Category: Politics

Politics

Untitled for Days, Sir

Posted on by chappyshi

According to Al Kamen in the Washington Post article Speeches That Keep On Giving, dated February 6, 2009, the Department Of Homeland Security spent “$11,200 on a book of Secretary Chertoff’s ‘Select Speeches'” which it then distributed to hundreds of DHS employees.

Has DHS heard of this new-fangled thing called the World Wide Web on which those speeches could have been published at next to no cost to the taxpayer?  Apparently not…maybe DHS needs to take a tip or two from Al Qaeda’s publicity department.  A quick Google search indicates that many of those speeches are already available on the web.

$11,200 surely is peanuts to DHS but if this expenditure is any indication of how they manage their money then we as taxpayers are in trouble.  And it is not peanuts to me.  Oh, and since those speeches are presumably unclassified, they are most likely to be boring as hell.

Taxing Times, Class Inequities, and Ignominy

Posted on by chappyshi

Tom Daschle, “nominated to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services,” purportedly “did not pay more than $128,000 in taxes over three years,” according to the Washington Post article, Daschle Owed Back Taxes That Exceeded $128,000, dated 31 January, 2009. Will he get the job? Probably… loser. If you make enough money to screw up your tax filing by way more than I make in a year, get a frigging accountant.

In the same article the Washington Post reveals that “Timothy F. Geithner, who was chosen to run the Treasury Department, disclosed that he had not paid some taxes and subsequently paid $43,000 in taxes and penalties.” Will he get the job? Maybe… loser. See trailer above.

WTF? I had the IRS come after me last year because my Social Security number was wrong on an E-Trade account that I closed two years ago which was never worth more than $4000. That took me three or four phone calls to clear up. And for what…so I’d have a clean record for my upcoming Cabinet post nomination? Losers…

Taint What You Think It Is

Posted on by chappyshi

If you don’t know one of the more curious and obscure definitions of the word “taint” as regards a part of the human body, read no further.  Read on if you know to which part I am referring.  I just kind of liked the word’s usage in the December 31, 2008 Washington Post Op-Ed by David Broder titled, “Opportunism in Illinois.”  As regards the Illinois governor’s (Blagojevitch) selection of Roland Burris to fill president-elect Barak Obama’s  soon to be vacant Senate seat, Mr.  Obama calls for Mr. Blagojevitch “to step down and allow a senator to be named ‘free of taint and controversy.'”

Perhaps New Hampshire will wish to change their license plates to read “Taint Free or Die….”