Friday, April 30, 2010

Today's Required Reading: Making a Run for the Border!


Lefties call it a list of demands. Conservatives are much more polite.

Do read it:

Virtual Mirage: Making a Run for the Border!

Update 5/1/10, 11:00 a.m.

Another, sobering view:

American Thinker: Report from Cochise County, AZ.

Update 5/1/10, 1:15 p.m.

One video is worth 1000 words:

Snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition: Democrats Care Nothing for the Safety of Arizona Citizens Caught in a Tsumami of Violence: They Just Want to Wring an Electoral Advantage Out of It.

__________

Don't You Dare Ask For My ID, But You Are Welcome to My Body Parts

Of all the creepy, nightmare, sci-fi scenarios that liberal lunacy is assaulting us with, I think New York's assumption that American citizens don't even own our own bodies is the topper.

Here in New York, we are so thoroughly considered the property of the state that, when we die, our lawmakers plan on having the state move in and harvest our organs, no questions asked. Die in New York State, and your heart, lungs, eyes, and liver go to the highest bidder, the state, nobody's saying.

What could go wrong? Especially in the age of death panels, world demand for transplant organs and the enormous profits to be made by selling organs, not to mention the inevitable desire to get an organ while it's nice and fresh, maybe from a body that's still warm (not quite dead, perhaps). Who's watching, anyway? After all, it can't happen here.

Oh, I'm telling you, my dear, that it can't happen here.

Don't be nervous about going into a hospital for that risky surgery. If you are viewed as as prospective donor, you don't need to worry about how hard a medical team will work to save you if they (or the government) perceive a greater benefit to harvesting the organs. Nah. They'll return you with all your parts. You can always trust the state.

But don't you find it just a tad interesting that a group of New York's lowly state assemblymen and assemblywomen are so confident of the state's ownership of us that they have no problem blithely informing us that they (reluctantly) will approve of individuals owning their own body parts (for now), only if individuals petition the state, in writing, for ownership of their own body parts. That's for those of us who are in a good situation to write, of course. In enlightened, ultra-charitable New York State, there are no poor, disabled, illiterate, or sick people (or even non-English speakers) who could be taken advantage of -- or, let us say --who could "fall through the cracks." No. Uh, uh. Not here. It can't happen here (here, maybe).

I mean, some politician wouldn't dream of confiscating your organs for one of his family members. Nah. Well, maybe the guy who dreamed up New York's latest "New York wants your heart" legislation because he had a hard time finding new kidneys for his daughter and didn't want to wait for "an act of God" to provide her with organ donors.

Under current New York State law, if I want to donate my organs and tissues to someone after I die, all I have to do is check a box on my drivers license renewal form (or license application), and my license will be mailed to me clearly emblazoned with the words "ORGAN DONOR." All legal and set to go.

But that's not good enough. Or convenient enough.

I keep saying it, and I'll say it again:  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Cross posted at Potluck.
__________

Thursday, April 29, 2010

"It Felt Like They Were Coming Out Trying to Instigate" (VIDEO)

From Founding Bloggers:



Full riot gear. I mean, really. . . .

__________

San Francisco's Attempts to "Punish" Arizona Might Backfire

Because San Francisco's political leaders view federal immigration law as "discriminatory," they have decided to punish the state of Arizona for its failure to succeed in providing "sanctuary" to the millions crossing its borders from Mexico, including warring drug thugs who have taken over entire neighborhoods and turned Arizona into a world kidnapping capital.

Fox News is reporting that Mayor Gavin Newsom has already banned city workers from all non-essential travel to Arizona, and San Francisco's Board of Supervisors are planning to boycott Arizona economically. Others want to cancel collegiate and professional sports events, like the Superbowl.

One question remains: Will San Francisco be willing to pay the price for its self-appointed claim on moral superiority? In one case, according to city spokeman, Tony Winnicker, if San Francisco cancels its business with an Arizona company that helps them run the city's Jobs Now program, "we could be looking at a situation where 2,500 San Franciscans would lose their jobs."

What? San Francisco workers could lose jobs in their attempt to kill the jobs of people in Arizona?

And what would happen if Arizona retaliated? As one San Francisco restauranteur confessed:
Would Arizona and other states that are more conservative than San Francisco retaliate, and stop sending conventions to San Francisco? Certainly, in a recession, we don't want any retaliation. 
What's the matter,  San Francisco? You can dish it out, but you just can't take it?

Update: And then there's this, which I just found over at Shout First, Ask Questions Later:
But if CA decides to go through with it, then perhaps Arizona can express its outrage at California impinging upon Arizona's right to self-governance by dialing back the taps to the energy and water supplies southern California depends on.
Update: Professor Jacobson is finding the whole boycott thing confusing.

Cross-posted at Potluck.
__________

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Just Spent $600? Must Tell IRS. It's a New "Health Care" Rule

From the Cato Institute:
Most people know about the individual mandate in the new health care bill, but the bill contained another mandate that could be far more costly.

