Category: Politics

Warren Buffett Should Put His Money Where His Mouth Is

I know several people who constantly claim that they would be more than happy to pay more taxes. Every time I hear somebody state this I tell them that they can write a check Bureau of Public Debt anytime they feel the amount of taxes they’re paying is too low. You know what? To this day I’ve not had one person take up the offer and thus I consider them all a bunch of hypocrites.

Warren Buffett has been receiving heavy media coverage after stating that he wants Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy (in Buffett’s case wealthy means anybody making more than $1 million). Well I’m pleased to say that I’m not the only one calling people on their hypocritical bullshit as another person has made the information available for Buffett to donate a few billion to the Treasury.

Once again if you say that you’d gladly pay higher taxes shut up and actually do it. Cut a check to the Bureau of Public Debt and send it to the following address:

Bureau of the Public Debt
Department G
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188

Until you’ve actually done that shut the fuck up about raising taxes. If you have actually done that then congratulations you’re no longer a hypocrite and I’m willing to listen to your arguments.

One Crazy Minnesota Presidential Wannabe Down, One More to Go

Pawlenty is either a sore loser or smart enough to know when he’s been beat. After news came out that he took a distant third place in the Ames straw poll on Saturday, Pawlenty announced that he’s dropping out of the presidential race. That’s one crazy Minnesota presidential wannabe done, now we just have to get the other one to drop out.

Pawlenty has always been worthless. Although he liked to tout small government is took many opportunities to ensure government involved itself in the lives of Minnesotans. One of the most obvious examples of this is when he signed a law making the wearing of seat belts mandatory in Minnesota (punishable by a fine of course). I’m glad he’s no longer Minnesota’s governor and even happier that he’s dropped out of the race entirely.

Ron Paul Takes Second Place at Ames Straw Poll

Here’s some goods new for a change, Ron Paul ended up taking second place in the straw poll on Saturday. Bachmann had 4,832 votes while Ron Pall fell just 152 votes shy of her with 4,671 votes. The real loser in this battle was Pawlenty who garnered only 2,293 votes.

It’s concerned to me to see Bachmann gaining so much support. Although she portrays herself as wanting to rid out lives of government control what she really advocates is ridding our lives of government control unless it’s a subject she feels needs control. For example she supports a federal law defining marriage as being between one man and one woman while Ron Paul, a devout Christian who believes marriage should consists of a man and woman, supports removing the federal government completely from the marriage equation. Bachmann is also a supporter of war in the Middle East while I have no worried about Paul trying to engage us in yet another unnecessary conflict. The only thing I can really say about Bachmann that is nice is she’s also an opponent of the Federal Reserve.

Either way the race for the Republican nominee looks to be an interesting and tight race. Here’s hoping Paul gets the ticket and wins the Oval Office.

The Federal Government Moving to Attack Independent Farmers Yet Again

The federal government has a strong hatred of independent farmers. Their hatred is likely caused by the fact that independent farmers can’t contribute millions of dollars to the campaign funds of politicians like big agriculture businesses can. Either way the cause of their hatred isn’t really the point, the fact that the federal government continues to make life harder for family farmers is the problem. So what is the government’s new plan to make life more miserable to families already finding it difficult to get by? Easy, create a new regulation and require all farmers obtain commercial driver’s licenses in order to operate farm equipment:

A new rule being proposed by the federal Department of Transportation would require farmers to get commercial drivers licenses.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is a part of DOT, wants to adopt standards that would reclassify all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Motor Vehicles, officials said. Likewise, the proposal, if adopted, would require all farmers and everyone on the farm who operates any of the equipment to obtain a CDL, they added.

The proposed rule change would mean that anyone who drives a tractor or operates any piece of motorized farming equipment would be required to pass the same tests and complete the same detailed forms and logs required of semi-tractor trailer drivers.

Drivers would keep logs of information including hours worked and miles traveled. Vehicles would be required to display DOT numbers.

No only would this regulation incur additional costs to farmers it would also require them to take the commercial driver’s license test. Regulations such as this hit home for me as I grew up in a small farming community, Hell my grandfather was a farmer. Independent farmers aren’t exactly rolling in cash so any additional cost it going to hurt. On top of that farming isn’t a job you can just drop for a few hours while you go take your commercial driver’s license test, it’s an all day job that you must work every day.

