Archive for September, 2009
New Digital Download Tax Starts Tomorrow
MacIver Institute on September 30, 2009
by Brian Fraley
Consider this a public service announcement from your friends at the MacIver Institute who believe residents of Wisconsin are over taxed.
When you are done reading this, you will want to hit Amazon.com for a nice read or perhaps some other site to commence with the music downloads. You see, you need to get your digital purchases in motion before the new tax kicks in tomorrow.
eBooks? Yep, a new tax starts tomorrow.
Online music downloads? Yep, a new tax starts tomorrow.
Even ring tones? Yes, Wisconsin imposes a tax on them, too, starting tomorrow.
Sadly, Wisconsin is now even resorting to taxing purchased digital clip art, starting tomorrow.
Although it is imposed by less than half the states, as of tomorrow, Wisconsin will apply its sales and use taxes to sales of digital goods.
Your government’s most recent gift to you: the iPod Tax. Or should we call it the Kindle Tax? Better to call it what it really is: “Wisconsin’s We Found Yet Another Way to Take More of What You Have During the Worst Economy in Decades Because We Didn’t Want to Cut Spending-Tax”
This doesn’t just inconvenience teens’ and young adults’ recreation. Attention any enterprising graphic artists, photographers and printers: the vast amount online media you purchase will be taxed in Wisconsin–beginning tomorrow.
For those who want more details on this tax (which is expected to bring in between six and 11 million dollars a year, for now), the Wisconsin Department of Revenue has issued Publication 240: Digital Goods - How Do Wisconsin Sales and Use Taxes Apply to Sales and Purchases of Digital Goods? This awesomely-bureaucratic titled publication is available for viewing and downloading here.
No worries though. This publication is free, so there won’t be any tax on it today…or tomorrow.
How comforting.
From http://maciverinstitute.com/2009/09/new-digital-download-tax-starts-tomorrow.html
Thank you Governor Doyle!
Patriot Act helped foil New York terror plot
Washington Examiner Editorial
September 30, 2009
(President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act in 2001 after a hard-fought debate in Congress.)
President Obama called New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to thank him for his efforts in thwarting a planned terrorist attack on the city’s subway system, which counterterrorism experts describe as the most serious terror plot since 9/11. But Obama should have also thanked his predecessor in the White House.
The arrest and indictment of Najibullah Zazi on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction was made possible by the “roving wiretaps” allowed by the Patriot Act, which was signed into law in 2001 by President George W. Bush. “All the layers of defense President Bush set up after Sept. 11 are working,” Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., pointed out. The Patriot Act caused plenty of controversy, but it was key to the Bush administration’s successful eight-year counterterrorism strategy that focused on disrupting terror attacks and thereby preventing the deaths of more Americans here at home.
Read more at http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Patriot-Act-helped-foil-New-York-terror-plot-8316210.html
Thank you Congressman Sensenbrenner!
Go Sarah!!! Sarah Palin’s Book is a bestseller, and its not even published yet!
Trial Lawyers Own The Democrats–That’s Why There’s No Tort Reform
Monday, September 28, 2009
Many experts have pointed to tort reform as a key element of any effort to hold down the costs of health care:
Old Democratic presidential aspirant John Edwards won $175 million in judgments over a 12-year period suing doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, everyone but the candy stripers, over infant cerebral palsy cases allegedly caused by mishandled deliveries.
As the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted in a study in 2003, cerebral palsy could not be blamed on delivery trouble in the “vast majority” of cases. Using bad science, Edwards enriched himself by bankrupting innocent physicians. The effect is not restricted to insurance costs. Lawsuits cause doctors to run additional and possibly unessential procedures:
Read more at http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2009/09/trial-lawyers-own-democrats-thats-why.html
The Un-Aborted Obama
Monday, September 28, 2009
by Mike Adams
Hello Barry. I’ve decided to write you a few questions in response to the unsolicited emails I keep getting from BarackObama.com. Since most of your form emails concern health care I’ll confine most of my questions to one health-related subject: Abortion.
1. Did you know that about 150 young black people were admitted to Howard University School of Law this year? But, unfortunately, about 1370 black babies were aborted today. How can we effect “social justice” if the health profession kills far more blacks than the legal profession is currently accepting into its ranks?
2. Isn’t abortion sort of like liberalism in a nutshell? It’s just a way of asking others to suffer the consequences of your own bad decisions.
Read more at http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeAdams/2009/09/28/the_un-aborted_obama
20 Questions About Obamacare
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
by John Hawkins
Because Barack Obama voted “present” on the health care bill by refusing to submit his own bill, Americans have been left with a number of different bills in Congress to evaluate. This has been made more difficult by the fact that the Democrats, including Barack Obama — scratch that — ESPECIALLY Barack Obama, have been lying about what’s in the bills winding their way through Congress. Meanwhile, the mainstream media has stopped asking any tough questions and has simply taken on the role of a love struck cheerleader waving pom poms for her dashing boyfriend, the quarterback of the health care plan.
