Americans Are Blind And Stupid

Comment By Bob L.
12-30-2012

If You Did Not See This Coming Than You ARE A Blind and Stupid Idiot.

People think Obamacare is just the cats meow, well the bomb is just about to drop on what you want.

People who understood what Obamacare was all about was trying to warn every one, but you thought that the Republicans were lying, well the truth is going to clean out your pocket-book, now and the next FOUR YEARS thanks to the Democrats, you were warned and now you are going to pay the WORLD for what you just had to have without knowing the outcome.

Lets start a new saying: HE WHO WANTS IS BLIND AND STUPID, better known as GREEDY, you always gotta have what you don’t need, but every one else has to pay for it.

When the Governments raise Taxes, WHO pays, the low-income and WHY, Companies Leave, or Go Out Of Business, then people lose their jobs, they get less money to buy a product, lose their Home, or sell their home and leave the state to find a job, you can go on and on and the out come is always the same loss in revenue, such as, get people to stop smoking Cigarettes lost money, so they raised Taxes to compensate and more quit more loss, are you smart enough with all that College Education, well I think the people with out that Education can see it, and then you have Public Employees want more money, and the end is, who is paying the TAXES YOU IDIOT, if you had a brain between those ears you could see it.

It is a vicious cycle, THE MORE THEY TAX THE LESS JOBS TO BE HAD, THE LESS PEOPLE CAN AFFORD TO BUY. Dah, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out or does it.
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The Rich Will Pay More Taxes Next Year No Matter What

By Tami Luhby | CNNMoney.com
Fri, Dec 28 2012

The rich will pay more in taxes next year regardless of the outcome of the fiscal cliff. That’s because two new taxes enacted to fund President Obama’s health care reform are kicking in come January.

The new levies will help foot the bill for the program to expand health care coverage for the uninsured, which involves government subsidies for lower- and middle-income Americans.

The vast majority of taxpayers will escape unscathed, however. Fewer than 2% will be subject to the new taxes, said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

Here’s what’s coming:

Medicare payroll tax: Single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000 will have to pay an additional 0.9% payroll tax on the amount they earn above those thresholds.

Unlike traditional payroll taxes, however, this tax will be based on household income, not individual earnings. So couples may find themselves subject to it even if they each make less than $250,000.

That could lead to a surprise at tax time since employers withhold payroll taxes only on their own workers.

For instance, if a husband and wife each earn $175,000, they will owe the additional tax, but their employers likely will not have withheld it. So they will owe $900.

Investment income tax: Wealthier taxpayers with investment income could be subject to an additional 3.8% levy. Investment income includes interest, dividends and capital gains, among other things.

The formula is somewhat complicated. Only those with modified adjusted gross incomes above a threshold of $200,000, or $250,000 if married, need be concerned.

But filers don’t always owe tax on all their investment income. It’s just on the investment income that exceeds the threshold.

For example, if a married couple has income of $300,000, of which $275,000 is from wages and $25,000 is from investments, they would owe the tax on all the investment income, or $950 in taxes.

But if the same couple had $125,000 in investment income, they would owe tax only on $50,000, or $1,900 in taxes, because that’s the amount that exceeds the threshold.

Deduction for medical expenses: Also, it will become harder to deduct medical expenses, though this deduction is more common among middle class taxpayers.

Until now, taxpayers could deduct medical expenses that exceeded 7.5% of their adjusted gross income. This level is rising to 10% next year.

One-third of the people who took this deduction had income in the $50,000 to $100,000 range in 2010, according to a CNNMoney analysis of Internal Revenue Service data. Only a tiny fraction of the rich took advantage of this deduction because their high incomes made it hard to reach the threshold.

Gun Ban? Knife Ban? How About A Match and Lighter Ban?

Comment By Bob L.
12-28-2012

Now Stupid and Dumb this Country has become, Ban this Ban that, when are people going to under stand that it is people who do these things not the product that does the deed, a gun does not pull the trigger, a Knife does not thrust it’s self, a match does not start a fire without fuel, you can go on and every time it leads right back to a Man, a woman, or a child to product the out come, and where does it start? AT HOME, THE PARENTS, and why?, they are so wrapped in to them selves, their parties, their nightly bar runs, they don’t know what or where their kids are or what they are doing, and by this happening when they get older, and now that they got away with it, so now they think that it is alright today.

READ THE ARTICLE CLOSELY, NEXT TIME IT MIGHT BE A GROUP OF SCHOOL KIDS, MAYBE YOURS, OR HOW ABOUT YOU, like every thing else there are copycats who will do the same thing, WHY, Government, Courts, Parents, no one is being held RESPONSIBLE, NO PUNISHMENT for the Parents, the child, or the people who instigate the do nothing punishment.

They talk about it is unhumane to punish when some one does wrong, BUT IS IT HUMANE to kill a group of Kids for being Kids or any one else, or Bully some one because it is fun, and knowing that you will not be punished, AGAIN Who do we blame, the do nothing Government but spend money that they don’t have, Bleeding Hearts, and last but not least, the Parents who believe the Bleeding hearts, AND who is the  loser of no punishment, THE VICTIMS.

