By William L. Garvin
“Republicans want dirty air and dirty water,” according to the Campaigner-in-Chief. “Republicans want the bridges to fall down,” according to Mad Maxine Waters. “Republicans just want to protect their rich Wall Street buddies.” Why is it that no one in the media calls Democrats on these idiotic statements?
Simply put, it’s because most of them are liberals and want Democrats to win. That’s why we get selective and biased reporting. Why does no one remember or care to accurately report that the Bush tax cuts were for everyone, not just the rich? Sure, the top tax bracket was cut from $39.6% to $35% (an 11.6% cut) but all the other brackets were cut as well. The lowest bracket dropped all the way from $15% to 10% (a 33 1/3% cut!). Let’s not forget that nearly fifty percent of wage earners pay no income taxes at all. However, many of them also manage to receive federal rebates from other working taxpayers.
Along these lines, if you want to see another government program that is rife with abuse, check out the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. A report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration found that millions of people may have improperly received Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers from the IRS that could be used to fraudulently claim tax refunds. “TIGTA reported that ITIN filers are receiving billions of dollars in Additional Child Tax Credits intended for working families even though such individuals are not authorized to work in the U.S. In its report, TIGTA also found that the IRS has not implemented controls to prevent ITINs from being used by more than one taxpayer on multiple tax returns,” according to WebCPA.
Now, back to the deliberate disinformation doled out by the Dems and their devoted divas in the media. Did revenues actually drop when the Bush tax cuts were implemented? No, they increased just as they did when Kennedy and Reagan cut taxes. Following the Bush tax cuts, revenues were $1.88 trillion in 2004; in 2005, they were $2.15 trillion; in 2006, they were $2.4 trillion; and in 2007, they reached an all time high at $2.6 trillion! The Republican House still controlled the budget so that’s why the federal deficit then was just $161 billion dollars that year. Since then, President Obama has presided over a Democrat dominated Congress that has not only failed to pass a budget but has shattered the trillion dollar per year deficit ceiling and has done it for three straight years! The national debt increased $4.9 trillion dollars during the eight-year Bush presidency. When Barack Obama took office, the debt stood at $10.6 trillion. Now, less than four years later, it is already over $15 trillion and he wants $447 billion more! If he gets his so called Jobs Bill passed, more than one-third of the entire national debt will be incurred during his first four years in the White House.
Republicans now control the House of Representatives for the first time since 2007, and has passed a budget that will cut $4.4 trillion in spending. Democrat Harry Reid refuses to allow it to come to a vote in the Senate. Republican Mitch McConnell has asked for the Jobs Bill to come to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Democrat Harry Reid refuses to allow it. Not only did Harry have to introduce the bill himself, he still has no cosponsors for the mini-me version of the disastrous Stimulus Bill. It’s the same old story: Democrats stall but blame the Republicans and the media goes along with the sham and scam, the bovine scatology.
History shows that when Reagan raised taxes, Democrats promised to cut spending. They didn’t. When George H.W. Bush raised taxes, Democrats promised to cut spending. They didn’t. When Republicans agreed to the increase in the debt ceiling, Democrats promised to cut spending. They haven’t. Now they want to raise taxes and promise to cut spending in the future. They won’t. They still promise to give “everything to everybody.” They’re still drinking champagne out of your beer budget. It makes their drivel easier to swallow.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Let’s Wag the Dog!
By William L. Garvin
“A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.” Fred Allen
Did anyone notice that on Monday, the United States debt reached $15.1 trillion? Of course not. We were too busy watching the latest Occupy Wall Street clashes and its semi-related spawn at the University of California Davis campus. Any media distraction from the catastrophic failure of the current administration is welcome relief to the President and classic “wag the dog” tactics.
Let’s dispose of the UCD side show. Another group of students decided to “camp in” and pitch tents in typical Occupy fashion. Predictably, they were ordered to vacate by the police who were subsequently surrounded by additional students. A dozen protestors sat down, linked arms, and declared that they were the immovable object in the face of the irresistible police force.
