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By Matt Hawes

From the Center for Freedom and Prosperity come two new videos dealing with taxes.

The first takes a look at the costs involved in complying with our massive tax code.  Americans spend countless amounts of money and time worrying about meeting the requirements for and actually filing their taxes – money and time that could be put to much more productive use making a better life for themselves and their families.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=XX8EswfGKQw

The second video makes the case for a flat tax (which is also mentioned near the end of the first video).  Let me clearly state up front that Campaign for Liberty believes, along with Congressman Paul, that we need to do completely away with all taxes on our income and that the government can still operate on budget levels seen even a little over a decade ago if there were no income tax.  Of course, returning government to constitutional levels would automatically massively reduce the budget, help one day eliminate the debt, and bring down the cost of living.  This video makes an honest, intellectual case for why the flat tax would be better than the current system, and on this day of triumph for the state, I think it’s good for us to consider all arguments as we individually defend and articulate our positions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=nhUOpNve1bY

Your average Cub fan will, of course, be familiar with the Wrigley Rooftop that sports the “Eamus Catuli” sign, but it seems the well-known rooftop is now in foreclosure.

From Chicago Breaking News:

The building is known for featuring a sign in Latin that says “Eamus Catuli,” which translated means “Let’s go little bears.” But the owners of the club were stripped of its control when a Cook County Circuit judge appointed a receiver earlier this month to take over operations.
First Personal Bank of Orland Park filed the suit in February seeking more than $2.7 million in principal and interest payments. The bank loaned the owners of Lakeview Baseball Club $2.8 million in 2006, and made a second loan of $350,000 a year later.

CBN says that court papers show that the bank was “concerned” that “borrowers were diverting money from the club and using such funds for purposes unrelated to its operations.”

That doesn’t sound good.

The Lakeview Baseball Club and other adjacent rooftops pay the Cubs 17% of their revenue for the right to sell rooftop seats.

‘Eamus Catuli’ Wrigley rooftop club in foreclosure [Chicago Breaking News]

Hoo boy! This design for “Pod Cribs” is as bad as it gets. Not only does it looks like something out of some sort of tube-baby-growing dystopia, but it’s almost designed to make sure babies fall out of it. More »

A happy tax day to all readers. Yesterday, I took a look at the conservative talking point that only 47 percent of Americans pay income taxes. Today, Keith Hennessey, an economic adviser to President George W. Bush, explains that Republicans expanded the tax credits that ensure that a relatively small proportion of Americans pay those income taxes:

But most of the increase since the mid-1990s in the number of people who owe no income taxes is the result of the child tax credit. This policy was created by Congressional Republicans and expanded with Republicans in the lead.

To boot, he goes through a timeline of the changes.

Execs’ actions were evil

Editor, The Times:

In his column, “WaMu’s new line: Who knew?” [NWWednesday, April 14], Danny Westneat asked whether former Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger and other executives — who had the pedal to the metal right up to the point the WaMu bus flew off the cliff — were evil or just dumb.

Lets not kid ourselves. Their acts were evil — pure and simple. The magnitude of the pain and suffering Killinger and others caused is incalculable. Behind every one of those numbers on a spreadsheet is a real, live human being whose home was lost, job was terminated, retirement erased and future destroyed.

How many kids will not go to college because the family’s finances were decimated? How much sickness and disease is not being treated because people lost their health insurance, along with their job?

How many kids’ dreams and hopes for the future were snuffed out when they became homeless or realized they were at the mercy of a cruel and powerful economic machine fueled by greed from guys such as Killinger? The saddest part of this whole situation is that we will send some dumb kid who stole $20 from a 7-Eleven to prison; after contributing to the cumulative agony of millions of victims, Killinger will live out his years comfortably in his gated mansion.

— Dan Salins, Seattle

To know or not to know

WaMu’s Kerry Killinger claimed he did not know anything bad going on at the bank he headed, yet claimed he knew enough that “Washington Mutual was very well positioned, with its capital and operating plan, to work itself through this financial crisis” [“Ex-CEO tells Senate; WaMu got raw deal,” page one, April 14].

