King of Fools
 Some groovy comment goes here.

November 09, 2008

Well, our family (most of us) are in Colorado now. Looking for a house but we took time off from that on Saturday to take a lovely day hike. We headed up to Green Mountain Falls and hiked up part of the Catamount trail. I've posted pictures on my gallery (although they are out of order there which annoys me to no end).

If you want to take a look, click the picture below to the gallery. Remember, they are in reverse order...and the next/prev links skip some of the pictures (sigh).

October 21, 2008

One of my favorite fiction authors does a pretty nice job with non-fiction too.

October 01, 2008

One more go and we are through the highlights (lowlights?) of this amazing piece of xxxx legislation.

19 SEC. 504. INCOME AVERAGING FOR AMOUNTS RECEIVED IN
20              CONNECTION WITH THE EXXON VALDEZ LITI-
21              GATION.

Why? (This one is really long too, and boring, and so unrelated to the matter at hand.)

 7  Subtitle B—Paul Wellstone and
 8  Pete Domenici Mental Health
 9  Parity and Addiction Equity Act
10 of 2008
11
12 SEC. 511. SHORT TITLE.
13      This subtitle may be cited as the ‘‘Paul Wellstone and
14 Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Eq-
15 uity Act of 2008’’.

Two things: First, Paul Wellstone is dead, so I know for a fact that he didn't put this in there. Second, this is long enough and specific enough that it really should be its own bill.

      TITLE VI—OTHER PROVISIONS
 5
 6 SEC. 601. SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SELF-
 7              DETERMINATION PROGRAM.
 8      (a) REAUTHORIZATION OF THE SECURE RURAL
 9 SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION ACT
10     OF 2000.—The Secure Rural Schools and Community
11 Self-Determination Act of 2000 (16 U.S.C. 500 note; Pub-
12 lic Law 106–393) is amended by striking sections 1
13 through 403 and inserting the following:

I thought this one might be exciting but it is really long and boring. Plus it turns out that Securing Rural Schools is about money, not guns.

21 SEC. 602. TRANSFER TO ABANDONED MINE RECLAMATION
22              FUND.
23      Subparagraph (C) of section 402(i)(1) of the Surface
24 Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (30 U.S.C.
25 1232(i)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘and $9,000,000 on
(Page 394)
 1 October 1, 2009’’ and inserting ‘‘$9,000,000 on October
 2 1, 2009, and $9,000,000 on October 1, 2010’’.

8 Lines of Bill, 9 Million Dollars of spending. Amazing.

2   TITLE VII—DISASTER RELIEF
3   Subtitle A—Heartland and
4   Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief

Aha. Ike did make it into this bill. (Did you ever doubt it wouldn't?)

Finally on Page 451, we reach the zenith:

     Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘To provide authority
for the Federal Government to purchase and insure cer-
tain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing
stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and
financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for
energy production and conservation, to extend certain ex-
piring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief,
and for other purposes’’.

Yes...emphases added by me. About 50% of the bill is for "other purposes" and about 5% of it deals with troubled assets.

This bill is a mistake. It simply demonstrates how non-serious Congress really is about the whole thing. If we really need an emergency act to correct this problem, then spend a week discussing and debating provisions, put them together in a clean bill without any cling-ons, and vote.

Just a bunch of clowns at the circus.

I think this is near the mid point. Exhausting work, this is!

18 SEC. 322. TAX INCENTIVES FOR INVESTMENT IN THE DIS-
19              TRICT OF COLUMBIA.
20      (a) DESIGNATION OF ZONE.—
21           (1) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (f) of section
22      1400 is amended by striking ‘‘2007’’ both places it
23      appears and inserting ‘‘2009’’.
24           (2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made
25      by this subsection shall apply to periods beginning
26      after December 31, 2007.

Two more years of an undisclosed tax break to DC. If the ethics committee suspected this one came from a bribe, they would have to suspect everyone. It would be like an Agatha Christie mystery.

