What a day!!! If the rest of the week is anything like today, we're in for a wild ride. Today started like any other. We checked into our rooms here at the Red Lion Hotel. Pretty nice spot so far, but I'll keep you posted. After getting settled in, we caught the light rail to dowtown  Denver. Houston  please take note, you could learn  a thing or two from this rail system. It runs all around the city. We went to a Green Piece Festival. There were all kinds of energy saving gizmos and gadgets. Clothes made of 100% Hemp, waterless toilets, waterless water, etc. It was pretty lame until I got to the organic vodka tent. This peaked my interest and thought it would peak yours as well. Because I wanted to be able to report to you with as much accuracy as possible, I felt I had to take one for the team, so I had a glass with a cranberry mixer. I wasn't quite sure with only one drink, so I decided to take another one for the team. Needless to say, the festival wasn't that lame anymore.

After leaving the festival, and taking in more scenery of downtown Denver, we started back towards the train terminal. As we approached the terminal, there were huge masses of people, and behind them stood platoons of heavily armed and geared up riot police. They had helmets, vest, cuffs, tasers, glocs, billy clubs, bobby clubs, harry clubs, brass knuckles etc. They looked like an army of ROBOCOPS. It turns out that there were some protesters blocking the light rail tracks. With such a show of force, the protesters were quickly disposed of.....I mean dispersed rather quickly.

 We walked a few more blocks and ran into another group of protesters. It was two Hillary protesters. Yes, two. Only two. With all the hype given to this story by the media. You would swear there were armys of them. I'm not saying they're not here, I just don't see them.I decided to engage them in conversation and they weren't able to give me one single reason why they were not voting for Barack. After 2 minutes, I knew I wouldn't get any where with them, so we moved on towards the train. My day gets much more exciting, but its exactly 03:50 in the morning, and I have to be at my delegation meeting at 0700.  I have to sign off now, but stay tuned for the rest of my story. You don't want to miss it.

Note: Terrel Shepherd is an Obama Deleage from Texas Senate District 7.

It's Monday, and that means it is time for yet another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round-up. Posts included in the round up are submitted each week by Alliance member blogs. This week's round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly blog round-up. The round-up is compiled from posts submitted by member blogs.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes apart the new GOP Business tax in Tearing At The Margins Tax.

This was originally posted in 2006 but has gotten a lot attention on other blogs lately, so in case you missed it then, enjoy. And even if you've read it before, hopefully it will put a smile on your face again.

Dear Mr. Bush

Memorial Day is the day that we honor men and women who have died to protect this country. Did you know that Memorial Day started after the Civil War? General Logan, a Union soldier, had been impressed with how the South had honored their dead. Memorial Day was called Decoration Day until after World War II.

I remember my Mom and Dad calling it Decoration Day. When I was growing up, it was a pretty big holiday. There was always a parade. Then we would go to the cemetary and lay flowers on everyone� grave. We would have a picnic and later that evening, there would be fireworks at the city park. That has gone by the wayside though. We don�t celebrate it like we did.

John McCain is telling that America's problems are psychological. Well, the Ohio Democratic Party decided to ask the average person on the street what they thought.

What do you think?

MKC

In my last posting I put the lie to the claim that the rich pay more than their share of taxes. Let me now put the lie to the claim that Republicans are tax cutters. They are tax shifters.

If you were to name the least favorite tax to Republicans like it would be hands down, the progressive income tax. Recall what it was called in the last posting - "legal plunder." So, how do they want to pay for the public goods and services we all need? Well, they want to shift the system from the more progressive taxes , which emphasize ability to pay as a factor in setting rates, to ones which ignore ability to pay and emphasize "flat , one size fits all equality". Consumption/sales taxes are one example. Such taxes have the impact of shifting tax burdens from those who are benefitting to most AND can afford to pay their share to those who are less able to do so. In other words, the game is shift the tax burden

By lightseeker2

It is coming up on April 15th, so it is time for what may become an "evergreen" piece for me. For those who have not wasted too much time reading everything they can get their hands on, an "evergreen" is a news story that never gets retired, it is recycled every year. This evergreen I am going to call Tax Lies that Republicans Tell. It will be a tale of falsehoods, half-truths and tax shifting.

Lets start with this:

The U.S. Income Tax Burden:
The Income Tax Burden is defined simply as who pays U.S. income taxes in the form of individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and federal excise taxes. Based on this information, the following conclusions clearly emerge:

* An enormous percentage of taxes are payed by a minority of Americans:
o The Top 1% of taxpayers pay 29% of all taxes.
o The Top 5% of taxpayers pay 50% of all taxes.
* Our tax system is not so much progressive as it is confiscatory -- Frederic Bastiat called this phenomenon "legal plunder." A

Every word in the quoted material is true, yet the conclusion drawn is a bald face lie. More below.

The subprime loan had put a crimp in financial institutions bottom line. Never fear! These corporations have found a way to bail themselves out.

Hundreds of thousands of Capital One and Bank of America cardholders have been notified in recent months that their interest rates are going up -- in some cases to as much as 28% -- even though they haven't been missing payments.