Ever wonder about the countless treads you see along side the highways? Lately I’ve noticed that they weren’t all treads from big tires, but looked like passenger car tire size. Apparently tires have a shelf life, and some tires are sold as new when they were manufactured many years before.
ABC News has the report:
Upset about that federal deficit? Want to see some tax cuts? Apparently the federal stimulus bill has some neatly organized for your review here:
Individual Tax Cuts:
1. “Making Work Pay” Tax Credit (Sec. 1001, Page 195). In tax years 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay provision will provide a refundable tax credit of 6.2 percent of earned income up to $400 for individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns.
2. Increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit (Sec. 1002, Page 198). Go to the stimulus bill for all the details, but it essentially expands this benefit for the working poor.
3. Increased Eligibility for the Refundable Portion of Child Credit (Sec. 1003, Page 199). In 2009 and 2010, families who don’t earn enough to pay income tax would be eligible to claim the $1,000 child credit.
4. “American Opportunity” Education Tax Credit (Sec. 1004, Page 199). Increases the Hope Scholarship Credit to $2,500.
5. Refundable First-time Home Buyer Credit. (Sec. 1006, Page 202). This extended and increased the first-time home buyer tax credit from $7,500 to $8,000.
6. Temporary Suspension of Taxation of Unemployment Benefits (Sec. 1007, Page 203). This exempts from taxable gross income the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits.
7. Tax Credits for Energy-Efficient Improvements to Existing Homes (Sec. 1121, Page 208). This provides up to a $1,500 tax credit for qualified energy efficiency improvements.
8. Sales Tax Deduction for Vehicle Purchases (Sec. 1008, Page 203). This allows people to write off state and local sales taxes related to the purchase of a new vehicle costing up to $49,500.
9. Premium Credits for COBRA Continuation Coverage for Unemployed Workers (Sec. 6432, Page 348)
10. Economic Recovery Credits to Recipients of Social Security, SSI, Railroad Retirement and Veterans Disability Compensation Benefits (Sec. 2201, Page 336). This was a $250 payment for senior citizens, disabled veterans and disabled people living on Social Security benefits.
11. Computers as Qualified Education Expenses in 529 Education Plans (Sec. 1005, Page 202). This allows college students to write off the expense of computers and software, provided it’s for educational purpose and not for games.
12. Plug-in Electric Drive Vehicle Credit (Sec. 1141, Page 212). Allows purchasers of plug-in electric vehicles to write off up to $5,000 of their purchase (depending on the power of the battery).
13. Tax Parity for Transit Benefits (sec. 1151, Page 219). This relates to an increased exclusion amount for commuter transit benefits and transit passes.
14. Health Coverage Tax Credit Expansion (Sec. 1899, Page 309).
Small Business Tax Cuts:
1. Extension of Enhanced Small Business Expensing (Sec. 1202, Page 221). This is a temporary increase in limitations on expensing some depreciable business assets.
2. 5-Year Carryback of Net Operating Losses for Small Businesses (Sec. 1211, Page 221).
3. Extension of Bonus Depreciation (Sec. 1201, Page 220). This extends by a year election to accelerate the AMT and Research Credits in lieu of bonus depreciation.
4. Exclusion of 75% of Small Business Capital Gains from Taxes (Sec. 1241, Page 228).
5. Temporary Small Business Estimated Tax Payment Relief (Sec. 1212, Page 222).
6. Temporary Reduction of S Corporation Built-In Gains Holding Period from 10 Years to 7 Years (Sec. 1251, Page 228).
Other Business Tax Cuts:
1. Advanced Energy Investment Credit (Sec. 1302, Page 231). This relates to properties designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as those that produce
energy from the sun, wind, geothermal deposits, fuel cells, microturbines, or an energy storage system for use with electric or hybrid-electric vehicles.2. Tax Credits for Alternative Refueling Property (Sec. 1123, Page 211). This is a temporary increase for alternative fuel vehicle refueling businesses.
3. Work Opportunity Tax Credits for Hiring Unemployed Veterans and Disconnected Youth (Sec. 1221, Page 223). This is a tax credit to provide incentive to businesses to hire unemployed veterans and “disconnected youth.” That latter term is defined, in part, as young adults “not readily employable by reason of lacking a sufficient number of basic skills.”
