Wow what a week. My daughter and her husband came to visit and are still here. Both are also Marines and my son-in-law just returned from Iraq safely. As to news and scandals, there really isn't that much to tell.
Imus was canned because while rappers can say "nigger", "nappy", and "ho", white radio jocks cannot. And the rappers make more money. I guess that the last is why Sharpton and Company don't take on the gangsta gurus.
What I am really curious about is why Rosie hasn't been fired. I mean, while O'Reilly isn't my favorite talking head, he has a valid point. Rosies words are far more inflammatory and potentially harmful than Imus. Must be the sponsors.
Speaking of talking heads; Has anyone listened to Lynn Samuels? The woman is a shrieking shrew who fits the flaming liberal stereotype to a (capital) "T". She makes Rush and Hannity et al seem tame in comparison.
Personally I could care less about the comments and whether they keep or lose thier jobs. After all, it just makes fodder for the media to focus on instead of substance. The Jerry Springer crowd loves it I'm sure.
But with all the scandal surrounding them, the AG firings still won't go away. The summons will be issued soon. And to think it all could have gone away if no one had lied. Instead a simple "Because I can" from the President would have relegated it to the footnote category.
Tax day is here. Have you bowed before the IRS and paid homage? Or did you over-homage thru the year and now will be blessed with a refund of your own money without interest? I love taxes (not) and how the double standard is applied. My question about all this is fairly simple. If it is wrong to discriminate based on age, gender, religion, skin color, etc...... Why is income discrimination OK?
imus talk-radio racism rosie
A look at politics and the American condition from the point of view of a middle class working guy who doesn't subscribe to slogans or labels (much).
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Talking Heads Friday
It's been a fairly dull week if you are big on the blood sport of politics. So, the best thing I can think of to do is compare the talking heads and see if anything worthy of your average American is in there.
All week Sean Hannity seemed to be big on the "biggest tax increase in history". He told us it was double the big raise in the Clinton years. The Heritage foundation seems to confirm it. But, all spinning aside, the Democrats didn't raise taxes. They simply failed to renew a series of tax breaks. Here's the reality check: The McUSA's can expect to pay an additional $3000.00 (give or take about 500.00 depending on which media outlet you believe) this year. Call it whatever you want, but it looks like I get to put off buying the state of the art table saw for another year. And it still doesn't look like the Fairtax will get a fair shot this year either.
While Andrew Wilkow took Al Gore to task without calling him out by name. He kept saying that "Liberals" would tell you basically to do as they say but not as they do. Edwards huge estate and Al Gores jet setting came to mind. The only reality here is that Wilkow had an off week and was mostly ranting. I like his show since he just recently hit the national airwaves via Sirius. He's usually more level headed and rational. Guess it was an off week as he anticipated the Easter Bunnies arrival.
Spenser Hughs had an interesting rant wherein he took John Edwards to task for latching onto his wife's cancer for political gain. Basically he said that if you went to Edwards site, you were invited to send a note of support to his wife. Then, with your email address in hand, you get a note asking for donations to the campaign for President. I couldn't believe anyone (even a combination lawyer/politician) would be that low. So I went there. And sure enough there is a place to send a message to them. There is a form for your name, city, state, email, etc. There is also a checkbox to opt in for more campaign related emails. I left a note of support for her fight and did not check the box.
Rush did alot on Global Warming. Honestly I am not a climatologist. So, I am not qualified to judge the "evidence" each side purports to have that will prove thier case. Instead I would prefer to assume it is happening until it is proven otherwise. That means that we should take care of the mudball all the McUSA's live on. IF we are in the throes of GW then perhaps we can slow or stop it. If not, then what have we lost?
Next time we will look at the "left wing" talking heads and see how they spin. As of the end of this entry, I didn't get a request for funds from our friend Edwards.
Edited on Saturday the 7th to include: Well I got the email from the John Edwards Campaign.
Here it is:
Dear Phillip,
Thank you very much for sending a note to Elizabeth. I can't tell you how much the outpouring of kind sentiments means to her.
