Saturday, July 31
who dragged Phyllis Schaffley out of mothballs - and WHY would you do such a thing?
I'm sorry, but with all the fabulous, strong outspoken women taking center stage in the Republican Party, why would you drag out a rigid relic of the failed "Moral Majority" days out and put her up as the face of the Republican Party right now? What a colossal stupid. boneheaded terribly dumb thing to do.
The government didn’t subsidize this boondoggle. The “government” doesn’t subsidize anything. You do.
◼ The Value of a Volt - Doctor Zero calculates the true value, and cost, of a Government Motors Volt...
How much is a new Chevy Volt electric car worth?
The sticker price is $41,000. However, with federal subsidies, you could pay as little as $33,500. Additional subsidies provided by the state of California could knock it down even lower, for residents of the Golden State. So what’s the price?
$41,000, of course. The subsidies just mean you don’t pay all of it. The utterly bankrupt federal government takes money from other taxpayers, and uses it to discount your purchase. Since California is teetering on the edge of total collapse, and may well require federal bailouts in the near future, taxpayers across the country could end up paying additional sums to support Volt purchases that happen to occur within the state of California. These transfer payments are mixed into the thickening concrete surrounding the American economy, making it just a few inches deeper.
But wait, there’s more. Almost four hundred million dollars in federal subsidies were pumped directly into the design and production of the Volt. The initial production run consists of just ten thousand units, with 45,000 more planned for 2012 if sales are good. This would add just over $7200 more in taxpayer subsidies to each Volt produced over the next two years. Since 2012 production will be scaled back if early sales are disappointing, it might be more logical to add the subsidies to the first 10,000 units only, which would leave early adopters outside of California paying $33,500 for a car which actually costs $81,000 per unit, with taxpayers picking up the remainder. It’s actually even worse than that...
How much is a new Chevy Volt electric car worth?
The sticker price is $41,000. However, with federal subsidies, you could pay as little as $33,500. Additional subsidies provided by the state of California could knock it down even lower, for residents of the Golden State. So what’s the price?
$41,000, of course. The subsidies just mean you don’t pay all of it. The utterly bankrupt federal government takes money from other taxpayers, and uses it to discount your purchase. Since California is teetering on the edge of total collapse, and may well require federal bailouts in the near future, taxpayers across the country could end up paying additional sums to support Volt purchases that happen to occur within the state of California. These transfer payments are mixed into the thickening concrete surrounding the American economy, making it just a few inches deeper.
But wait, there’s more. Almost four hundred million dollars in federal subsidies were pumped directly into the design and production of the Volt. The initial production run consists of just ten thousand units, with 45,000 more planned for 2012 if sales are good. This would add just over $7200 more in taxpayer subsidies to each Volt produced over the next two years. Since 2012 production will be scaled back if early sales are disappointing, it might be more logical to add the subsidies to the first 10,000 units only, which would leave early adopters outside of California paying $33,500 for a car which actually costs $81,000 per unit, with taxpayers picking up the remainder. It’s actually even worse than that...
Interesting points re: Teach For America
◼ Teach for America fueling resentment at CMS (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools)
With laid-off teachers still waiting to see if they'll find jobs with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in August, questions keep simmering about why CMS uses Teach for America to recruit rookies who only stay two years.
When boom times created teacher shortages, the "Peace Corps for education" was hailed as a godsend for hard-to-staff urban and rural schools. Now, with teacher layoffs sweeping the country, the national recruitment program is fueling resentment in Charlotte and elsewhere...
From the comments: teacher442 wrote on 07/31/2010 11:59:59 PM: The bottom line is this: CMS laid off 600+ teachers, is hiring back 140, (- 460) and is hiring a total of 250 TFA teachers and spending $200,000 to hire them. So adding in the additional 4 teachers the TFA fee could be used for, CMS could have reduced a layoff of over 600 to nearly 200 educators....
With laid-off teachers still waiting to see if they'll find jobs with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in August, questions keep simmering about why CMS uses Teach for America to recruit rookies who only stay two years.
When boom times created teacher shortages, the "Peace Corps for education" was hailed as a godsend for hard-to-staff urban and rural schools. Now, with teacher layoffs sweeping the country, the national recruitment program is fueling resentment in Charlotte and elsewhere...
From the comments: teacher442 wrote on 07/31/2010 11:59:59 PM: The bottom line is this: CMS laid off 600+ teachers, is hiring back 140, (- 460) and is hiring a total of 250 TFA teachers and spending $200,000 to hire them. So adding in the additional 4 teachers the TFA fee could be used for, CMS could have reduced a layoff of over 600 to nearly 200 educators....
Fascinating! And so busted.
◼ The Astroturf Campaign Against Target: Fake But Accurate - Green Room and HotAir
"Nothing short of a revolution"
CNN reporter gushing over a new reality TV show pick the "The New Imam."
Right after the ad for Zayed Future Energy Co. and followed by a promo for The New Bin Laden.
The first report, and promo-ing are not that surprising, except you wonder why CNN would profess to care about Bin Laden. The AD for Zayed, though, was quite extraordinary. Let me know if you've seen it and what you think.
Right after the ad for Zayed Future Energy Co. and followed by a promo for The New Bin Laden.
The first report, and promo-ing are not that surprising, except you wonder why CNN would profess to care about Bin Laden. The AD for Zayed, though, was quite extraordinary. Let me know if you've seen it and what you think.
Friday, July 30
Joy Behar, Barack Obama, and the end of civilization
◼ link - THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS
I truly believed America was the beacon for the world, a global light of intellect meant to nourish the cranial cavity of eager learners from everywhere. We had the best university system in the world.
This was all before “The View” came on television....
I truly believed America was the beacon for the world, a global light of intellect meant to nourish the cranial cavity of eager learners from everywhere. We had the best university system in the world.
This was all before “The View” came on television....
Labels:
Just Funny
Thursday, July 29
Our course will be charted by an increasingly powerful, corrupt, and insulated ruling class.
◼ The Shape of Things to Come - Doctor Zero
...The all-consuming central State won’t be able to make everyone happy. In fact, it will have to make a large segment of the population increasingly unhappy, as it squeezes them to get what it needs. It can only maintain power by diverting an increasing percentage of the resources it controls to its essential supporters. The rest of you will have to learn to be satisfied with less. Your ambitions will be described as wicked, with increasingly vicious intensity. The political options available to you will grow more narrow, as each increase in government power quickly petrifies into an eternal entitlement that can never be rescinded. As the government grows, the realm of the possible collapses. You can see this happening already. How many possibilities has the ruling Party declared to be permanently foreclosed, in just the past year and a half?
This is the shape of things to come. Your last chance to choose a different path is almost at hand.
...The all-consuming central State won’t be able to make everyone happy. In fact, it will have to make a large segment of the population increasingly unhappy, as it squeezes them to get what it needs. It can only maintain power by diverting an increasing percentage of the resources it controls to its essential supporters. The rest of you will have to learn to be satisfied with less. Your ambitions will be described as wicked, with increasingly vicious intensity. The political options available to you will grow more narrow, as each increase in government power quickly petrifies into an eternal entitlement that can never be rescinded. As the government grows, the realm of the possible collapses. You can see this happening already. How many possibilities has the ruling Party declared to be permanently foreclosed, in just the past year and a half?
This is the shape of things to come. Your last chance to choose a different path is almost at hand.
Labels:
1984,
America's Decline Under Obama,
Doctor Zero,
Tyranny
Questions for WaPo re: JournOlist
◼ My One Question for WaPo Regarding The Journolist - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
◼ Political operatives on Journolist worked to shape news coverage
Despite its name, membership in the liberal online community Journolist wasn’t limited to journalists. Present among the bloggers, reporters and editors were a number of professional political operatives, including top White House economic advisors, key Obama political appointees, and Democratic campaign veterans. Some left government to join Journolist. Others took the opposite route. A few contributed to Journolist from their perches in politics. At times, it became difficult to tell who was supposed to be covering policy and who was trying to make it....
◼ Brent Bozell's Open Letter to Washington Post Editor Marcus Brauchli
Keep their feet to the fire. These people need to be fired, and their press credentials revoked permanently.
◼ Political operatives on Journolist worked to shape news coverage
Despite its name, membership in the liberal online community Journolist wasn’t limited to journalists. Present among the bloggers, reporters and editors were a number of professional political operatives, including top White House economic advisors, key Obama political appointees, and Democratic campaign veterans. Some left government to join Journolist. Others took the opposite route. A few contributed to Journolist from their perches in politics. At times, it became difficult to tell who was supposed to be covering policy and who was trying to make it....
And how they justified it: Dean Baker, at the time a blogger at the American Prospect, agreed the policy was dishonest, but defended it anyway. “Sure, some of the things they are saying are not true (the jobs story first and foremost),” he wrote, “but the industry groups have this town blanketed with lobbyists and own a large portion of Congress outright. … There has to be some counterforce to the industry groups and that is the populist rabble. It might not be pretty, but that’s Washington.”
