An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Archive for Taxes
From The Houston Pravda? Really??
Obama’s vision may get a reality check (28 August 2008)
Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday night with a lofty vision for the nation’s future that is far easier to articulate than to accomplish.
The next occupant of the White House will inherit a half-trillion-dollar budget deficit that will severely crimp any plans for spending on new programs, as well as the messy endgame of the war in Iraq and growing energy and health-care challenges. A look at Obama’s promises and the realities he would confront:
THE ECONOMY AND DEFICITS
The promise: Obama has pledged to attack the weak economy with another stimulus plan to follow the $168 billion package of tax rebates for individuals and tax breaks for businesses that Congress passed last February. Obama’s stimulus would include tax rebates, aid to state and local governments and increased spending for infrastructure projects. He would also increase spending in other areas such as alternative energy programs. Obama promised to “go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.”
The problem: Obama’s spending plans and middle-class tax relief will collide with the hard reality of exploding budget deficits. The Congressional Budget Office projects this year’s deficit will hit $400 billion, driven higher by the weak economy and the stimulus program Congress has already passed. And the Bush administration is forecasting that next year’s imbalance will hit an all-time high of $482 billion.
Read the rest here.
Fascinating. Why? Because The Pravda, aka Chronicle, is fairly left wing MSM. I’m surprised they even allowed such a reality into their paper. Yup….B. Hussein has got some real problems with the real world….he doesn’t seem to live in it with the rest of us.
H/T: No Quarter
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40% Illiterate!
U.S. aid forms stump some Katrina victims
Marsha Williams had always hesitated when mail arrived from the government.
After Hurricane Katrina, she began to fear the letters.
One warned that her apartment building could be shut down because of unrepaired storm damage. There were legal notices and forms. What did they all mean?
At age 51, Williams was embarrassed she could not read much more than her own name and address.
Three years after Katrina, residents of New Orleans are still buried in a blizzard of government paperwork. And thousands of storm victims seeking federal aid cannot apply because they can’t read the forms.
I beg your pardon???????? I will not demean this woman. I will demean the system that has allowed a 51 year old woman, living in the GREATEST nation in the world, to make it this age without the ability to read or write! No, you left wing moonbats, it is NOT George W. Bush’s fault she, and many like her, cannot read! It’s the corrupt system that has been in place long before Huey P. Long ever came into play.
It is estimated that more than 40 percent of the city’s adults lack basic literacy skills. Recovery programs have done little to ease the burden.
40%? FORTY FREAKIN’ PERCENT? Does the “Chocolate City” mayor have an explanation of why those he supposedly represents can’t bloomin’ read the language they speak? How many high school graduates are coming out of that area with the same problem?
Rachel Nicolosi, program director for the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, estimates that as many as 100,000 people from New Orleans may have had assistance delayed, or they never applied for help at all, because they could not read the documents.
“It’s a paramount issue. The rules are almost indecipherable for everyone,” said Davida Finger, a staff attorney for Loyola University’s New Orleans College of Law, which has helped 1,000 people seek rebuilding aid, nearly all of whom had trouble understanding the forms.
Billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars have gone into a public education system that is, quite obviously, a major failure. Yes, there are some areas of the country that do well with the public system, but Katrina brought to light many things about the New Orleans area, just one being the education, or lack there of!
“I concede the point that those who are functionally illiterate, they would have challenges with any form,” said Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said the agency has trained all of its 37 staff members in New Orleans to help “those with literacy disabilities.”
Gee. Y’think? With the many volunteers, from around the country, that are still going into NOLA, you’d think they could find a few folks who would helps those most in need to fill out papers….THREE YEARS AFTER THE FACT!
The National Adult Literacy Survey indicates that 25 percent of U.S. adults read at the lowest functional level, meaning, for example, that they can locate an expiration date on a driver’s license but cannot fill out most motor-vehicle forms.
There is NO excuse for these numbers. NONE! Education if a vital part of any nation’s future. To have such a high number of illiterate citizens is inexcusable!
The cornerstone of neighborhood rebuilding efforts is the $10.3 billion Road Home program, which asks participants to review dozens of documents and sign 18 final legal papers before aid is approved.
Billions being poured into that sinkhole? NO! No more!
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Let Them Raid!
