First, it was German Chancellor Merkel, then British PM Cameron and now French President Sarkozy: Multiculturalism has failed.

Seeing how the left in this country has for so long wanted to make the United States more like European nations, perhaps they will soon follow suit with what ultimately must be the conclusion to this implosion of a social experiment.  Certainly, people of differing cultures can live amongst each other, but when immigrants begin to force their imported ways of life on the indigenous citizenry, something is very, very wrong.

We, in America, are suffering from the same metastasizing cancer within our own borders.  The amnesty crowd, intentions notwithstanding, fail to see the larger picture of the sudden influx of people who are neither assimilate nor desire to do so and how that affects the American culture.  We teach Spanish to construction superintendents so that they can speak to their Mexican subordinates, rather than teach English to those who truly desire to come to this country for the betterment of themselves and the society into which they insert themselves.  In Texas, a school district made studying Islam mandatory, based on the strange (and factually unsupported) claim that Arabic would be the language of the future.  After a huge public outcry, the district has since pulled back on their decision, only to reconsider lest they lose the $1.3M federal grant given to them.

Before we invest in other cultures, other languages or other ways of life, we Americans need to invest in our own country.  Granted, much of our history is based on a melting-pot mentality, but even in those days a route and method for integrating into the vat of American culture was set ... and people came here in droves.

America is still the greatest bastion of freedom in the world.  In order to remain that way, the American way of life must be preserved.

Several days ago, a colleague of mine emailed me the following question:

So I can understand the idea of not extending the tax cuts at all because we are in so much debt.  I can also understand extending them only for the middle class (though I have a hard time believing someone making a quarter mil per year is middle class).  Can you explain why it is a good idea to extend them for the wealthy?

I wrote a lengthy reply and decided it would be better to post it here which would allow for others to review and pass comment on my answer. Please enjoy, and keep the flames to a minimum.

Kharmin Replies:

First, I reject the premise of the question/argument as it is factually inaccurate.

There are no tax cuts for the wealthy. There are no tax cuts for the middle class. Heck, there are no tax cuts for the poor (or at least those who pay taxes, but that's an argument for another day). What is set to expire on December 31, 2010 is the adjustment of the marginal tax rates which were put into place in 2001 by President Bush in response to the economic fears that resulted after the terrorist attacks in September of that year.

In 1988, President Reagan lowered the marginal tax rate from 38.5% to 28%, and the US had one of the biggest economic booms on record (prior to this, President Carter's tax rates were at 70% in 1980, during one of the worst economic times after the Great Depression). In 1991, President GHW Bush increased the rate from 28% to 31%, bowing to pressure from Congress and his need to increase spending (not his greatest moment in this author's view). Riding the wave of economic prosperity ginned up by Reagan and somewhat continued by Bush 41, President Clinton enjoyed the fruits of their labor. However, in 1993, the marginal tax rate was hiked from 31% to 39.6% as Clinton struggled to balance the budget and pay for his administration's policies, all the while his administration’s economic team was cooking the books (Source).

Admittedly, I am not a tax expert; however, I am able to do some Internet research. In 1993, the marginal tax rate for the top bracket of individual earners ($250,000 at that time) was 39.6%. This tax rate held firm from 1993 until 2001, when it dropped to 39.1%. In 2002 it fell further to 38.6% and in 2003 it continued to drop to 35% where it currently stands. This is the rate that is scheduled to expire which would vault the marginal tax rate back to 39.6% (Source).

Note that these percentages are for the top bracket earnings. All brackets have a marginal tax rate and all of them have been proportionally affected. For example, the lowest bracket in 1993 enjoyed a marginal tax rate of 15% ($36,900 at that time), dropping to 10% in 2001 and remaining there. This tax rate will return to 15% at the end of 2010 (Source).

If these tax rates are extended (or made permanent), then no one would receive any tax cut. If these rates are allowed to expire, then everyone would receive a tax increase.

Many small businesses file their taxes on an individual basis. These business owners would be hit with a increased tax burden at a time when the economy is in severe decline. With this increase looming, small businesses have been reluctant to make any purchasing or hiring decisions until they are certain how these taxes will affect their bottom line. Additionally, Obamacare's mandates on businesses create further dis-incentive for those owners to invest or hire.

