Karl's Weekend Reading

Lets start the three-day weekend off right!

You know it is election season when liberals start caring about the poor. Robert Rector at NRO offers some hard-to-swallow facts about America's "poor" in his Monday article, "Poor Politics: Edwards Poor "Plague" Examined".

46 percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

Larry Kudlow reviews the $127 BILLION spent on the Katrina recover ($425,000 per resident), and the differing philosophies, left vs. right, of disaster recovery in his Thursday Townhall article, "The Big Easy's Billion Dollar Boondoggle".

Think of this: The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government's $127 billion check represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision. Hillary Clinton calls this sort of reckless spending "government investment." And that's just what's in store for America if she wins the White House next year.

Remember President Reagan's line during the 1980 campaign about how LBJ fought a big-government spending war against poverty, and poverty won? Well think of all this Katrina spending as the Great Society Redux. And it failed. I suppose the current Bush administration would like to label this "compassionate conservatism." But guess what? That failed, too.

Right from the start, New Orleans should have been turned into a tax-free enterprise zone.

Kimberley A. Strassel has a must-read for every GOP candidate - for president, congress, and dog catcher. "What Women Want" is THE conservative approach, tailored to women. As always, Kimberly makes it simple. Lets see if anybody is listening...

Most married women are second-earners. That means their income is added to that of their husband's, and thus taxed at his highest marginal rate. So the married woman working as a secretary keeps less of her paycheck than the single woman who does the exact same job. This is the ultimate in "inequality," yet Democrats constantly promote the very tax code that punishes married working women.

You go, Kimberley!

Friday Night Cigar

Nothing goes better than starting a three-day weekend with a fine cigar. Tonight's cigar: A Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve. Like the Anniversary cigar earlier this week, the OWR is a nice smoke, but doesn't rise to the level of our favorites. Which is good, because its expensive.

For the guys out there, a question. Do you find yourself hesitating before walking into a men's restroom these days? Comments are open.

Hillary Wins!

We haven't seen a blowout like this since Reagan unseated that Georgia fella! Here is the result of our most recent Comrade Survey:

A Glimpse of Middle America...

...and the Senator Craig misunderstanding...

Found at The Jawa Report

The Symbol Lives On

Found at Townhall:

Another Hammer and Sickle

Found at Townhall:

FairTax Smear (Comments)

Bruce Bartlett, Bush Sr's Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, tries to smear the Fair Tax in Saturday's WSJ editorial. It justifies a response:

Smear Rule #1: If you want others to dislike something, tie it to the Church of Scientology. Para. 2:

For those who never heard about it, the FairTax is a national retail sales tax that would replace the entire current federal tax system. It was originally devised by the Church of Scientology in the early 1990s as a way to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service, with which the church was then at war (at the time the IRS refused to recognize it as a legitimate religion). The Scientologists' idea was that since almost all states have sales taxes, replacing federal taxes with the same sort of tax would allow them to collect the federal government's revenue and thereby get rid of their hated enemy, the IRS.

As if only the Scientologists would be happy to see a 100% layoff at the IRS...

Smear Rule #2: Use phrases like "so and so asserts" or "so and so claims". This makes your audience think the other side is lying. But, don't offer a counter clarification or, in the case of the FairTax, a counter calculation. Para. 3:

They assert that a rate of 23% would be sufficient to replace federal individual and corporate income taxes as well as payroll and estate taxes. Mr. Linder's Web site claims that U.S. gross domestic product will rise 10.5% the first year after enactment, exports will grow by 26%, and real investment spending will increase an astonishing 76%.

Mr Bartlett continues with his guess that the FairTax will instead be closer to 30%. This argument is refuted in the Fair Tax Book (available one click away at the Ushanka.us Book Club to your left), but Mr. Bartlett ignores the author's argument.

He also misses one big point here - 23%, 30%, 40%, whatever. IT. IS. FAIR. Fair for the 50% of Americans that pay tax today, but also fair for those who don't pay taxes today. Get it?

