From the diaries. Not long ago, my opponent, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur used her Congressional website to take Republicans to task for not being “sensitive” about “the plight of unemployed returning veterans.” She was angry that the House of Representatives had rejected her proposed amendment to the 2013 budget. The amendment would have established a Veterans Job Corps, which she claims “would employ at least 20,000 veterans over 5 years in projects to preserve and restore America’s national parks, state parks, and other public lands.” This idea may sound good on paper. But it ignores several important questions that involve sensitivity, common sense and responsible government. Number One: Who was being more sensitive, thoughtful and responsible here? House Republicans who want to reduce out-of-control federal spending, borrowing and deficits – and reduce the size and intrusiveness of a federal bureaucracy that has become a massive legal and regulatory drag on our economy and job creation? Or an out of touch Democrat politician who is determined to keep borrowing, spending and growing our government – and who rejects our veterans’ military backgrounds and wants to turn them into federally employed landscapers and groundskeepers? Is Kaptur suggesting that the military training and hands-on experience our veterans acquired during their time in service isn’t good enough? Or that these jobs are the best they should expect? Or does she just not respect their service and training? Kaptur and her campaign staff certainly don’t respect my own military training. That’s obvious from the way they call me a “faux” plumber . Are all our other veterans “fake” in their jobs too? Marcy’s campaign has denied my military experience several times before, each time proving that she and her staff don’t respect veterans and our military experience. This lack of respect goes a long way toward explaining why Kaptur is so willing to turn this nation’s soldiers into landscapers and groundskeepers, when instead they could be transitioning to productive civilian lives in trades for which they have already received training. Heck, a few might even make pretty good plumbers. Number Two: What this nation needs – and what our veterans need, so that they can find good jobs – is an economy that is growing. Last year, growth didn’t even reach a lousy 2 percent. Our economic growth needs to get back to 4 or 5 percent a year, every year. For that to happen, government needs to stop borrowing and spending the money the private sector needs – the money private businesses would invest in new equipment, new hires and new ideas far better than government ever can. Government also needs to stop taxing and regulating everything in sight, dragging our economy down, far too often for no health or environmental benefit. Congress and the federal bureaucracy also need to stop wasting taxpayer money on worthless fake-energy wind, solar and algae schemes – and start letting companies drill again for oil and gas that power our economy and create real jobs and revenues. Just over the past few years, oil and gas “fracking” on state and federal lands created 600,000 jobs! It generated real energy that we can use, and billions of dollars in revenue! And here Kaptur is upset that the House rejected her proposal to borrow more money to create a lousy 20,000 menial jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , “young male veterans” between the ages of 18 and 24 had an unemployment rate of 29.1 percent last year. Non-veteran males in the same age group had “only” a 17.6 percent unemployment rate – which is also intolerable, insensitive and unnecessary. It’s clear that America is in a crisis – which almost everyone outside of Washington, DC realizes. Ms. Kaptur, along with most other Washington politicians and bureaucrats, however, is isolated and insulated from this crisis. Both they and we should all be asking: Why are veterans, with all their training and experience, so much worse off than non-veterans, after having served and sacrificed so much for their country? And how much longer can we tolerate this destructive situation? Yes, Congress has tried repeatedly (and failed repeatedly), to “fix” the unemployment problem. But little has been accomplished beyond partisan bickering and political grandstanding. While our political “heroes” keep talking about unemployment, America’s real heroes continue returning home to live it. We need to focus on getting excessive government out of the way, so that the private sector can create jobs for our veterans and the millions of other Americans who so desperately want to work again. A soldier understands one thing above all others: results. Congress, as history continues to prove, doesn’t understand this concept. Worse, too many politicians keep coming up with crazy ideas that they think will get them votes – when what they will really do is make sure the problems remain unsolved. They obviously have no clue what they’re doing. Veterans deserve better than a 29% unemployment rate. Veterans deserve better than politicians who don’t respect what they went through and what they learned from military life. Veterans deserve respect, and an appreciation for what they’ve done for their country. Most of all, veterans deserve to be represented in Washington by people who understand and respect what they did, what they do, what they know, and what they have to offer their country when their military service is over. _______________ Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is a Republican candidate for Congress in Ohio’s ninth congressional district. Samuel Wurzelbacher rose to national fame as “Joe the Plumber” when he challenged then-candidate Barack Obama on his plans to increase taxes for the middle class. Since 2008, Wurzelbacher has spoken nationally in support of blue collar workers, encouraging voters to get engaged in the political process. Learn more at http://www.JoeForCongress2012.com/
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Why Doesn’t Marcy Kaptur Respect Veterans?