In the continuum of force, if talking down the suspect and a show of force doesn’t work, they can consider hands on, batons, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, tasers and deadly force. Heeding echoes of “don’t taze me, bro”, the police decided that pepper spray would be best to avoid injuring police or protestors. The police officers told the protestors that they would use pepper spray and then a few minutes later, they did.
OMG! They officers actually did what they said they were going to do! In a direct assault on UCD’s reputation for academic excellence, the students seemed surprised they were sprayed in the face. Did they think they would be sprayed on their Nikes and Birkenstocks? Talk about being unclear on the concept. Then the student whining and media outrage began. Under national media breast beating, two officers and the Chief were immediately suspended. The insatiable student beast now demands the university president also be fired.
If leaders are to be held accountable, the students could have demanded accountability from their own. After all, some of the Occupy sites are not feeding the homeless who show up. Some of the Occupy Wall Street leaders are staying in $700 per night hotel rooms. These Occupy leaders were also conspicuously absent when the police raided Zucotti Park. To paraphrase George Orwell, apparently “some pigs are more equal than others.”
The Justice Department has sold thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels and those weapons have been used to kill American citizens. Maybe they could demand the ousting of AG Eric Holder and his boss, President Obama. Nope. Maybe they should demand the resignation of all the members of the debt reduction committee who cannot come up with a single way to slow the increase in the rate of spending by our gargantuan federal government. Nope. Maybe they could protest the economic policies of a President that will certainly guarantee their non-employment upon graduation and higher taxes if they ever become successful. Nope. How about a hopeless California state government that is so inept that the unfunded liability is worse than Greece and directly leads to a steady increase in student fees? Nope. They don’t protest increases in taxes on other people but they do protest an increase in their tuition. It’s all about them.
As for the media, they continue to ignore the big problems and focus on the minor mistakes of potential Republican candidates. Holder’s “Fast and Furious” fiasco gets scant coverage; the continual failure of “green energy” companies (even though heavily subsidized by billions of government green) here and in Spain is last page business section fodder; the amount of money donated to the President by unions and Wall Street is treated as secretly as his college transcripts; and the National Labor Relations Board coddling of unions and all out anti-business warfare is barely mentioned. Why isn’t there an investigation of the union, socialist, communist, and anarchist influence on the Occupy gatherings? As for the debt committee, Fred Allen also said it’s “a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.” It’s better for the media and their straw President to focus on the trivial and ignore the significant. The lapdogs keep wagging the dog! Happy Thanksgiving, anyway.
“A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.” Fred Allen
Did anyone notice that on Monday, the United States debt reached $15.1 trillion? Of course not. We were too busy watching the latest Occupy Wall Street clashes and its semi-related spawn at the University of California Davis campus. Any media distraction from the catastrophic failure of the current administration is welcome relief to the President and classic “wag the dog” tactics.
Let’s dispose of the UCD side show. Another group of students decided to “camp in” and pitch tents in typical Occupy fashion. Predictably, they were ordered to vacate by the police who were subsequently surrounded by additional students. A dozen protestors sat down, linked arms, and declared that they were the immovable object in the face of the irresistible police force.
In the continuum of force, if talking down the suspect and a show of force doesn’t work, they can consider hands on, batons, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, tasers and deadly force. Heeding echoes of “don’t taze me, bro”, the police decided that pepper spray would be best to avoid injuring police or protestors. The police officers told the protestors that they would use pepper spray and then a few minutes later, they did.
OMG! They officers actually did what they said they were going to do! In a direct assault on UCD’s reputation for academic excellence, the students seemed surprised they were sprayed in the face. Did they think they would be sprayed on their Nikes and Birkenstocks? Talk about being unclear on the concept. Then the student whining and media outrage began. Under national media breast beating, two officers and the Chief were immediately suspended. The insatiable student beast now demands the university president also be fired.
