Category Archives: Politics

May 5, 2011 · 7:53 pm

An Average CEO At America’s Big Corporations Earns 200 Times The Salary Of A Navy SEAL

Uh, who do you think is worth $11mm a year?

I’d vote for the Navy Seals if I had to vote for anyone….

This pay thing differential thing is really getting obscene….

From ThinkProgress.org:

After the killing of Osama Bin Laden at a compound in a suburb of Islamabad, Pakistan, much of the nation’s focus has turned to the men in our military who were responsible for the raid. The combat team that attacked Bin Laden’s compound was composed of an elite unit of Navy SEALS.

As economist Dean Baker points out, ABC News did a feature story about the SEALs to highlight the sacrifices those enlisted in the unit make. ABC compared their base salaries of $54,000 a year to the average annual salary for teachers. Baker notes that perhaps their salaries should be compared to Wall Street CEOs who earn tens of millions of dollars:

In the wake of their successful assault on Osama Bin Laden’s hideout, ABC News did a short feature on the Navy Seals. The report tells us that the people who hold this highly demanding and dangerous get paid about $54,000 a year. It then adds that:

“The base salary level [of Navy Seals] is comparable to the average annual salary for teachers in the U.S., which was $55,350 for the 2009-2010 school year, according to the Digest of Education Statistics.’ That is one possible comparison. There are other possible reference points. For example, the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan both pocket around $20 million a year.

Baker’s query poses an interesting question. What would the numbers look like if the base salary of a Navy SEAL — who risk their very lives in their day-to-day work — was compared to the compensation of the CEOs of some of America’s wealthiest corporations? Data from the AFL-CIO’s Executive Pay Watch finds that the average 2010 CEO compensation at an S&P 500 company was $11,358,445…

It’s important to note that the gap between executive compensation and average worker compensation has exploded over the past few decades. CEOs at America’s largest companies now earn 343 times more than the typical worker. In 1970, the average CEO earned 28 times as much as the typical worker.

via ThinkProgress » GRAPH: An Average CEO At America’s Big Corporations Earns 200 Times The Salary Of A Navy SEAL.

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May 4, 2011 · 9:41 pm

Dems To Force Vote On Ending Oil Subsidies

This should be interesting…

I hope the Dems can continue to “out” the Republicans and their true agenda of supporting the Corporations and the Rich at the expense of the Middle Class…

Or what’ left of the Middle Class after the GOP policies of the Bush Administration….

From the Huffington Post:

Eager to prove that Republicans don’t want to end oil subsidies despite public GOP opposition, House Democrats plan to force a vote Thursday on a measure that would block a major tax break for the five largest oil companies.

As Republicans call for major cuts to domestic spending, Democrats are pushing for tax code changes that would allow the government to bring in more money, particularly from high-profit industries Democrats say do not pay their fair share. President Barack Obama and key Democrats have called for an end to some oil and gas subsidies, arguing gas prices are high enough to sustain industry investment in the United States.

John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil, said in February that major oil companies do not need government help given the high price of gas.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made a similar point at a Tuesday briefing with reporters, shooting down questions about whether ending oil subsidies could increase the price of gas.

“The gas companies are making record profits,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a credible argument that reducing the subsidy on a product that is now getting record prices…will lead to higher [gas] prices.”

House Speaker John Boehner indicated some support for reconsidering those subsidies last week, telling ABC News that they “ought to be paying their fair share.” Obama quickly jumped on the statement, sending a letter to Congress urging an end to the tax breaks.

Boehner quickly walked back the statement, and last Thursday turned down a request by Democrats to vote on legislation to eliminate billions of dollars of oil subsidies.

via Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies.

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May 4, 2011 · 9:28 pm

The Associated Press: Americans 45 and older are new voting-age majority

Uh, maybe the GOP should have read this before they went after Medicare…

But I’m glad they didn’t….

I’ve said it many times:  Demographic trends are against the Republicans in the longterm.  We just have to survive them in the short term….

From the AP:

For the first time, Americans 45 and older make up a majority of the voting-age population, giving older Americans wider influence in elections as the U.S. stands divided over curtailing Medicare and other benefits for seniors.

Along with the information about the growing influence of older adults, preliminary census estimates also show a decline in the number of married couples with children, slight growth in household size and a rapid rise in the number of Mexicans.

The findings, based on the latest publicly available government data, offer a preview of trends that will be detailed in the next round of 2010 census results being released this month that focus on age, household relationships and racial subgroups.

