Obama’s Brilliant Tax Revenue Plan Continues
April 1, 2009 8:46 pm by Shanan
The Obama Administration, as we have noted with some interest, seems to have a novel and altogether brilliant strategy for increasing revenues to the United States government: Nominate tax cheaters to high office, and rely on the ensuing media investigation to embarrass these nominees into paying up! Daft, don’t you think?
Here is the O Administration’s latest victim nominee:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding “unintentional errors”—the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee.
The Kansas governor explained the changes to senators in a letter dated Tuesday that the administration released. She said they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.
Sebelius is, comparatively, a tax cheat lightweight. The big daddy of them all, if I may remind you, is the guy Obama nominated to the highest government finance position in the land, our very own Treasury Secretary Timothy “Brass Balls” Geithner.
Perhaps the most embarrassing moment for Mr. Geithner was his attempt to evade the questions by Arizona Senator Jon Kyl on why he had only remedied the error on back taxes for two of the four years. Because the statute of limitations had run out on the 2001-2002 tax payments, Mr. Geithner was not legally required to pay them — and didn’t until a Treasury confirmation hearing seemed possible.
Would it be too much of a stretch for me to mull over the evidence? Well, now I, at least, know why high-ranking Democrats love taxes so much — not only are they prone to “mistakes,” which seems indicative of their ignorance of tax code cause & effect, but… well… they never pay their taxes anyway.
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Canadian Doctor Bashes Socialized Medicine
March 31, 2009 11:13 am by Shanan
Weren’t we supposed to look to Canada for solutions to our helath care problem?
Dr. David Gratzer cuts loose on why universal health care doesn’t work:
I was once a believer in socialized medicine. As a Canadian, I had soaked up the belief that government–run health care was truly compassionate. What I knew about American health care was unappealing: high expenses and lots of uninsured people.
My health care prejudices crumbled on the way to a medical school class. On a subzero Winnipeg morning in 1997, I cut across the hospital emergency room to shave a few minutes off my frigid commute.
Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care.
I soon discovered that the problems went well beyond overcrowded ERs. Patients had to wait for practically any diagnostic test or procedure, such as the man with persistent pain from a hernia operation whom we referred to a pain clinic—with a three–year wait list; or the woman with breast cancer who needed to wait four months for radiation therapy, when the standard of care was four weeks.
Government researchers now note that more than 1.5 million Ontarians (or 12% of that province’s population) can’t find family physicians. Health officials in one Nova Scotia community actually resorted to a lottery to determine who’d get a doctor’s appointment.
The statistics and the stories are legitimately terrifying. But the American picture isn’t much better. Instead of utilizing government-run programs to provide health-care, we rely on businesses that care more about the almighty dollar and cutting insurance overhead than they do about making sure the patients on their rolls don’t die or go bankrupt.
What’s the good doctor’s solution?
America is right to seek a model for delivering good health care at good prices, but we should be looking not to Canada, but close to home—in the other four–fifths or so of our economy. From telecommunications to retail, deregulation and market competition have driven prices down and quality and productivity up. Health care is long overdue for the same prescription.
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Boycott Adidas. No, this isn’t a fake.
March 4, 2009 2:35 pm by Shanan
But time remains to seen if it’s a joke.
Adidas sells the “Marx A Flex Russia” hat like this:
Show your love for the former USSR during training time in this adidas Marx A-Flex Russia cap, featuring a six-panel low-crown fit, deep pre-curved brim, an Always Cool™ sweatband to wick away the moisture, and a hammer-and-sickle graphic.
Maybe it’s a pull to rile conservatives. I hope so. I hope they’re not actually promoting this murderous, Stalinist garbage.
You know what? I’ve decided that I don’t care what it is. Boycott Adidas. This is not a drill.
Oh, and another thing. Oh, the irony in a large multinational corporation selling the hammer and sickle.
One more: Adidas = fail.
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I Want to Make Sure the Ethanol Canard Really Is Dead
March 4, 2009 8:39 am by Shanan
This past week, the Air Resources Board determined that legal biases discriminating against autombile fuels with the highest carbon footprints eliminates… ethanol and biodiesel, yes, ethanol and biodiesel, from low-carbon footprint consideration.
You see, traditional oi-based fuels actually have a lower carboon footprint than “green” fuels like — I’ll say it again — ethanol and biodiesel.
The ethanol and biofuels lobby of scientists (which is, of course, getting stimulus money) has released this letter in protest of these scientific findings. (You know why they sound like? Creationist Republicans that deny science by claiming that evolution is “in its nascent stages” or “just a theory.” What goes around…)
Insulting science appears to be fair game for the politically expedient. What a shame.
