Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate

[Zosi]

I liked this article. http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/081017light.html

Somehow, I'm not surprised that you like an article written by a closet Republican who clings to calling himself a Democrat so he can sound more credible in his non-stop criticism. Unfortunately, even skimming his article shows that he doesn't have even the slightest clue what he's talking about when it comes to financial business, which is unsurprising. He drags out the same proven-wrong arguments about how the CRA and subsequent modifications caused the credit crisis, and takes every chance he can get to blame it on "his" party and praise Republicans.

To put it more accurately, he's not a Democrat, he's a Republican who wants gun control and extreme market regulation.

[Beckwin]

is "ldsmag.com" Latter-Day Saints Magazine or something?

loooooooooooool

[Tempyst]

You do realize the government doesn't force you into marrying a dude if gay marriage is legal, right

[Zosi]

You do realize the government doesn't force you into marrying a dude if gay marriage is legal, right

They're more scared that if gay marriage becomes legal and being gay loses its stigma, some their children might accept being openly gay rather than just living in repression for their entire lives.

Edit: Living in repression until Sarah Palin's church gets ahold of them and prays away the gay for good, turning them into gun-loving God-fearing straight-as-a-highway-through-Montana white (regardless of original race) Republicans.

[zoobernut]

No I think Eunhye and OSC truly believe that if gay marriage becomes legal it will become the only marriage that is legal and dudes will forced to marry dudes and heterosexual couples will have to go into the closet and live in fear.

[eunhye]

Somehow, I'm not surprised that you like an article written by a closet Republican who clings to calling himself a Democrat so he can sound more credible in his non-stop criticism. Unfortunately, even skimming his article shows that he doesn't have even the slightest clue what he's talking about when it comes to financial business, which is unsurprising. He drags out the same proven-wrong arguments about how the CRA and subsequent modifications caused the credit crisis, and takes every chance he can get to blame it on "his" party and praise Republicans.

To put it more accurately, he's not a Democrat, he's a Republican who wants gun control and extreme market regulation.

The blame game can be assessed with everyone in office, the lenders, and the people who are at prey. If I made a pie on who's fault is it, would look like 20% Politics, 30% Lenders and 50% buyers.

*If* the US economy is in a recession, is it wise to tax even the upper highest of tax brackets at this moment in time? How does this help at all?

Edit: If you're gay you're gay, heterosexual etc. I think you can do whatever you want with your life. If I have a child and he/she is gay, would that make me love the child any less? No. I am saying the government piece of paper that says you are legally married to this person, so now you can get your tax credits and file your children on your 1040, is not something that the government should mandate. I don't believe in God. I don't think God exists. Etc etc. conservative etc.

[Correction]

I don't like how the government mandates whom I want to "live the rest of my life" with either. Sure saying he wants to destroy the government and bring it down maybe a bit extreme, but he's not going out there to blow up buildings...

So the administration of the last 8 years has overseen the largest ever expansion of government spending and unprecedented intrusion into personal lives coupled with a rapid and terrible erosion of civil liberties since the attacks on Sept. 11th, yet it takes fags marrying to make him want to overthrow the government.

Yup, sounds like a reasonable man who's opinion matters so much to you.

[eunhye]

So the administration of the last 8 years has overseen the largest ever expansion of government spending and unprecedented intrusion into personal lives coupled with a rapid and terrible erosion of civil liberties since the attacks on Sept. 11th, yet it takes fags marrying to make him want to overthrow the government.

Yup, sounds like a reasonable man who's opinion matters so much to you.

Never did I say I was for Bush, ever. I don't think blaming him entirely makes any sense. You see him, his face, his "entity" as the forefront for America. So he's at fault for every wrong doing of the current situation in America.

[Beckwin]

it helps by funding public works that create domestic jobs, because those jobs are gonna help the people worst affected by a recession/depression. those people will spend, which in turn stimulates the economy. investor attitudes are too mercurial to really depend on them having money and using it well.

[eunhye]

I thought most public works were outsourced to outside countries? Maybe I am wrong, but I truly thought roads/bridges were contracted to foreign countries.

[zoobernut]

Never did I say I was for Bush, ever. I don't think blaming him entirely makes any sense. You see him, his face, his "entity" as the forefront for America. So he's at fault for every wrong doing of the current situation in America.

If presidents can take all the credit when things are going great then they can take all the blame when things fall into the crapper. This is part of the job and it has happened to many more presidents than just Bush.

[Zosi]

I thought most public works were outsourced to outside countries? Maybe I am wrong, but I truly thought roads/bridges were contracted to foreign countries.

The labor is *always* local, because it's ridiculously expensive to bring unskilled workers any long distance for a single project. The contracting firm can be domestic or foreign, but from what I've seen, foreign firms are fairly rare outside of maybe the engineering aspect. Can design a bridge anywhere, but it's a tremendous pain in the ass to hire a full temp construction crew from the area, then fly across the world to supervise them and still manage to bid lower than the local construction contractors. It happens, but the vast majority of projects are just done via local/regional contractors.

[aurik]

The blame game can be assessed with everyone in office, the lenders, and the people who are at prey. If I made a pie on who's fault is it, would look like 20% Politics, 30% Lenders and 50% buyers.

Bzzt, wrong. The problem isn't that people are not paying their mortgages. The problem is that the insurance on these mortgages failed, so the banks became stuck with unexpectedly illiquid assets.

*If* the US economy is in a recession, is it wise to tax even the upper highest of tax brackets at this moment in time? How does this help at all?

