LAST NIGHT --- OKLAHOMA CITY

We're three months into touring the country to sign copies of The FairTax Book and the crowds are still out there. Last night in Oklahoma City we have over 400 people at the Barnes & Noble Book Store, and this was after the staff at B&N told us that they usually try to avoid Wednesdays for book events because here in Middle America Wednesdays, as everybody knows, is Church night. This afternoon we'll be in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a News Talk 740 KRMG Meeting of the Mouths at the Mabee Center with a book signing to follow. Click on the site to find out how you can still get some tickets!

Paul Douglas and Royal Marshall. How we got TO Oklahoma City, and how we're getting AROUND Oklahoma City.

TAX REFORM PANEL --- MY ACHING GLUTES

The more I read about the president's so-called tax reform panel the worse it gets. Essentially, the panel has done exactly what critics said the panel would do ... propose tax increases for the evil achievers. You already know that the panel wants to cut into the home mortgage interest deduction while leaving the income tax in place. But ... did you know that the panel has recommended eliminating ALL interest deductions on all home equity loans and loans for second homes?

This is a repeat of what we saw in 1986. Almost 20 years ago the congress eliminate a huge cache of tax deductions and established two flat rates, 15 and 25%. The tax code has now been modified and amended about 10,000 times since then, leaving us with the monster we now have. This "reform" plan is essentially the same. Eliminate more deductions, raise taxes on businesses and the repugnant rich, create some "refundable" tax credits, and set some flat rates. It leaves the income tax in place and the K Street lobbyists inside the beltway licking their chops. As soon as the panel's suggestions become law they would go right to work trying to carve out specific tax breaks for their high-paying clients. Right behind the lobbyists you'll find the Democrats renewing their efforts to shift the entire tax burden onto America's high-achievers with bill after bill and amendment after amendment, all in the name of reform.

Reform? This is not reform. This is, pardon the cliche, just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The IRS? Still there. Social Security and Medicare taxes? Still there. Business taxes will still be there and they will still be passed on to the consumer through the pricing structure.

The good news is that there is renewed interest in The FairTax Book and H.R. 25 with the impending release of the tax reform panel's report. I'm told there will be a review of the book in the The New York Post this coming Sunday, and on November 6th there will be a review of The FairTax Book in the New York Times. I have no real idea what to expect from the Post, but I think it's probably safe to say that The New York Times will not exactly be a fan of the plan. When, after all, was the last time you saw the New York Times back any initiative that actually transferred power from the government to the people?

Here's one thing I do expect from the Times review. They will change the terms of H.R.25, the FairTax Act, and then critique the plan as they wrote it, not as it is actually written. This has been the favorite techniques of those who want to keep our present tax system, and my guess is that the Times will follow suit. To amplify my prediction -- the Times will create exemptions to the consumption tax -- and then write that the actual sales tax rate would have to be much higher. They will ignore, for the most part, the monthly "prebate" under the FairTax Act. Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it be more fair to review and critique the FairTax Act as it is written, instead of rewriting the bill and then critiquing your rewrite?

I've been telling you on the air, and Congressman Linder and I told you in the book that the lobbyists were going to react with full force once they saw the FairTax as a threat to their livings. Now there's a prediction that has more than come true. Listen today for more details on lobbyist tactics to kill meaningful tax reform.

WILMA!

Hurricane Wilma continues to bear down on my second home of Naples, Florida. I have now turned my condo over to the some media-types as their base of operations covering the storm. Wonder who will do the most damage, Wilma or the media. Oh well, Boortz takes one for the cause.

An evacuation of Naples should be interesting. If there was ever a time for Naples' wizened citizens to learn the concept of "slower traffic keep right," now is that time. The roads out of Collier County, Florida will be home later this week to about 99% of all operable Buicks in the United States ..... with every damned one of them going slow in the left lane.

Wilma will also give Florida Governor Jeb Bush the opportunity to grandstand on the issue of price gouging. He will put political sense ahead of economic common sense and start strutting his "let's get the price gougers" stuff. The result? Scarcity. Count on it.

