This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Rangel proposes corporate tax cut

    I’m stunned – absolutely stunned. Charlie Rangel is proposing a 35% corporate tax cut that will replace the Democrat teddy bear tax break to induce companies to keep their business in the US according to Sarah Lueck in the Wall Street Journal;

    Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has drafted legislation that would trim the 35% companies now pay to between 30% and 31%, according to people familiar with the bill. The change would be funded in part by eliminating an existing tax deduction for manufacturers aimed at keeping production in the U.S.

    Imagine – a Democrat that sees value in reducing corporate taxes. I never thought I’d see the day.

    Now, companies will have to weigh the impact of the rate cut against the other changes the legislation will include. Manufacturing companies, for example, would lose a deduction for domestic production that now reduces their tax rate on manufacturing income to 32%. But the lower corporate tax rate would be attractive and would apply to all income.

    Mr. Rangel’s corporate proposal is similar to an idea floated in a Treasury Department report released in July. The report suggested that getting rid of many of the tax preferences now available to corporations — including the manufacturing deduction — would generate enough revenue to reduce the corporate tax rate to 27%.

    I will admit that Rangel is indeed stalwart on fairer taxation (as opposed to his whackier social programs and his military draft ideas) – he’s been promising a revision of the Alternative Minimum Tax for years, though and I’d prefer he work on that before he gets a corporate tax cut.

    Lueck predicts in her article that Rangel will be the only sponsor of his corporate tax cut – I can’t see Pelosi standing beside him and advocating lower taxes for evil corporations and ending the outsourcing tax incentive. I suspect Pelosi’d explode before she does anything like that to her base.

  • Values voters not satisfied

    Today’s Washington Times runs an article by Ralph Hallow entitled “Values Voters Find No Satisfactory Candidate“;

    Several conservative leaders yesterday concluded that none of the principal Republican presidential hopefuls deserves their support, not even Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister.

    “There was no consensus on candidates, no agreement, period,” a participant confided after the meeting, held at the Washington Hilton one day after several of their groups participated in a “Values Voters” summit at that hotel.

    Then, referring to Mr. Huckabee, he said, “He’s finished, I think. Bad things will be coming out about him,” referring to long-standing accusations surrounding Mr. Huckabee’s clemency for a rapist who later murdered someone in another state.

    It pretty much describes the feeling I’ve had this election season. Last weekend, while surfing around the ‘net, I got involved in a discussion over Rudy Giuliani and his “values” such as they are, at Little Green Footballs. When I made the point that Giuliani is no more trustworthy than the Clintons because of his marital infidelities and the speed at which he changes his platform to suit his audiences, I was called a troll by several LGF lizards. 😮 Me? A troll?

    Well, it turns out that alot of supporters of various Republican candidates are as rabid as the supporters of a certain candidate with two first names who shall go unnamed here to keep my spam filter from overloading. Giuliani supporters are willing to overlook the fact that he’s just another Northeast Liberal Rockefeller Republican that wants to take our guns and pass out abortions on demand because he refused a check from a Saudi prince once.

    That’s just immature. Some Republican voters are beginning to sound and act just like the carcatures of us that are spread around the other side of the internet. Would I pull the lever in a Presidential election for Rudi Giuliani? Probably – but only because of the alternative. In essence, I’d be voting for him for the same reasons democrats voted for Gore and Kerry – against a candidate instead of for a candidate.

    I think we’ve led ourselves into a trap – we’ve trapped ourselves by becoming single-issue voters. Although, I agree that the war against terror is the foundation of everything that happens to us from this day forward, I think it’s irresponsible of us to just follow the sound of whichever piper is playing our tune.

    Giuliani thinks he’s golden because he’s probably the most pro-national security candidate, but given his recent record, I wouldn’t trust him to take out my garbage. If alot of Republicans are disappointed in George W. Bush’s performance, i’m pretty sure they’ll be apoplectic during a Giuliani Presidency. At least when Bush became President, he told us exactly what he was going to do before he was elected and that’s what he did. With Giuliani and his position shifts over the last year, who knows what he’s going to do in office.

  • All Democrats have left is hate

    Pete Stark claims the troops are dying soley for the entertainment of the President, the Left rejoices, Stark won’t back off from his rant – and Nancy Pelosi is forced to hang him out to dry.