She's working on responding to all the correspondence but, in the mean time, she wanted you to know that she just had a great few days on the road in Iowa and New Hampshire with John, Cate, Jack, and Emma Claire.
If you would like to continue to receive e-mails from the John Edwards campaign with other opportunities to get involved, please click the link below to sign up for our general campaign mailing list.
http://johnedwards.com/r/9652/937324/
Thanks again for your kind words and support.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Prince
Deputy Campaign Manager
John Edwards For President
How You Can Take Action
(in this space is the buttons labeled Join the campaign, make a donation, spread the word)
I find this to be a violation of good taste. My note to Mrs. Edwards was simply that she and others were in our prayers. Nothing was said about Mr. Edwards political aspirations. Technically Mr. Hughes was correct, but it was slightly inflated.
rush hannity hughes wilkow talking+heads talk+radio edwards+cancer
All week Sean Hannity seemed to be big on the "biggest tax increase in history". He told us it was double the big raise in the Clinton years. The Heritage foundation seems to confirm it. But, all spinning aside, the Democrats didn't raise taxes. They simply failed to renew a series of tax breaks. Here's the reality check: The McUSA's can expect to pay an additional $3000.00 (give or take about 500.00 depending on which media outlet you believe) this year. Call it whatever you want, but it looks like I get to put off buying the state of the art table saw for another year. And it still doesn't look like the Fairtax will get a fair shot this year either.
While Andrew Wilkow took Al Gore to task without calling him out by name. He kept saying that "Liberals" would tell you basically to do as they say but not as they do. Edwards huge estate and Al Gores jet setting came to mind. The only reality here is that Wilkow had an off week and was mostly ranting. I like his show since he just recently hit the national airwaves via Sirius. He's usually more level headed and rational. Guess it was an off week as he anticipated the Easter Bunnies arrival.
Spenser Hughs had an interesting rant wherein he took John Edwards to task for latching onto his wife's cancer for political gain. Basically he said that if you went to Edwards site, you were invited to send a note of support to his wife. Then, with your email address in hand, you get a note asking for donations to the campaign for President. I couldn't believe anyone (even a combination lawyer/politician) would be that low. So I went there. And sure enough there is a place to send a message to them. There is a form for your name, city, state, email, etc. There is also a checkbox to opt in for more campaign related emails. I left a note of support for her fight and did not check the box.
Rush did alot on Global Warming. Honestly I am not a climatologist. So, I am not qualified to judge the "evidence" each side purports to have that will prove thier case. Instead I would prefer to assume it is happening until it is proven otherwise. That means that we should take care of the mudball all the McUSA's live on. IF we are in the throes of GW then perhaps we can slow or stop it. If not, then what have we lost?
Next time we will look at the "left wing" talking heads and see how they spin. As of the end of this entry, I didn't get a request for funds from our friend Edwards.
Edited on Saturday the 7th to include: Well I got the email from the John Edwards Campaign.
Here it is:
Dear Phillip,
Thank you very much for sending a note to Elizabeth. I can't tell you how much the outpouring of kind sentiments means to her.
She's working on responding to all the correspondence but, in the mean time, she wanted you to know that she just had a great few days on the road in Iowa and New Hampshire with John, Cate, Jack, and Emma Claire.
If you would like to continue to receive e-mails from the John Edwards campaign with other opportunities to get involved, please click the link below to sign up for our general campaign mailing list.
http://johnedwards.com/r/9652/937324/
Thanks again for your kind words and support.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Prince
Deputy Campaign Manager
John Edwards For President
How You Can Take Action
(in this space is the buttons labeled Join the campaign, make a donation, spread the word)
I find this to be a violation of good taste. My note to Mrs. Edwards was simply that she and others were in our prayers. Nothing was said about Mr. Edwards political aspirations. Technically Mr. Hughes was correct, but it was slightly inflated.
rush hannity hughes wilkow talking+heads talk+radio edwards+cancer
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Week In Review (Sorta)
It's been about a week since I had time to post anything. Long hours at work (job security is great), and long hours at home fixing up the hacienda (home ownership is awesome)and little time to peruse the news. So this commentary is going to be a bit of week in review. We need to discuss taxation, corruption, and confrontation.
