So it has begun, stories are coming out how Republicans in important swing states like Ohio and Michigan and elsewhere have been devising ways to dis-enfranchise voters. One of the techniques is to target people whose homes have been foreclosed. They send mail to an address, when it comes back as unable to forward, they list those people preparing to challenge them. Intestingly, these people are often and generally Democrat and African American. We already know about the things where the force long lines that no one can endure due to lack of facilities, in largely African American communities. Don't really hear about this stuff in staunchly white evangelical communities?



"...The Democratic National Committee and the Obama campaign have filed a federal lawsuit to block a controversial voter suppression tactic in Michigan. The Michigan Messenger reported this week that the chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of a Republican effort to challenge some voters on Election Day. ..."


"...Our reporter, Eartha Melzer, has been looking into all issues around, you know, what’s going to happen on Election Day. And given the history of what happened in Ohio in 2004, we were especially interested in deliberate efforts to confuse voters, to disqualify people on technicalities, and we started calling around to the Republican Party and asking them about their so-called Voter Integrity program.


"...We didn’t get a lot of response from the Republican leadership on that, so we started calling—Eartha started calling state and local officials, and in the course of making these calls, she spoke with Mr. Carabelli. I know that the party has, you know, denied that this happened, but Eartha is an award-winning journalist. We have her time-stamped notes. We stand by the story 100 percent. He said that that was their plan. ..."


"...McCain’s landlord in Michigan is a law firm called Trott & Trott. They are the biggest law firm in the state handling foreclosures. David Trott, the head of the firm, is a major bundler for the McCain campaign. So, it made sense to me. It made sense to me that they would be using foreclosure lists. This is sort of built into the infrastructure of the McCain campaign in Michigan. ..."


full interview

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Werthless wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:

pacino wrote:My elementary school was an 'open classroom' style building. It was alright.


Anyway, sales tax is regressive because there ARE items which are now considered standard which get taxed and the ability to pay is much lower for those with less dollars. The push over the past 4 years in PA to expand it to include everything is amazingly regressive, a rep named Sam Rohrer has had a hard-on about it for some time now.

Also, income tax in PA is currently flat and, as the constitution is currently written, a progressive income tax is illegal.

In Arkansas, clothing and lots of other stuff is taxed at the full rate, and food is taxed. Local jurisdictions also use the sales tax.

On property tax, again, the progressiveness or regressiveness of it depends on the details. Often times, well heeled interest groups can exempt certain kinds of property (heh heh, golf courses are agricultural land!) from it for their own benefit.

Or, my Barry Goldwater loving small Jersey (where property taxes are sky high) town mayor told me it is common for low income long time residents of communities to be forced from their homes in the face of rapidly rising assessments. I don't know if that's progressive or regressive, but I think it's a bad thing.

Pacino, yes, without exemptions on food and other essentials, it would be a flat tax on consumption. And assuming that the poor spend a higher percent of their income (ie. the wealthy have a higher savings rate), then the outcome could be regressive. Or, you could just call it a tax structure that incentivizes savings, which doesn't sound like a bad idea.

TenuredVulture, I don't like property taxes as a form of taxation, since it's a wealth tax that tends to be applied haphazardly. You need to create exemptions left and right to try and get to a point of fairness: it's not fair to elderly on fixed income, it is a disincentive to home ownership, some regions of the country exempt existing homeowners from increases creating a massively unfair 2 tiered system, the revenue largely goes toward schooling (disproportionately penalizing people who choose not to have children).

Increases in property tax assessments do not hurt those in small houses more than those in large houses; they hurt those who stretched their income to purchase, and/or are on a fixed income. I don't like the reality that someone who wants live on land which they own needs to pay for the right to do it. Not only that, they have to pay more for the right to live on their land if they add a house to the land. And they have to pay even more if they add a bedroom. And they have to pay more for the right to live on their land if they landscape the yard, helping it go up in value.

