Joe the plumber — Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, 34, of suburban Toledo, Ohio — is the first to say that he’s not the story and that no one should listen to him when it comes to tax policy.
“I just hope I’m not making too much of a fool of myself and can get some type of message out there as far as, you know, really watch actions and learn for yourself,” Wurzelbacher said Thursday outside his home. “Don’t take other people’s opinions.”
Wurzelbacher first came to attention over the weekend, when he engaged Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, in a six-minute discussion of tax policy at a rally in Holland, Ohio. He told Obama that he was a plumber and was hoping to buy his boss’s business, which he said made $250,000 to $280,000 a year. He was concerned, he said, that Obama’s economic proposals would mean he’d be kicked into a higher tax bracket.
Wednesday night, McCain adopted Wurzelbacher as the representative of struggling middle-class Americans, addressing many of his comments directly to “Joe the plumber,” whom he misidentified as “Joe Wurzelburger.”
“The real winner last night was Joe the plumber. Joe’s the man,” McCain said Thursday at a campaign rally in Downington, Pa. “He won, and small businesses won across America. They won because Americans are not going to let Senator Obama raise taxes in a tough economy.”
‘There’s a lot I’ve got to learn’
Legally speaking, Wurzelbacher isn’t a plumber, because he isn’t licensed by Toledo, Lucas County or the state of Ohio. A representative of the Toledo Building Inspection Division said a plumber must be registered with the state and only then can apply for a city plumbing contractor’s license.
Wurzelbacher said he worked under the license held by his boss, Al Newell of Newell Plumbing and Heating Co. of Toledo. Newell is a licensed plumbing contractor in Toledo, records show. But anyone working under Newell should have a journeyman’s plumbing license or an apprenticeship license, officials said.
Building Inspection officials said Newell was responsible for making sure that anyone working under him was licensed. The Toledo Plumbing Board of Control may consider sanctions against Wurzelbacher or Newell, officials told NBC affiliate WNWO of Toledo.
“There’s a lot I’ve got to learn” about the plumbing business, Wurzelbacher said Thursday.
Wurzelbacher also acknowledged that he had no specific plans for buying Newell’s business, saying he and Newell had simply talked about the idea from time to time. He might have difficulty making the purchase: Court records from his divorce show that Wurzelbacher made $40,000 in 2006.
Even if he did buy Newell Plumbing and Heating, Obama’s tax plan wouldn’t affect him. While Wurzelbacher told Obama that he would be taxed at a higher rate because the company grossed more than $250,000 a year, Ohio business records show the company’s estimated total annual revenue as only $100,000. Actual taxable income would be even less than that.
In any event, Obama’s tax plan specifies that the higher rate would apply only to income above the $250,000 threshold. Assuming Wurzelbacher’s income as owner somehow hit $280,000 — the top end of his supposition of the company’s revenue — only the extra $30,000 would be taxed at a higher rate.
Joe says Obama would be ‘hurting others’
Analysts calculated that the extra tax would amount to $900, which would likely be more than offset by separate provisions of Obama’s plan: a 50 percent tax credit for health care and elimination of the capital gains tax for small businesses.
“I’d have to look at your particular business, but you might end up paying lower taxes under my plan and my approach than under John McCain’s,” Obama told Wurzelbacher during their exchange last weekend.
At the time, Wurzelbacher replied, “Oh, yeah, I understand that.” But by Thursday, he had reconsidered.
“If you believed [Obama], I’d be receiving his tax cuts, but I don’t look at it that way,” he said. “He’d still be hurting others.”
Wurzelbacher, a registered Republican, refused to say whom he would vote for, insisting that “I want the American people to vote for who they want to vote for. I just want them to be informed when they make that vote."
But he hinted that his choice would be McCain, the Republican standard-bearer, whom he said it would be “an honor” to meet. Asked about other issues by a covey of curious reporters, Wurzelbacher voiced strongly Republican opinions.
“Social Security’s a joke,” he said. “I have parents. I don’t need another set of parents called the government. Let me take my money and invest it how I please.”