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Woman set on fire in LA as she sleeps on bench

By GREG RISLING | Associated Press
12-27-2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For more than 10 years, the homeless woman slept on the same plastic bus stop bench at a busy intersection in the San Fernando Valley, no matter how cold it was or if it was raining.

The 67-year-old, described by one church volunteer who saw her regularly as the “sweetest lady on the street,” was nestled in her regular spot early Thursday when the unthinkable happened: A man came out of a nearby drug store, doused her with a flammable liquid and set her ablaze.

She was taken to a hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.

Witness Erickson Ipina called 911, and police arrested Dennis Petillo, 24, a short time later. He was booked for investigation of attempted murder and was held on $500,000 bail. It wasn’t immediately known if he had retained an attorney.

“He just poured it all over the old lady,” Ipina told reporters at the scene. “Then he threw the match on her and started running.”

Police provided no possible motive and released no details on Petillo. The victim’s name also was withheld.

LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese told the Los Angeles Times it was unclear whether Petillo spoke to the woman before he allegedly set her ablaze.

“There was no incident or dispute or clear motivation for this horrific attack. He did not know his victim. It defies explanation,” Albanese said. “He is not of sound mind. … The motive is mental illness.”

The attack shocked nearby residents, and later Thursday about a dozen people held vigil around the charred bench, urging motorists to honk their horns in support of homeless rights. One sign placed on the bench read, “Our Prayers to Violet,” believed to be the victim’s first name.

Tej Deol, 31, who resides at a nearby sober living house, said the woman made the bench her home and often could be found sleeping there after sundown. He said he saw her Christmas Eve, getting ready to eat some soup.

“I told her, ‘Merry Christmas and happy New Year,’ and she said she was doing good,” Deol said. “She was so kind. She was happy to have someone talk to her.”

Thursday’s incident was at least the third in Los Angeles County since October where people were set on fire.

Last week, a 55-year-old man was seriously injured when he was torched as he slept outside a doughnut shop in Norwalk. Two months earlier, Long Beach police said Jacob Timothy Lagarde, 27, threw a lit Molotov cocktail at a man who had been waiting for his father outside a store. Lagarde has since been charged with attempted murder and five other counts.

Los Angeles police are investigating whether Petillo might be tied to any other similar crimes, but at this point detectives don’t believe he is, Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

As the number of flowers and candles around the scorched bench grew Thursday, people who knew the victim tried to comprehend why a woman who seemed so benign could be so viciously attacked.

Robert Wyneken, 75, who volunteers at a nearby church that serves meals for the less than fortunate, called Violet the “sweetest lady on the street.” He said she was quiet, independent and resourceful.

Wyneken said she supported herself by recycling cans and didn’t like to panhandle. He said there were efforts to get her housing and in contact with family, but she wouldn’t have it.

“I just think she had something in her life where she wanted to be alone,” he said. “She didn’t want to be a burden to anybody.”

Wyneken, Deol and others said they were deeply troubled by what had happened at the bus stop.

“The guy who did this should spend the rest of his life in jail,” Deol said.

Steve Williams, 62, who identified himself as a homeless veteran, said he is aware of the dangers of sleeping on the street but that it’s difficult to find space at nearby shelters, especially at this time of year.

“We are all human. No one should be treated like that,” he said.

Unfair Tax Breaks That Should Be Eliminated

Comment By Bob L.
12-20-2012

The fiscal cliff is coming and Obama and the Democrats won’t pass any bill that closes any of these unfair Tax Loopholes, this is why they don’t want to see this on their Desk, could this be why they are fighting this so hard to stop this from happening, because if it does that means that they will lose their tax loop holes (or gravy train) that the average tax payer can not claim, and are the ones left holding the bag on what the rich get back.

This is what some Republicans like Mitt Romney wanted to eliminate were these tax loopholes, but Obama and the Democrats along with the News Media could not let this happen, if they did then they would have to start paying the same taxes that all Americans have to pay.

Now if the Republicans can not close all these loopholes on the rich then, the tax burden will be back on the average working American who is not allowed these deductions, so now who do you think wants to see the United States go off the cliff, the people who have a lot to lose in money.

Obama Administration Tax Cheats Bilk IRS
Federally Employed Income Tax Cheats Just the Tip of the Iceberg
The Obama Tax Cheats
Obama’s Tax Hypocrisy
General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010

Obama talks about closing all these Tax loopholes but as long as it does not close them all.

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5 Unfair Tax Breaks That Should Be Eliminated

By Kay Bell | Bankrate.com
12-19-2012

The debate began during the presidential campaign and has extended into the “fiscal cliff” tax discussions: What tax breaks, both individual and corporate, can — or should — be changed or eliminated?

The question arises because there are many tax deductions that appear to provide disproportionate tax benefits to a select few. It’s also an issue because of the cost of the tax breaks.

Here are five tax breaks that fall into those categories.

