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Posted at 1:02am on Apr. 5, 2008 California Democrats seek stealth tax hike
By Neil Stevens
Sacramento Democrats are looking to sneak in a tax increase by abusing a technicality of the California Constitution. Normally, all tax increases require two-thirds of each house of the legislature, which means in practice Republicans can and do veto tax increases.
However now Assemblyman Charles Calderon, Democrat of Los Angeles, wants to amend the state sales tax law in a way that he says will require Apple's customers to pay sales taxes on all iTunes downloads, applying state sales taxes on a service instead of a tangible good for the first time.
Because this proposal redefines and expands an existing term in the state lawbooks, rather than creating a tax increase, Calderon and other tax-hungry Democrats claim that only a simple majority is required, which means the tax hike can sail through the Democratic-controlled legislature without a single Republican vote.
Anything to swipe a buck from our pockets. That's the Democratic Party way.
Posted at 11:49pm on Mar. 31, 2008 John McCain: Mainstream Press Bypass Candidate?
By Neil Stevens
Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times put forward a highly unconventional idea today: He suggests that John McCain bypassed an uncooperative press corps during the primary season by reaching out directly to the right on the Internet, and rode that support to victory.
Can he be serious? After all, the common sense viewpoint is that the Senator has spent the last decade making allies on television and in the newspapers, honing a Maverick™ image to make him the favorite Republican of the mainstream press. Patrick Hynes, who does Internet outreach for the campaign, seems to think it made no difference once McCain fell in the polls, says Dinan:
"During the unpleasantness, whenever Senator McCain put himself in front of reporters, the question was always, 'How much did you raise today, when are you dropping out,' " said Patrick Hynes, a conservative blogger who Mr. McCain hired in 2006.
So how did he deal with that and get his message out?
Read on...
Posted in 2008 | Internet | John McCain | primaries | The Press — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »
