mr. Gates wants the rich to finance more Washington spending to create more SEIU dues-paying jobs, he and his son can do so by donating their own fortunes.

http://oregonbusinessreport.com/2010/08/will-wa-income-tax-plan-drive-people-to-oregon/

Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?

2010-07-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A ROBBINS Posted 07/30/2010 06:30 PM ET

The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington's failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.

People are asking, "Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?"

Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.

Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There's no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.

Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.

Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He's diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.

He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.

He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most "consequential" president ever.

The Wall Street Journal's steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is "an alien in the White House."

His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him "anti-business." Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced "redistribution of income" in history.

Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America's financial future is "unusually uncertain."

A Wall Street "fear gauge" based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic.

Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington's wise farewell admonition: "cherish public credit ... use it as sparingly as possible ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt ... bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not ... inconvenient and unpleasant ... ."

Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/542171/201007301830/Will-Washingtons-Failures-Lead-To-Second-American-Revolution-.aspx

Unfinished Business

2010-07-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

For 65 years, Japanese corporations have escaped responsibility for abusing American POWs during World War II.
BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | JUNE 28, 2010

Lester Tenney entered World War II as a strapping 21-year-old, weight 180 pounds. By the time he emerged from Japanese captivity in 1945, he was a shattered, emaciated cripple. His left arm and shoulder were partly paralyzed due to an accident in a coal mine where he'd been sent as a slave laborer. His overseers there -- civilian employees of the Mitsui Corp., not members of the Imperial Army -- had knocked out his teeth in repeated beatings with hammers and pickaxes. At war's end, he weighed in at 98 pounds. It took him a year in U.S. Army hospitals to regain something like a semblance of his old well-being.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/28/unfinished_business

Officials say army men with guns violate policy

2010-06-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

What is happening to our country????

"A Coventry boy says he was banned from wearing a patriotic hat he created to honor members of the armed forces because his school said it violated school policy.

David Morales, 8, says he made the camouflage hat with army men on top as a school project. The hat was more than just a fashion statement: It was meant to honor military members."

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/coventry-school-bans-army-men-hat-

Obama Wages War Against Oil Spill

2010-06-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

Or: Minutes From A Wichita Falls City Council Meeting.

Day 58 - The Strife Aquatic

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Obama At The Bat

2010-06-15T18:30:00.001-07:00

Family cannot afford to pay back teen sailor Abby Sunderland's rescue costs

2010-06-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

Risky behavior has an inherent cost. And sometimes your life is the payment. These rescues should involve no taxpayer money. If you don't have a private contingency, you die. Simple.

The comments in this story are great.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/family-cannot-afford-to-pay-back-teen-sailor-abby-sunderlands-rescue-costs-mother/story-e6freon6-1225879181591

The cost of "socialism"

2010-06-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

Current European tax rates: United Kingdom	Income Tax: 50%	VAT: 17.5% TOTAL: 67.5%
Germany	Income Tax: 45%	VAT: 19% TOTAL: 64%
France	Income Tax: 40%	VAT: 19.6% TOTAL: 59.6%
Greece	Income Tax: 40%	VAT: 25% TOTAL: 65%
Spain	Income Tax: 45%	VAT: 16% TOTAL: 61%
Portugal	Income Tax: 42%	VAT: 20% TOTAL: 62%
Sweden	Income Tax: 55%	VAT: 25% TOTAL: 80%
Norway	Income Tax: 54.3%	VAT: 25% TOTAL: 79.3%
Netherlands	Income Tax: 52%	VAT: 19% TOTAL: 71%
Denmark	Income Tax: 58%	VAT: 25% TOTAL: 83%
Finland	Income Tax: 53%	VAT: 22% TOTAL: 75%

If you’ve started to wonder what the real costs of “socialism” are going to be, once the full program in these United States hits your wallet, take a look at the table. As you digest these mind-boggling figures, keep in mind that in spite of these astronomical tax rates, these countries are still not financing their social welfare programs exclusively from tax revenues! They are deeply mired in public debt of gargantuan proportions. Greece has reached the point where its debt is so huge it is in imminent danger ofdefaulting. That is the reason the European economic community has intervened to bail them out. If you’re following the financial news, you know Spain and Portugal are right behind Greece.

The United States is now heading right down the same path. The “VAT” tax in the table is the national sales tax that Europeans pay. Stay tuned because that is exactly what you can expect to see the administration proposing after the fall elections. The initial percentage in the United States isn’t going to be anywhere near the outrageous numbers you now see in Europe. Guess what, the current outrageous numbers in Europe didn’t start out as outrageous either. They started out as miniscule—right around the 1% or 2% where they will start out in the United States. Magically however, they ran up over the years to where they are now. Expect the same thing here.

It’s time to rethink the ‘American Dream’ idea: It is the notion that with hard work and perseverance, anybody can get ahead economically here. Do you think that can ever happen with tax rates between 60% and 80%? Think again. With the government taking that percentage of your money, your life will be exactly like life in Europe. You will never be able to buy a home. You will never buy a car. You will never send your children to college. Let’s not shuffle the battle cry of the socialists under the rug either. It’s always the same cry. “Equalize” income. “Spread the wealth” to the “poor” (whoever they are). “Level” the economic playing field. Accomplish that and everything will be rosy.

It’s time to take a really hard look at reality. Greece is a perfect example. Despite the “socialism” system that has ruled this country for decades, with a 65% tax rate, they are drowning in public debt, would have defaulted without hundreds of billions in bailout money, and still. . .20% of their population lives in “poverty.” What has all that “socialism” money bought, besides ultimate power for the politicians running the show? Do you think these people are "free"? They're not. They are slaves to their economic "system."

