Doing your taxes ain’t getting any easier
People spending the weekend scratching their heads over their tax forms may wonder what became of the idea of making tax laws simpler.
People spending the weekend scratching their heads over their tax forms may wonder what became of the idea of making tax laws simpler.
Protection of marriage amendment? Check. Anti-flag burning legislation? Check. New abortion limits? Check. Between now and the November elections, Republicans are penciling in plans to take action on social issues important to religious conservatives, the foundation of the GOP base, as they defend their congressional majority.
U.S. government officials allowed concerns about terrorism to overshadow the
dangers posed by natural disasters after the September 11 attacks, even though
such disasters occur more frequently and are not preventable, The New York Times
reported on Saturday citing a new Department of Homeland Security report.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld allowed and encouraged an “abusive and degrading”
interrogation of an al Qaeda detainee in 2002, the online magazine Salon
reported on Friday, citing an Army document.
Iraq, war critics claim, is America’s new Vietnam. They could be right.
Writes David Kranz in the Sioux Falls, SD, Argus-Leader:
As President Bush travels across the country proclaiming successes in Iraq, critics are getting louder in opposition.
Anger, it seems, drives bloggers from both the left and the right.
I have watched friends and loved ones die over the years. I’ve faced death more than once without emotion. I’ve photographed it and written about it for four decades. At the Pentagon on 9/11, I went into autopilot, photographing the death and destruction around me, ignoring the stench of kerosene and burning flesh that permeated the air. Yet when a veterinarian asked me if I wanted to be present when they put a kitten to sleep, I couldn’t take it and retreated into a nearby bathroom to sit in a stall and sob.
When it comes to matters of economy, I think of myself as libertarian. I believe in free markets, free trade and limited government. But I must confess, our Latino neighbors are challenging my libertarian instincts regarding our immigration conundrum.
If Zacarias Moussaoui’s intent this past week was to portray himself as a thoroughly loathsome and repellent individual, he succeeded brilliantly.
Pulling rank, President Bush on Friday rebuffed recommendations from a growing number of retired generals that he replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. “He has my full support,” said the commander-in-chief.