politicalpartypoop.com

WASHINGTON (New York Post)  - You won’t find it in his campaign ads, but Barack Obama let slip his plans to become a modern-day Robin Hood in the White House, confiscating money from the rich to give to the poor.

Conservatives yesterday ripped Obama after he was caught on video telling an Ohio plumber that he intends to take the profits of small-business owners and “spread the wealth around” to those with lesser incomes.

The fracas over Obama’s tax plan broke out Sunday outside Toledo when Joe Wurzelbacher approached the candidate.

Wurzelbacher said he planned to become the owner of a small plumbing business that will take in more than the $250,000 amount at which Obama plans to begin raising tax rates.

“Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?” the blue-collar worker asked.

After Obama responded that it would, Wurzelbacher continued: “I’ve worked hard . . . I work 10 to 12 hours a day and I’m buying this company and I’m going to continue working that way. I’m getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American Dream.”

“It’s not that I want to punish your success,” Obama told him. “I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success, too.

Then, Obama explained his trickle-up theory of economics.

“My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Critics said Obama let the cat out of the bag.

“It’s clear that his main goal is redistribution of wealth, not growth,” said Andy Roth with the anti-tax group Club for Growth. “He’s perfectly happy to destroy wealth as long as he can redistribute it.”

Obama has been meticulous, Roth said, to conceal the “socialistic” nature of his tax plans. “But every once in a while, he lets it slip,” he said.

Republican candidate John McCain yesterday charged that Obama’s comment was telling.

“This explains how Senator Obama can promise an income-tax cut for millions who aren’t even paying income taxes right now,” he said in Pennsylvania.

“My plan isn’t intended to force small businesses to cut jobs to pay higher taxes so we can ’spread the wealth around.’ My plan is intended to create jobs and increase the wealth of all Americans.”

Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS poll last night showed Obama moving into a commanding 53-39 percent lead.

Reminder….Tennessee Guerilla Women

For a very long time, right-wing bloggers have been calling Barack Obama a socialist. And now they say they have proof. Barack Obama is a secret socialist? Be still my bleeding heart. Barack Obama has a secret plot to make the U.S. into a social democracy? Like all those countries in Europe? Please goddess, let it be true. I would crawl across cut glass for the privilege of having a president who is a secret socialist. Single payer health care! Equal pay! Equal Representation for women and minorities! Paid family leave! Education for everyone! No more homeless children! No more hungry children!

By Ed Morrissey on Hot Air

All right, class. Everyone put away their books and their Google searches. I want to test you to see whether you’ve been paying attention, and whether you’re properly prepared for your November 4th examinations. Today’s subject is economics — stop playing with that GameBoy, Cannonball! – and your assignment is to identify the presidential adviser who wrote these analyses of the subprime lending that has crashed the credit sector.

Anyone who fails this has to stay afterwards and help form and then ridicule commissions. Ready?
Read more at hotair.com

Sweetness & Light - AP Protects, Encourages Palin Email Hackers and Spanish Obama Ad Lies About Rush, McCain

Oh this will piss y’all off!!

From Fausta’s Blog: Obama’s Fannie Mae

Franklin Raines’ Criminal Enterprise and Barack Obama, His Accomplice

As an executive at Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines illegally coerced his employees to falsify accounting facts so he’d get a maximum bonus.  The government-backed firm used Enron-like fraud, in part at Raines’s orders, to create the largest bail-out in US history.

Explosive Video, Fannie Mae CEO calling Obama and the Dems the “Family” and “Conscience” of Fannie Mae

(Source) WASHINGTON – Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans.

Rangel says he won’t quit House panel over tax dispute

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, said Wednesday he will not step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in the face of a call from the Republican leader in the House for him to do so.

Rangel has been under fire for failing to report income from a rental property he owns in the Dominican Republic.

He admitted Tuesday he had not paid tax on the income, but said it was a mistake and he will pay whatever back taxes he owes. He said the income had gone directly toward paying down the mortgage on the property and he had rarely if ever received income statements related to it.

“I really didn’t pay any attention to it. I wasn’t getting any money from it,” he said, calling his failure to pay taxes “an omission that’s irresponsible, and that’s it.”

“I don’t believe that making mistakes means you have to give up your career,” he said.

He also admitted that he had not been charged interest on the mortgage for the past 18 years, but said he had “no clue” that the mortgage lender had made that decision. He denied having been singled out for preferential treatment.

