rumi @
102

I made a hellacious, wicked-cool comment but it’s in moderation….:-( hope it comes through.

[Mod Note; refreshing your screen does wonders for hellacious, wicked-cool comments.]

Have I said recently that FDL as the most hellacious and wicked-cool mods in the known universe? Thank you for what we never see.

yay! …the smartest thing I do is to keep coming back.

I’d like to thank and celebrate the sizzlin’-cool, passion for justice driven, hot, hot, hot dedicated moderators here. I have an uncontrollable urge to send them all flowers.

Thank you for what we never see.
..and tolerating simple fools like me.

;-)

I made a hellacious, wicked-cool comment but it’s in moderation….:-( hope it comes through.

[Mod Note; refreshing your screen does wonders for hellacious, wicked-cool comments.]

Have I said recently that FDL as the most hellacious and wicked-cool mods in the known universe? Thank you for what we never see.

I really wish there was some way I could create a huge movement of people to refuse to pay that portion of our taxes. I keep hearing people say that we are not legally bound to pay federal taxes or some such. I am completely ignorant on the subject of taxes. Have you heard this argument or something like it?

Mandrake,

Please don’t do this. The US Attorney will (eventually) prosecute you and throw you in prison.

You are legally obligated to pay your taxes. Period. There are folks out there who make a living by telling people they don’t have to pay their income taxes. You can avoid taxes, but you can’t evade taxes.

BC

mandrake @ 24

Question:

Is there any way to determine what portion of our taxes is going to fund this war? Any ideas how I could find out?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The accounting is rather difficult–operations have been funded through supplementals, but how should one account for “support” costs in the regular DoD budget? How about long-term liabilities incurred by the war?

Explicit (”supplemental”) costs for the Iraq war are running about 5% of gov’t expenditures (which is more like about 6-7% of total government receipts, since we’re deficit spending.) For yourself, add up ALL federal taxes last year (including Medicare, Social Security–all payroll taxes), multiply by 6%, that’s one way to account for what you personally are paying for marginal operations per year. I’d hazard a guess that about double that is the true total cost (including “normal operations” to support those troops in the DoD budget) per year.

This does not count the future liabilities incurred by long-term costs such as depleted equipment and long-term care for the wounded. (Or, dare I say it–future reparations?) Estimates for that go as high as another factor of 2-3 more (discounted to the present.)

Thank you. I realize that’s a difficult question to answer but thanks for giving me a start.

I really wish there was some way I could create a huge movement of people to refuse to pay that portion of our taxes. I keep hearing people say that we are not legally bound to pay federal taxes or some such. I am completely ignorant on the subject of taxes. Have you heard this argument or something like it?

People always keep talking about how foolish Bush and his cronies are, etc. Well, perhaps at one level yes. They are mostly willing patsies; sadistic sociopathic patsies; but their dysfunctions, and Bush’s in particular, serve the plan better than ever imagined! Let’s face it, Bush serves other masters; the real “owners” of this country. Their attitudes are not exactly pro-people or pro-democracy. Nth generation inherited economic royalists rarely are. Bush is their image, their man of action and perfect deceiver to the addle-brained masses!

So, inflame the middle-east, let them kill each other—excellent!! Actions every week show that as part of the plan, even now. Hang Saddam, raid Iranian border and capture their diplomats and piss off the Kurds. Back Shia, enemies of Saudi Arabia our “ally”, friends if Iran, yet threaten Iran with talk of air strikes, Israel going nuclear, etc. There is no strategy here that is positive in any normal sense that most expect; hence the label of stupid, obstinate, etc. Well, label Bush that at your own peril!

If you evaluate it from a point of view of power and control of the worlds most critical resource, Oil, by the very few, then it makes perfect sense. Sign those coerced fraudulent 30 year leases–just an excuse to build the bases, lock down the oil pipelines and a new justification for military presence. Let the Mideast burn. The United Chritianistas of Dubfuckistan will whoop with joy. Let Israel go nuclear–get rid of more brown-skins!!

In the end, you secure the oil for yourselves, you inflame the world, you install real fear in the sheeple and you destroy a few more western cities in the process. Of course, get the sheeple to go along by promises of preserving their already tenuous lifestyle; based on so much pillaging of the rest of the world. It’s all good. The uber-wealthy who control this; who push this agenda, have no allegiance to any one nation or people and certainly not to “democracy or other quaint notions of egalitarianism! The real bottleneck that could stop them an America reawakened to its core principles–liberty and justice for all, and all men are created equal. An America that, for all its flaws and past mistakes, could lead the world against their feudal agenda!

