The Rant

In California, the top one percent income earners pay 47% of the State's income tax . Not surprisingly, some of these "rich" have chosen to move their businesses and their persons to states with less draconian income taxes. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming have no state income tax. Is it really fair that the majority of voters pay virtually no taxes, yet get to use their political power to spend whatever they like using money from people who are compelled to pay taxes? Is this not taxation without representation? With regard to the Federal income taxes, the bottom 50% pay an insignificant percentage of the total taxes, and a smaller percentage every year. In 2008, the bottom 50% pay only 2.89% of the total taxes. Yet 51% can vote to award themselves money from government programs for anything they like. For example, the government pays farmers two billion dollars not to farm their land. It paid sixty billion dollars for other kinds of ...

Liberals were fooled too. The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday. Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps. The provision on business records was long criticized by rights groups as giving the government access to citizens' library records, and a coalition of liberal and conservative groups complained that the Patriot Act gives the government too much authority to snoop into Americans' private lives. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law. Back in May, President Obama said legal institutions must...

Tax revenues in the states are permanently down . Government needs to shrink, not grow. But where is there any will to do what needs to be done? Not in California. I wonder which state I should flee too? California gets most of its revenue from less than one percent of the population. But these people can move themselves and their businesses. And they are. California revenue is down some 30%. Hope and Change. Perhaps Democrats should enslave them and force them and compel them to work "for the good of the people."

I knew I made a mistake working for the private sector. The future is clearly with the government. Except these wages must be paid by taxes on the private sector, which is currently shrinking. Oh well, we can always borrow more money. No need to worry or sweat the small stuff. YES WE CAN!!

Same as the old boss.

Apparently, it was only the Anti-Republican-War movement .

Obama got elected spouting pretty but vague platitudes promising everything to everyone. He is a good speaker and seemed always to be cool and reasonable and moderate. Now that he is elected, he cannot rely upon vague generalities. He must submit actual laws to be passed. And the laws he has submitted, upon inspection, prove not to be moderate nor cool nor rational. They are radical bills from a radical leftist agenda, spending money with no thought for the deficit, seeking to bring medical care within the total control of the government, taxing every person out of a paranoid fear of ecotastrophe, with no thought about the cost or the likely benefit to the country or world. In short, Obama is exactly what would be predicted from looking at his history and background and the nature of the friends he keeps. Now that his true face is at least being revealed, America is finding out the terrible truth about the mistake it made in 2008. The question of the hour: how lo...

Police arrested 7 men in North Carolina and charged them with terrorist activities that have their roots in Afghanistan and Pakistan and date back to the 1980s, before a few of them were born. Jihad in America. These young men obviously need assistance from the ACLU. Their rights are being trampled including the right to free exercise of religion.

It is not just conservative media that is losing money. Most newspapers are losing money. Print media is on life support and may become extinct. The New York Times is losing money and subscribers. As for the tax argument, I do not recall the economy booming under Jimmy Carter when Reagan took over. I seem to recall something called "stagflation." How exactly does increasing the taxes on the working rich (those still earning an income) help the economy? He neglected to mention this minor detail. Liberals are universally interested in taxing wealth. What does not interest them is making wealth. Perhaps they do not believe in the concept. They certainly do not approve of it, or want to encourage it.

Bob: I love left wingers..no joke. There are some inaccuracies but eat the rich anyway. The Great Tax Con Job by Thom Hartmann Republicans are using the T-word - taxes - to attack the Obama healthcare program. It's a strategy based in a lie. A very small niche of America's uber-wealthy have pulled off what may well be the biggest con job in the history of our republic, and they did it in a startlingly brief 30 or so years. True, they spent over three billion dollars to make it happen, but the reward to them was in the hundreds of billions - and will continue to be. As my friend and colleague Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks pointed out in a Daily Kos blog recently , billionaire Rupert Murdoch loses $50 million a year on the NY Post, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife loses $2 to $3 million a year on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, billionaire Philip Anschutz loses around $5 million a year on The Weekly Standard, and billionaire Sun Myung Moon has lost $2 to $3 billion on The Washi...

I have this book and am trying to read it but it is painful to me. His reasoning is not persuasive. His style is too stiff and serious. I prefer Mark Steyn. I do not worship the constitution as a sacred book. Besides, that argument was lost fifty years ago. The world of 1776 is 250 years gone. Things change. But some things do not really change . . . like human nature. There are consequences for everything. People act in accordance with how society structures rewards and punishments. My belief is that we live in a democratic country and people get what they vote for. In other words, the majority will get what it asks for. I'll get by no matter who is in charge.

