Category Archives: Tax Protest

TGINM

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Or…thank God it’s not Monday.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xEehooYC6Rk/S9y0PjUGYeI/AAAAAAAAB98/VHzWZjxeE0A/s1600/clock.jpgWe all switched from Standard Time Sunday morning to Daylight Savings time. Of the two, I much prefer Daylight Savings and if I had my druthers, I would prefer that we do not change back come Fall.

I’ve gone through the house and have changed all the clocks and the one in my Tahoe. I think the only one not changed is the clock in Mrs. Crucis’ Hupmobile. Job done…except…for me and Mrs. C.

An advantage of being retired is that you don’t need to set alarms in the morning. For forty years, more or less, I awoke at 6am, showered, dressed and went off to work.

A few years ago, I started working from home. All I needed was a broadband internet connection. My employer provided a laptop, TCP/IP phone and a VPN connection to the corporate network. When I worked from home, I told friends my daily commute to work was thirty steps down to my office from upstairs. When I worked from home, I changed my wakeup time from 6am to 7:30am. I just had to be on-line no later than 8:30am.

That was great. Since then, I’ve retired and it seems that each day, I wake up a few minutes later. With the time change last weekend, every clock and timepiece has changed…except for Mrs. Crucis and myself.

Time change is still a work-in-progress…[yawn.]

***

Obama is still sweating the spying his administration is doing through the NSA. He and the NSA hit a major speed-bump this week. The NSA lost a court battle to allow them to keep telephone metadata longer than five years.

I had read the article earlier this week. When I made a search this morning, I found no mention of the court decision from the major news outlets. Articles were there earlier in the week, where have they gone? The first article I found was from The Verge, not a major news outlet like CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, WaPo. On reflection, those alphabet organizations aren’t news outlets any longer, having long devolved into liberal propaganda organs.

Here is the report from The Verge.

Court blocks government’s request to keep NSA phone records longer than five years

By Adi Robertsonon

The court in charge of overseeing NSA surveillance has nixed a plan to keep American phone records in government databases for longer than five years. In an opinion published today, Judge Reggie Walton said that privacy protection laws overrode the government’s argument that it needed to retain evidence for EFF and ACLU lawsuits, denying a request that the Department of Justice made in February. Such a move “would further infringe on the privacy interests of United States persons whose telephone records were acquired in vast numbers and retained by the government,” said Walton. “The government seeks to retain these records, not for national security reasons, but because some of them may be relevant in civil litigation in which the destruction of those very same records is being requested.”

…

The groups that might need the NSA’s evidence don’t actually want it

The FISA court, which made this ruling, has previously decided that the NSA can collect phone metadata in bulk but must destroy it after five years. The Department of Justice, however, pointed to a ban on destroying evidence that was pertinent to a court case. By that estimation, since the ACLU, EFF, and others have filed suit over the phone record database, that made it illegal to purge the records. It promised, however, to make the records unsearchable by NSA agents, ostensibly resolving privacy concerns.

This argument, however, didn’t convince the court. One point of contention was that the actual parties involved have expressed mostly confusion over the plan. In February, ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer called the move a “distraction” from the real issues. “We don’t have any objection to the government deleting these records. While they’re at it, they should delete the whole database.” EFF attorney Mark Rumold, meanwhile, agreed “in principle” with the government’s request, but he expressed doubt it was acting in good faith. “It’s disheartening to see the government try to hold the privacy of all Americans hostage to score PR points,” he said.

In short, the groups that would be benefiting from having evidence retained didn’t necessarily want it, and the Department of Justice made only a perfunctory case for keeping it. “The government makes no attempt to explain why it believes the records” are relevant, said Walton. The rules for collecting data, meanwhile, are clear about the fact that it can only be kept for national security investigations. Granted, these rules have been very liberally interpreted in the past — the fact that all phone records are considered “relevant” to an investigation, for example, is highly controversial. But the court found that maintaining the database for a civil lawsuit didn’t fit the bill.

So why did it want the phone records in the first place? Walton said the request seemed to be motivated by “fear” that judges might censure it for destroying evidence, although he called that outcome “far-fetched.” As the EFF’s statement above implies, however, it’s possible it’s also an attempt to demonstrate that suing over an allegedly unconstitutional invasion of privacy will only cause more privacy violations.

A win for privacy. You may wonder why more hasn’t been made of this by the MSM? Perhaps it is due to another scheme of misdirection. Senator Diane Sweinstein, D-CA, wants an investigation of the CIA. Again, why? Because of possible CIA surveillance during the Bush years.

Yep, that’s right, whether it’s CIA spying or NSA data farming on our citizens, it’s all Bush’s fault.

Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers

By Ed O’Keefe and Adam Goldman,

The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday sharply accused the CIA of violating federal law and undermining the constitutional principle of congressional oversight as she detailed publicly for the first time how the agency secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program.Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that the situation amounted to attempted intimidation of congressional investigators, adding: “I am not taking it lightly.”She confirmed that an internal agency investigation of the action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. And she said that the CIA appears to have violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as various federal laws and a presidential executive order that prevents the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance.

Ms Sweinstein didn’t bat an eye when the Obama administration bugged reporters and ransacked their offices. But, she can believe, despite having no proof, that Bush and his CIA bugged her and the Senate. That reminds me, the NSA still hasn’t answered the question whether they have been spying on members of Congress. Nor has Lerner testified before the House on the Obama administration using the IRS to oppress the Tea Party.

It’s just fine for Obama to spy and intimidate citizens, according to Ms Sweinstein. But let a myth appear and, “It’s all Bush’s fault!”

***

The closing topic today is one that applies to all levels of government. It applies to the city council who spend taxpayers money of frivolties like recreation centers, to County Commissioners in love with TIF, to Congressmen who vote for near Trillion dollar ag bills. Voters have a responsibility to remove legislators who waste taxpayer’s money.

RAHN: The responsibility to resist fiscally irresponsible politicians

Fiscal prudence must be carried from the kitchen table to the voting booth

By Richard Rahn, Monday, March 10, 2014

Are you more responsible than your government? If so, what can you do about it?

If your personal spending rises faster than your income each year, you eventually will go bankrupt. Responsible people understand this and thus refrain from taking on more debt than their income can support.

This basic fact is true of individuals, businesses and even governments — look at Greece and Detroit.

President Obama presented his budget proposal for 2015 last week. As the accompanying chart shows, it calls for increasing government spending from $3.6 trillion this year to $5.9 trillion in 2024.

Much of this whopping increase is to be funded through more deficit spending — and thus increasing the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio, which is already at a record high for peacetime. Many good economists also think that the president is being overly optimistic about anticipated economic growth and government revenues.

There is nothing new about governments overspending and accumulating fatal amounts of debt.

A quote attributed to Cicero warned: “The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced. The arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced if the nation does not want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

The people and the political class ignored the advice. The bread and circuses continued, the political leaders became increasingly corrupt, and the formerly invincible Roman army became so weakened that it was easily toppled by “barbarians.”

In the two millennia after Cicero, empire after empire rose — and fell, often as a result of excess government spending.

The American Founding Fathers understood the pressures on governments to overspend, and did their best to design a system to make spending difficult — but the political class has increasingly been ignoring the Constitution.

In his classic book “The Road to Serfdom,” published in 1944, the brilliant F.A. Hayek vividly described how the utopians always end up bankrupting the society and destroying liberty.

Vito Tanzi, distinguished economist and former Italian undersecretary for economy and finance, perhaps said it best in his new book, “Dollars, Euros, and Debt”: “It is important for citizens to recognize that resources are always scarce, and the function of government should be to prevent hell on earth, rather than try to establish heaven. When the state tries to do too many things, it inevitably brings excessive complexity in its actions and becomes inefficient.”

…

Almost all major economies in the world now have government sectors that exceed that size. This fact, coupled with the three maxims cited above, if properly analyzed, leads to the conclusion that over the long run, tax increases in countries that already have big government sectors and high levels of debt only will make things worse.

Mr. Obama and many members of Congress should and probably do understand that the higher levels of spending and debt they are proposing is long-run poison to the economy.

They also understand, though, that many of their voters are more concerned about getting immediate benefits from the government than the inability to find a well-paying job.

The situation can only get better if voters start demanding their elective representatives refuse to vote for any tax or budget increase that raises government spending as a percentage of GDP.

Voters then must be prepared to vote against those politicians who deviate from those simple principles. Politicians will resist such constraints because it would force them to seriously consider spending priorities.

If voters refuse to discipline their elected officials and continue to buy the “feel-good” line, economic stagnation, inflation or worse will occur. Voters who say they are personally responsible in managing their own finances are not being responsible if they vote for politicians whose policies will ultimately destroy their and everyone else’s financial well-being.

To paraphrase Mr. Rahn’s column, voters have a responsibility to remove representatives, from local city councilmen, to county commissioners, state and federal legislators to the President of the United States, who violate the spending restrictions demanded by the citizenry.

We, the citizens and voters of this country, are failing in our duty.

