Serious Tax Problems
I hate America for what it has become. I love America for what it was. I adore America for what it could be.
Right wing interpretation: TOM DEGAN HATES AMERICA!!!
Are you a Republican? Did you vote the straight GOP line in the last election? Then please read the following offering. Or could it be that you've never voted for that hideous party in your life? Good for you! You should feel proud! You're obviously a whole hell-of-a-lot smarter than I am! I voted for Ronald Reagan thirty years ago this month. But at least I have an excuse for my civic irresponsibly - lame as it may sound three decades after the horrible fact. You see, on Election Night of that year - November 4, 1980 - I was extremely - devastatingly - intoxicated. Reagan was such an idiot I thought it might be amusing to watch him running the country for four years. They'll never reelect him in '84, I thought. The moral of this story?
DON'T DRINK AND VOTE.
I have been stone-cold sober every election day since. Heed my tragic example, boys and girls.
Please, e-mail this piece to any and all of your Conservative friends. I'm about to give a them a valuable little lesson in reality and remedial mathematics. I have a sneaky feeling that many of them haven't a clue as to the dreadful seriousness of our present situation. How did I arrive at this conclusion you may ask? Well, the fact that they just handed the House of Representatives back to the party mostly (though not entirely) responsible for this mess is a pretty good indicator of their essential cluelessness. As a matter of fact it was a dead giveaway. There will be a quiz immediately following. Tell 'em to put their thinking caps on!
SIDE NOTE:
The nice folks over at Spell Check are gently but firmly informing me that "cluelessness" is not a proper word. I am chastised and humbled by this knowledge.
Right wing interpretation: TOM DEGAN HATES AMERICA!!!
Are you a Republican? Did you vote the straight GOP line in the last election? Then please read the following offering. Or could it be that you've never voted for that hideous party in your life? Good for you! You should feel proud! You're obviously a whole hell-of-a-lot smarter than I am! I voted for Ronald Reagan thirty years ago this month. But at least I have an excuse for my civic irresponsibly - lame as it may sound three decades after the horrible fact. You see, on Election Night of that year - November 4, 1980 - I was extremely - devastatingly - intoxicated. Reagan was such an idiot I thought it might be amusing to watch him running the country for four years. They'll never reelect him in '84, I thought. The moral of this story?
DON'T DRINK AND VOTE.
I have been stone-cold sober every election day since. Heed my tragic example, boys and girls.
Please, e-mail this piece to any and all of your Conservative friends. I'm about to give a them a valuable little lesson in reality and remedial mathematics. I have a sneaky feeling that many of them haven't a clue as to the dreadful seriousness of our present situation. How did I arrive at this conclusion you may ask? Well, the fact that they just handed the House of Representatives back to the party mostly (though not entirely) responsible for this mess is a pretty good indicator of their essential cluelessness. As a matter of fact it was a dead giveaway. There will be a quiz immediately following. Tell 'em to put their thinking caps on!
SIDE NOTE:
The nice folks over at Spell Check are gently but firmly informing me that "cluelessness" is not a proper word. I am chastised and humbled by this knowledge.
Here's the dirty little secret that NOBODY is talking about: The debt that the United States has incurred in the last ten years is now at a level where it's probably insurmountable. The only solution (and that's assuming there is a viable solution) will involve taxes - decades of serious taxation. This is the ugly little reality facing us. Now the big question: On whose shoulders should the burden of getting out of this mess fall - the poor and middle classes? I've got a better idea: How 'bout a class of people who already have more money than they know what to do with? How 'bout the people who benefited the most from the thirty-year financial binge that this country engaged in? Am I waging class warfare? You'd better believe it, Buster. The plutocracy has been waging class warfare against us since the nineteenth century. I don't know about you but I'm fightin' back, baby!
