Merry Christmas

Traditional Christmas activities
Christmas tree
It is said that a farmer in a Christmas Eve blizzard of the Cross, received a child suffering from cold and hunger, he ate a sumptuous Christmas dinner, the children bid farewell to the fold when a fir tree branches on the ground and play blessing: "This year after year, gifts Man, leave this beautiful tree, and repay your kindness." Children left, the farmers found that the branch has become a small tree, he came to realize that his reception was in fact quite a Members of the messenger of God. This story has become a source of the Christmas tree.
Christmas Boxing
Christmas in the West refers to when the postman or the servants of Boxing, usually in a small box, and are therefore known as the "Christmas Box".
Christmas
Santa'shat that is a red hat, said to have put to bed at night in addition to sleep a little warm and secure, you will also discover the next day in the Hat will leave more people who love to send a gift. Carnival in the evening it is the protagonist of the game, whether you go to the corner, they will find a wide variety of red, some bright hat tip, some golden.
Since the celebration of Christmas customs in the Nordic fashion, a combination of the northern hemisphere winter, Christmas decorations and Santa Claus myth emerged.
He brought about by Santa Claus and gifts
Santa Claus, he was said to be Asia Minor city of Rafah every bishop named St. Nicholas, after the death of the title of Latter-day Saints, is dressed in a Hong Pao, wearing a white-bearded old man of Red Hat. Christmas every year, he drove the sled pull deer from the north side, from entering the chimney each, mounted on a Christmas gift, socks hung in the children's bed or on the stove before.
Sent to Christmas gifts has become close to a global movement of used to it. Mysterious figure gifts to the children of the concept is derived from St. Nicholas, Nicholas, a 4th century Asia Minor to live in the good bishop. In the Dutch St. Nicholas Day (December 6) to imitate him a gift. In North America, the British colonists into the traditional Christmas holiday celebration, but also the Sinterklaas, or Santa Claus has become known as Saint Nick (St. Nick) of the characters. British in the American tradition, Santa Claus is always happy in the Christmas Eve rode reindeer pull the sleigh come from the chimney climbing into the house, leaving behind a gift to the children, the children ate his left Food (milk and cookies). In his year in the other time was busy making gifts and supervision of the children's behavior and record.
Santa Claus is called in French Père Noel, Santa Claus and he is almost exactly the same, alternating red and white of their clothes had been so inspired by Coca-Cola Company in the 1930s has spread all over the world to draw the image of Santa Claus. In some cultures, Santa Claus With the side with Knecht Ruprecht, or known as "Black Peter" (Black Peter) guy. Some versions of the toy in the workshop produced a dwarf holiday gifts, and sometimes Mrs. Santa Claus and Christmas is a husband and wife. During the Christmas season in North America and the United Kingdom, many of the supermarket, children can have their gifts to the emergence of Santa Claus.
In many countries, children are ready to empty containers in order to be Santa Claus into a number of small gifts, such as toys, candy or fruit. In the United States, children in the fireplace on Christmas Eve hanging Christmas stockings, Santa Claus said to be due to the Christmas Eve from the chimney down to put socks in a gift. In other countries, children's shoes on the outdoor air in order to be Santa Claus on Christmas Eve (or St. Nicholas Day on December 5) gift. Gift not only means Santa Claus, family members and friends to give each other gifts.
In many countries, St. Nicholas Day is still the gift of each other's day. Many parts of Germany, on December 5 in the evening, the child had to come up with shoes on the windowsill, the next morning they found shoes, filled with candy and small gifts. In Germany, major gifts to date is December 24, or Santa Claus bringing gifts under the Christmas tree on. The same is true in Hungary, only small gifts are the Lord, not Santa Claus.
In many areas, including the Netherlands, the Christmas holiday still retains its religious nature. In Spain and other countries have similar traditions, in the January 6 Epiphany gifts is one of the priests (Magi), fortune-telling and the pagan priest.
Christmas songs out on the 12th of one of the gift-giving practices. Which describes the British tradition from Christmas to Epiphany each day to send gifts to celebrate. Most of the world, Christmas gifts are in the evening of Christmas Eve or Christmas morning sent. So in the near future to the British are in the Boxing Day gifts for friends.
Christmas Cards
Is to congratulate the Christmas and New Year's greeting cards, printed on the top story of the birth of Jesus picture, as well as "to celebrate Christmas and a Happy New Year wishes and the like.
Christmas cards can be: Web-based card and two greeting cards
Christmas cards (Christmas cards) in the United States and Europe is very popular, which is far from relatives and friends to maintain the relationship between a good way. With many families put on the annual family photo greeting cards, or / and family news, general news, including family members in Over the past year the merits of expertise and so on.
Web-based programming that is so out of the pages, the effect is good, it is also very popular, the average page e-card, there will be background music, web material is also very beautiful. It is now popular in the page to fill in the name, followed by the Web site sent to your friends or family friend, showed above the name of your own custom words and good wishes!
Web greeting cards, so it's also a relatively good results, a strong randomness, you can create a lot of styles and a variety of background music, but also a kind of a variety of custom, why are all these pages are like greeting cards reason!
Christmas entertainment
Many countries, businesses, schools and organizations will be held in the weeks before Christmas Christmas party and dance. Some organizations will be performing a Christmas parade, performances, including at times the story of the birth of Christ. Show that in Latin America in particular, often See. Some organizations will be hymns open-air activities such as visiting neighbors singing Christmas songs. Sometimes people wanted by the holidays to draw attention to people relations between people, in particular to participate in volunteer work, or carry out fund-raising activities.
Christmas or Christmas Eve, people often prepare a sumptuous Christmas dinner to enjoy the vegetables in general are the country's traditional dishes. A lot of areas, particularly in Eastern Europe, the family Christmas dinner for a while before people will be fasting. Many countries, candy and the banquet is also an important part of the celebration of Christmas

