Social Security a giant bundle of money the Republicans want to steal

As George W. Bush related, his greatest failure while in office was not stealing the Social Security Trust Fund for his Plutocratic Masters. If Bush had managed that Coup, Sean Hannity wouldn't have needed to get into a mulling, hissy fit of anger, on his radio show, at those "Lucky Duckies" proclaiming, 'Let Them Eat Rice and Beans!'

If Bush and the Republicans had managed to steal Social Security, the Poor people Sean Hannity so hates and despises would be dead and he could go back to claiming 9/11 happened while President Clinton was in office, TARP was signed by President Obama and Barack the Great didn't want to kill Osama Bin Laden.

The Republican Party has always hated SSI, because of what it represents; a chance for the oppressed to retire and live after they have finished decades of labor. Republicans would much rather you work yourself to death, thank you very much.

The release on April 23rd of the 2012 Annual Report by the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds (OASDI) made it clear Social Security isn't going to run out of money anytime soon. The assets in the Social Security Trust Fund total $2,700,000,000,000. ($2.7 Trillion dollars). In fact, Social Security is fully funded (i.e. 100% solvent) all the way through 2033.

And once we hit that year the Baby Boomer Bulge draining Social Security will have passed and the Nation will be dealing with the demographically much smaller Generation X.

But, damn Trillions of dollars just sitting there! That's a wet-dream for the thieving, perfidious and despicable Right-Wingers. The Rich! Want! That Fucking! Money! And Republicans would love to to swindle it from the Trust Fund and roll it into Wall Street from whence their Banking Buddies could apply some Synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligations and Naked Credit Default Swap and...



But, never forget that no matter what the Republican liars, Faux Drones, or conservative sycophants proclaim Social Security has been funded overwhelmingly by the Working and Middle Class. The Rich are not paying vast sums into Social Security because the OASDI payroll tax collection has been capped for decades and collects Zero dollars over the current top amount of $110,000.

As Kevin Drum noted in 2010,

In 1983, when we last reformed Social Security, we made an implicit deal between two groups of American taxpayers. Call them Groups A and B. For about 30 years, Group A would pay higher taxes than necessary, thus allowing Group B to reduce their tax rates. Then, for about 30 years after that, Group A would pay lower taxes than necessary and Group B would make up for this with higher tax rates.

This might have been a squirrelly deal to make. But it doesn't matter. It's the deal we made. And it's obviously unfair to change it halfway through.

So who is Group A? It's people who pay Social Security payroll taxes, which mostly means working and middle class taxpayers. And who is Group B? It's people who pay federal income taxes, which mostly means the well-off and the rich. For nearly 30 years, Group A has been overpaying payroll taxes, and that's allowed the government to lower income tax rates. The implicit promise of the 1983 deal is that sometime in the next few years, this is going to flip. Group A will begin underpaying payroll taxes, and the rich, who have reaped the benefits of their overpayment for 30 years, will make good on their half of the deal by paying higher income tax rates to make up the difference.

The physical embodiment of this deal is the Social Security trust fund. Group A overpaid and built up a pile of bonds in the trust fund. Those bonds are a promise by Group B to repay the money. That promise is going to start coming due in a few years, and it's hardly surprising that Group B isn't as excited about the deal now as it was in 1983. It's never as much fun paying off a loan as it is to spend the money in the first place.

But pay it off they must.

Why would any poor person vote for a Republican? (Update: Romney economy will be W 2.0)

"What they [the Poor] lack is the richness of spirit." - Stuart Varney, Faux News.

The greatest coup by the Republican Party of the last 30 years has been getting poor people to vote against their economic self-interest. And Republicans are at it again, proclaiming that while Taxes on Millionaires and Billionaires need to be reduced, taxes on Poor People need to be raised. Or as the Right-Wing parlance would have it, broaden the tax base.

First of all, the Republican Party has always campaigned that taxes need to be lowered and that it's your money so the more you get back the better. Ah, but that changed after the George W(orst President Ever) Bush/Republican Recession and the convoluted byzantine tax code started including deductions that aided working class people and the poorest Americans instead of just for the Rich and Powerful. Then once Poor people started catching a break Republicans weren't going to stand for that!

All of a sudden the profligate spending Republicans couldn't squeeze the Poorest Americans to pay for their mooching Corporate Welfare ways because the Poor were not paying their fair share of taxes! Talk about your Class Warfare. Republicans began a blitz of propaganda that, depending upon which Republican you were listening to, 45% or 47% or 49% or 51% or whatever number they found convenient to demagogue about, weren't paying any taxes!

Republicans were quickly called out for their lies and so they tweaked their talking points to mean Federal Income taxes.

"Part of the problem is today, only 53 percent pay any federal income tax at all; 47 percent pay nothing. We need to broaden the base so that everybody pays something, even if it's a dollar. Everyone should pay something, because we all benefit." -Michele Bachmann.

"We're dismayed nearly half of all Americans don't even pay any income tax." - Rick Perry

"I think it's abysmal that 51% pay no income taxes..." - Orrin Hatch.

Republican Eric Cantor recently reiterated the tired Republicon talking point, "We also know that over 45 percent of the people in this country don’t pay income taxes at all, and we have to question whether that’s fair", "should we broaden the base" and "you’ve got to discuss that issue."

