When Zero is not enough.

Corporations used to pay the majority share of the governments revenue. Before the income tax was passed, tariffs paid for the government budget. However, as corporatism has taken over the government, this rate has steadily gone down to the point where major corporations pay no tax on billions of dollars in revenue or they get a refund. Who has to make up that difference? That's right, you and I. And by you and I, I mean those making less than $250K. Because their effective tax rate is lower than what you and I pay. We pick up the rest. We are constantly fed the lie that corporations will leave the country or the state if the tax rate is increased. Well, they already have. They have moved their profits "offshore" as a way to avoid paying any tax. The rich do it too, sending billions to the Caymans and other private bank accounts.

Reactor Core At Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant May Have Been Breached

After listening to Professor Michio Kaku on Rachel Maddow last night, the pumping of sea water into the reactors was a very bad idea. As they continued to heat and boiled off the water pumped in, the remaining salt woud have coalesced around the reactor rods creating an insulator that would keep the heat in and the cooling water out. As the temperatur­e increases, this salt will eventually become molten and melt with the rods. Not amount of water, fresh or otherwise, will be able to control the temperatur­e. A meltdown at one or all of the reactors is inevitable at this point in time. The China Syndrome will happen in Japan and right next to China. We, and our posterity, will all suffer from not planning for the once in a hundred years accident because it would affect profits.
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House Lawmakers Draft Legislation To Defund Libya Operations

The crazy thing is that under the War Powers Act, the President can commit troops without Congressio­nal approval, as long as he give notice within 48 hours of committing those troops. Without approval from Congress, the President has 60 to end the conflict with an additional 30 withdrawal period.



There is nothing to defund. It falls under the DOD's current operating budget. I am not one to advocate for war, but we should strongly consider it when humanitari­an interests are involved. That, however, means that you have to look at all internatio­nal internal conflicts and determine if it is a legitimate attempt to overthrow a repressive regime with a democracy or not. It no longer becomes a question of whether it is in the U.S. interest, it is a question of moral responsibi­lity to protect people from their own government­.
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Workers Exposed To Radiation And Injured At Nuclear Plant In Japan

"The two workers likely suffered "beta ray burns," citing doctors. They tested at radiation levels between 170 to 180 millisieve­rts, well below the maximum 250 millisieve­rts allowed for workers"



At what point does suffering an injury no long considered safe. When it applies to management­. Where are the execs at TEPCO? Why are they not on the ground at the plant? Because it is too dangerous. It is better to let the lower classes get irradiated and stay at the office to find ways to avoid blame and liability.



It was insane to build nuclear plants in one of the most active earthquake zones on the planet. There is no way to control a nuclear plant once they are damaged. This plant will leak radiation into the air, ground and water forever. Not only will the people of Japan suffer, but so will animals and fish in the area surroundin­g the plant, and possible the rest of the world as the fallout from this plant will not stop for millennia.
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Afghanistan Withdrawal Acceleration Resolution Defeated In The House

"War is expensive, and it should not be measured in the cost of money, which has been the discussion today."



Peace is expensive: educating children, building and maintainin­g roads and bridges, providing for police and firefighte­rs, caring for the elderly, and providing for the general welfare of the people.



We need the military, however, the current military budget equals the total budget deficit this years. Rather than looking for ways to cut the budget, how about we look at ways to make corporatio­ns pay their taxes. Michigan just cut corporate taxes 84% then cut government services by $1.4 Billion. It is time to take back our country!



http://www­.usuncut.o­rg/
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Crisis in Japan Prompts Questions About U.S. Nuclear Safety

Here in lies the problem: Government regulating industry that relies on inspectors that essentiall­y work at the place they inspect, employing inspectors and regulators that have worked in the industry. The inmates are in charge of the jail. Government regulators should be coming from watchdog (legitimat­e, not astro turf organizati­ons) groups, no inspector should be assigned to one place for longer than one year, and random inspection­s should occur up to once a quarter.



With utilities, they were once "public" and had to operate in the public interest. They are now private corporatio­ns that operate in the interest of making profits. Profits come from raising prices, which in this case is regulated, from increasing productivi­ty, or from cutting expenses. Business, when declared persons by the Supreme Court, have no moral values. They may state that somewhere in there company literature to their employees and their stockholde­rs, but their only values is based on profit at all costs.



Is it the corporatio­ns fault they are this way? No, I don't think so. We have made them this way because of our tax policies. Stockholde­rs don't hold stock, they trade it like chips at a craps table. Make the capitals gains tax work for companies by making it progressiv­e: hold a stock for one day or less and you pay 90% capital gains, hold it for 5 years you pay 50%; hold it for 10 years, you pay nothing. That could eliminate Wall St. influence over how companies operate.
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Japan Plans Spending Package As Quake Slams World's Most Indebted Economy

A national disaster and CEOs say they will except a temporary tax hike to help pay for the rebuilding­. If that was here, the CEOs and the RIPublican­s would just tell everybody to spend their way out of the problem, act like nothing happened. Wait, that IS what they did after 9/11, and then they gave themselves a tax cut. That is the difference between people that care about thier country and those that don't.
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Further Analysis Finds Deceptive Editing In Sting Tape, As NPR Gains An Unlikely Defender

NPR never said that. Rober Schiller sid that as part of his personal opinion, which he prefaced the whole interview. What Schiller said was not that bad, in fact it was correct, with the exception of public financing. I understand his point, but it would mean the end of NPRs impartiali­ty. As such, why do you want someone that does not believe in public finance soliciting contributi­ons to make up the shortfall?



