A few days ago I offered up Art Pope and Pat McCrory leading North Carolina into the 19th century, a collection of thoughts on the state I was born and raised in. The comment thread wandered a bit, as they tend to do when you say things other people don’t want to hear, and eventually one commenter – a Stan
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Late Saturday we posted a Scrogues Converse Roundtable looking at the IRS/Tea Party controversy. The debate got started when our colleague Dr. Sid Bonesparkle suggested that perhaps the IRS wasn’t out of line in taking a good hard look at organizations dedicated to undermining the tax system trying to organize using 501 status, which is reserved for social welfare oriented
Read moreYou’ve probably noted the controversy surrounding the Internal Revenue Service’s apparent “profiling” of groups aligned with the Tea Party. A discussion on the issue broke out here at S&R this week, with our colleague Sid Bonesparkle suggesting on our internal e-mail forum that perhaps such action, even if it only involved a couple of “rogue” agents, might not be entirely
Read moreEver since FOX called Ohio for Obama last Tuesday night (touching off a near-hysterical conniption from Karl Rove), talk of secession has been rampant. Groups in all 50 states have started petitions aimed at leaving the Union, with Texas (predictably) reaching the minimum threshold of signatures first. We’ve written about secession here at S&R a good bit, with Frank Balsinger’s piece
Read moreWe’ve written a lot here at S&R about the “donor state/taker state” phenomenon, especially in the context of talk about secession. Of course, you know what they say about the pictures-to-words exchange rate, I’m sure, so instead of boring you with a thousand more words, have a picture. Credit: Thanks, UpWorthy.
Read moreThanks to the bungling of the Boulder PD, the Boulder prosecutor’s office and the local and national media we’ll never know who killed JonBenet. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. No, today’s item of business concerns the “sentence” handed down to Douglas Motherfucking Bruce. Anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce will have to report to Denver District Court Friday to begin
Read moreReaders of this space perhaps know that I have a burr under my saddle where one Douglas Bruce is concerned. For instance: In a post on the University of Colorado’s unconscionable decision to make Bruce Benson its president, I called Bruce a “perennial pigfucker.” Commenting on his censure by the Colorado legislature for an overtly racist attack on migrant workers,
Read moreMark Cuban is rich. Really, really rich. And like a lot of rich people, he has an opinion on all this talk about government and taxes. A snip: I’m not against government involvement in times of need. I am for recognizing that big public companies will continue to cut jobs in an effort to prop up stock prices, which in
Read morePart two in a series. Forgive me for abstracting and oversimplifying a bit, but one might argue that American politics breaks along the following 10 lines: Social Conservatives Neocons Business Conservatives Traditional Conservatives (there’s probably a better term, but I’m thinking of old-line Western land and water rights types) Blue Dog Democrats New Democrats Progressives
Read moreSome conservatives see all these fact-laden critiques of our various GOP manufactroversies (see Ryan, Paul) and wonder where are the Democratic plans to solve the financial crisis? (I have been asked this, quite vehemently, myself.) The informed reply goes something like this: The crisis isn’t real. It’s been fabricated by the neo-liberal politicians whose goal is to eliminate all taxes
Read moreWere he alive today, Al Capone would probably be a member in good standing of the US House of Representatives, representing the Great State of Illinois. We’ve all read about Capone, of course, and we know that back in the day thugs and gangsters fought the law. And the law won. These days, however, the brighter minds among the criminal
Read moreBack in February I authored a look at the implications of Colorado’s infamous Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) on the state, and in particular on the city of Colorado Springs, which has been forced to cut services that most would regard as essential in order to comply with one of the most foolish bits of legislation in the nation. Teabagger
Read moreI’d like to begin by showing you a picture and asking you what you see. Good. With that in mind, have a look at this one and tell me what you see.
Read moreLet’s begin with a quick trivia question. What legislator’s Top 20 donor list includes the following? Blackstone Group (Financial Services) Bain Capital FPL Group (Energy) DLA Piper (Corporate law firm, representing Global 1,000 and Fortune 500 companies) Kindred Healthcare Beacon Capital Partners Comcast Corp Brownstein, Hyatt et al (Corporate law firm) Venable LLP (Corporate law firm) Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Read moreAn organization calling itself “Tax Justice Network USA” has launched a rather nasty shot at U2 front man Bono (Paul Hewson), calling him a “draft dodger.” I’m all for tax fairness – whatever that may be – but this has the look, smell and texture of a hit job, and if I take what they’re telling me at face value,
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lullaby pit 