EckerNet.Com

Reportedly President Obama was recently heard to utter \”Plug the damn hole!\”. I heard the comment out of context so I was momentarily confused regarding which hole he was referring to. Several possible options immediately came to mind…

Was it Biden\’s mouth?? From which so much comedy gold easily flows…much to the embarrassment, if they\’re smart enough to be, of the Obama Administration.

Was it the holes in the border? The holes through which millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, constantly flows. So much so that Arizona finally gave up on the federal government doing it\’s job and adopted Federal (and California) law, as it\’s own.

Was it the holes in public opinion? Obviously there must be one somewhere because Obama\’s approval ratings have been sinking across all demographics.

Was it Nashville, TN? The city which was under several feet of water for a days and days without warning….not that you\’d know it from the federal governments non-response.

What it TARP and the bailouts?? Through which we\’ve pissed away billions of dollars to no apparent benefit, except to nationalize the auto and student loan industries?

Was it Obamacare? Through which we\’re about to piss away billions of dollars more, to no apparent benefit, and quite possibly catastropic results???

Was it the upcoming The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010?? A bill which pisses away even more billions by increasing spending by $174 billion, through $40 billion in tax increases and $134 billion in deficit spending…again to no apparent benefit.

Was it the SEIU?? Through which, while most Americans 401K plans are sinking, we\’re about to bailout underfunded and over generous union pension plans to the tune of $165 billion….because union bosses mismanaged the funds during good times, such as spending $85 million on getting Obama elected.

Is it the spot where the federal budget should be?? Because while they have an 18-seat majority in the Senate, more than a 70-seat majority in the House, and they control the White House, they still can\’t manage to even propose a budget….which leaves two possibilities, incompetence or apathy.

What hole was it that Obama angerly interrupted an aide and demanded that they \”plug the damn hole!\”

Turns out it was just that oil leak in the Gulf…the one the Federal government dithered about upon for over a week and still haven\’t gotten their act in gear. Turns out they are considering taking over from BP to address the issue….even though, by their own admission, they couldn\’t do any better job than BP has done.

At least BP is trying, which is more than can be said for the Federal government, as the state of Louisana can tell you.

At least BP is accountable to stockholders, who is the federal government accountable to….the voters?? The Obama administration has long since shown they don\’t give a damn what the voters think, as adequately evidenced by Obamacare, the AZ immigration bill, terrorist trials, bailouts and their rampant deficit spending.

No Obama, the only hole I wish was filled is the gaping chasm which appears to exist between your ears.

[Crossposted at True North]

In honor of Indentured Servitude Day

John G.  Is 63 years old and owns a small business. He\’s a life-long Republican and sees his dream of retiring next year has all but evaporated. With the stock market crashing and new taxes coming his way, John assumes now that he will work to his dying  day.

John has a granddaughter. Ashley is a recent college  grad. She drives a flashy hybrid car, wears all the latest fashions, and loves to go out to nightclubs and restaurants. Ashley campaigned hard for Barack Obama. After the election she made sure her grandfather (and all other Republican family members) received a big I told-you-so earful on how the world is going to  be a much better place now that her party is taking over.

Having lost both roommates, Ashley recently ran short of cash and cannot pay the rent (again) on her 3 bedroom townhouse… Like she has done many times in the past, she e-mailed her grandfather asking for some financial  help.

Here is  his  reply:

Sweetheart,

I received your request for assistance. Ashley, you know I love you dearly and I\’m sympathetic to your financial plight. Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of President Obama, your grandmother and I have had to set forth a bold new economic plan of our own…\”The Ashley Economic Empowerment Plan.\” Let me explain.

Your grandmother and I are life-long, wage-earning tax payers. We have lived a comfortable life, as you know, but we have never had the fancier things like European vacations, luxury cars, etc.. We have worked hard and were looking forward to retiring soon. But the plan has changed. Your president is raising our personal and business taxes significantly. He says it is so he can give our hard earned money to other people. Do you know what this means, Ashley? It means less for us, and we must cut back on many business and personal expenses.

