FrankJL

What happened when I was gone??? This place looks like nickelodeon now...hehe... All bright and cheery and stuff... Its too white too..

I like to think I'm worth at least 3 chickens..

Is this your own thoughts? or did you just cut and paste one of Limbaugh's monologues? Seriously though politics is a dirty game, thats the simple reality of it. If you don't like the deviousness take up another interest like cross stitching...

They call it the Federal Pell Grant now.

Republicans are not much help either. They will take your tax money to spend on pork projects with such haste and glee that it would shock and amaze even the most die hard liberal. We could lower taxes for everyone if they government wouldn't waste 9billion dollars to fund a bridge to an island where less then 14,000 people live. Ted Stevens little pet project...and he's a Democrat or Republican (please circle one)?

Ok I'm still new to this all, but my understanding was the WoW prohibited all tea? Reading some of the older posts on this thread, I see some saying that certain herbal teas are ok? Or is this one of those kinda gray areas where certain people don't do it for personal feeling relating to other doctrines but there is no official doctrine against it. Kinda like cola drinks, or am I completely missing something here? I'm confused now

Those who are working yet still remain below the poverty threshold (10k for individuals, 20k for a family of 3). Though it doesn't need to be full time work, I think minimum is 26 hours a week as a textbook definition. Working a 40hr week at the current federal minimum wage (5.85) will gross around 11k a year (8.7k net). Though when you factor in the government assistance one would be entitled to at that income level you still come out over that threshold. Though poverty in this country is a relative term. Forty-three percent of all poor households actu­ally own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.Only 6 percent of poor households are over­crowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.Source Also don't forget to still factor in the Alternative Minimum Tax in that. When the AMT was drafted in 1969 is was only supposed to effect (or is it affect I always mess those up) less then 200 specific individuals , now it hits hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, hitting small business owners the most.

I'm still not sure where you get the idea that Utah's income tax is regressive? Those numbers don't match what I've found online for Utah's state income tax rates. The top marginal rate is 6.98 for income over 5k, which pretty much equals a flat tax with a few very very low progressive tax brackets. It is interesting though, for Utah being such a red state thats a fairly high overall state income tax rate. I live in Pennsylvania (a blue state) and our state income tax is a flat 3.07% regardless of income. Utah sales tax is 4.75% and 2.75% on food, and nothing on prescription drugs. In PA our sales tax is 6%, but there is no sales tax on food, drugs (OTC and prescription), and clothing. Lobbyists exist at every level of government... Thats nothing new.

I never said they shouldn't pay anything. But I don't think the working poor should have to take a harder hit, relatively, than anyone else. That's all. Elphaba When have they ever? For what very little taxes the poor do pay they get it back nearly 100 fold in welfare and other state and federal entitlement programs. They even get welfare payouts (EITC is welfare) added to their taxes if they have children.

I don't see how that is economicly or mathmaticly possilbe...please explain more?

Forbes' idea is good, but not really practical. Most people will balk at the flat tax proposals when they figure out they can't get whatever kind of deductions (home mortgage interest being the big one) they are getting now. They want to reform taxes but at the same time want to protect their own little ways of "cheating the system"... Kinda a financial version of NIBY.

I shall explain the short poignant post as follows.. Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes

Reich is a neo-socialist idiot....hows that for a response. Or would you prefer a more elaborate economic breakdown?

I thought they only did that at Gitmo..

And remember too Al Gore invented the internet.. That explains a lot..

Yes they just found some n-nukuler weapons.

Do you think if Clinton's wife looked like that he would have had the problems he had... Just a thought..

No...that really is his wife.

I'm an absolute political junkie, I think most people know this. Though I would say politics is probably about the last thing on my mind at sacrament meeting on Sunday. To each their own I guess.. On the the meat of your point though.. I don't think it will really matter. Divorce is so common now that most people don't think anything of it. I have yet to see people make much an issue over divorces or specifically with Fred Thompson that his current wife is 25 years younger then him.

Adam Smith wasn't pro-union. Actually he wasn't anything union - they didn't exist in when he penned The Wealth of Nations in 1776. However reading his works and his discussions of monopoly of labor markets and British corporations would lead one to feel he would be against unions that artificially inflate wages, place restrictions on employment, and cause workers to be less productive at higher wages. The pretense that corporations are necessary for the better government of the trade, is without any foundation. The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman, is not that of his corporation, but that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence. An exclusive corporation necessarily weakens the force of this discipline. A particular set of workmen must then be employed, let them behave well or ill. It is upon this account, that in many large incorporated towns no tolerable workmen are to be found, even in some of the most necessary trades. If you would have your work tolerably executed, it must be done in the suburbs, where the workmen, having no exclusive privilege, have nothing but their character to depend upon, and you must then smuggle it into the town as well as you can. (Weath of Nations p. 129) IE... why the Japanese make better cars that sell for less then our US auto companies. The closest thing to unions during this period would have been trade guilds. Of course they do, after all nobody is forcing them to work there.

I'm still trying to figure out if video #1 is really a paradoy or not...

I don't know about freemasons and speeding tickets... but I do know from personal experience having your military ID in a position where it can easily been seen in your wallet when getting your drivers license out has helped on more then one occasion.

Republican or Democrat, I find it equally detestable that one would liken party politics to ones theological stance.

I wouldn't limit that thought to Utah, I think that could probably be extended to a lot LDS in the US.