Bush compromise helped spur scienceGiving Bush credit for any advances in stem cell research because he vetoed funding for embryonic stem cell research is kinda like giving Japan credit for the nuclear age when they attacked Pearl Harbor.
BDN Editorial Excerpt: By encouraging science to seek alternative problem-solving strategies, Bush's compromise appears to have resulted in stem-cell research advances that will promote progress without trampling deeply-held beliefs. And that is a breakthrough, in more ways than one.
JG Editorial Excerpt:Crown jewel,eh? In many ways, Riverside Park is to Janesville what Lincoln Park or perhaps even Navy Pier is to Chicago. It has gobs of potential. That a
Money that the group raises and labor it can provide will help restore luster to the crown jewel in this City Of Parks.
ExcerptIn rebuttal to Buffett's testimony was this open letter on the Web to which of course I offered some simple deconstruction.
"Dynastic wealth, the enemy of meritocracy, is on the rise," Buffett told the panel. "Equality of opportunity has been on the decline. A progressive and meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward plutocracy."
Open Letter Excerpt:This says a lot. Buffett appears to be wanting to make a more noble statement. That he would much rather donate to charitable organizations out of the goodness of his heart – and not because it might garner him a tax cut, although I don't blame him for either.
Your low rate is the result of your using your assets to make donations to charitable foundations (thank you, by the way), thereby reducing your income for the one year and thus your tax rate.
Open Letter Excerpt:One of my favorite arguments here. Claiming corporate profits are taxed by as much as 33% are taxes that have been raised by gouging the consuming base. I have the entire Republican Party and all their conservative friends and think-tank operatives to back me up on this one. The moment a democrat wants to raise corporate taxes, Republicans scream it will effect seniors, consumers and the working poor the most. Why is that?
I would presume that you have also decided to receive dividend income to help reduce your taxable income and thereby your effective tax rate. What your argument fails to mention is that your dividends are paid after taxes paid by the corporation of as much as 33%. The reason that reducing taxes on dividends is necessary is because they are taxed twice previously.
Open Letter Excerpt:Using their numbers, are we so concerned about a tax that effects only one-half of one percent of the wealthiest qualifying estates?
Finally, you say the estate tax should be paid. You mentioned that if you go to 200 funerals, in only one will the estate tax have been paid. As an accountant, I can assure you that the 199 families planned their estates (as you did) to make sure that this ludicrous tax could be avoided.
Open Letter Excerpt:I still determine how I spend my own money after paying taxes for the privilege and honor of living in America. Both the president and our Rep. Paul Ryan insist their selective tax cut policies created more tax revenue, and since feeding the system is unwise as you put it - it looks like a tax hike is in order.
But if you think that I would rather have the federal government determine how to spend my money, you are sadly mistaken. Government spending already is out of control. To feed the system with more tax revenue is unwise.
Oily OPEC Excerpt:In his mind, any natural oil resources owned by anything other than private entities are possessed under the banner of socialism. His reasoning is ……
Socialism always plants the seeds of its own destruction, and state-owned oil is no exception. Most people do not realize that about 90 percent of the world's liquid oil reserves are controlled by governments or state-owned companies.
Oily OPEC Excerpt:OPEC does manipulate supply, but that doesn’t make them socialistic, in fact, the freedom to manipulate supply to increase prices and profits is one of the sacred tenets of not socialism…..but capitalism. But he continues…….
The high price of oil is a direct consequence of artificial supply constraints imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other countries, including the United States, and the incompetence and mismanagement found in most state-owned oil companies.
Oily OPEC Excerpt:Of course I’m under the impression that Rahn hates socialism and would like nothing less than to see it disappear from the planet, but throughout his rant, he completely ignores the fact that the price of oil is dictated none other than by free market future's speculators. There is no physical shortage of oil.....yet.
A decade or two from now, the socialist states will have severe regrets for their current misbehavior, and this is why. When prices rise, people seek alternative sources and substitutes for the high-priced commodity. When oil prices are above $30 or $40 a barrel, suddenly the Canadian oil sands and Colorado oil-bearing shale become economic, and those reserves are larger than known liquid oil reserves.
Oily OPEC Excerpt:There you go. OPEC is keeping the price of oil artificially high to usher in energy independence and technological progress, those darn socialists will regret all this. To top it off they're willingness to rake in short-term profits will only lead to their own demise. At this point, I don't know what Rahn is hoping for.
