something to die for

An Iranian pastor who has refused to renounce his Christian faith faces execution as early as Wednesday after his sentence was upheld by an Iranian court.

Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for apostasy last September based on religious writings by Iranian clerics, including Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite the fact that there is no offense of "apostasy" in the nation's penal code, Amnesty International reports.

Father Jonathan Morris, a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of New York and an analyst for Fox News Channel, said Nadarkhani's case is "unmistakable evidence" that Iran is executing Christians simply because they refuse to become Muslims.

Morris continued: "Will President Obama, and the free world, allow the United Nations to continue in its cowardly silence on this matter?"

---

source:
Iranian Pastor Faces Execution For Refusing To Recant Christian Faith | Fox News -
By Joshua Rhett Miller - Published September 28, 2011

throwing good money after bad

Harvard economist Martin Feldstein's calculation that each job created by President Obama's American Jobs Act would cost taxpayers about $200,000.

that's just enough to fund one more Solyndra!

"If the alternative plan is for Washington to do nothing, that's unacceptable," Geithner said.

yeah, because it's better to give it to your constituents and let them do nothing.

even ABC has stopped buying the Kool-Aid, Mr. Jones.

---

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. - Rita Mae Brown, Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983)

---

sources:
$200K Per Job? Timothy Geithner Says White House Jobs Plan Is Still a Bargain - ABC News - Money - by Ben Forer

Occupying--Not Rioting--Wall Street

Regardless of traffic snarls, the police had no right to pepper spray, mace and violently throw to the ground peaceful demonstrators. Yes, the protestors did not have a permit to march, but the police had little grounds on which to get violent with them.

i agree that the police, in may instances, used excessive force... however, it is still illegal to march without a permit... civil disobedience is still a crime... disobeying a lawful order of a police officer is an arrestable offense... again, the police was excessive, but i would hardly call it "little grounds"... i don't believe any of the protestors calmly turned themselves in once the police notified them of being under arrest... this crowd is not filled with Ghandi's or King's.
About Activism
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

ReBlog - papers please

Feds Hold Off Approving Texas' Voter ID Bill
by Julian Aguilar, The Texas Tribune - 9/23/2011
The Department of Justice advised the Texas Secretary of State today that its request for preclearance of the contentious voter ID bill lacked enough information for the government to render a decision.
The bill, SB 14, by state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, would require that voters present a valid state-issued ID before casting a ballot. Gov. Rick Perry deemed the legislation an emergency item during the regular session of the 82nd Texas Legislature. The bill is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2012.
Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act gives the U.S. Department of Justice or the federal courts the authority to review laws that would affect voter participation before they are enacted. Democrats and civil rights groups have argued that the new requirement would adversely affect minority populations and the elderly who do not have immediate access to identification. Republicans championed the measure as a way to stomp out voter fraud in Texas.
In a letter to the state, T. Christian Herren, the chief of DOJ's Voting Section, said Texas submitted its application in July but did not provide adequate information for it to determine if the “proposed changes have neither the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group."
The state must now re-submit the request with the additional information that, among others things, describes the federally mandated voter-education program the state will implement, how election officials will be trained to correctly implement SB 14, and more details about the 605,576 registered voters who do not currently possess a valid ID. The department specifically asks the state to identify how many members of that group have Spanish surnames, which counties they reside in and an estimated number by race. The DOJ also requests the Secretary of State provide the number of registered voters in Texas with a Spanish surname who currently possess a legal form of identification.
The DOJ did not oppose all aspects of the law, including provisions that would raise the penalty for illegal voting from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony and increase the penalty for attempting to vote illegally from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony.
The department says the U.S. attorney general will have 60 additional days to review the state’s revised proposal.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/voter-id/feds-hold-approving-texas-voter-id-bill/.

