Beauty rest

If you've read much of this blog at all, you have probably realized I have a beef with Larry 'Superiority comes with the penis' Summers. Not only did he encourage the economic failures of our time but he was then awarded with a position that put him in charge of the economy in the White House. Which is good, the poor downtrodden banks really need a representative at the highest levels of government to be sure their voices are heard.

I don't know if you've heard, but there is a bit of an economic situation going on out there. Something about catastrophe, meltdown, chaos... Someone should wake up Larry and see what he thinks...In case you think maybe the camera caught him in a long slumped over blink, here's another shot. A little closer up.
I don't know. Maybe he was blinking again.

I know one thing for sure, if I was in charge of the White House policy on the worlds largest economy, I think I could at least fucking stay awake at a damn press conference in front of the whole damn world!

*sigh* Larry, Larry, Larry...
When will you ever tire of displaying your ineptitude?

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Only rich special needs kids need special needs help (Bullshit Posturing Part 3)

Here's a bit about Mrs. Sarah 'I'm just like you because I keep having children until its statistically likely they will be born with severe defects' Palin. You remember her, the crazy lady that went on and on about how she would do everything in her power to put special needs kids high up on the administration's agenda because she understands what its like. She is just like you. *wink*

Unless, of course, she loses and a democrat offers the same thing without making a big fuss about it like she did. Part of the $787 BILLION ($98 BILLION) is intended for the Department of Education. Of that, they were to spend $12.9 BILLION at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Of that, they wanted to give $12.9 MILLION to the Anchorage School District in Alaska so they could train special-education teachers. 5/4/09 Newsweek

The Gorilla from Wasilla gave a resounding No Thanks. Had she been stealing it directly from the coffers herself, it'd be more than cool. But if that rich yuppy terrorist wants to help our children, she says No Thanks, I've got a nanny for that. If her wheels weren't greased in making it all happen, then let the kids suffer. She has a point to make here!

Hypocrisy.

THIS is whyalaskanspaytaxes.

Waste to be proud of

I have to admit, any government body sitting around drawing up papers, having debates, listening to speeches, and voting for the official state rock song is pretty high up there on the why in the hell do I pay taxes for this scale.

But today, I commend the Oklahoma state government and Governor Brad 'Lip's Fan' Henry for their wise decision and and an eloquent speech about the greatest band of all time: The Flaming Lips. Do You Realize?? is now the official state rock song of Oklahoma.

I can't explain, nor do I have to.

THIS is whyoklahomanspaytaxes.

Save us from Bono

The FCC, The Supreme Court, and a few Inferior Courts have all banded together to save us from the evil which goes by the name of Bono. Thank heavens!

Yes, back in 2003, Bono had the audacity to be really fucking excited to receive a Golden Globe award and he let the world know about it when he got on stage. Immediately, a variety of conservative value people decided that since they were unable to not watch the GG awards show, the network airing the show should be penalized. So they started writing letters to anyone who might read them. The FCC took the time to read these letters and decided to write up a brand spanking new rule about 'fleeting expletives'. They were sure to keep it vague and unwieldy in order to be able to apply it to any situation, such as the FCC falling behind on its mortgage and needing a little extra nut this month.
Fox wondered, via the court system, whether or not their freedom of speech really existed. The court decided that it wondered the same thing. Eventually, it got to the Supreme Court, who today decided that yes, indeed there is no freedom of speech when said speech begins with an f and ends in a k. (Is ANYone surprised that Scalia spoke on behalf of the majority opinion? The same judge who, while on the bench, said that dirty jokes are cool as long as they are really good.)

Luckily for Sony, no one fined the television manufacturers for having the cojones to allow such dirty words spoken via their technology.

Now, I'll agree that the world should probably be protected from Bono... But I certainly don't think this was what I had in mind.

