RSS

Monthly Archives: October 2011

999 plan raises taxes on 84 percent?

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting according to an independent analysis, Republican Tea Party (GOTP) current presidential flavor of the week Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan would actually raise taxes on 84 percent of U.S. households’ clearly contradicting claims by the Pizza Man that most Americans would see a tax cut.

The Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, says low- and middle-income families would be hit hardest, with households making between $10,000 and $20,000 seeing their taxes increase by nearly 950 percent.

Wow, the lower 84% of Americans would be hit the hardest, go figure; it’s not hard to understand why his plan would hurt the mower and middle classes while actually helping the wealthiest; after all, Cain is the puppet to the Koch Brothers.

“You’re talking a $2,700 tax increase for people with incomes between $10,000 and $20,000”, said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. “That’s huge.”

Households with the highest incomes, however, would get big tax cuts. Those making more than $1 million a year would see their taxes cut nearly in half, on average, according to the analysis.

According to Williams, among those in the middle, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 would see their taxes increase by an average of $4,400, the report said. Those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would see their annual tax bill go up by an average of $4,326.

“It’s very, very regressive compared to the current system, and that’s largely because we’re exempting capital gains, and we’re taxing your spending with the sales tax,” he said. “People at the top end don’t spend all their money and they get a lot of capital gains, so they are doing pretty well here.”

The facts don’t exactly mesh with Cain’s views of his plan.

“Some people will pay more, but most people would pay less is my argument,” Cain said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Who will pay more? The people who spend more money on new goods. The sales tax only applies to people who buy new goods, not used goods. That’s a big difference that doesn’t come out.”

Cain’s plan would scrap current taxes on income, payroll, capital gains and corporate profits. He would replace them with a 9 percent tax on income, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent national sales tax.

So, we’d scrap our current tax plan; give a huge tax break to the wealthy and effectively screw everyone else. Great plan Herman; but what would anyone expect from someone who’s in the Koch Brother’s hip pocket. Cain is a flim flam man, and between this revelation and his electrified fence his star is about to plummet.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 18, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

Tags: , , ,

Houston M. Taylor

SSG Houston M. Taylor, 25, who enlisted in the Army in 2005, was killed Thursday in Afghanistan when insurgents attacked his unit with small-arms fire in Kunar province; the mountainous province in northeast Afghanistan borders Pakistan.

“He was a warrior, and he was fighting for a cause that he truly believed in,” said MAJ Dave Eastburn a spokesman for the brigade in which SSG Taylor served. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family right now as they go through this terrible time. He was a great leader and is on our minds every day as we continue to fight, just as he would have wanted. He’ll truly be missed.”

SSG Taylor was married to his high school sweetheart and was the father of two children.

His wife, Kelsey Rae Taylor, said her husband was “a very good dad” to their son, Rylan, 4, and daughter, Avery, 1.

“He was very strong,” she said. “He never complained about anything he had to do.”

During his last call home, SSG Taylor told his wife that he wouldn’t be able to call her for 10 days or so, because he was about to start a mission.

“I asked him if I should be scared, because I always ask that when he says he can’t call me for a while,” she said. “He said, ‘No, because I’m not.’ Then we said, ‘I love you’ and got off the phone.”

Kelsey Taylor met her future husband when she was 17, though she was at Poolville High School and he was at Azle High. “His cousin was going to school with me,” she said. “We were married when we were 19, in 2005.”

That also was the year SSG Taylor committed to his other love, the Army. Taylor, a native of Portsmouth, Va., joined the infantry and trained at Fort Benning, Ga.

His mother, Renee Cremean, said he was destined for the service from the time he was 8 or 10. She knew by the way he played.

“When other kids played soldier, they said, ‘I’m going to get my gun.’ He said, ‘I’m going to get my weapon.'” Cremean said. “He loved serving his country. He was very protective of the soldiers under him.”

SSG Taylor’s first assignment was with Alpha Company, 2-8 Infantry Battalion. He deployed twice with that unit before joining the 25th Infantry Division.

Eastburn said the brigade was a little more than halfway through a 12-month deployment when SSG Taylor was killed. He was taking part in Operation Rugged Sharak, the Defense Department said.

