I've written about it before, and here I go again. There is an idea for a radically different tax system for our country called the Fair Tax. It's been presented in H.R.25 for congressional debate. Now it is up to US to ensure that it gets a fair hearing. The politicians won't even let it get out of a committee hearing if WE don't tell them that this is an idea that should at get a fair debate on it's merits.

The reason for this is obvious; the Fair Tax, if enacted, would strip a great deal of power out of the hands of the politicians and return it to the people. Politicians would no longer be able to manipulate the tax code to their benefit, giving large tax breaks to those in a position to contribute to their campaign war chests. It would put the people back in a position to control what they pay in taxes through their spending habits.

Here is why I support the Fair Tax proposal

1. It would eleminate all hidden taxes in the goods and services we purchase, letting us make a truly informed decision about what we buy.

2. It would be a truely progressive tax; eleminating the "class war" wedge used by populist politicians to pit the various segments of our society against each other, and bring the political debate back to "is this proposed legislation truly good for our country".

3 It eliminates any taxes being paid by "the poor"; and immediatly raises their usable income by some 25%.

4. It removes the incentive of Big Business to pay for a politician to try to gain a step up on their competition.

5. It would lower the tax burden on the average family, allowing for more "stay at home parents", it would no longer be NECESSARY for both parents to work, just to be capable of paying their tax burden.

6. It would eleminate all inheritence taxes, allowing small family businesses/farms to continue past the unexpected death of their founders.

7. Most important, it would put CONTROL back in the hands of the individual and open up the dark recesses of government spending manipulation to the light.

8. It would infuse a HUGE influx of capitol into the economy, lifting it to heights that would be unheard of under our present system...think about all the money presently held in offshore tax shelters coming back and actually being used to boost the economy....not to mention the fact that it would make the U.S. the most attractive place for foreign investors to put their capitol in the world. It would have the potential of wiping out our our national debt in a matter of months.

Read H.R.25 and decide for yourself. If you give it honest thought and compare it to what we are bound by today, I feel confident that you will join in and contact your representatives to tell them that the time has come for REAL tax reform.

Go to Amazon.com and get the Fair Tax book that explains the proposal and it's costs/benefits in plain language.

The time to act is now.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 02:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 528 words, total size 3 kb.

just to ease back into the groove of posting easily, I've decided to start off with a quick round-up of some things that you should read to get the old thought processes going.

First off, a post from the Emperor Misha of the Rottweiler Empire. As always, he gets right to the heart of the issue. I concur with him completely.

Next comes this gem from my own better half, demonstrating the laziness of the MSM in covering the story. Like she says:"See how it works, people? And isn't it sad that it takes some old chick on dial-up on a busted office chair with nothing but a pig lamp for light to do this, while the journo-types get paid good money to turn out half-assed articles. And don't talk deadlines. I did this in an hour. Most deadlines are more lenient than that, unless one has been hiding in the lounge at the hotel for too long and cut themselves short."

Next we have Kim du Toit's launching of something that every homeschooler should be interested in DidToday is THE resource that makes home schooling really practical and achievable for the masses.

TNS of Bitter Rants has an idea for expanding the war on Terror...overloading the religious discussions of the Mullahs of the ROP by forcing them to have to issue fatwas against us all.
All I have to say, while munching on a tasty BLT (heavy on the bacon), using my copy of the Queran as a leveling wedge on that short leg of my computer desk, and swilling a particularly tasty bottle of Poorter Ale, is WHERE IS MY fatwa?

Acidman has a list of ten things that he Just WON'T DO. they sounded like a pretty good list to me.

And last, Neal Boortz has a reply for a liar reviewing his book on the Fair Tax(H.R.25). The more I look into the Fair Tax, the more I am in favor of it. Study it for yourself, and if you are as agreeable to the idea as I am, contact your representatives and tell them to back it. We need this legislation to bring sanity back to our tax system, IMO. there are flaws, as in any system, but this is the most well thought out proposal to come down the pike in many a year.

Thats it for now...I know none of it is original, but I hope it does provide you some food for thought. I'll try to get something of my own up soon. Seems absence of practice has made it harder to formulate thought in a coherant format, but I'm sure that I just need to flex those underused muscles a little to get back up to my mediocre level of opining.

Once again, THANK YOU to all that have remained loyal readers through the recent troubles.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 03:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 477 words, total size 3 kb.

Just got the DSL connection back up and running full tilt, so I intend to get down and put up some posts and try to revive this moribund Blog. Thank you to all my readers that kept the faith and kept me going through this difficult period.

Let me do a little surfing and I'l come up with some posts a little later today.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 01:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.

Just got the word from SBC that the DSL line will become fully accessible on Tuesday, August 2nd. I sincerely hope that this will be the case, but as they have moved the date back twice already, I will just have to wait and see if they come through this time.

I am gratefull for all of you that have remained loyal in the face of no posting here for the last three weeks.

I hope to come out strong as soon as I have the connection enableing me to do so....there is SO much to rant about lately, and it's been a real mental strain not having the outlet of this blog to release the pressure.

See you next Tuesday!

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 02:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 125 words, total size 1 kb.

Time and again, I see in the press stories that try to equate the actions of murduring thugs with that of our troops fighting them. It's a breath of fresh air to read something like THIS.

It's about time that the Terrorist apologists in the press start to display some sense and show the real disparity in the actions of the Mooselimbs and our soldiers. Our soldiers aren't saints by any stretch of the imagination, especially when engaged in the heat of a battle, but the actions taken by PFC Tschiderer demonstrate that atrocitities are the rare exception rather than the rule; in direct reverse of the enemy we are engaged with.

As Mr. Avlon put it: "Our troops may not be perfect — we are human beings at war, not angels in heaven — but there is no moral equivalence between terrorists who target innocent human life, and the soldiers of the civilized world who try to bind the wounds of those who have just tried to kill them in combat."

Time and again, our troops have taken more causelties than they truly have needed to, because they follow strict ROE designed to protect the innocent as much as possible in a hot war zone. By contrast, the enemy we fight have targeted civilians as the MAIN option...after all, it's a lot safer for them to detonate a bomb among civilians than trying to engage troops in face to face battle.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 05:25 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 246 words, total size 2 kb.

two BOTH of my readers, I apologize. I've been offline since the 4th due to extreme poverty. I've gotten a temporary dial-up connection; but it's not good enough to be able to post too much. I hope to have DSL back by the end of next week.

Please go through the archives, and the fine folks in the blogroll. I'll be back ASAP with my twaddle.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 04:07 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.

Nasa gave us a fantastic fireworks show with the Deep Impact Project.

This whole project was akin to trying to hit a speeding bullet with another bullet, all by remote control from the other side of the world. They carried it out with flawless precision.

Here are two views taken from the delivery vehicle:

Here is an image of the colision as seen from an Earth orbiting telescope:

Another step in learning about our universe. Congratulations NASA!

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 11:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 83 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 11:02 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is calling it quits. Forgive me if I say that I won't miss her, she must have been a disappointment to President Reagan with some of her stands.

Now we'll get a chance to see if the Democrats will be as willing to compremise as they claimed they were, and just how much backbone may exist on the Right side of the aisle. The only thing that is certain is that it's going to be a donnybrook.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 01:36 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 91 words, total size 1 kb.

RWR sent me this link to an excellant op-ed piece by Mark Alexander on the Town Hall site.

Mr. Alexander layed it all out, no need for me to comment on it, other than to say, more and more of the triggers are being pulled, how long before blood is the only way to get back on the course layed out by our Progenitors?

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 09:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

The Left side was quite outraged that President Bush cited 9/11 five times in his speech on why we need to stay the course in Iraq.

Maybe Senator Rockefeller should take note of his OWN words before he complains too loudly?

Yes, Chosa, there I go, throwing stones again, just can't help it when the Left makes it so damned easy!

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 08:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 69 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Actually no, I wouldn't have said that, because what you're criticising him for is directly relevent to the issue you're talking about. I agree that he makes himself look ridiculous in slamming Dubbya for something he himself has done. Just realise that this doesn't remove the fact that Pres Bush DOES keep linking two unrelated events (9/11 and the Iraqi War) in order to keep Americans supporting the war. Americans have a low tolerance for any war that drags on and where their soldiers die (the Gulf war was perfect - quick, instant success, very few US casualties...a politician's dream war). But 9/11 was on US soil, a terrifying reminder that America is not immune from vulnerability. So connecting the two serves two purposes for Bush. 1. It makes people feel emotional and scared and this leads them to give support to the war in Iraq, because they see it as necessary for their security, which it isn't (can't attack the US with non-existant WMD, can they?) 2. It's a misdirection technique. Labelling Iraq as 'part of the war on terror' gives people the impression that the government is DOING SOMETHING about terrorists, when in fact NOTHING has been achieved in finding Bin Laden or bringing the perpetrators of 9/11 to justice. Even if you think that Bush is a great president, that's no reason to be fooled by political rhetoric and clever manipulation in speech-writing. This kind of control is used by politicians good and bad, sadly, to avoid having to face their voters with stark truths. The only link between 9/11 and Iraq is the one he (and apparently Rockefeller ) has created in the minds of Americans. And that's neither fair on Americans, or Iraqis.

Posted by: chosha at July 01, 2005 10:11 PM (1v6Rd)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Jay Tea over at Whizbang has a great post up demolishing the "chickenhawk" strawman that the Moonbat Minions of the Left love to use as an "argument" as to why any of us who support the war effort in Iraq should be discounted in our opinions as cowards not willing to back up our rhetoric.

