Guard Your Money!

          Seems like things naturally lead us away from participating in government. A big distraction these days is just making a living. Being exhausted after long hours of work, with a car still to repair or a plugged toilet to clear immediately can put you right off thinking about city government, the state legislature, or those beloved folks in Congress.

           When you finally get a minute, the TV whips you through a range of emotions over the latest gun violence, or terrorist bombing, or notorious act of child/elder/spouse abuse, or tale of official malfeasance. It’s all the time!

           So you change channels and are cheered by your favorite team’s recent win. It’s nice to ponder the great athletic deeds of “our team” as opposed to the nefarious trickery of others. Next you’re regaled with the antics of another of the “beautiful people” who are there to let you know that there’s life after work, at least for some.

           Problem with distractions like these is that a whole lot of folks are delighted to see you sitting out of the governing process. They’re working on tax changes that may cost you a bundle—and you don’t have a bundle to spare. They are making funding decisions that may rob your children or grand children of a fighting chance at success.

           Around here we think it’s worth it for you to help govern. Not just for you, but for those you love. It’s your legacy. And it’s YOUR money. Yours, not the government’s.

Return of the Dufi

          Well what’s most important? The first thing we have to do is stop being losers. So let’s pass a bill to create temporary jobs. About as many as the economy is producing every five days now. Never mind that it involves blatant misuse of eminent domain for the benefit of foreign oil producers and foreign consumers. Never mind that taxpayers will pay to clean up after inevitable 50,000 gallon spills. Never mind the safety of America’s water supply. We’ve got to stop being losers.

           Let’s also stick our middle finger in accepted protocol and invite a foreign leader to congress without going through the executive branch. That will disrespect our President and his foreign policies, showing that we always know best. It’ll be a perfect example of legislative/executive cooperation.

           We should also do something about women getting abortions without proving, (say with a copy of the police report) they were actually raped. Let’s show our constituents we are not losers. Those (what 18 or so ?) women who want to cheat on our values and get an abortion by lying about being raped are not getting by US!

           Then we’ll start kicking needy people off the health insured list. That ObamaCare still stings. But we’re not losers! We’ve got our stuff together and working for us now. We’ll find a way to cooperate that bill into the trash can.

           Around here, we think we know losers when we see them. Welcome back dufi! Apparently YOU are the government we deserve.

XL Eminent Domain

          It may have gotten lost in the shuffle that eminent domain is granted to government entities for the purpose of doing public good. Things like improving urban housing to eliminate substandard conditions, thus promoting the general welfare, and building roads for citizens’ public use. Eminent domain permits the government unit using it, to compensate and take private property from its citizens for public use or public good.

           Along comes the XL Pipeline and suddenly everybody gets amnesia. The pipeline is owned and operated by a private company for the private gain of the owners of tar sand fields in Canada, the pipeline, refiners, and the Chinese. Proponents want to invoke eminent domain to use American citizens’ land for the benefit of oil industry owners and foreign consumers. This is NOT for public good. It is for the good of capitalists and corporations.

           Amid all the strong feelings about petroleum development and the consequences or lack thereof related to using fossil fuels, a great many people, excluding Native Americans, have forgotten that eminent domain is for public good, not for corporate welfare. Not for the enrichment of capitalists. And certainly not for permitting these foreign interests to endanger America’s precious resources with the dirtiest petroleum on earth.

           Around here, we think the eminent domain issue alone makes support of the XL Pipeline an abandonment of established governing principles, and an act of abject servitude to special interests. Your Senators and Congresspersons need to hear your opinions repeatedly between now and February!

Grace 11/26/12

                                                                                                                            R.R. Clark

Bless us Lord with restful sleep that heals us till we wake,

Bless us Lord with industry, a better world to make.

Bless us Lord with wit and charm, the doubtful mind to turn,

Bless our curiosity, for wisdom let us yearn.

Bless us with prosperity, with well-earned fruitful gain,

Bless our acts of charity, the needful to sustain.

Grant to us discretion, Lord, to which our deeds consigned,

We judge not selves or others, but act with thoughtful mind.