4. Delayed Recognition of Certain Cancellation of Debt Income (Sec. 1231, Page 224).
5. Election to Accelerate Recognition of Historic AMT/R&D Credits (Sec. 1201, Page 220).
If corporations are entitled to the same rights as indivduals, then it is easy to extrapolate that corporations can run for public office. This youtube video starts the ball rolling:
What is interesting about the firm, Murray Hill Inc. is a PR agency who has plenty of union and environmental groups as clients. Precisely the sort of groups also given free reign to spend money on political advertising. Perhaps next up we’ll start seeing the ubiquitos navy blue suits adorned with corporate sponsorship logos a la sports.
When you think unions, being of a certain generation, you may hold some yesteryear vision that the typical union worker manufacturers something, somewhere deep in the bowels of a factory rife with health threatening tasks. It’s the classic vision that union advocates want you to think of, and one that I default to.
But the numbers don’t lie. More union workers work for government jobs than in your private sector employment. Which means that they work for us, as in we the people, rather than some mindless corporate profiteering entity unconcerned with worker safety.
For the first time in American history, a majority of union members
are government workers rather than private-sector employees, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.In its annual report on union membership, the bureau undercut the
longstanding notion that union members are overwhelmingly blue-collar
factory workers. It found that membership fell so fast in the private
sector in 2009 that the 7.9 million unionized public-sector workers
easily outnumbered those in the private sector, where labor’s ranks
shrank to 7.4 million, from 8.2 million in 2008.“There has been steady growth among union members in the public
sector, but I’m a little bit shocked to see that the lines have
actually crossed,” said Randel K. Johnson, senior vice president for
labor at the United States Chamber of Commerce.According to the labor bureau, 7.2 percent of private-sector workers
were union members last year, down from 7.6 percent the previous year.
That, labor historians said, was the lowest percentage of
private-sector workers in unions since 1900.Among government workers, union membership grew to 37.4 percent last
year, from 36.8 percent in 2008.
What a day. First Steve Jobs announced the iPad, the next thing in a long line of gadget things that Apple has figured out that we need.
We need the iPad, because it takes what was the Kindle, and makes it cooler. In color too. It says — hey world, we figured out you figured out that you don’t really need computers any more, you like the iPhone, but the keys are too close together so here’s the fat fingered version.But wait, you can pair a bluetooth keyboard to it. And it will have more battery life than my Air?
This was the state of the union we needed to hear.
Later, President Obama talked about jobs. No, not our Jobs. But jobs as in how to get the economy working. It’s his number one focus. He urged Democrats that they still needed to “solve problems and not run for the hills.”
But wait, why not run over to the Apple store and get an iPad. Instead of bailing out car companies and banks, why not just buy an iPad for every school age child in America? Apple shares would spike, Wall Street would be happy and there’d be some massive trickle down of wealth that even Republicans would like.
Let’s do a play by play analysis of the speeches then, shall we?
OBAMA:
It’s tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable -– that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run, and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt. When the market crashed on Black Tuesday, and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain. These were the times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union. And despite all our divisions and disagreements, our hesitations and our fears, America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, as one people.
JOBS:
Apple is a mobile device company. Largest mobile devices company on world by revenue. Bigger than Sony. Samsung. Nokia.
OBAMA:
Because of the steps we took, there are about two million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. (Applause.) Two hundred thousand work in construction and clean energy; 300,000 are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, first responders. (Applause.) And we’re on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.
The plan that has made all of this possible, from the tax cuts to the jobs, is the Recovery Act. (Applause.) That’s right -– the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus bill. (Applause.) Economists on the left and the right say this bill has helped save jobs and avert disaster. But you don’t have to take their word for it. Talk to the small business in Phoenix that will triple its workforce because of the Recovery Act. Talk to the window manufacturer in Philadelphia who said he used to be skeptical about the Recovery Act, until he had to add two more work shifts just because of the business it created. Talk to the single teacher raising two kids who was told by her principal in the last week of school that because of the Recovery Act, she wouldn’t be laid off after all.
JOBS:
2 weeks ago sold 250th million iPod. Apple now has 284 Apple stores, had 50 million people visit last year. Has more than 140,000 applications on APp Store. 3 billion apps have been download in 18 months.
OBAMA:
We should start where most new jobs do –- in small businesses, companies that begin when — (applause) — companies that begin when an entrepreneur — when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides it’s time she became her own boss. Through sheer grit and determination, these companies have weathered the recession and they’re ready to grow. But when you talk to small businessowners in places like Allentown, Pennsylvania, or Elyria, Ohio, you find out that even though banks on Wall Street are lending again, they’re mostly lending to bigger companies. Financing remains difficult for small businessowners across the country, even those that are making a profit.
So tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. (Applause.) I’m also proposing a new small business tax credit
-– one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. (Applause.) While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment, and provide a tax incentive for all large businesses and all small businesses to invest in new plants and equipment. (Applause.)
Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow. (Applause.) From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.
JOBS:
Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended December 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.9 percent, up from 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 21 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
So let’s see, Obama wants to create jobs by putting Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow and Steve Jobs has just shown the infrastructure of tomorrow. What a friggin disconnect.
It seems like it was a lifetime ago that during the Clinton administration, Vice President Gore was schmoozing the tech industry and bringing in the tech stuff to get problem solving in Washington on the Internet. The High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 gave us the Internet browser. I think there was a recession then too.
The point in all this is that it was only last year Obama was telling us the equivalent to what do you want to do Agent Scully, sell sugar water for the rest of your life or change the world? Today Obama’s pitching us on how a tax credit for small businesses when they hire someone will somehow change the economy. Today Obama is John Sculley.
When was the lats time there was a fillibuster executed in the Senate? In 2005 Foxnews reported that it was 1992, with then Senator Alfonse D’Amato talking for 15 hours and 14 minutes.
Since then nada, that is in the form of a true filibuster.
For the President to announce that nothing will happen in the Senate until Scott Brown is seated, is a sign that Democrats just don’t know how to lead. Bill Clinton had it right, it’s better to be strong and wrong, then right and weak.
Vote on the health care bill. It may in fact not get enough votes. Who cares? It is a sucky piece of legislation anyways. But at least put the effort into actually voting on something instead of this endless whining about cloture and filibusters.
Just vote.
The Seattle Times has a nice web site celebrating the life and times of Martin Luther King. Check it out:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/
By BILL CLINTON and GEORGE W. BUSH
This weekend, President Obama asked us to spearhead private-sector fund-raising efforts in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that ravaged Haiti. We are pleased to answer his call.
Throughout both our careers in public service, we have witnessed firsthand the amazing generosity of the American people in the face of calamity. From the Oklahoma City bombings to 9/11, from the tsunami in South Asia to Hurricane Katrina, Americans have rallied to confront disaster — natural or man-made, domestic or abroad — with the determination, compassion and unity that have defined our nation since its founding.
After the tsunami, Americans gave more than $1 billion to help the people of South Asia. The recent earthquake in Haiti is estimated to have had an impact on nearly three million people — 30 percent of Haiti’s population. We know the American people will respond again. Just as any of us would reach out to a neighbor in need here at home, we will do everything we can to give aid, care and comfort to our neighbors in the Caribbean, now and in the months and years to come.
With advances in technology, giving to relief efforts is easier than ever before. Organizations like the Red Cross have been stunned at the amount of money pouring in through an innovative fund-raising effort that allows cellphone users to text a $10 donation that will be added to their cellphone bills. The State Department raised more than $1 million in the first 24 hours, with millions more coming in the days since the earthquake. This money is being channeled to reliable charities with long experience in disaster relief, ensuring that Americans’ contributions are put to effective use.
Our first priority will be to raise funds to meet the urgent needs of those who are hurt, homeless and hungry, and to ensure that the organizations and relief workers on the ground have the resources to do their jobs effectively. In the first two weeks, the needs are very simple: food, water, shelter, first aid supplies. Once relief workers have gone through all the rubble and every person — living and dead — has been recovered, once the streets have been cleared and communications and power restored, then Haiti is going to have to get back on its feet again.
It’s a long road to full recovery, but we will not leave the Haitian people to walk it alone. When the rebuilding begins, we will need even more support to make Haiti stronger than ever before: new, better schools; sturdier, more secure buildings that can withstand future natural disasters; solutions that address the inequalities in health care and education; new, diverse industries that create jobs and foster opportunities for greater trade; and development of clean energy.
There are great reasons to hope. For the first time in our lifetimes, Haiti’s government is committed to building a modern economy, and it has a comprehensive economic plan to create jobs. Haitian leaders have shown determination in confronting the challenges of AIDS, with strong support from private organizations and the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Per capita, there are more nongovernmental organizations in Haiti than in any other country except India. The members of the Haitian diaspora, in Miami, New York, Toronto and other cities overseas, are involved in and committed to the future of their native country. And the world’s attention is focused on this tiny island nation that has been overlooked for too long.