We are at a tipping point in America. We all know it. Turn this around right now or your grandchildren will be massing in the streets of this once-great country, just as the people of Greece now are. Economic slavery is slavery, just the same. Carefully and deeply consider what it takes to throw off the yoke of slavery, once it takes hold and settles over your neck.

Helen Thomas is an anti-semitic old hag

2010-06-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

Geesh, what a dope! And this is the head of the White House press corps.

UPDATE: Helen Thomas disinvited from graduation.

Journalist Helen Thomas was scheduled to be the graduation speaker at Walt Whitman High School later this month -- until Sunday, when she was disinvited after comments that she made about Israel and Palestine made many in the community uncomfortable, Montgomery Board of Education President Patricia O'Neill said Sunday.

"We became aware that there are some unfortunate comments from her that are airing on YouTube," O'Neill said. O'Neill said that especially given the large Jewish population at Whitman, the school system was not comfortable with having Thomas speak at the graduation on June 14.

A video of Thomas that says it was filmed at the White House on May 27 shows her telling Israelis "to get the hell out of Palestine... it's not German and it's not Poland." When asked where Israelis should go, she said, "Go home!... Poland, Germany... and America, and everywhere else."

--Michael Birnbaum

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/maryland/helen-thomas-disinvited-from-g.html

"Peace activists" on Mavi Marmara attacking with metal batons

2010-06-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

Peace activists beating IDF soldiers soldier with club clubs metal baton stab stabbing.

This is painful to watch

2010-06-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

Excellent Find

2010-05-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Second oil leak 5 miles from first leak could BE FAR WORSE!

Remember when they found tar balls off of the Keys, tested them and declared that they were not from the Deepwater Horizon accident? And that was the last we heard of it?

Was This Trip Necessary?

2010-05-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

"We must never again let any force dedicated to a super race, or a super idea, or a super anything, become strong enough to impose itself upon a free world. We must be smart enough and tough enough in the beginning, to put out the fire before it starts spreading."

Governments Loath People Being Free

2010-04-18T19:05:00.001-07:00

Now I Can Get Behind This Guy. Sucess With A Message

2010-04-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Jamie Oliver’s recipe for success brings in millions.

Ed Habershon and Lois Rogers. November 6, 2005

Bolstered by his increasing popularity in foreign markets, he enjoyed a record income and his company made a profit of nearly £7.2m.

He is now effectively a global brand, offering his laddish, accessible cooking tips from Japan to South America. His books have been translated into 23 languages and sold 12.2m copies.

As his success has grown, Oliver has expanded his business interests, investing in new media ventures, property and food companies. He also has a significant income from advertising, which includes being the public face of Sainsbury’s.

“He is one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in Britain,” said Philip Beresford, compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List.

“He is already on the list of richest people under 30, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes for him to make it on to the main list of the 1,000 richest people in Britain.”

Oliver’s holding company, Sweet as Candy, declared a trading profit of £7.2m last year, which included income from international sales of his books, television shows and sales of cookware, as well as property investments.

Oliver and his wife Jools were paid £1.4m in share dividends, plus a further £457,101 in salaries and pension contributions.

The couple’s rise has been phenomenal. It is only six years since Oliver first appeared on television, yet their income for 2004 is more than double that of 2003.

The entrepreneurial chef first discovered his financial flair when he was 11 years old, leasing lockers from fellow pupils at school and selling sweets out of them.

He managed to build this ad-hoc stock warehouse to a total of six lockers and was soon making £30 a week. The income ensured he always got the latest expensive trainers before anyone else.

He started cooking at his father’s pub in Saffron Walden in Essex and later worked at the critically acclaimed River Cafe in London.

The chef, who trades on his cheeky chappie image, is now in high demand for product endorsements and advertising campaigns. Tefal cookware is promoted by him and Royal Worcester tableware also bears his signature.

One of his cherished projects has been Fifteen, the London restaurant that trains underprivileged youths as chefs. The restaurant is on track to make a profit this year. Oliver has also set up eight companies covering a variety of enterprises, from a venue hire business to an upmarket bakery.

Although he said he always wanted a stay-at-home wife to support his upward trajectory, this year Jools has also stepped into the showbusiness spotlight.

She has written a book entitled Minus Nine to One: The Diary of an Honest Mum, which chronicles the family’s domestic existence, complete with tips about the diet the couple favour for their daughters Poppy, three, and Daisy, two.

Oliver’s most successful overseas markets are Australia, Germany and Holland. “The books and films are becoming global,” said his spokesman Peter Berry. “He is now in demand in places such as Argentina and Brazil, as well as Hungary and Poland where there was never previously much interest in food and cooking shows.”

The chef’s companies will probably enjoy even greater financial success this year.

His campaign to expose poor-quality school meals has raised his profile even further and he has been credited with spurring improvements in menus.

Corporate GTFO! GE: 7,000 tax returns, $0 U.S. tax bill

2010-04-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

The Anonymous98507 is officially a piker in income to tax paid.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Electric filed more than 7,000 income tax returns in hundreds of global jurisdictions last year, but when push came to shove, the company owed the U.S. government a whopping bill of $0.

How'd it pull off that trick? By losing lots of money.

The 2009 income tax bills for America's biggest companies ranged from $0 to $15 billion. Here's why.

GE had plenty of earnings last year -- just not in the United States. For tax purposes, the company's U.S. operations lost $408 million, while its international businesses netted a $10.8 billion profit.

