January 6, 2011 · 8:06 pm

How We’re Learning to Be Happy With Less – Yahoo! News

More good news today…

It would be a major achievement for people in the U.S. to start appreciating what they have and not lust for more “stuff”.

The economy is still in rehab, but it doesn’t bother us all that much any more. In fact, we seem to be feeling nearly as good as we did before that awful recession messed everything up.

That’s what Americans have been telling the Gallup polling organization–and the nation’s mood suggests that the recession may have made us a wee bit heartier. We seem to be happier with less, for one thing, and we may even be getting more satisfaction out of the “little things” that took a back seat for a while to fancy cars, splashy homes, and tell-everybody vacations.

Gallup’s “well-being index” shows that Americans felt more happiness and less stress in 2010 than they did in 2009, which isn’t surprising, since 2009 was the year the economy hit bottom, unemployment surged, and the stock market hit a 13-year low. What is surprising is that the latest well-being numbers are comparable to those of February 2008–which was a high point before the nation’s mood began to sour and then turn downright grim as the financial panic hit in the fall of that year.

And

So why are we feeling just as content today as we did during better economic times? Maybe because we’ve changed our expectations and placed less importance on economic gain. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting that utopianism trumps consumerism. But Americans do seem to be saying they can be just as satisfied in an austere economic environment as they once were in an indulgent one. In addition to economic factors, Gallup’s well-being index also measures things such as the way people evaluate their own physical and emotional health, and whether people feel like they’re struggling or thriving. And those metrics suggest that more people have learned to be happy under tougher economic conditions. The percentage of Americans who feel they’re thriving, for example, is 54 percent in the latest survey. And the percentage who say they’re struggling is 43 percent. Both of those levels are better than they were at the beginning of 2008, when Gallup began doing its well-being surveys.

More:   How We’re Learning to Be Happy With Less – Yahoo! News.

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January 6, 2011 · 8:01 pm

US electoral map gives Hispanics more heft: study | Raw Story

This is good news….since the GOP seems intent on angering the Hispanic voters.

The new electoral map that emerged from the 2010 US census favors Hispanics, the largest US minority group, as some states in which they live will win more representation in Congress, a study found Wednesday.

States with growing populations such as Texas and Florida will pick up extra congressional seats, while some northern states such as Ohio and Iowa are set to lose seats under a redistricting system ahead of the 2012 elections.

The study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Hispanic voters are almost three times more numerous in those states that will pick up congressional seats and electoral college votes, than in states that will have to shed seats.

While 15.2 percent of eligible voters — those US citizens over 18 — are Hispanics in states that increased their political influence, they account for only 5.4 percent of the electorate in states that lost electoral heft, it said.

via US electoral map gives Hispanics more heft: study | Raw Story.

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January 6, 2011 · 8:22 am

Michael G. Messner – Olmsted’s ideals could help solve our real estate mess

This is great thinking…

Take empty stores and buildings, tear them down and build parks.  This would put people to work, reduce urban blight and have land available for use by new businesses near the parks as the economy turns around.

Makes sense to me…

From The Washington Post…

More than 150 years ago, America’s greatest landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, created Central Park and changed New York forever. He went on to transform dozens more cities, leaving a priceless legacy of vibrant, beautiful cityscapes. And, in the process, he increased property values.

Olmsted discovered this himself when he tracked the value of land around Central Park and found that the city’s $13 million investment had led to an astounding $209 million increase in just 17 years. The architect recognized what many planners still fail to grasp: Parks and managed green space are vital pieces of urban infrastructure that not only improve the quality of life for millions of people but also drive economic growth.

Today we must act again to transform our cities. The commercial real estate binge of the past decade and the growth of online shopping as an alternative to brick-and-mortar stores have left more than 200,000 acres of vacant retail, office and industrial space. Residential real estate is a massive problem as well. Distressed properties are a drag on our communities and the economy and threaten to topple even more banks that hold mortgages on these “toxic assets.”

We need to move these toxic assets off the banks’ books, reduce the surplus of commercial space and create jobs, all while revitalizing our cities. This brings us back to Olmsted.