    Barack Obama declares he won’t wear an American flag on his lapel because he’s more patriotic than the rest of us – and ends up looking like a dorky schoolboy trying to impress his girlfriend. Then to prove how patriotic he is, Obama doesn’t bother to put his hand over his heart for the National Anthem.

     Half of America has already decided against voting for Hillary.

    Joe Biden’s partition plan became the only thing behind which Iraqis could unify. 

    Harry Reid climbs on board the Rush Limbaugh letter auction when he starts to look foolish – and compounds the foolish appearance after figuring his condemnation of Limbaugh’s statement was a slamdunk win for Democrats. Now he finds his popularity waning in his home State.

    Nancy Pelosi starts blaming the Senate for her first hundred day failures. Then her plan to alienate our allies and dismantling our war efforts in Iraq, by declaring a 90-year-old event a genocide falls through and she begins backpedaling at light speed. She can’t hold her party together to override the President’s veto of their big lie they called the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Code Pink has Pelosi’s DC office and house under siege. Even leftist icon Barney Frank is attacked for stripping transgendered people from his gay rights initiatives.

    We wake up this morning to read that Republican Bobby Jindal has won the governor race – in traditionally Democrat Louisiana. Traditional – as in Reconstruction traditional. 

    All in the first three weeks of October. To top it off, there was a whole day last week in which there were no attacks on anyone (except al Qaeda) – oh, how it must suck to be a Democrat these days.

    You’d think all of these failures in the past few weeks would make Democrats think again about the people they’ve chosen to represent them. Luckily for Democrat politicians, Democrat voters aren’t focused on results – just so long as they feel good about their vote. That’s why the empty suits of Clinton and Obama will be their candidates next Fall – because they’re more concerned about what other people think about them than they are about moving the country forward.

  • Bush unilaterally puts pressure on Myanmar junta

     

    Photo from White House

    Since the UN has been typically lethargic in regards to taking action against the repressive government in Burma, President Bush has taken steps to tighten the screws according to Sean Langrell of the Washington Times;

    “The world has also been horrified by the response of Burma’s military junta,” Mr. Bush said. “Monks have been beaten and killed; thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been arrested.”

    Mr. Bush ordered the Treasury Department to freeze the financial assets of members of the repressive military junta. He also acted to tighten controls on U.S. exports to Burma, also known as Myanmar.
    […]the Treasury Department last month designated 14 top leaders of the Burmese regime for sanctions, including Senior Gen. Than She and his deputy, Vice Senior Gen. Maung Aye. The State Department also imposed an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights, as well as their family members.

    Mr. Bush said yesterday the Treasury Department had designated 11 more leaders of the junta for sanctions, and issued a new executive order that designates an additional 12 individuals and entities for sanctions.

    From the transcript of President Bush’s address on the White House website;

    Burmese authorities claim they desire reconciliation. Well, they need to match those words with actions. A good way to start would be to provide the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations access to political prisoners; to allow Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained leaders to communicate with one another; and to permit U.N. Special Envoy Gambari to enter their country immediately. And ultimately, reconciliation requires that Burmese authorities release all political prisoners — and begin negotiations with the democratic opposition under the auspices of the United Nations. 

    The Executive Order is especially broad in it’s scope;

    Section 1.* * *all property and interests in property of the following persons that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, including their overseas branches, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:

    (b)  any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Secretary of State:

    […]

    (iv)  to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, the Government of Burma, the State Peace and Development Council of Burma, the Union Solidarity and Development Association of Burma, any successor entity to any of the foregoing, any senior official of any of the foregoing, or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13310 or section 1(b)(i)-(v) of this order;   

    It appears that anyone doing business with the Myanmar government will be subject to this as well – including Chinese, Indians and Russians caught doing business with the junta, as well as Americans doing business with the generals.

    In reaction, the Myanmar government has lifted it’s curfew and assembly ban, according to the Associated Press;

    Myanmar announced Saturday that it was lifting a curfew and ending a ban on assembly imposed after a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the latest sign that the government believes it has extinguished the largest demonstrations in decades.
     
    The announcement, made by government vehicles passing through neighborhoods, lifts the curfew that had been imposed at one point from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and ends the ban on gatherings of more than five people in Yangon.

