Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michael Moore: Michael Moore: This Tax Day, Make THEM Pay
Do you wonder like I do) what the tax accountants and executives are doing over at GE this weekend? Frantically rushing to fill out their IRS returns like the rest of us? Hardly.
HelpOthers.org
Kindness is contagious. Welcome to a portal dedicated to small acts of kindness.
Paul Krugman's Twitter Account
Links to his New York Times articles and blogs.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Civility is the Last Refuge of Scoundrels (New York Times)
Why is it OK for Republicans to accuse Obama of stealing from Medicare, but not OK for Obama to declare, with complete truthfulness, that those same Republicans are trying to dismantle the whole program?
Paul Krugman's Blog: Do Issues Matter For Elections? A Test (New York Times)
I guess we'll see next year whether publicly committing your party to deeply unpopular policies makes any electoral difference.
Bill Moyers: Interview with David Simon, Creator of "The Wire" (Guernica Magazine)
" If I could put a lead on the body of your work-your journalism, your articles, your essays, your speeches, your books, your television series-it would be this: David Simon says America's not working for everyday people who have no power. And that's the way the people with power have designed it to work." - Bill Moyers
Robert Reich: President Obama's Real Proposal (And Why It's Risky)
The underlying problem isn't the budget deficit. It's that so much income and wealth are going to the top that most Americans don't have the purchasing power to sustain a strong recovery.
Mark Dowie: Audio Interview with Robert Reich (Guernica Magazine)
The former Secretary of Labor on the Great Recession, class warfare, and why President Obama must challenge right-wing distortions with a counter-narrative.
Marc Dion: Sad Math (Creators Syndicate)
It's possible that, for decades, the good the Catholic Church did outweighed the terrible acts of pedophile priests. For which statement I should probably be killed.
Chuck Norris: Alcohol Awareness Month (Creators Syndicate)
Though I don't drink, I am not a totally sold-out teetotaler. For example, I understand the few health benefits in a glass of red wine, with research attesting to its cardiovascular profits. Still, every health and fitness activist and practitioner I know would warn against overconsumption of any alcoholic beverage. Research attesting to alcohol's potential destructive nature in regard to vital organs far outweighs any prospective blessings.
Barton Swaim: A Definitive American Life (Wall Street Journal)
Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary embodied a nation grown self-confident enough to celebrate its own language.
Grace Krilanovich: "What Film Haunts You? 'Gilda'" (therumpus.net)
'Gilda' (1946) is not a great movie, only a good one. From today's vantage it's claustrophobic, over the top, obvious and preposterous, the dialogue highly silly and stylized (even for noir, which, save for some high contrast lighting and forces of evil afoot, this really isn't). Where it achieved greatness was in sealing the fate of its lead actress, Rita Hayworth. Gilda - the character - is "iconic" in the sense that it formed a great gleaming cage from which Hayworth would never escape.
George Varga: Former High School Baseball Star Turned Country Star Likes to Give Fans a Good Time with His Hits (Creators Syndicate)
When Jason Aldean invokes "Sweet Home Alabama," he's not talking about - or singing - the 1974 Southern-rock classic by Lynyrd Skynyrd. "Alabama is my favorite band of all time," said Aldean, 34, who is fast becoming a favorite of many country-music fans.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Humor Gazette
TAX DAY HOROSCOPE
Consult your ... TAX DAY HOROSCOPE
A cost-benefit analysis reveals no reason to get out of bed this morning. Consider downsizing your family. Reject optimism.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back to sunny and seasonal.
Backs Right To Assisted Death
Patrick Stewart
Actor Sir Patrick Stewart has declared his wish to be allowed an assisted death.
Stewart, best known for his role as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, spoke to The Sunday Times about his decision to become a patron of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the law.
"A lot of it has to do with my age. I had a heart procedure five years ago. I was 70 last year and there is something about achieving threescore years and 10, isn't there?
"Then I had had a family member who had been very ill and quite recently I'd heard the story of an illness and a death," he told the newspaper.
He did not want to go into detail about his female friend's death, but said she was "driven to an extreme situation of ending their life in the most ghastly way".
Patrick Stewart
1955 v 2010
Corporate Taxes
Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture has an interesting piece up this morning on corporate taxes in America in 1955 v 2010. While a contentious issue surrounded by a lot of dogma, what is obviously clear is the tax burden / responsibility of our corporations has shrunk dramatically in the past 5-6 decades, requiring individuals to pick up (part of) the slack. The rest simply is put off to another generation via ever larger debts. Tax departments (and lobbyists) have become as important as operations in our mega corporations. While the story in the New York Times a few weeks ago on how the country's largest company, General Electric, is not only avoiding federal taxes but receiving rebates the past half decade, has caught the public's attention this has been a long standing issue. [Mar 25, 2011: NYT - G.E.'s Strategies Let it Avoid Taxes Altogether] "Double Irish" and "Dutch Sandwich" anyone? (what are these? see here)
Much like our multinational's have been able to game the global system with labor costs, they also are "winning" with tax policy - not just within countries, but within states. Any astute reader can pick up his local paper and see a large corporation threaten to close and move a facility to another state if they are not handed a package of tax breaks. Often these packages are offered by states with large deficits who can't even afford the money to put towards their pension obligations. So you have a race to the bottom as desperate politicians try to keep jobs in state - offering incentives that are not paid for. With a dwindling amount of jobs available in the country, the laws of supply and demand work in favor of those who offer the jobs. And the same 'blackmail' (if you will) can be applied across countries as well. So who is stuck paying the egregious and well publicized 35% corporate tax rate? Small domestic based businesses.
