Something I missed while I was on vacation last week:
In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
Obviously more income redistribution is called for.
One governor gets off a lame joke, and another fires back and even lamer response:
The lead sentence or paragraph of a newspaper story tells you -- or should -- what the writer and editors think is the single most important point of the article. Here's The Associated Press on the anaylsis showing that property tax caps in Indiana are going to have a greater impact than expected:
It's bad enough that the federal government blackmails the state by threatening do withhold funds if we don't do things like have open container and seat belt laws. But this is patently absurd:
The Indiana Department of Transportation is trying to get a better handle on exactly how many billboards sit along the state's highways after a federal agency found problems in Indiana and threatened to withhold $90 million.
[. . .]
I'm baaaack!
First, they came after our toilets, and we said nothing . . .
There is a battle for America's behinds.
It is a fight over toilet paper: the kind that is blanket-fluffy and getting fluffier so fast that manufacturers are running out of synonyms for "soft" (Quilted Northern Ultra Plush is the first big brand to go three-ply and three-adjective).
Whoda thunk it?
This year, the deep pockets of New York's rich were tapped like never before. The state's wealthiest pay new higher income tax rates, higher taxes for limousines and yachts, more to enter a horse in a race and more to dabble in real estate.
Meanwhile, many are losing millions from the closing of business tax loopholes and those making over $1 million are losing tax deductions others get.
More than 19 percent of Wayne County residents over age 15 are divorced, according to new 2008 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. That's the highest percentage for any county with a population over 65,000 in the nation, and two other Indiana counties -- Floyd and Madison -- also made the top 10.
The Washington Post, sticking up for our poor, overworked legislators who just don't have time to read the bills they're voting on, seems to miss a rather large point:
A group of well-meaning professional activists -- and, so far, over nearly 60,000 online petitioners -- want members of Congress to sign a pledge never to vote on any bill unless they have read "every word" of it.
I suspect some of my neighbors are among the 1,100 signers of this petition. I can't agree with them:
Some Waynedale residents are making sure that their voices are heard before a decision is made to close their post office on Old Trail Road.
The branch is on a list of 413 offices to be closed. Waynedale resident Billie Rykard collected nearly 1100 signatures from people who oppose the closings.
