I can haz roomba?

Kittens + roomba robot vacuum =

Dachshunds

My wife introduced me to the "joys" of having a wiener dog shortly after we got married when we got a red smooth mini. Fenway passed away in the fall of 2007. It really was like losing a member of the family, because she was. This past spring we got another dachshund. Another female red mini, but Liberty (Libby) is a long hair. She's starting to look like an Irish Setter sawed off at the legs.

Bridget over at Numbers not Invited has some great dachshund posts. This one of her two "kids" in the snow has some great pics.

Tax Time

All across America regular folks are rounding up their W-2s, 1099s, receipts and other scraps of paper for the annual rite of Tax Time. For it is widely known that Spring will not come until every American has filed.

Every American, except some High Profile Democrats that is. In the last few months we have learned that Al Franken had "tax problems" in 19 different states. nineteen. Charlie Rangel went for a two-fer - tax dodges on investments and misuse of rent control apartments (there may have also been campaign finance violations in the mix). At least two Obama appointees have "problems": Tim Geithner, despite getting a specific allowance from the IMF to pay taxes did not, and now we learn that Tom Daschle owed taxes on a car and driver that was "loaned" by a wealthy friend. And Daschle didn't report over $80,000 in income in 2007.

I hold Al Franken in pretty low regard, however of the four he has the best 'defense': 1) He's an idiot. 2) As an "entertainer" he didn't know the laws and he relied on an accountant, or at least so he can say... He has other money issues dating to his tenure with Air America, but those are probably behind him. Probably.

Rangel's tax issues can't be as easily explained away. He's chairman of the Ways and Means committee - the hell whence tax laws come. As a member of the House of Representatives he voted on these tax laws... Yet nothing will come of his crimes.

Geithner's transgressions - and their implications - are worse. It boils down to this: he was given an extra allowance to pay Social Security taxes. He signed documents indicating he knew it was his responsibility. But he didn't pay. For 4 years. He got caught first by an IRS audit - not the publicity of his nomination. But the audit was for 2003 and 2004. When caught, he paid up. But he also owed for 2001 and 2002. Did he take the opportunity to fix the issue then? No. It was only when he was nominated did he finally make good. Now he is the head tax collector.

Daschle has two tax problems. He was loaned the services of a car and driver. For years. Why did he need a car and driver? The real answer is he didn't. But it was nice to have. Much is currently being said about the tax issue, but I think this illustrates a bigger wrong. A wealthy fundraiser loans a car and driver to a former Senator for years... for nothing? Really? Well - let's assume the Franken defense - he's an idiot. But failing to report over $80,000 in income in 2007? It requires the willing suspension of disbelief...

Clearly if they were Republicans the press coverage and reaction would be much different. Any Republican transition team would have pulled Geithner's and Daschle's nominations. An inexperienced candidate like Franken would have been eaten alive for his tax transgressions if he were a Republican. And if a Republican had done the things Rangel admits, the ethics investigation would have been finished faster than the Blagojevich impeachment.

My advice to Franken, Rangel and Daschle? If anything else comes up, you can always throw yourself on the mercy of the head Tax Collector. 

Newsbusted, 1/27/09

The latest installment from Newsbusters:

Going Dutch

Pat Condell, one of my favorite atheists, on the persecution of Geert Wilders:



This whole thing with Wilders really pisses me off... The only thing that can comfort me is more PopeKrieg:

Baseball

According to my daily e-mail from Jerry Remy, we are only 14 days away from pitchers and catchers. This puts me to mind of renewing my Red Sox Nation membership Citizenship and baseball blogs. Some of my favorites include Centerfield, Soxaholix, Sox Nation and a few others. No surprise, they are all Red Sox related.

I just added a link to a blog called touch em all. It's a blog out of LA - Dodger LA, not that fake Los Angeles that's really Anaheim. So why read it, why link to it? It's Alyssa Milano's blog. Yes, THAT Alyssa Milano. Actress, clothing designer and blogger. She would be perfect.... except for her politics.

I think this would look good on my wife:



Let's see what having a picture of Alyssa Milano does for the blog's stats.

Sarah

It's been a while since I've had a Palin post.

Sarah is front and center again with the roll out of her political action committee, SarahPAC.

It's no guarantee for 2012, but....