Person of the Year 2008~Why History Can't Wait

African-American Senator Barack Obama is a candidate for the next U.S. president one of the most popular candidate, was elected senator since 2004, his name in the United States quickly leapt up the political arena red, comparable to the popularity of film stars. Recently, a young Obama about rumors of experience in the rapid spread of Internet media, although proved to be a lie, but it reflects from the side, Obama run for president on the road, with his doomed life is closely related to, because his story Has become a sign to attract voters
loose nukes and the whimper of environmental collapse. That's just for starters; we'll hear the unabridged version shortly.
But first, there is a bit of business to be dealt with, having to do with why you are reading this story in this magazine at this time of the year. It's unlikely that you were surprised to see Obama's face on the cover. He has come to dominate the public sphere so completely that it beggars belief to recall that half the people in America had never heard of him two years ago — that even his campaign manager, at the outset, wasn't sure Obama had what it would take to win the election. He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order. Understandably, you may be thinking Obama is on the cover for these big and flashy reasons: for ushering the country across a momentous symbolic line, for infusing our democracy with a new intensity of participation, for showing the world and ourselves that our most cherished myth — the one about boundless opportunity — has plenty of juice left in it。
But crisis has a way of ushering even great events into the past. As Obama has moved with unprecedented speed to build an Administration that would bolster the confidence of a shaken world, his flash and dazzle have faded into the background. In the waning days of his extraordinary year and on the cusp of his presidency, what now seems most salient about Obama is the opposite of flashy, the antithesis of rhetoric: he gets things done. He is a man about his business — a Mr. Fix It going to Washington. That's why he's here and why he doesn't care about the furniture. We've heard fine speechmakers before and read compelling personal narratives. We've observed candidates who somehow latch on to just the right issue at just the right moment. Obama was all these when he started his campaign: a talented speaker who had opposed the Iraq war and lived a biography that was all things to all people. But while events undermined those pillars of his candidacy, making Iraq seem less urgent and biography less relevant, Obama has kept on rising. He possesses a rare ability to read the imperatives and possibilities of each new moment and organize himself and others to anticipate change and translate it into opportunity. (See pictures of Obama's nation of hope.)
The real story of Obama's year is the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments: beating the Clinton machine, organizing previously marginal voters, harnessing the new technologies of democratic engagement, shattering fundraising records, turning previously red states blue — and then waking up the day after his victory to reinvent the presidential-transition process in the face of a potentially dangerous vacuum of leadership. "We always did our best up on the high wire," says his campaign manager, David Plouffe.
Obama's competence fills him with a genuine self-confidence. "I've got a pretty healthy ego," he allows. That's clear when he offers a checklist for voters to use in judging his performance two years from now. It's quite an agenda. Listen: "Have we helped this economy recover from what is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? Have we instituted financial regulations and rules of the road that assure this kind of crisis doesn't occur again? Have we created jobs that pay well and allow families to support themselves? Have we made significant progress on reducing the cost of health care and expanding coverage? Have we begun what will probably be a decade-long project to shift America to a new energy economy? Have we begun what may be an even longer project of revitalizing our public-school systems?"
There's more: "Have we closed down Guantánamo in a responsible way, put a clear end to torture and restored a balance between the demands of our security and our Constitution? Have we rebuilt alliances around the world effectively? Have I drawn down U.S. troops out of Iraq, and have we strengthened our approach in Afghanistan — not just militarily but also diplomatically and in terms of development? And have we been able to reinvigorate international institutions to deal with transnational threats, like climate change, that we can't solve on our own?"
And: "Outside of specific policy measures, two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, 'Government's not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government's working for me. I feel like it's accountable. I feel like it's transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information.'"
Can he really achieve all that? Plenty of voters will be happy if he aces only Item 1 on his list. But the essence of both Obama's strength and his promise is that, according to a recent poll, a strong majority of Americans believe he will accomplish most of what he aims to do. For having the confidence to sketch that kind of future in this gloomy hour and for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful that he will pull it off, Barack Obama is Time's Person of the Year for 2008.

