Taxing Us to Death… And Beyond

Boortz, today::

You could possibly be a victim of the Death Tax .. though you might not be aware of it.  Just own a simple farm in the Midwest and you’re in the crosshairs.  You might expect that your heirs will be able to keep the farm when you die.  Not with the Death Tax hanging around.  In far too many cases the farm is just worth too much.  It has to be sold so that the family will have enough money to pay the Death Tax.  Now that’s the American dream, right?

“I have to give the Democrats an attaboy here.  They’ve come up with a nifty little rhetorical gimmick to make any attempt to permanently repeal the Death Tax nothing more than pandering to the rich.  They’re making Paris Hilton the symbol of repeal of the Death Tax.  If the Death Tax is repealed Paris Hilton will be able to inherit her share of the Hilton Hotel fortune without forking over half of it to the feds.  Never mind the thousands of small farmers, land owners and small business owners who will be victimized by the Death Tax this year …. let’s focus on that ridiculous tart Paris Hilton.”

It’s time for the death tax to die a death worth writing songs about, Gang.

Now.

McPhillips does a fair enough job of ffisking some of the leftist idiocy about Iraq, today… in fact I’d call this a slam dunk:

I’m particularly impressed that with 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, American political pressure being brought to bear througout the region, and military bases established in the heart of the Arab world that Scott thinks this has “weakened American influence in the region.” That must be why Libya has abandoned its WMD programs, Syria is withdrawing from Lebanon, Iran is negotiating with the IAEA, Saudi Arabia is finally on its toes in pursuit of terrorists, and the regime in Egypt is making some tentative moves toward something resembling an election.

Well, now…. Here we have the statements of Eric Rudolph., and they twist some tails, to say the least.

In the reading of the document, a few points leap rightout at me…. Here’s someone who is operating on his principles.. and based on them, doesn’t recognize the moral authority of the government to govern, and takes those principles to their logical conclusion.

My point is not to argue for, or defend Rudolph. Nor is it to question his motives, or attack them. I may take the time to do that later.

Rather, it’s to point up, that whatever else Rudolph may be, he is certainly an object lesson for the point I’ve been making the last couple weeks; This is what happens when people who consider that the government lacks moral authority, start going outside the system, based on their principles.

Conservative Life relates to us that

So, they knew this was going to happen if he ever got to the stand, eh?

I hold to my prediction; the Liberal Party of Canada is toast, before midsummer.

Charles over at LGF points out:

Tonight on the utterly discredited 60 Minutes Wednesday, Italian communist Giuliana Sgrena is going to say that the US lied.

Bloody amazing.

Man Without Qualities seems to be back.
Good; he was missed during his longish period of non-posting.

Bennington Banner – Today’s Headlines: “WASHINGTON — Rep. Bernard Sanders used campaign donations to pay his wife and stepdaughter more than $150,000 for campaign-related work since 2000, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission”

Like I said the other day, what they’re chewing on Delay about is something that’s done pretty commonly.
so, when, I wonder will I see this socialist pilloried. ala Delay?

Reuters is saying this is the price is being driven down by rising inventories.

This will continue gang…. just as I said.

Over at Outside The Beltway,, James has some fiarly decent coverage of “Mr Smith gets his cover blown”.

I haven’t gotten the transcripts yet, but a big question in my mind on all of this is which of the two, did it first? First blood is the most damaging, after all.

This story is an example of why congressional oversite of the CIA is a running joke; a state secret has the running life of around three seconds once Congress gets ahold of it.

Here’s one that near and dear to my heart, being within earshot of most of eastern Canada, and being an old radio hand.

Years ago, I would often listen to the CBC for a picture of what was happening in the Toronto area… back in the day when CBL was ruling the roost on 740.  That Big ol’ Continental transmitter out in Hornby, Ontario (Off Trafalgar Road and the 401) worked very well indeed for the CBC, and it and it’s antenna mate, the French speaking CJBC/860, also running a 317C, put out a signal that very few in the region could match. Back in the day they could be heard all over the great lakes region day or night.

So, I often got a taste of their morning show, called Metro Morning. Now along about 1999, (June, I think) CBL signed off the air for the last time, after running 24*7 since, basicly, 1941. The intent was to move CBC-1 and CBL’s local programming to an FM station on 99.1FM… Which, as it happens is the next notch over from a local 50kw Rochester station on 98.9, which means that they no longer can be heard in Western NY, as they were on 740.

Someone bought the 740 operation and is running “Music of your life” type programming on it these days under the call of CHWO.

Toward the end of the run of CBL I started noting a leftward shift of their local programming, which I found disturbing, but not altogether unusual for a CBC outlet,and certainly not for a non-commercial broadcaster. Apparently the trend toward the left has not changed, and in fact has gotten worse, Angry in the Great White North has a rather extensive write-up.

Go see.

