Ignorant Perceptions or Stupid Old People?

This struck me as funny, from the Enquirer's letters to the editor:

"Tax cuts help lots more than richest
I have good news and I have bad news. According to writer of the letter 'Nation should indeed repay veterans' (July 9) and many others, President Bush's tax cuts only go to the wealthiest Americans. As a retiree living on a monthly pension check, it sure was good news to learn that I am one of the wealthiest Americans. This year, thanks to Bush, I was able to use the short form to do my taxes for the first time in 33 years.
Now for the bad news. If I am one of the wealthiest, this country is in deep trouble. After all, when the wealthiest Americans are driving 3-year-old Fords, all those people driving new Lincolns and Cadillacs must be foreigners.
Ray Voegele, Anderson Township "

What I find funny is that Ray judges tax burdens by what form he has to fill out. Compare that to not having to fill out forms for welfare and I bet Mr. Voegele would happily take the long form.

What I find funnier is that if just this year he switched to the short form, for the 2003 tax year. I then have to wonder how big is his monthly pension if the tax cuts that went into effect for 2003 caused him to switch forms would be those on one of the higher tax brackets, since the 10% was created for 2001, and then every year the upper brackets were getting cut. The 15% was not cut, but the rest above were.

Did I mention that I am still in the 15% tax bracket and that I have yet received any additional tax cut since the 2001 cut, while the rest of the upper rates have fallen like bricks? So I guess the middle class is just getting everything. Oh, I wonder how much income Mr. Voegele got from investments? I bet he did not include that along with his monthly pension. I wonder if the changes in the tax code enabled those with investment income to make filing taxes easier, thus allowing him to file a simpler form.

Oh, if we all could file an easier form. Oh, the horror of earning $80,000 and having to buy a tax software package to compute it for you. How horrible that is. Oh, the burden on the rich for wasting a few hours of their time on that tax program, or even worse, wasting it on a tax accountant. Oh, the horror!!!!!

The Atticus Defense

John Edwards is being attacked left and right by the GOP for being a trial lawyer by profession. The attacks are targeted mostly towards the burbites and small business owners who go postal over anything related to making a buck.

There is a simple retort that I would use if I were John Edwards. I would come out strong and reply:

Yes, I was a trial Lawyer before being elected to the Senate. I spent years fighting for justice. I spent years trying to be Atticus Finch.

Now, Edwards or his speechwriters could say it in a much better way than I could, but that is the gist of what could hit home.

Atticus Finch is one of the best characters in 20th century literature and film. Whether you visualize Gregory Peck facing down a racist mob or you take Harper Lee's character directly into your imagination, no lawyer has more honor, more dignity, or more grace.

It may not be best for Edwards to say this himself, but many of his advocates could wield this meme out on the airwaves and in the Blogosphere.

Now, if you want be a bit more edgy, then one phrase comes to mind:

I'm Atticus Finch, bitch.

That might work well for David Chappelle, but I don't know if I would use it on the campaign trail.

Ohio Political Blogs

Malia Rulon of the AP writes about how Ohio politics is being influenced by blogs.

I don't see that blogs are making a huge retail level impact on local politics. Springer's blog or the Ohio GOP blog are not going to change votes. Blogs do provide a channel of communication for supporters to give out campaign information, and provide a growing means to collect campaign contributions.

I think the web in general is becoming a means for the candidate to directly feed the public their message, but blogs from candidates or parties are not going to do much.

Blogs from people not part of the campaign, with a little bit of credibility can influence the media and gives stories a life, where it may otherwise die. That is future of blogging in politics.

Jesse Taylor from Pandagon got a mention, or "little love" as he says from the AP article. I myself was interviewed as well, but I did not make the cut for the article. I referred to bloggers as "Citizen Journalists" in hopes of scoring a quote. Too bad the term has been used before.

Someone is Getting Fired Over This

Who ever wrote the memo/letter about delaying the Nov. vote because of terrorism likely will not have a job later on today.

I am really surprised this was being considered at all by anyone in the government. Who in the right mind would propose postponing a presidential election? I wonder how long they would postpone it? The change in the law would need to be huge since much of the law is in the Constitution. I wonder how long this will play out in the media. It gives fodder to the Tin Foil Hatters, but it looks like something out of a South American political documentary, where it ends up with protests in the streets and people dead from government guns.

I hope BushCo nips this one in the butt quickly. They must end any speculation that they would delay the vote because of a Spain like terrorist event days before the election. I hate to say it, but….if we move the election, the terrorists win. The cliché is painful, but for once it is true.

97X Moving to Cincinnati

I have it from reliable sources (yes more than one) that 97X will be leaving Oxford and heading for the Downtown-OTR-NKY-Northside area. A place has not yet been finalized at this point, so your guess is as good as mine as to where exactly it will be. The move will not be right away, but should happen this year.

Anybody with a good location or good deal for the station should be getting off their ass right about now and start selling their guts out.

I see two general areas I would consider: Near the Southgate or on Main Street. Southgate is a better drawing venue for musical acts than Main Street, but Main Street has the potential for more horses to compete.

Nick Spencer also confirms the move, but gives no details.

CIA = CYA

The Senate report on the Iraq intelligence failures that blames the CIA for everything is more than just a way to shift blame for the Iraq war from the White House to the CIA. It also is a way for the Congress to shift its responsibility to the CIA.

What they missed was a little bit of information as to what the Defense Department was feeding the White House, specifically the VP's office.

Bush's defense is to just cover his ass and blame the CIA. He sure takes responsibility for things, doesn't he?

Ignorance and Bigotry

When you have the two intangled together one gets a mess of ideas and a mess of human decency.

Kevin Smith of Indiana needs to read a little more history if he wants to make claims like this:

The formal amendment process of the U.S. Constitution may be the only way to assure that democratically elected leaders approve changes to the traditional definition of marriage that has prevailed in virtually every society throughout human history.

Bold Added

Now I guess Mr. Smith knows nothing of Mormons. I guess they don't teach anything about Utah in his government class. I guess Arab culture where multiple wives was and in many places still allowed is not taught in his world history class. Is Mr. Smith that bad of teacher, or if just does not consider Arabs human. Human history, until modern times, had common instances of polygamy and other types of various marriages.

Greg Mann takes on the ignorance of Mr. Smith in further detail. For a man teaching government to kids, I think Smith needs a refresher course or a pink slip.

Mr. Smith skirted the bigotry gambit. I believe he is a bigot based on the fact that he wants to ban gay marriage. He does not directly get into why he opposes gay marriage. Smith is pushing the same type of dogma that Bush is now pushing. What disturbs me most about this whole debate is that those who want to ban gay marriage and are offering no national civil union provisions hide behind tacit rhetorical like "defending traditional marriage," but never say what they are defending it against. I guess they don't want it to change. What I want to know is how is it going to change? If gay marry will marriage now be something different? Do we not send gifts and have a party? Do we not still have the vast majority of marriages be "traditional?" Do we not still have half of those marriages ending in divorce?

If you are going to be a bigot, get up and say so. If you want to keep homosexuals as second class citizens, then do it out in the open with directly language. Hiding behind code words and doublespeak is the trademark of bigots who have the finger in the wind. I guess as long as the gays are kept in place, that’s all that really matters to Bush and Smith.