The White House feels no remorse over the aftermath of Katrina.

[FormerRepublican]

It's pretty clear from reading just the bits and pieces from the documents Gov. Blanco released that the botched federal response to Katrina was deliberate. It wasn't incompetence - they were completely ignored. The continuing failure in aid is yet more proof. Since the Republican Party is currently a vehicle for Bush, there is no doubt in my mind where the instructions for this continuing debacle are coming from. This is so revolting to me personally that just reading about it makes me want to throw up.

http://tinyurl.com/bwphx

The only real question is why do we continue to keep people in our government who blithely watch Americans die? Why do we entrust our tax dollars to them when they misuse those dollars and kill Americans in the process?

Personally, I think we need to stage a national protest. Every taxpayer in the country needs to delay their tax return to the feds to April 16 as a message to our "elected" officials that if they continue to misuse our taxes, they will cease to receive our taxes.

If the rabidly Republican think it's OK to hand over their taxes for misuse, let them support the government kleptocracy directly and by themselves - and Lord knows they refuse to pay their fair share, so if it were ever left to them as primary funders the government would go immediately bankrupt. No more cozy corporate welfare or crony bailouts.

The IRS may be big and powerful, but even they can't go after every American in the country who stages a tax protest at government misuse of our funds - the larger the numbers engaging in protest, the more powerless the IRS becomes in fighting the protest. We can call it the "Boston Tea Party II" and hold it in Boston harbor, dumping all our tax returns into the sea as a protest against government corruption. Lord knows I certainly feel as if I'm a victim of taxation without representation. If the government needs money on April 15, they can go ask Halliburton for some payback.

If they feds can't be trusted to use our taxes to benefit Americans who pay them, why should we fork them over? Let the Republicans fund their criminal activities without access to the mighty American taxpayer purse.

[0007]

1. A national protest is in order.

I've decided to launch an attack that will reduce this administration to ashes...I want you to round up every vicious criminal and gunslinger in the West. Take this down: I want rustlers, cut-throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nit-wits, half-wits, dim-wits, vipers, snipers, con-men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bush-whackers, horn-swagglers, horse-thieves, bull-dykes, train-robbers, bank-robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, and Methodists!

Get ready gang we're gonna march down Pennsylvania Ave.

[bbinacan]

5. Blazing Saddles? n/t

[0007]

8. Who can say it better than Hedley?

Or do you feel a song coming on?

[bbinacan]

9. Excuse me while

I whip this out.:evilgrin:

[0007]

14. After ten more schnitzengruben's, I'm gonna whip mine out.

Everytime I see that film I find something new to crack me up.

[bbinacan]

15. Me too

I got the DVD as a gift last year. One would have a hard time making a movie like that today.

[0007]

19. You're right, I seldom ever watch a film twice. And the first time

I watched it, it went right over my head. Why I watched it the second time I don't know. I've watched it about six times now. The last time, was a few weeks ago. And for the first time I noticed the main street's storefronts is Howard Johnson's Ice Cream Parlor - advertising only 1 Flavor. The townsfolk are all named Johnson further emphasizes Rock Ridge's homogeneity.

I'm gonna have to buy it!

"Going South" is another film that grabs my funny bone.

[bbinacan]

20. Haven't seen Going South

will try to remember to rent it.

[0007]

24. You'll wind up buying that one also. It's not a film you see just

once. Jack Nicholson is absolutely great and one funny guy. Check it out!

Tis another western comedy. It's about how a women can twist a man and how gold can twist anyone.

[bbinacan]

30. I like Nicholson

so you are probably right that I will end up buying it.

[nicknameless]

35. Sign them up.

[IntravenousDemilo]

16. Wow, sounds like the song "I've Been Everywhere, Man" n/m

[Joe Chi Minh]

27. What's the point? You've just described Bush's Neocon base.

[GrumpyGreg]

2. Your second paragraph sounds like me complaining after Waco.

I often wonder about our government, and have for many years.

[JAbuchan08]

3. even if only a large minority of Democrats

were to do this they would get the message.

The problem (as with most other large scale protests of this nature) is coordination. One has to know that a lot of other people will be on board as well.

[FormerRepublican]

6. DU and other online gathering places of likeminded people can help...

[JAbuchan08]

21. Perhaps the best way to do this is to post a petition on a blog

somewhere declaring: "If X number of people sign this petition I declare that i will boycott the IRS for ONE day this tax season" along with an official looking print-out that could be sent with our tax forms.
after we get X number of signatures on the web we could circulate it for people who don't have web access.

[FormerRepublican]

23. That's a really good idea!

[...of J.Temperance]

4. We need Governor Blanco's correspondence ALL OVER THE PLACE

As MANY people as possible NEED to know about WHAT Governor Blanco requested and WHAT she tried to do.

Her approval rating has shot down to 34%...Katrina wasn't her fault...it was Junior and FEMA'S DELIBERATE plan.

People need to know this and the Governor needs to be cut some slack.

On Edit: Spelling error.

[NanceGreggs]

7. It's a good idea ...

... but not too many people are going to risk having the IRS on their backs, so they won't do it.

How's this for an alternative?

Donate money (whatever you can afford) to Katrina relief organizations. Then send the receipt, copy of cancelled cheque or credit card statement to the WH, with copies to your elected State officials, demanding reimbursement for having paid a bill that rightfully should have been paid by the government.

The people who need the money will get it, and the government will get the message if they're deluged with 'demand letters' from constituents (i.e. VOTERS).

Just a thought ...

[FormerRepublican]

11. If it's only delayed 1 day, how bad could the IRS get on your back...

...even if they had full power to act? The worst they could do would be to assess a penalty. For one day late, I don't think even the penalty would be much.