Using the Supreme Court to protect my virgin ears...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: US TV swearing policy 'correct'(bbc)

Who Knew? (Part 3)

Elizabeth Warren, thats who. (tbm)
I am half-assedly posting about articles I've seen that point out those annointed few who not only saw, to some extent, financial collapse coming, but had the balls to try and fight it publicly, up front. See also, part 1 (Iris Mack), part 2 (Byron Dorgan))Please comment to this or any Who Knew? post when you see one of our 'Almost Heroes, if the system wasn't built to keep those in charge, in charge.

Starting in 2003, Elizabeth 'Save the banks heck, Save the people!' Warren was tasked with figuring out why the bankruptcy rates were higher in these 'prosperous' times than they were during the Great Depression. Of course, the banks stonewalled her efforts, so she turned to federal household surveys and determined that in order to be 'successful' the average American family is forced to borrow from the banks. Raising children, taking care of your health, and putting a roof over the heads of your family have become impossible without delving into the unregulated and generally unfriendly whims of the banks.

In 2005, when our government decided that they would rather bail out banks than the citizens, she fought the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. James Sensenbrenner and a host of other congressmen, whose mission it is to 'represent' the people, decided and announced that the people they 'represent' were gaming the system. Due to our moral flaws, we went out of our ways to run up mountains of debt with the sly plan to file for bankruptcy to avoid paying off their debts.
A year after she was laughed out of the congressional hearings on bankruptcy, she introduced the idea of a 'run on the consumer'. This beautiful phrase describes how one late payment can send any one of us on a downward spiral which destroys our fragile financial eco-system. Miss a payment, your interest rates get hiked. Your credit score drops. Credit becomes more expensive. Banks on a whim can increase your rates further, cut your credit, etc. etc.
(Summary: Yes, bankruptcies have skyrocketed, though not because Americans lack the moral fiber to pay off their debts. Its because we have become so dependent on the banks that when one loses a job that one now goes into default on a home, a car, and all of the other things they needed to take loans out for to enjoy their standard of living. Lose your job in the 1930's you have to sell your car. Lose your job in the 90's and you can't afford to keep paying on your car. With this in mind, our government chose to fix the scenario for the banks while turning their backs on the people. It was easier than reforming a system running out of control...)
(read this wonderful report written in part by Elizabeth Warren, its worth your time to read such gems:
Subprime lenders have learned that when inflation is low, lending out at 18%, 22%, or 34% can be extraordinarily profitable even if a substantial portion of borrowers ultimately default on their loans. The math is nothing short of stunning. At a time when the wholesale cost of money is 4%, for example, a subprime lender who places a $10,000 loan at 26% has by year four earned back everything the debtor borrowed plus more than $7000 in profit, and the borrower still owes more than half of the loan)

Then in 2008, instead of those gaming the bankruptcy system, now its us 'whiners' who have been gaming the sub prime system. So, once again, we turn to the bankers in charge to fix things by giving billions upon billions upon billions of dollars to the banks to help save them from us evil doers. With former bank heads and employees like Hank Paulson, Timmy Geithner, Larry Summers, etc. etc. in charge, they used vauge threats of worldwide economic collapse to ensure they and their buddies were safe. Much like the christians use hell to make sure there is a steady stream of income from their fearful worshippers. As we all can tell and be thankful for, the economic collapse they warned us of has been averted and everything is smooth sailing. Or was it their ridiculous TARP billions of taxpayer's dollars going straight into the richest of pockets that caused our collapse?

Thanks for seeing it coming and doing your best to keep them honest. Too bad Obama seeks to continue the obviously failed Bush policies of giving wall street whatever they want...
(She is in charge of the TARP now. But Timmy Geithner doesn't return her calls and she is generally ignored. Which is only right, after all, she seeks represent the people, not the banks.)

Bailing out the victims of my excess...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Schoolchildren (Bullshit Posturing Pt 2)

I don't like claiming allegiance to either of our 2 political parties in this country.