 7 SEC. 325. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF DUTY SUS-
 8               PENSION ON WOOL PRODUCTS; WOOL RE-
 9               SEARCH FUND; WOOL DUTY REFUNDS.
10      (a) EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY DUTY REDUC-
11          TIONS.—Each of the following headings of the Har-
12 monized Tariff Schedule of the United States is amended
13 by striking the date in the effective period column and
14 inserting ‘‘12/31/2014’’:
15           (1) Heading 9902.51.11 (relating to fabrics of
16      worsted wool).
17           (2) Heading 9902.51.13 (relating to yarn of
18      combed wool).
19           (3) Heading 9902.51.14 (relating to wool fiber,
20      waste, garnetted stock, combed wool, or wool top).
21           (4) Heading 9902.51.15 (relating to fabrics of
22      combed wool).
23           (5) Heading 9902.51.16 (relating to fabrics of
24      combed wool).
(Page 296)
 1        (b) EXTENSION OF DUTY REFUNDS AND WOOL RE-
 2            SEARCH TRUST FUND.—
 3             (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 4002(c) of the Wool
 4        Suit and Textile Trade Extension Act of 2004 (Pub-
 5        lic Law 108–429; 118 Stat. 2603) is amended—
 6                   (A) in paragraph (3)(C), by striking
 7             ‘‘2010’’ and inserting ‘‘2015’’; and
 8                   (B) in paragraph (6)(A), by striking
 9             ‘‘through 2009’’ and inserting ‘‘through 2014’’.
10             (2) SUNSET.—Section 506(f) of the Trade and
11        Development Act of 2000 (Public 106–200; 114
12        Stat. 303 (7 U.S.C. 7101 note)) is amended by
13        striking ‘‘2010’’ and inserting ‘‘2015’’.

Because shepherds vote too.

16 SEC. 401. PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR UNDERCOVER OP-
17               ERATIONS.
18      (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 7608(c) (relating to rules
19 relating to undercover operations) is amended by striking
20 paragraph (6).
21      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
22 this section shall apply to operations conducted after the
23 date of the enactment of this Act.

I'm kind of thinking it would be more helpful if they told us what paragraph 6 says. But...maybe it is classified. (My gut tells me this is not a provision to make us more secure.)

 1 SEC. 402. PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR DISCLOSURE OF
 2               INFORMATION RELATING TO TERRORIST AC-
 3               TIVITIES.
 4      (a) DISCLOSURE OF RETURN INFORMATION TO AP-
 5         PRISE APPROPRIATE OFFICIALS OF TERRORIST ACTIVI-
 6         TIES.—Subparagraph (C) of section 6103(i)(3) is amend-
 7 ed by striking clause (iv).
 8      (b) DISCLOSURE UPON REQUEST OF INFORMATION
 9 RELATING  TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES.—Paragraph (7) of
10 section 6103(i) is amended by striking subparagraph (E).
11      (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
12 this section shall apply to disclosures after the date of the
13 enactment of this Act.

This kind of feels like the one above. My guess is subparagraph E keeps Congress from learning some secrets they think they 'need to know'.

 6 SEC. 502. PROVISIONS RELATED TO FILM AND TELEVISION
 7               PRODUCTIONS.
 8      (a) EXTENSION  OF EXPENSING RULES FOR QUALI-
 9        FIED FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS.—Section
10 181(f) (relating to termination) is amended by striking
11 ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31,
12 2009’’.
13      (b) MODIFICATION  OF LIMITATION ON EXPENS-
14          ING.—Subparagraph (A) of section 181(a)(2) is amended
15 to read as follows:
16                 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall
17           not apply to so much of the aggregate cost of
18           any qualified film or television production as ex-
19           ceeds $15,000,000.’’.

This one goes on and on and on, with loads of incomprehensible details regarding striking actors and all that. (I feel sorry for the merely good looking and the homely actors, they must feel a bit left out.)

20 SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN
21             WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY
22             CHILDREN.
23     (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b)
24 is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub-
(Page 301)
 1 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A)
 2 the following new subparagraph:
 3                  ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION       FOR CERTAIN WOODEN
 4                        ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not
 5             apply to any shaft consisting of all natural
 6             wood with no laminations or artificial means of
 7             enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold
 8             separately or incorporated as part of a finished
 9             or unfinished product) of a type used in the
10             manufacture of any arrow which after its as-
11             sembly—
12                       ‘‘(i) measures 5⁄16 of an inch or less in
13                  diameter, and
14                       ‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow
15                  described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.
16        (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
17 this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date
18 of enactment of this Act.

This one is just plain wierd. Designed for use by children? And they have to have a diameter of 5/16" or less, and be unsuitable for use in a bow? If they aren't suitable for use in a bow, are they really arrows? Wouldn't it just be a sharp stick made of wood with no laminations, etc.?

This is a stellar example of why there needs to be a law that requires every provision of every bill to identify who put it in there. The ridicule factor alone from a provision like one this would probably singlehandedly reduce the crap added to bills by half.

