Yup, that’s what I’m listening to. Make of it what you want.
Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!
Everclear used to be good once, back when it was a real band. “Father of Mine” was, and still is a particularly meaningful song to me. Now it’s just Art Alexakis and whatever scrubs he can dig up. Greg Eklund (drums) and Craig Montoya (bass) took the band’s soul with them, and Everclear flat-out sucks without them.
Catchy song. Reminds me of that America-hating bitch Michelle Obama.
Coincidentally, I’m currently reading Jenna Jameson’s book right now, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale.
Whatever happened to that show ‘Jericho’? It was the only drama on TV that broached the subject of where we are going and the people who are taking us there.
Has anyone else noticed how hate-filled, angry, intolerant Jon Stewart has become? He’s not funny. He just screams out angry rants.
Troll: You are calling Michelle Obama an “America hater”?????
That’s hilarious, since the Republican vice-presidential nominee is married to someone who’s been a member of the Alaska Independence Movement since the 1990’s. You know, the party who’s leader specifically SAID he hated America, and didn’t even want to be buried under it’s flag.
It’s so funny when the Republicans make up something about the Democrats, trying to twist a comment out of context until it is completely unrecognizable, and then they end up proving that they are the ones who REALLY exhibit that characteristic.
I will match what I’m listening to up against what Goldy is listening to! Tell me which song you like better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w
@6
Yes, I think she’s an America-hater in the vein of those left wing college types that blame America first. I do know the type quite well, so it’s easy for me to spot them. You know, the type that if you name any problem anywhere on earth, the trace the problem back to the American government.
Oh, and I also think she hates white people.
@2 You remind me of an America-hating bitch named “Troll” who pretends to be a Democrat.
@2 You also remind me of a crazy America-hating bitch who wants Alaska to secede from America — presumably before she launches nuclear missiles at Russia so Alaska will survive while the rest of us burn.
@10
In all seriousness, who’s song is catchier, Goldy’s, or the one I linked @7?
Your answer will tell me if you’re an honest person, or a liar and a kiss ass.
Politics & the Media:
At the Republican convention, McCain and Palin opened their offensive against the America Media, claiming that the media is biased against them, but THEY represent the American people more than the media types in Hollywood or New York.
It makes for a nice talking point for them: they play the victim, appeal to the prejudices of middle America, and at the same time “work the refs”, daring the media to write anything negative about them.
Of course, it’s all nonsense anyway. The Karl Rove’s media manipulation machine is in full swing.
McCain and Obama’s camp had agreed not to suspend their political campaigns for the anniversary of 9/11. But the Republicans pulled a sucker punch. On a day when there was absolutely NO news coming out of the Obama camp, Palin had her interview with Charles Gibson on Good Morning America (probably the softest interviewer on network TV). She still flubbed it in several respects, but at least she carried the news cycle.
The Seattle Times showed their own preference for McCain with their editorial control of today’s headline. Although Palin had to have Gibson explain to her what the “Bush Doctrine” was, and stumbled into promising a war with Russia over Georgia, the Times headline in large type reads” “Palin ‘Ready’ to Lead“. The smaller type references her stumbles, but for many who never see beyond the headline, the punctuation gets lost and it reads “Palin Ready to Lead”. I doubt that was an accident, the leadership over at the times know that Obama isn’t going to get rid of the inheritance tax (the only issue they really care about), so they might as well do everything they can to support McCain.
Of course, Fox News is still reading the McCain/Palin press releases as their news scripts. Wednesday I was in Bellingham on business, and the restaurant I stopped for lunch had Fox News on their wide-screen TV the whole time, at a high volume which couldn’t be ignore. I don’t know who was talking, but here’s the substance of their “fair & balanced” news coverage during the noon hour:
I was just amazed that they can even PRETEND such coverage is “fair & balanced”, without cracking up. I have to wonder how many out-takes they end up doing.
Palin Flip-Flops On Global Warming
Apparently trying to look like a moderate instead of the ignorant redneck freak she actually is, Sarah Palin said in her ABC intervidw that she “doesn’t disagree” with scientists, who attribute global warming to “man’s activities.”
“‘Show me where I have ever said that there’s absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change,’ Palin said in the interview.
Oooookaaaaay.
Here’s what Associated Press dug up:
“She has told the Internet news site Newsmax, ‘A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. … I’m not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made.’
“In an interview with a Fairbanks newspaper within the last year, Palin said: ‘I’m not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity.'”
(Quoted under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Okay, so you trolls could argue Palin isn’t really flip-flopping, and you might even be right. She may simply be lying to get elected and will revert to her science-denying, religious-fanatic bullshit after duping gullible people into voting for her.
@11 I’m a Democratic Party hack and liberal propagandist — which, of course, means I’m an honest kiss-ass with long ears.
@12
Sorry to disprove your opinions with facts, but …
“Study: Fox Is the Most Fair and Balanced Thus Far in Prez Campaign.
“A leading nonpartisan media watchdog, the Center for Media and Public Affairs, says so. The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University ….. found that Fox News Channel’s evening news show provided more balanced coverage than its counterparts on the broadcast networks.”
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/t.....z-campaign
Goldy–
Jason Mercier at the Washington Policy Center had this excellent post about Governor Gregoire and her lack of straight-talk about tax increases:
“What qualifies as a tax increase?