Of course, this is standard Republican nonsense. But, wow it really highlights the Republican Class Warfare. After 30 years of Piss Down Your Back and Tell You It's Raining Reaganomics and the Effects of the Bush Republican Recession hard-working people are too poor to pay Federal Income Taxes but, as Len Burman pointed out, 82 percent of them pay more payroll tax than income tax. They also pay federal excise taxes on gasoline, beer, wine, liquor, tires, and cigarettes. As well as, state and local taxes. But the Poor are, as the Wall Street Journal once branded them, the "Lucky Duckies". According to Timothy Noah,

A new report by Citizens For Tax Justice, a labor-funded nonprofit with a reputation for dispassionate economic analysis, lays this out. When you factor in all state and local taxes, the bottom fifth (i.e. people earning, on average, about $13,000) pays on average an effective tax rate of about 17 percent. When you do the same for the top one percent (i.e. people earning, on average, about $1.4 million) the average effective tax rate is 29 percent.

Well, President Mitt "I'm not concerned about the very poor" Romney will fix all that! Under GOP Nominee Mitt Romney's Tax Plan raises taxes on those "Luck Duckies"!

Under the Romney Plan Americans making under $20,000 a year would see their taxes go up an average of $149 dollars. American making under $40,000 would reap an average savings of... $97 dollars! Ah, but the Top 0.1%? Those around $3,000,000 in income, under Romney's Plan, would stuff an average of $725,000 right back in their pockets.

Just like when you hear a Republican talk about Shared Sacrifice, [See my post: The Republican Party's notions of Shared Sacrifice] when Republicans and conservative think tanks start talking about broadening the tax base they mean to bend and break the backs of the poor to support the massive tax cuts of the Wealthy elites upon their now broadened backs.

Update:
Alexandra Franceschi the Specialty Media Press Secretary of the Republican National Committee, admitted Mitt Romney’s economic policies are the George W(orst President in History) Bush economic plan just updated.

Here's some of Bush's economic legacy:

- Median Income declined outright from 1999 to 2009.
- From 1960 to 2000, manufacturing accounted for 20 million jobs in the U.S. since 2000 we've lost a 1/3rd of those jobs.
- Two-thirds of the nation’s total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928.
- And even in during Bush's Biggest Recession Year of 2008, excluding capital gains, the top 1% saw their share of national income rise.

Koch Industries and the Exxon-Mobile funded Heritage Foundation rabidly cheered and promoted the Bush Tax Cuts. The Heritage Foundation's 2001 report proclaimed if the Bush tax cut legislation were to pass, it would:

1) Effectively pay off the federal debt;
2) Reduce the federal surplus by $1.4 trillion;
3) Substantially increase family income;
4) Save the entire Social Security surplus;
5) Increase personal savings;
6) Create more job opportunities.

Everyone of those claims was a deliberate lie to sell the tax cuts to the middle class as a job creator and deficit reducer. None of these claims occurred. But, what did occur was a massive transfer of wealth to the Ultra-Wealthy, which were the true goals of the Bush Tax Cuts and part of the Republican plan all along.

And President Bush himself, lamented his greatest failure in office was he wasn't able to Privatize Social Security.

Domestic Terrorist, Chicken Hawk, Coward, Child Rapist Ted Nugent embodies Conservatism supports Mitt Romney

"I like Ted Nugent. He’s a friend of mine.” - Sean Hannity

Mitt Romney-supporting, Bow-Hunting, Tough-Talking Ted Nugent has been an staunch out-spoken representative of Conservatism for decades. And has been the go-to musical counterpoint for Faux News and Sean Hannity to combat Liberal Hollywood, "He's a rock star. Yes, here's my point. If you don't like it, don't go to the concert, don't buy his new albums." - Sean Hannity.

Nugent got into trouble by saying he wanted to ride into combat and behead Democrats and that after the 2012 Presidential election either he would be dead or in jail when President Obama wins re-election. Ted has been saying stupid, evil, terrorist shit for years, "Obama's a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun," and Faux News continues to proudly sponsor him.

But, even though Ted Nugent talks tough when his time came for Real Combat Nugent quite literally shit himself to dodge military service. As Ted himself recounted in 1977,

"30 days before his Draft Board Physical, he stopped all forms of personal hygiene. The last 10 days he ingested nothing but junk food and Pepsi, and a week before his physical, he stopped using the bathroom altogether, virtually living inside his pants caked with excrement and urine. That spectacle won Nugent a deferment."

Nowadays Ted, of course, denies this every happened, it doesn't fit with the bullshit image he wants to have about himself and claimed he only received student deferments for enrolling in Oakland Community College. Although, Ted did admit he "didn't want to get his ass blown off in Vietnam."

But, even worse than being a typical cowardly chicken hawk Right-Winger, Nugent bragged in 1998 about having sex with underage girls during his caveman heyday in the 1970's. Courtney Love stated she and Nugent had sex when she was 12 years old.

Ted Nugent epitomizes everything the Modern Conservative is today. But, all the overblown bravado and he-man talk covers a more insidious motive, one has been highlighted by my friend Ran on numerous occasions, Stochastic Terrorism. Nugent is coward but, his and other conservatives violent rhetoric masks an agenda of planting the seeds of terrorism in the minds of the duped and warped right-wingers, like Jared Loughner or "Progressive Hunter" Byron Williams, and triggering their violent conservative terrorist attacks.

The Secret Service is done with Ted Nugent but, Nugent isn't done instigating and fanning the flames of Right-Wing Extremism. Thus, I can think of no better end for Ted than when he suck-starts a pistol after we re-elect President Obama.

Did Phoenix Coach Dave Tippett task Raffi Torres to take out Marian Hossa? (NHL Bountygate) (Updated)

Update:

Dave Tippet has absolutely no control over his players or is one of the dirtiest coaches in the NHL. Coyote tough guy Paul Bissonnette got a major game misconduct for not having is sweater strapped down during game 4. An unsecured uniform means you're looking to fight. "My original thought was, there's no way he didn't have it tied down, it must have ripped," Tippett. "That wasn't the case. I'll just leave it at that."

