headoverheels

The company I work for, for one. We curtailed mid-day/afternoon power consumption that last two days, and will again tomorrow. We have "smart buildings," so it is done in an automated manner, including dropping temperature ahead of the scheduled curtailment (load shifting) so as to minimize temperature rise, cutting lighting power by dimming and turning off some lights, shortening times on occupancy sensors (every room in the building) so that they turn off quicker, increasing ventilation ahead of the curtailment so the ventilation rate can decrease during peak load. Here's someone that sells (brokers) energy for a discount, if customers are willing to cut load on demand. http://www.enernoc.com/

That percentage includes FICA/medicare (and is only the employee side in my case but both in Romney's). And by "my" taxes and income, I'm including that of my wife. Nearly $12k was AMT, and another $14.5k was marriage penalty. Including state and local taxes, more than 40% of our AGI.

Were they black?

So would you favor either a true flat tax on income, or a flat tax with some zero bracket (say 10k per earner)?

yes - get rid of all deductions, all incentives, every single little 'special gift' that the politicians 'gave' to the people to buy their votes - (that goes for multi-millionaires CEOs, welfare moms, and the middle class) - then tax at one rate for all sources of income (richer people pay more dollars - so it's still progressive in amount - but equal in proportion (proportion is also considered a share)) A uniform $$ amount (everyone pays the same amount rather than the same percentage) is also fair - but I don't think it's doable or practical of course, "fair" is subjective to the max - that's just my definition what's 'fair' about someone with low income paying nothing? what's 'fair' about the uber rich getting special deductions that only they can leverage and paying nothing? what's 'fair' about a home owner paying less than a non-home owner? etc etc etc Let's get rid of deductions for dependents while we are at it, and eliminate the marriage penalty (a pet peeve of mine). Are we going to roll in Social Security, or eliminate the cap? Otherwise, the poor are paying higher % taxes than the rich, just as the middle class are now.

You don't see anyone say 5'10" weighing over 210 pounds? In a sizable group in today's US, that is amazing. Those smokers and queers do tend to be more trim, though.

Throw enough, and you will get cooling.

BFD, how MUCH over $200k did they earn? How many single business owners earned over $200k, vs. married earning over $250k? It will be a lot less than 28 percent. Of course those 28 percent earned almost all (91%) of income, just like the top 10% (or 5% or 1%) of tax payers get a huge slice of the total income. Of course, your quoted web site was in favor of the mandate a while back, when it was a Republican idea.

I like the analogy of the way enforcement works, I think from one of the industry lawyers. He said it is like a cop gives you a speeding ticket for 85mph in a 55 zone, and tells you that you need to keep a log over the next week, and write down your speed 5 times over the same stretch of road. If the average is 55 or less, he'll tear up the ticket. edit: By enforcement, I mean of the maximum dust levels.

Well, he certainly made the deficit worse by extending the tax cuts.

"'I'll take 'Type 1 Deniers' for $100, Alex"

Gonna need a pretty big card by the time this is done.

If would be interesting to see that correlated with BMI and other factors between countries. Probably less tobacco now in the U.S. than some of those countries, but this data is mostly looking at an earlier generation as far as cumulative effects of that.

Dave, I just did my taxes for 2010 (yeah, they are sending me threatening letters). The marriage penalty for my Federal return was over $14500 (ouch fucking ouch). California penalty was a couple of hundred. That could buy a decent house a lot of places for cash in 10-15 years.

So he paid 15.45% of his AGI in federal taxes. I haven't done 2011 yet, but for 2010 I paid 28.6% of my AGI in federal taxes.

Etch-a-Sketch http://news.yahoo.com/romney-calls-individual-mandate-tax-contradicts-top-aide-174634430--abc-news-politics.html

As long as it is legal, I don't see anything wrong with minimizing one's tax burden (just did my taxes today for 2010 -- we are paying over 40% of our gross income in taxes). It may show the electorate that this person doesn't really relate to them, and that laws should be tightened up, but it doesn't mean that Romney is doing something sinister.

Try doing an extensive remodel or new construction in Los Altos, or Fremont, and probably where you live. You get to go right to the school district and write them a check for thousands of dollars. This is in addition to $10k-$100k for building permits. That applies to a remodel as well? My friend did a $600k remodel in Fremont, and did the write-a-check-to-the-school thing. I'm doing about $300k in San Jose, and hoping that I don't have to do that. Nothing I can do but pay up, if they do come calling. At least my permits were only $6k or so.

Do any states have line-item veto? If so, how is it working?

The first illegal I knew (AFAIK) was a Canadian. The second was from Yugoslavia.

Try doing an extensive remodel or new construction in Los Altos, or Fremont, and probably where you live. You get to go right to the school district and write them a check for thousands of dollars. This is in addition to $10k-$100k for building permits.

John, I found this one via Google shopping: http://www.opticsplanet.com/undertech-undercover-ultimate-compression-women-s-concealment-shirts.html and this: http://www.opticsplanet.com/undertech-undercover-ultimate-compression-women-s-concealment-shorts.html And more: http://compare.ebay.com/like/320794406921?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y Hey whatcha packing? : http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Concealed-Carry-Handgun-Holster/dp/B007QG6ZGE And even two hits for midget horse sex.

Not all actions are political, many are moral.

I've never shopped on Google. I didn't know that it exists. I've purchased hundreds of things on Amazon, where I get 223,179 hits on "holster," 22,353 of which I can get with free 2 day shipping. 1600+ Amazon hits for horse sex, and 100 for midget sex, but no midget horse sex. Where is our shopping freedom?

Yep. He had a bunch of those humorous monologues, pretty funny 60 years later.