Katrina: "Bathtub"
Oscar's cartoon roundup can be found in the comments
Greg Greene posted Katrina: "Bathtub" at 11:17 a.m on Blog for America
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I've been seeing this ad on blogs for a few days, but I hadn't clicked it to find out more because, well, I don't click ads. 
But, looking at it today, I realized, "Ohhh--I wonder if that has anything to do with cutting the estate tax." As I mentioned in last night's entry, Bill Frist has chosen this time of national tragedy to "move forward with a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax next week, likely on Tuesday". Don't we kinda need that money right now?
Anyway, the ad turns out to be for the Coalition for America's Priorities , and yes, that's exactly what the site is about.
Right now the U.S. Senate is considering an issue that will have a huge impact on the future of our nation: the future of the estate tax. Repealing the estate tax would cost $75 billion a year in federal revenue and over a trillion dollars overall. In order to make up that lost revenue either taxes will need to be raised or programs like Social Security and Medicare will need to be cut. Fewer than 2% of Americans have to pay the estate tax.
The Coalition for America's Priorities wants to ensure that Americans have the facts they need to make an informed decision on what they think should be done about the estate tax. There are a lot of misperceptions about the Estate Tax, and a lot of misinformation. This site will help you to gain a better understanding by helping you to separate the myths from the facts. Find out how estate tax reform affects your state. Read media coverage, scholarly papers, and other websites about the issue. Most importantly, you can contact your Senators and tell them why you support real reform, not repeal, of the Estate Tax.
Click here to visit the site. There's a map where you can find out how the estate tax affects your state, and you can also see ads the coalition has run.
Also of interest are these two entries on MyDD:
Kanye West
by Ben P
Contrasting Visions
by Scott Shields
(Words from John Edwards contrasted with those of Bill "Save Paris Hilton's Inheritance" Frist).
Cause & Effect
ReplyDeletePro (White) Life
The Have Nots
The Have Gots
Bring The Troops Home
Poor Acting
Aftermath
Unrestrained Looting
Obstinate Mother Focker
Rising Poverty
Protection Racket
Couldn't Care Less
Abject Failure
Pikers
Renee,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information on the Estate Tax.
Hi friends,
ReplyDeleteMy sister suggested the ASPCA. They are rescuing animals and building additional shelters for them. Be back in a jiffy with the URL
Bush's Cabinet stands to gain $344 Million from repeal of the estate tax.
ReplyDeleteBill "Save Paris Hilton's Inheritance" Frist also has a stake in its repeal to the tune of $7 million.
Rumsfeld? More than $100 million.
This is the "What's in it for me?" form of government no one ever mentioned when I was in school...
This looks worth checking out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nationalpriorities.org/
Showing how federal tax and spending policies impact your community.
Well, not quite a jiffy, but here I am again.
ReplyDeleteThe ASPCA's hurricane relief page
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=hurricane_home
Donate
Phone: 866-275-3923
URL: https://secure2.convio.net/aspca/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=4761&s_src=disaster&s_subsrc=nav&JServSessionIdr010=6sntf4j2o1.app28a
Minimum donation accepted via the web page, $50. This is not stated, but I tried checking "other" and filling in $10.00 and then $25.00. Each time I got an error message, "Invalid amount." Pretty pushy, if you ask me, but there it is.
This is an outrage. Bush is insane, as well as insensitive and incompetent.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/cst-nws-daley03.html
Thanks, uinen. I'll add it when I get a chance. Demetrius just started working on the roof, so I've got to listen for him in case he calls me. And I'm working on a rant about Bill "Kittenkiller" Frist.
ReplyDeleteHi Renee,
ReplyDeleteHope all goes well with Demetrius up on the roof! Sorry, but that James Taylor song comes irresistably to mind.
I told my mother and sister about Cat-Killer Frist. They were outraged. It doesn't seem to be common knowledge, though, because Mum hadn't heard about it. BFAers are not only kind, friendly, helpful and honorable, they're also pretty hip. In short, snigger, we're a bunch of real hoopy froods, man!
uinen--he's sending me *pictures* from the roof. Click.
ReplyDeletehttp://roofpics.textamerica.com/
Babes in Warland
ReplyDeletehttp://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205C.shtml
More headlines from TruthOut. Their from yesterday afternoon's digest, but no less worthwhile for that.