Have it both ways and earn millions?

— Mike Nakamura, Fall City

Killinger’s gall

Former WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger has the gall to sit before Congress and claim that the corporation he not so blindly drove into the ground was unfairly treated by federal banking regulators.

Killinger stated that his former corporation “should have been given a chance” to turn things around [“Ex-WaMu execs defend bank’s actions before failure,” seattletimes.com, April 13]. Evidently it was not soon enough, or with the necessary authority to prevent his $25 million severance parachute from floating into his pocket.

Clearly this fella is living on a different planet. How much of a chance did Killinger and his ilk give to the roughly 25 percent of this country’s home mortgage holders who currently owe more on their mortgage than the current value of their home?

The prisons in this country are full of individuals who claim to have been unfairly treated by some level of government. Hopefully, Attorney General Eric Holder and his team could find a few current federal statutes to apply to Killinger and his cronies, and have them join them.

We should all be vigilant and demand our congressional representatives ensure new legislation comes forth that protects us from these predatory criminals.

— Dan Corbitt, Mukilteo

How sorry is he?

So just how sorry is Kerry Killinger? Sorry enough to give some of his millions to aid the homeless? Sorry enough to pay back some of his defrauded customers?

The measure of his sorrow should be the level of restitution.

— Jan Hedrick, Renton

Time to strengthen Wall Street reform, not weaken it

The reckless behavior of banks drove our economy off a cliff; and more infuriating is that they did this knowingly. [“WaMu execs knew of danger,” page one, April 13]. Two years ago, the bankers on Wall Street made risky bets on exotic financial derivatives products such as credit default swaps and it helped to destroy the economy. Today, while the bonuses on Wall Street have recovered, the jobs and 401(k) s on Main Street have not.

Incredibly, the same Wall Street bankers and their clients plan to flood Washington next week in an effort to oppose reasonable regulation of bets on their risky derivatives. Until now, these products have been traded in secret, behind closed doors, and the bankers want to keep it that way. They intend to persuade the Senate to add sweeping exceptions to proposed reforms in order to keep more than half of all derivatives trades in the shadow markets rather than on open exchanges.

That is not good enough. As Wall Street reform is considered this month on the Senate floor, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray should oppose derivatives loopholes and other efforts by the Wall Street bankers to weaken reform.

— Irene Jeon, Seattle

The vote was 59 to 38 on final passage. Three Republicans — Olympia Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine) and George Voinovich (Ohio) — joined every voting Democrat in favor of the proposal.

The bill, which now moves to the House, will provide a two-month cushion for unemployed workers to access federal unemployment benefits after their 26 weeks of state benefits have expired. It does not create an additional tier of federal benefits for those at the last level of federal help.

The deadline for filing for additional benefits was April 5. The legislation passed today, which is retroactive to that date, extends the filing deadline to June 2.

The bill also extends COBRA health subsidies and delays a pay cut for Medicare doctors. The $18 billion cost was not offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Pocket Note iP3 for iPad ($1.99) – by Y Lau

iTunes Preview Link

Pros: Easy combining of resizable photos & text notes with hand-drawing/writing on virtual corkboard; Quick access to multiple projects

Cons: Can’t duplicate or “Save As” for easy multiple iterations of same project

Buying Advice: My favorite virtual whiteboard for iPad to date – Not perfect, but it’s only two bucks

 

 

I’m really excited about the prospects of using iPad as a brainstorming/mind-mapping/whiteboarding tool. Often when I need to work out an organized strategy for something – be it a PhoneDog editorial project or some flight of creative fancy or another – I reach for a blank pad of paper and a pen to sketch out my ideas. What I really want, though, is a digital pad that will let me write, draw, arrange and rearrange, and attach photos and Web clippings … and then save my work and start in on a new iteration of the idea, often building off of some portion of what I’ve just done.

