Isn't it time for a new election thread?!

[ikol]

I agree, it's pretty lame. Especially for the kids.

 

Indeed. Those parents need to buy their kids some Fruit Loops.

[viatroy]

Like as in you'd tax the same wealth every year so it eventually whittles down to zero?

 

 

yeah, cuz it's just sitting under the mattresses.

[lost highway]

I'd take that tax rate!

 

Sorry, when I kick into satire mode my quantitative thinking gets pushed aside. I'm not advocating 1% tax rates for the rich, nor golden gooses.

[ikol]

yeah, cuz it's just sitting under the mattresses.

 

I'm pretty sure that it's not growing as fast as you're taxing it (though you'd have to give some actual numbers to be certain).

[lost highway]

Indeed. Those parents need to buy their kids some Fruit Loops.

 

Then who will pay for their insulin shots?

[ikol]

Then who will pay for their insulin shots?

 

Barack Obama.

[bjorn_skurj]

Huh. According to the Fed, total credit card debt in teh U.S. of A. is about a trillion dollars. Iraq and the bailout will probably end up costing that EACH. Whichever candidate supports a trillion to wipe out credit card debt for all Americans will end up with my vote for sure.

[caliber66]

Well I don't agree with that. If the ball player can get that much, then why shouldn't he/she? I think your issue is more with where our society places it value. But if you make $10M/year, you should feel privileged to do so and realize that YOU can afford to pay more for the infrastructure that is necessary for the society -- the society that allowed you to BECOME rich -- needs. The idea that Shaq -- or anyone that makes a shit ton of money -- si going to stop working because they pay 35% instead of 25% is bullshit. The tax rate does NOT create disincentives in that way.

I agree that the value society places on the entertainment industry is absurd, and I also recognize that it's a lot easier to tax the money people are already making than to change society's perception of the value of somebody reading lines on a movie screen.

 

Indeed. Those parents need to buy their kids some Fruit Loops.

I'm sure they'll get to it right after they work out how they're going to pay their mortgage/rent/utilities/insurance/car payment/bus fare/etc.

 

Barack Obama.

I guess you'll be voting for him, then.

[Party @ the Moontower]

You could insert "Rich" in just about any spot you see "white" here. Being rich does not always mean you have worked harder, or that you deserve a pass on fair taxes like you have gotten from Bush's sweet tax-cuts & all the fancy loopholes, cause somehow you think you pass it down to us middle class losers who pay the bulk of this country's taxes.

 

By Tim Wise

ZSpace: Sep 13, 2008

 

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are

constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this

list will help.

 

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin

and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a

personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,

because 'every family has challenges,' even as black and Latino families

with similar 'challenges' are regularly typified as irresponsible,

pathological and arbiters of social decay.

 

White privilege is when you can call yourself a 'fuckin' redneck,' like

Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with

you, you'll 'kick their fuckin' ass,' and talk about how you like to 'shoot

shit' for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a

great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

 

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years

like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then

returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no

one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a

person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and

probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative

action.

 

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller

than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the

same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes

you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on

themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're 'untested'.

 

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words 'under God'

in the pledge of allegiance because 'if it was good enough for the founding

fathers, it's good enough for me,' and not be immediately disqualified from

holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s

and the 'under God' part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that

reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the

Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires

it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

 

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people

immediately scared of you.

 

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was 'Alaska first,' and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with

her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being

disrespectful.

 

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the

work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to

vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child

labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely

question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no

foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow

being mean, or even sexist.

 

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree

with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate

anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired

confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a

second look.

 

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your

political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a

typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely

know ing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you

must be corrupt.

 

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose

pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George

W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian

nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological

principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict

in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and

everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if

you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin

Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often

the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism

and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates

America.

 

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a

reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a

'trick question,' while being black and merely refusing to give one-word

answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,

or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

 

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything

at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and

experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a 'light' burden.

 

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow

someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent

of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their

homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world

opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole 'change'

thing.

 

Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more

years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

 

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

 

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),

and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.

[lost highway]

This thread has reached a new level of amazing; thanks to those I agree and disagree with.

