Georgia's 10th Congressional District Special Election Update

As I predicted, Jim Whitehead is not making public appearances in the 10th District. He's snubbing Athens intentionally because he hates the 'liberals' who live there.

Sounds like he would make a great representative in Congress. If he doesn't win the election, maybe he can get a job cleaning the restrooms.

Rude and crude remarks aside, Whitehead has an incurable form of foot in mouth disease.

The Atlanta Press Club organized a free public forum in Athens. The Athens event would give wide exposure to all the candidates in the race. According to this story in the Athens Banner-Herald, Whitehead's schedule was the deciding factor in setting up the event. Event planners called his campaign, worked out the details with the campaign, and set the date and time based on Jim's personal whims.

Now Jim Whitehead is running away from the event like a whipped puppy.

I say the man is chicken. A true Yellow-bellied coward. And a liar.

He agreed to the forum upfront with no intention of attending.

Whitehead is the GOP machines candidate in the special election for the 10th. If he wins the 10th, the 10th loses.

It's been eight months since the 10th District had a truly active voice and representation on the floor of the U.S. House. Sonny Perdue delayed the special election to give Whitehead the best possible chance of winning. Whitehead might have used his state office and perks to run his campaign in the 10th while attending the Georgia Legislature.

Now, he can't speak in public and answer a few questions in the company of all the other candidates.

If Jim 'Yellow-bellied' Whitehead can't be trusted to keep his word, why did the GOP even put his name on the voting ballot?

Why would anyone vote for such a coward and a liar?

Jim "Yellow-bellied" Whitehead for Congressional toilet seat cleaner!

The FairTax and common sense

No discussion should be without facts, so before discussing the FairTax, let's get some facts from the Internal Revenue Service Tax Stats available online at www.irs.gov.

Total personal income in the United States in 2004, $6.8 trillion dollars.
Total Federal Government budget, $2.8 trillion dollars.
Total of Personal Income Tax collections, $831 billion.
Average Personal Income Tax rate, 12.10%.
Short fall of Income taxes to budget, roughly $2 trillion dollars.

There are real world numbers from the best source. No one invented these numbers to sell a book.

If the FairTax is imposed and every taxpayers spends every dollar of their personal income on new items taxes at the “quoted” rate of 23 percent inclusive, the federal government debt would increase at least $1.6 trillion dollars before the Federal Government pays the prebate. After the prebate, which on page 85 is $6,072 per household times 130 million households, the Federal Debt would increase by $2.3 trillion dollars.

The FairTax, going by real world examples, will not fund the Federal Government and would increase the Federal Debt by $2.3 trillion dollars each year.

The FairTax is a sales tax on new items only. Can you spend more than your income? Sure. And, under the FairTax, you would be taxed for that borrowing. At least 23 percent. And, even with all possible borrowing included, the FairTax will not collect enough revenue to fund the Federal Government.

Assuming every taxpayer increases personal debt by 30 percent, far more than any bank would loan in one year, the FairTax would only collect $2 trillion dollars in revenue at the quoted rate of 23 percent inclusive.

Let’s make it simple, because it is really simple.

The present budget is $2.8 trillion dollars. Add the "prebate" of over $789 billion dollars. The new budget will be over $3.5 trillion dollars. Unless Americans borrow huge amounts of money to buy new things, the real tax rate will have to be 51.4 percent on all sales.

Maybe the Federal Income Tax average rate of 12 percent seems high. But, why beg to be taxed at 51 percent as a tax protest?

The FairTax is not only a fraud, it's the biggest tax lie in North Georgia History.

On Memorial Day, what do the soldiers think?

That's a very tough question and one that has a thousand answers.

This story from the NYT tries to answer exactly that question. I rate the story a failure just like the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Interviewing a dozen soldiers cannot possibly touch enough hearts and minds to sample a single day in Iraq. And, some in that Chosen Dozen will have spent a 1,000 days in Iraq.

Can we assume that after a 1,000 days and nights the moods have changed with the seasons of our lost war?

Did it have a spring time of hope? A summer of frolic? An austere autumn with no harvest? A winter sinking into endless darkness and cold hearts?

So we are right to ask the soldiers, What do you think about Iraq after a 1,000 days? But, we must judge a dozen responses with care.

Iraq offers many lessons in emotional consensus.

The better question is how would you feel after a 1,000 days of combat by the world's most powerful army against a country smaller than Texas?

Do you feel victorious?

Book burning protest

I'm still on the subject of lies, overall.

But, this book burning protest puts a nice amber toned light on the Radical talk show hosts in general.

Radical talk show hosts and other anti-mainstream media activists point to the falling sales of newspapers as proof. Proof of what? Proof that the "American people" have had enough of the 'liberal biased mainstream media.'

Then here comes the book burning. A used book dealer had a warehouse full of books. He tried selling them. He tried giving them away. Libraries wouldn't take them. Schools wouldn't take them. After years of making a living selling used books, the dealer couldn't give books away.

So, he started burning the book in protest.

It seems people aren't reading newspaper, paperbacks, or hardbacks as much any more.

The Internet version of the AJC, The Gainesville Times, and the Washington Post are FREE. The free content of the Internet continues to grow with millions of documents being added everyday.

So there's my proof that the Radical Right remains as out of touch with reality as George W. Bush.

Story from the Gainesville Times and available online!

President Bush warned of Iraq failure in 2003

From the Associated Press

Report: Iraq problems were anticipated

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago

U.S. intelligence analysts predicted, in two papers widely circulated before the 2003 Iraq invasion, that al-Qaida would see that as an opportunity to increase its operations and that Iran would try to shape the post-Saddam era.

The top analysts in government also said that establishing a stable democracy in Iraq would be a long, turbulent challenge.

Democrats said the documents, part of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation released Friday, make clear that the Bush administration was warned about the challenges it now faces as it tries to stabilize Iraq.

"Sadly, the administration's refusal to heed these dire warnings — and worse, to plan for them — has led to tragic consequences for which our nation is paying a terrible price," said Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

But some Republicans rejected the committee's work as flawed. The committee's top Republican, Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, said the report's conclusions selectively highlight the intelligence agencies' findings that seem to be important now, distorting the picture of what was presented to policymakers.

He said the committee's work on the Iraq intelligence "has become too embroiled in politics and partisanship to produce an accurate and meaningful report."

Asked about the report at his Thursday news conference, President Bush stood by his decision to topple the Iraqi regime. He said he firmly believes the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

"Going into Iraq, we were warned about a lot of things, some of which happened, some of which didn't happen. And, obviously, as I made a decision ... I weighed the risks and rewards of any decision," he said.