Taxing Thoughts

From Wired:

Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?
By Leander Kahney

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed.

But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.

The senator’s site makes extensive use of a JavaScript menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software company based in the United Kingdom. The copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on Hatch’s website.

“It’s an unlicensed copy,” said Andy Woolley, who runs Milonic. “It’s very unfortunate for him because of those comments he made.”

…

From ArgMax:

Bill Gates and the Estate Tax

I just got back from a press conference sponsored by United for a Fair Economy and Americans for a Fair Estate tax. Bill Gates (Sr.) made a very compelling case for keeping the estate tax arguing that one important reason that the super-wealthy have been able to make/keep vast sums of money is that they are fortunate enough to live in America. And, as good Americans, they owe some of their wealth to the country that made it possible for them to become so wealthy.

FYI - only 2 percent of estates owe any tax, and the first $1 million for individuals, or $2 million per married couple, is tax-free. So, if you leave $1,000,001 to your heir (after deductions for charity), your heir is responsible for only 18 cents in taxes.

From the watch:

The American Dilemma

As many people warned before Bush took us into war, the problem was not the war itself. The really ugly problem would be dealing with the aftermath. Well, now we are well and truly stuck in a quagmire, with no end in sight. Today when the costs of empire are being exposed and both our soldiers and the Iraqis are dying, it looks increasingly like there are no good answers to our dilemma: how can we extract ourselves from this mess without creating greater carnage and leaving even more disaster in our wake?

From Angry Bear:

Bizzaro World

What did I tell you? Two posts ago, I called the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page “just plain wacky”. Six posts ago I recommended a fairly new libertarian blogger, Amy Phillips. Now Amy reports on more wackiness from the virulently pro-war editorial page of the WSJ: WSJ editorial writers are using the lack of WMD to attack anti-war politicians.

I know, it doesn’t make any sense the first time you read it. There must be a typo, you think. So I’ll say it again: WSJ editorial writers are using the lack of WMD to attack anti-war politicians.

See the graph below created by Cabinet Magazine, which shows how extensions of copyright law have kept works out of the public domain. The page also has a printable version of the graph that you can send to your local Congressional representatives.

After looking at that graph, please sign the Reclaim the Public Domain Petition, which is being put forth by Lawrence Lessig and the folks over at Eldred.cc. It now has over 12,000 signatures! I’ve signed it, you should too.

To: Members of the United States Congress

CBO Expects Deficit to Shatter Record

By ALAN FRAM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Congressional Budget Office now expects this year’s federal deficit to exceed $400 billion, shattering the previous record even as President Bush and lawmakers consider creating expensive new prescription drug benefits for Medicare recipients.

Only a month ago, the budget office - which is Congress’ top nonpartisan fiscal analyst - said for the first time that it believed this year’s shortfall would exceed $300 billion.

But that projection excluded this year’s price tag of the tax reductions enacted three weeks ago, which totaled $330 billion through 2013. It also failed to reflect an ongoing softness in the economy, which is generating lower federal revenues than the government had anticipated.

From It’s Still the Economy, Stupid:

The economic revisionism has begun…

So, yes, the US unemployment rate was released this morning, and no real surprises there - up .1% to 6.1%, the highest level in 9 years. Economists actually expect the rate to continue to climb over the next few months, even if the economy turns around, as only phenomenal economic conditions could accommodate the millions of high school and college graduates expected to enter the job force this summer.

From It’s Still the Economy, Stupid:

Cassandra Revisted

Earlier today on Wampum, I hinted as to some developing controversy regarding tomorrow’s unemployment numbers. This has its roots the Cassandra Complex ™ I unfortunately developed back in January, when I first began to read the raw unemployment reports from the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics]. I noted back then that January’s employment picture looked particularly rosy not due to any major upswing in the economy, but because the Administration had altered the way it was collecting and reporting data, conveniently skewing results in the process. February and March’s results were also tampered with, but decidedly less so than January’s. Then, in April, I noticed that the BLS had planned in June to once again institute major changes to the employment reports. Whether these changes will effect the spinning of tomorrow’s unemployment report, I can’t say. But it’s also a question I noticed was asked by at least two media sources today:

The Guardian has retracted a quote that I posted yesterday at Who Cares About WMDs, It Was About Oil!!! Wolfowitz did not say that the war was about/for oil.

Here is the retraction.

Corrections and clarifications

Thursday June 5, 2003

Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil

George Wright
Wednesday June 4, 2003

Oil was the main reason for military action against Iraq, a leading White House hawk has claimed, confirming the worst fears of those opposed to the US-led war.

The US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz - who has already undermined Tony Blair’s position over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by describing them as a “bureaucratic” excuse for war - has now gone further by claiming the real motive was that Iraq is “swimming” in oil.

The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt.