As the news reports roll in about Exxon Mobil's 2005 earnings, more and more individuals and advocacy groups are calling for a "windfall profits" tax that would curtail excess profits such as those made by Exxon. It is a very bad idea, and it would hurt most those the argument claims to want to help: the American working class. The price at the pump is only the first place that would be affected. As you know, taxes on a corporation are passed onto the consumer in the form of higher cost, a co...

The governor of West Virginia ordered all coal mines within the state shut down until their safety could be evaluated in light of four tragic accidents that left 16 dead since the beginning of the year. While it sounds good to many who have suddenly become causeheads against underground mining despite being almost completely ignorant of the practice, it is yet another example of political correctness run amuck and of the error of acting mainly on emotions. You see, apparently in the issuance ...

Cindy Sheehan's indignance got validity today; validity it DID NOT deserve, when the Capitol police apologized for her removal from Tuesday evening's State of the Union Speech. Ms. Sheehan has spent the intervening time insisting that her first amendment rights were violated and that she would sue the US government (meaning, you and I). She ignores the rather obvious fact that, had the government had a compelling interest in usurping her free speech rights, she would long ago have been shipped o...

Link As readers read a heartwrenching story about a young boy who had been separated from his mother by Hurricane Katrina and wanted a happy Christmas, readers were moved to tears. They contributed money to help the child and others profiled by the paper, who would otherwise have no Christmas. While it was a moving story, it was entirely a work of fiction, thought up by caseworkers for Child Protective Services in Brazoria County, outside of Houston to increase collections for their ann...

As Child Protective Services workers are given more and more authority, an objective look at the evidence reveals an unquestionable pattern of abuse of their power, and of the United States Constitution and various state constitutions. While I could compile a list of the way their policies and procedures abuse the power, I will concentrate on two areas of policy where the abuse of power is encouraged and fertilized: Mandatory reporting and the quota system. Mandatory reporting is the not so o...

While I do not endorse the practices of former Senator Josephy McCarthy in "outing" communists in America or in destroying lives in the ensuing witch hunt, I find it frightening that the hammer and sickle of the failed Soviet Empire is beginning to march its way down Main Street, USA. I find it more frightening the WAY it is happening; not through the Democratic process but through the workings of several individuals who are coming to prominence in the media and attempting to completely SUBVERT ...

Recently, I wrote an article about how the left was unconcerned with several episodes of domestic spying. It was aimed at the left, to the exclusion of the right, who is equally culpable, for a reason. You see, the left has expressed complete outrage over the information that phones of suspected terrorists were wiretapped under FISA law without warrants (but, according to many sources, with judicial oversight). The left was right to be concerned, and is right to ask that the facts of the case...

I received a piece of mail yesterday. As a "card carrying libertarian", I receive literally dozens of fund raising letters per month, and thought this would be one of those good causes destined for the round file due to the fact that much of my dispensary income is currently relegated to the campaign and my own underfunded causes. But I opened it, because even fund raising letters often contain good, relevant information. It was from "Americans for Prosperity-Texas", a group tr...

Well, my acknowledgement from the Texas Department of Ethics came in Friday. Although I was technically "legal" to raise money for my campaign the day it was mailed, having recived the letter from them is good in the CYA department. I could spend up to $500 without a campaign treasurer being appointed, but couldn't raise money or spend over that amount without filing. Now, I won't be spending a lot of money on the campaign, but figured it was good to file anyway so that I don't have to worry abo...

In Congress, the Senate put a delay on the confirmation process of Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court. Not for any sound reason, mind you, but because they could. In the state of Texas, legislators are prepared to go back to Austin in April or May to bring school finance back to the table despite five failed special sessions to do the same and a deadline of June 1 imposed by the state Supreme Court. There's a lot of nothing going on at every level by politicians who are hard at work disregardi...

Many organizations in the United States have come up with a new and unique solution to poverty in this country: criminalize it! In my studies on CPS activities, I have found a good number of individuals who have had their initial CPS encounters after enrolling their children in Head Start Programs, taking them to WIC or free immunization programs, or even testing them for lead. If these encounters were initiated because bruises, burns, or other possible symptoms of abuse were observed, I woul...

Imagine this scenario: You are a poor, working class person who works hard to maintain a reasonable standard of living. You work hard, earn a aycheck, come home at night, and are in most ways a respectable citizen. Your one vice is coming home and playing your Clash records so loud you have one of your neighbors pounding and screaming on the walls. your neighbor gets mad, calls crimestoppers, and anonymously reports that you are a drug dealer. He fictitiously reports that people come by your...

I am writing this article for those who would describe themselves as conservative on JoeUser. While you are in the majority here and in the US government, your opinions are often shouted down in the mainstream media and in the world. Many conservatives are quick to cry that they are victims; that the attacks on their ideologies are unmerited and personal, when nothing could be further from the truth. And yet I, a former leftist, have not been able to find a home among the conservative camp in...

This is just an observation from those who tend to subscribe to leftist philosophy on this site. Take it for what it's worth, and discard the rest. I personally believe that many of the articles on JoeUser that have been put forth by centrist writers or others who see "both sides", but have veered right have been for one simple reason: Because the nature of most who would describe themselves as "left" is to act on "feeling" and emotion, and because it is far easier to "get your goat" by using...

As i have begun studying poverty in the United States, I have been compelled by the stats to look deeper. I have heard the number "40 million" tossed out as the number of Americans in poverty in the US; a recent article on the afl-cio's website ( Link ) puts the number at 37 million. Either way, the interesting fact is that that represents about 13 percent of our nation's population. That is substantially below the world bank's estimate of the global percentage of poverty at 20% of the world...