The Olympian today has an interesting blog post quoting Governor Gregoire about whether or not she’s raised taxes (excluding gas-taxes). Here is what the Governor said (in-part):
“Did I raise your sales tax? No. Did I raise property taxes? No. In fact, I brought the Legislature in to cap the property tax with a special session last fall. Did I raise B&O tax? No. What’s the truth? The truth is we cut those taxes almost by $900 million since I came into office. So the money that we used to do what we’ve done has been because our economy has been humming. And that’s why I’ve tried always to get new employers in here and to make sure we have the skilled work force, because when the economy hums, we can pay for education, we can pay for health care, we can pay for community safety. When the economy slumps, then we can’t.” “So he [Rossi] then says, ‘she is going to raise taxes,’ Well I didn’t raise taxes to get out of the $2.2 billion deficit he gave me. On what basis does he say that? … (H)e wants you to be afraid. He wants you to be afraid. I just think this ought to be a straight-up election.”
Based on this quote one is left to wonder just what the Governor believes qualifies as a tax increase. For example, in 2005, the Governor signed into law approximately $400 million in tax increases made possible by suspending the 2/3 vote requirement from I-601. The largest of these tax increases were:
Cigarettes – $175 million
Death-tax – $139 million
Liquor – $47 million
Extended warranties for product repairs or replacements – $37 million
These tax increases were the subject of a court challenge for violating I-601 but were ultimately upheld by the State Supreme Court last year (this is a separate lawsuit that the one heard by the Court this week).
If these aren’t tax increases, what exactly are they and why did the Governor and Legislature feel the need to suspend the 2/3 vote requirement in 2005 to adopt them? ”
Gregoire is sooooo confused. She seems only capable of spending more & more money….$8 BILLION of increased spending.
What gives Goldy??
Yet one more sucker punch, which has all the hallmark of Karl Rove. On a day when Obama had agreed to suspend his campaign during the anniversary of 9/11, a previously “lost” film of John McCain being released from a North Vietnamese prison surfaces. Supposedly it just happened to be found by a Swedish journalist who happened upon it while looking for something else. But the fact that this supposedly “raw” footage focuses almost exclusivly on McCain, to the virtual exclusion of all the other prisoners around him, looks pretty suspicious.
So while Obama suspended his campaign on the anniversary of 9/11 as part of an agreement with the McCain campaign, the news cycle is dominated by: 9/11 observances, the film of McCain as a POW being released, and the Sarah Palin interview.
@13
It seems like Roger Rabbit, much like the Khmere Rouge, is saying that learning and education is evil. I’m not sure how else to interpret his thoughts that one must never educate themselves or change one’s view on a subject.
Looks like the BIAW requires its paid trolls to start work at 6:30 a.m. They probably get minimum wage and have to pony up their own funds for coffee. Judging by the troll content of this thread, the paid troll couldn’t afford the coffee fund this month and isn’t awake yet. He’s getting off to a really slow start and seems very groggy.
@18 So you admit global warming is real and caused by human activity?
@16
Mr. Cynical, as a Democrat, let me say that I like it when you post here. You always seem to break through the partisan propaganda that so often clogs this toilet bowl of a blog with objective facts and figures. Refreshing.
To Goldy and his Merry Band of KLOWNS:
All your hard work trashing Palin and McCain is really paying off!
This just in from Rasmussen:
McCain Closes to Within Two Points of Obama in Washington
Friday, September 12, 2008
Washington is the latest state to show a strong western surge for John McCain since he added Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Washington finds Barack Obama still ahead, but barely. It’s Obama 49%, McCain 47%. A month ago, Obama was up by twelve percentage points. Recent polls have shown McCain gains in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota.
Among Democrats, Obama now attracts 83% of the vote, down six points from last month. However, the big change comes among unaffiliated voters who now favor McCain by a 48% to 43% margin.
Keep up the good work!
BTW, is this helping Gregoire??
New poll numbers will be out shortly.
And this just in Nationally from Rasmussen:
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows John McCain up by three points, his largest lead since Obama wrapped up the Democratic Presidential Nomination. For most of the past several months, Obama has held a modest lead with McCain slipping ahead by a single point on just three of the past hundred days.
McCain now attracts 48% of the vote while Obama earns 45%. When “leaners” are included, it’s McCain 49%, Obama 46%.
Seems like you KLOWNS are now seeing the fruits of your vicious attacks on a WOMAN!
You seem to be victims of your own rage.
Keep up the fine work!
If McCain wins this election, the byline will be “KLOWNS PULL DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF SUREFIRE VICTORY DUE TO ANGER MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS”
@20
I don’t give a crap about global warming, and don’t care one way or the other how much a role humans play in it. Yes, the science says it’s happening, and I agree with that. I have some doubt that we, as humans, can do much about it. Let’s say that it’s caused 100% by humans.
The fact is, in the year 1900, there were only 1.65 billion people on earth. Today, only 108 years later, there is 6.72 billion people on earth. In about 40 years, there’s going to be about 2 billion more people. Let that sink in for a minute.
Now try to tell me, given the earth’s population growth, that me, or even billion upon billions of people trying to “lessen their carbon footprint” is going to do a damn bit a difference on global warming.
She may simply be lying to get elected and will revert to her science-denying, religious-fanatic bullshit after duping gullible people into voting for her.
That’s exactly what they’re counting on. Wingnuts expect their politicians to lie to get elected.
You can expose wingnut politician’s lies until you’re blue in the face and it has no effect on a wingnut.
But you do it anyway because it may sway a low information or undecided voter.
The Republicans are in full out lie mode. They’ll do anything to cling to power right now.
@25
YLB, she ran the State of Alaska. If you’re worried about what she’ll do to America, why don’t you study what she did in her state when she was Governor?
Did she turn all public schools into science-denying religious schools?
Troll @ 15? You are quoting the “Center for Media and Public Affairs” as your source on Fox News accuracy?
That organization was founded by Dr. Robert Lichter, who once held a chair at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute, and has been a frequent contributor to Fox News. In other words, you are quoting Fox News’ opinion of itself to prove that it is non-partison (which is certainly circular reasoning, if I ever heard it).