Rangel’s Ways and Means Committee writes tax law, among other responsibilities.

This is by Neal Bortz on the Nealz Nuze Section

Barack Obama wants to make the highest income earners in this country return to the 39% tax bracket. And the reason, according to Barack Obama, is because those people “can afford that.” In exchange, because he is such a nice guy, Obama says he is going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans … an act which he declares is not class warfare.

 Two points: First, when Obama talks about raising taxes on the evil, disgusting, putrid, rancid, stinking rich because they can afford it, he’s merely going back to his Marxist roots. Remember “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs?” Straight from the Communist Manifesto .. just reworded slightly by The
Chosen One. Second; Let’s put this nonsense about tax cuts for 95% of Americans to rest. The bottom 50% of income earners don’t even pay income taxes, so how is Our Savior going to give them a tax break? What Obama is really talking about is tax credits. Here’s how his plan will work. He’ll come up with some fancy new tax credit to reward his minions for some type of acceptable behavior – like voting Democrat. Let’s say the tax credit is $2000. But … these people don’t owe any taxes! So what good is a tax credit to them? Well, this is a new type of credit called a “refundable” tax credit. If you’re eligible for the $2000 credit, and you don’t owe any income taxes, you just get a check form the federal government for $2000. Just a very simple wealth redistribution plan. Remember, Obama and the Democrats think that wealth in the United States is not earned, it’s distributed. It’s the government’s job to re-work that distribution to make it more “fair.”

But now we have something new in the mix. Obama has come up with a new excuse for wealth and income redistribution. He has a new excuse – reason, if you will – to implement the Marxist “from each according to their ability” doctrine.

The new excuse? Neighborliness.

Yes, I kid you not. This is what is fueling Barack Obama’s tax plan. Neighborliness. You know … because it would be the nice thing to do. He explains, “If I am sitting pretty, and you’ve got a waitress who is making minimum wage plus tips, and I can afford it and she can’t — what’s the big deal for me to say, ‘I’m going to pay a little bit more.’ That is neighborliness.”

“What’s the big deal?” Obama says? You’re kidding me, right? The big deal that the government is using its exclusive right to use deadly force to accomplish its goals by forcing you to be neighborly at the point of a gun. If you decide that you need the money you have worked for and earned for your own family – and that you don’t particularly want to give it away to someone who somehow can’t earn more than the minimum wage – then the government simply sticks you up at gunpoint? If the poor, poor pathetic minimum wage waitress did this she would be arrested. No problem though. Barack Obama will just do it for her. Lord how we need this guy.

Here’s a little more from Obama: “What I believe is, is that there are certain things we have to do. We’ve got to help people who are having tough times affording college, so they can benefit like we benefited from this great country. People who are having a tough time — they don’t have health care; people who are trying to figure out how they are going to pay the bills…”

Remember .. most of these people who, as Obama says, are having a “tough time,” created their own tough time. “Having a tough time” is another way of saying “living with the consequences of your decisions.”

What would life be like in an ObamaNation? There’s the government sitting there watching you – watching you work – watching you go the extra mile. The government takes note of the fact that you pursued an advanced education. Then the government observes you working 50, 60 maybe 80 hours a week trying to start a business. The government watches your income as it rises. Finally at some point the government says “Enough! You now have more than you need! There are people out there who did not pursue an education like you did. There are people out there who did not work as hard and as long as you did. There are people out there who did not make the careful choices and take the risks you did. Now you have to be a good neighbor. So we’re going to take some of that money you don’t need and ’spread the wealth’, so to speak.”

Do you really want a government that can decide when you have enough .. and take the excess away? Then vote for Obama.

When told that his tax plan is just a fancy way of saying “income redistribution,” which is a tenant of socialism, Obama’s response was, “Teddy Roosevelt supported a progressive income tax.” That’s it. That’s his excuse.

So now we have Teddy Roosevelt and neighborliness. How wonderful.

The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention has used the city’s gas pumps to fill up and apparently avoided paying state and federal fuel taxes.

The practice, which began four months ago, may have ended hours after its disclosure. An aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper released a statement Tuesday evening saying that Denver 2008 Host Committee members would pay market prices for fuel and would also be liable for all applicable taxes.

Check out more at The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

At TAPPED, Goldstein writes that property taxes should not be used to fund public schools because people might try and avoid the taxes…by moving.