Without star two-way forward Marian Hossa the Blackhawks lost to the Phoenix Coyotes in Overtime again 3-2.

The Coyotes are only going to win this series because based on his interview Phoenix Coach Dave Tippett apparently encourages the type of "border-line criminal" hit Raffi Torres did to Marian Hossa.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told Suntimes reporter Mike Sneed, “It was borderline criminal conduct. The guy [Torres] was acting insane. He was cursing the fans and pointing his stick at them. What Torres did could jeopardize two careers and two livelihoods.”

But, it's hockey. Before game 4, Dave Tippett played every meatball hockey goon card available. Follow the link to listen to Dave Tippett's shameful defend "my guy" interview, where he snidely defends and tactically condones the vicious illegal and probably criminal play of Raffi Torres. It's a fast game! You've never played! It's a tough game. It's fast. Hard hits are tradition. Other hits were worse. It's easy to second-guess with the TV replay. And so forth...

"The thing about TV is you can slow it down and you can click and click and click it. When you're out there on the ice, it's not slowed down and click, click, click. It's a fast game."

Tippett invented his own new branch of physics to explain the movement of bodies,

"But, when two players collide, both of them automatically go in the air."

This is the Newton's Fourth Law, when a body in motion hits another body the two automatically go up in the air. Gravity needs to stop violating Dave Tippett's physics.

"Raffi's coming hard, but the hit? He's in the air, both players go in the air."

Yes, Raffi is in the air because he launched himself at Hossa with the explicit intent of hitting him and hurting him.

But, Tippett then went full asshole claiming Raffi Torres had no other choice then to hit Hossa.

"You tell Raffi Torres that when he turned that way and all of a sudden a guy's right in front of him... How you gonna stop?"

All of a sudden? Torres targeted Hossa and either Tippett knows that and is covering because he asked him to or Tippett is just a blatant protect my guy no matter what liar.

But, the final insult from Tippett, which goes a long way to showing he knows it was a dirty illegal hit but probably encouraged it was when he was asked if it was a clean hit, "Did I say it was a clean hit?"

Dave Tippett and Phoenix GM Dan Maloney suffer from Moral Relativism. Maloney tweeted afterwards that the reaction from the Chicago media was overblown because it wasn't like Torres hit Hossa with his stick... Just a flying shoulder purposefully targeted to the jaw.

That is the true problem with this hit and the the way Dave Tippett and Dan Maloney and possibly Gary Bettman and Brendan Shanahan apparently view Hockey. Unless the league begins to view these hits as what they really are attempts to severely injure other players for the purpose of winning a stupid game, then the NHL is doomed.

Fortunately and hopefully, the NHL will flounder and a new league will replace it.

Raffi Torres, Marian Hossa, Perceived Unfairness and the failure of the NHL

Update: Gary Bettman proved in an interview with David Haugh, he doesn't recognize that Perception is Reality. "A lot of it is perception and misperception," Bettman said. "The game is physical, the game is emotional. These games are hard-fought." Bettman was in attendance for the game and apparently can't see a repeat offender taking out the Hawks leading scorer with a cheap illegal hit proves that what people perceive about Bettman, being an empty suit who's providing inconsistent leadership, are destroying the NHL.

In last night's Chicago Blackhawks - Phoenix Coyotes Hockey game, Raffi Torres of Phoenix laid a deliberately malicious hit to the head of Marian Hossa, which resulted in Hossa being taken off the ice on a stretcher and to a nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Even in real time, the hit was obviously "dirty". Torres, launched himself at Hossa (his skates left the ice), well after Hossa had passed the puck, lead with his shoulder/arm, aimed at Hossa's chin/jawline and by-passed the Blackhawks player actually with the puck. The hit was so violent the nearby NHL linesman flinched away as it was delivered.

The story not only lead in Chicago, but dominated NHL.com, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation and produced a huge reaction on Twitter and on-line editorials.

The NHL is in big trouble. The League has declared it wants to crack down on illegal hits and wants to aid in player safety. But, there is a perceived unfairness in the way the NHL and head disciplinarian of the Department of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan has reviewed and punished hits or other gross misconduct in games. Please read this article from Globe and Mail about the Fallout the Perception of different standards of punishment certain players receive is having upon fans.

Earlier in the day, Shanahan gave Chicago Blackhawk player Adam Shaw a 3-game suspension for a hit on Phoenix goaltender Mike Smith. However, in the leagues official ruling, Brendan Shanahan makes clear that Shaw has no history of illegal hits and the hit itself was not made with intent. The Phoenix Coyotes gamed the league by holding Smith out of practice and not indicating if he would start until the 3-game suspension ruling was delivered.

Raffi Torres' hit was clearly made with intent and resulted in a serious injury to Hossa, most likely one which will keep him out of the rest of the playoffs. Raffi Torres is also a repeat offender and a year ago took out a Chicago Blackhawks player in a Playoff series.

But, even Blackhawks players indicated they have no idea if Shanahan is going to issue a properly severe suspension for this hit and of course, Torres and his coach demurred calling it a "Hockey play".

Putting aside the conspiracy theories that the NHL wants the Phoenix Coyotes to advance in the playoffs to increase their sale price, the league is currently in receivership of the Franchise, the NHL has a serious problem. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman mismanagement of the league, especially the mid-1990's off-handed disrespect towards the rabid Canadian fan base by relocating multiple Canadian Teams and Northern US teams, to Carolina, Phoenix, Dallas, and Florida (x2), were there exists no natural fan base, the recent economic stagnation have crippled the NHL's marketability.

But, more importantly no one thinks the League is going to handle the Torres hit properly*. And once the idea sets in that a League or powerful individuals in the League are capricious or actively biased that League is in serious trouble of crumbling and going the way of the ABA or the USFL.

How long should Torres be suspended? Personally, I think if the league wants to really crack down on "head-hunting" and illegal hits it needs to suspend players for as many games as missed by the injured player and with the expected minimum of double digits on the first offense and increase fines from the current Collectively bargained amount of $2,500.

But, even so what we see in the Blackhawks-Coyotes series could be a harbinger of the downfall of a League which Greed and bad management and sometimes blatant disregard for the fan base hath brought about.

Fortunately, for myself, besides band-wagoning onto the Blackhawks 2010 Stanley Cup Winning Team my hockey fandom has never taken over my senses. So, when I simply refuse to watch hockey ever again I'll not feel deprived of anything worthwhile.

*- Travis Hughes of SB Nation is reporting:

Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi Torres has been suspended indefinitely pending an NHL hearing on Friday for his vicious hit on Chicago Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa during Tuesday night's Western Conference Quarterfinal Game 3. Torres will travel to the NHL's office in Manhattan for the in-person hearing, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday but delayed at the request of the NHL Players Association.

So what kind of Foul is Mitt Romney? Chicken Hawk or Vulture Capitalist?

Ha, trick question R-Money is both a cowardly Chicken Hawk warmonger and a despicable money stealing job-destroying Vulture Capitalist.

From a photo in 1966, 19 year old Mitt Romney protested an anti-war sit in, holding a sign declaring Speak Out Don't Sit-In. Hypocrisy and Cowardice are fundamental aspects of being a Republican these days. Romney was more than willing to champion the Draft and the War in Vietnam because he knew his dandified, moneyed, lilly-livered, pampered ass wasn't going anywhere near it.

I guess Mitt figured that when he filled out his Overseas Visa Application "France" was close enough to "French-Indochina".

Romney's pack of 5 sons obviously inherited their father's cowardice because nary a one served a single fucking day in the military [See My Post: The Romney Boys are the New Sullivan Brothers!]

Illinois Taxpayer Welfare for the Billionaire Ricketts Family to rebuild Wrigley Field?

“Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer.“ - Hank Steinbrenner. Unless, that is you are a Billionaire baseball Team Owner, then the taxpayers, middle class, and working class people need to give you money to finance the building of your stadium, as when Steinbrenner received $1,200,000,000 Billion dollars in Taxpayer money to finance the building of the new Yankee Stadium.

It's funny how when a "private" business wants huge wads of taxpayer "relief" to finance some project, the discussion becomes a Grandiose debate on Utilitarian Principles and the greatest good for the greatest number. The ancillary benefits to businesses, the community, the neighborhood. The indirect sales and tax gains and so forth. But...

When discussing the closing 7 Chicagoland mental health facilities [OccupyChicago Reports: Mental Health Movement / Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) - Mental Health Clinic Facing Closure Occupied by Patients and Advocates. Members Bbarricaded inside Woodlawn Clinic until Rahm Emanuel backs off clinic closures.] or the salaries of Chicago Public School teachers, the discussion is how much to slash, slash, slash, slash! That cutting and reducing government spending is the only option and those directly affected and the subsequent thousands indirectly affected are given short shrift, if they are considered at all.

It's almost as if the 1% has set up a Government to cater to their whims and wants and has designed the Body politic to funnel and transfer wealth upwards to them in a Reverse-Robin Scheme.

Capital belongs to the Capitalists, Poverty belongs to the Poor.

The Ricketts Family had a net worth of $2,700,000,000 in 2007. That placed them in the Forbes 400 Richest Americans. But, who should pay for the rebuilding of Wrigley Field; why the poor hardworking blue-collar Chicago Cub fan, who can maybe scrape together enough money to take himself and his family to the game a couple times a year.

After stating last week the Wrigley Field Renovations and Facelift discussion were "in the final stages" Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel clarified,

"Always remember that I'm here to represent taxpayers, but I'm not here to subsidize private investors with public dollars."

Okay Rahm. Then prove it.

Prove you aren't doing the work of the obscenely wealthy and providing them with Chicagoans tax dollars when the Ricketts easily purchased the second most profitable Baseball Franchise behind the Yankees. Prove to us Rahm that you aren't a tool of the Oppressors. A willing accomplice of the 1%. A lackey of Hedge Fund Vulture Kenneth C. Griffin CEO of Citadel LLC. A man who has created nothing but has made Billions off of Legerdemain and paper shuffling. And all the other Rich Elitist Bastards who view the Government of Chicago and Illinois as nothing more than their hired hands transferring Hundreds of Millions of dollars up from the Poor to the Rich.

But, at least I can finally say thank you to Governor Quinn and 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney. From Greg Hinz comes this column,

"I'm not excited about that at all," Governor Quinn said on the "Don Wade & Roma Show" on WLS-AM/890. "Our state has severe fiscal challenges, so the very idea of the state of Illinois spending millions and millions of dollars on Wrigley Field, I don't think that's in the cards at all." Quinn continued, The Ricketts family "bought the team, and they should make the lion's share of the investment to fix up the park."

And Tunney put the brakes on Rahm Emmanuel's "final stages", when he said, "I think the deal is not in the final stages," he said. "This is a deal that involves a lot of complexities." Tunney also added, "With the city still facing future budget deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the economic benefits to the city as a whole will have to be clear."

