A Tax Nobody Objects To?

[FOTD]

http://www.tinadupuy.com/index.php/2009/09/21/the-only-group-in-the-history-of-the-world-to-request-to-be-taxed-more/

The Only Group in the History of the World to Request to be Taxed More

"This might be a first. This is historic. A group of Americans are lobbying the government so they can give more money to the government in the form of a tax..."


And

Oakland's Marijuana Business Tax

http://www.campaignsthatmatter.com/articles/11-oaklands-marijuana-business-tax

"Oakland voters recently approved the nation's first ever business tax on retail marijuana sales, Measure F, on the July 21, 2009 ballot.  The overwhelmingly majority of voters (80% to 20%) authorized the city to to levy a 1.8% tax on all "cannabis businesses" within Oakland. Initial estimates indicate that the tax will generate between $300,000-$350,000 in revenue for the city in the 2010 fiscal year. "



Don't bogart that tax!

[Wrinkle]

You might also notice Oklahoma has a similar tax. They have Tax Stamps for it. And, it's most common use is as a criminal filing for "failure to pay tax" on stash finds.

[custosnox]

You might also notice Oklahoma has a similar tax. They have Tax Stamps for it. And, it's most common use is as a criminal filing for "failure to pay tax" on stash finds.

I've always wondered where and how you get these tax stamps.

[Red Arrow]

I've always wondered where and how you get these tax stamps.

without ending up in jail for attempting to buy them.

[custosnox]

without ending up in jail for attempting to buy them.

no, I would want them to arrest me for trying to buy them.  I didn't say I had any of the product, I just want to try to pay taxes on it.  If I get arrested for that, then the tax would have to be illegal.

[patric]

I've always wondered where and how you get these tax stamps.

Wrinkle is correct in that this is an insincere form of taxation, in that it's purpose is not to raise revenue but to facilitate prosecutors in their efforts to pad the incarceration industry.

[cannon_fodder]

I've always wondered where and how you get these tax stamps.

You can't.  That's the joke of it.  People have attempted to prove that point in various states around the nation by going to Courthouses and attempting to buy the stamp.  The persons at the Courthouse consistently look at them with blank stares and direct them elsewhere.  A call to the OTC will likely elicit a non-response also.

Just another joke in the "war" on drugs. 

Fun little fact, nearly every drug that is illegal became that way when outstanding white citizens decided the drug would be used to either entice nice white women to have sex with minorities or that the drug would hype up minorities to such an extent they'd have to rape white women.  Opium (it was fine when middle class people took a little in "tonic" to cure everything, but when we had to worry about those white women going to opium dens), cocaine (fine when New Yorks were swilling COCA-COLA, but then we realized the Negros will get hyped up and do horrible things), and of course Marijuana (the Negros again).   While serving as an anecdotal straw man when discussing any real issues, it is an interesting truth about the origins of illegal drugs in the United States (thank you History Channel!).

Marijuana is no-more-than and probably less harmful than alcohol.   Our puritan idea of the government telling people how they should live and creating huge zones of forbidden activities backfires.  We are the only "Western" nation with these puritan notions and have spent much more and incarcerated many times more of our citizens . . . yet continue to suffer from a drug problem above any other Western country. 

The current "war" doesn't work.  To draw an if-y analogy . . .Vietnam cost the lives of ~60,000 Americans and cost more than $130,000,000,000 over nearly 20 years.  Over that 20 years our soldiers kicked some serious butt.  We killed or imprisoned millions of "communists" and prevented the fall of South Vietnam.    We pulled out of Vietnam (which was horrible for our allies in Vietnam, not belittling that).  After pulling out the horrible things predicted didn't really come to pass.   Today Vietnam is a more open society with a largely capitalistic society.  It's a tourist destination for many.  The domino theory was foolish.  The war is nearly universally viewed as waste in hindsight.

The war on drugs costs $50,000,000,000 a year (State & Fed).  We put about 2,000,000 people a year in jail each year supporting our war on drugs, many felony convictions that ruin lives or repeat offender convictions that result in decades behind bars .  More die from the feds discouraging needle exchanges.   More die from gang wars over drug dealing turf.  More die from overdoses from bad mixtures of drugs.  Still more die from replacement "designer drugs" like meth - created to avoid the ban on "illegal drugs" that become a problem in their own right.  Do we want to talk about how many people die in Columbia and Mexico because of our war on drugs?  Drug profits in Afghanistan that fund the forces our soldiers are trying to fight?

