Wildman’s Hangout

Charley  Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.

545  PEOPLE–By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world  who create problems and then campaign against them..
Have you ever  wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if  all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have  inflation and high taxes?
You and I don’t propose a federal budget.  The president does.
You and I don’t have the  Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of  Representatives does.
You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress  does.
You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You  and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve  Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one  president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally,  and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague  this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve  Board because that problem was created by the  Congress.   In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty  to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central  bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a  sound reason. They have no legal authority.  They have no  ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one  cotton-picking thing.   I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash.  The  politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what  the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility  to determine  how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.   They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What  separates a politician from a normal human being is an  excessive amount of gall.   No normal  human being would have the gall of a  Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating  deficits…..   The president can only propose a budget.  He cannot force the Congress to accept  it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the  land, gives sole responsibility to the House of  Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.   Who is the speaker of the House?    Nancy Pelosi.  She is  the leader of the majority party.  She and  fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.  If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if  they agree  to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can  not replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of  incompetence and irresponsibility.   I can’t think of a  single domestic problem  that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.  When you fully  grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal  government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to  exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it  unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in  the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in   IRAQ   ,  it’s because they want them in  IRAQ

If they do not  receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available  to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no  insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift  the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can  abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to  regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can  take this power.   Above all, do not let them con you into  the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the  economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing  what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they  alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the  power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the  gumption to manage their own employees…

We should vote all of  them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the  Orlando  Sentinel  Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have  read it, is up to you.

This might be funny if it weren’t so darned true.

Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Tax his land,  tax his bed,

Tax the table,  at which he’s fed.
Tax his tractor, tax his mule,

Teach him taxes are the rule.

Tax his work, tax his pay,
He works for peanuts anyway!
Tax his cow, tax his goat,
Tax his pants, tax his coat.

Tax his ties, tax his shirt,
Tax his work, tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco, tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think..

Tax his cigars, tax his beers ,
If he cries tax his tears.

Tax his car, tax his gas,
Find other ways to tax his ass.

Tax all he has  then let him know
That you won’t be done till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till he’s good and sore.

Then tax his coffin, tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he’s laid…
Put these words upon his tomb,
Taxes drove me to my doom…’

When he’s gone, do not relax,
Its time to apply the inheritance tax..

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax

Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes

Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax,

Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax,

Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax,

Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax,

Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax,

Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax

Property Tax
Real Estate Tax

Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax,

Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax,

Sales Tax
School Tax,

State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service FeeTax
Telephone Federal,

State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage

Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone   State  and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world.  We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the hell happened?   Can you spell ‘politicians?’

David Harsanyi
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Not long after President Barack Obama gave his conciliatory speeches to the Islamic world, he chose not to meddle in the sham election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In fact, he offered not a word of support for the men and women who took to the streets against that totalitarian regime.

Then, as “manmade disasters” continued to erupt spontaneously around the world — including at a United States military base — the administration held steadfast in using non-offensive euphemisms, lest anyone be slighted by our jingoist need to use words that mean something.

And when the president was given a chance to fulfill a campaign promise and acknowledge the genocide of 1.5 million Christian Armenians by Turks during World War I, he instead did everything he could to block the resolution.

These days, as Christian farmers are being slaughtered by Muslim machetes in Nigeria, outrage from the White House is difficult to find — though it made sure to instruct our Libyan ambassador to apologize to “Colonel” Moammar Gadhafi after he offered some mildly critical comments about the dictator’s call for jihad against Switzerland (true story).

Gadhafi can be forgiven, but there are transgressions that can’t. One such sin was perpetrated by Israel after the nation’s decision to allow a new housing project to be built for its citizens in its capital city, Jerusalem.

The White House became so agitated with the future 1,600-unit housing project — and the ill-advised timing of the announcement, which came during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit — that the casual onlooker might have been led to believe that the Jerusalem neighborhood in question was part of some unfinished negotiation with Palestinians or even that it was one of those “settlements.” It was neither.

Still, according to The Jerusalem Post, Hillary Clinton telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who, along with many other Israeli officials, apologized for the ill timing of the project’s announcement — to “berate,” “rebuke,” “warn” and “condemn” Israel. White House senior adviser David Axelrod used NBC’s “Meet the Press” to say that the incident was an “affront,” an “insult” and “very, very destructive.”

As the administration was manufacturing this anger, the Palestinian Authority was preparing the newly minted Dalal Mughrabi Square. You know, just a place for folks to gather and commemorate the 32nd anniversary of 1978′s Coastal Road Massacre, in which 37 Israelis — 13 of them children — were murdered in a bus hijacking.

An American named Gail Rubin, who happened to be snapping some nature pictures in the area, also was gunned down.

No worries. No affront taken. That’s not “very, very destructive” to the process. We are above the fray, above frivolous notions of “allies” or “friends.” History only matters when our enemies deem it important. We don’t want to tweak the fragile mood of the Arab street.

If the purpose of this manufactured angst is to pressure Israel into handing parts of Jerusalem over to a corrupt Fatah (we don’t need to discuss Hamas, which, unlike Fatah, has the decency not to pretend to recognize Israel’s right to exist), then someone is exhibiting a profound naivete. And if the purpose of pursuing a Jewish-free West Bank is to create good will with the Muslim world, good luck.

It is this administration’s prerogative to change our foreign policy — and allies. Yet it would be nice if someone reiterated to our new Muslim friends that the United States has yet to deploy a single soldier to risk life and limb for the security of Israel. It has, however — only recently — sent thousands of Americans to perish for, in part, the cause of Muslim freedom in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

That sacrifice alone should be enough to absolve us from any more bowing — or kowtowing.

