Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Bush’s Global Warming Bluff

• Oh. So now he cares. [Washington Times]
• President Bush, long an opponent of caps to carbon emissions and serious regulatory action on global warming, seems to be softening on the issue.
• Are all these problems on the way to being solved? [Top 100 Effects Of Global Warming]
• The Washington Times reports: “President Bush is poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming.”
• The specifics of his plan? Currently under debate. But the reasons for the shift are clear: politics...and fear.
• Apparently, conservatives in Congress and corporate big-wigs fear a “regulatory nightmare” under a Democratic president and the White House is trying to get something passed to signal that “the debate over this is over.”
• But be warned: Bush has long talked the talk on global warming, but his proposals have mostly been hot air.
• Remember that meeting Bush called of “major emitters” earlier this year? Sounded good, right?
• Well, as was reported at the time, “meeting outside of the U.N. framework and by likely agreeing only to “aspirational targets,” Bush’s ‘major emitters’ meetings undermines the efforts of the United Nations to draw up a global binding agreement.” [Think Progress]
• Oh, and we’re also the only industrialized country in the world who hasn’t signed on to the Kyoto Protocol which would cap greenhouse gas. [Think Progress]
• So if you see a lot of hub bub out of the White House this week around global warming...don’t be fooled.

Fool us once...shame on...shame on...can’t get fooled again.

Ouch. It’s Tax Day.

• It’s Tax Day! While you stand in line, waiting to get your properly postmarked envelope for Uncle Sam, here are a few tax stats to keep you company. [MSNBC]
• 26.5 hours: Amount of time the average person spent putting their taxes together. (And this doesn’t count your wait in the line at the post office.)
• $207: Amount of money the average person spent “collecting, calculating and compiling” their tax returns.
• 140 million: The number of individual tax returns the IRS will process this year.
• 155 pages: The length of the instruction form that comes with your 1040 this year.
• 4 pages: The length of the instruction form that came with the first 1040 back in 1945
• $1.2 billion: The amount of money we’d save if the IRS let all Americans file their taxes online, free of charge.
• $8 billion: According to the General Accounting Office, the amount more than over 50,000 federal government contractors owe in unpaid federal taxes.[Radio Iowa]
• $290 billion: The “tax gap,” or the difference between the amount of taxes that are legally owed and the amount of taxes that are actually paid.
• Why so expensive and time consuming? That’s what a few lawmakers on the Hill are wondering.
• Here are a few bills they’re sponsoring to ease our tax pain (or at least fix the system a little):
• In the Senate, Sens. Charles Schumer (D., NY) and Daniel Akaka (D., HI) are pushing a bill that would allow all Americans to file their taxes online, free of charge.
• In the House, members are voting on a bill that would stop contractors from using foreign subsidiaries just so they can avoid paying taxes (like Social Security taxes).
• The House is also voting on a bill that would ban federal agencies from giving contracts to companies that won’t pay their taxes. (In other news, did you know federal agencies are hiring contractors that refuse to pay taxes?)

And if that didn’t hurt enough, there’s always this: 42.2 cents — Amount of your tax dollar which goes straight to the military. (Over half – or 28.7 cents – goes to pay for the war.)

President Bush + Big Business = BFF

• If you’re like us, you spent last weekend hunched over your kitchen table attempting to work out the intricacies of the American tax system (oh, and happy tax day, btw). That is, unless, you’re a large U.S. corporation. [USA Today]
• See, big business has been getting off the hook more and more lately. USA Today reports: “The IRS audit rate for the nation’s large corporations last year dropped to 26%, down from a high of 72% in 1990 and the lowest level in two decades.”
• And that’s not all: “The time the IRS spent on each large corporation also dropped by 20% over the last five years, according to the analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data research organization at Syracuse University.”
• The richer you are, the better. Since 2002, there’s been a 33% decease in the number of in-depth investigations large firms with assets of $250 million or more.
• Meanwhile, small businesses are feeling the heat. IRS increased audit rates of small and mid-sized corporations. How’s that for helping out the little guy?
• The ironic part of all this? The little guy is usually the one who pays his taxes. A separate USA Today story shows how “hundreds of seemingly wealthy people — company presidents, former soap opera stars, top-selling real estate agents — live in multimillion-dollar homes yet have huge tax problems.”
• In fact, “the IRS estimates that 21% of federal individual income taxes go unpaid each year — about $300 billion last year.” [USA Today]
• Check out our list of other Big Bad Guys that the White House has failed to investigate here.

