Careful With Those Headlines

Remember last week's show when we commented on the #obamabusname hash tag on Twitter?  Well, I saw this headline on Fox News when I opened up my browser this morning:

Obama Embarks on Job Saving Tour
 
The cynic in me says, ”Putz! How’s a bus tour supposed to save jobs?”  It reminded me of Hard Rock Café’s motto “Save the Planet.”  How?   By standing in long lines to buy overpriced hamburgers?  Then I thought, "Wait a minute. What’s the president calling it?  Maybe Fox News is using a misleading headline. Gee, that’s never happened before."  Whitehouse.gov has the headline:

President Obama Kicks Off the Economic Bus Tour in Cannon Falls, Minnesota

OK, so maybe it is some lame claim to a job saving tour.  Then I realized, it was HIS job the president was trying to save!  And then I realized,  that was what Fox News was trying to get me to conclude all along.   They just wanted me to think I was oh so clever for figuring it out "all by myself."

Take Home Lesson: Be very careful with headlines on stories. They are used to manipulate opinion. Especially if you just read the headline, and not the story!!

And yeah, I know.  Serves me right for having Fox News for a home page!

David Brooks Says Compromise. I Say Bollocks!! Alternate Title: In Praise of North Korea.

I like David Brooks.  He's gone a little squishy in the past few years, but I still like him.  He's an honest and principled debater.  He argues based on the facts as he sees them.  He eschews hyperbole, straw men, and insult.  But in this, his latest article, he's just wrong.  Too much time rubbing elbows with colleagues at the NYT,  perhaps.  The gist of this article is that the Republicans should compromise with the Democrats on the current budget/debt ceiling crisis while the D's are willing.  Brooks believes they should take what he thinks is a good deal.  It sounds like David has been drawn over to the dark side.   He's outed himself, though, with the inadvertent use of the phrase "eliminate tax expenditures", which is liberal code for raising taxes by eliminating loopholes.  Make no mistake, I support eliminating loopholes, but I think it merits its own debate so that it is comprehensive, thereby simplifying the tax code in the process.  I also feel it needs to be accompanied by lower rates to keep it revenue neutral.  As far as compromise is concerned, I wrote a blog in Oct 2009 explaining how I feel about that.  It features a recipe for a certain ice cream treat using dog s**t as one of the ingredients.  Please read it if you have the time.  

I see the R's current strategy as similar to North Korea's negotiating strategy.  Take no prisoners.  It's brutal.  It is unyielding.  It assumes they have all the advantage even when they don't.  It is willing to ignore threats of great pain if it fails.  But North Korea never fails.  They win.  Say what you like about North Korea.  They know how to negotiate.

Republicans:  I don't know how the more traditional elements of the GOP will react if you cave on this budget/debt ceiling opportunity, but the Tea Party wing of your party and those of us in the liberty movement aren't interested in compromise.  You need to man up, grow a pair, and get in touch with your inner Kim Jong Il.  This is your last chance.  We mean it this time.

Police Use of Deadly Force Called into Question

The following are some partial links to information, articles, and videos pertaining to police actions where people or pets were killed, and the legitimacy of the police actions have been called into question.

Excessive Use of Lethal Force

Derek Hale,  Wilmington, DE  Nov, 2006
Jason Kemp,  Grand Junction CO  July 2010
Jose Guerena,  Tucson, AZ  5 May, 2011

SWAT Style Assault and Shooting of Dogs

Mayor Cheye Calvo,   Berwyn Heights, MD   August 2008

Jonathan E. Whitworth,  Columbia, MO  Feb 2010     video


Will and I spoke about this on this evening's radio show.