 

I’m hesitant to shell out fifty bucks for Omnigraffle, especially given all of the “this feels like Beta software” user reviews in the App Store. So instead I’ve been spending a few bucks and lots of time trying out some of the free and inexpensive apps that look like they might give me what I need to get my thoughts in order, iPad style. Two of the most intriguing options I’ve found so far are Pocket Note iP3 and Popplet Lite.

 

 

Pocket Note is a virtual corkboard, if there was such a thing as “dry erase corkboard.” The app lets you take a blank board and attach photos and text notes to it, and draw on top of the board, photos, and notes. You can move and resize your photos and notes, and rotate the photos via multi-touch gestures. Saved boards are easily called up from within the app for later review and editing, and you can also save them to your iPad’s photo library as images.

 

This is a great app for basic visualizing of information flow, and also is handy for mocking up edits to Web pages, photos, and other images, or general multimedia journaling. It’s great to be able to take an image and write/draw on it and tape notes up next to it. Pocket Note is somewhat hampered by iPad’s limited file system, as it’d be even better if I could Email a board to another Pocket Note user who could then make some edits/additions and send it back to me. As it is now, there is no native file export, only saving still images of your boards. Still, for two bucks, this is a nice-looking, easy to use app for pulling photos, text, and drawing/handwriting together onto virtual corkboards.

 

 

See Also: Popplet Lite (Free)

Census a reminder of Japanese internment?

I feel that minorities in the United States might have mixed feelings when filling out their census forms come this April [“Census Day important for Latinos,” Opinion, April 4].

These same forms are what the U.S. government used during World War II to locate Japanese-Americans so they could put them internment camps for the duration of the war. These people were told the same thing that minorities are told today; that the information they provide will not come back to hurt them in any way. I can sympathize with these minorities who are reluctant to feel out these forms for fear of history repeating itself.

If the government wants to have a census that all will participate, the government needs to be true to its word and only use the information in the way that it says it will.

— Dan Peck, Pullman

United States not holding ground for the troubled

I find the opinion of Daisy Flores on illegal immigrants [“Unwarm welcome to immigrants unwarranted,” Northwest Voices, April 13] to be part of the current codswallop that is trying to change the United States. She was shocked that the majority of U.S. citizens were against illegal immigration. I am shocked that she is shocked.

First, we have —or had —a legal immigration system, which allows people from around the world to immigrate to and participate in the United States. Illegal immigrants negatively impact the opportunity for legal immigrants to come to this country.

This country cannot take all the unfortunate people in the world. Illegal immigrants need to solve the problems within their own countries as our forefathers did in this country. Our ancestors did not emigrate to another country —they stayed and fought in the Revolutionary War.

Flores follows the typical liberal line of letting an emotional approach outprioritize a fair, common-sense, equitable solution to various problems, both physical and financial.

— Dick Applestone, Bellevue

Well-to-do relax as everyone else puffs on taxes

The state Legislature just approved additional taxes on soda, candy, bottled water, cigarettes and non-microbrew beer to help balance the budget [“Lawmakers OK budget with taxes, service cuts,” NWTuesday, April 13].

No surprise, they are all items that the “little people” use. What about expensive “status” cigars? Believe it or not, Washington state still allows the well-to-do to continue purchasing cigars by mail order or over the Internet, from out-of-state and Indian reservations, free of any tobacco excise tax or sales tax.

California, Idaho and Oregon tax all cigars purchased out-of-state by their residents. As a consequence, Washington state loses about $200 million each year in taxes.

I have notified every member of the Legislature —and Gov. Chris Gregoire —of this tax loss for Washington state, but they all chose to do nothing about it. In addition, minors could easily order these same tax-free cigars without any requirement of proof of age.

Why is this allowed to happen, especially during these tough economic times? Are our officials paid off by cigar manufacturers? Do their big contributors demand tax-free cigars? Who knows, but something is very wrong. We should not allow them to get away with this big injustice.

— Rick Ornstein, Richland

The tripartisan group of senators crafting climate legislation — John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) — plan to release their much-anticipated bill on April 26. The original idea was to roll it out on April 22, the symbolic 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Why the change?

