This is a re-working I did of a poem written anomynously about 100 years ago. If anyone would like to repost or use for your Tea Party, feel free.

The Taxed Man

They taxed my land, they taxed my wage,
They taxed my bed in which I lay.

They taxed my plow, they taxed my mule,
They taught me taxes were the rule.

They taxed my cow, and taxed my goat,
They taxed my pants and then my coat.

They taxed my ties, socks, shoes and shirt,
They taxed my work, they taxed my dirt.

They taxed my smoking, taxed my drink,
They taxed me when I tried to think

They taxed my booze then taxed my beers.
And when I cried, they taxed my tears.

They taxed my children, taxed my dog,
Taxed my sun, wind, rain, and fog.

They taxed my horse, but not my cat.
They taxed this chair, here, where I'm sat.

They taxed my truck, they taxed my gas,
They taxed my notes, they taxed my cash.

They taxed my tax to let me see
That bought or made, there is a fee.

They taxed me high when I did well,
They taxed me more when I fell ill.

They taxed my coffin, my headstone,
They taxed the sod I now call home.

When I was gone, just newly dead,
They came to my old house and said,

"We've come to take the tax that’s due.
Though cash is best, we take checks, too."

They taxed it all and wanted more.
My children and wife were left poor.

So, back to work to pay the bill,
And pay they do with interest, still.

Throughout our lives we live this fact:
That death is sure; but more so, tax.

# # #

Here is a list of Taxes Americans pay each day... is it complete? Who knows?!

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
Inventory tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road usage taxes (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes

After a stunning victory in Massachusetts over Democrat Martha Coakley, I'm sure Senator-elect Scott Brown came home, changed into some comfy pj's, and watched some fluffy puppies!

Free video streaming by Ustream

Ahhhhhhh...

But in that peculiar way that minds work, his dream come true in ways that are unexpectedly... direct. It turns out his ability is like that of a genie: sure, you get what you want, but in the end, do you want what you get?

* * *

During the Carter Administration, there was an idea that it would be a good thing to make homeownership a right. After all, shouldn't everyone own a home?? As a means to that end, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was created and signed into law. It basically made it a little easier for those people "on the bubble" to afford to buy a home.

In 1995, President Clinton signed into law a major expansion of the CRA that strong-armed banks into lending to uncreditworthy people. And it worked - people were able to buy a home with "no money down."

But what this action by the Democrats did was to effectively guarantee that home prices would rise. Everybody's homes became instantly more valuable because that pesky 20% down payment was no longer required.

Nobody really noticed until the tech bubble popped.

When 1999 changed to 2000 and a Yahoo stock dropped from $300 to $30, a lot of the money that wasn't lost found it's way into the real estate market. Why wouldn't it? A lot of very smart people realized that there was a ton of money on the table. They were right.

As the real estate sector rallied, competition for those mortgage dollars increased, the guidelines were loosened. More and more and more people could qualify for no-doc loans.

It was a win-win: Banks were investing in the value of the property, not the borrower. As annual appreciation rates broke through the double-digit barrier, the banks were happy. So what if a borrower failed? They'd just sell the property for 15-20% more than they paid for it last year. The bank's debt is cured, and the borrower can take that money, buy another home, and try again.

Even though President Bush sounded the alarm in 2000, and McCain sounded the alarm again in 2003-4, Democrats consistently shouted them down. They said, in effect, "Move along, move along... there's nothing to see here..."

In the fall of 2005, the first whiff of trouble rippled through the real estate market. By 2006, the slowdown was palpable. In 2007, real estate professionals knew the jig was up. The ones who didn't sell in '06, sold their homes, rented, and waited.

Now, in 2008, we are in full-frontal crash mode. We could have done something to stop this crash, but the Democrats blocked every attempt. Their zeal to give away homes to a minority of people who couldn't pay trumped their oath to serve and protect all their constituents.

So, wish number one was "gee, I wish it was easier to buy a home" Granted! But now home prices have risen to crazy-high levels because money's so cheap.

Wish number two was "man, home prices are so high; I wish they would come down!" Granted! The real estate bubble has burst, and home prices have fallen as much as 60% in some areas.

* * *

Meanwhile, people said, "boy, I wish the minimum wage was higher... that would be sweet."