That left GE (GE, Fortune 500) with no U.S. profit left for Uncle Sam to tax. Corporations typically face a 35% federal income tax on their earnings. Thanks to its deductions and adjustments, GE reported an actual U.S. federal income tax rate of negative 10.5%. It got to add a "tax benefit" of $1.1 billion back into its reported earnings.

"This is the first time in at least decades that GE has reported negative U.S. pretax income and it reflects the worst economy since the Great Depression," Anne Eisele, GE's director of financial communications, said via e-mail.

But what about the $10.8 billion profit overseas? GE is "indefinitely" deferring income tax payments on those profits, Eisele said.

It may seem like accounting magic, but it's completely legit.

GE isn't the only "Top 5" company on this year's Fortune 500 list that owed no income taxes. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), which suffered major losses in 2009, included a tax benefit of $1.9 billion in its annual profit.

"That's one way of escaping taxes," said Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation. "Companies get to deduct their losses, so if there's no earnings, then they pay no income tax."

But GE isn't exactly escaping all tax-related pain: The company paid almost $23 billion in taxes to governments around the world from 2000 to 2009, Eisele said.

Plus, paying the accountants to crank out 7,000 tax returns can't be cheap.

And then there's all the lawyers needed to defend those returns. GE filed tax paperwork in more than 250 jurisdictions around the world last year. "We are under examination or engaged in tax litigation in many of these jurisdictions," the company dryly notes in its annual report.

GE may not owe the IRS, but it still has to file -- and its filings are epic.

In 2006, as the IRS ramped up its corporate e-filing program, the tax agency actually issued a celebratory press release when it processed GE's tax return. On paper, the return -- the nation's largest -- would have totaled a massive 24,000 pages. But instead, the IRS was able to upload the 237 MB document in under an hour.

Reading it, though, is apparently taking a bit longer. The IRS is currently auditing GE's tax returns for 2003-2007.

This Is Brilliant

2010-04-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama Will Decide Who Can Visit You In The Hospital

By Order of The President

Posted by Dan McLaughlin (Profile)

Friday, April 16th at 7:01PM EDT

By a directive to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, “President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples,” an order that applies to “all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money.” Now, as it happens, I’m in agreement on the merits with the idea that same-sex couples should have had hospital visitation rights a long time ago, without the need for a redefinition of marriage; it’s a simple matter of recognizing that these are consenting adults and leaving them to arrange their affairs their own way. So what’s wrong with this picture? As it happens, quite a lot.

Let’s step back and consider what we are seeing:

(1) The President of the United States, without any Congressional authorization on the subject, is unilaterally announcing a policy that will affect the day-to-day ground-level operations of every hospital in the nation.

(2) The federal government is dictating national policy on a divisive social issue having nothing to do with any expenditure of federal money or any federal program, simply by virtue of the leverage created by the financial dependence of hospitals on the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

All of which vividly illustrates exactly what conservatives have long warned about with regard to the expansion of federal programs in general and health care in particular, which touches on so many of the most intimate relationships and events in life: once Uncle Sam is footing too much of the bill to say no to him, he’ll start deciding to make federal rules about everything.

That problem comes in two ways. One is that sometimes, pervasive federal regulation means that taking a position on a divisive social issue is unaviodable. I explained at some length previously why Obama’s healthcare bill rendered neutrality on abortion impossible; either you have an enforceable ban on the money going to fund abortions, with the collateral consequence of reducing insurance coverage for abortions generally (as part of the broader phenomenon of reducing the available pool of insurance coverage that’s not under the federal thumb) or you do not. The Bush Administration’s decision in 2001 to begin federal funding for embryonic stem cell research created the same problem: either Bush would fund research into stem cell lines from destroyed embryos, or not, or (as happened) he would have to draw some unsatisfactory middle-ground position between those two poles.

The second hazard is what’s at work here: when Uncle Sam isn’t content to make those unavoidable decisions and starts using the power of the federal purse to nationalize all sorts of things that have no business being matters of federal concern. Here, there’s no rational connection to any expenditure of federal expenditure; Obama just figures that because Medicare/Medicaid money is too much for the hospitals (or the states) to turn away, he has them over a barrel and can dictate terms on unrelated matters like visitation. This Administration has likewise used federal strings attached to impose controls on the states that restrict the ability of state governors to present a competing model of governance, as we’ve seen with the stimulus and healthcare bills.

And lest liberals complain that Republicans do this too: that’s part of the problem. You leave power sitting around, it’s gonna get used.

Sometimes, it’s nanny-state moderates, as with the campaign that established the legal precedent for this kind of mischief, Elizabeth Dole’s project as Reagan Administration Transportation Secretary to use federal highway funds as leverage to compel states to adopt a 55 mile per hour speed limit. Sometimes it’s neoliberalism, as with No Child Left Behind using federal education dollars to put more strings on local schools. And sometimes, it’s conservatives, as with the Solomon Amendment (which likewise passed muster with the Supreme Court), requiring universities that accept federal funds to let the ROTC on campus (something many colleges have refused to do, ostensibly on grounds of protesting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell but in some cases likely due as well to a more general antipathy to the military and its missions). The Solomon Amendment, at least, vindicated a compelling interest of the federal government (military recruitment), but it nonetheless was yet another example of how the universities’ dependence on federal money left them vulnerable to dictation from Washington.

