coyote and mallards
Originally uploaded by mjhinton.
This photo was selected by the Alibi (local alternative weekly) for their 2011 Photo Contest in the Land Ho! (The Natural World) Category. I’m honored and grateful.
Return on Your Investment: Nil, if you’re a taxpayer, plenty if you’re a GE shareholder
[S]ome of the country’s biggest corporations are getting away without being asked to pay anything at all. In 2009, mega corporations like Boeing and General Electric managed to avoid paying a penny in federal taxes — while also netting enormous benefits in tax benefits and subsidies.
Now, with many companies releasing their financial reports for 2010, it appears that Bank of America — the nation’s largest bank — has gone a second year in a row paying absolutely no federal corporate income taxes. In fact, not only did the company use its losses to avoid paying taxes last year, but it actually reported a tax benefit of almost a billion dollars …
GE has chutzpah but not a shred of decency
Last week, the New York Times reported that, despite making $14.2 billion in profits, General Electric, the largest corporation in the United States, paid zero U.S. taxes in 2010 and actually received tax credits of $3.2 billion dollars. The article noted that GE’s tax avoidance team is comprised of “former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.”
After not paying any taxes and making huge profits, ThinkProgress has learned that General Electric is expected to ask its nearly 15,000 unionized employees in the United States to make major concessions.
Reminds me of the definition of chutzpah: killing both parents and asking for mercy as an orphan. Rob the public and the workers.
“Voter Fraud” is More Nonsense from the Frightened Right
The Bush administration’s five-year national “war on voter fraud” resulted in only 86 convictions of illegal voting out of more than 196 million votes cast. Instead conservatives are employing an old tactic: using the specter of false voting to restrict the voting rights of minorities and the poor.
ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Hardly a Call To Man Ramparts
THE MARCH 16 front page Journal story states that Secretary of State Dianna Duran found 117 people who were registered to vote who were foreign nationals when they applied for their licenses, and 37 had voted between 2003 and 2010.
A scandal in the making? Hardly. Consider this: 3.8 percent, or 36,122, of registered voters in New Mexico were "New Americans" — naturalized citizens or the U.S.-born children of immigrants who were raised during the current era of immigration from Latin America and Asia that began in 1965 — according to an analysis of 2006 Census Bureau data.
Now I don’t know how many were naturalized between 2003 and 2010, but I personally have attended two very inspiring naturalization ceremonies over the last three years where more than 500 were naturalized. And, unlike many citizens born in the United States, they register to vote and take their duty to vote seriously.
RICHARD P. MASON
Rio Rancho
ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The same people who are certain that *Democrats* are stealing elections seem unconcerned by the fact that voting machine makers support Conservatives. And let’s not even re-live Republican shenanigans of 2000 – I hate seeing red-faced Scalia’s spittle-soaked disdain.
Believing Obama is not American-born is STUPID and racist. Wake UP!
[The Donald] wants Obama to present a Certificate of Live Birth, but here it is, widely available on the internet, as it has been for nearly three years.
Moreover, Trump’s argument isn’t even internally coherent. First he questions why no doctors or nurses in Hawaii remember Obama’s birth, noting “this is the president of the United States!” (It’s unclear if Trump believes Obama was born the president):
TRUMP: Hey look, you have no doctors that remember. You have no nurses — this is the president of the United States! — that remember. That ad that was placed in the Houston paper — that was placed in the paper days after he was born. So he could have come into the country.
But just moments later, Trump doubts the governor of Hawaii Neil Abercrombie’s recollection of Obama’s birth, noting it was over 50 years ago. Abercrombie has said, “I knew his mom and dad. I was here when he was born.” Trump called for the governor to be “be investigated” for lying about the memory:
TRUMP: You know what I get a kick out of? The governor of Hawaii says, oh I remember when Obama was born. I doubt it! I think this guy should be investigated. He remembers when Obama was born? Give me a break! He’s just trying to do something for his party.
Trump seems to be leading yet another resurgence of the myth that “refuses to die” on the right — talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been increasingly focusing on the issue, and praised Trump for providing a “valuable service” by questioning it; on Friday, Fox News host Sean Hannity refused to believe that Obama had released his birth certificate; and potential 2012 candidates like Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee have been hitting the issue as well lately.
I do hope The Donald continues his campaign. I’d love a Trump-Palin ticket as the last gasp of the Loony Right.
BTW: I was born in Hawai’i while it was still a Territory of the United States. And, no, you can’t see my fucking birth certificate.
Saw two Cooper’s hawks this AM near the southwestern-most (and largest / oldest) nest in Altura Park. One was adding to the nest.
Three or four nests on that side; one on the north side of the park.
First Follow-up to Citizen Journalism Panel
My thanks to everyone who attended and to Gwyneth Doland and Kevin McDonald, KNME.
One of Gwyneth’s suggestions seemed particularly important: pick your subject, your interest, and stick with it. She spoke of the specific example of attending meetings, talking to participants, reading official documents. Important advice from the professional journalism perspective. (As devil’s advocate, I say write about what strikes you at the moment. You do not have to specialize to write. You especially do not need one single focus to get started.)
When Kevin McDonald mentioned PBS isn’t subject to ratings in quite the way commercial TV is, I thought most local TV stations don’t have vocal critics clamoring to shut them down completely. This relates to the woman who expressed her irritation at Gwyneth’s specific examples of media sources. We all have biases. Moreover, we all should cut each other some slack, especially when we give up a Saturday to come together.
I have mixed feelings about Kevin’s suggestion to associate with a larger entity. He says it lends some credibility to the blogger. Certainly, it increases the odds of one’s efforts being seen. It smacks a little of my cynical observation at the start that “citizen journalism” sounds like an excuse for firing the professionals. More importantly, I like my autonomy. Anyone is welcome to link to me, but I don’t want anyone’s masthead.
I have a recent example that turns the whole notion of citizen journalism (professionals versus amateurs) upside down, but I need to get my facts straight. Be so kind as to come back here on Tuesday. Thanks.