As it looks like there’s a shortage of writers that have thrown up an offer to take over Mondays, I guess it’s going to be me. Why not? Considering the equal time laws some stations are required to give to multiple candidates, I might as well do some stumping for GWB as long as Eric has got the JFKerry pimping covered on Wednesdays.
Of course, I also have to preface this by quoting one Ron Gamble: I don’t know who I’m voting for come November, but I know who I’m not voting for.
Now, who Gamble and I are NOT voting for is probably different, since Gamble is a well known communist, and has been investigated by the FBI in the early parts of the Cold War (Grutman told me, so you know it’s true).
Why my vote would never go to Kerry is simple, and can be boiled down to one sentence he said before any primaries even started.
“I’m going to roll back George W Bush’s tax cuts, because we simply can not afford them?â€Â
And thus sums up in one line my entire problem with the Democratic party. “I’m going to roll back GWB’s tax cuts, because we simply can not afford them.†Because, rather than become a bit more responsible in the spending department, and rejecting budgets that maybe are too expensive the first idea Kerry comes up with is “we’re going to rollback the tax cuts simply because we can’t afford it.â€Â
I don’t know about y’all, but when I cant afford something I don’t buy it. If I can’t afford something, I can’t rollback my federal with-holdings. Yet, somehow, the Democrats decide if we can’t afford it: oh well, we’ll just raise taxes. Then, we have even more money to spend. But somehow, just somehow, we’ll blow through all that money, too and then we’ll raise it even more.
Carol Mosley-Braun from (I think) California made a similar statement a while back. Not that I ever had any respect for her before, but she burned the rest of it out of me with that statement. Democrats believe that your money is their money. That, somehow, they have an inherent right to the money you worked for. That somehow, they deserve your money.
Now, I will grant you, GWB doesn’t have it right, either. He’s also spending money we don’t have but goddammit, at least he cut the top rate from 40% to 35%.
Which, of course, led the Democrats to fall back on the standard line of “George W Bush is giving tax cuts to the rich.†Because, it wouldn’t be a Democratic presidential campaign without firing off a few class warfare jabs.
But then, here’s the whole thing. According to the IRS, in 2001, the top 5% of wage earners in the United States paid 53.25% of the federal income tax, and the top 50% of wage earners pay 96% of the taxes.
When is enough enough?
The answer: never. Why? Because Democrats dislike Americans who don’t need them. Again, why? Because Democrats can’t threaten Americans who don’t need them. They can’t threaten a rich old person by telling them they won’t be able to afford drugs. They can’t tell successful African-Americans that whitey is keeping them down. They can’t tell successful women that men are keeping them down. As such, the only way they can punish such folks is by taxing them down. Punish success so they need us. I’m convinced that’s written on page one of the Democrat handbook.
So Good It’s Scary
Last Monday, Hyatte said that, currently, “The Sopranos is so good it’s scary.†As I sit here watching it tonight as I type this column, I’m inclined to agree with him. One of problems I’ve had with the Sopranos over the first few seasons is the shallowness of some of the character development and their tendency to drop storylines (Russian in the wood? What Russian in the woods?). This season, however, has been some of the best writing I’ve ever seen out of the writing staff. Steve Buscemi’s character has single handedly restored my faith in the writers of the Sopranos with a character development as deep as Tony’s development in the first season of the show.
In him, you have a character who has spent years in prison, makes an honest effort to go straight, so far as to get a real civilian job and just when the light is at the end of the tunnel for him, the life pulls him back in. In the first five or six episodes of this season, we have watched a season’s worth of growth in this character.
In fact, we’ve watched so MUCH growth in these other characters, that you almost wonder if they’re trying to take some of the focus of the show OFF of Tony.
Although, I’m still holding out for a bullet to Christopher’s head and godDAMNit if I was close to getting what I wanted last week.
Which leads into
Deadwood. Easily the best new show on television with some fantastically defined characters. Though I still have a problem with the “good guys†on the show, the “bad guys†on the show are wonderfully thought out and developed. The primary antagonist on the program, Al Swearengen, is among the most evil men currently on television. And frankly, any show which features a body count on the website.
In Conclusion
I hope Easter weekend saw everyone well. Assuming I can get ahead of the mess of programming Widro and I have lined up for the backend of this site, I’ll be back next week in the same slot.
Till then.
