Author: Trish

The Most Important Issue in America Today Is Not What They Tell You It Is

Trish

Forget the nonexistent “crisis” surrounding budget deficits and — as you’ll hear again soon — raising the debt ceiling. Let’s talk about what’s really threatening to end America as we know it, and that’s income inequality. When Congress starts unraveling the policies they have put in place to help the rich get richer, like taxing income from work at a much higher rate than income from Wall St. wheeling and dealing, then we’ll be doing something to solve the real problem. Keep your eye on the ball, folks, because they constantly try to distract us.

FOX’s Lou Dobbs and Other Males Astounded, Outraged That 40% of Women Out-Earn Men

Trish

You’ve probably heard about it but you have to see it to believe it. Watch for yourself the spectacle of Republicans coming to the realization that they live in a new world — if you consider all the years of most of our lifetimes “new.”

Congress Losing a Squirrel; Country Gaining a Nut

Trish

There is no question that Rep. Michele Bachmann (GOP/Tea – Minn.) is among the squirreliest of the squirrels in Congress. But as she announces her decision not to seek re-election next year, the web site capitolwords has ranked the words and phrases most used by the head of the tea party caucus.

And the number one single word most used by Bachmann on the floor of the House is…“acorn.”

The surprises on the list, which can be sorted by one-word, two-word, three-word, etc. phrases include that “Obamacare” doesn’t make the top twenty in any category. “Obama” was of course number two on the single word list, and, to her credit, “President Obama” was number four when Bachmann used two words. Also on the lists: “socialized,” “democrat-controlled,” “planned parenthood,” “back to $2 a gallon,” and finally, “I was unexpectedly detained.”

In announcing her lame duckness via an eight-minute video, Bachmann did not say she was planning to spend more time with her family, and is more or less looking for a job.

[…]

Republicans Post Big Jump in Unpopularity

Trish

+5

Change in the GOP’s unfavorability ratings, according to a new CNN poll in which 59% of respondents said they have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican party, while 35% were still favorable. The numbers were more even for Democrats, with 52% of those polled saying they view the party favorably and 43% seeing it unfavorably. The response to the tea party movement was, as would be expected, the strangest, with 37% seeing it favorably, 45% unfavorably, an astounding 7% reporting that they never heard of it, and 11% withholding any opinion.

Stuff You Really Don’t Want to Be Right About

Trish

I hope NY and NJ senators tell Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe to suck a donkey dick on disaster relief.

@rudepundit on Twitter, no doubt recalling that most Republicans, even those from the tornado-prone Midwest and prairie states, voted against providing disaster relief to the areas worst affected by super storm Sandy.

The Case for the IRS Targeting the Tea Party

Trish

It seemed to come as a great shock when it was recently revealed that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) examines some taxpayers more closely than others.

Really? Because no one has ever objected to the IRS targeting some tax returns for audit. Among them:

  • Millionaires (in fiscal 2011, the IRS audited 12.5% of them)
  • People reporting more than $200,000 in income
  • People claiming confusing tax breaks like the first-time homebuyer credit
  • Home office workers
  • Small business and self-employed people generally
  • Very low income filers who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
I’m not saying the IRS should target according to ideology. I’m saying it should target according to likelihood that tax laws are being flouted and circumvented.

So why, in the wild west of the first election years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling allowing political action groups, many with questionable funding, to mushroom and proliferate…why should anyone be surprised the IRS would exercise scrutiny on these here today, gone tomorrow groups? Why, in fact, would they not demand that the IRS do precisely that before granting tax-exempt status to whoever applies for it?

And why not specifically take a hard, cold look at tea party groups?

[…]

South Breaks Stereotypes…Or Not

Trish

10 of 20

Number of places on the Amazon “Most Well-Read Cities” list that are in the South, including number one, Alexandria, Va.; number two, Knoxville, Tenn.; number three, Miami; and number five, Orlando. The ranking is based on book, Kindle, and magazine sales, and Knoxville might not make next year’s list. It ranked high this year because of the massive quantity of copies of Fifty Shades of Gray its residents bought.

Proms Are Being Hijacked by 1% Kids

Trish

$1,139

What the average family plans to spend on their child attending a prom this year, putting the event out of reach for an increasing number of high schoolers. Custom-made dresses (to avoid possible duplication), new shoes, hair styling, professionally applied makeup, tanning sessions, limousine and tux rentals, flowers, dinner reservations, and after-parties are frequently “required” to enjoy the event.

Republicans Use Benghazi Attack to Snipe at Clinton

Trish

I think the dam is about to break on Benghazi. We’re going to find a system failure before, during, and after the attacks.

We’re going to find political manipulation seven weeks before an election. We’re going to find people asleep at the switch when it comes to the State Department, including Hillary Clinton.

— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), posting on his Facebook page in an amazing show of prescience about what the Republican-led Congressional committee would find in its “open-minded” investigations of the 2012 attack on the American embassy in Libya. Graham made sure to single out former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, since the point of the hearings is to ruin the popular Clinton’s chances for president in 2016.