◼ Brent Bozell's Open Letter to Washington Post Editor Marcus Brauchli
Dear Mr. Brauchli:
The JournoList scandal is getting worse every day and The Washington Post is at the center of it. Blogger Ezra Klein ran the operation and at least three other staffers were members. (Blogger Greg Sargent claims he wasn’t a member after he joined the Post.) In addition, at least one member of Slate and two from Newsweek, also owned by Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, were members.
The almost constant revelations of political activism and journalistic conspiracy raise an enormous number of questions about Post policies, professionalism and ethics. As a conservative, and therefore a member of the movement JournoListers sought to demonize, I feel Post readers are owed full disclosure.
Keep their feet to the fire. These people need to be fired, and their press credentials revoked permanently.
Labels:
JournOlist,
NO JOURNALISTIC ETHICS
Wednesday, July 28
Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law
◼ Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law
PHOENIX – A federal judge dealt a serious blow to Arizona's immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation's toughtest-in-the-nation law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge's order overturned....
Lawyers for the state contend the law was a constitutionally sound attempt by Arizona to assist federal immigration agents and lessen border woes such as the heavy costs for educating, jailing and providing health care for illegal immigrants. Arizona is the busiest gateway into the country for illegal immigrants, and the border is awash in drugs and smugglers that the state badly wants to stop.
"It's a temporary bump in the road, we will move forward, and I'm sure that after consultation with our counsel we will appeal," Brewer told the Associated Press. "The bottom line is we've known all along that it is the responsibility of the feds and they haven't done their job so we were going to help them do that."...
◼ Judge Enjoins Arizona Immigration Provisions - Patterico
◼ Predictably, Judge Blocks Common-Sense Law Favored by 70% of Arizona Voters - The Other McCain
Professor William Jacobson (at Legal Insurrection) has a legal analysis, but the key point is that the interests of Arizona’s citizens (70% of whom favored the law) and the actions of Arizona legislators count for nothing in the 21st-century American regime...
◼ Judge Blocks Key Portions Of Arizona Law - Flopping Aces
◼ Breaking: Judge Blocks Parts Of AZ Immigration Law - Ace of Spades
◼ Judge Bolton's fiction - at Kirly's
The real threat posed by S.B. 1070 was that it would disrupt the de facto amnesty that the executive branch has accorded to the vast majority of illegal aliens. It would start to implement congressional mandates and the public will that the immigration laws be enforced. For that reason, it had to be stopped.
PHOENIX – A federal judge dealt a serious blow to Arizona's immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation's toughtest-in-the-nation law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge's order overturned....
Lawyers for the state contend the law was a constitutionally sound attempt by Arizona to assist federal immigration agents and lessen border woes such as the heavy costs for educating, jailing and providing health care for illegal immigrants. Arizona is the busiest gateway into the country for illegal immigrants, and the border is awash in drugs and smugglers that the state badly wants to stop.
"It's a temporary bump in the road, we will move forward, and I'm sure that after consultation with our counsel we will appeal," Brewer told the Associated Press. "The bottom line is we've known all along that it is the responsibility of the feds and they haven't done their job so we were going to help them do that."...
◼ Judge Enjoins Arizona Immigration Provisions - Patterico
◼ From the comments at Patterico: ...the best part of my quote is that the sloppy writing implies that the Federal Government has the exclusive authority to impose distinct, unusual and extraordinary burdens on people. Well, that’s exactly what it’s doing by abandoning huge sectors of territory to criminals and refusing to enforce the laws.
The reason she’s so general about this is that there is a conflict between federal policy and Arizona law, but not a conflict with federal law. No matter how far the federal policy veers from the law, are states supposed to conform? That seems like an unworkable system to me.... Comment by Dustin
◼ Predictably, Judge Blocks Common-Sense Law Favored by 70% of Arizona Voters - The Other McCain
Professor William Jacobson (at Legal Insurrection) has a legal analysis, but the key point is that the interests of Arizona’s citizens (70% of whom favored the law) and the actions of Arizona legislators count for nothing in the 21st-century American regime...
◼ From the comments at Legal Insurrection: BloodSpite said... So if states can not enforce federal law (if I'm reading this right?) does that in turn mean that ObamaCare is unenforceable as well, at least from the state level?
Obviously there will be more trials and hearings etc but is that not the precedent set here at least?
◼ Judge Blocks Key Portions Of Arizona Law - Flopping Aces
◼ Breaking: Judge Blocks Parts Of AZ Immigration Law - Ace of Spades
◼ From the comments at Ace: "By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose."
So, States Governments cannot impose burden on people, ONLY the Feds can?
Interesting take on the Constitution. Posted by: Romeo13
◼ U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that those sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues.
Because she didn't resolve the damn issues, which ya know, is her job. Posted by: Guy Fawkes
◼ Arizona doesn't have the right to not enforce their own laws!
Only the Feds have the right to not enforce their own laws!
Confused? Me too. Posted by: Judge Susan Bolton
◼ Lets hope states take this ruling to the extreme. All federal laws must be federally enforced, since now states don't have the authority to enforce them. Most states passed seat belt laws because they were coerced by loss of federal highway funds. OK Barry, your law, you enforce. Pulling over people for seatbelt violations puts a burden on officers who could put more effort into catching speeders and drunks who pose more of a danger to public safety. Just go right down the line. Federal law, federal enforcement. Posted by: bigred
◼ Judge Bolton's fiction - at Kirly's
The real threat posed by S.B. 1070 was that it would disrupt the de facto amnesty that the executive branch has accorded to the vast majority of illegal aliens. It would start to implement congressional mandates and the public will that the immigration laws be enforced. For that reason, it had to be stopped.
Labels:
Arizona
Roger Simon on JournOlist and journalism
◼ Journolist veers out of bounds - Politico
The problem I have is this statement that only the right is upset about what JournOlist did. It should be upsetting to BOTH sides, ALL sides. Only then will the problem be solved.
Right now it appears that it gets brushed off, oh, it's only a story because of that pesky FOX news, otherwise, it doesn't matter because, I guess, the ends justifies the means.
But then, I have learned that my post-Watergate mentality needs adjusting.
I believed in the press. I believed in the press almost as an arm of law enforcement... that if there was wrongdoing, they would expose it... if there was another side to the story, they would be happy to tell it. I was sadly mistaken.
The press, here and elsewhere, were sucked up into the great fairy-tale. The press bought the storyline hook line and sinker.
They didn't ask the questions, they ignored statements and actions that should have made the hairs on the backs of their necks rise up. They didn't exercise their usual due diligence and they reported on the facade instead.
Worse, they became an arm of a particular party and a particular candidate. You may be an Obama supporter who thinks that is just fine, because he is so good, how could they see it any other way. But the fact is, a precedent has been set, and the next time, it may not be someone you love and adore, what will you say then?
I don't really begrudge the reporters going through Sarah Palin's garbage - she was running and deserved scrutiny. Just as all candidates for the highest office in the land should have to reveal their tax returns, etc. It's that ALL candidates should have received the same scrutiny. They are running the gauntlet, and if they need protecting, they aren't fit. Running interference and plotting to deflect scrutiny in order to protect a particular candidate demeans the entire purpose of journalism. It's too late now. The damage is done. It's pretty funny that the National Enquirer is now a more reliable source than many traditionally respected news outlets. (I hate the term mainstream media as much as I hate what has been done here.)
What Chuck Todd's lament misses is that we don't know how much he and others who were not part of JournOlist were influenced BY JournOlist, and how much they might have carried the ball further down the field. Maybe he (and the others he refers to, the collective he) wasn't practicing 'activist' journalism. But were they doing the due diligence? Were they treating Obama the same as Palin, or Hillary, or McCain, Edwards, et al, or were they really no different than the JournOlists, just not members of it?
Can the entire journalistic community put the genie back in the bottle?
Not as long as they see it as a left v right issue.
...when I became a reporter, it was almost a holy calling.He also says
We really believed we were doing good. We informed the public and helped make democracy work. We exposed wrongdoing wherever we found it. We reported without fear or favor. As a columnist, I tried to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
...We loved what we did, and we did it with passion. We were proud. We felt — I am just going to go ahead and say it — honorable.
There were wrongdoers. Fakers, plagiarists, those with private agendas who wished to slant the news. When found, they were often fired. Even when they were subjected to a lesser punishment, their sins were made clear as a lesson to the rest of us. (At a few papers, those who wished to slant the news were publishers or editors who wished to please their publishers. They were rarely fired. But their numbers were few.)
The lines were not muddy. You played it straight. Even if you were a columnist and allowed to publish your opinions, you were expected to be fair and accurate.
At the end of the day, you often went home feeling good. And when people asked what you did, you replied with pride, not shame.
It was, as I said, almost a holy calling. (And often accompanied by a vow of poverty.)
Somewhere along the way, things have gone terribly wrong. Journalism has become a toy, an electronic plaything. I do not blame technology. The giant megaphone of technology has been coupled with a new, angrier, more destructive age. (Yes, you can find extremely angry, extremely partisan times in our past, but I always thought the goal was to progress over the centuries, not regress.)...
...Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent for NBC News, who was not part of Journolist, told me this:I agree. With his belief that journalism was an honorable profession. With the lament over what has happened recently.
“I am sure Ezra had good intentions when he created it, but I am offended the right is using this as a sledgehammer against those of us who don’t practice activist journalism.
“Journolist was pretty offensive. Those of us who are mainstream journalists got mixed in with journalists with an agenda. Those folks who thought they were improving journalism are destroying the credibility of journalism.
“This has kept me up nights. I try to be fair. It’s very depressing.”...
###
The problem I have is this statement that only the right is upset about what JournOlist did. It should be upsetting to BOTH sides, ALL sides. Only then will the problem be solved.
Right now it appears that it gets brushed off, oh, it's only a story because of that pesky FOX news, otherwise, it doesn't matter because, I guess, the ends justifies the means.
But then, I have learned that my post-Watergate mentality needs adjusting.
I believed in the press. I believed in the press almost as an arm of law enforcement... that if there was wrongdoing, they would expose it... if there was another side to the story, they would be happy to tell it. I was sadly mistaken.
The press, here and elsewhere, were sucked up into the great fairy-tale. The press bought the storyline hook line and sinker.
They didn't ask the questions, they ignored statements and actions that should have made the hairs on the backs of their necks rise up. They didn't exercise their usual due diligence and they reported on the facade instead.
Worse, they became an arm of a particular party and a particular candidate. You may be an Obama supporter who thinks that is just fine, because he is so good, how could they see it any other way. But the fact is, a precedent has been set, and the next time, it may not be someone you love and adore, what will you say then?
I don't really begrudge the reporters going through Sarah Palin's garbage - she was running and deserved scrutiny. Just as all candidates for the highest office in the land should have to reveal their tax returns, etc. It's that ALL candidates should have received the same scrutiny. They are running the gauntlet, and if they need protecting, they aren't fit. Running interference and plotting to deflect scrutiny in order to protect a particular candidate demeans the entire purpose of journalism. It's too late now. The damage is done. It's pretty funny that the National Enquirer is now a more reliable source than many traditionally respected news outlets. (I hate the term mainstream media as much as I hate what has been done here.)
What Chuck Todd's lament misses is that we don't know how much he and others who were not part of JournOlist were influenced BY JournOlist, and how much they might have carried the ball further down the field. Maybe he (and the others he refers to, the collective he) wasn't practicing 'activist' journalism. But were they doing the due diligence? Were they treating Obama the same as Palin, or Hillary, or McCain, Edwards, et al, or were they really no different than the JournOlists, just not members of it?
Can the entire journalistic community put the genie back in the bottle?
Not as long as they see it as a left v right issue.
Labels:
NO JOURNALISTIC ETHICS
Tuesday, July 27
"We’re not that far removed from what most Americans are going through."
◼ Obama, speaking of his family's financial situation: "We’re not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." - Althouse
On "an inane interview with ABC with consumer reporter Elizabeth Leamy, who makes a lame effort to convey the impression that she's going to enlighten viewers about the new financial reform law. Leamy exclaims that Americans don't know what's in the law, as if she's about to extract that information from the President. Spoiler: She's not.
The comments thread is a must read. Starting with "Beta Rube said... This whole thing would have been more credible if Leamy had been on her knees. Maybe next time."
On "an inane interview with ABC with consumer reporter Elizabeth Leamy, who makes a lame effort to convey the impression that she's going to enlighten viewers about the new financial reform law. Leamy exclaims that Americans don't know what's in the law, as if she's about to extract that information from the President. Spoiler: She's not.
The comments thread is a must read. Starting with "Beta Rube said... This whole thing would have been more credible if Leamy had been on her knees. Maybe next time."
Monday, July 26
Goldman reveals where bailout cash went - overseas
◼ Goldman Sachs (GS) received $5.55 billion from the government in fall of 2008 as payment for then-worthless securities it held in AIG. Goldman had already hedged its risk that the securities would go bad. It had entered into agreements to spread the risk with the 32 entities named in Friday's report....
Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to information made public Friday night. via ◼ drudge
Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to information made public Friday night. via ◼ drudge
"It was not the legislative intent of Congress to authorize DOE to regulate the bathing habits of Americans,"
But, they are... ◼ A Water Fight Over Luxury Showers
The new contraband:
Contraband:
Criminals:
Big Brother lives.
◼ GET YOUR HAND OUT OF MY SHOWER - powerline
Shower Porn:
◼ Shower Heads
◼ Jaclo's Dream Light Rain Shower Head
◼ RAIN CANOPIES, SHOWERHEADS & SHOWER COLLECTIONS
The new contraband:
Contraband:
Criminals:
Big Brother lives.
◼ GET YOUR HAND OUT OF MY SHOWER - powerline
Shower Porn:
◼ Shower Heads
◼ Jaclo's Dream Light Rain Shower Head
◼ RAIN CANOPIES, SHOWERHEADS & SHOWER COLLECTIONS
"the task is to set the frame that the Palin pick showed bad judgment on McCain’s part"
◼ Journolist Trig Emails - All About The Story Line
How can we destroy Sarah Palin? Be careful, but do it. "Because if she proves to be a popular choice who doesn’t screw up too badly, shecould be really, really dangerous in the years to come."
Dangerous? For whom?
And who tasked them with this job?
How can we destroy Sarah Palin? Be careful, but do it. "Because if she proves to be a popular choice who doesn’t screw up too badly, shecould be really, really dangerous in the years to come."
Dangerous? For whom?
And who tasked them with this job?
Sunday, July 25
Shirley Silenced: Sherrod Kept Out of Sunday Talk-shows
◼ Shirley Silenced: Sherrod Kept Out of Sunday Talk-shows
It ain't FOX keeping her quiet. But they'll get the blame. Just like it is FOX's fault that a 'non-story' like the black panther intimidation case got any attention at all.
Fact is, she was cheered by the real racists at the NAACP. Everything after that has been damage control. Over what she said. Over the cheering. Over her defending herself saying her remarks were taken out of context (the cheers weren't though) to her snark after the fact.
It is a story, and it is indicative that the spirit of JournOlist is alive and well. Nothing has been learned.
It ain't FOX keeping her quiet. But they'll get the blame. Just like it is FOX's fault that a 'non-story' like the black panther intimidation case got any attention at all.
Fact is, she was cheered by the real racists at the NAACP. Everything after that has been damage control. Over what she said. Over the cheering. Over her defending herself saying her remarks were taken out of context (the cheers weren't though) to her snark after the fact.
It is a story, and it is indicative that the spirit of JournOlist is alive and well. Nothing has been learned.
SoHumBorn Sunday (Finally!): The Ride (Conclusion) PLUS SoHumBorn on the radio
◼ SoHumBorn Sunday (Finally!): The Ride (Conclusion)
This is beyond fear. This feeling is so far past any other she’s ever had. This isn’t how you feel when the mall security cop stops you because you stole a pair of sunglasses on a dare. It isn’t how you feel when the music teacher comes in the bathroom where you and your friends are smoking a joint. It’s not like when your boyfriend convinces you to give just a little more, & you hear your Dad’s keys in the door. It’s not even like riding in your drunk buddy’s truck on a makeshift jump track at a riverbar party and… sky – ground – sky – ground -sky – ground… pain. This is so much worse....
◼ SoHumBorn Sunday: Interview With Local Celebrity On KHSU
"SoHumBorn" will talk tomorrow on KHSU-FM (radio).
Her voice will be slightly disguised to keep her anonymity. Former blogger, SoHumBorn whose tales of the outlaw world of marijuana growers have captivated an online audience will be interviewed by Kathy Sarabian on the show Through the Eyes of Women at 1:30pm PACIFIC TIME.
◼ LISTEN LIVE ONLINE - http://www.khsu.org/listen_live
If you've missed the rest of the series: @ RedHeadedBlackbelt
◼ First: Growing Up in SoHum
◼ Second: Cheap Lesson
◼ Third: SoHumBorn Sunday: ToothFairy
◼ Fourth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Unexpected Company
◼ Fifth: Other End Of The Line (pt. 2 of unexpected company)
◼ Sixth: Bear Harbor
◼ Seventh: SoHumBorn Sunday: Weathering The Storm (Part 1)
◼ Eighth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Weathering The Storm (Part 2)
◼ Ninth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Weathering The Storm (Conclusion)
◼ Tenth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Tidy Bowl
◼ Eleventh: SoHumBorn Sunday:The Ride Part 1-3
◼ Twelfth: SoHumBorn Sunday: The Ride (Part 4 &5)
◼ Thirteenth: SoHumBorn Sunday:The Ride (Parts 6&7)
◼ Fourteenth SoHumBorn Sunday (Finally!): The Ride (Conclusion)
This is beyond fear. This feeling is so far past any other she’s ever had. This isn’t how you feel when the mall security cop stops you because you stole a pair of sunglasses on a dare. It isn’t how you feel when the music teacher comes in the bathroom where you and your friends are smoking a joint. It’s not like when your boyfriend convinces you to give just a little more, & you hear your Dad’s keys in the door. It’s not even like riding in your drunk buddy’s truck on a makeshift jump track at a riverbar party and… sky – ground – sky – ground -sky – ground… pain. This is so much worse....