    The ruling junta on Saturday also issued an unusual plea in state media for the country’s detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to compromise and hold talks with the government.

    The apparent softening of the government’s position comes after President Bush’s announcement Friday that new sanctions would be imposed to punish the military-run government and its backers for the deadly crackdown.

    The situation appears to be worse than has been reported, according to Christian Today;

    Between Jan. 12 and July 31, Burma’s leaders arbitrarily seized property and assets, and forced people to relocate across the country, especially from areas where ethnic Karen rebels dwell in the rugged mountains along Burma’s eastern border with Thailand, the report said.

    It estimated 540,000 people have been displaced in eastern Burma with “minimal” prospects of being returned and resettled. As of July 9, there were 139,075 refugees from Burma living in Thailand, it said.

    “Military operations in rural areas have contributed to the impoverishment of villagers,” he said in the report.

    Pinheiro, a Geneva-based Brazilian law professor who reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, has visited Burma six times since he was asked to keep an eye on its human rights performance in 2000.

    Pinheiro has not been allowed back since November 2003 despite repeated requests. He based his 2007 report on “information collected from a variety of independent and reliable sources.”

    So the UN Commission is just neutered when it comes to protecting the Burmese people because the goverment won’t cooperate. Another instance of why the US acts unilaterally in the world. It’s an uphill struggle against the evil forces in the world, according to ABC News;

    But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened by the eagerness of China, India and Thailand to tap Burma’s rich natural wealth to fuel their own growing economies.

    But we still expect the UN to do things about more complicated problems in Darfur and Iran.

    Have Coffee Will Write has a link roundup from sources outside the US.  The Tricycle Blog was reporting more arrests yesterday. Kate at A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective has links to the Wednesday testimony to Congress on Burma. Spanish Pundit reports widespread hunger in Burma. Lim Kit Siang advocates for Burma’s removal from ASEAN;

    It is not enough for any ASEAN nation to say that ASEAN backs the United Nation efforts and urges Myanmar to co-operate with Gambari and the United Nations to find a political solution.

    There is not much optimism that Gambari will succeed in achieving a breakthrough with the Myanmar military junta, as evidenced by the continuing campaign of arrests and terror in Myanmar while Gambari continued to call for talks, unless all important players – especially China, India, ASEAN and the UN – do more.

    Maybe US pressure on ASEAN will bump the junta into doing more than just lifting civil rights violations against the people. The UN ain’t helping.

  • Violence erupts in Georgetown

     

    Photo from Nikki Kahn and the Washington Post

    The trendy Georgetown section of Washington, DC was rocked by vandals and Black Bloc thugs last night according to the Washington Post‘s “Violence Erupts at Protest in Georgetown”;

    Wearing black shirts and covering their faces with bandannas, scores of sometimes unruly demonstrators marched through Georgetown last night to protest the international finance and development organizations meeting this weekend.

    Despite the large contingent of officers on scooters and bicycles who flanked and followed the 200 to 300 protesters, violent incidents broke out. A woman bled after being struck in the face with what police said was a flying brick.

    Trash cans were overturned in the rain-dampened streets, objects were thrown, and newspaper boxes were overturned. Two protesters were arrested in connection with an incident in which an officer was pushed from a scooter, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.

    Many store windows were boarded up in anticipation of the demonstration, which targeted the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, but two unprotected windows were struck near Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. It was not clear whether they were broken.

    In previous years, demonstrations had focused on the institutions’ headquarters just west of the White House. But Rusty Shakkleford, 18, said protesters went to Georgetown, in addition to the traditional sites, because it was where the delegates dined and stayed. “We’re just here to tell them the American people will not let them exploit the Third World community,” Shakkleford said. 

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure his name was Rusty Shakkleford – the nom de guerre of King of the Hill character Dale Gribble. And I guess by turning the DC neighborhood into a trash-strewn battle zone makes some kind of point. The working people who make Georgetown the attraction that it is are the ones who pay the price and do the cleaning. Who do these thugs think they’re hurting? 

    Washington Times’ Tom Knott did some background on their “philosophy” the other day;

    Down with capitalism. Down with neoliberalism. Down with the wealthy exploiters of Georgetown and their sycophants who take from the poor and feast on the culinary delights of Nathan’s Restaurant.

