Criticize me all you want, but Obama's "wiping away of tears" as he spoke yesterday of the heartbreaking tragedy in Connecticut was disingenuous...I believe Obama uses every opportunity he can as an emotion-building photo-op for political advantage...

It is not whether people will criticize you. I believe your statement (and a 100 or so others like it that have been posted) speaks to one I saw yesterday asking : "Why do so many use a tragedy to further their agenda?", which you seem to be doing. I find it rather offensive that so many have chosen to follow that road and will leave you what I replied to that individual.

At best, the question is glaringly disingenuous. Just as much so were it to have been posed in the following way: "Why do so many people downplay a tragedy to maintain their agenda?" Neither do any help in addressing the issue.

If a reasonable person is able to wrap their arms around the sheer horror those innocent children must have felt at a stage in life where they seek out and have learned to expect safety, trust, consolation and love from adults, only to experience the last seconds of a life seeing heads explode around them, all caused BY a grown-up, then I believe a question such as this is absurd.

Having said that, there is much to be done in a nation that watches more people get shot every year than soldiers died in the entire Vietnam War, while in a nation like Japan, with 128 Million people, there were TWO gun related homicides in 2112. Perhaps we can all start to care more about these thousands? I would hope that as a Nation we find the strength to do so and, in succeeding, honor these children and their families who have been going through grief most of us will never begin to comprehend.

To the extent that there are many possible sides and arguments for or against several ways to address the issues, would it not make more sense to work together to honor the memory of so many, while saving so many more in the future? I think it would be, and sincerely hope there are many who do as well....

You're quite welcome, although your summarily dismissing the issue with a comment such as "maybe a past decision by the Obama admin AND Congress for the past few years to cut school security funding is a good example" is as hollow as its author's critical faculties, apparently. Rather than clinging so dearly to the your single catch-all statement, no matter how flawed, you might take a look at not only what States have done with the issue, especially in view of the fact that so many conservatives blame everyone for looking for handouts from the Federal Governement. I would suggest that you also include a decade of rather useless wars, combined with the following list which together go a long way in showing a systemic problem of revenue.

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil's 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. (Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of $-19 million)

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. . (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company's 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company's 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here)

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times)

As for your rather obtuse and unlettered "salutation", I an undoubtedly not alone in concluding "Consider the source"...:)

All the best!

I had not a problem with TASS, but I could not put together the adjoining of "Fox/Tass"...Made no sense.

TASS was a product of the Soviet political machine.

If FOX is a product of the Obama admin, somebody better let Obama know since he and his admin don't care too much for FOX.

But you might have something with a comparison of TASS and MSNBC.

The Progressive, Obama government seems to hate FOX.

The Progressive, Obama government seems to love and even to use MSNBC...( I read where Schultz, O'Donnell, Maddow and Sharpton - all who work for MSNBC -recently were meeting with Obama).

So TASS = FOX to you.

And to Obama TASS = MSNBC (also might include NPR, PBS, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC depending on varying opinions).

Hey, that's a good one, but it kind of shows your ignorance (just a little)...No offense.

Oh well...Whatever....I don't partake of any of it on TV, just the Web, so whatever floats your boat.

______________________


You have a "case"?....From..."nothing"?

Hmmm...One's gotta wonder why you are so easily and repeatedly sucked in to discourse that you label as "nothing" and of lower intellect...Especially when there are literally thousands of other members with multiple polls and questions - But, you choose the "lower intellect"...Not a good sign, my boy.

Funny fellow you surely are.

God bless you my white-haired, goofy-ass child.

No wonder your an atheist...I would be too if I thought of God as a "sky-daddy"...lol

But, I realize opinions and beliefs vary about most everything.

You surely don't seem intelligent enough to have been raised by a U.S. State Dept. diplomat..Maybe that's why you have an air of pseudo-intellectual conceit and post so many pictures of just yourself on your profile..

I looked at that, and THAT was hilarious...Just you..multiple times...Just posing for the camera...LOL..Funny, funny stuff.

Take care my pseudo-intellectual, son-of-a-diplomat, self-glorifying, left-wing, Obama-supporting friend.

I am going to take it that we are done here since you decided to "rest" your "case"...