Atando cabos

Atando cabos

Tying up a few loose ends today.

More about President Obama's State of the Union speech

That's a poll number that has got to strike cold fear into the heart of the Romney-for-President campaign.  Between that and the rebellion of the Know-Nothings, Mitt is in real trouble.

But not just Mitt, the GOP caucuses in both houses of Congress!  Consider these proposals, which the President outlined on Tuesday night:

• Passage of Obama’s proposal that millionaires should pay an effective tax rate of at least 30 percent on their income —a sort of alternative minimum tax. This is in line with the so-called “Buffett Rule” that no household making over $1 million a year should pay a smaller share of its income in taxes than middle-class families pay. Under current law, the wealthiest Americans technically pay a 35 percent rate on their income – but only 15 percent on earnings from investments and capital gains. While Obama did not detail how he would tax investment income, he did say he would eliminate millionaires’ ability to claim tax deductions for housing, child care, retirement and health care.
  
• Use half the savings from ending foreign wars to create more jobs and make the U.S. more competitive.
  
• End Senate filibusters and obstruction of judicial and “public service” nominations. The Senate would have to pass a rule that all such nominations would receive a simple up or down vote after 90 days of submission.
  
• Immigration reform, including legislation that would give responsible, productive and law-abiding illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship.
  
  (excerpted from the Fiscal Times)

Fiscal Times writer Eric Pianin predicts that these proposals are going nowhere.  That's a pretty safe bet.  Even though they're popular,the GOP must oppose them in order to protect its true constituency (no new taxes) and not to rile their nativist base even further (no leniency for immigrants).  Tough times, GOP!

Stand fast, comrades!

In December, I wrote a post (Stand fast, comrades!) promising that Dave Hauth and I would be engaging in another Red Barricades battle with modified victory conditions.  In that post, I speculated that we would begin our game within the next month.  Well, it hasn't turned out that way.  Dave and I are both focused on other of life's multitudinous aspects and our Red Barricades engagement is deferred.

Eventually, the call of the perilous factories will lure us back.  And when it does, I'll be sure to post our experiences on this blog.  But, for now, Stand fast, comrades! is on hold.

So, ASL friends, don't despair.  The game will get underway at some point.  But not in the time-frame I'd originally imagined.  My apologies to those of you who (I've noticed) have been checking back in the hopes of seeing a new Red Barricades post.  Didn't want to leave you hanging.

Check back tomorrow

Tomorrow's a big day for me.  I'll be passing a milestone in life.  I apologize in advance for the self-indulgent nature of tomorrow's yet-to-be-written post.  But a guy only makes 50 once in his life.

That's all for now.