First up is taxation. According to a huge number of Internet news sites the Congress is raising taxes to an all time high. Truthfully the reality is that the so-called Bush tax cuts are expiring. But, pols of all stripes will spin it the best they know how. The bottom line is that a lot of folks are going to be paying more in taxes than they do now. Or, they will be paying tax professionals more to keep the tax bill lower.
In my opinion, taxation is worse on the McUSA family than the Patriot Act Link. Why is that? Simple, the IRS has a far longer history than the PAct of abusing people. The tax code is convoluted to the extreme. Every year it gets more byzantine. It is time to change taxes to simple system that is fair. So, using the Texas model, we should be on a national sales tax and a national property tax. Currently in legislation is the national sales tax. Hat tip to Sanity Clause at Polyrap for suggesting the NPT many times over the course of lots of threads dealing with taxation. The bottom line is that every single person in the USA needs to support the USA financially in a (pardon the pun) fair and balanced manner.
I wish that we had a truth machine to detect corruption by our elected officials. It doesn't matter whether it is left/right, lib/con, RNC/DNC, or Dick/Jane. I believe every pol is corrupt. It may be the nature of the job, but that should change. The members of Congress have a way to get it right in time for 08. It will mean purging the system of obviously corrupt folks. The latest one I've heard about is that Diane Feinstein has been involved in various deals that might not survive an unbiased scrutiny going back several years. We managed to get rid of Foley and Delay. Now we need to remove Jefferson and look at the Feinstein/Pelosi angle where the husbands of each use thier wives influence to make money.
I include the British Sailors and Marines in my thoughts and prayers. Iran is playing a dangerous game of chicken by seizing them. Lucky for all concerned I have no influence in the solution. I'd have already initiated punitive strikes against Iranian military bases and infrastructure. The message would be biblical in nature, "Let my people go". IF that didn't work the next series of strikes would be on the Iranian infrastructure (road nets, airports, power generation sites etc) in general. I have to commend the Brits for the restraint shown, but must caution them on waiting too long. The longer they wait, the weaker they look. Just ask Jimmy Carter.
Other confrontations include the Congress and the President in the ongoing partisan infighting. I started this blog intending to support the Democrats since they were the power. Since I am independent I don't feel a need to support anyone at all. So, I can be a Bush supporter because he is the President, and a Congress supporter all at once. But all I am seeing is the same ol same ol. The current bill to fund the troops includes pork and a time line for withdrawal. Essentially the Congress is trying to become the Commanders in Chief. I for one would respect them more if there were three separate bills. Straightforward opposition can be honorable. But, this bill is disingenuous and an obvious political ploy that helps no one who actually needs it.
Finally, in a reality based world Bush should outright fire the AG for incompetence and tell Congress to get to work and quit trying to run the oval office.
The President’s Weekly Radio Address 3/31/07
In Congress, Spring Break Is Tagged as 'Spring Broke'
An obviously partisan article with linkage about Feinstein.
An older article about DF and China. Pre-2000
taxes corruption congress feinstein delay pelosi iran
First up is taxation. According to a huge number of Internet news sites the Congress is raising taxes to an all time high. Truthfully the reality is that the so-called Bush tax cuts are expiring. But, pols of all stripes will spin it the best they know how. The bottom line is that a lot of folks are going to be paying more in taxes than they do now. Or, they will be paying tax professionals more to keep the tax bill lower.
In my opinion, taxation is worse on the McUSA family than the Patriot Act Link. Why is that? Simple, the IRS has a far longer history than the PAct of abusing people. The tax code is convoluted to the extreme. Every year it gets more byzantine. It is time to change taxes to simple system that is fair. So, using the Texas model, we should be on a national sales tax and a national property tax. Currently in legislation is the national sales tax. Hat tip to Sanity Clause at Polyrap for suggesting the NPT many times over the course of lots of threads dealing with taxation. The bottom line is that every single person in the USA needs to support the USA financially in a (pardon the pun) fair and balanced manner.