How would liberals like it - they may live to find out - if a future GOP president used the same authority to ban federally-funded hospitals (effectively all of them) from disconnecting feeding tubes, regardless of contrary hospital policies or state laws? The Terri Schiavo contretemps in Congress and the courts would have been resolved with a single stroke of the President’s pen. Or imposed restrictions or disclosure requirements on their performing abortions? Or a ban, for that matter, on visitation rights for gay couples? While in some cases the Left would undoubtedly rely on having federal judges’ policy preferences on these issues trump those of the federal executive branch, the resolution of the drinking age and Solomon Amendment cases underscores the fact that they would not in every case succeed with that strategy.

And of course, everywhere you look, the Obama Administration is extending the tentacles of federal spending and regulation further into every imaginable sort of economic endeavor, from automakers to school loans to financial services of every kind. One day, liberals may awaken to realize that the Right is running Washington again - and there’s nowhere left to hide from it.

Collateral Murder

2010-04-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

This is disgusting. I support our troops, hell I was one for 4 years. But I can't support this.
I hope somebody goes to jail for a long time.

http://www.collateralmurder.com/

5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

Filed Under GTFO

2010-04-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Muslim woman strangled by her burkha in freak go-kart accident.

A young Muslim woman had died after her burkha became snagged in a go-kart.

The 24-year-old woman, who has not yet been named, died a terrifying death today when a fluttering part of her burkha became caught in the wheels of a go-kart she was driving near the town of Port Stephens, north of Sydney.

The Muslim clothing the woman was wearing flew back as she sped around the track and part of it became entangled in the go-kart's wheels.

She was strangled in a second and crashed the vehicle.

Despite the efforts of paramedics who rushed to her aid, the neck and throat injuries she suffered were so severe that doctors were unable to revive her when she arrived at the John Hunter Hospital in the New South Wales city of Newcastle.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1264535/Muslim-woman-strangled-burkha-freak-kart-accident.html

Can You Spot The Partisan Legislation?

2010-04-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.politicalmathblog.com/?p=424

You may or may not know that one of the more entertaining themes running around the media these days is that the almost entirely Democratic passage of the health care reform bill is pretty standard issue for major social legislation. After all, the theory goes, Republicans never really supported any major social legislation and this bill was about as bi-partisan as it could get under the circumstances.

I try so very hard to stay out of name calling on this blog. But hearing people repeat this line is like hearing people talk about that alien they saw. Or, rather, they know this one guy who saw one and he was totally trustworthy. OK, maybe they didn’t so much know that guy, but a guy they know knew that guy and could get you in contact with him if they hadn’t lost his number. Perhaps the aliens stole it off his phone.

Back to the point.

We live in a world of accessible information. Quite frankly, if you’re too lazy to go look up the damn facts your own damn self you should probably make it a practice of just keeping your mouth shut. So when I hear people saying that this kind of narrow, one-party passage of major social legislation is par for the course, I look it up for myself. Guess what I found? Hint: Those people don’t check Wikipedia.

Hypocrisy Two Fer

2010-04-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

OK, this is the last one. Note the kinder, gentler, second Libs' comment. The same fool who can be heard decrying the "hate speech of the right".

Thursday, April 8, 2010
What Christians Teach Their Children
“It’s unbelievable. Unbelievable,” said Palin on Wednesday evening while appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program. “No administration in America’s history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out President Obama is supporting today. It’s kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face and I’m not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.’

Now, I must give credit where credit is due. This came from the blog that is not to be mentioned.

Aside from that, Palin, as usual, has foot in mouth disease. How do you RETALITATE against legislation that was passed by a majority of Congress. I do believe the Republicans, who passed a pantload of legislation for themselves from 2001 to 2007 would be screaming "TRAITOR" if someone put up this big of a fuss.
Posted by Larry at 6:30 AM
2 comments:

Anonymous98507 said...

Larry, I decided to see if I could find confirmation of that quote (since we know that she-who-will-not-be-named isn't above misquoting). Disregarding a bunch of right-wing blogs, I found this one: The Misguided Nuclear Talking Points. ... Listening to the children who speak for the Republican Party in 2010 talk about nuclear policy is a truly depressing exercise. Given the importance of the issue, and the interest in this morning's developments in Prague, it's worth noting reality.

It is, alas, in short supply on the right. Former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin described the administration's nuclear policy this way yesterday: "It's kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate.'" ...

The Washington Post item refers to a Daily Kos article (Hyperventilating Over President Obama's Nuke Policies) that discusses Republican myths about the treaty and policy and concludes, ... Military leaders, policy experts, and a variety of others who are literate on the subject have made it clear that the right-wing arguments have no foundation in reality. ...

So now we know..... :-)
April 8, 2010 5:27 PM

Anon_the_Great said...
Won't someone rid us of this meddling Alaskan?
April 8, 2010 7:08 PM

Anonymous98507 said...
Be careful-- we wouldn't want to be seen as advocating violence! [giggle]
April 8, 2010 8:09 PM

http://thurstonblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-christians-teach-their-children.html

The New America. We Don't Pay Taxes!

2010-04-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is from a local blog. Clearly a violation of my blog about a blog policy, but the hypocrisy is priceless. This Anonymous98507 is a huge supporter of taxes. ALL taxes. He never met a tax he didn't like. Why? BECAUSE HE DOESN'T PAY THEM!!! And note his own comment. What a leech. What a drain on the system I pay for and he doesn't.

"Thursday, April 8, 2010
How many American households pay income tax?

Here's some background to help combat the fools on the comments.....

Nearly half of US households escape fed income tax

Recession, new tax credits have nearly half of US households paying no federal income tax

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.