So, how to get the juicy plum of America, with its vast resources and military? Infect the Air Force with your duh-American Chritianistas. I’m sure the Navy is right up there too. Fuck the army, who needs them when you got nukes and the means to deliver them in an increasingly Hobbesean world with stark choices? You can always get more cannon fodder from the ranks of the rapidly growing poor and destitute anyway or privatize it even more and keep on draining the treasury!! Destroy the middle class and pollute it with faux-values and empty promises of easy money with stock market, etc.; can’t have commoners with enough income, time or intelligence to ask “What the fuck…?”! Those few sheep who do make a bit more have their greed to feed so they are lost! Destroy America’s positive influence; dumb down and impoverish its people and hobble it with debt! If its people even tried to regain control, what could they do except be the new Argentina?

This is what many do not understand, if you want more democracy, more participation, more equal distribution of wealth then that will spell the end of these self-styled owners of this country, this world. There is only a finite amount of wealth, and wealth generating capacity in the world and way too many people. They know this very well, and I see all of this, the last 40 years, culminating in stolen elections, a sociopath as president and a totally corrupted party and damaged opposition party as part of an elaborate plan to destroy what this country could be. The goal, for them, is to hoard more of a pie they will never, ever need, nor rightfully earned in the first place.

Sure many of us understand Bush is “bad” etc., but what are the alternatives in the longer run? We cannot go back to business as usual of the last 50 years; resources are running out; ecosystems are dying; climates are changing; many will die; perhaps 80% of the world. What do you want to arise from this probability? I say “probability” because I still believe in human spirit and ingenuity to save most of the world and lead it to a better future (e.g. Star Trek vs. 1984 or Blade Runner). Alas, that will not happen with this crew, and not with our current economics or general philosophies based of selfishness, faux-morals, corrupted ethics, deficient education and, well, the mantra of “greed is good”; it’s not! Libertarianism is a poison, not a solution for society!

We have to start asking the real basic questions of our core assumptions. We have to be prepared to radically change our systems with an understanding of where we want to go. Half hearted measures and vain attempts to preserve the status quo will just keep on going further down the rabbit hole. That’s just conservatism–a philosophy of preserving the status quo of the haves at the expense and exploitation of the have nots.

Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Marx, the Scandinavian socialist model, European socialism—all these people and systems that conservatives and many “liberals” rail against are starting to look more and more prescient and brilliant, and the hope for a real future, if you measure against the benefits of a society and its people as a whole. The alternative we are heading toward is a 13th century medieval world enforced with 21st century technology and sociopathic knights called corporations. These self-styled “owners” of us all are quite brilliant and they have the resources to do all this. Sure a few nobles may be lost, but that’s to be expected! They are fighting for their very way of life that was crushed in the USSR, almost lost after FDR, and shaken further by the 1960’s revolts!!

That’s the real key in all this is who are you and what do you want (in that order)? What are your goals, ideas and dreams for the world? This determines whom and what you serve and allows you to judge what is “good” or “bad”. Not understanding yourself or what you think leads to very shaky principles informed by a nebulous understanding of the world and the alternatives available. You may judge good or bad, but you are hoodwinked in the process and change the players, but not the causes.

In the meantime, getting back to some equilibrium and framing Bush in simple terms is not a bad thing!

/rant

jayackroyd says:

January 11th, 2007 at 10:25 am *

EvilDrPuma–

This is a very good moment for constiuents of red state senators to make a call and send some email. Here’s the list of the republican class of 08.

Why are so many of them listed twice? Thought there were like 49 Republiscam Senators. Could some be missing?

Because I idiotically hit the paste button twice. I’ve since fixed it.

Fern,

USAToday had a graphic up on Iraq troop levels with this news story today:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/w…..htm?csp=24

Thanks – exactly what I was looking for. By the way, what does “Iraq region” mean in that graphic?

soldiers are not allowed to show a negative reaction to the commander in chief- that’s why Clusterfuck loves ta speak to em.

Apparently he’s got his whistle stop tour thingee goin again- three or four speeches a week..It never works- that’s why he keeps doin it.

Nice to know that his entire job consists of cheerleading a failed strategy in the hopes of raising positives from 28 to 32%