`The anti-tax paranoia in this country is beyond being out-of-hand. It's gotten downright ludicrous. Montana is now the bat-shit extremist capital of the United States (Sorry South Carolina, you had a nice, long run). In an excellent article that was posted on AlterNet this morning, the writer David Neiwert told of how some elected representatives in that state's legislature are now advocating secession from the union. This raises the musical question: What the hell is in Montana's water?
It kind of makes you wonder, huh? So what if Montana demanded secession from the union? What then? I say let them secede. The next time Rick Perry brings up the subject of removing Texas from the union, we ought to call his bluff. I was tempted to suggest giving that state back to the Mexicans but - what the hell - they have enough problems as it is. Why add to their burden?
Let's allow these twits to create the right wing Valhalla they yearn for - and then sit back and watch their "countries" implode from within. It may very well turn out to be a valuable lesson which the "limited-government" types living within the rest of the forty-eight states need to learn. It would also be loads of fun to watch - from afar that is.
Let's allow these silly bastards to secede. In fact, we ought to encourage it. Seriously.
Here is what the Tea Party freaks have never been able to figure out. We're either going to have one of two things in this country: We will have a society where our children receive decent educations; where crime is relatively low; where jobs are abundant; where the middle class is thriving, and the infrastructure is nurtured....or we'll have a society where the people who already have more money than they know what to do with do not pay their fair share of taxes. We cannot - we will not - have both. Our politicians won't tell you that. I just did. Isn't the truth a neat thing?
As I stated above, this is class warfare.
Then again, even with a fair, progressive tax system put back into place, it is now unlikely that we will be able to give American's infrastructure the kick in the pants that it so desperately needs. Remember, we are thirteen-trillion dollars in the hole. The decades of serious taxation I spoke of earlier will go to paying that debt. Under these nasty circumstances, how will we be able to invest in us? The solution is a lot simpler than you might imagine.
You and I will be paying more in taxes in the years to come. That is unavoidable. Come to grips with the idea. Here's the good news: We'll be paying a bit more. The rich will be paying a lot more. Here is the ONLY way out of the mess that the Republicans and more-than-a-few Democrats have gotten us into: We absolutely need to bring back the ninety percent tax bracket for the uber wealthy. That is the only way out. The only way. It amazes me that after all these years, the Republicans still want us to buy into the myth that says glad tidings will "trickle down" on the rest of us. Is that really true? Well, yeah. If you like getting pissed on, it's very true indeed.
Here is that little quiz that I promised at the beginning of this piece. Truth be told, it's not a quiz but a single rhetorical question:
How is it mathematically possible to maintain things as they presently are?
Any takers?
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Tom Degan
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
As I stated above, this is class warfare.
Then again, even with a fair, progressive tax system put back into place, it is now unlikely that we will be able to give American's infrastructure the kick in the pants that it so desperately needs. Remember, we are thirteen-trillion dollars in the hole. The decades of serious taxation I spoke of earlier will go to paying that debt. Under these nasty circumstances, how will we be able to invest in us? The solution is a lot simpler than you might imagine.
You and I will be paying more in taxes in the years to come. That is unavoidable. Come to grips with the idea. Here's the good news: We'll be paying a bit more. The rich will be paying a lot more. Here is the ONLY way out of the mess that the Republicans and more-than-a-few Democrats have gotten us into: We absolutely need to bring back the ninety percent tax bracket for the uber wealthy. That is the only way out. The only way. It amazes me that after all these years, the Republicans still want us to buy into the myth that says glad tidings will "trickle down" on the rest of us. Is that really true? Well, yeah. If you like getting pissed on, it's very true indeed.
Here is that little quiz that I promised at the beginning of this piece. Truth be told, it's not a quiz but a single rhetorical question:
How is it mathematically possible to maintain things as they presently are?
Any takers?