At about page 279, the tag-along clause party starts in earnest:

11 SEC. 308. INCREASE IN LIMIT ON COVER OVER OF RUM EX-
12               CISE TAX TO PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN
13               ISLANDS.
14      (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) of section 7652(f)
15 is amended by striking ‘‘January 1, 2008’’ and inserting
16 ‘‘January 1, 2010’’.
17      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
18 this section shall apply to distilled spirits brought into the
19 United States after December 31, 2007.

If they pass this thing, we will all be needing some cheaper rum.

 6 SEC. 310. EXTENSION OF MINE RESCUE TEAM TRAINING
 7               CREDIT.
 8      Section 45N(e) (relating to termination) is amended
 9 by striking ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘Decem-
10 ber 31, 2009’’.

Does this have something to do with the deep hole that these suits have been digging?

11 SEC. 311. EXTENSION OF ELECTION TO EXPENSE AD-
12               VANCED MINE SAFETY EQUIPMENT.
13      Section 179E(g) (relating to termination) is amended
14 by striking ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘Decem-
15 ber 31, 2009’’.

Might be relevant and even needed - but why in this bill?

16 SEC. 312. DEDUCTION ALLOWABLE WITH RESPECT TO IN-
17               COME ATTRIBUTABLE TO DOMESTIC PRO-
18               DUCTION ACTIVITIES IN PUERTO RICO.
19      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (C) of section
20 199(d)(8) (relating to termination) is amended—
21            (1) by striking ‘‘first 2 taxable years’’ and in-
22      serting ‘‘first 4 taxable years’’, and
23            (2) by striking ‘‘January 1, 2008’’ and insert-
24      ing ‘‘January 1, 2010’’.
 1        (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
 2 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after
 3 December 31, 2007.

Efficient. They tacked on 2 years by just changing one number.

13 SEC. 314. INDIAN EMPLOYMENT CREDIT.
14      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (f) of section 45A (re-
15 lating to termination) is amended by striking ‘‘December
16 31, 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2009’’.
17      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
18 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after
19 December 31, 2007.

What exactly is employment credit? Did they mean sub-prime employment credit?

20 SEC. 315. ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION FOR BUSINESS
21               PROPERTY ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS.
22      (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (8) of section 168(j)
23 (relating to termination) is amended by striking ‘‘Decem-
24 ber 31, 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2009’’.
(Pg 289)
 1        (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
 2 this section shall apply to property placed in service after
 3 December 31, 2007.

Something about the wording in this one seems almost indecent.

4 SEC. 316. RAILROAD TRACK MAINTENANCE.
5      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (f) of section 45G (re-
6 lating to application of section) is amended by striking
7 ‘‘January 1, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘January 1, 2010’’.

Two more years of something (that most likely costs us alot of money and will never be examined by anyone).

1 SEC. 317. SEVEN-YEAR COST RECOVERY PERIOD FOR MO-
2               TORSPORTS RACING TRACK FACILITY.
3      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (D) of section
4 168(i)(15) (relating to termination) is amended by strik-
5 ing ‘‘December 31, 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31,
6 2009’’.
7      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
8 this section shall apply to property placed in service after
9 December 31, 2007.

A bone to the NASCAR voters?

18 SEC. 319. EXTENSION OF WORK OPPORTUNITY TAX CREDIT
19              FOR HURRICANE KATRINA EMPLOYEES.
20      (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) of section 201(b)
21 of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 is
22 amended by striking ‘‘2-year’’ and inserting ‘‘4-year’’.
23      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
24 subsection (a) shall apply to individuals hired after August
25 27, 2007.

Yousa. Katrina was over 3 years ago. Don't those of us hit by Ike get something? (I bet that comes later.)

1 SEC. 320. EXTENSION OF INCREASED REHABILITATION
2               CREDIT FOR STRUCTURES IN THE GULF OP-
3               PORTUNITY ZONE.
4       (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (h) of section 1400N
5 is amended by striking ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and insert-
6 ing ‘‘December 31, 2009’’.
7       (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
8 this section shall apply to expenditures paid or incurred
9 after the date of the enactment of this Act.

I think this is more Katrina relief, if 'Gulf' means what I think it means. (Gulf of Mexico...or is it Gulf of Sidra? The Persian Gulf?)