Because some people, who don’t have kids in public schools and who aren’t particularly civic-minded, will inevitably resent paying them and do everything they can to avoid doing so. Case in point: Sun belt retirees living in “adult” communities that not only ban children, but also incorporate outside of existing cities and towns in order to achieve full tax revolt status.

Well, we can’t have people making choices which lead to paying fewer taxes, now can we. Her unwritten, but presumed solution would be to institute a more broadly applicable tax, one that cannot be avoided simply by moving out of the burdened area.

READ THE REST

(LINK) Some 50,000 fewer passengers are expected to use Amsterdam Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s busiest, this summer on account of a Dutch environmental tax on flights, it was reported Saturday.
“We’re expected zero growth in 2008, and in fact a decrease (in passenger numbers) in July and August,” an airport spokesman was quoted as saying by the domestic ANP news agency.

The Netherlands is the only country that levies an environmental tax on flights departing the country — 11.25 euros per passenger (17.75 dollars) for European destinations and 45 euros for intercontential points.

With higher fuel prices pushing up air fares worldwide, travel industry experts say the tax will hurt business at Schiphol and see many Dutch travellers go to nearby German airports instead.

Barack Obama has been toying with the idea of imposing a tax on windfall profits on US oil companies, and it will definitely be a part of his presidential platform.

Take a look at this latest statement he made in Raleigh, North Carolina. He said,

“I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.”

Gee, that sounds like a wealth distribution plan if I’ve ever heard one. Rob from the rich to give to the “poor.”

Ok .. first of all, just what are “windfall profits?” Does anyone have a handy definition? Might I offer one? Damn right I might. Try this: “A tax levied on a industry by a politician eager to pander to economically ignorant voters who, for whatever reason, are upset with that industry.”

This term “windfall profits” has become another buzzword for liberals, and particularly the Barack Obama campaign. A majority of Americans probably couldn’t tell you the first thing about windfall profits … but the word inflicts these feelings of evil and wealth envy. Therefore, the Obama campaign will continue to use this fancy term to get you all riled up. Politicians are good at that.

Once again we run up against the economic ignorance of the American people. Most people couldn’t tell you the difference between a profit and a profit margin if their flat-screen TVs depended on it. The profit margins – the amount of money they earn for a dollar of sales – have actually declined a bit. Banking institutions, cosmetics companies and pharmaceutical companies are just part of a long list of businesses that earn more than the evil oil companies.

Hopefully most Americans have enough economic smarts to know that the profits from these oil companies belong to the shareholders. Problem is, these people probably think that the shares in these oil companies are fat-cat insiders just reaping millions a year from their investments.

Wrong.

Throughout the oil and natural gas industries only about 1.5% of the stock is owned by company executives. Now this statistic doesn’t come from the oil companies themselves, the numbers – and the numbers that follow – come from Bill Clinton’s undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs; one Robert J. Shapiro.

Here’s what Shapiro has to say about the ownership of the other 98.5% of oil company shares: “The data show that ownership of industry shares is broadly middle class, with the majority of industry shares held by institutional investors, often on behalf of millions of Americans through mutual funds, pension funds and individual retirement accounts.”

So … when Barack Obama talks about a windfall profits tax, just who’s money is he going to seize? He’s talking about taking the savings, investments and retirement funds of middle class Americans.

Pardon my language … but would you folks please wise up out there? Quit being so damned ignorant to what is really going on!

You want more details on just who owns the shares? OK, I have those details. Just remember, when Obama talks about windfall profits — THESE are the people who’s money he plans to seize:

Again … from the Shapiro study:

Almost 43 percent of oil and natural gas company shares are owned by mutual funds and asset management companies that have mutual funds. Mutual funds manage accounts for 55 million U.S. households with a median income of $68,700.
Twenty seven percent of shares are owned by other institutional investors like pension funds. In 2004, more than 2,600 pension funds run by federal, state and local governments held almost $64 billion in shares of U.S. oil and natural gas companies. These funds represent the major retirement security for the nation’s current and retired soldiers, teachers, and police and fire personnel at every level of government.
Fourteen percent of shares are held in IRA and other personal retirement accounts. Forty five million U.S. households have IRA and other personal retirement accounts, with an average account value of just over $22,000.

You see? The people listed in this study are … YOU! Not fat-cat oil company executives. Not George Bush and Dick Cheney. This is YOUR money he’s after … YOUR money he wants to seize to create yet another government entitlement program … helping people buy gas and pay electricity bills.