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Tom Degan
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
AFTERTHOUGHT:
Here is a link to the piece that I mentioned from this morning's edition of AlterNet:
http://www.alternet.org/news/148946/%22we_are_at_war%22:_how_militias,_racists_and_anti-semites_found_a_home_in_the_tea_party_?page=entire
If this valuable website is not part of your daily ritual, it ought to be. It doesn't get any better than AlterNet. HEY! Have I ever lied to you??? Here is a link to their home page:
http://www.alternet.org/
SUGGESTED READING:
The Conscience of a Liberal
by Paul Krugman
posted by Tom Degan @ 3:59 PM
46 comments
46 Comments:
"Serious Tax Problems"
Why don't you add a section about the field nigger Charlie Rangel?
I bet anonymous is a pussy who hides behind the tea party...They are anti-American as Batshit Bachman shows and they are too hypnotized to do what is right for their own families...they even want to take healthcare away from their own families.
Hey Tom: You're absolutely right! As you finish this rant, don't forget to mention that EVERYONE including the billionaires will benefit from tax cuts on all of their income except the marginal income in the highest bracket if the Bush Cuts are restored on all but the highest income. I'm afraid that Obama will cave on this issue as he so dissapointingly has done over and over. The billionaires have reaped the greatest benefits from our country and should be proud to do their part as Warren Buffet has said. To be "pro business" means that you should insure that the lowest among us have the cash to buy business's products and services. What kind of consumer society doesn't have consumers?
teeluck sooknarine
i guess it would be more accurate to call Charlie Rangel a House nigger than a field nigger. Use of the word nigger is very liberal on this blog so no one should be offended.
Charlie Rangel says (typical of "elite" social engineers):
"Do as I say, not as I do."
Good piece, Tom. However - two things:
A. Please don't use "beg the question" when you mean "raise" or"cite" the question. To "beg the question" is a rhetorical device for avoiding or sidestepping an issue.
2.Please, oh please! Avoid the ubiquitous barbarism of using an apostrophe to form a plural! Bastard / bastards - see?, no apostrophe required.
Thank you for pointing those errors out. The "bastard's" bit was a typo on my part. The problem is that I type way too fast.
Any error of fact, spelling or punctuation pointed out to me is deeply appreciated.
All the best,
Tom
Tom, it's very very angering. I think we all need to RANT just like you are doing. Raise our voices and let everyone hear how pissed off we are that this is happening to OUR country! Want to get angrier, read the article by Bill Moyers at truthout.org called "Welcome to the Plutocracy."
I am not as upset as many about this issue. Flying is a privilege, the body scan does not bother me at all and if I have this correctly, if you allow the scan you will not be "patted down" by the TSA.
Anon:
Field N's ok on this site, House N's not so much.
?The rich who benefited from the cuts. It is a country with private property rights. The government is not giving the rich more. It has limits on how much it can take.
Hate America. Explain where people with assbacwards politics such as yours would do any better. If you dont like it here, go find your nirvana, Greece, France, Russia, Ukraine, NKorea,Cuba. With your views you have options.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
I am a CPA and when the 1986, 2001, and 2003 tax cuts were implemented no ordinary working people noticed. My advice - let the Bush tax cuts expire. Just do nothing. No one will notice. Instead of saving $700 Billion as the President wants letting W's tax cuts expire will bring in $3.7 Trillion over the next ten years.
The newly elected Governor of Florida revealed that he had almost $8 million of income last year and his total income tax rate was 13%. None of his income was "earned" income so he paid no Social Security or Medicare taxes. A kid working at McDonalds has 15.3% of every dollar earned sent to the IRS for Social Security and Medicare. And rich people rant that poor people pay no taxes. That kid pays more taxes than the our new Governor who had $8 million of income.
How about the Social Security "problem?" Since 1980 Social Security has had a huge surplus but our Congress spent every penny of the so called "Trust Fund." There should have been enough to carry us for the next thirty years but they spent it all. Want to fix at least half of that problem? Take off the cap on Social Security (now $106,800).
Want to fix the rest of the Social Security problem? Force all members of Congress to have no retirement income greater than Social Security will pay them.
How's that for trickle up?
