Joe the Plumber

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Interesting, Peter

Thanks. You are right about there only being so many hours in the day. It is tough to find the time. I justify some of my reading by using topics of current interest in my courses on intercultural communication and business English.
Yup, teaching freshman English again this semester. I'm rather desperately trying to competently teach me students not to split their infinitives, pay they attention to declining pronouns and make many fewer mistakes in their modifiers.
Gay patriot and gay conservative are new to me, have to check them out. I gave up on Instapundit several months ago, primarily because the comments were driving the blog and not the opposite. Have they regained some semblance of order?
I'll check out those two gay blogs, how about you give the Wall Street Journal a chance?
By the by, Michelle and I almost never agree, as you might expect, but boy was she hopping mad and spitting furious about the Bush three-page, unlimited authority bail-out proposal. She sounded pretty much exactly like David Frum, Chris Buckley, Sullivan and Nancy Reagan on that one. Who knows, mayhap there's still hope. She's one of the few conservative (as opposed to Republican) commentators left who haven't come over to the dark side. Yet.
(Cue up Lugosi's dry chuckle).
Gonna leave it at that, my promise not to talk politics till after the election constrains me.
 
I much preferred the BBC's coverage of the primaries earlier this year. I'll probably tune into them for a good portion of the time come election night. They'll be a much more collected bunch than all of the foamers on network and cable news here in the U.S.
 
So Sam isn't as relevant as Joe? Why? McCain pulled Joe out of obscurity and what was the point? I have relatives just like Joe. My cousin has never made more than $25,000 a year but is so over the top republican that he almost spits when the rest of the family vote democratic. His sole reason is that when he makes it rich, he's 42 now, he doesn't want to pay taxes. He rants on and on about the so called "death tax" that will never impact him, and how all the dem's are crooks. Hmmm, OK.

You know what? My income has gone up and down, and when it was high I did not hate paying the taxes, I didn't like it, but I knew it was part of living in this country. There is a lot of crap in the budget that could be cut, no question, but there are lots of things there that benefit everyone too. You take the bad with the good, and hope the good outweighs the bad. When the middle class has money the country thrives, people invest and spend. Sam's story points out that fact. Simple as that.
 
and Palin is an uneducated hillbilly.

rickr- Um, I think your're WRONG!!! You have to have hills to be a hillbilly. I don't think there are hills in Alaska! Maybe she can be a tundra-billy, or a snowdrift-billy, but hillbilly??? I donno!!! But, she's an uneduficated something-billy... that's for sure!!!

Chuck
 
Hi Chuck, No she is a hillbilly. These days one does not have to live in the hills to qualify as a hillbilly. I did hear an interview of someone that lived in Alaska on NPR last week, and the person proudly refered to himself as a hillbilly. He was a big Palin fan. Go figure....
 
The point is that Joe asked a question of Obama, and everyone on the left has attacked him, the media has gone nuts to dig up dirt on him, and McCain even has to defend him. It's just a question. Obama answered very stupidly as viewed to conservative Americans and Republicans. Who asked isn't relevant; Obama would probably have answered just as stupidly if it was his own plant so that he could show his own view to middle class America without a teleprompter. The left should be angry at Obama for sounding like the Communist Manifesto on CD.

As for Sam, shoot, he was probably made up by a writer at HuffPo. Every Patel that has a Paki-Mart or 7-11 is finding a way to make a living off of gas AND send money back to family back in their homeland. If that owner was educated on his business, he would know that the big nasty oil company is making .07 net on every gallon while the government is making .18. If he was really up on his business, he'd be more outraged that the govt made at least twice as much as what Exxon-Mobil reported as profits.

Greg, it's like a barfight. You're standing there, the fight breaks out, and you decide to hit someone with a beer bottle. Maybe it's stupid, maybe it's fun. Sometimes, you just have to join in.

Not for nothing, but like Panthera, I'm looking forward to the day after election day when we can all get normal again...until it starts all over in 3 years.
 
Well, if the oil companies are only making .07 net/gal, they must be selling a hell of a lot of gas to have record profits every quarter. I know I like most people cut back on driving, apparently others went out joyriding to boost gas sales.
 
