(via detroit.craigslist.org)

“No taxation without representation”

What do I get for my federal taxes? Our public schools are failing, Social Security is insolvent, Medicare & Medicaid are run by a corrupt government that uses taxpayer money to overpay the corporations that run it. Our military is in shambles, our economy is on the brink of complete collapse and all our leaders can think of to do in order to solve the problem is to use our tax dollars to bail out the mistakes of corporations while Americans end up homeless and broke. And stuck with the bill.

Do people understand how much money we have spent in Iraq? Seriously really, get a grip and really GET how much money has gone down the hole? And even if they do, do they realize that the Iraq bill, from a dollar perspective, HASN’T COME DUE YET??? The shit going on with the economy right now has NOTHING to do with the THREE FUCKING TRILLION DOLLARS that this clusterfuck in Iraq will eventually cost us.

$3,000,000,000,000 / 300,000,000 = $10,0000/ea.

That means that RIGHT NOW, without ANY interest, each and every American in this country is in for $10 fucking K. On top of our current federal and state income tax burden.

Now, I pay for electricity. I pay for internet. I pay for television and I pay for my phone. The tax I pay at the pump covers most of the cash either state or federal government spend on shit like road repairs, but whatever. I pay for the gas to heat my home and cook my food. I pay a shitload at the hospital and even pay tax on some of that shit. I pay sales tax. I even pay retail tax, even though the corporations pass ALL their taxes on to me when I buy their shit. So what the fuck do I get?

A military that is now broken. An infrastructure that is crumbling. A justice system that favors their own, the rich and the politicians, and if to add insult to injury, herd me like a fucking piece of cattle and actually go out of their way to find a reason to make me pay them for some bullshit slight.

So what the hell is a rational guy supposed to do? What did our forefathers do, when faced with this kind of bogus farce of representation, when bullied into paying for something they don’t even want or need?

When a man with a checkbook has greater sway than a million voices, OR EVEN ONE FUCKING VOICE, then hasn’t our grievance become that of the founders of this country?

Wow, we’re in for a load of shit, from the New York Times -

“I consider this the biggest financial crisis of my lifetime,” Mr. Soros said during an interview Monday in his office overlooking Central Park. A “superbubble” that has been swelling for a quarter of a century is finally bursting, he said.

Incredible! from kwest on Vimeo.

I created this video to a song by Throw Me the Statue called “About to Walk.” Take a look -

Say anything, do anything - Texas edition

John,

My mom was a delegate in Dallas this past weekend. She arrived at 7AM and didn’t get to leave until 8PM. She said that it appeared the Clinton delegates were trying to drag things out so long that people would have to leave. She thought they challenged about 3,000 delegates and each of them had to go through the credentialing committee.

One of the Clinton delegates from her group challenged the validity of entire precincts. One of the precincts she challenged was almost entirely African American. Towards the end, after this group was credentialed they came by and shook their fists at the Clinton delegate and chanted “we’re still here” in her face. My mom said it was a little tense.

She also said that it was sad to see all of the elderly there having to sit in stadium seats for 13 hours. She didn’t know of anyone leaving without an alternate to replace them though. A very pregnant woman in her group had to lie on the concrete floor at times.

I don’t know why this didn’t make bigger news. She said it was obvious to everyone there what was going on and she thought Clinton had made many enemies from inside the democratic party that day.

Lisa
Poulsbo, WA

I just tried to pay the taxi driver with 10 pesos and he handed it back. “No good,” he says. I didn’t know what he meant at first, so I handed him another 10. “No good,” he says again. WTF? A third 10 was bad too, finally I handed him a 20 and he took the bill. Once I got to Craig and Celeste’s apartment, I took a look at the bills. Fake as hell. I’d never run across fake money before, I’m definitely keeping these. They used an inkjet printer to make this bills and apparently the printer was running low on ink.

I also realized that these 10’s were part of the change I received last night from dinner. There was a fourth 10, but I paid for beer that I brought over with that money. Did I just pay with a fake? I’ll never know.

Not much I can say about this

(via nytimes.com)

As Mrs. Clinton runs for president, a central theme of her candidacy has been that her years in the White House gave her firsthand experience in dealing with foreign crises. In her now-famous TV advertisements that ran before the Ohio and Texas primaries, she portrayed herself as the candidate best prepared to answer a 3 a.m. phone call to address a sudden crisis.

• When the World Trade Center was attacked for the first time on Feb. 26, 1993, President Bill Clinton flew to New York to be briefed…Mrs. Clinton stayed behind in Washington to attend a photo shoot with Parade magazine and a performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
• [I]n October 2000…when word came that the Cole, an American destroyer, had been attacked in a Yemen port. Mr. Clinton rushed back to the White House to deal with the crisis…Mrs. Clinton returned to the campaign trail in her run for the Senate.
• “[Clinton] helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland,” she told CNN in early March…Mrs. Clinton recalled “bringing together a meeting” at the Belfast town hall of Catholic and Protestant women, saying the discussion was a breakthrough for women who recognized their similarities rather than their differences…Mrs. Clinton’s schedule for that period shows a brief event arranged by the American consulate at the Lamp Lighter Café in Belfast…[t]he Belfast Telegraph reported at the time that Mrs. Clinton was given a stainless steel teapot at the event, but reported nothing about a breakthrough meeting of Catholic and Protestant women.
• Mrs. Clinton said she had urged Mr. Clinton to intervene with American troops to stop the Rwandan genocide…[b]ut neither of them mentioned such a thing in their memoirs. Madeleine K. Albright, who was ambassador to the United Nations at the time, also does not mention it in her book.
• “I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia… we came in in an evasive maneuver… I remember landing under sniper fire… there was no greeting ceremony… we ran with our heads down, we basically were told to run to our cars… there was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, we basically were told to run to our cars, that is what happened.”

Hmm. The video doesn’t seem to fit the actual description -