10 Things You Need to Know About Attending President-Elect Obama’s Inauguration

There could be a very rough time ahead.

Beneath Obama's flowery rhetoric lies a dangerous economic plan that will wreak havoc on the American economy.Obama plans to return to the failed policies of high taxation coupled with an expansion of government spending. Worse, Obama says he is absolutely committed to almost doubling the capital gains rate — something he will easily accomplish with a Democrat Congress.

In the coming months — when investors realize that Obama will raise the cap gains rate — there could be a stampede of asset sales as investors rush to take their profits now to avoid Obama's doubling of the tax rates next year.

Indeed, Obama makes no bones about his plans to go on a tax rampage. Not only would he increase the capital-gains tax rate from 15 percent to as much as 28 percent, he wants to allow the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts to expire in 2010, which effectively raises taxes on Americans by tens of billions of dollars.

He also wants to do away with the $102,000 FICA payroll tax cap, which means anyone making over $102,000 would pay an additional 7 percent in taxes on earned income.

And the loan dividend tax rate George Bush implemented? Under President Obama it will be DOA!

brian of la

Well that candy cane and bobby brow talkin crap they needed to let it go what's done is like I siad earlyer a person should not get mad at a nother person skin color that person can't help the race or the color they are if u belive in god that been you don't are u hate god for the person he created

Satire

The Audacity of Impertinent Questions! By John Kakistos Lillpop

November 16th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: US Politics

(Satire)

How has Auntie adjusted to being back in Kenya?

Despite indications that the main stream media are committed to granting President-elect Obama a four year moratorium on tough questions, with a four year option to renew, there are some with sufficient audacity to ask impertinent questions right from the get go.

A few of my favorites.

Mr. President:

During the campaign, you requested that a special prosecutor look into charges of voter fraud by ACORN. When can we expect arrests, and will any of your staff or family be implicated?

When will your response to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s letter be released to the public?

How is Auntie adjusting to her new life in Kenya? When was she deported from America?

Given your support for teacher’s unions and public schools, which public schools are your daughters going to attend?

What plans do you have for redistributing YOUR wealth to less fortunate family members? Like your half brother and Auntie in Kenya?

With so many Clintonistas joining your administration, is the word CHANGE no longer in vogue?

With same-sex proponents on a national rampage in response to free and open elections that did not go their way, do you plan to make acceptance of gay marriage a major element in your CHANGE template? Perhaps to be announced during your first State of the Union address?

Is Rohm Emanuel really the best man to be Chief of Staff in the “post-partisan” era?

When do you plan to invade Pakistan? Before or after you surrender in Iraq?

Does the Democrat Party no longer consider campaign finance reform a major priority? Is the fact that you raised $650 million dollars a factor?

As president-elect can’t you unilaterally veto plans to invade your space–like for instance, your mother-in-law’s plans to live in the White House?

Thank you, Mr. President-elect!

wow you people are being mean every body get together try to love one another right now... lalala yea but Obama has not been sworn it yet . If he do not get the birth certificate out and some other docs he may be stepping down to Biden OH NOOOO god help us all. Hey I want my welfare check Barry. Still out of work over here. And how about that house foreclosure help? And where is my health care you promised ? still waiting. and remember Barry I want the same as congress gets not that Medicaid.

and too bobby bumble bee and candy

He is our 44th President so get over it deal with it and stop crying what's done is done bozos

bobbybumble another clan member hunh so now you her cheerleader right

With the pom poms she said I was hispanic in which I'm not I'm black and she was very racist to hispanics read her msg go bacc across the border she said y'all are sicc individuals locc and I said it.

