More “unexpected” news is heading our way as the increased taxes on “the wealthy” kick in and hit the cornerstone of our economy: small businesses. What leftists who fetishize tax the rich policies never tell the public is that many of the “rich people” they target are in fact shop owners, farmers, franchise operators and a host of other small businesses that create jobs and boost local economies. The left calculates wealth not by how much money you have to spend, but how much you actually own, which means even a farmer suffering a bad year and making no money is considered wealthy because his property is technically valuable.

The class warfare basis of leftism drives the idea that these people “aren’t paying their fair share” which in turn drives many of them to stop doing business all together as they can’t make a buck under increasingly punitive taxation. That means whoever works for them is out of a job, but it also means people that derive part of their income from providing services to those businesses (the mechanic who fixes the tractor, for example) also suffer. Tax revenue suffers as well, as high taxes decrease the pool of businesses and “fat cats” that pay taxes.

Now economists are hearing from small businesses who are telling them what everyone already knew: leftist policies will forever drive mom-and-pop shops out of business and accelerate our slide into second world status as large swaths of Americans face permanent unemployment:

America’s jobs growth engine is being choked to death.

A record 25 percent increase in the taxes against US small businesses — from costs associated with new health care law, to an increased Medicare tax, increased capital gains taxes and higher state and city taxes — is repealing any ability of these entrepreneurs to add jobs to their payroll.

And the numbers for New York’s small- to medium-sized business are just as harrowing.

By one estimate, the effective tax rate on the 26 million small businesses across the country — which in the past have accounted for more than half of the job growth in the US — has jumped to 50 percent from 40 percent, sucking valuable cash from the businesses.

Unsurprisingly these numbers have started to make the prospect of continuing to run a small business (and employ Americans) seem too daunting and have inhibited new job creation:

A survey of 200 small businesses across the US by the economist found 51.5 percent of business owners in March were concerned about the viability of their businesses — up from 49.5 percent in February. More than eight million jobs have been lost during the current 28-month recession.While a healthy 162,000 jobs were added in March, it was accomplished with the help of heavy government stimulus. Meanwhile, the average length of joblessness rose to 31 weeks and hourly earnings were down, albeit slightly.

Of course government job “stimulus” not only creates far fewer jobs than we need, but is completely reliant on tax revenue. Tax revenue that is going to be taken from a smaller and smaller pool of tax payers as people decide closing up shop is the only option to keep from ending up in the poor house:

In New York, interviews with more than a dozen small business owners by The Post found a group of owners hurting under the weight of the new taxes.

Teresa Kramer, co-owner of Northside Bakery in Greenpoint said she is scared.

“We’d really need to raise our prices by 20 percent to stay even because our profit margins are shrinking as costs keep rising everywhere — for garbage and services, commuter taxes and other taxes,” said Kramer, a Polish immigrant who operates the two-store division of Old Poland Foods. The business employs 20 and rings up annual sales of about $2 million.

Kramer has stopped short of raising prices, at least for now. She added: “We’re producing more bread and product — but we’re still making less and less profit.”

In Manhattan, Robert Schwartz, the CEO of a three-unit shoe store chain, said he has never seen the tax burden this bad.

“This has been as hard as we’ve been hit in my 36 years of running this company,” said Schwartz, owner of Eneslow Shoes, which employs 50 people, including part-timers, on annual revenues of under $10 million. “It’s a tough economy and our costs continue to rise.”

Schwartz, who says he’s putting his salary back into the business in response to the environment, adds that overhead from taxes and other outside charges have become unbearable. “I certainly don’t think the new health care law will save me any money,” he said. “Now New York City wants to develop this paid sick leave legislation that would give employees up to nine paid sick days. It’s ludicrous. It takes the oxygen out of the blood.”

Fran Biderman-Gross, CEO of Advantages, a branding, mass communications and marketing company in Fresh Meadows, said with health care becoming mandatory she envisions more companies switching to independent contractors — who don’t require pricey health benefits — in order to stay in business.

These consequences are completely predictable, but the left’s class warfare theology promotes punishing “the rich” even when they’re good people who are struggling to not raise their prices or putting their own salaries back into the business to keep it afloat. But while America embraces the ivory tower Sovietization policies dreamed up by sheltered academics and politically active hausfraus, neither of whom know how to create jobs, no small business will be able to stay afloat.

Only the government and multinational corporations who play ball will be able to operate in this sort of environment, and the government can only operate as long as there are some businesses left to pay for their extravagant welfare state. We’re worse than socialists now, we’re corporatists which is a fancy way of saying Fascists.

This isn’t rocket science, but to fully grasp it you have to take off the neo-Marxist blinders. Most lefties are too comfortable believing money is an unlimited resource and “the rich” can and will shoulder them as a burden to stop and think about what their policies actually do. In the end, just like the Soviet Union, Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela, America will grind to a halt and become a wasteland of poverty, crime and decay leading eventually to societal collapse.

Which is what the left wants anyway. What other explanation could there  be?

h/t Jammie Wearing Fool

When the A.T.F. wanted to raid the branch Davidians (who were a multi-ethnic group of armed hippies who hadn’t bothered anyone) they went in hard and initiated a firefight that lead to the deaths of dozens of children. Now they raid the house of a racist pervert who’s been calling for the overthrow of the Republic for 30 years and they apparently let him go about his business while they gently unfolded his unmentionables. This is crap!

Any of you right wingers out there think you’ll be treated this good when the Obamumnist storm troopers kick in your door?