Olmsted designed transformative parks, campuses and greenways; his firm completed an amazing 6,000 commissions and launched a green wave across 19th-century America. The same kind of wave could help resolve the 21st-century real estate mess.

We don’t have the luxury of vacant land that Olmsted often started with, so we must bulldoze underperforming and underused property, put people to work creating parks on some of the land and “bank” the rest until the economy recovers.

More:   Michael G. Messner – Olmsted’s ideals could help solve our real estate mess.

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January 6, 2011 · 8:06 am

Aisle Not: Why One Woman Quit Grocery Stores for a Year | TakePart – Inspiration to Action

I would love to be able to get to this point…

I hate the professional Food Industry almost as much as the Pharmaceutical Industry….

Both have greatly contributed to the unhealthy, over-weight lifestyle so many Americans now lead…

If you haven’t seen “Food, Inc”, buy it or put it on your NetFlix list today.  It’s a real eye-opener.

One year ago, Carla Crownover kissed grocery stores goodbye.

She had just seen Food, Inc., Participant Media’s documentary on the seedy underbelly of the food industry, and she wanted nothing to do with the conventional food system that feeds the majority of Americans.

She pledged to abstain from grocery stores for 365 days and to go on a quest to find out where all the food she eats comes from. The end result? “I’ve learned a lot,” she told readers on her blog, Austin Urban Gardens.

TakePart caught up with Crownover recently, fresh after her one-year mark, to learn more about what it’s like to live off the food grid.

Prior to seeing Food, Inc., Crownover was already a conscientious eater. “I shopped the perimeter of the grocery store and didn’t buy many products in boxes or cans. I didn’t want to eat anything that had been manipulated to cook faster, or be ‘instant,'” she explains. “I had dropped diet sodas from my diet a couple years ago, and was leery of foods manipulated to have a long shelf life.”

When she sought out more information from Food, Inc., the film shocked her.

“Everything about factory farming [in the film] disgusted me. The feedlots packed full of animals standing in their own waste bothered me on several levels. I like to eat beef, but I don’t want the animal to have to live a horrible and unhealthy life so that I can have a steak.”

She saw genetically engineered chickens in the film that were too big to stand and never saw the light of day. “The chickens I get now from a local farm are free range up until their last moment,” she says. “The farmer once told me, ‘We like to believe they only have one bad day.’ And I loved that.”

via Aisle Not: Why One Woman Quit Grocery Stores for a Year | TakePart – Inspiration to Action.

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Filed under Education, Food, Health Care, Pets, Politics, Social Commentary, The Economy, The Environment

January 5, 2011 · 9:44 pm

Get Ready for a G.O.P. Rerun – NYTimes.com

Another great article from Bob Herbert:

You just can’t close the door on this crowd. The party that brought us the worst economy since the Great Depression, that led us into Iraq and the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, that would like to take a hammer to Social Security and a chisel to Medicare, is back in control of the House of Representatives with the expressed mission of undermining all things Obama.

Once we had Dick Cheney telling us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and belligerently asserting that deficits don’t matter. We had Phil Gramm, Enron’s favorite senator and John McCain’s economic guru, blithely assuring us in 2008 that we were suffering from a “mental recession.”

(Mr. Gramm was some piece of work. A champion of deregulation, he was disdainful of ordinary people. “We’re the only nation in the world,” he once said, “where all of our poor people are fat.”)

Maybe the voters missed the entertainment value of the hard-hearted, compulsively destructive G.O.P. headliners. Maybe they viewed them the way audiences saw the larger-than-life villains in old-time melodramas. It must be something like that because it’s awfully hard to miss the actual policies of a gang that almost wrecked the country.

MORE:   Get Ready for a G.O.P. Rerun – NYTimes.com.

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January 5, 2011 · 8:48 pm

What Are Rich People Worried About in 2011? — Vanity Fair

From VanityFair.com….

There are a few specific fears that rich people in posh cities all over the world are experiencing right now. First and foremost, they’re fretting over the fact that they’ll never have as much money to spend as the mysterious Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Of course, no one knows exactly what kind of fortune Abramovich has managed to amass for himself (estimates range anywhere from $10 billion to more than $20 billion), but it’s clear he possesses the ability to establish ever higher standards for luxury, and other billionaires are beginning to get nervous that they can’t keep up.