You know the wonderful receptionist who worked in my office for more than 23 years? The one who  always gave you candy when you came over to visit? I had to let her go last week. I can\’t afford to pay her salary and all of the government mandated taxes that go with having employees. Your grandmother will now work 4 days a week to answer phones, take orders and handle the books. We will be closed on Fridays and will lose even more income to the Wal-Mart.

I\’m also very sorry to report that your cousin Frank will no longer be working summers in the warehouse. I called him at school this morning. He already knows about it and he\’s upset because he will  have to give up skydiving and his yearly trip to Greenland to survey the polar bears.

That\’s just the business side of things. Some personal economic effects of Obama\’s new taxation policies include none other than you. You know very well that over the years your grandmother and I have given you thousands of dollars in cash, tuition assistance, food, housing, clothing, gifts, etc., etc. But by your vote, you have chosen to help others — not at your expense — but at our expense.

If you need money now sweetheart, I recommend you call 202-456-1111. That is the direct phone number for the White House… You can also contact the White House here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/ .

You yourself told me how foolish it is to vote Republican. You said Mr Obama is going to be the People\’s President, and is going to help every American live a better life. Based on everything  you\’ve told me, along with all the promises we heard during the campaign, I\’m sure Mr. Obama will be happy to transfer some stimulus money into your bank account. Have him call me for the account number which I memorized years ago.

Perhaps you can now understand what I\’ve been saying all my life: those who vote for a president should  consider the impact on the nation as a whole, and not be just concerned with what they can get for themselves. What Obama supporters don\’t seem to realize is all of the money he is redistributing to illegal aliens and non-taxpaying Americans (the so-called \”less  fortunate\”) comes from tax-paying families.

Remember how you told me, \”Only the richest of the rich will be affected\”? Well guess what, honey?  Because we own a business, your grandmother and I are now considered to be the richest of the rich. On paper, it might look that way, but in the real world, we are far from it.

As you said while campaigning for Obama, some people will have to carry more of the burden so all of America can prosper… You understand what that means, right? It means that raising taxes on productive people results in them having less money; less money for everything, including granddaughters.

I\’m sorry, Ashley, but the well has run dry. The free lunches are over. I have no money to give you now. So, congratulations on your choice for \”change.\” For future reference, I encourage you to try and add up the total value of the gifts and cash you have received from us, just since you went off to college, and compare it to what you expect to get from Mr. Obama over the next 4 (or 8 ) years. I have not kept track of it, Ashley. It has all truly been the gift of our hearts.

Remember, we love you dearly….but from now on you\’ll need to call the number mentioned above. Your \”Savior\” has the money we would have given to you. Just try and get it from him.

Good luck, sweetheart.

Love, Grandpa

…but not for the reasons you think.

Instead California scares me because they voted down the tax increase.

Of the day\’s six fiscal propositions — the rainy day fund, education funding, lottery modernization, children\’s services funding and temporary reallocation of mental health funding — all went down — and hard. The results were roughly 60-40 against.

The only proposition to sail through was one preventing pay increases to top elected state officials during years of budget deficits. That one was being approved about 76-23. Take that! (That doesn\’t affect Arnold, of course, because he\’s never taken a state salary.)

The propositions are all explained over here. The county-by-county results on each proposition are available over here. And the results of local races and propositions are over here.

Yeah, you read that right, it scares me that California voted it down….bear with me on that, I\’ll explain.

It seems it\’s pretty much universal that people will gripe about paying taxes, nobody likes April 15th.  People complain, but then they always seem to vote for tax increases and vote in the same Democrats that have raised their taxes time and time again in the past.  In my own city, voters have repeatedly passed school referendums, despite repeated past history of the school district misusing funds and/or suddenly \”finding\” additional money after we\’ve already passed a new bonding bill.  It frustrates me to no end.  Often I find myself asking just what the hell it\’s going to take before people finally get it.  Seriously, how much is enough???