I love the idea of fiscal conservatism; I fear the Republicans insistence that there is no separation between [their] church and [our] state. (and the fact that they are anything but fiscally conservative of late)
I think having a solid dependable social structure that ensures everyone an equal chance is a good idea; I fear the Democrats taxing ways that gives the option of living off of the government as a way of life. (and their penchant for trial lawyers)
When forced to identify my party affiliation, I usually go with Libertarian: The small government alternative.

I love my country, but I've often debated finding a way out of this country. It doesn't represent me, it doesn't represent my beliefs, its kind of uncomfortable here. The freedoms we have seem a bit bogus from time to time, but we got it better than most.
However, at NO point in time, would I ever think its so bad that not only should I leave this country, but I should also bring those around me with...

We all know the spending that has taken place so far since q4 of 2008 is going to hurt us in the long run. Obama's continued generosity with the purse strings will hurt our country's bottom line for generations to come. We all also know that we're in a scary place built for us by W.

Seeing as both major political parties have their share of good policies and bad, you'd think they'd be a little more willing to work together, instead of wishing failure upon your opponents even at the cost of the country they all claim to love. Yes, it is scary right now and it pains me to watch Obama try to borrow our way out of a credit crisis. But it was DAMN scary to watch Bush make enemies out of the entire world while slaughtering people by the truckload with wars based on lies.

Even in the heat of the worst of times, when Iraq seemed unwinnable, when politicians told scientists what they could or could not study, when things were at their very worst, not one democratic governor made it publicly known that seceding from the nation was an optional scenario being considered.
Unfortunately, the current governor of Texas doesn't see it the same way. Apparently, not being a crony of those currently in charge of the fed is SUCH a disgrace, SUCH a hardship, that he publicly announced that seceding from the United States is an option on the table, one that is being discussed in his administration.
(It is of interest to note that by the Texas constitution, it still is its own country. It always has been, it always will be. They've just decided that the country of Texas will allow itself to be a part of the US until they decide differently...)

If you don't like it here, Rick Perry, leave. You don't have to bring your state with you.

THIS is whyTEXANSpaytaxes.

Mailer

I just got a mailer from AIG. Apparently, health coverage is even more affordable than I thought.

What they didn't realize: I had assumed I was already covered...

So thanks everyone. Thanks for paying your taxes to bail out this company so they could send me my mailer. It was enjoyable to read. I appreciate all your help.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

(Isn't it about time we all divvied up our tax dollars and bought the former AIG executive team a sweet vacation in the Bahamas? Did I say vacation? I meant meeting. (And I DO mean former AIG executive team. The thing that drives me the craziest is knowing that most of the fat cats that have brought our way of life to its knees have already gotten off scott-free with gross earnings intact.))

Dead men walking

Huh... So, apparently, it has become a thing to harvest the sperm out of the recently deceased men in your life(bbc). In order to fulfill the dead mans wishes, of course.
Lets not consider that when the men wished for children out loud they PROBABLY MEANT THEY WANTED TO BE THERE!!!

One guy made a plan for the future with his fiancee including getting a new apartment and having another child. The next day he drops from a heart attack. Without considering where the new apartment is coming from, this woman decides that his dying wish was to continue pro-creating after his death. (I wonder: If he had a craving for ice cream the night before, would she demand that his corpse be stuffed with Ben and Jerry's?)
The judgment passed to allow her to clean out her dead man's loins just 4 hours before the sperm would have spoiled. Luckily, she had a team of
"sperm bank employees [who] raced to a local medical centre, where the body of the dead mechanic, who died on Thursday, was stored."
Who can afford to have a team of nut scrapers at hand and ready to go? (Maybe she was the one that would be paying for the bigger apartment anyway?)

Another lady, in Texas, decided to harvest her son's sperm after he died in a bar fight. You know to fulfill her, *ahem* I mean HIS wishes to have grandchildren, *ahem* I mean children some day.
Imagine being the girl this creepy Texan courts for the position: Would you be willing to have my dead son's children for me? Though, I bet the woman who says yes will be fairly well-to-do for the rest of her life. (Until the creepy lady excommunicates her from the family altogether and tells her grandchildren about the horrible car accident in which their parents died...)

