A Modest Proposal - The Fairer Tax

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Thursday July 14, 2011 · 12:31 PM PDT

2011/07/14 · 12:31

It is very difficult to understand today's GOP leadership and the rank and file who are holding the feet of the GOP leadership to the fire. They are on a seemingly nihilistic course. How could a political party with any utilitarianism or practical wisdom at all threaten the faith and credit of the United States to achieve internal policy goals? We can talk all day in our own niche about the fragmentation of American culture into radical niches through the positive feedback of today's media. Everyone makes a profit by reflecting people their own latitudes of acceptance and reinforcing present attitudes instead of engaging self critically. It's easy to say that the modern GOP's delusional quest to solely define tax policy is the first simulacra mob act, but the result is not going to be a TV show. Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away. We are all going to be poorer if this way of politics wins, even those of us who own businesses and have a lot of loot. How do you dialogue with radicalism? Obama tries moderation. I try moderation with the conservatives from my high school I've reconnected with after twenty years on Facebook. I tried moderation with the other business owners at my office park. What I find is that people have complicated ideas that seem to make even talking at all feel fundamentally undermined. Though both sides have developed a paranoid style, there are a few islands of agreement. One thing everyone agrees on, though, is the need for a fairer, simpler tax code.

wetzel

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Friday February 19, 2010 · 9:17 AM PST

2010/02/19 · 09:17

Yesterday in an interview on Fox with Neil Cavuto, Senator Scott Brown (R) of Massachusetts appeared to endorse the actions of the terrorist who recently attacked the IRS building in Texas. His statements were to the effect that the attack fits within a same pattern of frustration with the federal government that resulted in his own election. To frame the attack as an outcome of valid concerns with transparency and accountability in Washington, Senator Brown is legitimizing the murder of Federal employees. People of all parties should demand the Senator Brown apologize to the families of those killed and injured.

wetzel

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Friday May 09, 2008 · 2:03 PM PDT

2008/05/09 · 14:03

UPDATE - I have decided against this.

Hello Kossacks. On a few occasions I have posted comments within DailyKos threads related to science education that I had created an MCAT course over the past fifteen years which I was releasing as a Creative Commons work. In the dozen or so replies to these comments individuals nobody seemed to think it would be too self promotional for me to create syllabus diaries for the modules and post the videos an independent school and I are creating from our live course in Atlanta. I am a Kossack with a three digit user ID. The videos would be appearing every other week on Science Friday.

Poll

28 votes Show Results

Is it okay for me to post my MCAT course as diaries on Science Friday?

28 votes Vote Now!

Is it okay for me to post my MCAT course as diaries on Science Friday?

Yes

23 votes

2 votes

Let Kos decide

3 votes

Reverand Wright Deserves a Chance to be Heard

wetzel

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Thursday March 27, 2008 · 10:37 PM PDT

2008/03/27 · 22:37

I trust Barrack Obama's judgement. There I've admitted it. I've lost my political cynicism. Trusting him I've never felt the need to click the Youtube video's of Reverand Wright's most inspired and eloquent sermons. I know implicitly that Obama supporters are choosing beautiful works to counter "God Damn America!". I'm a white Southerner so I know where it's coming from anyway. I trust Obama in a way that I won't say I trust Hillary though I love her and forgive her as a friend and old anonymous ally who really sees her for who she is and doesn't take her as seriously as she takes herself, which is what friends are for!

Poll

59 votes Show Results

Clinton and Obama should both support allowing Reverand Wright one half hour on network television.

59 votes Vote Now!

Clinton and Obama should both support allowing Reverand Wright one half hour on network television.

Yes

41 votes

18 votes

Obama is Quitting

wetzel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 20, 2008 · 3:21 AM PDT

2008/03/20 · 03:21

"My wife wisely indicated that this is a potentially stressful situation, running for president," Obama said.

"And she wanted to lay down a very clear marker. She wants me healthy throughout any process."

Is it hard to quit?, he was asked.

"It's one of those habits. You quit for awhile an then you start back up. Actually, Nicorrete works pretty well."

LINK

Poll

25 votes Show Results

Will you join with me and Barrack and quit smoking tomorrow?

25 votes Vote Now!

Will you join with me and Barrack and quit smoking tomorrow?

Yes. I can do it!

25 votes

Bring Back the Volvo 740!

wetzel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 24, 2008 · 4:28 AM PST

2008/01/24 · 04:28

I drive the kind of old car that when you're taking your son to school and you say you bet that that fellow in that truck wished he had such a fine car as our Volvo 740, and your son says I bet he thinks that guy kidnapped that kid. The oil leaks. The air conditioner is 60,000 miles gone, which makes being pinned on an Atlanta interstate in August a test of human endurance, and the heater rattles in Winter from damaged bearing at a loudness the radio would have if it were still working. Truth be told, less than 30% of the dashboard is still working at 200,000 miles. The headliner is oil paint.