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Call-in Campaign to Override Nixon’s Vetos

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This post is a continuation from yesterday and last week. It should rightly be titled, Lead by the Unwilling and the Fearful, Part II.

After yesterday’s post, I continued to have an exchange with a Jeff City staffer. He provided some additional information why Tim Jones, Speaker of the Missouri House, is unlikely to bring the tax cut veto override to the floor—the pols in Jeff City claim they are receiving no or very few calls in support of the veto override!

Him: Mike, if you ever go hunting, you know there are two basic rules on target selection:

1.) Make sure you have a clean line of sight;
2.) Don’t hunt what you can’t kill–make sure you have enough ammo to take down your target.

Right now, there isn’t enough ammo. And the bad part is (and I speak from experience because I work in the Capitol) is that 95% of the offices are getting ZERO calls from constituents and only a few emails on the subject. The reps aren’t changing their positions because they’re not getting any contact telling them to.

…

Right now, the only voices on the issue are the people who want to keep the status quo. I can tell you for a fact that Jones wants to get this done, but he also knows that he needs the members onboard. If he pushes the vote, he makes reps take a vote that is potentially dangerous in a political sense, and he knows that it will fail. That doesn’t help out the conservative agenda in any way–it’s seppuku without any reason. Do you think it helps out the conservative agenda to have that vote fail AND have it be partially or fully responsible for Democrats regaining 5 or 10 seats?

I can understand his and his boss’s position, although I vehemently oppose it. He’s a staffer for a Rep on the eastern side of the state. That eastern district abounds democrat controlled districts and his district is likely to have the conservative majorities we on the western side of Missouri possess.

But, even if we do lose five to ten house seats, we’ll still have a majority. Our majority in the House is more than a handful of seats. Of course, his boss is concerned about losing HIS seat. That can be a motivator but it does speak volumes about his political courage. His override vote could be turned around to get support from voters, not lose support.

But again, I say they are taking counsel of their fears. Instead of being afraid of democrats, they should be in fear of their ‘Pub constituents.

According to the staffer above, he made the rounds of some ‘Pub Reps and they say they’ve received few calls, 5 at most, In support of the veto overrides. Many have received no override calls through the summer. You can bet your house they are getting calls and visits from the dems, union reps, and teacher’s union official AGAINST the override.

If you, like me, want Nixon’s vetos overridden, call your Representative and Senator. If you can, visit them in support of the veto overrides. In addition, attend the rallies planned for 9:00AM and 12:00 noon on September 11, 2013 in Jeff City. The first rally is to support the override of HB436, The 2nd Amendment Preservation Act. That rally is followed at noon by the rally to override Nixon’s veto of the tax cut bill.

If you can’t attend because it is a work day and you can’t get off, CALL your representatives! Write them in support of the veto overrides—snail mail. E-mails seem to be ignored so personal communications is extremely important.

If you don’t know the phone number of your Representative, here is a link to the House website that contains the Representative’s contact numbers.

http://www.house.mo.gov/member.aspx

Call! Now! Be counted and force those cowardly Reps to be YOUR representatives. Make them understand their longevity in Jeff City is dependent on them obeying YOU, not the dems and their union sycophants.

And when you have finished calling, hangup and hand the phone to your spouse and have them call. Include your voting age children—have them call as well. The more calls, the greater the pressure on those waffling ‘Pubs to do the right thing.

It’s up to us.

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Lead by the Unwilling and the Fearful

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I wrote yesterday about the lack of leadership and principles within the GOP establishment. Later, during an exchange of Facebook comments about Missouri’s Speaker of the House, Tim Jones, I read a prime example why the GOP is dying across the country.

Yes, I said, dying. The real tragedy is that the GOP seems blissfully unaware of its coming demise. It needn’t happen but unless there are changes—immediate and massive changes, the party will go the way of the Whigs.

I still think of myself as a Republican. I would like to remain a Republican. Unfortunately, the GOP, at the state and national levels, is making that choice more and more difficult.

This is the article that started the comments.

Speaker: Override of veto not likely

Nixon calls tax-cut bill a ‘fiscally irresponsible experiment’

House Speaker Tim Jones said Tuesday his chamber will probably not try to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a Republican tax-cut bill.

Jones made his comments on the St. Louis public radio program “Politically Speaking.”

Asked about the bill, Jones said, “It is likely, likely I would not even attempt an override.”

Jones’ comments are an apparent victory for opponents of the bill, who have warned of dire consequences if the bill is signed into law.

“Overriding this veto will be monumental if it happens. Right now, I have to say, I don’t know if we have the numbers for it,” Jones said on the program.

The Missouri General Assembly will convene for its veto override session on Sept. 11.

