Atlas… wait a minute, what?

political blunders 4 Responses »
Feb 032009

Via the Libertarian Alliance blog, a spot-on comment piece by Simon Heffer.

[David Cameron] complains about the “absence of a moral framework” from capitalism. It shows his profound misunderstanding of the term “capitalism”; it echoes the misunderstanding that he and his decerebrated shadow chancellor have had of this crisis ever since it began to develop.

I agree. And ‘decerebrated’ is my new favourite word.

But what is this?

Given his lack of intellectualism, Mr Cameron may not have read Atlas Shrugged, the epic novel by the American philosopher Ayn Rand in which a man discovers the secret of perpetual motion and becomes excessively rich by putting many of his less intelligent competitors out of business. The newly poor – poor because they failed to give the public what they wanted at a price they were prepared to pay – demand a Fair Shares Law, whereby they are compensated for their lack of brains and risk-taking by the enterprises who do make money.

Not sure that’s how I’d summarise Atlas Shrugged. He leaves out the really important bit. You know the one I mean.

Maybe he was just trying to avoid spoilers.

Posted by bellagerens at 10:07 pm Tagged with: ,

Democrats and tax

political blunders, US-bashing No Responses »
Feb 032009

Today comes the news that yet another Obama appointee, Nancy Killefer, finds herself in a spot of embarrassment over her taxes.

First, we had Timothy Geithner, Treasury secretary nominee, who:

didn’t pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for several years while he worked for the International Monetary Fund, and he employed an immigrant housekeeper who briefly lacked proper work papers.

The article also cites ‘a series of other tax matters,’ but declines to describe them in detail.

Then, we had Tom Daschle, who ‘made mistakes on his taxes‘ to the tune of £120,000 and has now withdrawn his bid to become Heath and Human Services secretary. He said:

“My failure to recognize that the use of a car was income and not a gift from a good friend was a mistake,” said the former Senate majority leader. “When I realized the mistake, I notified officials and I paid the tax in full.”

I am floored by this statement, mainly because I have never heard of anybody having to notify the IRS of money owed. Three years ago, the bastards tracked me down in a foreign country to collect from me (and I know this because I’m consulting their threatening notices now) back-taxes of $13.16.

Nancy Killefer, picked to become Obama’s chief performance officer, has withdrawn her name from consideration for the post, ‘citing unspecified problems with District of Columbia unemployment tax.’ God only knows what that’s all about, but I’m sure it wasn’t that she overpaid.

What the fuck are these people playing at? Are the American people really supposed to believe that a string of tax irregularities in highly-placed Democratic officials is the result of coincidental mistakes and oversights?

Iowahawk has this to say:

Here at the IRS, we realize that many well-meaning taxpayers like you can be distracted by various family illnesses, baseball pennant races, political campaigns, and so on. The rules for late filing can be surprisingly flexible if you have the right qualifying circumstances. According to IRS guidelines, you are eligible for the 306(b)(19) “I Forgot” amnesty if the following applies:

(1) Your total adjusted gross income in the “I Forgot” years was equal to or greater than $8,528,000; and
(2) You are a nominee to head a cabinet-level federal agency.

If you answered “yes” to (2), or both (1) and (2), then you are in the clear. If you answered “yes” to (1) but “no” to (2), mail 10% of the total to the Democratic National Committee and request a cabinet appointment. If you answered “no” to both, then I’m afraid you are shit out of luck. Turn yourself into your local IRS authorities, who will assist you in computing appropriate penalties, interest, and parole terms.

UPDATE: I’m not the only one who thinks this is fishy. There seems to be a suggestion that Daschle in particular has withdrawn in order to keep Obama from looking bad. I must say, I’m impressed: self-flagellating politicians falling on their swords to preserve the reputation of one of their own? Repent, for the End is nigh…

Posted by bellagerens at 6:29 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Gordon Brown: inarticulate twat

political blunders 9 Responses »
Feb 022009

From the Telegraph, I see that Gordon Brown, our monocular prime minister, is trying to weasel out of his pledge of ‘British jobs for British workers.’ It was a stupid thing to say, considering the free movement of labour that is about the only benefit of the UK’s membership in the EU, and now there have been strikes over some Italians taking the fabled ‘British jobs.’

Fair enough; I’d probably weasel too.

But then, when asked his view on possible sympathy strikes, he burbled this:

“That that’s not the right thing to do and it’s not defensible,” he replied. “What we’ve set up as a process to deal with the questions that people have been asking about what has happened in this particular instance.”

That’s not even a sentence.

He went on: “When I talked about British jobs, I was taking about giving people in Britain the skills, so that they have the ability to get jobs which were at present going to people from abroad and actually encouraging people to take up the courses and the education and learning that is necessary for British workers to be far more skilled for the future.”

He wants people in Britain to have the skillz. Hurrah. But his loquacity (can I call it that, or is the choice of word almost too kind?) is awe-inspiring. The education and the learning. Well done. Skillz – learnin’, you know – for British workers to be more skilled.

Wouldn’t it have been vastly easier, and consumed less precious oxygen, for him to say, ‘I didn’t mean jobs. I meant skills. You know. British skills for British workers. QED. Now fuck off, I’m busy.’? Clearly, sensible, concise elegance is too much to ask for from somebody who makes his living by his silver tongue. The twat.

Posted by bellagerens at 6:03 pm Tagged with: , , , ,
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