Lowering taxes in Democrat Blue State Cities?; Body Scanning E-Rays Stored; UN Climate Change Fund

Forbes informs us: President Obama's stated objective to reduce inequality, as laid out in public addresses and budget plans, is a noble one. Yet it seems more and more likely that raising taxes for urban middle-income workers will, over the long term, add to the flood of people fleeing to less costly locales with lower taxes. This will be particularly true for the growing ranks of information economy "artisans" who might find critical write-offs for home offices and other business expenses cut from their next tax return.
By targeting the urban middle class to pay for its deficit and new social programs, the president's plan could end up draining wealth--and boosting inequality--from our nation's great cities, where he currently draws overwhelming support, to its hinterlands. Not exactly what the White House had in mind, no doubt, but, sadly, it's a distinct possibility.  http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/02/obama-tax-urban-opinions-columnists_middle_class.html
 
 [Not to worry!  They are, as reported by Fox News, floating the idea to raise taxes everywhere EXCEPT in large cities with high costs of living!  Just coincidental of course is the fact that these same cities have been run for decades by Democrats, and the cost of living is so high because of the high state, city and municipality taxes, as well as in some cases a tax on all of one's investments.  Once again, as in auto dealership closings, response to oil well spills, etc, the Red (Republican) states are below the blue in importance to this Administration.]
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For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they're viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded."
Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse. http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20012583-281.html
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BONN, Germany – Carbon taxes, add-ons to international air fares and a levy on cross-border money movements are among ways being considered by a panel of the world's leading economists to raise a staggering $100 billion a year to fight climate change. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100805/ap_on_sc/climate_change
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When General Motors went through bankruptcy last year, it suspended its political donations. Now that it's owned by the U.S. government, it's donating to lawmakers' pet projects again.
The carmaker gave $41,000 to groups associated with lawmakers, the vast majority of it -- $36,000 -- to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the company reported on a disclosure form last week. The CBC Foundation is a charity with 11 members of the Congressional Black Caucus on its board. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/04/AR2010080407086_pf.html 
[Personally, I don't care which organization gets the money, because it is our money they are donating and it should not be allowed.  It is not surprising, however, to see which group got some money.]
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The latest report from the liberal Democracy Corps poll run by former Bill Clinton advisers James Carville and Stan Greenberg won't do anything to cheer up the Obama White House or Democrats in Congress.
"Democrats are lagging further behind Republicans on which party can best deal with the economy," Messrs. Carville and Greenberg report in their new survey of 1,000 voters who cast ballots in 2008. When asked about how they intend to vote in November, 52% of those who voted in 2008 said they plan to vote Republican to lodge a protest about current economic conditions. Only 41% plan to support Democrats.
All in all, the Democracy Corps report ratifies the findings of a host of other polls that point to major Democratic problems this fall. Last year's fateful decision of the Obama administration to pursue ambitious schemes to expand government control of health care and financial services rather than concentrate on job creation may go into the record books as one of the greatest political blunders of all time. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703748904575411382379964828.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinionhttp:
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Former slave Booker T. Washington, in a 1901 autobiographical book Up From Slavery, made the following poignant statement: When we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally and religiously than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/booker_t_and_the_reparations_h.html   [Having been to Kenya and Tanzania, I remember returning to the gold old USA with those very same thoughts.]