Private business, the Free Market, "Job Creators", and a Government not involved in "picking winners and losers" is a the biggest myth peddled by the evil Republican Party and their Right-Wing lackeys. What the Republicans want and what they get their Conservative Media Goons to report ad nauseam is a Government controlled by the 1% and aligned to cater to the Plutocracy's interest.

And that is what's strangling and destroying America. State, Local and Federal Governments being co-opted and taken over by the Wealthy.

The "Struggles" of Ann Romney embody the Whine of the Rich

“Look, I know what it’s like to struggle. I can tell you and promise you that I’ve had struggles in my life. I would love to have people understand that Mitt and I have compassion for people that are struggling,” Ann Romney lamented her poor little rich girl status.

Ann Romney needs to stop being a bum and GET! A! JOB! Ann is very upset someone pointed out that having servants and Millions of dollars meant she did not "struggle" to bring up here 5 Chicken Hawk Sons.

Now, of course, Ann has two terrible diseases but according to Republican Tradition, since she also has millions of dollars, she is worthy of getting Healthcare Coverage. If Ann was Poor, the Party she is proudly representing would leave her to succumb to her Breast Cancer or MS.

But, Ann Romney has absorbed much of Mitt Romney's lying and so she went onto Faux News to cry her privileged white ass off about how shocked... Shocked! she was that Hilary Rosen said, Ann has "actually never worked a day in her life."

Making non-alcoholic Highballs and ordering the maids to pick up after the boys, the nannies to nurse them, the chefs to cook, and the illegals to mow her palatial estates is HARD WORK!

But, Ann is Pro-Choice. She proudly choose to stay at home with her dozens of servants and Millions of dollars to raise her children. But, what is left out of Ann's Whine is the fact the 30 year Republican Assault on the Middle Class and Working Class which has resulted in the necessary adoption of the Two-Income Family model to combat income stagnation has removed that choice for Millions of Americans. But, hey it's Her Party she can Whine if she wants to!

So, how dare anyone have the effrontery to question her! Her husband is running for President for Pete's Sake! Do these working class ruffians not recognize her station?

If Ann Romney can't take the heat she needs to get out of the Kitchen and get a job.

But, she would also like the Poor to know that when R-Money is elected President, Ann and Mitt are going to have compassion for them, by raising their taxes, eliminating Social Security and Medicaid. Because higher taxes on the poor and no social saftey net is a good way to teach the poor the value of a dollar!

Mitt Romney's proposed tax plan favors the wealthiest Americans. The top one percent of earners would see their average tax rate fall by nearly $150,000 per year, and the top 0.1 percent would see a reduction of more than $725,000. That's nearly a million more per year Mitt Romney can send to his off-shore bank accounts! Meanwhile, Mitt's plan raises taxes on the bottom 20 percent of Americans who would see their average federal taxes increase $149, or 1.3 percent.

Related:
I like what PERRspectives has written [See the post: How to Save Ann and Mitt Romney from Themselves] about this, but I can only hope poor little Rich girl Ann being attacked by evil Hilary Rosen doesn't provide the humanizing aspect the Out-of-Touch Elitist Romney's need.

High and Stupid doesn't just describe Allen West's Haircut

"There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the Department of Defense at this time!" Senator Big John Islein, the Manchurian Candidate (1962)

For Republicans it's always the 1950's*. Women and Minorities were contained and dared not stray from their place. God was added to the currency and to the Pledge of Allegiance and a Republican could belch forth, unto the Nation, a lie about the Red Scare and be assured of Electoral Victory.

Congressman Allen West, who disgraced himself in Iraq has again disgraced himself in the U.S.A. Today, West told his constituents in Florida,

"I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.”

Being in Florida, Allen West should go take a long walk off a short pier.

There are no good Republicans in Congress. Zero. They are beholden to Corporate Behemoths and the Plutocracy. They serve the Rich and harm the American people at every opportunity.

Like the bat-shit crazy Michele Bachmann this is something West heard on the internet. West also lamented,

“I really wish that, standing here before you, was Allen West and President Obama. We could have a simple discussion. But that ain’t ever gonna happen.”

“Why not?” an audience member asked.

“Cuz he was too scared!” West responded.

This I believe. I really do think President Obama was too scared to be close to Allen West. Because, based on Allen West's conviction for war crimes, West would no doubt take a pistol and shoot it at President Obama.

*- except for those pesky Eisenhower Tax Rates with effective Corporate Tax Rates of 52% and a personal income tax rate of 91%.

Voter Fraud is committed by Conservatives (Updated)

Update:
The over-arching issue is that conservatives believe Voting itself to be Fraud. Conservatives do not ascribe to universal franchise. Only those who can be trusted to vote the proper way should be eligible to vote. I've added two high-profile Right-Wingers after the rest of the original post.

Let's say your outraged because you believe there are too many bicycle thefts going on in your community.

Now, it doesn't matter if you are correct about the scope of the bike thefts if your perception is there are too many then your perception is reality.

Unfortunately, besides a few ardent friends of yours, no one else is taking your concerns seriously. So you embark on a scheme to steal a bunch of bicycles to get the Authorities to pay attention.

And therein lies the problem. Because in committing the thefts you are the problem. When you are charged with Thefts you can't rationally claim to have been breaking the law in order to save it.

James O'Keefe and his Bungling Buddies of Project Veritas have concocted another sting Operation. It's the same tactic used in New Hampshire Primaries.