Graham explains:

“We’re not going to do it on Earth Day,” Graham said, adding, “It’s going to be offshore drilling day when it’s introduced.”

That won’t please environmental advocates who are already skittish about Graham’s commitment to meaningful climate legislation.

Coincidentally, the first annual Offshore Drilling Day is also my 25th annual birthday. Thanks for the best gift an environmental reporter can get, guys!

Cold War so old, so why the nukes?

This is a response to “Nuclear-weapons treaty signed, but trickier challenges loom” [News, April 9].

President Obama and Russian President Medvedev have signed a nuclear-arms reduction treaty in Prague. They claim that this treaty would reduce the number of weapons the two countries are pointing at each other by a third.

Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists has said that new counting rules are in effect and that the actual reduction of weapons would only be about 12 percent.

An important question is: Why do these two countries still need 1,550 nuclear weapons pointed at each other when the Cold War is over?

President Obama has stated that the only possible use of nuclear weapons by the United States now would be to deter a nuclear attack from a nuclear power. Iran must be worried about attacks from Israel and the United States —Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that nothing is taken off the table in trying to confront Iran’s nuclear development.

Pakistan and India are both nuclear powers in Iran’s neighborhood. Iran could argue that it needs nuclear weapons for the same reason that the United States does, namely to prevent nuclear attacks from nuclear powers.

The only course of action that makes sense is an all-out effort to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth. Small incremental reductions of these weapons are good and they should be applauded, but the only way to assure the survival of this wonderful world is the complete elimination of these awful weapons.

— Philip Heft, Kent

Stay grounded in trusting airplanes

It may never be determined whether the pilot of the Tupolev acted unilaterally or was pressured by other authority into landing in thick fog on that frigid, fateful morning in Smolensk [“Poles mourn president, 96 others killed in jet crash,” page one, April 11].

What this tragedy has demonstrated with a deadly certainty and in the gravest color known to man, is the imprudence of a policy not preventing packing an entire country’s elite leadership into a single plane. Flying, to this day, is still a form of Russian roulette, however excellent the odds are in one’s favor now.

Should you find the loaded chamber once out of 100,000 turns, it likely spells the end of your existence. An airplane is a hollow bullet filled with humans lives, shot from a gun we call an airport. Should it impact with the ground other than according to the dictates of precise technology, its content perishes; the life it holds ceases, regardless of its title, character or social ranking.

— Michael White, Brush Prairie

I’m a little excited, (says something after Palau!) Last Earth Day, EPA created Pick5 for the Environment to encourage environmental action, commitment and advocacy. Now it’s GLOBAL!

Ever wonder what more EPA could do internationally? Some of us here did too. An enthusiastic team at the State Department and EPA joined together to launch our first joint environmental advocacy effort! Now let’s hope for participation to rise, from all over the world.

Also, thanks to all the inspiring environmental efforts out there who have some incredible websites that we couldn’t help but admire when redesigning ours. We hope to inspire together!

So what’s Pick5 International about? Doing your part.

Excuses are easy. Long work hours, no recycling bin or reusable option handy. Greenies like me can whine and bug our friends to change, but you know – those swimming polar bears in Planet Earth did a much better job wrenching your heartstrings, and that’s great! Those images remind us that every action has a consequence, usually someplace else that’s easily forgotten.

The effects of our actions compile where we don’t see them. Plastics finding their way to far off lands, creating NEW land or ending up in landfills: somebody sees it. That ‘stuff’ will be around for generations. The condition of the planet doesn’t restart at the beginning of a child’s life. When has air pollution ever stopped at a border security check point? Last time I looked into it, the air and water this planet started with, is the only batch of it we’ve got.

Pollution knows no bounds. Neither should environmental action. Pick5 International was created with this in mind. We understand not everyone can do the same thing to help the environment. It’s about doing what fits your lifestyle, your home, your country. Leaving this planet better off than how we found it takes little steps from all of us. It’s that simple. It’s fun. It can save money. It can also, by the way, help save those places and species that we adore so much when we see them on TV. So let’s all Pick 5 today and every day, so generations to come might have a chance to still see them for real.

