Month: January 2011

Was The Recent Tax Deal Good News?

With the passage of the extension on the Bush tax cuts (now and forever, to be called the Obama tax cuts) has revved up the calls for extensive tax reforms….from the Prez and his minions and even from some in the Tea Party….but what are the chances?

From the WSJ…..

This week’s great debate over the fate of the Bush-era tax cuts is doing something more important than determining tax levels for a couple of years: It’s helping set the table for a fundamental reform of the tax system.

That may be a blessing in disguise. Today’s tax compromise is laying the groundwork for tomorrow’s badly needed national debate over how to perform a much more fundamental makeover of the tax code, most likely after the next presidential election.

Actually, this week’s tax debate is merely the second big recent event pushing the country closer toward this rendezvous with real tax reform. The first came in the form of the report issued by the bipartisan deficit-reduction commission Mr. Obama created to deal with Washington’s tide of red ink.

A real conversation on tax reform is needed but will it ever come?

Ezra Klein makes a very astute observation in the WaPo……..

I doubt it. If you could agree on what the words “revenue neutral” meant, you really could redesign the tax code to feature lower rates, simpler forms and less economic drag. But given the coming expiration of the Bush tax cuts, you can’t agree on what revenue-neutral means, as Democrats will say it means revenue after the cuts expire, and Republicans will say it means revenue if the cuts were extended. Until that question is resolved, every tax reform conversation will break down when Republicans realize Democrats are trying to lock in the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and Democrats realize Republicans will only reform the tax code if it means the Bush cuts live forever and ever, amen.

Conservatives want lower taxes, particularly on the rich. They want a larger percentage of Americans to pay federal income taxes, as they believe that paying federal income taxes makes you less likely to support federal spending (Question: Is there any evidence for this view?). They want major cuts in existing government programs and a high bar to creating new programs, which means total revenues have to remain below current spending and far below projected spending.

Liberals have their own concerns: They want more revenues, as they know that their programs can’t survive forever unless taxes rise to meet spending. They want the tax code to be more progressive, and they want to see inequality fall. They want taxes on wealth-income brought into line with taxes on work-income. They want the social spending that runs through the tax code, like the Earned Income Tax Credit or the breaks for clean energy development, to survive, and even be expanded.

All this back and forth….only proves ONE thing….there will be little change in the tax code and structure in the near future……the working class will pay and the wealthy will get the benefits of their station in life…………

They Will Do Nothing!

As the media circus continues on the shootings in Tucson, there have been many calling for some sort of gun reform…..and of course there are many that will run out and buy guns because the government will outlaw them….well, if you believe that then you are truly a Mental Midget!

Just like the crisis in education…..this has been a concern for as long as I can remember….it gets lots of press and lots of air time….but just what has been done to improve the education in this country?  As usual, the Congress has done NOTHING!

What is that old saying?  Oh yeah….talk is cheap!

We have known for sometime that the environment is in deep trouble….at least for the last 35 years…..and what has been done?  Lots of talk, lots debate, lots of lies, lots of theater….but what, in reality has been done?  once again….NOTHING!

And now with the Tucson shootings, we will have the circus again, but this time it will be about guns…..all the old BS will come out again……the government is coming for your guns, that it is stomping on the 2nd amendment, that NRA will protect you from the government, that…..well you probably have heard all the crap before and will hear it again and again and……what can we say…..no one is serious about making sure that actions like this will never happen again…..all the debate will do is give lots of fodder for the political campaigns to come….

With all the talk and debate (if you can call it that) will go on and on and in the end the same thing will occur……They Will Do Nothing!  And doing nothing will almost guarantee that this situation will happen again and again……

Does Palin Know?

Poor Sarah cannot catch a break…..she invents words….kills a moose on TV…..clubs fish……writes books….and as much as I do not agree with her politics she just makes it way too easy for people like me to criticize her……..

Recently there was a horrible act committed in Tucson, the shooting of about 30 people to include a congressperson and the death of a 9 year old girl……this horrendous act has the media lathered up and accusations are flying around the airways and the blogsphere…..most of it is that the shooting was related to the bile language of the conservative talk radio and TV…..the illusions of reloading, crosshairs, arming the people and using the 2 nd amendment as a solution to the Dems and liberalism in Washington……..Sarah is NO different she has come out and call the media’s concern as “blood libel”….