Someone (perhaps John Wayne) once said that it is too bad stupidity isn’t painful. Well, in this case is just might be. Look at those median incomes above. That’s you, my friends … and if you sit by and let this anti-capitalist leftist rail against the oil companies; if you sit by and let him pander to the ignorance of the American voters with this idiotic “windfall profits tax” crap … then try not to bitch when your retirement doesn’t turn out to be as sweet as you thought it would.

By the way … if you want to call BS on me with these numbers and statistics, by my guest. Here’s the link for you to read the study for yourself.

Knock yourself out, sport.

This from Red State

Not content to have parlayed their public service into great wealth, the Clintons continue to cost the taxpayers money. It seems that, despite having written a book on it, former President Clinton feels more comfortable getting paid for charity than giving it:

The Clintons have made a $100-million fortune since leaving the White House, but a Politico analysis found that hasn’t kept Bill Clinton from taking full advantage of the publicly funded perks offered to ex-presidents.

In fact, his presidential retirement benefits cost taxpayers almost as much as those of the other two living ex-presidents combined.

The price tag for Clinton’s federal retirement allowance from 2001 through the end of this year will run $8 million, compared to $5.5 million for George H. W. Bush’s and $4 million for Jimmy Carter’s during the same period.

More

By Mrs. Snoop

“Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws - always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: Please pass this so that I won’t be able to so something I know I should stop. Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them for their own good.”

Robert Heinline The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966).

As part of my job duties, I have been reviewing every single bill that is being proposed by our “esteemed” state law-makers. If ever there was a good way to become deeply disgusted with our system of government, this chore would soon do the trick. And Mr. Heinline’s above quote certainly describes the vast majority of “work” being done by our elected representatives and senators. 

Just to give you a brief glimpse into the types of things that are taking up time, paper, and space in the state-house, I am going to give some links to a few bills you may want to know about. If anything really alarms you, you might even want to let your representative(s) OR THE PRESS hear from you!! Good luck not getting through the bills without getting sick or angry:

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2008_5037.pdf would give every Kansan a Constitutional right to hunt, fish and trap. The Senate has one just like it.

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/699.pdf Gives the Legislators and their staff an amendment to the usual rules for disposal of surplus property, in this case computers. Just FYI - there are currently a lot of Legislative folks who have already obtained “new” (2 years old) lap-tops for $300 or less. Guess they need this new law to clean up the mess they made by not following the same rules that all other state employees must play by.

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/493.pdf would ban smoking indoors in most public places. http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/250.pdf would ban smoking in a car with kids. http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/544.pdf would require that all cigarettes go out on their own after a few minutes (reduced ignition propensity cigarettes).

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/311.pdf gives Legislator’s each a full time staff member. 

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/46.pdf Restricts possession of some weapons . Quite a long list.

And then there are dozens of “resolutions” - which are nothing more then a wish being expressed - taking up time and paper. For example:

http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN5039.pdf urges the restructuring of
alternative teacher licensure programs in ways that would assist in alleviating the current teacher shortage in the areas of mathematics, science and special education….

http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN1620.pdf requests the Capitol Area Plaza Authority to develop a master plan for improving the appearance and security of the Capitol area and surrounding neighborhoods, in cooperation with the City of Topeka….
http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN5032.pd urges the United States Congress to amend the Flood Control Act of 1944 and Public Law 83-780, relating to the authorized purposes of federal reservoirs in the state of Kansas, relating to Perry, Tuttle Creek, and Milford reservoirs….

http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN5009.pdf pledge the Legislature’s support for the National Bio and Agrodefense Facility (NBAF) and urge various federal agencies, the President, and the Kansas congressional delegation to consider two sites in Kansas as the location for the new federal laboratory….

http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN1616.pdf calls for the creation of a task force to study the design and implementation of an electronic motor vehicle financial security verification system for real time verification of compliance with the financial security requirements of the Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act….

http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN6021.pdf urges the State Board of Education to focus more specifically on the reading needs of children with dyslexia….

http://www.kslegislature.org/supplemental/2008/SN1836.pdf Directs the Secretary of Revenue to seek a declaratory judgment in court as to whether the Tax Reform and Relief Act of 1999 and KSA 79-5040 suspended certain procedural requirements relating to the property tax levy

There are tons more of these do-nothing resolutions, if you want to look at them. What a giant waste. Personal letters written by the legislators supporting these resolutions would take less time, have as much impact, and cost the tax payers far less money then is currently being spent to pay legislative staff to draft, make hundreds of copies, and mail these things out to all the many offices receiving copies of bills. 

