Swampyville's - "Tax! Tax! Tax!, then Tax! some more"

Question? What is a Value Added Tax (VAT)?

Politically Correct Resolution:

Every taxable item "Manufactured" in the United States has an Added Value Tax (hidden tax) of 17% added by the government.

A value added tax (VAT) is a form of consumption tax. From the perspective of the buyer, it is a tax on the purchase price. From that of the seller, it is a tax only on the "value added" to a product, material or service, from an accounting point of view, in each stage of its manufacture or distribution. The manufacturer remits to the government the difference between these two amounts, and retains the rest for themselves to offset the taxes they had previously paid on the inputs.(Wikipedia)

The "value added" to a product by a business is the sale price charged to its customer, minus the cost of materials and other taxable inputs. A VAT is like a sales tax in that ultimately only the end consumer is taxed. It differs from the sales tax in that, with the latter, the tax is collected and remitted to the government only once, at the point of purchase by the end consumer. With the VAT, collections, remittances to the government, and credits for taxes already paid occur each time a business in the supply chain purchases products.(Wikipedia)

There are politicians who want to add an additional 10% of Federal sales tax on top of the current (VAT) being paid. If they are allowed to do this, the consumer will be paying 33% in taxes for taxable items that they purchase. The same approximate amount that is actually being paid on most credit cards (with their hidden charges)! I guess the government/corporations/ Financial Interests need every penny of the tax payers money than can get to keep from starving to death! Make no mistake about it, The Government/Corporations/ Financial Interests are all complicit in minipulating the Tax codes to allow this Usury to happen/continue.

http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/swampyvilles-the-banshees-cry/2011/oct/19/swampyvilles-tax-tax-tax-then-tax-some-m/

Texas High School students made to recite Mexican National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance

A high school student refused to participate in a bizarre class assignment that required students to recite the Mexican Pledge and national anthem. She said it had nothing to do with learning Spanish and decided to video the incident. The Blaze has the exclusive and disturbing video. Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.
Wearing red, white and green, students had to memorize the Mexican anthem and pledge and stand up and recite them in individually in front of the class.

That didn’t go over well with sophomore Brenda Brinsdon. The 15-year-old sat down and refused to participate. She also caught it all on video:

It happened last month in an intermediate Spanish class at Achieve Early College High School in McAllen, Texas — a city located about 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/blaze-exclusive-tx-high-school-students-made-to-recite-mexican-national-anthem-pledge-of-allegiance/

In the end, Gov. Brown is just a union guy

SACRAMENTO ---- As the legislative session came to an end, some Capitol observers expressed a glimmer of hope that Gov. Jerry Brown would be the independent, reform-minded governor that he swore he would be when he ran for office.

After the governor argued that not every problem deserves a government solution when he vetoed a nanny-ish ski-helmet law and put the kibosh on a card-check bill that would have eliminated secret-ballot elections for farm workers, I joined the "wishful thinking" chorus and urged the governor to heed his libertarian impulse.

But Brown was just playing head games with those of us who believe that California must reform its government and take on the unions that are driving up costs and eroding public services.

He vetoed a couple of other egregious union-backed laws, including one that would have unionized child care workers, but when the final bill-signing tally came in, it's clear that he is nothing more than a front man for the unions and an enemy of reform. It always helps to deal in reality. So don't expect anything to improve under his watch.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/greenhut/article_e860cb3d-c687-58b5-93c9-7b77e2f5b7d4.html#ixzz1b328Ys7a

Keystone Cops Wag The Dog

October 17, 2011 by Bob Livingston 

UPI FILE

The Administration of President Barack Obama saved the announcement that an assassination plot had been thwarted for the same day a Congressional investigation announced Attorney General Eric Holder was being subpoenaed over his lying testimony about Fast and Furious.

With investigations into U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s complicity in the Fast and Furious guns to Mexico criminality gaining steam, and public appetite for another U.S. war in another Mideast nation waning, President Barack Obama needed a big play.

