The Short Report 9/1/07

Hello and welcome to the first ever Short Report.



Larry Craig resigns, but will hang out and piss off Republicans for another month before he leaves, on September 30th. Remember, though, he is not gay. What a douche. At least Vitter admitted what he did and apoligized for it. Yes, Larry uttered I am sorry, but what he meant was more like "I am sorry that other people blame me for this." He still comes as close as possible to denying the charges by saying, "I can't control what other people think." Thank you Mr. Craig, you have made our job in 2008 so much easier.

Now is when I infringe on someone else's idea, no not infringe outright steal.
I take the worst person in the world nominees of the past week on Countdown and give you...

The Worst person of the Week:

The Bronze goes to the part of the military that has decided to prevent soldiers in Iraq from being able to access websites with political views against the war. Being a Veteran of the War on Terror, I understand first hand that this happens a lot. People think that soldiers are so fragile that they cannot handle criticism that isn't even directed at them, but at their bosses. They believe just hearing these things demoralizes the troops. You want to know the biggest factor in demoralizing the troops is? Treating them like they are 5 years old, instead of like adults.

The Silver goes to Tom Delay for his association of the Save Darfur Coalition and Amercan Medical Association with the "Culture of Death" right-wingers like to talk about so much. One wants to stop genocide and the other is an organization that has had a huge impact on modern medicine, thus saving lives. Yeah, great logic, pal.

And our winner is...

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. For its decision that the families of the trapped mine workers cannot use the United Mine Workers Union as their representatives in the investigation of the collapsed mine, unless, of course they can get the trapped miners to sign the paperwork themselves. Once again, Bush's tactic of putting industries in charge of agencies that are supposed to be in charge of oversight of said industries works its magic. Good job, Bushies.

Apparently someone has found the remains (roadkill) of what seems to be the mythical creature, Chupacabra. She saved the head (What do you think she did with the rest?) for DNA testing. Apparently, she has found recently several chicken corpses drained of blood. Pretty big coincidence there. Scientists believe it may be a mutation of wild dog that prefers to let an animal bleed out and lick up the blood. Yummy.

I want to finish this each week where I state my position against each Republican Candidate. This week I am going after YouTube Sacred Chao Ron Paul. First of all, let me say that if Ron Paul somehow became President, I wouldn't be mad. It wouldn't be another '04 or anything. He seems to be a decent candidate, though, being a liberal, my ideas clash with his. Because I don't want to go over 10 minutes I am going to concentrate on the big Ron Paul issue. He says he would abolish the IRS.

Let's think back to 88. When George H.W. Bush said he wouldn't raise taxes on the campaign trail. Many people have said this, but we all remember Bush saying it. Why? Because, at the time, there was no reason to doubt that this was his actual intention. He was Vice President of Ronald Reagan and consistantly supported lower taxes. The right wing bought it. Yet, when he was elected, he raised taxes. Was he an outright liar?

I certainly don't think so. He has shown who, while not perfect, does have some integrity and genuinely believed in Reaganomics, including lower taxes. What happened then?

Simple, HE didn't raise taxes, CONGRESS did. It is part of their responsibility to control the federal budget under the Constitution, not the President's. You might say that he had a hand in it by signing it into law, or even by proposing it, but what was he supposed to do? The man came to the realization that not raising taxes was never going to work. The federal government has too many resposibilities to the people, which the people will not give up, as well as too much debt, to continue with low taxes.

If a small government President had to come to the realization the simply not raising taxes was not feasible, what will happen to the notion that we can go without any income taxes at all?

Some will reply that the federal programs will be passed down to the states. Sure that could happen, but who here lives in a State that has too much money? No One? Really go look at your State budget. See a surplus? While you got that out notice that there is a big chunk(s) of money in the credits that come from the Federal government. What do you think would happen to that chunk of money if there was no Federal Income tax? So obviously the states now have to raise more money. They would use taxes to do this, not just taxing income, but by raising sales tax, taxes on cigarettes, fatty foods, and so on. See these other taxes are flat taxes which shifts a larger tax burden on the poor. And all this is assuming that they are even able to pass the new taxes, if they don't the programs simply won't be supported. So by this plan states that have more gross production will be able to provide for their citizens better. More people will leave the states that can't for the states that can. This will create "poverty states" and since the state is worse off now it will be able to provide even LESS, and so the cycle continues.