The Loretta Lynch Race Game

Saturday’s Washington Post front page carries on its recent tradition of fanning racialist flames without substantial regard to fact or context. 

The header reads: “Race creeps into debate over stalled nomination for attorney general” and the first graph notes that “African American and other civil rights leaders” are infuriated that Loretta Lynch’s confirmation as attorney general has been held up because of -- you guessed it -- racism. Responding to the president’s dog whistle, National Action network and multimillionaire tax scofflaw Al Sharpton says he’s going on a three-day hunger strike to force consideration of her nomination. Be our guest, Al. (Although after the stomach stapling, there’s not much more to be lost.)

Again the formerly respectable civil rights movement is shilling for the Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, and the Post fails to present the issue fairly. Once again the “civil rights groups” prove themselves as blindly partisan as the no nukes crowd who protest the building of nuclear power plants here and say nothing of the Iranian nuclear arms buildup and the human shields who never tie themselves to the doors of Israeli nurseries. How easily they all ceded any moral authority.

The record shows that the holdup is not racist and not unprecedented. The charge, moreover, is pure projection -- the left attributing to its opponents its own bad behavior.

Via: American Thinker

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Who actually pays their “fair share” of taxes?

In recent years, claims that “the rich” don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes have been repeated countless times. But that excuse to tax them more to line others’ pockets is blown away whenever the highly disproportionate income tax burdens borne by higher earners are reported. As the Wall Street Journal titled a recent article,“Top 20% of Earners Pay 84% of Income Tax.” In fact, the top 1 percent of American earners earn about one-sixth of total income, but pay nearly as much in income taxes as everyone else combined.

Rather than abandon the electorally valuable false premise that such disproportionate burdens are justified, however, the political Left rallies to its cause. They try to rescue it by asserting that other taxes are regressive, so that taxes aren’t “really” so clearly unjustifiable as income tax burdens reveal. The featured players in that drama are state and local sales and excise taxes and Social Security taxes. Unfortunately, those taxes are also misrepresented to defend “fair share” misrepresentations.

Columnist Michael Hiltzik illustrated the state and local gambit in a tax-day column echoing charges that their sales and excise taxes “disproportionately hammer lower-income taxpayers,” with that alleged regressivity offsetting income tax unfairness.

That claim arises because those with lower current measured incomes spend a larger proportion of them on those taxes. However, as Edgar Browning has noted, “relative to lifetime income, there is very little difference in the percentage of income consumed among income classes.” As a result, apparent regressivity using current incomes is shown instead as “roughly proportional” to income in the more-appropriate lifetime context. Low current-income families also consume a multiple of their income, largely financed with government transfer payments excluded from income measures. That further exaggerates the share of their incomes going to such taxes.

Via: California Political Review

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NY Post: How Menendez ‘Conspired’ To Import Rich Donor’s Babes

They are the models who could bring down a senator.

Sen. Robert Menendez mobilized his staff to secure a visa for a Brazilian actress who posed nude on the cover of Sexy magazine; he stepped up for a sultry Ukrainian student who wanted a plastic-surgery consult; and he directd a staff member to “call Ambassador asap” in order to reverse a visa denial to a 22-year-old Dominican model.

The young women were all paramours of Dr. Salomon Melgen, 60, a married eye doctor and one of Menendez’s biggest donors, prosecutors charge.

The New Jersey Democrat’s efforts on behalf of Melgen’s lovers came to light in a 68-page indictment against the two men unsealed this month.

Menendez is accused of using his power and influence to benefit Melgen in exchange for almost $1 million in gifts and campaign contributions.

If convicted, Menendez faces up to 15 years in prison on each of eight bribery counts alone. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

The senator is also accused of trying to influence a State Department official on Melgen’s behalf in a dispute involving one of the doctor’s business interests in the Dominican Republic.

Prosecutors also say Menendez and his staff tried to help Melgen in a Medicare billing conflict.

Melgen was charged with Medicaid fraud last week in a separate 76-count indictment.

Via: Fox Nation

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Schieffer to O’Malley: Why Are You Only One ‘Even Thinking of Challenging’ Hillary?

Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer sounded more interested Sunday morning in why Martin O’Malley was the only Democratic candidate seriously considering challenging putative frontrunner Hillary Clinton than in his candidacy itself.

