They simply avoid them!

Kerry’s R.I. docking avoids Mass. tax bill

Kerry’s R.I. docking avoids Mass. tax bill
$7m yacht Isabel in Ocean State for ‘maintenance’
Associated Press / July 24, 2010

Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, is docking his family’s new $7 million yacht in Rhode Island, allowing him to avoid paying roughly $500,000 in taxes to the cash-strapped Bay State.

If the vessel Isabel were kept at the summer home of the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee on Nantucket or in Boston Harbor near his city residence, he would be liable for $437,500 in state sales tax.

He would also have to pay $70,000 in annual excise taxes.

Read the full story

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The looming Indianapolis Water Co transfer to Citizens Gas reminded me of an auto insurance commercial which plays often.

“I’d like to buy your water company.”

“Alright, that’ll be $1.45 Billion.”

“A-A-actually… that’ll be $1.95 Billion.”

The pudgey middleman, with a bit more hair, could pass for Greg Ballard, too.

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Abdul tweets:

“My very reliable sources are telling me Al Sharpton was paid $20,000 for his visit to Indy last week. I guess pimping is easy!”

Just the other day one of his blog commenters, Rmoney (click link to go to that entry) revealed Sharpton was paid by having the collection plate passed following his performance:

I actually went to see Al tonight. There was a collection taken at the church to pay for his appearence.

I throughly enjoyed his speech.

Interested in seeing how Abdul presents it on the blog tomorrow.

That must have been one huge plate.

What a sweet gig – bop in, talk for a few minutes (according to Abdul, “arrived 20 minutes late and spoke for 10″) and get 20 G’s in tax-free money as you head out the door. Thank goodness the Ratchet Boyz were not waiting outside when he left.

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Joe Sugarman had the gall to ask if meals were served on his flight. For that, the police removed him from the flight.

I get to the airport, boarded my plane and I’m sitting in first class. The flight attendant was right in front of me and was curious if they were going to serve meals onboard. So I asked her, “Are you serving any meals during our flight?”

She looked at me kinda funny and said, “I can’t answer that for security reasons.”

A little puzzled, I wondered how it affected security but I let it pass as she went into the cockpit. About three minutes later, two armed Austin police officers boarded the plane, looked at me and said, “Sugarman, follow us.”

I jumped out of my seat leaving my carry-on and papers behind and followed the officers half way up the ramp. “What’s the problem?” I asked.

“Let me see your drivers license,” they responded. I showed them my drivers license and they asked me when I was born, where I lived and as they held on to my drivers license I asked again, “What’s going on? No answer.

Finally a United representative approached me with my bags and said “We are taking you off this flight for security reasons.”

“Why” I asked.

“You apparently asked the flight attendant if the Police were onboard,” said the United representative. We’re not taking any chances and the captain asked that you be removed.”

The airline was not taking any chances. Nor applying any common sense.

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Peace in the Streets

Harsh? Not really. What’s different about some guy who parks a car full of gasoline and fireworks on a street in New York City, vs 1 or 2 thugs who open fire in a very crowded urban setting in Indianapolis?

In both cases it was an isolated societal misfit wanting to show the world he was a bad MoFo. In both cases the perp had no regard for anyone’s life and just wanted kill someone and run away to hide.

Same shit, different day.

What’s so regrettable about last night’s violence is that it was both predictable and preventable. We go through the same thing, in varying degrees, pretty much every year. It’s clear that the late-Saturday crowd is irresistable to a handful of terrorists who don’t have an interest in the attractions, only in their ability to dispense violence and then disappear into the crowd.

Now the lead person in charge of the event, IBE President Tanya Bell, has come out disavowing any connection – because the shootings didn’t happen ‘at’ an IBE event. What kind of leadership is THAT? I believe we heard the same thing last year only it wasn’t related to IBE because the last event of the day had ended an hour or two earlier.

OK, so why doesn’t Ms. Bell say something encouraging, like she’s going to consider shifting the Saturday schedule up a few hours so it all wraps up by 7 or 8 pm? Clearly, it isn’t working the way it is now. And the target demographic seems to be teens as young as 10 for this night of sanctioned events, so why do they need to be running around downown unsupervised until well past 10pm anyway?

It was funny to see the Thursday night Lady Gaga crowd referred to as ‘Little Monsters.’ They got nuthin’ on the Monsters of Saturday Night.

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