So, let’s talk about the basic questions YOU should have answered to your satisfaction before you consider supporting any health care bill that comes out of Congress. As you read these questions, keep in mind that every one has been inspired by bills that are moving through Congress as we speak.
1) Medicare and Social Security are driving this country into bankruptcy. Can we afford another gargantuan government entitlement program when we know we can’t pay for the programs we already have?
2) Given that the Medicare system will soon be going into the red, does it make sense to attempt to cut 500 billion dollars in funds out of the program to move over to another entitlement program?
Read more at http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2009/09/29/20_questions_about_obamacare
Liberals seek health-care access for illegals
Liberals seek health-care access for illegals
Washington Times, September 28, 2009
By Stephen Dinan
Fearful that they’re losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access.
The Democrats, trying to stiffen their party’s spines on the contentious issue, say it’s unfair to bar illegal immigrants from paying their own way in a government-sponsored exchange. Legal immigrants, they say, regardless of how long they’ve been in the United States, should be able to get government-subsidized health care if they meet the other eligibility requirements.
Read more at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/28/liberals-seek-health-care-access-for-illegals
JOE WILSON WAS RIGHT . . . AND IS STILL WAITING FOR HIS APOLOGY!
Stop Allowing The Left To Set The Rules
September 28, 2009
by Lloyd Marcus, a Black Un-hyphenated American!
I am so sick of the Left being allowed to make the rules. Imagine the absurdity of a competition in which one side is allowed to set the rules against their opponent. The Left tells us what is racist. The Left tells us what we can and cannot say. The Left published a cartoon depicting former black Secretary of State Condolezza Rice as an Aunt Jemima; another depicted Rice as a huge-lipped parrot for her Massa Bush. Neither were considered racist by their creators or publishers, or even widely condemned on the Left.
In opposition to black Republican Michael Steele’s campaign to run for U.S. Senate, a liberal blogger published a doctored photo of Steele in black face and big red lips made to look like a minstrel. The caption read, “Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house”. Not one Democrat denounced these racist portrayals of black conservatives.
And yet, a sign seen at a tea party depicting Obama as a witch doctor is considered by the Left to be beyond the pale and obviously racist. Why is the Left, given their track record of bias, granted final authority to determine the intent of the sign? Why do we conservatives so quickly and easily allow ourselves to be put on the defensive?
The rules set by the Left are extremely clear. Racist images of black conservatives and negative images of Bush are fair game. Even a play about murdering President Bush was called “harmless art”. Meanwhile, all unflattering images of Obama are racist, and constitute dangerous, potentially violent hate speech.
Read more at http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/stop_allowing_the_left_to_set.html
New website can’t track paths of federal stimulus grants
By Miles Moffeit
The Denver Post
Posted: 09/27/2009
The goal was to build a reporting system that allows the public to follow the zigzagging paths of dollars awarded under the $787 billion federal stimulus package.
A financial GPS of sorts.
But despite federal lawmakers’ pledge of transparency, the final stages of most money trails, along with key information about job impacts, will remain invisible to users of the Recovery.org website when it debuts next month.
Only details of a stimulus grant’s passage through its first two stops after it leaves the federal government must be reported, according to guidance memos from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
That means billions of dollars will be untrackable and thousands of recipients will be left unidentified through the database, officials acknowledge.
Read more at http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13425120
As a Group, Bottom 70 Percent of Families Will Receive More Benefits Than They Pay in Taxes Under Obama Plan
New Tax Foundation “Fiscal Incidence” Model Measures the Income Redistribution Caused by Federal Spending As Well As Taxes
Washington, DC, September 21, 2009 — New reports from the Tax Foundation show that President Obama’s policy proposals will increase the financial dependence of middle-income Americans on the federal government.
“Attempts to put ‘price tags’ on health care and cap-and-trade proposals vary among government agencies and think tanks,” said Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge, “but one vital question has been left unanswered: Counting all federal taxes and spending, how would these policies affect American families’ financial ties to the government? The foundation’s new ‘fiscal incidence model’ answers that question.”
“Currently the bottom 60 percent of the income spectrum receives more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes,” said Hodge. “By 2012, if President Obama’s proposals on taxes, health care and climate change become law, the bottom 70 percent of American families will, as a group, be receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal tax.”
Even if none of Obama’s policies becomes law, the extent of current income redistribution is remarkable: The top-earning 40 percent of families will transfer $826 billion to the bottom 60 percent in 2012. If Obama’s policies become law, the federal government will redistribute nearly $1 trillion from the top-earning 30 percent of families to the bottom 70 percent (those earning up to $109,000).