About the author: Jeanethe works for EPA New England in Boston doing Superfund Community Involvement, and social media outreach for EPA’s Office of Web Communications in Washington D.C.

Filed under: Japan, Videos

The Japanese domestic market is home to some pretty interesting tuning styles, and we’re grateful that there are plenty of cameras in The Land of the Rising Sun to catch these wonky rides in action. One such style is VIP, which mixes large, rear drive luxury vehicles with mods designed to give the vehicle more luxury, more flare and more bling. And sometimes, VIP can apparently be associated with the bizarre.

One gentleman sporting a video camera and a legitimate case of disbelief couldn’t help but drop an F-bomb (Seriously, NSFW) when he witnessed one of the most off-camber vehicles the world has ever seen. Hit the jump to see the brief yet bewildering footage of four very thinly rubbered wheels trying to do the splits. We can only hope the driver was on his way to the shop to have this issue looked at.

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Tuned Japanese car is (very) off camber

Video: Tuned Japanese car is (very) off camber originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The backers and the opponents of the White House’s new policy on America’s future space effort largely agree on where they’d like to see NASA going in the 2030s: beyond the moon, to asteroids and Mars. The battle is really over what NASA will be doing (or not doing) in 2012 … which, by the way, is an election year.

…(read more)

The W12 returns in a long and beautiful wrapper.

What do the Chinese love more than being chauffeur-driven in big German sedans? Being chauffeur-driven in big long-wheelbase German sedans. It’s no surprise, then, that Audi is using the 2010 Beijing auto show to introduce the 2011 A8L to the world.

While the Chinese have a certain predilection for all things long-wheelbase—they get some cars that we never see, like the extended versions of the BMW 5-series and Mercedes-Benz E-class—our market tends to skew in the LWB direction when it comes to full-size luxo-barges such as the A8.

Keep Reading: 2011 Audi A8L and A8L W12 – Official Photos and Info

Related posts:

1. 2011 Audi A8 – Official Photos and Info
2. 2011 Audi A1 – Official Photos and Info
3. 2011 Audi Q7 – Official Photos and Info

The Hill reports that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has declined to sign a letter circulated by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the minority leader, asking Republicans to vow to block the financial reform bill from coming to a vote. Democrats only need one crossover to prevent a Republican filibuster and to move forward with reform. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indicated that he might bring the bill onto the floor as soon as next week.

Perhaps nothing angered the average American more during the financial crisis than the idea that they would have to bear the cost of keeping alive giant financial firms that should have failed. Policymakers, including former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, said that bailouts were undesirable but necessary. They asserted that the entire financial system would collapse if the government did not intervene. It’s impossible to know if that claim was true, but Congress wants to make sure that the question of whether to bail out a firm never has to be asked again.

Yet, Republicans are unconvinced that the financial reform legislation offered by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) would really end bailouts. In a fiery exchange of floor speeches this week, he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) debated this point. Dodd asserts that his bill will put an end to bailouts, while McConnell and other Republicans say it leaves the door open for the government to prop up firms in perpetuity. Who’s right? They both are.

The Problem

Dodd’s bill seeks to create a mechanism for winding down firms that are so large or interconnected that their failure could cause the financial system to collapse. The so-called too-big-to-fail problem was the basis for rescuing firms like AIG and Fannie Mae. Such institutions enduring regular bankruptcy proceeds would have taken too long, creating an extended period of uncertainty and market turmoil. The creation of a non-bank resolution authority — with a similar role to that the FDIC plays with troubled depository institutions — could help.

But quickly and cleanly liquidating giant failed firms won’t be easy. So merely providing this authority to a government regulator isn’t enough. What happens if losses to creditors and counterparties threaten to further weaken the financial system? To alleviate this pitfall, Dodd has included a $50 billion liquidation fund to cover those costs, which will be paid for through proactive assessments on the very firms that the fund could be used to wind down.

