New stop opens as Rail Runner marks 5 years – The Santa Fe New Mexican
The 13th Rail Runner Express stop, at Sandia Pueblo, will be open for commuters starting Monday. – Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican
New stop opens as Rail Runner marks 5 years – The Santa Fe New Mexican
The first time I heard of Huntsman, someone joked he was running to the left of Obama. Hey, somebody should.
Jon Huntsman Wakes Up – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast
This is exactly what he needs to do: lose the caution, stiffen the sinews and take on the know-nothings:
When we take a position that isn’t willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Science – Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position….I can’t remember a time in our history where we actually were willing to shun science and become a – a party that – that was antithetical to science. I’m not sure that’s good for our future and it’s not a winning formula.
Here he is on the GOP’s recent economic brinkmanship:
Well, I wouldn’t necessarily trust any of my opponents right now, who were on a recent debate stage with me, when every single one of them would have allowed this country to default. You can imagine, even given the uncertainty of the marketplace the last several days and even the last couple of weeks, if we had defaulted the first time in the history of the greatest country that ever was, being 25 percent of the world’s GDP and having the largest financial services sector in this world by a long shot, if we had defaulted, Jake, this marketplace would be in absolute turmoil. And people who are already losing enough as it is on their 401(k)s and retirement programs and home valuations, it would have been catastrophic.
Keep it up. Huntsman has a prophetic role in this campaign if he chooses to adopt it: the truth-teller. His chances are so slim, he loses nothing by speaking this candidly. At the very least, he lays down a distinctive marker for 2016. At the very most, he could break out in New Hampshire if Romney falters.
Jon Huntsman Wakes Up – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast
We both liked Away We Go (4 stars), starring Maya Rudolph (SNL) and John Krasinski (The Office), a favorite from It’s Complicated (recommended). It’s low-key, chuckle-funny more than laugh out loud. A 30-Something.
Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp; 4 stars) was hilarious, uproarious, and very interesting to look at. Highly recommended.
Community is a TV series about to start its third season. It is hilarious and so inventive one wonders how long the writers can keep being so creative. You have to see it. Sadly, it’s not on Netflix streaming. Mer just bought the Season 1 DVDs; we missed the first half of that season, so we’re having a great time.
4” of rain at Oak Flats, Manzanos, in 10 days.
A lot of people linked to Buffett’s column last week. If you haven’t read the whole thing, you should. Buffett is a National Treasure, in marked contrast to those who sneer ‘he should feel free to send a check to the Feds.’ The tight-fisted cheapskates call the shots these days. The notion of a Commonwealth is dying. Even the Founders saw the rightness of progressive taxes and the wealthy paying more because they can. The Rich use the common resources of the nation and often disproportionately. Let them pay more for the good of the nation. The cheap bastards sneer the lazy poor want a free ride – not so.
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich – NYTimes.com
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.
If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot.
To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.
I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
I’m not one to call someone a RINO – Republican In Name Only – shorthand for the purge of the GOP of anyone who doesn’t take talking-points from FoxSkews. Maybe there are still some Republicans who aren’t opposed to all authority – scientific or educational or governmental – that isn’t tight-fisted, small-minded, and weirdly “Christian.”
The GOP is fed up with its choices – The Washington Post
“The minute that the Republican Party becomes the anti-science party, we have a huge problem,” candidate Jon Huntsman said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” — a declaration that makes me wonder how familiar Huntsman is with the political organization he seeks to lead.
The GOP is fed up with its choices – The Washington Post
Er, that “minute” ticked by before the DUHbya Error.
“I think when you find yourself at an extreme end of the Republican Party,” Huntsman said of Perry, “you make yourself unelectable.”