Read more at http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/25201.html
Obama Likes Tyrants and Dislikes America . . . and Here’s More Proof
Obama Likes Tyrants and Dislikes America . . . and Here’s More Proof
by Andy McCarthy, the Corner at National Review
Michael hits the nail on the head . . . and then comes this: The Obama administration has notified Congress of the State Department’s intention to contribute $400,000 to foundations run by Muammar Qaddafi’s two children — $200,000 each for daughter Aisha and son Saif. Saif, you may recall, is the son who escorted the Lockerbie terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi home to a hero’s welcome in Libya after President Obama sternly “warned” Qaddafi that there was to be no hero’s welcome.
Illinois Republican congressman Mark Steven Kirk (House Appropriations Subcommittee on State/Foreign Operations) has sent Obama a letter asking him to rescind the funding.
Could somebody please tell this president that this is not just Annenberg Foundation cash he’s passing out to his personal terrorist pals like Bill Ayers but American taxpayer dollars he’s doling out to the terrorist tyrant behind the murder — in just that one incident — of 270 people, including 189 Americans.
Just 40 months to go. God help us.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2FkMDMwNzg4MGNkNGEzNDRjMWQxOTdlOWUwYzA4MzE
Just in case you don’t believe this crazy story:
Kirk Asks President Obama to Withdraw Administration’s Request to Provide $400,000 to Libya’s Qaddafi Foundation
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2546130/
State Department Backs Off Grants to Kaddafi’s Kids
I THOUGHT THE US HAS NO MONEY!
President Obama’s Agenda Would Bring $13 Trillion in Budget Deficits, Not $9 Trillion
September 22, 2009
by Brian M. Riedl
Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2319
Abstract: President Obama’s budget will likely produce $13 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years–nearly $4 trillion more than forecast. The White House figures are based on unrealistic estimates of discretionary spending, interest payments, and interest rates. The White House also used budget gimmicks to hide the full cost of certain entitlements and failed to account for the full costs of cap-and-trade energy legislation and health care reform.
The White House’s mid-session budget review recently forecast that President Barack Obama’s budget would create $9 trillion in budget deficits over the next decade–more debt than America accumulated from 1789 through 2008 combined.[1] Yet even that figure likely understates the 10-year budget deficit by nearly $4 trillion. It completely excludes the proposed new health care entitlement, underestimates other costs, and fails to include the full price of major legislation that the President has endorsed. A more realistic budget estimate incorporating all these costs shows:
* An additional $5 trillion in spending, $1 trillion in revenues, and $4 trillion in deficits over the next decade;
* Budget deficits adding $13 trillion to the national debt over the next decade;
* The national debt held by the public surpassing $20 trillion by 2019, reaching nearly 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) (See Chart 1);
Read more at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg2319.cfm
This has been a bi-partisan problem, as shown in I.O.U.S.A. (the movie)
Now its just getting out of hand. “At least the fall of the Republic is being televised in HD.”
Dems block GOP demand for more time
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday turned back a Republican amendment to wait 72 hours and require a full cost estimate before the final committee vote on the health care reform bill.
It was the committee’s first vote out of more than 500 amendments awaiting them, in what has already been a contentious mark-up session.
The amendment would have delayed a vote on the final bill for about two weeks to allow the Congressional Budget Office to complete its final analysis on the cost and implications of the legislation.
Read more at http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/23/house-lawmakers-aim-push-back-against-hasty-votes/
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Transparency, what transparency?
READ THE BILLS!!
The rules murdering our troops
by Ralph Peters
New York Post, September 24, 2009
When enemy action kills our troops, it’s unfortunate. When our own moral fecklessness murders those in uniform, it’s unforgivable.
In Afghanistan, our leaders are complicit in the death of each soldier, Marine or Navy corpsman who falls because politically correct rules of engagement shield our enemies.
Mission-focused, but morally oblivious, Gen. Stan McChrystal conformed to the Obama Way of War by imposing rules of engagement that could have been concocted by Code Pink:
* Unless our troops in combat are absolutely certain that no civilians are present, they’re denied artillery or air support.
* If any civilians appear where we meet the Taliban, our troops are to “break contact” — to retreat.
Read more at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_rules_murdering_our_troops_u935ECKNWXpLK8C5D96pdN
Worst foreign policy ever
Washington Times Editorial: Worst foreign policy ever
Obama is tripping all over the world stage
Then there is the catalogue of Mr. Obama’s embarrassing moments on the world stage, a list which includes: giving England’s Queen Elizabeth II an iPod with his speeches on it; giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a collection of DVDs that were not formatted to the European standard (by contrast, Mr. Brown gave Mr. Obama an ornamental desk-pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, among other historically significant gifts); calling “Austrian” a language; bowing to the Saudi king; releasing a photo of a conference call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the president was showing the soles of his shoes to the camera (an Arab insult); saying “let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s”; saying the United States was “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world”; suggesting Arabic translators be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan where Arabic is not a native language; sending a letter to French President Jacques Chirac when Nicolas Sarkozy was the president of France; holding a town-hall meeting in France and not calling on a single French citizen; and referring to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador when he meant Cinco de Mayo. Also of note was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton giving Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a “reset” button with the Russian word for “overcharge.”