◼ SoHumBorn Sunday: Interview With Local Celebrity On KHSU
"SoHumBorn" will talk tomorrow on KHSU-FM (radio).
Her voice will be slightly disguised to keep her anonymity. Former blogger, SoHumBorn whose tales of the outlaw world of marijuana growers have captivated an online audience will be interviewed by Kathy Sarabian on the show Through the Eyes of Women at 1:30pm PACIFIC TIME.
◼ LISTEN LIVE ONLINE - http://www.khsu.org/listen_live
If you've missed the rest of the series: @ RedHeadedBlackbelt
◼ First: Growing Up in SoHum
◼ Second: Cheap Lesson
◼ Third: SoHumBorn Sunday: ToothFairy
◼ Fourth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Unexpected Company
◼ Fifth: Other End Of The Line (pt. 2 of unexpected company)
◼ Sixth: Bear Harbor
◼ Seventh: SoHumBorn Sunday: Weathering The Storm (Part 1)
◼ Eighth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Weathering The Storm (Part 2)
◼ Ninth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Weathering The Storm (Conclusion)
◼ Tenth: SoHumBorn Sunday: Tidy Bowl
◼ Eleventh: SoHumBorn Sunday:The Ride Part 1-3
◼ Twelfth: SoHumBorn Sunday: The Ride (Part 4 &5)
◼ Thirteenth: SoHumBorn Sunday:The Ride (Parts 6&7)
◼ Fourteenth SoHumBorn Sunday (Finally!): The Ride (Conclusion)
Saturday, July 24
The list of known members to date of the left-wing now-defunct JournoList listserv. Spread the word.
How many have been fired? Why have they not been fired and their journalists credentials revoked, their press cards confiscated? What is the penalty for this despicable violation of any kind of journalistic ethics?
◼ Read more: ymchoo comments
1. Ezra Klein
2. Dave Weigel
3. Matthew Yglesias
4. David Dayen
5. Spencer Ackerman
6. Jeffrey Toobin
7. Eric Alterman
8. Paul Krugman
9. John Judis
10. Eve Fairbanks
11. Mike Allen
12. Ben Smith
13. Lisa Lerer
14. Joe Klein
15. Brad DeLong
16. Chris Hayes
17. Matt Duss
18. Jonathan Chait
19. Jesse Singal
20. Michael Cohen
21. Isaac Chotiner
22. Katha Pollitt
23. Alyssa Rosenberg
24. Rick Perlstein
25. Alex Rossmiller
26. Ed Kilgore
27. Walter Shapiro
28. Noam Scheiber
29. Michael Tomasky
30. Rich Yesels
31. Tim Fernholz
32. Dana Goldstein
33. Jonathan Cohn
34. Scott Winship
35. David Roberts
36. Luke Mitchell
37. John Blevins
38. Moira Whelan
39. Henry Farrell
40. Josh Bearman
41. Alec McGillis
42. Greg Anrig
43. Adele Stan
44. Steven Teles
45. Harold Pollack
46. Adam Serwer
47. Ryan Donmoyer
48. Seth Michaels
49. Kate Steadman
50. Matt Duss
51. Laura Rozen
52. Jesse Taylor
53. Michael Hirsh
54. Daniel Davies
55. Jonathan Zasloff
56. Richard Kim
57. Thomas Schaller
58. Jared Bernstein
59. Holly Yeager
60. Joe Conason
61. David Greenberg
62. Todd Gitlin
63. Mark Schmitt
64. Kevin Drum
65. Sarah Spitz
h/t: Babes
◼ “JournoList” on The Daily Caller
◼ Journolist’s anti-Palin crusade of 2008
Jonathan Strong’s assessment that the tone of the brainstorming among Journolisters “was more campaign headquarters than newsroom” was right on the money. He chronicled how the Obama camp – I mean, journalists – were in a frenzy to come up with ways to discredit Palin and drag down her appeal. So, they set out to counterbalance what they feared – that “Her decision to keep the Down’s baby is going to be a hugely emotional story that appeals to a vast swath of America” and that “Sarah Palin’s just been introduced to the country as a brave, above-party, oil-company-bashing, pork-hating maverick ‘outsider.’”
◼ Journolist: The Movie [video]
◼ Journolisters offended by Keith Olbermann’s ‘misogynistic,’ ‘predictable,’ and ‘pompous’ show
◼ Letter from Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson on The Daily Caller’s Journolist coverage
We began our series on Journolist earlier this week with the expectation that our stories would be met with a fury of criticism from the Left. A hurt dog barks, after all.
The response hasn’t been all that furious, actually, probably because there isn’t much for the exposed members of Journolist to say. We caught them. They’re ashamed. The wise ones are waiting for the tempest to pass.
There have, however, been two lines of argument that we probably ought to respond to, if only because they may harden into received wisdom if we don’t. The first is that our pieces have proved only that liberal journalists have liberal views, and that’s hardly news.
To be clear: We’re not contesting the right of anyone, journalist or not, to have political opinions. (I, for one, have made a pretty good living expressing mine.) What we object to is partisanship, which is by its nature dishonest, a species of intellectual corruption. Again and again, we discovered members of Journolist working to coordinate talking points on behalf of Democratic politicians, principally Barack Obama. That is not journalism, and those who engage in it are not journalists. They should stop pretending to be. The news organizations they work for should stop pretending, too....
One final note: Editing this series has been something of a depressing experience for me. I’ve been in journalism my entire adult life, and have often defended it against fellow conservatives who claim the news business is fundamentally corrupt. It’s harder to make that defense now. It will be easier when honest (and, yes, liberal) journalists denounce what happened on Journolist as wrong....
◼ DC on TV: Jonathan Strong talks to FOX News about Journolist targeting Sarah Palin
◼ Fred Barnes: The vast left-wing media conspiracy
◼ Meet the new Journolist, smaller than the old journolist
Blogosphere, please join me in celebrating the birth of Cabalist, the wittily-named successor to Ezra Klein’s infamous Journolist, the listserv of liberal bloggers, pundits and academics that inadvertently brought down (very temporarily) the ex-Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel, and which is now the subject of an endless and embarrassing (for certain former Journolist participants) investigation by The Daily Caller, which has discovered e-mail chains suggesting that certain Journolist members were secretly devising partisan campaigns to advance Democratic Party interests.
Hence, the birth of the heretofore secret Cabalist, which unlike Journolist, has only 173 members, rather than 400, but which in other ways resembles Journolist (such as in the propensity of Cabalist members to leak ostensibly private information to non-Cabalist members, including to yours truly). The 173 members are mainly veterans of Journolist, and don’t ask me what happened to the other 227; perhaps they were purged after being judged splitters in secret on-line show trials.
◼ Journolister apologizes for Rush Limbaugh comment
◼ A Paler Shade Of White – The Journolist Conspirators - I own the world (Image source, great comment thread)
◼ Mmm Mmm Mmm, look at All Them Crackers - Blogmocracy
◼ Read more: ymchoo comments
1. Ezra Klein
2. Dave Weigel
3. Matthew Yglesias
4. David Dayen
5. Spencer Ackerman
6. Jeffrey Toobin
7. Eric Alterman
8. Paul Krugman
9. John Judis
10. Eve Fairbanks
11. Mike Allen
12. Ben Smith
13. Lisa Lerer
14. Joe Klein
15. Brad DeLong
16. Chris Hayes
17. Matt Duss
18. Jonathan Chait
19. Jesse Singal
20. Michael Cohen
21. Isaac Chotiner
22. Katha Pollitt
23. Alyssa Rosenberg
24. Rick Perlstein
25. Alex Rossmiller
26. Ed Kilgore
27. Walter Shapiro
28. Noam Scheiber
29. Michael Tomasky
30. Rich Yesels
31. Tim Fernholz
32. Dana Goldstein
33. Jonathan Cohn
34. Scott Winship
35. David Roberts
36. Luke Mitchell
37. John Blevins
38. Moira Whelan
39. Henry Farrell
40. Josh Bearman
41. Alec McGillis
42. Greg Anrig
43. Adele Stan
44. Steven Teles
45. Harold Pollack
46. Adam Serwer
47. Ryan Donmoyer
48. Seth Michaels
49. Kate Steadman
50. Matt Duss
51. Laura Rozen
52. Jesse Taylor
53. Michael Hirsh
54. Daniel Davies
55. Jonathan Zasloff
56. Richard Kim
57. Thomas Schaller
58. Jared Bernstein
59. Holly Yeager
60. Joe Conason
61. David Greenberg
62. Todd Gitlin
63. Mark Schmitt
64. Kevin Drum
65. Sarah Spitz
h/t: Babes
◼ “JournoList” on The Daily Caller
◼ Journolist’s anti-Palin crusade of 2008
Jonathan Strong’s assessment that the tone of the brainstorming among Journolisters “was more campaign headquarters than newsroom” was right on the money. He chronicled how the Obama camp – I mean, journalists – were in a frenzy to come up with ways to discredit Palin and drag down her appeal. So, they set out to counterbalance what they feared – that “Her decision to keep the Down’s baby is going to be a hugely emotional story that appeals to a vast swath of America” and that “Sarah Palin’s just been introduced to the country as a brave, above-party, oil-company-bashing, pork-hating maverick ‘outsider.’”
