Joseph West commented on Rep. Clyburn Deftly Destroys Cavuto's "Tax The Poor More" Argument
2012-02-02 16:33:18 -0500
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What Cavuto forgets is that ALL people who work regular jobs are subject to having taxes withheld on their income. I get paid biweekly and EVERY SINGLE PAYCHECK has a line that reads “Fed Tax” and when I look at the line that reads “Net Pay,” it’s ALWAYS less than the line that reads “Gross Pay.” Even accounting for the lines of “State Tax” and “Medicare” and “Sosec” (Social Security) which also take out money from my paycheck, as well as the withholdings that I choose (like retirement payments and insurance premiums), the “Net Pay” is ALWAYS coming up short by that “Fed Tax” line.
Now, when I go to file my Federal Tax return (which I’ll be getting around to doing in the next few weeks), I’ll list my income (the “gross pay” minus the amounts on my “tax-free” things like health insurance and retirement premiums), then subtract the allowed deduction (in my case, about $9500 since I’m single and not anyone else’s “deduction”) and enter that on the “taxable income” line. I’ll then list the total of money that my employer withheld (as my “tax payment”). I’ll then go the the fun little tax tables and check to see where my “taxable income” lies. Now, if my employer has done their job properly, I won’t have to pay ADDITIONAL federal taxes—but, at the same time, I won’t get a refund either. Unfortunately, in most years, I’ve had silly things like “pay raises” or “COLAs” or even “overtime pay” come along and screw things up so that I’ve ended up paying extra federal taxes (one year, it was almost $400) and this year, my preliminary estimate shows my having to pay about $25 or $50 extra.
But, the simple fact is that even those people who, according to you, aren’t paying taxes ARE, in fact, having money withheld from each paycheck to cover their tax burden. And I’m reasonably sure they’d rather have their $400 a week paycheck lessened by $50 rather than the alternative: Once they’ve filled out their tax return on their $20,800 annual income that they have to turn around and write out a check to the US Treasury for an amount of $1500-2000. Mr Cavuto, I’m sure that writing out such a check means little to nothing to you but, conversely, I doubt you’re faced with living on $20,800 a year.
I do wish some progressive lawmaker would get these right-wingers to understand exactly how “the poor” do pay taxes. Just because you’re not having to write out a check for hundreds or thousands of dollars to cover your tax burden does NOT mean you don’t pay taxes. If you get a paycheck, you’re paying taxes. (And in many states, even an unemployment check qualifies as “taxable income.” So do lottery winnings and getting money by dealing drugs. Just because you make your money by selling crack to schoolkids doesn’t allow you to not pay your fair share of taxes. Of course, we know that corporations manage to not pay their fair share of taxes; unlike crack dealers, though, the corporate CEOs don’t usually go to jail because they’ve got accountants finding loopholes and paying off GOP politicians.)
Now, when I go to file my Federal Tax return (which I’ll be getting around to doing in the next few weeks), I’ll list my income (the “gross pay” minus the amounts on my “tax-free” things like health insurance and retirement premiums), then subtract the allowed deduction (in my case, about $9500 since I’m single and not anyone else’s “deduction”) and enter that on the “taxable income” line. I’ll then list the total of money that my employer withheld (as my “tax payment”). I’ll then go the the fun little tax tables and check to see where my “taxable income” lies. Now, if my employer has done their job properly, I won’t have to pay ADDITIONAL federal taxes—but, at the same time, I won’t get a refund either. Unfortunately, in most years, I’ve had silly things like “pay raises” or “COLAs” or even “overtime pay” come along and screw things up so that I’ve ended up paying extra federal taxes (one year, it was almost $400) and this year, my preliminary estimate shows my having to pay about $25 or $50 extra.
But, the simple fact is that even those people who, according to you, aren’t paying taxes ARE, in fact, having money withheld from each paycheck to cover their tax burden. And I’m reasonably sure they’d rather have their $400 a week paycheck lessened by $50 rather than the alternative: Once they’ve filled out their tax return on their $20,800 annual income that they have to turn around and write out a check to the US Treasury for an amount of $1500-2000. Mr Cavuto, I’m sure that writing out such a check means little to nothing to you but, conversely, I doubt you’re faced with living on $20,800 a year.
I do wish some progressive lawmaker would get these right-wingers to understand exactly how “the poor” do pay taxes. Just because you’re not having to write out a check for hundreds or thousands of dollars to cover your tax burden does NOT mean you don’t pay taxes. If you get a paycheck, you’re paying taxes. (And in many states, even an unemployment check qualifies as “taxable income.” So do lottery winnings and getting money by dealing drugs. Just because you make your money by selling crack to schoolkids doesn’t allow you to not pay your fair share of taxes. Of course, we know that corporations manage to not pay their fair share of taxes; unlike crack dealers, though, the corporate CEOs don’t usually go to jail because they’ve got accountants finding loopholes and paying off GOP politicians.)