On immigration: “I wish our borders were closed.”
And on the war in Iraq, which McCain has strongly supported: “I’m not sorry we’re in Iraq. ... It’s made us safer. I absolutely believe that.”
Thursday, October 16, 2008
5. Lax Laws
lax - Loose and not easily retained or controlled.
laws - A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority.
Why have laws if they are not enforced or enforced to their greatest ability? Everyday people are arrested for drugs, traffic violations and everyday basic rules of a working society. If these law-breaking citizens were actually penalized for the laws they break, studies have shown a more polite and violence free society.
The laws are created and passed to prevent injury, death or a breakdown of country and everyday life. A crime is a crime, there should be no difference in how you look at something legal term. I am not saying they should receive the same punishment, but there should be no lightening of punishment for first offenses, by saying "first" I believe they are lightly implying there will be more.
When one person sees how the other was or more importantly was not treated, they themselves are more likely not to be afraid or worry of the consequences. People believe they can have their lawyers get them out of any trouble, which sadly in most cases isabsolutely the truth. If you are caught red-handed, your availability to have a lawyer should be revoked.
laws - A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority.
Why have laws if they are not enforced or enforced to their greatest ability? Everyday people are arrested for drugs, traffic violations and everyday basic rules of a working society. If these law-breaking citizens were actually penalized for the laws they break, studies have shown a more polite and violence free society.
The laws are created and passed to prevent injury, death or a breakdown of country and everyday life. A crime is a crime, there should be no difference in how you look at something legal term. I am not saying they should receive the same punishment, but there should be no lightening of punishment for first offenses, by saying "first" I believe they are lightly implying there will be more.
When one person sees how the other was or more importantly was not treated, they themselves are more likely not to be afraid or worry of the consequences. People believe they can have their lawyers get them out of any trouble, which sadly in most cases isabsolutely the truth. If you are caught red-handed, your availability to have a lawyer should be revoked.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
4. John McCain
fuck you, you old robotic fuck.
my cats removed testicles are more mavericky than you.
i never knew war hero meant that you got captured. even o.j. wasn't captured, he turned himself in.
my cats removed testicles are more mavericky than you.
i never knew war hero meant that you got captured. even o.j. wasn't captured, he turned himself in.
3. The Greatest Generation
"the soldiers fought not for the fame and recognition, but because it was the right thing to do."
The reason we fought in the war was because we were attacked, Pearl Harbor was destroyed. It took an attack on us for the United States to enter the war. Not to intervene in the Holocaust, not to end brutal regimes, but solely because our pride was taken from us.
I never knew soldiers fight for fame, I always thought(always told!) they fight for our safety and to keep us safe.
"this is the greatest generation any society has produced."
Really, the greatest. Why? Because we fought in a war and actually won. Since then our track record has been shitty to be the most polite I can be. Korean War, Vietnam, Cold War(not a war in the real sense, but we still lost and it's back comrades), Gulf War I, we retreated, Afghanistan and Gulf War II(paying off our enemies not to kill us as much isn't that great of a surge idea.)
I'll give them that, as being great.
They are also considered "the greatest" because they fought in a war and were able to America afloat and running. Yes, there were millions of our people fighting abroad, but at this point we were already a prosperous and successful nation, we surely would have capable to continue our culture, the military is only one facet of the country. The thing about being a great leader is being able to do multiple things at one time.
The reason we fought in the war was because we were attacked, Pearl Harbor was destroyed. It took an attack on us for the United States to enter the war. Not to intervene in the Holocaust, not to end brutal regimes, but solely because our pride was taken from us.
I never knew soldiers fight for fame, I always thought(always told!) they fight for our safety and to keep us safe.
"this is the greatest generation any society has produced."
Really, the greatest. Why? Because we fought in a war and actually won. Since then our track record has been shitty to be the most polite I can be. Korean War, Vietnam, Cold War(not a war in the real sense, but we still lost and it's back comrades), Gulf War I, we retreated, Afghanistan and Gulf War II(paying off our enemies not to kill us as much isn't that great of a surge idea.)