News of the Russian tycoon’s latest celebration at his $90 million home in St. Bart’s made headlines everywhere. The event was an impressive gathering of A-listers from around the globe, where even the hired help could boast of rubbing shoulders with special guests The Black Eyed Peas. And all of this talk of extravagance ignores Abramovich’s unparalleled fleet of yachts, some of which typically winter in the harbor not far from his oceanfront estate. The newest addition to the flotilla, reports say, is a 500-plus-foot behemoth that officially claims the title of Largest Private Yacht in the World. For those agonizing about how to keep pace with the high-rolling Mr. Abramovich, utter despair is inevitable.

Second on the list of nagging concerns is the fear that the tentative economic recovery of 2010 will not survive in 2011. Naturally, people from all financial backgrounds have legitimate doubts about the stability of the economy from time to time, but for the wealthy such worrying takes on a nearly obsessive quality. Because money preserves the preeminent status of the entire upper class, sudden drops in the market threaten to destroy everything that the rich stand for.

And finally, the Madoff scandal continues to provoke extreme horror. Wealthy investors from almost every industry, from finance to Hollywood, are terrified that the next money manager they choose might turn out to be nothing more than a malicious conman.

via What Are Rich People Worried About in 2011? | VF Daily | Vanity Fair.

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January 5, 2011 · 8:46 pm

Glenn Beck Dropped From New York Radio Station WOR

Well, there is some good news today…

Of course, it’s harder to fool New Yorkers than most other folks…

Still, maybe people are finally getting tired of his traveling Medicine Show…

Glenn Beck has been dropped by New York radio station WOR due to poor ratings, the New York Daily News reports. Beck’s radio show is due to go off the air on Jan. 17, and he is being replaced by Mike Gallagher, another nationally syndicated conservative talk show host.

Although Beck’s radio show is the third-biggest in the country, WOR program director Scott Wakefield told the Daily News, “Somewhat to our surprise, the show wasn’t getting what we wanted.”

WOR is one of New York’s two biggest talk radio stations, and the Daily News said it is unclear which local station Beck will be able to move his show to.

Meanwhile, Politico notes that Beck’s television ratings took a slight tumble in 2010. He was down 6.5% in total viewers compared to 2009, and 2.5% in the coveted A25-54 demo.

via Glenn Beck Dropped From New York Radio Station WOR.

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January 5, 2011 · 8:41 pm

REPORT: The GOP Needs To Tell The Truth About Their Views On The Constitution

Most people really don’t know what they are voting for when they vote for the Republicans.

And that’s how the GOP wants it….

From Thinkprogress.org:

Yet, while most GOPers have remained carefully vague about how they view the Constitution, those few who have revealed their specific views leave little doubt why the rest of the party is keeping quiet. Their views are both dangerous and radical:

Child Labor: In three separate opinions, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas called for a return to a discredited theory of the Constitution that early twentieth century justices used to declare federal child labor laws unconstitutional. Many GOP elected officials have embraced rhetoric suggesting that they agree with Justice Thomas that child labor laws are unconstitutional. They should answer directly whether they agree with him or not.

Whites Only-Lunch Counters: In a now-infamous interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) claimed that there are constitutional problems with the federal ban on whites-only lunch counters. Justice Thomas’ pre-New Deal understanding of the Constitution also supports Paul’s view.

Minimum Wage: Although Goodlatte claimed not to know whether the minimum wage is constitutional, Thomas and many other prominent Republicans believe that it is not.

Education: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) believes that all federal education programs — including Pell Grants and student loan assistance — are unconstitutional.  And he is far from alone among GOP Members of Congress.

Gender Discrimination: Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia recently expressed his view that the Constitution has nothing to say about discrimination against women. Goodlatte, the architect of the GOP’s plan to read the Constitution on the House floor, cited Scalia as the justice who “most reflects” his own views. And Scalia will deliver a lecture on the Constitution to GOP Members of Congress later this month at the invitation of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

Ending Senate Elections: Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) recently claimed that the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, which allows voters to elect their own senators, “was a mistake.” Scalia agrees.