Just because an organization says it is non-partison and has a non-profit 501(c)3 status doesn’t make it objective. Lots of organizations are set up that way for political purposes (Dino Rossi’s pre-campaign campaign being a prime example).
Hey Goldy, aren’t you & your relatives from Philly?
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you live in Miami, consider yourself among the most attractive people in the United States.
The Sunshine State’s metropolis has the most beautiful people, according to an online survey of “America’s Favorite Cities” by Travel + Leisure magazine, while
Do the Goldstein women resemble you Goldy??
If so, that would probably explain the last place ranking.
@27
I don’t see you speaking up when people quote Keith Olbermann.
How come?
@28
Mr. Cynical, you should take a look at the list of the top 25 cities with the highest homicide rates. Philly is on that list, too. Also, did you know that 99% of those cities have a Democratic mayor? Makes me embarrassed to be a Democrat, almost.
@16 “For example, in 2005, the Governor signed into law approximately $400 million in tax increases made possible by suspending the 2/3 vote requirement from I-601. The largest of these tax increases were: … Death-tax – $139 million …”
BULLSHIT, on several levels!
First of all, there’s no such thing as a “death tax.” An inheritance tax isn’t a death tax. It isn’t paid by dead people, nor is it paid because someone died. What triggers a taxable event is transfer of property, and the tax is effectively paid by heirs.
But Cynical’s biggest whopper is that Gregoire raised the inheritance tax. The reverse is true. Gov. Gregoire and the Democratic legislature CUT Washington’s inheritance tax in half, saving rich heirs (the only kind who pay inheritance taxes, because estates worth less than $2 million aren’t taxed at all) millions of dollars in taxes they don’t deserve to get out of paying.
What actually happened is the wording of Washington’s inheritance tax referred to an IRS Code provision that was repealed, instead of being worded as a stand-alone statute. It was done this way so the Washington statute would conform to provisions of the federal law without having to be rewritten every time the federal law changed. The Washington supreme court ruled that, following a rewrite of the IRS Code that didn’t repeal the federal tax but did replace the federal wording to which the Washington statute specifically referred with some other wording, the Washington inheritance tax had ceased to exist.
So, the Washington Legislature corrected the wording of the Washington statute, and Gov. Gregoire signed it. And, in the process, they increased the exemption and lowered the tax rate, effectively cutting Washington’s inheritance tax by 50%.
So, Cynical is full of shit when he says Gregoire “raised” the state inheritance tax. In fact, he’s flat-ass lying about it. Because the truth is, Gregoire and the Democratic legislature lowered the inheritance tax.
Opponents of inheritance taxes often argue that inheritance taxes are double taxation. This is BULLSHIT, too. Most estates large enough to be subject to this tax — which is only a tiny percentage of all estates, and include no family farms, which are exempt from the tax — consist in large part of capital gains that have never been taxed and never will be taxed due to the basis step-up that heirs get.
As it is, under current inheritance tax laws, heirs get a multimillion-dollar exemption from inheritance tax — so the first $2 million of capital gains will never be taxed, period, even though it’s effectively income to the heirs. Wage earners who have to work for their income, by contrast, get only a few lousy thousand dollars of exemptions.
Don’t believe a fucking thing Republicans say about inheritance taxes. These greedy fucks want to put the entire tax burden on wage earners so rich people like themselves who get all their income from investments and inheritances can get a free ride.
And don’t kid yourself about where their investments come from. It’s damned difficult for people who have to work for wages to acquire enough money to purchase stocks, bonds, businesses, real estate, or other investments — especially when they’re taxed at 3 times the rate of passive investors who inherited their money. And that’s exactly where most investment money comes from. The most common way to get rich in America is to be born to wealthy parents who leave you a trainload of money that neither they, nor you, have ever paid … or ever will pay … any taxes on.
rhp, there’s also this:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/.....Obama.html
When the previous study came out, O’Reilly called the CMPA truth-tellers, but when they released the more recent one about Obama and McSame, he lashed out at them.
Coincidence? Yeah, probably.
I oppose inheritance taxes. I think they should be abolished, the basis step-up should be eliminated, and inheritances should be taxed as ordinary income of the heirs.
Correction, many of those cities with the highest homicide rates have a black Democratic mayor.
I don’t want that to happen to all of America. Right now I have a choice to not live in Philly, Baltimore, or DC, but if Obama does for all of America what Democratic mayors have done for large urban cities, I’ll have no place to run! No place will be safe. I don’t want every suburb in America to turn into Detroit after dark.
@31
If the offspring of parents don’t deserve their parents money after they die, why does the state?
@26 “YLB, she ran the State of Alaska.”
Big fucking deal. I ran a couple of grant programs for charitable organizations, which is the same thing as running Alaska’s state budget, except I had less money to give away. So I’m just as qualified to be president as she is.
@35 The state doesn’t “deserve” any of the money it collects from us in taxes. The state isn’t a person capable of wanting, or “deserving,” anything. We citizens are the state, and we tax ourselves to pay for things that serve the common good, such as public schools and roads. If we want those things, and a majority of us do, we have to pay for them.
The question, therefore, is why rich people should get a pass on paying taxes, when the rest of us have to? Fuck that — and fuck you! Rich people who inherit their money already get a multimillion-dollar exemption that wage earners don’t get.
What people should be asking is why greedy, self-serving, money-grubbing fucks like you should get out of paying taxes when the rest of us have to pay taxes. That’s the real question.
So, how about it? Why should wage earners be taxed, and people who inherit their money shouldn’t? How do you justify that?
