False. First of all, the top 10% aren't rich, most of them are middle class. Second of all, the top 10% don't pay 70% of "the tax" per your own link they pay that high a percentage of the INCOME tax. What percentage of the payroll tax (40% of federal revenue, and equal in magnitude to income tax) do they pay? If we count their capital gains as income, what's their effective tax rate? How about if we count all taxes (e.g. sales), and break down the effective tax rate?

I'm fine with cutting spending, so long as the spending getting cut in lieu of tax increases comes entirely from the spending funded by the income tax which you are apparently complaining is too progressive. That means slashing the defense budget exclusively because frankly that is the only significant contributor to the deficit paid out of the general fund (other than interest on your party's debt, much of which is owed to the Social Security fund). Medicare and Social Security are both financed by FICA which is not the unfair tax you seem so concerned about.

Any dollar cut from Social Security and Medicare should be repaid by a dollar of payroll tax cuts, not income tax cuts.

video sift dot com slash video/Fresh-Morning-call-Lalalalala-lalalalala

Okay.. Honestly, I've been holding this back. But I can't honestly say that the people who work at wal-mart need more money for what they do.

I get it, you've got bills to pay, and the minimum wage you make at wal-mart isn't cutting it. But seriously, can I play devils advocate here for one second and say: you work at fucking wal-mart.

Any store clerk of any kind, work in a grocery store as a stock boy, bag boy, cart boy, cashier, anything that A) A teenager could do well, or B) you need little to no education to do shouldn't GET more than minimum wage. Yes, people make mistakes in their life, but should the person with 3 kids and no husband be getting paid 15 bucks an hour for putting clothes on the rack simply because she has a sad story behind her?

The rest of the points, respect, hour slashing, discrimination, all that - completely justified, and power to you all for attempting to change that.

I get it, it's only one part of the bigger picture that i'm picking apart, but it still bothers me.

Isn't Slash like 8 feet tall? And Conan towers above him too. Call the circus!

*length=2:30

Slash is sure showing his age these days =o)

Tags for this video have been changed from 'velociraptor, slash, six foot turkey, alive' to 'velociraptor, slash, six foot turkey, alive, Jurassic Park, JP, movie, eat, food, hungry' - edited by ant

You couldn't have possibly read my post and the spirit in which it was written and mistook me for someone who has a desire to place in office someone who would fiscally damage this country more than it already is. Or was that rhetorical question just designed to make a point? I want all the boats to rise, don't you?

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

I'm not 100% against businesspeople being involved in politics, but you have to understand where a Venture Capitalist like Romney comes from.
For example. Sealy used to be the biggest seller of mattresses in America by a wide margin. Huge, very successful company. Bain (under Romney) bought a controlling share and re-structured the company. They slashed the ad budget and dropped the quality so mattresses lasted only half as long. Profits shot up, and a few years later Bain flipped the company for a huge profit. But those profits were at the expense of customer loyalty Sealy quickly started to hemorrhage money, and competitors were quick to swoop in and take up the slack. Two weeks ago Sealy agreed to a buyout to avoid bankruptcy. It's estimated several thousand employees will be laid off in the process. They go from being a rock steady, solid-performing company, to ruin because of Bain's involvement.
Is that the kind of government you want?
>> ^silvercord:
It's also important to remember that neither broke businesses nor broke governments can take care of people.
I have run my own business off and on for thirty five years and can honestly say that I have never looked at it with the cynicism I see in the general population. I believe that if we take care of people, both our customers and employees, the dollars will take care of themselves. By the same token, I can't cripple the business by taking care of people or there won't be any business left to take care of people. That is what making a profit is all about; people get taken care of.
The same applies to government. The government which insists on not operating in the black will ultimately hurt the very people it desires to help. Our government simply must get back in the black. And when that tide comes in, all the boats rise. >> ^Drachen_Jager:
>> ^Mauru:
How do you call that: "Saved by the bell" For Romney?
To be fair, Obama was playing hugely on his experience there.
I am not a huge fan of Obama, but in this whole debate Romney came across as a bit of a clown. He obviously knows a lot about business stuff but his world-view really is quite skewered as many have suspected.

