It isn't about the taxes - it is about the spending. You have to pay for what you spend somehow. . .
I have had not one, but two of my yard signs removed from my yard in the past month. The first theft happened around August 12th. The second theft happened sometime between now and yesterday morning after I left for work.
It is not often that I endorse a candidate strongly enough to allow him or her to place a sign in my yard, but this year our household is behind Al Franken 110% and contacted his office to request campaign signs for our yard. I am downright pissed of that in this free country where we are able to express our views, and support the candidates that we want - that someone has the audacity to walk onto my private property not once, but twice - and remove the signs from my yard.
I will admit, I am tend to lean just an itsy bitsy teensie bit to left. However, I believe if the people that support the other side want to put a sign in their yard in support, they should be able to do whatever they want to in their own yard and I would never step onto someone else's property and remove their campaign signs.
Our freedom of speech is still protected under the first amendment of the constitution (at least last time I checked...)
So, if you are plucking campaign signs out of front yards in Minnesota suburbs - be careful,you never know when big brother may be watching and you could be charged with trespassing, theft, or vandalism. Worse yet, Karma returns in multitudes.
So Johnny McCan't was caught wearing $400+ shoes. Okay, we can let that one pass. I mean after all, how many pairs of shoes does a man need. Maybe it is his one pair and they will last him several years.
We have all heard the story that he can't remember how many houses he and Cindy own. For most of us working Americans that's easy to answer. One (unless you have been foreclosed on in recent months like the tens of thousands out there!). Yes, the money the McCain's have was from Cindy's family who worked hard for it. It was earned money, I am not disputing that.
Let's look at Cindy's outfit for the opening night of the RNC -
Both of the 2008 presidential candidates are talking about lowering your taxes (aren't they always?)
Lets take a look at what actually would be happening here:
Don't forward chain e-mail messages - Besides increasing overall e-mail volume, by forwarding a chain e-mail message you might be furthering a hoax — and meanwhile, you lose control over who sees your e-mail address (and all e-mail addresses in the body of the e-mail).If you're sending the latest Friday Funny, or a quick promotional offer to friends and/or colleagues, don't use TO or CC. These types of email have the tendency to be passed on to persons unknown, the result is that everyone you've listed as an original recipient could be easily added to a list by an unscrupulous individual. What makes this worse is that not only are the original recipients easily visible, but also the subsequent chain(s) of people.
* Before sending out theses types of e-mails first of all, be sure the recipients wish to receive them. Even though the recipient knows you, they may view these types of e-mails as a nuisance. (also as a side note, check the validity on http://www.snopes.com/ before sending it on. Many of these types of e-mails are hoaxes and circulate on the internet over and over again).
* Set up a contact in your e-mail contact list called "undisclosed recipients" use your own e-mail address as the address for this new contact.
* When you hit forward to send your new message out, be sure to delete all of the old header information in the email. At this point you are left with just the body of the e-mail.
* In the "To:" field of the new email - enter "undisclosed recipient" (this will be your e-mail address)
* I the "BCC:" field, you enter the names of the people you wish to send your e-mail to. This "Blind Carbon Copies" the recipients to the email, and the only address that shows up is your own, keeping your recipients information private.
SPAM can not only be a nuisance, but could also be phishing for personal information, contain viruses and could be potentially devastating to your computer files or result in identity theft.
more resources:
http://onguardonline.gov/tutorials/spam/spam_wind.html
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-007.html
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec02.shtm
Also, be careful when opening attachments in emails even if they are from someone you know. It could be possible that a worm virus has infected someone's computer and sent the virus on to everyone in their contact list.
more information on viruses:
http://www.computerhope.com/vlist.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/basics/virus.mspx
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