[snipped]
Posted by Anonymous98507 at 2:55 AM
1 comments:

Anonymous98507 said...
We are part of that 47% because we have so many medical and other deductions that we haven't had to pay income taxes for several years. Now when we make charitable donations, we don't even bother getting paperwork as proof because we've already covered our tax liability (save the organizations the time and paper! LOL).
April 8, 2010 5:03 PM"

http://thurstonblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-many-american-households-pay-income.html

This sponge comes from a long line of sponges. Take a look see:

Anonymous98507 said...

My father contributed to SocSec most of his working life (he was about 22 or 23 when payroll taxes were first collected). He retired and started drawing a few hundred a month at age 62 and received SocSec until his death at age 91. Obviously he collected more than he had contributed, particularly since in the early years his income wasn't very high and thus payroll taxes were low. Without SocSec, though, he wouldn't have been able to retire and enjoy a few years with my mother before her death.

April 11, 2010 4:37 PM

http://thurstonblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/those-who-never-paid-into-system.html

The Latest Making The Rounds.

2010-04-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

The liberals are asking us to give Obama time. We agree and think 25 to life would be appropriate.

America needs Obama-care like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.

What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon? A fundraiser.

What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.

What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program?
It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.

Have you heard about McDonald's new Obama Value Meal?
Order anything you like and the guy behind you will pay for it.

What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
Bo has papers.

If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?
America!!

And Washington State Is Next. They Are Called Unfunded Liabilities

2010-04-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/06/opinion/la-oe-crane6-2010apr06

The state of California's real unfunded pension debt clocks in at more than $500 billion, nearly eight times greater than officially reported.
To put that number in perspective, it's almost seven times greater than all the outstanding voter-approved state general obligation bonds in California.

Why should Californians care? Because this year's unfunded pension liability is next year's budget cut to important programs. For a glimpse of California's budgetary future, look no further than the $5.5 billion diverted this year from higher education, transit, parks and other programs in order to pay just a tiny bit toward current unfunded pension and healthcare promises. That figure is set to triple within 10 years and -- absent reform -- to continue to grow, crowding out funding for many programs vital to the overwhelming majority of Californians.

How did we get here? The answer is simple: For decades -- and without voter consent -- state leaders have been issuing billions of dollars of debt in the form of unfunded pension and healthcare promises, then gaming accounting rules in order to understate the size of those promises.

Because legislators are unwilling to raise issues that might offend that constituency, they have effectively turned the peroration of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on its head: Instead of a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we have become a government of its employees, by its employees and for its employees.

This explains why legislators fight harder to overturn employee furloughs than to reform pensions and elect to pay more in compensation to just 65,000 employees in one single department -- corrections -- than they spend on a higher education system serving 10 times as many people.

Now this is a car ad!

2010-04-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Tunnel is China Bar on Hwy 1 just north of Boston Bar. The bridge is Alexandra, just 2k north of Spuzzum, BC.

This stretch of highway that this ad was filmed on is in BC in the Fraser Canyon.

Thanks to Jeff B.

CNO: Smoking ban for subs in the works

2010-04-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Mar 29, 2010 11:07:59 EDT

The smoking lamp will soon be out aboard all subs, according to the Navy’s top officer.

“We’re going to stop smoking on submarines,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead told Navy Times on March 23.

The move is not yet official, so Lt. Cmdr. Mark Jones, a spokesman for Submarine Force, would say only that Vice Adm. John Donnelly “is examining the options of changing the policy of smoking in a submarine to improve the overall health of the entire crew.”

Jones would not speculate on when a decision will be made, but a final order likely will come soon. The catalyst for change is the effect of second-hand smoke on crew members who remain submerged for months at a time.

“That atmosphere moves around the submarine,” Roughead said. “You don’t smell it, but the damaging things from the smoke are still present.”

Survey: Four in 10 Tea Party members are Democrats or independents

2010-04-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

From The Hill.com

The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.

The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal.

Read the comments, Dems are in big trouble.

McGee vs Handler

2010-04-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

Bombshell brings a knife to a gunfight.

Texas gun case could play role in health care suit

2010-04-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

HOUSTON — A Texas high school student's decision to bring a .38-caliber handgun to school in 1992 could end up at the center of the legal fight over President Barack Obama's health care reform plan.

Alfonso Lopez Jr.'s arrest at Edison High School in San Antonio set in motion a legal battle that may prove crucial to 13 state attorneys general fighting the new law.

Lopez, a senior when he was arrested for handgun possession in March 1992, ended up facing federal charges of violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. But the Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, threw out his conviction five years later on the grounds that Congress exceeded its regulatory authority under the Constitution when it approved the 1990 law, which makes it a violation of federal law to possess a firearm in a school zone.

In filing a lawsuit last week challenging the new health care law's mandate that everyone must have health insurance, the 13 state attorneys general — including Greg Abbott of Texas — cited the same legal reasoning that went into the Lopez ruling.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6943728.html

Pollster.com

2010-03-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

Health Care: Favor 40.5% Oppose 50.4%

Pollster.com

AG Rob McKenna has a case to challenge the health-care law's individual mandate

2010-03-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

Originally published Friday, March 26, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Seattle Times

We think McKenna has a good case, and one the progressives who condemn him ought to appreciate. These critics are so often right about the dangers of corporate power, and particularly the rapacity of insurance companies.