Other survivors include his father, Shawn Taylor; brothers, Austin and Dallas Taylor; grandmother, Mary Cremean; and paternal grandparents Freddie and Jackie Taylor.

Taylor is the 1,811th U.S. fatality in Afghanistan.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 18, 2011 in War on Terror

 

Tags:

Mike Huckabee Urges Voter Suppression?

The Huffington Post is reporting that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has been encouraging supporters of an anti-union ballot measure in Ohio to stop its opponents from voting, allegedly jokingly urging the crowd to let the air out of tires and intentionally give out a wrong election date.

It reported from MasonBuzz, that the 2008 presidential candidate spoke to a crowd of about 350 Issue 2 supporters at a pancake breakfast and rally in Mason, Ohio on Friday. Huckabee expressed his support for the referendum, and outlined what supporters could do to ensure the measure’s passage in next month’s general election.

“Make a list,” said Huckabee, referring to supporters’ family and friends. “Call them and ask them, ‘Are you going to vote on Issue 2 and are you going to vote for it?’ If they say no, well, you just make sure that they don’t go vote. Let the air out of their tires on Election Day; tell them the election has been moved to a different date. That’s up to you how you creatively get the job done.”

The crowd laughed at Huckabee’s remarks. In 2009, he made a similar joke in Virginia, saying, “Let the air out of their tires … keep ’em home. Do the Lord’s work.”

Only today’s uber-conservatives – the ones who claim to love and revere liberty and freedom and constitutional liberties – would think it was appropriate, or funny, to joke about or to laugh at suppressing voting.

Reportedly, Issue 2 is a ballot referendum on Senate Bill 5, which limits collective bargaining for Ohio’s public employees. The measure has been heavily opposed by pro-labor groups like We Are Ohio, which emphasize the bill would inhibit workers’ rights. Voters will decide on the ballot initiative next month.

“These comments reflect an entire campaign of deceit from Issue 2 supporters. They are willing to go to any extremes to keep Ohioans from letting their voices be heard,” said We Are Ohio spokeswoman Melissa Fazekas. “Enough is enough.”

The event where Huckabee spoke was hosted by the Warren County Republican Party and Building a Better Ohio, a pro-Issue 2 group that recently came under fire for using footage of an Ohio woman who opposes the legislation in one of their ads.

Huckabee does not love liberty, he does not love freedom, if he did he wouldn’t make light of suppressing a fellow American’s right to vote. Is this the America represented by FOX PAC – where Huckleberry has a daily show? Is this the type of liberty he thinks the Founding Fathers envisioned?

Huckles says he was only joking, most likely because someone reported what he said; but what if he hadn’t been reported on? Problem is, even if he were joking – which is doubtful – there will be some conservatives who will do as he says; they will attempt to keep their opponents from voting. This is the type of conservative activism practiced by the Brown Shirts during the 1930s, and it has no place here.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 17, 2011 in Voting

 

Tags: , , , ,

Jeremiah T. Sancho

SPC Jeremiah T. Sancho, 23, of Palm Bay, Fla., died Oct. 13 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

RaiAnne Bocco tells Florida Today that her husband was deployed in April, almost a year after their wedding in her parents’ Palm Bay backyard.

The 21-year-old says Sancho was so shy that he first asked her out in 2006 by writing a note. She still has that note.

Sancho was based at Fort Drum, N.Y., with the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

During his Army basic-training graduation ceremony in May 2010, Jerry Sancho surprised his longtime girlfriend, RaiAnne Bocco, by dropping to one knee and proposing behind the bleachers at Fort Benning, Ga.

Seven days later, the couple married in the backyard of RaiAnne’s parents’ house in Palm Bay. Sancho’s grandfather, Eddie, an ordained minister, performed the ceremony.

Sancho, 23, an avid comic-book fan and budding artist, was deployed overseas April 9 as a “mortarman.” The 2007 Palm Bay High graduate was killed Thursday in Afghanistan when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device, the Department of Defense announced.

