American politics and news thread

tiffanywint wrote:

In a legal sense, fair share, is only what the IRS says you actually owe.

I know. And it's really not fair at all.

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Even our pal Roger Moore details in his book, how he fled England in the '70s, due to his "fair share" being a tad too fair on the government side.

The Rolling Stones, fled England for France at the same time, over concerns about their "fair share". Arguably their most famous album, Exile on Main Street , refers to their tax-exile status.

And don't forget John Barry. Because of that, we missed out on a couple more Bond scores from him.

tiffanywint wrote:

CJB wrote:

Good for him. Who doesn't want to give as little as possible to the gubmint?

Exactly. The whole tax return game is just that a political game. The liberal strategy is to try and paint him as a rich guy that doesn't pay his share. But that's politics. It's a slimey game.

What would actually be interesting is if the IRS (as opposed to political rivals), had issues with any given politician, and even then actual criminal tax evasion issues.

Otherwise the IRS takes issues with plenty of tax returns as a matter of due course.

I'm sure you'd say the same if it were Obama who was evading taxes.

Jack Wade wrote:

I'm sure you'd say the same if it were Obama who was evading taxes.

Evading taxes? We're not exactly talking Marc Rich or Charlie Rangel here. If Romney puts his money in legal tax shelters so be it. I'll do anything legally permissible to stop myself from having to fork over more cash for fat-assed bureaucrats in Washington to waste.

Obama like to say that he always bets on America i.e. his Betting on America tour, but the problem with that analogy is that it's not his money he's betting with; it's the American taxpayer's money, and he's losing. It's easy to talk big when it's someone else's money you're spending into the poorhouse. Five trillion dollars of new debt that the taxpayers have yet to earn in less than four years of being in office? :x

Of course President Obama might understand that if he had actually ever held a real job. By my count he's lived mostly off of scholarships, endowments and the public taxpayer teat (as Illinois legislator, U.S. Senator, and now President). While he was in school studying how to make jobs, and thinking about making jobs, and hoping to make jobs, I was out there in the real world busting my hump actually doing it, not wishing about it or theorizing about it.

I can tell you right now if he was a member of my board of directors or the CEO of my company he'd have been fired already for grossly insufficient results.

Jack Wade wrote:

I'm sure you'd say the same if it were Obama who was evading taxes.

You would be sure wouldn't you. btw has the IRS actually accused Romney of evading taxes or is it just his political rivals making noise.

tiffanywint wrote:

Jack Wade wrote:

I'm sure you'd say the same if it were Obama who was evading taxes.

You would be sure wouldn't you. btw has the IRS actually accused Romney of evading taxes or is it just his political rivals making noise.

Nobody has accused Romney of that.

It does seem strange that the common man pays in percentage more tax than the average millionaire. It should be fairer if the very wealthy would play a similar percentage. This was a point some Bilionaires did try to make but was stopped by the republican vote (mostly).

I think that the entitlement that millionaires feel to pay less tax should not be called a decent thing even if it is legal. But apperently in politics it seems to be difficult closing schemes of enrichment or loopholes. Probably most because of the fact that most politicans are scheming moneygrabbing bastards themselves. The only time most of them care about the people is when they get close to re-election.

Every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.
Each year, there are about 207,754 victims of sexual assault.
1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.
17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.
15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12. 44% are under age 18.
54% of rapes/sexual assaults are not even reported to the police
False reports of rape are less common (1.6%) than false reports of auto theft (2.6%), a much more impressive number when you realize that more than half of all rapes go unreported.

Some interesting link for more really scary facts:

http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/sa.shtml

Everytime I read these things I feel the need for escorting my daugthers everywhere with a big baseball bat.

saint mark wrote:

Nobody has accused Romney of that.

Uh, yeah they have. Senator Reid accused Romney of having paid no taxes in 10 years, and Stephanie Cutter, the Obama 2012 Re-Election Campaign spokewoman called Romney a "felon": “Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments.”

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It does seem strange that the common man pays in percentage more tax than the average millionaire. It should be fairer if the very wealthy would play a similar percentage. This was a point some Bilionaires did try to make but was stopped by the republican vote (mostly).

Being a millionaire in this country is no longer the status symbol it once was. You'd be hard pressed to find anybody who could live on a million dollars and take care of a family of four for the rest of their lives. And I don't care what rich people are paying in taxes; I only care about what I am paying in taxes, and it is too much. They can afford to hire better accountants, investors and tax attorneys to help them spend their money or find places to put it where it will grow. I'm sick of being asked to be jealous of what other people are doing with their money; it's like their sex life: it's none of my business.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

saint mark wrote:

Nobody has accused Romney of that.

Uh, yeah they have. Senator Reid accused Romney of having paid no taxes in 10 years, and Stephanie Cutter, the Obama 2012, Re-Election Campaign spokewoman called Romney a "felon": ....