ReplyDelete'To Me, It Just Seems Like Black People Are Marked'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205D.shtml
While hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the images that have filled the television screens have been mainly of black Americans...there was no escaping that race had become a subtext to the unfolding drama of the hurricane's aftermath.
New York Times | Banished Whistle-Blowers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205E.shtml
The Bush administration is making no secret of its determination to punish whistle-blowers and other federal workers who object to the doctoring of facts that clash with policy and spin.
Spying on the Protesters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205F.shtml
Under Bush, the National Guard has been spying on peace groups. The FBI is infiltrating campus anti-war groups, knocking on dorm room doors to ask questions and interrogating college students.
Norman Solomon | Ending the Impunity of the Bush White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205G.shtml
It's up to us to create maximum pressure for a truly adequate rescue effort - and to organize effectively while demanding political accountability. That means depriving Bush, Cheney and their congressional allies of the power they ruthlessly enjoy.
Fabrice Rousselot | Why Was the United States Taken by Surprise?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205H.shtml
Every catastrophe operates as an instantaneous revelation of the society it strikes, and Katrina is no exception to this rule. And what it shows in the mirror does not gladden the heart.
'Hope is Fading' at New Orleans Convention Center
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205I.shtml
An explosion jolted residents awake early Friday, illuminating the pre-dawn sky with red and orange flames over the city where corpses rotted along sidewalks and thousands remained stranded - crying for food, water and a way to evacuate.
From Margins of Society to Center of the Tragedy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205J.shtml
Many African-American leaders note that the victims in New Orleans were largely black and poor, those who toiled in the background of the tourist havens, living in tumbledown neighborhoods that were long known to be vulnerable to disaster if the levees failed. Without so much as a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time, they found themselves left behind by a failure to plan.
John Nichols | The Real Gas Gougers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205K.shtml
How convenient for the oil industry that Hurricane Katrina hit just before the traditional Labor Day-weekend hike in gas prices. Now, John Nichols states, that instead of having to fake up some absolutely absurd excuse for jacking up gas prices, the industry can try and dupe Americans into thinking that they are suddenly paying $3.25 a gallon because of a storm.
Robert Fisk | In Iraq, a Man-Made Disaster
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205L.shtml
Martyrdom has always been a foundation of the Shia Muslim faith. But yesterday's tragedy gave it new meaning: possibly as many as 1,000 men, women and children were killed when they fell from a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad, apparently fearful that a suicide bomber had been let loose among them.
US Confirms Its Troops Killed Reuters Journalist in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205M.shtml
The US military confirmed on Thursday that its soldiers killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq but said their action was "appropriate."
Three More Assert Pentagon Knew of 9/11 Ringleader
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205N.shtml
Three more people associated with a secret US military intelligence team have asserted that the program identified September 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta as an al Qaeda suspect inside the United States more than a year before the 2001 attacks, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
Pentagon Changing Rules for Tribunals
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205O.shtml
"There still is no appeal to an independent civilian court," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organization. Referring to US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, he added: "The commissions still have Rumsfeld or his designate serving as prosecutor, judge, appellate judge and potential executioner. That has not changed one iota."
California Senate Passes Gay Marriage Bill
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205P.shtml
The California Senate voted Thursday to allow gay couples to wed, becoming the first legislative body in the nation to approve same-sex marriage without a court order.
Displacement Of Historic Proportions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205Y.shtml
In the largest displacement of Americans since the Civil War, more than half a million people have been uprooted by Hurricane Katrina. "This is a societal problem of a magnitude that America has never seen," said Louisiana Rep. Richard H. Baker.
William Rivers Pitt | Wake of the Flood
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205Z.shtml
Actions have consequences. William Rivers Pitt states that what you see on your television today is not some wild accident, but is a disaster that could have been averted had the priorities of this government been more in line with the needs of the people it pretends to serve.
LOL Renee. That Demetrius of yours is a shudder bug, one might even say a picture taking maniac. What a guy!
ReplyDeleteuinen...I'll look through what you've posted, probably after the kids are in bed. Our son is home now, so with both kids together there will not be peace in the kingdom for long. Demetrius had apparently promised our daughter he'd make cookies today, so I had to fill in for him with that in order to let him get started on the roof. At least I finished my Frist rant (click) before our son got home.
ReplyDeleteRenee,
ReplyDeleteWell, it could have been worse. Cookie making's not a bad activity for a Saturday afternoon.
Have fun with your children!