Cutting Those Arrow Shaft Excise Taxes

I have come to the conclusion that the Obama campaign must have done all of the Oppo Research on each and every possible Republican VP candidate weeks ago. How else does all this good stuff come out on Paul Ryan within 48 hours of his being named Romney’s running mate?

Like how, in his 1988 high school yearbook, Paul Ryan was named the school’s “Biggest Brown Noser.”

Or how, with his widow’s peak, Paul Ryan bears an uncanny resemblance to Eddie Munster.

But today I got knocked back by the revelation that in his 13 years in the hallowed halls of Congress, Paul Ryan was successful in getting a grand total of two, count ‘em, two of his bills passed into law.

One of them was a “gimme” as they say, a bill to rename a Post Office building in a Wisconsin town. Those generally reach the floor and get passed without objection.

The other though, the other one was a true study in what makes Paul Ryan tick.

It was an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code to impose a 39-cent tax per arrow shaft, instead of a 12.4 percent tax on the sales price.

Arrow shafts as in bows and arrows.

So I asked myself, was this a move to raise the tax on arrow shafts and raise revenues, or decrease them? I really didn’t know how much arrow shafts cost, and didn’t know that they came sold separately from arrow tips, but apparently they do.

You see, the tax code in 2008 had the tax as a percentage of the sales price, but Ryan’s amendment made it a flat rate. So I had to investigate.

Now, according to the Eagle Archery price page for gold-tip arrow shafts these sell individually for somewhere between $4.50 and $6.50 each, or a $5.50 average price.

12.4 percent of $5.50 is $0.682.

So true to form, Paul Ryan’s one and only budgetary bill passed into law was a bill to save bow and arrow sportspersons an average of 29 cents per arrow shaft.

Imagine the total loss in overall revenues for this one thing. Let’s use the Minnesota Bowhunter’s, Inc. figure that 3,324,187 Americans are licensed bow hunters and let’s say that on average they buy 2 dozen arrows per year. That fellow Americans, is an overall revenue loss of over $23 million per year.

Nice job. Paul Ryan saved the bowhunters of America millions of dollars every year, but voted against Pell Grants and Medicaid.

Paul Ryan really knows how to lead the charge toward fiscal responsibility, doesn’t he?

On Ownership

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are big on ownership.

Mitt Romney owns a lot of stuff. The main problem with owning a lot of stuff is that you want to own a lot more stuff. That’s just a fact of existence among the rich and super-rich. That will be Romney’s continuing problem as we go on toward November, that he owns a lot, and wants to own a lot more.

Paul Ryan is going to be having a different kind of ownership though. Paul Ryan, because he is now the Vice Presidential nominee of the Republican Party is going to have to take ownership of his past and his past statements. His past statements rendered on video no less.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops and a bunch of nuns on abus have taken Ryan to task because of his budget plan which runs counter to the teachings of Jesus, whose teachings Ryan professes to follow. Where does the budget come from then, one would ask. What or who is the inspiration that led Paul Ryan to formulate this anti-scriptural budgetary policy?

To answer that question one should look no further than the American authoress Ayn Rand, whose book Atlas Shrugged, with others, has inspired generations of teenagers in the ways of “objectivism” (aka self-interest) versus “collectivism” (Jesus’ notions). And it appears, from the video which is embedded below, that Paul Ryan has yet to be cured of Ayn Rand’s ideas, which form the core of Libertarian beliefs.

Now to be fair, the video was shot in 2009 and that gives Ryan over 3 years to back-peddle over this issue, which I assume he has or soon will.

But to be equally fair, the video accurately presents the state of the man when he formulated his budgetary policies, ones that have now been fully embraced by Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney likes to own stuff, now he must take ownership of Paul Ryan’s Rand-inspired budgetary policies.

And keep your damn hands off my medicare.

Another Gift? Why…Thank You

Remember back around this time 4 years ago when we were all wondering who John McCain was going to pick for his running mate? He had so many different choices to make, many of whom would have added to his campaign in some unique way or other. I won’t go into all of that, though, because the final pick was such a surprise, and a boon for Democrats, that all previous thoughts of the other possibilities have since fled my brain forever.

