GOP Gains Obama Doesn’t Care

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The GOOD news: Democrats lost some elections and a little overall momentum. The BAD news: we had to elect Republicans (Democrats Lite) to do it…

 WASHINGTON — Republican gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia mark a troubling turn for President Obama, whose personal efforts couldn’t stop the fall of Democrats facing a voter backlash over the economy and a notable uptick in the government’s would-be role in people’s lives.

Obama’s 2008 victory in Old Dominion had marked an historic breakthrough for Democrats who hadn’t won Virginia’s electoral votes since 1964. The fight in the Garden State was more grueling than usually accompanies Democratic campaigns in the reliably blue state of New Jersey.

So the setbacks demonstrate the difficulty of presidential leadership following a campaign built on promises of unity followed by divisive policies and a relentless campaign approach toward big legislative issues like the stimulus and health care bills. – Fox News

Conservatives Growing Voter Group

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 A shift has occurred since electing a liberal congress and president… will that effect policy or just the next election? (or nothing at all)

 “Changes among political independents appear to be the main reason the percentage of conservatives has increased nationally over the past year: the 35% of independents describing their views as conservative in 2009 is up from 29% in 2008.” – Gallup

Socialism Too Broke To Fuel Eternal Flame

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ledflame.jpgWhen the socialist utopia runs out of money to fuel your vets eternal flame what can you do but switch to a low carbon footprint led digital flame…

And always the gas torch was blowing on its palm symbolizing eternal memory. Elder people were admiring them, progressive youth called the monument “The Girl with Sambuca”. Such kind of fires can be met worldwide and in Russia they are called “Eternal Flames”.

But nothing is eternal on this Earth as we know. When the Soviet Union felt down and states that were its parts became independent the whole infrastructure supporting different regions became interrupted.

In this particular case that meant “You would have no more free natural gas, Ukraine!”. So this fossil fuels the flames ran on became to luxury to be burnt without any real purpose (the memories don’t cost much in wild capitalistic realities!). So the it was shut down.

For years it was standing without burning torch and no renovations were running, looked pretty abandoned.

But then… new technologies came into a play!

They combined a nice pixel flames and a cell phone transmitters inside – that’s way cool place for them – high above the city scape. – English Russia

Work 2X As Hard For 20% More Money?

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Would you work twice as hard for 20% more money? This is why steeply progressive tax systems fail.  Incentive dies. High earners go away.  Tax burden has to shift lower and lower.

Eighteen months after being laid off, Judith Lederman, a 50-year-old divorcee who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., is ready to consider jobs paying half the $120,000 she earned as a publicity manager at Lord & Taylor. That’s mostly because she’s desperate, but it also makes sense when you consider how this country punishes work effort. While the first $60,000 of her income would be lightly taxed, the next $60,000 would be hit with what is in effect a 79% tax rate. Given a choice between a part-time or easy job paying $60,000 and a demanding, stress-ridden job paying $120,000, Lederman would be wise to take the former. In the tougher job she would be contributing twice as much to the economy. But she wouldn’t be doing herself much good. It would make more sense to take it easy and spend more time with her high school senior daughter, Casey.

How did a middle-class single mom wind up with a 79% marginal tax rate? At $120,000 she would pay $16,500 a year more in federal and state taxes, wouldn’t qualify for the five-year $12,000-a-year cut in her mortgage payments she’s applying for and would be eligible for $19,000 a year less in need-based college financial aid.

For decades there has been debate about how to help the poor without discouraging work, saving or marriage. Yet with almost no notice just such disincentives have crept up the income ladder, observes economist C. Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury official and expert on the taxation of families. At first blush it would be hard to argue with anything that might help Lederman get back on her feet. Mortgage relief? The voters clamored for it. Scholarships for less-prosperous students? Everyone wants poor kids to get the same chances in life as rich ones. Add up all these good intentions, though, and you get some perverse incentives.

Work isn’t the only middle-class virtue that is getting punished. The system penalizes savings, too–not just through taxes, but also through programs that reward debtors, the profligate and college families that show up at the financial aid office with empty pockets. Yet another series of tax and benefit rules penalizes marriage. – Forbes