What does the law do?

Basically, it’s California’s way of trying to circumvent a federal law regarding collecting sales tax in a state where a business has a physical presence, be it a store front, a warehouse, distribution center, mailbox, what have you. The new law includes affiliate marketers in California as having a physical presence. California law makers would have you believe that it would increase tax revenue at a time when the state is heavily in debt and the base tax rate reverted from 8.25% back to 7.25%.

What will it really do?

The lawmakers either ignored, or failed to realize, the fact that those same affiliate marketers the law relies on are the same ones who pay income tax to the state on the commissions they earn from affiliate marketing – from companies like Amazon.com. The enactment of this law will also require businesses to be able to track the different state, county and city tax rates around the country and charge buyers accordingly.

And…

Additionally, California is forcing tax collection onto companies that are not even in California, as long as they have an affiliate program. Owners, employees and representatives (besides affiliates) of those companies do not get to vote, nor enjoy any benefits of their tax collection. They don’t drive on our roads, they don’t use our emergency services, and they sure as hell didn’t get a say in the matter.

What happened?

Simply put, Amazon.com dropped 25,000 California-based affiliates from their affiliate program in order to continue to avoid collecting sales tax from California residents. Just like what they did in Illinois and Colorado! Some numbers were crunched on CalWatchDog… In 2009 California received $124 million in income taxes from affiliates.

So, instead of the up to $500 million Skinner says might be collected, it might be just $152 million. And notice the key word “static.” That means the estimate assumes Amazon won’t fire its affiliates; and the affiliates won’t be hurt and many of the shut down, or move to more accommodating states.

Let’s do the math: If only $152 million is collected, but $124 million in income taxes are lost (as Runner says), then the net would be just $26 million. That’s less than $1 per Californian.

What does that mean?

California will not be getting any of the sales tax they so desperately wanted from Amazon.com sales. California will no longer be getting income tax revenue from commissions that would have been derived from sales sent to Amazon.com. Companies and individual affiliate marketers will leave California, taking with them their income taxes, sales taxes and any revenue that the state could have generated off of them and/or their businesses.

So, who’s behind this?

It’s not just California lawmakers that are responsible for this, and I’m not going to place the blame on voters. There was a large lobbying effort by big box retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Best Buy Co. and Barnes & Noble Inc. Note that these stores also have affiliate programs, but because they already have a physical presence in presumably every state, they already have the mechanisms in place to collect sales tax. They’re looking to thin the herd.

How do you really feel?

I fought over this issue a couple years ago and succumbed to the idea that it was just a matter of time. I still have a glimmer of hope that it can be removed/reverted and we can go back to business as normal. Some California lawmakers cannot possibly be so blind as to not see that this is a lose-lose situation. We may eventually get to a point where the federal law is rewritten to address the diversity and complexity of the Internet age. Until then, we all lose out with laws like this.

If you were paying attention, it was Erik Prince’s (founder of Blackwater) mother, Elsa Broekhuizen,who was an extremely influential supporter of Proposition 8. It was the family’s wealth that bought the land in North Carolina on which Blackwater is headquartered. Both Prince and Broekhuizen are major supporters of Republican candidates and causes and Erik Prince was once a White House intern for George H. W. Bush.

Hopefully, Halliburton and KBR will see the same fate. As you may know, Halliburton, who former Vice President Cheney worked for, was awarded numerous contracts worth billions of dollars and is infamous for various controversies. Cheney retired in 2000, received a $36 million severance package and later, while Vice President, received $398,548 in deferred compensation from Halliburton.

KBR, which was once a subsidiary of Halliburton, is an engineering and construction company. They are more well known now for instances involving gang rape, human trafficking and poor standards resulting in the electrocution and subsequent deaths of U.S. soldiers.

• green – This isn’t going away any time soon.
• carbon footprint or carbon offsetting – Not as common as “green,” but we haven’t seen the last of it.
• maverick – I’m so glad, for many reasons, we won’t be hearing this much anymore…
• first dude – This is worse than “maverick.” Many times worse.
• bailout – I’m sure most of us are sick of “bailout” talk, but it’s not over yet…
• Wall Street/Main Street – This reference got on my nerves during the election.
• monkey – I’m not sure what context this is in reference to…
• an emoticon heart, formed with a “less than” symbol (which looks like a sideways “v”) and the number 3 that’s used in e-mails and text-messaging. – I don’t use it and I don’t see it that much, so I’m indifferent about it.
• icon or iconic – I don’t recall this being used any more than normal in 2008.
• game changer – Eh. I can take it or leave it. I don’t have as much time for sports as I used to, so I’m not hearing it every game. If I did, I’d probably want it on the list.
• staycation – This is one of those meaningless phrases that deserves to be on this list – either you’re on vacation, staying at home, or you take a trip.
• desperate search – I can only think of this being used in association with a missing person, in which case it doesn’t bother me.
• not so much – Ah, I say this all the time. Will this go away soon? Not so much…
• winner of five nominations – As long as there are award shows, we’ll hear phrases like this. There’s no end in sight.
• it’s that time of year again – I’m sure this was said long before I was born and will be said long after I’m gone.