RaiAnne, 21, learned of her husband’s death the next day while working at the Palm Bay Kmart. By the time her father picked her up and drove her home, an Army chaplain was waiting at the house.

“I was devastated,” she recalled Sunday night, sitting at a computer looking at photographs of Sancho. She bowed her head and cried, unable to speak further.

Sancho’s awards and decorations include the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal and the Combat Action Badge, various media outlets reported Sunday.

He had planned to return to Palm Bay next month on leave.

“I have a hole in my chest. He wasn’t just my son-in-law. He was my son,” said Sharon Bocco, RaiAnne’s mother. “He’s been living here since he was 17 years old.”

Sancho enjoyed video games and playing bass guitar. RaiAnne said they started dating March 11, 2006, after engaging in a friendly neighborhood “dirt fight” with family and friends.

On her Facebook page, RaiAnne posted a farewell message Saturday night:

“Jerry I miss you. I love you so much baby. I don’t know what I’m gonna do without you, but I know you’re watching over me,” she wrote. “I love you and was proud to be your wife.”

SPC Sancho is the 1,810th American casualty in Afghanistan

(Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/17/2458018/florida-soldier-23-dies-in-afghanistan.html)

(http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20111017/NEWS01/310170003/Palm-Bay-soldier-killed-Afghanistan?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home)

 
2 Comments

Posted by on October 17, 2011 in War on Terror

 

Tags:

Koch brothers have tentacles in Cain’s campaign?

Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential hopeful Herman Cain keeps telling people he’s the outsider, but there’s a deep dark secret he isn’t sharing; the “Pizza Man’s” economic ideas, support and organization are allegedly tied to the two billionaire Koch brothers, the same who bankroll right-leaning causes through their PAC “Americans for Prosperity” (AFP). Of course it’s their prosperity they’re talking about not ours, as in “Americans”.

The Koch’s have many former staff inside Cain’s campaign, such as his campaign manager and a number of other aides who’ve worked for AFP, which has operatives constantly lobbying for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending, spreading their wealth amongst their GOTP owned politicians.

Cain’s attachment to AFP has been going on for years, and the so-called “outsider” has credited a member of the AFP advisory board with helping devise his “9-9-9” plan. The Pizza Man’s been speaking at AFP events for years working on building of loyal grassroots fans.

According to the Associated Press (AP) the AFP tapped Cain as the public face of its “Prosperity Expansion Project,” and he traveled the country in 2005 and 2006 speaking to activists who were starting state-based AFP chapters from Wisconsin to Virginia. Through his AFP work he met Mark Block, a longtime Wisconsin Republican operative hired to lead that state’s AFP chapter in 2005 as he rebounded from an earlier campaign scandal that derailed his career.

Block and Cain sometimes traveled together as they built up AFP: Cain was the charismatic speaker preaching the ills of big government; Block was the operative helping with nuts and bolts.

After President Barack Obama’s election, Cain became a draw at growing AFP-backed rallies, impressing activists with his mix of humor and rhetoric against the President’s policies.

Block is now Cain’s campaign manager, even though he has a tainted past; in 2001 he had to pay a $15,000 dollar settlement after being accused of illegalities in a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice’s re-election.

So, Cain is connected to the Koch brothers; if the fact he wasn’t remotely qualified to be president wasn’t enough of a reason not to vote for him, having the Koch’s pulling the Pizza Man’s strings definitely is. The last thing America needs is a president being owned lock, stock and barrel by the Kochs.

 
1 Comment

Posted by on October 16, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

Tags: , , , ,

GOTP of 1776

 
1 Comment

Posted by on October 15, 2011 in Humor

 

Tags:

Michael R. Tatham

A decorated Navy SEAL combat veteran who was on leave in Indonesia died Oct. 12 in a motorcycle crash, the Naval Special Warfare Command said late Thursday.

The accident in Bali killed Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Michael R. Tatham, 33, of University Place, Wash., Naval Special Warfare Group 1 said in a news release. Tatham, who enlisted in October 2002, was forward deployed to Afghanistan with a West Coast-based naval special warfare unit at the time. No other details were available about the accident, said Lt. Cmdr. Frank Magallon, a group spokesman.

