Bring It On: Most corporations, including the vast majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

And yet my IRA portfolio is still tanking.

Rome didn't fall in one day either.

L.A. Confidential @ 4:

Russian convoy heads into Georgia, violating truce

I suspect Russia is going to hunt down and terminate WbU Bush wannabe Saakashvili. Or at least drag his sorry ass into the war crimes court.

For crimes against humanity.

Fortunately for OUR President, leaders can't be simply marched off to the World Court at the Hague for being stupid.

Samson- @ 6:

Most corporations, including the vast majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes

yet, the rightwing screams incessantly about the "unfair" corporate taxes.

strategically, i think the corporatists would have been better off piping down about reducing corporate taxes, it just helps illuminate the fact that a large portion of our taxes go to help corporations increase their profit, while the corporations get out of paying taxes altogether.

No taxes collected, no jobs created. What good are these "people?"

The Debatable Land: Did you know Putin is really another Hitler?:

Once Red, always Red. When Bush said 'I have looked into his soul....', I knew the guy was not to be trusted. Neither can this guy he installed to replace him as President. Putin was born, raised and was an officer in the KGB. He probably still is. I think it's a bullshit excuse that Georgia attacked them. They want something. Georgia has no extraordinary resources to speak of. I believe it's all strategic, Possibly a warm water port?

I think Putin and his successor are bringing Russia back to her red ways.

L.A. Confidential @ 4:

Russian convoy heads into Georgia, violating truce

I suspect Russia is going to hunt down and terminate WbU Bush wannabe Saakashvili. Or at least drag his sorry ass into the war crimes court.

Or, Russia will simply force Saakashvilli to agree to their terms. Another option is to lay seige to Tibilisi and let Saakashvilli's own government falter and tear him apart. With one Russian mechanized infantry division along with an attachment of Spetnaz commandos and airborne troops so close to Tibilisi this war is all but wrapped up for Georgia. Add to that the other Russian divisions having pushed further south on the western side of Georgia thereby cutting off that main oil pipeline and blocking the western coast from any aid and you have a "checkmate".

All the Bush Administration and other politicians can do at this point for Georgia is bark. They have no teeth to do much of anything and everyone knows it. This aids Russia because every nation watching knows the U.S. can do little and all of this tough talk does nothing but reinforce that view. The balance of power has already shifted. Russia just punctuated it.

JerryO @ 9:

The Debatable Land: Did you know Putin is really another Hitler?:

Once Red, always Red. When Bush said 'I have looked into his soul....', I knew the guy was not to be trusted. Neither can this guy he installed to replace him as President. Putin was born, raised and was an officer in the KGB. He probably still is. I think it's a bullshit excuse that Georgia attacked them. They want something. Georgia has no extraordinary resources to speak of. I believe it's all strategic, Possibly a warm water port?

I think Putin and his successor are bringing Russia back to her red ways.

American promises once again rewarded by cut and run.
The remaining loyal "Yankee wanna-be's" are finding out what the word of an American means...sweet fuck all.
Maybe the Russians will save this planet, not everything they do revolves around greed.

JerryO @ 9:

The Debatable Land: Did you know Putin is really another Hitler?:

Once Red, always Red. When Bush said 'I have looked into his soul....', I knew the guy was not to be trusted. Neither can this guy he installed to replace him as President. Putin was born, raised and was an officer in the KGB. He probably still is. I think it's a bullshit excuse that Georgia attacked them. They want something. Georgia has no extraordinary resources to speak of. I believe it's all strategic, Possibly a warm water port?

I think Putin and his successor are bringing Russia back to her red ways.

Right it had nothing to do with stopping a Bush backed thug shooting and bombing Russian civilians and peace keepers.

GOA report is coming out next week.......i'll be curious to see the spin on this....one of the battle cries for conservatives is that liberals Want to raise your taxes.....well if people would pay their fair share maybe we wouldn't be asking for an increase in taxation.i also hear very little about the illegal tax shelter for ultra-rich at UBS.currently certain states/communities are hurting
budget(s) are coming up short.....these bush permanent tax breaks just can't happen....more so now that we find out many aren't paying.....it's never ending.

Saakashvili also denied Georgia had provoked the conflict in South Ossetia as Russia has claimed.

"I'm sickened by speculation that Georgia started anything," he said, noting how he had to return to his country while on his way to the Olympics because Georgia had no choice but to "respond or to surrender."

This guy is such a slut and two faced liar it's unbelievable.

You break it! You own it Buddy! Big Brother Bush can't rescue you now from your idiotic FU*KUP.

DEAL WITH IT.

I think the candid shots of shrubby at the olympics say it all. He looks stunned most of the time. Lost. Like he's always waiting for someone to tell him what to do next.
I can just imagine him when they finally kick his worthless ass out of office. He won't know what to do without his army of sycophants firmly lip-locked to his ass. He'll probably become angry and confused a lot. Like a victim of senility.