Blagojevich Might Resign Monday，Illinois court rejects attempt to remove governor

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gestures to reporters gath...

Blagojevich’s Attorney Comes Out Swinging at Impeachment Hearing

The Illinois supreme court Wednesday rejected a bid to remove the state's corruption-tainted governor from office in the wake of charges he tried to sell president-elect Barack Obama's vacant senate seat.
The state's attorney general asked the court last week to impose a restraining order stripping Rod Blagojevich of the bulk of his powers while considering her request to have him temporarily replaced by the state's lieutenant governor.
"In light of his arrest in the filing of the criminal complaint, Governor Blagojevich can no longer fulfill his official duties with any legitimacy," Lisa Madigan said Friday after filing the requests.
The court denied her request without comment, an order filed Wednesday showed.
Blagojevich has so far refused mounting calls to resign after he was arrested on December 9 amid an FBI investigation that accuses him of a staggering pattern of corruption, including refusing to free up funds for a children's hospital until he received a 50,000-dollar campaign contribution.
State legislators launched an inquiry Monday to determine if there were grounds for impeachment.

Gay leaders furious with Obama

Rick Warren, Obama’s pick to give the inaugural invocation, backed the California ban on same-sex marriage.

Gay refers to a person in terms of sexual, psychological, emotional and social interest, are the main targets of the same sex, are not interested in this kind of behavior from explicit show it. And those who have same-sex love, sex or Lianmu, known as homosexuals. In 1973, American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, the spirit, the act removed from the disease classification system. The correct definition of homosexuality: gay refers to a person in terms of sexual, psychological, emotional and social interest, are the main targets of the same sex, are not interested in this kind of behavior from explicit show it. We are here Can see that homosexuality is not only referring to the issue of sexual orientation, many out of curiosity, and so on were forced to have sex with the same people who are not homosexual

Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.
Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, opposes abortion rights but has taken more liberal stances on the government role in fighting poverty, and backed away from other evangelicals’ staunch support for economic conservatism. But it’s his support for the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that drew the most heated criticism from Democrats Wednesday. “Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote Obama Wednesday. “[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination.” The rapid, angry reaction from a range of gay activists comes as the gay rights movement looks for an opportunity to flex its political muscle. Last summer gay groups complained, but were rebuffed by Obama, when an “ex-gay” singer led Obama’s rallies in South Carolina. And many were shocked last month when voters approved the California ban. “There is a lot of energy and there’s a lot of anger and I think people are wanting to direct it somewhere,” Solomonese told Politico. The selection of Warren to preside at the inauguration is not a surprise move, but it is a mirror image of President Bill Clinton’s early struggles with issues of gay rights. Obama has worked, and at times succeeded, to bridge the gap between Democrats and evangelical Christians, who form a solid section of the Republican baseObama opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposed the California constitutional amendment Warren backed. In selecting Warren, he is choosing to reach out to conservatives on a hot-button social issue, at the cost of antagonizing gay voters who overwhelmingly supported him. Clinton, by contrast, drew early praise from gay rights activists by pressing to allow openly gay soldiers to serve, only to retreat into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise that pleased few. The reaction Wednesday in gay rights circles was universally negative. “It’s a huge mistake,” said California gay rights activist Rick Jacobs, who chairs the state’s Courage Campaign. “He’s really the wrong person to lead the president into office. “Can you imagine if he had a man of God doing the invocation who had deliberately said that Jews are not going to be saved and therefore should be excluded from what’s going on in America? People would be up in arms,” he said. The editor of the Washington Blade, Kevin Naff, called the choice “Obama’s first big mistake.” “His presence on the inauguration stand is a slap in the faces of the millions of GLBT voters who so enthusiastically supported him,” Naff wrote, referring to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. “This tone-deafness to our concerns must not be tolerated. We have just endured eight years of endless assaults on our dignity and equality from a president beholden to bigoted conservative Christians. The election was supposed to have ended that era. It appears otherwise.” Other liberal groups chimed in. “Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn’t need or deserve this position of honor,” said the president of People for the American Way, Kathryn Kolbert, who described Warren as “someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans.” Warren’s spokeswoman did not respond to a message seeking comment, but he has tried to blend personal tolerance with doctrinal disapproval of homosexuality. “I have many gay friends, I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church,” he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet. In the same interview, he compared the “redefiniton of a marrige” to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy. Obama’s move may deepen some apparent distance between him among gays and lesbians, one of the very few core Democratic groups among whom his performance was worse than John Kerry’s in 2004. Exit polls suggested that John McCain won 27% of the gay vote in November, up four points from Bush’s 2004 tally – even as almost all other voters slid toward Obama. But despite the symbolism of picking Warren, Obama is likely to shift several substantive policy areas in directions that will please gay voters and their political leaders, including a pledge to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” in military service. And some gay activists were holding out hope that they would either persuade Obama to dump Warren or Warren to change his mind. “Rick Warren did a real disservice to gay families in California and across the country by casually supporting our continued exclusion from marriage,” said the founder of the pro-same sex marriage Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson. “I hope in the spirit of the new era that’s dawning, he will open his heart and speak to all Americans about inclusion and our country’s commitment to equality