Who has heard of this entire sad catalog of glitches? Imagine if a Republican said/did these things.
Read more at http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/23/worst-foreign-policy-ever/?feat=home_editorials
Democratic Party chair calls TEA party attendees “extremist elements”
“Thousands rally at Milwaukee tea party”
Event stirs up anti-spending fervor
Posted: Sept. 19, 2009
Mike Tate, the Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman, downplayed the impact of the tea party movement.
“These are extremist elements pulling together, distinct vocal minorities that frankly don’t believe in this country,” Tate said. “They don’t want to see more people have access to quality affordable health care; they don’t want clean air and water. They fundamentally don’t understand how the American government, economy and capitalism work.”
Read more on “Thousands rally at Milwaukee tea party” at http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/59890852.html
Wow, this is how the Democratic Party attracts voters? Is this this what they really think of Americans??
Obama plays dumb on ACORN
By Michelle Malkin • September 20, 2009 11:21 AM
Channeling clueless Charlie Gibson and Nancy Pelosi, President Obama is playing dumb about ACORN. Here’s what he said on
ABC’s This Week this morning:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But have your — have some of your allies made it easier for — handed your opponents some ammunition, like ACORN, for example…
OBAMA: Well, look, the — you know, I think that — are there folks in the Democratic camp or on the left who haven’t — haven’t always operated in ways that I’d appreciate? Absolutely.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Congress said they should cut off all funding for ACORN.
OBAMA: Is — is — is…
STEPHANOPOULOS: … all funding for ACORN. Are you for that?
OBAMA: Is that true on the other side, as well? Of course that’s true.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?
OBAMA: You know, it’s — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off.
OBAMA: You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you’re not committing to — to cut off the federal funding?
OBAMA: George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It’s not something I’m paying a lot of attention to.
Read more at http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/20/obama-plays-dumb-on-acorn/
“This Week” Transcript with President Barack Obama
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Joe Wilson was right, again.
Obama: Legalize illegals to get them health care
By Stephen Dinan, Washington Times
Friday, September 18, 2009
President Obama said this week that his health care plan won’t cover illegal immigrants, but argued that’s all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage. He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered - a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants.
Read more at http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/18/obama-ties-immigration-to-health-care-battle
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Questions: Won’t adding 20 million illegal aliens cost billions upon billions? Won’t Obama’s proposal ATTRACT even MORE illegal aliens to this country? How does this help the country? Can this country AFFORD a national healthcare plan, and with new patients?
“THE MAGIC QUESTION”: WHAT IS BEING REWARDED?? *
The more you subsidize/encourage, the more you get. Subsidize medical care for illegal aliens, get more illegal aliens. Just don’t be surprised when it happens.
When you ask “The Magic Question” you answer a LOT of questions.
* “The Magic Question” comes from the book “The Greatest Management Principle in the World” by Michael LeBoeuf. Highly recommended. A non-political, business book.
Michelle Malkin will highlight Wisconsin’s largest ever Taxpayer Tea Party
Be a Part of History!Number one best selling author, Fox News Channel contributor, pundit, award-winning syndicated columnist, blogger and mother, Michelle Malkin will highlight Wisconsin’s largest ever Taxpayer Tea Party on Saturday, September 19, 2009. Malkin’s latest book remains at the top spot of the New York Times Best Seller list: CULTURE OF CORRUPTION, President Obama and his team as tax cheats, petty crooks, influence peddlers and Wall Street cronies.The Wisconsin State Director of Americans for Prosperity, Mark Block, says of Malkin, “Michelle Malkin doesn’t pull punches and is one of the brightest commentators in America. Michelle adds to an already outstanding line up for what promises to be the largest tea party in Wisconsin history. When we all look back at this event, it will be remembered as a time when taxpayers began to take their country back.”
Malkin joins a host of well-known speakers including: “Joe the Plumber”, Vicki McKenna, Pat Snyder, James T. Harris, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Astrophysicist Willie Soon, Marc Marano, Sheriff David Clarke, Mark Block, Pastor David King, Rebecca Kleefisch and Linda Hansen. More information on Michelle Malkin can be found by visiting michellemalkin.com.
More than 40,000 Wisconsin taxpayers have joined tea party rallies and health care forums since April of 2009. To register for the Milwaukee Tea Party visit www.fightbackwisconsin.com
WHAT: Wisconsin’s Largest Tea Party
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
WHERE: Veterans Park, 1010 N. Lincoln Mem. Dr., Milwaukee, WI