“Here is a party that won last two presidential elections, yet there seems to be this one candidate,” Schieffer said. “Shouldn’t there be more people out there? Why is there nobody but you — I don’t mean this in deprecating way towards you — but you seem to be the lone guy who’s even thinking about challenging her.”

“I’m not sure why that is,” O’Malley said. “But I think it would be an extreme poverty indeed if there weren’t more than one person willing to compete for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.”

Clinton who finally officially announced her candidacy last week, has significantly outpolled the remainder of the Democratic field. O’Malley polls in the single digits against her.

Via: Mediaite

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CARLY FIORINA: ‘HILLARY CLINTON MUST NOT BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES’

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina warned the New Hampshire Republican Leadership Summit that “Hillary Clinton must not be president,” because she lacks the essential qualities of leadership such as a record of accomplishment, candor and transparency.

“She will pursue a set of policies that will crush possibilities and the potential of this great nation,” Fiorina said.

The former California Senate candidate and likely 2016 contender said she was asked on Fox News earlier in the day whether a woman’s hormones prevented her from serving in the Oval Office.

“Not that we have seen examples ever of a man’s judgment being clouded by hormones, including in the Oval Office,” Fiorina joked. “Hillary Clinton cannot be president of the United States, but not because she is a woman.”

Fiorina contrasted her own history as CEO of the largest technology company in the world with that of Clinton.

“The next occupant of the Oval Office needs to understand how the economy actually works,” she said, adding that “executive decision-making…is making a tough call at a tough time with high stakes for which you are prepared to be held accountable.”

Fiorina described her own life – and that of her husband – as examples of the American dream – a dream she believes Americans see as lost.

Via: Breitbart

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Scott Walker NYC Lunch Invite Elicits Profane Response

“F**k you and your entire extended family.  And the c**t you came out of. Got it?” That was the message sent to New York state Republican Committee Director of Communications David Laska after a member of a club hosting an event for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker received an invite to meet the governor.

The email was sent from Jeffrey Putterman, a member of the Union League Club, where the lunch will be held on Monday. Putterman is a New York City real estate agent.

Walker is expected to join the field of Republican candidates running for president and just visited New Hampshire over the weekend.

Putterman hurled a slew of vulgar insults at Laska.

“That was a personal message, so cut the shit. And stuff your head up Walker’s ass,” Putterman said. “If you want to f**k with me, mano a mano, just let me know. You flaming jerkoff.”

“I’d be glad to meet and greet you, you little arrogant piece of shit,” he continued. He also called Laska an “asshole.”

After the initial response from Putterman, Laska told Putterman he would forward the email to Putterman’s employer and various media outlets, as Putterman had not said anything was off the record.

“We all have to deal with hate mail, and having thick skin comes with the territory, but every now and then people cross the line,” Laska told The Daily Caller. Putterman has taken shots online at other politicians in the past. He wrote a post on his Facebook page about Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in 2013 during the Trayvon Martin controversy. Cruz made remarks about the debate that Putterman attacked him for.

Via: Daily Caller

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Expert: Obama's amnesty 'profoundly unfair' to 4 million legal immigrants, a new high

While the administration struggles to move forward with its plan to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, the list of foreigners trying to get into the United States legally has surged to 4.4 million, over 100,000 more than last year, according to the State Department.

Those on the list either have a family member who is a U.S. citizen or green card holder, sponsoring their entry, or an employer wants them.

The list grew by 100,085 over last year. And more than a quarter of them, 1,323,978, are Mexican.

RELATED: Feds wasted $41 million deporting illegal immigrants on nearly-empty charter flights

According to a blog post written on the list bypolicy expert Jessica Vaughan, of the Center for Immigration Studies, unlike illegals slipping over the border, many of those on the wait list have been there for up to 13 years or more as they go through the proper process to enter the country.

Unlike with illegals, the government regulates who can come into the country legally.

"The waiting lists are needed because of annual limits on the number of immigrants that can be admitted in certain family and employment categories, and because of caps on the number who can come from each country," she wrote.

RELATED: Huckabee hits Obama amnesty, warns of exploding welfare for illegals

The issue of letting more legal immigrants in is a key one for Washington as it grapples with what to do about the 12 million illegals already here.

"The existence of this massive waiting list of eligible applicants for family immigrant visas and green cards raises important questions for policymakers," wrote Vaughan.

