OBAMA BACKTRACKS ON OSAMA. There’s been a lot of backtracking lately, hasn’t there?
Archive for 2009
January 14, 2009
“HAMAS: IN-PROCESS.” Heh.
CADILLAC ONE: A Presidential limousine powered by biodiesel?
JOE THE PLUMBER UPDATE: J.D. JOHANNES UPDATES his criticism from yesterday — it seems that Joe’s remarks on war embeds were generally misunderstood. Go figure. I suspect that Joe will have more to say about this on the show tomorrow. I guess Bill Whittle had it right. (Had said “misreported” originally, but that wasn’t really right.)
LOVE THOSE MEDICARE SLEDS: The delights of the Mercury Marquis.
A GOOD QUESTION: “Is it just me, or is this argument for government spending starting to sound just a bit like the Democratic version of the Laffer Curve? i.e. more borrowing means more tax revenue, instead of lower tax means more tax revenue!” (Megan McArdle comments: “The tendency to attribute outright magical powers to government spending has gotten slightly out of control.”)
A LOOK AT the state of HIV in San Francisco.
IN EUROPE, ART SPEAKS TRUTH TO POWER. Power is not amused.
IF YOU’VE GOT TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY TO PAY FOR THE INAUGURATION, does that mean you’re broke? Or does it mean the inauguration’s awfully expensive for economically tough times?
DAMON ROOT ON the libeling of Herbert Spencer. “I’m guessing that Bayard—like most of Spencer’s critics—hasn’t bothered reading anything that Spencer actually wrote.”
ROBERT KUTTNER as Nigel Tufnel.
MORE ON TAX SIMPLIFICATION:
In its yearly report released last week, the Taxpayer Advocate Service notes what the public has known for decades:
“America’s taxpayers deserve a simpler and less burdensome tax system that enables them to comply with their tax obligations expeditiously.” The only people in the nation who seem oblivious to this are the members of the U.S. Congress — save for Rep. Charles Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who has been forced to become familiar with the mess Washington has made.
Rangel conceded last year that he doesn’t understand the very code that his lawmaking panel writes and is in an ethics mess because of his personal tax problems. The New York Democrat is getting a taste of the bitter experience that the rest of the country has to endure annually.
As I noted earlier, when the Chairman of Ways and Means, and a Federal Reserve banker who’s the nominee for Treasury Secretary, can’t get their taxes right, then it’s time for some serious simplification.
UPDATE: More on Geithner’s confusion.
ANOTHER UPDATE: “When does not paying your taxes matter?”
SONY UNVEILS a touchscreen Walkman with active noise-canceling headphones and the ability to download podcasts automatically via wifi. For $299. Cool.
CHRIS DODD COUNTRYWIDE UPDATE: The Senator and His V.I. Lawyers:
The senator has denied any wrongdoing and is cooperating with a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry into the matter, but reporters and political operatives alike have waited for months for Dodd or his staff to release unspecified documents they once promised would further demonstrate that he has done nothing improper. Those documents were originally expected in the height of last summer. We’re still waiting, and Dodd’s current position is to withhold any of those promised documents until after the Ethics Committee has finished with its investigation.
Remember, there’s no reason for him to wait to release those, except that he doesn’t want people to know what’s in them now. But has he lawyered up? Looks like it:
Dodd paid more than $60,000 to the politically connected Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie in the third quarter of 2008 out of his Senate campaign committee, according to public records. A December filing from his presidential campaign shows an additional $125,447 in outstanding invoices owed to Perkins Coie. (Kevin Rennie had the goods on how the money got from the presidential campaign over to the Senate committee — more Perkins Coie assistance.)
Some of this is for Countrywide representation, though it’s not clear how much.
DAN RIEHL: “Yes, Washington is broken. But it still rules the roost. And if you come here looking to change it and are more Carter than Reagan, it will change, or destroy you.”
ARS TECHNICA ON THE DIGITAL TV MESS: 4G war, conflicts of interest loom behind possible DTV delay. “Among those with a vested interest in the debate over a DTV delay is Clearwire, which has been racing to deploy its 4G WiMAX networks ahead of competitors wedded to the LTE standard. And Ars has learned that Clearwire Executive Vice President R. Gerard Salemme has been playing a key advisory role on the DTV changeover within the Obama transition team.”
UPDATE: Megan McArdle: “The Obama team should never have let Salemme get this involved.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Maybe the Obama people should have checked the relationship map.
HOPE AND CHANGE: Poll finds low trust in feds. “A majority of voters say their confidence in the federal government’s ability is falling, according to a new Public Strategies Inc./Politico poll.” Guess the Obama Effect hasn’t kicked in yet. . . .
