In 2008, Joe Biden said that paying higher taxes is an act of patriotism, and thanks to the “Patriotic Millionaires” that sentiment is still going strong. The PM group was formed a while back, and they continue to try like the dickens to convince the government to take more of their money so they can participate in what made America great: High taxes paid to irresponsible spenders.

I don’t begrudge anybody his or her success, but there’s no better way to suggest that your success might have been due to sheer luck more than brains if you’re unable to understand that the problem is that the government spends way too much, not that people don’t pay enough in taxes.

Some members of the group have made a new video. It’s not very well produced, but they didn’t want to spend lots of money on a quality production house in order to save up for those high taxes they always wanted (h/t Real Clear Politics via Hot Air):

The video could also be entitled, “Fools and their money beg to be parted.” In spite of all that rhetoric, why am I guessing that their tax forms contain very few unused loopholes?

To the repentant wealthy, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. You can give the government more money by using Pay.gov. Click here and clear your conscience — it’s like going to confession for rich people with feelings of guilt.

Some of the “Patriotic Millionaires” have that base covered though:

A reporter had asked the millionaires why, if they want the government to take more of their money, don’t they just hand it over voluntarily?

“We have a system of compulsory taxation and everybody gets treated the same under the law,” Mehiel said. “We disagree with what the law is right now. We think its outcomes are unfair.”

Paul Egerman, founder of a medical transcription company called eScription, also scoffed at the suggestion millionaires who advocate for higher taxes should take it upon themselves to send money to the government.

“Running any government is a shared responsibility of its citizens,” Egerman said. “Government is not a charity, and you can’t imagine a situation where the Department of Defense runs a bake sale to build an aircraft carrier.”

That guy wants to pay higher taxes so the government can build an aircraft carrier? And just when I thought we’d finally found a way to make the hard left like millionaires.

Update: Kevin McCullough responds to the PMs.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

All this time I thought that maybe ONE was an acronym or something, but it looks like the Bono’s organization is so named because just one percent of the money raised makes it to its promoted destination:

Bono’s anti-poverty foundation ONE is under pressure to explain its lavish salaries after it was revealed that only a small percentage of money it raises reaches the needy.

The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 frontman received almost £9.6m in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent).

The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1m went towards paying salaries.

So ONE (percent)™ paid out around $8 million (US) to employees to monitor the disbursement of about $185,000? How did these guys not end up in charge of the stimulus?

ONE makes Sting’s Rainforest Foundation look like a beacon of fiscal efficiency.

And way down at the end of the story:

ONE said it took no money from the public and that most of its funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Well in that case, party time! (two of ONE’s employees wouldn’t happen to be named “Bill” and “Melinda” would they? Just checking…)

Based on this, it has to be asked: does Bono give any money to Bono’s “charity”?

And speaking of charity…

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

There’s a special place in hell for somebody who would rob some kids’ lemonade stand, isn’t there?

From the Detroit Free Press:

Calls offering donations have come in from as far away as Colorado and Cincinnati for a group of girls whose Pontiac lemonade stand was robbed Sunday afternoon.

The outpouring has been overwhelming — and a great lesson after a man ran off with the girls’ Mickey Mouse jewelry box and $40 in proceeds, mom Danielle Behan said Wednesday.

Behan’s 9-year-old daughter, Serena Inglsbee, Serena’s 8-year-old twin stepsisters, Savannah and Corrine Aldrich, and Aleyce Guerra, 6, the granddaughter of Behan’s fiancé, were robbed about 3:30 p.m. as they sold lemonade.

Like it’s not hard enough to do business in Michigan.

Now that the time and place of the grand re-opening of the lemonade stand has been announced, the kids’ first customers might be from the IRS.

These kids had made $40 selling lemonade? I’d recommend appointing them to the president’s economic advisory board, but they’re already way too overqualified. The guy who robbed them, however, would be perfect for the job.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

For “fun,” groups of amoral young thugs-in-training are roaming the streets of Philadelphia, intimidating passers-by and sometimes attacking them.

The police are trying to crack down on so-called flash mobs, marauding bands of teenage pinheads with little or non-existent parental supervision, by threatening to hold parents responsible. From the New York Times:

In the past year, at least four of the flash mobs have broken out in the city, including one on Saturday in which roving teenagers broke into fights, several onlookers were injured and at least three people were arrested.

