Usa Thread

[Steve]

Rubio will help but I don't think he's enough to turn the election around. Palin actually gave McCain a nice bump initially but it didn't take long to see she wasn't close to being vice presidential.

 

External events (bad economy, an Obama scandal, etc.) are the only things that can turn it around for Romney.

[Flashermac]

Rubio bill eliminates federal tax on Olympic medals

 

 

Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill Wednesday to eliminate the federal government’s tax on Olympic medals, saying the levy amounted to yet another way the government tries to punish those who succeed.

 

Athletes who win a gold medal also earn a $25,000 honorarium — and with it an $8,986 tax bill to the IRS, according to Americans for Tax Reform, which crunched the numbers. That covers both the honorarium and the tax on the value of the gold in the medal itself.

 

The silver medal tax comes to $5,385, and the bronze medal tax is $3,502 — including $2 for the value of the bronze medal itself, and the $10,000 honorarium.

 

That could leave amateur athletes — in many cases still teenagers — facing stiff tax bills when they return to the U.S.

 

Mr. Rubio said that shouldn’t happen.

 

“Our tax code is a complicated and burdensome mess that too often punishes success, and the tax imposed on Olympic medal winners is a classic example of this madness,†the Florida Republican said.

 

His bill would exempt the honorarium and the value of the Olympic medal itself from any federal taxes.

 

Congress is currently fighting over how to adjust the broader tax code and whether to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire. But Mr. Rubio said the Olympic winners shouldn’t have to wait until lawmakers finish that job.

 

“We can all agree that these Olympians who dedicate their lives to athletic excellence should not be punished when they achieve it,†he said.

 

As of Wednesday evening, the U.S. had collected 12 gold medals, eight silvers and nine bronzes — though a number of those were in team competitions.

 

So the men’s relay team that won gold in the 4x200 meter freestyle event would together owe nearly $63,000 to Uncle Sam for the four swimmers in the final and the three who took part in preliminary heats.

 

All told, U.S. athletes have 64 medals — 27 golds, 18 silvers and 19 bronzes — which comes to a tax bill of nearly $350,000.

 

Swimmer Ryan Lochte, the most-decorated American athlete so far, faces a tax bill of $23,357 for his two golds and a silver.

 

ATR, the group that crunched the numbers, said it’s unlikely any of America’s competition will face the same taxes because the U.S. “is virtually the only developed nation that taxes ‘worldwide’ income earned overseas by its taxpayers.â€

 

My link

 

 

[kamui]

Rubio will help but I don't think he's enough to turn the election around. Palin actually gave McCain a nice bump initially but it didn't take long to see she wasn't close to being vice presidential.

 

External events (bad economy, an Obama scandal, etc.) are the only things that can turn it around for Romney.

 

You might be right Steve:

 

 

Aug. 1: Obama Extends Electoral College Advantage

By NATE SILVER

Barack Obama’s standing in the FiveThirtyEight forecast reached its strongest position to date on Tuesday as a result of favorable polls in a set of swing states. The forecast model now gives Mr. Obama a 70.8 percent chance of winning the Electoral College, up from 69.0 percent on Monday and from 65.0 percent last Tuesday.

 

Three of the polls were conducted by Quinnipiac University in conjunction with The New York Times and CBS News. The polls gave Mr. Obama leads of 6 points in each of Ohio and Florida, and an 11-point lead in Pennsylvania.

 

In each state, the polls are at the high end of the range of numbers produced by other polling firms. As we frequently advise, no one set of polls — no matter how reputable the pollster — should be read as gospel. Differences in the numbers from survey firm to survey firm often reflect sampling error or methodological differences rather than any fundamental change in the condition of the race.

....

 

NYT

 

[allistar]

Have either the IOC or U.S. Olympic committee pay the taxes. They make enough from sponsors and television rights. Do Nobel prize winners from the uS. also pay taxes on their cash prizes? Should we exempt them from paying taxes on their cash prize? I'm not concerned about athletics from popular sports. They will get a lot of money from endorsements. Its the U.S. Olympic winners that don't receive a call from the President that I would be concerned about. They won't see the endorsement money flowing in.

[BelgianBoy]

[Flashermac]

The forgot the most important rule: Draw your weapon and shoot the fucker.

 

 

 

 

 

[kamui]

The forgot the most important rule: Draw your weapon and shoot the fucker.

 

 

Yeah, right, especially since all gun owners are well trained and use adequate equipment for such an occasion:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uqD8Ja6IZ0

 

[kamui]

This article is from 2007. Since Obama became president gun sales have exploded:

U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people

 

Tue, Aug 28 2007By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.

 

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

 

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

 

"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.

 

India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.

 

Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.

 

On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.

 

France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.

 

"Firearms are very unevenly distributed around the world. The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons -- these images are certainly misleading," Small Arms Survey director Keith Krause said.

 

"Weapons ownership may be correlated with rising levels of wealth, and that means we need to think about future demand in parts of the world where economic growth is giving people larger disposable income," he told a Geneva news conference.

 

The report, which relied on government data, surveys and media reports to estimate the size of world arsenals, estimated there were 650 million civilian firearms worldwide, and 225 million held by law enforcement and military forces.

 

Five years ago, the Small Arms Survey had estimated there were a total of just 640 million firearms globally.

 

"Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than we previously believed," Krause said, attributing the increase largely to better research and more data on weapon distribution networks.

 

Only about 12 percent of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with authorities.

 

http://www.reuters.c...834893820070828

 

PS: I wonder about Germany, since we have extremely strict gun ownership rules. Unless you are a hunter or sports shooter it's almost impossible to own a gun. (And hunters and shooter have to follow very strict rules too with mandatory courses and exams, mandatory membership of licensed hunter or shooting associations, secured storage for guns needed, e.g.).

[cavanami]

Looks like every time there is a shoot out and people get killed, the following happens:

 

1. politicians start to beat the drums for more gun control

 

2. the citizens rush out and buy more guns as they fear more gun control

 

Me thinks this has been the reaction cycle for quite some time.

[BelgianBoy]

how come my youtube gets posted as a link, and you as a movie....?

what do I do wrong ?

TIA

 

BB