Mistakes and brainstorms

One of my astute readers corrected me (and where was the other reader?) on the statement I made that the younger Bush was head of the CIA. It was his father. You remember George the 1st? He was the one who Actually Fought in a war. Did a good job too, I hear. Still, George the 2nd did look into Putin's soul and saw his own reflection.

I see the OBamarama campaign ran into a Pennsylvania pothole. Not that anything he said was necessarily wrong, but it sure was clumsy. I'd sort of like him to win the nomination, I guess, but I think it's good for him to have to deal with people who aren't going to take any shite, no matter what their status. He does have a bit of the "privileged class" about him. The hillfolk have trouble trusting anyone with perfect teeth.
Oh, that was mean. But I'll leave it.

Obama can always excuse himself by saying he made the remarks under sniper fire.

He's getting sniped at now, you betcha. Billary are SO happy to deflect attention away from Hillary's own private Sarajevo. She is hoping like crazy that this will make people forget her own "misspeaking."

Of course, McCain, wily old soldier that he is, is just beside himself with joy. The way it's going, the Billary-Obamarama show will wear itself out by July and leave everyone sick of both of them. Uh-oh, here comes another Republican President.

In the meantime your 'umble servant has been doing his taxes, at great length. Hours spent getting the medical bills together only to find it was all for nought. In 2006 I spent a couple grand and got $91 back in consideration from our government for my efforts to stay alive to pay taxes. This past year I spent under two grand, got nada. Bad, ungrateful government!

But if my figures are right, I'm getting a nice chunk back on my earnings, such as they were (not a whole lot has been trickling down in my direction). If my figures are not right, I'll be posting from the nearest federal detention facility sometime in the future.

It would seem that there must be an easier way to figure taxes, even progressive taxes. If all your income came to a certain amount, then pay this much. If it came to more, then pay more. It's not rocket science. And if your income came to several millions because you sucked the blood out of some company while underpaying and laying off employees, then you just pay back everything and be sentenced to be a waiter in a diner in Enid, Oklahoma for five years.

That would be one way to bring accountability to CEO performance. I really think it's better than sentencing white-collar criminals to cushy federal facilities where they can exchange financial schemes with each other. I mean, if your common teenage criminal goes to jail and learns all kinds of new nefarious stuff from the other inmates, why wouldn't white collar, cheating CEO's also share their criminal techniques?

Instead of five years in the pokey with their peers, make them actually work for five years. Let's put those Enron guys on Alaskan pipeline maintenance duty. Or better, crew on a salmon fishing boat. Well, that's about out I hear, for a while. Too many people enjoying salmon sushi or steak. But there are plenty of unpleasant jobs going begging out there.

That's my brainstorm for the day. If this were a perfect universe I could make this idea a reality, but alas…

I'm outa here.