Anyone remember the filibuster?

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Wednesday January 02, 2013 · 11:56 AM PST

2013/01/02 · 11:56

This fiscal cliff stuff has gotten all the pundits talking. It's bad/OK/good to go over the cliff. A deal is a win/lose/draw for Obama/Boehner/Norquist. Obama bent over backwards/forwards/into a pretzel. And so on.

And what has completely escaped their attention during all this? Tomorrow, January 3, 2013, is the one and only chance Senate Democrats have to do something about the filibuster. For the next two years.

Just as January 3, 2011, was their one and only chance two years ago. And what happened then?

I sure hope some Senators with spines are working on this one. I don't want to see democracy fade away for two more years like Brigadoon.

Malbone

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Monday September 24, 2012 · 10:25 AM PDT

2012/09/24 · 10:25

Mitt Romney -- with an MBA/JD from Harvard -- apparently has no idea how he makes his money or how it is taxed. His appearance on "60 Minutes" included the following exchange with Scott Pelley (courtesy of Fox News):

PELLEY: Now, you made on your investments, personally, about twenty million dollars last year. And you paid fourteen percent in federal taxes. That's the capital gains rate. Is that fair to the guy who makes fifty thousand dollars and paid a higher rate than you did?

ROMNEY: It is a low rate. And one of the reasons why the capital gains tax rate is lower is because capital has already been taxed once at the corporate level, as high as thirty-five percent. . . .

Malbone

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Tuesday July 24, 2012 · 7:49 PM PDT

2012/07/24 · 19:49

Nearly every mainstream politician -- even those who support weak gun controls -- says, "I support the Second Amendment." Even after the Supreme Court construed it to allow private citizens to assert the right to gun ownership.

Given everything that has occurred, do you support the Second Amendment? Or do you think it should be repealed, leaving the federal and state governments free to regulate guns of all kinds? (That wouldn't require them to ban hunting rifles -- popular pressure in states with a lot of hunters would probably leave those weapons alone.)

Poll

287 votes Show Results

Do you favor repealing the Second Amendment to the Constitution?

287 votes Vote Now!

Do you favor repealing the Second Amendment to the Constitution?

Yes

65 votes

221 votes

What can we do to control guns?

Malbone

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Saturday July 21, 2012 · 4:46 PM PDT

2012/07/21 · 16:46

Pundits and politicians -- who seem to live in a bubble without contact with ordinary people -- are at a loss for ways to stem the epidemic of gun violence in the US. It's time for ordinary people -- people who go to the movies, work in federal office buildings, and attend schools and colleges -- to put pressure on them to control guns in a serious way. We have to stop thinking of bandaids and start thinking of real solutions and real ways to apply political pressure.

Malbone

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Thursday January 19, 2012 · 10:35 PM PST

2012/01/19 · 22:35

Want to see just how much you envy Mitt Romney and his 15% effective tax rate? Get out your tax return and calculate your Effective Tax Rate in seconds!

Effective Tax Rate Calculator

1. Taxable income (1040, Line 37; 1040EZ, Line 6):
2. Income tax less credits (1040, Line 55; 1040EZ, Line 10):
3. Self-employment tax (1040, Line 56; not on 1040EZ):
4. Social Security and Medicare taxes paid -- add the amounts on Lines 4 and 6 of all your W-2 forms. If not available, multiply the first $106,800 of wages (1040, Line 1; 1040EZ, Line 1) by 0.0665 (for 2011 only) or 0.0765 (for 2010 and prior years):
5. Add the amounts on lines 2, 3 and 4:
6. Divide the amount on line 5 by the amount on line 1 and multiply by 100 to get percentage:

The percentage on line 6 is your Effective Tax Rate. Read 'em and weep!

Poll

492 votes Show Results

What's YOUR Effective Federal Tax Rate?

492 votes Vote Now!

What's YOUR Effective Federal Tax Rate?

0 - 10%

74 votes

10 - 15%

91 votes

15 - 20%

107 votes

20 - 25%

100 votes

25 - 30%

57 votes

30 - 35%

29 votes

More than 35%

33 votes

It's a tax holiday -- where's the champagne?

Malbone

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Wednesday August 03, 2011 · 7:58 PM PDT

2011/08/03 · 19:58

In another age, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society." If that is so, the systematic dismantling of a government's ability to tax is a calculated recipe for anarchy.

For at least 20 years, the right wing has mounted a sustained attack on the very concept of taxation by the federal government. Estate taxes, which are a burden only to the fortunate heirs of dead rich people, were derided as "death taxes" and slashed. Capital gains tax rates, which burden only the income earned by wealth, have been cut while taxes on the income earned by wealth have gone up as a percentage of total revenues. The FICA tax, which funds Social Security, is highly regressive, since it taxes only wages below $107,000 a year. Middle-income wages are thus taxed at almost twice the rate of investment income. Not to be outdone, hedge fund managers have contrived to have their income -- which is figured as a percentage of their clients' investments -- taxed as though they themselves had invested it, at capital gains rates.

Malbone

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Wednesday August 03, 2011 · 6:56 PM PDT

2011/08/03 · 18:56

"Malbone" is a reference to the Malbone Street Wreck. In 1918, during a strike by transport workers, an elevated train in Brooklyn crashed and killed 93 persons. The train was operated by a dispatcher, inexperienced at train operation and unfamiliar with the route. It rounded a curve at five times the posted speed and crashed. When I learned about the Wreck in the 1960s, as a student who rode that line every day, it resonated with my love of trains and my support of unions. It continues to remind me that while the Right worships an ahistorical future in which money rules over all, the Left carries the burden of historical memory and the imperative to value people, especially the voiceless.

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Anyone remember the filibuster?

FLASH: Mitt knows nothing about business taxation

Poll: How do you feel about repeal?

What can we do to control guns?

Find Your Effective Tax Rate in Seconds

It's a tax holiday -- where's the champagne?

Hopey-Changey