Capital gains tax rate

The current 15 percent capital gains tax rate for most investors and zero percent rate for lower income taxpayers are part of the much ballyhooed George W. Bush-era tax cuts. The idea behind the lower capital gains tax is that it encourages investment, which helps create new companies that hire more people — and we’re all fat and happy thanks to this tax-subsidized investment chain. Think again.

This tax break is estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation to cost the U.S. Treasury nearly $457 billion between 2011 and 2015.

And it’s a huge reason why the wealthy, such as financier Warren Buffett, are able to pay substantially lower overall tax rates. Buffett’s oft-repeated confession that his tax rate is lower than his secretary’s sparked the latest political debate on the fairness of low tax rates on investment profits.

Ordinary taxpayers pay tax on their earnings at ordinary income tax rates up to 35 percent. The really rich, however, are different from you and me in that they tend to make most of their money via investments instead of standard paychecks — meaning most of their money is taxed at 15 percent.

But what about the wonderful zero tax rate for investors in the 10 percent and 15 percent income tax brackets? Really? Most folks at those tax levels don’t have a lot, if any, cash left over to invest after paying their bills. But by giving them the option, members of Congress felt better about voting for a tax break that benefits primarily the rich.

Home mortgage interest deduction

If you’ve ever bought a house, one of the first things your real estate agent and mortgage broker probably pointed out was that you get to deduct your home loan’s mortgage interest on your taxes.

What they didn’t tell you was that your deduction is underwritten by the vast majority of homeowners who don’t get this tax break.

The home mortgage interest deduction is the largest individual taxpayer cost to the U.S. Treasury. Uncle Sam will lose an estimated $464 billion between 2011 and 2015. And that amount is racked up by just the third of American taxpayers who itemize.

Even worse, say economists, the tax deduction probably isn’t necessary. Most other industrialized nations worldwide don’t offer their residents a tax break for buying a house, yet those folks buy homes. And the reality is that no one ever bought, or didn’t buy, a house based on the tax law.

What the home mortgage interest deduction really does, say economists, is encourage more financially well-off individuals to buy bigger houses. The July 2011 Reason Foundation study, “Unmasking the Mortgage Interest Deduction,” found that the annual average tax saving of the mortgage deduction for a taxpayer making $50,000 to $75,000 was $179, and that only about one-third in this group claim the deduction. At the upper income level, however, homeowners with incomes exceeding $200,000 get an annual tax benefit of more than $2,200, and almost three-quarters claim the deduction.

The mortgage interest deduction benefits also are geographically disproportionate. Just as high-income taxpayers get more out of it, so do metropolitan areas with high incomes, taxes and housing prices. That historically has tended to be locales in California and the Northeast.

So the next time you visit your cousin at his new house in New Jersey, make sure he thanks you for your help with his purchase.

Second-home mortgage interest deduction

Not to keep picking on homeowners, but there’s yet another residential deduction that needs to go: the deduction for interest on a vacation home loan.

Yes, some owners of second homes are far from wealthy. But those who own a ski chalet in Aspen, Colo., an ocean-view getaway along Miami’s South Beach or a pied-a-terre in New York City in which to rest after a late Broadway opening night usually are rich. And they get to write off the interest on those expensive second homes as an itemized deduction, for mortgage debt as high as $1 million.

Even more amazing, owners of luxury yachts can deduct mortgage interest on loans they took out to buy their mini-Queen Marys. That’s right: The Internal Revenue Code says a boat can be considered a home as long as it has sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a toilet.

The home designation rules also mean that recreational vehicles could qualify as residences, providing owners of those luxury buses an added tax deduction, too.

Sure, some people do live in straightforward houseboats. And because the deduction applies to all types of second-home options, supporters of the tax break argue that it’s fair.

But the tax code would be even fairer if the vast majority of single homeowners didn’t have to subsidize any second homes.

Carried interest special tax treatment

Remember the controversy over the low tax rates that Republican ex-presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney paid? Part of the reason was because of his capital gains on investments.

But Romney also got some pay for his work at Bain Capital. And a tax loophole allows that compensation to be taxed at a lower rate.

Managers of most private equity funds get a percentage of the net gains as a management fee. This payment is known as carried interest, and here’s the beautiful part for the fund manager: Carried interest is not taxed like the regular interest most taxpayers get on regular savings accounts. It’s taxed as a capital gain.

That means while regular interest received by most taxpayers on their savings accounts is taxed at rates that could go up to 35 percent, folks who get carried interest payments owe a current top rate of 15 percent on that special interest.

A Bloomberg Global Poll in January found that two-thirds of poll respondents worldwide said the carried interest tax break isn’t justified. That’s consistent with the poll’s finding on the topic in the United States, where 67 percent said the lower tax rate isn’t fair.

A bill was introduced in Congress to change the tax treatment of equity fund managers’ earnings. Not surprisingly, it went nowhere.

Tax break for offshoring U.S. jobs

Businesses also get their fair share of tax breaks and tax loopholes. The ability to save on corporate taxes by shipping operations overseas is one of the most vilified corporate tax breaks.

