Posted by Richard on January 14, 2009
Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks will be performing in Knoxville this Saturday. They're playing two sets at Barley's Taproom, starting at 9:30 PM. If you're in the area, get yourself down there.
Wish I could be there. Nothing beats a Webb Wilder concert, and he never comes out this way anymore.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: entertainment, knoxville, music, webb wilder | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on January 14, 2009
On last Friday's post about the Sunday rally in support of Israel, I added a "Remind Me" button (removed when I updated after the rally) which theoretically enabled readers to get an email reminder of the event from YourLi.st. Either I screwed up when I created it or there's a problem with their service — I got my email reminder for Sunday's rally on Tuesday afternoon.
If you tried the reminder service and got the same less-than-useful result, I'm sorry. OTOH, maybe it worked properly for you. Either way, if you used it, please let me know the result (in the comments or by email to rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom). Maybe it was just me.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: blogging | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on January 14, 2009
I seem to recall that the Obama transition team had a detailed questionnaire for potential appointees, some 16 or 20 pages long. One of the questions was, "Do you own a gun?" I wonder if there was a question like, "Do you always pay your taxes?" Because apparently, at least one Cabinet nominee would have had to answer no:
President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself for four years and employed a housekeeper whose immigration documentation lapsed while in his employ.
…
Geithner disclosed to senators earlier in the day that he had failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.
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… He paid all of his income taxes on his IMF income, but made a "common mistake" on his tax returns with regard to self-employment taxes, Obama transition aides told reporters Tuesday.
"Common mistake," my ass. While doing consulting/contract work, he failed to pay some or all of his Social Security and Medicare taxes. Trust me, I paid self-employment taxes for over a decade and know whereof I speak. Failure to pay those taxes (or to pay the correct rate, which is twice that of wage earners) may be a "common mistake" among self-employed handymen, plumbers, etc., with a high school education (although I doubt it's all that common). But the paperwork isn't that complicated and the instructions are quite clear. Anyone who can't figure out what they owe in self-employment tax isn't qualified to be a bookkeeper, much less Treasury Secretary. It's unlikely that Geithner is that grossly incompetent, so I don't buy the "honest mistake" claim.
The news report I heard said the IRS audited Geithner in 2006 for two of the four years and billed him for the unpaid taxes, but waived penalties. I had one experience with the IRS claiming I owed additional tax (they disallowed a deduction), and they didn't treat me so kindly. Of course, I wasn't president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank at the time.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: democrats, ethics, government, irs, taxes | Leave a Comment »