Chrysler says to shut down all production for a month

In September 2005, Chrysler is currently limited liability company vice chairman and president of (then-Chrysler Group President and Chief Executive Officer) Lasorda (Tom LaSorda) in China, announced the investment strategy group will be 350,000,000 U.S. dollars, Fuzhou station wagon in the production van (MPV), in Beijing to create award-winning model Chrysler 300C, all of the local market. September 15, 2006, Chrysler Co., Ltd. and its long-term partner Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., Ltd. joint venture of Beijing Benz - • Daimler Chrysler Automotive Co., Ltd. (BBDC) inaugurated a new factory Festival, announced the production of Chrysler 300C. In November 2006, the Chrysler 300C in the domestic market nationwide. In February 2007, Chrysler PT Cruiser in 45 cities in 60 simultaneous listing of food outlets, caused by a warm market response. On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2007, Chrysler Co., Ltd. announced that it would have to introduce Dodge brand. April 2007 Shanghai auto show, the new Jeep ® Commander and Jeep ® Grand Cherokee listed on a grand, to the Chinese consumers a complete picture of the new Jeep ® image. In September 2007, Jeep ® Guide and Chrysler Grand Voyager grand domestic market. In addition, Chrysler Co., Ltd. also announced that a grand Dodge officially entered China and will soon be made Qikai Road Link. November 2007 Guangzhou Motor Show, the first China-made products Dodge Road Qikai get listed, the world's best-selling MPV originator of a formal meeting with Chinese consumers. At the same time, the Dodge brand to speed up the pace to enter the China market, great sports-style middle imports of Dodge's first car in front chul in January 2008 listing, followed by a strong color of the Crossover compact car is also cool to fight in 2008 By the end of February visit China
DETROIT (Reuters) - Citing a credit crisis and dwindling sales, Chrysler LLC on Wednesday said it would shut down all of its manufacturing operations from the end of this week for at least a month.The blanket shutdown marked a deepening of the financial crisis for the embattled U.S. auto industry and came as Chrysler and its larger rival General Motors Corp both seek to shore up cash as they seek a federal bailout they say they need to survive.
Chrysler, considered the weakest of the Detroit automakers, made the announcement on its plant shutdown in a letter sent on Wednesday to its employees, suppliers and the United Auto Workers union that was also posted on its website.
Chrysler said its dealers were getting car shoppers into showrooms but losing between 20 percent and 25 percent of those potential sales because of the lack of consumer financing for new car purchases.
"As a result of the financial crisis, the automotive market remains depressed due to the continued lack of consumer credit for potential buyers," the automaker said in a statement.
Separately, Chrysler said its finance arm could be forced to stop making loans dealers use to finance inventory because the dealers have been pulling money out from a fund that helps finance the floorplan loans.
The shutdown by Chrysler will idle plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico producing vehicles for its Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands.
The more than 30,000 Chrysler workers in the United States represented by the UAW receive nearly full benefits and wages during plant shutdowns, but labor costs represent only about 10 percent of the total cost of the average vehicle.
By idling plants, Chrysler and other automakers can cut costs on inventory, components and related charges such as utilities for operating large production facilities.
The moves also keep finished vehicle inventories from piling up on dealer lots and increasing the pressure for even greater discounting to consumers.
GM said last week that it was cutting its first-quarter production schedule by 60 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.
Privately held Chrysler is 80-percent owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management

Dollar plunges in wake of Government

7, the U.S. government released data show that the United States in November non-farm employment growth of 94,000 people, the unemployment rate remained at 4.7 percent. This means that, despite the weak real estate market, the financial industry by storm in the fight against loan-to-time, the U.S. employment situation was not deteriorating. Some analysts believe that the employment data showed the U.S. economy is no immediate danger of recession, the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates next week to 50 basis points to reduce the possibility that there may be to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.
The dollar plunged and government bond yields in the US and Europe fell to multi-decade lows as investors tried to digest the implications of the Federal Reserve’s new near-zero interest rate policy.
The US currency suffered its biggest one-day slide against the euro since the birth of the single European currency in January 1999 as the euro jumped from under $1.40 to above $1.44.
The yen powered higher, dragging the dollar to a 13-year low of nearly Y87 despite speculation that Tokyo might intervene to limit the rise in its currency and calls for the Bank of Japan to act more aggressively.
Following the Fed meeting on Tuesday, which reduced interest rates to a range of zero per cent to 0.25 per cent, US rates are lower than those in Japan for the first time since 1993. The US currency has now given up a significant chunk of the gains it made as the credit crisis escalated and there was a global surge in demand for dollar liquidity.
Expectations that the Bank of England would cut rates more aggressively than the European Central Bank and could even follow the Fed into unorthodox territory sent the pound tumbling nearly 4 per cent to £0.9325 against the euro, a record low.
In the US, investors flocked to longer dated bonds, buoyed by the Fed statement that it was evaluating plans to buy Treasuries. The yield on the 10-year Treasury touched 2.08 per cent, below all monthly levels recorded by the Fed since 1954.
The Fed also said it stood ready to increase plans for hefty purchases of mortgage debt. In response, the interest rate on 30-year mortgages fell to 5.06 per cent, the lowest level since the early 1960s, according to HSH Associates.