Hey JW LOL your killing me

Do you not know Candy is black ? prejudice roflmao no she just goes off ... and can not stand B. Obama. She is on all kinds of blogs give her credit, she usally nails it in her own way... I been over to her hero blogs and sites many of times and usually, like alot of Americans she just thinks BObama is a Commy ... I think he may be also , we will have to wait and see.. Hey why did you call her prejudice? LOL because she thought you were a alien? Or her sillyness about the Rev. Wright? She do not like Wright either man , but there are many who do not like alot of this going on here with all this stuff. Man I do not want my prez telling me I can not get out of school untill I work for free , or even worst I know I do not wanna go to war and be killed because, Obama has ordered me to go , you digg? ok I am going to eat I am hungery after seeing that bbq thing cheese burgers umm yummie......

hey here is some drama I thought I would add lol

I have a lot of thoughts about politicians who deem hours spent in grassroots service to causes chosen freely by volunteers to be inferior to government programs run from D.C., but I'll hold my tongue -- for now. What does interest me, though, is whether all of this talk of "national service" means that the grand old days of conscription are about to return, though now with draftees stuffed into hospital scrubs and denim as often as they're required to don camouflage.

McCain was once an advocate of the draft, though, as far as I can tell, he's uttered nary a word in favor of conscription since he started pursuing residency in the White House. The national service section of his Website is full of talk of opportunities and incentives -- lots of carrot, but no stick. Whatever his personal feelings, he seems to understand that draft boards are no longer compatible with presidential ambitions.

At first glance, Obama's scheme is similar. His proposal even specifically refers to "universal voluntary citizen service." It's all very touchy-feelly. But, as Michael Kinsley put it so well in the pages of Time: "Problem number one with grand schemes for universal voluntary public service is that they can't be both universal and voluntary. If everybody has to do it, then it's not voluntary, is it? And if it's truly up to the individual, then it won't be universal."

Of course, Barack Obama could be playing the usual politician's game of throwing empty words at an audience, without worrying overly much about their meaning. But his campaign has put forward a detailed plan for national service, and on close inspection, it's clear that he really does mean "universal." And while there's no call for old-fashioned conscription, his national service carrots are matched by very modern sticks that introduce almost as much compulsion as the old kind.

In fact, Obama's national service plan is "voluntary" in a technical sense -- nobody will be arrested for declining to participate. But non-participants also won't be allowed to graduate from high school, and without those diplomas, life could get a bit rough.

Obama's national service plan (PDF) says:

Schools that require service as part of the educational experience create improved learning environments and serve as resources for their communities. The Obama-Biden plan sets a goal for all students to engage in service, with middle and high school students performing 50 hours of service each year, and college students performing 100 hours of service each year. Under this plan, students would graduate college with as many as 17 weeks of public service experience under their belts.

But schools set their own policies, don't they? Well ... sort of. You see, as the saying goes, "he who takes the king's coin becomes the king's man." And most public schools depend on federal dollars. As Obama elaborated in a speech last December, "At the middle and high school level, we'll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities."

So, it won't be the nasty federal government forcing your kids to donate their time to government-approved service, it'll be the local schools -- but that requirement will be the among the strings attached to federal money.

This is a very modern way of imposing mandates from the top down. The uniform 21-year-old national drinking age, for instance, is nominally the choice of each state government, not a federal law. But the states set the age at 21 as a condition of continuing to receive a full measure of federal highway funds. The same goes for the late, unlamented 55mph speed limit.

Of course, state and local agencies could choose to give up the checks from D.C., but they almost never do. And so, violations of federal policies get punished by state and local authorities.

Under Barack Obama's plan, a refusal to participate in a national service program touted at the federal level will be punished by the withholding of high school diplomas by the school district in your town. And without that diploma, few colleges or employers will even bother to look at your application.

It's a softer sort of authoritarianism which requires no draft boards, muddles the identity of the "bad guy" and produces no martyrs in handcuffs for the evening news. You just can't get a job if you don't do as you're told.

Such "soft" mandates are easier to escape than the old draft. Private schools will still be able to set their own criteria for graduation, as will homeschoolers. At least, they will so long as they can resist social pressure to conform to the requirements imposed by public schools.

And 50 hours of service isn't exactly a tour in the rice paddies. Most people will just roll their eyes and do what it takes to get that diploma. (The 100 hours required of college students will be in return for a $4,000 grant, which amounts less to conscription than to the world's most expensive work-study scheme.)

But make no mistake: Barack Obama wants your kids. And he's willing to draft them, in a plausibly deniable way.

and im a proud US citizen so stop assuming candy

This JWG speaking my mind you dang racist you.

first of candy a k a grandma simpson im black

And if I were hispanic your ver fuc*&^% prejudice bytch.