Eh, enough ranting. It just seems like a corrupt form of democracy, with all the carveouts. Also, golf courses are generally businesses, and if a government wants to offer business incentives, you can't really calssify it as a regressive tax issue simply because wealthier people tend to use the business. It likely makes the entire town/country more prosperous to have a variety of businesses and services available. It's not regressive when gold courses get exemptions any more than it is when large farms, churches, or a green factory gets theirs.

The point is, calculating the tax burden by looking only at the federal income tax is misleading. There are lots of other taxes people pay.

OBAMA TO BE REMOVED FROM BALLOT ?!??!?!


{Phil told me the other night, during the Phillies' comeback in ATL incidentally, that if Obama doesn't respond by next week, he will 'take the default' and Obama will be removed from the ballot. Seriously}.

Bucky wrote:OBAMA TO BE REMOVED FROM BALLOT ?!??!?!


{Phil told me the other night, during the Phillies' comeback in ATL incidentally, that if Obama doesn't respond by next week, he will 'take the default' and Obama will be removed from the ballot. Seriously}.

Gotta love the use of Wikipedia as a cited authority...

Can someone summarize what all that noize is about?

Woody wrote:Can someone summarize what all that noize is about?

It seems that he's a deranged PUMA/level-headed Freeper filing a frivolous and meritless action containing lots of fever-swamp "HillaryIs44"-type groundless speculation about Obama's SECRET MUZLIMness, assertions against all common sense that Obama was born in Kenya, was adopted by his stepfather thus forfeiting his U.S. citizenship (R U SERIOUS?!), etc. etc. etc.

Oh, and he wants Obama and Howard Dean to sit for depositions on or before September 31, 2008. LULZ.

ADDING, if I'm Dean and Obama, I agree to be deposed on September 31, 2008.

And bucky hangs out with this guy?

His fridge is well stocked with Mikes. Bucky overlooks the nuttiness.

jerseyhoya wrote:His fridge is well stocked with Mikes. Bucky overlooks the nuttiness.

Honestly, so long as Bucky puts up the Red Letters, anything he does is aces with me.

Seriously, at the end of the white-knuckle game Tuesday night, I kept scanning who was online and thinking "Where's Bucky? WHERE'S BUCKY?!?!!" On some level I think I believed they couldn't win unless he was there to notarize it.

Behold the power!!!!


You know what they say- you can pick your friends. And you can pick your nose. But you can't pick your volunteer Fire Police dudes.

AWESOME, I thought you were just crackin' about being his friend. This guy must rule to hang out with. Does he strip search you before you get in his car?

And did he ask to see your birth certificate after strip searching you?

"Something isn't right here, the evidence CLEARLY indicates you are of African descent!"

dajafi wrote:Maybe the saddest thing I've seen about the Darth Vaderization of McCain:

Town hall was screened

Granted, there was an understandable reason for it:

Sen. John McCain's town hall style meetings "are generally open to the public where anyone may wait in line on the day of the event and come in without an advanced invitation," according to Fox News.

However, at last night's 3,500 person townhall in Michigan -- "the first time Palin is taking questions from the public -- only ticketholders are allowed in. People had to pick up their tickets at local GOP offices after RSVPing for the event."

While openness to the public and a willingness to answer all questioners is important and admirable, it pales in significance compared to the imperative of protecting the delicate flower of Alaskan womanhood...

Seriously, why are these guys so terrified of Palin having to face questions from journalists or voters?

The campaign views Palin not as someone running for something, but as someone who can help McCain get elected. So they are rolling her out slowly. In all fairness, how long was Obama on the campaign trail before he even did a town hall? Do you really expect them to throw her to the wolves in her first town hall? And really, who cares if they do or don't? It's John McCain the Dems are focused on.