U.S. businesses get a tax deduction for the costs they incur in relocating their domestic operations to a foreign location. True, it’s not a special tax break for moving, say, a factory and its 600 jobs from St. Louis to Singapore. If the company had moved from St. Louis to Indianapolis, the business would get the same tax deduction. And, says the Tax Foundation, jobs are at least three times more likely to be relocated from one state to another than overseas.

Still, when U.S. unemployment is high, a tax break that rewards the elimination of more U.S. jobs seems like a really bad idea.

Will these and other individual and corporate tax loopholes, deductions or, as the federal government calls them, tax expenditures, be eliminated or even tweaked a bit? It’s not likely. All are quite popular among the groups that receive tax savings from them. And they are the same folks who tend to contribute generously to political campaigns.

But anything can happen on the way to the “fiscal cliff.”

More From Bankrate.com

• What is the ‘fiscal cliff’?
• 9 tax rules set to expire
• Tax loss on a rental

‘Somebody’s gotta have some smarts’

Comment By Bob L.
12-11-2012

Have you ever noticed that the news media never uses comments from Republicans, they always publish what Democrats have to say, and when they do use what Republicans have to say they put a spin on it and put out of text from what was really said.

People, get your head out of your ass and stop believing the same liars that have blamed Republicans from Obama’s first day in office, even when Democrats had full control, they did nothing but complain about the Republicans, they did pass laws behind closed doors and say, you have to pass them if you want to see whats in them, have you all for gotten that it takes TWO to solve a problem, if one says yes and the other says no we are not listening. 

Look at who he is talking to Union Employees, not the average person who out of work.

Obama is still spending Taxpayer money to travel around blaming Republicans when Harry Reid has said from day one that they the Democrats would not pass any thing that the Republicans sent to them unless it had what they and Obama want, (like Obamacare and cap & trade, in all, more taxes on you) and that is more taxes on Business so they can profit on Cap-and-Trade, and who has to pay this tax on Business, you the dumb people who can not see the truth past your nose, this is the type of Education that our Government wants to see so they can pass laws with out the people knowing what they are doing.

The ones that you go after is The Obama’s, Harry Reid, and all Democrats who think that this is their Country not you the people who believe in this Country.

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From NH to Colo., voter disdain spreads as ‘fiscal cliff’ debate rages

By Steve Peoples, Associated Press | Associated Press
12-11-2012

HOOKSETT, N.H. (AP) — Fear and frustration course through the lunch crowd at Robie’s Country Store and Deli, a popular outpost 500 miles from where Washington is again locked in tense negotiations over taxes and spending as a critical deadline looms.

“I’m worried,” Lorraine Cadren of nearby Manchester says between bites of her chicken sandwich. Her doubt in the nation’s elected leaders is palpable: “I’m not sure what’s going to come out of Washington next.” Not that she has the time to pay much attention; the 64-year-old is unemployed and preoccupied with finding a new job as Christmas approaches.

A few tables away, John Pfeifle shares Cadren’s angst while trying to enjoy his $6.99 chicken parmesan special.

“Somebody’s gotta have some smarts,” says the 63-year-old business owner, complaining that both President Barack Obama and House Republicans seem willing to allow the nation to go over the “fiscal cliff,” triggering broad tax increases and massive spending cuts that economists warn could lead to another recession.

“I have no faith at all they’ll do the right thing,” Pfeifle said of Congress.

And why would these voters have confidence in Washington?

The scene playing out on Capitol Hill is a familiar one as lawmakers with competing ideologies wage an 11th-hour battle to avert a predictable crisis. This one comes just a year after an equally divided Washington nearly let the country default on its loan obligations — a debt-ceiling debate that contributed to the electorate’s deep lack of faith in their elected leaders and a drop in the nation’s credit rating.

Evidence of Congress’ plummeting popularity is everywhere.

From New Hampshire diners to Colorado coffee shops, weary residents report widespread concern. They relate the debate in Washington over their tax dollars with their own lives: average Americans who are struggling every day to make ends meet. And already distracted by the holidays and tired of politics after a bitter presidential campaign, they are calling on Washington to get its act together.

“It’s pathetic. Nobody’s doing their job,” said Laura Hager, a retiree from Lancaster, Pa. “The rest of the country is being held hostage to this entire situation.”

She said the uncertainty makes it difficult to shape a personal financial plan; she can’t imagine what business leaders must be going through. “Nobody can plan. Nobody knows what they’ll do,” she said.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., warned that the public’s disgust with Congress would reach new heights if lawmakers and the White House fail to reach an accord before the year-end deadline.

“Ninety percent disapproval rating is going to go up to 99 percent disapproval,” the senator said at a panel discussion last week in Washington on the fiscal cliff’s impact on businesses.

Warner overstated Congress’ unpopularity, although not by much.

A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found that 74 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job; just 23 percent approve. The figures are virtually unchanged from June and slightly above Congress’ recent low point of 12 percent approval during the debt ceiling debate in August 2011.

Some voters are trying to ignore the debate altogether, although near-constant news coverage is making that difficult, especially as Obama and his Republican opponents work to rally their supporters.

