Political cartoons for the week.

Haha! It's funny, and I actually first thought Bush would fire Gonzales soon after this story broke, but he hasn't...and now I don't think he ever will. Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling's testimony proved that. :(

For those of you that have not seen seen the Hamas Mickey Mouse commercial, see it on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZEGsnWZKh8.

You tube comment: if Islam is REALLY a RELIGION of PEACE, then why do Muslims need to or have to murder innocent non-believers? Muslims only force everyone to RESPECT them, out of fear. I for one would never piss on any Muslim (NEVER!!!), simply because I value life and I'm afraid to kill or be killed.Let's face it, no matter how they explain it, MUSLIM is synonymous to FEAR/TERROR/MURDER. don't you think?

My response is well this may or may not be true, but I can point out several instances where Christians persecuted millions of innocent people and also out of fear. Just about every religion does, because this person is too young or chooses not to know their history including the Roman Empire, Germanic pagans, etc doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Bar Stool Economics & the importance of taxes

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.Professor of EconomicsUniversity of Georgia

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I think this is an interesting parable, kind of funny actually, but very misleading. You can’t really talk about the distribution of tax policy changes without the total picture. Often conservatives implicitly deny that sales taxes (or employment tax) would have increased. Of course, when one falls for the “free lunch” fallacy, it's a myth that permeates conservative discussions of fiscal policy.What’s also fishy about this parable is the fact that the owner can cut 20% off the bill and still make a profit. Even when taxes increase like this, customers don’t face 100% of the burden; it’s shared between the owner and the customers. That’s clearly missing here.Also, what taxes pay for is missing. Using beer as the good, a good people could do without, then letting the same amount be purchased at a lower price isn’t a parable that has to do with government spending at all. Therefore we need to have taxes, otherwise my fellow classmates would not be getting Tier 1 education at UCI.

Dems rollover (again).

Democrats have cut slack for President Bush once again since taking the majority in both House in January 2007. This time the House & Senate approved several billions of dollars for the Iraq war. This appropriations bill passes without the troop withdrawal timeline that Democrats passed a few weeks ago, which President Bush vetoed. Republicans were, not surprisingly, the strongest supporters continuing the war though there were a few brave dissenters. In the Senate the breakdown was 80-14, and in the House it was 280-142. The bill sets up goals for the new Iraqi government, which they must pass to receive funding from the US. President Bush can still send the money to Iraq, without any regard for their performance. So, if in the next year, the government falls apart because of the civil war and he puts in new weak democratic or authoritative leadership, as we've done in a whole boatload of other countries around the world, then the money still goes to Iraq, despite the fact no progress was made.

The article also quotes a few MCs. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio tried to hold back his tears when he mentioned the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “After 3,000 of our fellow citizens died at the hands of these terrorists, when are we going to take them on? When are we going to defeat them,” he asked.

Well, I think we now know that the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, though sadistic and murderous, really had nothing to with terrorism-specifically the September 11 attacks. So, maybe the way we defeat terrorists is by going after terrorists that attack us, like Osama Bin Laden (though I don't think this will really help, because Al Quaida will just find another leader, but it's certianly better than Iraq). The guy that provided the US with this intelligence, an Iranian spy - Chalabi - became the leader of the Iraqi government.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18841182/

Quotes of the week.

"I know that government cannot resolve all problems. It cannot make men happy or bring them spiritual fulfillment. But it can attempt to remedy the public failures which are at the root of so many human ills." -Lyndon Baines Johnson


=> To start off on a good note, this is one of my favorite quotes from LBJ or anyone really. It characterizes how government really works. While I believe in government, the power it has to do great things for America and the world, it has limits. Too many people expect government be a quick fix to many challenges we have today and many new politcians do this too. Terry Schiavo is one example, but also outsourcing. When outsourcing was a big deal about 3 years ago, people wanted to Bush to save these jobs, and the truth is he just couldn't do it without abolishing FDR's minimum wage. I am one of the biggest proponents of big government, as LBJ was, a lot of the things that would make me happy are not things government could give me.
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"Taxes are like abortion, and not just because both are grotesque procedures supported by Democrats. You're for them or against them. Taxes go up or down; government raises taxes or lowers them. But Democrats will not let the words "abortion" or "tax hikes" pass their lips.” -Ann Coulter

=> People like Ann know how to dish out extremist propaganda, and then in defense say the other side is full of propaganda that doesn't make sense. Democrats don't support abortion and taxes. Democrats support the right to choose for all women. You can exercise that right if you want, but you're certainly not being forced to get an abortion. Democrats are pro choice, not pro abortion. With taxes, Democrats don't support taxes, but they are just very realistic about how they deal with the economy. Taxes are sometimes raised slightly during mild recessions because the government needs money to invest and stimulate the economy. Taxes are raised during times of war (usually) to pay for that war to avoid a major recession. Taxes will have to be raised to pay off our national debt. Ann just doesn't seem to understand how taxes & the economy work.

