Werthless wrote:According to the latest Rasmussen Report telephone survey, Americans now trust Republicans more on economic issues, for the first time in 2 years. Voters not R or D favor Republicans by a 2-1 margin on economic issues.

Republicans are more trusted on:
Economy
Government ethics and corruption
National security
Iraq
Immigration
Taxes

Democrats are more trusted on:
Health care
Social security
Education

The two parties are tied on abortion (41% each).

For all her faults, it's unlikely that Sonia Sotomayor will be a pushover for any wartime president. Constitutionalists and civil libertarians should take comfort in the fact that it could have been worse.

"We are becoming a weak nation," said Voight, calling Obama a "false prophet." Republicans need to find their way back to power to free the nation from "this Obama oppression," he said.

TenuredVulture wrote:I wonder why Spitzer didn't try to ride out the storm.

Here is just one: The bill would give the federal government power over local building codes. It requires that by 2012 codes must require that new buildings be 30 percent more efficient than they would have been under current regulations. By 2016, that figure rises to 50 percent, with increases scheduled for years after that. With those targets in mind, the bill expects organizations that develop model codes for states and localities to fill in the details, creating a national code. If they don't, the bill commands the Energy Department to draft a national code itself.


States, meanwhile, would have to adopt the national code or one that achieves the same efficiency targets. Those that refuse will see their codes overwritten automatically, and they will be docked federal funds and carbon "allowances" -- valuable securities created elsewhere in the bill that give the holder the right to pollute and can be sold.The Energy Department also could enforce its code itself. Among other things, the policy would demonstrate the new leverage of allocation of allowances as a sort of carbon currency -- leverage this bill would be giving to Congress to direct state behavior.

....

Is the best way to achieve that, though, to federalize what has long been a matter of local concern? And if the point of cap-and-trade is to change market incentives, why does Congress, and not the market, need to dictate these changes? Those are a few questions that emerge when you begin to read through the 900 pages.

Werthless wrote:Here's a good articleon the rising debt load, and a fair look at the reasonableness of various short-term projections and solutions. Basically, we're $#@!, and we're going to get $#@! in the ass with a 10-15% value added tax because politicians will be too big of pussies to pass more transparent taxes.

On a related tax issue, revenues from gasoline taxes have been falling as people drive more fuel efficient cars. As a result, state governments (Oregon) are considering passing a road mileage tax. You get taxed on your miles driven. And this will be tracked by GPS, so the government can track everywhere you've been. Awesome. So I guess it's obvious that gas taxes have less to do with dependence on foreign oil or saving the environment, and more to do with a money-grab. Otherwise, these politicians would simply raise the gas-tax.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) was interviewed last night by Sean Hannity on Fox News:

Palin: We are the only state with a negative tax rate where we don't have any income, sales or property tax statewide, and yes we have a share of our oil resource revenue that goes back to the people that own the resources. Imagine that.

Hannity: And it went up higher since you've been the governor and you negotiated with the oil companies. That all went up so people get a bigger check.

Palin: There was a corrupt tax system up there and we had a couple of lawmakers end up in jail because of the tax system that was adopted so we cleaned it up and said we wanted a fair and equitable share of the resources that we own, and the people will share in those resource revenues that are derived.

(A few minutes later...)

Palin: If Americans aren't paying attention, unfortunately our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize. Certainly that is so far from what the founders of our country had in mind for us.

Hannity: Socialism?

Palin: Well... that is where we are headed.