ReBlog - liberal attack monsters

Screenshots: Michelle Malkin attacked on twitter from Alec Baldwin and his rabid followers The Right Scoop
Posted by The Right Scoop on Sep 22, 2011 in Politics

For all of you who weren’t on twitter last night, Alec Baldwin decided to instruct all of his followers to tweet Michelle Malkin over the Troy Davis execution, calling her a “world class, crypto facist hater!”. And the onslaught of hate tweets began. I managed to capture a smattering, some of which Michelle retweeted for public record. I also posted a new link above, Tweeting Michelle Malkin, so you can see and the hate tweets Michelle will be getting in the coming days.

CONTENT WARNING as many of these tweets contain vulgar language:

all's fair in class warfare

"It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million."

---

he must have misspoke... what he should have said is, "It is wrong to think that someone earning $50,000 pays higher tax rates than somebody earning $50 million. Because they don't."

---

On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.

---

literally half of all taxes (49.8%) paid in are paid by the top 4.5% (who make $200,000 or more)... in 2009, that was $431 million paid in.

---

Obama's claim hinges on the fact that, for high-income families and individuals, investment income is often taxed at a lower rate than wages. The top tax rate for dividends and capital gains is 15%. The top marginal tax rate for wages is 35%, though that is reserved for taxable income above $379,150.

---

so if you have money to invest, you are taxed at a level rate, no matter how much you have invested... people with more money have more to invest... if we tax investments at higher rates, people will invest less because they will get less (net) return... i thought we were trying to fix the economy.

---

"People who are doing quite well and worry about low-income people not paying any taxes bemoan the fact that they get so many tax breaks that they are zeroed out," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. "People at the bottom of the distribution say, 'But all of those rich guys are getting bigger tax breaks than we're getting,' which is also the case."

---

here's the layman's version... everyone can deduct a portion of their college tuition from their taxes... let's say (for sake of argument) that you can deduct 100%... so, if you go to Tinytown Community College, and pay $1,000 in tuition; then you get $1,000 tax break... but if you go to Harvard Medical School at $47,500 a year; then you get a $47,500 tax break... but some (liberals) think it is unfair that a rich person can afford Harvard and also gets a bigger tax break.

this is simply class envy... and politicians have escalated it to class warfare.

sources:
Fact check: The wealthy already pay more taxes – USATODAY.com - By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press

IRS raw data (excel format)

last things last

question: what's the last thing you do while in a recession?... yes, President Obama from 2009?

"Normally, you don't raise taxes in a recession, which is why we haven't and why we have instead cut taxes.

[W]e have not proposed a tax hike for the wealthy that would take effect in the middle of a recession.

So he is absolutely right, the last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up — take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole."
- President Obama

Obama: We must ‘help Elkhart reinvent itself’ - US news - msnbc.com - 8/5/2009 3:02:26 PM ET

---

I will veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare but does not raise serious revenues [read: taxes] by asking the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share.
- President Obama

Obama Vows Veto if Deficit Plan Has No Tax Increases - Politics - New York Times - By HELENE COOPER - September 19, 2011

---

so... which is it?... the sensible thing you said in 2009, or the nonsense you said today?
let me guess... the nonsense.

if "first things are first" and "last things are last", i guess we have come to Obama's "last thing".

the new Constitution

In his two years and nine months in office, President Obama has compiled a spectacular record of noncompliance with the Constitution.

all emphasis, added...

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that under Mr. Obama’s direction, the Justice Department would no longer defend [the Defense of Marriage Act]. DOMA, [was] passed by overwhelming majorities in Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1996.

can i ignore laws i don't like?

After New Black Panther Party members were caught on tape intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008, the Justice Department declined to defend the convictions.

so much for "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution"...

 [T]he administration announced a new policy that, in effect, ends enforcement of illegal immigration, providing the illegal alien meets the requirements of the Dream Act, a bill Congress failed to pass.

they won't uphold actual laws, but they will enforce ones that did not pass...

The EPA has become a law unto itself. The Obama administration also has ignored a federal judge’s ruling that it acted illegally in prohibiting new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

who needs Congress, when you can just make your own laws...

The National Labor Relations Board’s absurd order to the Boeing Co. not to open a newly built $750-million Dreamliner facility in right-to-work South Carolina, because unions in Boeing’s home state of Washington object, violates that guarantee [of the Fifth Amendment's "due process of law" and "just compensation".

what's next?... state-owned corporations?... and they call Republicans "fascist"!...

[The National Labor Relations Board] declar[ed] two Catholic universities - St. Xavier University in Chicago and Manhattan College in New York - not sufficiently “religious.”

i guess they should have been muslim...

---

KNIGHT: Obama tears up the Constitution - Washington Times#.TncraZeC8jM.facebook

magical thinking

The Obama administration’s $38.6 billion “clean technology” program was supposed to “create or save” 65,000 jobs. Half the money has been spent – $17.2 billion – and we have 3,545 jobs to show for it. That works out to an impressive $4,851,904.09 per “green job.” A world record! Take that, you loser Spaniards! USA! USA!

Obama’s magical thinking on green jobs - Mark Steyn : Opinion - The Orange County Register

---

this is not complicated math, folks... the hope (and change) of 65,000 jobs was ludicrous... at $38.6 million, that was only $600,000 per job... that was their plan!... what kind of idiot wants to create a job for $600,000?... they're either an idiot or a politician... or do i repeat myself?

---

“I love you, too,” said the president. “But… .”
Oh, no, here it comes: conditional love. “But, if you love me, you’ve got to help me pass this bill!” You’d be surprised how effective this line is: I tried it on Darlene in the back of my Ford Edsel when I was 17, and we didn’t get home till two in the morning.

---

sounds like someone is going to get screwed.

---

Fortunately, there is no “American Jobs Act”. Indeed, the other day, tired of waiting for Obama to turn his telepromptered pseudo-bill into a typewritten actual bill, the Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert waggishly introduced an “American Jobs Act” all of his own. But back on the campaign trail the chanting goes on, last week’s election results in Nevada and New York notwithstanding. America has the lowest employment since the early Eighties, the lowest property ownership since the mid-Sixties, the highest deficit-to-GDP ratio since the Second World War, the worst long-term unemployment since the Great Depression, the highest government dependency rate of all time, and the biggest debt mountain in the history of the planet.

---

congratulations?

crap.

if at first you don't succeed, pass another stimulus

Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last week, shocking both workers and the Obama administration, which had given the startup $535 million in low interest loans.

FBI at Solyndra Headquarters | NBC Bay Area

"President Barack Obama, with Solyndra Chief Executive Officer Chris Gronet, [look] at a solar panel, during a tour of Solyndra, Inc., a solar panel manufacturing facility, in Fremont, Calif. Solyndra received a $535 million loan from the U.S. government has announced layoffs of 1,100 workers and plans to file for bankruptcy." (WaPo)

The FBI raided Solyndra this morning. The Top Obama bundler George Kaiser, a principle investor in Solyndra, made multiple visits to the White House in the months before the company was granted a $535 million loan from the government.

They went to the wrong address.
They should have raided the White House.

The Gateway pundit - Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, September 8, 2011, 11:42 AM

---

who is really suprised at this?

oh yeah... liberal Democrats.

ReBlog - oops!... did i say that?

Whether or not Social Security is a Ponzi scheme was again a source of great discussion during Monday's Republican presidential debate, and it appears this is likely going to be a hot issue throughout this election cycle.
What should be interesting to participants and pundits alike is that during the last presidential campaign, on November 5, 2007, the late Tim Russert, and Chris Matthews, while talking about the Democrat candidates on an episode of MSNBC's "Hardball" broadcast exactly one year before America elected its first black president, agreed that Social Security was "a bad Ponzi scheme" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

RUSSERT: And if you’re going to make tough decisions as a president, you have to answer tough questions. What are you going to do? Show us how you’re going the lead us. Everyone knows Social Security, as it’s constructed, is not going to be in the same place it’s going to be for the next generation, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives.

MATTHEWS: It’s a bad Ponzi scheme, at this point. Yeah.

