We Owed $14,837,937 in Taxes

But we only PAID $12,857.

Stimulus At Work, Jobs Created in Non-Existent Places

I must tip my hat and congratulate this administration. They've done what no conservative would have been able to do.

A few weeks ago, they created more jobs than even existed in a number of school districts. Districts reported that the Generational Theft Act of 2009 "saved" five-, six- or seven-hundred jobs in districts that only employed two or three hundred people. Miraculous!

Now, they've gone a step further. The Washington Times in this article is reporting that the stimulus has now created jobs in school districts that don't exist and has created school districts in Congressional districts that don't exist.

Who would have thought.

Of course, some of this is explained away by reporting errors, but given the thousands of reporting errors that would have to be made, and the tens of thousands of jobs (if not hundreds of thousands), a couple of questions have to be asked:

First, is the administration making some of these "errors" intentionally to inflate the numbers? (I don't think there's any question but what that is taking place.)

Second, is some of the Stimulus money (perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars) being diverted? While there is no evidence, given the false reporting going on, I strongly suspect that stimulus dollars are ending up in the pockets of Timothy "Turbo Tax" Geithner, Kathleen Sebelius, and some of the other Administration officials that have a tendency to "hide" large chunks of income in order to not have to pay taxes on it. What better place to hide it?

Democrats Don't Pay Taxes (Again)

A day before she clinched the nomination to fill a vacancy in the Missouri House of Representatives on Saturday, St. Louis Democrat Hope Whitehead paid a visit to City Hall.

Not to mobilize supporters, but to pay hundreds of dollars in outstanding taxes.

Her trip downtown was more than just civic duty. Under state law, candidates with overdue tax bills are ineligible for the ballot.

When her obligations were met, a panel of city Democratic leaders gathered Saturday to nominate Whitehead, 50, to fill the vacancy created by former state Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, who submitted his resignation in September after pleading guilty to federal bribery charges.

Apparently, it must be a federal law that democrats who want to be in positions of power CANNOT pay taxes until it is politically expedient to do so. I guess that's a good reason to become a Democrat.

Method Man Feeling Taxed

Wu-Tang clan member, "Method Man" was arrested today for tax evasion after failing to pay almost $33,000 in personal income taxes, according to a press release from the district attorney's office in New York's Staten Island.

The rapper, a Staten island native, turned himself in to police and was later charged with two counts of tax evasion. If found guilty, he could face up to four years as a cabinet member in the Obama administration.

Upon hearing the news, Timothy Geithner called the artist and recommended Turbo Tax for future returns. Tom Daschle simply muttered the word "Amateur" when he found out that the amount delinquent was less than $100,000. Other cabinet members we laughing and winking at each other when the press release hit the White House.

The Bigotry of Low Expectations

NPR finally made mention of the recent ACORN scandal. (Charlie Gibson still hasn't heard of it, though.) Credit Frank James at NPR for covering the story in a manner that puts most of the left-wing establishment media to shame. James makes the following accurate observation:

"Instead of wasting funds on lawsuits, ACORN might want to consider doing more intensive training of its workers and testing them with its own undercover testers."

Unfortunately, he concludes his story by indulging in what George Bush (or one of his speech writers) so eloquently referred to as "the soft bigotry of low expectation."

"It's also important to keep in mind that ACORN's workers are coming from the same low-income neighborhoods the organization serves, with all that entails - poor schools, high crime and the sorts of social problems that have been documented for decades.

So the flaws conservatives are pointing out about ACORN are not so much about problems associated with that organization per se, but more about the problems of being poor and minority in urban America."

It's true that the neglect of inner city school children is morally wrong and possibly criminal. But it is arguably the systemic root of much of what ails America. The liberal government policies dating back three generations have served to warehouse the poor while creating financial incentives to underachieve. Welfare policies encourage the poorest to forgo savings, to ignore career and college ambitions and have multiple children outside of marriage.

Even so, it is sick and condescending to assume that the poor lack any moral compass. Do you have to be middle class to know that importing children for the purpose of child prostitution, cheating on taxes, lying to the government and abusing people, particularly children is wrong?

Such lack of expectations born of liberal guilt is tragic but telling.

This isn't The Wire. These aren't street level drug dealers at the mercy of a politically confused drug war. These are employees of a government funded organization who blithely conspire to rape little girls and to violate tax laws. And I do thank you for pointing out who trained them. Yes, ACORN did. But why fail to mention that this organization has yet to apologize, or to thank the film crew for bringing this horror to their attention so they can fix the problem?

If we can't expect coverage from the left wing establishment media, could we at least expect their outrage?

A Quick Thought On Sotomayer

If the Obama administration has shown us anything, it has shown us how to not pick nominees.  That said, the first question on everyone's mind about Sonia Sotomayer should not be her race or her stance on constitutional issues. The first question on everyone's mind should be "How much in back taxes does she owe, and how will she explain it?"