Cum bandits armed with lawyers clogging up the courts...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

My dogs are killing me...

A great example of a system that means well but fails us nonetheless.

Just outside of Rockford, Illinois, there was older fellow, Colin Slater who lived on a farm. Being an older fellow, the farm was not an active farm so much as a big ol' piece of land. At some point he started collecting stray dogs. He didn't feed 'em much, he didn't take very good care of them, but instead of dodging traffic they were in a place they chose to stay in. Along with the dogs was a donkey, some cats, etc.
County removes last few dogs from Capron farm(rrs)

Sounds just horrible! How dare he provide a place where stray dogs go to die? (Its not like he went around stealing pets out of yards and held them against their will)

So, lets have animal control go busting in and save these dogs! It'll be worth the taxpayer money involved in the investigation and prosecution of this dangerous 79 year old man! (He faces a year in jail)

After spending weeks searching the farm for all of the dogs (yes, the farm was big enough that it took weeks to find all of the animals) they took a total of 103 dogs off of his property.

They summarily killed 71 of them.

Let that sink in. ...
We spent a butt-tonne of money to 'save' these dogs, then we paid to kill 69% of them. It cost the humane society something like $10,000 just to slaughter them.

Death beats mange...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Joel Pett

But we're getting it back, right?

I audibly gasped when the gravity of the following passage slowly sunk in and I began to understand.
My summary first:
I thought: We put up $700 BILLION in TARP bailout funds to help prevent worldwide economic collapse. While I'd rather let it collapse and start anew, its not up to me.
What happened: We gave banks and insurance companies a $700 BILLION credit card with no expiration date on it. Yes, Wall Street can only borrow $700 BILLION at a time!
I thought: But that's ok. Hell, rumor has it these are technically wise investments and the taxpayers will earn a bunch of money to help offset the costs of borrowing from China to loan it out in the middle of an economic crisis.
What happened: The IRS takes the payments as though they are regular general funds.
Instead of taking the money that is given back by the banks and insurance companies and giving it back to the Chinese we borrowed it from, we're spending it as the bureaucracy sees fit, including more bailouts .

To quote Clusterstock as quoted by Marketplace:
You see, returned TARP funds become part of the general revenue of the federal government. The money is treated just like money paid by taxpayers. It simply becomes part of the income of the government that will be spent by politicians and bureaucrats. There’s no lockbox or segregated fund. It works just like Social Security taxes: the income just gets spent for whatever the government decides to spent money on.

Right now about $134.5 billion remains out of the original $700 billion. When Goldman repays the its $10 billion TARP funding, that amount will grow to $144.5 billion.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

The $124 BILLION (so far) that time forgot

So far this year, Treasury has been bought up enough toxic mortgages from itself (fanny and freddie) to fund the Iraq war for an entire year. Where is this money going???
Add the $124 BILLION to the money the Fed has spent on the same thing and we're already over $400 BILLION into propping up the mortgage market.

Good lord this crisis has been good for so many...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Thanks to ProPublica for discovering this otherwise unremarkable and generally unheard of line item on the Treasury's balance sheets.
Thanks to Marketplace.org for pointing out the discovery.
Another moment for ProPublica props: For some great data visualization showing you how your tax dollars are spent.

Your tax dollars at work

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Good riddance to the jaguar menace

I have a hard time putting a sarcastic spin on this one. I find it difficult to even try to be amusing. There is nothing amusing at the unspeakable incompetence that is this story reveals.

SF Gate (One of those online media outlets that will eventually replace newspapers because they hire actual journalists who go out and get stories (unlike us bloggers that read other people's stories and think we know something...)) has looked into the Arizona Department of Game & Fish moves to slaughter the last remaining Jaguar in Arizona.

Summary: (this will seem contrived, almost made up to make it sound worse than it is. However, these are the actions that were taken, and the explanations given by the DGF.)

