The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[BDBopper]

So what is Mike Huckabee's next move? Well we have to wait a week to find out. His website just went down (a day after he posted a tribute to Charlton Heston) and is now replaced with a ticker counting down to Noon Eastern April 15th with the words "Coming Soon" in bold print.

[Strangler Lewis]

Okay! I said I was wrong!

And catch the subtle Spike Lee riff.

[Alex]

Assuming the date has any relevance and since the abolition of the IRS was one of his big campaign issues I'd guess it will be the announcement of some tax reform advocacy group or something similar.

[BDBopper]

Originally Posted by Alex

Assuming the date has any relevance and since the abolition of the IRS was one of his big campaign issues I'd guess it will be the announcement of some tax reform advocacy group or something similar.

I am pretty sure that will be either it...or a part of what he is planing to do. I think what he may be doing is forming a coalition based upon what his platform was during his campaign. Well we will find out next week I suppose.

I think McCain is seriously considering him for his running mae...among others. Regardless I think (to the dismay of the GOP elites) McCain will demand Huck speak at the convention.

[innerSpaceman]

Where I will be jealous of you having the steamiest sweatiest uber-saunafied mansex with too-hot-for-hades Petty Officer Monsoor.


And if that doesn't get me admission to hell to join in the fun, how about if I poke fun at his last name that is likely how his father mispronounced the French word for Mister?

[sleepyjeff]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...Rbs&refer=home

Now will this help the US dollar? After all, isn't a dollar basically 100 copper Pennies

[Alex]

Actually it will hurt. It costs the Mint more to make a penny (and a nickel) than they are worth. So if copper goes up, that just gets worse (though not necessarily much, pennies are only copper plated, most of their weight is zinc. It is actually the other nickel plated coins that are mostly copper.

I wish I could remember it correctly but I recently read about a guy who was doing a decent profit in melting down pre-1982 pennies for their copper but was blocked by some new regulation or law.

Maybe it is time to turn our backs on ol' William Jennings Bryan and return to the gold, silver (and copper) standard.

[Ghoulish Delight]

So thanks to TurboTax I got taxes done in an hour last night. It certainly made my life easier, but I wonder if it's a bad thing in the long run. It obscures the outrageous convoluted disaster that is U.S. tax code and actually makes things seem relatively straight forward. I fear that any chance of motivating the populace to demand serious reform will be diluted by the fact that fewer people are dealing with it hands-on.

[sleepyjeff]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

So thanks to TurboTax I got taxes done in an hour last night. It certainly made my life easier, but I wonder if it's a bad thing in the long run. It obscures the outrageous convoluted disaster that is U.S. tax code and actually makes things seem relatively straight forward. I fear that any chance of motivating the populace to demand serious reform will be diluted by the fact that fewer people are dealing with it hands-on.

You make an excellent point and I totally agree.

[BDBopper]

I am sitting here watching coverage of the Pennsylvania Primary Returns. Each network has these talking heads with their fancy maps and they are trying their very best to explain delegates and all of that. From what I can see that it is possible for Senator Clinton to win the popular vote and still get slighted in delegates because they are allocated by congressional district. However the districts that are more favorable to Democratic candidates have a higher count of delegates allocated to them.

Putting two and two together these areas that have higher delegate allocated would favor Obama. Do I have a problem with states having different amounts of delegates? No. Do I have a problem with the delegates being given out by congressional district? No. What I DO have a problem with is giving different delegates counts to different congressional distircts. If I was a Democrat in Pittsburgh my vote should carry the same weight as if I was a Democrat in Philly. We're both Democrats. It's THAT simple!

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!! The primary system in both parties is royally screwed up! If there is anything I have taken out of this whole process it is that. I have no doubt about it. This tears it! First the states wet themselves trying to be the first to have their primary, Then the national parties penelize and disenfracnises the voters in those states. I've seen state parties (Washington's GOP and Texas Democrats) take days to count caucus ballots, Louisiana's GOP choice wins the popular vote but the party goes to the back room and gives the delegates to someone else. This process is so screwed up it is very hard to answer the question "Who wins?" Well It is very easy to figure out who the losers are and that is the American people. How sad and infuriating!