Dozens of the Wealthy Join to Fight Estate Tax Repeal by David Kay Johnston

SEATTLE, Feb. 13 — Some 120 wealthy Americans, including Warren E. Buffett, George Soros and the father of William H. Gates, are urging Congress not to repeal taxes on estates and gifts.

[Among those signing it are Mr. Soros, the billionaire financier; the philanthropist David Rockefeller Jr., former chairman of Rockefeller & Company; Steven C. Rockefeller, chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation; Agnes Gund, a philanthropist whose family owns stakes in many companies, and Ben Cohen, a founder of Ben & Jerry’s.]

President Bush has proposed phasing out those taxes by 2009. But a petition drive being organized here by Mr. Gates’s father, William H. Gates Sr., argues that “repealing the estate tax would enrich the heirs of America’s millionaires and billionaires while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet.”

The billions of dollars in government revenue lost “will inevitably be made up either by increasing taxes on those less able to pay or by cutting Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection and many other government programs so important to our nation’s continued well-being,” the petition says.

In addition to the loss of government revenue, the petition says, repeal would harm charities, to which many of the affluent make contributions as a way of reducing the size of their estates.

“The estate tax,” it says, “exerts a powerful and positive effect on charitable giving. Repeal would have a devastating impact on public charities.” …

Mr. Buffett said repealing the estate tax “would be a terrible mistake,” the equivalent of “choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics.” …

“We have come closer to a true meritocracy than anywhere else around the world,” he said. “You have mobility so people with talents can be put to the best use. Without the estate tax, you in effect will have an aristocracy of wealth, which means you pass down the ability to command the resources of the nation based on heredity rather than merit.”

I’m an atheist who believes nationalism and zealotry are the roots of many of the world’s problems. So, you can imagine how horrifying it is for me to see bible-thumpers wrapped in flags, proclaiming Jesus as our true President. The formerly benign “god bless amerika” now gives me the creeps.

During channel surfing, I often linger over a Christian channel. I see things I like, especially the theatrics of T.D. Jakes. (I went through a brief period where I enjoyed Christian music videos — much more so than country.)

It is especially interesting to see the “Christian nation” propaganda that is always present reach a peak near the Fourth of July. There was a sermon on the wicked effort to misrepresent the Founders as Deists. I saw a special on His Holiness, George Christ Bush. Several times, I saw part of a concert held in the White House that seemed to feature only Christian music. It is especially chilling to watch the leader of the non-denominational US watch 5 youths jump off a Hitler Jugend poster and into the White House to sing about Amerika and the freedom we all enjoy, “thanks to that one man.” I know they don’t mean Jefferson, but I can’t tell if the mean Jesus or Duhbya. That room held 50 to 100 people. How many of them thought, “I can’t believe this is happening in the White House.” Any? It made me think of good times at Bergesgarten.

The White House is no longer the People’s House. It is a Christian Compound. We are one election away from Evangelicals demoting the rest of us to second-class citizens. Ironically, they will do this as part of a Religious Freedom Act, to protect them from persecution from secular humanists.

I think I’ll go burn a bible for the Fourth. mjh

For evangelicals, a bid to ‘reclaim America’ By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor | March 16, 2005

An energetic pastor who built Coral Ridge into a 10,000-member megachurch with far-reaching radio and TV audiences, the Rev. Dr. Kennedy regularly calls the US a Christian nation that should be governed by Christians. He has created a Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington that seeks to evangelize members of Congress and their staffs, and to counsel conservative Christian officeholders. …

Christianity and patriotism are interwoven throughout the gathering, from Christian and American flags marched into the sanctuary, to red, white, and blue banners festooning the church complex, to a rousing “patriotic concert.” Several speakers emphasize the idea that America’s founders were largely Christian and that their intent was to establish a biblically based nation. (No mention is made of other influences on the Founding Fathers, such as Englightenment thinkers or issues of freedom of conscience.)

