Monday, July 27, 2009

Cruel Ironies

I, when a lot younger, paid little attention to politicians other than local favorite, Senator Joe Long whom I followed because he had spent so much time and energy in helping out kids in my area. And he was funny, and he always remembered who I was, which of course is flattering. The only other politicians I ever encountered were local school board members. In personality and professionalism, they ran the gamut from responsible, conservative let's-take-care-of-our people folks to pinched faced, born again types whose main purpose for being on the board was to grind some sort of blade over the moral conduct of teachers. In one case the cruel irony was that one such Bible-thumping, prayer-gathering, teacher-assassinating member ended up cheating on his wife with another man. Go figure. Or maybe a better irony was the superintendent of education, who while expecting all male teachers to have military haircuts and no questionable part-time jobs and to be morally correct in every way, spent all his time at meetings feeling up and pinching the asses of any male employee that he could situate himself next to or corner. Nice, leader of children's education.



Other ironies hop up, rascally rabbits, more often now that I am hooked on the sordid nature of United States politics. Take Sarah Palin who quit as governor of Alaska. Now, she's a peach- family values, low taxes, moral behavior, etc. You know. But she quit her freaking job, stating she didn't want to be a lame-duck governor taking a bunch of trips and wasting government money. This babe, I guess, figures that there is a law or code that requires a governor on her way out to waste a bunch of money and resist staying on the job and helping see some of her programs through. The cruel irony is all the Republicans who were defending paying the bonuses to all the Wall Street and banking executives because, after all, this is America (say that 'Meraka) and here we honor contracts. You see where I am going; Palin had a contract with the people of Alaska to do a job until the job was over. But she boogied off to her own benefit and now the Republican base is SCREAMING in praise about what a f-babe-intellect-savvy-politician she is. How about this for an idea: do your freaking job, you weird bitch, and then run for whatever you want, as long as it is in Mexico.



Let us now consider all the flap over taxation, Tea Parties, trickle down economy, and all that rhetorically plagued logic and lies we have to endure when it comes to figuring out what taxes are fair for corporations. Every jabbering jaw on conservative talk shows is constantly proclaiming how we have the highest tax rates of any developed country, That is mighty manure; we have the highest IRS tax tables, maybe, but we do not have the highest tax rates by far. Consider: according to the United States Treasury the United States effective tax rate on corporations is 24 percent, the average tax rate of G-7. Also, the tax rate for equipment financed by debt is -46 percent meaning simply for American tax payers that we finance corporate equipment purchase with our tax dollars and the banks whom we have bailed out make money from the interest on the financed equipment. Despite this information, one honest measure about contribution of corporate taxes to our country is amazing: The United States' corporate tax contributes 2.2 percent to our Gross Domestic Product. Ireland's corporations, by comparisons, contribute 3.9 percent to its GDP. None of this discussion considers S Corporations, over seas' tax havens, nor that from 1998 to 2005 two thirds of U.S. corporations paid no taxes at all. The cruel irony is that 50 percent of our population would rather listen to Rust Limpbag, Pat "Woodie" Buchanan, or Glenn Belch rant on about our high tax rates for poor corporations than do some reading from a variety of sources to figure just who has whom by the short-hairs when it comes to taxation. Why have we spent so many trillions on public education education when half our population won't read? Consider this: Have the goofy miscreants who run this country come up with a tax plan that is up front, drops all the loopholes, and eliminates exemptions or vote the forons out of office.



Saving the best for last on this topic, I choose to look at the most laughable and simultaneously most depressing (might as well laugh rather than cry) irony of all: corporate payroll to bailed out companies. You can go to any search and find out the malfeasance going on in this area (honoring contracts, legal requirements, this-is-America-we-follow-the-law conservative fabrication; you know the ones who blamed this financial and political crisis on the poor folks who bought all those homes while receiving welfare checks). Take a look at some of these figures from Common Cause or use any other newspaper or website of your choice on the topic. Bank of America certainly on the ropes and recipient of 25 billion in U.S. bailout paid its CEO Ken Lewis 24.84 Million for running the bank to the brink of bankruptcy. AIG got 40 billion or maybe more now, who's counting, rewarded Martin Sullivan 14.3 million for his meritorious efforts, CIT Group whose stock was around a buck a share, after another bailout, paid its top-dude 9.5 million dollars. Cititgroup, you know, the credit card company now charging 15 percent interest and huge fees to suck the last bit of economic life out of the very consumers who paid taxes to help them out, gave good old Winifred F. W. Bischoff, its chairman, 6.3 million dollars for leading that company to such high standards. To be fair in disclosure, these folks didn't get a lump-sum check; they got stock, non-equity incentive plan compensations, and change in pension plan values in addition to salary. And folks this ain't the entire list, not close. So where are the conservatives on this issue, and why are they not screaming? These awards to executives for poor performance seem pretty damned liberal to me. Maybe the conservatives and Republican are just too busy figuring out how to base a teacher's pay of 55K a year on how good a job he or she does. Consider this: all you weasel- dicked, jackasses ought to rot in hell for screwing this country up so bad. Fix it, now!


Jazus, get me some Kool-Aid quick.