The true impact of McCain/Obama on personal income tax

By now, you've no doubt seen the ads by the McCain campaign stating that if Obama is elected your taxes are going to go up.  It turns out, the Washington Post analyzed the tax plans of the 2 campaigns back in June and your taxes will indeed go up if you make over $603,403/year.  For those making less than $111,000 you'll get a bigger tax break under Obama, from $111,000 to $226,000 about the same and from $226,000 to $603,000 you won't see any significant change in your taxes.  [start_sarcasm]Yeah, that's going to really hurt the middle class.  Oh, wait, the middle class goes up to $5,000,000/year, right?[end_sarcasm]  I have to admit, I didn't notice this story at the time, but Fred Anderson took note of it here (though he also got it elsewhere).  Oh, and you remember those temporary tax cuts in 2000 (2001?)?  That's where the increases come from, we just go back to where the tax rates on the top end of the scale were during the boom times of the late 90s.  They were a real drag on the economy, right?    I love the graphic, so I'm including it here, too.

That kind of reminds me of another graphic that Fred found that I thought was amusing (and unfortunately too true).

A bad day flying beats a good day doing just about anything else

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I had posted anything here.  I got the chance to go flying on 17 Aug.  I originally hoped to fly down to Charleston, WV to visit a friend from college that I haven't seen in about 20 years, but at the last moment, she couldn't get away to meet me for dinner, so I flew locally.  One of my goals, when I get the opportunity, is to land at an airport I've never been to.  On 17 Aug, I got the chance to fly KVTA-4I3-4I9-KMNN-KVTA which added 2 new airports to my list (which now totals 37, I didn't land at 4I3, but I've been there before).  I was, however, reminded of why I prefer not to fly in the afternoon in August.  Even though it wasn't as hot that afternoon (28°C, atl 30.04, winds calm) as it has been this week, it was still pretty bumpy at 3000 AGL.  It was a pleasant way to spend 1.2 hours (on the Hobbs).  I've also been trying (though not succeeding as much as I should) to ride my bike (I'll have to put a picture of it up here soon).  My last ride wasn't too much fun, for some reason I felt lousy before I even started and my legs felt like crap for the whole ride, but I still averaged over 15 MPH, so...  I didn't get lots of sleep during the Olympics, often staying up to watch some of the live coverage until 01:00 or 02:00 (occasionally 03:00) EDT, I haven't watched much of the Democratic convention, but I'll probably post something political tomorrow.

08-08-08

Yeah, that isn't how I'd normally write the date, but as of 12 minutes ago, that is today's date.  If you've had a television on in the last month or so, you are aware that today will be the opening ceremonies at the Olympics in Beijing.  I'll probably watch at least part of them although I don't get the thrill out of that that I did back in the 1970s.  I don't remember the Olympics in Tokyo (my excuse is that was only 2) and my only memory of Mexico City is a little bit of the closing ceremonies.  I wish I could say I remembered Bob Beamon's incredible jump or the raised fists of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, but I don't.  I only vaguely remember athletes running all over the place on the field in the stadium during the closing ceremony.  I also remember similar scenes from most of the Olympics since (with the exception of 1980 in Moscow which we boycotted and I believe didn't get any television coverage in the US).  I guess I have lots of memories and dreams tied up in the Olympics.  As long as I live, I'll never forget Jim McKay coming back on the air to say "they're all gone" in 1972.  The travesty of the gold medal game in basketball in those same Olympics.  Mark Spitz.  Being haunted a bit by the fact that the name of the guy who lit the torch in Montreal in '76 was Stefan Prefontaine.  Realizing sometime after those Montreal Olympics that I was never going to be tall enough (or talented enough) to play center for the US basketball team in the Olympics and starting to wonder about this team handball thing (a sport I believe I've only ever seen on TV twice and both were just brief glimpses during Olympic coverage).  I bought my first color TV so that I could watch the LA Olympics in color in that big 19" screen (it replaced the 9" black & white that I had used throughout college) in 1984.  It was probably inevitable, but I think the Olympics lost a little something when they let the pros in, but most of the athletes from "the other side of the Iron Curtain" were pros for years before that.  Still, I did enjoy watching the original "Dream Team" of Magic and Michael and Bird in 1992.  I have a new HD TV for this year's Olympics and I'll watch a fair amount of the competition, but I'll probably be annoyed that all we see is the Americans.  Oh, I'll root for many of the Americans competing, but they aren't always what I want to see.  Sometime back in the 80s In 1976, I saw a series put together by Bud Greenspan called (I believe) the Olympians Olympiad.  The ones that I still remember were about the runners.  In particular, since that time, I've been fascinated by Emil Zatopek and Abebe Bikila.  I never got to see either of them run, but they are fascinating stories.  Yes, I'll root for Michael Phelps to break the Spitz record, but I doubt he'll set world records in all of his finals.  I'll watch the US basketball team in hopes of seeing them play as a team and not a bunch of selfish whiners.  I'll definitely root on the US softball team though they probably won't need it, they should dominate the way Magic and Michael and Larry did hoops in '92.  But, I'm mostly hoping that I'll see something that will stick with me, remind me that there is good in people, take me back to my youth.  I hope never to see another day like that tragic one in Munich, but if there is, I'll probably be watching just like I did when I came home from school for lunch that day.  The Olympics are back.

 

This was one of 2 signs like this along the road in Nicaragua that we drove by nearly every day.

Update: 2008-08-09 00:52 UTC - corrected the info on the Bud Greenspan series