And therein lies the problem: the liquidation fund would likely provide those firms a distinct advantage. The American Enterprise Institute Financial Policy Scholar Peter Wallison explains this objection in a blog post today. What are these “costs” that the $50 billion fund will be used to cover? He believes it will serve to pay off creditors, “so that the market’s fear of a general collapse will be allayed.” Even if creditors don’t benefit, other vendors or counterparties who do would provide an advantage to firms that are covered by the fund in a failure event.

Wallison has a fair complaint. Even though the resolution authority may, ultimately, wind down these big failed institutions, it may still bail out creditors — and that’s a problem. This will result in the firms on the government’s list of systemically risky firms having cheaper borrowing costs than smaller firms, since their debt will be perceived as safer. Creditors could be fairly certain that they’ll get some of their money back if a big institution fails. Large firms will have a competitive advantage over smaller ones.

Some Solutions

This isn’t an easy problem to fix, but the Senate can take one of several measures to attempt to do so:

Provide Clarity on Costs

Dodd might gain some political points if he explicitly defines the “costs” that the liquidation fund could cover. Then, if any of those costs are objectionable — like using the fund to pay off creditors — they can be crossed off the list. The problem here, however, is that it’s hard to imagine that the resolution authority can accomplish its mission without some flexibility in deciding which costs must be paid to achieve market stability. If you define costs too liberally, then you end up with a bailout-like feel; if you define costs too conservatively, then the resolution authority is ineffective. More on this issue here.

Let All Firms Utilize the Liquidation Fund

Dodd’s bill has a problem because it could provide big firms with an advantage, since only their failures utilize the liquidation fund during wind down. Why not, instead, allow all firms equal access to the fund for whatever costs it would have covered for only the large institutions? Think of depository insurance here. The FDIC does not provide only some banks with a competitive advantage because all participate. All pay assessments, and all get the benefit of depository insurance. Why not do the same for the liquidation fund? More on this solution here and here.

Create Financial Utilities

Another possibility would be to sort of meld together the two options above. Define which kinds of obligations or transactions must be protected to prevent a financial system-wide panic. Then guarantee these aspects of business for all firms. More on this here.

Whatever the Senate decides, the contention that the government should do nothing if a very large or interconnected firm fails is not a legitimate solution. The collapse of Lehman Brothers demonstrated just how ugly things can get — it triggered a financial crisis leading to 20% underemployment. Even if whatever steps taken with financial reform do not result in a perfectly safe financial system — and they likely can’t — they should at least seek to lessen the severity of major market disturbances like those experienced during the recent crisis.

Last December, we noticed the revival of an interesting idea: a futures market on movies. There are actually a few companies trying to realize this concept: the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX), Veriana Networks’ TrendEx, and simExchange (for video games). Instead of only allowing investors to trade with fake money, HSX and Veriana are looking to let investors use real money to trade shares in the prospects of movies, and have asked the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to approve these exchanges for trading with actual money.

However, the MPAA isn’t too keen on the idea of having outsiders gamble on their movies. Understandably, the MPAA doesn’t want to deal with complex liability for various kinds of insider trading or “market manipulation” that might result if studios/producers/directors could profit from simply making marketing decisions. Additionally, the MPAA likely also worries that movie futures would further encourage movie piracy — given that investors who are shorting movies may have a significant financial incentive to distribute copies of movie files before a theatrical release.

These futures exchanges actually bring up several interesting questions regarding the metrics of movies — and how betting big on theatrical releases could be open to alternative marketing techniques. And if these market exchanges are allowed, will Hollywood be forced to adapt to additional business models? Could investors push studios towards taking advantage of their infinite goods or towards even more stringent copyright enforcement? These exchanges could also determine how much movie popularity can really be manipulated by investors and marketing efforts. But we may never know without real money behind movie trading. So, with this fairly important change to the movie industry at hand, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is taking a bit longer to decide what the fate of these exchanges will be.

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