"First, there is clearly no shortage of eligible immigrants being sponsored by family members and employers who are waiting many years for their opportunity to be admitted legally. Any move by the president to relax eligibility standards or grant benefits such as work permits, deferred action, or parole to illegal aliens is profoundly unfair and destructive to the integrity of the legal system because it gives illegal aliens preferential treatment over those applying through the legal process established by Congress," she explained.

RELATED: Applications for H-1B tech visas reach record levels

Fairness is also an issue, even outside the fact the administration is letting thousands of illegals into the country every year, she added.

Via: Washington Examiner

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'When Hillary Clinton travels there's going to need to be two planes, one for her and her entourage, one for her baggage

Former secretary of state will make her visit to the Granite State as a proclaimed 2016 candidate this week

Paul and other Republican presidential contenders are in in town for a GOP summit in Nashua

The Kentucky senator also took a swipe at the GOP field: 'They all look alike, all sound alike, they all dress alike and nothing ever changes'

Speaking about Libya, he charged that 'they would have just done the same thing ten times over' as President Barack Obama

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul smacked around Democratic rival Hillary Clinton at a campaign stop in New Hampshire this morning on the eve of the former Obama administration official's first visit to the Granite State as a proclaimed 2016 candidate.

'When Hillary Clinton travels there's going to need to be two planes, one for her and her entourage, one for her baggage,' Paul said during remarks at a New Hampshire GOP summit taking place in Nashua this weekend. 

'I'm concerned that the plane with the baggage is really getting heavy and teetering' Paul said, predicting that she'd soon have new questions to answer about her family foundation's donations from foreign actors.   

Clinton embarked on a cross-country trip in an armored van she nicknamed 'Scooby' last weekend for the first leg of her presidential bid. She ditched the van within days and flew back to the East Coast, travelling coach. 

The wealthy Democrat was spotted at the Omaha, Nebraska, airport on the way back carting her own luggage.

Paul has been suggesting since he announced his bid for the Oval Office in early April that Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. senator, secretary of state and board member of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation would 'soon' face a day of reckoning over the charity's fundraising practices.

'I think there is big news coming on the Clinton Foundation,' Paul told Fox News during a New Hampshire swing earlier this month. 'I think there are things that went on at the Clinton Foundation that are going to shock people.'

'I think they're going to make people question whether she ought to run for president,' he said, declining to go into more detail.

Via: Daily Mail

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New Study: Proposed tax on services could costs Californians $122.6 BILLION per year

Just in time for Tax Day, the Board of Equalization issued a study requested by the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance estimating the revenue take from taxing untaxed services would be $122.6 billion. The study will become fodder in the coming debate over Senator Bob Hertzberg’s effort to restructure the state tax system to include taxes on the service economy.

Just in time for Tax Day, the Board of Equalization issued a study requested by the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance estimating the revenue take from taxing untaxed services would be $122.6 billion. The study will become fodder in the coming debate over Senator Bob Hertzberg’s effort to restructure the state tax system to include taxes on the service economy

.Hertzberg commented on the study results, “California’s economy has changed from one that had been dominated by making goods to today where 80 percent is producing services.”

Hertzberg’s plan, Senate Bill 8, would tax services as part of a restructuring plan and raise an additional $10 billion in tax revenue.

In response to the study, Board of Equalization Vice-Chair George Runner said,  “I’d consider a broader sales tax only if it’s part of revenue neutral tax reform, such as abolishing California’s income tax and the Franchise Tax Board, along with other taxes that destroy jobs. … The last thing overtaxed Californians need is another tax.”

Runner opposes Hertzberg’s proposal.

There will be plenty of time to get into the debate over service taxes. However, it should be noted that the $122.6 billion the service tax could supposedly raise is not only larger than the current General Fund budget of $113 billion, but almost $10 billion larger. In other words, a tax on services as outlined in the study could replace the General Fund revenues and get the additional $10 billion that Hertzberg is looking for while eliminating the income tax, state sales tax and corporate tax.

Hertzberg’s proposal would not attach a service tax to all the items delineated in the BOE study, pointing out education and health care as tax-free services.

If not all services are taxed the door would be open for other services and industries to seek exemptions from the tax — a potential field day for the state’s lobbyists.

Via: California Political Review

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