All jokes on the liberal board must be approved by the CONS, and everyone's sense of humor MUST mirror their own. Any deviation from this will result in deletion of the jokes (and any accompanying posts).
It's the epitome of true freedom of speech -- Bush style!
BANGKOK (AFP) - Parliamentary candidates in Thailand's upcoming election are trying to buy the votes of elderly men by passing out free Viagra, a local government official said Friday.
Thais head to the polls on December 23 for the first time since the military toppled the elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup last year.
Residents in Prathumthani, on the northern outskirts of Bangkok, reported some of the candidates were passing out doses of the anti-impotence drug in exchange for promised votes, said Sayan Nopkham, a local government official.
"The villagers told me they have been given one or two pills of Viagra by candidates. Then they come to me to ask for more pills, or sometimes coffee, in exchange for voting for my brother, who is also running for a seat," he told AFP.
Thailand has a long history of vote-buying, but laws banning it have recently been toughened.
Anyone found guilty of buying votes could face up to 10 years in prison while voters who accept money face up to five years in jail.
Charungwit Phumma, an investigator with the Election Commission, said he had received no formal complaints about a Viagra-for-votes scheme.
"It's a funny claim," he said.
Charungwit said the most common complaints filed with his office were voters being paid to join a political party or being promised cash for going to the ballot box.
Sens. Barack Obama & D*ick Durbin Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Gov. Rod Blogojevich House leader Mike Madigan Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike) Mayor Richard M. Daley (son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley).....
Chicago is a combat zone. Of course they're all blaming each other.
Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any!
(Look them up if you want).
State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country.
Cook Co unty ( Chicago ) sales tax 10.25% highest in country.
Chicago school system, one of the worst in country.
This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois .
It really adds nothing when you insult other posters like this. Why can't you accept an opinion, when everyone here who knows politics, is very aware of things that have happened over the past few months? Just because someone doesn't feel like typing out what has been discussed and debated here for the last few months does not make them less intellectual than you.
I rather admire them for refusing to be baited by your antagonistic style of posting.
"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement. If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."
He has already attracted a rebuke from Sarah Palin.
"Talking with complete sentences there and also, too, talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing, also."
1. Individual income tax 45% of tax revenues.Included in individual income tax category are capital gains taxes, which make up between 4% and 7% of individual income tax revenues and between 2% and 3% of total tax revenues within this category.
2. Payroll taxes 35% of tax revenues.Social insurance (Social Security). Funds used to pay for Federal old age, survivors, disability insurance, unemployment insurance, temporary assistance to needed families, Medicare/Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).Employee's share of this is 17.5%.
3. Corporate Income Tax 15% of total tax revenues.
4. Excise Tax 3% of total tax revenues. Essentially a consumer tax on alcohol, cigarettes and gas.
5. "Other" 2%
So, individuals' share of total tax revenues amounts to approximately 65.5%, employers 17.5% and corporations 15% plus the mysterious "other" of 2%. If you go to the above link and scroll down about halfway, you will find a nifty little chart that shows how much the share corporations paid into total tax revenues has diminshed since 1950. For example, an early 50s spike on the graph show corporations' share to be approximately 30+%...TWICE AS MUCH AS IT IS NOW.
"…tax compliance costs employers with less than 20 employees a total of $1304 per employee as compared to employers with 500 or more employees which incur $780 per employee to comply with Federal taxes.Small entities pay 40% more for tax compliance than employers with 500 or more employees.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – How Robust was 2001-2007 Economic Expansion? Figures 1 and 2 will indicate the following information: Based on the 7 economic indicators, Bush years turned in below average growth percentages in every single indicator except for one….CORPORATE PROFITS. The biggest losers….employment (JOBS) and wages and salaries (PAYCHECKS). To make this dry economic data a little bit spicier, 2 comparisons have been shown…Bush years against Post WWII averages and Bush years as compared to the 90s decade. I have run averages on the trough and peak growth comparison data depicted in Figure 2 to come up with the following overall percentages. Pay special attention to the last 3 items.
1. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) down 31% from Post WWII average and down 12.85% from the 90s
2. Consumption down 23.45% from Post WWII average and down 6.25% from the 90s
3. Non-residential fixed investment down 40% from Post WWII average and down 58% from the 90s
4. Net worth down 16.25% from Post WWII average and down 20.1% from the 90s
5. Wages and salaries (PAYCHECKS) down a whopping 55.6% from Post WWII average and down an impressive 40.55% from the 90s
6. Employment (JOBS) down an amazing 68.65% from Post WWII average and down an impressive 46.65% from the 90s
7. Corporate profits up 200% above post WWII average and up 126% from the 90s.
From where I sit, there is clearly something wrong with this picture. I will be voting for the candidate who shares this view and plans to restore a more balanced, equitable and FAIR distribution of wealth. This is not about shifting bucks from one person to another. This is about corporations whose butts are being bailed out right and left by us Joe Shmoes shouldering more fiscal responsibility toward their shareholders AND toward John Q. Public.
By Phil Kerpen
Director of Policy, Americans for Prosperity
The composition of the tax hikes in the 2010 budget is frighteningly similar to the Revenue Act of 1932, the much-maligned Hoover tax hikes that put the “Great” in Great Depression by putting an enormous tax burden on millions of Americans, largely through excise taxes. These taxes, raised even further by FDR, were justified by the promise that the funds would be returned in the form of relief programs, which is to say that some portion of the tax revenue, after administrative costs in Washington, would go back to the states with strings attached, often to further political rather than economic objectives.
As the table below shows, the Obama budget blueprint, like the 1932 act, is split mainly between broad excise taxes and income tax hikes on high income earners. Unfortunately, there were no 10-years projections back then, so I had to use one year numbers, but it’s still an interesting comparison.
The 2010 budget assumes, probably correctly, that the only way to generate a big revenue increase in the face of severe economic weakness is to use a tax mechanism–the excise tax–that is collected in relatively small increments across millions of transactions made by Americans of all income levels. That is a direct lesson of 1932, when the income tax on the rich–then the only people who paid income taxes–was raised to capture as much revenue as possible before high-income earners fled the country or stopped working. Then, as now, that amount was about 0.3 percent of GDP.
Excise taxes did most of the revenue work in the 1932 act, including excises on everything from trucks, tires, jewelry, chewing gum, and soft drinks to gasoline and electricity. Those last two are especially interesting in light of the carbon cap-and-trade proposal in the 2010 budget, which is a DE facto excise tax on those items as well as every other energy technology that relies on the most affordable energy sources: natural gas, oil, and coal.
Despite President Obama’s promise that “If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime,” his new budget raises 45 percent of its revenue from energy taxes that will be paid by everyone who fills a gas tank, pays an electric bill, or buys anything that was grown, shipped, or manufactured.
While the overall tax hike is smaller than 1932 (0.9 percent of GDP versus 1.6 percent of GDP) and the excise/energy component is only half the size (0.4 percent of GDP versus 0.8 percent of GDP) there is every reason to believe that the bite of the cap-and-trade tax will increase considerably beyond the initial projections, making this plan even more resemble 1932.
The cap-and-trade provisions are designed to get much, much more expensive over time, making the total impact hard to quantify but likely to be as or more expensive than the 1932 Revenue Act. In fact, Obama’s version of cap-and-trade is much more expensive than last year’s already outrageous Lieberman-Warner bill, mandating emissions cuts of 83 percent versus 63 percent in last year’s version.
I didn’t include the death tax in the chart, because there was no revenue estimate for it in 1932, but that’s another eerie parallel. In 1932 the rate was hiked from 20 percent to 45 percent, and in 2010, under Obama’s proposal (which is hidden in a footnote in the budget) it will go from zero under current law to that same 45 percent rate.
If we continue down a path of repeating the policies of the 1930s we risk a repeat of the same results. Let’s hope Congress has the good sense to say no to these Hoover-style tax hikes.
Phil Kerpen is director of policy for Americans for Prosperity. Okay...I will accept that....
but Cindy McCain did not deal. The laws that McCain wanted tighted up was on dealers...any dealers. As part of that he also called for more government funding of rehabilitation programs for all users (which would affect the lower income people, obviously higher income people can avoid their own rehab). I have no problem with tougher laws on dealers...be they poor, rich, white, black, or polka-dotted. Cindy McCain did not deal...she was a user, addicted to prescription meds. Like a bunch of other Americans...you read about it most every day, especially celebrities. Patrick Kennedy was hooked on prescription drugs. Just like Cindy McCain. Has his father at some point voted for tougher drug laws? I don't know, but I doubt he is opposed to it at the dealer level.
