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Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..
So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….
I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……
There are the two extremes.
One, a person who makes an invention, should be able to make money off his idea, and not have it stolen out from under him, by someone else…
Two, we have a right to our own thoughts and since all thoughts are incorporations of other people’s thoughts, for free speech to occur, we cannot hold everyone liable for everything borrowed they say….
Where do we draw the line?
“The Congress shall have power…To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;”
Limited time.
So if I was talking to Nancy, and said, hey did you hear the new Radiohead Song about Christine O’Donnell and she said no, and I sang it to her (rather well I might add), then I would have violated the Constitution by violating the exclusive right of Radiohead to be the first one to let Nancy in on that song….
But, if pursued, I would be safe under the Free Speech clause of the Constitution…
So if I was talking to Liberal Geek, and had these great Pink Floyd lyrics that just fit a current event and repeated them to him, I would be violating the Constitution by not allowing Pink Floyd the exclusive right to be the first to let him on that correlation.
But, if pursued, I would be safe under the Free Speech clause of the Constitution.
And so, if using the Internet, I were to take a YouTube clip of a campaigner, say sucking on a corndog, and say this is what campaigning has boiled down to, why aren’t we discussing issues anymore”.. I would be violating the Constitution by not allowing that person, whomever it might be, the right to be the first to make that correlation….
Bit if pursued. I would be protected under my first amendment rights…. My right to free speech…
Now, lets say, I did post a corndog picture. or one of Obama smoking a cigarette, or one of Obama with a hole in his head… and got arrested….
I would say I was protected under the Freedom of Speech clause of the Constitution. Right?
No, not if the SOPA bill currently supported by Chris Coons, John Carney, or Tom Carper, gets voted on and passed…
Also, 99% of YouTubes videos will be yanked, if this bill becomes law.
Also, 99% of Googles information, will be pulled, or hidden, if this bill becomes law.
Also 99% of Yahoo’s and the other search engines, will have to scrub a majority of their files… if this bill becomes law…
This is a dumb law.. Really, really, really dumb…
Just like the last dumb law pushed by the entertainment lobby. To make VCR’s illegal.
“We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry that is able to retrieve a surplus balance of trade and whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine. … I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”
Jack Valenti before Congress April 12 1982.
The VCR business made millions for the entertainment industry.
I just used that without their permission.
I could be shut down, and so, could Wikipedia…
Without which, what’s the point of having internet?
Correct me if I’m wrong. But today, I speak more on the internet than I do with real people. How about you? True or False?
We the people have the right, based on precedence and common sense, to have our own thoughts without having to worry about them being monitored, stored, and used against us at a later date.
It needs to be clear. The Internet is free. Copying a song and sending it, is the exact same thing as humming a tune to another person. Under no circumstances is if allowable for a government to shut down a site, that is involved with the dissemination of information. Information is not open for discussion. It is everything on the internet.
This bill is too loose and like the Patriot Act, too invasive. The entertainment industry already makes billions. None of that, or only a tiny fraction, goes to the personnel who created the object.
The fact that we should all never again speak freely, should always temper what we say, so they can make another $10,000… is absolutely obscene…
You need to let them know.
Pondering over Steve’s return and the ramifications which came with it, (for example, I noticed the re-humanization of Dana Garrett), I was reminiscing why so many bloggers had fallen off the wagon…
Back in the glory days, there was a rather eclectic collection of men and women who put their thoughts down nightly or almost on a regular basis. A few are left today… But missing are Mike Matthews, Shirley Vandever, Tommywonk, Dave Burris, Dana Garrett, Duffy, Maria Evans, Joe M., Mat Marshall, …..
Most all of these posted their reasons for giving it up…. and they all sound the same. Tireless demands of time, no real feeling for posting anymore, realization that it was a lot of hoopla and little real substance.
And ironically the more successful you became the more time you felt you had to spend answering comments. And for the amount of time spent, the numbers of people actually reading them, were dwarfed by just the voting totals of Delaware alone.