◼ Journolist: The Movie [video]
◼ Journolisters offended by Keith Olbermann’s ‘misogynistic,’ ‘predictable,’ and ‘pompous’ show
◼ Letter from Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson on The Daily Caller’s Journolist coverage
We began our series on Journolist earlier this week with the expectation that our stories would be met with a fury of criticism from the Left. A hurt dog barks, after all.
The response hasn’t been all that furious, actually, probably because there isn’t much for the exposed members of Journolist to say. We caught them. They’re ashamed. The wise ones are waiting for the tempest to pass.
There have, however, been two lines of argument that we probably ought to respond to, if only because they may harden into received wisdom if we don’t. The first is that our pieces have proved only that liberal journalists have liberal views, and that’s hardly news.
To be clear: We’re not contesting the right of anyone, journalist or not, to have political opinions. (I, for one, have made a pretty good living expressing mine.) What we object to is partisanship, which is by its nature dishonest, a species of intellectual corruption. Again and again, we discovered members of Journolist working to coordinate talking points on behalf of Democratic politicians, principally Barack Obama. That is not journalism, and those who engage in it are not journalists. They should stop pretending to be. The news organizations they work for should stop pretending, too....
One final note: Editing this series has been something of a depressing experience for me. I’ve been in journalism my entire adult life, and have often defended it against fellow conservatives who claim the news business is fundamentally corrupt. It’s harder to make that defense now. It will be easier when honest (and, yes, liberal) journalists denounce what happened on Journolist as wrong....
◼ DC on TV: Jonathan Strong talks to FOX News about Journolist targeting Sarah Palin
◼ Fred Barnes: The vast left-wing media conspiracy
◼ Meet the new Journolist, smaller than the old journolist
Blogosphere, please join me in celebrating the birth of Cabalist, the wittily-named successor to Ezra Klein’s infamous Journolist, the listserv of liberal bloggers, pundits and academics that inadvertently brought down (very temporarily) the ex-Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel, and which is now the subject of an endless and embarrassing (for certain former Journolist participants) investigation by The Daily Caller, which has discovered e-mail chains suggesting that certain Journolist members were secretly devising partisan campaigns to advance Democratic Party interests.
Hence, the birth of the heretofore secret Cabalist, which unlike Journolist, has only 173 members, rather than 400, but which in other ways resembles Journolist (such as in the propensity of Cabalist members to leak ostensibly private information to non-Cabalist members, including to yours truly). The 173 members are mainly veterans of Journolist, and don’t ask me what happened to the other 227; perhaps they were purged after being judged splitters in secret on-line show trials.
◼ Journolister apologizes for Rush Limbaugh comment
◼ A Paler Shade Of White – The Journolist Conspirators - I own the world (Image source, great comment thread)
◼ Mmm Mmm Mmm, look at All Them Crackers - Blogmocracy
Labels:
JournOlist,
NO JOURNALISTIC ETHICS
Friday, July 23
Sen. John Kerry skips town on sails tax
◼ Sen. John Kerry skips town on sails tax
Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000. via drudge
Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000. via drudge
Thursday, July 22
Wednesday, July 21
Email forwards
Number 7: Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks....
Number 2: In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
Sometimes funny.
Number 2: In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
Sometimes funny.
'Take care of THIS.' - A Beverly Hills hotel source told The ENQUIRER
◼ AL GORE SEX SCANDAL SHOCKER POLICE INVESTIGATE TWO MORE
The ENQUIRER recently uncovered shocking allegations, from two other massage therapists.
The first incident allegedly took place at a Beverly Hills luxury hotel when Gore, 62, was in Hollywood to attend the Oscars in 2007.
The second reportedly occurred a year later at a hotel in Tokyo.
A Beverly Hills hotel source told The ENQUIRER:
"The therapist claimed that when they were alone, Gore shrugged off a towel and stood naked in front of her.
"He pointed at his erect penis and ordered her, 'Take care of THIS.'"
Given that the Enquirer has become a pretty reliable source of information - amazing but true! - I have a feeling there's more to this story to come.
The ENQUIRER recently uncovered shocking allegations, from two other massage therapists.
The first incident allegedly took place at a Beverly Hills luxury hotel when Gore, 62, was in Hollywood to attend the Oscars in 2007.
The second reportedly occurred a year later at a hotel in Tokyo.
A Beverly Hills hotel source told The ENQUIRER:
"The therapist claimed that when they were alone, Gore shrugged off a towel and stood naked in front of her.
"He pointed at his erect penis and ordered her, 'Take care of THIS.'"
Given that the Enquirer has become a pretty reliable source of information - amazing but true! - I have a feeling there's more to this story to come.
Labels:
Al Gore's insanity
Tuesday, July 20
Monday, July 19
Paper: Gore Accuser Had No Evidence, Failed Lie Detector - But...
◼ Paper: Gore Accuser Had No Evidence, Failed Lie Detector
Late this past week, the Portland Tribune released a report detailing its own multiyear probe into the case: "Gore chase had no finish: With no evidence on pants, claims were hard to prove."
Contrary to press reports, the paper indicated it had taken seriously the allegations of a licensed masseuse that she was assaulted while giving Gore a massage in Portland hotel suite.
But the woman's story and claims had serious problems.
BUT - ◼ AL GORE SEX SCANDAL SHOCKER POLICE INVESTIGATE TWO MORE Enquirer EXCLUSIVE
The ENQUIRER recently uncovered shocking allegations, from two other massage therapists.
The first incident allegedly took place at a Beverly Hills luxury hotel when Gore, 62, was in Hollywood to attend the Oscars in 2007.
The second reportedly occurred a year later at a hotel in Tokyo.
A Beverly Hills hotel source told The ENQUIRER:
"The therapist claimed that when they were alone, Gore shrugged off a towel and stood naked in front of her.
"He pointed at his erect penis and ordered her, 'Take care of THIS.'"
Late this past week, the Portland Tribune released a report detailing its own multiyear probe into the case: "Gore chase had no finish: With no evidence on pants, claims were hard to prove."
Contrary to press reports, the paper indicated it had taken seriously the allegations of a licensed masseuse that she was assaulted while giving Gore a massage in Portland hotel suite.
But the woman's story and claims had serious problems.
BUT - ◼ AL GORE SEX SCANDAL SHOCKER POLICE INVESTIGATE TWO MORE Enquirer EXCLUSIVE
The ENQUIRER recently uncovered shocking allegations, from two other massage therapists.
The first incident allegedly took place at a Beverly Hills luxury hotel when Gore, 62, was in Hollywood to attend the Oscars in 2007.
The second reportedly occurred a year later at a hotel in Tokyo.
A Beverly Hills hotel source told The ENQUIRER:
"The therapist claimed that when they were alone, Gore shrugged off a towel and stood naked in front of her.
"He pointed at his erect penis and ordered her, 'Take care of THIS.'"
Labels:
Al Gore's insanity
the most recent Rasmussen Poll asked voters if they wanted an economic system of complete free enterprise or preferred more government involvement
◼ When Denial And Propaganda Fail – Reality Strikes! ...By 77-19, they voted against a government role, up seven points from last month.
By 62-20, they said government spending, under Obama, was “out of control.”
"......Democrats were in deep denial, confident the liberal fiction really was true. Confident in their naive concept of replacing the world’s leading economy with the mediocrity of bureaucrats in government offices – playing the all-knowing, all-seeing gods of personal success. The Dems have been attempting to replace an economy that is the best of all human history, one that raised the standard of living of all the people to unforeseen heights.
Who in their right mind could ever contemplate trading a vibrant economy for bureaucrats? And yet the Dems did. Their liberal media groupies followed suit, and it is only now that they have fully realized the depth of their errors....." A great read at strata-sphere
By 62-20, they said government spending, under Obama, was “out of control.”
"......Democrats were in deep denial, confident the liberal fiction really was true. Confident in their naive concept of replacing the world’s leading economy with the mediocrity of bureaucrats in government offices – playing the all-knowing, all-seeing gods of personal success. The Dems have been attempting to replace an economy that is the best of all human history, one that raised the standard of living of all the people to unforeseen heights.
Who in their right mind could ever contemplate trading a vibrant economy for bureaucrats? And yet the Dems did. Their liberal media groupies followed suit, and it is only now that they have fully realized the depth of their errors....." A great read at strata-sphere
Labels:
Approval ratings,
Economy
Sunday, July 18
“Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing.”
◼ Sarah Palin Bashes Plans For Ground Zero Mosque
If ever there was a clear manifestation of Obama's "America is weak and apologetic tour" it is this idea that they can put a mosque at Ground Zero.