Historical documents reveal that John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate, but when I heard that news back then, I sat across a table full of Chinese food, staring at a fellow Democratic activist all slack-jawed at the news: John McCain, with that one decision, had just delivered the Presidency to Barack Obama.

And you know, history has a habit of repeating itself.

This morning I woke up to the news that GOP nominee-apparent Mitt Romney has just named Congressman Paul Ryan (R – STFU, Old Geezers) as his running mate.

Paul Ryan. He of the “Ryan Budget” no less. He of the congress that has a sub-freezing public approval rating.

That Paul Ryan.

Remember how I thought that Romney wouldn’t repeat the past mistakes and nominate a more colorful or controversial person than himself? Never mind.

What, another gift, GOP? Why…thank you.

But wait, I am being unfair. This is a partnership made in GOP heaven. Where Mitt Romney has no moral, ethical or political ideals at all, we have in Paul Ryan an abundance of each. And where all we have in Mitt Romney is an animal instinct about which political wind to break to at a given moment, all we have in Paul Ryan is an ideology that would make Ayn Rand absolutely blush with pride but no political instincts at all.

Back in 2008 I predicted that conservative moderates and Independents would have major problems with Palin’s quirky politics and philosophies, and this time, there is more of the same albeit coming from a much calmer and less shrill voice.

But the big effect is going to be in an age group that may surprisethe GOP. Last time McCain took the senior vote by 4 points over Barack Obama. This time, with Paul Ryan, his anti-senior anti-medicare budget, and Mitt Romney’s acquiescence to it we might just see a huge backlash from that demographic group that the GOP has depended on for decades now.

Seniors are self-interested. Seniors vote.

Take your damn hands off my Medicare.

When An American isn’t an American

This week, we learned that Senate candidate Ted Cruz has gotten the nod to speak at the GOP national convention this year, with a tip of the hat toward not only the TEA Party but Hispanic voters. And we have also learned that TEA Partiers have begun a whisper campaign that Cruz could just possibly be their standard bearer in 2016 since Mitt Romney is arguably the weakest GOP presidential candidate since Bob Dole.

Ted Cruz 2016.

Then someone checked, and oops, Cruz was born in Canada.

Canada, as well as Kenya, both qualify as foreign soil.

But wait, there’s more. Not only was Ted Cruz born in Canada, his father was a former Cuban Freedom Fighter for Fidel Castro. A Cuban and a Communist.

Hmmm. Not only a foreigner, but the son of a Communist Castroite.

Seems unlikely then.

Oh, but wait. Guess what? According to the research, Ted Cruz’ mother was born in Delaware and therefore qualifies as a US citizen.

And that, friends and neighbors, makes Ted Cruz eligible as a “natural born” US citizen because his mother was a citizen, and besides that, Cruz was never naturalized – a key point in deciding if one is a “natural born” citizen,

So the TEA Party heaved a collective sigh of relief and went back to their whisper campaign.

And there you have it: a complete double standard.

Give it all to the Birthers. Give it to them that Barack Hussein Obama was born in Kenya. Or Indonesia. Give it to them that he was adopted by his mother’s second husband and his real name is Barry Soetoro. Give it to them that his father and step father were Muslims, and neither of them citizens of the United States. Give it all to them.

Give all that up and it still remains that Barack Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas. His mother, born in Kansas, was a full citizen of the United States.

Now Delaware may have been a state before Kansas was, but last I looked both were states in the past century when both mothers were born.

So here’s the thing. How is it that TEA Partiers can undergo such mental gymnastics to verify that their favorite son is a natural born citizen of the United States, but the same set of conclusions cannot be applicable to the sitting president?  How is that?

Is it that an American is not an American when the TEA Party decides? Or is it just the case that when a black man is in this position it becomes political fodder for those who want to whip up the historical racial suspicions and prejudices that still haunt our nation?

Either way it goes is unsettling to me.

