Rummy is OUT!
POSTED BY: Eric
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 16:41
VIEWED: 9501
PAGE 4 of 10
Quote:
Signym:
Cartoon: you're a self-hating working-poor person w/ a confused identity. You need higher pay AND benefits. Come to the light....
No, he has a point. Dem "tax the rich" plans seldom, if ever, hit the rich. They tend to be income or industry related taxes, which almost exclusively hit the working people of america.
The luxury tax, for example, hit the industry of ship-building, which responded by moving over seas, because now the rich were buy non-american boats which were not taxed, and local american shipwrights lost their jobs.
I don't think "stick it to the rich" will ever work, because the rich are far more resourceful than us. If they really think they're going to get got, they'll just leave, and take their money with them.
The one rich-tax which I think makes some sense is dividend tax. The downside is that dividend re-investment programs drive stock prices up, and would be trimmed, but those programs could get an exemption, or deferment. But largely dividends are a mechanism for execs to remove money from a company.
Regular capital gains tax is devestating to the market. Sales tax is devestating to commerce and the consumer, income tax is devestating to business and the job market. In general, taxes are bad and should be avoided. The govt. spending money is also bad, because it results in big bureaucratic bungling, which should also be avoided.
Govt. should provide services to the people for cash, and maybe trade bonds and currencies. Other than what it can generate from those, it should try to refrain from spending money.
Sig,
Think of it this way:
95% of non-earmarked income-based taxes at the federal level will go in some way towards defense. Such taxes are a golden cash cow for an endless war machine. Whatever democrats *say* they will do with the money, history has proven that they will use it to launch into serial war, just as Bush has.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:Quote:I hope so too. That way, it'll be at least 20 years b4 Republicans ever take the WH. I hope he vetoes an increase in the minimum wage the very first thing. The next thing I hope he vetoes is reducing the Medicare pharma bill by having the Feds negotiate prices. The thrid thing I hope he vetoes is implementing the 9-11 Comission recommendations.
Thankfully, Bush has a veto, and I hope he plans to use it quite a bit over the next two years.
And it just gets better from there. I really hope Bush "stays the course".
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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.
I hope he vetoes this junk too. My principle fear is that Democrats will try to pretend that this election is some kind of mandate for old school liberal bullshit. Minimum wage??? gimme a break.
This election was a rejection of the fascist regime that Bush and the neo-cons built. If the Democrats have an ounce of integrity they'll heed the call and dismantle Homeland Security and repeal the Patriot Act. But I'm not holding my breath. They're cut from the same cloth...
SergeantX
"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock
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You basically just confirmed what I said, Rumsfield does not answer to the people, so as you say doesn't have to listen to nor care about the people he leads. In Britain the head of the MOD is an elected MP, it's called democracy.
Our founders, you remember, those pesky rebels, specifically wanted to AVOID making us a democracy, favoring a representitive republic. A democracy is nothing less than mob rule, where 51% of the public gets to tell the other 49% what to do. The SecDef, a CIVILIAN, is in charge of the military. Soldiers don't vote. They're SOLIDERS.
Trying to equate Rumsfeld to Saddam is absurd beyond all reason. Nothing more need be said.
There was no evidence that the election was stolen in the past, only shrill, whiney Democrats who can't stand to lose. And since the holocaust has nothing to do w/ this discussion, I'll ignore that remark. I also ignored your idiotic faux logic statement because it didn't merrit any reply. It was silly, and still is. Democrats love to fan the flames of hysteria and cry wolf. It's their lot in life. Listen to them, everything is a CRISIS!! Living here, you get use to these clowns and their absurd claims. All fuss, no facts.
No big surprise you'd side w/ such folk.
People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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Originally posted by chrisisall:Quote:Statistics, not reality, run your world.
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Great economy, 4.4% unemployment, low interest rates, most home ownership in nation's history,... Yeah, the country's really being run into the ground.You toss around charges like 'war criminals' with such reckless disregard, , the term loses all meaning.
Just look around you- oh, I'm sorry; you can't. You're removed from the humanity.
And real criminals that get peeps KILLED are your heroes.
Someday you're gonna need help. Ya gotta oil the springs that pop that little bird outta your head at the top of every hour.
What a whiner. Chrisisall
Just look around at WHAT? You're not offering any rebuttle, just the delusion that things MUST be bad. Why ? Because you hate Bush, so this must be the " worst economy in 50 years ". Stop listening to John Kerry and Howie Dean, and FACE REALITY.
