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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (92600)	12/28/2004 2:08:41 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793781

I recently received this joke in an e-maIl: Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, along with a U.S. Marine assigned to protect them, were hiking through the Iraqi desert one day when they were captured by terrorists. They were tied up, led to a village, and brought before the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq. Zarqawi said, "I am familiar with your western custom of granting the condemned a last wish; so, before we kill and dismember you, do you have any last requests?" Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan; so I'd like one last bowlful of hot spicy chili." Zarqawi nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili. Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content." Peter Jennings said, "I am Canadian, so I'd like to hear the song 'O Canada' one last time." Zarqawi nodded to a terrorist who had studied the Western world and knew the music. He returned with some rag-tag musicians and played the anthem. Jennings sighed and declared he could now die peacefully. Zarqawi turned and said, "And now, Mr. U.S. Marine, what is your final wish?" "Kick me in the ass," said the Marine. "What?" asked Zarqawi. "Will you mock us in your last hour?" "No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Marine. So the leader shoved him into the open, and kicked him in the ass. The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled out a 9mm pistol hidden in his cammies, and shot Zarqawi dead. In the resulting confusion, he leapt to his knapsack, pulled out his M4 carbine, and sprayed the remaining terrorists with gunfire. In a flash, they were either dead or fleeing for their lives. As the Marine was untying Rather and Jennings, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass?" "What," replied the Marine, "and have you assholes call me the aggressor?"

To: LindyBill who wrote (92600)	12/28/2004 2:32:53 PM
From: jrhana	Respond to of 793781

you get the absurd scenario where a victorious plaintiff owes the IRS more -- sometimes significantly more -- in taxes than s/he was awarded in damages. That's mostly because of the silly Alternative Minimum Tax,> I understand they are planning on eliminating the AMT. I hope so. Another absurd example of the AMT is the treatment of capital gains and losses. You have to declare capital gains but can not deduct capital losses. So to use an extreme example: suppose you have one million in capital gains and nine hundred thousand in capital loses. This gives a total of one hundred thousand in gains. But incredibly (to me at least), you will be taxed at about 29% of the million of gains or $290,000. So you owe $290,000 in taxes on a $100,000 gain. To make it worse you have declare the capital losses on your regular income tax statement. This is because you are required to make two parallel tax calculations-the regular and the AMT. You pay of course whichever is higher. So you use up but do not benefit from the capital losses. They can not now ever be used to offset future gains.