A few wording changes to the tax code’s section 6041 regarding 1099 reporting were slipped into the 2000-page health legislation. The changes will force millions of businesses to issue hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of additional IRS Form 1099s every year. It appears to be a costly, anti-business nightmare.

[snip]

Basically, businesses will have to issue 1099s whenever they do more than $600 of business with another entity in a year. For the $14 trillion U.S. economy, that’s a hell of a lot of 1099s. When a business buys a $1,000 used car, it will have to gather information on the seller and mail 1099s to the seller and the IRS. When a small shop owner pays her rent, she will have to send a 1099 to the landlord and IRS. Recipients of the vast flood of these forms will have to match them with existing accounting records. There will be huge numbers of errors and mismatches, which will probably generate many costly battles with the IRS. [emphasis mine]

Tax CPA Chris Hesse of LeMaster Daniels tells me:
Under the health legislation, the IRS could be receiving billions of more documents. Under current law, businesses send Forms 1099 for payments of rent, interest, dividends, and non-employee services when such payments are to entities other than corporations. Under the new law, businesses will be required to send a 1099 to other businesses for virtually all purchases. And for the first time, 1099s are to be sent to corporations. This is a huge new imposition on American business, costing the private economy much more than any additional tax that the IRS might collect as a result.
There appears to have been little discussion before this damaging mandate was slipped into the health bill and rammed through Congress, but a few business groups did raise concerns. Here’s what the Air Conditioner Contractors of America said:
The House bill would extend the Form 1099 filing requirement to ALL vendors (including corporate) to which they pay more than $600 annually for services or property. Consider all the payments a small business makes in the course of business, paying for things such as computers, software, office supplies, and fuel to services, including janitorial services, coffee services, and package delivery services.
In order to file all these 1099s, you’ll need to collect the necessary information from all your service providers. In order to comply with the law, you would have to get a Taxpayer Information Number or TIN from the business. If the vendor does not supply you with a TIN, you are obligated to withhold on your payments.
The author of this Cato post, Chris Edwards, goes on to ask: "For what purpose? So the spendthrift Congress can shake a few extra bucks out of private industry?"

I think not.

Rules like this put so much booking pressure on Mom and Pop businesses that they'll be making even less income. Believe it or not, entrepreneurs do not go into business for love of paperwork, or even to give the IRS a chance to breathe down their necks quarterly--tempting as that might sound--but to perform the services to society that they are actually good at, have trained for, and like to do, like selling clothing, hardware, or toys; designing houses or technologies; raising roses, tomatoes, or dairy cows; or repairing cars or furnaces. Mountains of government-required paperwork severely cut into the time small business people can spend doing what they went into business to do in the first place, and leaves precious little time left for planning ways to improve the business for growth--or even to hire that unemployed person that Congress wants us to think they care about.

Taking Congress's actions at face value, there are few other conclusions to draw than that Congress wants to put small businesses out of business.

Too bad for Congress. They're going to miss small businesses when they're gone.

__________

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Will the Real Cap'n Trade Please Stand Up?

Introducing our panelists, only some of whom claim to be the real Cap'n Trade:
--The Chicago Climate Exchange, which figured out a way to make $10 trillion a year making people pay for trading air in the financial markets;

--Barack Hussein Obama, director of the Joyce Foundation, which funded the Chicago Climate Exchange with seed money to get started;

--Goldman Sachs, owner of 10% of the Chicago Climate Exchange;

--Generation Investment Management, 5th largest shareholder of the Chicago Climate Exchange;

--Al Gore, who, together with three Goldman Sachs guys, founded Generation Investment Management;

--Carlton Bartels, deceased, former CEO of CO2e.com, who invented a system to trade residential carbon credits;

--Fannie Mae, who bought Bartels' system to trade residential carbon credits;

--Franklin Raines, CEO of Fannie Mae at the time of that purchase.
Thanks to Glenn Beck for using his research resources to connect the above dots. From Glenn Beck:  Why Goldman Is Willing to Take the Heat:
Remember when Fannie purchased risky mortgages from banks, bundled them together and sold to investors as mortgage-backed securities? And then the housing market was absolutely destroyed? Well, former Fannie VP Scott Lesmes was responsible for that bundling.

Well, here's the good news: Not only will this new carbon trading "system" try the exact same bundling method (except with air); they are using the exact same guy: Scott Lesmes.

But, please, don't worry. The only ones involved in this are the corrupt Franklin Raines, Mr. redistribution of wealth Barack Obama, and all the people who the House and Senate are currently saying are the bad guys. Other than that, this should work out great.

It's almost like Goldman is willing to take a little heat now, in order to get a little piece of the $10 trillion green pie later. I challenge the media: Will anyone pick this story up? Will anyone question this and the timing of it all?