But it is with Steve’s return that I think I finally was able to put my finger on just why the blog-world fell apart. It was because we had stopped becoming a community. It is rather interesting to read something someone posts that says: I think thus about this subject and here is why…. It is less interesting to have a blurb saying: “check this out” and then click a video and sit back waiting through the commercial….and then after watching, think: “that was a waste of time…”
Each person had a personality. Shirley tried portraying herself as a crusty curmudgeon but she was anything but…. Dave would bluster about, but then, without warning come through with brilliance. Mat, provided a odd twist from the enlightened eyes of a Cab Calloway student. Donviti was … well Donviti..and that’s a good thing. Hube could on the turn of a dime, surprise you by agreeing with what you said. Kilroy roasted Red Clay school district, no doubt causing them to cringe with his misspellings, and put New Castle’s school troubles on the map. Duffy always found the most eclectic random findings, and mainstreamed them for the rest of us. Nancy, with her sources, and emails, provided the bulletin board for all of us to snatch our next story from… Coupled with airplay on WVUD,WHYY, WMGD, Al Mascitti and Rick Jensen, actual influence over current events was projected… or at least it felt that way…
What we had was a community. And that peer group was who you wrote for. Sometimes you wrote evocative pieces just imagining Hube reading it and reddening his ears. Other times you could get Nancy’s gander up, just by praising Chris Coons. One out of this group, even considered running for Governor, and probably should have, considering the complete tanking of the campaign by that person who did run.
But mostly, we wrote for each other… If other’s wanted to read they were welcome. I think some who tried to fly too close to the sun, and write like they were the News Journal, got burnt out, and dropped by the wayside.
It is interesting to see the change in both Hube’s and Delaware Liberal’s format, comparing todays with yesteryears. Today, everything is bite sized. Before, we had the extended version.
The difference is like eating crackers off the table in back of the meeting room, or, breaking for dinner. Taking a break for dinner, is much more enjoyable.
All great moments pass. It is fact that we look back on them in admiration, that makes them great. So, I guess, though the characters are still alive, and a few still active, we cannot return to those times, long ago and far away.
I can only hope that a new generation, may someday read this, and happen to come across something like this, and find inspiration within themselves to do it again….
I think it is safe to say, we “pulled it off big time”. We really did something, which in it’s time was unheard of, and what we did, still has lasting ramifications rippling through our state government today…
I think most of the problems we dealt with, got fixed. Although no one can point to us and say we did it, that we influenced the changes, they certainly can’t deny. After all, each and every one of those problems haunted legislature for a quite a long, long time, and.. they are gone now. We exposed them for what they were…
With that said and done, … it’s pretty cool.
Today the jobs bill got sent to the House.
Obama wants taxes on the wealthy, He wants increased taxes on corporate profits to help pay for his jobs bill…
As one reads the bill, one remembers that these same ideas, these same concepts were in last November’s finance bills, which passed the House, and got stalled in the Senate…..
One remembers these same ideas, these same concepts, were in the $4 Trillion Deficit Reduction Act, and all parties were excited that finally something good was coming out of Congress, ….. that is until the Eric Cantor contingent stormed out of the meetings because of higher taxes, and the votes fell short…
Metaphorically speaking it is like Obama (truth) keeps running into a brick wall(stupidity)… and we, keep blaming Obama for not being tough enough….
We should be focused on tearing down that wall…..
‘Tear Down that Wall, Delaware Liberal, Tear Down that Wall..”
Instead, in our frustration (exactly what it is) we blame the very one person on the attack….. ????
I remember a story told here once before, of a charge across “no man’s land” in WWI, where everyone was mowed down except one lucky person… as he stormed the trench, he looked around and noticed he was the only one facing a trench full of weaponry. In disgust, the threw down his weapon and walked away back to his own lines… In the strange code of soldiers honor, no one fired a shot…..
The wall has never been weaker. It is time to chip away at the Republican base, just like we did in 2006… We have facts.. they have Eric Cantor extolling them to remain firm… Our way gets America back on its feet; their way lets them keep their extra 5%. It would be wise to remember, that even Hitler had his dedicated youth during the last days… They have their Young Republicans… blindly following directives that make little if any sense.
Everyone needs to call them on it…
Now is the time to pull out every chart showing that Republicans ruin everything they put their hands on.. Whether it be the United States, the State of Delaware, or Sussex and Kent Counties… Republicans do no good at all..
Which is why they are so well funded….
If you were doing something obscenely illegal, wouldn’t you be paying off the law as well?
So look into yourselves and decide whether you want to be part of the problem… or solution…
The solution is to turn Republicans into a joke. And to do it publicly… The battle is independent voters. And they get hit with shit from both sides… Our shit, simply has to smell a little better….
Focusing on our frustration, only strengthens the other side; that other side which created the deficit, destroyed the global economy, lost 1 out of 10 American jobs, cost you 30% more in insurance premiums, Increased your gas prices 3 times, cost you 60% more for your electrical power, raised the cost of your prescriptions 450%….