It can’t said enough. If you vote for McSame you’re voting for the same old failed policies that led to:
Soaring unemployment
Soaring home foreclosures (up 100 percent in WA state this year)
Soaring inflation
Soaring misery index
Out of control government spending
Record government debt
Record deficits
Bellicose unilateral war-mongering foreign policy.
With McSame you get all that and more. To fight all the wars he wants, he needs to start up the draft. I wouldn’t put it past him.
The goatfucking trolls are particulary full of hate and self-loathing today.
@37
So you’re saying, for the common good, it’s more fair and just for someone’s money to be transferred to the state after their death, rather than to their family?
I know that you’re going to answer yes to my question, so now let me ask you this.
Would it be better “for the common good” if people’s paychecks automatically were automatically turned over to the state, and the state, in turn, provided us with housing and food to survive? Wouldn’t this be best for the common good?
@35 What did the offspring ever do to earn that money? And why shouldn’t they at least be required to pay the capital gains taxes their parents didn’t pay? What’s so fucking special about inherited money that it should never be taxed? No income tax, no capital gains tax, no transfer tax, no tax of any kind? Why should income from inheritances be totally exempt from taxation when earned income is totally taxed? How do you justify that, except by admitting to the unbridled greed of the millionaire class that’s wealthy enough to have to pay estate taxes?
All inheritance taxes do is capture the capital gains taxes that weren’t paid on the estate assets because those assets were never sold during the lifetime of the testator, or which would have been paid by the heir had the heir acquired and sold those assets.
The theme underlying this discussion of inheritance taxes is that Republicans, of course, don’t want to pay any taxes whatsoever.
They’re not merely against inheritance taxes. They’re also against taxes on capital gains, dividends, interest, rents, profits, and all other forms of non-wage income.
Republicans believe only wages should be taxed.
Obviously, this is a very bad deal for wage earners. So bad, in fact, that wage earners currently pay 3 times the tax rate as lazy rabbits who sit on their fat asses in front of their computers flipping stocks.
Stock flipping produces nothing and adds no value to the economy. None whatsoever! All it does is take money out of a weasel’s pocket and puts it in a rabbit’s pocket. Transfers of existing shares on the exchanges don’t put a dime of capital in the corporation’s coffers that might be used to purchase plant and equipment, pay wages, or increase production. Stock flipping is a zero-sum game.
So why would anyone flip stocks instead of doing something productive? Because the Republican tax system rewards it, and punishes working, that’s why. So I don’t work! Only saps work. I flip stocks.
Rog–
Spoken like a true Leftist…with no estate to tax!
39 – Steve, hate is what they’re all about. After 2004, you never saw such hate and HA was just a shadow of what it is today. But their balloon got popped something fierce after they lost that Governor’s election contest and its been downhill for them since. They lost their silly I-912 revenge plot and the insane, woman-abusing wingnut David Iron Jr. was trounced by Ron Sims with some help by Goldy’s fearless reporting. By Nov 2006 they were totally in the dumps.
But now they smell blood and they’re coming back. That’s why we all have to do our part. I’m going to be canvassing neighborhoods and working a registration table. My wife is going to be working an SEIU phone bank.
People in the eighth should be doing what they can to get out the vote for Darcy Burner.
It’s up to us.
Just in case you didn’t follow Roger Rabbit’s reference to a stepped-up basis, it works like this:
Let’s say you buy a piece of investment property for $1. Over the course of the next thirty years, you put $5.00 worth of improvements into the property. Your “basis” in the property, for tax purposes, is now $6.00.
If you sell the property for $100, you subtract the “basis” of $6.00 and your capital gains are $94.00. This is the amount of income subject to the capital gains tax.
Of course, the capital gains tax is considerably less than the earned income taxes, as Roger Rabbit points out almost daily. But the point here is that if a person dies without ever selling the property in his lifetime, the CAPITAL GAINST TAX IS NEVER PAID, because there is no taxable transaction.
Instead, the heirs of the estate get the property. But in the process, they get a STEPPED UP BASIS. What that means is that THEIR basis in the property isn’t the $6.00 which was the original basis in the property. THEIR basis in the property is the MARKET VALUE OF THE PROPERTY AT THE TIME THEY RECEIVE IT – in this example, $100.00. In effect, the capital gains on the investment is lost, excused, forgiven, never to be referred to again.
Instead, their is an estate tax, which takes into account quite a few other factors such as the total size of the estate, the type of property (family farm or other investment), and other factors which normally wouldn’t be included in an income tax calculation. This protects family farms and small businesses from having to be sold to pay the inheritance tax. It does, however, require that those who receive large passive investments as an inheritance to pay a tax.
So what the Republicans who hate the inheritance tax are doing is attempting to eliminate the capital gains tax by going around the back door. They figure they can borrow against it during their lifetime, and then leave it to their children when they die, without ever paying a tax on the profits. If the inheritance tax is eliminated, then NOBODY pays a tax on the profits.
The entire tax burden gets shifted instead further downward upon the middle class. And by “middle class”, I’m not using McCain’s definition of “anyone making less than $5 million a year”.
LMAO @ Cynical.
Cynical, as a former CPA you should know that Roger just put up a succinct and powerful logical argument about taxing estates.
And all you can do is respond with ad hominem.
You lose.
Hey, I didn’t invent this stupid system! Hell, I didn’t even vote for it! I voted against it. It’s not only immoral, it’s also stupid, because it’s sending all our jobs and wealth to other countries, which eventually will make the U.S. as poor as Haiti.
But I’m only 1 little rabbit. Whether I work or flip stocks isn’t even a blip on the Big Radar Screen. I’m just a cork floating on a vast ocean of economic and tax policy that I can’t control. I’m merely trying to survive the waves, tides, and storms. I go wherever the current goes. And the current, right now, is a Republican current.