Grant to all, their lives to live according to their lights, and

Bless O Lord our loved one’s lives and all their days and nights.

Bless wayfaring strangers Lord and absent friends this day

See them safely to our hearts and bid them there to stay.

Bless today this gathering which gives our spirits lift,

And bless this food before us Lord, thy bounty’s gracious gift.

Amen

No Big Surprise

           Congressional leaders profess cooperation with the President, but there is no evidence of their sincerity. The evidence indicates mere posturing. You don’t start a cooperative relationship (and after six years, it hasn’t yet started) by issuing ultimatums to the President. Crap like, ‘If you do anything about carbon emissions,’ or ‘do anything to help immigrants, you are poisoning the well of good will,’ (that we have never extended and now allegedly offer) is so transparently nasty that it will be an achievement for reasonable people to accept.

           Congress, this self-serving, obstructive, juggernaut of special interest has just had its license renewed by a mid-term election comprising a small percentage of America’s eligible voters. By no means does it have a mandate to crank up the corporate steam roller. Anyone who interprets the election result as a passport to ignore the persistent issues of fairness, so far abandoned by congress, is making a mistake. The election merely validated the tactics used by campaigners and state governments. In short, voters failed to hit ‘refresh’ and now we’re back on a familiar and well-worn path.

           Our President is far from perfect, but our congress has no room to talk—it is, and has been, profoundly dysfunctional. Around here, we think somebody has to do something to move the needle for ordinary Americans, and for our planet. It’s clear that congress isn’t going to be that somebody. They’ll be the ones, once again, complaining that their failures are the President’s fault. “Surprise!” said nobody.

Cheating On Taxes

           The principle from which all taxes derive justification is that they should equally burden people according to their ability to pay. Thus, income taxes are graduated, increasing as income (and ability to pay) goes up. Reasonable sales taxes are not levied on things everyone, rich or poor, must have to survive. And property tax is based on the value of property being taxed. See a pattern here?

           It’s popular these days to claim that graduated income taxes are unfair—that there ought to be a flat income tax rate so everyone is treated the same. In America, sadly, everyone is not treated the same. Lobbyists, often former Congresspersons, are bankrolled by people and organizations of great wealth to “get things into the law” that benefit them. Like minor-sounding exemptions and exclusions that reduce their tax burden or provide other government benefits. Inch by inch, and mile by mile, equal treatment is compromised. That is why the flat income tax idea is a ruse—a geek trick—that lulls unsuspecting voters with specious promises of fairness.

           Around here, the flat tax idea falls flat. It’s something people who hire lobbyists like. There are, however, many important things that fair play requires Congress to get into our tax laws. How about taxing all income the same, whether it was made from work or capital? Maybe closing access to offshore tax havens? Or raising the number of corporations who pay income taxes from 25% to 80%? Why not just stop the cheating?

Bainwarble Clubs It Up

           Now that Siobhan has returned home, Bainwarble has taken to clubbing on his days off. He joined the Dull Men’s Club. Each member has to have an invigorating hobby. Bainwarble chose collecting photographs of “Do Not Enter” signs. The Club meets daily, so he has a horrible attendance record. On one absent day, he was named President of the stateside Roundabout Appreciation Society, but he doesn’t mind. It complements his photo collecting activity nicely.

His only complaint was that he therefore had to buy a car. He of course chose the smallest one he could find, a stunning if somewhat tired yellow Yugo. He had to cut a hole in the roof (for headroom) which he covered with a flaming red stock pot, weatherstripped and screwed neatly into place. Now, whenever he drives around it looks like his head is on fire.

“I can’t imagine how anybody thinks this whole thing qualifies as dull,” I told my wife, Ducky Bumps. “He’ll be on Dancing with the Stars next!”

           Ducky Bumps’ only comment was, “I would have thought pictures of jet engine exhaust might be more exciting!”

          We learned of his first moving violation ticket, issued for entering a roundabout in the wrong direction. He confided that he had talked his way out of several others by showing his British motoring license. He also told us it was the only way to get really good pictures of those “Do Not Enter” signs.

          “The things we do for our hobbies,” I remarked.