If ever a message was to be sent that those who are persistent will win against us because we are indolent, lazy and uncaring, this is it. Surely THIS abominable proposal offends people on BOTH sides of the aisle.
No new mosque should be allowed within 50 miles of that site. Or in that state or in this country for that matter, until those who planned 9/11 are dead, and their murderous jihad has ended forever.
Bowing and scraping dishonors the innocents who died that day.
If ever there was a clear manifestation of Obama's "America is weak and apologetic tour" it is this idea that they can put a mosque at Ground Zero.
If ever a message was to be sent that those who are persistent will win against us because we are indolent, lazy and uncaring, this is it. Surely THIS abominable proposal offends people on BOTH sides of the aisle.
No new mosque should be allowed within 50 miles of that site. Or in that state or in this country for that matter, until those who planned 9/11 are dead, and their murderous jihad has ended forever.
Bowing and scraping dishonors the innocents who died that day.
Now you get to know what was in it - more expenses for you
...........image source: imaksim.com
And now, you, the businessman, will have to file 1099s on everyone you do business with, you have to file 1099s on PG&E, your water company - everyone.
Tucked into Obamacare... Under the Individual Mandate Tax (IMT) provision in the bill, the part that forces you to purchase Obamacare whether you want it or not, the progressive Democrats make the IRS the chief enforcer for a new government-run health insurance system.... It's not enough that you claimed your expenses. Get ready to pay your accountant more, or hire a few more.
◼ IRS Exposes Another Obamacare Lie
...a damaging provision that she estimates will hit some 30 million sole proprietorships and subchapter S corporations, two million farms and one million charities and other tax-exempt organizations. Prior to ObamaCare, businesses only had to tell the IRS the value of services they purchase. But starting in 2013 they will also have to report the value of goods they buy from a single vendor that total more than $600 annually—including office supplies and the like.
Democrats snuck in this obligation to narrow the mythical "tax gap" of unreported business income, but Ms. Olson says that the tracking costs for small businesses will be "disproportionate as compared with any resulting improvement in tax compliance." Job creation, here we come . . . at least for the accountants who will attempt to comply with a vast new 1099 reporting burden.
Meanwhile, the IRS will be inundated with useless information, because without a huge upgrade its information systems won't be able to manage and track the nanodetails....
...the Obama administration is forcing an unprecedented intrusion into the privacy of each and every American.
Thank Nancy. And Harry, And Barbara.
The need for pretense is over, and now...
The truth is out, and will be stated drolly, why are you upset? You knew this is what we were doing all along, even though we lied and said it wasn't. You knew our hands were crossed behind our back...
◼ Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax - NYTimes
"WASHINGTON — When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”
And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.
Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.
Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.
In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.
Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said....
The law describes the levy on the uninsured as a “penalty” rather than a tax. The Justice Department brushes aside the distinction, saying “the statutory label” does not matter. The constitutionality of a tax law depends on “its practical operation,” not the precise form of words used to describe it, the department says, citing a long line of Supreme Court cases.
Moreover, the department says the penalty is a tax because it will raise substantial revenue: $4 billion a year by 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In addition, the department notes, the penalty is imposed and collected under the Internal Revenue Code, and people must report it on their tax returns “as an addition to income tax liability.”
Because the penalty is a tax, the department says, no one can challenge it in court before paying it and seeking a refund.
Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School who supports the new law, said, “The tax argument is the strongest argument for upholding” the individual-coverage requirement.
Mr. Obama “has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill,” Mr. Balkin said last month at a meeting of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization. “This bill is a tax. Because it’s a tax, it’s completely constitutional.”
...“This is the first time that Congress has ever ordered Americans to use their own money to purchase a particular good or service,” said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah.
In their lawsuit, Florida and other states say: “Congress is attempting to regulate and penalize Americans for choosing not to engage in economic activity. If Congress can do this much, there will be virtually no sphere of private decision-making beyond the reach of federal power.”
via Drudge:
◼ Insurers Push Plans Limiting Patient Choice of Doctors - NYTimes - and you knew that was coming too, tell the truth.
"...The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.
But companies may be able to reduce their premiums by as much as 15 percent, the insurers say, by offering the more limited plans...."
◼ Small firms canceling coverage... - boston.com
◼ IRS's vast new ObamaCare powers... - wsj
◼ Moral of the Obamacare Story: Taxes In, Doctors Out - legal insurrection
◼ Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax - NYTimes
"WASHINGTON — When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”
And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.
Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.
Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.
In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.
Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said....
The law describes the levy on the uninsured as a “penalty” rather than a tax. The Justice Department brushes aside the distinction, saying “the statutory label” does not matter. The constitutionality of a tax law depends on “its practical operation,” not the precise form of words used to describe it, the department says, citing a long line of Supreme Court cases.
Moreover, the department says the penalty is a tax because it will raise substantial revenue: $4 billion a year by 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In addition, the department notes, the penalty is imposed and collected under the Internal Revenue Code, and people must report it on their tax returns “as an addition to income tax liability.”
Because the penalty is a tax, the department says, no one can challenge it in court before paying it and seeking a refund.
Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School who supports the new law, said, “The tax argument is the strongest argument for upholding” the individual-coverage requirement.
Mr. Obama “has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill,” Mr. Balkin said last month at a meeting of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization. “This bill is a tax. Because it’s a tax, it’s completely constitutional.”
...“This is the first time that Congress has ever ordered Americans to use their own money to purchase a particular good or service,” said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah.
In their lawsuit, Florida and other states say: “Congress is attempting to regulate and penalize Americans for choosing not to engage in economic activity. If Congress can do this much, there will be virtually no sphere of private decision-making beyond the reach of federal power.”
via Drudge:
◼ Insurers Push Plans Limiting Patient Choice of Doctors - NYTimes - and you knew that was coming too, tell the truth.
"...The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.
But companies may be able to reduce their premiums by as much as 15 percent, the insurers say, by offering the more limited plans...."
◼ Small firms canceling coverage... - boston.com
◼ IRS's vast new ObamaCare powers... - wsj
◼ Moral of the Obamacare Story: Taxes In, Doctors Out - legal insurrection
Labels:
Deceit,
Just Despicable,
Taxes
Saturday, July 17
. . . But Not That Kind of Diversity
◼ . . . But Not That Kind of Diversity
"...Participation in such Red State activities as high school ROTC, 4-H clubs, or the Future Farmers of America was found to reduce very substantially a student's chances of gaining admission to the competitive private colleges in the NSCE database on an all-other-things-considered basis. The admissions disadvantage was greatest for those in leadership positions in these activities or those winning honors and awards. "Being an officer or winning awards" for such career-oriented activities as junior ROTC, 4-H, or Future Farmers of America, say Espenshade and Radford, "has a significantly negative association with admission outcomes at highly selective institutions." Excelling in these activities "is associated with 60 or 65 percent lower odds of admission."..."
◼ No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life Thomas J. Espenshade & Alexandria Walton - The study... No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal offers valuable insights into the intricate workings of America's elite higher education system.
h/t: Ploome
"...Participation in such Red State activities as high school ROTC, 4-H clubs, or the Future Farmers of America was found to reduce very substantially a student's chances of gaining admission to the competitive private colleges in the NSCE database on an all-other-things-considered basis. The admissions disadvantage was greatest for those in leadership positions in these activities or those winning honors and awards. "Being an officer or winning awards" for such career-oriented activities as junior ROTC, 4-H, or Future Farmers of America, say Espenshade and Radford, "has a significantly negative association with admission outcomes at highly selective institutions." Excelling in these activities "is associated with 60 or 65 percent lower odds of admission."..."
◼ No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life Thomas J. Espenshade & Alexandria Walton - The study... No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal offers valuable insights into the intricate workings of America's elite higher education system.
h/t: Ploome
Labels:
Just disgusting
On Facebook, my friend Donna says:
So people have been sending in pics...
Labels:
Just Awesome
Tuesday, July 13
Monday, July 12
Day-By-Day Fund Drive
Calling all DBD readers-the Annual DBD Fund Drive is up now!
◼ Support Day-By-Day the only 100% reader supported political comic strip.
Dessert is not a right
◼ says Michelle Obama.
No kidding. Neither is food, really, if you take life back to basics. A cave man had to hunt for his food every day, may have gone days with nothing to eat, and had to follow the herds in order to keep people fed. The lost their lives in the hunt.
Later, through the trade routes such wonders as salt and sugar were prized treats. Imagine if we were to suffer a catastrophe that cost us our transportation system. Where would your spices come from?
In Humboldt County, CA, how long would people survive? The art of hunting and fishing are mostly forgotten, people live in houses that do not have enough property for a victory garden much less a garden big enough to sustain a family.
No - it's not a right. But it is a gift and a treat that a cook, usually the Mom, offers to her family, if they even have traditional meals, and shares with her guests. It is a personal decision and none of Ms. Obama's business.
What is it about these people that they feel they have to meddle in the minutiae of other people's lives? With all the big, serious issues in the world.
What happened to the baby boomers who were so independent early on in their lives, and so insistent that no one could tell them what to do that now they follow like obedient sheep?
