Joe The Plumber: Obama Tax Plan 'Infuriates Me

John McCain may have found a blue-collar face to help him argue that no American -- not even the richest 5 percent -- should pay higher taxes. "Joe The Plumber" has weighed in on Wednesday's presidential debate and he says that Barack Obama's tax plan "infuriates me."
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Joe the Plumber Calls Obama's Tax Plan Socialist, Sawyer Defends It

Joe the Plumber, aka Joe Wurzelbacher the Ohio man that has suddenly become the face of the presidential campaign, told ABC's Diane Sawyer Thursday that Barack Obama's tax plan to spread the wealth is "a very socialist view, and it's incredibly wrong."

Predictably, Sawyer defended Obama's position by saying it's only a three percent tax increase that people making over $250,000 would be required to pay. Deliciously, the "Good Morning America" guest wasn't backing down (partial video embedded right):

JOE WURZELBACHER, PLUMBER: Well, I mean, quite honestly, why should they be penalized for being successful? That's what you're telling me, that's what it sounds like you're saying. It's wrong. I mean, because you're successful, you have to pay more than everybody else. I mean, we all live in this country, you know, I mean it's a basic right. And Obama wants to take that basic right and penalize me for it is what it comes down to. I mean, that's a very socialist view, and it's incredibly wrong. I mean, if it's $250,000 now, what if he decides, "Well, $150,000 you're pretty rich, too. Let's go ahead and lower it again." You know, it's a slippery slope. When's it going to stop?

Great question, Joe.

For those interested, the entire GMA segment is available here.

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Obama, Joe the plumber, and the gospel of envy

Minneapolis - When Barack Obama responded to the Ohio plumber who didn't want his taxes raised by saying that he wanted to "spread the wealth around," I wanted to tell the Illinois senator to spread his own wealth around.

Senator Obama, in a rare moment of candor, all but told "Joe the plumber" that his wealth should be seized in the name of equity. Their personal encounter this past Sunday played out one of the old themes of democratic politics: the appeal to the many to take from the few.

It's traditionally an easy sell in democratic regimes...

[and their downfall]

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and the media coverage?

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'Joe the plumber' isn’t licensed
"Joe the Plumber" isn’t a plumber — at least not a licensed one, or a registered one. A check of state and local licensing agencies in Ohio and Michigan shows no plumbing licenses under Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher’s name, or even misspellings of his name...
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'Joe the Plumber,' Owes Taxes
"Joe the plumber," the Toledo, Ohio, man whose complaints about Barack Obama's tax plan were highlighted by John McCain in the final presidential debate, owes the state of Ohio almost $1,200 in back income taxes. According to records on file with the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, the state filed a tax lien against Samuel J. Wurzelbacher for $1,182.98 on Jan. 26, 2007, that is still active.
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Enraged Leftwing Blogosphere Hurls Attacks Against Joe the Plumber

Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) seems to have committed a Thought Crime in the eyes of the leftwing Blogosphere by daring to question the Lightworker.

As a result, and because his name was brought up several times by John McCain at the debate last night, Joe the Plumber has been the subject of a lot of rage at both the Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos.

The title of the DU thread alone tells you just how angry the left is: "Hey, Joe 'The Dumbass' Plumber. Listen up!" And the Daily Kos thread is flat out incorrect: "'Joe the Plumber'" Not a Registered Voter."

Sorry, Kossacks, but Joe the Plumber is registered to vote. He just prefers to use his middle name but you were too eager to smear him to consider that fact when poring through the Ohio voting records. Here is a sampling of leftwing anger directed at Joe the Plumber...

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Targeting Joe

After Targeting Joe the Plumber, Obamabots Pledge To Expose Scandals of Guy in Rockwell's 'Four Freedoms' Painting

Thank God we live in a free country, where you can speak your mind on public issues, without fear that those who disagree will respond by exposing anything you've ever done that you regret or that could embarrass your family.

Oh, wait, never mind. We have to know, according to some, about Joe the Plumber's tax lien, and how he doesn't have a license - which, if the smear artists bothered to check the law, he only needs for commercial work, not residential work.