Ted Cruz a GOP Convention Speaker!

Well now, among the 5 newly announced speakers at the GOP convention next month in Tampa Bay are none other than our newly nominated US Senator from Texas Republican nominee, Ted Cruz and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker.

Cruz will represent the burgeoning Hispanic voter population of the southwestern states, and Walker will represent the UberRight White People of the Great North.

Sarah Palin, who worked so hard to stump for this TEA Party darling over the “more moderate” David Dewhurst (and I am kicking myself writing this) has still gotten the big snub.

Nope, imagine that, Sarah Palin, representing 900,000 Alaskans, will not get the nod to speak at the convention.

My guess, though, is that Cruz will not be given a prime time spot in this three-day America-Hating Love Fest. My guess is that the prime speaking times will be allocated to the best and brightest of the party – all twenty watts of them. This is because, according to my understanding, the big 3 broadcast networks have allocated only one hour per night to the Republican Convention. A total of three hours.

In the end, this will probably only serve to help the party of the eternally out-of-touch, because it will severely curtail appearances by the lunatic fringe of the party, which are more numerous than ever. What the casual American observer of the political scene will see, therefore, will in no way resemble what has become the norm in this election cycle.

And that can’t be all bad for Republicans.

It’s Gonna Be T-Paw

Here is my prediction for the next GOP Vice Presidential nominee:  Tim Pawlenty.

And no, it’s not because MSNBC’s  Lawrence O’Donnell has made no bones about the fact that he is his number one VP choice for several months now. I’m not as smart as he his. It’s because of two things that have become obvious to me.

One, Tim Pawlenty is noticeably absent from the elevenspeakers that have been announced for the GOP national convention next month. Indeed, of his former opponents for the nomination,  only Rick Santorum, who was unceremoniously booted out of his Senate seat a few years ago, has been given the nod to give a speech.

And yes, it must be said that those who are speakers will not be VP nominees so that also means Condi Rice and Jeb Bush are off the table.

So it must be T-Paw, right?

Wait, what about Chris Christie. What about Marco Rubio. Nope, these guys will be warming their seats along with the other delegates. Not this year for the large one. Not this year for the Cuban Freedom Fighter.

And why not? Why not have a colorful one to offset the stiff one?

Could it be lessons learned from the past?

Last time a presidential campaign recruited a colorful veep candidate they got a little bit more than they could handle. Sarah Palin lost it for McCain even more than McCain lost it for McCain. Sarah Palin scared the bejesus out of moderates and Independents.

Nope, no colorful candidates need apply this time.

So who can we look for other than Mr. Flavorless himself? What Romney needs is someone that makes HIM look like the colorful personality. And in Tim Pawlenty I think we have the guy.

OK, all of that and who the H-E-double hockey sticks has heard of Ron Portman anyway?

Er…Rob Portman.

Rob.

Sikhs Killed Worshipping in their Temple

What an act so illustrative of our country and the utter ignorance of some of the people who live within our borders.

As I type this news is breaking of a single white man, 40-ish, who reportedly sports “9-11” ink work on his body, having murdered 6 men observing religious rites in a Sikh temple, and wounding 3 others, including the police officer who killed him.

Tragically, though, if the shooter wanted some pay back for 9-11, as it appears right now he does, he couldn’t have chosen a more unworthy target, if we are to rate religious Muslim targets that is.

Because in the scheme of things, while Sikhs are a peaceful sect, this much is true, their own brand of religion is one of non-violence, peace, and tenderness. Sikhs are the last people that could be targeted as terrorists. Yes they wear turbans, and Osama bin Laden wore a turban, and yes they wear beards, and Osama bin Laden wore a beard, but that is just about the end of it.

But the tragedy is, to Americans, one size fits all, and to this poor example of a human, the shooter, this error may just have been the one that led him to his terrible crimes. Instead of striking a blow for mom, America and apple pie, this individual brings out the utter worst of us, the ignorant vigilante with a gun.