JerryO @ 20:

Good point....I totally forgot about Cheney and Bush being terrorists.

Their just greedy oil men.

now the georgians have gotten a true taste of george bush. a rare nation that named a street after bush, showed up in the thens of thousands to watch him speak, believed bush when he said that we'd be there for georgia. and then, when the georgians copied the bush doctrine and preemptively attacked.... the admin looked the other way.

might i suggest to the georgians: bush was never your friend in the first place. and that bad taste in your mouth, well, we have that all the time.

dear georgia, you have been boooooooooshed (sorry)

Georgia. You been BUSHWHACKED~!

Welcome to the club.

Like Collin Powell said to Bush.

"You break it. You own it"

I hope you Georgians don't get hit by a hurricane with your man in charge over there.

I have noticed that righties think that lowering the corp tax rate will get the corps to pay their fair taxes, my answer to that is........
What if the tax rate was lowered to 0%? Why go half assed if lower taxes will raise tax revenue, than no taxes will raise it the most. Right? Lowering taxes does not raise tax revenue, raising taxes does. If we are ok with the deficit and don’t need cash to rebuild our military or our infrastructure why tax at all? It seems like we could just borrow 100% of our revenue from China, they seem willing. That should really give a boost to the economy since low taxes works so well, unlke that higher taxes guy who crippled the mid and late 90’s with higher taxes. That was a flawed strategy, you don’t pay bills with money you remove the bills and then you don’t need money.
I was thinking of asking for a raise for all my hard work but instead, I slashed my budget, same result! I am so happy now that I cancelled my cable, and put off routine repairs on my vehicle, my household is so much more efficient now. Not how it was when I was bloated with that extra income.

I think it's funny, that "small" corps are used as a rightie response, the GAO report specifically ONLY mentions Corps with 250 million dollars in assets or 50 million in receipts. I know that must include all those small mom and pop farms, stores etc, we also know that those small mom and pops don't pay taxes until the dividends are distributed. Small business gets taxed much more since they don't have a legal dept to spend hundreds and thousands of man hours looking for tax breaks, shelters and loopholes.
I play video games and one thing you learn is that when you play with/against other people the players are always looking for an edge or advantage. In gaming this is called an exploit, where inside the rules you find a way to play that is outside the intention of the rules. This is not to be confused with hacking a game and cheating outright. Corporations are playing a game. The game is making more money and taking a bigger market share than the other guy. Corporations will game the system ,they will exploit till the exploit is made illegal and even then Corporations will knowingly break the law in order to maximise profits for the shareholder.
We need corporate tax laws that are solid with few loopholes, we need tough laws and even tougher punishment for corporations evading or cheating the intent of the tax laws. We need to have regulation, we need rules and the rules need enforcment or else you end up with a broken game that no one but a handlefull of cheaters and hackers want to play.

I just heard about the corporate taxes thing this morning on the radio. It's sadly unsurprising, and of course the Bushies have pushed things to harmful extremes.

Che's Lounge @ 36:

We are so effing close to getting into an all out shooting match in Georgia. Bush is sending a "humanitarian" mission under "military jurisdiction" to Georgia, with full militaty support. Yet NPR said absolutely NOTHING about it. They only reported on the trips by Rice and Gates to the area. Faux is reporting that a western journalist got shot, attempting to ramp up the hostilities.

Watch out.

The Russians put into their doctrine a statement, and have broadcast it very loudly, that if the United States were to use precision conventional weapons against Russian troops, the Russians would be forced to respond with tactical nuclear weapons. They continue to state this. They practice this in their exercise. The United States and NATO responds with conventional air strikes, they then respond with tactical nuclear weapons.

Alexdem @ 38:

Finally, there's the political influence part, which is the most important. First off, by 'punishing' the west-friendly Georgia like this, Putin is setting an example for other former-Soviet countries who are turning to the west to break Russian influence there. Second, instead of one united and west-friendly Georgia, a breakup gives Russia two regions in full alliance, and leaves Georgia weakened.

I believe the last part is the most important reason. It's consistent with what the Russians are doing elsewhere - for instance, the breakaway republic of Transdniestr in Moldova and their Russia-aligned puppet gov't.

So if China befriended Mexico and started twiddling around and arming Mexico and stirring up trouble and hot spots. Bush would what. Go on vacation?

People seem to forget the Putin is hugely popular with the Russian people also.

Putin's approval rating was 81% in June 2007, and the highest of any leader in the world. His popularity rose from 31% in August 1999 to 80% in November 1999 and since then it has never fallen below 65%. Observers see Putin's high approval ratings as a consequence of higher living standards that improved during his rule and Russia's reassertion of itself on the world scene. Most Russians are also deeply disillusioned with the West after all the hardships of 90s,and they no longer trust pro-western politicians associated with Yeltsin that were removed from the political scene under Putin's leadership.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Russian_economy_since_fall_of_Soveit_...

