Yesterday, former President Bush, Jeb Bush's father, said he'd like to see Jeb in the White House.
He'd better hurry. I don't think Obama is going to invite Jeb over once Dumbya leaves for the last time.
Meanwhile, Jeb says he's not running for office until the timing is right. Let's hope Hell doesn't freeze over any time soon.
Story
Jeb meandered around a couple of half truths during his little press conference. He let the press know that his decision didn't have anything to do with his brother's performance or record low approval ratings as President. However, saying "I'm not George Bush" works very well for 6 billion other people on the planet, too. But, it's a start toward getting into office.
Jeb thinks he can help reshape the Republican Party's message even if he's not holding an elected office. "I'm not George Bush" is a good start on reshaping that message, what ever it might be after the crushing defeats of 2006 and 2008.
While the GOP looks for a message to lure voters back to the party of failure, the younger Bush brother says he will continue his personal journey, whatever that means. Maybe it means finding himself. Just remember, Jeb, you're not George Bush.
Click your heels and keep saying, "I'm not George Bush. I'm not George Bush. I'm not George Bush."
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
FairTax Attack Dogs have Rabies
Every time I mention the FairTax, which is misnamed, I get slammed by emails from self important "Regional Directors" who are just rabid dogs chewing on invisible bones.
"Charlie," one of the FairTax dogs amused me so I'm going to share.
His invisible bone is the tired old refrain about "corporations" pay no taxes. Corporations pass tax expenses back to people with higher prices. He wanted me to know this great "truth" since I reported that most corporations paid no federal income taxes. The study on corporate taxes was released this year by the GAO.
If we go by the GAO, corporations aren't paying taxes. If they aren't paying taxes, then they aren't sliding tax expenses along to people. Sort of makes that invisible bone harder to chew, eh Charlie?
But, let's ridicule the idea and not the person. Every year, I add up the amount of federal corporate taxes I pay as per Charlie's bone. Then, I just include that in my wages for next year and charge them back. Same bullshit as Charlies spews.
But let's be reasonable.
When a corporation makes no money, who paid the taxes? Of course, a corporation pays no income taxes if it doesn't make any money. Yet, I bet if we check the balance sheets, expenses aren't less with no federal income tax to pay. Changing the way corporations pay taxes, which is what Charlie wants under the FairTax, wouldn't make that corporation solvent. It wouldn't make that corporation able to 'defeat' foreign competition. Competition doesn't reward bad management. Ask the CEO of GM who just apologized in front of Congress for decades of crappy management. Taxation didn't ruin our domestic car industry.
What about a corporation that goes bankrupt? Who was paying the taxes? If you remember Enron and it's sudden bankruptcy, after the management team robbed the employees, vendors, and stockholders, whatever was left of the corporation asked the IRS to return hundreds of millions in "overpaid" taxes. If you remember, the management cooked the books to show a profit that didn't exist. The corporation paid the taxes on the cooked up income. So who paid the taxes? There wasn't a sale to a person or another company. Who paid the taxes? The employees, vendors, and stockholders paid those taxes.
The really troubling thing about these invisible bones, the dogs keep chewing them. Never try to take a bone from a rabid dog. Not even an invisible bone. Unless you want your email box full of spit.
"Charlie," one of the FairTax dogs amused me so I'm going to share.
His invisible bone is the tired old refrain about "corporations" pay no taxes. Corporations pass tax expenses back to people with higher prices. He wanted me to know this great "truth" since I reported that most corporations paid no federal income taxes. The study on corporate taxes was released this year by the GAO.
If we go by the GAO, corporations aren't paying taxes. If they aren't paying taxes, then they aren't sliding tax expenses along to people. Sort of makes that invisible bone harder to chew, eh Charlie?
But, let's ridicule the idea and not the person. Every year, I add up the amount of federal corporate taxes I pay as per Charlie's bone. Then, I just include that in my wages for next year and charge them back. Same bullshit as Charlies spews.
But let's be reasonable.
When a corporation makes no money, who paid the taxes? Of course, a corporation pays no income taxes if it doesn't make any money. Yet, I bet if we check the balance sheets, expenses aren't less with no federal income tax to pay. Changing the way corporations pay taxes, which is what Charlie wants under the FairTax, wouldn't make that corporation solvent. It wouldn't make that corporation able to 'defeat' foreign competition. Competition doesn't reward bad management. Ask the CEO of GM who just apologized in front of Congress for decades of crappy management. Taxation didn't ruin our domestic car industry.