So, because Republican economic and tax policies screw people who work and reward lazy rabbits who flip investments and do no work, produce nothing, and whose activities are of no value to the economy, that’s what I do! Why be a sap? Sure, it’s immoral, but when has feral wildlife ever been expected to make moral economic decisions? Not that I don’t — I do. But I make my moral economic decisions on Election Day by pulling the lever for Democratic candidates. And that’s it. If my candidates lose, and Republicans get to run things, then I do things the Republican way: I don’t work, don’t produce, and take huge tax breaks for pointlessly recycling the same shares of stock through the trading system over and over again.
It sure beats working for the wages Republicans want to pay, and it also beats paying the taxes that Republicans make working people pay. You’d have to be nuts to do any work under their system.
And when I croak, I’m gonna leave all my money to my baby rabbits, so they don’t have to work or pay taxes either! If Republicans are too good to work or pay taxes, why should my kids work or pay taxes? I don’t, and they won’t, either. If everyone does this, and none of our kids ever work, the Republicans’ kids won’t be able to get anyone to work for them and they’ll have to do their own fucking work! That’s the whole idea, it seems to me. It’s about time they did their own work instead of shoving it off on us. Their system — we get the work, they get the money — totally sucks. It’s time for the working class to rise up against this and revolt! Make them work for a change. That’s what I believe in.
Rog, the master plan on the federal level, of course, was to eliminate the dividend, capital gains and inheritance taxes so that the rich wouldn’t pay a dime. Only those who actually work for a living would pay federal taxes. The rich would pass their wealth from generation to generation, never paying taxes, never contributing back to the nation that made their wealth possible.
On the state level, more of the same shit.
And kudos to people like Gates and Buffett for being above that shit.
@40 No, I’m saying rich assholes who inherit money should pay the same taxes as people who have to work for it. Got a problem with that? Fuck you. We’re going to make you pay your fair share of taxes anyway. If you don’t like it, then exercise your prerogative to move to a deserted island where there’s no government or taxes and you won’t be burdened with the benefits or costs of living in a civilization.
I’ll admit to a bit of bias with respect to an estate tax, as it has never come close to impacting me.
My father died at 16, my only inheritance from him was I got his car (it’s kinda hard to accumulate a large estate by age 45). My aunt died when I was 22, I got $500 from her estate. My mother died when I was 28, my sister and I sold the house and furniture, and after medical and funeral expenses were paid we each got about $10,00 (and she got the piano, I got the the china). When my mother-in-law died, I ended up with her car after we couldn’t sell it for any reasonable price.
So I’ve never had to pay an inheritance tax, I don’t expect to ever have to do so. I’ve pretty much had to make it on my own, and will continue to do so. My kids will also earn their own way. If I’m fortunate enough to have a large enough estate when I die that it is subject to the inheritance tax, then so be it.
@43 Cynical — let’s review. I pointed out that Gregoire cut Washington’s estate tax, and that you lied by claiming she raised it.
I pointed out that most estates large enough to owe inheritance tax consist of never-taxed capital gains, and that heirs get a total exemption from capital gains taxes.
I argued that it’s unfair to let heirs pay no taxes on their unearned income from inheritances when we’re taxing wage earners who have to work for their money.
You didn’t refute the factual accuracy of any of this. You didn’t even try. Your response was merely calling me a “leftist.”
Looks like you’re out of ammo.
You lose. Thanks for playing, Cynical. It’s been a pleasure. Come back again, real soon.
As for the “sin” taxes on liquer and tobacco – I realize it’s regressive, but in the end it’s entirely voluntary. If you don’t want to pay the tax, you don’t have to purchase the product. Although considering the addictive nature of tobacco, I would prefer to tax the tobacco companies directly.
I would like everyone here who’s mother died and left them something in her will to condemn her for being more concerned with selfish family interests than the common good.
Type these words: I condemn my selfish mother for not being interested in the common good.
@48 “Rog, the master plan on the federal level, of course, was to eliminate the dividend, capital gains and inheritance taxes so that the rich wouldn’t pay a dime. Only those who actually work for a living would pay federal taxes.”
Well, yes, I know that; and while there were enough Democrats in Congress to keep them from implementing this plan completely during the Bush years, they enacted enough of it to make me a sap for working. So, I quit my job!
I can’t control what Republicans do. I can’t control stupid voters who elect Republicans, either. The only thing I can control is my personal destiny.
And my personal destiny is to not work! Because we have a tax system that rewards stock flippers and punishes workers, I took the hint and quit my job and flip stocks. That’s what they want me to do, right? So I do it. I’m only going along with the incentive system that Republicans devised for themselves. I figure, why should they have it all to themselves? If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me, too. I’m just as good as they are, and I want to live like a Republican, so that’s what I do.
I’ll never work or produce anything again. It doesn’t bother me that Republicans are sending all our jobs and wealth to China. I just bought stock in a foreign-flag shipping company that pays no U.S. taxes whose ships haul raw materials to China and finished goods back from China. The stock will do fine and so will I. And I pay the same taxes Republicans pay — little to none.
But even if this whole insane house of cards comes tumbling down, like their laissez-faire banking system is doing right now, I’m gonna do just fine. I’ll still have my burrow in a public park and plenty of free grass to eat.
How are these wingnuts expecting to pay off the debt they incur for their corruption and endless wars?
Easy – just put it all on “little people” and “little people” yet to be born. They can’t fight back, at least very easily.
Is it any wonder they oppose reproductive choice for women?
@54 I don’t know anyone who ever got enough from their mother to owe inheritance taxes, and I’ll bet you don’t either.