I think it's important to remember though, a businesses first concern is to make money first, take care of people second. A government's job is to take care of people first.
Hiring a venture capitalist to run a government is a little like hiring a butcher as a dog-walker because he 'knows about animals'.

I'm not 100% against businesspeople being involved in politics, but you have to understand where a Venture Capitalist like Romney comes from.

For example. Sealy used to be the biggest seller of mattresses in America by a wide margin. Huge, very successful company. Bain (under Romney) bought a controlling share and re-structured the company. They slashed the ad budget and dropped the quality so mattresses lasted only half as long. Profits shot up, and a few years later Bain flipped the company for a huge profit. But those profits were at the expense of customer loyalty Sealy quickly started to hemorrhage money, and competitors were quick to swoop in and take up the slack. Two weeks ago Sealy agreed to a buyout to avoid bankruptcy. It's estimated several thousand employees will be laid off in the process. They go from being a rock steady, solid-performing company, to ruin because of Bain's involvement.

Is that the kind of government you want?

>> ^silvercord:

It's also important to remember that neither broke businesses nor broke governments can take care of people.
I have run my own business off and on for thirty five years and can honestly say that I have never looked at it with the cynicism I see in the general population. I believe that if we take care of people, both our customers and employees, the dollars will take care of themselves. By the same token, I can't cripple the business by taking care of people or there won't be any business left to take care of people. That is what making a profit is all about; people get taken care of.
The same applies to government. The government which insists on not operating in the black will ultimately hurt the very people it desires to help. Our government simply must get back in the black. And when that tide comes in, all the boats rise. >> ^Drachen_Jager:
>> ^Mauru:
How do you call that: "Saved by the bell" For Romney?
To be fair, Obama was playing hugely on his experience there.
I am not a huge fan of Obama, but in this whole debate Romney came across as a bit of a clown. He obviously knows a lot about business stuff but his world-view really is quite skewered as many have suspected.

I think it's important to remember though, a businesses first concern is to make money first, take care of people second. A government's job is to take care of people first.
Hiring a venture capitalist to run a government is a little like hiring a butcher as a dog-walker because he 'knows about animals'.

@ponceleon I think we fundamentally agree--but we seem to be talking past one another. You seem to be ascribing motivations to me which I don't think are right.

I do Not think that Jennings should be prosecuted because he's a smug, smirking bastard. I do Not think he should be prosecuted because of what TYT says.

I think he should be prosecuted because he was accused of a heinous crime. Apparently--at one time--the prosecuting attorney agreed. Then he didn't--that smells very bad; taking in to account the history of the US justice system favoring rich people over all others (OJ should be in jail for life for 2 murders--he's not because he could afford a team of scummy lawyers). I am "all worked up" because the dropping of the charges at the last minute smells like privilege.

I know I'm somewhat of a one trick pony here; posting all these TYT vids. But that doesn't mean I think they are always right--or even that their reporting doesn't sometimes suck (like this story).

Ammar's hand was cut and required six stiches. Jennings said the cabbie had grabbed the knife by the blade and that's how his hand got cut. So why was Jennings holding a knife? The prosecutor says he had to drop the case because Ammar had possession of the knife in question 5 months after the incident. Why didn't the cops ask where the knife was for all that time? No one has claimed that the knife wasn't Jennings', so how did the cabbie get it? So, the prosecutor says that Ammar is guilty of obstruction of justice for not telling anyone he had the knife. Weiss (the prosecutor) said he then could be fair and prosecute both or be fair and prosecute neither, and he chose the second option. This all stinks and needs to be brought out in court. Civil court means nothing to the rich--he could pay any fines out of pocket money.

But the justice system has a way to take care of prosecutorial misconduct. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has asked that the Federal Investigators to get involved. That--along with pressure from the stirred up public--should get a true investigation of this incident rolling.

(It sounds like you did a good job on your jury.)

I am quite disappointed at a TED speaker citing a non-scientific piece of "general knowledge" slash urban myth (the "we replace all our cells entirely" thing) which is known to be false. Makes one wonder whether the rest of his admittedly amusing presentation is factually accurate.

>> ^radx:

Original embed code:
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Supposedly working embed code:
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<param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" />
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<param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" />
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The video url needs an additional slash ("/us/2012/..." instead of "us/2012/...").
Edit: Works fine when I try to submit it, so why the hell doesn't it work in this comment?
Edit2: This. Is. Infuriating. I'm going to submit it as a test case, then discard it, otherwise it'll keep bugging me all day long.