In the eight-minute video, Palin says, “Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.”

Does she know or realize what she saying?  Does she know what blood libel is?  I know her feelings are hurt….but she should have remained silent…..

The blood libel is a false accusation that Jews sacrifice Christian children either to use the blood for various “medicinal” purposes or to prepare Passover Matzoth (unleavened bread) or for vengeance and mock crucifixions. It is one of the central fables of Anti-Semitism of the older (middle ages) type. The blood libel is a phenomenon of medieval and modern Christian anti-Semitism, but spread to the Middle East as early as 1775, when there was a blood libel in Hebron. A second blood libel occurred in Damascus in 1840 and one occurred in Cyprus in the same year. As the blood libel was the subject of folk ballads and literature, it was not simply a religious superstition in Europe, but a staple of popular culture, like most anti-Semitic prejudices.

She has to be handled better….or find some handlers that have at least a high school education……….you would think after the use of a non-existence word, refudiate……she would have learned….

This video shows her as a non-serious person, a non-serious candidate and a self centered egotist……

GOP’s Tuscon Point Man

Since the horrible situation in Arizona, the shooting of all those people, the GOP has been on a relentless trip to vindicate all the hate speech that has been leveled at Obama and the Dems in the past couple of years….terms like armed and dangerous, use your 2nd amendment right, need to reload, and all the gun violence symbolism……they are trying desperately to shirk their responsibility for these illustrations that they used to win elections and inflame the base……

Now the GOP has as point man for all the criticism, Gov. Pawlenty of Minnesota, he has taken to the airways and given the same interview no less than 8 times…the same talking points with very little variations….here are some of his talking points….

“There’s a term for that in politics. They say, “Go out and give them the red meat.” And so, it’s…think of that imagery of dangling raw meat in front of, you know, the predator. But all of us, in the case of the politicians, I don’t think we want to get to a point where we’re deterring or chilling free speech or passion or enthusiasm or the kinds of things that fuel grassroots politics…

Basically, what he is saying, at least in my mind, all the rhetoric of anger and hate is just isolated occurrences…..but words of hate and anger DO have consequences…..as I keep saying….it is NOT the intent of the speaker but rather the perception of the listener…….

Maybe instead to spending all one’s time trying slough off the responsibility they should turn now to sanity and rationality…just like yelling “fire” in a crowded room is NOT free speech,  maybe it is time to look at the lunatic talk that goes on and ask that a toning down of hate would be prudent…..

Yes, we cannot blame anyone but the person that commits the violence…..but on the other hand, he got the idea from somewhere!

Military Must Be Ready For The Next War

College of Political Knowledge

International series

Any military must be ready for the next “great” war…..troops must be trained and in full readiness…..logistics….so on and on…..it must be ready for anything at anytime……The US military is failing in that area…..God knows where the next one will pop up or why…….

There has been a growing concern that the US forces would not be capable of large scale military action….why?  They have been spending all their time since about 2003 with counterinsurgency ops….they have lost the edge that it once had as a protector of the world….

From column by David Wood…….

The risk of being unready for major combat operations is partly a matter of choice: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed the military to focus its time, resources and energy on winning the counterinsurgency struggle in Afghanistan. That’s the kind of conflict the United States is likely to be entangled in for the foreseeable future, according to current Defense Department plans.

It is also true, senior officials acknowledge, that the armed forces lack the time to train for and equipment to fight a major conflict that might ignite from friction with Iran, say, or China, or deal with a completely unanticipated crisis that requires American forces to quickly intervene — like Korea, 1950.

“There’s a belief that the president of the United States can pick up the red phone and order forcible entry operations” like the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said Army Maj. Gen. Dan Bolger, who commands the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana. “But that takes practice, and we don’t get a lot of practice.”

Readiness is dropping like a lead balloon….maybe the war hawks should take that into consideration before they re-start the “Bomb…Bomb  Iran” song that made McCain famous in 2008….I realize that most do not care about the welfare of the troops (except when a needed political prop)  and to start an all out war now….would be insanity…..but then NO one ever said those idiots were sane…..