All of a sudden illegal immigration has leap-frogged global warming? Is it because Goldman has to take hits to get the global government structure done? And then they get the payoff? 
To tell the truth, this makes one wonder what's really going on in those Congressional investigations of Goldman Sachs, doesn't it?

Cross posted at Potluck.
__________
Related posts:

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Outrageous: Navy Ship to be Named After John Murtha, Marine Basher

Thanks to Monkeys On Horses for spreading the word on this latest outbreak of chronic acute Pelosi-itis. From Fox News:
The Navy is naming its newest San Antonio-class amphibious transport-dock LPD 26 for Murtha, the [late] powerful chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee who became an outspoken and influential critic of the Iraq war. 
Not to mention an outspoken critic of Marines serving in battle.
The Navy's decision to name a ship for the late Rep. John Murtha has outraged some critics who have not forgiven the Pennsylvania Democrat for accusing U.S. Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians "in cold blood" five years ago.
Count me among the outraged.

Nancy Pelosi was in attendance as Navy Secretary Ray Mabius made the official announcement Friday at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Murtha's home district in Pennsylvania.

Fittingly, Pelosi and Mabius are one of a very small number of passengers who have ever used that airport, which offers only three commercial flights and is usually empty. The John Murtha Airport is a monument to the Pelosi-Murtha pork-sausage grinder, otherwise known as the Democrat-led Congress. This tiny airport has been the recipient of almost $200 million in earmarked pork funding put together under Murtha's "leadership." (And then there was the Abscam bribery scandal . . . .)
San Antonio-class ships support Marines and can carry roughly 700 troops, their equipment and vehicles. They are usually named after cities; the USS Murtha will be a break from that tradition.
Army Master Sergeant C. J. Grisham of A Soldier's Perspective had a few words to say on that subject:
Not only will it be a break from tradition, but it will absolutely be a slap in the face to the Marines forced to be assigned to the ship. As you may recall, Murtha slandered Marines in 2005 by calling them "cold-blooded murderers" and never apologized for it after EACH AND EVERY MARINE was acquitted. He labeled them murderers BEFORE any trial or evidence was collected and purported to have all the "evidence" to defend his statements prior to any trial. 
As George J. at Monkeys on Horses pointed out:
To name a U.S. Naval warship, whose primary duty is to carry U.S. Marines into “Harm’s Way”, after an elected official that so publicly and unapologetically besmirched the courage and honor of the members of the Corps is unconscionable! 
He has composed a letter objecting to the naming of a Naval vessel after John Murtha, about which he says:
Please feel free to copy this letter and do the same with your congressional delagation. Or, write one of your own to oppose the naming of the LPD-26 after the late John Murtha. 
 Well said.
__________

Be Thou My Vision

An ancient and beloved Gaelic hymn, with the melody attributed to Saint Patrick. The original old Irish lyrics date back at least to the 6th century. Here it is in Gaelic and English, with lyrics below. The worshiper calls on the Lord of her heart to be her eyes, wisdom, sword, and shelter.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
thou my best thought by the day by night,
waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word,
thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;
thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.
Be thou my breastplate, sword for the fight;
thou my whole armor, thou my true might;
thou my soul's shelter, my strong tower:
raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:
thou mine inheritance now and always;
thou and thou only first in my heart;
Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.
High King of heaven, thou heaven's bright sun,
grant me its joys after victory is won;
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Bloggers Win Legal Battle to Help Refugees from Islam

It is a time for rejoicing whenever we hear of a victory for religious freedom anywhere, but especially here in the U.S.

Such a victory was gained this week when attorney David Yerushalmi, a Sharia law expert, joined forces with Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center to defend the First Amendment rights of two Americans to purchase bus ads that offer help to refugees from Islam. According to the Law Center:
It was the first time help was publicly offered to people threatened under Islam’s death penalty for leaving Islam. The ads on Miami-Dade buses stated, “Fatwa on your head?  Is your family or community threatening you?  Leaving Islam?  Got questions?  Get Answers!”  
The ten ads, which covered the sides of buses in Miami, were removed within hours of a complaint by CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) that "the ads were 'offensive to Muslims'" and promoted "bigotry." The ads had been contracted from Miami-Dade County Transit Authority and paid for by compassionate, courageous patriot-bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer of the Freedom Defense Initiative and SIOA.

Bus leave islam 
april

Quick action by the law offices changed minds at the Transit Authority, which quickly reinstituted the original ten ads and then threw in twenty more.

Richard Thompson, President of the Law Center, pointed out:
It’s a bitter irony that American blood is being shed in Iraq and Afghanistan to defend their Islamic Constitutions, while Islamic organizations right here in America are attempting to squelch the constitutional rights to Free Speech of American citizens.
That's not surprising in light of a statement by CAIR's co-founder, Omar Ahmad:
Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.
And CAIR's disregard for American freedoms is even less surprising considering that the U.S. Attorney General's Office and the FBI identified it "as a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group."

