One place where the conservatives and I agree is that we'd both like to see a 'flat tax' replace the current federal tax scheme. It turns out there is a way to gradually implement a flat tax, beginning with the highest income taxpayers, and all Congress has to do is... nothing.

If Congress simply leaves the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) where it is today, gradually, as inflation takes its toll, we will all become covered by the AMT. In effect, we could all file an AMT short form. No more schedules A and B, or the long form 1040.

What would you guess is the average federal income tax rate in the USA? 20%? 30%? 50%?

What would you say would be a good target tax rate? Would 20% be a fair price to pay for:

• The interstate highway system
• Airports and the air traffic control system which prevents (most) planes from smashing into each other
• Armed forces, including Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard
• Not having the elderly begging for alms in the streets (i.e. Social Security)
• Someone to foot the bill when your elderly mother needs heart surgery
  

"The Republicans haven’t had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have had only three in total since 1935." (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28rich.html)

Wow. Astonishing. The article goes on to observe that the demographic shift in the U.S. (i.e. the increasing percentage of the population composed of "minorities") represents a threat to those who were comfortable with a white, mostly male leadership.

If your model of America resembles Leave It to Beaver, you're going to find each of the following a threat (individually):

• I pushed a Python starter app to GAE, and I confirmed that it worked. Then I pushed a Java starter app to the same GAE application. I was getting the "Gwt module 'modulenamehere' may need to be (re)compiled" error.