MIKE MCNALLY on Prince Harry and manufactured outrage. Every age has its pieties, which may not be assailed — because they secure the power of the powerful.
It’s also worth noting that some of the self-appointed spokesmen who lined up to lambast Harry for his remarks are throwing stones from inside the glass houses of extremism. The BBC’s round up of reactions to the prince’s remarks, for example, includes quotes from the musician and “activist” Aki Nawas, who called for Harry to be thrown out of the army. This is the same Aki Nawas who, a couple of years back, released an album glorifying suicide bombers (the lyrics to one song practically constitute a bomb-making manual), praising Osama bin Laden (he also likens the al-Qaeda leader to Guevara, which actually makes perfect sense to me but upset some commentators on the left), and attacking the “immorality” of the West.
Read the whole thing.
BARNEY FRANK WANTS CEOS TO GIVE UP THEIR PRIVATE JETS if they want a taxpayer bailout.
What about Nancy Pelosi’s Gulfstream? I mean, it’s not as if the federal government is in such great financial shape. . . . .
SOME READERS THINK I’VE BEEN TOO EASY ON GEITHNER: Ila Peralta writes:
I beg to differ with you regarding the importance of Geithner’s tax “lapse”. Why would anyone neglect to pay taxes? Forgot? Not a good sign. Procrastination? Not good. Didn’t know about it? Maybe o.k. for a plumber, but… Above it all? Won’t get caught? Didn’t have the money? (I’m self-employed, too, and I make sure I have the money). Doesn’t believe in taxes? Can you think of one good reason for not paying taxes that portends well for a Secretary of the Treasury? I’d feel better.
And reader Jeff Carlson emails:
I’m sorry but if you do your own taxes and don’t use one of simple, cheap and easy programs available then you are too ignorant to be the Treasury Secretary. And if you did use one it would have prompted you to calculate those SS and Medicare contributions. Only by ignoring them could you have “forgotten” to pay them … for 4 years in a row. Doesn’t pass the smell test. These are not complicated calculations like actual income tax, they are straight percentages.
Yeah, he could have saved himself a world of embarrassment for a mere $42.99. And Jim Treacher is right to note the discrepancy between the press’s ho-hum treatment of Geithner’s unpaid tax problems and its very different treatment of Joe The Plumber’s. But, see, Geithner’s not showing the press up.
Now that said, if we had a Treasury Secretary under Obama who “doesn’t believe in taxes,” well, I could live with that — as long as the hostility extended to taxes paid by other people, too . . . . Meanwhile, here’s a roundup of reactions.
UPDATE: Reader Brian Gates emails: “I’m not questioning Geithner’s taxes . . . but isn’t Joe Biden concerned about Geithner’s patriotism?”
And Donald Hertzmark writes: “I know a lot of yanks working at the Bank/Fund. The personnel department makes a VERY BIG DEAL about making sure that you understand to pay your FICA. This does not wash. Just another chiseler, like Rangel.”
Speaking of Rangel, reader Bob Beales emails: “Maybe we should be nominating Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel to head up the Internal Revenue Service. They may have a little more compassion for us ‘little guys.'” You’d think so, but it seldom seems to work out that way . . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chris Carolan writes:
Yes – “they” are all crooks – but only one crook gets his name on the dollar bill – and in these days of handing out $trillion$ of dollars, the U.S. govt is going to need to borrow those and many more $trillions from foreigners. And that ability to borrow is directly linked to the govt’s ability to get money from the people via the tax code. Anything that encourages people to think that there are two sets of rules, one for us and one for them, erodes the government’s ability to gain tax compliance from the populace. The fact is, this issue and this office are both at the nexus of the ability to fund the future of this country through the tax and borrowing mechanism. For that simple reason, should Mr. Geithner take office, he will do grave harm to our nation.
It does look rather bad that way, and certainly some people will see it as a reason to be less scrupulous regarding their own taxes.
CONSERVATION THEATER: “So Massa wasted several times the amount of energy he needed for 300-mile trip . . . in order to make a point about the importance of conservation and alternative energy. Sadly, Rep. Massa’s capacity for theater and obliviousness to reason likely means he’s on his way to a very successful career in politics.”
RAND SIMBERG: Wanted: A Space Program With A Vision. “Mike Griffin’s departure, and even the end of his vehicle designs, doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the Vision for Space Exploration. The two are not synonymous, though many supporters of the current plans would like people to think they are.”
SO IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE more dangerous to talk on a cellphone than to chat with a passenger.