Flashback 2007: Tim Russert and Chris Matthews Agree Social Security Is 'A Bad Ponzi Scheme' NewsBusters.org
By Noel Sheppard September 13, 2011 11:03

what's half-a-trillion between friends?

holy $#!t... Maxine Waters (D-CA) was serious?... President Obama now wants to spend $470,000,000,000 to create jobs... after spending $666,000,000,000 last year to "create or save" around 2.4 million jobs (@ $278,000 per job)... i'm getting tired of saying it; "YOU CAN'T CONTINUE THIS!"

Titled the American Jobs Act, the proposal includes more than $250 billion in tax incentives for small businesses and employers, according to administration estimates. The rest of the money would be devoted to infrastructure spending, state aid, unemployment insurance, and neighborhood rehabilitation. The president will pay for the proposal by asking the congressional super committee tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction to offset the cost of the package in their proposal.

Obama Jobs Plan: $447 Billion, More Than Half In Tax Cuts, To Be Paid For By Super Committee

wait... "super committee"?... when did we create a new branch of government?... and did i miss the vote on who would be on this "super committee"?... apparently the democratic process we fought and died for isn't good enough anymore.

The tax components of the president's plan don't end there. The White House also wants a payroll tax holiday for businesses that add new workers or increase the wages of current employees; a fifty percent reduction of the tax rates businesses pay on the first $5 million in payroll; and a $4,000 tax credit for employers who hire long-term unemployed workers.

this is so stupid, i'll have to tackle it in parts.

1. the payroll tax holiday is just removing money from the federal tax rolls... employers aren't going to add workers for the limited tax benefit... they hire workers when they can profitably employ them... even minimum wage is around $15,000 a year, so no single tax incentive will cover that.
2. great... the payroll deduction not only takes funds away from the federal rolls (again), it takes matching funds away from my Social Security!... and i love that they have some magical ability to not put money into Social Security, yet somehow you don't lose any future benefits!... (and they say this isn't a Ponzi scheme!)
3. who will take $4,000 in graft to hire someone whom no one else wanted to hire before?... you want to hire the best and most qualified... they are already employed!... the only people who will take advantage of this are employers who aren't hiring them long-term to begin with!... they'll get their $4k and fire them when they're done... the most they'll get out of it is one year of minimum wage, then it's back on the breadline... but who cares about that?... that will be after the 2012 election.

bastards... all of them.

$1,000,000,000,000 - what a bargain!

Waters calls for $1 trillion jobs program - United Press International

obviously, Maxine Waters has no clue how the economy works.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Sunday U.S. President Barack Obama should propose a "bold" jobs program costing $1 trillion or more.

"The president must be bold. I agree that he must have a jobs program, must create jobs," Waters said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I'm talking about a program of $1 trillion or more. We've got to put Americans to work. That's the only way to revitalize this economy. When people work and they earn money, they spend that money, and that is what gets the economy up and going."

it's all well and good to give money to people... and yes, they will spend it (rather than invest it)... that money fuels business... businesses will hire people and invest profits... taxes will be paid... etc., etc., etc.

but at some point, you run out of spending other people's money... the federal government cannot spur the economy by funding individuals... 90% of the population has few choices in spending "bailout" money... most of us are already too far in debt to take advantage of "free" money... we have spent ourselves into a hole, so the first thing we'll do is pay off debt (so we can go back into debt tomorrow)... give us a little, we'll pay off bills... give us a lot, we'll pay off cars and mortgages... give us a lot more, we'll pay off everything... only then will many of us put money back into the economy... only when we have "disposable" income will we spur the economy.

but, lets say we spend a trillion dollars on "stimulus"... if we take the last job-creating stimulus as an example, it created one job for every $278,000 spent... that means, if we spend 1 TRILLION dollars, we'll create (or save) 3.5 million jobs... that will (hypothetically) drop our unemployment from 9.6% to 7.4%... however, when we look back at the unemployment rate after the previous stimulus, it went from 6.0% to 9.6%... on the face of it, this didn't seem work, did it?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. - Rita Mae Brown, Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983)

if Ms. Brown is to be believed, Rep. Waters is truly insane.

---

POLITICO: Waters wants 'bold' jobs plan from Obama - POLITICO Live - Waters wants 'bold' jobs plan from Obama