I do know for sure that your family isn’t rich enough to worry about inheritance taxes, or you wouldn’t be working for BIAW as a paid troll for $8.07 an hour. You’re lucky you don’t work in a “right-to-work” state where the minimum wage is $6.55 and no one enforces the laws against making employees work extra hours off the clock.
“Right to work” states are a paradise for CHEAP LABOR CONSERVATIVES, but they’re a living hell for workers. I wouldn’t live in such a state, or if I had to, I wouldn’t hold a job or do any work in such a place.
You see, there’s this thing in economics called “the invisible hand.” No, I’m not referring to Mark the Welsher’s one-handed typing (his other hand, the one under the computer desk that you can’t see, is busy with something else). A guy named Adam Smith could explain it to you, except he’s dead.
“Incentives” are part of the “invisible hand” that guides economic behavior. This part of it is real simple, actually. When there’s no incentive to work, nobody works. That’s what you have in economies where employers get away with paying $1 a day and the poor people pay all the taxes so the fascists can live like kings. Nobody does any work in those countries and they have unemployment rates over 75% and the U.S. has to feed them through aid programs.
Well, what do you expect? Why would anyone in their right mind work 16 hours a day for $1 when you can work 0 hours a day and be only $1 poorer? I wouldn’t work on those terms! Apparently the rest of the world doesn’t, either. Then, even the rich fascists go broke because no work is getting done and they have nothing to sell.
Well, we have some Third World states in this country, too. Most of them are down south, and they have low productivity and high unemployment, just like Africa and South America. States with right-to-work laws and low minimum wages always have the highest unemployment and always are the poorest states with the lowest per capital outputs and incomes. The rich fascists in those states are going broke and I don’t care because they inflicted it on themselves. They’re too stupid to understand that when wages are so low nobody has any incentive to work or any money to buy stuff with, they’ve got no customers to sell to. No one should feel sorry for those stupes, and feeling sorry wouldn’t do any good anyway, because even if you pity them they’ll still be just as stupid and greedy as they were yesterday.
The only thing you can do with people like that is not work for them, and not buy anything from them.
@54 Your mother obviously didn’t give a damn about the common good, or you wouldn’t be here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....25944.html
59 – LMAO!!!
The Righties are using the ‘Pee Wee Herman’ defense.
Troll @ 15: Back to your citation of Fox News as “fair and balanced”, quoting as a source an organization led by a man who contributes to Fox News and who has other conservative ties:
The Seattle Times is bragging about winning several “Blethen Awards” for regional news coverage. The award, of course, was set up by the Blethen family (who hold the controlling interest in the Times).
Times takes home six Blethen awards
I hope they don’t get a back strain from trying so hard to pat themselves on the back.
Republicans are incapable of discussing any issue honestly, as Cynical’s lies about the inheritance tax demonstrate.
No one — and I mean no one — pays inheritance tax except millionaires. That’s because all estates automatically get a $2 million exemption from inheritance taxes.
For Troll to sit here and whine about the government taking away his bequest from his mother is a fucking lie, too. If his mother is rich enough to leave him more than $2 million, then he can afford to pay some taxes. The rest of us have to, so if he’s a millionaire, why should he skate? Even if the government took it all, which it doesn’t, he’d be set for life with the untaxed $2 million. All he’d have to do is stick it in tax-exempt municipals, and he could live very comfortably on the interest income without holding a job or working — and pay no taxes.
What a sniveling little ass he is.
Why did Obama pick him?
http://www.iht.com/articles/20...../biden.php
Is Goldy out there? Did you see rhp talking about the Blethen Awards? Have you ever given any thought to creating your own award for this blog handed out to the person or troll who has had the most profound impact on your blog? If so, I would humbly like to submit my name for consideration.
The typical wingnut is stuck in a resentment trap.
He resents paying taxes to support someone else’s mother on social security, to educate kids other than his own in schools that don’t teach creation “science”, that pay the salary of a soldier other than his own son who is fighting in yet another Republican war of the hour. He aspires to be a millionaire so he can pay little to no taxes and not have to deal with his Republican boss who harbors the same resentments.
Even the wingnut millionaire wishes he could afford the army of lawyers and accountants that the billionaire has to avoid taxes. Why can’t I be like liberal billionaires like Gates, Buffet and Allen whines the wingnut millionaire, Mr. Cynical being an example.
So even wingnut millionaires whine they have it tough.
Yeah right.
Wow – the idiot trolls have really gone off the deep end. @15 Idiot troll cites one brief study from almost a year ago that fox is “fair” (while they were pumping Clinton during the primary).
How about all the other studies showing incredible bias? Typical idiot trolls, cherry pick the evidence. Maybe you should search for WMDs in Iraq and try to justify the evidence for that….
@54: Troll does deserve an award – for stupidity.
The estate tax as proposed by Burner would only affect estates over 7 million. Anyone who wants more than 7 million tax free is a freeloader on their dead mom anyways. Case closed.
Being asked by the girl scouts wasn’t enough incentive to do the right thing.
Being compared to mcsame was. Until then the obama campaign refused to do the right thing.
The best line from the story-
How, Walsh wondered, could a campaign that has raised roughly $400 million be so stingy?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....300.column
Don’t believe a fucking thing Republicans say about inheritance taxes. These greedy fucks want to put the entire tax burden on wage earners so rich people like themselves who get all their income from investments and inheritances can get a free ride.
I love Roger Rabbit.
Republicans “work the refs” (the media) without a second thought.
Did it take that to get this story out of the AP?
http://ap.google.com/article/A.....gD934RHCG0
About time.
And the AP has taken an even closer look at the “book banner”. Hmmmm. Very good.
Yep, that’s how Republicans govern – by fear. And that’s what you’ll get with 4 more years of the McSame.
Ouch. Nothing like being so partisan you look like a “fool.”