Jones said that unless Republicans who voted no on the bill tell him definitively they will vote yes, an override vote is unlikely because Jones believes all Democrats are likely to vote no on the measure. Additionally, six Republicans did not vote at all when the bill came up.

Without any Democratic support, Jones would need all 109 Republicans to vote to override to reach the necessary two-thirds majority.

The House vote on the bill was 103-51.

The most charitable thing I can say about Speaker Tim Jones and his followers is that they have taken counsel of their fears. If I weren’t charitable, I’d call them sniveling cowards, without any principles except to remain in office, unfit to hold any public office.

I came down hard on Tim Jones. I’ve spoken with him on a number of occasions but I doubt he’d remember me amongst the crowd. I didn’t come bringing cas…no I’ll not say that. Let’s just say I wasn’t impressed.

The FB post had a commenter who agreed with Tim Jones. I’ll not identify him. I believe he was sincere in his opinions. I just think those opinions are grossly wrong and will lead to the dissolution of the GOP in Missouri.

HIM: First of all, there are a few faults with the bill that need to be fixed. But even assuming those could wait until next year, you want Republicans to take a vote that is being publicized as hitting schools hard (thus making it politically painful to some), with a 99.99999% chance that it won’t pass. I understand doing the right thing, but the numbers aren’t there. It’s a stupid thing to ask people to risk a seat to Democrats and/or liberals when there is absolutely nothing to gain.

He continued this theme in another following comment in response to mine.

MW: Pass, then fix it. The schools “issue” will be screamed by the dems and RINOs anyway. Override the veto. We’ll never achieve anything if all we do is quiver in fear of dem/lib accusations.

HIM: It’s not quivering in fear, Mike. It’s simple political calculation on the part of Jones. He has most likely had extensive talks with Republicans who are either opposed or are on the fence. He would need 100% of the Republican caucus to do it because its understood that a member of one party–even if they voted for a bill during session–will VERY rarely vote to override the veto of a governor who is in the same party. Democrats won’t come over for this bill.

So, if it is a hard vote to make, that could cost party members seats, AND you know for a fact that it won’t pass regardless…then you don’t take the vote. Even if the reasons suck, the outcome will be the same and holding a vote will only endanger chances of keeping seats for things down the road that can be done.

I hear this mantra time and time again. If we don’t give in to the democrats they’ll call us bad names and we’ll lose seats. Bull! What it really means is that our elected Legislators don’t have the guts to stand up for principles—or that they don’t have any real principles other than to remain in office.

They’ve failed to remember, if they knew at all, that we didn’t elect them to maintain a party majority. We elected them to change the state in accordance to our political principles, in this case, tax cuts.

“We’ll lose seats!”

“We must conserve out strength for down the road.”

Gah!

Comments like that enrages me. We elected these people to change our state for the better to regain our economy, create jobs, bring industry to the state, return money, in the form of lesser taxes, to the state’s citizens. What use is conserving our strength if that strength is never used? If our legislators are unwilling to act, what makes them think we’ll re-elect them?

Oh. The state GOP establishment will do that.

So they think. It mindset like the one expressed above that is killing the GOP.

This was my closing comment to that FB post. I hope it makes people think.

You’ve given me food for my daily blog. I didn’t name you but I did use your comments. You see, all those reasons you gave why we shouldn’t push for the Tax Cut override is exactly what is needed. Lose seats? You may anyway? If not from the dems, by primary challengers. “Save our strength?” If now isn’t the time to use that strength, what it a better time? We may not have that strength in the future but we’ll let this opportunity for postive change pass for fear of the future.

No, that future is now. If we don’t use our political strength now, what use is it? It’s worthless, like money saved for a rainy day but never used.

By kowtowing to the dems, and that is EXACTLY what it is, we become their enablers. If we don’t oppose them at every opportunity, we aid them. If we don’t override vetos such as this one and the anti-2A bill, we support their agenda.

No, the time to use our power, our strength is now. If we lose seats, sobeit. We won’t lose them long.

If we don’t act now, come future elections, the GOP may not have the support to retain its majority in Missouri.

This scenario is repeated all across the nation. The GOP is at a crisis and many in the party are blind to see it and the coming consequences if we don’t act now.

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Refugees

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When the going gets rough, those who can, vote with their feet.  There have been two such instances in the new this week. French actor Gerard Dépardieu has taken residence just across the French border in Belgium. The French Prime Minister is upset.

France’s Jean-Marc Ayrault slams flight of the ‘greedy rich’

France’s prime minister has slammed wealthy citizens fleeing the country’s punitive tax on high incomes as greedy profiteers seeking to “become even richer”.