I think the problem is our voices are simply NOT getting through to the hard heads in Washington who think THEY are in charge and not the American people. They need a very clear and infinitely strong message that they either shape up or their pig trough is going the way of the west. We need something to break through that "drunk with power" fat head syndrome our elected officials are infected with. Cutting off their money is a strong enough message, IMO.

[NanceGreggs]

28. You're right in that a one-day penalty ...

... wouldn't matter all that much. But too many people will be afraid of winding up on a 'should be audited' list somewhere for their trouble.

Besides, even if MILLIONS of people filed a day late, we'd never even hear about it -- they'd just accept them all as having been filed on time, because the paperwork wouldn't be worth it to go after people --besides, this Admin would want to keep such a negative response to their policies out of the media, so they'd just deny ever having received all of the late filings.

No publicity equals nothing accomplished.

Someone suggested a few weeks ago here at DU (perhaps even the original poster here) having people in different major cities go out dressed in 1776 American Revolution-type clothing, collecting signatures on petitions citing 'No Taxation Without Representation'. That idea was in the context of people not paying taxes because their votes aren't counted (Diebold et al). Now, THAT'S something local newspapers would cover, as well as local TV stations. And if it's done across the country, it will inevitably find its way into the mainstream media. And the "No Taxation Without Representation" idea covers a broad range of things -- from fair elections, to the use of taxpayer dollars for the war, the direction of tax dollars to rebuild Katrina-affected areas, and so on.

[FormerRepublican]

29. Combine them. Fill the blogs with the story first. Then alert the media.

If the media doesn't cover it, they just look like complicit fools (and that can be pointed out). We can also get our friends across the pond to cover a Boston Tea Party II as an item of historical and human interest, which might encourage the press here to pick it up. Considering the low opinion of Bush held by a majority of those across the pond, I think we'd have an easy time convincing them to cover it. We can threaten to boycott select advertisers in all media outlets that fail to cover the associated events, and this is a big threat if we can get millions of people involved. We can also write letters to said advertisers implying that it's THEIR political views that caused the media outlets to deny coverage, and so we feel compelled to broaden our protest to THEM as participants in the political corruption we object to.

The Bush propaganda machine can't control the media forever - we just have to discover the key to break their control.

[sandnsea]

32. It's no big deal, truly

I've missed filing my taxes several times. I've filed my taxes and didn't have the money to pay. They send you a notice and you call a number and set up a payment plan, automated. You don't even talk to a human being. Unless you owe thousands of dollars, the interest and penalties are miniscule. If you have a refund coming, then they don't even care if you don't file, they probably prefer you don't. The paranoia over the IRS is quite exaggerated. Unless you owe thousands or they are harrassing you because you're a known anti-government agitator, and the only ones I know of who have had that happen have been freemen types, not liberals.

[agincourt]

10. Blanco's down 20% in the polls in Louisiana,

That was the purpose of the FEMA no-response and unfortunately it worked like a charm. They let New Orleans suffer and when the Democrats there complained, they lied about not being let in. It's a case of govertment agencies which we pay taxes on, being used for Rove operations. If Blanco had been republican, FEMA would have marched right in. If you study how the FERC was used to sack Gray Davis in California, you discover the same pattern. This is the shit these pigs are smart at.

[FormerRepublican]

12. All the more reason to cut off their $$$ for a day...

Let them wonder if the public attitude is going to take hold and the taxpayer purse shut tight for the duration.

They always talk about "no taxes." Let them actually try to run a government without them. I dare Bush to try to keep our troops in Iraq and plan expansionist wars when he doesn't have a penny to piss with.

[JanusAscending]

13. If that's the case,

( I'm playing devils advocate here) why did Fema do the same thing to Mississippi? I'm not sure of Alabama's status, don't hear much about them in the MSM.:shrug: I'll venture a guess............Fema is being run by incompetents?

[FormerRepublican]

17. Mississippi got more than LA did - remember the re-routed hospital ship?

There's more. Ol' Haley Barbour, prior 'puke chair, couldn't be embarrassed by a lack of fed assistance (although their fake press conferences implied that everything was taken care of locally without FEMA's help and Haley Barbour had the whole thing in hand - NOT!)

[agincourt]

26. Mississippi and Alabama have GOP governors,

Bush would want them to look good. Many bragged how well FEMA responded to Mississippi and Alabama. Of course at ground zero, FEMA was probably shit. But the msm wanted us to think they were well taken care of, because they cooperated with Bush. You didn't have "2000 buses available", "they wouldn't let us in", stories for the GOP politicians. That doesn't mean the citizens were being cared for.

[Doc_Technical]

18. I must strongly disagree with your opinion.

pResident "*" himself personally stood on the front porch of the remains of one of Sen. Trent Lott's houses in Biloxi and declared that all resources of the Federal Government will be used to insure
that (at least) this house will be rebuilt to its former glory.

[FormerRepublican]

25. I wonder if * failed to rebuild Lott's house, too?

Is there anything * HASN'T failed at?

:shrug:

[Joanne98]

22. Add an e-voting tax protest to that and it might work.

No taxation without representation.

[roguevalley]

31. what I don't get is why people aren't on death row for murder. brown

needs to swing from a rope for this.

[PurityOfEssence]

33. The White House feels no remorse period.

Never deal with a conservative on issues of caring for others; they don't.

The only way to sway an unswervative is by evoking fears of personal peril.

[texpatriot2004]

34. The WH failed in Katrina, and they failed on PURPOSE. They

can't be trusted, the GOP can't be trusted, they will kill your American children, they will kill your American parents, and your American grandparents too...they don't care.

Good, law abiding American citizens are all accountable for this evil, because we pay our taxes and they use the money for their heinous crimes.