Austin Crash Pilot Called "Easy Going"

(CBS/AP)  The software engineer who plowed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees on Thursday was even-tempered and mild-mannered, according to two people who knew him.

In a Web diary written before the crash, Joseph Stack took aim at the IRS, outraged at loopholes that benefit large corporations but not average Americans.

But Stack, who used to play in the Billy Eli Band, was described as "easy going" by the band's manager.

"He talked politics like everyone but didn't show any obsession," said Pam Parker, the wife of Billy Eli and manager of the band. "The letter sounded like his voice but it was nothing I ever heard him say."

Parker told CBS News that Stack had a full-time job and had just gotten married when he stopped playing with the band a year and a half ago.

Parker said that she saw Stack six weeks ago and he was "his usual easy going" self.

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"Clearly there was crazy in him but it must have been way in the back of his head, it wasn't who Joe was," she added.

Patrick Beach, a writer for the Austin American Statesman who practiced in a band with Stack and his wife Cheryl, says he's shocked.

"It seems extremely out of character," he told CBS News correspondent Don Teague. "He was the quintessential, stereotypical, straight-out-of-central-casting, mild-mannered, bespectacled engineer type."

According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.

In 1985, he incorporated Prowess Engineering Inc. in Corona. It was suspended two years later. He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln in 1995 and that entity was suspended in 2001. Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.

[sly_64]

If a private business was run the way the governement is, it wouldn't last 6 months. There is far too much waste and corruption in the government ! hence, higher taxes....

[ilyaquiss]

if you like your roads paved, if you like having schools, if you want help during a natural disaster, if you like an army defending you with the latest gadgets, than shut the hell up and pay your taxes and if you are rich you get to pay more because you got a lot more to loose.

[Zann-Zel]

Amen!

[Mortar_29]

Well, you were right until that last one about the rich.

The rich will pay more in amount, because they have more. But, they should never pay more in percentage of income. One tax rate for ALL!

[azimuth5]

Taxes and Gov't are the best thing that's happened since the invention of the wheel. If people want to go back to living in caves, or "jousting" to make crucial decisions, let them move to the Canary Islands and start over. Personally, Western Civilization is, to me, the best thing that ever happened to humanity.

[Zann-Zel]

azimuth5 - Thank you for reminding me that there are some people who appreciate our way of life! I'm getting so tired of so many people screaming our government is corrupt and inaffective and could NEVER do anything right. Well people our government is by the people for the people. If you criticize it you're criticizing yourself! You think you're inaffective get off your butt and do something about it!

[patocc123]

Taxes have been around since man stood on 2-feet. It was not invented by western civilization. Before a standard monetary system they where paid by crops, livestocks, and precious stones/metals.

Please do not act like this is anything new.

[book_of_wally]

You know thats what they all say when asked about someone who went nuts. You see if they say "ya he acted like a nut and scared me to death" there could be some liability on their part and they could get sued. So let this be a lesson to all, if someone you know goes postal, always act surprised.

[MNBantisbanned]

I don't know anything about it but I am pissed at taxes too. I think most people are who are paying. How about a flat tax? It has the advantage of making your tax and witholding predictable off the top of my head this is comming to mind.
single tax return
1-20,000 0%
21-40,000 5%
41-70,000 10%
71-110,000 15%
111-160,000 20%
161-220,000 25%
221K+ 30%

Just double the income for married. Nothing for kids (if they don't want to pay just establish drop-off centers where people can drop them off their little darlings) and there you go. Simple fair and vicious. What more can you ask for.

[book_of_wally]

I thought the idea of a flat tax is where everyone paid the same no matter what their income is?

[Mortar_29]

How about one tax rate for everyone...say 17%???

[edgy44]

If they look into it, they will find that this idiot never even voted. If you don't vote, or donate to a PAC you get all you deserve.

[MNBantisbanned]

Voting is useless and pacs are the work of the devil. Sorry devil! (blushes)

[cp102]

I find it incredibly sad that some believe Stack was right. I pray the next person who feels he needs to make his point won't target where you work, your spouse or where your children go to school. The people who worked in the IRS building were doing their jobs just like anyone else. They enforce the rules..because its their job.

[MalloryDavis]

In this I will not give an opinion one way or the other. THEY CAN PING YOUR IP ADDRESS IDIOTS!

[tmittelstaed]

20 years ago I worked as an accounts payable clerk for a now-defunct software company.

I saw enormous amounts of abuse of the independent contractor status of programmers (yes, they like to call themselves software engineers but they are programmers) by managers in that company. Quite often during layoffs they would lay off programmers then managers would hire their buddies back as contractors. Quite often I would issue checks for many thousands of dollars of software programs and hardware that would be given to the contractors then disappear off company premises, never to be seen again. Contractors were given office space, telephones, network connectivity and many other perks. The so-called "independent" contractors ruled the roost, and I also saw the damage it did to regular company morale. The managers got away with it because since none of the business owners, CEO or President could write software themselves, or came from a programmers background, they were afraid to go up against the managers. This was a symptom of weak leadership and in fact the software company failed and got acquired by another software company in 1994 - but it was several years before that company reined in the abuses - and I heard rumors that they still were involved in this sort of thing a decade ago in Santa Monica. (by then I had been gone for years from the company for greener pastures)

This is why the IRS is so tough on the status of contractors in the software industry. Because it is so easy to hide dollar amounts of the tools (computers and software) that these people use to do their work in the general corporate expenses, independent contractors seek out weak managers who are easy to buffalo into giving them things, and software companies are so often funded by venture capitalists who go ballaistic when they see headcount counts rise that it is easier for the manager to use a contractor than try to justify to a VC why you need to hire another warm body. The IRS is right to break up these sweetheart arraingements, as they are tax dodges of the worst order.

I have read this guys writings and they are nothing more than a series of attempting to dodge taxes by playing
the "independent software engineer" game throughout his life. He really had no understanding of how much public funding has supported his industry and the companies that he worked for, and how critical it is for those industries. Even today, 3/4 of the Internet is partly supported by public funding in the form of government tax carveouts for large ISPs and networks, and if the Internet didn't exist, most of this guys software firms that he's worked for wouldn't have existed either.

This is exactly how your typical conservative thinks - they are more than happy to plunge both trotters into the trough and suck up all that government support of their stuff, but when it comes to paying taxes for it they are the first to cut and run

[patocc123]

Your comment was well thought out until the end. The sudden lash out at a political party only shows your ignorance on people and thier beliefs. You must either get your information from a single sided source or you must surround yourself with people with the same ideology which in turns enhanced your misconception on what people believe the role of the government.

[Clemsson]

Let me tell you how it will be,
There?s one for you, nineteen for me,
?Cause I?m the Taxman,
Yeah, I?m the Taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don?t take it all.
?Cos I?m the Taxman,
Yeah, I?m the Taxman.

(If you drive a car ), I?ll tax the street,
(If you try to sit ), I?ll tax your seat,
(If you get too cold ), I?ll tax the heat,
(If you take a walk ), I?ll tax your feet.
Taxman.

?Cause I?m the Taxman,
Yeah, I?m the Taxman.
Don?t ask me what I want it for
(Taxman! Mister Wilson!)
If you don?t want to pay some more
(Taxman! Mister Heath!),
?Cause I?m the Taxman,
Yeah, I?m the Taxman.

Now my advice for those who die, (Taxman!)
Declare the pennies on your eyes, (Taxman!)
?Cause I?m the Taxman,
Yeah, I?m the Taxman.
And you?re working for no-one but me,
(Taxman).

[kyleminli]

Delinquent on your taxes, are you?