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/9/11/20922/5391
Is it true that both obama and biden voted for the bridge to nowhere? Or is that more lies from the right?
Anyone else here remember the FBI abuses of the 1960’s and 1970’s (infiltration & survellance of protest groups, unauthorized wiretaps of political figures, etc.)????? In 1976 reform regulation was put into place to prevent those kinds of abuses. Key to the reforms was the prevention of the abuses under J. Edgar Hoover whereby he compiled dossiers on political figures which could be used to intimidate or embarrass them.
Well, the Bush administration is huridly pushing through a set of regulations to take affect Oct. 1st which would essentially repeal those reforms. In effect, an FBI agent could begin survellance, conduct interviews with your co-workers and acquaintences, even your banker and broker, without having to receive any prior permission from even his supervisor. The FBI agent would not even have to relate such conduct to an ongoing investigation, or even have a reasonable basis for thinking a crime was being committed. In short, if an FBI agent lives next door and decides he doesn’t like you, he can go through your trash, flash his badge at your workplace and demand “cooperation” from your boss, interview your friends and neighbors, and do just about everything except haul you in for questioning.
Gone also would be any reporting requirements, so that we would be pretty much left in the dark as to the extent such of conduct which might take place under such new regulations.
Of course, the Bush administration is pushing this through as an “emergency rule-making” proceedure on the basis of “extreme national security importance” (thereby by-passing normal publication and comment time-lines).
So we have to ask: Why the rush? The Bush administration has already decided to not even try to re-start the bidding process for the new Air Force tanker, even though the Air Force is crying that it desperately needs new airplanes. Instead, it is punting that decision to the next President. But suddenly this issue is pressed to the forefront, with an insistence that it has to take place by October 1st – just two and a half weeks away?
Is it merely a coincidence that these new proceedures would go into effect five weeks before the next Presidential election?
Given the fact that the Bush administration used a simple proceedural change to fire any attorney generals who hadn’t buckled to political demands and replace them with Bush loyalists, I think I’m justified in being pretty cynical about this sudden “crisis”.
I strongly suspect that the Bush administration has pushed the FBI to conduct survellance on prominent Democrats, with plans to make embarrasing “disclosures” (if not arrests or announcements of investigations in progress) timed to appear in the final weeks of this election process. This is a typical Rove political ploy: even if no wrongdoing is ever proven, it will be long after the election is over before the truth finally comes out.
The reason for the emergency rule-making, then, would be because there are FBI agents and supervisors who are either refusing to cooperate with such a prostitution of their agency, or are expected to do so. Under this new rule, they could hand-select agents based upon their loyalty to the Bush administration who are willing to do their dirty work for them, without being answerable to either their supervisors, the agency in general, or to any reporting requirements.
The bloom is seriously coming off the wilted rose that was Palin’s gas pipeline deal:
Ouch!
http://tinyurl.com/4kcaf4
You know things are going bad when obama has to send “minders” to keep biden acting like someone with a high IQ.
http://www.iht.com/articles/20...../biden.php
That explains his impressive run for the president. What was it, 1% of the vote, all the way up to 3% of the votes in delaware. Quite impressive display of connecting with the voters.
When the liberal media starts turning on obama you know it’s over. And the fact it’s msnbc you know it’s really looking bad for obama.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26641593/
Maybe in 2012 the dems can find a candidate that actually stands for something.
Marvin @ 78: I’d rather have to deal with potential mis-speaks by Biden than the McCain campaign’s fear that Palin might actually SAY SOMETHING that isn’t carefully scripted for her.
Note that Biden was on the campaign trail making public speaches and interviews with heavyweight journalists right after the convention. Palin needed a week of briefings and coaching before they dared to even let her speak to Charles Gibson on GMA, which has to be the “softest” interviewer in the national mainstream media.
I’m half expecting that one of these days sometime soon she’s going to be asked a question she REALLY wants to offer from her gut, but the earpiece in her ear is going to have Rove shouting “Don’t do it! Stick to the script!”. Then her head’s going to do a “Total Recall” schtick, where she start’s stammering, the eyes bulge out, the head starts spinning in circles, until it finally pops off entirely before it explodes.
79 MS
Sure he’s going to change something. He’s going to change what the Republican-in-Chief has been ramming down our throats for eight years.
Dino Rossi’s campaign site says “Dino Rossi has put forth a $15 billion transportation plan for Washington state.”
He also says he will balance the budgetr without raising taxes. If there is truly a $2.7 billion deficit as he claims, and he’s proposing $15 billion in new spending, what state services is he going to cut?
Marvin @ 74: You left out some important points. Like the pause after Gibson asked the question, and Palin’s “Deer in the Headlights” look which clearly showed she had heard the term before, but didn’t really understand to what it referred.
It was in that context she threw the question back at him – both as a delaying tactic while she tried to think of a way to deflect an unanticipated question about something she knew little about, and in the hope that Gibson would give her enough information so she could bluff her way through the rest.
Of course, it’s something of a question of intent, as we can’t read her mind but can only try to decipher her words and body language. You choose to believe that she was being an aggressive interviewee, I think otherwise. I think I’m right, and I think your position is just right-wing spin in an attempt at damage control.
But it really is a simple, and relevent, question. We need to know if Palin will follow Bush’s basic foreign policy if she becomes President. Palin didn’t need to throw it back at Gibson, it wasn’t a question with a debatable premise. It was pretty straight-forward.
Heck, I could have answered it, without much thought, and I don’t claim to be prepared to be “ready” to lead our nation. Here’s what I would have said:
But then, Palin apparantly doesn’t think that way.
Sure, cnn isn’t part of the liberal biased media.
Remember that cnn news report about palin calling dinosaurs lizards of satan?