This is the way our opponents operate now. Destroy anyone who stands in your way. Humiliate them. Make sure that anyone else who ever wants to skeptically question Barack Obama knows that every last bit of their dirty laundry will be aired for all the world to see. Bristol Palin, Trig Palin, — hey, it's all fair game. They've got to make an example of them. Show them that this sort of dangerous speech won't be allowed in the New America.

Remember the man in the plaid shirt, standing at the town meeting in one of Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" paintings?

He wouldn't recognize this country anymore.

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Criticizing Obama has been made off limits

Joe Scarborough

Before the vice presidential debate, we learned that the moderator was writing a fawning book about the transform- ative effects of the "age of Obama."

The media gave Gwen Ifill a free pass for her ethical breach, despite the fact she misled the debate commission about her book.

While I was concerned about Ifill's lapse of judgment, I was a bit curious about what the PBS star thought the "age of Obama" might look like.

I don't have to wonder anymore.

Let me give you a few helpful survival tips for the next four years.

The most important rule in this coming age is to remember that one must take great caution when criticizing Barack Obama.

Remember, even Democratic hero Bill Clinton was accused of being a bigot for calling Obama's political biography a "fairy tale."

Former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro was compared to David Duke for suggesting that Barack Obama gained some advantages from being black.

Sarah Palin and John McCain joined the "Bigot's Club" this week when they dared to criticize The One Who Shall Not Be Criticized.

Palin was slandered for pointing out that Barack Obama launched his political career at the home of an unrepentant domestic terrorist.

The Associated Press grimly warned that any criticism of that former terrorist, William Ayers, was tinged with bigotry — despite the fact that the last time anyone checked, Ayers was white.

The New York Times' Frank Rich did what most hyperventilating leftists do when on defense, by comparing McCain and Palin's campaign to the rise of Nazi Germany.

The major networks all jumped into the fray and breathlessly read Democratic talking points, charging that McCain was encouraging angry mobs and racist rallies.

Interestingly enough, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell told me McCain's crowds were no more intense than those found at Democratic rallies. But let's not get bogged down with the facts. After all, this is a bright new age.

To understand just how much political correctness will chill free speech in this sunny era, look no further than John Lewis' statements this past weekend.

The Obama supporter and civil rights hero compared McCain and Palin to George Wallace and the bombers who killed four little girls in a Birmingham church in the early '60s.

How ironic that Obama's allies are trying to link Sarah Palin to domestic terrorists who were jailed before she was even born, while Obama's connections with William Ayers is off limits.

The double standard is as frightening as it is unfair. But fairness and open-minded debate may not be welcomed in this new age we are about to enter.

Last month, St. Louis circuit attorneys warned citizens that they would be subject to criminal prosecution if they made statements that these Obama-supporting attorneys considered "false."

Wow.

How interesting that the same merchants of hate who spent the last eight years spitting out the most vile charges against George W. Bush are suddenly champions of polite political discourse.

The left is in hysterics, free speech is on ice, and somewhere Gwen Ifill is smiling.

The Age of Obama is already here.

Joe Scarborough is the host of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC. E-mail him at joe.nbc@gmail.com.

SOURCE

[meanwhile, in America]

'Senator Government'

Whether or not Wednesday's debate helps John McCain rally in the polls, at least voters finally got a clearer sense of the policy differences. For our money, the best line of the night was Mr. McCain's Freudian slip of referring to Barack Obama as "Senator Government."

Neither candidate is offering policies that meet the serious economic moment. But Mr. McCain would let Americans keep more of their own income to ride out the downturn, while Mr. Obama is revealing that his default agenda is to spend money and expand the government.

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[as detrimental as his monetary policies would be, I personally find the social engineering agenda behind them more dangerous and frightening - such as...]

Obama to Declare Carbon Dioxide Dangerous Pollutant

Barack Obama will classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant that can be regulated should he win the presidential election on Nov. 4, opening the way for new rules on greenhouse gas emissions.