Start tearing down the wall………………….
It has always been a dream of mine, ever since Gingrich destroyed the camaraderie of Congress with his bombastic attacks, that one day, both sides would give the press a collective F*ck You and begin to work together……..
The press instigates many of the adversarial relationships… Framing questions, reporting sound bytes without mentioning the context in which they were uttered.
So, as you know, the two principal players were Eric Cantor, and President Obama. Obama’s role was mostly filled by Delaware’s own Joe Biden…. affectionately known in here, as Seabiscuit.
Personal relationships are how things happen. That doesn’t make good copy, so the press tries to find differences and drive wedges in to split them further…..
On would be shocked, shocked to hear something like this went on….
“I think the success of these talks thus far is due to the vice president and the way he has conducted the meetings,” Cantor explained.
“it’s been a great, pleasant surprise” to work with Cantor. “The guy’s as smart as hell,” Biden said, adding that Cantor has “been totally, completely straightforward and sincere.”
(Btw, just how smart is hell? On Google, I can find no reference!)
Elsewhere in the House majority leader’s comments on deficit-reduction talks he praised to the Times-Dispatch, the panel led by Vice President Delaware’s Joe Biden.
The commission had identified a possible $1 trillion in cuts. Cantor cited the seriousness of the endeavor and the civility of the tone mentioning “this is how the political realm ought to function”.
Remember Dick Cheney?
Katie Hanson; Miss Delaware USA (photo’s courtesy of Miss USA Pagent
I really don’t know why it gets to me,… but it does… My state, the first state to enter the Union, the second smallest but still, the one state with the fewest counties, my state, the one our nation’s Vice President calls home…… My state, the one poised to be the first state in the union to have an offshore wind farm…. has, never… not recently, not even in ancient history, … ever won a title in a national beauty pageant….
Just as we are the only state without a National Park; we are also the only state that has never won a national title… Wikipedia almost gloatingly points out, “The least successful states are Delaware, the only state that has never placed;”
How come? Did any of you know this?
It’s obviously not because of our women! We have some amazing women here… Why is Delaware the ONLY STATE TO HAVE NEVER PLACED IN A NATIONAL COMPETITION?
To be honest, it’s because we don’t care. until of course, we happen to catch a glimpse on TV of our stunning candidate, and say wow, they really do look better than the competition…. By then, it’s too late.
No matter how you feel about beauty competitions… they do represent your state.
and Delawareans should begin getting mad that we are always left out…
When the Miss USA of Texas gets crowned, she is given a line of prizes a mile long.
Usually the family of the Delawarean contestant must pay out of pocket for the privilege to fly out and compete…. One would think, someone here in Delaware, would want provide some help to sponsor her? In return for advertising, if nothing else?
Is there anything we can do?
Yes, there is… For the first time in history, citizens of Delaware can go online here and vote 10 times a day for the candidate of their choice… Of course with our few citizens, compared to the numbers of New York and California, only a ambush will give us any chance… But ambushes are the American way.. Look at the Battle of Trenton, and Princeton!… We have a shot…to change history, at least get Delaware into the semi finalists, if everyone reading this votes, and votes often….
Why?
Primarily because we are a small state, one with few sport’s hall of famers… Often the butt of national jokes, we usually simply have no choice but to dismiss them… Now, before us is an opportunity to brag a little if we can pull this off.. Do we have a great candidate? Yes!.. Look at the competition on the site above..
We have a contender….
Delaware has never placed… Let’s do something about it?
What if we all petitioned David Letterman, to negotiate with Donald Trump, ( the owner of the Miss USA pagent) live on air, to give Miss Delaware a fair shot at righting this dubious distinction? Of course, Delaware will have to take some pings in the process ( that’s what comedy is all about) but to see one of our own as a finalist, would still send chills up our spines, irregardless of what we normally profess to think of beauty pageants.
