Friday, December 15, 2006

"Trash Day"...

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You know, Friday has always been "Trash Day" around the house and need to make a run to the dump before work today. Might as well make Friday the "Trash Day" for Rightside and throw some more trash out here also...

Seems like the girls over at "The View" are at it again and as reported by NewsBusters http://newsbusters.org/node/9659 and it looks like Joy Behar has already discovered the plot by the "Vast Right-wing Conspiracy" of 2006...

"Well, it certainly didn’t take long for a member of the media to suggest that there’s some kind of conspiracy involved with Sen. Tim Johnson’s (D-SD) medical condition. On Thursday’s “The View,” co-host Joy Behar questioned, “Is there such a thing as a man made stroke? In other words, did someone do this to him?”

"Sadly, this wasn't the only disgrace, for when conservative co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck asked why liberals are always seeing a conspiracy in everything, Behar unashamedly responded: “I know what this, that Party is capable of.”

Yup.

Truck is full... Gotta make that run to the dump now...

Senator-elect Webb... "Too busy already"?

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United Conservatives blog has a story over there already showing how our Senator-elect is already too busy for the people that he will now represent and in this case it turns out to be the military Veterens...

"It seems Jim Webb (X) dissed the Vets in Hampton Roads before his famous tantrum in D.C. Also please note that this Veterans event was held on the Saturday after the election."

http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2006/12/webb-x-to-vets-no-plane-no-show-no-no.html

Thursday, December 14, 2006

So much more to the story...

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Once again the Staunton NewsLeader Editorial has started to jump on the “Republican-dominated House of Delegates” before they even get to the next General assembly session so not to miss the holiday rush…

In this weeks NewsLeader editorial:
“Astute followers of current affairs will recall that this is the same elected body that failed to address the state's transportation needs during the regular sessions of 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 and required a special session this fall, ostensibly to address the problems they failed to find solutions for during the previous several years.”


Also seems that the NewsLeader loves to go after those that they feel are not doing the job they were elected to do. “Del. William Howell, R-Stafford, the leader of the obstructionist, Republican-dominated House of Delegates (the root cause of Virginia's recurring nightmare, despite the existence of a sensible, responsible, equally Republican-dominated Senate) announced that he and his gang will insist on spending at least half of the state's surplus revenues on transportation. No budging. No compromising. Nothing less than that or no deal.”


Looks like the NewsLeader loves the Senate for they are willing to once again raise the tax rates on the Virginia workers even when the state has a surplus from the last Democratic Governor Mark Warner tax increase. The reason the Delegates would not go along with the new Democratic Governor Tim Kaine during the last session is that Kaine wanted to raise our taxes again to pay for the transportation crisis without using the surplus we now have. The Delegates stood up to the Democratic Governor who wanted to raise taxes again and would not approve another tax on the Virginia citizens without a plan to use the surplus. The Delegates should be commended for standing up to the Governor and “His” Senate…


Fact is we do have a transportation problem in Virginia and one that needs to be addressed. But it must be done in a way that uses the surplus we now have in a wise manner and include other revenue producing tools to pay for the needed work. Republican Delegate Chris Saxman has already been talking about this problem for some time. Democratic Governor Kaine wanted to save this surplus in a “Rainy-Day” fund that sounded nothing but a way to use this money on other “Pet” projects that he would not describe.


A few weeks back Delegate Saxman spoke in front of the local Chamber 0f Commerce about pending changes and closings of VDOT facilities to improve efficiency and save taxpayer money. The Staunton NewsLeader staff determined this story was not worthy of coverage and passed on covering the meeting. Another local Newspaper covered it and did a good job at reporting the discussion on this now important crisis.


This past week Republican Delegate Chris Saxman met with the Harrisonburg Rotary Club and spoke to the group of 125 for some time. It was covered by the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record newspaper (Tue. 12 Dec 06, page D1 by Dan Wright) but once again the Staunton NewsLeader must have decided that it was not “Newsworthy” once again…


If possible get a copy and read Wright's coverage on this meeting. Here are some of Delegate Saxman’s statements:
“ There’s no silver bullet for transportation. We have to reform a lot of what were doing if we’re going to solve problems long term”.


“We need to manages outcomes so we don’t need more resources to get the same results”. “Ninety percent of the people don’t want a tax increase”.


It was also discussed that the Rail solutions out there would really only be beneficial if the goods are hauled 500 miles or more… Saxman also stated that a tax increase won’t work because there’s no guaranteeing where the money will go. “We had funding last year and the Senate wouldn’t even agree to spend that”…


We need to support the Delegates as they call for sensible solutions to the transportation problem… We also need to question those who only support Tax increases when we already have a surplus being held in a “Rainy-Day” fund…

"Ten Men Tax Break"...

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Putting Tax-cuts in terms everyone can understand…


Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:


The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing like they do now with the present income tax structure.


The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59 of the bill.
So that is what the ten men decide to do.


The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you all are such good customers I am going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20”. Dinner for the 10 men now costs just $80...


The group still wanted to pay the bill the same way that they paid their taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six men -- the Paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everybody would get his “Fair Share”?


They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal…
So, the restaurant owner suggested it would be fair to reduce each mans bill roughly the same amount; and proceeded to work out the amounts each man would pay.


The fifth, like the first four now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth man now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings)
The seventh man now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings)
The eight man now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings)
The ninth man now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings)
The tenth man now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings)


Each of the six was better off then before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings…


“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man “but he got $10”…
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. Its unfair that he got ten times more than me!?”
“That’s true”, shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploit’s the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up…


The next night the Tenth man did not show up for dinner, so the Nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half the bill!


And that Boys & Girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier…
David R. Kamerschen, PH.D
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia


Checked into this and found one article that claims Kamerschen did not author this but none of the articles disputed the theory or numbers used for this example…

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

No more Chicks???...

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There is talk going around that the talented "Chicks" of the Dixie Chicks got tired of the "Mouthy" Chick and want to get back to their music by getting rid of Natalie... Found this as reported in the National Enquirer, which is not always viewed as a top news source, but I will tell you what they get it right when the local paper around here does not have a clue...

"The controversial country superstars have secretly decided to split up after the Grammy Awards - because Emily Robison and Martie Maguire no longer want to share the nest with outspoken Natalie Maines, say sources"...

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/63733

Sunday, December 10, 2006

"Timing is everything"...

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Seems that the DEMOCRATIC leadership also knew of Representative Foley’s e-mails to the Pages at the same time the GOP leadership was advised but held this information until the “Timing was Right” for use…


ABC News reports: “The House Ethics Committee Report includes new information that top Democrats were also aware in 2005 of Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to congressional pages at about the same time as outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert's office was informed.”


http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/abc_exclusive_n.html


Now “Speaker to be” Nancy Pelosi was quick to condemn Dennis Hastert for not addressing the Foley e-mails but is it not interesting that the Democratic leadership had the same info but chose to sit on it until the most “beneficial” time for it’s release? And the MainScream media was more then happy to promote her outrage but yet ignored the history of Democratic Party member Gerry Studd’s who did much worse damage to Pages in the past… I still wonder if my local newspaper the Staunton NewsLeader will even mention the above info released by ABC News?


At least somebody in the House Democratic Caucus thought this information was important enough to release, it’s just the “Timing” of its release that is in question…


“But while the report is highly critical of the shortcomings of Hastert and the Republican leadership, there is no follow-up to the brief one sentence mention on page 76 that powerful Democratic committees also knew about the e-mails except to note that Matt Miller, the House Democratic Caucus staff member, sent the e-mails at some point to various news organizations.”