By Henry Samuel, Paris, 7:08PM GMT 11 Dec 2012

Jean-Marc Ayrault’s outburst came after France’s best-known actor, Gerard Dépardieu, took up legal residence in a small village just over the border in Belgium, alongside hundreds of other wealthy French nationals seeking lower taxes.

“Those who are seeking exile abroad are not those who are scared of becoming poor,” the prime minister declared after unveiling sweeping anti-poverty measures to help those hit by the economic crisis.

They are also leaving the UK whose government has been steady raising taxes over several years. The UK, until recently, had one of the highest overall tax rates in the EU.

Singer James Blunt plans to become Swiss

By Allan Hall, PUBLISHED: 08:42 EST, 11 December 2012 | UPDATED: 10:57 EST, 11 December 2012

British singer James Blunt has said he wants to become a Swiss citizen after living in the tax-friendly country for the past five years.

‘As soon as the authorities will let me, because I don’t know if I’ve been here a sufficiently long time, I would like to become Swiss,’ he told a Swiss newspaper at the weekend.

‘Verbier is my home,’ said the 38-year-old multi-millionaire, who bought a chalet in the ski resort in 2005.

It makes you wonder how soon we will see Americans adopting this practice to escape taxes in the US? There aren’t all that many places non-Billionaires can go. Switzerland has strict requirements for citizenship. Belgium isn’t all that much better than the rest of the EU, if at all. Americans really only have other states—like Texas or perhaps Arizona as a refuge.

We have all read about the money flight from Maryland and New York. Is California next? Where would these California entrepreneurs go? Perhaps Michigan, now that the state has joined the other 23 states with Right-to-Work. The unions, as expected after Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed the legislation, acted like thugs and rioted; assaulting counter-protesters and the media who filmed the attacks.

The public unions have helped destroy Detroit. The city looks like East Berlin a few years after the end of World War Two. The UAW destroyed the auto industry (except Ford who DIDN’T accept Obama’s bailout,) taking control of GM and driving that company further into the dirt. Chrysler, as an American company no longer exists. Obama and the unions forced its sale to Fiat and now is selling Italian clown cars at many of its dealerships.

If Michigan can get the state’s spending and other taxes under control, perhaps they, too, can become an oasis for entrepreneurs like Texas and the other Right-to-Work states?

Like maybe Missouri now that we have a veto proof state legislature? Let’s make Missouri the 25th state to pass Right-to-Work and escape the restraints of union controlled labor.  Let’s make Missouri a refugee haven and grow our economy like Texas and the other 24 union free states. It a concept whose time has come.

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Tuesday’s Thoughts

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VEEP Joe Biden was in town yesterday for a fundraiser for Claire “Mommy-mouth” McCaskill.  Only the party elites were invited. It was a closed, private session. No one from the public was wanted.  Why, they may ask some embarrassing questions like, “If you are against Obamacare as you now claim, why did you vote for it?”  Can’t have that!

The only public notice so far is the disruption of traffic as Biden’s entourage wanders around town. It must keep the KCPD on their toes blocking traffic everytime Biden turns left when he should have turned right.

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Like New York, Illinois and California, Maryland increased taxes on the “rich.” Guess what?  Maryland lost population since those tax increases were enacted and actually lost revenue.

Published: Monday, 9 Jul 2012 | 11:52 AM ET

A new report says wealthy Maryland residents may be moving out due to recent tax hikes – a finding that is sure to escalate the battle over taxing the American rich.The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland, says that a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a “millionaire’s tax” pushed through by Gov. Martin O’Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, in imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year.

The Change Maryland study found that the tax cost Maryland $1.7 billion in lost tax revenues.  A county-by-county analysis by Change Maryland also found that the state’s wealthiest counties also had some of the largest population outflows.

In total, Maryland has added 24 new taxes or fees in recent years, Change Maryland says. Florida, which has no income-tax, has been a large recipient of Maryland’s exiled wealthy.

That’s known as voting with their feet. It takes a particular style of stupidity to believe folks will just stand there and accept more taxes when they can do something about it.

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I saw a column today that rang bells in my mind.  I just don’t believe the story as written. Something has been misreported, misunderstood or somebody’s lying.

The story goes like this. A woman approached an off-duty police office from the rear, hugged him and “the gun just went off all by itself!”  The woman was shot through the lung and heart and died at a local hospital.

Let me list the things in this story that I question.

