Monday, May 2, 2011
Obama is a leech . . .
. . . and the IRS can go audit itself.
Oh the delights we enjoy from PJ O'Rourke, here, who proposes a 35 percent tax on the federal budget, which will eliminate its current deficit. Problem solved!
Have another beer!
Income Taxes are for Chumps, Capital Gains Taxes are for the Rich
[Bruce] Bartlett, a former member of the Reagan White House, isn’t against the wealthy paying higher taxes. He’s that rare conservative who thinks higher taxes need to be part of the deficit debate. His beef? It’s a hollow gesture to say the federal government should raise the tax rate on the country’s top wage earners when the likes of Zuckerberg have most of their wealth tied up in stock. Many of the super-rich see virtually all their income as capital gains, and capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate—15 percent—than ordinary income.
More here!
"The most significant achievement to date in effort to defeat al Qaeda"
From the president's remarks about Osama:
I can report
I directed
I was briefed
I met repeatedly with my national security team
I determined
Today, at my direction
I've made clear
I've repeatedly made clear
Tonight I called
my team has also spoken
These efforts weigh on me every time I as commander in chief
Let me say.
How Convenient
Kill "Osama" on May Day, and bury him quickly out of respect for Islamic law, at sea because no one would take the body. Like Pakistan hadn't already had it for years, albeit alive.
Next will be the announcement that since we've achieved our objectives, we're pulling out of Afghanistan.
Re-election can't be far behind.
Oh the money he'll now be able to spend.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Government Revenues in 2008 were $2.5 Trillion
Government revenues in 2008 came from the following taxes:
Individual income taxes -- $1.14 trillion; (IRS data is slightly different at $1.03 trillion)
Social insurance taxes -- $0.9 trillion; (earnings beyond $107,000 or so are not fully taxed for this)
Corporate income taxes -- $0.3 trillion; (think GE!)
Other -- $0.1 trillion; (think?)
Sales and excise taxes -- $0.06 trillion; (think gasoline)
Total -- $2.5 trillion. Not enough by a long shot, under Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
So whattayawannado? Raise taxes to pay for the new spending under these bums, or get rid of the bums?
So whattayawannado? Raise taxes to pay for the new spending under these bums, or get rid of the bums?
(source)
Doh! We Tax the Rich Because That's Where The Money Is, Knucklehead.
Per Census.gov here, these are the income limits by each quintile of 23,507.6 households in 2009:
Lowest: up to $20,453
Second: up to $38,550
Third: up to $61,801
Fourth:up to $100,000
Fifth: $100,000+.
That means 80 percent of the country, about 94,030 households, makes $100,000 per year or less.
We know from IRS data that earners reporting adjusted gross incomes of approximately $67,000 or less in 2008, totaling $2.8 trillion in AGI, represented 105 million tax returns out of 140 million total. They are the bottom 75 percent of tax returns in the country, a rough proxy for the first 4 of the 5 income quintiles.
Using back of the envelope estimates, perhaps another 7 million more tax returns represent the rest of the territory up to $100,000, and AGI of another $0.6 trillion, meaning that the first 4/5 of the country contributes AGI of about $3.4 trillion.
Roughly 28 million tax returns would then round out the top quintile, with AGI of approximately $5 trillion. It is certain that 14.4 million of these returns account for $3.9 trillion of AGI, the top 10 percent of earners.
Thus one can estimate that tax returns from the top quintile have something like 6 times the AGI per return compared with the returns of all the quintiles below them taken together.
About 80 percent of the earners have 40 percent of the income, while the top 20 percent of the earners have 60 percent of the income.
That's where the money is.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Politico Reports Boston Globe Reporter Had Obama INS Files Since 2009
So The Boston Globe spiked the story?
Politico doesn't say. So inquisitive are they.
So inquisitive, in fact, that they don't notice that the details in the release contradict Obama's often repeated story about his earliest childhood.
Others have noticed.
Politico's story is simply participating in the administrations's diversion strategy, focusing on the fact that Obama Sr. was prodded out of the country by Harvard.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Gas at Sam's Club Grand Rapids, MI, Now Tops 4 Bucks a Gallon
And I just filled both cars there two days ago at $3.999/gallon:
Patriots Switched to Coffee, Loyalists Stayed with Tea
"The Boston Tea Party is usually mentioned as nothing more than a humorous anecdote but its significance was profound and affected American cultural mores as deeply as the impetus it gave to revolutionary fervor in New England and later throughout the thirteen colonies. Anti-tea literature and boycotts swept the colonies and provided an emotional catharsis which every would-be patriot could share in by switching from tea to coffee."
-- Norman Berdichevsky here
Why Obama Revealed His Certificate of Live Birth This Week
Because he wanted to divert attention from a different, unavoidable, embarrassing revelation.
What revelation is that?
The revelation disclosed here as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request.
Namely, that the narrative Obama has been telling about the first two years of his life is a lie. His mother and father never lived together with Barack Jr. as a family. She went to Washington State. Obama Sr. stayed in Hawaii and left for Harvard before the future president turned one, not when he was two. The marriage itself might be in question.
Everyone is consumed by the release of the Certificate of Live Birth, but not with the truth behind it.
Obama is skillfully playing this out, no doubt on the advice of counsel, to divert, dissemble and distract.
See the discussion here.
Over a Million Apply for 50 Thousand Burger Flipping Jobs
Some recovery.
I'm sure the president is going to think long and hard about the hapless 950,000 or so, between sips at the Wednesday night parties, and between shots on the fairway on the next weekend golf outing.
It's hard work being president. Just ask George Bush.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Radiation Conditions
As of 0900 on April 29, Japan time:
438 microSv/h at the south side of the office building;
49 microSv/h at the Main gate;
19 microSv/h at the West gate.
More here.
Concrete Pump with 58 Meter Boom Replenishes Water at Fukushima Unit 4 Pool
Presumably one like this:
Another news report here said a 70 meter version was being dispatched.
The Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 used fuel pool has needed nearly 1300 cubic meters of water over 13 days from April 13-25, according to this update. That number is consistent with, but about 200 cubic meters lower than, the predicted boil-off rate for the period in question:
Unit 4 pond contains a total 1331 used assemblies (783 plus full fuel load of 548), giving it a heat load of about 3 MW thermal, according to France's IRSN, which in that case could lead to 115 cubic metres of water boiling off per day, or about one tenth of its volume. ...
The pond at unit 4 is the main focus of concern now. It needs continual top-up with water, but at the same time there is concern about the structural strength of the building, which has been weakened either by the earthquake or the hydrogen explosion. Some 195 m3 was added to the pond on 13 April, about 20% of its capacity, and another 140 m3 on 15 and also on 17 April, by concrete pump. Another 100 m3 went in on 20 April, then 200 m3 on 22nd, 140 m3 on 23rd, 165 m3 on 24th and 210 m3 on 25th. Temperature has been up to 90°C and water level 5 metres down. It is not clear whether the main water loss is from leakage or boiling. However, Tepco reports that analysis of radionuclides in water from the used fuel pool of unit 4 suggests that some of the fuel assemblies there may have been damaged, but the majority are intact.
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