Campaign 2008--Let's Discuss

Anonymous · September 2008

The Alternative Minimum Tax was created in 1969 to ensure that the highest-income households could not exploit loopholes, exclusions, and deductions to avoid paying any federal income tax. The AMT acts as a stop-gap tax system, with taxpayers owing their regular income tax or AMT liability, whichever is higher.

Because the AMT parameters were never indexed for inflation, and because the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts substantially lowered taxpayers’ liability under the regular income tax without changing the structure of the AMT, the tax will affect a rapidly increasing number of taxpayers in future years in the unlikely event that no changes are made. As a result, there is considerable anxiety surrounding the AMT, and some in Congress are eager to do away with it altogether. Repealing the AMT, however, would cost at least $800 billion over the next decade (2008-2017), and as much as $1.5 trillion, depending on whether the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are extended (according to estimates by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center). Repeal of the AMT would cost more than repeal of the estate tax.

Public discussion of issues surrounding the AMT suffers from several misconceptions, which seem to be widespread among policymakers and many media outlets.

The AMT is (or is rapidly becoming) a “middle-class” tax.

“What started out as a misguided attempt to tax the ‘rich’ has become a significant added tax burden on millions of middle-income Americans.” — Senator Jon Kyl, May 23, 2005

suzfive · September 2008

Rocktober - I agree the AMT is a killer. During the 1990's we would get hit with it every year (five kids). People would always say wow you must get a big refund check and we were like NO, we end up paying every April and we did not make over $100,000 a year. The first time it happened we had to put it on a credit card because we didn't have the extra $2000.00 just sitting around. After that we had to save for it. It wasn't until the Bush tax cuts that we finally got a refund check.

anneshirley · September 2008

Ugliest ad of the week:

Asking McCain supporters: do you think it honorable of McCain to run an ad claiming that Obama supported a bill to teach kindergarden children about sex, when the purpose of the bill was to teach young children how to recognize and avoid sexual predators? Seriously!

Anonymous · September 2008

I dont think that McCain has done anything honorable since the convention. If he cant be honest before the election - how can he and his little side kick be trusted at all?

Nicki

Anonymous · September 2008

Anyone catch Pailin's interview with Charlie Gibson last night?!? OMG - she has less of an understanding of the world than even I thought. Let's just say not only does she have virtually no experience, she has almost no knowledge of current foreign policy. It was sad, sad, sad! Why was this woman chosen? Scary as hell...

NoH8 · September 2008

shokk- the blog rumors are just that, based on Biden saying Hillary was qualified to be prez of VP, maybe even more qualified than him. He was speaking in deference to Hillary. For Biden to withdraw and be replaced with Hillary, that would be a huge insult to women and to hillary. Hey Hil, we need your vagina, my penis isn't doing it for folks. LOL.

NoH8 · September 2008

Felicia- Gibson's interview with Palin was great.......for democrats. It was frightening for the country. Did ya know you can see Russia from Alaska? LOL. I know more about foreign policy than she does. She was obviously briefed enough to give some rehearsed answers. What I like about Obama is that he's smart enough to recognize what he knows and doesn't know. Palin has yet to show that. I predict that there will be some repub strategists and people who misunderstand feminism who will claim sexism--because they see feminism as a buzz word to excuse poor performance.

abbadoodles · September 2008

Amy, I watched the Charlie interview and I thought she did stumble on the question of the "Bush doctrine" which I didn't know existed, at least not as a formalized, named doctrine. I thought you had to be long dead to score that. LOL Well, I am not a politician. Bottom line, though, is that I think she should have said "what doctrine? I am not familiar with......yadda yadda." As it is, she appeared to be fudging to keep up appearances.

Re: seeing Russia from Alaska. Actually you can see Russia from Alaska and she did specify that it was from an Alaskan island, not from the mainland.