Copyright © 2010 Salem Web Network

source:  http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidHarsanyi/2010/03/17/why_are_we_still_bowing

Twenty-nine Websites hacked to prevent further espionage, government says

By Tim Wilson,  DarkReading
March 15, 2010
URL:http://www.darkreading.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223800311

Iranian security forces say they have arrested 30 people and disabled “the most important U.S.-backed organized networks of cyber war launched by anti-revolutionary groups.”

A report issued by the FARS news agency in Iran states that the networks received U.S. aid “and served Washington through such anti-revolutionary groups as the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), monarchist groups, and a number of other opposition groups.”

Some 29 Websites were “hacked” by Iranian security in order to find the accused, according to the reports. The Iranian government accused the sites and their operators of conducting a clandestine espionage effort under cover of human rights initiatives.

The network of sites was accused of collecting information about Iran’s nuclear program and “provoking sedition” against the Iranian government.

The networks were also accused of distributing some 70 million copies of U.S.-made anti-filtering software in Iran.

No details were released on the identities of the sites or how they were hacked.

Have a comment on this story? Please click “Discuss” below. If you’d like to contact Dark Reading’s editors directly, send us a message.

Copyright © 2007 CMP Media LLC

Mona Charen
Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Strangely, chatter about the “death of conservatism” is circulating this fall. I say “strangely” because we are in the midst of the greatest left/liberal moment in living memory. Liberal policies are careening out of Washington and mowing down innocent bystanders. This is the greatest opportunity since the Carter administration to illustrate to voters why conservatism is to be preferred. So it’s downright weird that at this moment, we are being asked to ponder how far we have fallen from the glory days of William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman. “How awful for you,” say those who never sympathized with conservatism, “that you have been reduced to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.”

This is rubbish. Conservatives have always had populists as well as intellectuals. In the 1970s there was Buckley, yes, but also Howard Jarvis and Richard Viguerie. We had fewer radio voices because the Fairness Doctrine limited free speech. Now we have a chorus where once we had only a few soloists. Besides, why don’t those crying crocodile tears for conservatism’s supposed decline fret that liberalism is represented by the likes of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow? I’ll see your Rush Limbaugh and raise you an Al Franken and a Michael Moore.

Far from suffering a decline, conservatism is on the cusp of a major comeback, courtesy of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. That revival will be fertilized by their failures. The crop is already beginning to come in:

Cash for Clunkers: The goal of the program was to reduce carbon emissions and boost the ailing auto industry. As even “Saturday Night Live” acknowledges, the program succeeded in stimulating the economy — of Japan. The Department of Transportation estimates that 59 percent of vehicles bought with clunker bonuses were foreign made. As for the American auto industry, as soon as the program ended, sales plummeted by 25 percent compared with last year, suggesting that consumers simply rushed to purchase cars in August that they were planning to purchase soon anyway. The environmental impact is speculative. Some estimate that the program will save 0.04 percent of CO2 — or two days worth — over the next decade. Or maybe not even that. Lee Schipper of Berkeley and several colleagues warned in the Washington Post that new cars are more fun to drive than old clunkers. It is therefore possible that the program will not yield even that de minimus environmental benefit. Moreover, the price for this fandango came to $2,000 per vehicle, or $1.4 billion to taxpayers.

Minimum Wage Hike: On the campaign trail, candidate Obama proclaimed, “We shouldn’t raise the minimum wage every 10 years, we should raise it every year, to keep up with inflation. If you work in this country, you should not be poor.” Conservatives warned that increases in the minimum wage always result in fewer jobs for the young and unskilled. The Democrats passed it. It became law in July. What happened? Seasonally adjusted teen unemployment reached its highest level in 63 years — 25.9 percent. In two months, 330,000 jobs for teenagers just vanished. As the Wall Street Journal noted, the situation is most dire for black male teenagers, whose unemployment rate jumped from an already grievous 39.2 percent in July to 50.4 percent in September. The anemic economy is obviously one factor in the equation. But particularly in a time of recession, it violates common sense and 50 years of experience artificially to raise the price of labor.

The Stimulus Bill: In order to prevent unemployment from reaching 8 percent and to boost consumption and economic activity, Congress passed a $787 billion stimulus behemoth. Six months on, the unemployment rate is brushing up against 10 percent. And, as economists John F. Cogan, John B. Taylor, and Volker Wieland argue, it seems that just as in the case of the $150 billion Bush stimulus plan in 2008, the temporary infusion of cash through refundable tax credits and one-time payments (about 20 percent of the stimulus) did not budge consumption at all. Thirty percent of the stimulus package is designated for unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies, which may or may not be good public policy but which will not create a single new job. Another 20 percent will go to education. Only the most obtuse would argue that we weren’t already spending too much on education. Another 20 percent or so is designated for public works. But as a number of critics have pointed out, federal spending on roads and bridges has not necessarily been directed to the places with the highest levels of unemployment.

Any stimulus package amounts to taking money from the pockets of some Americans and placing it in the pockets of others who have better political connections. (Tax cuts are fairer.) Most of the stimulus money has not yet been spent. And all of the spending will have to be paid for by tax hikes or inflation — or both.

If this is the death of conservatism, I’m feeling like Lazarus.

Copyright © 2009 Salem Web Network.

source:  http://townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/10/06/and_you_say_conservatism_is_dying