The Angry Tax Payer

Charge it!

2005-12-30T14:46:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, when the Angry Tax Payer was a child, the Angry Tax Payer's parents encouragingly said, "The sky is the limit, little one. It's all yours...go for it!"

Funny thing was...when my parents told me that, I thought they were talking about job opportunities, life, fun, grandeur, and good ole fashion rock n' roll. But sadly, I was wrong and so were they. Little did we know that the same party who railed against the "tax and spend" Democrats would take all those great dreams away from us.

The sky's the limit became the motto of the Republican Party. Woefully, they were talking about creating their own sky high deficits and eliminating our country's assets. But they didn't share their secret with us, the little tax payers. Instead, they created a monster behind the closed doors of the White House and Congress. And this monster they created grew and grew each day. They fed this monster our tax dollars and he grew big and fat. In fact, this monster ATE our tax dollars as fast as Bush supporters' SUVs guzzle gas and as fast as the oil companies can reap in their profits.

Yes, this monster was BIG and UGLY and all the little angry tax payers' dollars continued to feed it.

Until one day, the expected yet unexpected happened. The monster had eaten so much that...that the truth eventually came out. It was only one word but it was a doozy. It escaped the monster's lips like a burp...

It was One word...

B A N K R U P T C Y

Treasury Secretary John W. Snow announced yesterday:

"United States could be unable to pay its bills in early 2006 unless Congress raises the government's borrowing authority, which is now capped at $8.18 trillion."

"At that time, unless the debt limit is raised or the Treasury Department takes authorized extraordinary actions, we will be unable to continue to finance government operations," Snow wrote

Oh my! The Republican party had indeed created a monster--a selfish, greedy monster who spent and gave to the rich; spent more and gave to the oil companies; spent even more and gave to themselves. Then the monster howled tearfully, "bankruptcy, bankruptcy."

And the little angry tax payers no longer got to hear, "The sky is the limit". Instead they suffered from nightmares for eternity. And in those nightmares they saw the Republican monsters running around looting from the poor and hotwiring it to their rich supporters, while at the same time screaming, "Charge it, charge it, charge it!"

Go Fish

2005-12-29T12:56:00.000-05:00

As you probably realized by now, The Angry Tax Payer insists that my tax dollars be spent wisely. Now tell me this: Suz at the Democracy Cell Project points out that only two things are required to get a legal wiretap: NAME and REASON, so what the hell is Bush up too?.

And with the my hard earned tax dollars why can't the Bush administration meet those little demands that keep us safe from corrupt governments and dictatorships? If President Bush wants to go fishing, I know he can jump on a swanky cabin cruiser any time he choses. He can take his fancy boat out and cruise to the middle of the Atlantic and fish to his heart's content. Let King George rule over the fish in the Atlantic, not the people in America.

Look....The Angry Tax Payer likes fishing too. But when the Angry Tax Payer wants to go fishing, I grab my pole and my hook and a can of worms, then I take myself to the nearest fishing hole and fish away. Costs me a few bucks for the worms. That's my fishing expedition.

But the Republican fishing expedition costs us a lot more: it costs us our privacy, our tax dollars, and our democracy. President Bush refused to provide a name or a reason. And that is why the FISA court refused to give Bush's Justice Department their legal warrants.

Please tell the Congress to send President Bush a message:

Go Fish in your own pond!

Hat tip to Suz at the Democracy Cell Project for this information.

Shhhh...no eavesdropping or sneaking a peak....

2005-12-28T15:44:00.000-05:00

Ok, the Angry Taxpayer is mad this time. Not just mad, but really incredibly irate! The Angry Tax Payer doesn't ask for much. I give my money out, and I expect certain things from my government...things like honesty and integrity. And I expect the government to follow the laws of the land, the same that you and I have to do!

Yet, today, I've discovered that my tax dollars were spent on spying on the United Nations just so Bush and his cohorts of neoCONS would know before the vote if they could start their illegal war. They wanted to know whose buttons to push and whose bells to ring.

They say they had a right to do this. However, did they have that right to violate the sanctity of U.N. member's homes? Absolutely not!

Meanwhile while Bush has sucked the tax payers money out during his cover-up and treasonous leaking of Valerie Plame's name to the press, he's admitted outright to using our tax dollars to by-pass the controls and accountability in FISA to spy on anyone he damn chooses.

Now the Angry Tax Payer also remembers during the Ominibus budget vote of 2004, a certain un-named Republican added a clause into it, hidden of course within the 1000 pages, that anyone could have their tax forms investigated without reason.

Hmmm...so ask yourself, "Why does the President spy without a warrant? Why did the President wire-tap the U.N. and was that legal as well as ethical? And Why does the President and the majority party want to look at Mr. and Mrs. Tax Payers forms?"

Oh...nothing wrong with any of that...

Yeh, right!

Here Kitty-Kitty

2005-12-27T21:18:00.000-05:00

(Huge hat tip to the Pensito Review for this story. A huge thank you to Pam's House Blend for the heads up on this.) And a huge hat tip to firedoglake for bringing this matter of excessive Congressional oversight.

http://haloscan.com/tb/firedoglake/113569351605173639

What do you call a political party that thinks postage for a Presidential cat's fan club requires a full-on Congressional investigation, but a President who admits on national television to breaking Federal law, repeatedly, only merits some committee "oversight," and spotty oversight at that?Republicans.I am ashamed to say that I had forgotten Dan Burton's foray into "Socks-gate." And by the way, there was absolutely no substance to the fan club postage investigation, and Barbara Bush's dog Millie had a fan club, too. Maybe Burton's pet was jealous or something, or Dan Burton just had too much free time back then.But it does create a vivid contrast in reaction from Republicans these days, doesn't it? Hmmmm...let's see: misrepresent intelligence to Congress and the American public to get us into the Iraq war; out a CIA NOC for political payback; misrepresent war costs once we are there, so that Congress has to continually appropriate millions billions; spy on the American public without warrants, violating the Fourth Amendment and the Presidential requirements of Article II of the Constitution requiring the President to faithfully follow all laws and the FISA laws as established by Congress; and...well, there's more, but we all know that.Clearly that cat fanclub thing was way more important than actual, publicly admitted lawbreaking.(Huge hat tip to the Pensito Review for this story. A huge thank you to Pam's House Blend for the heads up on this.)
posted by ReddHedd @ 6:11 AM

No-No Spending

2005-12-27T09:05:00.000-05:00

Picture our tax dollars in one giant barrel and the President and the Congress reaching into the barrel and throwing our money here or there...basically, whatever the flavor of the month is is where they're tossing our money.

But, unfortunately, there are big no-no's placing restrictions on where the money should go.

Republican no-no's:

1. No money to feed the poor.
2. No money to help the elderly with medicine.
3. No money to help people get health care insurance.
4. No tax dollars to be spent on sex ed that includes teaching birth control, uses birth control, or abortions.
5. No money for schools, unless they're private schools.
6. No money for small businesses.
7. No money for Katrina victims.
8. No money for Veterans
9. No money for social security
10. No money for paper-trail electronic voting systems.

The Democratic list of no-no's is much simpler to remember:

1. No money for torture.
2. No money handouts to the millianaires.
3. No more money given to businesses like Halliburton who bilk from the barrel and ask for more.
4. No money for business who use slave labor overseas and cut jobs here.
5. No money for environmental destruction and big polluters who endanger the health of our families.

Right On, right?!

Holy Canoli, what is an upstanding Congressman suppose to do when there is so many no-no's and so little agreement? This is why we pay our Congressmen the big-bucks, right? ...To make those hard choices.

Well, clearly, someone has to decide and fast! Why continue to let the politcal parties corner the market on these no-no's?

The Angry Taxpayer has come up with a better plan.

What's the plan? Hold on to your hat fellow tax payers, because this plan is so simple even the budget busting Republicans couldn't screw it up.

Create a checklist! Afterall, I'm sure there are many proud Americans more than happy to donate a dollar or two to torture, and many other proud Americans happy to donate the same to feeding the poor.

What makes this idea absolutely perfect is that it builds upon the same ideology that Republicans love...capitalism and competition.

Let each department compete for our tax dollars. Now that's the capitalist's way. Nod your head if you agree.

But.... let's hope that some of the departments resist giving out free samples.

Torture anyone?

The Constitution is just a little piece of paper, folks!

2005-12-26T09:55:00.000-05:00

Mr. and Mrs. Angry Taxpayer are happy to note that President Bush and his fellow Republicans are hard at work discovering new and inventive ways to throw away the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and (this is where they pay themselves double-time) they've created a handy-dandy little chart of propaganda to make throwing away the Constitution an acceptable thing, too.