In a campaign-style event Monday in Michigan, the heart of industrial America, Obama warned that he “won’t compromise” on his demand that the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes. Polls find that most voters agree with the president’s deficit-cutting plan to raise tax rates on income over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples, although House Republicans are reluctant to agree.

The conservative group Crossroads GPS is running television ads across the country describing Obama’s solution as “a huge tax increase” with “no real spending reforms.” ”Call President Obama and tell him it’s time to show us a balanced plan,” the ad says.

Most voters interviewed in recent days are calling for an immediate compromise and seem willing to raise taxes on the wealthy so long as the middle class is protected.

There is a vague sense that the “fiscal cliff” is more serious than other recent Capitol Hill clashes. But barely a month after the presidential contest ended, most people say they’re not following the daily developments that consume Washington.

In a Denver coffee shop, interior designer Roxann Lloyd, 42, is mystified by the sound and fury out of Washington over the cliff.

“I don’t think they have any idea what a big deal is to an average person,” she said. “I’m just ignoring it.”

Lloyd said she isn’t surprised by the partisan bickering over the issue. “I don’t feel like they are really looking out for us,” she said of Congress.

John Baker, 65, a Denver psychologist, said he had little faith in Congress’ ability to fix the problem: “I don’t think Congress can fix a flat tire.”

“It’s a typical Washington, ‘Let’s hit the panic button and keep people scared so they will let us do what we want to do,'” Baker said in a downtown Denver Starbucks. “Ultimately, it will be fixed but not until a lot of pockets are lined.”

It’s unclear whether members of Congress are hearing the message.

Rep. Charlie Bass, a New Hampshire Republican who lost his re-election bid last month, says it’s unclear whether his GOP colleagues will “face the reality that the president, at least at this point, is not going to accept anything other than a tax rate increase.”

A stalemate would result in “painful uncertainty,” Bass said, offering his caucus a bit of advice: “We best get on with it — get it done.”

Back at Robie’s, store owner Debbie Chouinard says she’s burned out from election season and “tired of all the bull.”

“I honestly haven’t been paying attention,” she said while feeding her 2-year-old granddaughter lunch during a brief lull. “People should be working together to get this country going.”

Related articles

• Voter: Obama, and Congress Holding Country ‘Hostage’ Over Fiscal Cliff (connecticut.cbslocal.com)

Gay marriage, legal pot: Conservatives wonder what’s happening to this Country

Comment By Bob L.
12-09-2012

With today’s Computer Society, how can you not wonder if there was a little tampering with the Computer voting machines, look at what they uncovered in Florida to how these new machines can be programmed to do what ever the Government who has control of them, wants them to do.

Just look at how they can hack in to banks, Businesses, and Governments, and you think that the Government Controlled Voting Machines can not be rigged to put into office any one they want, and then make it look close to who is going to win, boy you better get your head out of your — and stop believing every thing the Government and the News media is telling you and start thinking for your self.

And now you have some Government Officials want to give them special rights: Article By Ron Judd Seattle Times staff columnist (in this episode of As McGinn Turns, city attorneys tripped up Hizzoner the Happy Spender just as he was diving for the finish line on a scheme to compensate newly married, same-sex city employees for what he sees as an unfair federal tax on their benefits.

There’s no question that the tax, a byproduct of the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act, is unfair. Also no question that few people beyond the mayor himself think local taxpayers would, or should, happily foot the bill to make life “fair” for all city employees.)

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By Carol M. Ostrom  Seattle Times staff reporter
Originally published Friday, December 7, 2012

In the wake of Washington’s historic votes to legalize both same-sex marriage and marijuana use, some longtime conservatives say they’re contemplating moving to more like-minded states — say, Texas.

Bombarded with seemingly endless, breathless news coverage of same-sex couples getting married and respectable people lighting joints in public, some “no” voters say they consider themselves missionaries in a heathen world. Sometimes that’s a tongue-in-cheek crack — other times, not so much.

“I feel like I’m living in pagan Rome,” said Dan Kennedy, CEO of Human Life of Washington, who has worked on conservative issues here since 2000. “I just couldn’t believe we had gone that far.”

It wasn’t as if the votes were a total surprise. State Republican Party Chairman Kirby Wilbur noted Washington voters’ previous approval of abortion and physician-assisted aid in dying.

“Washington has always been a socially liberal and economically conservative state,” he said. “I think the votes show that.”

Predictably, socially liberal voters in the Puget Sound region outnumbered voters in less populous, often more conservative, areas of the state.

Both issues also received scattered support from other regions of the state. Voters in Whitman County approved both measures. Spokane, Ferry, Okanogan, Chelan and Skamania counties approved legalizing marijuana use, as did Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties on the Pacific Coast.

The nine counties with the most vociferous votes against same-sex marriage were less negative about marijuana. Voters in Adams County, for example, brought in the highest no vote on same-sex marriage: nearly 72 percent. But only 61 percent could bring themselves to favor banning the bud.

Nineteen counties voted no on both measures, but their votes were outweighed by heavy support in the more populated areas; Adams’ no votes on same-sex marriage, for example, totaled 3,394 — mist against King County’s tidal wave of 638,939 yes votes.

