All across the USA people will be protesting Obama’s taxation plan, and reliving the glory days of the Boston Tea Party.  Anyone thinking that the modern form of teabagging has anything to do with abusive government taxation has been drinking something other than tea.  Actually they should be embarrassed by their lack of history and their lack of modern slang.   Let’s just say the word teabagging has to do with sex more tax.

Here’s how most people think of the Boston Tea Party of 1773.  You have to remember that tea was the coffee of the day.  The East India Company was a faltering tea importer to this continent.  History gets a little watered down, so most people today think that the Tea Act of 1773 was England’s way of milking some more cash through a tax on tea to the Americans.

Let’s untwist that tea bag back into shape.  The Tea Act gave the East India Company absolute access to the American tea trade – and exempted the company from paying taxes to England on any tea shipped to the new colonies. 

The point of the Tea Act of 1773 was increase profits for the company and to make the stockholders rich and create a monopoly to drive their smaller competitors out of business.  Since the East India Company no longer had to pay taxes, the company could lower their tea prices to a point where smaller importers and local teahouses couldn’t compete.   Hmmmm – sounds more like Wal-Mart. 

The early colonists were so angered by Wal-Mart – errr – I mean the East India Company that they revolted against the company and the English.  Their anger was aimed at a multinational corporation that was taking advantage of a situation.  Small businesses were being driven out because they still had to pay taxes and that this Tea Act was put in place without consulting the colonies.  Thus came the phrase: “No Taxation Without Representation”.

The people who stormed the British tea ships were resisting the influx of a multi-national company that was destroying the smaller businesses.  Once the Boston Tea Party occurred England responded by closing the Boston ports until the disposed of tea was paid for.  The citizens declined to pay!   This insolence was a dip into things to come. 

Wow!  Have times changed!  Can you imagine if corporate media existed back then and could control people to act out against their own best interests?  I’ll stick to my coffee.

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Corporate Greed isn't all bad.

It's Gonna Be a Wonderful Life!

It makes me happy to see this broken, old man leave office this way!   This last administration was all about greed and filling their pockets, so good riddance.

What will become of department stores with these kinds of discounts?  What will become of China?

Holiday Retail Sales

I did this cartoon thinking about how can department stores offer 50-70% off merchandise?  If you think of the design, the production, legalities, shipment, and sales people, and whatever else — what was the profit margins like without the discounts?  What if the auto industry could knock off 70% on a car?  Whooo-wee!

The question is why can’t we take care of people in this country?  The Republican party puts so much emphasis on life being so sacred.  But it never really is “for the people”, but it is always corparations first.  I can only assume that the term Corporatist has replaced Republican.  Come Join US at http://www.LivinginLethargy.com

So in the land of choices, why don’t we expect the same thing in our political elections?  Let’s face it candidates are products and are marketed as so.  John McCain is the tough, durable truck.  Barack Obama is the fabric softener that will make your clothes feel good against your skin.  Hillary Clinton is the cereal that is good for you, but you aren’t sure what’s really in it.   

George Bush was sold to us as a guy you want to have a beer with.  Of course he’s an alcoholic, so how’d that work out?  Personally I don’t want to have a beer with a president – I want someone who will save our country from corporatists, will uphold the Constitution, and show the world what a great country this is.   

Ralph Nader announced recently that he’ll run for the third time.  The reason for his candidacy is always the same.  Republicans and democrats have lost their focus and favor corporations over the people.  These two parties have lead us into a war full of lies, destroyed the educational system to a point where most U.S. citizens believe the bible should be a text book, stripped away freedoms and rights,  taken apart regulatory agencies, destroyed the middle class in order to beef up corporations, and on and on.   

Ralph Nader is a viable candidate.  Ralph Nader did not cause Al Gore or John Kerry to lose the elections.  Gore and Kerry caused their losses.  In 2000 Nader’s percentage was 2.7 and in 2004 he received half of one percent.  Al Gore is a brilliant man, who should have had a greater voting percentage than George Bush, but of course U.S. citizens would rather have a beer with their alcoholic president than a talk with a president that might inspired them or bring this country back to the state of a world power – not just an oil greedy military power.  

These coming elections will be the same as the last two.  The television debates or commercials between the republican and the democratic candidate will be made up of two bland sour cream dips, and they will leave out the spicier dip just like in the past.

- Jake Drew

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So I read President Bush’s last State of the Union address.  The body of the speech was a muddled mess of blurbs about housing, trade/jobs, terrorism, medicare, education, and more about there are people that don’t like our freedoms.  He did start out making an interesting point about the position of our politician’s responsibility to the country.  He opened with:

“…,All of us were sent to Washington to carry out the people’s business.  That is the purpose of this body.  It is the meaning of our oath. And it remains our charge to keep,….  So in all we do, we must trust in the ability of free people to make wise decisions, and empower them to improve their lives and their futures,….” 

