Here's all you need to know about the financial crisis

Two British comedians get perilously close to the truth



The alarming thing is that the video is 12 months old yet it is totally up to date. Even comedians could foresee what the Democrat Congresscritters could not. (H/T Agmates)

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Sarah smarter than the pundits

She knew who the President of Iraq is. They didn't

A hilarious example of press bias against Palin occurred last FridayI on "The Diane Rehm Show," a production of Washington's WAMU-FM. The exchange between hostess Rehm, caller Tom of Norwich, Vt., and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne begins at about 46:10 of the "10:00 News Roundup":

Tom: I just wonder why not more has been made of the statement by Palin during the debate last night that "Maliki and the Talabani"--this is a quote from the transcript--"also in working with us are knowing again that we are getting closer and closer to the point of victory." The Talibani obviously are our absolute enemy and have been since 9/11; Maliki, our central ally in Iraq. This to me is a tremendous blunder, revealing a very superficial familiarity with these sorts of terms.

Rehm: Thanks for calling, Tom. . . . E.J.?

Dionne: I think that "superficial" is absolutely the right word for the knowledge or the lack of knowledge Palin showed yesterday. I'm glad the caller raised that one, and I suspect there is going to be a scouring of that transcript for exactly that sort of gaffe. That has echoes of some of the stuff she said to Katie Couric.

If you look at the debate transcript, however, you will see that the reference is not to "the Talabani" but to Talabani--as in Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq.

Source

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Sarah brings part of the American dream to life

When Sarah Palin appeared on the national stage, she was stepping into an archetype that already existed. In personality, looks, and behavior she resembled nothing less than our cultural image of the frontier woman. She was something out of history -- something that we already knew, were quite familiar with, and strongly approve of. But at the same time it's true that few people living (and those very aged) have ever met a frontier woman of the original breed. Our archetype comes from somewhere else. It comes, in fact from the movies. And in large part, from Maureen O'Hara.

While Palin looks nothing like O'Hara (who was a redhead, just for starters), the gestalt -- the overall picture -- is strikingly similar. The same strong features, the same sense of character, the same way of holding themselves. They even have the same powerful jawline that would look masculine on a less feminine woman.

The importance of the frontier woman cannot be overrated, because it was the women, in the end, who broke the frontier. Mountain men and related types had been traversing the wilderness for decades before the Westward Migration got rolling, without leaving behind as much as a scratch on the landscape. It was the women -- and their families -- who made the land bend, who brought with them a sense of permanency, who civilized the frontier. Where men went, they created forts and outposts. When women followed, they established settlements and towns.

The frontier was supposed to have "closed" by 1900, when no area existed in the continental United States that remained unsurveyed, unsettled, or untrod. That was undoubtedly the case in the real world. But in the American psyche, it's another story. There, the frontier will never be closed -- it survives as a living reality. The Westward Migration is this country's Odyssey, in the same way that the Civil War is its Iliad. What the road west implanted in our character remains, for good or ill, and is likely to remain for as long as there is an America.

That is why Sarah Palin will prove immune to attacks by the legacy media, no matter what form they may take. Palin reflects an ideal - an aspect of our best selves burned into history and made a permanent part of us all. In Palin they have come up against an archetype, a facet of the American character. This is not something you run into every day, not something the media has much experience with, and something that they will discover is not at all vulnerable to the techniques they're used to.

More here

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THE CASE FOR CORPORATE INCOME TAX CUTS

Many countries now have lower taxes on business than the USA does -- and are doing very well as a result

Because they contribute to capital flight, high corporate tax rates lower government revenue. With increasing capital mobility, multinational firms respond to higher taxes by moving activities to lower tax jurisdictions. This capital flight means fewer taxes are paid domestically. In fact, governments frequently find that at a higher rate the tax actually raises less revenue. This finding adds support for the Laffer Curve, says Mehreen Younis, a research assistant with the National Center for Policy Analysis.

The insight behind the Laffer Curve is that if a tax rate is high, a government can raise the same amount of revenue (or more) by lowering the tax rate. Most countries have found that tax revenues rise following cuts in their corporate tax rates. For example:

* The average corporate income tax rate worldwide fell from 46 percent to 33 percent between 1982 and 1999, while corporate income tax collections rose from 2.1 percent to 2.4 percent of national income, reports the Cato Institute.

* Similarly, the average corporate tax rate in 19 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries fell from 45 percent in 1985 to 29 percent by 2005, while corporate tax revenues soared from 2.6 percent to 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

* Over the 2000 to 2005 period, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, average corporate income tax revenue as a percentage of GDP was one-third greater in OECD countries (3.4 percent) than in the United States (2.2 percent).

The revenue-maximizing corporate tax rate in developed countries was about 34 percent in the late 1980s and has declined steadily to about 26 percent in recent years, estimate Alex Brill and Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Thus, at 39.25 percent, the U.S. corporate tax rate is not only high but also inefficient in producing revenue, says Younis.

Source

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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