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, GEORGIA'S BURDEN TO BEAR

Have you heard what our idiot Congresswoman did yesterday? She was part of a panel questioning Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff. She asked him why he shouldn't be charged with negligent homicide because he didn't rescue people from nursing homes in the New Orleans area. Yeah, Cynthia, that's it. Let's start charging government officials with homicide when they fail to save lives in the time of a disaster?

Excuse me, Mr. Chertoff, but I'm going to suggest a response for you the next time you encounter the cutest little jihadist in Congress.

"Wait a minute. You're Cynthia McKinney, aren't you? From Georgia, right? Yeah, I've heard of you. You're the one who fueled your campaign with jihadist campaign donations after 9/11, right? Wasn't it your father that blamed your election loss several years ago on Jews? Yeah ... I remember. You said that President Bush knew about 9/11 before it ever happened, and he let the plan go ahead so that his buddies could make money with the aftermath. Now you want to know why I shouldn't be charged with negligent homicide? Well, my job description does not require me to deal with idiots. Your fellow members of Congress don't take you seriously, and I see no reason why I should. If you think that it's a good idea to hold government officials, and that would include police and firefighters, criminally responsible when they fail to save lives in a disaster, then why don't you introduce a bill making the failure to save a life during a disaster a federal crime? That's why you're in congress, isn't it? To make laws? So get to it!"

Do the people in McKinney's district in Georgia know that she's a laughing stock ... an they're virtually unrepresented when it comes to real issues?

BASHING THE TROOPS

The media never passes up a good chance to bash the men and women of the United States Military.  The only evidence we need for this is the continued, ongoing coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.  With around 150,000 troops serving in Iraq, we were constantly reminded of the actions of a very few.  They continue to work that story as much as possible, mentioning it whenever they can.

So now the same thing is happening. This time the controversy is over a news report in Australia that says American soldiers burned the bodies of two Taliban Islamic terrorists.  Those poor Taliban fighters...just makes your heart ache that their corpses were mishandled, doesn't it?

The TV report evidently shows the U.S. soldiers burning the bodies on October 1. Apparently burning bodies is a desecration of the Islamic faith.  Boo hoo.  The point was to make the rest of the Taliban good and mad and draw them out, so the Army could shoot some more of them.  A basic tactic of war.

But now we're going to be treated with news reports about how this is going to anger the Muslim world.  Our standing in the Arab world is going to be harmed!  If there's nothing else that keeps me up at night, it's the worry that there may be people in Islamic countries that hate us.  Oh the agony!

At least they didn't burn the Taliban fighters alive.  Although that never stopped Islamic terrorists from doing that to us.

RACIST NBA?

A rare stop in the world of professional sports this morning.  The National Basketball Association, home to an endless supply of overpaid, millionaire crybaby thug athletes, is reeling this week because of a change in the rules governing how players present themselves to the public.

You see, for years now, many players have come and gone from the arena dressed like hoodlums.  They've also continued the gangster presentation if they're not playing, sitting on the bench.  Excessive amounts of gold chains, baseball hats cocked sideways and other gang imagery have been the order of the day.  No more.

NBA Commissioner David Stern, finally realizing that the customers of his league have had enough, instituted some new rules.  From now on, if you're a player coming to or from the arena or sitting on the bench not playing, you must at a minimum be dressed "business casual."  Essentially, that means slacks and a shirt with a collar.  Big deal.  A lot of players already wear suits. 

But not, you see, players like the Indiana Pacers' Stephen Jackson.  He calls the new rules "racist."  He says the rule changes banning jewelry unfairly target young black male players because chains are associated with the hip-hop culture.  Poor baby.  It's called the real world, and now they have to make themselves presentable, and they don't like it.

However...Jackson does seem to realize that whoever pays the piper gets to pick the tune.  After he got done with all of the whining, he said: "You have to listen to the people who employ you.  The people who are paying us make the rules. You need to abide by the rules or don't work. I want to work."

Where's Jesse Jackson on this one?  Somehow I don't think the usual race warlords could stir up a lot of sympathy.

Tour Gallery | BUY ONLINE | Book Tour, part 2!

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

After a hurricane, make sure you collect everything you will need to survive. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

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