On social security tax. Isn't the concept that you pay into social security over your life for coverage from a certain age till you die. The payment is defined by your contributions. I get a statement every year showing how much I have made and paid since entering the workforce. Social security was marketed as an annutiy backed by the government.
Now, because the money collected was spent in ponzi fashion, the liberals want to treat social security purely as a right. A right which needs tax revenue to support.
The story has changed.
Like ObamaCare, before passage contributions were not supposed to be a tax. The second it is questioned in court, the dems try to hid behind the governments power to tax.
Pass big programs on farcical arguments, run the ponzi scheme to the end, then tax everything in sight.
Dems in a nutshell.
Personally, I would be ok with a percentage increase in taxes if spending was cut from a reasonable baseline, like the early 2000s, in a like percentage to balance the budget.
I learned my lesson when I voted for Richard Nixon in '72, and I wasn't even drunk.
Hoping you enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving with family & friends!
We're having a grand time, swordfish. Right back at'cha!
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too - and every one!
peace....
Tom Degan
Happy Thanksgiving Tom.
Take heart, we may not be far from it ideologically, but at least we don't LIVE in Russia!
Cheers,
Bennett from Vermont
"Why don't you add a section about the field nigger Charlie Rangel?"
Go wash your filthy mouth out with soup first.
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Tom.
Tom, it's such a breath of fresh air coming here. I think the right wing trolls are actually trying to find that one statement which will allow them to move over to the "liberal" wing. They're almost polite. But the thing is, we won't get taxed to any great extent towards the debt, because those who take the taxes have no plan to pay it off. They take the taxes to finance their business deals around the world, to make them very wealthy and the other 95% very very poor. They like seeing us suffer in poverty, it makes them feel that much richer. No, I expect they intend to drive the republic into bankruptcy like Portugal or Argentina. They'll file their version of chapter 11 and move on to the south of France to live in luxury with their stolen Euros, assuming they were smart enough to convert their wealth to some stable currency.
Bottom line, we can expect more of the same bullshit from Obama and his appointed successor. And since most Americans are pansies we will not rise up and overthrow them, we will kneel at their side and get our ears scratched like the good pets we are. OR we will start taking our houses offline, using cars powered by compressed air or vegetable oil and make our own soap, make our own food and keep a low profile. When the smoke clears we'll still have our root cellars.
"Please, e-mail this piece to any and all of your Conservative friends. I'm about to give a them a valuable little lesson in reality and remedial mathematics."
LOL Tom Degan on the progressive Democrat's mathematics:
ABC news CBO: Health Care Bill Will Cost $115 Billion More Than Previously Assessed
May 12, 2010 9:08 AM
The director of the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the health care reform legislation would cost, over the next ten years, $115 billion more than previously thought, bringing the total cost to more than $1 trillion.
The revised figure is due to estimated costs to federal agencies to implement the new health care reform bill – such as administrative expenses for the Internal Revenue Services and the Department of Health and Human Services -- and the costs for a "variety of grant and other program spending for which specified funding levels for one or more years are provided in the act."
CBO had originally estimated that the health care reform bill would result in a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion from 2010-2019; this revised number would eliminate most of that savings.
In a statement, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that the new CBO analysis "provides ample cause for alarm. This comes just weeks after the Obama administration itself released an analysis confirming that the new law actually increases Americans’ health care costs. The American people wanted one thing above all from health care reform: lower costs, which Washington Democrats promised, but they did not deliver. These revelations widen the serious credibility gap President Obama is facing."
What do you say we cut the military budget in half, Arch?
Cheers!
Tom, Archie's silence is stinging my ears.
I agree, immediately cut the DoD budget by half, for starters, then dump the boondoggle corporate giveaway that conservatives call ObamaCare and replace it with Universal Health Care.
Thirdly, drop the criminality for the cultivation, use and sale of Marijuana, and tax it appropriately, followed by the same with prostitution.
If all were done faithfully and in good conscience, the Republican and Teabagger golden calf of a balanced budget would happen faster than a New York minute.
