Archive for the 'Class' Category

From TIME:

When you look at average tax rates, the big downward swings seem to correlate both with good times in the market and reductions in the capital gains tax rate—which dropped from 28% to 20% in 1997, and from 20% to 15% in 2003. The differential between capital gains tax rates and the tax rate on regular income also explains why those making more than $110.6 million a year pay taxes at a lower rate than those making $300,000 or $400,000 a year—because the really rich get a much higher percentage of their income from capital gains.

The article comes with a handy chart, showing that the tax rate paid by the wealthiest Americans fell from 30% in 1995 to 17% in 2006:

(click to embiggen)

So why all the whining about Obama’s plan to raise the top rate by four percentage points?

It’s almost impossible for any none Americans to even come close to comprehending how the hell some millions of citizens of the United States, the world’s wealthiest country, could ever be allowed to find themselves in such a shocking sort of sickening situation as this is.

Poverty hits African Americans hard

BBC correspondent Matthew Price continues his journey across America, and reports from Chicago, Barack Obama’s home town, where African American community leaders fear the recession is dragging down their communities more than most.

(snip)

Poverty is growing across the United States. Many communities are affected. Yet a number of studies suggest that African Americans in general have been hit harder than others.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment has risen to 13.4% since the recession began in December 2007. The national unemployment rate is 8.5%.

One of the largely untold stories of America’s economic decline is the disproportionate effect it appears to be having on African Americans.

Read the rest of this remarkably revealing report.

[Sigh.]

If only “socialism” wasn’t such a shocking swear word in the states, eh?

Who knows though?

Maybe the blessed Obama truly does have the balls he so strongly hinted he had — last year.

Maybe now that his presidential honeymoon period is over, Barack will be brave enough (and care enough), to bring about some real change : as opposed to simply some more, same old, same old, ‘small change’.

Eh?

(Cross posted from across at How This Old Brit Sees It)

*

Watch this and weep.

Then ruddy rage!

The young girl is 15 years old.

The ’so called’ policeman is a ’so called’ sheriff’s deputy.

So, now you’ve seen the film, read this whole sorry story ~ and much more of the same sort of shocking shit.

Home of the brave? Land of the free?

Oh, yeah. Sure

And we’re a pair of Protestant Popes.

(Cross posted from How This Old Brit Sees It)

*

So why such a flaming fuss?

The lad doesn’t realise just how lucky he is.

The same thing happened to us years ago as we sat sneezing, shivering and shaking, whilst waiting (in flipping’freezing fog) for one of many missing Merseyrail trains at our city centre’s Central station.

Prince Charles turns 60 waiting for throne

Incidentally, hands up who knew that cheerful old ‘Chazzer the chinless’ has his own official web site.

(Cross posted from How This Old Brit Sees It)

Since ‘The Daily Rant’ emailed us the copy of their recent post containing the quotes below, we’re assuming they want us to help spread the(se) word(s).

Well, if that actually is the case, we’re only too happy to oblige.

“Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room.” –to Republican Sen. John Cornyn, during a testy exchange about immigration legislation.

“No, I’m calling you a fucking jerk.” –to fellow Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, when Grassley asked “Are you calling me stupid?”

“Only an asshole would put together a budget like this … I wouldn’t call you an asshole unless you really were an asshole.” –to Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, during a Senate budget hearing.

“Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.” –at a 1998 Republican fundraiser.

http://www.mccainversusmccain.com/
http://www.knowsarahpalin.com/
http://www.georgewalkerbushpresidentiallibrary.com/

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Before hitting the link to read the rest of the relevant rant-post, see if you can guess who spouted all that truly presidential stuff. It shouldn’t be too difficult.

Now, hit this link then scroll down to the 17th September post.

(Cross posted from How This Old Brit Sees It)

For the Democrats an African American for President

For the Republicans a conservative descendant of a blue-blood slave holding / sharecropping Southern plantation family whose plantation is still intact and in family hands as I understand it.

I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would have thought of that. A very interesting flip-flop in political party associations at any rate.

Funny old world ain’t it?

Isn’t it interesting (wacky, weird and wonderful even), the way so many things ‘wealth-wise’ work out and all?

Or don’t.

Especially, across in the States.