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The real victims of the recession
February 27, 2009 12:06 am by Shanan
Well, in my mind, anyway.
General Motors has announced that it is shutting down temporarily ceasing developments in its High Performance Vehicle Operations, the team of people responsible for the cheeky Chevy Cobalt SS, the funky HHR SS, the beastly Camaro SS, the positively magnificent Cadillac CTS-V and STS-V, and of course, the legendary Corvette Z06.
This news hurts the hearts of car enthusiasts like me, so, please, contemplate this gorgeous CTS-V in a moment of silence:
From the New York Times:
Around 5 p.m., Automotive News posted an online article that said: “G.M. today disbanded High Performance Vehicle Operations, which is based at the company’s suburban Detroit technical center, and redeployed its engineers,” said spokesman Vince Muniga.
“All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold,” Mr. Muniga said. “The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs.”
For those with a soft spot for hot Cadillacs, or those ready to order a new Camaro SS, the news sounded grim. Would G.M. suddenly stop building exciting cars altogether? Would there be any hope at all for a Detroit automaker that confines its offerings to crossovers, hybrids, economy sedans and pickup trucks?
[snip]
It turns out, though, that G.M. will continue to sell those models, at least until it is time to replace them with the next generation. Vince Muniga, G.M.’s product communications manager for performance cars, called The Times to explain that High Performance Vehicle Operations, or H.P.V.O., “is responsible for taking production vehicles and adding performance accessories, or creating high-performance versions” of mainstream cars — models like the CTS-V and Cobalt SS.
“These models are going to stay in the vehicle pipeline,” Mr. Muniga said. “They are regular production cars. The design and engineering are already done.”
But, he added, “In terms of future product, we will not be making or working on any high-performance models.”
But does this heartrending news mean I’m clamoring for yet another bailout?
No. I’ll shelve my hotrod dreams for a brighter day. Ya gotta have yer principles, after all.
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Obama Coins Just a Sticker Over Kennedy and Washington
February 20, 2009 12:15 am by Shanan
Irony at its best.
For those of you who don’t always have the bandwidth the watch the entire video, the gist is this: The Obama commemorative coins so pompously paraded by Montel Williams are actually U.S. Mint coins with paper sticker veneers printed with Obama’s Presidential head shot.
Moral of the story: Don’t buy cheap crap (or expensive crap, like these coins) with such an obvious exploitative tinge. Why don’t you stick to buying commemorations of U.S. presidents who’ve actually DONE something, like… I don’t know, won the Civil War, or… led the American Revolution, or… something.
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For your politicking pleasure: The Obameter
February 3, 2009 3:24 pm by Shanan
So far, President Obama has kept 6 campaign promises, broken, stalled, or compromised on 3 others, has 18 new promises in the works, and is currently sitting on 483 unfulfilled campaign promises.
How do I know? Check out Politifact.com’s Obameter: The Truth-O-Meter, where you can peruse the daily promise tally, and get the details on the myriad of promises made during the Presidential campaign.
Enjoy!
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Why I Hate Pork (and why you should too).
January 30, 2009 1:53 pm by Shanan
In the new version of the much-discussed stimulus package, found HERE, are several earmarks that make me go, “Buh?” Here are the highlights:
$50 million for “Watershed Rehabilitation”
$2.8 billion for loans to spur rural broadband (just build some Starbucks.)
$650 million for Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Program (who has an analog set anymore?)
$30 million for necessary expenses of the “Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership” (Yes, because I’m sure that’ll benefit me.)
$140 million for “climate data modeling” (do you think they’ll fix what the U.N. screwed up?)
$50 million for repairs to NASA facilities from storm damage
$18.5 billion for “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy” research in the Department of Energy. That money includes:
$2 billion for development of advanced batteries
$1 billion for expenses necessary for advanced battery manufacturing
$1 billion for the Advanced Battery Loan Guarantee Program (someone’s obsessed with batteries)
$1.5 billion for “National Center for Research Resources”
$500 million for “Buildlings and Facilties” at the National Institutes of Health in suburban Washington, D.C. (suspiciously vague)
$2 billion for “Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology”
$300 million for Indian Reservation roads (aren’t they sovereign countries?)
$500 million in Native American Housing Block Grants (Huh?)
$4.1 billion to help communities deal with foreclosed homes (too little, too late)
$1.5 billion in homeless prevention activities (activities? like “building new homes” activities?)
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Hey you! Troubled by hypocrisy in government lately?
January 30, 2009 1:12 pm by Shanan
Do Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s tax indiscretions, lies, and affrontery have you singing the economic blues?