I'm taking the Saint to mean, nobody that matters. ;)

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Being a millionaire in this country is no longer the status symbol it once was. You'd be hard pressed to find anybody who could live on a million dollars and take care of a family of four for the rest of their lives. And I don't care what rich people are paying in taxes; I only care about what I am paying in taxes, and it is too much. They can afford to hire better accountants, investors and tax attorneys to help them spend their money or find places to put it where it will grow. I'm sick of being asked to be jealous of what other people are doing with their money; it's like their sex life: it's none of my business.

I read today that Warren Buffet is apparently selling off municipal Bonds. Speculation is that the Buffster figures government might purposefully default on creditors as a tactic to reduce crippling debt.

Might be best to buy gold, dig a hole and bury it. :shock:

In rather emphatic fashion, a U.S. court has decided that Apple has not infringed upon any of Samsung's patents, but rather that Samusng has infringed upon Apple's and owes the company more than $1 billion.

http://stream.wsj.com/story/apple-v-samsung-trial-over-patents/SS-2-38559/

The Economist, which tends to swing toward the right, has revoked its endorsement for Mitt Romney. So much for the evil liberal media.

http://www.economist.com/node/21560864?frsc=dg|a

NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City won't air new gay comedy

http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/utah-nbc-affiliate-wont-air-new-gay-couple-comedy-the-new-normal/#more-324823

I was probably going to skip this show anyway since it starred the hateful and bigoted Ellen Barkin, but her response has only further confirmed my initial reasonings for not watching the show.

In response to KSL's decision to not air the new show, Barkin tweeted: “Shame on u ‪@KSLcom‬ not airing ‪@NBCTheNewNormal.‬ So L&O SVU (rape & child murder) is ok? But loving gay couple having a baby is inappropriate? What will play in @NBCTheNewNormal‬ spot? A dude reading from the bible?"

#1 Ellen Barkin offends my values and I'm not even a Mormon. She's been offending them for a while now, so I will not give NBC or their advertisers one penny of my support or time.

#2 KSL has yanked other programs that they have deemed incompatible with their audience, including The Playboy Club, so it's not as if they're specifically targeting gay shows or gay jokes to keep off the air.

#3 I'm not sure why The Mormon Church would even want to own a television affiliate, but it's a free country (relatively free, for the time being at least).

#4 What's wrong with some "dude" reading the bible on camera, especially if it gets better ratings than this show would?



Having now seen the trailer for the show, it confirmed what I suspected: it would be heavy on moralizing and messaging and predictable stereotypes, and short on laughs and entertainment. The ONLY funny line in the 4 minute trailer was the woman thinking Simon And Garfunkel was a medical practice.

Without ever having seen the script or read any of the press notes for this show, I *KNEW* that somehow, someway, Ellen Barkin's character would be portrayed as a homophobe/racist and be from The South, and damn if the show didn't do EXACTLY THAT. Love the way NBC also works in a Callista Gingrich slam against Ellen Barkin's character, while also working in a pro-Obama comment...and that's just in a trailer that's under 4 minutes long (though I can't say Callista didn't deserve it; she is a whore after all). And Andrew Rennall's character is a stereotypical gay male: fey, effeminate, wishy-washy, clingy, needy, emotional, fragile....and Hollywood is attempting to edumicate us on stereotypes and prejudice? :roll:

She has a point, why is it inappropriate?

Yeah, this is the same basic principal as Southern states not showing certain films or shows 60 years ago because of racial issues.

There are gay people. They are normal citizens, and some of them raise kids. Get the hell over it. There are at least two gay couples on my street, and one of them are family friends of my family, and my sisters go over there all the time. They're not flesh-eating zombies.

The affiliate has the right to not air it, and people have the right to respond.

Python wrote:

She has a point, why is it inappropriate?

Everything about it goes against Mormom beliefs and teachings. I mean, why exactly would anyone expect them to embrace it, air it, laugh at it, enjoy it?

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Python wrote:

She has a point, why is it inappropriate?

Everything about it goes against Mormom beliefs and teachings. I mean, why exactly would anyone expect them to embrace it, air it, laugh at it, enjoy it?

Who cares? They can just switch the channel. Not everyone in the Salt Lake City area is a Mormon or is against homosexuality. I don't agree with Pat Robertson or The 700 Club, but I don't demand it be taken off the air so that nobody can watch it just because of what I think.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Python wrote:

She has a point, why is it inappropriate?

Everything about it goes against Mormom beliefs and teachings. I mean, why exactly would anyone expect them to embrace it, air it, laugh at it, enjoy it?

Who cares? They can just switch the channel. Not everyone in the Salt Lake City area is a Mormon or is against homosexuality. I don't agree with Pat Robertson or The 700 Club, but I don't demand it be taken off the air so that nobody can watch it just because of what I think.

Well, KSL cares, and that's why they're not airing it. A local affiliate is going to pick up the show, but honestly, the controversy can only do this show some good and give it some much needed publicity, because it looks bad and is likely to get cancelled quickly.

The way to show gay people being normal and raising families is to show gay people being normal and raising families, NOT drawing attention to them as being a gay family. The problem with Hollywood is that they know no subtlety. They don't know how to make such a program without using the sledgehammer of tolerance to beat people over the head with. Not to mention the lazy writing with lines such as "I figure love is love". Wow! So insightful!

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