Last Call

Bobby Jindal is the latest governor to shift the tax burden away from the 1% to the middle class and poor, his latest scam to eliminate the state's income and corporate tax and nearly double the state's sales tax from 4 to 7 percent would end up raising taxes on the bottom 80% of Louisiana residents, and cutting them massively on businesses and the wealthy.

According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Jindal’s plan will raise taxes on the bottom 80 percent of Louisianians, while cutting them for the richest 1 percent:

– The bottom 80 percent of Louisianans in the income distribution would see a tax increase from repealing the personal and corporate income taxes and replacing them with a higher sales tax.
– The poorest 20 percent of taxpayers, those with an average income of $12,000, would see an average tax increase of $395, or 3.4 percent of their income, if no low income tax relief mechanism is offered.
– The middle 20 percent, those with an average income of $43,000, would see an average tax increase of $534, or 1.2 percent of their income.
– The largest beneficiaries of the tax proposal would be the top 1 percent—a group with an average income of well over $1 million. Louisianans in the top 1 percent would see an average tax cut of $25,423, or 2.3 percent of their income under the plan described above.

Seems like a raw deal there for most folks, because it is.  All this "revenue-neutral" scheme does is transfer the burden of taxes from the wealthy to the poor.  It doesn't raise additional taxes for services to help the poor (that's what "revenue neutral" means), it just makes everything they buy cost more:  food, clothing, other essentials.  You know, because the poor aren't paying their fair share, it seems.  If the rich pay less in taxes, that frees up money for them to...what, exactly?  Stash in offshore accounts rather than go into the state's economy?

Meanwhile, taxes go up on the little people and of course they'll rebel, and Bobby will say 'Well poors, you can either pay your sales tax or I can cut it along with your programs.  Your choice."  because We Can't Afford Nice Things.

And It Continues In Earnest, Part 3

If you thought the Birthers have wandered off into that good oblivion, you'd be wrong too.  This weekend the tinfoil hat morons are trying to do everything they can to find a way to stop Monday's inauguration and save America from a "foreign-born Muslim usurper".

Most Americans have moved on from earlier dalliances with denials of the president’s biography. National opinion polls have shown increases over the past three years in the percentage of Americans who agree that Obama was born in the United States and that he is a Christian. But a persistent minority — between a tenth and a fifth in most polls — still believe he is Muslim, foreign-born or a socialist.

Those voters tend to be vehement opponents of Obama, and on Inauguration Day, they will not be at the party — and they’re still searching for ways to have the president declared illegitimate.

“Let’s face it, this is a man very deep into an ideology that is not American,” says the Rev. Clenard Childress, a New Jersey minister and antiabortion activist who says black and white voters alike returned Obama to office “to feel better about ourselves and get the guilt of racism off us.”

Childress says it’s 50-50 that Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya: “But what I really care about is do we have the same values? Do you believe in the sanctity of life? Do you believe in marriage as being between man and woman? And this president does not.”

Gosh, what's different about this president?   At least one defender of the Obama administration has figured out the real issue with the birther idiocy.

Those who monitor anti-Obama movements say the inauguration will do nothing to quiet the rapids. “The rhetoric since the election has actually gotten more vicious,” says Kevin Davidson, better known as “Dr. Conspiracy,” his handle on his Web site, Obama Conspiracy Theories, which keeps tabs on those who declare Obama’s presidency illegitimate.

Davidson, a retired software developer in South Carolina, has been predicting for four years that hardcore anti-Obama agitation would dissipate, but it keeps going, driven, he believes, by anti-black sentiment. “I’ve seen more openly racist remarks since the election,” he says. “Before November, they were careful to control the racist language because they were trying to persuade people to vote against him. Now they sort of don’t care.”

Got it in one.  The lunatics aren't going away because the President is still black.  It's always been about race for millions of these bigoted fools.  And since these are the loons that control the GOP, expect impeachment to be on the menu before it's all said and done, as the President faces charges of Executive Leadership of the United States while Black.

Count on it.

And It Continues In Earnest, Part 2

Texas isn't about to let any county mountie in East Nowhere, Kentucky take the prize for the most unhinged response to gun control regs.  No sir, one Lone Star State Republican wants the state to not only refuse to enforce any federal firearms regulations at all, but to imprison anyone in the state who tries to enforce them.

State Rep. Steve Toth, a Republican, is looking to push his “Firearms Protection Act,” which would prevent any Congressional or Executive act banning or restricting so-called assault firearms and extended clips from affecting the state. In fact, any such action would be considered illegal, 1200 WOAI news of San Antonio, Texas, reported Tuesday.

Toth’s measure would make it a felony for federal officers to enforce any such ban in Texas, carrying the heavy punishment of a $50,000 fine and as many as five years in prison.

“If a federal official comes into the state of Texas to enforce the federal executive order, that person is subject to criminal prosecution,” Toth told the news station.

The lawmaker added that there needed to be a showdown between state and federal government over the Supremacy Clause, which dictates that federal law take precedence over state laws.

“It is our responsibility to push back when those laws are infringed by King Obama,” he said

Hey moron, nullification's been tried before.  Ask South Carolina what happened when it tried.   But these assholes want a rematch on the Civil War, well hey.

Let's see who wins that.

StupidiNews!

• After months of Republican delay, the House has passed the rest of the $50 billion Sandy relief measure, with a 241-180 vote.
• 18 human heads, misplaced medical specimens from Italy, turned up at Chicago's O'Hare Airport discovered by TSA officials.
• Japan's All Nippon Airways has grounded all of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes after one was forced to make an emergency landing due to a battery fire Tuesday.
• McDonald's new McBaguette sandwich in France is debuting to solid reviews as the continuing EU recession drives more people to fast food offerings.
• Officials are reviewing how two US power plants were infected by a computer virus spread by a USB flash drive in November and December.