Entries Tagged 'Politics' ↓

A few days ago I wrote about the proposed increase to the Federal gas tax, Maintain roads? Let?s raise taxes!!. Today, here’s the most absurd tax I have ever heard of from CBS2Chicago.com, Alderman Wants To Tax Bottled Water:

As CBS 2’s Kristyn Hartman reports, Ald. George Cardenas (12th) wants to slap a tax of up to 25 cents on the cost of every bottle to help close a $217 million budget gap.

“People enjoy jogging or driving with a bottle of water. There’s a cost associated with this behavior. You have to pay for it,” said Cardenas, one of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s staunchest City Council supporters.

Luckily this is a local Chicago issue but I believe it is a good example of the tax everything mentality that more and more politicians seem to have. By the way Mr. Cardenas, we do pay for the “behavior” of having a bottle of water and I am also sure that the city of Chicago gets a small cut in the form of sales tax from our “behavior”.

While this seems pretty crazy, we really have no one to blame for politicians finding more and more things to tax except ourselves. When a majority of the population thinks a tobacco tax is justified because they view the product being taxed as “evil or bad” this kind of crap happens. There will always be someone out there who doesn’t like a product for whatever reason and a politician will view that product as a new revenue stream. You’ve been hoodwinked America, you let the cat out of the bag and now there is no turning back.

Stu Bykofsky wrote a piece for The Philly Daily News with the premise that America needs another 9/11 in order to unite the country again, To save America, we need another 9/11:

Remember the community of outrage and national resolve? America had not been so united since the first Day of Infamy – 12/7/41.

We knew who the enemy was then.

We knew who the enemy was shortly after 9/11.

Because we have mislaid 9/11, we have endless sideshow squabbles about whether the surge is working, if we are “safer” now, whether the FBI should listen in on foreign phone calls, whether cops should detain odd-acting “flying imams,” whether those plotting alleged attacks on Fort Dix or Kennedy airport are serious threats or amateur bumblers. We bicker over the trees while the forest is ablaze.

America’s fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater.

What would sew us back together?

Another 9/11 attack.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The Philadelphia subway system. The U.S. is a target-rich environment for al Qaeda.

Is there any doubt they are planning to hit us again?

I really think this is an over simplification on the author’s part. He points out that we “bicker over the trees while the forest is ablaze”. Isn’t that exactly what he is doing here? Viewing the war in a vacuum and coming to the conclusion that this event is “pulling America’s fabric apart like a cheap sweater” is foolish at best.

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I’m all bent out of shape again today by the lack of common sense in our great bureaucracy.  Where is the incentive as a middle class American to not let this country just slip off into irrelevance by doing absolutely nothing?  The last time I checked, the middle class is getting closer to the lower class than the upper class.  So my question today is why do I pay extra taxes for the services I use?  Huh?  Whatever do you mean?  Let me give a short illustration that hopefully even a socialist or a bureaucrat could understand.

Let’s just say for arguments sake that I own a car and my friend, we’ll call him Bob, doesn’t.  I drive to work everyday while Bob takes a public bus.  In order for me to drive my car, it needs a special kind of liquid called “gasoline”.  When I buy gas, not only am I paying a premium to the company whose gas I am using, I also pay about 18 cents to the government for every gallon I purchase.  (Which by the way works out to about a 6% tax on gasoline per gallon)  Bob and I both travel on the same road to work everyday, a road paid for by both of our taxes.  The difference is that Bob didn’t have to pay an extra 6% tax to use the road like I did, instead he pays a small amount that goes towards the cost of public transportation; a system that is not self sustainable and only uses the money collected by passengers to offset its losses with the difference being made up by guess what, our tax dollars.  In a perfect world where Bob and I paid the same amount in taxes, this example would probably be a wash in the long run but what if I pay slightly more in tax than Bob does?  I’m getting screwed.  Plain and simple. 

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In the words of the great Doug Heffernan from the King of Queens, CAIR needs to shutty. There are too many sissies in this country that allow CAIR to push them around and infringe on our 1st amendment rights. Earlier in the week Michelle Malkin blogged about how CAIR was trying to keep Robert Spencer of Jihadwatch.org from speaking to the Young American’s Foundation. The story is here. It is a disturbing trend that Michelle is documenting here on her latest post: Standing up for the critics of jihad. Follow the links to read more about those trying to quiet people who speak up against Islam and terrorism. We need to stand together on this issue, we can not allow extremists to dictate the rules of the game to us by using our own system against us.

Koinonia House has an excellent article up on their site by Chuck Missler titled The Vortex Strategy. The article looks ahead to what may very well happen in this nation over the next few years.

The next major terrorist event could prove to be an even more impacting sequel than ?9/11?-whether it is an Al Qaeda plot of some kind, or an EMP attack which threatens to plunge the U.S. back into the 19^th century. But without indulging in speculations regarding the challenges that Homeland Security presently faces, many experts are also anticipating a possible upheaval to emerge from the current debt debacle of the United States. What would be the consequences to you and your family if America?s economic foundation was ripped out from under you? We individually can?t change the probabilities of such an event, but what is your action plan to protect yourself and your family?

It is the first part in the series, so head on over to read the rest of the article and explore some cool resources K-House has for believers.

Global warming is an absolute joke. Wait, maybe it is real. At least the U.N. believes it is real and is trying its best to get a new agreement rolling that will kick in after the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012. From MSNBC.com, an AP story, Climate deal talks gain global support:

UNITED NATIONS – Nearly 100 countries speaking at the first U.N. General Assembly meeting on climate change signaled strong support for negotiations on a new international deal to tackle global warming.

There was so much interest among worried nations ? many facing drought, floods and searing heat ? that the two-day meeting was extended for an extra day so that more countries could describe their climate-related problems, how they are coping, and the help they need.