At the same time, people thought that one of the things contributing to the American trade deficit was an expensive dollar. I wished the dollar would come down in price so that American goods would be more competitve in the world market. We'd sell more and better products to the world market and that would be a good thing.

Granted! But the combination of many things, including falling dollar and higher labor costs contributed to higher oil prices (oil is priced in dollars), an overall CPI increase of, like, 6% in one year, and an unemployment rate of 6.1% (up from 4.8% last year). Ask a small business owner why this matters.

* * *

Then people thought, "You know, these gas prices are crazy - I wish they would come down. There's no way oil should be at $130 a barrel; it should be at, like, $80. $40 would be better!"

Granted! The price of oil started to fall... a lot! Yesterday, it traded in the $80-90-per-barrel range. Oops, the price of oil dropped so drastically because of (well-founded) fears of worldwide recession.

* * *

So here we are, 20-something days from the 2008 elections. I hear a lot of people saying, "Gosh, I wish things would change. I want change so much. Change, change, change, change, change..."

Well, here are the choices: one guy who has done a lot over a long time versus another guy who has done very, very little over a very small amount of time. Both guys talk about 'change.'

Considering the realities of this election, there will certainly be change.

What we need to consider, however, that we choose the right change.

After an extended Twitter-bender, I'm happy to announce, I'm baaaack!

I was tooling around Twitter this morning when I came across a blog by Aaron Brazell called Technosailor. This particular post covered his annual installment of "Words That Must Die in 2009." It was mostly tech-centric and hilarious.

After reviewing my comment, I noticed it was skewed toward politics. So I thought I'd offer this...

Words to Rest in 2009

"Hope," "Hope and Change," "progressive," "non-partisan," "gamechanger," "mandate," "happy holidays," "Obama-" (ie. Obamanomics. This is already really, really old), "centrist," "Office of the President-Elect," "bubble," "tax cuts for 95% of Americans," "middle class," "the rich," "macro," "billion," "crater," "governance," "global warming," "green"

"We 'hope' the 'hope-and-change' 'progressives' move toward 'non-partisanship.' This would be a 'gamechanger' and expose a 'mandate' to cure 'Obamamania' and encourage 'centrist' 'governance.'

"Unfortunatley, 'The Office of the President Elect' will instead immediately propose 'tax cuts for 95% of Americans' and 'green' jobs initiatives to solve 'global warming,' which will obstensively boost the 'middle class' and only lightly burden 'the rich.'

"This trickle-up 'macro' approach intends to cure the housing 'bubble,' stabilize our economy, and generate 'billions' of new revenue for the incoming administration, but it will actually 'crater' our economy further.

"Happy Holidays."

What are some words you have had enough of in 2008?

A Hugh Hewitt Show listener responded to some of the goings-on surrounding the mechanics of the investigation US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is running of the Blagojevich scandal in Chicago. Hewitt published this correspondence on his blog, and I've re-posted it here.

This is a facinating read that shines a bright light into the precarious process of navigating this type of investigation.

* * *

From an Assistant United States Attorney:

Caught some of the show yesterday after the release of the Obama internal report.
I know you're off the air for a couple weeks, but I thought I'd mention a couple of things:

First, the "false statement" statute is 18 USC Sec. 1001 (not 2001).

Second, neither the FBI nor US Attorney's Office puts witnesses under oath when they are interviewed. The oath is only administered before testimony before a GJ [Grand Jury]. Agents are not authorized to administer an oath, nor are prosecutors.

Nevertheless, the existence of the 1001 statute has the same functional effect. Any intentional misstatement or omission of a material fact when being questioned by a federal law enforcement agent about a matter under investigation is a felony, oath or no oath. That's why Libby was charged both with perjury before the GJ and making false statements to the FBI during his earlier interviews.