People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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I'm curious as to your take on that. I'm not a neocon, so I'd probably see it differently. Does Perle have a point, is he a turncoat, just saving his own ass, what's your opinion?
Not being a 'neocon' either, I'm left wondering about things my own self. I did read that he wanted a real 'shock and awe ', with a smaller, lighter force ( 40,000 troops) to attack Iraq. I presume that was just the initial attack force, and that more would be needed post war.
People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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Sarge- It's impossible to have political freedom and economic tyranny coexist for more than several decades. Either political freedom leads to economic freedom, or economic tyranny leads to political tyranny. It always amazes me how psuedo-libertarians think that only government can tyrannize. But when one group gains overwhelming economic power you no longer have even the premise of captalism, so stop thinking that the "free market" is going to take care of everything because the "free market" doesn't even exist.
I agree: ending the Patriot Act and going after warrantless wiretapping and other important erosions of our political freedom should be on the Democratic plate. But from sheer political practicality, the Dems have to get results right out of the gate on issues that MOST people respond to. And most of those are, at the moment, economic: Jobs, wages, health care, education. Most people - like Auraptor and Hero - don't mind so much having their phone records looked at. Freedom is an abstract thing to them- neither here nor there.
I think this belongs in another thread, tho.
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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.
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DT- It seems that you have a very poor memory. Clinton, for his many faults, did several things well economically and one of them was maintaining a more progressive tax structure and the other was raising the minimum wage. That led to a near-decade of broad-based prosperity.
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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.
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Originally posted by dreamtrove:
On the whole Rummy front. He's not an enemy of the people. I'm not even sure this bungle was his fault. But he did fail to demand what he needed to fight this war, and when you fail to ask, or fail to get what you ask, you have to delay the plan until you can get that straightened out.
I'd just like to point out, as a soldier, that when the shit hits the fan and you're told to go to war you have to go with what you've got.
In World War II after D-Day there were two main invasion strategies (Patton and Montegomery). Anyone who has studied WWII will have heard about their rivalry for gas to make their push.
You can ask, you can demand, you can beg but once your nation has declared war you go. If you don't get what you asked for, you still go. Because that's the job you've promised to do.
Truth is the soldiers rarely get what they want or need, and since WWII when the soldiers return home they rarely get a warm welcome (The Forgotten War: Korea, Vietnam, ... not to mention all the other smaller conflicts).
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Originally posted by Auraptor:
Soldiers don't vote. They're SOLIDERS.
What are you trying to imply here? Soldiers are lower life forms that don't know how to choose a politician? I may not know the situation in America, but in Canada our soldiers vote the same as everyone else (even when deployed). They, we, are citizens and compatriots just the same as civilians (if not more so as we put our lives on the line for our country and often give it).
And if someday on some little piss-ant moon/My hand is a little too slow, or my aim a little bit off/At least I’ll go down fighting, not lying abed surrounded by quacks - "Sir Warrick" by Geezer
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Quote:Siri, it's always nice to see new and intelligent shiny Browncoats pop up here, welcome!
Originally posted by Siri:
Unemployment is still a major problem in many parts of this county. It's ain't all gravy for the lower middle class and poor.
Don't mind some of the severe snark that flies in here; some of us have been here quite a while, and have longstanding grudges, of a kind. You'll find AURaptor and Hero especially appologetic for the Alliance, er, I mean the Administration. I think it's nice of you to believe that Bush is only doing the best he can; I won't try to persuade you otherwise (I'd like to believe it myself), as long as you see that he's botching the job- we mainly agree.
And thank for the reality check I highlighted above- we need to see that there's still work to be done. Some here would have us believe that our country is right on track, with less to fix now than ever. They've bought into the statistics, and have little contact with real folk that can't afford their own Firefly-class transport.
Again, good to have you aboard!
You'll be here when I wake up Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:Quote:
Cartoon:
What a democrat means when they say "rich" is anyone who works for their paycheck.
LOL. So true.
I have all of my tax records going back to the beginning (of when I started paying them, not when President Taft instituted them).
The least amount of federal taxes I've ever paid were for the years 1987, 1988, 1989 -- the last two years of Reagan's term, and first of the elder Bush's term. Both Republicans.
The least amount of state taxes I've ever paid were for the years 1996, 1997, 1998 -- during the Ridge administration (a Republican). The worst years (with the highest taxes) have been the last 4 -- under Rendell (a Democrat).
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