Geller called the re-institution of the pulled ads "a major victory for the freedom of speech."

Freedom to offend the delicate sensibilities of Muslim terrorists is not that easy to come by these days. Witness the censorship of a South Park Episode 201 mentioning a certain supposedly forbidden name that, interestingly enough, is found frequently enough in news reports listing the names of terrorists.

As the Law Center pointed out
Americans have a right to know the truth. Islam is a religion of intolerance and violence. [emphasis TMLC]
If you mention that view out loud, though, you won't be allowed to speak at a National Day of Prayer event at the Pentagon. In which case, you will be in good company, such as that of Reverend Franklin Graham, son of Evangelist Billy Graham, the spiritual advisor of many U.S. Presidents. One of Franklin Graham's "offensive" statements:
When you look at what the religion does to women and women alone, it is just horrid. So I speak out for women, I speak out for people who live under Islam who are enslaved under Islam and want them to know that they can be free.
Religious freedom supporters wishing to make a financial contribution to the religious liberty bus ad campaign, which its founders hope to bring nationwide, can go to Geller's blog, Atlas Shrugs, and click on the "Contribute to Jihad Watch" button.

Cross-posted at Potluck.
__________
Related posts:

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Michael Mann Thinks He's So Smart: Aims Lawsuit @ Bloggers

Touchy, touchy.

Global alarmist Michael Mann is celebrating Earth Day this year by sending his lawyers after bloggers who made fun of poor little old him.

Mann used to love being one of the world's most famous global alarmists before he got caught playing fast and loose with the scientific method and statistical analysis. Now he's going after Minnesotans for Global Warming because they dared to poke fun at his mishandling of scientific data.

Mann's lawyers have demanded that M4GW remove one of their best videos from their Web page and from YouTube, which they did. But it hasn't been completely scrubbed yet, and I found a copy of it:



Mann, one of the academic co-inventors of Global Warming alarmism, is now a professor at Penn State. However, he was teaching at the University of Virginia when he concocted his infamous "hockey stick" graph, in which he spliced together cherry-picked findings from different studies to make the argument for global warming look convincing to policymakers and the general public. Mann also limited the sample size of his tree-ring studies to exclude available samples that would negate his findings.

In short, he razzle-dazzled this:


into this:



Accidentally on purpose, Mann managed to make the entire Medieval Warming period--in which Earth's temperature rose without the assistance of human activity--disappear from view, leaving plenty of room for the gullible to swallow tall tales that the enormous Himalayan glaciers are about to melt, the rainforests are about to disappear, polar bears contentedly sunning themselves on ice floes are in danger of drowning, and the CO2 gas needed by Earth's plant life to exist and which is exhaled by all mammals, including humans, ought to be taxed into oblivion.

Here's a close-up of the splice job. In the chart on the left, observe the disappearance of the green temperature line. Mann made that line "disappear" because it was about to take a nose dive, indicating falling global temperatures, as shown in the chart on the right.

Fast forward to Climate Gate, in which a number of inconvenient truths were exposed as untruths. It turns out that the Himalayan glaciers are behaving normally, global temperatures are not threatening the rainforests, the polar bear population is exploding, and Obama and his Obamatons won't really be saving the Earth by cutting down on the atmospheric gas that plants need to grow so that we can turn them into orange juice and Cheerios (okay, tofu and granola).

Happy Earth Day, Professor Mann. And try to keep in mind this message from Mother Nature, brought to us via Minnesotans for Global Warming: Nothing would be green without CO2. 

Hat tips: Watts Up With That, No Cap and Trade Coalition, JunkScience.com.
__________
Related posts:

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Will Feds Require Americans to Buy Chocolate?

After all, American socialists can't wait to do as the European socialists do.

German researchers have estimated that, over a period of 10 years, at least 85 lives per 10,000 would be saved if people ate just a little over one small square of chocolate, preferably dark chocolate, each day.

According to Dr. Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, people who ate about 8 grams of chocolate per day were at a 32% lower risk of heart disease and stroke than those who ate less than 2 grams per day. The reason: eating chocolate lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

The good doctor attributed this lowered risk to flavanols in cocoa that "are responsible for improving the bioavailability of nitric oxide from the cells that line the inner wall of blood vessels." The nitric oxide (a gas):
once released, causes the smooth muscle cells of the blood vessels to relax and widen; this may contribute to lower blood pressure. Nitric oxide also improves platelet function, making the blood less sticky, and makes the vascular endothelium [cells lining the blood vessels] less attractive for white blood cells to attach and stick around.
American socialists don't want you to touch those salty pretzels.

I say, follow the European model (this one time): Dip those salty pretzels in chocolate.

With the Democrats in power, your blood vessels need all the nitric oxide they can get.

From FuturePundit via Instapundit.
__________

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

QR's Gossip Break: What's a Tea Party without a Little Gossip?