As for the order of the witness interviews, its really only speculation, and witness availability has a lot to do with it, but in my experience having done a few wiretap cases involving drugs back in California, you start with the recorded conversations as your basic record. I would then pull the telephone tolls of every person who was recorded, and I would want to know who they spoke to on the phone immediately before and immediately after each recorded conversation. So, if Emanuel is recorded at 12:00 noon talking to [Gov. Blago.'s Chief of Staff] Harris about appointing Jarrett, and at 12:15 there is a telephone toll showing a call to Obama, I would want to ask Obama about the contents of that phone call. If there was a call at 12:20 from Emanuel to Jarrett, I would want to ask Jarrett about that phone call -- keeping in mind that I know what it is Emanuel and Harris talked about because they are recorded. So, it's sometimes easy to pick-up on prevarications and inconsistencies when you start getting explanations that don't sound right. Once you have the interviews done of the people who were contacted around the same time as key recorded conversations you go back to the person who was recorded and ask him about the unrecorded conversations that came before and after the recorded conversations.

This is really where the current environment -- the same as the environment Libby found himself in -- borders on the unfair. Fitzgerald knows -- as any good prosecutor would know and take advantage of -- that the people he wants to talk to cannot assert their Fifth Amendment rights for political reasons. If I was Emanuel's lawyer, it would be my advice that he not be interviewed - he has only his best recollection of what he has been recorded as saying, and he doesn't get to listen to his conversations prior to answering questions about them. Second, he has no idea what the other people being interviewed are saying about unrecorded conversations they had with him.

For a prosecutor this is the equivalent of "broken field running" -- you're through the line or scrimmage and behind the linebackers, and everyone else is trying to catch-up to where you are. Fitzgerald has probably 3-4 guys/gals working on this full time -- meaning they spend all day comparing transcripts, subpoenaed documents, and interview notes looking for opportunities to lay traps for people about to be interviewed. That was the undoing of Libby and almost Rove. When the prosecutor calls you back to the GJ for the 3rd and 4th time, its not because he's still genuinely unsure about your testimony. He's asking you to navigate the minefield of the record that has been created to that point under oath. Your missteps are going to become his indictment. No normal person would go back to the GJ time after time, but Fitzgerald knows that he's going to get whatever he asks for because doing otherwise would make it look like Obama's people have something to hide.

The report comes out late in the day on Tuesday, Dec. 23. They know that most folks like yourself are going to be off the air on Wed, or they are going to have holiday themed shows. Thurs, is obviously not a news day, and Fri is likely going to be the same. Next you have the dead week between Christmas and New Years.

Obama is in Hawaii until Jan. 2 with no public events planned where he might be asked questions. Emanuel is in Africa where he is out of contact on a long planned family vacation.

Consider that again -- the incoming WH Chief of Staff, in a "change of parties" transition from one Presidency to the next which is less than 4 weeks away -- and he's in Africa??????

And they want the press to have nothing on this story other than their self-serving exoneration of all key staffers.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

emphasis and links added

* * *

A few quick thoughts:
(1) The much-lauded-and-referenced "Report" is an exhaustive 5 pages long. FIVE. As I read through it, all I could hear was, "Move along, move along ... there's nothing to see here..."
(2) Obama's number-one strategy for Dealing With Unpleasantness seems to be going away, doing and saying nothing, and hiding behind holidays and other national events. (the Obama-enabling media makes this especially easy.) And by the way, does anybody else get a little uneasy that our Prez-elect has a tendency to leave the continent at the drop of a hat? I know we all this modern technology and what-not, but geez - a little engine trouble and we've got ourselves a major problem.
(3) You know Rahm (and others in Obama's ranks) is doing some long, hard thinking along the lines of, "How hard do I fight? Will protecting myself take down Obama? Will Obama reward me for taking a fall? How do I get out of this? What's my exit strategy?" They know they are the only ones looking out for themselves. Obama's campaign is strewn with his fallen "compatriots."

All-in-all, this certainly does not seem to be the kind of change I can believe in.

We've all heard to story and seen the video...

A 29yr-old reporter reporting in Iraq for ab Arab satellite channel interrupted a press conference and threw his shoes at President Bush. Called him a dog, too.

We here in America may not recognize that these two things are indeed grave insults to our President. We see this goofy guy throwing shoes and Bush deftly ducks the assault.

In an extraordinary move (extraordinary for leaders in that part of the world, anyway) Bush calls off his security detail and makes a joke. The Iraquis take the man into custody. This act is against the law in Iraq and carries with it a seven year prison sentence. Whether or not the Iraqis choose to prosecute this forgiener is up to them.