What about a corporation that goes bankrupt? Who was paying the taxes? If you remember Enron and it's sudden bankruptcy, after the management team robbed the employees, vendors, and stockholders, whatever was left of the corporation asked the IRS to return hundreds of millions in "overpaid" taxes. If you remember, the management cooked the books to show a profit that didn't exist. The corporation paid the taxes on the cooked up income. So who paid the taxes? There wasn't a sale to a person or another company. Who paid the taxes? The employees, vendors, and stockholders paid those taxes.
The really troubling thing about these invisible bones, the dogs keep chewing them. Never try to take a bone from a rabid dog. Not even an invisible bone. Unless you want your email box full of spit.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Nuclear reactors' water use draws concern (Georgia Times Union)
Georgia Power, through a couple of subsidiaries, owns two nuclear power plants on the Chattahoochee River. To cool the nuclear reactors, the plants draw water from the river through two pipes, each with an 18 ft. inside diameter.
One third of the water is lost to evaporation.
BUT, that's not all the water use for the plants.
The plants must return the water to the river without super heating the river. To protect the river, the plants must either use electricity to cool the water before discharge, discharge the water very slowly, or only discharge the water during maximum river height. Maximum river height can be controlled by the discharge of water from impoundments along the river.
When I say 'river height,' the Chattahooche isn't very deep except during peak water discharge from an artificial impoundment, like Lake Lanier. When water is flowing from Lake Lanier into the Chattahoocher, not only is the depth increased but the discharge greatly increases the speed of the water flow.
With that increased water flow, the nuclear power plants can release their heated cooling waters back into the river with less worry about 'super heating' the river.
The river and the lakes can be a wonderful resource for all citizens. But, if a choice is being made to give free favors to Georgia Power by taking from property owners and local economies, we are making a bad choice.
Mike
One third of the water is lost to evaporation.
BUT, that's not all the water use for the plants.
The plants must return the water to the river without super heating the river. To protect the river, the plants must either use electricity to cool the water before discharge, discharge the water very slowly, or only discharge the water during maximum river height. Maximum river height can be controlled by the discharge of water from impoundments along the river.
When I say 'river height,' the Chattahooche isn't very deep except during peak water discharge from an artificial impoundment, like Lake Lanier. When water is flowing from Lake Lanier into the Chattahoocher, not only is the depth increased but the discharge greatly increases the speed of the water flow.
With that increased water flow, the nuclear power plants can release their heated cooling waters back into the river with less worry about 'super heating' the river.
The river and the lakes can be a wonderful resource for all citizens. But, if a choice is being made to give free favors to Georgia Power by taking from property owners and local economies, we are making a bad choice.
Mike
- Show quoted text -
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Old News for a New Year
If you're a supporter of the 'alleged' FairTax, you have no need to continue reading.
Readers will remember my personal point of view on the very bogus and misnamed, "FairTax." The "FairTax" is just another political tool of the GOP, an extension of the Southern Strategy started under Nixon. Although Nixon gets most of the credit for moving Southern voters away from the Democratic Party, Reagan worked the Republican method of carrying Southern states and conservative Democratic voters in the latter decades of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st century by exploiting racism among white voters as well as anyone white man in history.
As explained by Kevin Phillips in a 1970 interview:
Let's cover Reagan, first. Reagan's first campaign stop in any Southern State after winning the GOP nomination, was in Mississippi at the Neshoba County Fair. That county fair isn't a small town event that means nothing and never had a place in history. It's the site where 3 Civil Rights workers were murdered in 1964. The 1964 murders were unsolved when Reagan proclaimed his support for "states rights."
Under the concept of "states rights," the federal government would have been barred from investigating the murders. The only murder trial was held in 2005.
In the 1964 uproar over the murders, Lyndon Johnson presured the FBI into investigating the three murders. During its investigation, the FBI also discovered the bodies of at least seven other Mississippi blacks, whose disappearances over the past several years had not attracted attention outside their local communities.
Did Reagan walk into this local community where so much violence had taken place with no intention of honoring the dead?
There are recordings of Reagan's comments. He commented that he had ridden in a surrey or a carriage for real. He wanted everyone to know that Ted Kennedy was concerned about poverty. Especially since Ted had never had any. Reagan commented on some mysterious and unnamed institution that he had read all about in the National Geographic.
Let me quote that passage.
So Reagan wants to throw the FBI and federal agencies out of issues better handled by locals, like Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and his Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Price and Rainey more or less murdered three men in 1964, possibly many more. Reagan ignored those unsolved crimes when making this 'historic' speech before 30,000.
Trent Lott, remember him? Reagan went to the county fair because Trent Lott thought it would be a good idea.