Jess

Delaware 146th General Assembly Links

Some links to Delaware 146th General Assembly Bills we are watching:

Bill to Amend Fines for Violations of Clear Zones in Rights of Way HB 96

Bill to Terminate Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative HB 86

Protection from Wrongful Termination  HB 89

Fusion Bill HB11

Drug Penalty Revisions HB19

National Popular Vote Bill HB55

Delaware Politics View on Bill HB55

Medicinal Marijuana SB17

Civil Unions Bill SB30

Motorcycle Helmets HB95 

E-Verify SB 15

Links regarding DelDot Basketball Pole Confiscation Incident


AP Story on March Sadness

YouTube Video

Chris Slaven's Take

Will's F/B Note on March Sadness

Delaware Code Title 17, Chapter 5:
Scroll Down to Section 525

Blue Hen Conservative on Incident

Tax Season or No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I did my taxes early this year.  No procrastination.  Got a decent sized refund too 'cause I discovered that the IRA conversion that I did last year came with the option of deferring the taxes from this year to the next two years.  Sweet.  But then last month I got another tax document in the mail.  A Schedule K-1 from US Oil.  That's a limited partnership that you invest in like a stock, except the partnership pays no tax.  The tax liabilities pass through to the limited partners.  That is to say to me.  That's OK.  I got no problem with that.  The problem is, they don't have to send out the paperwork until sometime in March.  No 31 January deadline like for all the other tax related crap.  So here I am, thinking I've done the right thing by filing early, and the arcane tax code comes along and slips it to me big time for being too conscientious. 

No big deal, right?  I did my taxes with Turbo Tax.  I'll just plug the extra numbers into TT and file an amended return.  How hard can that be?  Fuck me!!!  That's how hard it can be.  Spent the better part of yesterday afternoon preparing the amended return.  Turns out I owe $2.00.  Not $2000.00.  Not $200.00.  $2.00.  As in Two dollars and no/100 cents.  My first thought was, "The hell with it.  They won't care if I just pretend I never got the added paperwork.  It's too much hassle for me, and I know it has to be too much hassle for the IRS just to collect a measly $2.00."  Then I thought about it for a minute.  If this was my doctor or my dry cleaner that I owed an incidental $2.00 to, yeah they'd say forget it, or pay it the next time your in.  Hell, I might even just drop off a dozen donuts the next time I'm driving by as a thank you for the courtesy and we'd all call it even.  But this is the IRS we're talking about.  You know, the "guilty until proven innocent" IRS.  I could be lookin' at hard time with a room mate named Bubba if I get this wrong.  So, I sucked it up, printed out the amended tax form, reprinted all the previous tax forms, and got the package ready to put in the mail.  Did I mention that you can't e-file an amended return?  Yeah, well you can't e-file an amended return.  What I was able to e-file the first time with a few mouse clicks had to be printed, collated, and sent via snail mail.  We're talkin' about fifteen sheets of paper, and that was only because I opted to pick and choose which forms to send and I printed front and back when I could.  Turbo Tax and the printer are apparently involved in some kind of conspiracy to prevent me from doing this easily.  I had to manually print and flip pages in a noble, but ultimately futile attempt to save paper.  Between Turbo Taxe's propensity to never do duplex printing and their weird obsession with printing out two pages of worksheet for every page of tax form, Turbo Tax wanted to print thirty two pages for a freakin' tax filing. 

But at least it is now all done.  The final accounting looks like this.  In order to dot all my I's, cross all my T's,  stay out of jail, and make the IRS happy by sending them their f'ing two dollars in blood money, I had to spend most of a Saturday wrestling with my printer and some headstrong tax software.  I had to stop by Walmart today to spend $2.84 to pick up some 10x13 envelopes to mail this mound of paperwork to Kansas City, and tomorrow, I'll get to stop by the post office (yet another "we're from the government and we're here to help you" government agency) and spend another buck or so for postage to send this tidy little package on it's way.  God only knows how many of my tax dollars will be wasted on the other end for some data entry clerk and an endless string of IRS bureaucrats to sort through the whole mess when it finally gets there.  And all this for two dollars.  Does anybody out there really think I had any other choice?  As Yakov Smirnoff used to say, "what a country."