As a whole, the numbers point to a rapidly graying nation driven largely by the nation’s 78 million baby boomers, who are now between the ages of 46 and 65 and looking ahead to retirement.

“The center of American politics gets older,” said E. Mark Braden, a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee who now advises elected officials and state legislatures. “Given the current fiscal concerns, it’s going to be a test case whether Republicans or Democrats can talk about entitlement reform without getting killed” politically.

via The Associated Press: Americans 45 and older are new voting-age majority.

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May 4, 2011 · 8:44 pm

How Osama Bin Laden Changed Us…

Just as Hitler had an impact, so did Bin Laden….

I’m very glad he’s gone.

My biggest regret is how we let him change us.

Some of that is due to the fact that George W Bush was President when 9/11 happened.  His cowboy mentality put us on the road to a police state and changed both the way the U.S. government operated and how it was perceived…..

He used our fear to drive political goals…

I’ll never forget how everyone in the world was an American on Sept 12th, 2001.  And how belligerence and posturing destroyed that feeling of unity.

The way Bush handled the horror that Bin Laden unleashed blew our chances at unity as a country and with the rest of the world…

I just wish we, as a Nation, could have faced the challenges driven by Osama Bin Laden’s hate and horror with a little more intelligence and a little less fear-driven bravado…

We could have built a better country and a better world…

I’m afraid, in some ways, Bin Laden ultimately won.

In many ways, he made us change into something less than what we were before September 11, 2001….

Maybe with his death we can put aside the fear and start to look at the world with hope and unity again.

Maybe now we can start to remember what it used to mean to be an American- to be against hate and torture and for equality and justice.

I hope so….

But I’m not optimistic…

From the Kansas City Star:

Without him, there would probably be no Department of Homeland Security, no Patriot Act, no Qur’an-burning pastors.

Had Osama bin Laden never been born, there would surely be fewer memorials to slain firefighters, less need for prosthetic limbs for young troops, an American public still largely ignorant of the Muslim notion of martyrdom.

Our military probably would still be more interested in tanks and aircraft carriers, less wary of roadside bombs and suicide belts. The development of killer robot planes might not have come so far. The need to deal with asymmetric threats — battling an army not of battalions but of insurgents — would not be so pressing.

And America would certainly be a country with far fewer long-fading yellow ribbons.

The man who came to symbolize a bloody rejection of all things U.S. left a legacy among those he hated, and those he inspired to hate them. Little wonder that his demise brought so little sympathy.

“In the past few years, (bin Laden’s) main military triumphs have been against such targets as Afghan schoolgirls, Shiite Muslim civilians, and defenseless synagogues in Tunisia and Turkey,” wrote pundit Christopher Hitchens on news of bin Laden’s death and dumping at sea. “Has there ever been a more contemptible leader from behind, or a commander who authorized more blanket death sentences on bystanders?”

In ways small and monumental, bin Laden’s two decades on the world stage changed how America operated within its borders and with other nations. It may not have been entirely his doing, but his life had a profound impact on the nation he so loathed.

via Osama bin Laden changed us in ways minute, monumental – KansasCity.com.

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May 4, 2011 · 8:36 pm

VA AG Ken Cuccinelli Wants To Be One Of Bin Laden’s 72 Virgins

I’ve always known Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is one weird dude, but I never expected this….

For reference, here is his Tweet:

“How much would I give to be one of the 72 Virginans Osama is ‘hanging out’ with since Sunday?”

Here is how the Huffington Post examines this:

I”m really not sure if this is an example of a bit of tweet-snark gone terribly awry, or maybe an account that’s been hacked, but Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has sent one of the strangest tweets ever in response to the death of infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden.

For real: what is going on here? Why is Cuccinelli going all Mitch Albom on Osama bin Laden? Does he really want to service bin Laden, sexually, in the great beyond? Maybe he plans to give the dead terrorist the “blue balls?” And is Cuccinelli a virgin, or was he — perhaps more disturbingly — shooting for “Virginians” with this tweet? It’s possible that Cuccinelli is trying to say that he wishes he had been part of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, more informally known as “SEAL Team Six,” who conducted the raid on bin Laden’s compound and who are garrisoned in Virginia at the Naval Air Station’s Dam Neck Annex. But this would be an odd way of communicating that desire.

At any rate, until I hear otherwise, I’m just going to assume that Ken Cuccinelli wants to make love to Osama bin Laden in hell. Keep calm and carry on!

via Ken Cuccinelli Wants To Be One Of Bin Laden’s 72 Virgins, For Some Reason [UPDATED].