Download audio here Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets , Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to continue the crowdfunding discussion from Monday, listeners reactions and questions, and the differences between crowdfunding and micro-finance. We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates . If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show. Related Links: Is Crowdfunding the Future of Small Business Investing? Obama Signs ‘Game-Changing,’ Crowdfunding JOBS Act 8 crowdfunding sites to watch JOBS Act opens fundraising doors for small firms The Simpsons: “Loan-A-Lisa” Follow Brad on Twitter Follow Ben on Twitter Follow Francis on Twitter Subscribe to The Transom The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.
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Is Crowdfunding Too Risky for the Average Investor?
It looks as though Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are going to make their central argument for the 2012 election that America should greatly increase the cost of capital to small and medium sized businesses that need such capital to expand and create jobs. Mitt Romney and the Republicans could hardly have asked for a better gift. I say “hardly” because it would be an even bigger gift if Obama and the Democrats decided to run on their “achievements” of the past 3+ years. The Obama-Biden team (it’s not quite apparent yet how many Democrats in the House and Senate will fall into line) are spinning the proposal at the top of their agenda that would effectively double the capital gains tax rate for those who do the most investing (the “Buffett Rule”) as simply a matter of “tax fairness.” Unsurprisingly, the mainstream press has uncritically accepted the official Obama election team line. David Jackson of USA Today is not alone among news reporters when he characterizes the “Buffett Rule” as “a requirement that millionaires pay at least the same tax rate as middle-class Americans.” Initially, the Obama administration defined the average “middle-class American” as Warren Buffett’s secretary who, it turns out, makes a salary of $200,000 or more. In this specific instance, Warren Buffett’s claim that he paid a lower average effective rate than his secretary is likely true. But the claim that people like Buffett or Mitt Romney, who derive most of their income from capital gains (and who give a lot to charity), pay a lower average effective tax rate than do average Americans, is demonstrably false. Under current law, long-term capital gains are taxed at 15%. The “Buffett Rule” would impose a minimum 30% federal income tax rate on all income from any source, and exclude most deductions, for people with incomes over $1,000,000. The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (which thinks that Americans are fundamentally undertaxed) puts the average effective income tax rate for the median income family of four at about 6%. This is also in line with data from the more conservative Tax Foundation, which has calculated the average effective tax rates by income bracket as of 2009 as follows: Top 1%: 24.01% Top 5%: 16.40% From 5% – 10%: 11.40% From 10% – 25%:
Charles Johnson has been on a little jihad about racist comments on conservative sites — which is odd for several reasons. Notably, he has no evidence that the comments were left by conservatives, and indeed he used to complain that liberals had planted phony comments on his own site : One type of troll we see all the time at LGF is known as a “moby,” after the pop star Moby—who publicly advocated posting “false flag” comments at right wing web sites, posing as extremist nut jobs, in order to discredit those sites. Johnson complained about this practice again here : But the important thing to note here is: this creep was what we call a “moby,” calculatedly posting over the top comments to discredit LGF. In truth, as you can see by following the link to the “Anti-Neocons” site above, this stalker is rabidly pro-Palestinian—but it was posting rabidly anti-Palestinian comments at LGF. This is solid proof that at least some of the comments at LGF are being planted with deliberate intent to deceive and defraud. That was then; this is now. These days, Charles Johnson trolls sites like Hot Air and Breitbart.com, and trumpets every single comment with racist overtones as evidence of the racism of conservatives in general, and those sites in particular. Indeed, one of Johnson’s buddies (with whom he is still friendly) actually admitted planting racist comments at Hot Air in 2009. Specifically, in September 2009, trusted LGF Lieutenant Killgore Trout went over to Hot Air in the middle of the night to plant some racist comments. Ace described what happened : Apparently CJ’s moderator Kilgore Trout went over there last night and started posting racist stuff. To see, he said, if it would be cleaned up. It wasn’t. Because both Allah and Ed were asleep. It being the middle of the night. Actually, it’s only arguably racist if you yourself believe that