“The Hammer” Gets Hammered

Back in the early days of the 21st century, the speaker of the House Tom DeLay, was known as the “Hammer” because of his heavy handed treatment of others in Washington…….DeLay conspired with two associates to use his Texas-based political action committee to send $190,000 in corporate money in 2002 to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can’t go directly to political campaigns.

After many years of legal dancing and him dancing with the stars the trial has rendered a verdict……from Salon.com…….

A judge has ordered U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.

The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. DeLay was once one of the most powerful men in U.S. politics, ascending to the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives.

Which is a slap on the hand….why?….he was looking at the possibility of a life sentence……will justice be done?  Not if lawyers have their way……

The Texas money laundering law is usually associated with drug dealers or white collar criminals, and Tom DeLay‘s defense attorneys say they will try to keep the former U.S. House majority leader out of prison with an appeal that focuses largely on questions about whether the law was ever intended to apply to election violations.Unlike in most money laundering cases, prosecutors argued he stood to benefit not financially but through political power.

The creative use of the statute — the first time it was ever applied in such a case — was key to his convictions on money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges.

Is it possible that a crook like DeLay will walk on money laundering charges?  You betcha!  Will justice be done here?  Not a chance, if the lawyers have their way………we will be watching!

Man Behind The Bullets

His name is Jared Lee Loughner….the man that killed many and critically wounded a US Congresswoman, Giffords in Arizona……….But why?

A note written by Jared Lee Loughner ahead of his shooting rampage in Tucson appears to show that he made careful preparations to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman gravely wounded in the attack that also killed six other people.

The existence of the note is revealed in court papers filed after Loughner, 22, was charged on Sunday with murder and attempted assassination. The FBI document says that Loughner wrote on an envelope the words “I planned ahead”, “My assassination” and “Giffords”. He then signed the note.

Someone needs to pay attention!  Flying the flag at half-mast or postponing government or writing about one’s outrage at the act…is NOT enough!

Some so-called experts have shown that this man’s words are very telling of what he was thinking and that it could be politically motivated…….

The Southern Poverty Law Centre, one of America’s leading trackers of hate crimes, said there are signs in some of Loughner’s writings of far-right influence. Mark Potok, the director of research on hate groups at the centre, drew attention to Loughner’s online ramblings that reject the US currency.

“At one point, Loughner refers disparagingly to ‘currency that’s not backed by gold or silver’. The idea that silver and gold are the only ‘constitutional’ money is widespread in the anti-government ‘Patriot’ movement that produced so much violence in the 1990s,” he said.

Potok said the Patriot movement believes that paper money issued by the government is not legal tender. He said there were also clues to Loughner’s thinking in his internet postings in which he accused the government of “mind control on the people by controlling grammar”.

Potok said that fits with the theory of a Patriot conspiracy theorist who claims that the government uses grammar to “enslave” Americans.

But make NO mistake!  This guy is a deranged crazy……no matter of accusation will change that…..

But the national conversation will be more about the rhetoric and NOT about ease of which this person or anyone like him can obtain a firearm and achieve the same results…..while I agree that the rhetoric could well be at the heart of this man’s actions and it should be addressed….but the way firearms are obtained needs to be the focus of this debate and possibly find a way to slow the whack jobs from getting their demented little hands on implements of destruction……If only!

Sadly to say that in a month all this concern will be just a memory on facebook and nothing will be done about the ease at which lunatics can obtain a firearm……ain’t democracy great?

More Morons Than Humans!

Ignorant a/holes!

With the shooting of Dem Rep. Giffords more and more idiots come out of the wood work……now here is a really good idea….(sarcasm, if case you were confused)……

Instead of taking guns out of American hands, some frightened politicians will start packing heat themselves for protection. “After the elections, I let my guard down,” NC Democratic Rep. Heath Shule told Politico. “Now I know I need” to have my gun “on me. We’re going to need to do a much better job of with security at these events.

Members of Congress can be appointed special deputy marshals if the US Marshals Service determines they’re in danger, reports the New York Daily News. They can then carry a concealed handgun anywhere, including into the Capitol. Sen. Orrin Hatch was granted deputy status after receiving death threats in the ’90s.