“It was like a tsunami of kids,” said Seth Kaufman, 20, a pizza deliveryman at Olympia II Pizza & Restaurant on South Street. He lifted his shirt to show gashes along his back and arm. He also had bruises on his forehead he said were from kicks and punches he suffered while trying to keep a rowdy crowd from entering the shop, where a fight was already under way.

“By the time you could hear them yelling, they were flooding the streets and the stores and the sidewalks,” Mr. Kaufman said.

The ad hoc gangs have scared many pedestrians off the streets.

City residents are also starting to complain about the number of unsupervised children, and child advocates are asking if there are enough activities to keep young people busy after school.

Enough activities to keep young people busy after school. Give me a break.

According to media reports, the mobs began as some sort of performance art, where participants organize themselves via social networking sites. These “bored, sophisticated” fools meet up at places like malls and try to enter a store en masse for shock value.

This silliness reminds me of 1960s-era sexual liberation. Fueled by white, educated, upper- and middle-class women, the so-called sexual revolution trickled down to the lower classes, who couldn’t bounce back from sexual irresponsibility the way the higher classes could. In the same vein, when the “bored, sophisticated” flash mob idea trickled down to the lower classes, it turned violent and definitely unsophisticated.

While the police are doing their part, I recommend law-abiding residents of Philly do theirs by exercising their constitutional right to bear arms. For the record, Pennsylvania is a “shall issue” concealed carry state.

Follow me on Twitter @La_Shawn

Today’s hormone-laden little monsters roam the streets like a pack of wolves, attacking anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path—and not carrying a gun.

Kids these days.

From the AP:

Two preteens assaulted a woman walking home through a playground as part of a violent game called “Catch and Wreck,” in which children identify targets they think are homeless and then beat and rob them for fun, police said Tuesday.

An 11-year-old boy was arrested Monday night and charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy and robbery, Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker said.

A 12-year-old girl was charged shortly after the Friday night attack in southwest Philadelphia. The victim was surrounded by children, then punched and hit with sticks, police said. She suffered minor injuries to her knee and head and delayed seeking medical attention to help police with the investigation.

Police also plan to charge the boy in an attack on a 73-year-old man who was beaten and robbed in the same area on March 13, Walker said. The victim in that assault, Vincent Poppa, suffered a heart attack and remains hospitalized.

No more ring-around-the-rosie. Maybe spending some quality time in juvvie will straighten them out. But once caught up in the criminal justice system, well…

What’s fun about hurting people, especially people you don’t know and who never did anything to you? I feel bad if I even thought I may have hurt someone’s feelings, let alone stomping the person’s head into the ground. I guess they don’t make consciences like they used to. I blame Bush.

What do you think: any hope for these little hellions?

(Image credit: Blueberry Forest Toys)

Follow me on Twitter @La_Shawn

If you feel compelled to weigh in on his admission of “transgressions” and plea for privacy (shoulda thought about that before committing the transgressions against your beautiful wife/mother of your children, don’t you think, Tiger?), have at it.

Takeaway quote from his press release: “Personal sins should not require press releases.”

Well. You can’t be one of the most famous celebrities in the world, carry on multiple affairs with fame-hungry women, cheat on your gorgeous, dedicated wife with whom you have had two gorgeous children (whom you have posed with for public photos), and expect to be left alone.

Are tabloids out of control? Sure. But Tiger needs to man up and stop whining about the press. Like it or not, his bad judgment is news.

Cone of Shame Award for you!

***

Ugh.

A Connecticut House Democrat spokesman sent the following statement to Fox News Channel producer Lee Kushnir after she saw my blog post and asked about State Democrats Barbara Lambert and Jack Hennessy’s extra-curricular activities captured in the Hartford Courant newspaper.

Classic CYA:

Our members have discussed and debated the state budget for seven months, culminating in yesterday’s marathon, 13 hour budget session. With little new ground being broken, and the results of the upcoming vote a reasonable certainty, a momentary diversion is understandable. Both representatives insist there was no intent to disrespect the minority leader during his presentation.

Regards,
Doug Whiting
Communications Director
Connecticut House Democrats

I bet Connecticut voters are more than a wee bit curious about how “momentary” those “momentary diversions” really have been.

While a minority Republican legislator spoke on the floor late into the night yesterday, what were his Democrat colleagues doing?

Playing solitaire on their computers:

And watching baseball over the Internet:

Yes, the photo is real.

Click here for the full view.

***

Commenter Chapoutier identifies the Democrat slackers: “Using a little detective work and a seating chart, the woman is [State Democrat Rep. Barbara] Lambert. That would make the person to her left [State Democrat Rep. Jack] Hennessy, and the unshown person two rows behind watching baseball likely [State Democrat Rep. Russ] Morin.

