It Is What It IS.....

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Taliban Interview Goes Wrong

[Warph]

This woman is bat-shit crazy:

Ashley Judd continues to drop hints during speeches and events that she's gearing up to run for the U.S. Senate.

But oddly, the liberal actress seems to be doing this everywhere but in Kentucky, the state where she acknowledges she might move to mount a campaign against Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Her recent public schedule baffles political observers who have talked with The Daily Caller, because it plays into one of her biggest weaknesses: While Judd was raised in the Bluegrass state, she currently lives in Tennessee, and hasn't re-established her residency in Kentucky yet and wants to campaign from her mother's garage.

Still, she hasn't completely avoided the Bluegrass state. Judd, who has been known to attend University of Kentucky basketball games, reportedly had a private dinner with Democrats in the state last month, the Huffington Post reported.

The left-leaning website reported that Judd told attendees at the dinner, "I have been raped twice, so I think I can handle Mitch McConnell."

Hmmm.... She said "I'm a three-time survivor of rape" in an interview with MotherJones.  It's weird when liberals can't remember their own statements.

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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg opened a new front in his antismoking campaign last week when he proposed new legislation that would require stores to keep tobacco products out of sight, making New York the first city in the nation to do so.

Its companion bill, however, has the potential to be just as groundbreaking, experts on tobacco control said. Along with strengthening the penalties on retailers that evade tobacco taxes, the second bill establishes a minimum price for cigarettes and cigarillos, or little cigars, of $10.50 a pack, the first time such a strategy has been used to combat smoking. The bill also prohibits retailers from redeeming coupons or offering other discounts, like two-for-one deals.

"This is kind of a landmark set of proposals here," said Kurt Ribisl, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, whose research on tobacco control influenced Mr. Bloomberg's proposal. "For someone like me, who's spent 18 years studying point-of-sale issues, this is kind of big."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/nyregion/bloomberg-seeks-an-end-to-cheap-cigarettes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&;

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The Campaign That Never Ends: Obuma Goes On Fundraising Tour...
as Usual

Hi Suckers... I'm back!

The 2012 election is barely over, but President Obama is already hitting the campaign trail again, heading out to four California fundraisers Wednesday and Thursday to begin raising money to help Democrats keep the Senate and seize the House.

The way-early fundraising blitz suggests Obama is far more focused than the White House is admitting on capturing the House for Democrats so he can railroad legislation through Congress after the 2014 elections.

According to the White House, Obama Wednesday will attend two fundraisers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the political arm of House Democrats. Politico writes that the fundraisers will each be on San Francisco's "Billionaires' Row," at the homes of Gordon Getty and billionaire Democratic fundraiser and clean-energy advocate Tom Steyer.

[Warph]

Iran Gives "Mooch" Obuma "Wet Gunpowder" Award For Her Oscar Appearance, Highlighting "Zionism's Immense Influence Over Hollywood"

She must be thrilled...

Iran has presented a special award to US First Lady Michelle Obama for revealing the influence that the White House sways over the Hollywood film industry, Press TV reports.

The prize, named the  Wet Gunpowder Award,  was showcased at a ceremony in the southwest Shalamcheh district on Saturday.

The Iranian organizers of the award ceremony stated that since Michelle Obama announced American director Ben Affleck's anti-Iran drama, Argo, as the Oscars' Best Picture for 2013, they decided to present the award to the US First Lady.

Made on a budget of about USD 44 million by the Warner Bros, Ben Affleck's Argo is replete with historical inaccuracies and distortions in cinematic representation of the 1979 US Embassy takeover in Iran.

"The US First Lady presented a so-called artistic award to a film that is clearly anti-Iranian. What does that mean? No artists, even the ones that have Western mindset, believe that Argo is a film worthy of even a national award. That film is definitely not artistic enough to qualify for an international ward; an award that is claimed to be given to the best movie in the world — the Oscar," Commander of the Basij Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi told Press TV.

