Five Tax Fallacies Invented by the 1%

http://www.nationofchange.org/five-tax-fallacies-invented-1-1335792996

IRS Complaint Against Catholic Church Long Overdue

http://news.yahoo.com/irs-complaint-against-catholic-church-long-overdue-211000669.html

IRS Complaint Against Catholic Church Long Overdue

By Donald Pennington

COMMENTARY | As is so often the case, it was ThinkProgress.org which caught my eye with the story of Bishop Daniel Jenky back-pedaling over a comment comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin. Oddly enough, both Hitler and Stalin tried to eradicate opposition of any and all groups which might oppose them, while Obama's efforts are in trying to guarantee equal access to birth control for all women, regardless of who their employers may be. So Jenky's mindless comments are specious at bet and dishonest at worst. 

Fortunately for women all over America, the Catholic Church's recent statements objecting to birth control access for their employees might have been the proverbial straw which broke the camel's back this time. As a non-profit, IRS rules state clearly, they are to steer clear of politics. According to a Chicago Tribune report, Jenky's comments - as well as similar comments from other church leaders - have bought the church a formal complaint with the I.R.S. In effect, the Catholic Church appears to be campaigning against President Obama being re-elected. This news follows closely to a report from the Independent last February of the Vatican being ordered to pay taxes to Italy. 

Before readers start griping about this complaint coming from "those dirty atheists," this complaint comes from one Reverend Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The complaint is simply this - If the Catholic Church wishes to get involved with politics, they no longer can be recognized as a charity. If the church wishes to partake in the political process, they should pay taxes just like everyone else. From my perspective, this has been a long time coming. Church leaders have interfered with too many aspects of life outside of their theology for far too long as it is. 

For all church leaders might know, any given female employee of any church-ran institution might not even be Catholic. So who is stifling religious freedom for whom? Perhaps this complaint - which the Catholic Church has obviously brought upon themselves - might serve as a lesson to religious leaders everywhere. Church leaders are free to enjoy the American freedom to sell religious dogma to their voluntary membership, and that's fine. But outside of the walls of those churches, they have no say over the rest of life. 

Santorum Aborts His Run for the Presidency

Too funny!

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/6quw

The Reasons Why the War on Women is Real

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75143.html

Hypocrisy Statement #833: Mitt Romney actually doesn't consider motherhood work

Mitt Romney flashback: Stay-at-home moms need to learn ‘dignity of work’

Posted by Ezra Klein at 01:38 PM ET, 04/15/2012 TheWashingtonPost

Mitt Romney, it turns out, was against calling stay-at-home mothers “working moms” before he was for it.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes broke the news this morning. Back in January, Romney appeared at a town hall even in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he explained his position on welfare.

“While I was governor,” Romney said, “85 percent of the people on a form of welfare assistance in my state had no work requirement. I wanted to increase the work requirement. I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless,’ and I said ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’”

Read that again: “I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.” And by “individuals,” Romney means “mothers.”

To understand this comment, you need to understand that there’s no such program as “welfare.” There’s only “TANF”: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. And the key word there is “families.” Welfare is not now, and never was, a program for poor people. It’s a program for poor mothers.

So what Mitt Romney was saying, in other words, was that he believes poor mothers should go out and get jobs rather than to stay home with their children. He believes that going out and getting a job gives mothers -- and everyone else -- “the dignity of work.” And so, finally, he believes that staying home and taking care of children is not “work,” and does not fulfill a “work requirement,” and does not give poor mothers “the dignity of work.” And he believes all of this strongly enough that, as governor of Massachusetts, he signed those beliefs into law.

On its own, there’s nothing particularly interesting about this admission. It’s more or less a position that both parties have shared since the 1996 welfare reform bill. But this week, Washington was gripped by an inane microscandal over a tweet by CNN contributor and Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen, who said Ann Romney had never worked “a day in her life.” TheRomney campaign, hoping to make up its deficit among women voters, jumped on the comment. “I happen to believe that all moms are working moms,” said Romney.

It turns out he doesn’t. If you’re a poor mother in Massachusetts and you go to sign up for TANF, you’ll see you need to fulfill a “work requirement.” And you cannot fulfill it by being “a mom.” And that’s because of policy that Romney signed into law in Massachusetts, and Bill Clinton signed into law nationally.

That law has seen some real successes: The poverty rate for single mothers is lower now than before the legislation passed in 1996, and the labor-force participation rate is higher. Both parties brag about it routinely. But those numbers are only successes if you believe, as both parties do, that being a stay-at-home mother is not the same as working.

Over the past week, both parties decided to pander to stay-at-home mothers by forgetting this policy consensus and claiming they have always believed being a stay-at-home mother is “work.” But while they certainly believe parenting is toil, they don’t believe it is, in any real sense, work. And you can see that in the laws they’ve made.

After all, it’s not just TANF that doesn’t recognize parenting as “work.” Social Security doesn’t count parenting as “work.” The tax code doesn’t count parenting as “work.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t count parenting as “work.”

Those statutory distinctions don’t matter to wealthier parents like Ann Romney. She’s not looking for government benefits. Politicians can pander to her by merely recognizing the labor she puts in. But to poorer mothers, those benefits mean quite a lot. Politicians, however, don’t pander to poorer mothers. They put them to work.

Homophobes tend to be gay

The next time you run across a real homophobe, cite this study and watch them get all bent out of shape:

http://www.livescience.com/19563-homophobia-hidden-homosexuals.html

1981 Climate Change Predictions Were Eerily Accurate

http://www.universetoday.com/94468/1981-climate-change-predictions-were-eerily-accurate/

April Fool's Day Announcement Brings Practical Joke to an End

April Fool's Day Announcement Brings Practical Joke to an End

WASHINGTON  - In an April Fool's Day announcement that took the political world
by storm, the Republican Party revealed today that its entire presidential race
had been an elaborate prank.

"April Fool!" exclaimed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former
Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum at a press conference in Washington, where
they were joined by fellow merrymakers Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Rick
Perry and Herman Cain.

Moments after revealing that the GOP primary had been one long practical joke,
Mr. Santorum explained the rationale behind staging such a complicated and
expensive prank.

"A lot of Americans are suffering right now and need a good laugh," he said.
"I think my colleagues and I can be justifiably proud of the entertainment we
provided - even if it meant me wearing these ridiculous sweater vests."

Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain agreed that the prank had gone well,
but added, "I'm just amazed that the American people never figured out we were
kidding."

"I mean, I kept saying '9-9-9' every four seconds, which was total and utter
bullshit," he said.  "And everything out of Michele's mouth made her sound like
a mental patient."

"True that," Rep. Bachmann agreed.

Texas Governor Rick Perry said he worried that "every time I screwed up at a
debate people would figure out I was pulling their legs," but added, "The
American people seemed to accept the idea that a Governor of Texas could be a
blithering idiot."

When one reporter mentioned that Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was not at the press
conference, a sudden silence fell over the gathering.

"Did anyone ever tell Ron this was supposed to be a prank?" Mr. Romney asked.
"Holy cow, maybe he's really serious."

Five Persistent Conservative Myths

http://www.nationofchange.org/five-preposterous-persistent-conservative-myths-1333375542