Smear Rule #3: Talk about the burden on the government. Liberals eat this up! Paras. 8 & 11:

...state and local governments would have to pay the FairTax on most of their purchases. This means that it is partly financed by higher state and local taxes. It's also worth remembering that state sales taxes now average 6%, which means that the total tax rate will be 36% on retail sales.

Since sales taxes are regressive--taking more in percentage terms from the incomes of the poor and middle class than the rich--some provision is needed to prevent a vast increase in taxation on the nonwealthy. The FairTax does this by sending monthly checks to every household based on income.

Mr. Bartlett, do you mean the government will have to be more selective on how it spends our money? Do you also ignore the possibility that the government may receive higher revenues now that our 12 million illegal immigrants and the tens of thousands of tourists will start paying taxes? Have you not heard of technologies called "database" and "direct deposit" that could support monthly payments to the, so called, American poor?

Smear Rule #4: Incorporate words like "deception", even if you do not know how to use the word correctly. Para. 17:

Perhaps the biggest deception in the FairTax, however, is its promise to relieve individuals from having to file income tax returns, keep extensive financial records and potentially suffer audits. Judging by the emphasis FairTax supporters place on the idea of making April 15 just another day, this seems to be a major selling point for their proposal.

Actually, the FairTax DOES eliminate federal tax returns, the need for extensive records and audits. So far, the only deception appears to be Mr. Bartlett's purpose for writing this article. We suspect Mr. Bartlett will be coming out for a Republican other than Gov. Huckabee, as this is clearly a hit piece on Gov. Huckabee's recent surprise showing in Iowa.

To further use the "deception" word, let's look at what Mr. Bartlett leaves out. There is no mention that employees will now keep every penny of their gross salary, minus any state tax. Like all FairTax opponents, he deceives by painting the picture that you'll pay 23/30% more of your current take-home pay at the cash register. Nor does he address the idea that the reduced tax burden on businesses will result in lower prices for goods and services. And where is the new concept - people will now choose when they pay taxes, and how much they will pay? These missing items were not for a lack of space.

Mr. Bartlett used his previous position in government to grab half of the WSJ editorial page. He wasted an opportunity to apply critical thought to a complex, but popular idea. His article has two target audiences: those who haven't read the Fair Tax Book, and those who remember that wonderful economic boom in 1991-1992 when Mr. Bartlett was serving our country. For everyone else, Mr. Bartlett has shown himself to be an economic non-authority.

We think taxes will rank equal to the war on terror in the 2008 election, thanks to the Alternative Minimum Tax. We hope someone will step up for the FairTax, offer an enhancement of the FairTax, or provide a fair alternative. Here's to hoping...

I'm Karl. Thanks for reading.

Monday Afternoon Cigar (Comments)

We're trying a Rocky Patel Vintage 1999 tonight. Smooth. Pleasant. But probably not in our top 5.

We're not celebrating Attorney General A. Gonzales' resignation. We don't have it out for him like the Dems, and the 'pile on/my-s**t-don't-stink' Reps & otherwise conservative bloggers.

Even if he fired all 93 attorneys like Clinton did (remember?), we'd still support him. Why? Because he fired people that didn't adopt the President's vision. Period. He's a good man who was loyal to his boss. We wonder if other good people will avoid public service after seeing this Schumer/Reid witch hunt. Your thoughts?

Politkovskaya Arrests

Ten were arrested for the murder of Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. [Moscow Times]

So it was the Chechens working with some from the Security Services? We'll update here as the news develops.

Valery Panyushkin

Do a Google News search on Valery Panyushkin, and you'll see that when it comes to Putin-thugs intimidating journalists, you'll only find ONE report.

Gregory L. White, at the Wall Street Journal, explains how Mr. Panyushkin, 38, was detained for no other reason than to harass. The police used the excuse of the recent law that cracks down on dissident/extremist (ie. Anti-Putin) behavior. Mr. Panyushkin has written critical articles about the Kremlin, and was one of the journalists arrested with Garry Kasparov in a recent protest.

We'll post more as soon as the professional journalists in the US, those who respect their profession and come to defend their fellow reporters, catch wind of the story...