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Arizona, 2007: A child is suspended for drawing images of a gun: MESA, Ariz. — Parents of a Florence student suspended for sketching a gun during class say his punishment is an overreaction by school officials. The eighth-grader at Florence's Walker Butte K-8 school was suspended for three days on Aug. 24 for drawing images of a gun. Stephanie Vardarkis said her son, Joshua, had drawn the images on index cards, sort of like a cartoon that included a stick figure holding a gun. In one image, the boy included the name of the school resource officer. Rather than it...

You may be sick of hearing about him again, but Warren Buffett did huge damage serving as Obama’s useful fool last year. Dupes comprise a long, dubious tradition in American history. Over 200 years ago, George Washington warned the nation about “dupes” in his historic Farewell Address. Such warnings would echo from the founding of the republic through the Cold War. During the Cold War, “dupe,” like the associated word, “useful idiot” — attributed to Vladimir Lenin — became an everyday term. Dupes were legion during the Cold War, a unique breed of (largely) left-leaning Americans who, unwittingly, allowed or...

WASHINGTON - The Manassas News & Messenger is no more. The paper printed its final edition after 143 years of covering the news in Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park Sunday. The paper's parent company, the Warren Buffett-owned World Media Enterprises, decided to close the paper and its website ... World Media Enterprises purchased the paper, as well as several others, from Media General in June. ... All employees lost their jobs, and

"I just got fed up. It wasn't just Warren Buffett. There's been a half dozen of these things lately, and what I noticed is everyone is asking for taxes to be raised except the taxes they actually pay," Brown told me on the sidelines of the Minyanville Festivus event. So in that light, let's look at the gap that exists between proposed tax hikes and actual impact. The proposed income tax increase on couples earning more than $250,000 year: Buffett's $100,000 a year salary is well known - as is the complaint that his poor, lowly secretary has a higher...

Warren Buffett, in a New York Times Op-Ed piece Monday, is proposing a minimum tax on high incomes and a higher ceiling of $500,000 on increased taxes on wealthy Americans. "I support President Obama's proposal to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for high-income taxpayers. However, I prefer a cutoff point somewhat above $250,000 - maybe $500,000 or so," the Berkshire Hathaway head wrote. "Additionally, we need Congress, right now, to enact a minimum tax on high incomes. I would suggest 30 percent of taxable income between $1 million and $10 million, and 35 percent on amounts above that."

The days are ticking off to a January 1 fiscal implosion, and Republicans are trying to MacGyver a fiscal fix. Three days after the election, President Obama claimed the voters had given him a mandate to raise taxes on the rich. With Pew reporting that 58 percent of Americans feel the rich pay too little in taxes, it’s hard for Republicans to contradict the president. Unless Congress intervenes to prevent the Bush tax cuts from expiring, high earners will face significantly higher income taxes in 2013. For the top two brackets, the rate will rise to 36 percent (from 33...

Warren Buffett has an op-ed in today's NY Times on one of his most popular themes: The rich should pay more in taxes.  At first blush, his position seems noble: A rich guy says that people like him should pay more to support the commonwealth.  But on closer examination, one realizes that Mr Buffett never mentions doing anything to eliminate the tax-avoidance strategies that he uses most aggressively.  In particular: 1. His company Berkshire Hathaway never pays a dividend but instead retains all earnings.  So the return on this investment is entirely in the form of capital gains.  By not paying dividends, he saves his investors (including...

In a NYT Op-Ed today, Warren Buffett argued that the rich should pay a certain minimum tax, and he explained to activist Grover Norquist that it's preposterous to think that businessmen would forgo profitable deals merely because the rate of tax on the profits would go up. But why do people listen to Buffett on taxes? Basically because he's a rich, successful guy (which is why a lot of people are listened to on a lot of subjects). To that end, economist and former Romney advisor Greg Mankiw has a short post talking about Buffett as a master of "tax...

Warren Buffett Just Made A Huge Bet On The US Housing Market Matthew BoeslerOct. 31, 2012, 11:13 AMPerhaps the most bullish indicator for U.S. housing is Warren Buffett. The legendary investor has been buying up real-estate brokerages around the country as he bets on a housing turnaround. Now, he is partnering with Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian real-estate investor, to more than double the size of his brokerage business. Bloomberg Businessweek's Noah Buhayar has the details: Berkshire’s HomeServices of America Inc. unit will be the majority owner of the venture to manage a U.S. residential real-estate affiliate network, according to...