The agents and officers involved in the war on drugs are good at what they do.  Tons of arrests.  Many drugs lords killed over seas.  Huge caches destroyed. Entire plantations wiped out.  Mountains of cash confiscated.  But ultimately the drugs still flow.  The prices are steady and as many American do illegal drugs today as when the war started.

What have we accomplished with nearly $1 trillion spent, tens of millions thrown in jail and thousands dead?

It's a waste.  Time to see that.  The current system doesn't work and never will, very few people still pretend it's working.  Time to try a different approach:  legalization, decriminalization, treatment programs . . . something.   By eliminating the "war" on drugs we free up BILLIONS in resources and millions of man hours to treat it like a social problem.  Frankly, just ignoring the problem might be less harmful that our current "solution."  A pot head working part time and getting stoned every night is more of a contribution to society than a former pot-head sitting in a jail cell.

/rant

[Wrinkle]

I agree with CF totally.
It's a prison industrial complex issue now.

All this also reminds me of the way DUI is being enforced these days.

Department budgets are now being appropriated based upon forced property acquisitions of offenders, as being infrastructure dedicated to criminal enterprise. Cars and homes being taken at will. In some cases, it seems fine. But, the policy seems to now force departments to do it make quota. Thus, anyone making a phone call from their home can be subject to this process.

This needs to be clamped down upon, and soon.

While I'm on it, if you ever think you're too drunk to drive and climb into the back seat of your parked car to sleep it off, you'll still be arrested for DUI. They claim that since the keys to the vehicle are in your pocket, you have 'control' of the vehicle. Good choice turns to horror, big bucks and possibly the loss of your car.

[Conan71]

I agree with CF totally.
It's a prison industrial complex issue now.

All this also reminds me of the way DUI is being enforced these days.

Department budgets are now being appropriated based upon forced property acquisitions of offenders, as being infrastructure dedicated to criminal enterprise. Cars and homes being taken at will. In some cases, it seems fine. But, the policy seems to now force departments to do it make quota. Thus, anyone making a phone call from their home can be subject to this process.

This needs to be clamped down upon, and soon.

While I'm on it, if you ever think you're too drunk to drive and climb into the back seat of your parked car to sleep it off, you'll still be arrested for DUI. They claim that since the keys to the vehicle are in your pocket, you have 'control' of the vehicle. Good choice turns to horror, big bucks and possibly the loss of your car.

Wrinkle, I believe the charge for sleeping in your car with the keys is called APC- actual physical control

[FOTD]

FOTD misses Guido. FOTD did not mean to run off all the neo-cons who no doubt are collectively hiding on some chat room messaging each other. Perhaps, they're building their stash... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090923/ap_on_re_us/us_ammo_shortage

Change has come to America.

[custosnox]

FOTD misses Guido. FOTD did not mean to run off all the neo-cons who no doubt are collectively hiding on some chat room messaging each other. Perhaps, they're building their stash... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090923/ap_on_re_us/us_ammo_shortage

Change has come to America.

I personally think a lot of the "they're going to take are guns scare" has a lot to do with buisnesses like Dongs screaming on their ads that the new administration is going to our guns away, and quoting bills that have come and gone in the past, and always, and are currently languish in the ignore pile.

[cannon_fodder]

<-- has many firearms.  Knows a good bit about firearms.  Has thousands of rounds of ammo.

<-- won't do business with Dong's.  Their prices are not competitive and when you ask if they can bring them down ("so and so has this for X") their response to "fine, go buy it there then."  And so I have.

[custosnox]

<-- has many firearms.  Knows a good bit about firearms.  Has thousands of rounds of ammo.

<-- won't do business with Dong's.  Their prices are not competitive and when you ask if they can bring them down ("so and so has this for X") their response to "fine, go buy it there then."  And so I have.

+1

[Conan71]

<-- has many firearms.  Knows a good bit about firearms.  Has thousands of rounds of ammo.

<-- won't do business with Dong's.  Their prices are not competitive and when you ask if they can bring them down ("so and so has this for X") their response to "fine, go buy it there then."  And so I have.

I don't know how wise a public admission that is anymore.

/paranoia

[custosnox]

I don't know how wise a public admission that is anymore.

/paranoia

Though I will admit, I never understood the phrase "they can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers".  If someones intent was to take my gun from me, then they would recover it as soon as possible after killing me for it, and therefor I would most likely still be warm.  So wouldn't the phrase be more acurate if it was "they can have my gun when they pry it from my WARM, dead fingers"?