If leaders are to be held accountable, the students could have demanded accountability from their own. After all, some of the Occupy sites are not feeding the homeless who show up. Some of the Occupy Wall Street leaders are staying in $700 per night hotel rooms. These Occupy leaders were also conspicuously absent when the police raided Zucotti Park. To paraphrase George Orwell, apparently “some pigs are more equal than others.”
The Justice Department has sold thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels and those weapons have been used to kill American citizens. Maybe they could demand the ousting of AG Eric Holder and his boss, President Obama. Nope. Maybe they should demand the resignation of all the members of the debt reduction committee who cannot come up with a single way to slow the increase in the rate of spending by our gargantuan federal government. Nope. Maybe they could protest the economic policies of a President that will certainly guarantee their non-employment upon graduation and higher taxes if they ever become successful. Nope. How about a hopeless California state government that is so inept that the unfunded liability is worse than Greece and directly leads to a steady increase in student fees? Nope. They don’t protest increases in taxes on other people but they do protest an increase in their tuition. It’s all about them.
As for the media, they continue to ignore the big problems and focus on the minor mistakes of potential Republican candidates. Holder’s “Fast and Furious” fiasco gets scant coverage; the continual failure of “green energy” companies (even though heavily subsidized by billions of government green) here and in Spain is last page business section fodder; the amount of money donated to the President by unions and Wall Street is treated as secretly as his college transcripts; and the National Labor Relations Board coddling of unions and all out anti-business warfare is barely mentioned. Why isn’t there an investigation of the union, socialist, communist, and anarchist influence on the Occupy gatherings? As for the debt committee, Fred Allen also said it’s “a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.” It’s better for the media and their straw President to focus on the trivial and ignore the significant. The lapdogs keep wagging the dog! Happy Thanksgiving, anyway.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Hopeless, Jobless, Lawless and Clueless
By William L. Garvin
A murder has occurred at the site of Occupy Oakland but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Coffee and hot dog carts were vandalized at Occupy San Diego and splattered with graffiti, blood, and urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Rapes and sexual assaults plague Occupy Wall Street but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Police officers are pelted with rocks, bottles, padlocks, hammers, Molotov cocktails, M80’s, M100’s, and paint then “gassed” with urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Fires are set throughout the Occupy sites, windows are smashed, property is stolen, buildings are vandalized, news vans are overturned, reporters are attacked but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Thousands of people have been arrested but it has nothing to do with the protestors. That’s what the protestors expect you to believe.
Apparently the Occupy Whatever “movement” is coated with corporate Teflon and remains pure at heart and noble in motive. Ignore the signs that say “The death of democracy” and “Until the last capitalist is hung with the entrails of the last bureaucrat.” Ignore the injuries inflicted upon the police officers (many of whom are veterans) but devote story after story to an injured protestor who is a veteran. Repeatedly explain away the violence, destruction, and arrests as “a fringe group,” or “a small group of vandals,” or “a handful of people.” Don’t even bother to question why a gathering of five to seven thousand people are totally unable to contain a “handful” of anarchists. “We’re too afraid to get too physical,” said Rachel Dorney, “especially if they have a brick in their hand.” “They’re totally going to taint the image but you have to take the good with the bad,” added Alex Matkin. That is pure rhetorical rubbish disguising a lack of courage and a tacit approval of all that is going on. It is a gathering of sheeple many of who are mindlessly exploring their emotional (chemically induced?) sense of being important or significant.
There is no rational reason for refusing to report the crimes at Occupy Wall Street to the authorities or thinking they can police themselves if they are afraid of a single brick. There is no rational reason for refusing to provide the videos of the murder they made on cell phones of the Oakland murder to the police. There is no rational reason for shouting down the police chief when he asked for their assistance in identifying the suspects in the beating and subsequent murder. There is no rational reason for providing aid and comfort to the masked, black clad, ninja wannabe anarchists if the movement is truly peaceful…but they do. They are not part of any solution but they have become the problem.