But if it's federal power, and it's for a social purpose, and Barack Obama is presiding over it, they set their judgment aside. They accept a 2,000-page bill on its label only. They accept its promise, almost surely vacant, of cost savings. They overlook the deals cut with the insurance and pharmaceutical interests. They shrug off the "cornhusker kickback." And to those who invoke the Constitution, they become shrill.

This page supported Obama, and we still like him. But we also support checks and balances on federal power, and review of this law by the Supreme Court.

Ford's Most Advanced Assemby Plant - Where? Not in the USA!

2010-03-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

100 years after Henry, Ford has done it again! Unfortunately the USA was not invited to play.

This is a short video of a new Ford plant in Brazil. One look at
this and you will be able to understand why there will probably
never be another assembly plant built in the USA. It will also
point out why more assembly plants will go offshore. You won't
doubt that Ford, GM, and Chrysler are destined to go under, after
watching this video. They will survive, But their assembly
operations in the U.S. Likely won't, whether we provide a bailout or
not (listen closely at the end for the reason why).

20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms

2010-03-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

By David Hogberg Posted 03/21/2010 03:24 PM ET:

Of course, the bill is supposed to provide us with security. But it will result in skyrocketing insurance costs and physicians leaving the field in droves, making it harder to afford and find medical care. We may be about to live Benjamin Franklin’s adage, “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.”

The sections described below are taken from HR 3590 as agreed to by the Senate and from the reconciliation bill as displayed by the Rules Committee.

1. You are young and don’t want health insurance? You are starting up a small business and need to minimize expenses, and one way to do that is to forego health insurance? Tough. You have to pay $750 annually for the “privilege.” (Section 1501)

2. You are young and healthy and want to pay for insurance that reflects that status? Tough. You’ll have to pay for premiums that cover not only you, but also the guy who smokes three packs a day, drink a gallon of whiskey and eats chicken fat off the floor. That’s because insurance companies will no longer be able to underwrite on the basis of a person’s health status. (Section 2701).

3. You would like to pay less in premiums by buying insurance with lifetime or annual limits on coverage? Tough. Health insurers will no longer be able to offer such policies, even if that is what customers prefer. (Section 2711).

4. Think you’d like a policy that is cheaper because it doesn’t cover preventive care or requires cost-sharing for such care? Tough. Health insurers will no longer be able to offer policies that do not cover preventive services or offer them with cost-sharing, even if that’s what the customer wants. (Section 2712).

5. You are an employer and you would like to offer coverage that doesn’t allow your employers’ slacker children to stay on the policy until age 26? Tough. (Section 2714).

6. You must buy a policy that covers ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services; chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care.
You’re a single guy without children? Tough, your policy must cover pediatric services. You’re a woman who can’t have children? Tough, your policy must cover maternity services. You’re a teetotaler? Tough, your policy must cover substance abuse treatment. (Add your own violation of personal freedom here.) (Section 1302).

7. Do you want a plan with lots of cost-sharing and low premiums? Well, the best you can do is a “Bronze plan,” which has benefits that provide benefits that are actuarially equivalent to 60% of the full actuarial value of the benefits provided under the plan. Anything lower than that, tough. (Section 1302 (d)(1)(A))

8. You are an employer in the small-group insurance market and you’d like to offer policies with deductibles higher than $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families? Tough. (Section 1302 (c) (2) (A).

9. If you are a large employer (defined as at least 101 employees) and you do not want to provide health insurance to your employee, then you will pay a $750 fine per employee (It could be $2,000 to $3,000 under the reconciliation changes). Think you know how to better spend that money? Tough. (Section 1513).
10. You are an employer who offers health flexible spending arrangements and your employees want to deduct more than $2,500 from their salaries for it? Sorry, can’t do that. (Section 9005 (i)).

11. If you are a physician and you don’t want the government looking over your shoulder? Tough. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to use your claims data to issue you reports that measure the resources you use, provide information on the quality of care you provide, and compare the resources you use to those used by other physicians. Of course, this will all be just for informational purposes. It’s not like the government will ever use it to intervene in your practice and patients’ care. Of course not. (Section 3003 (i))

12. If you are a physician and you want to own your own hospital, you must be an owner and have a “Medicare provider agreement” by Feb. 1, 2010. (Dec. 31, 2010 in the reconciliation changes.) If you didn’t have those by then, you are out of luck. (Section 6001 (i) (1) (A)).

13. If you are a physician owner and you want to expand your hospital? Well, you can’t (Section 6001 (i) (1) (B). Unless, it is located in a country where, over the last five years, population growth has been 150% of what it has been in the state (Section 6601 (i) (3) ( E)). And then you cannot increase your capacity by more than 200% (Section 6001 (i) (3) (C)).

14. You are a health insurer and you want to raise premiums to meet costs? Well, if that increase is deemed “unreasonable” by the Secretary of Health and Human Services it will be subject to review and can be denied. (Section 1003)

15. The government will extract a fee of $2.3 billion annually from the pharmaceutical industry. If you are a pharmaceutical company what you will pay depends on the ratio of the number of brand-name drugs you sell to the total number of brand-name drugs sold in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the brand-name drugs in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2.3 billion, or $230,000,000. (Under reconciliation, it starts at $2.55 billion, jumps to $3 billion in 2012, then to $3.5 billion in 2017 and $4.2 billion in 2018, before settling at $2.8 billion in 2019 (Section 1404)). Think you, as a pharmaceutical executive, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 9008 (b)).

