Hey if anyone’s reading this, you might care to know that I am out of town. I’m in New York now, and heading to London, England tomorrow with Giles and Suzie. If anyone cares, we’ll post updates here.
Month: August 2002
Fun
Let’s take a break from being pissed-off at the world today and enjoy ourselves.
Makes me wanna spit
Arianna Huffington nails Dick Cheney to the wall at Alternet. Her commentary is especially interesting since she used to be a promminent right-winger – she knows of whence she speaks.
These wobbly spin doctors’ task was, admittedly, made much harder by the fact that on the same day these tax dodge disclosures came to light, President Bush had spoken out with his usual Dudley Do-Right forthrightness against the very same practice. “We ought to look at people who are trying to avoid U.S. taxes as a problem,” he said. Indeed we ought. So why don’t we?
Let’s start by looking at the problem of the vice president and Halliburton. During the number two’s time as the company’s number one, the number of Halliburton subsidiaries registered in tax-friendly locations ballooned from nine in 1995 to 44 in 1999. The result? A dramatic drop in Halliburton’s federal taxes, which fell from $302 million in 1998 to less than zero — to wit, an $85 million rebate — in 1999.
At the same time they were hard at work stiffing U.S. taxpayers, Cheney and Halliburton were happily feasting at the public trough — the company received $2.3 billion in government contracts and another $1.5 billion in government financing and loan guarantees.
Uh, it’s called a DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED GOVERNMENT
Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris doesn’t get it. She filed to run for congress without resigning her post, in direct violation of Florida law. “Ms. Harris, whose office enforces state elections law, said she did not realize that the law applied to her…” (N.Y.Times) Of course we shouldn’t be surprised, this is the same woman who contorted election laws two years ago to assist the presidential appointment of her pal George W. Bush.
Butt outta my network, corporate hacks
Congress wants to give media conglomerates the right to “disable, block or otherwise impair” public peer-to-peer networks, and also to search the hard drives of users and fine them $50 for each offending file. (MCNBC) North Carolina’s own Rep. Howard Coble is a sponsor of the bill, please let him know what you think. You can send a free fax to congress at VoiceofWebcasters.org.