    The supporters of the so-called “October Rebellion,” designed to protest the actions of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, convene at 9 tomorrow night at Washington Circle in Foggy Bottom before moving to the streets of Georgetown and letting the bourgeoisie pigs there know that the proletariat are wise to their human rights abuses.

    If it were not for the greedy denizens of Georgetown, there would be no homeless people shuffling up and down Wisconsin Avenue. And these homeless people would not be talking to imaginary voices. Instead, these homeless people — at least a few of them anyway — would be living in the home of George Stephanopoulos and staging keg parties every weekend night. 

    I wonder how many of these peach-fuzzed children (who, by the way, aren’t brave enough to show their faces while they’re involved in criminal behavior) have even been to a third world coutry – or how many are willing to spend a few weeks in a third world country. Spoiled rich kids living in Mom’s basement. They use complicated problems as an excuse to destroy other people’s property like juvenile, immature little punk-ass sissies.

    I’ve read stories in local news sources about Metro and transit cops chasing down thirteen-year-old girls and wrestling them to the ground and cuffing them for eating french fries on a subway platform – yet they can’t summon the courage to stop these little weasels? Believe me, no one is more pro-cop than me, but DC’s public safety administration officials are gutless, politically correct incompetents.

    Since the Black Bloc punks got themselves all worked up, today’s protests at the World Bank building ought to be exciting today. I wonder how the new police chief will handle it.

    If you thugs want to save third world countries, join the Army and join the fight for freedom. Or shut up.

    This is what a struggle for freedom in a third world country looks like;

    From the anti-Chavez demonstrations in Venezuela last Spring

    Photo from Venezuela Llora

    Where were you protesters when the chavistas were shooting down protesters in Caracas? Well, they don’t really care – these protests are just an excuse for the little punks to break stuff and assault working people.

    The Sniper‘s Thus Spoke Ortner wrote about the impending protests on Thursday, and has the details of the “organization” of these punks and misfits. Michele Malkin has background on October Rebellion, the umbrella group for these retards and misfits. The local Fox 5 affiliate reports that one working woman was hit wth a brick last night.

    Fox 5 reporter Roby Chavez is reporting that one woman who worked in a Georgetown-area store has been injured in the protests. A woman was hit in the head after a protester threw a brick through the window of an Abercrombie and Fitch store and a United Colors of Benetton store near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street.

     

    Video of the Fox 5 report here. More video and dead-on commentary from The Jawa Report.

    Griff Jenkins of Fox News Channel reports that they took his camera and smashed it. Sounds like it’s time to start policing these thugs ourselves since the cops can’t. 

  • A Platoon Sergeant’s touch; by request

    Well, I was just sitting here doing the people’s business this morning when I get an email from my buddy COBDanny at Crotchety Old Bastard who writes me that out in Berkeley Californ-eye-ay, there was a protest. Of course, I’d linked to Gateway Pundit’s story yesterday about it. But Danny pointed me to Blackfive who pointed me to Neptunus Lex where I found the SFGate story on the protest;

    “None of us is pro-war! I’m pro-defense,” Kevin Graves, 50, of Discovery Bay shouted at one protester. Graves, whose son Army Spc. Joseph Graves was killed in Baghdad in July 2006, continued, “My son died so you and I can stand here and disagree.”

    In an interview, Graves said, “I think they’re misguided,” referring to Code Pink.

    But David Santos, 15, of Oakland, said the conservative element was on the wrong side of the issue.

    “They represent the social base that’s giving rise to this imperialistic war. Their so-called patriotic attitude,” he said, “just shows their blatant disregard for humanity and what the flag stands for. The very fact that they’re holding it up is enough for us to be out here.”

    David Santos, 15, of Oakland doesn’t even shave, yet he’s got the world all figured out already – moreso than a father who has sacrificed his son for the country’s security. I wonder where David Santos’ father is – David Santos probably wonders the same thing.

    But the part COB emailed me about is coming up;

    Graves yelled at another protester, Pablo Paredes, 26, of Oakland and mocked him for his long hair. “Are you a soldier? They wouldn’t let you looking like that,” he said.

    Paredes said later that he had served five years in the Navy and that people of color like himself bore the brunt of military service.