Eliminating the U.S. Dollar: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who will take over the House subcommittee that oversees federal monetary policy, has claimed that paper money is “nothing short of counterfeiting,” and has even called the U.S. dollar unconstitutional. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) appears to agree with him.

Social Security and Medicare: Additionally, while only a handful of Republicans openly admit that they believe Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional, Sens. Paul, Lee and Coburn all have expressed views suggesting that they also believe that these landmark programs violate the Constitution. Moreover, the GOP’s own “Pledge to America” expressly embraces a radical “tenther” view of the Constitution which would require Social Security, Medicare and numerous other essential programs to be declared unconstitutional.

via ThinkProgress » Home Page.

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January 4, 2011 · 8:34 pm

Dems Accuse GOP Of ‘Enron-Type Accounting’ And Assaults On CBO

It’s already getting interesting…

I wonder if anyone will notice how the GOP is changing the rules and attempting to put forth an alternate reality.

No one seems to have noticed so far….or they wouldn’t be back in power in the House…

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats, removed from their rhetorical shackles by the coming Republican control of the House, are accusing the GOP of resorting to “Enron-type accounting” in their efforts to push legislation in the next Congress.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the incoming ranking member of the House Budget Committee, warned on Tuesday that Republican leadership is set to implement new rules that would effectively do away with the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO is often regarded as a nonpartisan, independent scorekeeper for Congress. And by taking away its input in legislative matters, Van Hollen said, Republicans were ushering in an era of make-your-own-reality-based budgeting.

“This is a huge loophole for Enron-type accounting … In the rule they pass tomorrow they are going to reiterate that the chair of the budget committee has the authority to come up with his own estimate of the budget impact of various pieces of legislation,” Van Hollen told the Huffington Post. “And a week from now, when they get around to repealing health care reform I think you will see they will go down and say this has zero cost impact.”

“It is a wholesale disregard of CBO estimates,” Van Hollen added. “After all, CBO is the one referee we have around here when it comes to the budget. So again, we are watching this unfold. But it does seem that they are putting in place the pieces to allow the Chairman of the Budget committee to literally make up the numbers as they go.”

The charges by the Van Hollen are fairly weighty in the wonky world of budgetary politics. But they underscore the extent to which Democrats feel that Republicans are turning the CBO and its scoring into partisan issues. Also on Tuesday, incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) accused the budget office of misrepresenting the cost of the health care law for the benefit of persuading skittish Democrats to support the bill (the CBO estimated that the Affordable Care Act will reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion over ten years).

via Dems Accuse GOP Of ‘Enron-Type Accounting’ And Assaults On CBO.

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January 4, 2011 · 8:34 pm

GOP Exempts Deficit Busting Policies From New Budget Rules | TPMDC

More on the Smoke and Mirrors the GOP is attempting to erect on Capitol Hill:

Republicans’ deficit reduction platform, which may have helped catapult them into the majority, is about to run headlong into a hard reality: Many of their key policy goals will increase the deficit dramatically.

To get around this fact, they’ve included measures in their new rules package to exempt some of their biggest legislative priorities from deficit consideration. Among the exceptions, which the House is likely to consider in the 112th Congress, are the health care repeal bill (scheduled for a vote a week from Wednesday), the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, an AMT patch, extending the estate tax, and more.

You can read more about the health care repeal side of this here. And more about the GOP’s Calvinball rules here.

The health care law, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will reduce the deficit by $143 billion through the end of the decade, and more so in the decade after that. Thus, repealing the law will blow a similarly sized hole in the deficit.

Republicans wave this off.

“No one believes that the job-killing health care law will lower costs, because it won’t,” Michael Steel, spokesman for incoming House Speaker John Boehner, told Politico. “That’s why we’ve pledged to repeal it, and replace it with common-sense reforms that will actually work.”

That statement echoes what Republicans have been saying for months now. But the CBO has said explicitly that repealing health care reform would cause the deficit to increase. The House GOP is set to ignore that warning when they hold their vote on repeal next week.

via GOP Exempts Deficit Busting Policies From New Budget Rules | TPMDC.

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