BULLSHIT.

No one, regardless of “poor people without equal opportunities to survive that is” is ever forced into breaking the law.  That is just crap.  Breaking the law, regardless of the “seriousness” of the crime, is a conscious act.

We as a society can not choose which laws are worth adhering to and which are not.  That is called anarchy.  That is why we are a Republic, ruled by law, and not a Democracy, ruled by the Mob.

I had been advocating nonpaymeny of taxes for awhile on Truthdig. I know the candidates are all compromised and controlled. For some reason when I put this forth I am thought of as reactionary and uninformed by some. I see very few other options as these withheld taxes since the time of FDR have been used to support an empire and not a republic. I know people will scream, “What about the poor who need our tax money?” Well, my friends direct aid to single mother has been less than 2% of the federal budget for years. The government cheese is becoming such a marginal benefit that it can’t justify our gangster government. Is it worth it for the orphanage to accept money from Don Corleone, while he is recruiting 13 year old girls into his brothels?

Sue…yes-turn OFF the television…Do Not watch movies..Do Not read books…GO MAKE MORE BABIES[or whatever you do for entertainment]and leave the comments alone[since you are OUT OF TOUCH…..]-DCHAL and CYREA are OBVIOUSLY MORE IN TOUCH WITH REALITY[since they do watch the news AND read]

Well, at least someone is being honest, QuantumOnion. But that is exactly what they want! For you to want to “avoid Snipes’ fate”, you have to FEAR.

In that fearing, they then have control over you - and everything that you do. Worse, it is instilled into you in the ‘educational’ institutions as a child…....

Poor cyrnea, uhh….....

After reading all the post here. I felt it should be pointed out that there is no law saying we have to pay an income tax.  I see that wasn’t the point but why isn’t it brought up?

I actually have to agree with Chalmers this time, and this comment from Sue reaffirms my conviction that she’s just not ‘right bright in the head’ as the old country folks would say.

So Sue, you’re proving it again, if you claim that Chalmers hates white people. That is a lie. Chalmers pretty much hates everybody, but he’s at least smart enough to know what this is about…and it IS about keeping black people down.

And guess what Sue, it NEVER ‘goes both ways’. If we were about finding people guilty when they break the law, we wouldn’t still be a nation led by criminals who have broken every law in the book, including the worst of the worst of ALL crimes, without ever being held accountable.

The ignorance of your ideology knows no bounds. You would have been perfectly at home and comfortable as a member of Hitler’s Nazi regime, rounding folks up and marching them off to concentration camps and slaughter chambers. Just because Hitler told you to.

It’s people like you who have allowed our nation to succomb to the evils of fascism.

Breaking the law…you say? Oh PLEASE!!! Who said black people don’t get to commit the most horrendous of crimes and get away with it? Have a look there at Condi the Rice.

No, Chalmers is right this time, even if he IS crazy as a betsy bug. This is about keeping black folks down, and it’s impossible to ‘forget the past’ when it happens to be the PRESENT! (as if that ever changed)

“Ignorance is the most violent element of society”

~Emma Goldman

Great Point.. it’s not really about punishment anyway, it’s about revenege….

Because he had the nerve not to be afraid.

He was convicted for refusing to testify against himself. If the government really had a case against him, he would have been convicted of felonies.

Mr. Snipes did not get the stiff sentence for not paying his income taxes. He wsa acquited of the charge of not paying his income taxes. Please read more carefully. He got convicted of three misemenanor charges. Usually a misdemeanor charge is much less than 1 year. If you look closely at it the misdemeanor charges were not filing income tax returns, which is a specious charge due to the 5th amendment. You know, the right not to testify against oneself.

But there won’t be a parade of them going to jail.
Look at Tom DeLay, still walking the streets preying on the people.
Look at John McCain who stole from the taxpayers of Arizona, and the Enron CEO’s who robbed from every single Calif. resident.
Bush has a brother who robbed the taxpayers of Colorado, and W himself robbed the taxpayers of Texas. None are in jail.

No American citizen living abroad pays taxes unless their income exceeds $90,000.  Generally, said citizen pays taxes in the host country.

I’m glad to see Mr. Snipes receiving a stiff penalty for tax evasion. His celebrity status doesn’t make him exempt from paying taxes. In fact, I believe celebrities should be ready and willing to pay their taxes as they are already extremely wealthy and overpaid. The judge’s decision to sentence Snipes to the maximum sentence sends a message that celebrities will not be given preferential treatment in our court system.

Snipes’ sentence was severe because he was involved with a tax evasion scam.  Normally, if you owe no taxes you do not have to file a return, though you should just to be nice to the IRS.  This was Snipes’ problem——he was led to believe he owed no tax to the IRS and thus no need to file (willful). His co-conspirators got longer sentences because they devised the scam that lured Snipes——nice try anyway!

Sadly, it doesn’t even shock me anymore when three NYPD cops are acquitted for shooting an unarmed black man 50 times and they send Wesley Snipes to prison for not paying his taxes.

Taxes that he, nor any of us, should be paying in the first place!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTOuq4pY10o

http://www.infowars.com/?p=1733

The official 9/11 story is a total lie!

This is the white vote against the black vote….... keep’em down!

The patriots who wish to evade paying their taxes just pin a flag in their lapel and move their business to the Cayman Islands.
There is a civil war erupting in our U.S. It may be without much fanfare, most would only look at it as a denial of justice, however, the courts and the police of most cities and the white elitists are going after the brown and black and the poor with every tool available to them.

I guess, taking every dime from you isn’t enough.

They have to have their pound of flesh too.

Our government, views the people as the enemy, who they must rule by fear.

If they really want to make an example of Mr. Snipes why not just take him to the town square and whip him with a bull whip 50 times.

Would even that satisfy their thirst for blood?

The only lesson that people are learning from this is that the IRS needs to go.

Actually Kiwi,

Had he been female, he very likely WOULD have spent some time in jail. Females are treated by the justice system in the US about the same way that blacks are.

But you’re right about the other stuff. We have the highest crime rate, because we MANUFACTURE criminals by feeding one out of 10 of us though the system that turns ordinary people(poor people without equal opportunities to survive that is)into criminals.

One day in any US prison, (human wharehouse that is) even just as an ‘observer’ will explain exactly how this happens, and quickly.

When you cage up human beings like animals, that’s what comes about.

How many minutes would he have spent in jail?

Obviously tax evasion is a thousand times worse than drunk driving.
America has the largest prison population in the Western World. You also have the lowest crime rate? Quite the opposite!

If the IRS continues to “make examples” of people, maybe one day there will be a revolution. I know the psychology of showing the Iron Fist is to make people cower, but some day, it may have the opposite effect.

The judge said this is ‘deterrent’ is an important factor in tax cases’.

That’s code for, ‘we’re making an example out of you boy’.

Now let’s see..how might this ‘deterrent’ factor work in torture cases, or cases of illegal wars of aggression, that kill millions, or the Dick Cheney cabal stealing trillions of our tax dollars and then escaping to Dubai with it? (to avoid paying taxes).

Wonder how the deterrent would work with that?