No More Delay for DeLay

My former congressman, Tom DeLay, a convicted felon, will have his day in court minus one Democratic Appeals Court Justice, it seems. According to this American-Statesman article, DeLay’s appeals attorney, Brian Wice, managed to get Justice Diane Henson thrown off the case when he managed to get the Chief Justice of the 3^rd Court of Appeals to bring in a Republican Justice to decide whether Justice Henson’s previous remarks were so prejudicial that she could not fairly decide Tom DeLay’s money laundering appeals case.

Prejudicial because Justice Henson reported to the 2006 convention that DeLay’s appeal would come to her court, a no-brainer, and that Texas courts were “filled…with extremists, with people that are controlled by special interests, big insurance companies and big corporations.”

Another no-brainer and the simple truth to anyone of any political stripe who watches the Texas courts.

So for uttering these two truths, Justice Henson was removed from the case in order to allow another 3^rd justice to hear the appeal, supposedly a Republican one.

This is a court more to Tom DeLay’s liking.

However, DeLay, ever the political animal, has it wrong again.

It’s not about politics anymore. It’s about putting an end to the bad old days of Republican abuse of power that Republicans desperately want to sweep under the rug and forget. Republican justice or no, this case will be decided by the facts, and may be colored by a desire by Republicans to put this all in the past rather than dredge up old wounds and give Democrats more political fodder in the fall.

In short, Tom DeLay delayed his appeals trial to get a “fairer court” and may have just  shot himself in the foot again, as is his habit. No one cares about exonerating Ton DeLay anymore.

Mostly they all just wish he would just go away.

Or go back to Virginia, whatever fits.

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Now where the hell is that birth certificate?

­­­­­­­­­­­The Curse of the Brady

When I read this article last month in the Sugar Land Sun, where Republican candidate Craig Brady endorsed the Democratic candidate for County Sheriff, I hardly gave it a thought. Sure the Republican primary race for county sheriff was a hard-fought one, and sure Brady blew an astounding 400 grand to gain an office that pays a quarter of that in a year, but the blowback that occurred after the dust had settled, and Troy Nehls was the county sheriff nominee seemed to me to be in the way of sour grapes: Craig Brady endorsed the Democrat, Michael Elllison, who will face Nehls on November 6^th.

Ellison, it should be noted, welcomed the endorsement, but pointed out that he did not solicit it.

It’s all sour grapes, thought I. What self-respecting Republican, especially one in Fort Bend County, where Republicans wear their politics and their religion on their sleeves, would vote for the Democrat.

Then today I got a shock.

Today, driving to my usual market to pick up some viands, I espied an Ellison campaign sign firmly driven into a lawn on a block that, in times past, has been laced with Republican campaign signs.

Laced.

So, OK, you say, how do I know that the sign in question wasn’t placed on the lawn by a Democrat? Easy. Look at the calendar. It is by my count 96 days until the November election yet here is the Ellison sign for all to see. By law, 90 days is the absolute maximum time window for campaign signs to go up, and in some municipalities the limit is 60 days.

The only people I know who violate that ordinance are Republicans.

Now the only thing I am wondering is whether there will be more Brady supporters out there who will follow this neighbor’s lead. Or more pointedly, I am wondering how many Republicans will see, as I see, the gross conflict of interest in having one Nehls brother as County Sheriff, and another as a County Constable. Is there anyone else out there besides me and Karen Pearson that see this conflict?

Reason Number 742 Why We Need a Border Wall

Once you let one in, others will follow as they say. Texas shares the longest international border with Mexico, and Texans are among the most vocal opponents to illegal border crossings as a net result.

And now their worst fears have come to fruition.

Taking a cue from its Homo sapiens compadres, El Oso Negro has boldly and brashly crossed the Rio Grande in southwest Texas and has taken up residence near the Big Bend National Park.

And not only that, this illegal immigrant black bear is grabbing hold of local resources that local Texans can use and keeping them to itself. This illegal alien bear has been caught on camera stealing American resources out of the mouths of American (and Texan) babies. See for yourself.