According to Mr. Geithner, he initially failed to pay payroll taxes on income he received from the International Monetary Fund in 2001, and then repeated the error in the three subsequent years, despite the help of an accountant. [snip]
… adding that he should have read the statement more carefully. Millions of Americans have said the same thing about the tax code during an IRS audit, earning less forgiveness.
Is Charlie Rangel’s ethics probe against himself making you feel a little less hopeful about the 111th Congress?
The embattled Harlem lawmaker said yesterday that he made his third complaint to the House Ethics Committee against himself in as many months - this time to look at his beachfront dream home in the Dominican Republic.
Rangel purchased the villa at the Punta Cana Yacht Club with a no-interest loan 20 years ago and has failed to report rental income on the property, which rents for $1,100 a night during the peak season.
If, perchance, you feel a double-standard forming between yourself and the government officials supposed to represent you, look no further than former Texas judge John Carter (R-TX) and his new bill submitted for consideration to Congress.
Titled, “The Rangel Rule,” this bill grants federal and IRS leniency to American citizens who have been accused of committing the same tax crimes Geithner and Rangel committed, requiring that any sentences issued should be lesser than or equal to Geithner’s and Rangel’s in their respective ethics inquiries.
All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.
Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.
In other words — cheating on your taxes will not only carry no penalty, but may get you nominated for Treasury Secretary some day.
Yes You Can, fellow citizens, Yes You Can.
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“We’re finally proud to be Americans.”
January 21, 2009 1:20 pm by Shanan
Welcome to the party. Glad you’re here.
I normally don’t comment on the goings-on in my social networking world, but on this I must: when Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States, sentences began popping up all over Facebook that said things like “So-and-so is finally proud to be American.”
Wrong. While it is perfectly okay to say that electing the first black President of a country that spent the first half of its existence besieged by racism and slavery makes one proud of America, it is a pathetic worldview indeed which convinces one that yesterday was the first day he or she was proud to be an American.
Just for the record, though I will debate you, it is forever your right to say that you are, in fact, not proud to be an American. Those people aren’t who I’m speaking to in this instance.
Those who say they are “finally” proud to be Americans are cultural windsocks ignorant of any larger issues beyond the issue of race. Or hope and change, whatever that may mean in the coming months.
America as a country has done some pretty despicable things, to its own people and to other countries. Over the two and a half centuries we have enjoyed sovereignty, we have acted boorishly in defense of our own interests at the expense of other countries’ economies, peoples, and ecosystems. Therefore, it is foolish and foolhardy, and ultimately insensitive and cruel, to glibly pronounce that the election of one man who does not have the power to right all these bloody wrongs has made you “proud to be an American.”
If you were not proud before, there is no way that Barack Obama can ever possibly wipe out all the evils, and wipe clean all the death and destruction visited upon human beings by America. To believe otherwise is to strip these tragedies of their relevance and importance, and to strip those who still grieve of their right to do so.
Then again, if the only thing that was keeping you from loving the red, white and blue was a man by the name of George W. Bush, if your visceral hatred for his person was so intense that you could not appreciate one acre of this fruited plain otherwise; here is a website for you.
On the other hand, if you are someone who genuinely loves America, and not just Barack Obama, and not just because of Barack Obama, you’re probably wondering the same thing I am: How can one man, one politician, one person, possibly eclipse the genius of our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution and present version of the Bill of Rights? How can one man serve to inspire the same amount as the successful, free government system of the United States has inspired the rest of the world?
Do you think the millions of immigrants to our shores would have come not because of our system, but because of our leaders, for one man? Do you think your siblings, parents, grandparents, and more would have fought and died to defend Barack Obama, or to defend liberty? Then why are you proud to be an American now, instead of every time you think about the stand-up people which have produced an election that has righted a historic wrong for all the world to see? There is much wrong with America, but I can think of no other country so obsessed with bettering itself and righting its wrongs and fixing its failures and extending a helping hand to countries in need than these United States. That spirit of liberty and goodness and progress in the face of comfort and complacency (and how much more comfortable would it have been to elect another old white man, or John Edwards, or Hillary Clinton) is why I love America. Her ideals and Constitutional codicils have conducted human nature in the best way that has yet been observed in history. She has wisdom, she has ingenuity, she has liberty, and most of all, she has an exceptionally well-designed system and well-equipped defenders to keep us all safely in the pursuit of happiness. America’s not perfect, but her people, ensconced in a system designed just for this purpose, have much that has yet to be done, and even more to be proud of.
The greatness of this country extends far beyond the reach of any one person, even Barack Obama.
So, I’m glad that some of you liberals are finally proud to be Americans. Welcome to the party; hope you learn a thing or two while you’re here.
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