  1. Guns just don’t fire all by themselves.  The trigger must be pulled. Question #1 is how did the trigger get pulled?
  2. According the to story, the pistol was in a holster. Modern holsters are designed to cover the trigger and trigger guard to prevent the trigger from being pulled or from being snagged — while in the holster. Since the woman hugged the cop’s back, the muzzle of the pistol had to be horizontal and to the rear. That implies the pistol was in a shoulder holster. Every shoulder holster I’ve seen covers the trigger. Question #2 is how did the trigger get pulled?
  3. The wound included the lung and heart. If you look at an anatomical chart of the human body you’ll notice that to shoot someone in the lung and heart, the bullet must pass through the body from an angle or from the side. It unlikely a bullet passing from front to the rear would hit both the heart and lung. If the woman hugged the cop’s back and the gun went off, the bullet should have grazed her ribs.  Or, she hugged him from the side. Again, the story has some holes.

Of course we must remember, this happened in Detroit.

There are so many facts in this story that just doesn’t ring true. I suspect someone was playing with the gun — fast draw maybe — and the trigger was pulled.That happened here in KC, in the KCPD police locker room some years ago.  No one was hit in that instance as I remember.

Here is the story as it was reported by the AP.

Police: Hug triggers officer’s gun, kills woman

Jul 8, 11:28 PM (ET)

DETROIT (AP) – A woman celebrating the weekend before her 25th birthday was fatally shot Sunday when she hugged an off-duty police officer while dancing at a party, causing the officer’s service weapon to fire, according to police and her mother.

Adaisha Miller would have turned 25 on Monday, according to her mother, Yolanda McNair.

The shooting happened at an outdoor social gathering about 12:30 a.m., said police Sgt. Eren Stephens. It happened on the city’s west side.

According to Stephens, the woman “embraced the officer from behind, causing the holstered weapon to accidently discharge.” The bullet punctured Miller’s lung and hit her heart, and she died at a hospital.

Stephens said the Detroit officer will remain on administrative duties while authorities investigate the shooting and report their findings to the Wayne County prosecutor. The officer’s name was not released.

It appears to me this story was written to enhance the myth that guns, all weapons for that matter, are sentient and evil. Guns just wait for an opportunity to go off “all by themselves” and kill someone.

Yep, that sounds like the AP. Perpetuating the myth.

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A sickness in the land

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I’m a conservative Christian. Unlike some, I don’t spout scripture at the drop of a hat. The reason is that I have a fault…I can’t remember text. My memory is visual based.  When I was in High School, I got a C in Literature instead of an A because I could not memorize a scene from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.  I just couldn’t do it.

Consider my surprise when I had this piece of scripture floating in my head this morning. More so, since it must have been decades since I read it.

Jeremiah chapter 8 v. 22: “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wounds of my [God’s] people?”

Imagine my reaction when I scanned my morning news websites and came across this item.  It seems that Kansas has passed an income tax cut promoted by Sam Brownback, the Governor. The tax rate was cut from 6.45% to 4.9%. The wailing and gnashing of teeth can be heard from Colorado to Nebraska to Oklahoma to Missouri.

Kansas tax cuts arouse opposition instead of applause

Monday, June 18, 2012 – Red Pill, Blue Pill by Al Maurer

DENVER, June 18, 2012 — There’s an interesting fight going on in Kansas between Governor Sam Brownback, who believes that tax cuts stimulate growth and seemingly everyone else in Kansas who lives off tax revenues.

It hasn’t been pretty so far.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback lobbied for and finally got a tax plan through the Kansas legislature which will reduce income taxes by $847 million in 2014, and eliminate income taxes for 191,000 Kansas businesses. It creates a 3 percent income tax for the first $15,000 of a single filer’s income, and the first $30,000 for a married couple. Income above that would be taxed at 4.9 percent – instead of the existing rate of 6.45 percent.

If you’re a free-market person, a small business owner or a Kansas taxpayer you should be thrilled. The plan, passed by both houses of the Kansas legislature, should have generated a flood of positive reporting.

It did not. Lowering tax rates always results in job creation and increased net tax revenue but you’d never know it by listening to the reporting.

It all sounds good, doesn’t it?  But not if you listened and read the commentaries from across the state. Here is a sample of the opposition.

The headline in small-town Gardner, Kansas is all about the process, not the substance: “House passes tax plan using rare parliamentary procedure.” Were they talking about the Obamacare bill? The “rare procedure” turns out to be cutting off debate to force a vote.

Emphasized at every turn is the prediction that the tax cut will result in a $270 million deficit by 2014 or  a $2.5 billion deficit in 2018. Not much is said about where those numbers come from.

The Kansas National Education Association said in a press release that the impact on education will be the equivalent of shuttering the Pentagon. I’m not sure I can even begin to understand what was meant by that phrase. What do schools have to do with defense? As I understand it, the bill restructures how taxes are calculated. What does that have to do with the number of tax dollars schools receive?

