The REAL "Job Creators" Are Not the Wealthy--They're YOU!

Don't be deceived by the verbal gymnastics that refer to the rich as "Job Creators." The fact is, there is only one true creator of jobs and that is: CONSUMER DEMAND!

One writer defined "Job Creators" this way:

"In Republican/Tea Party political theory, 'Job Creators' are wealthy because they are industrious, virtuous, hard working people and can use their vast wealth to create jobs by hiring people to work for them. The idea that this euphemism is trying to convey is that taxing these people would hurt the economy because then their money would be going to the government...which will only waste tax money on things like social services." (*1)

Of course, only the rich have the money to build factories, but the only time they ever would build one is when they anticipate consumer demand for the product!

Repealing the Death Tax Will Create a Koch Monarchy Forever

There's a great deal of fear-mongering going on when it comes to the estate tax. ALEC-led Republicans claim that the children of farmers and small businesses are losing their farms and businesses because of the estate tax.  Therefore, they argue, it should be abolished completely.

In fact, "just 0.19 percent of all deaths in 2013 resulted in (the payment of estate) tax. When 99.81 percent of all deaths don't create a taxable event, calling it a death tax is mathematically nonsensical." (*1)

The real reason for abolishing the estate tax is for the very rich to not only pass on their fortunes to their children, but to pass on their political power as well.  They want to create an America, led by a oligarchy, that's been crowned by the almighty dollar.

My Body, My Choice: One Man's Perspective

A civil right cannot be guaranteed to ANY citizen, until that civil right is guaranteed to EVERY citizen.

Many who are pro-choice are worried about women losing their reproductive rights. Perhaps they should be. After all, if the right "to do what one wants with their own body" is so basic and important, why should it be confined to the uterus only?

Perhaps if it were women who had abortions that were being piled into for-profit prisons instead of marijuana smokers, one might quickly understand this thesis.

Arizona Refuses Federal Money for the Disabled

What if there was a program that equipped disabled individuals to leave the welfare rolls and enter into gainful, tax-paying employment?

In fact, there is one and it's very popular.  Many disabled people come to Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) wanting to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, get off the welfare rolls and become tax-paying citizens instead.

So successful is the program that the federal government offers to pay three-quarters of the cost.  Yet die-hard tea-partiers in the Arizona Legislature have refused this "dirty Obama money" for several years.  As a result, people who are genuinely motivated to get off of welfare have been sitting on waiting lists, still collecting government checks, for years.

Scarce AZ Education Funding Spent on Anti-Abortion Message

Educational funding is currently scarce in Arizona and even as the state ranks near the bottom in both spending and performance, money is being spent to place anti-abortion stickers on the back covers of biology textbooks.

To stress the point, the students were instructed to place these stickers on the textbooks themselves.

The Immigration Solution: A Market Based Approach

One of the main problems with America's immigration policy is that it tries to set numbers regardless of the country's current economic condition.  There are times when our economy is soaring and we need immigrant workers.  There are also times when our economy slows down and we don't need as much immigrant help.

If the US could devise a market-based policy for immigration that would naturally ride with these ebbs and flows, it would be fair, adaptable, and could last for generations.

Following is one such plan:

ALEC FACT CHECK: Can Churches Take the Government's Place in Supporting the Poor?

Proponents of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) are trying to convince the Christian Right that it should be the church and not the federal government that should provide for the needy and the disabled, but consider this fact check:

Medical Marijuana Demagoguery Proving to be Very Wrong

When Prop 203, the initiative to legalize medical marijuana, was being considered in Arizona in 2010, opponents (particularly Shelia Polk and her comrades,) feared the worst:

They predicted "trashed neighborhoods, drug cartels disguised as medical marijuana dispensaries, increased armed robberies, burglaries, murder and organized crime." (*1)

They feared then (and still do now) that medical marijuana cards are "way too easy" to obtain and that marijuana would flood the state since unused meds would be sold on the street to children.

They called medical marijuana a "smokescreen" to full legalization and that we should expect "97-98 percent of medical marijuana cardholders (to be) aged 17 to 35 and suffer(ing) from "chronic pain". (*1)

However, the most recent (2014) Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA) End of Year Report, produced by the Arizona Department of Health Services (who issues the MMJ cards,) not only shows the opposite to have come true, but in the end, medical marijuana in Arizona is turning out to be small potatoes.

Is Jesus a Republican or a Democrat?

Either way, He'd probably have to stand in-line somewhere to get a government photo ID in order to vote!

It is often asked: Is Jesus a republican or a democrat?  This question always boils down to a matter of prideful self-identification--even in its premiss.

Fond Memories of My Father, the Arsonist

Dad in later years

When summertime came and I was out of school, Dad would take me with him on one of his sales trips to get me out of Mom's hair.  It was always a fun time of practical jokes, eating on the road and general bonding.

Once Dad and I took an extended trip which inevitably required doing a load of laundry. Fortunately, the motel we were in had a coin-operated washer and dryer.