Alexdem @ 38:

JerryO @ 9:

[.. stuff ..]
I think Putin and his successor are bringing Russia back to her red ways.

Well, speaking as someone who's got a mutual friend with Putin (dunno how far to Kevin Bacon thou), and some above-average knowledge of the area (e.g. I knew what was going on in Georgia over a week ago..)

Make no mistake: Putin is an asshole. But he's no communist. Or much of an ideologue. He supports free speech and free markets, but only to the extent that they don't threaten his power. On the other hand, there are limits to how far the Russians are prepared to let Putin go, too. Make no mistake about that - Putin has weakened Russian democracy, but he still has broad public support. The russians aren't stupid. They know that it's the case too. It's just that they believe that, at this moment in time, strong direction of the country is more important than democratic principles. (In other words: They're no adherents of Franklin's "deserve neither" stance)

If Putin is anything, he's a nationalist (which the Communists also were, at least since Stalin). He wants to restore Russia as a world superpower, and he's quite unabashed about persuing Russia's interests no matter what the rest of the world thinks.

What does Russia want with Georgia? Well first, certainly not a port. (They already have the biggest ports on the Black Sea in Sevastopol and Odessa.) Or natural resources. It does, however, have a strategic location due to the Azerbadjan-Turkish oil pipeline going through there. Previously, Azerbadjani oil exports had to go through Russia. The USA supported building this pipeline, which cut Russia off from controlling the flow of Azerbadjan's oil. That's the resource part.

But it's not a simple oil matter. Basically, it's a matter of political control in the region, and also strengthening his domestic appeal. Russians are 'brothers' of the Serbs, and none too happy about the USA-backed secession of Kosovo. Now that that 'precedent' is set, it's hard to convince a nationalistic Russian that they don't have the same right to help their minority friends in Georgia. That's the populist part, but it's not a doctrine Putin actually believes in - quite the opposite - since Russia has its own breakaway in Chechnya, and potential ones in Dagestan and other regions.

Finally, there's the political influence part, which is the most important. First off, by 'punishing' the west-friendly Georgia like this, Putin is setting an example for other former-Soviet countries who are turning to the west to break Russian influence there. Second, instead of one united and west-friendly Georgia, a breakup gives Russia two regions in full alliance, and leaves Georgia weakened.

I believe the last part is the most important reason. It's consistent with what the Russians are doing elsewhere - for instance, the breakaway republic of Transdniestr in Moldova and their Russia-aligned puppet gov't.

Excellent post

L.A. Confidential @ 41:

So if China befriended Mexico and started twiddling around and arming Mexico and stirring up trouble and hot spots. Bush would what. Go on vacation?

Kind of funny that - since it pretty much echoes the Monroe doctrine - Latin America is the USA's back yard and other foreign powers don't get to play there. Which is exactly how Russia feels about Caucasus.

Georgia violated 1991 treaty:

http://agonist.org/sean_paul_kelley/20080813/more_on_caucasus_war_from_n...

"Well, speaking as someone who's got a mutual friend with Putin (dunno how far to Kevin Bacon thou), and some above-average knowledge of the area (e.g. I knew what was going on in Georgia over a week ago..)

Make no mistake: Putin is an asshole. But he's no communist. Or much of an ideologue. He supports free speech and free markets, but only to the extent that they don't threaten his power. On the other hand, there are limits to how far the Russians are prepared to let Putin go, too. Make no mistake about that - Putin has weakened Russian democracy, but he still has broad public support. The russians aren't stupid...."

I knew what was going to happen a year ago, after visiting Tbilisi, a city which boasts a 'George W. Bush Boulevard.' To say Putin supports free speech is grotesque. This a country in which journalists who exposed government corruption were murdered. This is a country where a handful of participants in demonstrations by political opposition are arrested. This is a country where the electronic media is completely under government control. The Russian people are so used to misery that even the whiff of freedom seems like more than they could have ever expected. As the freedoms they briefly enjoyed prior to the ex-KGB authoritarian's reign were gradually withdrawn, the country also entered an unprecedented era of prosperity, thus softening the blow. Additionally, there is a sizable bloc of citizens, mostly older people, who want a return to the days when the state took care of them, even though the state did a lousy job of it. I've been to Russia three times in the past year. The streets in Moscow are filled with men in uniform (never a good sign). The power brokers in the country are either mobbed up, in government, or both. The general mood is whatever happens to them is what's going to happen. The number of people who actually pay attention to anything is tiny. Talking about what they will "stand for" is fatuous nonsense. Open a book and take a look at what they've stood for over the past century and get back to me.