Perhaps one of the most innovative criticisms of the plan came from The Kansas City Examiner back in January, where writer Whitney Bell opined that the proposed tax plan is unbiblical, immoral and unjust because it hurts the poor. — Washington Times.

Just how a lower tax rate would injure poor taxpayers, Bell doesn’t explain.  Perhaps she’s wailing about less money for free goodies that she believes are necessary to sustain dependency-addicted welfarites?

This continuing clamor for more for the dependency class, the greed of public service unions who demand more while delivering less, is an illness that must be cured. One way or another. The opposition deliberately ignores history that tax cuts allow for economic growth which in turn provides more tax income that would have been realized if the tax cut had not occurred. We only need to look at past cases from Kennedy to Reagan to Clinton (although he was forced to cut taxes by the Gingrich led Congress) to Bush. In this last case, just consider how devastating 9/11 would have been if those tax cuts hadn’t cushioned the blow.

Instead we hear the same worthless complaints from those whose hands dip into the public till.

The Brownback administration hired economist Arthur Laffer to help them design the proposal in January. In an article on the topic then, writer Scott Rothschild led with the phrase, “Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal to increase taxes on poor Kansans…”

Hardly unbiased reporting.

One could accuse Rothschild of missing the point but he was obviously trying to make his own editorial point. Laffer is referred to as “consultant” rather than “economist” and we are given his salary for the project. The clear implication is that his advice shouldn’t be trusted because he was paid to give it. Really? I’m an IT consultant by day and I certainly wouldn’t be giving my advice if I weren’t being paid for it. What nonsense. — Washington Times.

Kansas has been losing jobs for the last five years. I would predict that this tax cut, if it doesn’t reverse that trend, will at least halt it.  Tax cuts encourages businesses. If the cuts do not allow businesses to expand, at least they will help them survive until the morass in Washington is remedied and we eliminate the waste and fraud there.

The pathological addiction to taxes…and the concomitant spending is the real sickness in the land. The lust for freebies, for public money is a sickness that could be mortal unless we take steps to remedy it now.

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This week contains April 15th—National Tax Day and the day Tea Parties will be sprout all over the country. There is a large one scheduled for April 15th in Kansas City, KS near the NASCAR track hosted by KC’s Political Chips. There are many Tea Party organizations across the country. Find your local one and help them replace all the dems up for election. That’s all dems in federal, state and local offices. We can no longer afford or accept the policies, agendas and goals of that party is we want our liberty to survive.

Mark Steyn, writing for the Investor’s Business Daily has some thoughts on Tax Day.

April 15 Marks Season Of Suckers (aka Federal Income-Tax Payers)

By MARK STEYN Posted 04/09/2010 04:55 PM ET

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We are nearing the climax of “tax season.” That’s the problem right there, by the way:

Summer should have a season, and baseball should have a season, but not tax. Happily, like candy canes and Christmas tree lights on Dec. 26, the TurboTax boxes will soon be disappearing from the display racks until the nights start drawing in and the leaves fall from the trees and tax season begins anew in seven or eight months’ time.

And yet for an increasing number of Americans tax season is like baseball season: It’s a spectator sport. According to the Tax Policy Center, 47% of U.S. households will pay no federal income tax for the year 2009. Obviously, many of them pay other kinds of taxes — state tax, property tax, cigarette tax.

But at a time of massive increases in federal spending half the country is effectively making no contribution to it, whether it’s national defense or vital stimulus funding to pump monkeys in North Carolina full of cocaine (true, seriously, don’t ask me why).

Half a decade back, it was just under 40% who paid no federal income tax; now it’s just under 50%.

By 2012, America could be holding the first federal election in which a majority of the population will be able to vote themselves more government lollipops paid for by the ever-shrinking minority of the population still dumb enough to be net contributors to the federal treasury.

In less than a quarter-millennium, the American Revolution will have evolved from “No taxation without representation” to representation without taxation. We have bigger government, bigger bureaucracy, bigger spending, bigger deficits, bigger debt, and yet an ever smaller proportion of citizens paying for it. The top 5% of taxpayers contribute 60% of revenue. The top 10% provide 75%. Another two-fifths make up the rest. And half are exempt.

This isn’t redistribution — a “leveling” to address the “mal-distribution” of income, as Sen. Max Baucus, (D-Kleptocristan) put it the other day. It isn’t even “spreading the wealth around,” as then Sen. Barack Obama put it in an unfortunate off-the-prompter moment during the 2008 campaign.

