RNC announces support for Bono's poverty initiative

The Washington Times ^ | August 3, 2007 | Ralph Z. Hallow

[ncphinsfan]

The Republican National Committee yesterday took the first step toward endorsing a proposal by Irish rock star Bono to spend an estimated $30 billion in U.S. taxes to eliminate global poverty — a move some unhappy conservative RNC members labeled a step toward socialism.

But the RNC's Resolutions Committee also pleased conservatives by endorsing a resolution calling on the federal government to devote all means necessary to securing the nation's borders against an influx of illegal aliens.

[ncphinsfan]

Give us $30 billion to so we can make Bono happy and we'll see what we can do about the borders. And this, mind you, is the Republican Party. Hey, folks, if you've got too much money to spend how about reducing taxes? Huh?

[DManA]

Maybe the Islamists will love us now.

[mathluv]

If they have that much money, they don’t need to ask me for more.

[sure_fine]

any surprise the RNC would be in favor of a tax dodger?

[Nephi]

The Republican National Committee yesterday took the first step toward endorsing a proposal by Irish rock star Bono to spend an estimated $30 billion in U.S. taxes to eliminate global poverty

Globalists are in both parties. Globalists are the enemy. Globalism is incompatible with the constitution.

[Balding_Eagle]

Oh THIS will really help for the 2008 election.

There is something going on, no one is this stupid, we have a RAT onboard.

[MetalHeadConservative35]

i like bono's heart to wanna help people, just wish the guy would go about it in a better way.

despite the weird politics, he's an awesome singer, rattle and hum was the best U2 CD IMO

[snowrip]

RNC announces support for Bono's poverty initiative

Read as... RNC Announces It Will Shed it's Last Vestige Of Conservatism: Seeks to Globally Pander to Fellow Travelers

I am so damn tired on the RINO faction. Let's get warmed up for the primaries.

[kinoxi]

We don’t have anything better to do with the money right?

[gramho12]

Can the RNC do anything more to tick me off? I’ve stated my opinion to them lately in no uncertain terms as I know many of you have as well. They just aren’t getting the message.

[Manic_Episode]

Millionaire socialists are the epitome of hypocrisy.

[Moonman62]

I’m all for a confiscatory tax to be placed on all of Bono’s American assets and income to pay for this program. The same tax should apply to the Bush clan and all the other Republican country clubbers.

[vetsvette]

Martinez thinks that trying to out-lib the leftists is a winner.

Moron.

[johnny7]

More fallout from the RINO coup...

[Bon mots]

Bono, Tax Avoider

The hypocrisy of U2.

By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006, at 6:43 PM ET

Bono

A familiar paradox about leftist celebrities in the entertainment industry is that their embrace of progressivism almost never includes a wholehearted embrace of progressive taxation, i.e., the principle that the richer you get, the larger the percentage of your income you ought to pay in taxes. The latest example is U2's Bono, a committed and unusually sophisticated anti-poverty crusader who is taking surprisingly little heat for the decision by his band, U2, to relocate its music-publishing business from Ireland to the Netherlands in order to shelter its songwriting royalties from taxation.

The irony was stated in admirably stark terms by Bloomberg's Fergal O'Brien, who reported on Oct. 16:

Bono, the rock star and campaigner against Third World debt, is asking the Irish government to contribute more to Africa. At the same time, he's reducing tax payments that could help fund that aid.

"Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market … that's a justice issue," Bono said at a prayer breakfast attended by President Bush, Jordan's King Abdullah, and various members of Congress earlier this year. Preaching this sort of thing has made Bono a perennial candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. He continued:

Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents ... that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents ... that's a justice issue.

And relocating your business offshore in order to avoid paying taxes to the Republic of Ireland, where poverty is higher than in almost any other developed nation? Bono's hypocrisy seems even more naked when you consider that Ireland is a tax haven for artists. In June 2005, Bono (who was born in Dublin) told the Belfast Telegraph:

Our publishing, which is about one third of our income, we have tax breaks on, and that's great and that's encouraged us to stay in Ireland and if that changes, it's not going to affect anything for U2. ...

Six months later, Ireland's finance minister announced a ceiling of $319,000 on tax-free incomes, and six months after that, U2 opened its Amsterdam office. The relocation of U2's music publishing will halve taxes on the band's songwriting royalties, which already reportedly total $286 million. Although Bono has declined to comment on the move, the band's lead guitarist, David "the Edge" Evans, said, "Of course we're trying to be tax-efficient. Who doesn't want to be tax-efficient?'" Writing in the Observer, Nick Cohen noted that Evans "sounded as edgy as a plump accountant in the 19th hole."