I recognize ptk gets all of his hard news from the DNC, but I fail to see why people who've had their homes foreclosed and the mail doesn't forward shouldn't be stricken from the roles. You must vote in the precinct where you live. If you no longer live in a home you can't vote in that precinct. I'm pretty sure that applies to Republicans too. Perhaps get both sides of the story and then make up your mind.

Laexile wrote:
I recognize ptk gets all of his hard news from the DNC, but I fail to see why people who've had their homes foreclosed and the mail doesn't forward shouldn't be stricken from the roles. You must vote in the precinct where you live. If you no longer live in a home you can't vote in that precinct. I'm pretty sure that applies to Republicans too. Perhaps get both sides of the story and then make up your mind.

Do you have an elephant tattoo on your ass

Laexile wrote:The campaign views Palin not as someone running for something, but as someone who can help McCain get elected. So they are rolling her out slowly. In all fairness, how long was Obama on the campaign trail before he even did a town hall? Do you really expect them to throw her to the wolves in her first town hall? And really, who cares if they do or don't? It's John McCain the Dems are focused on.
.

Throw her to the wolves? Really? Since when is a townhall throwing someone to the wolves? What's the matter, are you afraid she can't handle it? You want her to be VP, but she can't handle a few unrehearsed question and answers? If you have such doubts, and you're a McCain supporter, imagine how the average American must feel.

Oh, and I care. And I'm sure many many others care. If this woman wants to be a heartbeat away from the most powerful job on the planet and she can't handle some questions, then I care about that. It's made especially important since McCain is looking pretty feeble, IMO, and refuses to release portions of his medical records. Even a member of his own campaign staff said that "Most doctors" believe McCain will be alive at the end of his 1st term. Most doctors?!?! MOST?!?! 1st term!?!? I can only fill in the logical conclusion that some doctors don't think he'll make it. And the 2nd term is, I guess, completely up in the air.

So her ability to handle a few questions without spending weeks preparing for them is kinda important, you know. How can a serious candidate for any public office behave this way and expect us to take him/her seriously?



Edit: Oh, and it's the Reps who have put her front and center. If you want her front and center, following McCain around and helping him get people to his rallies, then she has to be fair game. You can't have it both ways.

Monkeyboy, your lack of deference reveals you as a hopeless sexist.

dajafi wrote:Monkeyboy, your lack of deference reveals you as a hopeless sexist.

I know, how dare I. The most annoying thing is that there are plenty of very qualifie women who would have been excellent choices, and they went and picked this clown.

Laexile wrote:

dajafi wrote:Seriously, why are these guys so terrified of Palin having to face questions from journalists or voters?

The campaign views Palin not as someone running for something, but as someone who can help McCain get elected. So they are rolling her out slowly. In all fairness, how long was Obama on the campaign trail before he even did a town hall? Do you really expect them to throw her to the wolves in her first town hall? And really, who cares if they do or don't? It's John McCain the Dems are focused on.

The voters view Palin as someone that might be next in line to be president after a 72+ year old man with a history of cancer not to mention a litany of chronic ailments resulting from 5 years worth of experiencing more stress than most people can imagine. We'll have a little more than 2 months total to decide if that is a good idea or not. The next president(s) will have to deal with major international and domestic problems immediately. Unfortunatly, they will not be rolled out slowly for president Palin.

What is harder? A town hall, or being president? If she can't handle a town hall, that is a problem and a pretty good reason to question her capability of becoming president. The McCain campaign seems to think that the more information voters have about her, the less likely they will want to vote for McCain. If they really feel that way about her, then I don't question their strategy for not making her do real interviews, press conferences or town halls. It looks like her first interview might have been a disaster because her favorability ratings took a sharp nose dive.

IF TOWN HALLS ARE SO EASY WHY DOESN'T OBAMA WANT TO DO THEM HE SAID HE WOULD AND THEN FLIP FLOPPED LIKE HE DID ON EVERYTHING ELSE, LOOK IN THE MIRROR, DONKEYS

/LAexile