Poll

30 votes Show Results

Bring back the Volvo 740!

30 votes Vote Now!

Bring back the Volvo 740!

Yes

30 votes

Open Letter to Bill Moyers

wetzel

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Saturday January 19, 2008 · 6:08 AM PST

2008/01/19 · 06:08

Dear Bill,

I don't know if you are a Kossack, although I hope you will be reading this. As someone whose been visiting Daily Kos since back in the day when Marisacat, Steve Gilliard and Billmon were regulars, I can't see how you could have avoided being drawn into this community, but you might have been run away in disgust if you visited first during the primary election campaign in 2004. If you did not visit then, I can reliably report that primary season in 2004 was just as bad for Daily Kos as it is this year. The constant pushing and jostling for idiotic advantage and the lack of intellectual honesty was just as bad then. This is the problem I hope you might help Daily Kos with. The subject of this letter. I hope, by extension, you might help the Democratic Party and our prospects in 2008.

Poll

90 votes Show Results

Dear Bill,

90 votes Vote Now!

Dear Bill,

I support the request in this letter.

90 votes

The 1992 Brown Campaign's Flat Tax

wetzel

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Monday January 07, 2008 · 3:48 AM PST

2008/01/07 · 03:48

Although as an office it is not much of a credential, I was the President of the Jerry Brown for President campaign at my college in 1992. There are probably many future Kossacks in that campaign. Brown's 1992 platform included replacing the income tax with a national flat tax. I bring this up because I am one of the few Democrats with experience defending the flat tax, and with the rise of Huckabee I thought I would weigh in.

wetzel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday December 07, 2007 · 7:02 AM PST

2007/12/07 · 07:02

From the beginning of the credit storm last year, there have been a few sites in the Blogosphere that have really shined. Professor Roubini at RGE Monitor and Mish come to mind (Mish even despite his fruity politics). I have to say that especially Tanta ande Calculated Risk at Calculated Risk deserve accolades for the coverage and analysis. I really cannot express how much I have learned from those two and the wonderful commenters at Calculated Risk throughout this debacle. Yesterday, Tanta posted her 'quick' analysis of the Bush-Paulson Bailout plan. It is by far the best explication of the plans underlying principles I have found, so I decided to post it in full as as Diary and fan-mail for Calculated Risk and to help my friends at Dailykos understand the bailout plan.

wetzel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 17, 2007 · 1:44 PM PDT

2007/10/17 · 13:44

Single-lot infill is the practice of tearing down homes in established neighborhoods to build a new home in its place. While not a problem is the new house fits in with the established neighborhoods, in many locations infill has been occuring in a way that many feel is destructive aesthetically and economically. If the new homes are not build with any regard for the established neighborhood, it can begin a pattern of dilapidation where the original homes become parked as rentals and the neighborhood slowly gets squeezed and rebuilt in a new form. At least that was the idea.

wetzel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 27, 2007 · 7:49 AM PDT

2007/04/27 · 07:49

Public school teachers can have more purchasing control of classroom learning materials. The key technologies are now in place in purchasing management integration. I have learned about these methods of vendor interface purchasing management integration through my day job at a small family friendly manufacturer of chemicals for molecular biology. Large educational and research institutions such as Emory and Yale are customers of integrated systems installed by companies like SciQuest. In this system the buyer accesses a catalog with thousands of vendors and millions of SKUs. SciQuest earns a consultancy fee from these institutions for implementing their system by removing a mountain of accounting problems.

Poll

7 votes Show Results

As a teacher I order directly for my classroom

7 votes Vote Now!

As a teacher I order directly for my classroom

More than $2500 each year (1% of total education budget)

1 vote

More than $250 (0.1% of education budget)

2 votes

More than $25 (0.01% of education budget)

1 vote

No classroom budget for direct discretionary expenses

3 votes

Obama is quitting

wetzel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday February 07, 2007 · 9:54 AM PST

2007/02/07 · 09:54

Like me, Barack Obama has a twenty year cigarette habit, and he is trying to quit. I am going to quit too.

Poll

18 votes Show Results

I will quit smoking with Barrack this week.

18 votes Vote Now!

I will quit smoking with Barrack this week.

Yes!

18 votes

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A Modest Proposal - The Fairer Tax

Scott Brown Needs to Apologize

Science Friday

Reverand Wright Deserves a Chance to be Heard

Obama is Quitting

Bring Back the Volvo 740!

Open Letter to Bill Moyers

The 1992 Brown Campaign's Flat Tax

Tanta on the Bailout

What's Happening in your Infill Neighborhood?

Teachers Should Be Able to Buy Things for the Classroom

Obama is quitting