Tax System: If the "smart people" can't understand, what about us "common folk"?

There seems to be lots of failure to pay taxes going on for some of Obama's nominees (Timothy Geithner, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer). The good thing for them, is that so far they have been able to pay the back taxes and penalties with the stroke of a pen on a check. As someone commentated on the site of a major news source: no wonder the system has no money. The problem for the rest of us, is that when we make an honest mistake on our taxes, we often cannot afford the past tax bill and the penalties and interest.

Just makes you wonder about lots of other folks out there and their true tax status. And, these are educated people, many with CPAs who are making these tax errors. Is our system so complicated? If these people can't understand the system enough to pay properly... how can we "common folk"? The reality of the situation is that many of us common folk are often paying too much in taxes because we don't fully understand the deductions we are entitled to.

Is it possible that these educated people who miss paying taxes are really taking a calculated risk? If they aren't audited (or appointed to a high level position by the President), that's just money in the bank.

I am excited and hopeful and patient

So, Mr. Barack Obama is our president. I am feeling hopeful and excited. Both because Bush is out and because Barack Obama is in. Because he is an African-American man and because I look forward to the changes that come with a new chief executive. In one way or another - from high gas prices, to a favorite store or restaurant closing, to lost jobs close to home or by our extended friends and family - we have felt the tightening of the economic belt. This new president of ours brings hope for change. The news program I watched this morning noted that when President Obama began running for president, the centerpiece was about the war in Iraq but the main story quickly changed to economics at home.

There are so many challenges that we face as a country and are looking to Mr. Obama to lead us above. Today is excitement, tomorrow is work and patience.... Barack and his team need to get to work, and we have to be patient. As much as we'd like to have the administration come in and flip a switch that changes things for the better similarly to how flipping a light switch can change a room from darkness to light, we all know it's not that easy. Things didn't get this way like that and the change we are hopeful for will take some time too.

Let's be excited and hopeful and patient. Today is only day one, we have many days ahead. And, the firsts that took place cannot be erased.

Lets talk...

A friend sent this... and it's hilarious...

A stranger was seated next to a little black girl on the airplane when the stranger turned to her and said, “Let's talk. I've heard that flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”

The little girl, who had just opened her coloring book, closed it slowly and said to the stranger, “What would you like to talk about?”

“Oh, I don't know,” said the stranger. “Since you are a Negro, do you think that So-called President Elect Barack Obama is qualified for the job?” and he smiles.

“OK”, she said. 'That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff - grass -. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?”

The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, “Hmmm, I have no idea.” To which the little girl replies, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss President Barack Obama... when you don't know sh*t?”

Apparently some people are above the law

Okay, so it's really nothing new... some people are above the law and we know it, but check out this recent article about a Jackson County, Missouri establishing its first code of ethics... Here are the the highlights:
From The Examiner - The code of ethics will "govern all county business... The order, signed by Executive Mike Sanders, will establish guidelines for county employees." But here comes the interesting part -

"The code will not cover county legislators or other elected county officials.
However, on Monday legislators decided to have staff draft an ordinance that
gives their stamp of approval to the document."

Hmmm. Does that sound right to you? Let's be glad they support it though ; )

Guess it's not Socialism when you give to the rich

Now hear this. With the economy in trouble, the government (taxpayers) gave $700,000,000,000.00 (yes 700 Billion) to Wall Street banks to "re-energize" the economy. Note that $70,000,000,000.00 (yes 70 Billion) is going to be used pay bonuses to the people who caused the problem in the first place. NICE JOB! WAY TO GO!

Seems that some people, Repubs, think its OK to spread the wealth upwards to the 1% who already has most of the money. Guess it's not Socialism when you give to the rich; only when you give to the poor.

At least that's the answer you get when the rich make the rules. Click here to read: The Government Bailout: Adding Insult to Injury from AOL Money & Finance

BB

The Republican approach to the economic crisis... IT JUST DOESN'T WORK!!

Here is the problem with the Republican approach to the economic crisis. IT JUST DOESN'T WORK!!

Their theory of trickle down economics sounds good, but it has never worked and will never work. It doesn't even look good on paper. Just sounds good. It's what we call Supply Side Economics as opposed to Demand Side Economics.

SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS:
Their theory is to give money to the wealthy through tax cuts, subsidies or otherwise and they (the wealthy) will build plant and factories and start all other types of businesses and hire people, then the people will pay taxes so the government gets back all and more than it gave away. PROBLEM: The wealthy are already rich enough to start businesses if they wanted to and have become even richer under George Bush. They don't start new businesses because people are not working and can't buy any product that they would produce. Why would they spend money just to create a "glutton" of inventory that people can't afford to buy? THEY WON'T and never have. Their money, they keep. Free money from the government, they hoard. Why waste it on excess inventory that they can't sell? So the money goes out to the wealthy, but it never trickles down. This is why the top 1% of the people in the country control 27% of the money in the country. If we let the Republicans stay in office, a small percent of the people will control ALL of the money. They have done very well under Bush and they are still laying off because nobody is buying.

NOW let's try DEMAND SIDE ECONOMICS:
Get money to the people (by any means necessary). It may be government giveaways, stimulus packages, tax cuts, redistribution of wealth, government projects, building roads and bridges, etc., etc. and so on and so forth! The list is as long as good ideas last. Now when you have people with money, they want to shop. THERE IS THE DEMAND. Now you have people with money, paying taxes, and wanting to spend the rest of there money. Now somebody is going to start businesses to supply those products to meet the demand. They will even spend some of their own money to start the business or get a bank loan. Then they will hire more people to produce the products and every is paying taxes. And the government wins with the increase in tax revenue. Businesses are excited because they can sell their inventory. This is a WIN WIN WIN WIN situation. Business wins, the workers win, the shoppers win, and the government wins. It works for everybody and the government doesn't run up a big deficit.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A ROCKET SCIENTIST TO UNDERSTAND THIS STUFF. EVEN IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE ECONOMICS, JUST STUDY HISTORY. It's there in black and white.

Don't be fooled in this election, vote Democratic across the board starting at the top with Obama!!!

BB

Coon

If anybody likes to eat coon, let me know. I'll shoot one, dress it up and ship it to you.

This is not a racial slur; they're running through my back yard in the early morning. Its an easy shot.

No, not a racial slur. John McCain is not a coon; he is just an old geezer. Old, dried up, out dated, washed up, over the hill, and just about used up. Nobody needs to shot him up. Its amazing. There was an article in today's paper that his political career likely started when he got shot down (in Vietnam); now its likely that his political career will end with him getting shot down (in a national election). As a war monger, he often talks about "shoot'em up", but maybe "shoot'em down" is more appropriate when someone doesn't fit. John McCain had his day, but he is not the right fit for "this great country of ours" (quote from Sarah) at this time.

VOTE EARLY AND VOTE FOR BARACK..........OUR TIME HAS COME AND OUR TIME IS NOW!

BB

Trickle up works pretty good

This is still going around:
Click here: http://wizbangblue.com/2008/09/28/failed-bank-wamu-pays-ceo-18-million-for-just-three-weeks-of-work.php

$18 MILLION FOR 3 WEEKS WORK

This is the guy that I spoke about. Trickle up works pretty good. Too bad trickle down doesn't work. There are many others as well. The CEO of General Motors makes $65 million per year and they are losing money. The CEO of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Investment Bank got a $22 million bonus last year and got $230 million in bonuses over the last 5 years. You see all this money the government is replacing is not lost. Lost means behind your car seat or between the cushions in your couch or accidentally dropped in the tall grass on the way to soccer practice. Or up north, dropped in the deep snow. This money is not lost. The fat cats REALLY got the money. Now we, the tax payers, get to pay it back.

THE REPUBLICANS HAVE REALLY SCREWED THIS ONE UP! ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE!!!!!

BB

Fwded: Beware of absentee ballots

I am in no way vouching for the validity of the info below... but I received it in my inbox and could see that it's being forwarded... so I'm posting it here.

The story is all over Progressive Talk Radio today about the MCain campaign ending absentee ballot applications to registered democrats or people that have donated to Obama's campaign. These ballots are deliberately misleading and have postage paid return addresses that are for an election clerk that is outside of your city or town. What this will end up doing is either having your vote not counted, or if you return one of these, they will cite you for election fraud, saying that you already voted absentee. These ballots are only being sent out in 'purple states' and this is a big deal.. This is called votercaging, and is a huge problem.