[ikol]

I'm sure they'll get to it right after they work out how they're going to pay their mortgage/rent/utilities/insurance/car payment/bus fare/etc.

 

They've got a mortgage when they can't afford Fruit Loops?

 

I guess you'll be voting for him, then.

 

No. I meant he'd literally pay for it with his own money. He doesn't have to be President to do that.

[lost highway]

They've got a mortgage when they can't afford Fruit Loops?

 

This happens/happened. It has made a lot of trouble in our country.

[ikol]

This happens/happened. It has made a lot of trouble in our country.

 

Not ringing any bells.

[caliber66]

They've got a mortgage when they can't afford Fruit Loops?

If they don't have a mortgage, they are going to have to pay rent. One way or another, they will have to pay a huge portion of their income for lodging.

[lost highway]

Not ringing any bells.

 

Uh, sub-prime mortgage bubble, balloon payment in fine print, lower income family declaring bankruptcy, stock market crash, bailout plan.....

[MrRain422]

A question to anyone who says they oppose redistribution of wealth: How do you feel about the redistribution over the last 8 years of wealth from the middle class to the upper class? Am I to assume that this is okay?

[Party @ the Moontower]

Kids should eat organic fruit loops period.

The #1 ingredient in Froot Loops is sugar followed by flours and partial hydrogenated vegetable oil. FL also contain artificial food dyes, and preservatives. Only a moron would feed their kid this stuff. Maybe for a weekend treat, but that's it.

 

 

The candidate that gurantees organic fruitloops to all kids has my vote!

[caliber66]

The canidate that gurantees organic fruitloops to all kids has my vote!

 

What about this Canidate?

[Analogman]

Kids should eat organic fruit loops period.

The #1 ingredient in Froot Loops is sugar followed by flours and partial hydrogenated vegetable oil. FL also contain artificial food dyes, and preservatives. Only a moron would feed their kid this stuff. Maybe for a weekend treat, but that's it.

 

 

The canidate that gurantees organic fruitloops to all kids has my vote!

 

Cereal Killer!

[Guest Jules]

I fundamentally disagree with this concept. My wife and I work hard for the money we earn. We choose to save some, try to wisely invest some of it, and try to provide a decent lifestyle for ourselves and our daughter. But apparently, this income and these investment choices are considered, by Obama and others, to be too much money and the government should take more of it than it already does to give to other people.

 

This is not the government's job, and it lends more credence to the socialist claims that people are prone to make of Obama.

yes

 

Mr. Million just has to take a little hit on his paycheck like everyone else, only it's bigger because he makes a little more than everyone else.

the percentage is higher too, you know.

 

So it has always seemed to me.

 

Interesting to see we've taken a page from the Scandinavians in terms of how they resolved their own financial crisis. Might be time to look at the excellent social models they provide too. A very high standard of living, shared broadly, better health indicators, universal health and education, transformation of their energy economies, .... sounds damn good to me. High taxes, so what? The country as a whole benefits, and no one seems to be suffering for it.

why don't you move there.

 

A question to anyone who says they oppose redistribution of wealth: How do you feel about the redistribution over the last 8 years of wealth from the middle class to the upper class? Am I to assume that this is okay?

please explain

[Party @ the Moontower]

 

What about this Canidate?

 

The 1st presidential candidate that speaks to healthy fruitloops, organic farming growing for small farmers & without corporate greed, gurantees to legalize pot & hemp, and will help me with my student loan...gets whatever he/she wants from me.

 

Cereal Killer!

 

 

[lost highway]

the percentage is higher too, you know.

 

I feel confident Mr. Million will continue to live much more comfortably than the people who stand to benefit the most from his patriotic tax dollars.

[Good Old Neon]

why don't you move there.

 

Ah, the variation of the ole

[Guest Jules]

I feel confident Mr. Million will continue to live much more comfortably than the people who stand to benefit the most from his patriotic tax dollars.

so that makes it ok?

[Party @ the Moontower]

I feel confident Mr. Million will continue to live much more comfortably than the people who stand to benefit the most from his patriotic tax dollars.

 

No, they may have to live with a little less bling & that can hurt. Perhaps one less vacation home, or god forbid, one less vacation. No scratch that, those are sweet tax right offs.