All this talk about Obama being a socialist for wanting the wealthy to pay higher taxe rates than those in the middle ignores the realities of society. After all, it was Abraham Lincoln himself who introduced a tiered income tax to pay for the Civil War "... with taxable incomes up to $10,000 taxed at a 3 percent rate and higher incomes taxed at 5 percent." (From the US treasury website) Higher taxes for the wealthiest who have benefited the most from the system is not Socialist, or Marxist, or whatever name you want to apply - it is a traditional all-American value called fairness.
Why is it fair? Take a look at the opposite idea and see how it sits. Do you think it is fair for those who have benefited LEAST from the current system to pay the most in taxes? That's the system we have now. Time to stop asking the poorer to cover the costs of living in this country for the richest 5%.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Abraham Lincoln: The Illinois Socialist
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Redistributing the Wealth
McCain and Palin crying foul on Obama wanting to redistribute the wealth. But since Reagan, this is just what their party has been doing.
From Daily Kos:
Between 1983 and 2004 the net worth dramatically shifted as follows:
The top 1% net worth went from $8,315,000 to $14,786,000 - a 77.8% change.
The next 4% net worth went from $1,375,000 to $2,645,000 - a 92.3% change.
The bottom 40% net worth went from $54,000 to $22,000 - a minus -58.7% change.From 1983 to 2004 the income change was nearly as drastic
The top 1% income went from $689,000 to $1,169,000 - a 67.6% change.
The next 4% income went from $180,000 to $258,000 - a 43.1% change.
The bottom 40% income went from $16,800 to $17,500 - only a 4.3% change.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Holy Rhetoric, Batman!
A great McCain/Obama debate parody written in a time warp 40 years ago for the old Batman TV series. Were television audiences smarter back then? Check it out and have a laugh before the main event tonight.
Watch it here.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
RedState Cofounder Doesn't Vote for McCain
HuffPo reports that RedState co-founder Joshua Trevino wrote in his blog that he filled in his CA absentee ballot intending to vote a straight Republican ticket but in the end he couldn't vote for McCain. He wrote in Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.
How about that for a kick in the teeth to McCain!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Lying to Get Her Way
The legislative report that Palin abused her power in trying to get Trooper Wooten fired has some pretty damning conclusions about her character. Many of her claims described Wooten as dangerous, that he had threatened her and her family, and that she was afraid. The investigator, Branchflower, concludes:
I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palin's real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons.More.
But don't take the committee's word that she lies. See her change her story on the issue of firing Monegan here.
How to Earn $480 Million
TPM has a great reader post on the math of the golden parachutes received by the CEOs after destroying the banking system. Puts their bonuses in perspective. Here.
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Verdict on Palin: "Abuse of Power" AND "Dereliction of Duties"
Today, in two separate arenas, Governor Sarah Palin has been rebuked for failures to carry out her duties as entrusted to her by the great state of Alaska.
ABUSE OF POWER
The bipartisan (mostly Republican) panel in the legislature investigating Troopergate released its findings. As reported here:
Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday.DERELICTION OF DUTIES
A judge has ordered both the State of Alaska to contact Yahoo, preserve any emails sent from her outside accounts and to attempt to resurrect those in deactivated accounts. As reported here:
Outsider reformer? If you consider the fox an outsider to poultry farming and elect her to reform business in the hen house, then sure, Palin is both an "outsider" and a "reformer." But why re-define two perfectly good words, when we already have terms for her kind of politician: "crook" and "bully.""We shouldn't be in a position where public records have been lost because the governor didn't do what every other state employee knows to do, which is to use an official, secure state e-mail account to conduct state business," (Judge) McLeod said after the 90-minute hearing.
"It's a dereliction of the governor and her duties," she said.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Who Is Barak Obama?
The vicious innuendo that fills the new RNC ad as well as the McCain campaign ads and speeches needs to be met head on. I hope Obama develops an ad campaign with the same slogan, the same techniques, and answers the sleazy lies with the truth in clear images and words that rebuke the falsehoods and shame the ad makers.
Who is Barak Obama?
Voter Insecurity
The New York Times today reports on how states are illegally purging voters from their rolls. There are purging voters too close to the election day in violation of federal law. And they are using the Social Security database, a database that Social Security says is unreliable and should only be a last resort, as a first resort, which is in violation of their agreement for permission to use that database. But behind all that is the huge hand of human error. Conspiracy? We'll see how this plays out.
For example:
In the year ending Sept. 30, election officials in Nevada, for example, used the Social Security database more than 740,000 times to check voter files or registration applications and found more than 715,000 nonmatches, federal records show.Later in the same article:
Nevada officials said the large number of Social Security checks had resulted from county clerks entering Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers in the wrong fields before records were sent toNevada officials said the large number of Social Security checks had resulted from county clerks entering Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers in the wrong fields before records were sent to the state.What a surprise that there were over 95% nonmatches. They were looking for their driver's license numbers...
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Million-Dollar Web Design Company
Say you've got a million dollars to spend on a website. Your first thought is probably, do I really need to spend that much on a website. But, okay, you need to launch big and launch now. So who do you hire. You can have your pick of top firms. Would you choose a company that not only never ran a website before, but has as its website something that looks like the free template that comes with your domain name? Like this one below. Would you hire these people at even one-tenth of that, say $100,000?
These are the people McCain hired to do his website. Well, you say, Gramps is no wizard when it comes to the web. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on the minute you hear the names. Partner - campaign manager Rick Davis, the same Rick Davis who is a partner in the lobbying firm Davis Manafort, a firm that lobbies for the mortgage industry. The campaign has been saying that Davis hasn't worked for the firm for years, but it turns out his salary is paid to the lobbying firm! So Davis, and his lobbying partner Manafort start up a web design company and right out of the box they get a million dollar contract. What are the odds of that happening to you or me?
Cronyism is the heart and soul of lobbying, of influence peddling, of corruption in government and business. Welcome to McCain's world.
BTW, this is from US News and World Report in May, 2007.