After I read Fuzzy's Faux News yesterday, I decided to get a head start on preparing for the arrival of that low-income family we'll be adopting as part of the President's new plan. We've been paying their keep for quite some time, so it does seem logical for them to move right in. And really, more efficient. Cuts out the middle man.

I was sweeping the garage so I could set up a some cots for my own family (next to the new outlet Fuzzy advised us to have installed for our adopted family's electric cars). I was feeling kind of blue. Not that I am not 1000% for social justice, mind you. It's just that I like a smidge of actual justice mixed in with my social justice.

Just then I got a post from No Sheeples Here (she who is heard, not herded), who suggested that, before I have the yard sale, I click over to USElections.com and, I must say, it was more fun than having a beer with Obama.

They have listings of politicians available for sweeping out of office.

I clicked on 50 States/Elections, scrolled down to the map, and clicked on my state, New York.

Zowie! Not only is our Democrat Governor, David Patterson, going to be replaced this year (he's not even running for re-election), but New York has both its U.S. senate seats up for grabs. Facing election in November are Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand. (It's a special election thing.)

Check out who New Yorkers have a chance of sweeping out of the House this year: Democrats Charlie Rangel, Maurice Hinchey, Bill Owens, Tim Bishop, Carolyn McCarthy, Jerrold Nadler, Mike McMahon, John Hall, Nita Lowey, Scott Murphy, and Mike Arcuri. Every single one of them will be facing Republican, Independent, or Conservative challengers. And the seat of Eric Massa, who resigned in March for uh, nevermind, will be open too.

Try it yourself. Click on USElections.com, and select your favorite dirtbag for removal. Then you can click onto the Web sites of everybody with their hats in the ring to run against him or her. Find a real good candidate, and help that brave soul win the primary. Just make sure to pick a candidate who has access to a really BIG dumpster. The next Congress is going to have to throw out a lot of legislation.

Some sugar with that tea, my dears?

Oh, and thanks to Joaquin at How's That Obama Vote Working Out For You??? for the following:


__________

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Meet Mount Eyjafjallajökull


Meet Mount Eyjafjallajökull (ayvah lowgh-k), a volcano with a name that now befuddles native English speakers, but one that most of us might very well end up learning to pronounce, at least badly. Although there's no way for mere mortals to be certain of it, volcanologists would not be surprised if this Icelandic volcano kept disgorging ashen dragons (like the one pictured above) from its widening craters (pictured below) for some time to come.


Those who study volcanoes assure us that the eruptions that started on March 20 and that have, in the last four days, fully or partially shut down aviation in 23 European nations are not major ones, as volcanic eruptions go. But they could persist, on and off, for years. If that scenario comes to pass, then the nightmare depicted by Norwegian expressionist, Edvard Munch, in response to the climate-changing eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which turned sunsets over Europe blood red, will not be far off the mark, at least in economic terms.

Europe's economy depends on air transport, as do large segments of the economies of Europe's trading partners, but the particulate glass spewn into the atmosphere by Eyjafjallajökull damages jet engines, as happened to a Finnish air force Hornet before air flight restrictions were put in place. Already, foods and flowers grown in Africa and Israel for European markets are starting to rot.

The photo below shows "daring pilots approaching the melting glacier" near the eruption, with torrents of meltwater in the background. Neither pilots nor planes are identified in this photo, but I suspect the pilots to be members of the Icelandic Coast Guard taking geophysicists from the Icelandic Meteorological Office in for a better view of the event.


Serious misery could be in store if Eyjafjallajökull's eruption triggers an eruption of its gigantic neighbor, Katla, an event with considerable historic precedence. Geophysicists have been predicting an eruption by Katla, which lies buried under a glacier, since about 1999.

In happier days, a resting Eyjafjalljökull looked like this, seen through the brush of painter Ólafur Túbals:

 
It is perhaps a good moment to consider that volcanic eruptions are common and a necessary part of Earth's grand cycle. As you read this post, about 20 volcanoes are erupting. This year, 50 to 70 volcanoes will erupt. And, by 2020, about 160 volcanoes will have erupted.

Hat tips: The Strata-Sphere; Wax Lips.
__________

Meditation: Requiem for Polish Patriots








Eternal rest grant unto them them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they they rest in peace.
Amen.








__________
Related:

Saturday, April 17, 2010

What The Man Really Said About Income Taxes, Thank You Very Much

Word is circulating that President Obama only promised to limit income taxes, leaving other taxes as fair game. Incredibly, many people are trying to believe this, and, even worse, trying to convince others that it is true.

Brief history lesson, via theblogprof:
 


Update: LL over at Virtual Mirage pointed out:
A report from the House Ways & Means Committee's GOP members notes that, since January 2009, Congress and the president have enacted $670 billion in tax increases. That's $2,100 for each person in America. At least 14 of those tax hikes, the report says, break Obama's pledge not to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000. Roughly $316 billion of the tax hikes — 14 increases in all — hit middle-class families, the report says.
$2,100 tax increase per person in America. 