U2's tax-shelter scheme caused an uproar in Ireland when the story broke there in August. But it's scarcely raised a ripple in the United States. A conservative would argue that's because in this country, we don't begrudge a man the opportunity to keep what he earns off the sweat of his brow (or even off the sweat of someone else's brow ) … even if that man spends half his time trying to goad governments into spending more to alleviate poverty. But a liberal could answer that in the United States, we are so used to seeing rich people avoid taxation that even a wealthy hypocrite who shelters his cash abroad can no longer qualify as news.

[iopscusa]

RRNC-Rockefellar Republicans-RRINOs

[samtheman]

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I stopped giving the RNC money years ago. They will never get another penny from me as long as I live. (All my campaign contributions go to individual, Conservative Republican candidates.)

Is there some other way I can vote against these scum-bag anti-Republicans?

[Daveinyork]

Maybe it’s time we conservatives realize that we are the real RINOs, that real Republicans are just doing what real Republicans have been doing since the New Deal - better and cheaper big government.

Lead by Reagan and Buckley, we’ve spent two generations trying, and failing, to make the Republican Party a conservative party. It’s time to admit that we are conservatives masquerading as Republicans, and find another way to achieve our political goals.

[bill1952]

Is there some other way I can vote against these scum-bag anti-Republicans?

and there is the question...

Just who are these idiots anyway?
Still all cloistered up on K street with all of the others in that out of touch, elitist, butt buddies club that the GOP has morphed into?

Go to http://www.gop.com/ and tell Mike Duncan just how you feel. - forget Martinez. he is just the talking front boy for Mr. Duncan.

Try not to be distracted by the GOP EnEspanol.

Write, and tell them exactly why you are not paying into the rat-hole that they have become. - See, they might actually read it, unlike all of those returned contribution form letters that they DO NOT read.

[Bon mots]

Boner, the tax evader a spokesman for the poor?
He's telling our pol's what to do with our tax dollars while he and his mates are fleeing-from/evading Irish taxes?

Boner's beachfront home.

The oil he burns to air-condition this palace could pay for the food and medicine for a small African country.

But this is only one of his beachfront palaces... I couldn't find the other one with all the environment destroying SUVs parked out front.

I'm sure that just cutting the grass on his other hangar of a home rips a major rent into the ozone. Oh, then there's his ozone shredding private jet...

Boner should just shut up and sing.
He's a crooner for teenage girls, not an Economist. Not the Dalai Lama nor anyone's prophet.

...but there's more...
Egads! What's this? A 20 room house! What wasteful Capitalist Pig owns such a profligate property. Just flicking on the lights must melt a glacier somewhere. It's in Ireland, so the heat must be running for 10 months out of the year!

But... it can't be true, it's yet another one of Boner's homes?
Yikes! Another energy guzzling property owned by Boner.



How do you say, "Fill 'er up" in Gaelic?
If you would listen to Boner and his friends on the left, they might tell you to drive a hybrid. It's the perfect solution for you and me.

But how do Boner and his friends get around?

They call it, "Elevation Air".


"Look, up in the sky, it's a bird... it's a plane... it's, it's... BONER Ripping a huge hole in the ozone..."
Now those previous jets were all used by U2. The first one had just two measley engines, the second one had three nice jet engines...

But now, for cruising around Europe, Boner goes alone, so can use a smaller jet, but heck, why cut back on those fuel guzzling engines. His new jet has FOUR ENGINES. That ought to open up that pesky ozone layer!

Yessireee. Those are four Avco Lycoming ALF 502R-5 engines. Each one weighs over half a ton.
This beast burns plenty of jet fuel too!
Fuel capacity: 9,300Kgs
Fuel consumption: 470Kgs / engine / hour

At a cruising speed of 400 knots, that works out to more than a kilogram of fuel for each mile traveled.

By my calculation, this beast gets about 3 miles per gallon.

---

This jet consumes about 1 Kg. of Jet fuel per mile, so...
Jet A-1:
1,274 Liters per M.Ton
1,254 Liters per E.Ton
331.2 Liters per gallon

---

But I'm sure that Boner really CARES about the environment and the Ozone, and Kyoto and all that.