1.) DGF 'unintentionally' live traps the Jaguar. By unintentionally, they mean that they baited the trap with the poop of a female zoo jaguar who was in heat. But, apparently they were hoping to catch a beaver or a bear, or ANYthing besides the jaguar. They were indeed quite surprised to find that a male stud of a jaguar was interested to find out where that scent of horny jaguar femme fatale was coming from. (This happens 15 days after receiving advice from wildlife veteranarians about how much sedatives it might take to immobilize a wild jaguar...)

2.) They put a tracking collar on the trapped jaguar and release it into the wild. (So far, this is OK. While it seems a bit cruel, this is an effective way to track wildlife movement. (But if this was the goal, why do they continue to claim that they wanted to trap anything besides the jaguar? Are we to believe they just happened to have the right sized tracking collar on them that day?))

3.) The DGF decides the jaguar was not moving as it is supposed to. They were apparently hoping to watch jaguar adventures on a grand scale filled with twists and turns and heart-stopping moments. Because it wasn't moving as it was supposed to, DGF decided there was only one thing to do: Hunt it down with a helicopter and shoot it with tranqs. (By hunt it down, I mean go to the homing beacon strapped to its neck. No actual hunting of any kind took place.)

4.) They then bring the tranq'd jaguar to the nearby [unamed] zoo. The zoo promptly claims that it was suffering from kidney failure. So they killed it. What else could be done?

5.) Local universities run a post mortem on the body and found a pair of what were fabulously functioning kidneys. That is, until the zoo killed the animal.

I wonder if the dumbshits at the zoo got some sort of a false positive on the kidney's because of the tranqulizers running through its system. 'Course, what would I know?

It drives you crazy! These guys got jobs with the government with just 1 mission in mind: Keep the Game & Fish in Arizona SAFE! Instead they go to extravagent lengths with taxpayer money to work on changing an endangered species into an extinct species!!!! WHAT THE HELL???

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Who knew? (Part 2)

Senator Byron Dorgan, thats who. (newsweek)

In 1994 Byron 'Don't gamble away my country' Dorgan expressed his fear of the "Exotic new derivatives called 'swaps'."
"Every taxpayer in the country is on the line."

In response to Congress' moves to de-regulate the barriers between brokerages and banks in 1999 Byron 'You're going to be sorry' Dorgan said we'll regret this within 10 years.

In 2009 Byron 'Victory is such sweet sorrow' Dorgan has not said: See? I told you so!

As in the newsweek article linked to above, I'll throw in the aside: Larry 'Girls are dumb' Summers was one of the lead dogs in the deregulation efforts Byron warned of in 1999.
Now, I ask you: Why is Larry 'Trust the banks, so long as a woman isn't in charge' Summers our Director of the Economic Council, while Byron 'I told you so' Dorgan remains virtually ignored?

Ignoring a sage, promoting a stooge...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

90 in a 30

As we all know and understand, all cops are above the law. They've no need to heed the rules the rest of us 'normies' must follow.

Which is why the cop in this story was going 90 mph in a 30 mph zone where he hit and killed Hayley Adamson a day before she was to take her GCSE exams. He did not have his lights or his siren on, because he didn't want to alert the driver he was pursuing. Pursuing at 90 mph.
(I would assume that by the time you get up to 90 mph, I'm pretty sure the guy you are chasing knows you're there...)

Whats even creepier about this story is the big brother style license plate recognition system that was in use and failed on this occasion by sending the cop on a 90mph chase after a vehicle and its occupant, which were in complete compliance with the law. Basically, there are cameras on the cop car that automatically read and run the license plates of the vehicles around them. With or without probable cause. In this case, it picked up a car that was recently in non-compliance with the law. The system just hadn't been updated yet.

Or how about the cop that pushed a man to the ground because he happened to be within shoving distance? The man was walking home from work and died of a heart attack minutes after this bit of police brutality. Unfortunately his path took him straight through the G20 protests which had a bunch of cops on the edge all riled up to the brim with testosterone.