This show gets better every day. I am stocking up on popcorn today in preparation for all the news analysis shows tonight, then 20/20 and after. My eyes will be just little, teeny slits tomorrow morning from staying up so late. Usual bedtime being 9 PM.

shokk · September 2008

Good morning ladies.............I am located in Dallas and the main highway from Houston to here is bumper to bumper.........our hotels and churches are filling up fast...............I too am really looking forward to tonight's interview but I may have to watch it on line..........I do believe we locally will be hurricane Ike all the time........plus I have satellite which faces south so not even sure I will be able to have a signal............but I will find a way to watch............Amy be careful before you actually see the interview...........I think she held her own.............the more she campaigns in the next 54 days the better she is going to get..........she is our "Obama"..........she has put a spark and hope back in the Conservative movement...........jeez sorry I will be back in a bit..........Shokk

NoH8 · September 2008

Ab, I know you can see a small russian Island population 141 from Alaska, I just don't tout that as foreign creds. She should have asked, "what doctorine" because there's no shame in not knowing an answer.

Shokk- I saw the interview and thought she could have done a lot worse. She does have a spark and if she energizes people to take part in the political process that's a positive thing. I think the McCain camp really needed it. I'd prefer her to be a liberal democrat though. I don't think she's dumb, but I do think she doesn't have the foreign experience. Energy is important and she is fortunate to be governor of a state that is rich with Oil, but there are other things that play an impact on our relationship with other countries and how they see us other than dependence on foreign oil. I'm not so sure she's going to get better in the next 54 days. She will know more and answer some questions better. There's also the likely potential that some of her ethics issues will be her undoing (trooper gate, taking money to live in her own home when not in Juneau etc.). I don't want to see her fall on her face, but I want the truth to come out whether she is guilty or innocent of the alleged violations.

Anonymous · September 2008

I wish she had been more critical of Bush ... his doctrine sucks. I think we need all the Republicans to support change in the Republican party. I don't think she needs to know the Bush doctrine and she could have said she didn't know it and then added that most people don't know it and certainly whatever it is isn't working!!!!

pinoideae · September 2008

The difference with Senator McCain and the lipstick on a pig comment, he said first and I dont like this term, clearly it was not about a woman. Here is the meaning for lipstick on a pig.

If people put lipstick on a pig, they make superficial or cosmetic changes, hoping that it will make the product more attractive.

There is substantial doubt to if Senator Obama was actually referring to anything but Sarah Palin.

NoH8 · September 2008

Summer, and you know that there is substantial because? Because some of the republicans say so? Because the republicans thing it will help to rally people against Obama? If Obama had been referring to Palin she would have been the lipstick, not the pig.

Anonymous · September 2008

Summer: I have to agree with Amy. Substantial doubt based on? Is it ok for Sarah Palin to be spitting out so much venum? Yet when it comes to the real issues and problems in this country she has no substantial idea of what the heck she is doing. Many like Palin, I dont.

abbadoodles · September 2008

Folks, in case you don't watch the McLauglin Group on PBS, here is a link to streaming video or downloads. Great program weekly with both liberals and conservatives who all have a lot to say.

http://www.mclaughlin.com/library/library.htm

ADK · September 2008

I received this in an e-mail a few minutes ago. I don't think the women on this thread need to be reminded of this, but many others do. I deleted the photos because they didn't paste correctly, but if you follow the link, you can see the photos.

THIS IS MOVING.

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920

that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking
for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing
went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of
'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above
her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping
for air.

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her
head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate,
Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,
when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his
guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because
they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right
to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks
until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because-
-why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?
Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new
movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle
these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the
actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.
Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history,
saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk
about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought
kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.
'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use,
my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just
younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The
right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history,
social studies and government teachers would include the movie in
their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere
else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing,
but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think
a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so
hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

NoH8 · September 2008

ADK- My 99 yo grandmother told me that when women were granted the right to vote women were in the streets banging pots and pans and how exciting it was. She was brought up in a family where she and her older sister went to college along with their two brothers.