Another "promise kept"? Or another reason to laugh in your face?
__________
Related posts:

Friday, April 16, 2010

He Who Laughs Last . . .

From Fox News, about our president, speaking in Miami:
Obama singled out the anti-tax tea party movement that fanned out across the country to hold demonstrations and rallies marking Tax Day. "I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes," the president said. "You would think they'd be saying thank you."


According to the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., who have been studying taxation in the U.S. since 1937, Americans actually spend more on taxes than on food, clothing, and housing combined.

Ah, November 2, 2010. I count the days.
Update. It is worth noting that, according to The Heritage Foundation (via There's My Two Cents), over the last 40 years the median American income rose by 29%, but federal spending rose by 242%.

Update. Just came across this at Feed Your ADHD. Definitely worth repeating.
First HE had us labeled as domestic terrorists, then he didn’t know we existed, then HE called us teabaggers, then HE acknowledged his destiny to be a one-term president -- and now HE is "amused" by us.

HE is amused by us? We are the reason Arlen Sphincter turned tail and joined his natural-born party when the backlash over his support of Zero’s $787 billion turtle tunnel bill threatened his re-election as a Republican, and we are now the reason Sphincter won’t even come close to winning his seat backScott Brown now sits in a seat formerly occupied for nearly half a century by a fat cretinous murdering drunkard whoring Democrat thief, the reason dirty Creigh Deeds was done in dirt cheap (a saying admittedly stolen from Pat Dollard), the reason New Jersey now has Gov. Chris Christie to rightfully gut it’s bloated government and eventually return power to the taxpayer, the reason sitting RINO Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will have to run as a Democrat-lite (an independent) to even have a chance at winning his battle to become a U.S. senator.

HE is amused by us? We’re the reason it took so long for HIM to get his precious signature – and likely final – achievement accomplished: Obamacare. We are the reason Obama needed to make the Louisiana Purchase and the Cornhusker Kickback and the fake executive order preventing federal abortion funding just to squeak that monstrosity of freedom-grabbing piece of crap through by a Congresscriminal's nose.

HE is amused by us? We’re the reason (so far) that 17 clownish Zombiecrat Congresscriminals and 5 Zombiecrat Senators are retiring. We’re the reason the battle for the Senate on April 15, 2010, looked amazingly red and the current map of the potential November makeup of the House of Representatives that, only 18 months ago was bluer that Babe the Blue Ox’s balls, now looks like Iran nuked the entire friggin’ nation, not that The One would do anything about nuclear attacks, either.

HE is amused by us? We are the reason Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Dickhead, Nevada) will lose in November, even with a third-party candidate running for his seat, why only a few supporters showed up to hear him recently speak in his hometown of Searchlight, where conversely thousands were drawn to hear Sarah Palin speak and where leftists threatened Andrew Breitbart.
Read the rest here.
 __________

Related posts:

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Why April Is a Good Month For Work Serfs


When you look at it from a certain standpoint, April is an appropriate month to pay taxes. The reason? Every lick of work you've performed for pay since the first of the year, and then some, you've done to fill the coffers of your elected representatives to squander as they choose. No medieval serf could have done better.

This year, on average, every dime Americans earned before April 9 will be handed over to the government in taxes. That's on average. In some states, like Mississippi, taxpayers are done harvesting money for the Government by March 28th, and they can proceed to focus on feeding, clothing, and sheltering the people under under their own roofs. In other states, like New York, where I live, Joe and Jane Average will still be sweating on the Gov't Estate until April 23.

The Day you start earning money for your own needs and desires is broken down by state on the following map. (Click on map for a better view.)


Sound like a bargain with all that free (cough, cough) health care and all? Whoa. Hold on. You mean you'd like you know when you start working for yourself if you pay your end of this year's debt, too?

In that case, on average, you won't even start paying your own rent until May 17, an additional 38 days. Uh huh.

Thirty-eight days of extra work, this year, just to pay for this year's debt, which actually is a drop in the debt bucket.

Let's see, in New York State that would mean Joe and Jane Average will work until (calculating . . . ) June 2.

January 1 to June 2th. That's five full months.

Five months of the year devoted to fulfilling every wish of our elected representatives. If you live in New York State, that's more than 40% of your work life. Every stinking bit of work you did throughout January, February, March, April, May, and part of June just to cover whatever your elected officials think you should be paying for instead of what you're trying to pay for.

And if you don't live in New York State, it's nearly as bad.
 
Here's the breakdown from The Tax Foundation:
Five major categories of taxes dominate the tax burden. Individual income taxes—including federal, state and local—require 32 days' work. Payroll taxes take another 25 days' work. Sales and excise taxes, mostly state and local, take 15 days to pay off. Corporate income taxes take 8 days, and property taxes take 12. Americans will log 6 more days to pay other miscellaneous taxes, most notably including motor vehicle license taxes and severance taxes, and about half a day for estate taxes.
 Tired yet?