The Democratic senator from Illinois will tell the Environmental Protection Agency that it may use the 1990 Clean Air Act to set emissions limits on power plants and manufacturers, his energy adviser, Jason Grumet, said in an interview.

[it's hard to over estimate the harm this will do to our economy, life styles and most importantly liberties - it's a mechanism for government intrusion {via monetary extortion} into anything and everything it chooses]

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REGULATING GLOBAL WARMING: EXPANDING THE AUTHORITY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

In May 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that greenhouse gases met the definition of an air pollutant in the Clean Air Act. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responded in 2008 by issuing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) that explains how the Clean Air Act applies to regulating emissions of greenhouse gases thought to contribute to global warming.

Unfortunately, such regulations would significantly increase energy prices, but would not affect the global level of greenhouse gases, says Amanda Berg, legislative assistant for the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Human activities are only responsible for about one-quarter of one percent of the total greenhouse effect, which is the moderation of the Earth's temperature due to the absorption of the sun's radiation by atmospheric gases.

• Human activities contribute 0.28 percent to the greenhouse effect.
• Natural greenhouse gas emissions -- including ocean biologic activity and decaying plants -- contribute 4.72 percent.
• Water vapor accounts for 95 percent of the greenhouse effect.

Attempting to reduce such a small fraction of the factors that contribute to the overall greenhouse effect will be extremely costly and ineffective.

Furthermore, the proposed EPA rule would result in an unprecedented expansion of the EPA's power, giving them the authority to regulate nearly every sector of the economy and personal decisions about housing and transportation.

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[that's what I've been trying to tell folks - it's a mechanism for a quantum leap forward in socialism, no exaggeration ... and a money maker at that...]

Pennsylvania law to cut electricity usage

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania has begun a major effort to cut electricity use, requiring the state's 11 utilities to not only stop power usage from rising, but to cut it starting in 2011.

Legislation that Gov. Ed Rendell signed Wednesday requires the utilities to cut annual electricity usage by at least 1 percent by May 31, 2011, based on usage estimates made by state regulators, who can take into account a major anomaly, such as an unusually hot summer or a substantial surge in demand from a new user, such as a factory.

To ensure that utilities take the task seriously, the new law allows up to $20 million in penalties for failure to meet the benchmarks for electricity usage cuts...

[energy use is activity - now than can control it all - at a profit no less.]

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A Capitalist Manifesto
Markets remain our best hope for a better future

Where are the champions of free-market capitalism? Someone needs to remind us all that two great works were published in 1776, both representing game-changing advances in human freedom: The Declaration of Independence, authored by future American president, Thomas Jefferson, and "The Wealth of Nations" by Scottish economist Adam Smith.

Both embrace the social wisdom of individual liberty; both extol the importance of personal responsibility. [snip]

France's president held out the possibility that all is not lost, that we can fix what is broken.

"The financial crisis is not the crisis of capitalism," according to Mr. Sarkozy. "It is the crisis of a system that has distanced itself from the most fundamental values of capitalism, which betrayed the spirit of capitalism." [read: government regulation]

Mr. Sarkozy, speaking before Congress last November, who offered the most profound assessment of our nation's gift to the world.

"America did not tell the millions of men and women who came from every country in the world and who built the greatest nation in the world: 'Come, and everything will be given to you.' She said: 'Come, and the only limits to what you'll be able to achieve will be your own courage and your own talent.'"

It's a lesson that should never be lost or forgotten

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Forrest Gump Explains Mortgage Backed Securities
[HT:GC]

Mortgage Backed Securities are like boxes of chocolates. Criminals on Wall Street stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds. Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poor rated these boxes AAA Investment Grade chocolates. These boxes were then sold all over the world to investors. Eventually somebody bites into a turd and discovers the crime. Suddenly nobody trusts American chocolates anymore worldwide.

Hank Paulson now wants the American taxpayers to buy up and hold all these boxes of turd-infested chocolates for $700 billion dollars until the market for turds returns to normal. Meanwhile, Hank's buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the good chocolates are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted.

Mama always said: "Sniff the chocolates first Forrest".

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