These protestors have never been representative of “99 percent”, i.e., all those who understand that success comes from a lifetime of effort, hard work, and sound decisions. In short, most Americans don’t expect a free lunch and certainly wouldn’t destroy a hot dog cart when they stopped giving out freebies! They know how to sacrifice short term gratification for long term goals. They didn’t buy homes they couldn’t afford and they don’t whine about having to pay their bills. They don’t expect government to provide them with “womb to tomb” security or a life of ease. They will obey the laws and if they don’t like them, they will cast a vote to change them. They understand substance is better than style and that they will be judged not on their words but on their actions.
Through the prism of “global equality”, they understand that if you make $34,000 per year, YOU ARE IN THE TOP ONE PERCENT ON THIS PLANET! Therefore, those 300 teachers who abandoned their classrooms should give back their excess salaries to the 99% who deserve it in the name of social justice. You can start with those hopeless, jobless, lawless, and clueless protestors you were supporting. Occupy Oakland can also take that $20,000 they deposited in the Wells Fargo Bank and give it to the small businesses they have destroyed! You can also pay back all the cash strapped cities who have had to expend millions of dollars in overtime to limit your violent and narcissistic temper tantrums. When can they expect the check?
A murder has occurred at the site of Occupy Oakland but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Coffee and hot dog carts were vandalized at Occupy San Diego and splattered with graffiti, blood, and urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Rapes and sexual assaults plague Occupy Wall Street but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Police officers are pelted with rocks, bottles, padlocks, hammers, Molotov cocktails, M80’s, M100’s, and paint then “gassed” with urine but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Fires are set throughout the Occupy sites, windows are smashed, property is stolen, buildings are vandalized, news vans are overturned, reporters are attacked but it has nothing to do with the protestors. Thousands of people have been arrested but it has nothing to do with the protestors. That’s what the protestors expect you to believe.
Apparently the Occupy Whatever “movement” is coated with corporate Teflon and remains pure at heart and noble in motive. Ignore the signs that say “The death of democracy” and “Until the last capitalist is hung with the entrails of the last bureaucrat.” Ignore the injuries inflicted upon the police officers (many of whom are veterans) but devote story after story to an injured protestor who is a veteran. Repeatedly explain away the violence, destruction, and arrests as “a fringe group,” or “a small group of vandals,” or “a handful of people.” Don’t even bother to question why a gathering of five to seven thousand people are totally unable to contain a “handful” of anarchists. “We’re too afraid to get too physical,” said Rachel Dorney, “especially if they have a brick in their hand.” “They’re totally going to taint the image but you have to take the good with the bad,” added Alex Matkin. That is pure rhetorical rubbish disguising a lack of courage and a tacit approval of all that is going on. It is a gathering of sheeple many of who are mindlessly exploring their emotional (chemically induced?) sense of being important or significant.
There is no rational reason for refusing to report the crimes at Occupy Wall Street to the authorities or thinking they can police themselves if they are afraid of a single brick. There is no rational reason for refusing to provide the videos of the murder they made on cell phones of the Oakland murder to the police. There is no rational reason for shouting down the police chief when he asked for their assistance in identifying the suspects in the beating and subsequent murder. There is no rational reason for providing aid and comfort to the masked, black clad, ninja wannabe anarchists if the movement is truly peaceful…but they do. They are not part of any solution but they have become the problem.
These protestors have never been representative of “99 percent”, i.e., all those who understand that success comes from a lifetime of effort, hard work, and sound decisions. In short, most Americans don’t expect a free lunch and certainly wouldn’t destroy a hot dog cart when they stopped giving out freebies! They know how to sacrifice short term gratification for long term goals. They didn’t buy homes they couldn’t afford and they don’t whine about having to pay their bills. They don’t expect government to provide them with “womb to tomb” security or a life of ease. They will obey the laws and if they don’t like them, they will cast a vote to change them. They understand substance is better than style and that they will be judged not on their words but on their actions.