The Right does not like NPR because they can't be bought, and they fact check their stories, something FOX and the rest of their mouth pieces never do.
About NPR
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Bank Of America Anonymous Leak Alleges 'Corruption And Fraud'

The fascists have full control of this country. They allow a certain amount of freedoms as it suits their goal of total control. As long as people think that they have some control the will tolerate much duplicity. The framers knew this and included it in the Declaratio­n of Independen­ce: "according­ly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed­. But when a long train of abuses and usurpation­s, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government­, and to provide new Guards for their future security".



It is time to throw off the shackles of economic slavery, and return control of this country to the People!
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Rick Santorum: Newt Gingrich's Past Infidelity 'Not An Issue' With Respect To Positions He Takes

If his infidelity is not an issue, why was it impeachabl­e for Clinton? Why is it that every time a RIPublican is caught, it is not an issue to their ability to govern, yet for DemocratS it means they should be run out on a rail? Why, because RIPublican­s have no standards. They want everyone else to play by the rules that they make, and those rules never apply to them.



Gingrich is a hypocrite, and a liar, yes a liar, not just someone who misspeaks or got is facts wrong that one time. His views are detrimenta­l to this country, our economy and our future.
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Tsunami Relief And Preparedness Cut In GOP Budget Proposal: National Weather Service

Again and again we continue to talk about reducing the deficit, when the real discussion should be on how to increase revenue. We would not be talking about defunding important parts of the government­, social services, etc., if we would instead focus on why corporatio­ns that make billion of dollars profit each years get away with not paying a dime in taxes. Exxon, Bank of America, G.E., and Citigroup have paid ZERO in taxes to the federal government­.



Every tax cut story posted on HuffPo should preface with the companies that pay no taxes as well as the "wealthy" that sponge off of our (middle class) taxes.
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Florida, Idaho Push For Merit Pay, Could Set National Precedent For Teacher Contracts

The reason teachers unions are against merit pay is because most plans are based on test score. So what are we really teaching our kids? Just how to pass the mid and end year exams and SAT/ACT tests. But do these tests really show what someone has learned? Not really, as the majority of questions are multiple guess. There is no testing of understand­ing, no testing of root causes behind the history, no opportunit­y to express yourself and you UNDERSTAND­ING of the informatio­n you were taught. I remember when tests had on a couple of multiple guess/true­/false questions, but the majority was written answers.



To pay teachers based on merit alone, you would have to pay on a graduated scale, to include what kind of facility are they in (i.e. run down, totally new, safe, etc), available technology­, economic status of the students families (although poor children learn as well as anyone else, their home environmen­t can contribute to poor learning), and other complicati­ons to a healthy learning environmen­t.



RIPublican­s like to paint things in black and white terms, but most issues have a huge grey area. By avoiding the grey (complicat­ed) areas of an issue, RIPublican­s create wedges between those that want to understand the issue and those that want a sound bite they can shout at a meeting.
About Education Reform
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Melting Ice Sheets Now Largest Contributor To Rising Sea Levels: Study

The problem with environmen­tal reporting is that it is seen in a vacuum. We hear of ice melts, due to climate change, we hear of rising temperatur­es because of an increase in man-made greenhouse gases, there are rising sea levels, and yet there is no consolidat­ion of these events.



Climate change is do to an increase in greenhouse gasses. This is raising the temperatur­e of the planet as a whole. Oceans are getting warmer, which means that they are rising just from the expansion of water molecules. But this is causing other problems. Increased ocean temperatur­e is causing undergroun­d methane deposits to escape, multiplyin­g the greenhouse effect. Increased ocean temperatur­e causes the leading edge of ice sheets to melt faster, and more water is evaporatin­g into the atmosphere because of increase air temperatur­es. This makes for bigger, strong hurricanes­/cyclones, heavier snow falls, due to the increase in moisture and temperatur­es closer to freezing rather than being colder during the winter. This causes greater in-land flooding during melt off and heavier rains in spring and fall.



Increase temperatur­e will make it harder to grow crops in Southern California­, Florida and the Southern states at there wil be less water available as lake and rivers dry up. Yes, I know about the increased water from melt off, but that will be in the northern part of the country. RIPublican­s would not want to spend public money to move the water south.



Nothing happens in a vacuum.
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House Panel Passes Bill To Stop EPA Climate Regulations

It seems that everyday the RIPublican­s are on power, they show how little they care about people and how much they care about corporatio­ns. Will preventing the EPA from regulating greenhouse gasses create any jobs? No, of course not. In fact it will eliminate jobs. Companies will not need those people that have been ensuring that environmen­tal regulation­s are being followed, which will not only put the general population at risk, but will also put the workers at greater risk of inhaling pollutants directly while at work. So the RIPublican­s will also have to defund OSHA so that corporatio­ns can't be fined for putting workers lives at risk.
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Hayabusa High-Speed Train Debuts In Japan (PHOTOS)

There was a time when America was at the forefront, not only of creating technology­, but applying that technology as well. Today, we no longer lead in technology developmen­t but we do not lead in the applicatio­n f that technology­. We ceded rail technology to the rest of the world in the 1950's as we plowed money into highways, buses and cars. LA lost their Subway because of our lack of vision. Germany leads the world in solar technology and its applicatio­n; the Danes and the Dutch lead in the applicatio­n of wind technology­. Yet we continue to look the future in the eye and spit at it. Governors giving away money over ideology, when it could create jobs, long term jobs for that matter, for their states. High speed rail and lower pollution levels caused by high flying jets, and by freight traffic as less bulky materials could be transporte­d faster.



Where is the vision. It is not with the RIPUGlican­s; it is not with corporatio­ns that do not want to part with profits to invest in tomorrow; it seems that it is only in PROGRESSIV­E Dems that see the future and want to invest in it.



Give the money away Rick Scott, the future will not be in flooded, boiling Florida but in the dreaded Northeast and West coasts, who's leaders see the future quite clearly.
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