Feel free to submit it. I don't care. I have plenty of other videos to submit!

Original embed code:

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ees.cnn" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" />
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vor-trees.cnn" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="416" wmode="transparent" height="374">
</embed>
</object>


Supposedly working embed code:

<object width="416" height="374" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="ep">
<param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" />
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />
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eavor-trees.cnn" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" />
<embed src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed_edition&videoId=/us/2012/09/07/dnt-ca-wian-shutt
le-endeavor-trees.cnn" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="416" wmode="transparent" height="374">
</embed>
</object>

The video url needs an additional slash ("/us/2012/..." instead of "us/2012/...").

Edit: Works fine when I try to submit it, so why the hell doesn't it work in this comment?

Update: This. Is. Infuriating. I'm going to submit it as a test case, then discard it, otherwise it'll keep bugging me all day long.

Update #2: Works fine.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Tyre, Slash, Bang, Shirt, Payback, Kharma' to 'Tyre, Slash, Bang, Shirt, Payback, Karma' - edited by calvados

Who said I was an adult? That's part of the fucking problem. This isn't about winning or being right.You're fighting an argument I haven't made.>> ^Yogi:

>> ^Trancecoach:
you're so right. I know nothing about being inspired by the mysteries of the universe, or becoming so enthralled that I pursued a masters and a doctorate, not in an effort to get answers, but to ask wiser questions... And I know nothing about the federal government slashing the funding of crucial social programs that have measurable and direct impact on people's lives -- like whether or not they have enough money to eat, or whether or not their child gets the medical attention they need...
And, surely, I've never thought at all about the hundreds of thousands of orbital debris objects from NASA's abandoned or lost equipment or spaceships that are orbiting earth or items as large as 10kg re-entering the atmosphere to fall god-knows-where (to say nothing of all the hardware that was left on the moon).
There's certainly nothing I can say about the ongoing "civil wars" in which our planet is continuously engaged, be it on the basis of race, status, gender, wealth, resources, or just some petty bullshit argument on a website! No, I'm certainly nowhere near smart enough to understand deGrasse-Tyson, or your scintillating brilliance that you demonstrate in your stunning ability to recognize irony versus sarcasm, and knowing just when to let it go.

>> ^Yogi:
>> ^Trancecoach:
ad hominem will get you everywhere... while I play the tiniest violin for you and Dr. deGrasse-Tyson...

Dude you didn't WIN anything here stop trying to take the high road, you're not smart enough to understand what in the hell he's even talking about.


Yeah don't be an adult, just make shit up so you can win an argument. Do us all a favor and stop trying to be a cynical bastard, you're bad at it.

>> ^Trancecoach:

you're so right. I know nothing about being inspired by the mysteries of the universe, or becoming so enthralled that I pursued a masters and a doctorate, not in an effort to get answers, but to ask wiser questions... And I know nothing about the federal government slashing the funding of crucial social programs that have measurable and direct impact on people's lives -- like whether or not they have enough money to eat, or whether or not their child gets the medical attention they need...
And, surely, I've never thought at all about the hundreds of thousands of orbital debris objects from NASA's abandoned or lost equipment or spaceships that are orbiting earth or items as large as 10kg re-entering the atmosphere to fall god-knows-where (to say nothing of all the hardware that was left on the moon).
There's certainly nothing I can say about the ongoing "civil wars" in which our planet is continuously engaged, be it on the basis of race, status, gender, wealth, resources, or just some petty bullshit argument on a website! No, I'm certainly nowhere near smart enough to understand deGrasse-Tyson, or your scintillating brilliance that you demonstrate in your stunning ability to recognize irony versus sarcasm, and knowing just when to let it go.


>> ^Yogi:
>> ^Trancecoach:
ad hominem will get you everywhere... while I play the tiniest violin for you and Dr. deGrasse-Tyson...

Dude you didn't WIN anything here stop trying to take the high road, you're not smart enough to understand what in the hell he's even talking about.



Yeah don't be an adult, just make shit up so you can win an argument. Do us all a favor and stop trying to be a cynical bastard, you're bad at it.