And that brings me to my point.  California voted down another tax increase.  They finally had enough.  They got to their breaking point.  The present state of California is the answer to my earlier question.  That scares the hell out of me.  Before now I could just write off California as an outlier, an exception, a state of crazy dumbasses who just never learn.  Instead, I fear they are the future.

There is a quote I\’ve heard before, \”As California goes, so goes the nation\”, and that\’s largely been true.  Many trends have started in California, everything from fashion to social engineering policies.  It seems whatever crazy stuff California does, the rest of the nation eventually follows.

Now I have to wonder, is Minnesota going to have to get THAT bad before people finally get that more taxes is not the answer?  Do we really have to dig THAT big of a hole that people finally realize spending is the problem??  Do we really all have to become wage slaves before people finally realize that tossing more money at a problem isn\’t always the answer??

Until now I could contend myself by thinking the end was just around the corner.  Until now I could just write of California as a land of people who think unicorns fart more tax dollars.  Until now, \”How much is enough?\” was just a rhetorical question.  That all ended on Tuesday.  And suddenly it\’s a rather depressing thought.

[Crossposted at True North, comments welcome]

House Democrats will release their tax increase proposal on Monday, but this week they gave a preview of what they may be thinking. Below is information distributed to legislators detailing opposition to bills offered by Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Minneapolis) to increase beer taxes – HF 1896 and HF 2125. A recent City Pages article did not reflect favorably on Rep. Clark, quoting one unnamed lobbyist as saying \”She\’s not really in touch with reality,\” and another, \”Forgets there is real impact to her crazy ideas.\” The bill was not given a vote(a small win for beer drinkers) but could pop up in the overall tax increase bill next week.

Here is the info:
HF 1896 (Clark) creates an “alcohol health and judicial impact fee” of 2.5 % on all retail sales of alcohol in Minnesota plus an additional $6.61/barrel. These two “fees” would increase the taxes on a barrel of beer by over $14.53/barrel or a 43.8% increase. One-half of this increase would go to the general fund and one-half would go to a health and judicial impact fund.

HF 2125 (Clark) would raise the state excise taxes on a barrel of beer from $4.60 to $37.52, an astonishing nine-fold increase, or nearly 100%.

The dramatic tax increases embodied in HF 1896 and HF 2125 are on top of the existing $18.00/barrel federal excise tax, the existing $4.60/barrel state excise tax, the 6 1/2% sales tax, and the existing 2.5% alcohol sales tax. HF 1896 would raise the price of a case of beer by at least $2.00 per case and HF 2125 would raise the price of a case of beer by at least $3.90 per case.

Already, taxes on beer represent over 40% of the retail price of beer. This is substantially higher than other products.

Attended the St. Paul Tea Party at the state capitol today.  Anywhere from 5000 to 10000 people showed up.  From having attended past rallies, for both sides of the political spectrums I know that conservatives generally just don\’t show up for these type of things and so it speaks volumes that over 5000 conservatives showed up.  Especially when one considers that there were at least a dozen other options at the same time in Minnesota.

Now many conservatives were there.  And the impressions from the conservatives point of view will be analyzed to death.  I\’m a little curious from the liberals point of view….what their thoughts were.  So I put on my waders and got a tetanus shot and waded into the cesspool of liberalism….the Democratic Underground.

Single sentence response to so-called Tea Parties:

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man\’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
—John Kenneth Galbraith

It\’s a fairly complex sentence, so that might confuse some of the Teabaggers, but then, they would have been confused by clear, rational, independent thought, regardless.

link

No I understood it pretty well.  Actually I\’m more curious at where you got your definition of selfishness.  I\’d regard wanting to keep money OTHER people earned is more selfish than wanting to keep the money I earned.

