Paul Krugman...has refused to discuss his new book on liberalism with me...

...the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change...conference titled "A Global CO2 Tax" took a step that will have a more lasting impact than an empty agreement. It urged the U.N. to adopt taxes on carbon dioxide emissions that would be "legally binding to all nations."

And guess who would be hit the hardest? That's right, the tax, if levied, would put an especially high burden on the U.S.

"Finally, someone will pay for these costs" related to global warming, Othmar Schwank, a global warming busybody from Switzerland, told Sen. James Inhofe's office. We imagine Schwank, a panel participant, took great glee in saying the U.S. and other developed nations should "contribute significantly more to this global fund."

Schwank estimates the CO2 tax would generate "at least" $10 billion to $40 billion a year in revenues; but anyone who believes that has not paid attention. Even in nations that have a legitimate and more-or-less-limited government, such as ours, bureaucratic programs and taxes always grow bigger than first expected.

Besides being fueled by housing purchases and repackaged loans, each with inadequate equity -- doubling down with other people's money -- at the end of the capital-gains rainbow was the right to take up to $500,000 of profit, tax free.

Thank you President Bill Clinton for your 1997 action, applauded by the banks, the realtors and all citizens in search of half-millionaire status from an investment they could understand and self deceptively believe to be low risk; thank you for fueling the mother of all housing bubbles; thank you for enabling so many of us who bought second or third homes, and homes before construction began, which we then sold to someone else who dreamed of riches from owning homes long enough to sell to another fool.

Once again, try as we might and in spite of our political rhetoric, we have failed to help the poor in applauding government action intended to help ourselves.

Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization... blamed a confluence of recent supply and demand factors for the crisis, and he predicted that those factors were here to stay. On the supply side, these include the early effects of global warming, which has decreased crop yields in some crucial places, and a shift away from farming for human consumption toward crops for biofuels and cattle feed. Demand for grain is increasing with the world population, and more is diverted to feed cattle as the population of upwardly mobile meat-eaters grows.

The FOMC's mistake, in my opinion, was extending the forecast horizon out to three years. Given each member forecaster's assumption of "appropriate monetary policy," however they define it, three years is long enough for policy to do all that policy can do. It's long enough for initial adverse conditions to be overcome. What's left in that third year forecast is the FOMC's implicit view of the best it can do, or the limits of the economy — it's capacity to produce without causing inflation to accelerate. I call that a mistake in part because their view, revealed by their latest forecast, is so dismal. I can't find a Goldilocks economy anywhere on their horizon(...)These numbers mean we're already over the speed limit for monetary policy. If they try to enforce such a low speed limit, they could create a self-fulfilling prophecy. That possibility, to me, calls into question of public forecasts by policymakers. The path they've outlined is one of managing slack in the economy to hold down inflation. I'd rather see them control inflation through growth — disinflationary growth.

The so-called death tax is scheduled to rise to 55 percent in four years - when the exemption will drop to $1 million from $2 million - and up to now the national dialogue on its fate has been pretty much one-sided.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet, the country's second-richest person, has been the poster child for the tax's legitimacy and the loudest voice pushing for the tax to stay in place.

...Earlier this month, the debate turned into a celebrity smack down after actor and TV personality Whoopi Goldberg ranted on national network TV about the death tax's inherent unfairness.

"If I give something to my kid and I already paid the tax, why do I have to pay it again because I died?" Goldberg asked on ABC-TV's "The View," where she serves as a co-host.

Last week the Congressional Budget Office joined the IRS in releasing tax numbers for 2005, and part of the news is that the richest 1% paid about 39% of all income taxes that year. The richest 5% paid a tad less than 60%, and the richest 10% paid 70%. These tax shares are all up substantially since 1990, and even somewhat since 2000. Meanwhile, Americans with an income below the median -- half of all households -- paid a mere 3% of all income taxes in 2005. The richest 1.3 million tax-filers -- those Americans with adjusted gross incomes of more than $365,000 in 2005 -- paid more income tax than all of the 66 million American tax filers below the median in income. Ten times more.

For the political left and most of the media, this means only that the rich are getting richer, so of course they're paying more taxes. And it is true that the top earners have increased their share of total income. Yet...the rich showed more rapid gains in reported income shares in the 1990s than in the first half of this decade. The share of the richest 1% jumped to 20.8% of total income in 2000, from 14% in 1990, but increased only slightly to 21.2% in 2005. This makes it hard to pin their claim of "rising inequality" on the Bush tax cuts, though the income redistributionists are trying. By this measure, the Clinton years were far worse for "inequality."

Ron Paul has raised almost $2 million dollars so far today and its only 9:30 am. I see some predictions of $6-$7 million will be raised for him today on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Truly incredible, and very uplifting.

$3 million by 2 eastern time. $6-$7 million is certainly possible today. I don't know how a mention of this isn't even on the damn Drudge Report today being that this record breaking fundraising is happening to an anti-Iraq-war, Republican, hard money, zero income tax candidate. Instead we have trivial Elizabeth Edwards quote as a top headline.

Good teamwork! Ron Paul is on the top of the Drudge Report, where the story belongs. That is real news.

Dr. Paul has broken the one day online fundraising record, a record which was held by....Dr. Paul. Its now 7:15 pm and he has raised roughly 4.5 million dollars. Hard to ignore, but I wouldn't underestimate the MSM.

Well, to wrap it up.. 24 hours, $6.1 million raised, a record broken, and lots of pundits definitely scratching their heads. Oh, and once again, true patriots demonstrating their disgust with oppressive taxation.

Cheers to our courageous founders on this anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division. Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.

B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington , D.C .. HELLO!!! Are all your calculators broken??

Tax his land,
Tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes is the rule.

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirts,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.

Tax his booze,
Tax his beers,
If he cries,
Tax his tears.

Tax his bills,
Tax his gas,
Tax his notes,
Tax his cash.

Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers,
Tax him more,
Tax him until he's good and sore.

Tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.

Put these words upon his tomb,
"Taxes drove me to my doom!"

And when he's gone,
We won't relax,
We'll still be after the inheritance TAX!!

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Hardly any of those taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom could afford to stay home to raise the kids.

What happened? Can you spell "politicians"?

And I still have to "press 1" for English.

What the heck happened?????

A billion seconds is 31.71 years, so no, it was NOT 1959 a billion seconds ago. I stopped reading there since the very first "fact" was wrong.