Joseph West commented on Greta Van Susteren Covers Up For Boehner Calling Obama “Un-American” And Ignores West’s Hateful Rhetoric
2012-02-01 03:03:01 -0500
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@Jeeez: Well, not scrutinized or taxed until some brainiac calls for the inevitable “tax repatriation holiday” when these companies can bring back their hundreds of billions of dollars for mere pennies.
Joseph West commented on Gretchen Carlson Has A Problem With Sikhs?
2012-02-01 03:00:31 -0500
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Tim Butler wrote “Do you deny that there are groups within our society, not only attempting but succeeding in preventing public expression of Christmas by Christians, on government property as well as in government run schools? Are you blind to the fact that public displays of Christian symbols like the cross are being regulated out of existence by our government while the ability of soldiers to express their faith in the military is being truncated, this even as they die for our freedoms?”
I trust you’re aware that it is NOT the government’s job to do anything that could be seen as promoting one religion above another. That is (and has been, for decades) the principle LEGAL concept under which this country has operated.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lemon v Kurtzman:
The Court’s decision in this case established the “Lemon test”, which details the requirements for legislation concerning religion. It consists of three prongs:
1.The government’s action must have a secular legislative purpose;
2.The government’s action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;
3.The government’s action must not result in an “excessive government entanglement” with religion.
If any of these 3 prongs are violated, the government’s action is deemed unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Any alleged “preventing public expression of Christmas” that involves a GOVERNMENT body (whether municipal, state or federal) MUST be a result of the Lemon test. IOW, if the City of Topeka wants to erect a Christmas display, to pass the Lemon test, the city MUST ensure that SECULAR elements connected with Christmas are involved. Furthermore, if the city plans to feature this display for many weeks and OTHER religious holidays or festivals take place (such as Hanukkah or Diwali or, as in fairly recent years, Eid al-Adha and Ashura*), symbols or elements of those religious festivities should also appear, especially in cities with sizable non-Christian minority religious groups. Additionally, it’s worth noting that the Eastern Orthodox Christmas doesn’t always coincide with the Western celebration (because the EO calendar is calculated differently, it typically falls a week later) so removing the display could be seen as offensive to various Eastern Orthodox denominations. Of course, most gov’t agencies when doing these displays completely ignore PAGAN traditions (not many signs wishing “Happy Yule” or “Happy Saturnalia” or “Merry Mithras Day”) and are always dismissive of their agnostic and atheist citizens.
As for schools, the major problem is that schools are supposed to be about EDUCATION. Considering the complaints from the right-wing over what a “miserable” job is being done at public schools (the ones that you would describe as “government run”), it’s completely laughable that there’s so much faux outrage about how little Johnny and Susie are being deprived of seeing Christmas decorations in the schools (conversely, foreign language classes would be a haven for “Christmas” in school to show the traditions in other countries). Since 99.999999% of all public school children are out of school for nearly a week (at least) before Christmas Day, expecting schools to literally waste hours of time on the holiday is genuinely stupid. I honestly don’t remember anything special about Christmas in school when I attended public schools X number of decades ago. There was usually chitchat about what everyone hoped to get or what everyone wanted (usually followed up in January with details about what they did get and, more importantly, what they didn’t get) but most of the teachers really didn’t have a lot of time to decorate the classes (at most, our “gift” from the teachers was a “free” day on our last day of classes before the vacation break, especially in junior high and high school—this gave the teachers an extra day to get their gradebooks caught up for the all-important semester exams).
*On a ludicrous side note, when I did a search for “Muslim holidays,” the page came back empty—saying there were NO results. When I changed the search to “Islamic holidays,” what do you suppose the first result was? That’s right—the Wiki article on “Muslim Holidays.”
I trust you’re aware that it is NOT the government’s job to do anything that could be seen as promoting one religion above another. That is (and has been, for decades) the principle LEGAL concept under which this country has operated.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lemon v Kurtzman:
The Court’s decision in this case established the “Lemon test”, which details the requirements for legislation concerning religion. It consists of three prongs:
1.The government’s action must have a secular legislative purpose;
2.The government’s action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;
3.The government’s action must not result in an “excessive government entanglement” with religion.
