The original broadcast team of ABC's Monday Night Football was ex-New York Giants running back Frank Gifford (aka Kathy Lee's hubby, whose other claim to fame was being knocked unconscious by legendary offensive/defensive lineman Chuck Bednarik); famous toupee-sporting, chain cigar-tooting, Muhammad Ali fanboy and blowhard in his spare time Howard Cosell; and '60s era Dallas Cowboys quarterback "Dandy" Don Merideth, who would close each game by crooning, "Turn out the liiiiiiights, the party's over; ya know that allllll good things must end...."
No, none of the above has the slightest thing to do with America's corporate tax rates; but in the words of Bill Cosby, "I told you that story to tell you this one." One Monday during the 1972 season the New England Patriots were at the Astrodome in Houston playing the Oilers (Imagine a sports franchise having a fossil fuels-friendly mascot today - ya can't do it, can ya?). That season the Patriots were barely mediocre, but the Oilers were absolutely godawful (They posted a record of 1-13). This was reflected in the quality of this particular nationally televised matchup, in which the Pats eked out a 32-0 nailbiter.
As you might imagine, the Astrodome was NOT sold out, and by the fourth quarter the stands were pretty much empty. The game was so lackluster that even Cosell had run out of bloviations. During a timeout one of ABC's cameras zoomed in on a fan in the bleachers who looked to either be sound asleep or passed out. As providence would have it, said fan chose that moment to wake up and realize that he was on national television. Apparently he was not happy to have his nap - or tequila coma, whichever it was - interrupted, so he gave the camera, and however many viewers were still tuned into this turkey across the country, the middle finger salute.
Silence filled the airwaves for several seconds. Then "Dandy" Don drawled, "Well, I guess that means we're still number one!"
I thought of that when I saw this vid:
Gently argues J-Ger:
One can argue whether corporations are people, and one can argue whether it's worse to tax individual income than corporate income. But it shouldn't be terribly controversial to argue that if we have the highest tax rate in this area in the world, that corporations that have the option of relocating elsewhere will explore that option.
And be smeared by the Regime as "unpatriotic" and "greedy" for being less than entirely enthusiastic about being treated like an economic crackwhore.
But as the L'il President told Dmitri Medvedev (figurehead president of a country with a flat corporate rate less than half of ours) yesterday once he knew the mic was REALLY off, "Pimpin' ain't easy" - especially with the growing number of Americans telling him every day that he's [ahem] "still number one."
[cross-posted @ Hard Starboard]
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