What the yes votes mean is still up for interpretation.

“Elevating desires”

To David DeWolf, who teaches law at Gonzaga University, a Catholic institution in Spokane, the votes reflect individuals disconnecting from the rest of society, “elevating the desires of the individual over the needs of the community.”

DeWolf, a Catholic, sees the votes as “sort of a reversion to a less developed way of living,” he said. “The impulse here is a kind of selfish, me-oriented way of not wanting to think about the impact my behavior might have on the rest of society.”

He, too, thinks about ancient Rome. “The introduction of Christianity was the introduction of a way of understanding ourselves that says we’re made for better things, we’re capable of real charity and concern for one another and living a life of virtue.”

Christian virtues, which he believes were ignored in this election, have created “much of what we value in society,” DeWolf said. “In my mind, this is an unhappy reversion to a pagan understanding of ourselves and of society.”

Steve Beren, a conservative Christian political consultant from Seattle who has run unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, says just because something is celebrated doesn’t mean it’s right. “I feel bad for those people, because they’re celebrating what they’re doing wrong,” he says.

He sees the votes as giving license to people to do other things he considers wrong. Each time something “clearly wrong or obviously immoral” is given sanction, celebrated or even ignored, it implicitly sanctions other immoral acts, he says — for example, President Clinton’s sexual transgressions.

Despite seeing the recent votes as moral deterioration, “I don’t necessarily buy that it’s irreversible,” Beren says. “If you go back into history, you’ll see they were burning people at the stake and sacrificing children.”

Too much government

Wilbur, the GOP party chairman — who describes himself as a “devout Lutheran” — says he believes that voters who said yes to same-sex marriage and pot don’t necessarily support those things. “I think people are saying, ‘It’s none of the government’s business,’ ” he said. “I think there’s a strong libertarian streak out there.”

As a political leader, he isn’t inclined to move to another state, he said.

“I’m not going to give up my home state quite so easily, and no reason why I should. There’s hope out there! There’s people I’ve got to convince they’re wrong.”

Besides, Wilbur quipped, “Our hope is people smoke enough pot, they’ll forget to vote, and then we’ll win.”

But for now, the latest votes make some conservatives, and even moderates who voted “no,” feel out of place.

Kennedy, of Human Life, says friends have been talking seriously about moving to more conservative states, such as Texas.

“It’s not fun always feeling like an outsider,” he said. “I feel like I should carry around a sign that says, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ ”

Still, he says, somebody has to hold the line against devolution.

“This is missionary country, I guess. If you want to fight the battle, you’ve got to be on the front line, and this is the front line.”

His daughter, Lisa, a 21-year-old senior at Seattle University, has had the same uncomfortable experience.

She thought that by going to a Catholic school, she said, she’d be surrounded by like-minded conservatives.

That’s not how it went.

Now, she’s compiling notes for a book she’s tentatively titled, “A Conservative Fish in Liberal Sea(ttle).”

“It’s hard to always be around people who disagree with me,” says Lisa Kennedy. “Abortion, gay marriage — I either have to hold my tongue around them or start an argument.”

‘Fiscal cliff’ fight heads to family home NOT DC

Comment By Bob L.
12-06-2012

Obama still up to his old tricks, instead of planting his ass in DC where it belongs, he is out blaming every one else why nothing is being done, if he was a U.S President who was Elected to protect the Constitution and All legal American Citizens and not foreign Country’s, that where he spent most of his first term in office.

Now that he was reelected we can see the same thing starting again, but he going around America trying to keep the people on his side so they think that it is the Republicans are the problem while Obama and the Democrats do nothing, Harry Reid has already said that he will reject any thing that the Republicans send to them, and Obama has also said that he will veto any thing they send to him, just another FOUR YEARS of the same as the last four years.

Now in office Obama is going to start pushing for his Cap & Trade and tax services people need and use, and Global Warming, so with that said, Obama and the Democrats (just like Obamacare) will not approve any thing unless they give him what he wants.

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Obama takes tax-hike talk to Tiffany (no, not that one)

By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket
12-06-2012

President Barack Obama took his call for tax hikes on the richest Americans to Tiffany on Thursday—not the fabled jewelry store, but a high school English teacher and her middle-class family living in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

Obama took his motorcade to Falls Church, Va., to sit down with Tiffany Santana and her husband, Richard, who works at an area Toyota dealership. Also present were Tiffany’s parents: Velma Massenburg, a child care provider, and Jimmie Massenburg, a postal worker.

At the kitchen table in the ground-floor apartment the Santanas share with their 6-year-old son, Noah, the president sounded his familiar clarion call to extend Bush-era tax cuts that chiefly benefit the middle class while raising rates on higher incomes. Obama has warned he will not sign legislation that does not raise rates on the richest Americans—a step Republicans have thus far rejected.

“It’s very important that we get this done now, that we don’t wait,” Obama said to the Santanas. “We’re in the midst of the Christmas season; I think the American people are counting on this getting solved. The closer it gets to the brink, the more stressed they’re going to be.

