Only The Little People Pay Taxes

Frontline examined corporate tax shelters. These shelters have saved cost Jon & Jane Taxpayer about $85 billion in recent years. You can watch the entire program through streaming video or read transcripts and excerpts. Learn how they're sticking it to you.

RANT!

George Bush promised to restore dignity to the White House. Does his vision of dignity include lying our nation into war and then joking about it?

If he thinks not finding those WMDs is funny, I have some suggestions for him:
- meet with WWII survivors and tell some Pearl Harbor jokes
- take his WMD humor to the wards at Walter Reed Hospital
- likewise, sit down with the families of our dead/wounded solidiers, and give 'em a good laugh
- tell some Max Cleland jokes; no, wait, Ann Coulter already does that [note: Max Cleland is a triple-amputee military hero, having lost 3 limbs to a hand grenade in Viet Nam)
- meet with families of the 9/11 victims and tell some jokes about why Al-Qaida was a low priority

Restore Dignity?

You'd Think That WMDs, Al-Queda, the Economy, Would Be More Important

"At the White House, nailing Clarke is now Job 1. 'We're all on Clarke patrol,' said a senior Bush political strategist."
The reference is to Richard Clarke, former Bush anti-terrorism expert. His recent book and testimony before the 9/11 commission have alerted Americans to the numerous Bush mistakes that preceded and followed the 9/11 attacks. Source:

Maybe There Really Are Two Americas

Oh but ain't that America for you and me
Ain't that America somethin' to see baby
Ain't that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

Every Day in America
4,227	people file for personal bankruptcy.
12,878	workers are injured or made ill by their jobs.
85,444	workers lose their jobs.
6,800,000	people are in the workforce but are still poor.
11,000,000	children attend broken-down schools.
14,700,000	workers are jobless, underemployed or have given up looking for work.
43,600,000	people have no health insurance.

Sources, based on daily averages:
- U.S. Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage inthe United States: 2002, 9/03;
- U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), A Profile of the Working Poor, 2001, 6/03;
- BLS, Business Employment Dynamics: First Quarter 2003, 11/25/03;
- BLS, The Employment Situation: December 2003, 1/09/04;
- U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Condition of America’s Public School Facilities: 1999, 6/00;
- American Bankruptcy Institute, Annual U.S. Non-Business Bankruptcy Filings by Chapter 2000–2002.
- Working poor: Number of people who were poor and spent 27 weeks or more in the labor force.
- Bankruptcy: U.S. bankruptcy estimate calculated by summing the 2002 bankruptcies for the states. The number of people filing for personal bankruptcy is based on a daily average.
- Job loss: Summed monthly layoffs and discharges for November 2002–October 2003 and calculated daily average.
- Child poverty: Children with at least one parent who works fulltime, year-round, Children’s Defense Fund, www.childrensdefense.org/fs_chpov.php.

Show Us the Jobs!

Tax Cuts for the Rich Create Jobs. Honest! No, Really!

Need Proof? Here's the average monthly job growth since WWII. Guess which Presidency had the lowest income tax rates on above-median personal incomes? (hint: look for job growth in the red)


Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

When The Marketing Department Runs Amok

Egypt unveiled the reconstructed sarcophagus of Pharaoh Ramses Tuesday after much work on the ancient ruler's corpse. Ramses was buried in his pyramid along with his two hundred fifty sons. Whose idea was it to name a condom after this guy?
-- Argus Hamiliton

Someone Pinch Me - I Must Be Dreaming

The Wall St. Journal Questions Bush's response to the events of 9/11.

Headline: "Government Accounts of 9/11 Reveal Gaps, Inconsistencies"

Oh, the heresy of it!