Extending these tax rates for only the middle-class would be difficult as the current consensus that defines that group is those earning less than $250,000. This would not include many small businesses-- the companies that make the economy, and America, grow.

What is needed is making the marginal tax rate permanent, or even lowering it further, to drive business owners to invest in their companies and make hiring profitable. Removing the mandates of Obamacare would likewise fuel further investment – why would employers want to hire someone if it is going to cost the company more in benefits?

We don't need to keep bailing out banks by giving them taxpayer monies: the banks have enough money. What they don't have are customers. Business owners do not want to take loans from banks with the uncertainty that they would be able to pay them back, so the economy slow-boils in a malaise. We need to encourage businesses to grow, and increasing tax burdens and other government regulation does not accomplish this.

Also note that the marginal tax rate is not the only thing that is in play. Many other tax incentives are also part of the Bush 43 tax rates (called the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation). Capital gains, retirement accounts, alternative minimum tax (AMT), estate and gift taxes are several other taxes which would be affected (Source).

In Arizona, after debate in the state House to move forward on a presidential "birther bill", we get this statement:

"Republicans continue to take Arizona down the wrong track by wasting taxpayers' time on frivolous legislation instead of working on important issues like health care for kids and seniors and education," said Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, in a statement.

Didn't Rep Sinema get the memo?  Obamacare made health care affordable for kids and seniors!  Soon, federal education mandates will follow.  What else are state legislatures supposed to do with their time?

Buh?

US Causes Icelandic Volcano Eruption; Women and Minorities Affected Most
April 15, 2010, London, England (PP*) - Billowing clouds of smoke and ash spread across much of western Europe today as the volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier began erupting for the second time in less than a month.  Women and minorities in Iceland are expected to be the worst affected which prompted Nobel Peace Prize winner, and one time US Presidential candidate, Al Gore to the scene.

"This destruction of the earth's fragile atmosphere could have easily been avoided," Mr. Gore said.  "The policies of the Bush and Reagan administrations did nothing to curb the incessant need for oil in the Middle East.  Drilling for oil cracked the Earth's crust, so much so that earthquakes in the Pacific Rim and now the volcano in Iceland are direct results of US policy."

Local residents flocked to the scene, but were more entranced by the presence of Mr. Gore. Mr Gore continued, "The pollution that has been placed in the atmosphere will have an immediate impact on Global Warm... er, Climate Change.  The timetable for action has been accelerated; the need for climate change mandates could not be any more necessary than today."

In the United States, President Barack Obama echoed Mr. Gore's sentiments.  "We know now," Mr. Obama said, "that 'drill baby drill' is not a policy which we can afford to pursue.  Fortunately for the United States, the volcanic ash is headed toward Europe.  I intend to sign an Executive Order which will raise relief funds for the citizens of Western Europe by implementing a tax on electric blenders.  This Executive Order will also mandate that every citizen in the United States must purchase an electric blender, manufactured by General Electric.  Those in the lower income bracket will receive a federal government voucher so that they, too, may participate in this global humanitarian effort."

In London, prices of utilities shot up sharply with the expectation that a prolonged ash cloud would alter the global temperature thus increasing the demand for electricity in the United Kingdom.  National Energy Director Miles Standish said, "With the airports closing down we have no other recourse than to ration our energy.  The NHS [National Health Service] will need all available power for the hospitals and other infirmaries.  After all, we are just an island."

Across the continental Western Europe, shelters sprang up like canvass mushrooms.  France's Health Ministry placed an open call to the rest of the European Union, citing potentially devastating losses in minority communities as those able to afford to ride out the crisis made a run on the stores.  Toilet paper and milk were the first casualties.

"Things could not get any worse," said a German man who requested anonymity.  "I never thought to see this in my lifetime."

Closer to the event, at >Iceland's Keflavik airport (which remained open), maintenance crews paused to observe the event.

"Meh," said baggage handler Jorge Jφrgenson.



*Parody Press

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

Today, this day in history in 2000:

... After five years of deadlock, Russia approved the START II treaty that calls for the scrapping of U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads. The Russian government warned it would abandon all arms-control pacts if Washington continued with an anti-missile system.

Sound familiar?

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

Democrat Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) has decided to retire at the end of his term.  That's a good thing for the constituents of the state of Michigan because, according to a report, Stupak hasn't been working for them anyway.