Well, certainly if anyone should be taxed more, taxing the most wealthy will have the lowest retarding effect on the economy as a whole, due to the whole marginal propensity to spend thing.

From a Keynesian POV, our options are:
1) run a huge deficit and have our children pay the butcher's bill in 30+ years
2) cut gov't projects and worsen the recession
3) tax everyone equally and ruin the middle/lower classes
4) tax the people already earning a lot of money, so we can spend our way out of recession without driving the middle class into poverty and without running a deficit that will cause our economy to collapse

Personally I subscribe to the theory that if you're successful because of the freedom of the American system, you have a social responsibility to maintain the American system so that it can continue to foster success for other hard-working people like yourself.

[Deftscythe]

Mailed my absentee ballot to vote for Obama 2 weeks ago, although in hindsight I wish I had switched to register in Massachusetts.. didn't know about all the ballot initiatives here like decriminalizing pot and abolishing the income tax

I'm a Massachusetts voter and I've been wondering how other people feel about the income tax question. I want to vote for it with the economy how it is, and I would if it was somewhat different, like if it was just a permanent 50% cut to the tax or a 2-year hiatus from it, but a permanent removal of the tax makes me worry for the quality of life in the state with regards to roads and other such public works.

Definitely in favor of question 2 though.

[aurik]

I find it amusing how many people hate income tax. Then again, most people have no sense of economics.


So, how about those rumors of Palin '12?

[Beckwin]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27328293

A new study based on unpublished Internal Revenue Service data shows the rich are different when it comes to paying taxes: They hide more of their income.

The previously unreported study estimates that taxpayers whose true income was between $500,000 and $1 million a year understated their adjusted gross incomes by 21 percent overall in 2001, compared to an 8 percent underreporting rate for those earning $50,000 to $100,000 and even lower rates for those earning less. (The "net misreporting rate" as the IRS calls it, includes both underreported income and inflated deductions.)

In all, because of their higher noncompliance rates, those with true incomes of $200,000 or more received 25 percent of all income, but accounted for 40 percent of net underreported income and 42 percent of underreported tax in 2001, the new analysis finds.

The study was written by Joel Slemrod, an economics professor and director of the Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan's business school and IRS economist Andrew Johns. It has not been officially endorsed or even released by the IRS and seems sure to add fuel to the election season debate over whether those earning $250,000 or more should pay higher tax rates, as Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has proposed.

"bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww don't tax teh rich for being successful"

ok, we'll tax them for being cheaters.

[Deftscythe]

I find it amusing how many people hate income tax. Then again, most people have no sense of economics.


So, how about those rumors of Palin '12?

I don't hate income tax, I know it serves a purpose and that's why I'm probably voting no. I was just curious what other people thought. I wouldn't even consider voting yes if the economy wasn't in the toilet.

As for Palin... I really worry about how many rednecks she could sucker with 4 years to learn the issues she should've known before she told McCain yes.

[ZarakiKujata]

I'm a Massachusetts voter and I've been wondering how other people feel about the income tax question. I want to vote for it with the economy how it is, and I would if it was somewhat different, like if it was just a permanent 50% cut to the tax or a 2-year hiatus from it, but a permanent removal of the tax makes me worry for the quality of life in the state with regards to roads and other such public works.

Definitely in favor of question 2 though.

Well, how do you feel about your property taxes going up thru the roof to offset the cuts/or cutting police/firefighters/school budgets? The money has to come from somewhere. I mean having the mass government go into deficits trying to maintain current levels of spending will not help the economic situation. Likewise killing the countless teacher, police officer and firefighter jobs that those budget cuts would force if Question 1 passes wont help with the economy, if they don't have their jobs they can't purchase goods that drive the rest of the economy. Higher property taxes similiarly is just gonna drive up the cost of living in a house; thus ensuring that it takes longer for the housing market to become affordable for people again and that landlords in Boston have to raise the rent for people due to the dramatic increase needed in property taxes to make up the difference which I think would result in countless other problems for people who rent in the city.

Edit: Palin in 2012 will only happen if she somehow manages to survive through 2010 as governor. Her popularity is tanking fast and the ethics abuse is only gonna keep piling up. Even then 2012 is a long ways away and the Republican party is liable to implode along the lines of Buckley/Goldwater libertarians and redneck nutjobs which could result in completely unpredictable things happening come when the campaign starts in 2011-12. If Palin can, she definitely will run, but if Huckabee/Pawlenty/Jindal runs they could end up splitting the redneck vote leaving the door open for Romney or someone else thats more moderate like Jodi Rell/Kay Bailey Hutchison/Charlie Crist to run.

[Muffins]

Well, how do you feel about your property taxes going up thru the roof to offset the cuts/or cutting police/firefighters/school budgets? The money has to come from somewhere. I mean having the mass government go into deficits trying to maintain current levels of spending will not help the economic situation. Likewise killing the countless teacher, police officer and firefighter jobs that those budget cuts would force if Question 1 passes wont help with the economy, if they don't have their jobs they can't purchase goods that drive the rest of the economy. Higher property taxes similiarly is just gonna drive up the cost of living in a house; thus ensuring that it takes longer for the housing market to become affordable for people again and that landlords in Boston have to raise the rent for people due to the dramatic increase needed in property taxes to make up the difference which I think would result in countless other problems for people who rent in the city.

Just send them down to the Fall River area like they already do. :/

Video of the day, IMO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX1ImnGQYcE

[Rhinox]

God I love Rachael Maddow

In 2000, McCain said there is ‘nothing wrong’ with the wealthy paying ’somewhat more’ taxes.

America lost a great senator the day McCain's desire to become president became to strong.