Hennessy is the Assistant Majority Leader of the Connecticut legislature.

L.A. youths set cars and buses on fire and took to the streets to riot…after their basketball team won:

Losers.

And looters!

Compare and contrast:

(Photo source: LA Times)

(Photo source: Tehran Live)

Not like this.

Their ostensible reason for the “protest?”

“Solidarity with Greek Uprising.”

A band of demonstrators, many wearing black masks, stormed a bustling San Francisco mall Saturday evening, upending garbage cans and foliage and damaging crystal merchandise at one kiosk.

“It felt like random, vague anarchy,” said Sam Cantrell, who sells sunglasses at a kiosk near the escalators on the street level where the protesters gathered.

“Everyone’s yelling,” he said. “Some people started running up the escalator the wrong way. People were grabbing their babies and running away in fear.”

The disruption began around 6:30 p.m. as holiday shoppers crowded the mall on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Some protesters threw food, police said. Others tried to toss a large planter onto the food court below.

According to mall management, the protesters were part of a “Solidarity with Greek Uprising” demonstration, which began in the Mission District earlier in the afternoon. An international day of action was called on Saturday to protest the death of a young man in Greece in early December.

A half-dozen of the idiots were arrested for misdemeanor vandalism. But don’t expect anything to come of the charges.

It’s San Francisco.

***

I spoke too soon! A reader e-mails: “I wish it was ‘Only in San Francisco,’ but we had one of these Greek solidarity protests here in Toledo, Ohio as well. The goons held their ridiculous signs and blocked traffic, and had the disgusting nerve to parade around our statue of William Mckinley, which I guess they thought was funny because they were anarchists. They posted flyers with their website news.infoshop.com all over the area as well, and it looks like there have been protests in other cities as well. What the hell is wrong with these people?”

A Pennsylvania mother yesterday filed a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit against the makers of the popular Crocs footwear after her 6-year-old son’s shoe was caught and trapped in an escalator at the National Aquarium in Baltimore this spring, mangling his right big toe.

Kerry Burdick, who lives in Eagleville, Pa., claims Colorado-based Crocs Inc. knew its foam clogs were unsafe for escalator travel yet did nothing to warn the public, according to the lawsuit, which seeks more than $7.5 million in damages. It was filed yesterday morning in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Next up: Parents start suing shoelace-makers when their kids trip over untied laces that didn’t include user warnings.

…and then wishes for “magic” to happen when she can’t pay her rent.

Well, given the nationwide contagion of bailout-palooza, maybe it’s not such a stupid business model after all.

Groan.

Call her a Rainbow Truther. When you believe in an all-powerful cabal of puppetmasters, it becomes the default explanation for any anomaly in your universe. Hurricane in New Orleans? Blame Bush, or the Zionists, or the Oil Companies. See a rainbow in your sprinkler? Same thing.

Of course, some of us highly-placed Party Members within VRWC know the real explanation for funky rainbows.

________

Speaking of conspiracy theorists: I went to the DMV by Dulles Airport the other day to switch my license over to Virginia. Directly in front of the entrance, clearly on state property, a group of Lyndon Larouche supporters had set up a booth and were handing out their nutball literature. There was a security guy inside who didn’t seem to take notice.

Can kooks like the Larouchebags do that, legally? I was in a hurry, so I didn’t want to make a scene. But I’m pretty sure that running a political booth on the grounds of a state agency is a no-no.
___________________

{Posted by See-dubya}

A Long Beach mother of eight who drew national media attention after she was caught selling heroin with her two youngest kids in tow was sentenced to three years in state prison on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, here’s an alarming story about British law enforcement:

A man who was found with his head severed by a chainsaw was fighting to stay in a block of 70 flats in Hampshire cleared for redevelopment….

His body was found by police on 5 July, who said his death was not suspicious. Post-mortem tests showed he died of a “complete transection of the neck”. …

“There’s nothing suspicious about the death. It was in his flat on Bodmin Road.

“The place is all due to be redeveloped. He was the last resident left there. He lived there alone.”

A Hampshire Constabulary spokeswoman confirmed his death was not suspicious.

Note that I called this “alarming”, not “surprising”. I’ve lived in Britain and have a story about law enforcement there I’ll tell you sometime.

__________________
{Post by See-Dubya. Hat tips to John Ansell and American Digest.}