It’s Delaware we’re talking about…
A brief note should turn the tide; something like this:
Dear Dave: Often you make Delaware the butt of your jokes. That is probably because we deserve it. But did you know, Delaware is the only state that has never placed in a national beauty pageant? Now, we know you are good friends with Donald Trump and he runs the Miss USA pageant. Could you do our humble state a favor and introduce Miss Delaware USA to Donald Trump on your show? We are not expecting miracles… but she IS beautiful…. and we could use some extra publicity so the world knows it… After all we are the only state that has never, ever placed… even Wikipedia makes fun of us…
If you can help us, thanks…
Here is the site for the David Letterman show... please include any jokes their writers might enjoy…. The email address is: lswdl@aol.com
5 or 10 won’t do it; I figure the minimum to be noticed is around 30,000… It will take some enthusiasm, some selling, and some enthusiastic supporters to make a dent in a contest that is obviously stacked against us, like a Republican Congress is stacked against John Carney!…
If you can spread the word, please do… and vote… and yes, vote often…. It’s our state pride that’s on the line here…..
During break I had a chance to browse the changed landscape of the Delaware blogosphere in depth.
There are two blogs that now carry the weight. Delaware Liberal and Delaware Way. Each are different in their own way. Delaware Liberal is an institution of fine writers, but is primarily dominated by two: Delaware Dem and El Somnambulo.
Delaware Way is where one goes to get news in the raw; for Nancy publishes everything… which is good since that is the only place one can go to find it.
Each of these provide a function… Delaware Liberal is where one can go to skim the headlines. Due to their updated format, if you missed a couple of days, it is hard to catch up… Being tied up, that has made following the news through them a little difficult. Nancy’s blog, although panned by Hube for it’s outdated format, is structured so one can follow it in consecutive order… Sort of like a facebook feed where one can drop back continuously until they reach where they last dropped off…
Other than that, there is nowhere else to look… That may be good for non- thinkers. But those of us who plan and run this state, are running blind… A scary thought as we approach the election year…
It seems like the old days mimicked the foundation of this nation. Whereas they argued over pints of ale; we argued over electronic wires… In our exchanges we tampered our views into an amalgamation of something that included the best of both worlds, and for that reason, the policies we forged, could pass the test of time… The only test it couldn’t pass, was us getting old and tired…
What is at stake, with the upcoming election… is a lack of depth. The brilliant group assembled under the general grouping “Delaware blogosphere”, was able to uncover all types of shenanigans; most of which had been going on under the cloak of looking the other way for most of our lifetimes… One, or even two blogs, cannot do the research being done independently by those of ALL political persuasions….
Which of course, means it will be easier to fool all the people some of the time… As long as they stay fooled until the votes are cast….. it doesn’t matter what happens later…
It is time each of the old bloggers look into their hearts, and review what they accomplished… It is time they look through what is written now and compare it to the days of yore…. It is time they return to the fight… the fight for truth… the fight for knowledge… the fight for justice.
It is time they realize they mattered and that like it or not, they were important to the everyday flow of politics… They made this past election happen. They changed the political landscape. They are what made local politics an issue….
We can go back to the pre-blog days of 2006… or we can continue exposing, inspecting, digressing, and scooping each other and the News Journal with information, that if left in the dark, would cost us each our money going into someone else’s pocket…
Delaware needs us. And you can’t escape that fact… It needs us.
Nancy has an example as to why….
On that page is a link to this Rasmussan Report.
VOTERS AGREE ONLY ON TAXING THE RICH TO PAY FOR HEALTH CARE PLAN.
Now anyone who knows me, knows I don’t take any stock in polls. I am smart enough to twist them into whatever I want, and so I can assume others out there are smart enough to do as well…
But over the past election, this group was the one closest to actual results throughout the primaries, as well as the general… So even though they were made up figures, I guess I’m saying, they still were closer than anyone else’s made up figures….
So the fact that a majority of Americans, all smart people mind you, believe that the rich should pay for our nation’s deficits… you know, the ones their party caused…. is rather telling. It implies that all the talk of no new taxes is baloney. New taxes on the rich are what Americans want. We want it sooner instead of later…
It boils down to ethics. Shouldn’t the wealthy take care of those who made them rich, now that times are hard? It reflects this nation’s battle with slavery 150 years ago.. Shouldn’t plantation owners take care of their slaves, like feed them? like give them a place to sleep? like allow them to get a drink of water?
If we had laws in place 150 years ago to cover the welfare of slaves, why then, can’t today’s wealthy and rich assist and help out law abiding citizens who have no jobs, who have no homes, who have no food… but still have their freedoms?
They can and it’s called paying their fair share of taxes… Americans who work, eat, live and die in our towns are saying the rich need to pay their fair share… Not get soaked mind you… BUT PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE…. Every American knows deep down that it is true… Every American knows that during WWII almost every family gave up someone to the war effort, because it was needed to save our nation… Yet today, we have the speaker of the House, A DEMOCRAT MIND YOU, saying there will be no new taxes on the table?
