Yet Another Soda Tax

First it was the governor of New York, wanting to raise more money for his dwindling coffers. Now it's the current regime and Obama who want to impose yet another tax on people and their carbonated beverages in order to help him fund his socialised medicine scheme.

Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health-care system.

The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama wants to enact this year. Early estimates put the cost of the plan at around $1.2 trillion. The administration has so far only earmarked funds for about half of that amount.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based watchdog group that pressures food companies to make healthier products, plans to propose a federal excise tax on soda, certain fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and ready-to-drink teas. It would not include most diet beverages. Excise taxes are levied on goods and manufacturers typically pass them on to consumers.

Senior staff members for some Democratic senators at the center of the effort to craft health-care legislation are weighing the idea behind closed doors, Senate aides said.

The Congressional Budget Office, which is providing lawmakers with cost estimates for each potential change in the health overhaul, included the option in a broad report on health-system financing in December. The office estimated that adding a tax of three cents per 12-ounce serving to these types of sweetened drinks would generate $24 billion over the next four years. So far, lawmakers have not indicated how big a tax they are considering.

Mr. Obama and his bureaucratic cohorts are willing to add a "sin tax" on people who just want a few joyous moments with a frosty non-alcoholic beverage. This is just the opening salvo in his tax and spend health rationing plans. No doubt other onerous taxes lay in wait in the wings to fund this debacle. Fat taxes, fast food taxes, non-organic food taxes, organic food taxes and more are likely to rear their ugly heads, just to fund Obama's "health care" plans.

If they pass this one without resistance we can rest assured that they will see this as a sign of weakness and will rush to impose even more taxation measures. That's just the way these people work. Give them an inch and they want a mile. It's only a few cents, right? It's always a few cents here and there, and then pretty soon it's a whole dollar. Every soda you buy today already has embedded taxes in it that the companies have to pass along to the consumer. Fuel taxes, local, state and federal taxes, payroll taxes and a wide variety of incremental taxes that range from local to the federal levels. The politicians are counting on us not caring about " a few cents more". Well, I care.

You should, too. This taxation will be used to fund government controlled medicine. It doesn't work anywhere else in the world, why would we think that a Chicago politician would be able to do any better than anyone else? I certainly don't want the government controlling and rationing health care. They do a lousy job of it already and are more than partially responsible for most of the problems that we do see in our current system. No thanks. Keep your hands of my health care and my little pleasures in life.

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Taxation, Obama, Root Beer, Soda, Libertarian

Happy Patriots Day!

Today marks the 234th anniversary of the "Shot Heard 'Round The World". The opening salvo of the American War of Independence occurred on April 19th, 1775 . It is also the date of the first battle against gun control. The only difference was that the enemy government then was the British Crown and not our own "American" politicians, (politicians who have actually sworn an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and, by extension, the Bill of Rights). The British sent their standing army of Regulars to seize the arms of the militia at Concord. Too bad for them that the word of their plans had already been spread far and wide. The weapons were already long gone and the militia had been alerted. What came next is history that should never be forgotten. Especially by those who occupy seats of power and would disarm the populace.

About 700 British Army regulars, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, were given secret orders to capture and destroy military supplies that were reportedly stored by the Massachusetts militia at Concord. Through effective intelligence gathering, Patriot colonials had received word weeks before the expedition that their supplies might be at risk, and had moved most of them to other locations. They also received details about British plans on the night before the battle, and were able to rapidly notify the area militias of the military movement.

The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. The militia were outnumbered and fell back, and the regulars proceeded on to Concord, where they searched for the supplies. At the North Bridge in Concord, several hundred militiamen fought and defeated three companies of the King's troops. The outnumbered regulars fell back from the Minutemen after a pitched battle in open territory.

More Minutemen arrived soon thereafter and inflicted heavy damage on the regulars as they marched back towards Boston. Upon returning to Lexington, Smith's expedition was rescued by reinforcements under Hugh, Earl Percy. A combined force of about 1,700 men marched back to Boston under heavy fire in a tactical withdrawal and eventually reached the safety of Charlestown. The accumulated militias blockaded the narrow land accesses to Charlestown and Boston, starting the Siege of Boston.