Jay Tea is right on the mark when he says:

"I've always believed that one should limit one's arguments to the issues, not the individuals. I always try to refrain from gratuitous personal attacks when discussing matters of grave import... [snip]

"That belief stands in stark contrast with the "chickenhawk" argument, which tries to shift the discussion from the message to the messenger. It tries to move the topic from "is this a good idea?" to "who the hell are you to say anything?" It is an attempt to silence the opposition by assailing them personally, by punishing them for daring to have a dissenting opinion."

And one of the commenters in the thread had the perfect comeback by fighting fire with fire:

"But as far as the chicken hawk thing goes, I like to respond by offering a similar question in return. For example, I might ask:"

“Do you support universal access to healthcare for all?”

"If so, then I follow up with:"

“Have you volunteered to be a no-cost medical doctor, or nurse, or nurse’s assistant? Or maybe a crisis counselor, or dental assistant, or vision tester, etc. Surely, there is somewhere in the health care environment where you can contribute. Maybe you’re better with computers. Have you offered your time to help set up a data base at the free clinic? Maybe you don’t have the time or special skills to contribute. Are you at least providing monetary support?”

As Jay Tea first stated, the whole chickenhawk argument is just a vacuous attempt to take the argument from dicussing the issue to attacking the individual.

Update: Oleg Dulin made some comments in Whizbangs thread, and put up his own post where he asks: "What made Iraq unique enough to be attacked"?. I tried to respond in his comments and only got a "I know what your doing, your trying to spam my comments" message. In fairness, it is stated that there would be a confirmation message sent to my e-mail to post a reply, but that has not been forthcoming as of yet. I can see wanting to do anything to keep spam away, but making it so difficult to get through to opine makes it seem to me that Oleg really doesn't want to hear any opposing opinions...maybe he'll come here and try to engage?

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 03:49 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 447 words, total size 3 kb.

I just wanted to share a moment of self-satisfaction. I passed the 20,000 visitor mark yesterday, and I attained the level of Large Mammal in the TTLB (if only for a day, as is likely, but I still was there!

I may just have a blog going...and it's all due to YOU, the readers of my inane scribblings.

I can't say it enough:

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 11:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.

Whenever you read through any web site on the Left side of the aisle, one of the constant complaints is "how bad the economy is" and lament the High Times of the Clinton administration. They forget that by the second year of the second Clinton administration, there was growing evidence of a quickly looming recession.

Well, despite all their doom and gloom, the economy is actually doing quite well, thank you. The 1st Q report is in, and the growth rate of the GDP came in at 3.8%... .1% better than projections, and the third quarter in a row where growth was 3.8% or HIGHER. It's true that the deficits we're running are a matter of concern too, but if you look into it, you'll note that base revenues coming IN to the government are higher than ever. The Left tries to put the blame on these deficits on the WoT in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there again, gross costs are deceiving; the total costs of military expenditures in the last two years represent only 6 DAYS worth of the total tax revenue coming in to government in the same time period.

And for those that say "thats all well and good, but what about the lack of employment for the "little guy"?" Well cast your eyes on the chart below and tell me that growrh in the GDP doesn't translate into a better situation as far as employment goes. Read this as well to get a little better perspective.

As it ever has been, the problem is NOT that we're not paying enough taxes, it's that the government continues to raise their spending far above any increases in revenue. The Republicans are as guilty of this profligate spending as the Democrats are, although the largest expenditure requests are coming from the Left side of the aisle, no matter, in the end, ten small projects cost as much as one large one. in terms of the total outlays, so the blame is more than enough to paint both sides of the aisle.

WE THE PEOPLE need to start becoming more informed as to just what the govt. is spending revenues on, and start holding our representatives accountable for it.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 09:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 381 words, total size 3 kb.

Well we now have a deeper insight into the Muslim mind...seems that Condi Rice is being so tough with Iran because of having a had an affair gone wrong with an Irani in college. Doesn't seem to occur to these guys that our relations haven't been...well, EXISTANT, since the takeover of our Embassy in Teheran 25 years ago...

Seems that Muslims have a problem with sex in all facets of their thought. They can't have a woman go by them lest they forget the task at hand. In fact, I saw one site where a Muslim cleric described women as being nothing but "temptation and pudenda". Yeah, I want THAT guy trying to tell me what a healthy relationship is!

This isn't the first time that Irani officials have accused romance of interfering with geopolitics...It was rumoured last year that German foreign minister Joschka Fischer hardened his tone towards Iran after acquiring a girlfriend who supports the exiled opposition. Couldn't have been because Iran wanted to get a better deal on nuclear "power plant" equipment and the Germans wanted top price, it HAD to be because the Foreign Minister was getting some non-radical Muslim nooky...