I am.

And that's not something I'll be forgetting when it comes to supporting the agendas of my local, state, and federal Gov't overseers.
 __________

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

C'mon Zo, Tell Us What You Really Think!

Zo at his best.



H/t: teresamerica
__________

Monday, April 12, 2010

Religion of Peacer's Plans for Times Square and Grand Central Stations Revealed


You may remember the "Beauty Parlor Bomber," Najibullah Zazi, who was building bombs using hydrogen peroxide in a Denver, Colorado, suburb to use in New York City. Now details of his plan have been revealed.

When he was discovered by the FBI and NYPD, Zazi confessed that he and two of his Flushing High School buddies, Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay, went to Pakistan in August 2008 to join the the Taliban and fight against U.S. forces in Afghaistan. Once in Pakistan, the trio were soon off to Waziristan for training in how to make bombs and strap them on.

Object: to kill as many people as possible at the Times Square station and the Grand Central Terminal during rush hour. From the NY Daily News:
They would board trains on the 1, 2, 3 and 6 lines at rush hour and planned to position themselves in the middle of the packed trains to ensure the maximum carnage when they blew themselves up, sources said.

During Zazi's brief visit to Queens from his home in Denver last September, he rode the subway multiple times to the Grand Central and Wall St. stations, scouting where to best spread death and mayhem, the sources said.
Last month, two women killed 40 people and wounded many more when they blew themselves up on Moscow subways. Here's a photo of some New York City subway security after those attacks:


Meanwhile, another bomb plotter connected with Zazi has been picked up in Pakistan. He'll be in this country soon to face trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Zazi, who is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25, has been moved to a secret location. His high school buddies, Medunjanin and Ahmedzay, have pleaded not guilty.

Hat tip: Jihad Watch
__________


Lech Kaczynski: Ask Not For Whom the Bell Tolls

One statement that I often hear in my Little Corner of Progressive Paradise, usually pronounced with misplaced innocence, is, "What's wrong with socialism?"

You wouldn't have needed to explain that to most of the Poles who died in the conflagration that took the life of Lech Kaczynski and 87 other Polish dignitaries and relatives of the 22,000 Poles murdered by direct order of Stalin back in 1940 so that they wouldn't put up a fuss over losing their republic. Many of these were the very people who put their lives on the line to openly defy Soviet communism in Poland. I will write of only one today.

Lech Kaczynski was raised by parents who were resistance fighters in Poland during World War II, when that country was invaded simultaneously by National Socialist forces from the west and Marxist Communist forces from the east. At least 55 million deaths later, the Nazis were defeated, but the sacrifice was not enough to release Poland from Soviet terror. The Soviets murdered thousands of military prisoners (of which the Katyn massacre was a part) or sent them to gulags. In one year alone, more than a million Polish civilians were deported to northern Russia and Kazakhstan, most of whom died. A majority of the dead were children. All organized religions in Poland were persecuted, with clergy and religious teachers imprisoned and tortured for such offenses as not removing references to God from the walls of schoolrooms. All enterprises, including farms, were taken over by the state, and the Polish currency was abolished and replaced with Soviet currency.

What could possibly be wrong with socialism?

It is not surprising then, that Lech Kaczynski, Poland's third democratically elected president since the fall of communism in 1989, was a committed anti-Communist who followed in the footsteps of his friend, the legendary Lech Walesa, co-founder of the Soviet bloc's first trade union, Solidarity. When the idea of open opposition to communist dictatorship caught on in the Soviet bloc, the Soviet Union collapsed.

"I want good relations with Moscow," said Kaczynski, the former Solidarity activist, "but Russia has to recognize that Poland is no longer in its sphere of influence."

Putin must have loved to hear that.

It is not a surprise, then, that leftists detested Kaczynski.

Although Poland joined the European Union, Kaczynski was a Eurosceptic, because he believed more strongly in Polish independence than in the European Union. During the Russia-Georgia War, when Russia planned to annex two provinces of Georgia, he strongly denounced Russia. He called the confrontation between Georgia and Russia a "test of strength" in which "Russia showed the face it wanted to show--an imperial face."

Kaczynski saw Russia as "just the old Russia," not the "reset" Russia accepted by Obama. But, unlike Obama, Kacznyski knew Russia very well. He was a proponent of building alternative routes for oil and natural gas from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan to bypass Russia and thus break Russia's stranglehold on European energy supplies.  "We have to convince Russia," he said, "that the imperial era is over. . . . Those who were then appeasing Hitler were firmly convinced that they were right. Time showed something different."