Unfortunately, it was Dad's first experience at starting potentially dangerous fires.

Test Cops for Steroids! /UPDATED w Petition Information

Officer Casebolt's excuse for his horrible behavior at the pool party incident in McKinney, Tx was that he had faced a great deal of stress on two previous calls regarding suicides.

(Click Here to Read the News Story)

Although such a situation would be stressful, that story doesn't make much sense.

Exactly what is it about trying to convince someone that life is worth living that would cause someone to soon pull a gun on unarmed teenagers?

As he was putting his knee on the back of a teenage girl's head, did he think to himself, "I just had a very stressful time trying to convince someone that life is precious, so I'm going to grind your face into the dirt?"

Who does that?

Do people who answer suicide prevention lines relieve their stress in such a manner?...Ever??

The stress involved in trying to prevent a suicide would be that of anxiety, not aggression!  Suicide prevention would include trying to create a calm situation; not one of anger and aggression.

So what is it that might have caused such a seemingly unnatural aggressive reaction?

Republicans Smoke Pot Too

The Arizona GOP leadership has decided to go whole-hog against any initiative to legalize marijuana in 2016.  Many are pointing out that in 2010, Prop 203, the initiative to legalize medical marijuana won by just 4,340 votes.  They believe that if they can improve republican turnout just a little more, recreational marijuana can be defeated in 2016.

However, this school of thought forgets the circumstances surrounding the 2010 election.

2010 was a backlash election.  It was the first opportunity since the election of Obama for people to vote. Particularly in Arizona, but throughout both red and purple states, republicans won big. In Arizona, GOP turnout was quite high.  In fact, republicans won every statewide office in 2010 and in many of them, they won big.

We Need a 21st Century Currency

If you were a business, would you spend ten cents to produce something that was worth only five?  Would you spend two cents to produce something worth only a penny?

Who on earth would make such poor decisions?  The U.S. Government, that's who!  Indeed, the government does spend two cents to produce a single penny and ten cents to produce a single nickel. (*1)  Talk about "wasteful government spending"!

Due to inflation over the many decades, we need to update our currency for the 21st century.

Immigration Issues: The Penalty For Not Learning English

 

When it comes to immigration reform, some are demanding that people learn english before they can earn US citizenship, but is this really necessary?

Millions of people from all around the world are learning english as a second language because english has become the business language of the world:

*   Foreign countries and their corporations use different native tongues and most of the larger businesses sell to the american market.  So when these companies talk to each other, they use english because it's the one language that they have in common.

*   Whenever airline pilots and flight controllers talk over the radio, they are required to use english no matter where on earth they are...

The Root of Congressional Gridlock is the "Hastert Rule"

The Rebublican Party is causing dysfunctional gridlock in Congress.  While many of the "R's" are proud to wrap themselves in the Constitution, it is, in fact, the completely contrived and unconstitutional "Hastert Rule" that is the cause of this gridlock.

Drug War Cost Could Go a Shockingly Long Way if Spent on Education

Sometimes it's difficult to picture the huge amount of money we are spending on the failed war on drugs.  This article takes just one line item from the cost of the drug war and shows how shockingly far that money would go if it were spent on education instead...

In a June 2010 report entitled "The High Cost Of Incarceration," (the link to this PDF is below,) the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) found that there are 561,526 NON-VIOLENT drug users incarcerated in the U.S.  The cost to tax payers is $26,000 a year (or $2166.67 a month) per inmate.  This means that we are spending $1.2+ billion ($1,216,639,666.67) every month to incarcerate non-violent drug users.  Of course, this is just the cost of incarceration alone.  It does not include the costs incurred by law enforcement or the courts to convict these people.

Now let's take a look at the population of school children in America.  According to childstats.gov, (whose link is also included here,) there are approximately 50 million school-aged children (age 6-17) in 2013...

SO WHAT ELSE COULD BE DONE WITH THIS MONEY?

* After only 5.75 months, we could buy a $140 computer tablet for every schoolchild age 6-17!!!

The ONLY Road to Liberty is Tolerance Avenue

Some believe that tolerance is just an "excuse to promote liberal agendas". However, as Americans, we have a RESPONSIBILITY to show the rest of the world that liberty cannot exist where there is tyranny and that tyranny is born in intolerance.

Should Marijuana Money Go To Tax Revenues or Drug Cartels?

Those are the only two choices.

Perhaps one of the reasons the issue of marijuana is so contentious is because there is no perfect solution to the question.

For many, however, the bottom line of the issue is the bottom line of the finances.  Here, we have only two choices:  Either marijuana revenue will go to law-abiding companies and tax receipts; or, THE MONEY WILL GO TO THE DRUG CARTELS!

Some anti-pot pundits will quickly point out that it is nonsense to think that the drug cartels will disappear if MJ is legalized.  This is probably true.  However, after four decades, it's clear that the Drug War won't stop the drug cartels either!

How ironic!  Those who espouse that the drug cartels would certainly survive marijuana legalization are half-way to realizing and admitting that the Drug War itself is a continuing failure.