From the mouth of the person that admits it was political satire…
http://unbearablebobness.typep.....l#comments
Wow, cnn edited out the part about it being satire.
No wonder matt damon parroted it, it was on cnn.
I wonder if matt is feeling stupid knowing he used a joke as fact. Naw, he’s a liberal, no shame in smearing those you don’t agree with.
Daddy Love @ 82: Rossi’s going to fall back on the old “we already have the money we just need to spend it wisely” bullshit. They don’t want to get pinned down, because they know they can’t win an election if people really knew what they would do. Heck, I don’t think Rossi even knows what he’s going to do.
It’s been the same since the opening days of the Reagan administration. They won an election by promising to cut taxes, cut “government waste”, and eliminate the budget deficit. But as David Stockman, Reagan’s first budget director said later, when they got into the White House they were all surprised that there wasn’t any waste to be cut. Jimmy Carter had already trimmed the budget to the bone, even to the point of charging people for their meals at White House breafast meetings, and cutting the janitorial service back to the point that the Republicans complained about how dirty the offices were (they reinstated daily janitorial service immediatly).
In the end, they were reduced to calling ketsup a “vegitable” in order to save a few bucks on the school lunch programs.
If Rossi is elected, I suspect that he and the legislature would quickly reach an impasse on most budget items, and the next four years nothing of any significance would be accomplished. Four more years of no Viaduct solution, no I-520 rebuild, no Sound Transit expansion, but probably lots of strikes by public workers and teacher’s unions as he vetoed funding in those areas.
By the way, talking about foreign policy gone bad.
Eight years ago Russia was virtually an ally. Now after the Iraq fiasco, the loss of international goodwill on the part of almost every nation, and McCain’s and Cheney’s meadling in Georgia, we have Bush on the brink of sending U.S. troops and other support to Georgia.
This is in contrast to U.S./Soviet/Russian strategies since the 1960’s, when both sides made major efforts to avoid having their troops in a position where they could be drawn in direct combat with one another (Europe being the closely monitored exception).
Russia has responded by sending strategic bombers to Venezuella – a direct challenge to the Monroe and Kennedy doctrines. But don’t expect a response from the White House along the lines of Kennedy facing off the Soviets in the Cuban Missle Crisis. We don’t have the international support we once did.
Translated- Don’t speak the truth. Track towards the middle so you have a chance of being elected. The leftist views don’t go over well with america.
Guess those bitter women are going to sink the obama campaign.
When a democrat is admitting the liberal media isn’t being fair you know it’s trouble.
The reps hope the liberal media keep it up. It’s better than any ad mcsame could ever run.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....ME_4442492
Interesting survey about what blogs journalists view.
Of course dailykooks, huffington, talking points memo are in the top 5. Which explains why the liberal media so often parrot the stories on left leaning websites.
http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4597
52. Roger Rabbit spews:
@43 Cynical — let’s review. I pointed out that Gregoire cut Washington’s estate tax, and that you lied by claiming she raised it.
Now, now Rog….you know darn well Gregoire did not CUT the estate tax. It was in reality cut from underneath her and she added some back.
As far as your diatribe about taxing inheritance @ ordinary income rates….good luck with that. Will never happen.
Again, your lack of understand that private sector creates jobs and government sucks tax dollars is showing. Leftists think everything should be government controlled and we should all be equal at birth. Sick.
It appears that Darcy Burner has some work to do, down 54% to 44% to Reichert in this Sept 10 SurveyUSA poll:
http://www.surveyusa.com/clien.....2ffa14fd9e
Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark.
It’s looking more and more like a republican landslide.
The left has nothing left to offer the country.
Maybe it’s time for the left to get it together and get back to the old principles they used to stand for instead of the hate and extreme left principles that have been proven to be failures.
Cynical @ 89 says:
Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, said:
The Declaration of Independence was adopted by all thirteen colonies and is the foundation of our basic understanding of the relationship between a government and it’s citizens.
So I’ll happily admit that I believe that all men were created equal, so I presume you will call me a sicko leftist.
As a person who believes in the fundamental concepts upon which America was founded, I am compelled to ask: Why do you hate America?
Wasn’t that regarding being endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
It doesn’t mean the government should level the playing field to make every one equal.
People are not equal, if so, it would have been me instead of Nick the Quick slapping the supersonics and the glove to the floor all those times a few years back.
“…That doesn’t mean everyone should level the playing field to make everyone equal…”
Hmmm, I thought a level playing field was exactly what is exactly being sought in American society, so that those who are willing to work the hardest and have the most initiative will prevail.
Or, we could continue to follow the Bush/McCain philosophy that government should be left to those with the most money and inherited political connections. Keep at it another twenty years, and you won’t be able to tell the difference between the U.S. and 18th century Great Britain, where most of the population was disenfranchised and poor, and government was reserved for those with lots of land and titles.
I think your real colors are showing through, here, Cynical.
By the way, one author I read blamed the American Revolution on the drunken gambling parties of a good proportion of the British parliment and ministers. They were either drunk or hung over, many were extremely parochial and prejudiced against anyone not of their social class, and refused to take American grievences seriously. Many were so far in debt due to their gambling habits, that they refused a modest tax increase and instead decided that the colonists should pay British taxes (despite the fact the colonists taxed themselves for their own militia and other common expenses). The colonists refusal to pay British taxes eventually resulted in the American Revolution, although you could say that the snobbery of British aristocracy was the initial and continuing cause of the revolution.
But not everyone is willing to work their hardest. Look at the rabbit, he went to law school. Bibigoober is taking nursery school for the 14th time. How can you level that playing field?
Weren’t you replying to my line? Okay, how can we make this playing field level so you could figure out who you are replying to?