Asturian-American Migration Forum

From Endgadget
http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/17/cell ... h-america/

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Cellphone "federal excise tax" dates back to the Spanish-American War

Posted Jan 17th 2006 4:05PM by Evan Blass
Filed under: Cellphones
With all this fussin' and fightin' over the billions of dollars spent for the war in Iraq, it's surprising that there's not more of an uproar over a tax that we still pay to support a war that ended over a hundred years ago. The Ohio News Network out of Columbus is reporting that the 3% "federal excise tax" that we pay each month on our cellphone bills originated as a luxury tax on phones to fund the 1898 Spanish-American War. While none of us were around then to confirm this, we're pretty sure that there were very few cellphones being produced around the turn of the century, so the income they'd generate from a usage tax would seen to be negligible. No one is quite sure where this tax money goes today, which is why both carriers and some lawmakers support a repeal of the antiquated tithing, although another option being toyed with is to reroute the funds towards another war machine and show Spain that we can really hold a grudge.

Eli, the Spanish-American War was started by the USA under a false accusation, that William R. Hearst spread in his newspapers at the time: the USS Maine exploded all by itself, it was not torpedoed or blown up by anybody. Spain lost Cuba then, the Pearl of the Caribbean, but all the USA did for Cuba then was turn it into a brothel where the rich (and the gangsters) could drink and get stoned, something they could not do in the US during the Prohibition.
Creo que España todavía está esperando una explicación.
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Eli, la guerra entre España y EE.UU. la empezaron los EE.UU. bajo una falsa acusación que William R. Hearst difundió en sus períodicos de la época: El USS Maine explotó el solo, nadie lo torpedeó ni lo voló. España perdió a Cuba entonces, la perla del Caribe, pero lo único que los EE.UU. hicieron por Cuba fue convertirlo en un burdel donde los ricos (y los gangsters) podían ir a emborracharse y drogarse durante los años de la ley seca.
I believe Spain is still waiting for an explanation.

Ohh yes. That war was simply a war of expansion, much in the same way the Mexican-Unitedstadian war was, absolutely, no doubt about it.

This was/is more of a joke on reality... the tax was created for a war that’s been over for over 100 years and they still manage to collect the money...

Remember the Maine!