@Jefferson's Guardian: I like the way you think.
@Tom, I like the way you think, too. Your rant is shared.
Last Democrat I voted for was Bill Clinton and never will again. Our debt is in horrible shape and it is time we stop spending what we don't have. I DEMAND that they stop stealing money from my paycheck, I work for my family not for a crackwhore in Chicago,not for an illegal to give birth to an anchor baby in Texas and on and on. It is time progressives learn that throwing money around does solve problems. America is changing and the people elected this year better do what we expect from them. In 2012 when conservatives retake the White house the changes will even be more drastic and this entitlement lifeystyle that progressives believe is some kind of God given right will come to a crashing halt. Learn to be responsible for yourself do not depend on my paycheck to feed, cloth and provide you housing.
So, Notalib, can I assume you're on board with Tom's and my proposal that we first cut the DoD budget in half?
Notalib, Buttock, anonymous-who's-too-much-of-a-pussy-to-use-his-name, all apparently suffer from the same cognitive impediment - the inability to think independently, and apply logic and rationality. They just dutifully perform their troll duties, spouting off like good little repugs, parroting the nutbag talking points the Focks Noose announcers told them.
The Bush tax cuts are insane, particularly for anyone earning over $250,000.00 per year. The wealthy of this country have used the resources, privileges, and public resources of this country to MAKE their money - those that actually earned their money, that is. What they pay in taxes is significantly lower than what they paid under Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton. Did all the Bush tax cuts for the rich of the past ten years produce jobs? An thriving economy? Nope! It never has, never will.
What it facilitated, with the help of a disastrous trade bill, was a mass exodus of U.S. jobs to the third world, a significant decline in middle and lower incomes, and the biggest income gap between the richest and the average American in history.
The corporate sector and the financial elite are thriving as never before - the corporate sector just had its best quarter ever. As long as the investor class prospers, the disastrous outsourcing of American jobs will continue. The repugs have no interest in stopping this because it would displease their real masters - the financial elite and corporatists.
So instead, they uniformly pretend that the real reason people have no jobs and are going down the tubes economically is due to illegal immigration, and the fact that the rich don't yet have ENOUGH of the public's resources, in the form of tax breaks, cushy no-bid contracts, etc, etc.
Of course they've begun their campaign to cut social security and medicare in earnest, lifeline programs that are the only safety nets left to most of us! The wingnuts tell us that these are "entitlement" programs, and that we need to accept that the programs we've PAID INTO ALL OUR WORKING LIVES - and which are IN FACT SOLVENT - must be axed.
Not the Welfare-for-the-Rich program called TAX CUTS, not the corporate welfare; write-offs, tax breaks, contracts, and continuing rewards for building production facilities in the third world, and certainly not the military-industrial-Pentagon spending free-for-all, which is so far in excess of what's needed one can scarcely calculate it.
You tea-nut-bags need to pull your collective head out of your collective ass, and begin to comprehend reality. Hint: It ain't wait you've been told. The following citation is taken from a Report released by Citizens for Tax Justice, on the cost of the Bush tax cuts and how they dramatically ballooned the deficit. I encourage any interested parties to read the entire piece.
An excerpt:
"President Bush and his allies in Congress never even attempted to replace the revenue lost as a result of their enormous tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts were deficit-financed, which increased the national debt and resulted in greater interest payments on that debt, as already explained.
These figures make clear that costs cannot be the real concern of lawmakers who oppose the House health care legislation and yet supported the Bush tax cuts. Their position seems to be that showering benefits on the wealthiest five percent of taxpayers and leaving the bill for future generations is preferable to making health care available for all at a much lower cost and paying that cost up front. That demonstrates a different set of priorities than most Americans have, but it doesn’t demonstrate much concern about costs."
Also see 10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts:
Excerpt -
"After Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt with his supply-side tax cuts, George W. Bush doubled it again with his own. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that the Bush tax cuts accounted for almost half of the mushrooming deficits during his tenure. As another CBPP analysis forecast, over the next 10 years, if the Bush tax cuts are made permanent, they will contribute more to the U.S. budget deficit than the Obama stimulus, the TARP program, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and revenue lost to the recession put together."