That goes even against the Rasmussen Report linked to above… Which plainly states: THAT THE ONLY THING AMERICANS ACROSS THE BOARD CAN AGREE TO, IS THAT THE RICH PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE….
And as proven in the post below, taxing the wealthy is super good for the economy. It fueled the Clinton boom. It drove the post second world war economy to new highs. Every time we had higher taxes, each person’s welfare, including the wealthy, just kept getting better….
Gilligan needs to get into the real world. and out of the pockets of wimpy land… (Everyone knows I love Gilligan but I get yelled at when I make mistakes and so should he). We are not on Gilligan’s Island. ( I fought the urge and succumbed). We are in a real world with real problems and one of those problems is that we are running out of money….
As one notorious bank robber responded when asked as to why he robbed banks responded: because that’s where the money is….
… so does our legislative need to solve it’s monetary needs by going to where the money is… the state’s wealthy….
It is such common sense and America knows it…. And the only reason we know America knows it…. is because Nancy published it in Delaware Way.
We need more like her…
There already is a flat tax for Delaware that begins above $60,000 dollars… Some, like El at Delaware Liberal, ask for a progressive rate to continue into the higher elevations of income levels.. The more you make, the more you pay…
This may sound unfair to some… and at face value it is… By face value I mean as the words themselves are written. For what is actually happening in a progressive tax, is this:
The more you make over what you can possibly spend in your wildest dreams, the higher percentage you pay of all that excess back the government that made your extravagant wealth possible….
Put that way…. that’s fair. That’s damn fair…
Most of us don’t have enough money. Most of us don’t pay much in taxes. That’s fair. But those with too much money over what they can spend? Don’t they have a duty too?
They’re the ones benefiting the most from the American dream. Shouldn’t they be the ones contributing the most to make it happen for others? Don’t they have the most to lose if all stability ruptures and violence, rioting and revolution begin eating away at all they have gained?
Obviously yes… and when people are starving next to you, it inhumane not to want to give up some of that money THAT YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY SPEND IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS so they can get one bite of food and live.
So we need a flat tax in Delaware… One that is fair. Republicans like flat taxes; they say they are fair. But somehow I don’t think they will like this one…
This upcoming year we have a budget deficit of $300 to $400 million ….. again…
WE the people, can make it go away if we invoke a flat tax based on percentages.
If you make $100 million over what you can possibly spend…. we tax it at !00%….
If you make $ 99 million over what you can possibly spend,….we tax it at 99%….
If you make $ 90 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 90%…
If you make $ 50 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 50%…
We follow the same pattern all the way down… fair is fair…
If you make $ 20 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 20%…
If you make $ 10 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 10%…
If you make $ 5 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 5%…
If you make $ 1 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 1%…
Under $1 million the tax code can stay the same… The budget crises had been solved…
Under this arrangement, those in the high end may grumble… “Why should we support a government that allowed us to prosper?” But if any of you are making near the low end, you see this arrangement causes you to pay far less taxes than you do now… Imagine… having more money…
Ironically this plan benefits those who the Republican leadership is always saying needs the help: those new millionaires…. Of course some tweaking will be done… It is not fair that someone would pay more taxes at $999,999 still under the old plan than they would at $1,000,001 under the new.. But we can fix that.
Some may say the top earner will leave Delaware.. He should. He’s not paying state taxes anyway, so his loss means nothing to us as far as revenue goes… But that is a threat, we have to take into account.
But just the top ten percent of left-over-income earners would clear our deficit.. Boom… Gone… Goodbye.
And the economy would get back into shape as Delaware got back to work….
It is rather obvious we must raise taxes on the top earners of this state, no matter what one’s political persuasion may be.. It is not about politics; it is about money….
Everyone else has sacrificed as much as they can possibly stand. It is time those spoiled ones at the top, who have no idea of what sacrifice entails, step up and contribute their fair share… After all, it’s only money they can’t possibly spend anyway…..
So the next time someone says they won’t raise taxes in Delaware ask them why?
Say why won’t you raise taxes on those who can’t possibly spend the money they’re earning anyway? Why should they get to keep their money, while everyone else in the state has to lose theirs?
When, but for just a few people, taxing them fairly under a flat tax based on percentages, would improve the lives of many?
It makes just way too much sense. We need $400 million? We take it from the top.
kavips 