Gov. David Paterson unveils dire New York State budget that includes new taxes, layoffs and cuts

The economic crisis has seriously affected our lives, government departments are believed to take measures to reduce the impact of the budget I think ,,,,, Will you still buy iTunes songs if New York State imposes a sales tax on them?

By KENNETH LOVETT and GLENN BLAIN DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson's proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, tooTrying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services."
"We're going to have to take some extreme measures," Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget.
The proposal, which needs legislative approval, did not include broad-based income tax increases, but relied on smaller ones to raise $4.1 billion from cash-strapped New Yorkers.
Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110.
"The governor is nickel-and-diming working class families," said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, an advocacy group.
State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long warned that reinstating the sales tax on clothing and shoes will drive people to New Jersey, where they will also gas up their cars and pick up their wine, spirits and soda because the prices are less due to lower taxes. "You're sending notice to the people of New York that we really don't want you here," Long said. "The governor proposed flat spending, but why not actually cut the budget before raising taxes and fees?"
Paterson's 2009-10 budget proposal represents only a 1% increase in total spending from this year's budget - the smallest increase in a dozen years. It also calls for:
A 3.3%, or $698 million, reduction in school aid. $3.5 billion in health care savings, including reductions in payments to hospitals and nursing homes. Video slot machines at Belmont Park, more multistate lottery games and expanded hours for the state's Quick Draw lottery game. Layoffs for 521 state workers and the elimination of seven state agencies. "This is where we are," Paterson told reporters. "Maybe we should have thought about this when we were depending on what we thought was inexhaustive collections of taxes from Wall Street - and now those taxes have fallen off a cliff."
Paterson aides say the budget represents a net gain for New York City, but Mayor Bloomberg wasn't buying it. He said it could cost the city more than $1 billion, including a $600 million reduction in school aid.
"I don't know that 100% of it is going to go the classroom, but a large percentage of any reduction we get from the state will go to the classroom," Bloomberg said. "That will mean larger class sizes and fewer services."
Education and health care advocates also blasted Paterson's budget and urged state lawmakers to increase income taxes on wealthy New Yorkers to offset the cuts.
"We will be fighting this tooth and nail. We think it is irresponsible to make this level of cuts and not ask the wealthiest New Yorkers to help ease the pain," said Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who supports a so-called millionaire tax, has said he'd "rather have a broad-based tax than nickel-and-dime" people.
Still, Silver (D-Manhattan) Tuesday indicated major cuts are in store. "Everything the governor has proposed is on the table," he said.
Republican lawmakers expressed concern with the tax and fee increases.
"Instead of raising taxes, we need to be reducing them," said Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R-Schenectady).
Paterson did not rule out income tax increases but said spending reductions are the priority. He also defended the fee and sales tax increases, saying they would be less harmful to the state's economy.
"If you start taxing at times when [revenues are] receding, you'll drive job creators out of the state," Paterson saidAdditional items the state is considering raising fees and taxes on:
An "iPod tax" that charges state and local sales tax for "digitally delivered entertainment services" - in other words, that new Beyonce song you download. State sales tax at movie theaters, sporting events, taxis, buses, limousines and cable and satellite TV and radio.Costlier driving with the repeal of the 8-cents-per-gallon sales tax cap on motor and diesel motor fuel, plus and increase in the auto rental tax.Tuition increases at SUNY and CUNY, $620 and $600 a year respectively.A 50 cent tax on cigars. The current tax is equal to 37% of the wholesale price, or 34 cents a cigar.No more sales tax break on clothes and shoes worth $110 or less, except during two weeks a year.Higher taxes on wine, beer and flavored malt beverages. He would also impose an 18% tax on non-nutritional drinks like soda.The rich would pay more for luxury items through an additional 5% tax imposed on cars costing more than $60,000, aircraft costing more than $500,000, yachts costing at least $200,000 and jewelry and furs costing in excess of $20,000.In addition, a host of a fees, including those related to motor vehicle licensing and registration, parks and auto insurance, would go up, as would various state-imposed fines