Tax cheat Joseph Stack really did not like paying taxes
A disgruntled software engineer, Joseph Stack, 53, flew a small single engine airplane into an Austin, Texas office building that contained offices for the Internal Revenue Service, killing himself in the process. Thirteen people in the building were injured, two seriously. One person remains unaccounted for.
Before leaving on his one-way airplane trip, Joseph Stack set his home on fire with his wife and daughter inside. Firefighters were able to save Stack’s family, but the home was destroyed. Stack also posted a poorly written, 5,000 3,000 word manifesto on his software company’s website. Evidently the FBI asked Stack’s hosting provider to remove the manifesto, but a PDF version of his message can be read here.
I’ve read Joseph Stack’s manifesto. The guy really did not like paying taxes. Perhaps that’s an understatement. He eludes to a time when he and some other like minded individuals set about to circumvent paying taxes by claiming to be a church. Or something. He’s not really clear. He writes that the “little lesson in patriotism” cost him over $40,000 and ten years of his life.
I’m sure we will all know everything there is to know about Joseph Stack very shortly.
Needless to say, Joseph Stack was a real piece of work. Even though he slammed an airplane into a building full of innocent civilians, killing himself in the process, he is somehow not a terrorist. At least that is what the authorities are quickly saying.
If you ask me, he was a terrorist.
California declares fiscal emergency
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a fiscal emergency to address California’s deficit. Today is the first day of California’s fiscal budget year and it’s looking at a $24.3 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, something it’s not allowed to have by California law.
Unlike the federal government, California must have a balanced budget. In fact most states must have a balanced budget. They aren’t allowed to have year after year of deficit spending, passing a massive debt to future generations.
They have to pay as they go.
As much as I’d like to blame Arnold Schwarzenegger for California’s mess, it’s not really his fault. California simply spends more money than it takes in. California generates most of it’s revenue from income taxes. When people are making less money, they are paying less in taxes. The second largest revenue source for the state is in income taxes. Once again, when people are making less money, they are spending less, which means they are paying less in sales tax.
The problem is, kids still need to be taught, poor people still get sick, and prisoners still need to be housed and fed. For the 2009-2010 fiscal year, California is looking at spending $47 billion for education, $21 billion for Health care and social services, and $8.5 billion for prisons.
Governor Schwarzenegger has a job I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
This is why it’s hard to take the Tea Party protesters serious [Pic]
Imagine what the sign would say if Obama raised this man’s taxes instead of cutting them. What’s worse, that this guy showed up at a protest in Chicago or that none of his fellow protesters told him to ditch the sign?
Hagerstown Tea Party a raging success
It would seem that the Tea Party protest held in Hagerstown yesterday was a huge success. The Herald-Mail reports that there were “about” 300 people in attendance. The event’s organizers were hoping to attract 200 people.
I’m still not sure what the protest was actually about. I heard over and over again that it was a grass roots, non-partisan movement, but when you look at the people behind the movement, you only see Republicans.
Was it about wasteful government spending? Where have these people been for the past eight years?
Much of the angst coming from these Tea Party people seems to be directed to President Obama. Do they realize that he has only been in office for less than three months? Do they know that unless they make more than $250,000 a year, their taxes under Obama were cut? I hope these people compare their 2009 tax return to the one they filed yesterday. The amount of taxes they will be paying in 2009 will be less than what they are paying for 2008.
I hope those that stood in the rain yesterday in downtown Hagerstown throwing tea bags in that plastic wadding pool will compare their 2009 tax return to their 2008 tax return.
Unfortunately, I don’t think they will.
Tom Daschle rides his untaxed chauffeured limousine into the sunset
Former Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to oversee the Health and Human Services Department. Reportedly it was because of the controversy surrounding his failure to pay all his taxes.
Personally, I think when the story came out that Daschle failed to pay $128,000 in taxes, President Obama should have withdrew the nomination and picked someone else to head the Health and Human Services. Someone who paid their taxes. He shouldn’t have allowed Daschle to eventually do it on his own.
This wasn’t a simple tax mistake. Since 2005, Tom Daschle has worked as a paid consultant and adviser to InterMedia Partners. One of the perks of the job was that he had full access to a limousine and chauffeur. He used this limousine and chauffeur for the next three years, yet he never declared it as income on his taxes. When your employer allows you to use a company vehicle for personal use, you are required to declare it as income and pay taxes on it accordingly.
Even if it’s a limousine with a chauffeur.
Joe the Plumber does not always pay his taxes
Just when I thought the ridiculousness surrounding John McCain’s newest BFF Joe the (unlicensed) Plumber couldn’t get any more kooky, I read an article over at ABC News that shows Joe Wurzelbacher has a judgment lien against him for nonpayment of state income tax.
Joe the Plumber owes the state of Ohio nearly $1,200 in taxes from 2007.
I don’t know why Joe the Plumber failed to pay his state taxes last year. What I do know is that he and others like him shouldn’t be criticizing Obama’s tax plan if he doesn’t actually pay his taxes.
I have to wonder what’s going on over at the McCain campaign. Why didn’t they discover that Joe the Plumber owes back taxes before they decided to make him the star of last night’s debate? Did they even do a simple Google search on him first? Someone working for ABC News was able to ascertain that Joe the Plumber owes unpaid taxes by simplely accessing public records that can be accessed online.
Why couldn’t anyone over at the McCain campaign?
Why is Sarah Palin ripping off Jesus?