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May 3, 2011 · 9:09 pm

AMERICA–HE’S YOUR PRESIDENT FOR GOODNESS SAKE! BY WILLIAM THOMAS « The Way of Love Blog

I ran this post earlier and my friend Sally suggested it might be a good time to re-run it….

It’s from an article by William Thomas posted last year…

I agree, it bears repeating…

Please click the link at the bottom to go to the full post:

There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm.

Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.

Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.

Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.

Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea.

Remember: “Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”

At some point, the treatment of President Obama went from offensive to ugly and then to downright dangerous.

The health-care debate, which looked more like extreme fighting in a mud pit than a national dialogue, revealed a very vulgar side of America. President Obama’s face appeared on protest signs white-faced and blood-mouthed in a satanic clown image. In other tasteless portrayals, people who disagreed with his position distorted his face to look like Hitler complete with mustache and swastika.

Odd, that burning the flag makes Americans crazy, but depicting the president as a clown and a maniacal fascist is accepted as part of the new rude America. Maligning the image of the leader of the free world is one thing, putting the president’s life in peril is quite another. More than once, men with guns were videotaped at the health-care rallies where the president spoke. Again, history shows that letting men with guns get within range of a president has not served America well in the past. And still the “birthers” are out there claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States, although public documentation proves otherwise. Hawaii is definitely part of the United States, but the Panama Canal Zone where his electoral opponent Senator John McCain was born? Nobody’s sure.

LINK to full story:   AMERICA–HE’S YOUR PRESIDENT FOR GOODNESS SAKE! BY WILLIAM THOMAS « The Way of Love Blog.

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May 2, 2011 · 6:41 pm

Great Hypothetical Fox News Bin Laden Headline

From Mrs Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian via Facebook:

BIN LADEN HEADLINE ON FOXNEWS:

“Black male in Washington, DC. confesses to sneaking into old man’s mansion, killing him and dumping the body.”

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April 30, 2011 · 10:57 am

Your Pain, Their Gain: How High Gas Prices Impoverish The Many While Enriching The Few

Can someone.  Anyone.  Justify why the Republicans- and some Democrats- still vote for Government subsidies for Gas and Oil companies?

Talk about Socialism….

They are redistributing the wealth from everyday Americans to the Oil Companies and their rich stockholders and management teams….

The next time you’re gritting your teeth as you fill your tank with $4 gas, here’s something to consider: Your pain is their gain.

The last of the Big Five oil companies announced first-quarter earnings Friday, so the totals are in. Between the five of them, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips made $34 billion in profits in the first three months of 2011 — up 42 percent from a year ago.

That’s about $110 for every man, woman, and child in the United States — in just three months.

Exxon alone cleared a cool $10.7 billion profit from January through March, up 69 percent from 2010. That’s $82,175 a minute.

Why the staggering increase in earnings? Precisely because you’re paying $4 a gallon for gas.

via Your Pain, Their Gain: How High Gas Prices Impoverish The Many While Enriching The Few.

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April 29, 2011 · 6:47 pm

In U.S., Negative Views of the Tea Party Rise to New High

The party’s over…

About half of Americans, 47%, now have an unfavorable image of the Tea Party movement, the highest since it emerged on the national scene.

Gallup began tracking Americans’ views of the Tea Party in March 2010, when 37% had a favorable and 40% an unfavorable view. Those views stayed roughly the same through January of this year, but have now turned somewhat more negative. The April 20-23 USA Today/Gallup poll finds favorable opinions of the Tea Party movement dropping to 33%, from 39% in January, and unfavorable opinions rising to 47% from 42%. Twenty percent of Americans say they haven’t heard of the Tea Party or have no opinion of it.

via In U.S., Negative Views of the Tea Party Rise to New High.

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April 28, 2011 · 9:19 pm

A Vanity Fair Challenge to Donald Trump to Prove the Authenticity of His Hair | Politics | Vanity Fair

Fair is Fair….

If he’s going to challenge President Obama’s legitimacy as an American Citizen, this seems to be the least he can do….

If Trump intends to declare his candidacy for the presidency, as he has so often threatened, the issue of his comb-over could become a constitutional matter. In the interest of putting this controversy to rest, Vanity Fair demands that Trump release a notarized certificate from a barber proving the veracity of his hair. In the event that significant members of the Balder community question the validity of the notarized certificate, we insist that Trump submit to air, wind, and Dutch rub tests to be administered by an independent board-certified hair-care expert that will debunk, once and for all, these corrosive conspiracy theories.

via A Vanity Fair Challenge to Donald Trump to Prove the Authenticity of His Hair | Politics | Vanity Fair.

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