16. The government will extract a fee of $2 billion annually from medical device makers. If you are a medical device maker what you will pay depends on your share of medical device sales in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the medical devices in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2 billion, or $200,000,000. Think you, as a medical device maker, know how to better use that money, say for R&D? Tough. (Section 9009 (b)).
The reconciliation package turns that into a 2.9% excise tax for medical device makers. Think you, as a medical device maker, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 1405).

17. The government will extract a fee of $6.7 billion annually from insurance companies. If you are an insurer, what you will pay depends on your share of net premiums plus 200% of your administrative costs. So, if your net premiums and administrative costs are equal to 10% of the total, you will pay 10% of $6.7 billion, or $670,000,000. In the reconciliation bill, the fee will start at $8 billion in 2014, $11.3 billion in 2015, $1.9 billion in 2017, and $14.3 billion in 2018 (Section 1406).Think you, as an insurance executive, know how to better spend that money? Tough.(Section 9010 (b) (1) (A and B).)

18. If an insurance company board or its stockholders think the CEO is worth more than $500,000 in deferred compensation? Tough.(Section 9014).

19. You will have to pay an additional 0.5% payroll tax on any dollar you make over $250,000 if you file a joint return and $200,000 if you file an individual return. What? You think you know how to spend the money you earned better than the government? Tough. (Section 9015).
That amount will rise to a 3.8% tax if reconciliation passes. It will also apply to investment income, estates, and trusts. You think you know how to spend the money you earned better than the government? Like you need to ask. (Section 1402).

20. If you go for cosmetic surgery, you will pay an additional 5% tax on the cost of the procedure. Think you know how to spend that money you earned better than the government? Tough. (Section 9017).

Looks Like They Got The Memo

2010-03-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

On his way into a Democratic caucus meeting a short time ago, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that the House would hold a straight up or down vote on the Senate health care bill, and forgo using the more complex procedural mechanisms that had proved too politically volatile.

David Kurtz March 20, 2010, 4:19pm

Image: Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee (March 19, 2010)

Now THIS Is How To Do A Burnout

2010-03-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

Herding Democrats

2010-03-16T21:12:00.001-07:00

Herding Democrats

The Anti-Jobs Bill

2010-03-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

After a year of debate and legislative scheming, President Obama and congressional Democrats are making one last push for their ill-conceived health care plan. Fittingly, the endgame is as unseemly as the various maneuvers and backroom deals that got them this far.

The procedural machinations are outrageous and embarrassing. But they are not nearly as bad as the substance of what the Democrats are pushing. Obama-care (like the public’s distaste for it) has not changed—and the sordid details of the desperate struggle to pass the bill must not cause us to forget its ruinous implications for the country. It is a sweeping and expensive plan to put the federal government in the driver’s seat of American health care. But no less important than the dangers it poses for American medicine are the ways it threatens to undermine the nation’s prosperity.

BY: James C. Capretta and Yuval Levin

Well, Well. Now This Comes As No Suprise

2010-03-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Environmentalists more inclined to act dishonest.

A new study from the University of Toronto has found a link between green consumers and dishonesty.

According to The Star, which published the findings, eco-minded people prove to be more likely to “lie, cheat (and) steal” – presumably justifying it because their consumer behaviour, seen as morally good, gives them a licence to act deceitful.

The study, Do Green Products Make Us Better People?, used U of T students as guinea pigs and is based on results from three separate experiments.

Shot in Western Oregon...

2010-03-14T20:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of a buck that was shot this past hunting season. It was taken by the cousin of a co-worker's sister's, uncle's, best friend's, son-in-law's cousin. Reportedly it will score 2603-1/8 by B&C standard and was shot in Western Oregon on a really windy day around a curve an hour after sunrise. Supposedly, this deer had killed a Brahma bull, two Land Rovers and six Jehovah's Witnesses in the last two weeks alone. It was winning a fight with Bigfoot when it was shot.

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

2010-03-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

"So far as I can determine, the author of this essay in its original form is a guy named Paul E. Marek. The national Israeli news network Arutz Sheva published this essay by Marek almost two years ago, but whether or not its version was the original I do not know." http://www.slantright.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1575

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.

The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts--the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Mr. Sikes is "New Balloon Boy"

2010-03-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

Technically, if it does turn out to be a hoax, Jim Sikes would be more like Richard Heene, the father of the "Balloon Boy," but whatever, the argument and the outcome still ring true. What Sikes'll find, just as they quickly discovered, public attention easily turns into public scrutiny. The big tip that the Heene family was perpetrating a hoax occurred after the Balloon Boy himself said "We did it for the show" on a Larry King Live appearance the family booked.

HERE IS MORE:
Based on research by Jalopnik, the auto blog—which was picked up by Fox News, USA Today, and other outlets—Sikes’s background is checkered with problems: a police record for grand theft, a filing for bankruptcy, and ownership of a swingers website where users can post erotic photos.

Mr. Sikes Is Full Of Crap

2010-03-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

A federal safety investigation of the Toyota Prius that was involved in a dramatic incident on a California highway last week found a particular pattern of wear on the car's brakes that raises questions about the driver's version of the event, three people familiar with the investigation said.

On Monday James Sikes, 61 years old, called 911 and told the operator his blue 2008 Toyota Prius had sped up to more than 90 miles per hour on its own on Interstate 8 near San Diego. He eventually brought the vehicle to a stop after a California Highway patrolman pulled alongside Mr. Sikes and offered help.

During and after the incident, Mr. Sikes said he was using heavy pressure on his brake pedal at high speeds.

But the investigation of the vehicle, carried out jointly by safety officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota engineers, didn't find signs the brakes had been applied at full force at high speeds over a sustained period of time, the three people familiar with the investigation said.