Media Matters, thankfully, pulled out their pooper-scooper and cleaned up the Republican tp's for us. Take a look:

Top 12 media myths and falsehoods on the Bush administration's spying scandal

1. Timeliness necessitated bypassing the FISA court

2. Congress was adequately informed of -- and approved -- the administration's actions

3. Warrantless searches of Americans are legal under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

4. Clinton, Carter also authorized warrantless
searches of U.S. citizens

5. Only Democrats are concerned about the Bush
administration's secret surveillance
6. Debate is between those supporting civil liberties and those seeking to prevent terrorism

7. Bin Laden phone leak demonstrates how leak of spy operation could damage national security

8. Gorelick testimony proved Clinton asserted "the same authority" as Bush

9. Aldrich Ames investigation is example of Clinton administration bypassing FISA regulations

10. Clinton administration conducted domestic spying

11. Moussaoui case proved that FISA probable-cause standard impedes terrorism probes

12. A 2002 FISA review court opinion makes clear that Bush acted legally

Ladies and Gentleman, give the Republicans a hand! Whoooo hoooo!

What they've done is a miracle comparable to the size of Moses parting the Red Sea. They've made it acceptable to throw away Democracy while at the same time making all the little broke tax payers think they're doing them a favor.

Who needs democracy?

Certainly not Mr. And Mrs. Angry Taxpayer. We've often envisioned moving to a communist state. Thank you so very much, President Bush and your gang of thieves. Good news...you've simplified our lives. Now we can throw away our old 'to do' list and instead Mr. and Mrs. Angry Tax payer can rest and take it easy on easy street.

Thank you so much President Bush. I just can not say it enough!

Of course the Constitution is only, according to our new favorite President, "A piece of paper". What's not to agree with? Certainly it's true when he said, "It'd be easier living in a dictatorship..if I'm the dictator." Who cares that 230 years ago, we fought to free ourselves from a different King George. We're gonna be nice and safe under our new dictator.

Excuse me fellow taxpayers, as I must now go practice my bows before the new king...King George!

(photo credit: Daily Kos)

Vacation time ...at long last!

2005-12-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

How sweet! Today, the day when most people want to be with their families opening gifts, smooching under the mistletoe, and sitting by the fire roasting chestnuts, President Bush decided to thank the troops for their service by going on vacation.

Interesting enough, while King George took off for his long awaited vacation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld quit his day job and instead flew at tax payer's expense to Iraq to serve food in the soldiers' mess hall . One wonders how much Rummy was able to glean about the situation in Iraq from behind the food line there.

However, I'm sure there is a method to his madness. Perhaps instead of saying "Would you like gravy with your mash potatoes?" he is saying, "Pick a number between 1-2000 to indicate how many more Iraqis have been trained to take over the security of this nation..."

It could explain the constant barrage of misinformation given from the White House on the Iraq policy. Furthermore, who could argue that this job is much better suited to his skills and competency? Just think, if we only paid Rummy what he was worth, we could expect a refund on our taxes this year.

Yes, I'd really like to see better use of my tax dollars, and I presume you do to. The Angry Tax Payer thinks we need to look at the bottom line of expenses and expenditures when Bush and Rummy are in the White House. Seems our bills go up, our savings go down, and the oil barons get richer and richer. And sadly, our soldiers find themselves facing deadlier situations that correspond to the quicksand-like poll numbers this President clings to. Seems the more the numbers go down, the more Bush has to "stay the course" and be a "War President". So the incompetency endlessly continues taking away lives.

Yes, getting them out of the White House is a great thing for America and for the world at large.

Therefore, I intend to make sure their vacations becomes permanent. Thus, I'm starting a campaign called, "Save the deficit and Save an American Soldier. Impeach!"

Grab your megaphone and join me in this quest for the betterment of mankind.

NOW!

Question of the Day...

2005-12-23T21:42:00.000-05:00

How many of our tax dollars has been spent to spy on Americans without a court order or a search warrent?

Buy a beer for big oil...

2005-12-21T19:29:00.000-05:00

What will the oil companies do now?

In case you haven't heard it, the Republicans tried to sneak another giveaway to the oil companies into the defense bill. Yep, for years the big oil companies have wanted to drill in the Artic Refuge. But what made this deal even sweeter was that the taxpayers were going to pay for their drilling.

Sadly those greedy CEO's will have to cry in someone else's beer tonight, because their handout was blocked by the Democratic Senators and a few moderate Republicans.

For those of you who couldn't give a hoot about the refuge, you'll be pleased to note that instead of those tax payer donations going to Halliburton, Mobile, and Exxon, they saved you a few bucks for your own wallet.

Whoo hooo!

Oh Lovely...!

2005-12-21T15:53:00.000-05:00

Dick Cheney today cast the final vote to cut benefits from the elderly and the middle class.

After years of sinking billions of dollars into the incompetently run Iraq occupation, as well as throwing billions of dollars at his rich neoCON supporters and their businesses, Cheney got his last wish.

