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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (231341)	5/3/2005 12:34:48 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571785

RE: "6th highest...If you just count per capita taxes CA might be the highest." It's high, in part because California is funding the Red States. Time for the Red States to be accountable for themselves. (Humorously said, with a hint of irony) Regards, Amy J

To: TimF who wrote (231341)	5/3/2005 2:59:49 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571785

The tax rate is 1.15% of the assessed valuation.........that's cheap by almost any measure. Maybe not considering how high those assessed valuations can go. The growth in assements is not capped when a transfer of ownership occurs. In any case the property tax rate doesn't matter as much as the overall tax revenue. CA has high tax revenue. Yikes, Tim.........CA may have high tax revenue [whatever that means] because its the most populous state in the union. It also has some very big bills. you cut off the income to the gov't and they 'prove' to you how incompetent gov't is. Income has not been cut off. CA has one of the ten highest tax burdens in the country (the most recent stats I have place it as 6th highest). And that as a percentage of the economy. If you just count per capita taxes CA might be the highest. Tim, I told you those state tax evaluations are not to be taken too seriously. The Tax Foundation ranks CA 20th in its survey: money.cnn.com If I checked out other surveys, the ranking would change for CA. You can play all kinds of manipulative games with tax rankings. Bottom line: CA does not have enough income to pay its bills. Its on a very bad diet......one that would have killed a human long ago. ted

To: TimF who wrote (231341)	5/3/2005 11:48:05 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1571785

From time to time, you post that things are not as bad in Iraq as the mainstream media would have us believe. When I read things below, I have to believe that your sources are full of it. I don't care if the entire country is peaceful [and its not], having to pay $35k to go to the Baghdad airport is a sign of serious problems. I would not have blamed the Italian car for speeding after reading the comments below. ********************************************************** Off the Meter** Last November, a security consultant told David Corn that a six-mile cab ride from Central Baghdad to Baghdad International Airport cost $6,000. Now it's up to $35,000. Read what New York Times Iraq correspondent Dexter Filkins recently told NBC Meet the Press host Tim Russert: "RUSSERT: There is a road, a highway from the airport to downtown Baghdad that's called the Road of Death by many. I understand there's a taxi service on that road to take someone from downtown to the airport. FILKINS: Yeah. There's actually a company in Baghdad that does nothing except offer rides to the airport and back. They've got armored cars and some guards. And they charge $35,000 for... RUSSERT: Thirty-five thousand dollars? FILKINS: For a ride to the airport. And I think you know, if you miss your plane and you have to come back, it's another $35,000. But... RUSSERT: How long--is it six miles? FILKINS: I think it's about six miles, yeah. It's not a happy six miles. So, you know, they earn their money. RUSSERT: Why have we been unable--or the Iraqis unable to protect that road, that stretch? FILKINS: That's a real mystery. It's a really bad neighborhood that it goes through, and you know, people come in from both sides...I think in the dead of night, people come out and plant bombs and they stage attacks." The "Road of Death" is where a suicide car bomb recently killed American aid worker Marla Ruzicka. It's also a powerful symbol of just how far off course the US occupation has gone. After months of fanciful pronouncements, General Richard Myers finally admitted that the insurgency's "capacity stays about the same. And where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago." Militants are launching between 50 and 60 attacks per day, up from a post-election lull of 40. At least 127 people, including 11 American soldiers, have died since Thursday in more than twenty-five attacks across Iraq. Excluding the vicious weekend violence, Iraq has lost 300 security forces in the past six weeks. "Weeks will differ, and months will differ a little bit," Myers said, "But if you look at the scope of this, over time since May of 2003, that's the conclusion you draw." The conclusion is that two years after the fall of Baghdad, 140,000 coalition troops still can't defend a six-mile stretch of highway, much less crack Iraq's guerilla resistance. As a result, money that should be going toward rebuilding water, sewage and power plants, and putting Iraqis back to work, has been diverted to meet spiraling security costs. For the third time in nine months, the Bush Administration has redrafted its project to rebuild Iraq. "On any given construction project, as much as 35 percent of the money goes to protecting the workers who are working on it," Filkins told Russert. "So the problem has been the violence, and it's basically overwhelmed every attempt or most of the attempts to rebuild the country." Perhaps the agreement to form a cabinet and hand over power to new Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari will eventually provide an impetus for positive change. But naming Ahmad Chalabi deputy prime minister (and temporary overseer of Iraq's oil revenues) and his nephew Ali Abdel-Amir Allawi finance minister isn't likely to solve the country's problems. For now, we'll know that progress has been made when a ride to the airport drops below $35,000. thenation.com