Rather, it’s an assault on the moral legitimacy of the system. If you accept the principle of a tax on income, it might seem reasonable to exclude the very poor from having to contribute to it. But in no meaningful sense can half the country be considered “poor.” The U.S. income tax is becoming the 21st century equivalent of the “jizya” — the punitive tax levied by Muslim states on their non-Muslim citizens: In return for funding the Islamic imperium, the infidels were permitted to carry on practicing their faith.

Likewise, under the American jizya, in return for funding Big Government, nonbelievers are permitted to carry on practicing their faith in capitalism, small business, economic activity and the other primitive belief systems to which they cling so touchingly.

In the Islamic world, the infidel tax base eventually wised up. You can see it literally in the landscape in rural parts of the Balkans: Christian tradesmen got fed up paying the jizya and moved out of the towns up into remote hills far from the shakedown crowd.

In less mountainous terrain where it’s harder to lie low, non-Muslims found it easier to convert. That’s partly what drove Islamic expansion. Once Araby was all-Muslim, it was necessary to move on to the Levant, and to Persia, and to Central Asia and North Africa and India and Europe — in search of new infidels to mug.

Don’t worry, I’m not so invested in my analogy that I’m suggesting the Obama-Reid-Pelosi shakedown racket will be forced to invade Canada and Scandinavia. For one thing, pretty much everywhere else got with the Big Government program well ahead of America and long ago figured out all the angles: Two-thirds of French imams are on the dole. In the Stockholm suburb of Tensta, 20% of women in their late 40s collect disability benefits. In the U.K., five million — a tenth of the adult population — have not done a day’s work since the New Labour government took office in 1997.

America has a ways to go to catch up with those enlightened jurisdictions, but it’s on its way. Rep. Paul Ryan pointed out recently that, by 2004, 20% of U.S. households were getting about 75% of their income from the federal government. As a matter of practical politics, how receptive would they be to a pitch for lower taxes, which they don’t pay, or lower government spending, of which they are such fortunate beneficiaries? How receptive would another fifth of households, who get about 40% of their income from federal programs, be to such a pitch?

And what’s to stop this trend? Democracy decays easily into the tyranny of the majority, in which 51% of voters can empty the pockets of the other 49%. That’s why a country on track to a $20 trillion national debt exempts half the population from making an even modest contribution to reducing it. And it’s also why the remorseless shriveling of the tax rolls is a cancer at the heart of republican citizenship.

Pace Max Baucus, this isn’t about correcting the “mal-distribution” of income. What Mal Max is up to is increasing dependency. In the newspeak of Big Government, “tax cuts” now invariably mean not reductions in the rate of income seizure but a “tax credit” reimbursed from the seizure in return for living your life the way the government wants you to.

With ObamaCare, we’ve now advanced to the next stage — “tax debits,” or additional punitive confiscation if you decline to live your life in accordance with government fiat. ObamaCare requires you upon penalty of law to make provisions for your health care that meet the approval of the state commissars.

Unfortunately, as they discovered after passing it, the bill didn’t provide for any enforcement mechanisms. But not to worry. The other day Douglas Shulman, commissioner for the Internal Revenue Service, announced that, if you fail to purchase the mandated health insurance, he’ll simply confiscate any tax refund due to you from your previous 12 months’ withholding.

We are now not merely disincentivizing economic energy but actively waging war on it. If 51% can vote themselves government lollipops from the other 49%, soon 60% will be shaking down the remaining 40%, and then 70% will be sticking it to the remaining 30%. How low can it go?

When you think about it, that 53% of U.S. households prop up not just this country but half the planet: They effectively pick up the defense tab for our wealthiest allies, so that Germany, Japan and others can maintain minimal militaries and lavish the savings on cradle-to-grave entitlements.

A relatively tiny group of people is writing the check for the entire global order. What proportion of them would need to figure out the game’s no longer worth it to bring the whole system crashing down?

© Mark Steyn, 2010

Never forget. We are in a war for the survival of this nation as a representational republic governed by a Constitution that documents our God given rights. Our liberty and that of our children is at risk. We cannot afford to fail. Failure means slavery to a statist government ruled by a select group of elitists and you won’t be one of them. The ability to better yourself, your family and your children will be dictated by those in power. Don’t expect them to allow you to share their power. It will be closed to all but those belonging to their statist clique. No peons or serfs allowed within the circle.

Attend a Tea Party. Join a group. It matters not whether you are a republican, libertarian, independent or even a democrat who has finally realized how the rank and file of the democrat party has been duped. We must return the country to that envisioned by the founders. Not one envisioned by Marx and Lenin.