The McCain-Palin campaign released the last two years of Sarah Palin’s taxes. The documents show that Sarah and the First Dude had a gross income of $166,080 in 2007. They donated $2,500 to charity that year and also made a “non-cash” donation to the Salvation Army of junk supposedly worth $825.
That totals out to be a whopping $3,325 they donated to charity. In other words, they donated roughly 2% of their earnings to charity.
What I find strange about this is that Sarah and Todd Palin are Assembly of God Pentecostal Christians. The Assembly of God teaches that you owe God 10% of your gross income to him. You pay this in the form of a tithe. As a member of the Assembly of God, you are required to both tithe and make other offerings to your church. The tithe is a minimum requirement while the offering is a voluntary amount of money that you give on your own. You give what you feel the Lord wants you to give.
Growing up in an Assembly of God church, I cannot count how many times I heard the pastor preach about the importance of paying your tithes and offerings. It was a regular Sunday morning topic. I probably heard more sermons pertaining to tithing and making offerings then any other single topic in the 19 years I attended the Assembly of God church.
Finding out that Sarah Palin and her husband gave only 2% of their earnings and not the minimum of 10% makes me wonder just how serious they are about their religious convictions. Being that she is constantly lying about things and she has repeatedly gone out of her way to be vindictive to those she doesn’t like, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Did Roscoe Bartlett submit fraudulent documents to the IRS too?
Even though Representative Roscoe Bartlett admits that since 2004 he submitted fraudulent incorrect personal financial disclosure forms that he is required to submit because he is a member of Congress, he claims that his taxes filed during that same time period with the Internal Revenue Service are correct.
Why would the two be any different?
When asked by the Frederick News-Post to release copies of his tax returns to the public, Bartlett spokeswoman Lisa Wright said he would not do so because legally he isn’t required to do it.
That doesn’t make any sense. The tax returns should contain the exact same information that is on his personal financial disclosure forms. That information is public record. Granted, that information is fraudulent incorrect, but he claims that he is “planning” on filing an amended personal financial disclosure.
My guess is that his tax returns were just as fraudulent incorrect as his personal financial disclosure. He’s probably just hoping he doesn’t get audited.
Good luck with that Roscoe.
Al Franken to pay $70,000 in back taxes
Former Saturday Night Live writer and Air America Radio host Al Franken to pay taxes he had already paid:
Senate candidate Al Franken, dogged by accusations that he failed to file tax returns in California, said Tuesday he will pay about $70,000 in back income taxes in 17 states dating to 2003.
Most of the income at issue was from speeches and other paid appearances by the comedian-turned candidate, who said he got bad advice from his accountant but takes responsibility for the errors.
The Minnesota Democrat told The Associated Press that he and his wife, Franni, “paid taxes on every cent of income we ever had.” He said that during the years in question, he followed the accountant’s advice and paid his entire income tax bill to the city and state where he lived at the time. He lived in New York City from 2003-05 and Minnesota in 2006.
He didn’t try to avoid paying taxes. He paid the taxes. He just paid them to the states he lived in at the time and not the states where he earned the actual income. To be honest, I’ve always been lead to believe that was how it worked. You didn’t pay taxes to the state or states you earned the income, but to the state where you lived.
I live in Maryland, but I work in Pennsylvania. Other then a stupid once-a-year tax I have to pay for the right to work in Pennsylvania, I don’t pay taxes in Pennsylvania. That once-a-year tax is not based on my actual income. It’s a flat fee that everyone working in Pennsylvania must pay. It’s based on the county you are working. The only state income tax I pay is to Maryland.
Al Franken and his taxes have been under much scrutiny lately because of the fact that he is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He’s running in his home state of Minnesota. I imagine that there is a lot of pressure running for elected office in Minnesota. It is after all the state that elected former professional wrestler and current 9-11 conspiracy crackpot Jesse Ventura as it’s governor.
How embarrassing it would be to lose an election in Minnesota.
The kooky wisdom of Roscoe Bartlet delivered straight to my email inbox
I got an email from my draft-dodging nutball of a representative Roscoe Bartlett last night. Evidently Roscoe wanted to explain to me why he voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Programs bill. Not that I needed any explanation. Of course Roscoe would vote against a law providing better health care for children.
What cracked me up were some of the reasons he came up with. Check out reason #8:
Dramatically Increases Taxes on Working Families. The Democrats’ bill hikes tobacco taxes by 61 cents per pack, once again proving that Democrats are harming low-income families they claim to want to help. In April, 15 Democrats acknowledged this fact when they sent a letter to Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) encouraging him not to raise the tobacco taxes in the budget resolution because they were not only regressive but a declining source of revenue. (Section 701)
Smoking is a disgusting and a severely unhealthy habit. I think everyone that smokes should quit, especially people in low-income families. The only thing wrong with a 61 cent per pack tax is that it’s far too low.
It ought to be at least $10 a pack.
I used to smoke. Quiting was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The high price of cigarettes was one of the main reasons I didn’t take the habit back up. I thought cigarettes were expensive when I was addicted, but I was addicted. Once I was no longer addicted to nicotine, the high price of cigarettes seemed absolutely ridiculous. It really made me stop and think.
The truth is that if cigarettes were cheap, I probably would have started up again.
If Roscoe Bartlett is going to vote against a bill that helps provide health care for children, it shouldn’t be because it would make it harder for poor families to buy smokes. Once again Roscoe Bartlett uses the power of his office to vote against the best interests of the people in his district.
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