A response to popular demand: a Cowpuc Classic

[cowpuc]

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Edited April 20, 2009 by cowpuc
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[Pilot]

Now where did I put my gun?

[Tartan Terror]

I agree. Government was originally set up in this country to serve us and now its prime purpose is to serve itself. In tough times like now you would think that taxes should be lowered to help the individual who cant even afford to heat their homes but they raise them. This country has lost sight and oil is just one of the signs. One of the contributors to rediculous Oil prices is that the stock market and Credit dilemma have wiped out lots of former cash cows for investors so now they invest in commodities. The higher it gets the more cash they will make regardless of how it hurts the little guy so look for more increases. Correct me if Im wrong too but we are at War and I thought it there was some rule of law that restricts the investing in commodities that raise prices so drastically. Help me out on this one guys.

 

Too much Big Government creates More big Problems!!! I thought the reason for the Revolution was to end crap like this.

[royalstarjac]

“If you establish a democracy, you must in due time reap the fruits of a democracy. You will in due season have great impatience of the public burdens, combined in due season with great increase of the public expenditure. You will in due season have wars entered into from passion and not from reason; and you will in due season submit to peace ignominiously sought and ignominiously obtained, which will diminish your authority and perhaps endanger your independence. You will in due season find your property is less valuable, and your freedom less complete.” —Benjamin Disraeli

[mini-muffin]

Too bad folks don't pay attention to what the guys who started this country said. I copied three quotes from Jefferson. He was way ahead of his time. Just look what he says about banks.

 

 

 

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

 

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

 

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

 

 

Margaret

[Tartan Terror]

Mini I dont know if he was ahead of his time or had just seen it all before.

[1BigDog]

My daughter recently received a ticket and we fought it in court.. We won and didnt have to pay BUT, here is the kicker, I took a day off work and lost over $2300 in sales for doing so and she lost a day of school in the process.

 

Puc, Ill give you a similar analogy: When I was a Union rep I had to file a grievance against management because they bypassed an employee for a double time day when they scheduled in someone from another shift to cover the work at the time and a half rate, which clearly violated the contract. It was brought to managements attention in an effort to correct it beforehand and save them money in the end. Mgt, in their arrogance said to go ahead and file a grievance. I went ahead and filed. It went through 3 steps in the process before someone at the top finally agreed that this should have been settled before it became an issue. I then broke it down in dollars to them. If the employee would have worked he would have made about 300.00. Instead you worked someone else for 200.00. Mgt had to cover my duties 3 seperate times at the time and a half rate to attend these hearings @ 600.00. It was settled that the employee was wronged and was paid 300.00 for staying home when he could have been utilized and worked for the money. Now add in the two mgt reps and their time involved in all of these meetings, the cost to settle this 300.00 issue now cost over 2000.00. So, I agree, some little low level supervisor took the crown, set it on his head and declared he was king for the day. In the end it cost them big.

 

Egos, greed, power trips, arrogance, selfishness are all contributing factors to our wordly problems.

 

Hmmmm, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last nite too.....

[Switch]

First of all, you should use a spell check on your writing, especially if you have a college education. It will give even more credibility to your writing. This is one area I am always concerned about in that a person's writing tends to show how much attention was paid while getting the education they claim to have. (No personal slam intended)

Secondly, you do not state the charge against your daughter but only refer to it as a "false" charge, and there is an inference that it has to do the the menial charges that officers use to create more funds.

As a retired law enforcement officer having over twenty-two years of service, I would agree that there are some jurisdictions that may use tickets as a means of collecting revenue, but I believe they are in the minority. I have never, in all my time, been given a quota that I had to meet and neither have I heard of any other officer receiving such orders. I say that to say this, If and I use a big IF, an officer is actually working his eight hours of shift, and dealing with the amount of traffic there is on the roads, and cannot see at least three violations in that time, then he is not really working.

Thirdly, you say you made four trips to talk to the officer, the court clerk and the prosecuting attorney to get this resolved. In my opinion you wasted much of their time as well as your own until you finally realized that the place to resolve it IS in court.

I do agree that we are being taxed out of house and home, but I think your approach to it is wrong. What we need to do is get rid of some of the lazy, good-for-nothing legislators in each of the states and the federal, and get honest people who will serve the people for a term and then get out instead of making a career at the governmental feeding trough.