It's kinda mean the way she treats her daughters, if anything she and her husband say is true - they don't give them Christmas presents either. That's not a right either. Nice.
No kidding. Neither is food, really, if you take life back to basics. A cave man had to hunt for his food every day, may have gone days with nothing to eat, and had to follow the herds in order to keep people fed. The lost their lives in the hunt.
Later, through the trade routes such wonders as salt and sugar were prized treats. Imagine if we were to suffer a catastrophe that cost us our transportation system. Where would your spices come from?
In Humboldt County, CA, how long would people survive? The art of hunting and fishing are mostly forgotten, people live in houses that do not have enough property for a victory garden much less a garden big enough to sustain a family.
No - it's not a right. But it is a gift and a treat that a cook, usually the Mom, offers to her family, if they even have traditional meals, and shares with her guests. It is a personal decision and none of Ms. Obama's business.
What is it about these people that they feel they have to meddle in the minutiae of other people's lives? With all the big, serious issues in the world.
What happened to the baby boomers who were so independent early on in their lives, and so insistent that no one could tell them what to do that now they follow like obedient sheep?
It's kinda mean the way she treats her daughters, if anything she and her husband say is true - they don't give them Christmas presents either. That's not a right either. Nice.
Sunday, July 11
THIS is what they are worried about?
In a private meeting with White House officials this weekend, Democratic governors voiced deep anxiety about the Obama administration’s suit against Arizona’s new immigration law, worrying that it could cost a vulnerable Democratic Party in the fall elections....
The Democrats’ meeting provided a window on tensions between the White House and states over the suit, which the Justice Department filed last week in federal court in Phoenix. Nineteen Democratic governors are either leaving office or seeking re-election this year, and Republicans see those seats as crucial to swaying the 2012 presidential race.
◼ Governors Voice Grave Concerns on Immigration
Unreal. Not worried ab out the intrusion on state's rights - overstepping the constitution, burying future generations in debt....
The Democrats’ meeting provided a window on tensions between the White House and states over the suit, which the Justice Department filed last week in federal court in Phoenix. Nineteen Democratic governors are either leaving office or seeking re-election this year, and Republicans see those seats as crucial to swaying the 2012 presidential race.
◼ Governors Voice Grave Concerns on Immigration
Unreal. Not worried ab out the intrusion on state's rights - overstepping the constitution, burying future generations in debt....
The M BRACE - for making simple raised beds
How to build an MBrace raised bed from Art of the Garden on Vimeo.
They had these demo'd at the Wood Fair today - not only a pretty cool idea (the woman whose idea it was was there) but really nice packaging, too. A real success story.
◼ The M BRACE
The M BRACE is a revolution in raised bed construction ... NO TOOLS REQUIRED! Slide any sized boards into the patented brace, fill with soil and plant. That's it! The M BRACE is beautiful too, with laser cut designs to complement any garden.
Labels:
gardens
Friday, July 9
PImp your workspace
◼ So this guy got a nice new home office set up, and invited people to send in their pics... so they did... LOL
◼ Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell
◼ Windows 95 machine, with keyboard balanced on open drawer, mouse on H.A.Rey, "The Stars, A New Way To See Them" slanted into side drawer.
Thursday, July 8
Wednesday, July 7
In Orwellian terms
◼ "Perfect Citizen" means... quite the opposite, doesn't it.
◼ The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is anything but, and is instead an end to anonymity and a means to block free speech.
The first article cites an email that says "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother." But it is the site of the second article, whitehouse.gov that is the real propaganda machine. The real Big Brother.
...an Identity Ecosystem as we refer to it in the strategy, where individuals and organizations can complete online transactions with confidence, trusting the identities of each other and the identities of the infrastructure that the transaction runs on. For example, no longer should individuals have to remember an ever-expanding and potentially insecure list of usernames and passwords to login into various online services. ...
NO. You shouldn't HAVE TO REMEMBER THOSE PESKY PASSWORDS. THAT'S JUST SO - RISKY.
◼ The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is anything but, and is instead an end to anonymity and a means to block free speech.
The first article cites an email that says "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother." But it is the site of the second article, whitehouse.gov that is the real propaganda machine. The real Big Brother.
...an Identity Ecosystem as we refer to it in the strategy, where individuals and organizations can complete online transactions with confidence, trusting the identities of each other and the identities of the infrastructure that the transaction runs on. For example, no longer should individuals have to remember an ever-expanding and potentially insecure list of usernames and passwords to login into various online services. ...
NO. You shouldn't HAVE TO REMEMBER THOSE PESKY PASSWORDS. THAT'S JUST SO - RISKY.
Tuesday, July 6
FEDERAL GOVT SUES TO STOP AZ FROM DOING FED'S JOB
◼ Feds sue to block Arizona illegal immigrant lawnews.yahoo
◼ Feds File Suit Against Arizona - MICHELLE MALKIN
◼ Suit Challenging Arizona Law's Constitutionality Will Soon Be Filed - BUMP: DOJ Just Filed - Ace
Ace asks: In this case, however, the Arizona law does not conflict with federal law; it in fact restates it. Deliberately, to be as constitutional as possible and to set up a good question:
Yes, a state law cannot conflict with a federal law in an area of federal jurisdiction, but can a state policy conflict with a federal policy if both state the same law?
In other words -- Arizona's law is the same as the feds'. The big difference is not in the law, but in the policy: the feds have a policy of non- or minimal enforcement; they are angry at Arizona not because Arizona has passed fresh law but because Arizona intends a different policy -- a policy of actual enforcement.
So yes, federal law trumps state law, but does mere federal policy trump state policy, especially when federal policy is in fact at odds with its own stated law?
Can the feds basically argue that it's their policy to ignore the law and then demand that Arizona be instructed by the Supreme Court to follow them in their policy of ignoring the law?
◼ Feds File Suit Against Arizona - MICHELLE MALKIN
◼ Suit Challenging Arizona Law's Constitutionality Will Soon Be Filed - BUMP: DOJ Just Filed - Ace
Ace asks: In this case, however, the Arizona law does not conflict with federal law; it in fact restates it. Deliberately, to be as constitutional as possible and to set up a good question:
Yes, a state law cannot conflict with a federal law in an area of federal jurisdiction, but can a state policy conflict with a federal policy if both state the same law?
In other words -- Arizona's law is the same as the feds'. The big difference is not in the law, but in the policy: the feds have a policy of non- or minimal enforcement; they are angry at Arizona not because Arizona has passed fresh law but because Arizona intends a different policy -- a policy of actual enforcement.
So yes, federal law trumps state law, but does mere federal policy trump state policy, especially when federal policy is in fact at odds with its own stated law?
Can the feds basically argue that it's their policy to ignore the law and then demand that Arizona be instructed by the Supreme Court to follow them in their policy of ignoring the law?
Censoring "Controversial Opinion" but not porn?
◼ TSA to Block "Controversial Opinion" on the Web
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.
The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon.
It states that as of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed "inappropriate for government access."
The categories include:
• Chat/Messaging
• Controversial opinion
• Criminal activity
• Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content
• Gaming
...but NOT PORN? Which presumably was the reason for such a directive...
So we can guess Drudge is to be blocked. Who else?
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.
The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon.
It states that as of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed "inappropriate for government access."
The categories include:
• Chat/Messaging
• Controversial opinion
• Criminal activity
• Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content
• Gaming
...but NOT PORN? Which presumably was the reason for such a directive...
So we can guess Drudge is to be blocked. Who else?
Monday, July 5
This "community organizer" knows as much about private-sector jobs as Pamela Anderson knows about nuclear physics.
◼ Barack Obama: The great jobs killer
t's time to call Obama what he is: The Great Jobs Killer. With his massive spending and tax hikes -- rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners -- Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI's Most Wanted List.
Meanwhile, he has kept the union workers of GM and Chrysler employed (with taxpayer money). He has made sure that most government employee union members got their annual raises for sleeping on the job (with taxpayer money). He made sure that his voters got handouts mislabeled as "tax cuts" even though they never paid taxes (with taxpayer money). And he made sure that major campaign contributors collected billions off government stimulus (with taxpayer money).
As far as the taxpayers -- the people who actually take risks with our own money to create small businesses and jobs and pay most of the taxes -- we require protection under the Endangered Species Act....
in this new Obama world of high business taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and workers compensation taxes, the key to success is to avoid employees. The only way to survive as a business owner today is by keeping the payroll very low and by hiring only independent contractors or part-time employees provided by temp agencies....
Outside government, Obama has created a wasteland of economic ruin and depression that looks much like the landscape of Mel Gibson's first movie "Mad Max." Without a printing press in Obama's world, you're just plain out of luck.
The days of believing the Obama propaganda about a jobs recovery are over. The trillion-dollar corporate handouts (neatly named "stimulus") may have kept big business in the money for the past 18 months, and artificially propped up the stock market, but small business is the real canary in the coal mine....
And many business owners are making plans to leave the country. In a high-tech world where businesses can be run from anywhere, Obama has a problem. His one-trick pony -- raise taxes, raise taxes, raising taxes -- is chasing away the business owners he desperately needs to pay his bills.