I'll give them that, as being great.
They are also considered "the greatest" because they fought in a war and were able to America afloat and running. Yes, there were millions of our people fighting abroad, but at this point we were already a prosperous and successful nation, we surely would have capable to continue our culture, the military is only one facet of the country. The thing about being a great leader is being able to do multiple things at one time.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
2a. Fauxmosexuality
This article pretty much sums up my view on the subject. - gia
The dangers of fauxmosexuality
Katy Perry kissed a girl, and I didn't like it. The American singer didn't just kiss a girl, she wrote a song about it, sold millions of records and trivialised a pretty serious issue. And did I mention that she's straight?
Pretending to be a lesbian is suddenly cool. It's hip not to be square. Celesbianism, as it has been labelled, is on the front pages, at the top of the charts and making money like never before.
Perry is leading the charge (and performing in Sydney tonight). She recently spent six weeks at the top of the ARIA singles charts with her single I Kissed A Girl. Its lyrics include: "I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry ChapStick."
The song even spent seven weeks at the top of the notoriously fickle American charts last month, tying with the Beatles' I Want To Hold Your Hand as the longest-running No. 1 for Capitol Records since 1964.
Who would have thought? Certainly no one who bought Perry's previous album, a collection of Christian gospel songs she, a daughter of Protestant pastors, released under the name Katy Hudson. Far from kissing girls, the lead single from that album was Trust In Me, with lyrics such as "Don't worry, for I've healed the blind man and set the captives free".
Cue an overnight makeover, some fauxmosexual lyrics, a masterfully manufactured image and behold! A new, improved and, it goes without saying, successful product.
But lesbians and gays haven't spent the past few decades fighting for equal rights only to have it thrown back in our faces as a novelty song about being, like, totally outrageous to kiss someone of the same sex.
Riding shotgun with Perry on the lesbian-as-social-currency bandwagon is the Veronicas' Jess Origliasso. Barely a day goes by that her romance with MTV VJ (and bona fide, lifelong lesbian) Ruby Rose isn't breathlessly reported with every staged "sighting". Look, there they are canoodling at a restaurant, there they are making out at a bar. Oh, is their new album really out this week?
Add tabloid-hungry Lindsay Lohan and her DJ girlfriend, Samantha Ronson (They Swapped Engagement Rings! They're Moving In!) and even the designer Marc Jacobs to the list. He has selected Russian duo Tatu to replace Victoria Beckham as the faces of his latest collection. Remember them? No, didn't think so. They were paraded on Eurovision in 2003 as a "lesbian couple", only to be revealed as a marketing ploy dreamt up by their Svengali manager.
Their Warholian moment came when they made out on live television wearing matching school uniforms. Most assumed they would be footnoted into musical history by now, but Marc Jacobs, channelling the zeitgeist, has dragged them out of Siberian obscurity.
But what part does real lesbianism have in all of this? You know, the type based on genetic - rather than marketing - instinct?
By pretending it's cool to kiss other girls for fun, Perry insults the very people she is parodying - real life, garden-variety lesbians. When the bulbs stop flashing and the fad moves on, the sexuality of lesbians and gays will remain steadfastly unchanged. In its place is a confused and battered community that has been taken for a ride.
The current popular culture "acceptance" of lesbianism is a temporary pass that is expected to be handed back when the novelty wears off. It's OK to go for a swim off the Isle of Lesbos, but don't ever think about living there.
What does this say to girls struggling with their own sexuality? When Perry steps out with her boyfriend, or Origliasso settles down with a guy, or Lohan courts the next headline with a bloke, the mixed messages are extremely confusing.
In interviews, Perry implies it's just all a bit of fun. But when up to 30 per cent of teen suicides in the US are by lesbian or gay teens, it's very a dangerous game for celebrities to play.