If any of these 3 prongs are violated, the government’s action is deemed unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Any alleged “preventing public expression of Christmas” that involves a GOVERNMENT body (whether municipal, state or federal) MUST be a result of the Lemon test. IOW, if the City of Topeka wants to erect a Christmas display, to pass the Lemon test, the city MUST ensure that SECULAR elements connected with Christmas are involved. Furthermore, if the city plans to feature this display for many weeks and OTHER religious holidays or festivals take place (such as Hanukkah or Diwali or, as in fairly recent years, Eid al-Adha and Ashura*), symbols or elements of those religious festivities should also appear, especially in cities with sizable non-Christian minority religious groups. Additionally, it’s worth noting that the Eastern Orthodox Christmas doesn’t always coincide with the Western celebration (because the EO calendar is calculated differently, it typically falls a week later) so removing the display could be seen as offensive to various Eastern Orthodox denominations. Of course, most gov’t agencies when doing these displays completely ignore PAGAN traditions (not many signs wishing “Happy Yule” or “Happy Saturnalia” or “Merry Mithras Day”) and are always dismissive of their agnostic and atheist citizens.
As for schools, the major problem is that schools are supposed to be about EDUCATION. Considering the complaints from the right-wing over what a “miserable” job is being done at public schools (the ones that you would describe as “government run”), it’s completely laughable that there’s so much faux outrage about how little Johnny and Susie are being deprived of seeing Christmas decorations in the schools (conversely, foreign language classes would be a haven for “Christmas” in school to show the traditions in other countries). Since 99.999999% of all public school children are out of school for nearly a week (at least) before Christmas Day, expecting schools to literally waste hours of time on the holiday is genuinely stupid. I honestly don’t remember anything special about Christmas in school when I attended public schools X number of decades ago. There was usually chitchat about what everyone hoped to get or what everyone wanted (usually followed up in January with details about what they did get and, more importantly, what they didn’t get) but most of the teachers really didn’t have a lot of time to decorate the classes (at most, our “gift” from the teachers was a “free” day on our last day of classes before the vacation break, especially in junior high and high school—this gave the teachers an extra day to get their gradebooks caught up for the all-important semester exams).
*On a ludicrous side note, when I did a search for “Muslim holidays,” the page came back empty—saying there were NO results. When I changed the search to “Islamic holidays,” what do you suppose the first result was? That’s right—the Wiki article on “Muslim Holidays.”
Joseph West commented on Father Jonathan Morris Has A Friend In Roger Ailes?!
2012-01-30 14:06:41 -0500
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Well, it’s nice to know that Fr Morris has no problem with blasphemy. Of course, we all know that FoxNoise has no problem with blasphemy (unless it emanates from “liberals”), but a priest? Even in jest, the good Father should’ve done his pastoral duty and chastised Briggs and Camerota.
Joseph West commented on Fox News Helps Legitimize Georgia Birther Hearing
2012-01-30 05:15:23 -0500
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Well, Sam, your criticisms would have a bit more weight if the links weren’t to YOUR blog and featured truly non-biased articles by a wide range of people with a bit more expertise than the crap by the hacks that you post.
But, since your links are nothing more than your own personal echo chamber, you should consider NOT using them as some sort of “evidence” to back your case.
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion (I always think that Salt n’ Pepa said it best in “None of Your Business”—“Opinions are like assholes and everybody’s got one”) but you’re NOT entitled to your own facts nor are you entitled to treat your opinions as though they are facts. You can certainly state that it’s your opinion that the sky is green and the sun is purple and the moon is made of green cheese but you cannot claim any of those as facts; doing so only proves your stupidity.
But, since your links are nothing more than your own personal echo chamber, you should consider NOT using them as some sort of “evidence” to back your case.
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion (I always think that Salt n’ Pepa said it best in “None of Your Business”—“Opinions are like assholes and everybody’s got one”) but you’re NOT entitled to your own facts nor are you entitled to treat your opinions as though they are facts. You can certainly state that it’s your opinion that the sky is green and the sun is purple and the moon is made of green cheese but you cannot claim any of those as facts; doing so only proves your stupidity.
Joseph West commented on Gretchen Carlson Provides Pulpit For Catholic Bishop's Complaint About Contraception Mandate
2012-01-27 14:40:33 -0500
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Priscilla wrote "While one can understand not having two opposing views in a segment, one would think that a “fair & balanced” programming format would include an opposing view at some point in time – or at least some rebuttal from the “fair & balanced” pals who routinely seem to be in agreement with their right wing guests."
It’s stuff like this that the Fairness Doctrine required before it was ended by the Reagan Administration (which, not so coincidentally, led to the explosion in the far-right talk radio hosts). If the Fairness Doctrine were still in force in 1995, Murdoch and Ailes would never have been able to get their propaganda arm on television (except as a “premium” cable service like HBO or Showtime).