The new sting led the Drudge Report and Breitbart (may he rest in feces) and it's sweeping the conservative blogs, which incestuously repost whatever the big conservative mouthpieces exude. For instance here and here. But, like everything O'Keefe touches it's perverted. A white O'Keefe colleague went into the D.C. voting place and asked "Do you have an Eric Holder?" When asked to sign for the ballot, the Fraudster demurs and retreats saying, "I'll be back Faster than you can say Furious!"

So, besides only showing another dishonest Right-Winger about to commit a Felony what does this piece of performance art prove? As one Justice Department official said, “It’s no coincidence that these so-called examples of rampant voter fraud consistently turn out to be manufactured ones."

But, for conservatives the Play's the Thing! When they don't have the facts they, quite literally in this case, make them up.

Update continued:
John Derbyshire recently came to people's attention for his racist screed in National Review Online. But, in 2009 Derby repeatedly asserted that women shouldn't vote. As he specifically told Thom Hartmann, "women voting is bad for conservatism, and as a conservative, of course, I think that’s bad for society.”

Rick Warren, mega-church, mega-rich, mega-slob, Dominionist Pastor tweeted, in 2011, “HALF of America pays NO taxes. Zero. So they’re happy for tax rates to be raised on the other half that DOES pay taxes." This bearing of false witness is still repeated by conservative blogs and Faux News.

But, what this all gets around, is that Conservatives don't believe everyone should have the right to vote because Right-Wingers don't believe in Democracy, they believe in Oligarchy and Oppression.

The Paul Ryan and Republican Budget is a Trojan Horse by a Flaccid Party

“Yes, I’ve found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I’ve been very distressed by that fact,” conceeded by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Paul Ryan's budget has been accurately described as "Social Darwinism". Although I hate the term because the magnificent, venerable and kind Charles Darwin never proscribed any of the political doctrines labeled today as "Social Darwinism" anymore than Jesus proclaimed the Spanish Inquisition during the Sermon on the Mount.

"If it prevents a Debt Crisis..." Congressman Paul Ryan began when asked by the loving Corporate Media about his Path to Penury. However, Ryan's Budget doesn't address the Debt but immediately goes to cut taxes on the 1% and Corporations. And how do "we" pay for the estimated $4.6 Trillion in Tax Cuts for the Super Wealthy? Why by eliminating any Government function which aids or helps the poor, sick and old.

- In order, to pay for lowering the tax rates to 10% and 25%, those making less than $100,000 will pay a higher effective rate than they do today. While the "average" millionaire will see a tax cut of roughly $150,000 plus.

- According to the CBO, 17 million people who gained Medicaid and CHIP coverage, thanks to Obamacare, would lose that coverage as a result of Ryan Plan of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

- It cuts a total of $1.7 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, and according to CBO, is on track to cut the program by 75% by 2050.

- Reduces Pell Grants by more than $1,000 for 9.6 million students in 2014 and could eliminate Pell Grants for over one million students over the next decade.

- Kicks 60,000 low-income children out of the Head Start program in 2013 and 200,000 low-income children out of the program each year over the next decade.

- Cuts funding for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

- Cuts the WIC program, Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children, Each year over the next decade, the cuts would kick 1.8 million women, infants, and children off the WIC program.

[More information can be found at: A Choice of Two Futures: A Look at How the Republican Budget Ends Medicare, Destroys Jobs, Benefits the Wealthy]

"You know that budget was a joke, doesn’t balance the budget for years,” Republican Congressman and Senate candidate Connie Mack stated of the Ryan budget plan during a weekend Orlando Tea Party forum. Mack, who missed the vote in Washington last week while he was fundraising in Florida for a Senate run, later said through a spokesman that he would have voted for it anyway.

But, Mack is correct that the Ryan is a joke because any plan which doesn't address and slash the outrageous Military spending is doomed to fail or a dishonest doublespeak sham. And no Republican Budget would be complete without Orwellian Language. A section is titled "Repairing the Social Safety Net", by which Ryan and his 1% Masters mean the Safety Net's destruction because destroying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid "repairs" them for the 1%.

As James Surowiecki notes in The New Yorker,

The Budget is, as many have said, an act of political theatre, a way for Republicans to demonstrate what they stand for.

And what do the Republicans stand for? Wars and the very, very Rich.

It's obvious Paul Ryan and the Republicans are going to be promoting these Reverse Robin Hood plans every year. Back in 2011, Paul Ryan's Deathcare passed in the U.S. House because 235 of 240 Republicans voted for it. 40 of 45 Republican Senators voted for the Paul Ryan Deathcare Budget, Rand Paul voted in opposition but only because the Ryan spending cuts did not go far enough. Fortunately, it was defeated.

The Government isn't bankrupt and isn't bankrupting you. But, a Government enthralled to the 1% is already morally bankrupt and will seek to drive you into wage slavery at their Plutocratic Masters. And the rapacious never satisfied Wall Street, Banking Conglomertates, Oil Industries and DoD Contractors are the biggest receivers of U.S. Government monies. By Far. We're talking 10 Trillion Dollars over the last decade at least. There is your deficit and your debt. Languishing in the bank accounts of Warmongers having been sifted through the deserts of Iraq, HOA and Afghanistan.

What the Ryan Budget stands for, and what 99% of the Republicans in the U.S. government will vote for, is a shackled Government bonded to do the work of the Thieves, Vultures and Murderers of Wall Street. Once the Republicans have the Government shackled those shackles will be fastened onto you, too.

Related:
The Resurrection and Immaculate Deception of Paul Ryan by PERRspectives.

