SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: tejek who wrote (283314)4/7/2006 4:36:10 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1572931
 
Is it just me or Mexico, too, belongs to the Axis of Evil? Clue:

Creeping amnesty

By Diana West
April 7, 2006


So there I was, thinking that the only "imminent" threat was the Islamization of the Western world, a historic shift well underway in Europe. Yes, it remained clear that out-of-control immigration in the United States jeopardized the future of our nationhood. But after September 11 the present danger had become creeping Shariah: the gradual -- and-not-so-gradual -- acceptance of Islamic law by Western and, therefore, non-Islamic societies.

But then came last month's massive, mainly Mexican street protests against border control and in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens, mainly Mexican, who have crossed into this country since the last time Uncle Sam granted amnesty in 1986. Back then, it was amnesty for under 3 million. Today, 20 years later, these protesters, along with George W. Bush, want to see some 12 million illegal aliens "earn" citizenship (amnesty). In another 20 years, will a new, amnesty-seeking illegal population number 48 million? In light of the post-protest retreat -- I mean, "deliberations" -- in the U.S. Senate, such a colossal figure looks increasingly plausible. After all, what does an illegal alien or two (or 48 million) have to lose? We are, as we are repeatedly lectured, "a nation of immigrants" who do the work that "Americans" won't do. In fact, maybe just forget about "Americans." If we, the people, get anything like Amnesty 2006 -- with provisions to attain an increasingly Hispanic demographic -- the United States will change from being a neighbor of Latin America to becoming a part of it.

All of which is to say that creeping Shariah, both at home and abroad, is still a present danger. But so is creeping amnesty. And strikingly, the amnesty scenario begins to mirror, if even in a cracked way, some of the demographic changes that historian Bernard Lewis predicted will turn Europe Islamic by the end of this century. That is, as America increasingly loses its European-descended majority on one side of the Atlantic, Europe, too, increasingly loses its European majority on the other.

In a National Review Online piece called "American Dhimmitude," the Center for Immigration Studies' Mark Krikorian likened illegal aliens' demands on the U.S. government to "the same kind of challenge that aggressive outsiders are making against other parts of the West, including Muslim immigrants in Europe and, in its most extreme form, Palestinians in Israel." One blogger, Freedom Folks (hat tip Michelle Malkin), took this concept a step further. Reporting on craven decisions by several American public schools to ban American flags and other patriotic symbols that presumably offend or inflame student-advocates of illegal alien "rights," Freedom Folks referenced "dhimmitude," the subservient condition of non-Muslims under Islamic rule, and wrote: "Welcome to the beginning of Mexitude right here in the U.S. of A. ... Think dhimmitude, but substitute Colorado for Kandahar and La Raza for The Religion of Peace [Islam]."

There are other parallels. Both Mexican and Islamic supremacist movements harken back to chimerical Golden Ages -- the purely mythical Aztlan kingdom said to comprise the American Southwest, and the mythically tolerant Andalusia of Islamic Spain. Both groups are demonstrably more anti-Semitic than the general populations around them. Both groups seem to thrive on crazy conspiracy theories. For example, we've all heard from the Arab-Muslim world that September 11 was an Israeli and/or CIA plot; I found similar claptrap online at the separatist (and Palestinian suicide-bomber honoring) "news" site, La Voz de Aztlan, where publisher Hector Carreon, writing from "Los Angeles, Alta California" (Imperial Spain's, then Mexico's name for the region before it was ceded to the United States in 1848), declared that Nicholas Berg's decapitation by jihadists in Iraq was a stunt engineered at Abu Ghraib. La Voz de Aztlan, by the way, is one of the organizations calling for a nationwide, pro-amnesty boycott on May 1.

Small wonder that some organizational solidarity exists between Islamic and Mexican radical groups -- as seen, for example, when the Council on American-Islamic Relations joins a "pro-immigrant" rally at the U.S. Capitol. International A.N.S.W.E.R -- which, as The Washington Times reported, was the hard-left coalition behind last month's pro-amnesty march in Los Angeles -- has a steering committee that includes, along with "civil justice" and "socialism and liberation" groups, the Mexico Solidarity Network, the Nicaragua Network, the Free Palestine Alliance and the Muslim Student Association. It all begins to make sense, in a leftist, anti-American, open-borders coalition sort of way.

My question: Why does George W. Bush seem to have signed onto this coalition?

washtimes.com



To: tejek who wrote (283314)4/7/2006 10:36:05 AM
From: combjelly  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 1572931
 
"Taxes on a 30K car in Fairfax Country would run around $1400. When I left California, plate taxes on a $30k would have cost roughly $300-400."

You've got to be kidding me. Either of those figures is extremely high. Plus, we don't have a state income tax. OTOH, we don't have much in the way of state services, either...



To: tejek who wrote (283314)4/7/2006 1:26:23 PM
From: TimF  Respond to of 1572931
 
What I don't understand is how your county's rate is so low. After doing some research, I see where part of the problem is. Virginia has a significant personal property tax. Taxes on a 30K car in Fairfax Country would run around $1400. When I left California, plate taxes on a $30k would have cost roughly $300-400.

There is a tax rebate.

" * Vehicles qualified for tax relief are noted on your tax bill and show a reduction for the portion of the tax the Commonwealth will pay. For qualified vehicles; your tax bill is reduced by the applicable tax relief percentage for the tax year on the first $20,000 of value. Fairfax County will be reimbursed by the Commonwealth for the amount of the reduction once you have paid the balance due shown on your bill. If your qualifying vehicle's assessed value is $1,000 or less, your tax has been eliminated and the Commonwealth's share is 100%. Tax relief is calculated using Fairfax County's effective tax rate ($4.57 per $100 of assessed value) in effect on August 1, 1997.

o Since tax year 2002, the credit is 70% of the personal property tax on qualifying vehicles valued between $1,001 and $20,000."

fairfaxcounty.gov

So you only pay 100% of the tax rate on the value of the car over $20k. You pay 30% under $20k. A $20k car would cost you $274.20. A $30k car would cost you another $457 for a total of $731.20.

Having said that, Californians have an income tax whereas Virginia doesn't.

VA has a state income tax. I know because I pay it, but since you normally want a link -

swz.salary.com

Interestingly it seems that when you go up in income enough to have to pay a higher rate, you pay that higher rate on every dollar of income, not just on the amount over the limit for the tax bracket. Federal taxes don't work that way. If your $1 over the limit for paying any federal taxes you pay the lowest rate on $1 not on all of your income.

for VA, a Prop. 13-like measure is under consideration.

Good news, but it probably won't have much of an impact for awhile. We are probably at about the peak of the housing price cycle, at least in Northern VA.

Tim