A Taxing Day
Author: BobR
Date: 04/16/2010 11:11:31
Yesterday was Tax Day, when traditionally there's a pandemonium at the Post Office, as people across the country rush to get their returns postmarked in time. Nowadays, eFiling online has become popular so the post office rush is becoming an anachronism. This year has seen a new sort of craziness on Tax Day: Tea Party protests. A mixed bag of angry people gathered at various points across the country to register their displeasure of taxation with representation, apparently preferring representation without having to pay for it.
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They started protesting a year ago today. They protested taxes. Since then they have protested nearly everything else this administration has done. What they seem to have forgotten in all the protestations and the yelling and screaming and even in a few cases -- threat of physical violence, is that this year many are paying lower taxes even with tax increases passed by many states to balance their budgets. In response to said tax cuts, Grover Norquist repilies "I thought that we were going to have to wait until the tax increases started to see popular unhappiness," Norquist said at a Capitol Hill forum Wednesday. "Last year, people started reacting, the tea parties started organizing, in reaction to spending too much. They didn't wait for the tax increases to come." Are you having a WTF moment here as well?
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No Hope for Change
Author: BobR
Date: 04/14/2010 11:49:14
Six months ago, things looked pretty bleak for the Democrats. Town Hall meetings were exploding with astroturf protesters. Obama's "waterloo" seemed assured. The Tea Party movement (brought to you by FOX News, after these messages) was making a name for themselves (and the name was "teabaggers"). It was all going downhill. And then - Teddy Kennedy died and his seat was filled in a special election by - a Republican. Somehow, though, Democrats still managed to get the dreaded health care bill through, passed and signed. As Obama declared after signing the bill, the sky didn't fall. Still - pundits everywhere were (and still are) declaring that Democrats will lose big in the November mid-term elections.
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We interrupt today's scheduled "Ask a Vet" for a special bulletin. Perhaps you have heard of Corporal Matthew Snyder. Just in case you are not aware, here's a snippet from his website: 
Matthew Snyder, of Finksburg, Maryland, died from a non combat-related vehicle accident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Combat Service Support Group-1, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, California. Died on March 3, 2006. Matthew was 20 years old.
Matthew graduated from Westminster High School in 2003. After graduation, he enlisted in the Marines on October 14, 2003, and was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. In August of 2004, Matthew was assigned to Combat Logistics Batallion-7, Twentynine Palms, Calif. as a generator mechanic.
Mr. Snyder was just another one of the 4,390 Americans that have been killed in Iraq. He'd be just another statistic, except for one thing. The Westboro Baptist Church.
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A crappy tale.
Author: Raine
Date: 04/12/2010 13:30:14
This weekend, we had the lovely pleasure of attending the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. It was wonderful seeing Mala, laughing and enjoying the marching bands, the balloons and the floats. At one point, I needed to use the 'facilities' and took a walk over to a line of portapotties. I saw 2 lines for a row of about 40 or so- and found out quickly that for some reason, only 2 were unlocked. Yes, I was irritated at this unfortunate turn of events but in line I went. As luck would have it, a few minutes later more people arrived. They immediately started complaining. It didn't take long for one man to proclaim (in disgust) "These are my tax dollars at work, what a joke". The anger from this vocal group increased as we waiting in line, as did the decibels. One man kept calling a number expecting to get someone to come down and unlock the doors. The woman suggested calling 911. Once again 'it's our tax dollars, after all'. Continue reading...
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Decisions,Decisions.
Author: velveeta jones
Date: 04/11/2010 14:24:20
There comes a point in ones life where you must decide your political affiliation and stick with it until you move out of your parents home and have no more need to aggravate them, at which time you can switch your party to the same as theirs. Obviously, to annoy your parents you will pick the opposite party that they affiliate with. Of course, this can get difficult when your parents are divorced, of different parties, and you live on/off with each. It may involve an entirely diverse selection of clothes, books, habits and even a different grade point average for each parent. At all costs, one should avoid this situation. But which party is right for you?
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Godwin's Law
Author: TriSec
Date: 04/10/2010 11:46:35
Good Morning.  WWII geeks will recognize this fine-looking fellow. His name was Ernst Rohm, and he led the paramilitary SA Brownshirts back in the late 20s and early 30s during Hitler's rise to power.  Of course, we all recognize this fine-looking lady. She's the de facto leader of the Tea Party movement, during what we all hope is *not* their rise to power during the teens of this century. Raine recently blogged about race hatred and the chilling effect it's having on the national debate. I wish I could calm that down some, but I fear that today's blog will only add more fuel to that simmering boil. The pictures I selected above are not an accident...while I loathe what the Tea Party represents, and even more so their mis-appropriation of something that's near and dear to Bostonians...it's their ongoing behavior that I find truly troublesome and indeed, dangerous.
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News and Commentary
Author: BobR
Date: 04/09/2010 12:31:21
FOX News - you either love it or hate it. People on the left decry their obvious bias and loose journalistic standards. Those on the right like being told the things they want to hear, all the while believing that what they're watching is "fair and balanced". FOX's biggest problem is that they blur the line between news and commentary. Keith Olbermann at MSNBC is unapologetically to the left, but when he makes his "special comments", it's clearly labeled as "Commentary". Apparently, though, the folks at FOX don't really care. Their current bad boy Glenn Beck showed a moment of honesty when he proclaimed that FOX News is an entertainment company: Continue reading...
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I just am so very very sick of all of it. I'm sick of racism, the xenophobia, the bigotry, the misogyny. Sick of writing about it, sick of reading about it and sick of it happening. I cannot even begin to tell you how much it hurts my heart and soul. Time and time again I have to return to this subject, because if I don't, then the hate will build up within me that mirrors the hate they sow. I refuse to let that happen to me. I refuse to let hate win. I was personally called overly-sensitive when I objected to someone for calling the President a n*gger. I was told the justification for using that word was because it's the same as calling me white. The anger in my heart started to boil. I can no longer tolerate the hate, and the roots from where it comes. It makes me hurt inside. It makes me sad. It really wounds my soul. So here I am trying to heal it by writing about it again. Continue reading...
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It is a basic tenet of Republican and Libertarian philosophy that the best way to treat business is with a hands-off approach. The market will reward the good companies and the bad ones will go out of business, they say. Government regulation and interference does more harm than good they say. And yet - we've seen the economy nearly crash this country due to practices by banks and investment firms, actions that were once illegal. Business will always take care of business first, swallow the competition, and create monopolies that are "too big to fail". They'll also skirt the law and even break it in search of a little more profit. People first?... hardly.
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