Call it Ryan's Book of Non-Revelations. And the result is a fiscal Armageddon. Of course, by now Paul Ryan's economic apostasy is Republican orthodoxy. The only surprise is that it took so long: in the world according to the GOP (if no one else), tax cuts magically pay for themselves and enable so-called "job creators." Three years after he first brought them The Good News, the GOP faithful have embraced Paul Ryan's cruel vision, if not the meek and the least of these.

Ryan, Obama, and Deficits by Paul Krugman.

The Closer: The Ryan proposal would lead to bigger, repeat bigger, deficits than the Obama proposal.

Happy easter Lee Greenwood! There's NO god to Bless the U.S.A.

God Bless the U.S.A. was written by Lee Greenwood. It's his intellectual property. So it's fair he's mad that Stall Brook Elementary in Bellingham, Massachutes wanted to change the lyrics of the song to "We Love the U.S.A." for an April 12th assembly.

Greenwood made a statement, "Maybe the school should have asked the parents their thoughts before changing the lyrics to the song," Lee says. "They could have even asked the writer of the song, which I of course would have said you can't change the lyrics at all or any part of the song. The most important word in the whole piece of music is the word God, which is also in the title 'God Bless the USA.'

"We can't take God out of the song, we can't take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, we can't take God off of the American currency," he continues. "Let us also remember, the phrase 'God Bless the USA' has a very important meaning for those in the military and their families, as well as new citizens coming to our country."

First off, beyond his jingoistic, schmaltzy, patronizing songs Lee Greenwood has no other intellectual property because he is riddled with a David Barton understanding of American History.

Barton, is famous for being the go-to-historian of conservatives when they want someone to make up a historical "fact" which coincides with a current position of the Right-Wingers. For instance, Barton proclaimed, "As far as the Founding Fathers were concerned, they’d already had the entire debate over creation and evolution, and you get Thomas Paine, who is the least religious Founding Father, saying you’ve got to teach Creation science in the classroom. Scientific method demands that!"

Yes! A full 70 years before the publication of On the Origin of Species and 40 years before Darwin sailed on the HMS Beagle, the Founders rejected evolution. Even the Lamarackian Evolutionary Theory wasn't published until 1809, the year Thomas Paine died and Charles Darwin was born. I could be charitable and say perhaps Barton wants to claim the Founders were knowledgable of the Taxonomical classifications of Carl Linnaeus, but, that's not what Barton means because David Barton is liar for christ.

As for Greenwood's statements about god and the currency and the Pledge, well, the blight of the Dominionist liars for christ strikes again.

Written in 1892, the original pledge is I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hmmmm, looking for god in there... In fact, god wasn't added until 1954.

Paper Currency did not have In god We Trust, until 1957.

Greenwood is a classic Republican, he reimagines American history to fit his blinkered Right-Wing fantasies, he's been married 4 times, and while he talks tough and proud about the American military he dodged the service and Vietnam.

But, hey conservatism isn't concerned with truth but, with a continuously bizarre parade of performance art designed to rouse the limbic systems of the faithful.

The Full Romney (Ann wears the pants in the Family)

"I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out," Ann Romney holds Mitt's testicles in her feminazi lockbox, as the R. Limpballs saying goes.

Ann Romney wears the big boy pants in the family. Mitt only gets to sashay around in his Harvard-embroidered special underwear.

Besides making fun of the fit and fabulous Michele Obama Right-Wingers claim she dominates Barack, that Michelle is making the decisions, that she commands the President, oh and also that Michelle Obama is fat, ha ha ha! [See my post: Of Derrières, Jim Sensenbrenner, and Conservative Racism] So it would seem incongruous that Mitt Romney is sending out his wife to do his campaign work for him.

Ah, but here is where the Oppressive Misygonist Republicans reveal themselves. Mitt sends out Ann to talk to women, and she reports to him. As Amy Davidson reported in The New Yorker, Mitt said;

She says that she’s going across the country and talking with women, and what they’re talking about is the debt that we’re leaving the next generation and the failure of this economy to put people back to work. She says that she talks to women and they’re concerned about the jobs that their kids are going to get.

Last Tuesday on Fox News, Mitt was asked what he will do to reach out to women;

I’ve had the fun of being out with my wife the last several days on the campaign trail. And she points out that as she talks to women, they tell her that their number one concern is the economy.

Note that Ann can fill her specific role as supporter and go-between Mitt with women, to talk to them about Hearth and Home but that's it. And that's the subtle difference the Right is going to try to make between Ann and FLOTUS Michelle Obama. The Right is gearing up this performance to play to the bigoted stereotypes that feed their wretched voting base and this hearkening back to earlier days when America was great and blacks and women knew their place, is prime meat.

But, the Right-Wing is clever and what Mitt's advisors are doing is properly setting up Ann Romney to properly draw in female voters for him. But, remember we're never going to see The Full Romney because of the gross excesses and outlandish expenditures of the Harvard educated elitist out-of-touch Romney's would shock so many of the struggling conservative voting base as to cement an electoral landslide for Barack Obama.

Jerome Corsi and Heather Childers want to Lynch President Obama

“Though the colored man is no longer subject to barter and sale, he is surrounded by an adverse settlement which fetters all his movements. In his downward course he meets with no resistance, but his course upward is resented and resisted at every step of his progress. If he comes in ignorance, rags and wretchedness he conforms to the popular belief of his character, and in that character he is welcome; but if he shall come as a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman, he is hailed as a contradiction to the national faith concerning his race, and his coming is resented as impudence. In one case he may provoke contempt and derision, but in the other he is an affront to pride and provokes malice.” Frederick Douglass September 25, 1883

"The noose is tightening for Obama," - Jerome Corsi explains how his book Where's the Birth Certificate? is the essential primer for all conservatives who want to lynch President Obama for the crime of Being POTUS While Black.