I can only imagine what would have happened if it was Barack Obama in Bush's place that afternoon... So I asked my Twitter-friends, "Even though it's kinda old news, I wonder how would Obama have handled a shoe being thrown at him??"

Here's what some of them had to say...

Mortimas "he would have bobbed when he should have weaved"
BreakTheirBones "he would have stopped the shoe midflight with a Jedi mind trick."
DecidedlyRight "Well, Obama is severely lacking in machismo, so my guess is that he'd be taken to a hospital for observation. :)"
TracyCarol "Obama can walk on water, so a shoe shouldn't be a problem. Think how tragic would be for his followers to see him as mortal."

What do you say?

Join conversation here or at twitter.com. Be sure to check out TopConservativesOnTwitter.org (TCOT)

(H/T David All)

Take 5 minutes and watch this amazing video. It really helps put things into perspective...

What does it mean to you?

Thanks, Jennifer...

Here's a wonderful cartoon from 1948 that talks about the dangers of "ism."

It's as true today as it was then! Enjoy...

"Make Mine Freedom"

Alfonzo Rachael is at it again - this time, with stunning visual effects! That's right - if you thought his videos were compelling before, hold on to your umm... thing you want to hold on to.

Zo's newest video features brilliant dialogue, crip stunts, and dazzling v/fx.

Presenting, "The Vote Reaper" Starring 'Zo... Enjoy!

Fantastic :D

Florida State University invites unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers to speak. (h/t Michelle Malkin)

Today, we are all SEMINOLES. Let's take a few short moments to stand up for America.

Email your opinion about Ayers' speechmaking to our kids to the student council who approved it: http://sga.fsu.edu/

Be nice. No cussing. Remember, they're just kids (idiot kids, but still...)

I'm sad to report that Cosmo, for whom this blog is named, has passed away.

He was a beloved member of our family for more than 13 years.

We were lucky enough for Cosmo to pick us when he was a wee one at 9 weeks old.

He was always a sport. The neighborhood kids nicknamed him "Wonderdog" for his abilities with frisbees.

He was our buddy, our 'Mo. We will miss him terribly until that day we see him again.

Perhaps now more than ever, we are all in Cosmo's World...

I'm happy to introduce to everyone Onthefringe from Silicon Valley, CA who, according to his bio, is a VC-backed, start-up CEO, sharing day-to-day insights in the day-to-day life of a start-up.

Onthefringe has agreed to share his funny, uncannily insightful, and always interesting tips and career advice for everyone from those who aspire to VC-backed Silican Valley Glory to the Guy-Who-Wants-NOT-To-Get-Layed-Off.

Take it away, Onthefringe...

Interview tip: I'm much more interested in hearing about what you've done & your thought process & way less about your graduate degree.

Mr. VC: Um, there are no 'secret revenue models' that I know of. If there were, I would have already done it. Then it wouldn't be a secret.

CEO & Board tip: It's definitely more fun to be on the Board of Directors than to answer to the Board of Directors.

Watch this space for more keen insight - coming at you daily - courtesy of Onthefringe. You can follow Onthefringe at twitter.com 

I was watching the FOX News show Red Eye the other night. One of the guests was S.E. Cupp, author of the book "Why You're Wrong About The Right".

As luck would have it, it appears as though she will be a guest tonight, Nov 24, 3am -- set your TiVo's!

Here's what she had to say about the (alleged) indescretion of the Obama camp, spilling the beans regrading the private meeting he had with President Bush.

What is the deal with all that fancy-talk with Obama? Talking about, "Quid-Pro-Quo"... You know, that's what I'll miss about George Bush. With him, you know he's strictly a "tit-for-tat" guy.

You know, that is one of the many, many things I'll miss about Goerge Bush too.

The Chicago Tribune's John Kass wrote this facinating article (excerpt below). The piece follows the pre-election experiment conducted by Chicago teen Catherine Vogt. Her story is a lesson to us all...

"Tolerance Fails T-Shirt Test"
by: John Kass, The Chicago Tribune

 As the media keeps gushing on about how America has finally adopted tolerance as the great virtue, and that we're all united now, let's consider the Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment.

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.

So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:
"McCain Girl"

"I was just really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters," Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be."