Tommy Degan and "Jefferson's Guardian"
Jefferson was for states rights and less central planning, and wouldn't believe that the Federal Government could force you to engage in commerce (like buy health insurance) so I'm not sure how how a lefty can call himself "Jefferson's Guardian". It makes me chuckle. Maybe you should think about renaming yourself "Hamilton's Guardian."
As for cutting the military in half, thats fine with me if you cut all federal department expenditures in half also. Since that is not realistic, I see no reason why the military budget cannot be decreased immediately by 10-20%. The US should start closing all its military bases located in foreign lands except for a few in key locations.
I'm for accountability in Government which simply does not exist in Washington and many state governments. The Department of Energy and the Department of Education, for example, are 2 departments which consume lots of taxpayer money and produce almost nothing. I know a retired CT State supervisor who had 10 people working under him who said only 3 or 4 people were needed to get the work done without overtime and his situation was typical throughout the state government.
Arch: Excellent post, also the tail end hearkens to what we've heard lately, government jobs that pay salaries like $150,000 have increased just in the past few years, imagine that from a government job. I was also listening to how bus drivers out in Portland Oregon were getting exorbitant salaries working for... I guess that is a government job too.
Hey baby,
Loved this post!!!
Everyone should forward it to their lists.
After reading hundreds of blogs and noticing all the rightwingnut Tea Baggers (also undercover insurance, bankster and pharma employees) who post as "Anonymous," or have names with no identifying info about their interests, etc., and who then wildly attack well-written, logical arguments with lies and Limpbaugh/BecKKK fraudulent facts, I have a suggestion.
Delete all comments from anonymous sources.
If they don't have the respect to at least adopt a moniker (even a stoopid rightwingnut misspelled one) and a trail of blogs they read, interests, etc., then they don't get to comment.
Also, automatically delete ad hominem attacks as these pretenders always have the option of starting their own blogs and hope decent people read their comments there. (As if these types would go to the trouble of actually writing something any decently well-read people would want to read.)
Seems fair to me.
Love you!
S
P.S. I agree with TeeLuck's, Ray's, Sue's, Monique's, Ron's, Jefferson's Guardian's and Anna Van Z's responses. Also if we adopted Notalib's idea of not throwing money around anymore, the first place we should stop is throwing it to the wealthy in any more tax breaks (and take many of them back like the breaks for moving jobs overseas) as they have enough to live off of for a very long time (see Warren Buffett's latest speech on this matter), and the military and its corollary contractor world which has absorbed so much taxpayer money without accountability, which has (mysteriously) absorbed almost all the "surplus" along with the tax cuts since the 9/11 "incident" (as over 30% of what they receive isn't even reported as it's in the "black world").
So cut out all this throwing around of our money first!
Right, Notalib?
_____________
Suzan:
The Right Wing Nuts just kicked the DemoCraps Ass in the election.
Hey, be happy with your Prez. who voted for even babies born alive to be able to put away in a closet left to die.
He can't get away with that in 57 States, Dumb Ass he is.
You all are the brain dead ones.
"He can't get away with that in 57 States, Dumb Ass he is.
You all are the brain dead ones."
I'm going to etch that one in stone. Priceless!
Hard working conservative americans in white.
Liberals in black.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNqNfxo42J8&feature=player_embedded
BTW: Palin is smarter than Obama. Take away that teleprompter for month and see what happens. Just as Bush was smarter than Kerry (miliatary intelligence tests and college grades). Liberals play gotcha to make themselves feel smarter than others.
Democrats for the most part are a bunch of hypocritical parasites. Its like deer ticks complaining about the size of the deer.
Dumb Ass he is.
Finally.
Intelligent conversation (and good grammar too!) from the pretenders.