Bob: I am about a third of the way through Mark Levin's book and I am having a hard time putting my disappointment into words. There are no well reasoned arguments. While not stating it, he wants to roll back all federal government to pre -New Deal levels. Even though the federal government and power has grown dramatically as a percentage of the economy during the ascendancy of the US economy, all positive things came from unfettered free enterprise, all bad things came from government regulation. He doesn't try to create a strong "straw man" to knock down. Name an issue, free markets are always best, regulation is always bad. I will give you a more well reasoned review of this political manifesto after I have listened to it twice. If you are a true believer, put a copy of this little red book in your back pocket.

It is a fact that every great historical empire has had its day, and then gone into decline . . . Greece, Rome, England flourished for a time and then became weak and corrupt, losing the courage and character that made them great. The United States may be coming upon its time of decline. Whether the Democrats or Republicans have power seems no longer to matter in the least. George Bush increased the size of government more than Bill Clinton. Obama is increasing the government now as never before in American history. Even Reagan increased the size of government, contrary to what Republicans would like you to believe. The idea that the Nanny State will take care of you, guarantee that you have food, shelter, health care, is popular with young people these days who hold the boring details of economics and business in contempt, and with old people worrying about paying the mounting medical bills. Both political parties have gradually, incrementally increased the size of government, so that...

Some wise pundit observed: "Those that oppose the progressive agenda are pulling out all the stops to prevent a democratic majority for ruling the country. Let's hope the strong democratice majority does not shirk from the power it finally has obtained." Who is to stop the Democrat majority from doing whatever it wants? The Democrats have already put all their wish lists into the economic stimulus plan. Now they can pass a single provider health care plan. They can Pass the Carbon Dioxide taxation plan. They can even nationalize private companies like GM. Who is to stop them? Until 2010 they can do whatever they like. Down with capitalism. Up with whatever you call the Democratic vision: socialism, fascism, the era of Big Government returned. If their plans work, then American will become Heaven and all will be right with the world. The Democrats can brag "I told you so." I hope everything works out dandy. The proof will be in the pudding an...

What's Next, Mr. President -- Cardigans? By Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie Sunday, July 19, 2009 Barely six months into his presidency, Barack Obama seems to be driving south into that political speed trap known as Carter Country: a sad-sack landscape in which every major initiative meets not just with failure but with scorn from political allies and foes alike. According to a July 13 CBS News poll, the once-unassailable president's approval rating now stands at 57 percent, down 11 points from April. Half of Americans think the recession will last an additional two years or more, 52 percent think Obama is trying to "accomplish too much," and 57 percent think the country is on the "wrong track." From a lousy cap-and-trade bill awaiting death in the Senate to a health-care reform agenda already weak in the knees to the failure of the stimulus to deliver promised jobs and economic activity, what once looked like a hope-tastic juggernaut is showing all the horsep...

Many people doubt the scientific accuracy of the notion that the world is warming. For one thing, temperatures are not rising. Even if it is rising, evidence suggests that it is global warming that causes an increase in carbon dioxide, not vice versa. Even if America does reduce Carbon emissions, this will have little effect upon the major source of increase: developing nations such as Asia, India and Africa.

It is according to the Investor's Daily News . I am beginning to wonder how much economic damage Obama can manage in his first year. His powers seem virtually unlimited. And with every disaster, the solution is yet more government and more taxes. Soon we will reach a chain reaction and Kah-Bloom.

MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry. A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas- Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song. Thomas- Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas- Rasset with a $222,000 judgment. The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions. Thomas- Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read. Outside the courtroom, she called the $1.92 million figure "kind of ridic...

"the Iranian government is mounting a campaign to disrupt independent media organizations and Web sites that air doubts about the validity of the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the nation's president. Reports from Tehran say that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were taken down after Mr Ahmadinejad claimed victory. SMS text messaging, a preferred medium of communication for young Iranians, has also been disabled. 'The blocking of access to foreign news media has been stepped up, according to Reporters Without Borders. 'The Internet is now very slow, like the mobile phone network. YouTube and Facebook are hard to access and pro-reform sites... are completely inaccessible.'" Slashdot Don't worry, per Obama, the Iranians are having a debate about their future. Could be true. It does seem that Moslems tend to settle their differences with guns and bombs.

Asked to comment on the last vile anti-Semitic outburst from Rev. Wright, the president’s press secretary could only muster up this: “I haven’t talked to (Obama) about these comments. I don’t have any comment about it.” No comment, eh? Whatever happened to the president’s admonition following the Holocaust Museum shooting (”This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms”)? Perhaps he means we should be vigilant when it doesn’t much interfere with his own political aims and image. For twenty years Obama wasn’t vigilant in his own church, and now he simply can’t be bothered. There’s leadership for you. Commentary Blog .