We’d be rich too if we could dodge taxes.

Good News, Bad News

A Hard Knock Life For A Blind Bee

If spring doesn’t smell as sweet this year, blame pollution! It’s not just your imagination. A new study finds that flowery aromas aren’t traveling as far and aren’t smelling, well, as flowery as before in less-polluted environments. Here’s how it works: pollutants such as ozone bond with flower scent molecules and voilà, your chemically-altered (unflowerly) flower scent. Other effects? Pollinators have to rely more on sight than what they smell. Here’s the pros and cons: [FOX NEWS]

Good News

Evolutionary pressure to make flowers prettier to attract the birds and bees?

Bad News

Poor little blind bees are screwed and get the short end of the stem.

Quote Of The Day

“Dunkin’ Donuts with sprinkles...A little coffee with a little cream and a little sugar! I think we’re set for the hard questions.”

—The moderator at an AP forum for presidential candidates who brought Senator John McCain’s “favorite treats” along. As MSNBC’s Chris Matthews fittingly observed, “The press loves McCain. We’re his base.” [Think Progress]

Speed Round

WHY WE’RE IN IRAQ

It’s because Saddam has weapons of mass destru…I mean it’s to free the Iraqi people from tyrann…no, it’s to fight al Qaeda there so we don’t have to fight them here…wait, no, the reason we’re at war in Iraq is because we need to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Sheesh, what did you think? [AFP]

OFF THE HOOK

The DC Madam’s defense attorney, Preston Burton, says he will *not* call Sen. David Vitter to the stand to testify about hookers. [CNN]

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It’s like playing the World Series without an umpire.” – Common Cause President Bob Edgar, on the lack of oversight into campaign contributions. The gridlocked FEC “can’t advise candidates on how to comply with fundraising laws. It can’t rule on pending complaints or officially open new investigations. And it can’t issue new disclosure rules ordered last year by Congress to shed more light on donations collected by lobbyists.” [St. Louis Post Dispatch]

STICK IT TO THE MAN

The Missouri House says “Hell no, we won’t,” and approves legislation that would prohibiting the state from complying with the federal Real ID Act. (Why? The bill’s sponsor, Republican Jim Guest, says it’s a threat to privacy rights.) [Kansas City]

WISH FOR AN OLYMPICS IN CHINA EVERY YEAR

Beijing will ban construction and close factories ahead of the Olympics in order to make the skies pretty and pollution-free. [NYT]

HOUSING FEARS

Pessimism, thy name is American homeowner. 60% of Americans are definitely not buying new digs and more than 25% fear their homes will lose value in the next 2 years. [ABC NEWS]

CARTER GETS THE COLD SHOULDER

Not only are Israeli leaders shunning former President Carter for planning to meet with Hamas leaders, but Israel’s secret service isn’t helping the U.S. guard him. Ouch. [MSNBC]

TAKE COVER

An artillery shell fragment from a U.S. weapons test in New Jersey crashes through the roof of a house miles away and kills a pet cat. We’re concerned. [CNN]

78 MILLION

The number of baby boomers that will “outpace the number of health care providers with the knowledge and kills to care for them capably.” [USA TODAY]

“THEY’RE COMING TO YOUR TOWN”

The name of a video being released by the American Family Association that warns Americans of the “evil gay agenda.” With trailer goodness! [Think Progress]

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Rupert Murdoch has joined the board of directors for the Associated Press. Start stocking up on canned goods. [AP]

GOOD NEWS

“A kidnapped British journalist was rescued by Iraqi troops on Monday after two months in captivity in the southern city of Basra.” [AP]