Now, for the really good news. The new car you purchase a decade from now is almost certainly to be totally electrically powered.
Oily OPEC Excerpt:Is Rahn bragging or complaining? Remember all of this progress resulted from actions caused by none other than greedy profit taking socialists.
As people move to electric cars, the need for gasoline and imported oil will quickly disappear. Nuclear and clean coal plants must expand to produce the additional electricity, but they produce energy at a fraction of the cost of petroleum.
Over a Barrel Excerpt:This was a reasonable perspective, but considering that the high price of oil and not an actual physical shortage of it prompted this warning, I was left with the notion that this message was just another shot at expanding domestic oil drilling. Which is something I believe would have zero impact on lowering prices.
"I am sorry to say this, but we are headed toward really bad days," a prominent energy economist told Time magazine last week. That was no alarmist talking. It was Fatih Birol, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency, an oil industry organization whose annual World Energy Outlook report is widely considered a reliable indicator of petroleum supplies.
JG Sound Off:Let me get this straight. You want cigarette smoking lottery ticket buyers who can’t break their nicotine addiction to suddenly find the willpower to stop their gambling habit? – just so you don’t help others. Oh, well of course!
On Smokers: To all Wisconsin smokers, as of Jan.1, stop buying lottery tickets. That will help offset the tax increase we unfairly have to pay. Lets not help out others who don’t care that we’re being extorted and harassed. -- anonymous
JG Sound Off:According to some in Janesville, you’re taking it out of context. Haven’t you had the time to sit down and educate yourself by watching the Janesville budget hearings and learning sessions televised on public access JA-12? Oh, I’m sorry – I forgot. The Janesville city council went out of their way to deny those prying contextual cameras and microphones into the room. If they say you have it all wrong – thank them.
On City Budget: Let’s review; city faces $1 million dollar budget shortfall. Reported in the Gazette, city puts $1 million in escrow for aquatics facility, which only a few people want, I might add. Mr. Scheiffer, do any idea lights go on? -- anonymous
JG Sound Off:I actually feel slighted by this. I don’t know about the disrespectful part, but the sinister sarcasm and the disgust are nearly complimentary around here and something I thought I had locked down all to myself.
On Christianson Column: Brian Christianson’s sinister disrespect and sarcastic attitude (Page 8A, Nov. 5) are disgusting. – anonymous
These legislators fought on behalf of AT&T to reject the following consumer protecting provisions. WAPC Excerpt:It's heading for the Governor and it seems like there's no reason for him to veto the will of the legislature unless he can apply some fancy scalpel incisions. AT&T must be laughing all the way to the bank - what a disgrace.
· Required video providers to maintain customer support call centers in Wisconsin. (JOBS)
· Required incumbent cable operators to maintain their local franchises until a competitor arrives so that enforceable consumer protections would remain in place where there are monopolies.
· Required a 10-year limit on the length of state-issued franchises (the law passed grants licenses in perpetuity with the right to transfer to any company without state review).
· Required video providers to follow local ordinances regarding the placement of TV equipment (AT&T's "refrigerator boxes") in city rights-of-way if the location of that equipment would have a negative effect on nearby property values.
· Required continuing free cable TV service to schools and public buildings.
It should be noted that sell-outs Lehman and Sullivan crossed over to support the following defeated PEG protections.
SA4 – Would have allowed municipalities with access channels to collect up to a 1% PEG fee on video revenue to support local programming and would have required local cable providers to honor PEG support provisions in local agreements until expiration.
SA10 – Would have allowed PEG stations to earn revenue through ads.
SA16 – Would have required PEG channels to be carried on the local broadcast tier, companies to pay the cost of converting the standard PEG signal to their format, and would have required PEG channels to be carried at the same technical quality as other commercial channels.
Election 2008: They still don’t get it:I would have thought nothing of this editorial had I just not finished reading their take on Wisconsin's legislative action pertaining to the cable competition act.
* The price of gasoline and household energy.
* Rising prices for groceries, airline tickets and all the other items tied to energy/transportation costs.
* Continued stagnation in wages for workers. And those demoralizing frequent reports about how the super-rich are enjoying the best times ever.
* The migration of manufacturing jobs to other countries.
* The soaring price of sending a kid to college.
* The persistent whining for bigger government budgets, and spending that consistently rises at above-inflation rates.
* The pain of mortgage payers as adjustable rates set higher.