NoH8 · September 2008

Did anyone see This Week with George Stephanopolis (sp?)? I think George Will is one of the most vile people I've heard in this election and that's saying a lot. He refused to admit that Barack Obama never wanted to teach sex education to kindergarteners. Even after George S. explained that good touch/bad touch wasn't the same as sex education Will stubbornly refused claiming that was sex education and that parents have been telling their kids to stay away from strangers and they don't need the school to do it, even if there are some parents who fail to do it. Hellllooo??? As someone who created and implemented a good touch/bad touch program in the early 90s, before teaching good touch/bad touch was popular, I can assure him staying away from strangers is such a small part of what such programs entail. Most kids are molested and abducted by people they know- not the proverbial "stranger". Kids, particularly those who are at risk or being molested need this information if they have any chance to reach out for help and I can guarantee you if parents are molesting their kids they aren't teaching them that no one is allowed to touch them in the areas their bathing suits cover and that they should tell an adult if someone is "bad touching" them. How anyone can think this is sex education is beyond me.

I have never used the words sex, penis, vagina, intercourse, or anything remotely sexual. Child molestation is about power and violence, not sex Mr. George will.

CherrylH · September 2008

I hope this link works. This is incredible!

Cherryl

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/alaska-women-reject-palin-rally-is-huge

abbadoodles · September 2008

I've posted this on the Repub thread, too. I listen to both sides.

I'm so discouraged about all these politicians, Dem or Repub. The economy is going to hell in a handbasket and both parties are to blame for being asleep at the switch.

You work all your life and be fiscally responsible and save for retirement and then the bastards take it all away with their evil, greedy games. Right now I cannot see anyone on either side making things right.

Enough of political games. This is not football, this is real life with real lives hanging in the balance. Just ranting.

NoH8 · September 2008

Cheryl, next thing you know the McCain camp with come out and say the public isn't being deferential enough to Palin and that the rally was sexist. Tongue out

sccruiser · September 2008

Let's face it, McCain/Palin are going down! The hoopla over her is dying down. Now let's get Obama/Biden to come on strong. McC/P are no match for the dem candidates

Obama all the way!! I'm thinking positive from now on.

There's too much bad news in the news right now for me.

I think I'll spend more time with my granddaughter and go back to work on my quilts!

NoH8 · September 2008

This is silly, but fun. It's the Sarah Palin baby name generator. You put in your name and it tells you what it would be if you were Palin's 6th child (Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, Piper). For the record, I love the kids names except for Willow. Piper has been one of my favorites since I was a kid and saw Piper Laurie in a movie.

http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

Anonymous · September 2008

Cherryl: That was a great article and pictures. Wonder why the news didnt tell us about it? Or maybe they did! Ha I never know from day to day - miss too much when working.

Amy: Ha that was fun. I would be named Quarter Palet Palin!

I was able to watch the news finially last night and tried to catch up on all of this political stuff. Was so encouraged to see that McCain/Palin's true colors are coming out. I laughed when I saw a clip where she referred to the "Palin/McCain ticket!" Thinking maybe she has forgotten who is running for president.

Nicki

NoH8 · September 2008

I laughed when I saw a clip where she referred to the "Palin/McCain ticket!" Thinking maybe she has forgotten who is running for president.

He seems pretty forgetful lately-- maybe she's hoping he won't remember who's on the top of the ticket.

Nic, glad to see you're getting caught up. There's some pretty scary stuff going on with Palin and trooper gate. We've already seen Bush try to get his people not to testify before congress claiming executive privelege where none exists and Palin's basically doing the same thing with trooper gate. Fortunately the head of the investigation is playing hardball and said he'll complete the report in October with or without her cooperation. I think she'd be far better off cooperating and encouraging all of her people, including the first dude, to do so.

Campaign 2008--Let's Discuss

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