"Now with health care done, he’s retiring," a friend said. "He has thought about retiring for the last three cycles, but was always talked into staying: to elect John Kerry to help end the war, to elect a Democratic majority to get health care done."

Seems Stupak has had the interests of the Democrat party at heart rather than those who sent him to Washington.  But wait, there's more from the report:

President Barack Obama called Stupak on Wednesday and asked him not to retire. Stupak, 58, also resisted entreaties from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the Wolverine State delegation.

So, what they're saying is that he should stay on, not because the electorate of his state desires it (which would be proven to be the case in something called an "election"), but because high ranking members of his party are imploring him not to retire. 

We really need term limits for Congress.

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

From an email currently circulating around the 'net...

A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science.  The new element has been named Pelosium.  Pelosium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311. These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. The symbol of Pelosium is PU. Pelosium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant deputy neutrons within the Pelosium molecule, leading to the formation of isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Pelosium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration.  This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass. When catalyzed with money, Pelosium activates CNNadnausium, an  element that radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons as Pelosium.

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

To paraphrase a popular Internet meme from Zero Wing: All your health care are belong to us.

As I type, the President is signing his political legacy in the form of Health Care Reform.  Generations of Americans will feel the effect of this legislation, both positive and negative, and a debt burden that will be imposed will quite probably never be reconciled.  As we are told many, many times: elections have consequences.

The will of the majority of Americans has been trampled into the shredded remains of the US Constitution.  The world should be wary -- America will never be the same.

Americans will never be the same.

Make your time.

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion
says, "Because if I do, I will die too."

The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"

Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."

This parable, attributed to Aesop (although in dispute), is analogous to the current administration, and the leadership in both houses on the Hill.  To all of those paying attention, none of the actions being taken in the last year have been a surprise.  Now, however, people are starting to realize just what has been elected in to office and like the frog in the story, they are stunned by their demise brought upon themselves by their own decision.  Let's hope that they don't take the rest of us down with them.

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

Hey, Congress.  Remember me?



Seems you've forgotten just how a bill becomes a law.  Let me re-explain it to you in a convenient video format:




Thank you for your attention.

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

It's about time.

I meant to blog this yesterday, but was too busy to get over here to do it (you know, having a real job does tend to get in the way).  I did manage a tweet about it, but it didn't seem to gain any traction.  Amazing thing happened here: http://bit.ly/d4A9DP  Did you see?

FoxNews dropped the ridiculous political correctness that has permeated the main stream media (MSM) and called it like it is: homicide.  Too many news outlets attempt to soften the blow or perhaps make a victim of the attacker-- looking to make the reader sympathize with him or her for detonating a vest of explosives.  Associated Press running the same story did just that calling the attacker a suicide bomber.  So, what's the difference?  Let's compare.

The online American Heritage Dictionary defines suicide as, "The act or an instance of intentionally killing oneself." whereas homicide is defined as, "The killing of one person by another."  Since both accounts of the same scene clearly detail that multiple people were killed, there is no good reason for this kind of act to be called suicide. 

Hopefully, Fox News will continue to present the news and not some softened version of accounts, tailored to create empathy on the part of the reader/viewer.  Of course, if we want to be realistic about it, this isn't really suicide or homicide: it's murder.

From the Legal Free Dictionary, murder is, "... the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought."

So, thank you Fox News for having the courage to stand up for accuracy.



©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

This year's annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC (info here: http://bit.ly/dvW9QV) will be having a Bloggers' Lounge hosted by the fine folk over at redstate.com.  What an opportunity for bloggers both large and small to attend a phenomenal conference!

I received the announcement via a twitter post and immediately clicked over to their site to read the full press release.  I really want to go to this event, and to be able to participate in the Bloggers' Lounge would put icing on the cake.  I've only recently gotten more active here on my townhall.com blog and via twitter (@kharminonthenet), and I hope to continue to be able to spread our conservative thoughts and ideals.  Attending CPAC would be a great push for me.

I submitted my credentials and hope that I get an invite.  I'll keep you posted, hopefully from CPAC!