It is a good idea to tell Southern people that the Federal government has no rights in the South. Especially if you want to run the Federal Government. Sort of like saying to voters, "Give me the job of running the federal government and I won't do it! Then, everyone can be put back the way it belongs. Anarchy!"
It's just more believable to accuse Reagan of seeking the racist vote. Perhaps more logical when looking back at the incredible growth of the national debt under Ronald Reagan.
The FairTax is like Reagan's use of the Southern Strategy. "Through the use of language, we'll use some words like fair and state's rights to attract certain groups of voters. These voters already have an agenda like racism.The only problem will be avoiding the agendas .
The FairTax agendas? One agenda under the FairTax is removing all federal taxes from corporations. Corporations aren't paying any federal taxes now. "Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress."
The FairTax has many false premises, among these that domestic corporations are unfairly taxed by the federal government.
The FairTax, like 'state's rights,' is lip service to the dysfunctional. Who would be proud of being the member of a mob?
See link.
Readers will remember my personal point of view on the very bogus and misnamed, "FairTax." The "FairTax" is just another political tool of the GOP, an extension of the Southern Strategy started under Nixon. Although Nixon gets most of the credit for moving Southern voters away from the Democratic Party, Reagan worked the Republican method of carrying Southern states and conservative Democratic voters in the latter decades of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st century by exploiting racism among white voters as well as anyone white man in history.
As explained by Kevin Phillips in a 1970 interview:
From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.Now what does a 1970 quote have to do with Reagan and the FairTax plan?
Let's cover Reagan, first. Reagan's first campaign stop in any Southern State after winning the GOP nomination, was in Mississippi at the Neshoba County Fair. That county fair isn't a small town event that means nothing and never had a place in history. It's the site where 3 Civil Rights workers were murdered in 1964. The 1964 murders were unsolved when Reagan proclaimed his support for "states rights."
Under the concept of "states rights," the federal government would have been barred from investigating the murders. The only murder trial was held in 2005.
In the 1964 uproar over the murders, Lyndon Johnson presured the FBI into investigating the three murders. During its investigation, the FBI also discovered the bodies of at least seven other Mississippi blacks, whose disappearances over the past several years had not attracted attention outside their local communities.
Did Reagan walk into this local community where so much violence had taken place with no intention of honoring the dead?
There are recordings of Reagan's comments. He commented that he had ridden in a surrey or a carriage for real. He wanted everyone to know that Ted Kennedy was concerned about poverty. Especially since Ted had never had any. Reagan commented on some mysterious and unnamed institution that he had read all about in the National Geographic.
Let me quote that passage.
Our young men are told to pre-register in the event that we need a draft. May I suggest something I think we need much more than that, because I don't believe we need a peacetime draft. What we need is to recognize what we're asking of the young people of this country who are in the volunteer military and then provide a pay scale and benefits commensurate.Those who wish to debate the rambling and disfunctional quote can listen to the recorded speech by contacting the Reagan Library. That is, if the Library will let you listen to it. But, I've left nothing out. Reagan went from talking about a peacetime draft to discussing a rewarding but nameless institution. Thank God we can trust the National Geographic!
But you'll never know how rewarding this is, this institution that has existed for so long-and as I said in the beginning, I know there is nothing-I have read all about it in the National Geographic. How did you ever accomplish this without a federal program?
So Reagan wants to throw the FBI and federal agencies out of issues better handled by locals, like Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and his Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Price and Rainey more or less murdered three men in 1964, possibly many more. Reagan ignored those unsolved crimes when making this 'historic' speech before 30,000.
Trent Lott, remember him? Reagan went to the county fair because Trent Lott thought it would be a good idea.
It is a good idea to tell Southern people that the Federal government has no rights in the South. Especially if you want to run the Federal Government. Sort of like saying to voters, "Give me the job of running the federal government and I won't do it! Then, everyone can be put back the way it belongs. Anarchy!"
It's just more believable to accuse Reagan of seeking the racist vote. Perhaps more logical when looking back at the incredible growth of the national debt under Ronald Reagan.
The FairTax is like Reagan's use of the Southern Strategy. "Through the use of language, we'll use some words like fair and state's rights to attract certain groups of voters. These voters already have an agenda like racism.The only problem will be avoiding the agendas .
The FairTax agendas? One agenda under the FairTax is removing all federal taxes from corporations. Corporations aren't paying any federal taxes now. "Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress."
The FairTax has many false premises, among these that domestic corporations are unfairly taxed by the federal government.
The FairTax, like 'state's rights,' is lip service to the dysfunctional. Who would be proud of being the member of a mob?
See link.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
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