Although I have to say, Tom, that for a time while reading your comments I was thinking that you'd changed to a
COMEDY SITE!!!
Love ya,
S
P.S. Even funnier.
Word verification is "shata!"
Curious about the picture in the last blog. Is that a SAL 9000? Are you pensive about what has gone wrong with the BHO 9000?
Oh, and another thing, regarding
"Anonymous" Pussy-man at the top of the comments: How DARE you? How DARE a whiny, no-nuts, feeble-minded flunky like yourself denigrate Charles Rangel? He has spent decades serving this country, and has exhibited far more sense, intelligence, and empathy towards his fellow humans that you could ever comprehend. He also was a Korean War hero and was awarded the Bronze Star.
When you've got the creds (and balls) like Mr. Rangel, then you can make your racist, juvenile, tiresome, and endlessly predictable remarks. Until then, I suggest you and your inbred, white trash, feeble-minded moronic cohorts pack up your sorry asses and afflict some other blog.
And besides, your mama told me she LOVES her some Charlie Rangel...
Suzan -
Delete ad hominem attacks?!! Are you serious? Tom is the king of ad hominem attacks as are those who post out here. There would be nothing left - you'd kill his blog. Are you paying attention?
He picks on whole states, like Texas, for crying out loud. And says silly stuff like he'd be for just giving it back to Mexico - as if Mexico is anything other than one of many oppressive legacy regimes of the Spanish imperialism. No, Mexicans would be better off if we gave Mexico to Texas. They know that - they're all trying to get in at risk of life and limb.
The silly (and often vulgar) crap that gets posted never ceases to amaze...
Anna Van Z,
Charlie Rangell is a major tax cheat. The average US citizen would be put in jail if they committed his crimes.
Anonymous
P.S. I like it when you get mad and post rubbish.
No, Archie, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't subscribe to Hamiltonism -- at least not fully. It's unfortunate you equate liberalism with a dominating central government. Preconceived notions such as yours are consistent with the biases and prejudices of your preferred moniker, so I truly understand why you only have a grade-school understanding of what liberalism is all about, and only a partial grasp of Jeffersonian democracy and its complexities and nuances. The following explains, fairly accurately, the belief system of the original followers and disciples of Thomas Jefferson, courtesy of, and extracted from, Wikipedia. Granted, such research would take effort and a certain amount of perseverance on your part, so I've done the leg-work for you. Enjoy!
Jeffersonian democracy, so named after Thomas Jefferson, is a political philosophy supporting a federal government with greatly constrained powers and advocating a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Jeffersonian philosophy also called for state and local governments to safeguard the rights and property of citizens. Jeffersonians recognized both private and common property.
In its core ideals it is characterized by the following elements, which the Jeffersonians expressed in their speeches and legislation:
1. The core political value of America is representative democracy; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption, especially monarchism and aristocracy.
2. The yeoman farmer best exemplifies civic virtue and independence from corrupting city influences; government policy should be for his benefit.
Financiers, bankers and industrialists make cities the cesspools of corruption, and should be avoided.
3. Americans had a duty to spread what Jefferson called the "Empire of Liberty" to the world, but should avoid "entangling alliances."
4. The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers. Most Anti-Federalists from 1787-88 joined the Jeffersonians.
5. The wall of separation between church and state is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
6. The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals. The Bill of Rights is a central theme.
7.The federal government must not violate the rights of the states. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 (written secretly by Jefferson and James Madison) proclaim these principles.
8. Freedom of speech and the press is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government. The Federalists' violation of this idea through the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 became a major issue.
9. A standing army and navy are dangerous to liberty and should be avoided; much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo.
10. The United States Constitution was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept. However, "no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation."
Continued on next comment…
Boltok, I see the allegorical message differently, and with more complexity:
Black & White cat = intuitive and deep-thinking liberals
Black cat = narrow-minded and simpleton conservatives
Crows = multinational corporations and banking interests
If you've figured this out, congratulations! If you're still scratching your head and wondering what the hell I mean...well, my point is made.