"One of the programs that has made this conference more important is giving the Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, the Wet Gunpowder Award. She won the award because she showed the world that the Zionists in the White House have an immense influence and control over the Hollywood film industry," Yaqoub Soleimani, a commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said.

[Diane Amberg]

My goodness.. They have nothing more important going on? What would they have done if Lincoln or Les Mis had won? Zionism my latkes! 

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Mooch Calls Herself A "Busy Single Mother"
Something we don't know, Mooch?

During an interview with Burlington, Vt. CBS affiliate WCAX, first lady Mooch Obama described herself as a "busy single mother" before quickly correcting herself, explaining, "Sometimes when you've got the husband who's president, it can feel a little single, but he's there."

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50144220n

[Warph]

I found something on the IRS Web site I never expected to see: quotations from great minds on taxes.

The first two agitated me:

"Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.'' — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice

"The power of taxing people and their property is essential to the very existence of government.'' — James Madison, U.S. president

Hey, guys, I don't mind paying taxes for a civilized society.  It's paying for the uncivilized part that grates on me.  And I'm happy for the existence of our government, but, man, why does its existence have to be so big?

Here is a telling quotation from Frederick the Great, an 18th-century Prussian king:

"No government can exist without taxation. This money must necessarily be levied on the people; and the grand art consists of levying so as not to oppress.''

Yes, Freddy, levying without oppressing is a grand art... much the way it is an art for a loan shark, while collecting interest, to break all five fingers without harming the wrist.

Two of our thinkers, in their effort to be profound, end up sounding absurd:

"Like mothers, taxes are often misunderstood, but seldom forgotten.'' — Lord Bramwell, 19th century English jurist

"To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men." — Edmund Burke, 18th century Irish political philosopher and British statesman

Hey, Brammy, my dear sweet mother may be misunderstood and I'll never forget her, but I don't remember the government ever bringing me milk and cookies after clearing out my bank account.

And if somebody can explain to me what the hell Burke is trying to say, the first beer is on me.

Three of our thinkers make great sense, though:

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." — Albert Einstein

"Taxation WITH representation ain't so hot, either." — Gerald Barzan, humorist

A tax loophole is "something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform.'' — Russell B. Long, U.S. senator
Ah, now we're getting to the thick of it.  Our tax code is the hardest thing in the world to understand.  It was made that way because our representatives, seeking favor and dough, slipped in gobs of loopholes for their buddies.

Our government calls this "tax reform," and it is the reason our tax code now runs, according to the Cato Institute, 61,000 pages in length and takes the average American nearly 30 hours to comply with.

One quotation made me sad:

"Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund." — F.J. Raymond, humorist

Well, F.J., next to being shot at and hit, nothing is quite as unpleasant as the sizable checks I've had to write every year since I became retired.  The concept of taxes agitates me so much, particularly this week as I am buried in a pile of receipts, that I was drawn to the more humorous quotations:

"I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is I could be just as proud for half the money." — Arthur Godfrey

"People who complain about taxes can be divided into two classes: men and women." — Unknown

"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf." — Will Rogers

The IRS is quick to point out that it in no way endorses any of these quotations.  I don't fault it for being cautious.  Enforcing our incomprehensible laws, rules and regulations is the hardest job in the world.  The IRS is often blamed for the mess that Congress made.

Still, I'm sure the IRS wants to keep a distance from this:

"Where there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income." — Plato

Well, then.... I guess tax woes have been around for a while.

[Warph]

NBC/WSJ Poll: Obama Approval Rating Plunges 6 Points, Disapproval Rating Shoots Up 5 Points

Oh my... so sad... so sad...

A new NBC/WSJ poll finds President Obama's approval rating has fallen 6 points since his reelection to 47 percent.

At the same time, his dispproval rating has ticked up 5 points to 48 percent, the poll found.

That puts him underwater for the first time since August last year, when an NBC/WSJ survey found him at 48 percent approval and 49 percent disapproval.

The poll also found that 31 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction — down from 41 percent last fall — while 61 percent think the nation is headed in the wrong direction. That's up from 53 percent.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/04/poll-obama-approval-falls-points-161422.html

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