That is why I don't understand all the hooplah about McCain going after people for doing the same thing his wife did. I can't find any documentation that says he did.
If you want to accept............ sm
a blog over a news source, that is your choice.
Finding those Bachmann, US-style weath distribution and prayer request for O's GM
Hate-generating slurs don't blink an eye, even with Obama's last living elder relative on her death bed. Such class. And this would capture votes how?
accept the aid, Bush
Frankly, Im ashamed of America. We can send as many troops and spend as much money as Bush wants for war, war, war but when it comes to people who through no fault of their own are homeless, displaced, starving, hot, sweaty, thirsty, just about at ropes end..nope, cant help them..or hang on, we will get around to ya, sometime. Any compassionate person would accept aid from other countries, including leftist countries, who we take oil from. Bush, instead of flying over, should be down there walking around..9/11, he is flying in a plane, the people are the targets on the ground and the heros on the ground, Katrina, he is flying in a plane, the people are the targets on the ground and the heros on the ground. When it gets down to it, if the money to shore up the levees was not cut and used for war and Haliburton, the money would have went to New Orleans so they could insure their citizens safety and the continuation of their beautiful town.
accept the help, Bush
I agree, Democrat. My mother is not a rich woman, she gets by with my father's retirement and whatever from his Army service in WWII, however, each year I know she struggles to heat her home (I have told her it is too big..five bedrooms, but it has been our family home for over 40 years, my father died in the home and she does not want to let it go). She pays a few hundred dollars a month on oil. To me that is unbelieveable because fortunately in CA, we have used natural gas but that too is going up, however, nothing like oil in the northeast. Whatever help other countries can send America, America needs to accept. The help Bush declines isnt gonna hurt him, its gonna hurt the citizens of America.
Well, TT...please accept my apology...
I spoke out of turn. While I do have personal knowledge of Mexican immigrants who became citizens, I don't know anyone in the DAR personally. I should not have made that comment. Not like me, but as I stated, trotter pushes my buttons. At any rate...shame on me.
And as to being a daughter of the confedracy, I have no problems there either. I have a friend who is a descendant of Robert E. Lee. He was a fascinating man. His decision to secede took a horrible toll on him. He wanted to preserve the Union as much as Lincoln did. Both great men with great vision.
So, TT, accept my apology for the "tea" comment. Fell prey to stereotypical comment, was wrong of me to do. I would love to learn more about the DAR, so I am going to practice what I preach, and start reading.
for her own actions -- the dems MAKE her do it. Yeah, she's an independent. You can put your shoes in the oven but that don;t make 'em biscuits
He has but the loons cannot accept the
Poor loons. They are riding for a fall.
I did....you refuse to accept it.
Go tweak someone else for a while.
Which figure would you have us accept?
the 38% (average) disapproval, the 60% somewhat approval or the 34% strong approval ratings, all with that wide, wide +/- 14% margin of error? Don't see a whole lot of difference there. Like I said, 76% overall approval (CNN)...not too shabby after the week from he!!.
Excuse me. If we are to accept 20 months as
by population and the 6 years as the mayor of a hamlet in Alaska with population of 5000 (at the time of her administration), then surely we should not be expected to overlook the 7 years he served in the state senate in Illinois in the 5th largest state in the union by population, some 13,000,000 people. More importantly, check out SP's 8 stated positions on political issues and how well they stack up with the 139 positions O has on the same issues as posted here: http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm
What I am looking for is somebody who was paying attention while they were building their resumes.
He had the right to accept his Kenyan citizenship... sm
at age 21 and since he didn't, it expired. Hence his only citizenship is his American citizenship.
I do accept her as a nice person and...sm
I am never rude to her or mean or anything. It is just I see the financial ruin our country is in and I think there are no telling how many illegal immigrants the government is paying for to have children and other benefits. Our government cannot afford this and it isn't right for them to cheat our country out of money when they are illegally here. And there are people who are legal American citizens who can't get this help from the government but someone who is breaking the law can. It just doesn't seem right. And who can blame her for not wanting to live here rather than in Mexico? BUT why not go through the appropriate means to do this? Legally? Become a US citizen and pay taxes like other US citizens do. If you want the benefits of living in America you should pay for it like everyone else, i.e. taxes.