F.E.A.T.E. Let's just solve the problem for good; turn the sands of the ME into a glass paved parking lot for the vehicles of the Haz-Mat suited roughnecks we send in to recover the oil.

Or better yet, lets take my fathers advice and arrange a world wide boycott of oil for a month. Let them drink their oil and see how long it takes for them to change regimes.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 08:50 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 273 words, total size 2 kb.

President Bush reiterated that "we will stay the course" in Iraq in his speech last night. I'm glad that he shows stern resolve in the face of repeated calls for "timelines,goal markers, and exit stragedies".

The Left is constantly trying to compare Iraq to Viet Nam as a "quagmire" without having learned the OTHER lessons of Viet Nam, namely, that you don't tell your enemy your limits; and that a military conflict can be won in the press if you can't beat your opponent by force of arms.

We can not tell the insurgents that if only they can hold on until _put date here_, they will have succeeeded in defeating the best army in the world. That is exactly what a timetable for withdrawal does. The one-sided reporting occurring at the moment in terms of only showing body counts of Coallition troops and Iraqi civilians without showing the real progress that has been made in terms of reconstruction and implementation of a new independant government is exactly what turned the people against the troops in Viet Nam and cost us the war after we had decimated the NVA to the point of almost non-existance.

Another thing that the doom and gloomers always attempt to say is that "Irag has nothing to do with the WoT". Well, if not, who are these "insurgents" that we're fighting in Iraq? MOST of the leadership of the "rebels" are NOT Iraqi, and if the reports are accurate, more and more of the fighters aren't either.

So WHERE would you rather fight them, in Iraq or here? And make no mistake, we will be fighting these people for longer than just in Iraq, but the fact is that they are fighting us in OUR choice of location, and they are obliging by coming to us to fight, and not staging more attacks on our own soil. This is a somewhat "cruel and heartless" way of looking at the situation, at least for the Iraqi nation; but then again, I am an AMERICAN , not an Iraqi, and prefer not to fight on my home soil. The Islamofacists declared this war over 20 years ago; for the most part, we weren't even aware that this war was declared untill 9/11. I thank god that we had a president that had the resolve to engage the enemy with real force rather than just trying to engage warriors with diplomats and cash bribes in the form of "aid".
It's a shame that the Iraqi people have to suffer the ravages of war, but the Islamofacists have to be fought somewhere, and it's the bad luck of the draw for the Iraqi's that the battlefield is centered there for the moment.

update: Sir George explains the folly of trying to fight a long term war on a timetable basis better than I could. As he said there is only one term for the side that tries to do so....The LOSER.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 04:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 500 words, total size 4 kb.

Gary Moody must be one desperate guy.....Arrested after a teenaged girl found him peering up at her from an outhouse seat...WHEW! Talk about a stinking pervert!

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 03:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.

I stole borrowed this cartoon from Neal's Nuze. Sure does seem to hit the nail pretty much on the head.

Go to any "Progressive" site...TRY to find any solid, step by step, proposals, backed with logical reasoning, on how to change policies for the better, and whats more, try to make such a proposal in the comments, and note the reaction you get.

95% of the time, the only proposal that a Progressive can come up with is that:

A. We need to raise taxes on "the Rich".

B. We need to have a government study/ further legislation to control the problem.

C. We need to do this "For the Children".

And the reaction you'll receive on a proposal?

A. "Your an uncaring slave of corporate America".

B. "Why are you so greedy"? "You should be happy to pay your taxes, so that you can enjoy the benefits of X, Y, or Z."

C. "Your a Republican, ergo you are a Nazi/Facist/Religious Right Wing Wacko".
And don't forget the classic "vicious gun lover that: wants to turn us back to the Wild West days/ let the blood run freely in the streets".

I will admit that Conservative sites aren't innocent in speading the lables "Communist" and "Socialist" around a little too freely too...there is one slight difference though, they usually back that tagging up with factual data.

But as the cartoon exemplifies; show me an instance where the Democratic party has made any proposals of their own, it seems that all they have done in the last three years is to do their best to block anything the Republicans come up with....whats even worse, it seems that some Rhinos are starting to do the same, in an effort to seemingly become more "bipartisan" before the next election. The art of politics is all about compremise, THAT is bipartisonship..negotiating a bill that, while it doesn't give either party everything they would desire, does become acceptable for the moment to both points of view. Just saying NO is far from that concept.

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 09:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 350 words, total size 3 kb.

Must be tough to be Senator Durbin or Pelosi right now...especially when people from your own party are refuting your contentions that "Gitmo is a Gulag".

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 12:41 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 34 words, total size 1 kb.

Justice Souter may soon learn a valuable lesson in the law of unintended consequences. Don't you just LOVE the smell of irony in the morning?

Posted by: Delftsman3 at 09:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 33 words, total size 1 kb.