And isn’t it simply astonishingly surprising, how so many of those people least able to afford to, so often seem set on needlessly losing themselves (still more), money by blindly buying into so many politician’s (so often so patently), phony packaging, posturing, promises, premisses, philosophies, and ….

Oh, never mind …..

Clintons made nearly $109M since 2000

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Clinton made nearly $109 million since they left the White House, capitalizing on the world’s interest in the former first couple and lucrative business ventures.

Money magazine estimates John McCain’s net worth at $40 million.

If the media were to apply the same standards to John McCain that they applied to John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, they would report (endlessly) that John McCain, a very rich man, is embracing tax cuts that even John McCain has said unfairly benefit the very rich. And they would be demanding that he release his tax returns so voters could see how much money John McCain would…

Measuring Wealth of the ‘08 Candidates

Perhaps only one word can be used to describe all of the leading presidential contenders: multimillionaire.

Not only that. With one exception among the three leading Republicans and three leading Democrats, the contenders each appear to be worth tens of millions.

The exception: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Huge Job Losses Set Off Recession Alarms

WASHINGTON

It’s no longer a question of recession or not.

Now it’s how deep and how long.

We wonder which of the presidential candidates pictured will eventually be elected as the one most wanted to move into the White House this time? Elected by hundreds of millions of Americans, in the belief that ‘that‘ particular person is much more likely (than either of the other two), to do the right thing by them - and the best thing for them - and for their families of course. Eh?

Well, we certainly know which contender we’re (completely), convinced will. And their name definitely doesn’t begin with an M. Nor does it start with a C.

But as we said at the outset, isn’t it interesting, wacky, weird …

*(Cross posted at How This Old Brit Sees It)

Say and think whatever you want about Queen Elizabeth’s second son Prince Andrew, Duke of York regarding his privileged position and oft alleged propensity to play the playboy.

But when the chips were down and the chocks were away, this brave young Brit boy definitely did his bit.

Never more so than when the Falklands conflict (against Argentina) flared, at which time he literally laid his own young life on the line.

Which is much, much more than can be said for so many of today’s so-called ‘great and good’ - who for the moment shall remain nameless — cowardly, counterfeit commanders-in-chief and supposed super-premiers included.

Read the rest of this entry »

The idle rich just don’t know where to go shopping

Celia Rivenbark of the the New York Sun complains that she can’t find any clothes for her daughter that won’t make her look like a hooker:

The princess had just graduated to a size seven when everything went to hell. We headed for our favorite department store, ready to take that leap into the world of 7–16. Bye-bye, 4–6X, I thought to myself with a tug of sadness. My baby was growing up.

And apparently into a prostitute.

Oh no, I thought, looking around. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

“There must be some mistake,” I said. “These are, well, slutty-looking. I’m talking about clothes for a little girl in first grade.”

I went into my second-favorite department store and was invited to peruse the awfulness that is Tweenland! A better name would be Lil Skanks!

Read the rest of this entry »

Genarlow Wilson

In 2005, Genarlow Wilson went to prison for having consensual oral sex with a minor. At the time of the act, she was 15 and he was 17. Wilson drew a 10 year sentence, leading some to speculate as to what kind of sentence Wilson would have been given if he were white.

A couple of days ago, Monroe County (GA) Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Wilson (no relation) ordered Gernarlow Wilson released:

The judge granted the appeal, agreeing Wilson’s 10-year prison sentence “would be viewed by society as ‘cruel and unusual’ in the constitutional sense of disproportionality.” The judge also changed Wilson’s felony conviction to a misdemeanor without the requirement that he register as a sex offender.

“The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor … and will spend eight more years in prison is a grave miscarriage of justice,” Judge Wilson wrote in his order. “If any case fits into the definitive limits of a miscarriage of justice, surely this case does.”

The judge added, “If this court, or any court, cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish… Justice being served in a fair and equal matter.”

But Genarlow Wilson will not be released, because state Attorney General Thurbert Baker is appealing the decision, and it will take months to get a ruling from the Supreme Court.

What’s going on here? Can’t the attorney general see how unjust it is to imprison a 17 year-old for ten years for having sex with a willing 15 year-old? Well, it’s not that simple. Here’s some facts that most of the people commenting on this case are ignoring:

Read the rest of this entry »