Through the prism of “global equality”, they understand that if you make $34,000 per year, YOU ARE IN THE TOP ONE PERCENT ON THIS PLANET! Therefore, those 300 teachers who abandoned their classrooms should give back their excess salaries to the 99% who deserve it in the name of social justice. You can start with those hopeless, jobless, lawless, and clueless protestors you were supporting. Occupy Oakland can also take that $20,000 they deposited in the Wells Fargo Bank and give it to the small businesses they have destroyed! You can also pay back all the cash strapped cities who have had to expend millions of dollars in overtime to limit your violent and narcissistic temper tantrums. When can they expect the check?
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Who’s Afraid of Herman Cain?
By William L. Garvin
If you were watching and reading the main stream media this week, you might have noticed some malice to their madness. First is their obsessive and repetitive need to use every possible means to slur the character and competence of Herman Cain. One lawyer (whose lips were moving!) said he represented an unnamed woman who claimed Mr. Cain made a gesture that while “not overtly sexual” made her feel “angry and uncomfortable.” Does anyone anywhere have the slightest idea what kind of gesture this could be? Furthermore (his lips were still moving!), he claimed she wanted to speak out on the subject but was prevented from doing so by a confidentiality agreement.
At the time of this alleged incident (1999), Mr. Cain was employed by the National Restaurant Association as their Chief Executive Officer. The NRA investigated her allegations and apparently reached an agreement that she would receive $45,000 and she would then quit the NRA. Liberal talking heads spent inordinate amounts of time quibbling over whether this was a “settlement,” “agreement,” or a “severance package.” Whatever it was, the deal was between the NRA and this mystery woman, not with Mr. Cain. Confidentiality was agreed to by both those parties as this generally serves to protect the plaintiff as well as the defendant. Mr. Mouthpiece continued his fifteen minutes of fame by proclaiming his client wanted to set the record straight.
It apparently came as quite a shock when the NRA waived its confidentiality requirement and said go ahead and speak. All of a sudden, Mystery Woman had a change of heart and no longer wanted to “revisit the details.” Rather than actually do a little investigative reporting, the media continued along its merry way rationalizing her abrupt reversal of field and continuing its “high tech lynching” with incessant innuendo and sexist aspersions. Notably absent from coverage were interviews with Mr. Cain’s coworkers who hold opposing views to the obscure charges of Mystery Woman. Also notably absent from the scene were those champions of minority rights, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Oh, that’s right…Cain’s a Republican, just like Clarence Thomas. When you have a black conservative, it’s hard to portray him as a racist so play the sexist card! Ms. Madeline Albright said as much when she complained that Mr. Cain didn’t consult her on foreign affairs because she was a woman. There are many reasons why he wouldn’t consult with her…just look at her record.
Now that you understand the main stream media hatchet job on Mr. Cain, let’s put things in real world perspective. The Human Resource Institute notes that the average sexual harassment claim that is founded results in an award of $650,000 with an additional award of $85,000 in legal fees piled on top of that. Mystery Woman received $45,000. One could infer she had a lousy case, a lousy attorney, or all of the above. It is an unfortunate but common practice in corporate and government worlds to settle out of court for “nuisance value” rather than litigate even the most specious of claims. The vague allegations, lack of evidence, refusal to come forward after the confidential requirement was lifted and anonymous source would lead one to objectively conclude that this was the case with the NRA.