Attention Dullwit Anonymous:
By Ben Stein, Republican
CBS News.Com
By now everyone who follows politics knows that Charles Rangel, the 20-term representative to Congress from New York's Harlem district, has been found guilty of ethics violations by the House ethics panel.
He apparently failed to report rental income from a dwelling in the Caribbean, used his office stationery for fund raising for a school named after him, and used a rent stabilized apartment for a political office.
For this, the punishment is publicly shaming by being censured.
Now, just to me (whom you all know as a lifelong Republican), Rangel's misdeeds seem like extremely trivial matters. The IRS has not prosecuted him for tax evasion. When you are a busy man, small tax issues can get lost in the shuffle.
The other two matters just seem like total and utter nothings.
But what I really want to say about Charles Rangel is that this man is a genuine American hero.
In unbelievably difficult service in the Korean War, his unit was swamped, cut off, overwhelmed by hordes of Red Chinese crossing into Korea. In the worst cold weather imaginable, under fire, starving, acting Sergeant Charles Rangel, in a black unit led mostly by white officers, took a large group of men, led them by example, lifted their morale, as they fought their way out to safety. Men were being shot, freezing, getting captured all around him, yet he got most of his men out.
For this leadership, sacrifice, and courage, Mr. Rangel was awarded a Bronze Star with a V for Valor.
After that, he served as a prosecutor, and then for 20 distinguished terms, as a member of Congress, for a time as chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. His erudition and fairness earned him high marks throughout his career.
Now, he has been humiliated over what seems to me like almost nothing.
Just for me, I hope that history will record that a truly great man, Charlie Rangel, a hero of the first rank, was laid low by trivial, no-account matters, censured by people who mostly have no clue of what true courage, fighting, blood and frostbite mean.
Charlie Rangel does know, and to me, he is still a hero.
Hooray for Anna Van Z!
The only republicant I ever voted for is Eisenhower when I had just turned 21 and thought I knew what was best for the U. S. When I later told my mother that I voted for Eisenhower, she thought I was kidding. I'm not sure that she ever believed me.
Thanks for your RANTing Tom!
And thank you for pointing out all of my typos and errors of grammar, Sherman. It is much appreciated!
All the best,
Tom Degan
S'gi (Thanks) for the Delay Blog.
Tom:
Glad to help!
Well, in order to love "it for what it was", we have to accept "what it has become". Many of the policies have only grown into what they were intended. I don't like many of them and certainly our government has been mis-managed for decades. But, I also recognize that many socially supportive policies are also anti-capitalistic.
AS
http://starkravingmanager.com/
I don't think I have read anything so far left, or so far fetched. You reach far to come up with the statements you make in your postings. If you really had the life experience you say you have. And where somewhere close to being as smart as you try to make people believe. You would never make these statements. You talk like it's only the Republicans that have made the decisions that have put us where we are today. When it was the Democrats that where in charge most of the time when these things happened. Like in the case of the past two years. They, the Democrats, have tried to push bills down the throats of the American people that they did not want, OR NEED. And if they where so willing to work with the Republicans. Why were there not more bills passed. And why did it take so long to get the few things done that they did. The Democrats can't even work with each other. Let alone work with the Republicans. And they surly didn't do anything worth while for the American people.
Only thing left for me to say is:
"Sir, you are an idiot"
I notice that people refer to "their corporate masters" as if the millionaires in Congress are not themselves corporations. Look at the financial relationships Congress held before being elected, during their terms and afterward. They ARE the corporations and they just happen to spend time in Washington to cover their asses with paperwork, making the unconscionable legal.
It's over folks. When President Cheney got a neegrow into the White House disguised as the President, he won the war! Now he can claim we have a liberal government while running the most repressive and violent country the world has ever seen. Our tax dollars kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people all over the world every year and there is no plan to stop the killing. Mussolini said a never-ending war is the best way for a fascist government to stay in power.
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