Hope my answer wasn't too harsh; I don't mean to be offensive.

[Pegasus1300]

First thank you Puc for and excellent article on our current situation.2nd to the quote from Benjamin Disreali,please remember that we do not live in a democracy as much as many people try to make it out that we do.We live in a Republic and it has always been a republic.The Founding Fathers knew the dangers of a democracy and took great pains to avoid them by creating a republic.Yes we all vote (or should) but we elect representatives to actually make the decisions for us.That we are in the trouble we are in only means we have not been paying enough attention to who we are electing.

Happy TRAils/NSD

Paul

[Tartan Terror]

You will never get any Honest politicians-- they are all too busy working to Run for office!!! LOL

 

No really on this matter you will be lucky to get anyone in like that because we have this wonderful two party system that tells whoever how to vote and if you dont play their game then you wont get the financial or any other support to get elected. How many times do you see an Independant that is way more qualified and just gets pushed out of the way by the Political machine!! Only person Ive seen in recent time that fought the system and succeeded was Lieberman who got shunned by his party and the Dems nominated another. Well he ran Independant and the people spoke. I say this just to get the point across that yu wont see any change that benefits Us, Just change that benefits whatever party ends up on top at any given monent. We just happen to live here.

[AmnChode]

Yeppers...have to agree with Tartan on this one. Indepedents usually have the best platforms but just get pushed out the way by the bi-party system...

 

The govt is just too corrupt for its own good and no changes will be made to fix it because it would drastically effect the people who make the changes. Basically, we will never have true campaign reform (and/or kickbacks from lobbiest) if the people that make the decisions are the same ones getting the kickbacks...errr, I mean campaign contributions...

[cliffno350]

I enjoy reading what you have written "puc", however am unsure what if anything we can do to get this country back on track? I dont see anyone worth voting for, do you?

[Snarley Bill]

hey puc ,your a very well informed, intellegent person. don't quit now ,you got my attention. bill :clap2:

[Tartan Terror]

Yes Sir I agree with Bill on that fact!

[Snarley Bill]

can't let this go by without my opinion. the trouble with this country is us, human beings. we have greedy crooks in government, in business, in our neighbor hoods. in alot of us. until the human race learns to take responsibility for their own actions, including me this world is a loser. we always want to place the blame on the other guy. i look at some of my best friends and see major faults that makes them have major problems in life, but it is'nt there fault ,it's always some one elses fault. i evaluate myself every day and see things that i could do better to have a better life. i don't blame the government or the guy next door. i blame myself. the main man gave us two ways to go. some choose the wrong way and others choose the right way. unfortunately to many choose the wrong way. any one of us could be in government and be legit or want to fill their pockets. those people in government are just people like us. this country is screwed up because of your everyday human being. :stirthepot:

[midnightventure]

The county assessors can't see but one side because they are so afraid of losing tax money. What I can't figure out is why people I know and like, when elected to office always seem to want to raise taxes. Maybe it is only the progressives that run. Our local shool board is always loaded with teachers spouses. The teachers aren't allowed to run. It would seem that the spouses would also not be allowed to run because they have a vested interest in increasing spending.

[Sailor]

Here the assesed value goes up and down with the economy BUT when the assesment goes down they raise the rate so you wind up paying the same tax on property that is worth less.

[cmiles3]

Good points, all... but...

 

With the housing market down, lots of local governments are hurting. Homes that sit vacant tend to be owned by homeowners not paying taxes. So, they are scrambling too, and will resist lowering the values to match fair market prices. Most local governments are funded primarily with property taxes, with some ad valorem taxes (sales taxes) thrown in.

 

Your tax assessor has a process to revalue your home. Don't know how yours works, but in Oklahoma it's something like this. You ask for a reassessment- they look up how big your house is, where it is, and the then multiply by the "average" value per square foot for your neighborhood. Don't like that method? You file an appeal. You can submit fair market value (sales or assessments) for your area to support your claim for a lower value. Typically this will work in a down market, here. The state forced all the counties to use fair market value here several years ago, along with periodic reassessments (3 years?) Of course, if tax revenue drops, they can increase the rate (within limits) to maintain tax base. But they have to apply the same rate to everyone, not just you.

 

Check out your process; probably a local realtor will know the basics of how it works. If not, your assessor can explain it.