    “I think the color of my skin shouldn’t make me be on the front line,” Paredes said, adding that he left the Navy because he refused orders and opposed the war in Iraq.

    Say huh? Well, it turns out that Pablo Paredes has a Wikipedia page (I can only assume that Pablo was the only fellow interested enough in himself to write it, so I’m going to use it as a reference) and after reading it, I think I know Pablo pretty well;

    Paredes tried unsuccessfully to switch to the military police in order to avoid involvement in the war. Paredes then applied for discharge as a conscientious objector on January 4, 2005 but was denied by the Navy in July of that year.

    After deserting and missing movement, he returned to the Navy on December 18, 2004. The same day he made a statement to local press saying that he was fully aware of the possible repercussions of his decision.

    According to this, he deserted and missed movement and then returned to the Navy December 18, 2004. Then he filed for conscientious objector status January 4, 2005. So, actually, he went through the process backwards – by the time he filed for CO, he was already a criminal who’d broken laws and CO was his way out of the charges – the Navy refused him CO after he’d tried to use it as an excuse to get out of being punished. In fact, the civilian courts have refused two appeals, according to the Wikipedia entry.

    So like Adam Kokesh who turned against the war when the Marines busted him for smuggling a pistol back from iraq on his first tour, Paredes turned against the war when his own derelict behavior caught up to him. So what’s the first thing he drags out?

    “I think the color of my skin shouldn’t make me be on the front line,” Paredes said…

    A whole boat full of people went off to war – a crew – but unless that boat was full of strictly brown people, Paredes doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Neptune Lex probably said it well enough;

    After having enjoyed peacetime service in Japan you deliberately missed ship’s movement and shirked your duty to avoid a very minimal risk in sailing to the Arabian Gulf. You don’t get to claim front line service when you bailed on your shipmates and forced someone else to cover your watch, to take your spot on the line.

    Paredes is accustomed to misleading people. Take this Democracy Now statement that’s repeated around the internet in several other websites;

    Paredes was convicted in a court-martial on Wednesday. However a judge decided Thursday not to sentence him to jail – instead he will face three months of hard labor.

    Um, how is a three months sentence at hard labor in court martial procedings not jail time? If it was an Article 15 (or Captain’s Mast, I think the Navy calls it) there probably wouldn’t be jail time involved, but not in a court martial conviction. What a bunch of tools.

    Paredes, keep your mouth shut – you don’t even know why you were convicted let alone how. You let empty-head spazzes like Paul Rockwell give you legal advice – and then on top of it all, you blame the fact that you’re brown as a reason to get out of going to war. (wasn’t that a line from the South Park Movie – Operation Human Shield). I’m pretty sure you were going to be a long way from any shooting – you’re one of those weinies who can’t stand being at sea, or out in the field on weekends – that’s what really scared you – no off time to play with the girls (or boys…or whatever).

    After years of shore duty in Japan, you couldn’t stand the thought of actually doing your job – that’s why you missed movement. If it had been your conscience, you’d have applied for CO right after we went to war. The anti-war movement accepted you because there’s no one there who ever had to accomplish anything, no one whoever counted on them to do their job, or shoulder their own load – so you fit right in with them. And the chicks probably have hairier legs than yours, too.

    You can’t fool the real troops, paredes – that’s why I nominate you to join the ranks of Phony Soldiers.

  • Bill Cosby’s message airs “dirty laundry”

    In this morning’s Washington Times, Brian Debose writes about the latest reaction to Bill Cosby’s new book “Come on People”;

    Civil rights activists and scholars are softening their criticism of Bill Cosby’s message to black Americans to stop blaming racism for their problems and engage in more personal responsibility.

    While black leaders still differ on the role institutional racism plays in the social ills of blacks, Mr. Cosby’s new book “Come On, People” is not receiving the same backlash its author did when he first publicly spoke out on the matter in 2004.

    Cosby’s message is that individual Black Americans must take responsibility for their individual behavior instead of blaming racism. Although “Black leaders” claim to agree, the problem is that Cosby’s saying it in public.

    [Harvard professor Alvin] Poussaint agreed, saying that criticizing [Barack Obama] and Mr. Cosby for “airing our dirty laundry in public” in the presence of whites is unwarranted and stymies dialogue and progress.