Why is it that so many countries are absolutely convinced that they can do something collectively to stop global warming? That is assuming we are actually suffering from global warming. If global warming is such a definite future catastrophe to the planet Earth, why aren’t all countries held accountable and not just the industrialized world? Giving a pass to developing nations because emission restrictions might hurt their economy is a joke. That type of thinking exposes the global warming chicken little’s real motivation, socialism. Hamper industrialized countries so developing ones can catch up economically and end the dominance of western civilization.

The big problem here isn’t that the U.N. will create another treaty to curb a threat that man didn’t create; the problem is that too many of us actually believe the world will end if the issue isn’t addressed. News flash for you non-believers out there, the Earth will still exist at least a thousand years from now. How do I know? From Revelations chapter 20 at the Blue Letter Bible:

Rev 20:1
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

Rev 20:2
And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;

Rev 20:3
and he threw him into the abyss, and shut {it} and sealed {it} over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

Rev 20:4
Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I {saw} the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Hmm, to sum up the above, Christ will reign on Earth for a thousand years before the final judgement. If you continue to read on in this chapter one will find that Satan is released after the thousand years and gathers the nations of the world for one final battle in which the Lord wins again. (Sorry to give away the ending again but I can’t help it, it’s not really a secret.) So to review again for our thick headed new age friends, the Earth can not be destroyed by man and we know the nations of the world still exist a thousand years from now so please take your ignorant idea of man made global warming to the Lord, He will set you straight.

Here’s a funny post that just made me smile today: Take That, Cue Ball over at The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. The part that killed me was the second part of the post that continues on the theme of the first part. Head on over to check it out, the picture at the bottom is an instant classic. Just don’t tell the NYPD, that photo may constitute a hate crime.

Those bad cats at Al-Qaida are back from summer film school to produce another Internet blockbuster, “The Big Surprise”. Notice I even quoted it like a real movie, when you’re that good with a camera people should show you the respect you deserve. Seriously, check out those ultra cool graphics on the White House burning scene. I haven’t seen film making like that since last summer’s blockbuster “Kick the Paddle”, another movie that won the hearts and minds of the Middle East’s socially retarded. I haven’t been able to look at a ping pong paddle without laughing ever since. The Blotter over at ABC News has the full story here.

These films really are bad aren’t they? I realized when watching the latest one how scary our enemy really can be. I am not being sarcastic, anyone who can get motivated to kill others after watching bearded men living in caves is completely off the reservation. Thankfully we already know the outcome of this conflict (don’t want to ruin it for those of you who don’t know) but the jihadi’s lose in the end. Oh yeah, the Jews also rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Sorry if that is a news flash to our movie making, cave dwelling friends but that’s just the way the Lord said it would play out.

Have you been following the Koran flushing incident at Pace University? What, you haven’t? Here are a few links to complete coverage of the story over at Michelle Malkin’s site and Little Green Footballs. The story revolves around a Koran floating in the toilet, not once but twice, and the accused perpetrator is being charged with a hate crime. Stanislav Shmulevich is being charged in the incident by the NYPD. LGF has a link after the one above to a copy of the criminal complaint against Mr. Shmulevich.

This whole hate crime thing really pisses me off, not just in this case but in any case where charges are filed as a hate crime. When is a crime that causes harm to another not done in hate? Is that just too logical of a statement or does the whole hate crime thing stem from minority groups needing to feel special? Let’s see, yep, no one was ever mugged or murdered for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It had to have been because one is gay, black, Jewish, tall, small, or any other classification we assign to people. Here’s one, how bout we just admit that some people are evil and do unthinkable things to their fellow human beings. A hate crime shouldn’t carry an increased penalty; if our laws are not tough enough that we need to seek hate crime status to make it a super tough punishment for the crime then perhaps we should just toughen the punishment for existing laws and say good day sir to hate crime classification.

Anyway, enough of my complaining about our PC world and back to the case against Mr. Shmulevich. How exactly did he commit a hate crime here and against who? Was there anyone injured here other than the poor guy who had to pull the stink covered Koran out of the toilet? Just because Mr. Shmulevich admitted he did it because he was upset with a group of Muslims doesn’t make it a hate crime! It certainly was poor judgement on his part and honestly a little childish but a hate crime is ludicrous. If we allow this type of insanity in our legal system, our Republic has already failed and everything our troops are fighting for in Iraq and Afghanistan is for naught, we have lost to the terrorists already.

I was watching the Military channel last night about the carrier Abraham Lincoln being deployed to the gulf right before the Iraq war started. As I watched these men and women go about their daily jobs and prepare for war, I started to wonder why we always let the lowest common denominator dictate our decision making (which is another topic I will get to later in another post.) The show got me thinking about our current political situation regarding the Iraq war and what comes next in this nation. What is the end game for cats like Harry “defeatist” Reid? If America fails at stabilizing Iraq and thus the Middle East, how do the anti war politicians gain in the long run? Obviously in the near term they are hoping for defeat to cause a regime change here in this country but are the long term ramifications of losing another war worth political gain?

As a nation we are in dire straits; the very core of our Republic is being questioned, debated, and twisted well beyond what previous generations of Americans would have allowed. Now that we are well past 60 plus years since the greatest generation pushed their way through the shores of Normandy to end Hitler’s Nazi regime and define their generation, how do we define ours? Do we define ourselves as a nation divided with one half clinging to the principals of our forefathers and the other half trying to rewrite the very history we so dearly cherish? Or will we define ourselves as the first generation in the last 50 years to look past our differences, past the “what’s in it for me” mentality, and start electing leaders that believe that our most defining moments still lay before us. Short sightedness should not and can not be a viable strategy for the future of our Republic.