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.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?
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.
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.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?"
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 Chicago Climate Exchange, which figured out a way to make $10 trillion a year making people pay for trading air in the financial markets;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:
--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.
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.To tell the truth, this makes one wonder what's really going on in those Congressional investigations of Goldman Sachs, doesn't it?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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."
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:Americans have a right to know the truth. Islam is a religion of intolerance and violence. [emphasis TMLC]
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.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.
After all, American socialists can't wait to do as the European socialists do.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.
Amen.
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.
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."
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 back
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
HE is amused by us? We’re the reason (so far) that 17 clownish Zombiecrat Congresscriminals
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
Tired yet?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.
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.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:
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.
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."
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."
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.
