Everybody needs tax breaks...

Hey, want some great tax breaks?  Open a Strip Club in California!  In yet another entry for the unintended consequences department, we have the California Enterprise Zone program.  It was designed to get jobs for disabled vets or people that are economically disadvantaged.  However, when they put it in place almost 30 years ago, they didn't put any limits on the industries that may take part.  Although it apparently took a little while, enterprising tax experts saw money to be made and started applying the code as all government laws and taxes are supposed to be written, blindly to all business enterprises.  So, strip clubs (yes, plural!) located not far from the state capitol have been taking advantage of this opportunity.  Its good to know that the legislators can see the fruits of their labors close by.  No word on how often they do, tho....

Since they want to act like the mafia

So the head of the IRS department responsible for the recently revealed "erroneous targeting" of conservative groups has gone before congress and taken the 5th.  I recall that mafia members participated in the same kind of activity, so laws were enacted to combat the activities of the mafia.  I personally despise the RICO statues because they have long been abused by prosecutors across the country.  However, since they are there, how about we see them applied to the IRS and this investigation?

How dare they use the rules against us...

So, much like the recent complaining by the British government about "Tax Avoidance", Congress has jumped on the bandwagon.  The now call it unfair that major corporations, lately Apple is on their list, that make mountains of money and pay little tax on it.  Please note: little is a relative item here since they paid 6 billion in taxes last year.  You see, they are smart enough to not only make those mountains of cash, but they are also smart enough to hire accountants and lawyers to protect that money for the investors.  This is called good business acumen, which politicians hate when it comes to taxes.  Unless it is theirs, of course.  The fact that taxes were paid on the money in other countries is inconsequential.  They didn't pay taxes here.

So while they admit that no laws have been broken, no illegal activity has gone on, they still aren't happy.  I believe that the word "unfair" may have been mentioned.  It appears that the president's sense of socialist values are starting to filter down into congress, which is a sad (and a bit frightening) situation.  Look here congresspeople:  If you don't like the situation, feel free to legislate correction.  Perhaps shrinking the tax code by a few thousand pages would help that matter a bit.  You could ask the non-partisan IRS for advice...

And the blame goes to...

Much is being made about the IRS scandal.  This fiasco has added to the headaches that Mr Obama has to deal with suddenly, since Benghazi has risen to the surface again and the Justice Department decided that the First Amendment was more of a guideline than a rule.  Some are even calling this fuel for the fire to repeal the bloated ball of suck and fail that is Obamacare.  If anything is brought to the surface for administration officials to be grilled over (and possibly prosecuted) I would love to see Fast and Furious rain on his parade again.  I think Eric Holder would look good behind bars, but that is just a personal opinion 

I see several things here.

One, the likelihood that the administration was in on the IRS scandal is distant at best. The likelihood that it was partisan on the part of the agents involved is high.  However, to paraphrase Bobcat Golthwait, blaming Barack Obama for the actions of IRS agents is like blaming Ronald McDonald when you get a bad cheeseburger.  The IRS is a bloated, overpowered and arrogant agency that needs to be taken down a few pegs.  Actually a few hundred pegs.  Hopefully this will accomplish that feat.  Far too little oversight is given to that agency and much scrutiny is needed.

Two, I have read through the correspondence that was released to the public so far and yes, I do believe that a conscious effort was made to downplay the truth so as to not negatively affect the upcoming election.  Was this dishonest?  Yes.  Does it speak volumes about the honest and open administration promised by Obama? Yes.  Was it illegal?  Not really.  Should America be wary?  Hell yes.

Three, if the Republicans are putting their hopes on this strategy to capture swing voters in the next election, they are once again going to be disappointed.  What they have to do is show people that the bread and circuses promised by our current president are not sustainable and provide actual solutions that make sense and possibly get the government out of our homes and bedrooms.  The current path will not lead to a repeal of Obamacare, nor sweeping Republican success in the next elections.

I think what I would really like is to see a series of elections (say, three or four) where independents and Libertarians are swept into power, top to bottom.  That would really make for an interesting political landscape in DC.  Give them 8 years in power, and have popcorn at the ready.

It couldn't happen there, they have laws...

It is a tragedy in Trenton, NJ.  A mother and one of her children are dead.  Fortunately, so is the perpetrator, and three other family members are free.  What amazed me was that this escapade was not hours of terror for the hostages, but apparently weeks, long enough for serious body decomposition to begin on the victim's bodies.  Weeks.  The two daughters had not been to school in 12 days.  My daughter missed a school period and I get phone calls from the automated system.  Actual absences get live phone calls.  How were they absent for 12 days and nobody thought to check?

Still, the larger amazing part is that this perp is a convicted sex offender, in addition to a long list of other convictions, which makes him ineligible to own or handle firearms and he had open warrants.  And he's in the state of New Jersey, which has spectacularly strict gun laws.  Yet this man was able to arm himself, murder his girlfriend and her son and hold the others hostage for weeks before anyone noticed.  There should be laws against this...

Oh, yea...

Still running as page two with CNN, which is better than the 47 (and counting) dead in a dual car bombing in Turkey, which appears to only be back page material.  And since this won't play well into the media bias against firearm ownership, and did happen were all kinds of gun laws make this supposedly not possible, they'll just let it slide away.  This is the reason that I laugh when I hear the words "Journalistic Integrity"...

Surprising news...

Actually, its more surprising that they covered it...

I was looking at a news story from two days ago.  A school district in Michigan decided to cancel class and lay off all staff since they ran out of money.  This is tragic for the students and the staff.  Everybody is trying to actually do the right thing, from the board to the teachers to the union.  I wanted to comment on this, tying it into a valid comment on the state of affair in our country that this can happen.  However, I got nothing.

Then, I see a news story that I find interesting.  Apparently, gun crime is at it's lowest in 20 years.  More entertainingly, I found the story first at the BBC (of all places).  I then later saw it at Fox and AP, both running it as a page two column three item.  Finally I see it pop up at CNN.

Two reports, one by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and one by the Pew Research Center show that the firearm related homicides are down 49%, while other firearm related crimes are all down by over 70%.  Oh my, that does put a bit of a bee in Senator Feinstien's bonnet...

The numbers are amazing when you consider the headlines.  According to all of these news sources over the past several years, the streets are running with blood...  Oh, wait, that hasn't been happening.  Despite grand predictions by the press and gun control advocates, despite the huge headlines run when something does happen outside of Chicago and Detroit... and Oakland, and LA... Despite that, the facts are that firearm violence and homicides are down drastically, dropping consistently over the past 20 years.  And that is despite the firearm sales initiatives (un)officially inspired by both Clinton and Obama.  Especially Obama, firearm salesman of the year 5 years running.

Now that all of the gun control advocates have these reports to stick in their pipes to smoke, maybe we can get on with fixing the items that actually need fixing, like out bankrupt cities, schools, crumbling infrastructure, porous borders and bloated federal government.  If the press would like to complain about gun violence, maybe they should start covering all of the gang shootings in the cities mentioned above and putting the spotlight on the criminal, not the tool.