wookies = black people, which Kilgore Trout does. So he spammed the threads with this, and it wasn’t cleaned up to until the AM. Obergruppenkommander Charles’ conclusion? They’re racists. Chuckles furiously denounced Killgore Trout for his actions said “I can’t really applaud” Killgore Trout’s actions . . . but claimed that Killgore Trout’s middle-of-the-night actions showed that “his point is absolutely valid. They’re accepting a disgusting amount of racism and extremism at Hot Air.” This despite the fact that within an hour of Johnson’s comment, the comments at Hot Air were starting to disappear, as Killgore Trout (who is apparently still a welcome and valued member of LGF ) reported at the time . In essence, Chuckles’s lieutenant said: look, the conservatives tolerate people pissing on their houses. To demonstrate, I will go piss on their house in the middle of the night, and if they don’t clean it up until morning, I have made my point! Bwa-ha! To which Charles responded: I can’t really applaud him pissing on their house . . . but they sure do seem to tolerate it. I guess Charles, former moby hunter, now believes that Killgore Trout was the only liberal guy who ever planted racist comments on conservative sites. The funny part about Charles being Mr. Racist Comment Nazi is that his site used to be the home of perhaps the most notoriously virulent, ugly, hate-filled set of comments in the blogosphere. For example, here is a piece by Glenn Greenwald documenting several comments by LGF commenters talking about how they wished that Al Qaeda would carry out a planned murder plot against Jimmy Carter. I always defended Charles on this point, because the volume of comments he had was such that it would be unfair to attribute to him the viewpoints of his commenters. Indeed, Charles made the very same point in response to complaints by CAIR that his site was a hate site: If either of you had bothered to do your jobs, you would have learned that: * There are more than 25,000 registered users at LGF. * There are often more than 5,000 comments posted every single day. * It is run by *one* person, and comments such as those quoted by CAIR are policed and deleted as soon as possible. But this is an open discussion forum, and comments do not represent the opinion of LGF — as the disclaimer states on every single page of comments. But Hot Air easily has 25,000 registered users and probably has well over 3 million comments since its founding. I bet I am underestimating this. Yet Charles supported his lieutenant’s argument that comments planted there in the middle of the night demonstrated racism because they were not cleaned up until the next morning. All of this would seemingly make Charles Johnson the least likely person on Earth to lead a charge about comments on conservative web sites. So I decided to confront him with this recently on Twitter. I laid out six simple facts that underpin the argument I made above: Since Johnson really has no response to these arguments, I predicted that he wouldn’t confront my facts, but would smear and sneer. And what do you think he did? Again: he didn’t disappoint: Hm. Does Charles Johnson know that the guy on Twitter famous for using the #winning tag was actually a huge loser whom everyone was laughing at ? Anyone misguided enough to see Johnson as a serious pundit who engages in rational debate needs to stop sniffing glue and read the above exchange. Note the facts I cite, and the sneers, strawmen, and insults I get in response. It really makes you wonder how this guy has any credibility with anyone these days. UPDATE: Thanks to Instapundit for the link . I hope new readers will bookmark the main page and return often. Also, I can be found on Twitter as @Patterico . Make sure to follow me there!
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Charles Johnson: An Unlikely Crusader Against Racist Comments
With all the problems in the world, including clear and present danger to our national security and our troubled economy, President Obama is spending a second day with the focus of his schedule (besides fundraising): protecting Debbie Bosanek, Warren Buffett’s suffering secretary. Our Greatest Threat? By Asher Embry Assad keeps killing innocent civilians in the street. The mullahs’ quest to kill with nukes is virtually complete. We can’t tell who’s our enemy on Afghan’s battlefront. And Kim Jung Un’s about to launch his latest macho stunt. At home the price of gas is soaring, so’s our healthcare cost. We’re nowhere near replacing all the jobs Obama’s lost. Yet O has taken most his waking hours for two days To shield us from our greatest threat: that Warren Buffett pays A lower rate of federal tax than does his secretary. (Forgive us if we think Plouffe’s plan’s just: be diversionary.) Our enemies are nuts with nukes, but no need for alarm; Obama’s raising taxes on the rich — we’re safe from harm. (You can read more of Asher Embry’s Political Verse at www.politicalverse.com .)
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Our Greatest Threat?