Just one more pet peeve, Before people start complaining about “the lawyers” who are involved in all of this - please note: The number of Lawyers who are also lawmakers is about 2% most of the time. The people who pass laws (or waste time passing resolutions) are largely business people who are using the power to get themselves (or their friends) some new advantage. 

If you have time and want to see what law-makers are “up-to” this year (or any other) just go to http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-bills/index.do You can type in a key word (or two) if you have a particular concern.

For me, I think there ought to be a rule that no lawmaker may EVER vote on a something unless it will directly impact that person (or a close relative)! That might cut down on the number of proposals always aimed at preventing someone else from doing or having something…. And maybe cut back on the number of laws that specifically exempt lawmakers from their provisions (they want everyone but them to be required to play by rules concerning things like competitive bidding, ethics, and open government laws)!! 

Meanwhile, I really wish some media person would pick up the story about the surplus computers being “scored” by the Legislative branch! 

From Boston.com

(link) WASHINGTON - Republicans in Congress, trying to appear tightfisted with taxpayer dollars this election year, found yesterday that some in their ranks led a list of “pork” spenders in a watchdog group’s analysis of government waste.The annual survey by Citizens Against Government Waste contends that 11,610 special-interest projects were stuffed into spending bills approved by the Democratic-led Congress last year at a $17.2 billion cost to taxpayers.But according to the survey, individual Republicans pushed the most pork last year. In addition, the three House Republicans sponsoring legislation calling for a moratorium all engaged in the practice, the report said.

For months, House Republican leader John Boehner has been leading a crusade against such projects, known as earmarks, which benefit lawmakers’ districts. Boehner, of Ohio, has called for suspending pork spending and has criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, for not yet agreeing to do so.

Republicans have attacked Democratic Representative John Murtha for delivering a pile of special-interest funds to his western Pennsylvania district.

According to the report, however, two House Republicans bested Murtha: Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who recently became a senator, and Representative Bill Young of Florida. The two scored $176.3 million and $169.5 million in earmarks respectively, beating Murtha’s $159.1 million.

In the Senate, the top three big spenders were Republicans, who together scored about $1.8 billion in home-state projects. Those senators were Thad Cochran, the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby of Alabama, and Ted Stevens of Alaska, who was roundly criticized a few years back for winning approval of a “bridge to nowhere” and has been reported to be the target of a federal corruption probe.

All the top spenders are members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, which dole out federal dollars.

Opponents of the special-interest projects argue that they do not receive adequate oversight.

Among the pork outlined in the group’s report was $188,000 by Maine’s Republican senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Democratic Representative Thomas Allen to help the Lobster Institute, which the report said is working on a “Lobster Cam” and developing lobster dog biscuits.

This latest move by the Pelosi-Reid Congress is not surprising.
Democrats have always been against oil drilling and exploration.
And, they have been wanting to increase taxes on oil companies since forever.
Their policies have caused our reliance on foreign oil to grow significantly.

For decades, the Democratic party has blocked one effort after another to responsibly develop the energy resources our country possesses, transforming vast areas of opportunity into “The No Zone.”

MUCH MORE HERE

The brilliant scam continues. I have said often, global warming is not about “saving the planet” it’s about money, jobs, research dollars, growing gubment.

In his quest to make San Francisco the greenest city in the nation, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of director of climate protection initiatives.

One might expect someone with such an exalted handle to solve global warming and save the rain forest all in a day’s work.

But the new climate protection initiatives director is just the latest person to join the city payroll in the name of tackling global climate woes, raising questions about whether environmentalism is becoming the latest excuse for a bloating government payroll.

San Francisco has at least two dozen other city employees already working directly on climate issues at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Although it sounds very well intentioned, and perhaps even necessary, I’m concerned this is a case where eco-chic has gone out of control,” said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the only Green Party member on the Board of Supervisors.

Newsom’s critics in City Hall have pounced on the amorphous “climate protection” title and have blasted the mayor for creating the new role - as well as for creating new jobs for other members of his senior circle and doling out hefty pay raises - while the city braces for a projected $233 million deficit next fiscal year and lawmakers contemplate reducing hospital operating room hours and delaying playground improvement projects to balance the budget.