What he got was a four-base error.

At a news conference last week announcing a thwarted assassination plot, Holder said the plot was the work of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the guardian of Iran’s 32-year revolution, and the Quds force, its covert, operational arm, according to a Reuters report.

“High-up officials in those (Iranian) agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot,” Holder told the news conference.

If so, they must have planned it about four hours into a booze- and cocaine-fueled night of poker, because it is one of the most convoluted, pathetically inept, unprofessional hits ever concocted. A 10-year-old semi-literate could have devised a plan with a better chance of success.

The “plot,” such as it was, came to light in early summer. Press reports say President Barack Obama was briefed on it in June. The “mastermind,” an Iranian-American used-car salesman said to have a penchant for alcohol and prostitutes and described as scatterbrained, was arrested in September. But the Obama Administration saved the announcement for the same day a Congressional investigation announced Holder was being subpoenaed over his lying testimony about Fast and Furious.

The problem for Obama and Holder is that not even their normally fawning press corps is buying the story, simply because it is so ridiculous.

NBC's Isikoff Warns Cain's 9-9-9 Plan May Mean 'More Pain' for 'Struggling Families'

On Saturday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Michael Isikoff filed a report recounting criticisms of GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, as Isikoff asserted that "critics see more pain, not gain, for struggling families." His report continued:

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: A family of four with an income of $50,000 could face a tax hike of more than $5,000, says one tax analyst.

PROFESSOR EDWARD KLEINBARD, USC SCHOOL OF LAW: Anybody who works for a living and has an income below six figures a year is going to find him or herself very sorry that they live in a 9-9-9 tax environment.

The NBC correspondent soon featured a soundbite of Cain advisor Rich Lowrie which did not address the charge that the poor would pay more, as Lowry was instead shown arguing in favor of eliminating the capital gains tax to help increase investment.

But, on the same night's Huckabee show on FNC, host Mike Huckabee allowed guest Cain the chance to argue that his plan would not cause the poor to pay higher taxes because the 9-9-9 plan would also eliminate hidden taxes that increase the prices of consumers goods, thus allowing prices to drop as the sales tax is introduced.

Returning to NBC, Isikoff undermined Cain's plan as he concluded the report:

Nobody disputes that the 9-9-9 plan would radically change current policy. But while Cain says it will recharge the economy, his critics say there's no guarantee of that, and that his proposal would unfairly shift the tax burden away from the wealthy and onto working class Americans.

Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2011/10/16/nbcs-isikoff-warns-cains-9-9-9-plan-may-mean-more-pain-struggling-fam#ixzz1axRuZGH4

Salary increases? In this economy? They can’t be serious, can they?

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 | 2 a.m.

When we read recent reports that many Clark County government workers were receiving salary increases, we had one thought: Seriously?

Yes, seriously.

As the Las Vegas Sun’s Joe Schoenmann has reported, Clark County has been working with unions representing its employees to try to whittle down costs and has received concessions from several unions over the past few years. However, many county employees have still seen their wages increase over the past three years. (You can find coverage here.)

For example, county officials said members of the Service International Employees Union received average wage increases of 12.6 percent over that time. A spokesman for the SEIU, which is negotiating its contract with the county, disputed the number and said the union was doing its own analysis.

County officials have been accused of overstating wages before. This year, county officials said prosecutors had received total wage increases of 15 percent over three years. As Schoenmann noted, District Attorney David Roger complained, saying the county had grossly overstated the increases. However, an audit backed the county, saying the number was 14.6 percent.

Regardless, the squabbling over numbers misses the larger point: Times are tough. Thousands of workers in Clark County have lost their jobs, and many workers have taken pay cuts. Nevada continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the nation. And an untold number of others have gone years without pay increases. 

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/oct/13/salary-increases-economy-they-cant-be-serious-can-/