Let\’s call these \”Tea Parties\” for what they really are – white power rallies

These idiots are nothing more than a bunch of pissed off rethugs and cowardly \”libertarians\” who are pissed off that a black president is spending \”their\” money. It eats them alive that their beloved decorated war hero didn\’t win, that Rove couldn\’t steal a 3rd presidential election, so now they\’re taking to the streets in protest. These morons are bound by their hatred of two things – Obama and brown-skinned immigrants. Listen to any right-wing talk show, and you\’ll hear hateful vitriol spewed forth on a daily basis towards both of these targets.

link

Actually most of us were pissed off at Bush\’s spending far before Obama\’s election.  That\’s what the Porkbusters movement was all about.  That\’s why Bush had such low popularity even among conservatives.  That\’s why he faced revolt amongst conservatives about his drug plan.  Now we\’re beyond pissed off, when Obama is making Bush look like a penny-pincher.

And I challenge you to find me a mainstream right-wing radio show spewing hatred towards brown-skinned people.  And it\’s pretty intellectually vacant of you to automatically apply racist undertones towards honest disagreements with a President who happens to be black.  Project much??

BEST Case Scenario For The Teabaggers, Each Teabag Party Averaged 300 protesters

PJTV said over 700 Teabag Parties.

PJTV Says 208,058 people turned out nationwide.

That averages out to less than 298 people per Teabag Party if their estimates are correct.

And most likely, they\’re over-estimating turnout.

Just USing PJTV\’s Own Numbers.

BTW, that would be less than 0.07% of the population gave enough of a shit to come out and teabag.

link

Oddly enough your anti-war rallies gathered similar numbers and at the time people like you claimed it was overwhelming public opinion.  It\’s was a national movement that symbolizes a growing swell of discontent.  Except that your protesters were paid for and organized at a national level by groups like Code Pink.

The Tea Parties are grassroots.  Nobody paid for them and no one organization organized them.  Despite your claims of funding and organization by Fox News.  Fox News and the rest of the networks jumped on the bandwagon AFTER this had been going on for months.

Since conservatives like to quote our forefathers on their ideals on liberty and freedom, they should be reminded that the original \”tea party\” was about taxation without representation.

link

You are correct.  And that\’s why the populace hasn\’t revolted, in the real sense of the word, yet.

And we are expressing our displeasure to our elected representatives in a way that was specifically permitted by the very same people that took part in the original Tea Party.

As usual, liberals just don\’t get it.

[Crossposted at True North, comments welcome]

Today is Tax Freedom Day for Minnesotans.  The day at which you\’ve finally earned enough money to pay off your federal, state and local taxes.  You\’ve been working for the government so far, now you get to work for yourself.

….unless you take the deficit into account, then you\’re gonna have to wait until sometime after Memorial Day.

Wednesday is Tax Day, so thousands of Americans all over the country are getting together to protest out of control government spending and obscene taxes being imposed upon the American people.  Add your voice to the outcry!

Below are just some of the confirmed locations (there are more!), so the best place for all your Tea Party information is the official MN Tea Party website.

City: Duluth
When: April 15, 12:15pm
Where:March and Rally – Harbor Drive (Behind the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center)

————-

City:Fairmont, MN
When: April 15, 5 p.m. to ?
Where: 201 Lake Ave, Martin County Courthouse front steps

————-
City:Grand Marais
When: April 15, Noon
Where: Court House steps

————-
City:Mille County (Milaca & Princeton)
When: April 15, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Where: 145 Central Ave. S (City Museum and surrounding block)

————-
City: Rochester
When: April 15, 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Where: East Side of Silver Lake, 840 7 St NE

————-
City: St. Cloud
When: April 15, Noon
Where: St. Cloud Public Library

————-
City: St. Paul ~ Twin Cities
When: April 15, 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Where: Minnesota State Capitol

————-
City: Willmar
When: April 15, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Where: 1101 First St South

In the past few years crazy liberals have been labeled as being afflicted with Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) since it drove them to do crazy things. Mass rallies where they really embarrassed themselves.  Cries of Nazism and Fascism at the slightest (or no) provocation.  It’s not hard to find plenty of examples of this rather strange syndrome.