Feds plan more raids on fugitive migrants
Federal authorities say they will step up raids on illegal immigrants’ homes after only eight immigrants, including one in Phoenix, stepped forward to take an offer of planned deportation.
The lack of participation in Operation Scheduled Departure, a pilot program, showed that the only way to solve the problem of immigrants staying in the U.S. after being ordered to leave is through enforcement, Jim Hayes of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a conference call Friday with reporters.
The 3-week-old program in five cities is being canceled. The only immigrant who stepped forward for voluntary deportation in Phoenix was from Estonia.
Estonia? Just how much taxpayer money was spent on this little ‘experiment’ of the feckless gubmint? The lack of common sense even trying to implement such a stupid plan speaks a great deal to just how little understanding they have of the problem. That problem being? The complete and utter lack of respect these…..people…..have for our laws!
Over the past two years, fugitive-operation teams in Phoenix and other U.S. cities have nabbed tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants, most at their homes but also at job sites. The teams work daily to identify, locate and arrest immigrants who have previously been ordered to leave the U.S. but remained.
The majority are immigrants who applied for legal residency but were denied. Others were ordered deported after committing crimes. The teams have arrested 29,000 fugitive immigrants this fiscal year and are on pace to surpass the 30,000 arrested last year, Hayes said.
A veritable drop in the bucket. If they are arresting them, that would mean they were, well….arrested, right?
Immigrant advocates have criticized the operations, saying they break up families and terrorize immigrant communities. In response, the government launched the experimental scheduled-departure program on Aug. 5. It gave non-criminal fugitives the chance to turn themselves in and arrange for their departure within 90 days. In exchange, participants would not have to worry about agents unexpectedly showing up at the crack of dawn and removing them without a chance to settle their affairs.
To borrow a line from Jo Dee Messina….. “My give a damn is busted!”
Advocates for immigrants said Operation Scheduled Departure was merely a ruse intended to give the government justification for continuing its sweeps.
“They knew this project was going to be a failure. They needed an excuse to justify what they have been doing,” said Elias Bermudez, founder of the Phoenix-based advocacy group Immigrants Without Borders.
Language Warning: NO, you low life, scum sucking, son of a bitch! They DON’T need an excuse! They’ve got something called THE LAW!
Bermudez predicted that the government will now intensify fugitive operations and that more non-fugitive illegal immigrants will get caught in the dragnets.
“We are telling people not to answer their doors (if ICE officers arrive looking for fugitives),” Bermudez said.
As far as I’m concerned, YOU should be arrested too! What you’re doing is advocating for breaking the law! I’m fairly sure aiding and abetting criminal activity is still against the law!
“Many of these immigrants have lived in this country for years,” Schwartz said. “It takes more than (90 days) to sell their house, close their bank accounts, take care of their finances and take their children out of school.”
Then I would suggest they get started…..NOW!
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Where Is Colorada?
I just looked at a map of the US of A. Nope…..no Colorada!
Rep. Tyrone Ellis (D) gets state travel voucher for Democratic Natl. Conv. for “educational” purpose
State House Member Tyrone Ellis (D-Starkville) received a travel voucher from the Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) led House of Representatives to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado next week for “educational” purposes. These expenditures are apparently approved by the House Management Committee chaired by Rep. J. P. Compretta (D - Bay St. Louis).
Now, obviously, the issue isn’t the issue of REAL education in Mississippi. The issue is whether or not the good folks of said state should be footing the bill for a STATE rep to attend that ol’ DNC (Democrat NATIONAL Convention) in the first place.
Now, I don’t live in Mississippi. Close, but not in. If I were a resident, I can assure you that I’d be raising ALL kinds of hell about this kind of nonsense, wasting tax payer money. If the state Dems want this fella to go to the convention, why are THEY NOT footing the bill?
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Agreed!
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Another One Of Those HAD To Be Swiped Moments!
Master Mini E shows us what life will be like under a Barack Hussein Obama presidency!
Yup! That pretty much sums it up!
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Dirty Dealings
Records reveal lucrative dealings for mayor’s friend
When it comes to landing City Hall subcontracting jobs, Reginald French has a golden touch — a $1.4 million touch.
A close friend of Mayor Willie Herenton, French has been paid at least that much, and possibly much more, for a variety of jobs, including a particularly fortuitous deal to install fiber-optic cable at two city police stations.
A bud of ol’ Willie’s, eh?