See? The bear is shamelessly gorging on the delectable fruit of the prickly pear cactus.

I was wondering why all of our prickly pear cactus fruit is disappearing from the shelves of my local grocery store, and now I have the answer: illegal ursine usurpation.

And I’ll bet Obama is going to let this continue unabated. And you know why? Well isn’t it obvious? Obama is black. The bear is black. Obama is always sticking up for blacks.

TEA Party Still Going Strong in TEA for Texas…But Education…

Here in Texas we had ourselves a primary runoff yesterday. Yes, yesterday, July 31^st. This is a day, you know, where, on a good day in March or early April, Texans show up in dribs and drabs. Yesterday conflicted with stuff like summer vacation. So the day was ripe for TEA Partiers who normally turn out slightly over-representing the conservative fringe voter here, but yesterday, and in the early vote leading up to yesterday, TEA Partiers turned out to absolutely dominate this election while the rest of conservativedom lazed in the sun sipping yet another glass of iced tea.

And it showed in the results.

First, most of the Republican runoff races were between non-incumbents, meaning of course that they were vying for an empty seat or in newly drawn districts.

Let’s look at the second one first.

In HD 11, State Rep Chuck Hopson was trounced by Travis Clardy. Hopson was a newly reformed Republican, having seen the light as he faced a 2 to 1 opposition in the House, and switched sides. But re-election is not gonna happen here in the TEA Party capitol and Hopson was trounced by Clardy, who campaigned as a “real conservative.”

HD 12, however, was a squeaker where Kyle Kacal eked out a victory over Tucker Anderson. Truthfully I cannot drive a one-penny nail between these two idealogically. Both are grist for the TEA Party mill, but only Kacal listed as endorsers the Conservative Republicans of Texas, a group with ties to the Alliance for Progress, a TEA Party organization.

But in HD 23 it looks like a romp with Wayne Faircloth thrashing Bill Wallace by over 12 points. Now why this happened is a mystery to me because of this item which has reported that Faircloth has written numerous campaign contributions to his rival-to-be, Democrat Craig Eiland for the self same office

In redrawn HD 59, State Rep Sid Miller was soundly beaten by J.D. Sheffield who, himself was beaten by Miller in 2010. Even though Miller authored the much-hated sonogram law it wasn’t enough to overcome public outrage over the shortchanging of public schools in the 2011 budget, a trend we are going to see again below.

District 85 seems to be echoing the trend in HD 59 in that incumbent Jim Landroop was soundly beaten by a school board president: Ken King. Even though he was ranked as 4th most conservative Republican in the previous legislative session, Landroop will ever have the school budget bill around his neck like an albatross, which turned out to be fertile ground for the former school board president, whose rural district was massively impacted by the disastrous 2011 budget. That and the fact that former state rep Wayne Chisum came out and endorsed his opponent 4 days before the election, something that can be viewed as political payback for his former colleague.

But the really fun one this time was in Senate District 25, where incumbent Jeff Wentworth was soundly defeated by TEA Party Diva Donna Campbell. Wentworth went on and noted how the TEA Party had done to his campaign what they did to that of Lt. Governor David Dewhurst in coming out in total support of their favorites, Campbell and the probable new Texas junior senator Ted Cruz.  Wentworth decried the focus of the TEA Party, saying that they didn’t seem to care whether the target was a federal vs. a state official.

Which they don’t.

And that, friends and neighbors, is why Texas is soon to go Purple. When Texans truly wake up and see the kinds of wack jobs their TEA Party lunatic fringe have foisted on them, the sooner they will flee the Republican Party of Texas.

A party on its last legs.

On the Disintegration of the GOP

I am very tired tonight and was just looking at some stuff online through very itchy eyes. Then I came across yet another testimony to what I call the Disintegration of the GOP, something that I view as inevitable if things progress, or should I say regress, along the lines of today's reality.

I give you Michael Stafford, a former Republican Party official, someone who has just enumerated here why he can no longer, in good conscience, be a Republican.

It makes a good read, and it further confirms things I am finding out as I encounter more and more disaffected Republicans.