It may seem a bit of a stretch to complain so specifically about cops in a blog that would lead you to believe its all about government waste. However, cops are a part of the government. Taxpayer dollars pay their salaries, for the buildings and vehicles, and fund technology designed to invade your personal right to privacy. I've said my peace.

Salaries of cops that appear to feel above the law...

THIS is whybritspaytaxes.

P.S. - At least the 90mph cop will sit in prison, and Officer Shovey is suspended pending investigation. When the cops around here in Rockford Illinois hit people, all charges are dropped in the end. And yes, it happens somewhat frequently.

Prosecutorial Incompetence

All charges against Alaska's favorite Senator, Ted "Why don't you ask my wife about that" Stevens have been dropped. Turns out, the team on the job from Bush's DOJ dropped the ball, time and again, blatantly. Almost seems as though they tried it. (technically, they didn't try it, but...)

Stevens roams free after decades of trading government contracts for personal favors and now we're paying for a big ol' investigation into the DOJ's incompetence...

This is whyipaytaxes.

On a side note, I sat with a friend this evening who is experiencing the frustration of a prosecutor unable to do his job. I won't go into the whole story and obviously leave out some key details, but...
Basically, this guy got busted on his third DUI 2 years ago. He demanded a jury trial, as is his right, and court date after court date has gone by. Today was to be the Big One, the jury was called and all. But the trial got delayed yet again because the prosecution was unprepared. They still had a few affairs to get in order.
1.) Had HE been the one unprepared, they would have thrown him in jail.
2.) While awaiting trial, he is being forced to submit to regular urine tests, twice weekly. This will not credit him as any sort of probation served.
3.) They called out the jury for that? Man, those must've been some pissed off jury members...

Imagine living your life knowing that on a special date in three months you might go straight to jail. On that special date, they say, well, maybe on this new special date, in three months.

Can't believe I forgot...

So, a handful of weeks ago when the nation collectively got their panties in a bunch over a couple hundred MILLION dollars in bonuses to AIG execs, I totally forgot to point out the $4 BILLION Merrill Lynch gave in bonuses a month early (12/08) to avoid losing those bonuses as they went out of business.

tsk tsk tsk... We're such sheep! They got away with a whole bunch more money without much of a bitchin' at all. But when it became popular to bitch about things like this you suddenly have Barney "Don't like 'em? Tax 'em!" Frank demanding their heads...

Whatever. I guess that one was a freebie. Your welcome.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Who Knew?

Iris Mack, thats who.

So, back in 2002 this Harvard trained mathematician spotted the variety of derivatives (the very same derivatives most claim are responsible for bringing our economy to its knees) in use in the Harvard endowment fund and questioned them. And how was she rewarded?

By getting fired! Of course!

Wait, it gets a smidge better:

Who had she turned to with her concerns that led to her getting fired?
Larry "Women just don't understand science" Summers!
To finish connecting the dots, Larry is currently the White House Director of Economic Council and works with Geithner to fix our economy.

I'll summarize, eliminating my contrived questioning method above:
1.) Iris Mack graduated with a PhD in Mathematics from Harvard.
2.) A handful of months later, she accepted a position with the Harvard endowment.
3.) Within her first six months, she was positively agape at the policies and procedures in use there. It seems they were using complex derivatives that no one truly understood, in spite of the mountains of cash they were investing in them.
4.) So, she approached the guy in charge, Larry Summers, and patiently explained to Larry that if no one knew what it meant, they probably shouldn't be throwing cash at it like its going out of style. Maybe a little research first? Once we know what we are doing, maybe then we can throw all of our eggs in that basket, but until then it makes me a bit queasy. OH, and PLEASE don't expose me as being the one that raised these concerns.
5.) Larry, in turn, went straight to Iris' manager and told him to fix it.
6.) The manager fixed it by firing Iris within a few weeks of her initial report to Larry.
7.) Larry has since made a shit-tonne of money off of speaking engagements, at least occasionally explaining to all of the super-smart men that while indeed they are cute and fun to hump, women couldn't possibly understand all of the complex scientific things we menfolk know.
Many of these speaking engagements have been at organizations who are now dependent on TARP funds. In fact, he continued to speak at organizations who paid him WITH tarp funds after they had been bailed out.

