Archive for June, 2010

Kelly Anderson Wright

A Canadian friend of mine discovered his “free” health care isn’t free after all.

David purchased a few pairs of designer jeans that normally retail in the US for more than $700. He ordered them from an online company in Reno and thought he was getting a great deal – until Customs held his jeans for ransom.

Customs.

In their infinite wisdom, the Canadian customs officials (aka government goons) decided to charge David import taxes on the jeans’ retail value, not the price he actually paid. They refused to release the jeans until he forked over an additional $40, which amounted to 24 percent tax.

Canada charges a VAT (Value Added Tax) on most items shipped into Canada. Gifts are excluded, but Customs has the right to open any package they wish, and if they think an item is a purchase, not a gift, they will charge the receiver a VAT, currently 5 percent of the item’s price.

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Joe Bell

One topic that has gotten far too little media coverage is the looming expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush era tax cuts. Unless Congress takes action to renew them they will begin to sunset at the end of this year. If Congress permits that to happen taxpayers will face enormous tax hikes. Those increases will intensify the financial burdens that have already been imposed by the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.

Smart.

On April 10, The Hill reported that President Barack Obama supports extending the tax cuts to those making $250,000 or less a year. That’s not good enough.

Senator John Kyl, R-Ariz., has pointed out that unless Congress takes action, “Taxes will increase on families with children, on married couples, on income, on capital gains and dividends and even after death. It comes to a total of $2 trillion in new taxes over the next 10 years.”

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Gregory D. Lee

If the oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast wasn’t bad enough, the Obama administration has managed to make it even worse by placing a moratorium on deep water drilling.

Instead of listening to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, distressed workers and local politicians telling him not to stop deep water oil pumping for six months, President Obama is taking the advice of his White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste…it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”

Lights out.

When gasoline prices were nearing $4.00 per gallon, the president said that he didn’t mind prices being that high. He just didn’t like seeing prices rise so quickly. Now he is attempting to raise gasoline prices even higher and blame BP thanks to the “serious crises” in the Gulf. He and Emanuel see this as their opportunity to resurrect the “Cap and Trade” legislation that stalled when Congress lost its appetite for more regulation after the health care bill became law.

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Jill Ciminillo

SAN FRANCISCO—OK. I’m just going to put this out there up front. The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is the best Chrysler Group product that I’ve driven. Ever.

I know. Bold. But quite true.

When I saw the row of vehicles parked in front of the guest room buildings at Cavallo Point, they were shiny and pretty. So, I did a quick turn before the media presentation. With a strong, stern stance at the front and an elegant, sleek tail end reminiscent of the BMW X5, the exterior package was spot on.

But don’t let the words “BMW” and “elegant” fool you. This sucker is a Jeep with a 7-slot grill, round headlights and the trapezoidal wheel arches. Oh, and the crazy capability that Jeep delivers on pretty much every vehicle it produces. (We won’t talk about the Compass.)

The 2011 Grand Cherokee is a completely new vehicle, and everything except for two elements have been changed: the four-wheel drive system and the Hemi engine. And, oh, boy, did they do a good job.

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Kelly Anderson Wright

Conservatives are thrilled that Obama is coming back to Nevada to campaign for Reid next month. Every time Obama comes, he angers even more of the electorate with his insanely insensitive, anti-Nevada comments. Remember his “don’t blow your money in Vegas” line? Hotel reservations were canceled en masse in the days and weeks that followed that idiotic remark. Obama never apologized, and Reid pretended it never happened.

Lovin' me some light-skinned Negro

Well, perhaps Nevada deserved it. Our good ‘ole boy Harry did call Obama a “light-skinned” black man with “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” That embarrassment is painfully evident every time the two pat each other on the back.

Obama forgave Harry, but we haven’t.

Apparently Reid thinks more good than harm will come from the president’s visit. It wouldn’t be the first time Harry was wrong.

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Mark Watson

Surprisingly, unemployment benefit claims rose last week according to the Labor Department. At least the experts were surprised by the 450,000 new first-time jobless claims.

Is being consistently wrong when analyzing upcoming employment losses a requirement for being considered an expert these days? That certainly seems to be the case.

How very unexpected.

Non-experts, who are mainly identified as those holding jobs or desperately trying to find jobs, are about the only ones who are never surprised by rising unemployment rates.

Experts, and the national Democratic stenographers, keep touting how the economy is steadily improving. Ask the 450,000 who lost their jobs this week, or the more than 460,000 who have lost their jobs in each of the last four weeks how they see the economy.

Few would say they see any improvement in any aspect of the anemic economy. These non-experts only see a worsening job loss reality.

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Tina Trimble Belliston

Even though the population of 30,000 in Port Chester, New York is comprised of nearly 50 percent Hispanics, no Hispanic candidate has ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats in the village. Federal Judge Stephen Robinson felt this was unfair, indeed, that it violated the Voting Rights Act. As such, he approved the “remedy” put forth to him by village officials – the implementation of cumulative voting.

I got a cousin and she got a friend who thought that her aunt knew a judge who could help.

This means that each resident of Port Chester gets six votes to cast among the candidates as they see fit. They could cast all votes for one candidate, one vote for each of the six candidates, or any combination thereof that they deemed appropriate for themselves.

Port Chester residents voiced mixed emotions over the new system. Some felt that it goes against the old adage “one man, one vote”, while others felt that it is a much-needed change that will offer opportunity to a wider range of candidates and political parties that before might not have been able to be competitive in the race.

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Kudos to Kevin Costner. Other left-wing celebrities merely run their ignorant mouths on all kinds of subjects about which they know nothing. Not Crash Davis. Dude takes action.

Apparently Costner’s oil spill cleanup machine really works, and BP is buying 32 of them after it passed its testing with flying colors. Nice work. This should make him enough money to be able to keep the field and save the farm, wouldn’t you think?

Bob Franken

The first order of business will be deciding what to call that $20 billion BP compensation fund. How about “A Start”. As in, 20 billion doesn’t begin to cover the liability for the careless disregard for anything but profit that caused such devastating losses in the Gulf of Mexico region including the loss of life. It’ll take more than any financial penalty to achieve a just result.

Crocodile tears.

The contemptuous disregard for minimal safety procedures was brought on by pressure from the very top of the company. It was the never-ending demand to minimize expenses and maximize profits which borders on criminal negligence. In fact, it crosses the line and serious consideration has to be given to the prosecution of those responsible, from top to bottom.

While we’re at it, BP, lose the ads. We don’t need those absurd attempts to depict recovery efforts as some benign corporate act. That’s not image making, that’s image faking.

For that matter, we would probably be better off without any from the energy industry. Those commercials we see that present big oil as protecting our interests are nothing more than propaganda-disguising campaigns that try and rachet up opposition to new taxes on the industry and the obscene income its gets because of its stranglehold on all of us. It is, after all, a cartel that feeds our addiction to oil and gasoline.

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Joe Bell

On June 15, President Barack Obama revealed there is one war he is willing to fight with everything at his command. In the New Gulf War, being waged against British Petroleum, Obama pledged to leave no weapon behind. Four sentences into the speech he even mentioned Al-Qaeda, noting that as

Comparing BP to Al-Qaeda.

American soldiers battle terrorists abroad his administration will prove equal to the task against BP. The oil spill, triggered by an April 20 explosion at an oil rig off the Louisiana coast, is as grave an environmental disaster as one can imagine. It is not a war.

Obama dug into his usual bag of tricks, making the case that former President George W. Bush was responsible. Obama said over the last 10 years government embraced “a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility…”

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