Wait -- you're telling me that thousands of houses have been under-assessed to the tune of thousands of dollars each during the housing bubble? That would be a huge story.

Posted at June 29, 2008 4:31 PM in response to McCains Delinquent On Tax Bill

The reason I initially clicked on this story is that I'm curious about the specifics of paying Property taxes in CA.

If you look on Zillow, sometimes you'll see a CA house that was bought recently, say, 2005 or 2006, and let's say the purchase price was $750K. But the property taxes paid for 2007 are only $1500 or something.

How is this possible?

How is it even possible that the McCains are 4 years overdue paying their taxes -- and if they are, shouldn't there be crazy penalties and interest like there are for Federal income taxes?

I don't get it, and I'm truly curious for answers if anyone has any.

Posted at June 29, 2008 2:38 AM in response to McCains Delinquent On Tax Bill

The sick thing is that Prop 13 applies to commercial buildings as well. Shell companies are created and passed along, and you have situations where the owners of the Capitol records building pay 5 cents per square foot in property taxes while folks like me pay 4 and 5 bucks per square foot per year.

The argument for Prop 13 would make perfect sense -- IF the difference between the capped tax rate and the free floating tax rate were applied as a lien against the house. i.e., when the house sells, the state gets the taxes it is owed before the seller gets the profit. That way, everyone stays in their houses if they want to, but if they sell, the state gets much needed funds. Of course, if folks who bought before 1978 paid their fair share, EVERYONE's share would be lower.

Let's not forget the fact that these folks have made hundreds of thousands, even millions in equity in their houses over the years. Not sure how that fits in to the old lady crying poor scenario.

When the Gen X versus Baby Boomer political war begins -- and it ain't too far off -- Proposition 13 will surely be one of the battlegrounds.

Posted at June 29, 2008 2:20 AM in response to McCains Delinquent On Tax Bill

How about Republican Senators speaking out vocally against the War in Iraq? You talk of fiscal sanity -- let's start with a two trillion dollar war.

Most importantly, Mr. Chafee, thank you for speaking your conscience and not the party line. I'd like to think that if Democrats ever veered this wildly off course, I'd speak out against them too.

Posted at June 27, 2008 2:12 AM in response to When Loyalty To Common Sense Trumps Loyalty To Party

Yes, there are so many districts where people are clamoring to support the FISA bill. It's just sweepin' the nation.

Posted at June 23, 2008 10:45 PM in response to Woman's Claim: GOP House Candidate Paid For My Abortion

As an aside, I have a friend who is a political journalist who once made gentle fun of Dowd in one of his pieces.

After that, she wouldn't return his calls and pretty much blackballed him.

In other words, she dishes it but can't take it.

Posted at June 23, 2008 2:55 PM in response to Times Public Editor Hammers Maureen Dowd's Coverage Of Hillary

Shorter Seth: "Maureen Dowd couldn't care less-- and that's a good thing."

What Dowd does, constantly, is throw red meat to people like Seth who want to feel comfortably superior to their politicians. She does it selfishly because there is an audience for it -- first, the very rich and privileged (herself) who believe they are above politics, and second, the very cynical, who make themselves feel better by mocking those who actually care.

You say that Dowd was one of the first to "mock this stupid war." Please show me, I beg you, an example of a time when she criticized this war and acted like she truly cared one way or another. It's not enough to mock a war. If you mock it, you can still feel perfectly fine about standing by and doing nothing.

By the way, the rest of the world, who "shake their heads in wonder" at us have also felt perfectly fine standing by and doing nothing as this war has gone forward. I don't see any counterbalance.

I think the following video is germane to this discussion.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/279

Posted at June 23, 2008 2:40 PM in response to Times Public Editor Hammers Maureen Dowd's Coverage Of Hillary

I completely agree with Steve.

Huckabee would have been a scary prospect -- likeable, folksy, completely authentic to the Evangelical base, and an underdog to Obama, if that's possible.

Posted at June 18, 2008 1:46 PM in response to Obama's Luck: The Least Appealing Republican Nominee in 60 Years

Cuneformist --

You're absolutely right.

Last time I checked, we had 130,000+ soldiers in Iraq doing nightly patrols. Again, that's law enforcement, not military action.

Posted at June 17, 2008 2:41 PM in response to Obama Campaign Rolls Out Richard Clarke To Hit Back At McCain's "Sept. 10th Mindset" Attack

I'm glad Obama's camp responded quickly, and Clarke is the perfect guy to do it, but it's a pretty sad state of affairs that McCain is using slogans from Bush '04. It's like he doesn't even have enough money to hire his new propagandists. He's just recycling old pot roast that's been in the freezer for four years.

McCain is going to lose, and he will take over Bob Dole's position as spokesman for Viagra, and the world will move on.

Posted at June 17, 2008 2:34 PM in response to Obama Campaign Rolls Out Richard Clarke To Hit Back At McCain's "Sept. 10th Mindset" Attack