Tony Blankley on Tom Delay:

“I understand why the Democrats are going after Tom DeLay. Snakes gotta slither, mosquitoes gotta bite, hyenas gotta laugh, and Democrats without a blooming idea in their heads gotta go negative. ”

Blankey agrees with my take on the reason DeLay is under attack today:

Tom DeLay has been the most effective majority whip in living memory, never having lost a vote. He has engineered passage of every vital piece of Bush legislation as majority leader (sometimes with as little as a single hard-sought vote difference). By his tough work in Texas he has almost assured Republican control of the House for at least another decade. (I say “almost,” because a party of nitwits and cowards are capable of throwing away anything.)

Tony takes it a step farther, though.

If a party can be stampeded — by phony charges and a run of shoddy stories in whorish newspapers — into dumping their most effective congressional leader, I wouldn’t give two cents for their near term future. A party that would voluntarily cut off its own testicles and FedEx them to their opponent as a trophy is not likely to manifest any regenerative powers. That’s the thing about losing those organs.

And that’s really what the Democrats are after, here.

And Tony brings up a point that’s bothered me from the outset; the charges are as phoney as Bill Clinton, just as they have been all along… The Democrats have been trying to bring DeLay down for years now, and have not been able to do it. This explains the desperation we see.

While I’m here, I suppose I should re-address the discussion over at Q&O on this topic;

McQ, and Jon; Ethical questions are fine to pursue, and were it anyone else making the charges, they’d be worth investigating. . But hadn’t you better make sure the charges themselves have credibility, before you jump on board with the Democrats? We’ve heard the cries of ‘wolf’ far too often from the Democrats to take them this seriously, now.

In any event; Read the whole thng; Tony’s good this morning.

Captain Ed, who has been all over this Gomery investigation like Ugly on Hillary Clinton, says that there is now independant corroboration of the illegal cash transfers to the Canadian Liberal party. Captain’s Quarters suggests Canadian Conservative Leader Stephen Harper won’t wait for Gomery to complete his report to react, but neither is Harper jumping in the boat with the PQ who have been calling for an vote right away.

Harper aparently figures to maximize the swing in the election by waiting for some added testimony (And the resulting reportage) to swing popular support away for the liberals. No dummy, this Harper fella.

My take is that Martin and his party are toast…. regardless how Harper plays it. and that a no Confidence vote in Canada is one or two news cycles away, no more. The only question I can think of to all of this is how far things will swing away from the liberals.  From what I’m seeing on some of the newsgroups… particularly the Yahoos, Canadians are PISSED… and rightly so.

Yes, says NewsMax.

The concentrated assault on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay by Democrats and their media allies hasn’t just happened – it is largely the work of a shadowy group of liberal organizations, all backed by one man: George Soros.

Gee, big shock.
And I’ll bet it’s principle, driving Mr. Soros, huh?

(sigh)

This one’s for those who thought I was busy ass-kissing over at Q&O…. Sorry, wrong answer.

MCQ sounds rather like a Democrat when he asks; Why are they defending Tom Delay?

I’ve made several comments to his question, there.

The first clue about this, is to be very careful when Democrats start complaining about ethics. Remember, gang, nearly to a man, these are the same people that defended Bill Clinton. When these start in about ethics, their complaint in reality has nothing whatever to do with ethics, and is more likely political opportunism.

As Mark Noonan suggests:

The Democrat/MSM hope is twofold: First, by bringing down Delay with spurious charges, they hope to intimidate all Republican officeholders; second, they hope to start a political snowball which might result in a Democratic take-over of the House in the 2006 midterms (you know, make is appear that there is vast scandal in the House and get people in a “throw the bums out” mood ala 1994)

Mark has more including some follow on with Novak, by the way, which shows just how rooted the Democrats are in this.

And lest we start arguing that my defense of DeLay is a blind one, let me remind you of something I said about a week ago to Billy Beck:

I have been outspoken in my support of the President, and of a goodly portion of the Republicans… not because I hold any affinity with them simply because they’re Republicans, but because I see them, on the whole, as working toward the end of the reduction of government to it’s original purposes… at the moment. moreso than any other force being brought to bear at the moment.

At the moment, they are going the direction we need to go. When I see someone come along that has a better chance of providing what I seek, at that point THEY will have my support.

The Democrats see DeLay as being the point man on an effort that has been keeping them in their rat holes… and that, my freinds is good for America. Delay is outspoken and effective toward the goals of smaller government… and the leftists see this as I do… and that’s exactly why they’re attacking him.

The attacks on Delay are naught but an opportunistic hit by the Democrats… and I will not join in the calls against DeLay because I see them clearly as not advancing the cause.

It’s that simple, that direct.

This one’s for the nutcases filling my mailbox with comments on my write up of the death of the Pope, talking about how the man was a socialist. Go read Star Parker and get back to me with your apologies.