As I mentioned before, the bill is full of new Tax Credits (i.e. Tax Breaks) except for a few places where there are Negative Tax Credits (i.e. Tax Increases):

(Pg 234)
 7             TITLE IV—REVENUE PROVISIONS
 8
 9 SEC. 401. LIMITATION OF DEDUCTION FOR INCOME AT-
10               TRIBUTABLE TO DOMESTIC PRODUCTION OF
11               OIL, GAS, OR PRIMARY PRODUCTS THEREOF.
12      (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 199(d) is amended by re-
13 designating paragraph (9) as paragraph (10) and by in-
14 serting after paragraph (8) the following new paragraph:
15           ‘‘(9) SPECIAL   RULE FOR TAXPAYERS WITH OIL
16      RELATED QUALIFIED PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES IN-
17      COME.—
18                 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL. - If a taxpayer has oil
19           related qualified production activities income for
20           any taxable year beginning after 2009, the
21           amount otherwise allowable as a deduction
22           under subsection (a) shall be reduced by 3 per-
23           cent of the least of—
(Pg 235)
 1                       ‘‘(i) the oil related qualified produc-
 2                  tion activities income of the taxpayer for
 3                  the taxable year,
 4                       ‘‘(ii) the qualified production activities
 5                  income of the taxpayer for the taxable
 6                  year, or
 7                       ‘‘(iii)   taxable   income   (determined
 8                  without regard to this section).
 9                  ‘‘(B) OIL     RELATED QUALIFIED PRODUC-
10                  TION    ACTIVITIES    INCOME.—For purposes of
11             this paragraph, the term ‘oil related qualified
12             production activities income’ means for any tax-
13             able year the qualified production activities in-
14             come which is attributable to the production,
15             refining, processing, transportation, or distribu-
16             tion of oil, gas, or any primary product thereof
17             during such taxable year.
18                  ‘‘(C) PRIMARY PRODUCT.—For purposes of
19             this paragraph, the term ‘primary product’ has
20             the same meaning as when used in section
21             927(a)(2)(C), as in effect before its repeal.’’.

So any company in 'oil related qualified production activities' are the lucky recipients of a 3% tax increase, courtesy of Senator Dodd. Note that this affects every level of the supply chain - production, refining, processing, transportation AND distribution. Higher taxes for corporations get passed onto who? I guess it was just two months ago that energy was the hot issue on the hill...obviously the impetus to lower energy costs has been greatly reduced.

I've browsed the bill and I'm really not very impressed. First, it is a whopping 451 pages long. It starts with the rationale behind the bill (pending economic disaster) and then goes into the provisions of the bailout. Pretty dull stuff to be honest. Then on Page 97, I found this little gem:

18 SEC. 204. EMERGENCY TREATMENT.
19      All provisions of this Act are designated as an emer-
20 gency requirement and necessary to meet emergency needs
21 pursuant to section 204(a) of S. Con. Res 21 (110th Con-
22 gress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal
23 year 2008 and rescissions of any amounts provided in this
24 Act shall not be counted for purposes of budget enforce-
25 ment.

This tells me two things. First, the spending in this bill comes from this year but doesn't count against this year's budget. The other thing is that this should indicate that everything in this bill is a critical measure that will help deal with this financial crisis. Thus, the bill should be very lean and non-related items should have been left out, at least according to Section 204, right?

Wrong.

It looks like the vast majority of the bill consists of a laundry lists of special new or increased tax breaks for certain groups (as well as a few negative tax breaks for others). A section which addresses a plethora of energy related tax breaks ends with the following (Page 179):

12 SEC. 117. CARBON AUDIT OF THE TAX CODE.
13      (a) STUDY.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall
14 enter into an agreement with the National Academy of
15 Sciences to undertake a comprehensive review of the Inter-
16 nal Revenue Code of 1986 to identify the types of and
17 specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on car-
18 bon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate
19 the magnitude of those effects.
20      (b) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date
21 of enactment of this Act, the National Academy of
22 Sciences shall submit to Congress a report containing the
23 results of study authorized under this section.
24      (c) AUTHORIZATION    OF     APPROPRIATIONS.—There is
25 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section
26 $1,500,000 for the period of fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

So, in an effort to solve the emergency financial crisis, Congress has decided it was prudent to spend 1.5 million dollars examining the tax code in an effort to find a way to tweak it to prevent global warming. It is unfortunate that it would cost so much to simply review the existing tax code, but it does since the code is overly complicated (and no thanks to Congress for that). Of course, this number doesn't count toward this year's budget, so it is actually a free accounting - or at least free from budgetary review. All in the name of global warming impending financial doom.

More to come, if my blood pressure can handle further examination of this bill. (You know why it is called a bill, right? Because you and I will be paying for it for decades.)

September 29, 2008

After starting a few years later than his peers, my oldest son started drumming and worked his tail off for the last 2 years to make the drum line in his Sophomore year. Here are a few pictures from Friday night's football game - he is the second from the left:
He is definitely a better drummer than I am a photographer, although I think the invisible arms in the second picture turned out kind of cool.

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