HCR Law contains 3.8% Real Estate Sales Tax (!!)

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Friday January 07, 2011 · 11:04 AM PST

2011/01/07 · 11:04

UPDATED (ACCIDENTALLY OMITTED BODY OF DIARY NOW RESTORED)

Did you know that the 2010 "ObamaCare" Health Care Law contains a 3.8% REAL ESTATE SALES TAX that goes into effect beginning in 2013, costing (for example) a homeowner selling a 100,000 residence $3800? I didn't either, until a good friend of mine who's a hard-core true-believer GOP wingnut forwarded this information along to me in an email. (Why he'd pass this along to me, a progressive, I'll explain later on).

RELAX (this claim is a wildly untrue distortion spun from a small kernel of fact), BUT NOT TOO MUCH because this superficially plausible, but grossly fraudulent piece of propaganda is being actively grassroots-propagated by the Republican Party itself, and not merely some loosely affiliated Tea Party group. The intent is to lay out a convincing-sounding talking point that GOP partisans can use to spread this disinformation in talks among their less politically active friends and neighbors, whenever talk turns to political subjects.

Both the substance of the wildly distorted claim and an accurate analysis of the actual provision involved follow below the fold.

cmoreNC

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Friday June 04, 2010 · 1:08 PM PDT

2010/06/04 · 13:08

I'm speaking here of where the people involved believe they are in private small-group purely social situations, completely insulated from anyone's commercial or professional lives or any sort of public forum, and mistakenly assume from context that everyone present is sufficiently like-minded (or at least sufficiently indifferent) that they feel free to make unguarded comments and jokes reflecting their true mindset. I'm NOT speaking here of the sort of openly racist jackasses who don't give a crap about offending people with racist jokes and huge confederate flags in the rear-windows of their pickup trucks; rather, I'm speaking of otherwise respectable upper-middle class professionals and business folks (many of whom are "pillars of their community" types who carefully avoid showing any overt signs of racism in their professional and business lives).

You may ask: how exactly did these folks "mistakenly" assume I was like-minded enough to be comfortable telling a viciously racist joke about Michelle Obama to a small group in which I was present? [more after the fold]

cmoreNC

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Friday July 03, 2009 · 7:48 AM PDT

2009/07/03 · 07:48

With frequent regularity here on Kos in various diaries and comments, we fume over how often so many Democratic Senators and CongressPersons (including those supposedly sympathetic to many progressive causes) cast their votes and influence on behalf of big corporate interests instead of the larger public interest. It's hardly news to everyone here that there's a strong link between campaign contribution sources and how most senators and congresspersons vote, and we rail against the betrayal, spinelessness, and corruption this represents. We are aware of how much aggregate money gets raised and spent in various campaigns these days.

DESPITE THIS AWARENESS, few of us actually do the simple math necessary to understand why it's so forbiddingly difficult for even good progressive-minded people to come anywhere close to consistently doing the right thing once they're in office. The mathematical tide inexorably works against progressive integrity - there are very few who could consistently stand up against it.

[The simple math even the most math challenged can quickly do follows below the fold]

cmoreNC

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Sunday September 28, 2008 · 9:08 AM PDT

2008/09/28 · 09:08

I live in a predominately Republican neighborhood located in one of the most heavily Republican-leaning voting precincts (Barton Creek) in north Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina. This is the kind of affluent, lushly landscaped neighborhood where the majority of folks are not inclined to put up political yard signs in their yards or bumper stickers on their cars - but nonetheless there is a notable portion who do, and a half-dozen McCain yard signs sprouted this past week scattered around the hood, and no Obama signs. In short, it's the kind of place where it's easy to assume cautiously that the overwhelming majority of your neighbors are firmly in the GOP camp and likely McCain voters, and the best you'd accomplish by planting an "Obama" yard sign is to be regarded as a mildly obstreperous iconoclast who may a decent-enough seeming neighbor most of the time, but is now revealed to be a hopelessly wrong-thinking pudding-head worthy of a bit of scorn too. [More after the break]

cmoreNC

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Sunday August 31, 2008 · 9:11 PM PDT

2008/08/31 · 21:11

The selection of Alaska Governor Palin was at first (and still) seen by many commentators as foremost, an effort to win over women disappointed over Hillary Clinton's defeat for the Democratic nomination, and her rejection by Obama as his VP choice, and secondly as a tactical way to quickly divert media attention (and news cycles) away from what they realized even before Obama's Thursday night speech would be an extremely successful Democratic convention. True, the McCain camp did pick Palin as bait to go fishing for female voters, and to see how many might bite, and even somewhat to reinforce his alleged "maverick" image with voters.