It’s too bad the media didn’t spend the same amount of time investigating the seventeen jobs bills that have been passed by the House but are gathering dust in Harry Reid’s Senate. They could also have investigated why some Democrats voted with Republicans against the jobs bill. They could have investigated “Fast and Furious.” They could have investigated why the Bullet Train in California has ballooned in cost from its 2008 estimate of $33.6 billion to $$98.6 billion. Why has the completion date moved from 2020 to 2030? Why did Beacon Power get $43 million from American taxpayers in August of 2010 and file for bankruptcy in October of 2011? Why did they create only fourteen jobs?! And where is the $500,000 that Occupy Wall Street raised? And why did they apply for a trademark? Has OWS gone corporate? Inquiring minds want to know; the media doesn’t.
If you were watching and reading the main stream media this week, you might have noticed some malice to their madness. First is their obsessive and repetitive need to use every possible means to slur the character and competence of Herman Cain. One lawyer (whose lips were moving!) said he represented an unnamed woman who claimed Mr. Cain made a gesture that while “not overtly sexual” made her feel “angry and uncomfortable.” Does anyone anywhere have the slightest idea what kind of gesture this could be? Furthermore (his lips were still moving!), he claimed she wanted to speak out on the subject but was prevented from doing so by a confidentiality agreement.
At the time of this alleged incident (1999), Mr. Cain was employed by the National Restaurant Association as their Chief Executive Officer. The NRA investigated her allegations and apparently reached an agreement that she would receive $45,000 and she would then quit the NRA. Liberal talking heads spent inordinate amounts of time quibbling over whether this was a “settlement,” “agreement,” or a “severance package.” Whatever it was, the deal was between the NRA and this mystery woman, not with Mr. Cain. Confidentiality was agreed to by both those parties as this generally serves to protect the plaintiff as well as the defendant. Mr. Mouthpiece continued his fifteen minutes of fame by proclaiming his client wanted to set the record straight.
It apparently came as quite a shock when the NRA waived its confidentiality requirement and said go ahead and speak. All of a sudden, Mystery Woman had a change of heart and no longer wanted to “revisit the details.” Rather than actually do a little investigative reporting, the media continued along its merry way rationalizing her abrupt reversal of field and continuing its “high tech lynching” with incessant innuendo and sexist aspersions. Notably absent from coverage were interviews with Mr. Cain’s coworkers who hold opposing views to the obscure charges of Mystery Woman. Also notably absent from the scene were those champions of minority rights, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Oh, that’s right…Cain’s a Republican, just like Clarence Thomas. When you have a black conservative, it’s hard to portray him as a racist so play the sexist card! Ms. Madeline Albright said as much when she complained that Mr. Cain didn’t consult her on foreign affairs because she was a woman. There are many reasons why he wouldn’t consult with her…just look at her record.
Now that you understand the main stream media hatchet job on Mr. Cain, let’s put things in real world perspective. The Human Resource Institute notes that the average sexual harassment claim that is founded results in an award of $650,000 with an additional award of $85,000 in legal fees piled on top of that. Mystery Woman received $45,000. One could infer she had a lousy case, a lousy attorney, or all of the above. It is an unfortunate but common practice in corporate and government worlds to settle out of court for “nuisance value” rather than litigate even the most specious of claims. The vague allegations, lack of evidence, refusal to come forward after the confidential requirement was lifted and anonymous source would lead one to objectively conclude that this was the case with the NRA.
It’s too bad the media didn’t spend the same amount of time investigating the seventeen jobs bills that have been passed by the House but are gathering dust in Harry Reid’s Senate. They could also have investigated why some Democrats voted with Republicans against the jobs bill. They could have investigated “Fast and Furious.” They could have investigated why the Bullet Train in California has ballooned in cost from its 2008 estimate of $33.6 billion to $$98.6 billion. Why has the completion date moved from 2020 to 2030? Why did Beacon Power get $43 million from American taxpayers in August of 2010 and file for bankruptcy in October of 2011? Why did they create only fourteen jobs?! And where is the $500,000 that Occupy Wall Street raised? And why did they apply for a trademark? Has OWS gone corporate? Inquiring minds want to know; the media doesn’t.
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