Really?  A good idea!  Put hundreds of people in the middle of the gunfight at the OK Corral…..BRILLIANT!

And then there is the Church that hatred built…..the religious zealots that spend their time protesting at funerals of fallen soldiers with signs saying God kill the person because of the government’s support of gay rights…..mental midgets!

Westboro Baptist Church, the church of hate that pickets funerals to highlight its vile attacks, will picket the funeral of the little girl and five others who were killed in Saturday’s shooting rampage.Fred Phelps, in an offensive press release you may not want to read in full, announced Sunday he will bring his tiny band of followers, fresh from last month’s Elizabeth Edwards funeral, to this wounded city because, “That’s how God the avenger rolls,” he says.

Are these people smoking crack?

There comes a time when people need to remove their heads from their butts….and use a little common sense …..I know it can be difficult to remove one’s head but it can be done if one truly wants to…….two cases that illustrate the sheer lunacy of the American people…like I said “more moron than human”!

A 2nd Amendment Solution?

Recall back in the day, back in the young days of 2010?  All the hate and Obama scare tactics?  Recall the mental midgets totting guns and a implying some form of violence?  First there was a member of the House of Representatives that said some of her Democratic colleagues should be investigated as un-American.  There were some that called for the Right to “reload” or the mindless quote from Jefferson about the “Tree of Liberty” and then there was another that said that the people needed to use their  “2nd amendment solution”…..well has all their vile and hatred of the democratic process given us our answer to whether these cretins were serious or not?  Don’t look now…but you asked for and now you have it!

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remained heavily sedated and in critical condition Sunday as investigators sought to understand what motivated a gunman to carry out an assassination attempt on the Democratic lawmaker in a rampage that killed six people.  Authorities said Gifford, 40, was targeted at a public gathering by a man with a semiautomatic weapon around 10 a.m. Saturday outside a busy Tucson supermarket. Arizona’s chief federal judge and five others were killed and 13 people were wounded, including the Democrat lawmaker.

Giffords is a moderate Democrat who narrowly won re-election in November against a tea party candidate who sought to throw her from office over her support of the health care law. Anger over her position became violent at times, with her Tucson office vandalized after the House passed the overhaul last March and someone showing up at a recent gathering with a weapon.

Of course people like Palin, McCain, and others have posted just how outraged they are at the violence….but what did these mental midgets think was going to happen with all the looneys out there with guns and NO making them leave them at home?  What did you f*cking morons think was going to happen?

It is time to crack down on the possibility of more of this type of  “political action”  from occurring again……there is a time and a place from you dick brains with guns and a political gathering is NOT the best place for you…

If you extreme Righties want to really improve the political system….then the next time you feel like using your gun…why not turn it onto yourself and do all of us a FAVOR!

Grand Ma Was Right!

As my regulars know…I try to post something different on the weekends…we have enough politics and economics through the week….so why not lighten up the tone a bit…….

As I post from time to time…”There Is A God”!  And everything your grandmother told you about breakfast…you know that it is the most important meal…..oops…she may not have been telling you stuff….she may have been smarter than you think….why?

Eat a Big Breakfast
It’s time to nix the oatmeal with skim milk. Instead, start your day with a fatty breakfast, including eggs and even a piece of bacon, suggests Molly Bray, PhD, lead author of a recent study showing that a fat-filled morning meal will jumpstart your metabolism for the day faster than a lowfat, low-calorie breakfast. Another study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who eat 22 to 55 percent of their total calories at breakfast gain 1.7 pounds over four years. That’s not bad considering those who eat 0 to 11 percent of their calories in the morning gain nearly 3 pounds.

So eat those eggs and bacon……and DO what your grandmother told you to do!

But there is more good news on the horizon…as a caffeine addict I knew deep down that I was doing something good…..

Opt for Caffeine
It’s time to hit Starbucks. A study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior shows that coffee drinkers have a 16 percent higher metabolic rate than those who abstain or drink decaf joe, because caffeine increases your heart rate and stimulates your central nervous system. Spread out the cups over your entire day to keep your metabolism running at a boosted rate—just be sure to have your last cup by early afternoon so you can hit the pillow with no problems later on.

See?  There is proof there is a God!

Amen!