After the election many conservatives warned others not to fall to Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS).  For the most part conservatives haven’t although there are exceptions (as always).  But that doesn’t mean ODS hasn’t still struck, except to the opposite people we expected.  Liberals have been simply besides themselves lately because well….this just wasn’t the way it was supposed to be!!

Guns were supposed to go out of style.  It was going to be a kinder, gentler world, hand delivered by our savior  Obama who was going to ride in on his white unicorn, farting rainbows and shitting puppies.  Instead we have obscenely high demands for firearms of all types.  Depressing shortages of ammunition of all calibers.  And support for gun control is falling as fast as gravity can take it.  And even accounting for factors such as the economy, there is no explanation other than Obama.

Also, the world was supposed to love us again.  Instead we’ve gotten no additional assistance for allies and our enemies have not recoiled at blinding white light that is Obama.  Instead our enemies have been pushed their limits even more, positive they can get away with it, and so far there has been nothing to prove them wrong.  Our allies instead of falling victim to the spirit of cooperation, have instead been even more resistant to our pleas.  Some of that may be due to Obama’s rather unique (inept) form of diplomacy that seems to grant less courtesy to our allies than to others.  The treatment of the Queen of England versus the King of Saudi Arabia is only one small and recent, although convenient, example.

The American people were supposed to drown in a sea of utopian happiness.  Everyone was supposedly going to gladly offer up their hard earned wages and offer no protest to the Obama Administration’s outrageous spending proposals.  After all, it was all for the greater good and the community as a whole.  Instead, the growing trend of Tea Parties across the country were first ignored, and now just seem to stymie their best attempts to understand the phenomenon.  Instead they’ve tried to label the Tea Parties as funded by Fox News, or part of a vast right wing conspiracy, or [ insert next lunatic theory here ].  The idea of this being a true grassroots effort is truly beyond comprehension.  Ordinary people just weren’t supposed to do this in the Age of Obama!!

Obama Derangement Syndrome is here and it’s real, except it afflicts those previously afflicted with Bush Derangement Syndrome.  One would be tempted to simply call these people deranged and leave it at that.  Their world is falling apart.  They had built up this utopia in their mind and they’ve been fighting for it for over a generation now.  They controlled the House and the Senate, now they just needed a leader, nah, a messiah to lead this country into the promised land of utopian socialism.  Then comes Obama with his smooth voice and uplifting rhetoric, and they trifecta was complete!  But none of it is turning out the way they planned, and we’re likely to see the greatest temper tantrum this side of your average two-year-old.

[Crossposted At True North]

As many of you know, there have been protests all around the nation protesting the obscene spending happening in Washington and the endless bailouts.  They\’ve been termed \”Tea Party\” after the \”Boston Tea Party\” that was a revolt against unfair taxation by our foreign rulers.  Well our current rulers may as well be foreign because they certainly don\’t appear to be in touch with the wishes of the American people, and the way they\’ve been using our tax money could be generously labeled as \”unfair\”.

So join a local Tea Party to protest these events….especially since now Minnesota is getting in on the movement.  Here\’s the details…

The Tax Day Tea Party rally will be held April 15th between 5 pm and 8 pm at the Minnesota State Capitol as part of the Nationwide Tea Party movement.

This local event is a chance for individuals to gather with other Americans to express their disgust with current government policy and channel that negative energy into something productive. The event will include presentations by local radio personalities and elected officials as well as concerned citizens.

The nationwide event series has just won the endorsement of Newt Gingrich.

The Tea Party protests, in their current form, began in early 2009 when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor for CNBC, on live television, set out on a rant about banking bailouts, the flawed \”Stimulus Bill\” and pork filled
budget. During Rick\’s rant, he called for a \”Chicago Tea Party\” where advocates of the free-market system could join in a protest against out of control government spending. Rallies in many American cities were held February 27th, 2009.

With everyone\’s support in cities across America, we can send a clear message to Washington DC.

Minnesota Tea Party
www.teapartymn.com

Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party
www.taxdayteaparty.com

[Crossposted at True North]