Nevertheless, it's a mistake to view these goals as the primary reason for the Palin pick (which makes the choice look like a huge gamble), rather than potential windfall bonuses, the success of which aren't essential for the pick to yield it's main payoff: the engagement and energization of the GOP base, especially the evangelical right. Their turnout was the crucial difference in Bush winning Ohio in 2004.

cmoreNC

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Wednesday June 04, 2008 · 11:29 AM PDT

2008/06/04 · 11:29

While walking my dog today at Sunset Beach, NC (near NC/SC line) I saw a contractor's panel truck (with ladders mounted on the roof) with an 8.5 x 11-sized sign mounted prominently in the back window:

"Never Forget 9/11:
vote AGAINST
BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA"

There was BTW another smaller sticker on the bumper of the truck (it had South Carolina plates): "Member of South Carolina Highway Patrolman's Association". Which may or may not indicate that the owner of the truck is a retired SC Highway patrolman.

QUESTION: What, if anything should any of us prudently do when we encounter this sort of thing?

MY RESPONSE: I went back to my beach house a block away and wrote a note on a 4x6" sized notepad page:

cmoreNC

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Wednesday January 23, 2008 · 2:56 PM PST

2008/01/23 · 14:56

In his online column today, entitled "Our leaders have squandered our wealth" today, Lou Dobbs actually makes great sense. Perhaps even more amazingly, discussion (or even the scantest mention) of immigration is totally absent from Dobbs' column today, as is any direct or even oblique mention of any particular presidential candidate. This is a column Paul Krugman could have written in the days before some suspected he was taking sides in the democratic presidential race.

cmoreNC

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Wednesday January 16, 2008 · 12:08 PM PST

2008/01/16 · 12:08

In today's mail I received a letter-sized envelope (with return address of "Republican National Committee, 310 First Street SE, Washington DC 20003) with a boldface label immediately above the clear window addressed to me personally:
"REPUBLICAN CENSUS DOCUMENT ENCLOSED"

I happen to live in one of the more strongly republican-leaning voting precincts in Raleigh, NC, about 70% of my surrounding neighbors going a block or so in each direction are registered GOP [which fact I gleaned by cross-referencing the neighborhood directory with our county board of election's electronic-searchable voter registration database]...and the predecessor residents of the house we bought 2 yrs ago were GOP. What was curious was that this "census document" purported to be "census documents registered to [my name] with registration number 1978-0725 (top line) 552399465 (next line)...which of course does not match my county voting registration ID, and it would be hard to miss that I'm a registered "DEM". It contained a postage prepaid envelope addressed to the RNC for me to return my "census" form to. Now, looking at the "census document" itself:

cmoreNC

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Tuesday December 04, 2007 · 5:51 PM PST

2007/12/04 · 17:51

Both MSNBC and CNN currently have top-lead stories on their respective sites about the report by US intelligence agencies that Iran ceased to pursue a weapons program back in 2003.

HERE'S the link to the current story on that topic over on Faux News to see how they're spinning it:

...that's right, there is NO STORY AT ALL ANYWHERE ON THE CURRENT FOX NEWS WEBPAGE, ABOUT THE IRAN INTEL /NO NUKES REPORT. Not even under the "US", "World" or "Politics" subheadings, nada, not a peep, even from Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity. Instead, the lead stories on Faux News's webpage are:

Oregon Storm Evacuation

Bush to Visit Mideast

Giant Asian Elephant Missing. (How appropriate).

TRUE!

Sorry this "diary" is so short, but that's exactly the point in this case.

Constructive Friendly Letter to Sean Hannity

cmoreNC

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Monday February 12, 2007 · 7:06 PM PST

2007/02/12 · 19:06

A WHAT? To WHOM? Trying to send a "constructive friendly letter" to Sean Hannity is like sending an oxymoron on a suicide mission, you no doubt are thinking to yourself (or something like it). Or in more straightforward language, like trying to offer friendly advice to a braying jackass.

Today at www.foxnews.com, Sean posted commentary entitled: "Is the Democratic Party waving the white flag on Iraq?" While my first impulse was to respond with something correct but utterly futile of making any impact with Sean and the FoxFolks like "Is Sean Hannity wanting the US to endlessly replay the British charge at Gallipoli", fortunately I thought of a genuinely devastating, chickenhawk-armor-piercing response that would be hard to ignore, if only enough of us responded in similar vein.

RSS

HCR Law contains 3.8% Real Estate Sales Tax (!!)

Jokes Wingers Tell You When They Mistakenly Assume You're One of Them

Simple Math of Why It's Difficult (from Anywhere) to be a Progressive Senator or Congressman

Surprising Importance of Yard Signs in some Neighborhoods

GOP reverts to Rovian "base" electoral strategy with Palin: (drive independent turnout down)

"vote no: BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA" on business truck

Lou Dobbs Actually Makes Sense Today (!!)

I just received a: "Republican Census Document" by mail

Fox News' Take on Intel: No Iran Weapons Program

Constructive Friendly Letter to Sean Hannity