Despite the 6.5% stock market rally over the last three months, a handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast. Warren Buffett, who has been a cheerleader for U.S. stocks for quite some time, is dumping shares at an alarming rate. He recently complained of “disappointing performance” in dyed-in-the-wool American companies like Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Kraft Foods. In the latest filing for Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits. Berkshire sold roughly 19 million shares of Johnson...

A decision by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRKB -0.15% to end a large wager on the municipal-bond market is deepening questions from some investors about the risks of buying debt issued by cities, states and other public entities. The Omaha, Neb., company recently terminated credit-default swaps insuring $8.25 billion of municipal debt. The termination, disclosed in a quarterly filing with regulators this month, ended five years early a bullish bet that Mr. Buffett made before the financial crisis that more than a dozen U.S. states would keep paying their bills on time, according to a person familiar with the...

A group of businessmen with ties to Warren Buffett, George Soros, President Obama, and socialist senator Bernie Sanders are pushing a plan to use the government's power of eminent domain to seize billions of dollars worth of underwater mortgages from banks and bondholders. Word of the plan surfaced earlier this month in a Reuters dispatch that reported the eminent domain strategy but not the political ties of the businessmen involved in the plan nor their links to two of America's most prominent and outspoken billionaires. The Reuters article said a firm called Mortgage Resolution Partners, chaired by Steven Gluckstern, a...

Unlike the government (and unlike the New York Times), we come to celebrate Apple, not to bury it. The Times' recent headline about the Cupertino-based computer company was, "How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes." A couple of obvious conclusions may be drawn. Either, this is shameful. Or, this is admirable. You can read the Times story and draw your own conclusion about that paper's conclusion. You can find it here. However, there are a few tell-tale signs that tip the Times' hand. Here's one: . . .

(Reuters) - BYD Co Ltd , a Chinese carmaker backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, posted a 90 percent slide in quarterly profit as it was hit by a slowdown in the world's largest car market and losses in its solar business. China's once-sizzling auto industry has succumbed to softening economic growth, further exasperated by new vehicle offerings in the fiercely competitive market. BYD, which attracted investment from Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway because of its battery technology, has started selling pure electric cars and buses in China. BYD, which debuted its new generation of plug-in sedans at the Beijing auto show...

President Barack Obama has gotten a lot of mileage out of touting his “Buffett Rule” to force millionaires to pay more in taxes. Maybe he thinks earning three-quarters of a million gives him a free ride. . .

The president seemingly lost a major fight Monday when the Senate shot down his "Buffett Rule" minimum tax for the wealthy, one of his signature issues and what promises to be a central plank of his reelection campaign. Or did he lose? ...

World English Dictionary zombie or zombi (ˈzɒmbɪ) 1. a person who is or appears to be lifeless, apathetic, or totally lacking in independent judgment; automaton Obama supporters do not generally have much will. They lack independent judgment. They are automatons. They are easily distracted by shiny objects and Barack Obama has a host of shiny things he uses to distract them from the real issues facing the nation. As he has no record upon which to run, Obama needs these shiny objects and they are critical to his re-election efforts. Among them: The Buffett RuleObama has made and continues to...

Reporting from Washington— Republican-led opposition blocked the 'Buffett rule' from advancing in the Senate, turning back an election year effort by President Obama to slap a new tax rate on those earning beyond $1 million a year. Nearly all Republicans voted against the measure, a potentially risky move at a time when 60% of voters support the measure, according to a recent Gallup poll, as a way to ensure wealthy Americans pay their fair share of taxes. Democrats are likely to revive the effort in coming months. “Continuing to allow some of the wealthiest Americans to use special tax breaks...

Both President Barack Obama and billionaire investor Warren Buffett agree that they both ought to be taxed more. Both currently have the option of paying more than they owe. However, both decline to do so. “While it’s true that I, or any other taxpayer, for that matter, could voluntarily contribute more of his or her income to the government, that’s not the point,” the President insisted. “Voluntary contributions leave the discretion up to the individual. Whether a person paid more would be a matter of personal choice.” “What I am trying to establish is the principle under law that certain...

Here's the latest Obama class warfare shot. He is trying to show that "millionaires" should keep less of their money because it belongs to him. It's a "Buffett Rule" calculator. But, there's no calculator for multi millions in taxes due and owing to the IRS by Buffett. The Direct link is above Their email said, " No household making more than $1 million each year should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than a middle class family pays. This is the Buffett Rule—a simple principle of tax fairness that asks everyone to pay their fair share. ABOUT...