Tatham “was a dedicated SEAL and a cherished teammate,” Capt. Collin Green, NSWG-1’s commander at Naval Base Coronado, Calif., said in a statement. “He was the epitome of professionalism, and his humble and selfless service to our country made him a role model for all.”

A native of Fayetteville, N.C., Tatham graduated in April 2004 with Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Class 248 after completing SEAL Qualification Training, and he continued advanced training after reporting to his West Coast-based SEAL team.

His military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with combat “V,” Joint Service Achievement Medal, four Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medals including one with “V,” two Good Conduct Medals, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, three Sea Service Deployment Ribbons and NATO Service Medal, along with the expert rifle and expert pistol ribbons.

Chief Tatham was the 1,809th American to die supporting the war in Afghanistan.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 15, 2011 in War on Terror

 

Tags:

Scott D. Harper


A Marine from Douglas County was killed Thursday in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said Friday.

Lance Cpl. Scott D. Harper, 21, of Winston, died while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, military officials said.

Harper was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Harper was a 2008 graduate of Alexander High School, where he was an outgoing student and active in ROTC, the Douglas County Sentinel reported.

A moment of silence was observed for Harper before the start of Friday night’s football game between Alexander and Chapel Hill high schools, both in Douglas County.

Lance Cpl. Harper was the 1,808th American killed in Afghanistan.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 15, 2011 in War on Terror

 

Tags:

Robert B. Cowdrey

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Friday the death of a soldier from Portage County.

SSG Robert B. Cowdrey, 39, of Atwater, Ohio, died Thursday in Afghanistan while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

According to a news release from the DOD, Sgt. Cowdrey passed away from injuries suffered during combat operations.

Cowdrey, a flight medic, deployed four times after joining the U.S. Army in 2003. He served in Iraq from July 2004 to July 2005, before deploying to Afghanistan three separate times until his death.

Military officials said Cowdrey was a decorated war veteran whose awards included the Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medals for valor, Army Good Conduct Medals, the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. Sgt. Cowdrey was also awarded various humanitarian and service medals and ribbons during his time in the military.

Cowdrey was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, in Fort Bragg, N.C.

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly Cowdrey, and three sons, Justin, Charles and Daniel.

SSG Cowdrey was the 1,807th American killed in Afghanistan.

 
2 Comments

Posted by on October 15, 2011 in War on Terror

 

Tags:

Bachmann wants to adopt the Reagan tax plan?

Of course Republican Tea Party (GOTP) hopeful Michelle “Krazy” Bachmann would declare on FOX PAC that she wants to adopt the Reagan tax plan, it’s where every desperate conservative candidate hoping to regain ground goes; apparently however, she doesn’t understand that would mean a rather hefty tax increase to put the tax rate where it was under the Gipper.

Krazy has been very scornful of Herman “Pizza Man” Cain’s “9-9-9” tax plan, especially of the idea of a national sales tax.

“For my tax plan, I take a page out of one of my great economists that I admire, Ronald Reagan,” Bachmann said. “And under my tax plan I want to adopt the Reagan tax plan. It brought the economic miracle of the 1980s. Why not go with what works? I want to reinstitute the Reagan tax model from the 1980s.”

Excuse me? Krazy is of course a dyed in the wool conservative who has selective memory regarding the Reagan “economic miracle” and what caused it. While it’s true Reagan cut taxes in his first year, he subsequently raised them, including some of the highest tax increases by any U.S. President during peace time (https://thelibertytree.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/reagan-was-not-a-tax-cutter-he-was-a-tax-raiser/ ).

Reagan’s “tax cuts” led to an increased tax burden on all Americans, and an exploded deficit and national debt – the “golden era” of Reaganomics actually lasted less than a year when it was realized it wouldn’t create the revenue the administration had predicted, but conservatives will never admit this, and will go gaga over any politician who proclaims they’re the next Reagan; well Ms. Bachmann, I knew Ronald Reagan, and you’re no Ronald Reagan, you’re not even a Michael Reagan.

 
2 Comments

Posted by on October 14, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

Tags: , , ,