So who is going to pay Obama's taxes? Not his voters. They want government to pay them. Who is going to create Obama's jobs? Not his voters -- they've never created a job in their lives. ◼ well worth reading
◼ Obama, Don’t Know Much About Business - NoQuarter
◼ Why we are doomed as a nation unless we undergo a radical change of mind. - truth and common sense - a small piece of the problem.
t's time to call Obama what he is: The Great Jobs Killer. With his massive spending and tax hikes -- rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners -- Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI's Most Wanted List.
Meanwhile, he has kept the union workers of GM and Chrysler employed (with taxpayer money). He has made sure that most government employee union members got their annual raises for sleeping on the job (with taxpayer money). He made sure that his voters got handouts mislabeled as "tax cuts" even though they never paid taxes (with taxpayer money). And he made sure that major campaign contributors collected billions off government stimulus (with taxpayer money).
As far as the taxpayers -- the people who actually take risks with our own money to create small businesses and jobs and pay most of the taxes -- we require protection under the Endangered Species Act....
in this new Obama world of high business taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and workers compensation taxes, the key to success is to avoid employees. The only way to survive as a business owner today is by keeping the payroll very low and by hiring only independent contractors or part-time employees provided by temp agencies....
Outside government, Obama has created a wasteland of economic ruin and depression that looks much like the landscape of Mel Gibson's first movie "Mad Max." Without a printing press in Obama's world, you're just plain out of luck.
The days of believing the Obama propaganda about a jobs recovery are over. The trillion-dollar corporate handouts (neatly named "stimulus") may have kept big business in the money for the past 18 months, and artificially propped up the stock market, but small business is the real canary in the coal mine....
And many business owners are making plans to leave the country. In a high-tech world where businesses can be run from anywhere, Obama has a problem. His one-trick pony -- raise taxes, raise taxes, raising taxes -- is chasing away the business owners he desperately needs to pay his bills.
So who is going to pay Obama's taxes? Not his voters. They want government to pay them. Who is going to create Obama's jobs? Not his voters -- they've never created a job in their lives. ◼ well worth reading
◼ Obama, Don’t Know Much About Business - NoQuarter
◼ Why we are doomed as a nation unless we undergo a radical change of mind. - truth and common sense - a small piece of the problem.
Sunday, July 4
Paracord - fun stuff
◼ Tying The Oblong Knot...
◼ Cow hitched paracord water bottle sleeve...
◼ Parachute Cord available in all colors!
◼ Cheaperthandirt
◼ they even have parachutes
◼ following links: Steampunk Jewelry inspired by Victorian Science Fiction
''His work looks like something out of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, both antique and futuristic.'' Michelle Anne Olsen , The Gazette , Montreal.
H/T: skep
◼ Cow hitched paracord water bottle sleeve...
◼ Parachute Cord available in all colors!
◼ Cheaperthandirt
◼ they even have parachutes
◼ following links: Steampunk Jewelry inspired by Victorian Science Fiction
''His work looks like something out of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, both antique and futuristic.'' Michelle Anne Olsen , The Gazette , Montreal.
H/T: skep
Labels:
Just Awesome
Saturday, July 3
The President is -- first, second and always -- concerned with his image.
◼ Feds Shut Down Journalist Access to Spill--Unions, CNN Hardest Hit
Anderson Cooper: "We're not the enemy here. Those of us down here trying to accurately show what's happening, we are not the enemy. I have not heard about any journalists who has disrupted relief efforts... We found out today two public journalists reporting on health issues say they have been blocked again and again from visiting a federal mobile medical unit in Venice, a trailer where cleanup workers are being treated. It's known locally as the BP compound... We are not the enemy here."
Yes, you are the enemy here, Mr. Cooper.
You see, the President is -- first, second and always -- concerned with his image.
It took him months to make up his mind about troop levels in Afghanistan but fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal in less than a day after the Rolling Stone reported unflattering remarks by the general's staff.
The president talks about himself endlessly in speeches.
Fox News, Sean Hannity and talk radio, among other critics, were repeatedly singled out by Obama before, during and after his election.
His personal logo is stamped on all of his fund-raising material; and he has his own political action wing -- Organizing For America -- that does not appear to be under the control of the Democrat party....
If there's one thing this President hates -- even more than capitalism, private property and individual liberty -- it's criticism. Watch out, Democrat journalists. First they came for Fox News... from directorblue
Anderson Cooper: "We're not the enemy here. Those of us down here trying to accurately show what's happening, we are not the enemy. I have not heard about any journalists who has disrupted relief efforts... We found out today two public journalists reporting on health issues say they have been blocked again and again from visiting a federal mobile medical unit in Venice, a trailer where cleanup workers are being treated. It's known locally as the BP compound... We are not the enemy here."
Yes, you are the enemy here, Mr. Cooper.
You see, the President is -- first, second and always -- concerned with his image.
It took him months to make up his mind about troop levels in Afghanistan but fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal in less than a day after the Rolling Stone reported unflattering remarks by the general's staff.
The president talks about himself endlessly in speeches.
Fox News, Sean Hannity and talk radio, among other critics, were repeatedly singled out by Obama before, during and after his election.
His personal logo is stamped on all of his fund-raising material; and he has his own political action wing -- Organizing For America -- that does not appear to be under the control of the Democrat party....
If there's one thing this President hates -- even more than capitalism, private property and individual liberty -- it's criticism. Watch out, Democrat journalists. First they came for Fox News... from directorblue
Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, but Can’t Stop Digging Hole
◼ $5.01 billion in the red.
“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he (Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes) says in his downtown office.
Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”
For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.
This is what happens.
“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he (Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes) says in his downtown office.
Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”
For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.
This is what happens.
Friday, July 2
Right up there with "I was just following orders."
"He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected," former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd.
"And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians," he added.
◼ "He was trying to get elected" and we all know that's all that matters.
Now granted, Obama has no links to the slave heritage here, not to the days of the Klan, but the KKK lynched people like him. terrorized innocent people simply because of the color of their skin, burning crosses in the yards of people was the least of what they did - how can he sit there and listen to this?
He can, because he believes, like Clinton, that it is all about getting elected. Do ANYTHING. SAY ANYTHING. NO ONE WILL CARE.
"And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians," he added.
◼ "He was trying to get elected" and we all know that's all that matters.
Now granted, Obama has no links to the slave heritage here, not to the days of the Klan, but the KKK lynched people like him. terrorized innocent people simply because of the color of their skin, burning crosses in the yards of people was the least of what they did - how can he sit there and listen to this?
He can, because he believes, like Clinton, that it is all about getting elected. Do ANYTHING. SAY ANYTHING. NO ONE WILL CARE.
PELOSI: UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS FASTEST WAY TO CREATE JOBS - Imagine that!
Do you use your unemployment checks to hire people?
◼ PELOSI: UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS FASTEST WAY TO CREATE JOBS
Can she really say that without a straight face?
Drudge headlines:
◼ JUNE UNEMPLOYMENT 9.5%... 125,000 JOBS LOST...
though the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 9.5% from 9.7%, the lowest in a year, it was largely due to more people dropping out of the labor force.
◼ Rate dips as 652,000 give up job search...
The Labor Department reported Friday that total payroll employment, including government workers, was down 125,000 in June, reflecting the loss of 225,000 census workers who finished their assignments.
◼ Depressing...
◼ Weak economic data suggest 'recovery' fizzling...
◼ Fears mount over slowing global demand...
◼ PELOSI: UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS FASTEST WAY TO CREATE JOBS
Can she really say that without a straight face?
Drudge headlines:
◼ JUNE UNEMPLOYMENT 9.5%... 125,000 JOBS LOST...
though the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 9.5% from 9.7%, the lowest in a year, it was largely due to more people dropping out of the labor force.
◼ Rate dips as 652,000 give up job search...
The Labor Department reported Friday that total payroll employment, including government workers, was down 125,000 in June, reflecting the loss of 225,000 census workers who finished their assignments.
◼ Depressing...
◼ Weak economic data suggest 'recovery' fizzling...
◼ Fears mount over slowing global demand...
House Democrats ‘Deem’ Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed’
◼ Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that “deemed as passed” a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the “deeming” document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget.
The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.
Never before -- since the creation of the Congressional budget process -- has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.
◼ AN ADMISSION OF FISCAL FAILURE
It is not a ‘congressional budget resolution.’ The measure does not satisfy even the most
basic criteria of a budget resolution as set forth in the Congressional Budget Act.
The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.
Never before -- since the creation of the Congressional budget process -- has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.
◼ AN ADMISSION OF FISCAL FAILURE
It is not a ‘congressional budget resolution.’ The measure does not satisfy even the most
basic criteria of a budget resolution as set forth in the Congressional Budget Act.
Six Months to Go Until The Largest Tax Hikes in History
◼ First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
- 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, 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 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.
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.
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.
Read more: http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171##ixzz0sXcebM8V
- 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, 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 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.
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.
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.
Read more: http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171##ixzz0sXcebM8V
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