The gay equality movement has gradually, thankfully, started to take hold across the world. And then along comes a simple, straight singer with dollars in her eyes who takes us back to a fantasyland created by video-clip directors.
It's time for Perry to stop kissing girls and start taking responsibility for the knock-on effect of her thoughtless lyrics.
Tim Duggan
October 10, 2008
The dangers of fauxmosexuality
Katy Perry kissed a girl, and I didn't like it. The American singer didn't just kiss a girl, she wrote a song about it, sold millions of records and trivialised a pretty serious issue. And did I mention that she's straight?
Pretending to be a lesbian is suddenly cool. It's hip not to be square. Celesbianism, as it has been labelled, is on the front pages, at the top of the charts and making money like never before.
Perry is leading the charge (and performing in Sydney tonight). She recently spent six weeks at the top of the ARIA singles charts with her single I Kissed A Girl. Its lyrics include: "I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry ChapStick."
The song even spent seven weeks at the top of the notoriously fickle American charts last month, tying with the Beatles' I Want To Hold Your Hand as the longest-running No. 1 for Capitol Records since 1964.
Who would have thought? Certainly no one who bought Perry's previous album, a collection of Christian gospel songs she, a daughter of Protestant pastors, released under the name Katy Hudson. Far from kissing girls, the lead single from that album was Trust In Me, with lyrics such as "Don't worry, for I've healed the blind man and set the captives free".
Cue an overnight makeover, some fauxmosexual lyrics, a masterfully manufactured image and behold! A new, improved and, it goes without saying, successful product.
But lesbians and gays haven't spent the past few decades fighting for equal rights only to have it thrown back in our faces as a novelty song about being, like, totally outrageous to kiss someone of the same sex.
Riding shotgun with Perry on the lesbian-as-social-currency bandwagon is the Veronicas' Jess Origliasso. Barely a day goes by that her romance with MTV VJ (and bona fide, lifelong lesbian) Ruby Rose isn't breathlessly reported with every staged "sighting". Look, there they are canoodling at a restaurant, there they are making out at a bar. Oh, is their new album really out this week?
Add tabloid-hungry Lindsay Lohan and her DJ girlfriend, Samantha Ronson (They Swapped Engagement Rings! They're Moving In!) and even the designer Marc Jacobs to the list. He has selected Russian duo Tatu to replace Victoria Beckham as the faces of his latest collection. Remember them? No, didn't think so. They were paraded on Eurovision in 2003 as a "lesbian couple", only to be revealed as a marketing ploy dreamt up by their Svengali manager.
Their Warholian moment came when they made out on live television wearing matching school uniforms. Most assumed they would be footnoted into musical history by now, but Marc Jacobs, channelling the zeitgeist, has dragged them out of Siberian obscurity.
But what part does real lesbianism have in all of this? You know, the type based on genetic - rather than marketing - instinct?
By pretending it's cool to kiss other girls for fun, Perry insults the very people she is parodying - real life, garden-variety lesbians. When the bulbs stop flashing and the fad moves on, the sexuality of lesbians and gays will remain steadfastly unchanged. In its place is a confused and battered community that has been taken for a ride.
The current popular culture "acceptance" of lesbianism is a temporary pass that is expected to be handed back when the novelty wears off. It's OK to go for a swim off the Isle of Lesbos, but don't ever think about living there.
What does this say to girls struggling with their own sexuality? When Perry steps out with her boyfriend, or Origliasso settles down with a guy, or Lohan courts the next headline with a bloke, the mixed messages are extremely confusing.
In interviews, Perry implies it's just all a bit of fun. But when up to 30 per cent of teen suicides in the US are by lesbian or gay teens, it's very a dangerous game for celebrities to play.
The gay equality movement has gradually, thankfully, started to take hold across the world. And then along comes a simple, straight singer with dollars in her eyes who takes us back to a fantasyland created by video-clip directors.
It's time for Perry to stop kissing girls and start taking responsibility for the knock-on effect of her thoughtless lyrics.
Tim Duggan
October 10, 2008
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