As a reward for being both ignorant of the forces behind our economy's downfall and a plain ol' ignorant fool, he has been appointed as the chief economic adviser in the White House.

Find the details and some actual reporting about this story at the Boston Globe:
Ex-employee says she warned Harvard of risky moves

I don't know about you, but my confidence in the system has been strengthened. I just LOVE that they have all the same people that caused, or at least ignored this mess in positions to get us out of this mess...
Wait, wait, here's a better outro:
Giving ignorance a seat at the head of the table...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

(I wonder if Larry ever admitted that black people, like women, just aren't able to comprehend science... Not that he would admit it on tape, but I wonder... (I can just picture him laughing off the concerns of the black female that approached him as a quaint result of affirmative action))

GM Strikes Again

I think I know why Wagoner needed to be fired.
I think I know why GM has failed and very possibly might truly fail.

Here's the latest 2010 model GM recently unveiled:
2009 New York Auto Show: 2010 GMC Terrain Makes World Debut(edmunds)
estimated 21 mpg in city driving and 30 mpg on the highway. The EPA has yet to certify those numbers.
[optional] engine is expected to deliver 18 mpg in city driving and 25 mpg on the highway.

A BRAND NEW gigantic SUV released by GM... Your bailout dollars at work!

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Bad Cops Gone Bad

I never realized, until recently, a pretty obvious use of some of lifes technical advances.

As we all know, there has never been a shortage of police ignorance. Many cops are simply people that couldn't elevate themselves into the position of power they crave any other way. They simply go to a laid back boot camp and suddenly a power over ANYONE has been bestowed along with a gun. Whats not to draw the ignorants?

What there WAS a shortage of until the last couple of decades were video cameras. Specifically, just about anyone and everyone having a camera and deciding to keep it rolling when they got pulled over or were about to experience any sort of interaction with the law.

Even more importantly was the shortage of methods for people to share these videos with each other al a YouTube.

In conclusion, do a few searches on YouTube with the keyword police and a mix of the following keywords: corruption, misconduct, arrogance, incompetence, etc. etc. The wealth of videos to watch will leave you both astounded and queasy. The fact that these guys have been given the right to take away your rights is absolutely amazing and a bit profound.
Don't get me wrong, cops provide a valuable service. I just don't know that mostly pretty poorly educated men should have quite so much power...

Special thanks to badphoenixcops.com for opening my eyes to this obviously rich source of angst against my government. (Not to mention a pretty entertaining read about a pretty darn corrupt police force)

Paying the salaries of incompetence...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Bullshit Posturing

When Obama decided that part of the way to get stimulus cash to quickly stimulate the economy was to give a shit-tonne of cash to the states to spend, many a republican governor cried foul and said they'd refuse the money. Screw the people in my state, I refuse the money because I want to make a stand. I want to show the world, that I am against Obama policies. I agree with Rush and hope that Obama fails, even if it has to take the economy down with it. (Bobby Jindal, the Gorilla from Wasilla, and Sanford from South Carolina were among the many republicans that felt that Obama failing was more important than reviving the economy, or helping the citizens of their states)

I knew almost immediately that it was all bullshit posturing and that when it came time to cut the checks they'd have their hands out with the rest of us. WHO can turn down [virtually] free money? Sure, it comes from taxpayer cash, but its being doled out just to be spent, which in turn revives the economy.

Well, today, one of the first dogs came crawling with their tail tucked far between their legs and it was Mark 'I'm too good for your money' Sanford of South Carolina. Lets all have a hearty laugh and point session, shall we?

Paying the salaries of folks who like to talk a big game they don't even play...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.