The brakes were discolored and showed wear, but the pattern of friction suggested the driver had intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes, these people said, adding the investigation didn't find indicators of the heavy pressure described by Mr. Sikes.

Larry At The Harmon

2010-03-13T18:33:00.000-08:00

Uh Oh, Somebody's Got Some 'Splainin' To Do

2010-03-12T21:28:00.000-08:00

Senators question $1 million pay for Boys & Girls Clubs' CEO

A group of Republican senators is questioning high salaries and expensive travel bills for executives at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, raising issues that could jeopardize millions in federal funding for the national charity.

The four senators said they were concerned that the chief executive of a charity that has been closing local clubs for lack of funding was compensated nearly $1 million in 2008. They also questioned why in the same year officials spent $4.3 million on travel, $1.6 million on conferences, conventions and meetings, and $544,000 in lobbying fees.

"The question is whether or not a very top-heavy organization might be siphoning off federal dollars that should be going to help kids," said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

This Is Why He Postponed His Visit

2010-03-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

Muslim students step on a banner of President Barack Obama during a protest against his planned visit in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Friday, March 12, 2010. Obama is scheduled to travel later this month to the world's most populous Muslim country where he lived as a boy.
(AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

These Guys Are Crazy

2010-03-12T16:14:00.000-08:00

Now This Explains Everything

2010-03-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

Most Wealthy Individuals Earned, Not Inherited, Their Wealth

2010-03-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Most Wealthy Individuals Earned, Not Inherited, Their Wealth

Recently, PNC Wealth Management conducted a survey of people with more than $500,000 free to invest as they like, a fair definition of “wealthy,” and possibly “millionaire” once you begin including home equity and other assets. Only 6% of those surveyed earned their money from inheritance alone. 69% earned their wealth mostly by trading time and effort for money, or by “working.”

by Flexo on April 18, 2008.

2010-03-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

Thank you former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush

2010-03-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

Bush’s last round of golf as president dates back to October 13, 2003, according to meticulous records kept by CBS news.

David Edwards
Raw Story
May 14, 2008

The Scary New Rich

2010-03-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

The truth is that "they" are not becoming just like "us." The global middle class is rising faster than expected, in numbers and in wealth. Last year 70 million people joined the emerging-market middle class, with incomes between $6,000 and $30,000. They have become "the story of the decade," says Goldman Sachs's chief economist Jim O'Neill, and will surpass their Western peers in global spending power within two decades. Morgan Stanley Asia chair Stephen Roach believes that in five to 10 years, the emerging-market middle class in Asia alone could pick up the slack left by overspent American consumers. Already, emerging markets are bolstering the balance sheets of many Western firms. The Chinese bought more cars than Americans did last year, and India has as many Internet users as the U.S. does. By 2030, more than nine of every 10 mobile phones will be owned by people in the developing world, with India and China leading the way. Coca-Cola recently forecast a doubling of worldwide revenues to $200 billion over the next decade, thanks to another 1 billion people expected to join the middle class by 2020.

U.S. is cozying up to Palestinians

2010-03-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

The U.S. administration will not put a lot of effort into the upcoming indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, opting instead to focus on the November Congressional elections, according to an internal Foreign Ministry report that was distributed to Israeli diplomatic missions abroad.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1154530.html

"Fucknutsville"

2010-03-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

And as much as I dislike this guy, I can think of no one else I'd rather be stuck in a foxhole with.

"Obama's first year fell apart in large part because he didn't follow his chief of staff's advice on crucial matters," Milbank wrote. The piece concluded bluntly: "Obama needs fewer acolytes and more action. Rahm should stay."
Open war over Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's master of the dark arts

Photograph: Getty

Is Hayworth ad mocking McCain offensive?

2010-03-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

A much as I like John McCain, he's part of the problem and has to go.

Sen. John McCain's re-election campaign is decrying as insulting an online ad by GOP Senate challenger J.D. Hayworth that mocks McCain, R-Ariz., by defacing his picture with some sort of blue warpaint.

That's 9.7 'Trillion' Dollars

2010-03-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

By Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2010

President Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. Proposed tax cuts for the middle class account for nearly a third of that shortfall.

The 10-year outlook released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is somewhat gloomier than White House projections, which found that Obama's budget request would produce deficits that would add about $8.5 trillion to the national debt by 2020.

The CBO and the White House are in relative agreement about the short-term budget picture, with both predicting a deficit of about $1.5 trillion this year -- a post-World War II record at 10.3 percent of the overall economy -- and $1.3 trillion in 2011. But the CBO is considerably less optimistic about future years, predicting that deficits would never fall below 4 percent of the economy under Obama's policies and would begin to grow rapidly after 2015.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030502974.html

Redneck Water Skiing

2010-03-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

Toyota Lawnmower Recall

2010-03-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

Teen shoots his own testicles

2010-03-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

A Vallejo teenager allegedly shot himself in the testicles Thursday afternoon, police said.

Police said the 17-year-old, whose name is being withheld because he's a minor, walked into Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center at about 5:45 p.m. with a gunshot wound.

The gun is still outstanding, police said, and the teen has not been cooperative.

No kidding. If I shot myself in the balls I wouldn't cooperate either.

2010-03-05T18:24:00.000-08:00

Caller : Hi, our printer is not working.
Customer Service: What is wrong with it?
Caller : Mouse is jammed.
Customer Service: Mouse? Printers don't have a mouse!!!
Caller: Mmmmm??.. Oh really?... I will send a picture.