Thought for day

Zino Davidoff

Less than a half step from complete teetotaler

Well, I've heard it again.

"Do you drink?

Uh...no.
Maybe a glass of wine with dinner with my wife at home; sometimes.
NEVER when we're out at all.

Years (and years and years) ago; sure.
I'm becoming an old geezer and simply don't anymore.

Besides, everyone knows I'd rather have coffee.

I am however asthmatic and use this.



Please note the ingredients.

Thus my breath may allude to alcohol occasionally.

Active Ingredients
Epinephrine in each Inhalation - 0.22 mg

Ingredients
Ascorbic Acid , Alcohol 34% , Dichlorodifluoromethane CFC 12 , Dichlorotetrafluoroethane CFC 114 , Hydrochloric Acid , Nitric Acid , Purified Water


For those of you that wish to spread such a rumor - screw off; you're pond scum.

Caligiuri on the Gas Tax

Connecticut Should Cut Gas Taxes

Connecticut now has the highest gas prices in the nation. While most of the factors that have contributed to this harsh reality are outside our control as a state, there is one important factor that Connecticut can control – the amount we tax gasoline. Reducing our gas taxes is one thing the state can do to provide almost immediate relief to consumers. We should cut those taxes because people desperately need some relief.

Connecticut levies two different taxes on gasoline. The first is a flat tax of 25 cents per gallon. The second tax is known as the Petroleum Gross Receipts Tax. The Gross Receipts Tax is set at a percentage of the wholesale price of petroleum. According to the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association (ICPA), at the current rate of 7 percent, the Gross Receipts Tax costs consumers approximately 25.7 cents per gallon of gasoline. The Gross Receipts Tax had been set at 5 percent for many years, but a series of increases was instituted in 2005 in order to pay for transportation projects, and that tax is still increasing. It is scheduled to go up again on July 1 when it is scheduled to increase to 7.5%.

A recent story in the Journal Inquirer compared gas prices and gas taxes in Connecticut to our neighboring states of Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. That story showed that the difference in gas prices between Connecticut and those other states could be correlated, almost to the penny, to the difference in the amount of gas taxes. For example, Connecticut consumers pay 22 cents more per gallon of gas than consumers in Rhode Island, while the difference in gas taxes is 19.7 cents. Similarly, we pay 28 cents more for a gallon of gas than people in Massachusetts and 27.2 cents more in gas taxes. Finally, when compared to New York, we are paying 8 cents more per gallon of gas and 10.6 more per gallon in gas taxes. As you can see, the difference in gas prices appears to be directly related to the difference in gas taxes; the higher the gas taxes the higher the price of gas. That is why I am convinced that lowering our gas taxes will result in lower gas prices.

Since first coming to office in January 2007, I have proposed eliminating the increases to the Gross Receipts Tax and blocking the future scheduled increases. I was able to show, using figures provided by the state's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis, that we could do that and still fully fund our transportation projects. My efforts have been defeated to date, but I will continue to push for these reductions as the only thing we can meaningfully do as a state to help consumers at the pumps.

One obstacle to cutting the gas taxes is that the state is now using the surplus tax revenue it generates from the Gross Receipts Tax to help fund the state's general fund budget. With significant budget deficits looming on the horizon, state policymakers will be more reluctant than ever before to lower our gas taxes. My argument to them is that we must decide what our priorities will be. I would rather find the spending cuts we need in order to pay for a reduction in our gas taxes so that we can help people at the pumps, than throw up our hands in despair and say that we cannot cut those taxes because the state is now facing a deficit.

High gas prices are hurting Connecticut's families and businesses. The fact that our state government is contributing to the pain at the pumps is something that should bother all of us. I will continue to work to lower Connecticut's gas taxes

What the Left really thinks about our Veterans

Take a look at the "karma" rating the Memorial Day post is getting on an increasingly leftist and intolerant blog; Connecticut Local Politics.

If a tribute to our Veterans is getting zonked with "negatives"; that should speak volumes as to just what the left really thinks....and why the left really stinks.

Here they burn both an American Flag and a US soldier in effigy.

Memorial Day

Thank You!





These fellows, some pretty young,







Saved the free world, and went on to become



our fathers & grandfathers -
The Greatest Generation.



This weekend we should remember them.

And the brothers in arms they left behind.




Thanks Dad.


-ACR

Healy Calls GOP to Arms

Connecticut Republican Party Chair Chris Healy calls for party defeatists to "Shut up & suit up"


"It is time for all Republican leaders, from Hartford to Sacramento, but especially Washington, D.C., to zip their lips, pull up their socks, grab your baseball bats and get back on the field of battle."

Read entire Everyday Republican piece here.

All we can say is, Amen brother.

Smoking Kills

Cigarette Taxes Are Fueling Terrorism

Nothing new here, high taxes or complete bans have always been profit centers for all sorts of organized crime for as long as anyone can remember.
Our own American experience with Prohibition amounted to little more than some sort of Organized Crime Enrichment Act.

You might think we would learn our lesson; but you would be wrong.

This March 2000 BBC article states:

"....the customs operation linked the smuggling to organized crime in the Naples area of Italy, with involvement from the Camorra mafia clan.
The notorious Neapolitan family has a long history of involvement in contraband cigarettes and drug smuggling."


But here in the U.S. a new group has gotten into the action; and they've been active for a over a decade too!

"Going back to 1993, counterfeit cigarette stamps were found in the apartment of the first World Trade Center bombers."

States Patrick Fleenor in his May 7, 2008 Wall Street Journal article;

"Cigarette Taxes Are Fueling Organized Crime"

Fleenor goes on to say:

"The connection to terrorism is no exaggeration. When New York police cracked another smuggling ring in 2005, they uncovered a multimillion dollar flow of funds from New York City to unknown individuals in the Middle East. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly gave voice to the obvious conclusion: Terrorists probably got the money.

Just a few weeks before that 2005 bust, Buffalo-area businessman Aref Ahmed had been sentenced to three years and a month for cigarette smuggling. The feds said he'd used the racket to fund "scholarships" at terrorist training camps in Afghanistan during the spring of 2001. Going back to 1993, counterfeit cigarette stamps were found in the apartment of the first World Trade Center bombers.

Politicians continue to use the health of smokers as their excuse for higher cigarette taxes. This view is myopic. As Gov. Wilson argued three decades ago, high cigarette taxes are bad public policy because of their effect on the rest of us. In the 1960s and '70s, organized crime exploited high cigarette taxes at our expense. Today we face an even deadlier adversary."