“They’re keeping it together, they’re working hard, they’re meeting their responsibilities,” Obama continued. “For them to be burdened unnecessarily because Democrats and Republicans aren’t coming together to solve this problem gives you a sense of the costs involved in very personal terms.”Failure to reach a deal would send the country over the so-called fiscal cliff, a package of tax hikes and deep spending cuts that threaten to plunge the economy into a new recession. The White House estimates that a typical middle-class family might pay $2,200 more to Uncle Sam.

“That translates into $200 billion of less consumer spending next year” overall, the president said. “And that’s bad for businesses large and small. It’s bad for our economy. It means less folks are being hired, and we can be back in a downward spiral instead of the kind of virtuous cycle that we want to see.”

The White House picked Santana from the thousands of families that have shared on its website what the fiscal cliff would mean for them—and released a video showing the family discussing the potential impact. (Details are courtesy of pool reporter Allison Sherry of the Denver Post’s Washington Bureau.)

“The message that I think we all want to send to members of Congress is this is a solvable problem,” Obama said.

Locked in seemingly stalled negotiations with Republicans opposed to the tax hike, the president has been waging an aggressive PR war to keep the public on his side in the dispute. In addition to his brief foray into Falls Church, the president will sit down for an interview with People magazine just days after doing one with Bloomberg TV. And the White House has been active online as well, emailing supporters to keep them engaged after the hard-fought 2012 presidential campaign and promoting a Twitter hashtag, #My2K, for users to weigh in.

Obama wants to let Bush-era tax cuts expire for individuals making more than $200,000 and families pulling in more than $250,000. He argues that the alternative is cuts to programs that the White House regards as fostering economic growth—things like college loan programs and infrastructure investments. Republicans have refused to let income tax rates on the wealthiest rise back to Clinton-era levels, warning that this will hurt some small businesses and take investment cash out of the economy.

 

A Dictator President and Democratic Party, are they Really U.S Citizens

Comment By Bob L.
12-05-2012

Obama will risk going over ‘cliff’ to get what he wants, he has done this since day one of his Presidency, because had two years to get what he wanted, but he spent that time blaming the Republicans for all the problems in this Country and when he voted for a lot of the problems we see today before he became President.
Obama: No deal on ‘fiscal cliff’ without higher tax rates for the wealthy (newsday.com)

All the people who believe that Obama is doing a good job, is this how you protect this Country from becoming a third world nation which Obama is steering this Country, then you are really sick.

Today people are so brain washed by listening to other people who don’t know what is going on because they are lazy and don’t care about this Country like minorities who can not think for them selves, and minorities are not one race, they are all races who are lazy and don’t want change so they can sit back and let some one else feed them and give them money, and not earn it (as Obama says spread the wealth for the lazy), so they can sit back and talk about how having to work is offensive. 

And talking about OFFENSIVE you now have groups in this Country using it to change and destroy our CONSTITUTION and our Freedom and using the courts to get their way.

House Democrats continue to tag Republicans as ‘hostage takers’

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Obama may let U.S. Go over cliff on purpose

Analysis: Obama could risk going over ‘cliff’
By JULIE PACE | Associated Press
12-05-2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — It may be just a bluff or a bargaining ploy, but the White House is signaling that President Barack Obama is willing to let the country go over the “fiscal cliff,” a hard-line negotiating strategy aimed at winning concessions from Republicans on taxes.

If Washington really does fail to avert the looming series of tax hikes and spending cuts, the White House will portray Republicans as the culprits for insisting on protecting tax cuts for the wealthy, an effort the administration is laying the groundwork for now.

“This is a choice of the Republican Party,” said Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director. “If they are willing to do higher rates on the wealthy, there’s a lot we can talk about. And if they are not, then they’ll push us over the cliff.”

But going over the cliff also would be full of risk for a president fresh off re-election and facing at least two more years of divided government.

Ending the year without a deal could roil financial markets and dent consumer confidence just as the economy is strengthening. It could make it harder for Obama to get Republican help on his second-term priorities like overhauling the immigration system and the nation’s tax code, or in getting potential Cabinet replacements confirmed.

And it would signal to the country that the president’s campaign prediction that the GOP “fever” would break following his re-election was a pipe dream.

House Speaker John Boehner says Obama is playing a risky game. “If the president really wants to avoid sending the economy over the fiscal cliff, he has done nothing to demonstrate it,” the speaker said.

White House advisers say the president wants to avoid going into next year without a tax and spending deal, a scenario they say would hurt the economy. But with few signs of progress in postelection negotiations with Republicans, administration officials are hardening their warning that Obama will take that risk if the GOP refuses to drop its opposition to raising tax rates on families making more than $250,000 a year.

Of course, the White House warning could be a bluff, offered in the belief that Republicans are unlikely to back down on taxes unless they believe Obama is willing to go over the cliff.

The White House says Obama’s firm stand on tax rate increases for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans is driven by economics. The debt-saddled country can’t afford to continue with the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, the president and his advisers argue.

