Federal Government

Tax Collectors in Action

This entry was posted in Economics Federal Government Taxation on by

Jim Henley takes up the cause of a neighborhood comic store owner who is getting screwed by the IRS

The familiar regulatory coupling of arrogance and ignorance has forced her to take attention from her proper concerns – her business and her life – and focus them on trying to straighten out interlopers as clueless as they are powerful.

Stories like this make me wonder once again why we have not risen up and smashed the IRS and its ilk. Yes, I am angry about this at the moment.
There is an update on this story at Tegan’s place. This sounds really broken and I am still angry.
Oh, and if any of you know anything about a federal inventory tax would you, if possible, point to references. I couldn’t find anything at irs.gov and don’t believe that there is such a thing at the federal level.
Update (12/12): Jim Henley, Hit&Run, and a number of other folks in the comic community (linked by Dirk Deppy) have more. Dirk wants action and has a sample letter to send to your congress critters.
The comment thread at Hit & Run has some info on the tax law but I have yet to see a clear discussion of the specific law and why and how it applies here. And, yes, I’m still angry. Let’s get rid of the IRS.

Two faces of Michael Powell

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Domestic Terrorism Economics Federal Government Internet Regulation Technology on by

Yesterday Michael Powell said the following (PDF) in remarks opening a forum on Voice over IP:

As one who believes unflinchingly in maintaining an Internet free from government regulation, I believe that IP-based services such as VOIP should evolve in a regulation-free zone.
No regulator, either federal or state, should tread into this area without an absolutely compelling justification for doing so.

This is the same guy that recently supported the implementation of the broadcast flag and willingly accepts it as his duty to use regulation to push the implementation of HDTV which may be nifty high quality but, nevertheless, should be left to find its own way in the market. We will either embrace it or ignore it.
Something that could bring the development of VoIP to a grinding halt is this push (requires free registration) by the FBI and the Justice Department to have the FCC assure that they will be able to eavesdrop on our VoIP calls:

The FBI and Justice Department want the FCC to classify Internet-based telephony as a traditional telecommunications service, which would subject it to federal laws requiring carriers or software companies “to develop intercept solutions for lawful electronic surveillance.”

It is time to just say no to these folks.
Via beSpacific here and here.
Update (12/3): For more on the FCC’s VoIP forum see The Knowledge Problem.

ashcroft: once a civil libertarian?

This entry was posted in ashcroft Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Federal Government Internet Libertarianism Patriot Act on by

The American Bar Association Journal has an interesting article on Cyber-Libertarians which focuses primarily on EPIC, the Elecronic Privacy Information Center.
I was somewhat surprised by this comment by David Sobel, EPIC’s co-founder and general counsel:

�We were actually guardedly optimistic when [Ashcroft] became attorney general,� says Sobel. �As a senator he used some of the most stridently anti-federal-law-enforcement rhetoric I�d seen come out of the Senate�just a step short of calling them �jackbooted thugs.� �

Talk about power corrupting someone. Or maybe he hasn’t changed at all and it is ok if they are his ‘jackbooted thugs.’
I suspect the latter is the case. In answer to the opening question: probably not.
Via beSpacific.

Food Fight?

This entry was posted in bush Domestic Terrorism Federal Government US Foreign Policy War on Terrorism on by

After reading this Financial Times article Tim Dunlop concludes :

If this is true, then my conslusion from that earlier post stands: if this is the case, this is a much more serious issue than the case of simply trying to smear and intimidate a dissenter (ie Joseph Wilson). This indicates a complete breakdown in trust between various government agencies.

Are the bushies really playing these kind of silly and dangerous to us games?

Senate Supports Spammers 97-0

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Culture Domestic Terrorism Economics Federal Government Internet Libertarianism Marketing Spam on by

Well, it sure looks this way to me.
For instance,

the bill now includes a provision, supported by some opponents of spam, that directs the Federal Trade Commission to come up with a plan for a no-spam registry.

I think the off shore spammers will love this one: a list comprised of mostly good email addresses! Yea, I know that the spammers are supposed to send in their lists for scrubbing but I suspect joes p*rn shop won’t be sending in their list.

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