But the real cost comes with regulating farm equipment like other commercial vehicles which require periodic inspections to receive a Department of Transportation (DOT) number. Each vehicle with a DOT number (which would be all farm vehicles under the new regulations) would need to be brought to the local DOT inspector which takes time (quite a bit of time if you’re driving a farm tractor from the country into town) that farmers simply don’t have.

Let’s also consider the fact that farmers have been operating their equipment since the creation of said equipment without any regulations put into place. Has their been a plague of deaths caused by farm equipment that could have been prevented had regulations been put into place? No. So the question that should be asked is what point is there in requiring these new regulations now? I’m not sure what their official line of bullshit will be but the real reason probably has to do with the millions of dollars received by government agents from large agriculture businesses that would love nothing more than seeing independent farmers wiped from the country.

We Should All Have “Top-Level Access” to The Bin Laden Assassination Video

You know for a fact that we live in a free country when an investigation is started because a congress critter thinks somebody received access to a government produced video:

A senior Republican has called for an inquiry into reports the White House fed secrets about the killing of Osama Bin Laden to Hollywood film-makers.

[…]

New York Times writer Maureen Dowd said film-makers had “top-level access”.

The White House called that report – and Mr King’s claims – “ridiculous”

There should have been an investigation started into why the video wasn’t released to the public in the first place. Remember when Obama promised that he would strive to create a more transparent government? I guess classified videos of America’s number one enemy being taken out counts as transparency. This line was also comedy gold:

The killing of the man behind the 9/11 terror attacks marked the recent high point in Mr Obama’s presidency.

When the high point of your presidential career is being in office when the military finally was successful in killing a wanted man you have some pretty major issues that need to be worked out.

That’s OK, We Have Enough Problems

Minnesota has a lot of problems right now including a rampant deficit that will likely only be fixed when the state files bankruptcy. Sadly Obama has decided to make matters worse by coming here:

President Obama’s economy-themed bus tour next week will start in southern Minnesota, cut across northeast Iowa, and end in western Illinois, the administration announced today.

“The president will discuss ways to grow the economy, strengthen the middle class and accelerate hiring in communities and towns across the nation and hear directly from Americans, including local families and small business owners,” the White House said in a statement.

It’s OK Obama, save the taxpayers some money and feel free to skip Minnesota on your Tour of Economic Destruction. If we want a politician to tour the country and talk about economics we’ll take one that actually understands the subject matter, send Ron Paul our way.

Compromise

I can’t even count the number of times various friends of mine have said what we need more of in politics is compromise. Here’s the thing, compromise is what has gotten us where we are today. The politicians compromise with one another on everything, look at how many “compromises” were made before the passing of that 2,000 page behemoth that is the Health Insurance Company Enrichment Act. Look at the debt ceiling “compromise” where a few trillion will be cut from the budget but over the span of ten fucking years making it meaningless.

I’m sick of compromise, bring on the uncompromising men of principle. Even if the principles of those men don’t correspond with mine I’d be more than glad to give them a vote over someone whose willing to compromise to the point that I’m not sure which way they’ll vote on legislation until the actual vote.

I Don’t Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

I’m pretty sure Godwin’s Law should be modified a bit for politicians. Anytime a politician makes a comparison to terrorists the argument should be considered over and the politician who made the comparison should be considered the loser of the debate. Apparently opposing an increase in taxes is something that should land you on one of the terrorist watch lists according to Mike Doyle and Joe Biden:

Biden was agreeing with a line of argument made by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) at a two-hour, closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting.

“We have negotiated with terrorists,” an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”

Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists.”

Well if my name isn’t already on one or several of your watch lists you better toss it on because I oppose any increase of taxes on any person (I don’t give a shit if it’s the “rich” or “poor” who get the increase, I oppose it). I also love Biden’s other comment:

Earlier in the day, Biden told Senate Democrats that Republican leaders have “guns to their heads” in trying to negotiate deals.

How do you like the taste of your own medicine asshole? The government enforces all of their laws, rules, and regulations by putting guns to the heads of American citizens. You bastards on Capitol Hill make it very clear that if us serfs violate one of your innumerable laws you’ll use force against us. Hell according to Joe Biden that must make himself and every other member of our government a terrorist.