Tax Plan Comparison

Everyone should surf over to countryclubfirst.com, which has an awesome comparison of who benefits from both Obama and McCain's tax plans. Unless you make over $600,000 a year, (which of course McCain still considers middle class, since its under $5 million) those ads talking about Obama tax increases aren't meant for you. Your taxes would decrease if you make under about a quarter mil per year, and stay about the same from there to $600,000. Don't take my word for it though, check out the graph at the website.

The data at that website is taken from this study by the Tax Policy Center, which is also worth reading. Of course, just like repeating "9/11" and "Iraq" thousands of times tricked huge numbers of our fellow Americans into believing Iraq was involved in 9/11, McCain's cynical plan to feed us so many lies we lose sight of the truth might actually work.

A passage from a classic

I've added the bold print for emphasis.

One man, one family driven from the land; this rusty car creaking along the highway to the west. I lost my land, a single tractor took my land. I am alone and I am bewildered. And in the night one family camps in a ditch and another family pulls in and the tents come out. The two men squat on their hams and the women and children listen. Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, and suspect each other. Here is the anlage of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate-"We lost our land." The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first "we" there comes a still more dangerous thing: "I have a little food" plus "I have none." If from this problem the sum is "we have a little food," the thing is on its way, the movement has direction. Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are ours. The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. It's wool. It was my mother's blanket-take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning - from "I" to "we".

-The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Tina Fey as Palin on SNL

This is probably the best SNL political skit since the "lockbox vs strategery" debate of 2000. Unfortunately, Tina Fey has as much experience on the national political scene as Sarah Palin.

New Anti-McCain ad

This ad just came out, so its not everywhere on the internet. By the end of the workday it surely will be. I'm glad to see Obama hitting back without blatantly lying like the Republicans have been.

Introduction

I am the Local Liberal.

I'm creating this blog for three reasons:

A. This election is making me want to shout out the benefits of being on the left, and shout out about what the right is doing.

B. We seem to have more conservative blogs than liberal blogs in the Quad City area.

C. Our main liberal blogger, The Inside Dope, frequently sinks to the same kind of insults and name calling that come from the right wing people. He usually has good posts, but then the comments degenerate into insults back and forth. That's the kind of thing that makes regular people hate politics.

This blog will almost entirely focus on national politics, so those of you wanting to argue about Mike Jacobs or other local figures can probably just move along. I'm not dismissing local politics, but its just not where my interests lie.