Obama has made that case to Republicans before only to back down in the final stages of negotiations. But this time around, the president and his team believe they hold the political leverage.

There is some evidence to bolster that notion. Taxes were a centerpiece of the presidential campaign, with Obama running on a pledge to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and return their rates to where they were in the 1990s, when the economy was thriving.

Exit polls showed that 60 percent of voters supported that position, an even higher percentage than backed Obama’s re-election.

A new poll also suggests a majority of Americans would blame Republicans if the government goes over the fiscal cliff. Just 27 percent of those surveyed said they would blame Obama, compared with 53 percent who said they would point the finger at the GOP, according to the Washington Post-Pew Research Center Poll.

Seeking to cement those impressions, the White House is casting Republicans as willing to forgo tax cuts for the middle class in order to protect lower rates for wealthier Americans. Rates for all income earners will go up at the end of the year if both sides can’t reach a deal.

In turn, Republicans say Obama is acting like a stubborn partisan who will put the economy in peril in order to get his way.

“My sense is the White House wants to go over the cliff,” said Tony Fratto, a former Treasury and White House official under President George W. Bush. “That may be the only way they get rates they want.”

Going over the cliff could mark a new low in the relationship between the president and congressional Republicans. While the contentious debates earlier in Obama’s first term over funding the government and raising the nation’s borrowing limit went right up to the edge, both sides were always able to reach a deal.

As Obama ran for re-election, he sought to assure voters weary of Washington’s bickering that things would be better if he won a second term.

Speaking to supporters in June, he said, “I believe that if we’re successful in this election — when we’re successful in this election — that the fever may break.”

“My hope, my expectation, is that after the election, now that it turns out that the goal of beating Obama doesn’t make much sense because I’m not running again, that we can start getting some cooperation again,” he added optimistically.

Could this be true

Comment By Bob L.
12-01-2012

I was just watching a program that made the comment that People that don’t have, give more of their time than people who have.

People who have, could care less, the only person that they care about is themselves, this article is a good example of it, the same thing as these people who are pushing for global warming carbon tax, by taxing these companies these people pushing for it will raise taxes on every one while thy profit from it, and this is why they don’t want to lose their advantage to write of their capital gains and would rather go for a tax increase.

But this is true to the bad economy today, more money goes to Top Executives in many ways, and that is why Companies go under every year, it is not the worker it is Government Regulations,  Top Executives, and Board of Directors who are in to protecting rich stock holders than the business.  Hostess seeks sweet bonus deal for top executives (nbcnews.com) Hostess Asks Judge To Approve Executive Bonuses (newyork.cbslocal.com) this shows who is protected when it comes to pay.

And this comes with what Obama is telling Americans, he is spreading the wealth, but what he failed to say, it is coming out of the Middle and Poor class workers pockets.

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Bankrupt Hostess to Give Execs Bonuses

By ANTHONY CASTELLANO | Good Morning America
Fri, Nov 30, 2012

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved bonuses for executives of Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, who stay on as the company is broken up and sold off.

On Thursday, as part of a plan to liquidate the company and lay off 18,000 workers, a federal judge in White Plains, N.Y., approved paying 19 Hostess executives bonuses totaling $1.8 million. Hostess has said it has interest from at least 110 firms who want to buy pieces of the operation.

The decision comes as the company, known for its iconic snack cakes like Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, says it doesn’t have enough cash on hand to pay retirement benefits to some former employees.

The bonuses do not include pay for CEO Gregory Rayburn, who was brought on as a restructuring expert earlier this year, according to The Associated Press. Rayburn is being paid $125,000 a month.

Former employees are outraged over the bonuses handed out to high ups.

“Anybody’s got a reason to be upset who lost their job if there handing out large amounts of money,” Paul Carroll told ABC News.

In a statement overnight, Hostess said the bonuses are designed to keep top brass from leaving before winding down what’s left of the company “quickly and cost-effectively.”

“I was qualified to draw my pension, with no notice I lost about 70 or 75 percent of it I didn’t work 34 years to lose it,” Carroll said.

Hostess was given interim approval for its wind-down last week, which gave the company the legal protection to immediately fire 15,000 union workers. Hostess said last week it will retain about 3,200 employees “to assist with the initial phase of the wind-down,” which is expected to last about a year.

The company began facing troubles a few years ago as pension costs rose and health-conscious consumers stopped buying products.

A contentious battle began with Hostess asking its workers to take a smaller paycheck to keep the company open for business.

The bakers union went on strike Nov. 9, when the company imposed a contract that would cut workers’ wages by 8 percent. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) said the contract would also cut benefits by 27 to 32 percent.

Hostess, which is privately owned by investment firms, has struggled in recent years with two bankruptcy filings. The company said it “has done everything in its power to pursue a reorganization of its business as a going concern, including spending the better part of 18 months negotiating with its key constituents to obtain a consensual agreement.”

With Hostess out of business that means the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, approximately 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores throughout the United States, the company said.

ABC News’ Jeanette Torres and Susana Kim contributed to this report.

 

• Hostess Asks Judge To Approve Executive Bonuses (newyork.cbslocal.com)