    “If we are going to communicate and share information, we have to share. Bill is [saying] that we cannot worry about white people. We have to take these things on ourselves,” he said.

    See, that’s what I don’t understand. Whites are blamed for the institutional racism, yet we can’t sit and discuss solutions to the problem? That’s how the problem got to this point – the race pimps tell White America to just hand them the money and they’ll fix the problem. But problem doesn’t get fixed because the race pimps prefer the government handouts to actual solutions. Even when “reparations” are being discussed, the race pimps tell the Black community that the money from any reparations would be more effective if it was funneled into the race pimps’ organizations for the general community.

    On the subject of dirty laundry, Bill Cosby had the perfect answer;

    “Let me tell you something. Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it’s cursing and calling each other [the n-word] as they’re walking up and down the street. They think they’re hip. They can’t read. They can’t write. They’re laughing and giggling, and they’re going nowhere.”

    But Al Sharpton doesn’t want white America to do anything but hand over more cash;

    But some civil rights activists charged that blaming blacks gives ammunition to conservatives and draws attention away from prejudice in the criminal justice and education systems.

    For example, Mr. Sharpton said this week that simply telling people to be “well-behaved and well-mannered” while inequality in the schools and courts continues is “not in [blacks’] best interests.”

    Let me say this, Mr. Sharpton, I’m one conservative who doesn’t need ammunition – I only want a solution and by keeping me out of the discussion, you’re getting further away from a solution. But then, that’s in your best interests, isn’t it? 

  • The Cow and the Putz want a Woodstock Museum

    Also from the Examiner, written by Susan Ferrachio, more pork from the Senators for New York; “Schumer, Clinton get skewered over $1M Woodstock earmark”

    It was a little like throwing a juicy steak into a pit of hungry lions. Republicans could hardly contain their glee Thursday at the prospect of skewering Democrats on the Senate floor over a $1 million earmark for a museum in upstate New York commemorating the 1969 Woodstock concert.

    The earmark was requested by New York’s two Democratic senators, Charles Schumer and presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said the money would help build a performing arts center that could boost the area’s depressed economy.

    “I’m proud of this earmark, it’s the right type of earmark,” Schumer said on the Senate floor during a debate over a Republican amendment to remove the money from a health and human services spending bill.

    Yes, that’s what New York needs – a museum to celebrate smelly hippies. I’ll give Mr. Schumer a little history lesson about the “area’s depressed economy” – Mrs. Clinton should read, too, because I’m sure the carpetbagger doesn’t know about New York recent history.

    In the 70s, Upstate New York was a booming economy – manufacturing and retail facilities across the State. Several chain stores were founded there, auto manufacturers, typewriter-makers, breweries, even chocolate factories kept the hard-working locals employed. Then we got Mario Cuomo for governor.

    Before Cuomo, there was a six-month residency requirement before anyone could collect welfare in New York State – which paid some of the highest benefits in the country because the economy there did so well. Cuomo waived that requirement.

    Well, a blind man could see what would happen next – welfare recipients streamed into New York State from the South and cashed in on their good fortune. New York State’s economy flourished for a while, but the State government had a hard time paying out the benefits to so many people – so Cuomo’s answer to the problem was what you might expect from a tax-and-spend liberal. Raise taxes on businesses – and a blind man could also see the impending result. Businesses left New York for the lower tax States in the South.

    Now Upstate New York is a wasteland of closed factories and department stores. But Albany still can’t get off of the tax teat – despite 12 years of Govenor Pataki (who was quite a disappointment to me) – and Spitzer isn’t helping either. New York State is like a third world country – since there is no real money in the State, they depend on out-of-Staters to bring them cash in the form of tourist dollars.

    Now Schumer and Clinton want to perpetuate that strategy by using taxpayer dollars to build, of all things, a Woodstock Museum – a monument to sloth and marginal talent. Why attract musicians to New York State? They don’t have any money – that’s why they’re musicians. 

    UPDATE: Apparently the museum was shot down in the Senate, but I suspect that Republicans wouldn’t have blocked it if it’d been two different Democrats trying to spend tax payer dollars. For example, if the museum was being built in Nancy Pelosi’s district.Â