* Declining values for home sellers.
* Debt-ridden Americans who no longer can use their homes as ATM machines.
* The government's duplicitous performance and unwillingness to seal the borders.
* And, perhaps most important, the growing cynicism as Americans sense the politicians don't really care about them, that the political class is, (1) in it for themselves, and (2) a more-or-less wholly owned subsidiary of the rich and powerful.
JG Editorial excerpt:Sodemann was a little more than half-right. He must have forgot about the large minority of nearly 10,000 residents (including myself) who thought the referendum was excessive. Even though this referendum passed and Sodemann was the only school board member at the time defending taxpayers with more choices for a leaner and more balanced referendum, people have short memories soon after they sign up for a balloon mortgage.
And, as board member Bill Sodemann noted Monday, voters in November did say “Yes, charge it to me.”
JG Sound Off Excerpt:I don’t blame this person, and it’s not often I would bother to defend a card carrying Republican like Sodemann but he had little to do with the referendum passage, neither did Cullen or Rashkin, those two weren’t on the board at the time. Look at the others, they're the ones who pushed for increasing the school tax burden exclusive from benefiting the teachers.
Thumbs down to Bill Sodemann, especially to the remarks of, “They did say, “Yes, charge it to me” on the school referendum of $70 million. No more referendums should be voted on from now on. If so, charge it to Bill Sodemann. -- anonymous
"Who would have known that the school “rainy day” fund the teachers helped build through small but accumulating sacrifices over the years would actually be used not for school budget and operational expenses but as a taxpayer rebate fund used to alleviate a fiscal crisis partially inflated by the referendum they supported?"The Janesville Gazette only rubs salt into the wound with their apparent satisfaction that the balance fund has not been used for the sake of those overpaid teachers.
JG Editorial Excerpt:We all know that teachers, their living expenses and health care are immune to inflation, much better to reduce the taxpayer anticipated $103 tax increase down to $74. That's a whopping $29 annual savings!
But that wouldn’t be wise. Using that money to pad pay would only compound the problem during the next contract, when teachers will want still higher pay. Soon, the fund would be depleted.
JG Editorial Excerpt:Barf! You know something, the Gazette editors are pulling the same crap they did on Judy Robson. No matter what happens at this late stage in the negotiations, blame those (union) leaders because although they did not request mediation, the other guys (school board) did, they (JEA) must be "ineffective" because it went this far.
Despite public claims otherwise, we sense that JEA leaders really want mediation. That way, they can tell members they went as far as they could to get the best possible deal.
Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:But two dominant features of this twisted comparison are undeniable. One, they were both unfairly “targeted” by their party and number two, they’re both women. But there's a third, the inability to recognize leadership. But even if we ignore that, Milam says….. .
The gender gap has also been played. Robson’s ouster has been compared to that of former Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, a West Bend Republican. That’s a twisted comparison.
Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:This is confusing, I would guess Milam is attempting to prove Robson and Panzer were targeted for the same reasons, their performance? or … for other reasons? Because, Milam goes further….
Robson was sent packing as a direct result of her performance as majority leader. Panzer was targeted by her own party and voted out of office. She lost her leadership post because she was no longer senator.
Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:Sure, when party members listen to vicious talk-radio whack jobs and certifiable nuts for guidance, this is exactly what you get, clear and intelligent decision making.
Panzer, a moderate, was called out by Milwaukee talk show hosts Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling in a relentless attack surrounding her inability to force a vote on TABOR….Panzer could have called the vote, but the measure would have failed anyways.
Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:The GOP listened to those whack jobs and used her refusal to bring up the irrelevant TABOR to a useless vote as an inability to perform, when just the opposite was true. But now it is a full blown war based on internal partisanship targeting Panzer’s moderation which in this case is just another word for bi-partisanship, something Republicans claim democrats lack. Very much just like Robson. Remember, Robson has been accused of giving up too much.
Hard-core GOP conservatives could have cared less if the measure passed. They wanted a roll call to identify RINOS – Republicans in name only.
JG Editorial Excerpt:Oh, well that’s different.
Landmark has committed to matching the grant for engineering and final project studies.
JG Editorial Excerpt:Those taxpayer protecting conservatives over at the Gazette believe “bridges to nowhere” are bad, unless of course the taxpayers are paying for a study to build one in their own backyard.
When do “pet projects” have merit? The simplistic answer is when they are in your back yard.