GE paid no taxes; Goldman Sachs paid $14 moillion last year. The GAO reported in 2008 that "two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005."
As the graphic below shows, the change in corporate tax rates over the past half century is astounding.
For the chart, and much more - Corporate Taxes
Drops For Super Rich
Federal Taxes
As millions of procrastinators scramble to meet Monday's tax filing deadline, ponder this: The super rich pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades ago, and nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.
The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.
Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.
The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes? The nation's tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level. There are breaks for having children, paying a mortgage, going to college, and even for paying other taxes. Plus, the top rate on capital gains is only 15 percent.
Federal Taxes
Baby News?
Van Morrison
Newspapers have published evidence they say proves that singer Van Morrison fathered a child out of wedlock with one of his U.S. tour promoters.
Morrison flatly denied knowing the Texas mother, GiGi Lee, when his website published an announcement on Dec. 29, 2009, of the birth of "little Van."
The 65-year-old singer instructed his Irish publicist to say he didn't even know the purported mother, identified incorrectly as "his wife GiGi." Then he won a court injunction barring two British newspapers that had identified her from publishing any of their evidence.
That injunction was overturned last week. The two Sunday newspapers, The Mail on Sunday and News of the World, published front-page exposes detailing Morrison's connections to Lee and the baby boy.
Van Morrison
Same As It Ever Was
Orange County
A Southern California Republican Party official was under fire Saturday after allegations she sent an email that included an altered photo depicting President Barack Obama as an ape.
An e-mail reportedly sent by party central committee member Marilyn Davenport shows an image, posed like a family portrait, of chimpanzee parents and child, with Obama's face artificially superimposed on the child. Text beneath the photo reads, "Now you know why no birth certificate."
The alternative newspaper OC Weekly first reported the story, and was told by Davenport that the e-mail was "just an Internet joke." She also asked the Weekly, "You're not going to make a big deal about this are you?"
Davenport, a tea party activist, represents the 72nd Assembly District in Orange County on the central committee.
Orange County
Posts Bond for Nic Cage
Dog Chapman
Nic Cage has friends in high places ... TMZ has learned it was Duane "Dog" Chapman who posted the bond for Cage today.
As TMZ first reported, Cage was arrested this morning in New Orleans on charges of domestic violence and disturbing the peace after an alleged argument with his wife Alice.
Sources tell TMZ they were the ones who helped get Nic out of jail -- he was being held on $11,000 bond.
Beth alluded to the bail out, posting on her Twitter, "My guy just walked out of the jail damn new Orleans 8 hours holy cow that's a lot of time to Process one guy."
Dog Chapman
Loses Punk Band Album Cover Dispute
Variety
Hollywood trade newspaper Variety has lost in its attempt to pursue a trademark claim in Delaware against the punk band The Vandals.
The case will now move to a California federal court, since Vandals bassist and lawyer Joe Escalante, who is representing the band in the lawsuit, is based in Los Angeles.
In 2004, the Vandals released their 10th album, "Hollywood Potato Chip," which posed the band's name in lettering on the cover quite similar to the trademarked Variety logo.
Reed Elsevier, Variety's parent company, sent a cease-and-desist letter and worked out a settlement with the band, which agreed to change the cover art. The agreement stipulated that band members would have to pay $50,000 plus attorneys fees if the group ever reneged.
Last year, Reed sued the band for breach of contract, claiming the offending image had popped up on the website for the band and its label Kung Fu Records. The band claimed it wasn't behind the breaches.
Variety
Losers Celebrate Losing
Civil War
The gravesite of a Union Army major general sits largely forgotten in a small cemetery along the Massachusetts Turnpike.
A piece of the coat worn by President Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated rests quietly in a library attic in a Boston suburb. It's shown upon request, a rare occurrence.
A monument honoring one of the first official Civil War black units stands in a busy intersection in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse, barely gaining notice from the hustle of tourists and workers who pass by each day.
As the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, states in the old South - the side that lost - are hosting elaborate re-enactments, intricate memorials, even formal galas highlighting the war's persistent legacy in the region. But for many states in the North - the side that won - only scant, smaller events are planned in an area of the nation that helped sparked the conflict but now, historians say, struggles to acknowledge it.
Civil War
Weekend Box Office
'Rio'
Movie fans are going to "Rio" in big numbers, but they're not quite screaming over the latest installment of a horror-comedy franchise.
The 20th Century Fox animated family flick "Rio," featuring the voices of Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg, led the weekend box office with a healthy $40 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It was the best debut so far this year, topping another animated comedy, "Rango," by about $2 million.
The slasher comedy "Scream 4," released by the Weinstein Co. banner Dimension Films, opened at No. 2 with just $19.3 million. That's a fraction of the business for the previous two sequels, which both debuted at over $30 million more than a decade ago.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Rio," $40 million.
2. "Scream 4," $19.3 million.
3. "Hop," $11.2 million.
4. "Soul Surfer," $7.4 million.
5. "Hanna," $7.3 million.
6. "Arthur," $6.94 million.
7. "Insidious," $6.9 million.
8. "Source Code," $6.3 million.
9. "The Conspirator," $3.92 million.
10. "Your Highness," $3.9 million.
'Rio'
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