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“As I never tire of saying, heat is not the antithesis of light but rather the source of it.” -Christopher Hitchens

=>It's true, though the Bush Administration and other conservatives try to spin it the other way. Intense, heated political discourse in this country is needed. Even though Republicans had a majority in Congress when the Iraq War first started, had there been more discussion in Congress (there really wasn't, Republicanss were pretty much forced to rush it through out of support for Bush), if we still invaded Iraq, the strategy would have been different,more thought out.

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"The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little.” - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

=> The unemploymment has increased from when Bush first took throughout his entire first term. It seems to be unchanged in the last 2-3 years. High dropout rates have increased slightly. Tax cuts have gone tot he wealthiest 1%...so Bush policies fail the FDR progress test.

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"Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar” -Abraham Lincoln

=>Not anymore.

Clinton in California

Senator Clinton’s campaign is putting their focus not on the debates coming up next year or the Iowa caucus or New Hampshire primary, like most candidates would, but on California. Her campaign has several strategists in California focusing on January 12, 2008, a day which they believe will show voters across the country that Hillary Clinton is the inevitable nominee, according to Howard Fineman.

The California primary has been moved up to February 5, 2008. Several states will be holding their primary on this day to have greater influence in the nomination process. Clinton’s campaign apparently supported Schwarzenegger’s efforts to move up the California primary. The new law also requires that absentee ballots should be sent to voters by January 8, 2008. Within the next few days, by January 12th, Clinton hopes that tracking polls by her campaign and news coverage will show she is in the lead with those first voters in the primary. These results will be made available before Iowa and New Hampshire. California has more permanent absentee voters than most other states, about 1.5 million are registered as permanent absentee voters. Campaign strategists think that most of these voters are middle-aged women, who’ve been the main target for the campaign.

Smart thinking for Team Hillary, who already has the endorsement of Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez. As Fineman points out this approach is being taken to overshadow the possibility of a poor performance in Iowa, and someone like Barack Obama winning the caucus. While Fineman and other insiders think this is a joke, it’s definitely a good plan. It’s actually on the contrary, people will care is Senator Clinton is “wiped out” in Iowa, there is a lot of media coverage on that caucus, candidates like John Edwards and Barack Obama have slim leads over Hillary Clinton in Iowa. California early primary next year provide the candidate that manages to win the state or at least look like they’re winning the state before any other votes are counted with an advantage. As a CA resident intune to politics, I have noticed Hillary Clinton being in the state more than other candidates as well. Senator Clinton’s campaign is a powerful machine, and reaching out to middle-aged female voters is likely to yield the results they are after.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18800268/page/2/

White House rejects Dems' offer for Iraq spending

President Bush is unwavering in his support for the Iraq War. Democrats have made multiple attempts to negotiate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The most recent was a closed-door meeting today between Senate Democrats and top aides to President Bush. The deal was that Democrats would agree to remove billions of dollars in domestic spending from a war spending bill initially opposed by President Bush if he would accept a deadline to withdrawal combat forces from Iraq. Democrats also agreed to let President Bush waive compliance with that set deadline for troop withdrawals. The White rejected the offer saying that accepting a deadline sends the wrong signals and demoralizes troops, and even the people he in the US.

The White CoS pointed to negotiation efforts made by Republicans that received 52 votes in the Senate. This bill would have set standards for the new government in Iraq to meet as a condition for receiving funds. However the CoS failed to mentioned that Bush could easily override the proposal by demanding funds to be sent to Baghdad indifferent to the performance of the government in Iraq. So, really it wasn’t much of a concession on the part of Republicans.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18734886/

Jerry Falwell dead at 73 .

Jerry Falwell, founder of Moral Majority, died Tuesday in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. When someone like Falwell dies, someone who is always is in the public eye, making news, etc typically you have other speak in support of him, and that happened but not like you would expected for other religious/political figures like Billy Graham. In his prime, Falwell was a strong political force for the Republicans, and helped mobilize thousands of people for both of Reagan’s presidential campaigns. However from the mid-1990s-t his death, he started moving farther and farther right, alienating his supporters and becoming more out there. Even Conservatives were slow to offer words of praise to Falwell. Some were very critical, like Christopher Hitchens.

These are just some of things, for better or worse that I will remember Falwell for:

“AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”


“Any sex outside of the marriage bond between a man and a woman is violating God's law.”

“I am such a strong admirer and supporter of George W. Bush that if he suggested eliminating the income tax or doubling it, I would vote yes on first blush.”

“If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being.”

“Textbooks are Soviet propaganda.”

“Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions.”

“And, these Islamic fundamentalists, these radical terrorists, these Middle Eastern monsters are committed to destroying the Jewish nation, driving her into the Mediterranean, conquering the world.”

"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."

"gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you." –out of support for Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" campaign

"You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I'm for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord."

"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"


Some of this is funny, and some of it is just downright offensive. It’s difficult to really say anything nice about this guy, he puts feminists, pro choicers, and gays/lesbians, atheists, and Muslims at the root of all problems in the US and sometimes in the world. Who knows if he even believed in this nonsense he was preaching.