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

From a Foxnews.com story today: California to Reduce Prison Population by 6,500 Inmates. Several paragraphs down, we see this:

"...the state will stop its monitoring of low-level offenders after their release. That is designed to reduce the number of parolees returned to prison, essentially because the state will not know if they are violating the terms of their parole."(emphasis added)

Might as well be California's Gov

What?  Are they kidding?  Sure, "low-level offenders", but still...?  Is there anyone that thinks this could possibly be a good idea?  Other than the governor who has already signed this into law back in October 2009?

The proponents argue that fewer inmates and less resources spent to monitor the low-level offenders will save the state $1 billion, give or take.  Again, the law of unintended consequences will reign supreme on the Golden State; the manpower and other resources that will be used to handle the increase in crime that will occur when, well you know, criminals are let out of jail!

'toon by Kyle Baker

State Corrections Secretary (there's a title for you!) Matthew Cate..."acknowledged some unsupervised ex-felons will inevitably commit serious crimes after their release. But he said residents will be safer in general because parole agents will be able to concentrate on higher-risk parolees." In a phone interview with Foxnews.com for their article, Cate admits that the possibility of the recidivism rate going down is "the great hope."
 
I hope that California is up to the task. It only took about twenty years to catch Jaycee Dugard's alleged kidnappers, when she was held in the backyard of a paroled sex offender where no diligent monitoring by the Parole Office appears to have been made. Could this possibly be any worse than that?

©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

By now, just about everyone has heard about the comments attributed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the newly released book "Game Change" penned by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann and yes, I'm going to repeat them here for clarity sake.

"He [Reid] was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no[ N-egro] dialect, unless he wanted to have one,' " Halperin and Heilemann say.
 
"Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination," they write.

On Tuesday's Rush Limbaugh Show (1/12/2010), Rush's program observer (and self-proclaimed Official Obama Criticizer) Bo Snerdley remarked how Senator Reid's comments impacted him.  Snerdley said that Reid, "...has basically divided black people amongst themselves, and said that some of us are better because of the light color of our skin and some of us are not good because we are dark..."

Whether or not Mr. Snerdley's opinion was tongue-in-cheek is not the issue.  For years, the Democrat leadership has caused divisions within our society by their words and actions, all the while profiting from them.  It brings to mind that conniving (and rather capitalistic -- go figure!) character from Dr. Seuss, Sylvester McMonkey McBean who, when stumbling across the plain-bellied sneetches who were being ostracized from their star-bellied bretheren declared to have the ultimate solution:

“My friends”, he announced in a voice clear and clean,
“My name is Sylvester McMonkey McBean.
And I’ve heard of Your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that, I’m the Fix-It-Up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you.
I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work with great speed.
And my work is one hundred per cent guaranteed!”

Then, quickly, Sylvester McMonkey McBean
Put together a very peculiar machine.
And he said, “You want stars like a Star-Belly Sneetch?
My friends, you can have them for three dollars each!

Well, we all know how this story turns out.  The star-bellies, no longer unique, are sold on a service to remove their stars (courtesy of Mr. McBean … ten dollars, please) thus making them feel “better” about themselves over their now-starred kin.  This, of course, sets off a cycle of panic and soon sneetches are everywhere either having stars put on or removed from their bellies.  Each turn of the series costs them more money and at the end of the day:

Then, when every last cent of their money was spent,
The Fix-It-Up Chappie packed up. And he went.
And he laughed as he drove In his car up the beach,
“They never will learn. No. You can’t Teach a Sneetch!”

Fortunately for the sneetches, McBean was wrong as they were all able to reconcile their differences – star-bellied or no – and live quite contentedly; however, here is where this analogy falls apart.  True, the Democrats will provide whatever the people want so long as there is money to be had.  But at the end of our day, the same divisive, uncaring rhetoric is uncovered and they are exposed for how they really feel and no one is better off for it. 



©2010 Views from Kharmin's Right. All rights reserved.

For the past year or so, I have been publishing my political views on my own personal blog site (http://kharminspage.com).  My resolution for 2010 is to get back to posting here at Townhall.com because, well, they rock. I brought over some of the 2009 posts from my other site to here, so things might look a little dated and somewhat out of order.

I look forward to a greater presence here at Townhall.com.  I hope that you are looking forward to it, too.

I can also be found on Twitter (imagine that!): @kharminonthenet