He backed plans with the U.S. under George W. Bush to deploy 10 interceptor missiles on Polish territory, a plan which Russia hated. From Kaczynski's perspective, those missiles "would deepen the interest of the United States" in Poland. Obama later countermanded that agreement, in line with his usual treatment of American allies, like the UK, Israel, and India.

Even more annoying to leftists is Poland's own energy independence; while much of Europe depends on Russian pipeline gas, Poland draws on "its own plentiful domestic gas and enormous oil reserves." There "is even talk of Poland becoming a gas exporter to its Central European and Baltic northern neighbors." According to David Howell, former British Cabinet minister:
This in turn reinforces the opportunities for the whole of Europe to become increasingly self-sufficient in low-cost energy, and therefore far less reliant not only on Russia's arrogant gas monopoly, Gazprom, but also on the smoldering Middle East and other shaky and worrying sources of oil and gas round the world. Moscow's gas czars would then have to sell their gas eastward to China, Japan and other Asian customers for the best price they could secure.
To bring the necessary physical infrastructure into existence, of course, "would require EU leaders and officials to work for much simpler regulations and licensing procedures and much lighter taxation."

Simpler regulations and lighter taxation do not sound like the socialism I know. In contrast, Poland's fiscal policies enabled it to sidestep the current recession.

In terms of religious belief, Kaczynski was a double-edged thorn in the side of leftist politics. He stood up for his religious faith, and was a founder of Poland's conservative Catholic Law and Justice party, which was no friend to abortion or gay marriage. And, as William Jacobson pointed out, "Kaczynski also was a great friend of Israel and the Jewish people, as described in the Jerusalem Post." Jacobson's view:
A man who loved the United States, freedom for the individual, and the Jewish people. There are far too few such people in the world, and we just lost one of the best of them.
James Corum at the UK Telegraph agreed. "The death of President Lech Kaczynski and many Polish national leaders yesterday," he said, "is not only Poland’s loss — it’s also a loss for the Western democratic world."

I will add that it is a particular loss for the world to lose a political leader who knows whereof he speaks.

Kaczynski didn't pick up his political views from ideological textbooks painting rosy pictures of an idyllic world "unfettered" by responsibility, religion, and ambitious pursuit of happiness, but in a torturous cookpot of repression, anti-religion, and communal poverty--for those lucky enough to live through the experience.

And he came out of it with his moral compass intact.

Lech Kaczynski was the stalwart antithesis of the leftist ideal, and we have great need of such men. So, it is with profound sorrow that I ask not for whom the bell tolls . . . .


__________
Related: Poland's Tragedy Marks Another Tragedy

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Poland's Tragedy Marks Another Tragedy (Updated)

Today, a tragic day for Poland. The country's President, Lech Kaczynski, his wife, Maria, and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died in a plane crash in thick fog in Smolensk, in western Russia. Among the 96 dead were 88 members of a Polish state delegation en route to memorial events marking the 70th anniversary of the execution of 22,000 Polish military officers, university students, physicians, writers, and others by the Soviet secret service. Many of these were massacred in a forest near Katyn. From Fox News:
The crash devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments. On board were the army chief of staff, national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.
[Update: 1:30 p.m. EST. Some of the people on board were relatives of those slain in the Katyn massacre. Also among the victims was Anna Walentynowicz, whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk sparked a workers' strike that spurred the eventual creation of the Solidarity freedom movement. She went on to be a prominent Solidarity member.]
[Update: 5:00 p.m. EST. From Gazeta Wyborcza, via usspost.com,  more names of those lost: former president of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski; the deputy chairman of parliament of Poland (and the presidential candidate for the social democratic SLD party),  Jerzy Szmajdzinski; Chancellery of the President, Wladyslaw Stasiak; President of the National Security Bureau of Poland, Aleksander Szczyglo;  Deputy Foreign Minister, Andrezj Kremer; Chief of Staff of the Polish Army, Franciszek Gągor; President of the National Bank of Poland, Slawomir Skrzypek; Commissioner for the Protection of Civil Rights, Janusz Kochanowski; the heads of the Polish Armed Forces, and dozens of members of Parliament. (some spelling corrected- QR)]
[Update: 7:00 p.m. EST. Also reported as lost: Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz, member of the praesidium of the party of European Socialists.]
[Update: 4/11/10, 5:30 p.m. EST. Another name: former deputy prime minister of Poland and campaigner for womens’ and gay rights, Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka.]
Spared from the tragedy were Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, and his cabinet.

The country has begun a week of mourning.

Americans join Poland in their sorrow.

[Update. From Rosemerta, commenter at HotAir:
Condolences can be sent to:
His Excellency Robert Kupiecki, The Ambassador of Poland
Embassy of the Republic of Poland
2640 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 234 3800
Fax: (202) 328 6271
Proper mode of address (from InfoPlease):
On envelope: His/Her Excellency Fullname, The Ambassador of Placename
Salutation: Excellency or Dear Mr./Madam Ambassador
__________