Potpourri

Notes 60

Congress plays chicken over paying for 1099 mandate repeal
Cheaters screwed themselves and are now reaping the pain. Too Bad.


Neil deMause, contributing writer, On Wednesday February 16, 2011
The expanded 1099 reporting mandate was placed in the health reform bill in late 2009 by the Senate Finance Committee, which was looking for ways to raise revenue to help make health reform "revenue neutral" -- a key demand of Obama's. The bipartisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated requiring all purchases of goods and services to be reported on 1099 forms would reduce the "tax gap" on income that businesses collect but don't report could by about $2 billion a year.

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Israel knows all about provocations. Check out Sharron touring the Dome of the Rock and starting the Second Intafada with his in-your-face bravado

Israel claims Iran warships to transit Suez Canal
By Mark Lavie, Associated Press –
JERUSALEM – Israel's foreign minister claimed Wednesday that Iran is about to send two warships through the Suez Canal for the first time in years, calling it a "provocation," but he offered no evidence. The Egyptian authority that runs the canal denied it.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman "This is a provocation that proves that Iranian audacity and insolence are increasing."

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What a concept--but first the public has to believe America is an empire. Its tactics were certainly aired during the revolution in Egypt. Enough to strip the blinders off the public if they just paid attention. America is not without fault, not a benign good fellow.

Nadler, Polis Push Today to Cut Deficit by Trimming Empire
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "President Obama and House Republicans are out with their budget plans for the next fiscal year. Economist Jeffrey Sachs described it thus: President Obama wants to bleed the patient. House Republicans want to cut the patient's arm off. As Sachs pointed out, it's only possible in our 'Mubarak Egypt' political terrain - both party leaderships catering to the super rich, largely ignoring the interests of the vast majority of Americans who must work or scrounge to earn their daily bread - that we can have a debate premised on the absurd notion that the budget deficit is an urgent crisis while we have ten percent measured unemployment and many Americans - disproportionately veterans - don't have a decent place to sleep. But if that weren't outrageous enough, amid all the blather about 'shared sacrifice,' there is another group of powerful people that are largely escaping budget pain, in the plans of leaders of both parties, besides the super rich: the partisans of the Empire."

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Maybe the spirit of Egypt won’t just spread to the Middle East. Maybe they have taught us something about feet on the street and it won‘t be uneasy just for the dictators. Having to learn about democracy from the Egyptians. Isn’t that a sad comment on how far we have sunk.

Thousands protest anti-union bill in Wisconsin
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press –
MADISON, Wis. –
Thousands of teachers, students and prison guards descended on the Wisconsin Capitol on Wednesday to fight a move to strip government workers of union rights in the first state to grant them more than a half-century ago.
The Statehouse filled with as many as 10,000 demonstrators who chanted, sang the national anthem and beat drums for hours. The noise in the rotunda rose to the level of a chainsaw, and many Madison teachers joined the protest by calling in sick in such numbers that the district — the state's second-largest — had to cancel classes.

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Beware Pentagon. . . Half billion down. 500 more to go. Maybe it won’t be business as usual. Maybe there’s a rebellion brewing against the powers that have been able to lock in stupid defense spending for decades.

Obama, GOP freshmen win in jet engine budget fight

AP – Defense Secretary Robert Gates testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011, before …
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent – 2 hrs 2 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Determined to reduce deficits, impatient House Republican freshmen made common cause with President Barack Obama on Wednesday, scoring their biggest victory to date in a vote to cancel $450 million for an alternative engine for the Pentagon's next-generation warplane.
"Right here, right now was a surefire way to reduce spending," declared Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida, a second-term lawmaker whose summons to cut money from the F-35 fighter jet was answered by 47 Republican newcomers. Speaker John Boehner and other House GOP leaders back the funding.