The Joe the plumber analagy strikes a chord with me, being that I operate my own audiovisual business. The way Obama's tax plan works, my business stands to be trampled HARD by taxes. Why? Well, it is very simple, audiovisual equipment is EXPENSIVE!!! Yet, I am not a millionaire, by any means! The profit margin on audiovisual equipment is nil....in the 2-1 percent range. We make our money off of installation and service. The problem is that I can move well over a million dollars worth of equipment through my shop in a year's time. The way Obama's tax plan has it laid out, my shop will be taxed by INCOME, not on revenues. That money I take in from my customers goes right back out to my suppliers, just like the gas station owner that MattL mentioned. The problem is that on the way in the front door, and out the back, Obama wants to tax it! The only way around this is going to be to significantly raise my prices on the products I sell just to break even....I am suprised the gas station owner is too short-sighted to figure out that chances are, he moves more than $250,000 gasoline and groceries through his store, and although he doesn't make any money off that fuel, the money he takes in for it will be taxed!

The second problem is that my company's core business comes from the $250,000 + "tax bracket". I don't see anybody in the ghetto installing high-end multimedia systems. If this tax bracket is taxed hard, then they will not be spending as much money on discresionary things like me installing high-end audiovisual equipment...double whammy! I am worried, really worried. My business is holding out fairly good through this recession, but we stand to loose some business here as schools and colleges get their budgets cut because of tax revenue loss. I am saving up now, because if I'm doing the numbers right, I don't know if I am going to be able to keep the lights on if Obama gets elected! Yea, let's "help" the middle class out by taxing the money faucet out of existance, and making it harder to run our businesses! Yea, my tax return will be smaller, but what good is that going to do when I don't have any income in the first place!

...and yes, I am licensed and CTS certified!!!
 
Steven,

I think, if you ask a tax specialist, she or he will tell you the same thing I've read: No, your business expenses will remain expenses, not taxable income.

My family situation limits me in what I can earn a lot. But the nature of my private business is such that I occasionally move significant sums of money through my accounts with only a few thousand Euros actually accruing through my value addition. In short, I know exactly what sort of situation you're in there. Good bookkeeping separates things out at the end of every quarter.

I understand your reluctance to see Obama elected, but this fear, at least, is not one you need have. As for the rest, well, if you do have real income of, say, $250,000/year after all allowable deductions, then, yes, you're going to pay more. At the moment, it looks like not quite $1000 more/year.

But hey, after the bailout of the last few weeks, I am certain of two things. One, Republicans had better never again lecture me on how they are not socialists and, two, we are all going to be paying through the nose for a long, long time...unto the seventh generation, at least.
 
Please correct me if I'm wrong . . .

But I've seen nothing to suggest that either candidate has proposed to change the federal tax system to tax revenue instead of profit. I own my small business, and every year I fill out the IRS forms for business profit or loss. My taxable income is based on my profit, not gross revenue, for both the IRS and California Tax Franchise Board.

The only government entities I know of which base their taxes on gross revenue are some municipalities, including the City of Los Angeles and City of Santa Monica. I think there would be quite an outcry if the IRS and state taxation boards were to adopt such systems.
 
Hydralique,

You phrased it better than I did. I'm staying strictly out of the political discussions until after the election. This is, however, a simple point of economics.
Something we all need to be thinking about. Regardless of who wins the executive, regardless of who keeps, expands or re-takes the legislative, we are all going to have to work together after the election. The last time I saw so much 'scorched earth' in a political election was between Johnson and Goldwater on the question of racial integration. Many decades later, the anger and divisions are still clear for all to see. (Just for the record, I was in favor of human rights for all).
Can we afford this level of distrust and 'my way or the highway' in these times? One of the reasons I stopped posting politically here was the very well thought out comment by one of the most conservative members, I had lost the ability to discern between those attacking and threatening me and those who 'merely' held different beliefs than I. If this level of hatred, spitefulness, threats and absolutism holds post-election, America may well find herself in an untenable position. Is it worth it? Must all liberals leave the country for 'democratic' Canada and Europe? Would all conservatives truly have to retreat to Appalachia and secede from the Union of United Socialist States?
I'm not asking here for a political discussion, I won't and can't do that (not till after the election, anyway.) But I am curious just how we shall go forward from this contentious mess.
 
Re: the mountains in Alaska issue, the state of Alaska is home to Mt. McKinley, the highest point in the U.S., if not all of North America. I think that should settle the level of hillbilly potential for Mrs. Paling.

On the other hand, the ratio of males to females in Alaska is staggeringly high. Makes one wonder what all those single mountain men (NOT to be confused with hillbillies) are doing to satisfy their urges and with whom. Inquiring minds want to know!
 
I'm with Ralph...

What do all the hot Alaskan men do?

Has anyone dug up some racy pics of Joe the Plumber. If so, email them!
 
Travis,

If Joe is the McCain capitalist he seems to be, then there's a good chance he's posing for those pictures right about now. I wonder if he's aware they wouldn't likely be landing in any magazines women read.
 

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