Now, a list of my own.

• Web 2.0 – This heavily over-used term was probably on the 2008 list, but now-a-days, everything claims to be Web 2.0 when a fraction of it really is.
• Stimulus package – Free money? Sure, I won’t turn it down. But it’s a buzz word to help people feel better when it probably does close to nothing at all.
• Rickrolling – I’m sure there are still people who haven’t been Rickrolled, but it’s about time for it to be put out to pasture.
• Epic – It’s used so often, it’s hard for anything to really be epic anymore…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWpQKCgAEP8[/youtube]

Not only does Vice President Dick Cheney admit that they would have invaded Iraq regardless of Saddam Hussein’s possession of, intention of having, or possibility of creating weapons of mass destruction, Cheney states that he knew about and supported the torture method known as Waterboarding of prisoners of war.

You may be thinking, I already knew Cheney had a hand in this, but for him to actually publicly admit it is something else. There should now be no issue in having him tried and convicted of war crimes. I fear that he may be pardoned in the U.S., but find solace in that he could be tried under international law.

So, what’s the holdup?

To no suprise to most of us, Barack Obama has been named Time’s Person of the Year. Unlike some others *ahem* Bush *ahem* Obama is deserving of this title for the many positive things he has brought to the table and inspired in many of us. At the time of this post well over 70% of those who voted in the poll on Time.com agree. It is a little sad to note that the majority of voters in Alaska and Idaho do not agree. I think it’s a fair assumption that they are greater fans of Sarah Palin, who is close to being at the top of the list.

While I feel Obama is right for this recognition, I’m not sure I can say the same for several of the runners-up, who include Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who has helped make a cluster fuck out of the economic crisis, Sarah Palin who is responsible for much of the huge partisan divide and made a mockery of her nomination for the Office of the Vice President, Zhang Yimou who was only in the news for a few weeks associated with the Olympics and the computer generated fireworks, Lehman Bros CEO Richard Fuld, Jr. whose multi million dollar homes were bought and paid for by the financial crisis and who deserved the punch in the face, Robert Mugabe who buys his wife expensive shoes while starving his country’s citizens and is responsible for the 80% unemployment rate in Zimbabwe, and, of course, George W. Bush. Has Bush even been around in the past year? I know he’s pretty much phoning it in at this point, but does Time really need to include the current President? I really don’t like the infamous runners-up who have done nothing more than ruin whatever they touch and yet somehow profit off of others’ losses.

At least some of the other runners-up do include such positive influences as Michael Phelps who won a record eight gold medals, Dara Torres who is the Olympic swimmer that is also a 41 year old mother, Craig Venter who is a geneticist that wrote a new organism’s genome from scratch, Stephanie Meyer who is the next author (Twilight) experiencing great popularity after J.K. Rowling, and Tina Fey who brought back SNL from the grave (during the election) for her impersonation of Sarah Palin on top of having her own hit show, a hit movie and a huge book deal.

There are two important pieces of information that may either be damning evidence or provide some doubt as to what police believe may have happened. First, and foremost, the remains of a toddler were found within a half mile of the house where Caylee lived with her grandparents and mother. How she was not discovered until now is questionable, but the area is apparently wooded and had been covered by water until recently, so that’s understandable.

For some reason, the second piece of news seems important to me. That is the fact that the remains found had evidence of duct tape over the toddler’s mouth. If it turns out to be Caylee, why the need for duct tape unless she was kidnapped? Think about it, if she were already dead, and the mother needed to dispose of the body, there would be no need for the duct tape. If the mother used chloroform and/or suffocated the child, there would be no need for the duct tape.

The mother, 22 year old Casey Anthony, was charged with first-degree murder in October. It’s highly probable that the police have other evidence that they have not yet released to the public. Obviously we do know many of the details already, such as the chloroform, human decomposition in the trunk, the reported smell of death, and the length of time it took for Caylee to be reported missing. Not to mention the attitude of her mother after the disappearance.

Unfortunately, the real world does not opperate like CSI: Miami and it will take ten to 14 days for DNA results to come back. Until then, we can continue to speculate on these horrific events. In the six months since Caylee’s disappearance, there have been numerous reported sightings, so there still is hope.

Prince (or the “artist formerly known as…”) is a Jehovah’s Witness and is very religious. It’s come out that he is also very anti-gay. The guy, who looks like a woman, sounds like a woman, has a guitar shaped like a phallus and has, throughout his career, been …oh, shall we say… sexually ambiguous? Wha?

When asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’ ”

Apparently, Prince moved to California, lives in a gated community with other Jehovah’s Witnesses, and leaves occasionally to go door to door and spread the message of his faith. I’ve always known he was a recluse, and always assumed that he was gay. I know I’m not alone. Even this article refers to all of the photos of himself “in various states of undress.” I guess I figured the only god he knows is himself (or his ego).

Appearances can be deceiving and assumptions can be a purple clad, makeup wearing, feminine sounding, phallus symbol named straight guy…