David Barton, a leading advocate for emphasizing Christianity in US history, deftly selects quotes from letters and historical documents to link major historical figures such as George Washington to a Christian vision, and to suggest that the courts and scholars in the last century have deliberately undermined the original intent of the Founding Fathers. …
Continue reading god bless amerika →

Note: I’m moving this up because the Journal published it 7/3/06 and I think it says something about freedom and independence in America today. peace, mjh

In so very many matters these days, reactions are binary. You see black, I see white. You say yes, I say no. Worse, the notion of “let’s agree to disagree” is long gone. I’m right and you are not only wrong, you are an idiot without morals. Or vice versa.

So, it is no surprise that some people think the Bush Administration should do absolutely anything it deems necessary to fight the War Without End: spy, arrest, torture — anything. Similarly, it is no surprise that some people find these “cures” worse than the disease.

The latest installment in this is the program involving sifting through financial transactions looking for something. To some, this is a no-brainer, to others, this is intrusive. More importantly, it is just one more example of a President who believes he has no limits so long as he’s “protecting” us like a Big Brother.

To tell you the truth, I don’t really care about this latest assault. I rather doubt any of my financial transactions rise to the level of notice. If Bush wants to spy on rich people, he has my blessings. I doubt they’ll tolerate it for long.

What troubles me is the Radical Right’s tactic of shooting the messenger. To the Radical Right, the discussion is not about civil liberties or even appropriate tactics in the War Without End, it’s about treason — the New York Times has committed treason in revealing these details, as the Washington Post committed treason in revealing our CIA prisons, etc.

You and I cannot agree or disagree on something kept secret from us. Nor can we have any intelligent debate if we reduce it all to a matter of treason.

Secrecy is unavoidable in all human matters. However, secrecy is a great tool of totalitarianism, as is a populace that wants to be kept safe and in the dark and is willing to destroy anyone who wants things discussed in the open. mjh

Think Progress » VIDEO: Snow Lashes Out at Media, Suggests NYT Has Undermined Americans’ ‘Right to Live’

Press Secretary Tony Snow followed up with another attack at today’s press briefing:

[T]he New York Times and other news organizations ought to think long and hard about whether a public’s right to know in some cases might override somebody’s right to live, and whether in fact the publications of these could place in jeopardy the safety of fellow Americans.

Think Progress » Rep. King: NYT Reporters Should Be Charged Under Espionage Act

Rep. Peter King (R-NY): [N]o one elected the New York Times to do anything. And the New York Times is putting its own arrogant elitest left wing agenda before the interests of the American people, and I’m calling on the Attorney General to begin a criminal investigation and prosecution of the New York Times — its reporters, the editors who worked on this, and the publisher. We’re in a time of war, Chris, and what they’ve done has violated the Espionage Act, the COMINT act.

GOP Measure Slams NYT for Bank Story By Ben Pershing, Roll Call Staff

The House will vote on a resolution today or Thursday that is expected to criticize The New York Times for its recent disclosure of the government’s secret use of information from a massive international finance network to fight terrorism.

Think Progress » Hardball Guest Says NYT Editor Is Guilty of ‘Treason,’ Advocates ‘Prison For 20 Years’

[MSNBC’s Hardball Chris] MATTHEWS: Let me ask you Melanie, do you really mean treason? You mean put them in jail for life? I don’t know what treason carries as a sanction, but I assume the penalties are incredible severe, 20 years perhaps.

[radio talk show host Melanie] MORGAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: You are saying to put Bill Keller and his associates in prison for 20 years?

MORGAN: Absolutely. I am absolutely advocating that. What has happened is shameful If he’s the one that is ultimately responsible for making this decision. …

When you break the law, you break the law. And the press, the media in this country have to learn one thing. They have to operate under the same laws and the same rules and regulations that all of the rest of the American people do.

Piling On the New York Times With a Scoop By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer

Even by modern standards of media-bashing, the volume of vitriol being heaped upon the editors on Manhattan’s West 43rd Street is remarkable — especially considering that the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal also published accounts Friday of a secret administration program to monitor the financial transactions of terror suspects. So, in its later editions, did The Washington Post. …

[R]arely if ever has any White House mounted such a sustained public campaign against a single news organization. And a vast array of pundits on the right have responded by escalating their rhetoric.

Heather MacDonald, writing in the Weekly Standard, called the Times “a national security threat” that is “drunk” on its own power. …

Despite the stories that appeared in competing papers, the New York Times is still bearing the brunt of the criticism at the White House, on Capitol Hill and throughout the media world.