Crises have the power to bring out the best in people, and we have seen many examples of this over the years, especially after the tsunami. Conflict in Aceh, Indonesia, was laid to rest while people focused on rebuilding together. In communities along the Indian coast, women who had lost their husbands learned marketable skills like arts and crafts and emerged better able to provide for themselves and their children than they were before the disaster.
We should never forget the damage done and the lives lost, but we have a chance to do things better than we once did; be a better neighbor than we once were; and help the Haitian people realize their dream for a stronger, more secure nation. But we need more than just support from governments — we need the innovation and resources of businesses; the skills and the knowledge of nongovernmental organizations, including faith-based groups; and the generosity and support of individuals to fill in the gaps. Visit www.clintonbushhaitifund.org to make a donation and learn more about our efforts. It’s the least we can do, and the least the people of Haiti deserve. At our best, we can help Haiti become its best.
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States. George W. Bush was the 43rd president.
A 10% tax on indoor tanning? This is buried in the pages of the Senate health care bill.
What gives? Well originally the Senate bill propsoed a 5% tax on elective cosmetic surgery. Think botox, hair plugs and face lifts. And somehow lobbyists got involved. Specifically the America Medical Association. The elective cosmetic surgery tax was replaced by a 10% tax on indoor tanning. According to reports, the tanning tax is expected to net $2.7 billion over the next decade — less than half of the 5.8 billion “Botax” was expected to net.
Among the arguments put forth by critics of the Botax proposal? Since 85-90% of elective cosmetic surgery patients are women, a Botax would be discriminatory, an argument backed by the American Medical Association and the National Organization for Women, which opposes the Botax proposal.
Yet most tanning salon owners are women and most clients of tanning salons are women.
According to a recent blog post at Wallet-Pop, John Overstreet, executive director of the ITA (Indoor Tanning Association) said, “It is not surprising that one primarily cosmetic business is trying to throw another under the bus by transferring a tax from rich doctors and their wealthy customers to struggling small businesses. The irony is that ultraviolet light at least has proven health benefits, where botox treatments have none.”
According to the NYTimes:
Dr. David M. Pariser, the president of the American Academy of Dermatology, said his association proposed that an indoor-tanning tax be considered in place of the cosmetic tax, and that it contacted the offices of senators. “We made the case this will reduce health care costs by hopefully reducing skin cancer in the future — that’s the point — and also raise a little revenue now,” Dr. Pariser said.
So people who like to go to tanning salons may now be bearing some of the costs of the new legislation. And the lobbyists have saved botox nation from any additional taxes.
A Rabbi, a Priest and a Duck walk into a bar. The barman says, “what is this a joke?”
According to the braniacs of the Transportation Safety Authtority (TSA), the American flying public has had to endure preflight screening to prevent explosive devices from boarding airplanes. Thus millions of hours of productivity lost to the odd fixation with removing shoes and banning all liquids over 3 ounces. Now what are they going to come up with?
Sewn into the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a powerful plastic explosive, the authorities say.
Had Mr. Abdulmutallab, sitting in seat 19A of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday from Amsterdam to Detroit, been able to set off the explosive, it might have blown a hole in the side of the airplane and caused it to crash, experts believe.
Mr. Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian citizen, was charged in a federal criminal complaint on Saturday with the willful attempt to destroy an aircraft with an explosive device.
The complaint identified the explosive as pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN.
PETN, according to the same NYTIMES article is the same explosive Richard Reid, the shoebomber, used in his in attempt to blow up an American Airlines flight bound from Paris to Miami. And we know what happened shortly thereafter, passengers hoping to fly any airline in the US had to remove their shoes and not cary liquids over 3 oz. Except if the bottles are labled saline solution, then you can haul in any sized bottle. Ludicrously this led to many instances of bizarre TSA behavior, infant formula confiscated, peanut butter deemed a gel and the otherwise uselss exercise of removing shoes to have them ex-rayed when ex-raying can’t detect chemical explosives. And do they check saline solution bottles? No.
So now the TSA is saying that passengers must remain seated during the last hour of flight? Now Only one carry on? Now no electronics for the first hour of flight? What’s next, all passengers have to take ambien and remain comatose during flight?
“Only two things have made flying safer: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers, ” according to security expert Bruce Schneier. The rest is theatrics.
Northwest Flight 253 proved those points brilliantly.