I wish that we had a truth machine to detect corruption by our elected officials. It doesn't matter whether it is left/right, lib/con, RNC/DNC, or Dick/Jane. I believe every pol is corrupt. It may be the nature of the job, but that should change. The members of Congress have a way to get it right in time for 08. It will mean purging the system of obviously corrupt folks. The latest one I've heard about is that Diane Feinstein has been involved in various deals that might not survive an unbiased scrutiny going back several years. We managed to get rid of Foley and Delay. Now we need to remove Jefferson and look at the Feinstein/Pelosi angle where the husbands of each use thier wives influence to make money.
I include the British Sailors and Marines in my thoughts and prayers. Iran is playing a dangerous game of chicken by seizing them. Lucky for all concerned I have no influence in the solution. I'd have already initiated punitive strikes against Iranian military bases and infrastructure. The message would be biblical in nature, "Let my people go". IF that didn't work the next series of strikes would be on the Iranian infrastructure (road nets, airports, power generation sites etc) in general. I have to commend the Brits for the restraint shown, but must caution them on waiting too long. The longer they wait, the weaker they look. Just ask Jimmy Carter.
Other confrontations include the Congress and the President in the ongoing partisan infighting. I started this blog intending to support the Democrats since they were the power. Since I am independent I don't feel a need to support anyone at all. So, I can be a Bush supporter because he is the President, and a Congress supporter all at once. But all I am seeing is the same ol same ol. The current bill to fund the troops includes pork and a time line for withdrawal. Essentially the Congress is trying to become the Commanders in Chief. I for one would respect them more if there were three separate bills. Straightforward opposition can be honorable. But, this bill is disingenuous and an obvious political ploy that helps no one who actually needs it.
Finally, in a reality based world Bush should outright fire the AG for incompetence and tell Congress to get to work and quit trying to run the oval office.
The President’s Weekly Radio Address 3/31/07
In Congress, Spring Break Is Tagged as 'Spring Broke'
An obviously partisan article with linkage about Feinstein.
An older article about DF and China. Pre-2000
taxes corruption congress feinstein delay pelosi iran
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Scandals and Money
The artificial scandal continues. Subpoenas are ready to fly, but will it work? Will the President cave in to Congressional demands? NPR has a fairly good story discussing what is going on and more importantly what should be going on.
The really amazing thing about this scandal is that President Bush could have simply said that they were fired, "Because I can". A couple of days of hysterical opeds and it would be over. Instead we have Washington declaring war between two of the three branches of the .gov. They really expect Rove and Miers to testify, under oath, and in public. I can't help but laugh.
All along I have said that I want the new Congress to succeed. But, instead of succeeding, they are falling into the same trap that all the others did. The focus of effort is still an us (congress) v. them (the administration) contest.
IRT the war, Congress should simply defund it or shut up and let the Administration execute the war. In either case they can realistically make hay. IF they defund it, then they get to campaign in 08 about how they brought home the troops. If they fund it without all the extra cash ($21,000,000,000) thrown in for good measure they can still be "antiwar" and "pro-troops".
But, in reality land they have made a supplemental appropriations bill that isn't subject to caps etc. And they added twenty-one billion dollars in non-war related funding. I see a need for multiple bills. One for the war, one for the farmers, one for the victim of the week, one for etc etc etc.
Here is an idea that would tell the people of McUSA that they are serious about thier role as so-called statesmen.
First, make each bill a single topic. No additional riders, amendments on other topics etc. They get thier own bills.
Second, precisely declare how the bill is to be funded and for how long.
Third, cite the chapter and verse of the US Constitution that grants them the authority to make that law at all.
Because this Congress is so young, they have a golden opportunity to restore a bit of the lost faith. The question isn't what they will do with the opportunity. The question is when will they start.
NPR: Gonzales: A Timely Distraction for All Sides?