Now Grandma and Grandpa can sell the homestead and buy a little trailer in Texas too.

Have no fear, I'm sure with the profits Cheney and his friends have made, they're buying up land in Texas for those nice new trailer parks.

Secrets and Lies

2005-12-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

Secrets and Lies

The DoD's disgraceful plot to plant rosy stories in the Iraqi press.By Christopher HitchensPosted Monday, Dec. 5, 2005, at 1:27 PM ET
This time, someone really does have to be fired. The revelation that Defense Department money, not even authorized by Congress for the purpose, has been outsourced to private interests and then used to plant stories in the Iraqi press is much more of a disgrace and a scandal than anyone seems so far to have said.

1. It helps discredit free media in Iraq at a time when that profession is very new and very hazardous (and one of the unarguable moral gains of the original intervention). In a situation already dominated by rumor and conspiracy-mongering, and in a country rife with death squads, it exposes every honest Iraqi reporter to the charge that he or she is an agent of a foreign power. Who at the Pentagon could possibly have needed to have this explained to them?

2. It comes on the heels of a credible report about a threat, from President George W. Bush, to bomb the Qatari headquarters of Al Jazeera. The British government, from whose inner circle the relevant memo has been leaked, might have taken credit—in that Tony Blair appears to have dissuaded Bush from this course of criminal insanity—but instead has threatened to use the Official Secrets Act against the newspaper that published it, thus somewhat strengthening the supposition that the story is true. Since certain people and places associated with Al Jazeera have been hit in the past, it appears more plausible than ever in retrospect that some deliberate "targeting" may have been involved.

3. It follows the deaths, at the hands of American soldiers, of several Iraqi journalists in "friendly fire." I wrote about this for Slate in July and pointed out that a British general had warned American commanders that these tactics might be quite an easy way of losing the war.

4. It is not just a matter of lying to the Iraqis and to neighboring countries, bad as that would be. The feedback must also have been intended to deceive the American taxpayers whose money was used for the fraud in the first place.

You may say: Why strain at this gnat while a huge controversy about more consequential "lies" is in progress? Stupidity and propaganda are inseparable from even the noblest war, but this consideration cannot be allowed to excuse everything. One expects that commanders at home and in the field will talk up their successes, play down crimes and errors on the ground that such information is useful to the enemy, do black propaganda in the enemy camp, and try to get their own version into the public record. But sometimes a whole new line is crossed and "propaganda" corrupts the whole process by becoming a covert operation against one's "own" side. The worst violation so far has been the spreading of a falsified story about the death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Not only was he slain by "friendly fire" instead of by the foe—which is a tragedy in far more ways than just as a setback for recruitment—but the family and friends of this all-American hero were purposely deceived about what had really happened. It would be trivial to add that they were also pointlessly deceived (how long do the geniuses at DoD imagine that such a thing can be kept quiet?) except that it greatly added to the callousness of the thing, and except that this same pointlessness and moral idiocy are now apparent in the "good news" scandal in Iraq.

Yellow Journalism

2005-12-03T16:36:00.000-05:00

Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!

According to recent headlines, this administration has spent hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars towards paying for propaganda. It was bad enough to discover that Armstrong Williams got paid 250,000 to promote the fake No Child Left Behind scheme.

But now we discover they're also peeing in the Iraqi papers too!

Never mind that they clearly assumed we were gullible and didn't care about the make believe news in our own country; therefore, they decided to transport the same questionable baggage of Bush's fake democracy to other countries too.

They certainly give new meaning to the phrase, "Yellow Journalism." It's no wonder that newspapers are used to line the bottom of bird cages and to potty train puppies.

Journalism nowadays isn't good for any thing else.

One Criminal Down..."Guilty"

2005-11-29T18:53:00.000-05:00

Guilty! House Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman Pleads Guilty to Bribery Charges

The AP is reporting that, Rep. Duke Cunningham, Republican Chairman of the Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Human Intelligence, pleaded guilty today to bribery, tax evasion, mail fraud and wire fraud. Prosecutors reveal that:

Cunningham admitted to receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes paid to him by several conspirators through a variety of methods, including checks totaling over $1 million, cash, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations... According to prosecuting U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, "He did the worst thing an elected official can do — he enriched himself through his position and violated the trust of those who put him there."Meanwhile, in Cunningham's Committee, no progress has been made to uncover why, before the vote to authorize force in Iraq, the White House hid from Congress a CIA report that demonstrated Iraq had no role in 9/11. Additionally, all Resolutions of Inquiry seeking answers about the Downing Street Minutes and pre-war intelligence have been voted down in the House on a party-line basis. And no Republican Member of the House has stepped forward to lead an investigation into the pre-war intelligence that was used to mislead us into war.