The Birthers and the Punk Ass Bitch Right-Wingers have been hyping their lies and "racialist" propaganda campaign for so long against President Obama that they have no where left to turn other than to call for his murder, which is now the point we have reached.

There is something especially pernicious in the unprecendented amount of disrespect and utter contempt shown for the first black President by Right-Wingers. At the same time we have puke white Republicans showing a level of vitriolic classlessness as when Joe Wilson shouted, "You Lie!" during the State of the Union, or when House Leader John Boehner declined to make Congress available for the President's speech, or when Jean Schmidt is overheard secretly agreeing with a constituent that President Obama doesn't have a birth certificate, or when Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump declared that Obama only got into Harvard because of affrimative action, or when Joe Walsh said President Obama only won because he was black, or any of the thousands of bigoted anti-Obama e-mails Republicans send to each other yet they claim President Obama is divisive one.

Meanwhile, totally post-racial conservative think tanks, like the North carolina based John Locke Foundation email out images of President Obama dressed in chains and a bondage outfit with a bucket of KFC between his legs...

Meanwhile, Faux News Host Heather Childers tweeted that Barack Obama threatened a white woman.

Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds claimed President Obama is "a racist hate monger".

Meanwhile, the Conservapedia page for President Obama lists his country of birth as "Kenya" and his religion as "muslim". While 52% of Mississippi Republicans believe President Obama is a muslim.

It's part of the Right-Wing bullying tactics where they start a fight with vicious bigoted slander and smears and then retreat to the 'Oh, I though liberals were supposed to be tolerant....' when we fight back. Conservatives only love tolerance when they can use it as a club to hit liberals.

The Republican Party is made up of shameless race-hustlers and the Modern Conservative Movement is made up of nothing but, cowards, chicken hawks, bigots and racists.

Fortunately, President Obama and the First Lady have handled the unprecedented deluge of racist smears from the Republican Party and Conservatives with grace, charm and aplomb. But, it's going to be a rough 8 months until the election.

Then after President Obama's decisive victory over Mitt Romney I'm not sure what the Racist Conservative Domestic Terrorists are going to do. It's quite possible the Right-Wing will transition their Planned Parenthood center bombing campaign to blowing up more Federal Buildings and attempting to assassinate President Obama or more Democratic Congress Members.

Paul Ryan, Joe Walsh and the Republicans love the Military but Hate the Troops

"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Dec 8, 2004.

To be more clear the Republican Party loves the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC). Republicans do not see individual soliders, they don't exist in the Right-Wing mind. What the Republican Party believes in is the "Military".

As such, when the shameless, gutless Congressman Paul Ryan said, “We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice. We don’t think the generals believe that their budget is really the right budget.”

Note the use of We. Ryan is not speaking just for himself, he's speaking for the Party. The Party which views the individual solider as a prop, as an asset, as a piece on a strategic map of resources.

Paul Ryan felt he had a free hand to call "the Generals" liars because he is the perfumed dandy attack poodle of the Plutocracy. Ryan's status as the Architect of the Path to the Penury will never cost him the support of the 1%, what he is defending is the Massive Transfer of Wealth from the American People (and the Iraqis or the enemy du jour) to the MIC.

Congressman Joe Walsh is running against Tammy Duckworth. Walsh is a pure opportunist. He's a man, "the guy who sleeps in his office", without a useful trait or accomplishment to his name, but, Walsh felt safe belittling and slandering Tammy Duckworth. When asked about Duckworth, he off-handedly dismissed her incredibly grievous injures as "Ehhh... Let's move on..."

This wasn't the first time Tea Party Republican Joe Walsh felt comfortable bashing Veterans. Walsh called Veterans who participated with #Occupy and OWS "anti-American". And why? Because he's a Republican it's understood that in the Budgetary circles he will vote the Right way for more money to the MIC.

Conservative Champions of the MIC loved Pat Tillman, until it was learned he was anti-war and wanted to meet Noam Chomsky. Then right-winger chicken hawks Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter ignored or off-handedly smeared Pat Tillman and duped conservative war-mongers could attack anyone who dissuade them of the easy stereotype of the Warrior Pat Tillman.

A simple breakdown of every leading Republican and conservative shows they don't serve in the military [See my post, CPAC=Chicken Hawks United] but, they all sure wave the flag proudly and talk tough and loud about attacking Iran from the safety of their posh air-conditioned offices.

The Republican Party's shameful disregard towards returning Veterans isn't just confined to slandering individual Veterans like Duckworth or Tillman, but extends all the way up to their cutting off of funds and shameful mistreatment of wounded at Walter Reed and and the epidemic of homelessness and joblessness [See my post: Republicans Piss on Veterans where Senate Republicans couldn't find any money in the Budget to aid homeless Vets] the Republican seem content to ignore in the ever increasing escalation war against the President.

The Walter Reed Scandal was known as early as 2004 but it took until 2007, when the Democrats regained control of the House and Senate for anything to be done to alleviate the suffering of those whom the Republican Party and Conservatives view only abstractly through the lens of Right-Wing jingoism.

This is the heart of the Republican Party, it only supports military members who pledge blind allegiance to Right-Wing Dogma. Anyone who dares express a different viewpoint of the Trillion Dollar Plus Yearly Budget allocated towards the DoD is ostracized and cast out as Anti-American so that the Military Contractors can continue to inflate their budgets and steal hundreds of Millions of Dollars from the American people, while the Neo-Cons and Right-Wingers send the poor off to die in far away lands for the enrichment of the 1%.