Bush aide ordered to testify over sackings
Funding more than war
House Spending Bill Short of Votes
spending+bill rove us+attorney+firing mcusa congress subpoena
The really amazing thing about this scandal is that President Bush could have simply said that they were fired, "Because I can". A couple of days of hysterical opeds and it would be over. Instead we have Washington declaring war between two of the three branches of the .gov. They really expect Rove and Miers to testify, under oath, and in public. I can't help but laugh.
All along I have said that I want the new Congress to succeed. But, instead of succeeding, they are falling into the same trap that all the others did. The focus of effort is still an us (congress) v. them (the administration) contest.
IRT the war, Congress should simply defund it or shut up and let the Administration execute the war. In either case they can realistically make hay. IF they defund it, then they get to campaign in 08 about how they brought home the troops. If they fund it without all the extra cash ($21,000,000,000) thrown in for good measure they can still be "antiwar" and "pro-troops".
But, in reality land they have made a supplemental appropriations bill that isn't subject to caps etc. And they added twenty-one billion dollars in non-war related funding. I see a need for multiple bills. One for the war, one for the farmers, one for the victim of the week, one for etc etc etc.
Here is an idea that would tell the people of McUSA that they are serious about thier role as so-called statesmen.
First, make each bill a single topic. No additional riders, amendments on other topics etc. They get thier own bills.
Second, precisely declare how the bill is to be funded and for how long.
Third, cite the chapter and verse of the US Constitution that grants them the authority to make that law at all.
Because this Congress is so young, they have a golden opportunity to restore a bit of the lost faith. The question isn't what they will do with the opportunity. The question is when will they start.
NPR: Gonzales: A Timely Distraction for All Sides?
Bush aide ordered to testify over sackings
Funding more than war
House Spending Bill Short of Votes
spending+bill rove us+attorney+firing mcusa congress subpoena
Monday, March 19, 2007
Cowardice and Red Tape
Hat tip to Stephanie at Debate Policy. She found the LGF article that depicts masked protesters burning both an American Flag and a Soldier in effigy. I have to admit that the sight of the Flag being burned turns my stomach. I also have to admit that I understand the rights of assembly and protest. But, since I am human I also reserve the right to have an opinion IRT thier actions. In a word, Cowards.
Me and my family are animal lovers. I think I may've mentioned that before. All over the news today is the story of the pet food recall. The thing I noticed is that the affected food is the big bux brand. The amazing thing is that while we have dead pets, and dead lab animals, no one can figure out why. I hope the days of the elderly eating pet food are over.
For me the most important amendment in the bill of rights is the second. That amendment ensures that if over time the other nine are abrogated, I will be able to defend myself. I don't understand the anti-gun folks at all. You would think that everyone would be overjoyed to have the right (unless you are in NYC or SF) to defend yourself with deadly force. Not everyone agrees however as you will see if you click the link below. The mayor of NYC is on his own personal crusade (or jihad) against guns and is crossing state lines to do it.
What in your opinion is the single most important amendment in the bill of rights?
Virginia Gun Dealers Hold Contest to Protest New York Mayor Bloomberg's Gun Policy
Pet Food Deaths Remain a Mystery
Leftists Supporting the Troops
antiwar protest flag+burning gun+control bloomberg
Me and my family are animal lovers. I think I may've mentioned that before. All over the news today is the story of the pet food recall. The thing I noticed is that the affected food is the big bux brand. The amazing thing is that while we have dead pets, and dead lab animals, no one can figure out why. I hope the days of the elderly eating pet food are over.
For me the most important amendment in the bill of rights is the second. That amendment ensures that if over time the other nine are abrogated, I will be able to defend myself. I don't understand the anti-gun folks at all. You would think that everyone would be overjoyed to have the right (unless you are in NYC or SF) to defend yourself with deadly force. Not everyone agrees however as you will see if you click the link below. The mayor of NYC is on his own personal crusade (or jihad) against guns and is crossing state lines to do it.
What in your opinion is the single most important amendment in the bill of rights?
Virginia Gun Dealers Hold Contest to Protest New York Mayor Bloomberg's Gun Policy
Pet Food Deaths Remain a Mystery
Leftists Supporting the Troops
antiwar protest flag+burning gun+control bloomberg
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