So, when does former Senator Cunningham start paying back the taxpayers for his salary we paid for him?

When does he give the millions he took in bribes back to the taxpayers too?

And how much will we keep spending on the war in Iraq that the defence contractors gave him in order to get his votes?

Let's continue this loop...will these defence contractors also return their war profits to the taxpayers as well?

Now Mikey Say, "Thank You, President Bush and Republicans in Congress."

2005-11-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

Image Credit: Healthandenergy.com

The Debt to the Penny

2005-11-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

Image From: Digworld.com

CNN reported the following in May of 1998:

Clinton Announces $39 Billion Projected Budget Surplus

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 26) -- President Bill Clinton announced Tuesday new White House budget figures that project a surplus of $39 billion for fiscal year 1998, and a $150 billion surplus over the next five years.
"America can now turn off the deficit clock and plug in the surplus clock," Clinton said during a Rose Garden event to unveil the new Office of Management and Budget projections.
"Today our economy is the envy of the world," Clinton said. "But the progress was not predestined nor is its future guaranteed. We cannot abandon the strategy of fiscal discipline and investments in the future, which has brought us to this moment."

Yet, below, you will see the staggering debt that this President, his administration, and the Republican led majority party has taken our National debt to.

The Debt To the Penny

Current Amount
11/09/2005 $8,034,610,660,541.64
Current
Month Amount
11/08/2005 $8,036,664,225,238.54
11/07/2005 $8,031,589,402,361.42
11/04/2005 $8,028,449,101,487.38
11/03/2005 $8,028,204,675,510.52
11/02/2005 $8,021,480,952,298.81
11/01/2005 $8,015,272,000,177.94
Prior
Months
10/31/2005 $8,027,123,404,214.36
Prior Fiscal
Years
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/28/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06
09/29/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86

SOURCE: BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT

Amazing, is in not?

Some might even call it highway robbery.

Help!!! We've been robbed!

Black Holes

2005-11-11T22:31:00.000-05:00

Even though the U.S. is now officially trillions of dollars in the hole, the Bush administration has discovered a new hole to put our hard earned money into--the Black Hole of Torture. Yes indeed...Welcome back to the middle-ages where torture was the accepted norm for looking cross-eyed at the King's queen. When you were guilty from the time accused of said crime until they beat the living daylights out of you, and then your dead body lay there rotting as an example for others to see.

And happily for us, there are nine Senators who are thrilled to spend our tax dollars on this fair practice.

From the Carpetbagger Report:

There was a flurry of activity on the Hill yesterday, most notably the breakdown in the House over the budget, but there was one vote that warrants attention and shouldn't get lost in the shuffle. The Senate voted overwhelmingly
to push the Pentagon to inform lawmakers about "black sites," the CIA's secret prisons in Europe and elsewhere.
In an 82 to 9 vote yesterday, the Senate approved an amendment to the defense authorization bill by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to require Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to disclose to Congress the existence of clandestine terrorism detention facilities in foreign countries. The existence of such facilities was disclosed Nov. 2 by The
Washington Post, and the Senate vote suggests Republicans are feeling heat from voters on the way Bush is conducting the war on terrorism.
Which nine Senators love torture? They are:
Sens. Burr (R-N.C.)
Chambliss (R-Ga.),
DeMint (R-S.C.),
Isakson (R-Ga.),
Kyl (R-Ariz.),
Martinez (R-Fla.),
Sessions (R-Ala.),
Stevens (R-Alaska),
Vitter (R-La.).
Maybe the next question to ask these Senators is, "Do you know a good dominatrix?"
Because, it is the opinion of the Angry Tax Payer that we can save our tax dollars by employing local dominatrixes and taxing their pay checks rather than outsourcing more jobs to foreign countries.

Mutiny in the Republican Party

2005-11-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

Today, we saw the first fallout from Tuesday's election where Democrats stormed into power in Virginia, New Jersey, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Minneapolis. So what was the the Republican's response? Long threatened drilling into the Anwar and a budget threatening to take away all but the shirt on the back of the middle-class and the poor was suddenly tossed away. One might say they suddenly realized they may join the ranks of the unemployed if they continue to follow the same path that is leading to the destruction of the middle class.

With elections officially one year away, those in Congress are surely feeling the heat on the back of their necks.

So...let's continue breathing fire as we sweep this nation clean of those terminally bad Republican policies by ousting them in 06.

Testing

2005-11-08T22:46:00.000-05:00

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