It’s stuff like this that the Fairness Doctrine required before it was ended by the Reagan Administration (which, not so coincidentally, led to the explosion in the far-right talk radio hosts). If the Fairness Doctrine were still in force in 1995, Murdoch and Ailes would never have been able to get their propaganda arm on television (except as a “premium” cable service like HBO or Showtime).
Joseph West commented on On "America Live" Bill Donohue Says Women Can Afford Condoms If They Can Afford A CD
2012-01-25 01:32:49 -0500
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More to the point (of Donohue’s head), I believe that the Roman Catholic Church also prohibits their adherents from using condoms. I seem to recall (a bit vaguely, mind you) that Pope Ratzinger condemned efforts to expand condom use in Africa as an HIV/AIDS preventative. If the Nazi Pope opposes condoms for HIV/AIDS prevention, I somehow don’t think he’s going to be open to the idea of condoms to prevent pregnancies.
Joseph West commented on Mike Huckabee Pushes "Pro-Life" Goal To Ban Abortion For Rape Victims
2012-01-24 15:10:20 -0500
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Anyone think it’s time Ms Kiessling visit a men’s correctional facility and get trapped there during a prison riot so she too can experience what it’s like for a rape victim to go through an unwanted pregnancy?
I know that may sound very callous and pretty harsh, but this nutjob obviously doesn’t have a freakin’ clue about the real world. (I do think she’d be a little more concerned if she found herself pregnant after being raped.)
I know that may sound very callous and pretty harsh, but this nutjob obviously doesn’t have a freakin’ clue about the real world. (I do think she’d be a little more concerned if she found herself pregnant after being raped.)
Joseph West commented on FoxNews.com Article About Suggested Obama Assassination Brings Out Racist Approval From The Readers
2012-01-23 02:10:23 -0500
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Where’s the Secret Service when they’re really needed? And why do I get the feeling if some “liberal” site had even ONE comment supporting the assassination of a GOP President or even candidate, FoxNoise would be demanding the gov’t shutting that site down?
Joseph West commented on Fox News Promotes "Pro-Life" Abortion "Survivor" Story
2012-01-23 02:03:28 -0500
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I wonder how MUCH “older” the “older sister” is? I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find out that the reason that “older sister” knew the story is because “older sister” experienced it first hand. (Wouldn’t be the first time such a sordid little tale happened.)
Joseph West commented on Chris Wallace Tries To Push Boehner Into Holding Payroll Tax Cut Hostage To Keystone Pipeline Approval
2012-01-23 01:58:49 -0500
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Avg Amer Patriot commented “I thought the gNOpigs were the party of ALL TAX CUTS.”
They are—as long as all those tax cuts go to folks making over $250K and corporations. Everyone else exists just to be exploited.
They are—as long as all those tax cuts go to folks making over $250K and corporations. Everyone else exists just to be exploited.
Joseph West commented on Dennis Miller Jokes About “Jew-Ann” Williams
2012-01-19 15:46:14 -0500
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@Chris: Because he once had the Saturday Night Live writers at his disposal?
Joseph West commented on Van Susteren Asks Trump: What Would You Say To Ahmadinejad If You Were President?
2012-01-19 15:31:46 -0500
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âWe certainly should have approved itâ¦It is not an environmental problem at all – in any way, shape or form⦠We donât even need Canadian oil if we do it right.â he said. Since when did Trump become an expert on energy? Or the environment?
Ellen, you left out a very important question: If we don’t need Canadian oil, then why do we need the Keystone pipeline at all? Wasn’t the whole (alleged) point of its being built to bring CANADIAN oil into the US? Maybe I missed the part of the Keystone debate where the pipeline was NOT going to be used to transport Canadian oil to US destinations. Or maybe the Donald missed the part of the debate discussing who owns the pipeline. (If it weren’t for a CANADIAN company trying to get CANADIAN tar sand oil to the US, there wouldn’t be a pipeline. But then, no one ever accused the Donald of being the brightest bulb in the room. Hell, Snooki—or any of the Jersey Shore cast—might do better than the Donald on an IQ test.)
Ellen, you left out a very important question: If we don’t need Canadian oil, then why do we need the Keystone pipeline at all? Wasn’t the whole (alleged) point of its being built to bring CANADIAN oil into the US? Maybe I missed the part of the Keystone debate where the pipeline was NOT going to be used to transport Canadian oil to US destinations. Or maybe the Donald missed the part of the debate discussing who owns the pipeline. (If it weren’t for a CANADIAN company trying to get CANADIAN tar sand oil to the US, there wouldn’t be a pipeline. But then, no one ever accused the Donald of being the brightest bulb in the room. Hell, Snooki—or any of the Jersey Shore cast—might do better than the Donald on an IQ test.)