The McCain campaign is stealing this election as we speak. Please get this information out to as many people as you can, and tell anyone you know who has received one of these ballots that they need to contact their city election clerk or the supervisor of elections immediately. Also call the local media and let them know what is going on.

The main stream media is never going to cover this so we have to depend on our ground campaign to get the word out to our voters.

Check out Misdirected Finger Pointing too - this seems to be another case in which some groups or individuals are acting out and their actions are being blamed on an organized group - in this case the McCain Campaign. If what's above is happening, are there real ties to the McCain Campaign or simply McCain supporters?

Some not happy about bailout

Click here to find out how some people feel about the government bailing out banks.
I'm just not sure how you can just move debt off the books of theses businesses. Crazy to me but I just do understand it. While I'm not for handouts, if I'm ever in trouble I hope the government at least offers to help.

Misdirected finger pointing

Why is it that when Americans across our country and blogosphere express their political views, the Republicans attribute the negative comments to the Obama campaign. Obama cannot help the way other people feel about the McCain/Palin ticket. Obama has run a pretty clean campaign and still quotes like from Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Palin, tie comments by others to Barack Obama. Check out this article... certainly you've heard many other instances of this...

A buck a year salary

John McCain plans to ask rich cabinet members of his administration to work for $1 a year. Lets see if he is able to follow through with this. For details and more about his cabinet click here.

Can you hear me now...

Is someone out to get Presidential candidate? Find out here what happened to Obama's plane.

Someone is always watching...

Click here to read more about Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and who may have been spying on him.

Truth in politics?

Does it ever happen? Check out this analysis of Sarah Palin and John McCain's recent comments at the RNC.

Economic Advisory

The latest economic reports and data shows that during the term of the Bush administration, here is what happened:

1. For seven (7) years:
. a. The rich got richer, so they were happy.
. b. The poor got poorer, but they had no voice to say or do anything.
. c. Everybody else, all those on the middle, just stayed the same. So they didn't mind either.

2. Then in year eight (8), the poor and all those in the middle got zapped with a bad housing market and high gas prices. The rich had already made enough money that they were not affected by a few pitfalls in the economy.

SO NOW WHERE DO YOU STAND AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

1. Are you ready for change?
or
2. Do you want more of the same?

DOING NOTHING WILL ZAPP YOU!!

BB

Gays and lesbians can provide safe, loving, nurturing homes too

According to the Associated Press, "a proposal aimed at effectively banning gays and lesbians from becoming foster or adoptive parents was cleared Monday to appear on this fall's ballot in Arkansas." This new proposed law would prevent unmarried couples living together from fostering or adopting children. A previous law that outright said banned gays and lesbians was struck down by the state supreme court. So this effort will attempt to accomplish the same goal as gay marriages are banned in Arkansas and the state refuses to acknowledge gay marriages which took place in another state.

This new law on the ballot is aimed to judge what's right and wrong. I believe foster and adoptive parents go through background checks and home visits, etc. to ensure they are fit to be parents. We know nothing is fool proof, but should sexual orientation be a factor? All I'm saying is, unless the members of the the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee are on active rosters to adopt and foster children, they should not be attempting to limit the already limited pool of people who wish to adopt the too many children who are wishing and praying everyday for a family and a place to call home, based on if someone is straight or not. Gays and lesbians can provide safe, loving, nurturing homes too.

What are you most concerned about and which political party is most "out of touch"?

While watching the Sunday morning news shows, I saw an interview with Sen. Arlan Specter, (R. Pa.), whom I have respected for a long time as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. What he said is quite revealing of the republican thought process. Here is what he said.

"John McCain is much stronger on foreign affairs than Barack Obama, and I think the American people are much more concerned about what Russia is doing in Georgia than they are about the economy and the issues they talk about around their dining room table". THAT'S WHAT HE SAID AND I LIKE HIM.

Now the only way to sell that idea is if people think that Russia has sailed into the port of Savannah and taken over the eastern USA between Florida and South Carolina! For many people, that's the only Georgia that they know about. I hope the main stream republican constituents are smarter than that.

Some of these republicans are very nice people, but their ideas and policies just don't fit with most people; even the hard core blue collar workers whom the claim to represent.

BB