Happy Birthday Barack Hussein Obama

My president's birthday is coming up this August 4th. That's two weeks from today.

And already we are getting emails, mine from Speaker Pelosi, asking for us to sign his birthday card. My conservative friends took note of that and I told them that it was ultimately a request for a donation, which it was.

Then I blithely went through the screens on my Razr and donated 25 bucks.

You can do the same thing starting here.

Then today I noted that the former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party bemoaned the fact that he gets the same solicitations to contribute that I do. Richard Wadhams says that he won't be signing the birthday card, and I can't figure out why. Signing it is free. It's just the donate screen that follows where you make the contribution.

But I have to agree with the commenter to the article. No one in the Democratic Party is going to take seriously a contribution from a "Dick Wad."

On Guns and Killing People

What lots and lots of poorly informed and naive people think.



What these self same people think of the media and its coverage of our worst-kept secret.

What happens in public discourse as we try and figure out how to end all the carnage.

The root of our problem.

Let Lovin' Start

Something for my new wifey.

Yellow Dogs Unite!

I find this photo to be amazingly appropriate considering that this is a photo of a yellow dog having his excretory way with a Romney campaign sign.

All of us Yellow Dog Democrats are with our fellow yellow dog, in spirit if not in action.

Why Mitt Won't Repeal "Obamacare"

The Mittster makes a lot of noise about how he is going to “repeal Obamacare” his first day in office, and this must sound good to the rubes who are all going to line up in November to vote for him or he wouldn’t say it. But as I have said before on this blog, Mitt Romney will say or do anything to be president.

Anything.

Even repeal the law whose model was his own Massachusetts healthcare law.

And, you know, this is the last thing he is going to do. Absolutely the last thing. Romney is again spouting so many contradictions to his own previous statements that he is stumbling all over the place as the media calls this or that contradiction to our attention.

He can do this because today’s conservative voter does not care a whit about facts. Not in the least. Facts just get in the way of wanting to get that Kenyan Muslim out of office.

So here is why Mitt Romney won’t do what he says he will do. Not that I am concerned. As I talk to the truly dispossessed Republicans around me where I am right now, all I hear is about how they are going to forego voting in the November election, making me happy beyond words.

On Getting What you Deserve

Does anyone remember back in the heady days of 2009 when TEA Party Republicans all vowed to cut government waste and clean house? Is it just me or does anyone else remember when we heard all of the hand wringing about feeding at the trough whose funds all come from the taxpayers?

Well I certainly do, I even subjected myself to standing out among them listening to their naive diatribe as they lectured to equally naive audiences about the need to clean up Washington starting from right here at home.

Well it seems the chickens have come home to roost on that one according to Think Progress. Think Progress has consulted very public records from the quarterly federal publication, Statement of Disbursements which clearly shows how seven freshmen members of Congress, so-called TEA Party Republicans have looked after their constituents' tax dollars by funding for themselves, quite legally mind you, a total of $106,643 so they can have brand new automobiles to drive themselves around in while they are in DC.

Including Rep. Chip Cravaack R-Mn, who has leased for himself a  2011 Chevy Equinox, a crossover SUV with all-wheel drive for a total of $25,580.84 thus far. All wheel drive, you know so he can brave the harsh DC winters as he fights his way to the floor of Congress from his meager DC existence.

All of this while the Chipper voted against the Affordable Healthcare Act last July 11th, and at the same time voting to retain his own superior government healthcare.

Lovely. TEA Party: you get the representation that you deserve.

The Checks are in the Mail

So those of you who still read this blog for some reason, and hate the Affordable Healthcare Act, aka "Obamacare," will get to send a message right back to that Islamic Kenyan that you don't need any of his government giveaway programs.

You're better than B of A and Wells Fargo after all.

You get to send your Obamacare rebate check right to the healthcare provider that you use to give you what healthcare they afford to you. Remember, you don't deserve this check. You hate Obama and you hate Obamacare.

Your healthcare provider CEO, and his or her yacht sales broker will thank you.