You are wrong. I did accept Obama as
president, but now I am questioning this Emanual, a terrorist son and so on. What I have read about him is scary. Why couldn't he pick Col. Powell, like I thought he would? or at least someone with class with no ties to terrorists. Now Obama and Emanual and Lord knows who else? I am deeply concerned about the USA. He is going to change this country alright. I hope it is for the good, but so far as today with his selection, I am not seeing it.
You expect us to accept this bluster?
This election has been as clean as clean can get, especially when compared to 2000 and 2004. As you can see by the overall 2008 results, democrats don't have to throw elections to assume power.
Accept my sincerest apology for s/m
""lumping"" you in. I totally agree with you about both sides being guilty of the outrageous spending. The pork has always been there -- this is a very old concept. I infuriates me to hear the conservatives putting all the blame on the other side, when this has always been a nonpartisan issue. I just think it is ridiculous to jump to conclusions before anything is given a reasonable amount of time to see if it works or not and, I, for one, am willing to be a little more patient before I start going off the deep end.
I'm quite prepared to accept your assessment that
After all, who would know better?
The question is, how long are you going to drive around on that flat tire?
ATLANTA (PRNewswire) -- A prominent U.S. medical group voiced deep concern over delays in health care and epidemic prevention reaching Katrina victims, and urged U.S. authorities to accept Cuba's offer of 1586 disaster-trained physicians to prevent a second wave of sickness and death.
Latest reports indicate the U.S. State Department is backing away from the offer, implying they are not needed.
Up to this point, there been a clear need for more medical help for Katrina victims, said Peter Bourne, MD, Chairman of MEDICC and former special adviser on health in the Carter White House and former Assistant Secretary General at the United Nations. The Cuban physicians are accustomed to working in difficult third-world conditions without the resources and supplies most of us are accustomed to. Since they are just an hour away, it is a shame that they have not been allowed to join our committed medical corps already.
He is joined by other physicians, medical educators, international health experts and a former U.S. surgeon general associated with MEDICC, Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba. From 1998 through 2004, MEDICC has provided medical electives in Cuba for nearly 1000 students and faculty from 118 U.S. medical, public health and nursing schools.
Cuba has been recognized by the UN, Oxfam and other international organizations as a leader in disaster response, expertise that could be saving lives now, said Doctor William Keck, former long-time director of the Akron, Ohio Department of Public Health.
A 2004 Oxfam Report, Weathering the Storm: Lessons in Risk Reduction from Cuba, states that there are real lessons to be learned from Cuba on how to safeguard lives during extreme natural disasters, including getting medical attention to vulnerable populations. The report can be found at http://www.oxfamamerica.org/cuba.
On Tuesday, August 30, Cuba first offered U.S. authorities hurricane relief in the form of 1100 disaster-trained bilingual physicians, each equipped with 52-pound pound backpacks of medical supplies, including rehydration therapy, insulin, anti-hypertensives, and medications for systemic and topical infections.
On Saturday, September 3, Cuba increased the offer to 1586 doctors, ready for immediate deployment and prepared to stay as long as necessary to help wherever needed. A Cuban spokesperson said that as of today there has been no official response from the U.S. government.
Cuban disaster relief experience spans 45 years, mainly in hurricanes faced by the Caribbean island and in coping with disasters confronted by other developing countries. Another nearly 25,000 Cuban health professionals provide longer-term health care services in 68 countries, under government-to-government agreements.
Cuba trains 10,500 medical students from 27 countries at its Latin American Medical School -- 65 of them from poor and minority communities in the USA. (See The New England Journal of Medicine, 2004; 351:2680-82.)
What an irony that the first U.S. MD to graduate from the school this August is a young African American from New Orleans, said Diane Appelbaum, RN, NP, MS. He just passed the U.S. medical boards and is eager to fulfill the commitment he made in exchange for his free education from Cuba to serve the very poverty-stricken areas now devastated.
For additional first-hand reports and interviews from Cuba, please see MEDICC's on-line journal, MEDICC Review at http://www.medicc.org, Archives, Vol VI, No. 3, 2004 Disaster Management in Cuba: Reducing the Risk.
MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba) is a non-profit organization based in Atlanta. MEDICC is committed to maintaining institutional and educational links between the U.S. and Cuban medical communities. MEDICC publishes the English-language journal MEDICC Review, reporting on Cuba's medical and public health programs, available at
marks the location of current message within thread