The greatest army in the world was turned away by farmers, shopkeepers, smithy's and other "commoners". We stand today because men with courage and fortitude stood against the powers that be and fought back to defend that most basic of rights. The right to keep and bear arms for defence of self and community. Those who would repeat the folly of the Kings men should remember this and hold it as a solid truth. History does repeat itself when necessary. When diplomacy and politics fail the heroes of Patriots Day will stand as inspiration and example to us all.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

While we shall be celebrating Patriots Day today, we can rest assured that those within the Washington, D.C. Beltway will not be paying their respects on this day. This is not a day of reverence for them, it is one of fear.

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Patriots Day, Gun Control, Revolution, Libertarian

When Seconds Count

Once again we have a large scale killing in a victim disarmament zone and it is pointed out just why individuals should exercise their natural born right to self defence. In Binghamton, NY a madman named Jiverly Wong (Voong) armed himself with two handguns (not a rifle, as many press sources initially indicated yesterday), and entered an immigrant aid centre and murdered 13 people. He then took his own life. Similar incidents have occurred before and likely will occur again, especially in places where the would be victims are disarmed by politicians and the police. New York state is a vicitm disarmament zone from border to border, denying New Yorkers the basic liberty of self defence at all times.

It is painfully obvious from this, and similar incidents, that the police are worse than useless. They, fearing for their own safety will not act until it is too late. In this case they took over 90 minutes to enter the building where Mr. Wong committed his murders.

The chief defended the time it took officers to go into the building -- an hour to 90 minutes.

"If some crazy lunatic decides to pick up a gun and go someplace and start shooting people, I really don't have the answer how long for us that could prevent anything like that," Zikuski said.

"What I will tell you is that the police did the right thing," he said. "We have procedures and protocols."

Their "procedures and protocols" insure that innocents die while madmen wreak havoc. The only way to insure that this does not happen to you is to exercise your right to defend yourself and those around you, at all times. Maybe you'll break some asinine law crafted by those who would aid and abet murderers, but it most certainly beats the alternative now, doesn't it? Of course you could always play dead, while bleeding from an abdominal wound and then talk to the cops on the phone, while they wait for things to wrap up. I know what I would choose.

Whether you carry "legally" or freely, doesn't matter. What does matter is that you avail yourself of the right at all times. None of the poor souls who were so callously murdered in Binghamton were armed, in fact I would venture to guess that in the course of their "civics" courses their right to defend themselves and others were conveniently overlooked by the instructors. And that's a shame. A greater shame is that people like the Brady Bunch are once again, dancing in the blood of fresh victims to call for the further disarming of Americans and even more will suffer because of their agenda. As we can see, disarming served no-one well in Binghamton and it won't serve any of us either, no matter where we live.

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Jiverly Voong, Gun Control, Police, News, Libertarian

Government To The Extreme

What do you call it when the government goes into a business and resets all the salaries for you, even if you already have contractual obligations that you have committed to? It certainly isn't the form of government our Constitution was crafted for. In fact, it sounds downright...hmmm....what's the word I'm looking for? Starts with a C or maybe an F? Oh, well. I'm sure it'll come to me soon enough. Whatever it is, it's certainly being embraced by the Democrat majority in Washington, led by the Spitter in Chief, Barney Frank. They're actually planning on going into private companies and setting the salaries themselves, from top to bottom. The government will now determine what employees should be paid.

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

The purpose of the legislation is to "prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards," according to the bill's language. That includes regular pay, bonuses -- everything -- paid to employees of companies in whom the government has a capital stake, including those that have received funds through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The measure is not limited just to those firms that received the largest sums of money, or just to the top 25 or 50 executives of those companies. It applies to all employees of all companies involved, for as long as the government is invested. And it would not only apply going forward, but also retroactively to existing contracts and pay arrangements of institutions that have already received funds.

In addition, the bill gives Geithner the authority to decide what pay is "unreasonable" or "excessive." And it directs the Treasury Department to come up with a method to evaluate "the performance of the individual executive or employee to whom the payment relates."

The bill passed the Financial Services Committee last week, 38 to 22, on a nearly party-line vote. (All Democrats voted for it, and all Republicans, with the exception of Reps. Ed Royce of California and Walter Jones of North Carolina, voted against it.)

Any bets that this abomination passes and gets signed into law by the Great Leader? He's already made steps to take over other industries. It's that kind of world now, not one to be proud of. And these people wonder why guns and ammo are flying off the shelves.

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Barney Frank, Libertarian, News, Obama