And the President ended the speech on this note about “We, the people”,….:  

“…,Governor Morris was asked to draft the preamble to our new Constitution, he offered an important revision and opened with words that changed the course of our Nation and the history of the world: “We the people.” …,As we continue to trust the people, our Nation will prosper, our liberty will be secure, and the State of our Union will remain strong.  So tonight, with confidence in freedom’s power, and trust in the people, let us set forth to do their business.”

I think about the approval ratings of the President and Congress, which hovers around twenty percent.  He can’t honestly believe he’s carrying out what the people want.  We are being held hostage by this administration.  Maybe the only thing that can save us over the next year would be a hostage negotiator.  

Jake Drew

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That’s what the Bush administration and congress did on Thursday to the people of the United States.  The president thinks that borrowing an estimated 150 billion dollars and throwing it at the people will solve the economic problems of this country.  How?   

Well we’ll find out on January 28th with his final State of the Union address.  Now like presidential candidate John McCain I can tell you I don’t understand economics, but I think I have some common sense.   

Some of the details of the speech seem to involve households receiving tax rebates of between $300- $1,200 and $300 for each child that they have.   Another part of the package involves tax cuts for businesses, giving firms incentives to invest in new facilities, development, upgrades, employment,….

Small companies will see lenient laws on expense write offs, and companies in financial difficulties will get rebates for taxes already paid.  

If the expectation is that the average citizen will go out and buy more “toys” manufactured in China, who probably will finance the borrowed $150 billion, I truly hope they are wrong.  The best thing anyone could do with this “one-time rebate” is pay off bills or sock it away.

If we are in so much trouble as a nation, then throwing more borrowed money at it won’t work.   If we all go out and spend this “one-time” rebate on more consumer goods, who benefits?  It’s not the person buying this stuff – it’s the corporations and stock holders!  Unless you plan on going into a Wal-Mart or Target and buying products manufactured in the USA — well, first off good luck finding something made in the United States.

That’s the point!  That rebate money won’t even go back into your community!  If there’s unemployment, housing, and infra-structure problems going on, the money should be put into programs to solve these issues, so people will have financial security to purchase more toys.

No wait – that’s a Franklin Roosevelt concept.  This is an administration and congress that prefers Herbert Hoover.  They prefer to sell off everything like a yard sale.   Maybe looking at it from a religious perspective would be better because our government loves that; you can give a person a fish to eat or teach him to fish.      

Jake Drew

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There’s no hope!  George went begging, telling the Saudis, “Paying more for gasoline hurts some of the American families.  High energy prices can damage consuming economies,…, it could cause our economy to slow down, and if the economy slows down, there will be less barrels of oil purchased.” 

How could King Abdullah not laugh at such a threat?!  Then the best part George sees that his threats are useless, so he offers King Abdullah twenty billion dollars in weaponry, such as hummers and 900 satellite guided bombs.   Eisenhower is probably rolling an Edsel in Heaven right now.

Wasn’t it George Bush that told the United States that we were addicted to oil, and that we have to get away from relying on foreign oil?  Well that observation whizzed by us like the Indy 500.

In the last week I’ve noticed all these articles coming out about the new automobiles on the market.   

General Motors’ message has two themes: Get younger and greener. They are coming out with a big, tough Hummer HX Concept with a 304-horsepower 3.6-liter V6 engine and 6-speed automatic transmission, but will be able to consume E85.  

Ford Motors is moving in the right direction by parking their product lines like Freestar minivan, the monster-sized Excursion SUV, the Lincoln Aviator mid-sized SUV and LS sport sedan.

Ford plans to inch along into 2010 with the arrival of a sub-compact car, the Verve.  Also they have an advanced engine in the works, “EcoBoost”, which uses twenty percent less fuel.  The technology debuts as a 340-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6 in the Lincoln MKS luxury sedan in 2009. 

Pickup trucks are sliding out of control like a truck on an icy road,  Ford and Chrysler hopes to lure sales back by painting the trucks in red, white and blue, better-performance, packed full of luxury trimmings, like softer fabrics with richer colors, and the latest automotive gadgets.  Yee-ha, Toby Keith! 

But get this!  France’s MDI Group headed by Guy Negre has come up with an engine that could revolutionize the auto industry.  The engine could be the biggest technology advancement of the century.   Compressed Air Technology (CAT) automobiles would leave all other cars along the roadside with it’s significant economical and environmental advantages.

India’s Tata Motors has signed on to produce the car.   The air car/mini-CAT refuels in minutes from a special air compressor, can run about 125 miles on a tank of air, reaching top speeds of 70 miles per hour.  The cost of the car – around $7000.  The car has a fiber glass body, which will freak out U.S. drivers, but it is powered by the expansion of compressed air, using no combustion at all, and the exhaust — well, that would be air, which is clean and cool enough for use in the internal air conditioning system.

While the rest of the world is on the move, The United States seems to be that guy you run into on the street, who hits you up for five bucks because he ran out of gas.   

 Jake Drew

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