Newly disclosed records tell how French, a onetime prison guard, landed the $68,000 cabling job in 2006 despite lacking experience or equipment for the work.
No experience, no equipment, yet he was given the job? What is wrong with this picture?
Undaunted, French then hired a cable installation firm — for $30,000 — to perform the work.
So, the city could have saved $38,000 if they had just hired the cable installation firm out right? Is it any wonder that cities are getting hard up for cash when they have folks like Harenton in office? Yet, they keep right on voting ‘em in, year after year. Reckon it really is a case of ‘you get what you pay for’.
News of French’s role in the police cabling job comes amid a federal probe exploring connections between Herenton and several associates, including French, who’ve won lucrative City Hall contracts.
Harenton should have lost the last election. Do the people in Memphis not know enough to pour piss out of a boot? Well, Harenton has sure wizzed in their boots, alright.
Memphis attorney Scott Kramer was more loquacious, calling French’s cabling payments unnecessary and wasteful. While apparently legal, French’s involvement in the deal reflects larger concerns involving abuse in city contracts, he said.
Gee. Y’think?
“It appears to us that Reginald doesn’t do anything except pocket money.”
French, who received $1.4 million over a 32-month period ending in March 2006, dismissed Kramer’s assertions, and his suit, as baseless.
“I stand by (my) work,” he said. “I run a legitimate company.”
Where have we heard such claims before? Hmmmm…. Oh yeah….the movie “The Godfather” comes to mind.
Such assertions about French — that he acts as a middleman paid merely to supply city government with computer programmers and others with specialized expertise — have surfaced repeatedly. A Dallas computer-programming consultant claimed last fall that he was told he had to go through French if he wanted city work and that French later cheated him out of $80,000.
And yet, because he is Harenton’s bud, he continues to do business with the city? Hmmm….
“You’ve been on my trail for a long time,” French told a reporter. He was referring to news stories about not only his subcontracting work but his past life as an officer who was fired from the Collierville Police Department and a later role as a criminal defendant found guilty of slitting a rival’s tire.
Must be a Dhimmicrat. They’re known for tire slashing.
Despite that history, French was hired by Herenton as a top City Hall aide who was soon forced to resign following a sexual harassment claim. French became a business consultant selling access to government officials and eventually wore a wire for the FBI’s Atlanta office in a corruption probe there — only to reinvent himself again as the owner of a technology firm with rich success winning subcontracting jobs for the city of Memphis.
You’d think the mayor of a city would choose his ‘friends’ a little more wisely. I wonder if he get kickbacks from these ‘lucrative’ payouts? Just a thought.
Herenton maintains he has pulled no strings for French or anyone else.
Uh huh.
Spending spree
Flush with money through a subcontract with the city of Memphis, Reginald French’s firm, Integrate Technologies, has issued checks paying:
$1,684 to Parker Consulting in 2006 for robo calls, apparently for French’s unsuccessful campaign for Shelby County sheriff.
$700 to a landscaping firm in 2006.
$13,700 for bonuses to himself in 2006.
$5,000 for loans to himself in 2006.
$300 in 2003 as payment to Dewey Clark, a friend who turned government witness and testified against former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell in his 2006 corruption trial.
$250 for an ice sculpture in 2005.
$1,351 for liquor for a party in 2005.
Hey, I don’t know how to do anything. Maybe I can get a job working for the city Memphis, too?
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Don’t Think He’s Dangerous?
Think again!
Obama Supports Global Tax From United Nations
Christine O’Donnell
For an entire week, Americans watched as Senator Barack Obama took his act on the road, courting the European elitists and cowtowing to an endless array of foreign politicians. At this point it may be easy to take Obama’s “celebri-plomacy” lightly. Yet, his trip highlights a dangerous threat to America’s national sovereignty in the form of his globalist policies that will diminish America’s role in the world and outsource decisions of vital national interest to the United Nations.
His Global Poverty Act, currently under consideration in Congress, is just one such policy. Despite its seemingly innocuous title, the Global Poverty Act would force America to adopt the U.N.’s “Millennium Development Goals” as official U.S. policy. This means outsourcing to the United Nations all important decisions concerning the use of U.S. foreign aid dollars. Not only that, but the fee for allowing the U.N. to play the “middle man” in our global war on poverty would be a tax of .7 percent of the U.S. Gross National Product. That’s right. Barack Obama and his liberal allies such as Senator Biden have signed on to a bill that would allow the U.N. to tax America (and Americans) an estimated $845 billion over the next 13 years. Obama’s plan represents perhaps the greatest affront to our national sovereignty since the War of 1812.
The Global Poverty Act dismisses the American ideals of a free-market economy and responsible government for a global bureaucracy that has already lost tens of millions in development funds to corruption. The measure demands virtually no accountability or reform from the impoverished and often oppressive nations who are the recipients of our charitable largess. Furthermore, the United Nations Development Program has become the favorite “rich uncle” of terrorist states and rogue regimes, accidentally funneling millions to North Korea’s illicit weapons programs and violating 95 U.S. export laws in the process.
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Tax Relief
What is tax relief? Well, normally, I would say it’s exactly what it says: relief from taxation. However, the Dhimmicrat candidate, B. Hussein, has other ideas. To him, the Obamessiah, tax relief is taking money away from companies that earn it, and give it to the “poor”. In his case, the poor are the states.
Now, why do I have a problem with such a Robin Hood plan? Well, for one thing, it’s not tax relief. When taking money away from the rich, who earn it, and provide jobs for those who need it, and giving it to the poor, who did NOT earn it, and provide no jobs to anyone, then this is socialism. I’m NOT in favor of socialism.
What many seem to fail to understand is that even though we hear the headlines of “record profits for BIG oil”, that same big oil pays a good chunk of those profits in taxes, and another big chunk in exploration. What it boils down to is about 9 cents on every dollar earned in actual “profits”. I don’t know about you, but I’d find it a bit difficult to live on only 9 cents.
Ok, so it’s a LOT more than 9 cents. Billions of dollars times 9…..well, you get the picture.
People are all up in arms over the CEO salaries. Honestly, I don’t have a clue as to what they do to earn such large sums of money. Personally, I can’t imagine what kind of lifestyle I’d have with so much. Probably still wear jeans, or shorts and a t-shirt, not wear make up if I didn’t see the need, and travel. Yeah, I’d use that large chunk of change to go every place I’d ever wanted to see. 
Oh, and I’d also make sure my church got a separate building for Sunday school. 
Do they really NEED those large salaries. Odds are, no. But is it up to me whether or not they get them? Well like I said, not being of CEO material, I have NO idea. Most of us don’t have a clue what they have done to merit such exorbitant sums. Do they think up ways to earn their share holders more in dividends? Do they find news ways to create more jobs, examine new fields to drill, deal with the feckless weasels on Capital Hill? Hey, that last one makes me think they deserve their salaries, just having to deal with those economically ignorant bozos.
Without proof, I’m pretty sure there have been some who have decided the funds meant for retirees, through pension funds, are for their own persona use. But I’d say odds are, most are fairly honest, and do a good job for their companies.
So, when I hear, or read, about some of these utterly absurd schemes put forth by the Obamessiah camp, my feathers get more than just a tad ruffled. What has the gubmint done to make life better? How many jobs does it actually create? Right now, the federal government is the largest employee in the country. Why? How do they pay their employees? Why, with tax dollars, sucked from the companies who are actually DOING something, or at least trying to, when the gubmint gets out of their way.
B. Hussein’s ridiculous plan will NOT help people at the pump. Instead, it will make it even MORE difficult for the truly poor to put gas in their tanks to get to their jobs. Can’t get to work, lose job, get taxpayer aid. In other words, he is looking to have MORE people on the ‘dole’, not less, and that would make them beholden to the gubmint for their sustenance. Not a real good plan. Well, unless you are a socialist.
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More Disappointment in Bush
A snippet from Bush’s weekly radio address:
It appears that the leaders of the Democratically-controlled Congress will let the entire summer pass without voting on any of these vital steps to help reduce pressure on gas prices. This failure to act is unacceptable to me and unacceptable to the American people. So when they return from their summer break, Democratic leaders should show that they’ve heard the frustration of the American people by allowing a vote on offshore exploration. If Congress does not act, they will owe families across America an explanation for why they’re ignoring their concerns.
Instead of calling them back into session, which he could do, to address a VERY serious problem, he hopes they’ll DO SOMETHING when they get back from their tanning session. Rather than back the Republicans who staged a new “Boston Tea Party” yesterday, he kowtows.
My disgust with this administration grows by leaps and bounds.
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