Surprise! Democrats threw gays under the bus for their communist power grab. It’s almost as if Marxists think homosexuality is a product of decadent Capitalism and will disappear in their new utopia.

From GOProud:

(Washington, D.C.) – Late last night, the Democratic controlled House of Representatives passed their healthcare “reform” bill by a razor-thin margin. “All of the Democratic special interests got their pay off in the healthcare bill passed by the House last night,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud – the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies. “While the rest of the Democratic caucus was busy horse-trading for their constituency, gay Democrats in the House do what they do best – sit down, shut up and vote.”

All three of the openly gay House Democrats – Barney Frank (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Jared Polis (D-CO) – voted for the Democrats’ healthcare legislation that seeks to expand the scope of government run healthcare. “The Democrats’ dirty little secret is that efforts to expand government-run healthcare will expand discrimination and make quality, affordable healthcare even less available to gay and lesbian families all across the country,” continued LaSalvia. “Instead of making domestic-partner benefits more available, this legislation will make them less available. Instead of empowering gay families to have more control over their healthcare decisions, this legislation will put more power in the hands of a federal government that denies any recognition for gay couples. Instead of supporting tax equity for domestic partners, they supported tax increases on gay families.”

“You would think that openly gay Democrats would have fought for some measure of equality for gay families during the debate, but sadly they did not. It is clear their allegiance is to Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and the DNC – not to gay and lesbian families,” concluded LaSalvia.

Support GOProud!

On Coren’s Corner there appeared a letter written by the Vice-President of the University of Ottawa addressed to Ann Coulter who is going to appear on The Michael Coren Show in Canada:

“Dear Ms. Coulter,

I understand that you have been invited by University of Ottawa Campus Conservatives to speak at the University of Ottawa this coming Tuesday. We are, of course, always delighted to welcome speakers on our campus and hope that they will contribute positively to the meaningful exchange of ideas that is the hallmark of a great university campus. We have a great respect for freedom of expression in Canada, as well as on our campus, and view it as a fundamental freedom, as recognized by our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I would, however, like to inform you, or perhaps remind you, that our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or “free speech”) in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States. I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here. You will realize that Canadian law puts reasonable limits on the freedom of expression. For example, promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges. Outside of the criminal realm, Canadian defamation laws also limit freedom of expression and may differ somewhat from those to which you are accustomed. I therefore ask you, while you are a guest on our campus, to weigh your words with respect and civility in mind. There is a strong tradition in Canada, including at this University, of restraint, respect and consideration in expressing even provocative and controversial opinions and urge you to respect that Canadian tradition while on our campus. Hopefully, you will understand and agree that what may, at first glance, seem like unnecessary restrictions to freedom of expression do, in fact, lead not only to a more civilized discussion, but to a more meaningful, reasoned and intelligent one as well.

I hope you will enjoy your stay in our beautiful country, city and campus.

Sincerely,

François Houle.”

Vice-recteur aux études / Vice-President Academic and Provost
Université d’Ottawa / University of Ottawa
550, rue Cumberland Street
Ottawa (ON) K1N 6N5
téléphone / telephone : 613 562-5737
télécopieur / fax : 613 562-5103
www.uOttawa.ca/vr-etudes-academic

I didn’t know the Nazis defeated Canada in WW II

h/t Newsrealblog

I’m not familiar with Chris Shifflett so I’m taking other people’s word for it that he’s actually considered a celebrity, though his inflated sense of self-importance as evidenced by this Nazi-esque propaganda film shows that at least he believes he is. I’m told he’s in the band Foo Fighters but being Metal ’till I Die I wouldn’t know. Nor do I care.

But imagine if a Republican administration had minor celebrities calling for the formation of a posse to arrest those they consider enemies of the state? You couldn’t contain the outrage. But when it’s done for the great Obama no big deal I guess.

The enemies they plan on arresting, by the way, are businessmen and women in what I find an eerie echo of Mao’s pogrom against landlords. I assume the next step for the astroturfed group responsible for this madness is to open up camps with which we evil capitalists can be re-educated through beatings, rapes, and murder.

Like I said, creepy and fascist. This makeshift militant wing of Health Care for America Now! has its own website called The Citizens’ Posse which shows this was not a one off publicity stunt but an organized campaign of intimidation and harassment on the perceived enemies of the neo-Marxist left implicitly approved of by the progressive Obama administration.

On the Citizens’ Posse website there are wanted posters featuring the pictures of business people and trumped up charges like “45,000 Counts of Involuntary Manslaughter”  as well as links to yet another astroturfed website that tells this not so secret police where these people will be. This is a recipe for violence and mayhem.

Coincidentally, the energy executive who was missing in New Orleans and was later found drowned in the Mississippi river was  theoretically one of the “domestic enemies” listed by Schiflett in the video. The man had just attended a function at a college (where most progressive protesters are recruited from) before mysteriously ending up in the drink even though the river was no where near the route he would take from the bar he was last seen in or the hotel he was heading to. Odd, wouldn’t you say?

Of course, he was just another “domestic enemy” so why should we care?

The Citizens’ Posse is not a protest, it is the beginning of a dangerous regression to early 20th century leftist tactics. If we continue to allow the left to escalate we will be pulling businessmen out of rivers in the thousands. Then it’ll be Jews, Christians, Republicans and finally everyone who isn’t on board with the Soros-funded Stalinist vision of America’s future Chris Schiflett promotes.