Tag Archives: politics

April 1, 2011 · 8:43 am

“The Onion” is Closing Down…

April Fool!  Thank god!

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And I will miss them…

They were a great satirical website and newspaper….

But the world has gotten so crazy- especially in Washington- it was sometimes hard to differentiate their satire from reality…

From Eric Francis at Planet Waves:

It’s true. The Onion is closing down. The venerated website and newspaper founded in 1988 as an advertising sheet, is calling it quits.

Typical cover of The Onion’s internet edition. Shown lower left is the video frame. In recent years, the comedy newspaper has been over-dependent on video to compensate for less-than-sataisfactory writing, according to some media theorists. Image © 2011 by Planet Waves.

“That’s a fact,” said editor Joe Randazzo, who will be taking a job as humor editor of the Christian Science Monitor, his grandfather’s favorite newspaper. “We felt that we were past our glory days. You know, we didn’t want to be recording the same album over and over again, like the Beach Boys.”

Randazzo said he thought of himself more as The Beatles, “Who knew when to get out of the game. They did great things, built a legacy, and let it speak for itself.”

He said that if the Beatles were together today, “Nobody would even care. It’s because they broke up that we love them. So, see ya.”

via Astrology, Horoscopes, Monthly Horoscopes, Weekly Horoscopes, Daily Astrology Blog, | The Onion: After 27 Years, Says Enough Already | Daily Astrology & Adventure by Eric Francis.

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April 1, 2011 · 8:29 am

Wall Street and the Public

Have we really learned anything?

Interesting article from Kevin Drum at Mother Jones about the new push to relax the weak financial reform rules that passed last year…

This is a response to comments from Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan/Chase and comments from Matt Yglesias in the Financial Times:

So Dimon doesn’t like higher capital rules, doesn’t like derivatives regulation, doesn’t like debit card rules, and we already know what the entire industry thinks of the new Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Long story short, he doesn’t really think the financial industry needs any new regulations at all, thankyouverymuch.

Well, if I were him I suppose I wouldn’t think so either. But guess what? It’s only been two years since the Great Collapse, and finance industry profits have already rebounded to their bubble-era levels. That’s a strong sign that finance industry leverage is also returning to its bubble-era levels, which in turn means the industry is about as dangerous as it’s ever been. And Dodd-Frank is a notably weak piece of regulation, about as weak as any bill could be and still be called regulatory reform in the first place. Wall Street got off easy, and Dimon knows it.

AND

Years ago I remember a lot of moderate liberals talking about how the Bush era radicalized them. For me, it was the economic collapse of 2008 that did it. The financial industry almost literally came within a hair’s breadth of destroying the world, but even so it took only a few short months for them to close ranks with Republicans and the rich to prevent anything serious being done to rein them in. Profits are back up, new regulations are barely more than window dressing, nothing was done to help underwater homeowners, bonuses are as obscene as ever, unemployment remains sky high, and the public has somehow been convinced that this was all their own fault — or perhaps the fault of big government, or big deficits, or something. But the finance industry has escaped almost entirely unscathed. It’s mind boggling. If this doesn’t change your view of who really runs the world, I don’t know what would.

via Wall Street and the Public | Mother Jones.

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March 31, 2011 · 8:09 pm

Suppose They Gave a Tea Party and No One Came…

Except mainly the press…

The Usual Suspects from Congress came and almost outnumbered the attendees….

Best news I’ve had all week…

This thing finally seems to be fading out- now if only the press will report that fact more…

This is a start.  From the Washington Post:

A sparse crowd of tea party activists gathered beneath the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to urge Congress to cut more spending from the current federal budget and to cheer on some of their favorite politicians, including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Steve King (R-Iowa).

One organizer estimated that a couple of hundred protesters had gathered near the Robert A. Taft bell tower north of the Capitol at lunchtime Thursday. According to a media sign-in sheet, at least 50 of those present were journalists documenting the latest tea party rally in Washington.

via Tea party activists rally for deeper spending cuts at Capitol – The Washington Post.

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March 31, 2011 · 6:34 pm

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

This is one of the clearest explanations of the income and wealth disparity in American I have read.

It’s written by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for Bill Clinton…

There is so much here I want to share that I think the best I can do is ask you to click the link at the bottom of this post and read it for yourself.

It’s really worth your time to read this entire article from Vanity Fair.  It’s not too long….

It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous—12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades—and more—has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow.

via Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Society | Vanity Fair.

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March 31, 2011 · 6:20 pm

Before Bachmann: The 5 craziest GOP candidates of the modern era – 2012 Elections – Salon.com

The GOP Presidential nominating process really is going to be a circus…

Or a freak show….

Your call…

Here is how Steve Kornacki at Salon.com calls it:

For respectable Republicans, the embarrassment potential may be at an all-time high. The party is a year away from picking its next presidential candidate and never in the modern era has it faced a vacuum like this.

Sure, the odds are still strong that the GOP will ultimately settle on a “harmless enough” general election candidate — someone sufficiently generic and inoffensive to ensure that the party doesn’t fall far below its natural level of support in the fall of 2012. But the road from here to the convention looks unusually — and, if you’re a Democrat, comically — rocky for Republicans.

The party’s base — which nominated several utterly unelectable candidates in several high-stakes Senate races last year — is in revolt, thirsting for purity and likely to accede to a Romney or Pawlenty nomination only with reluctance. Before then, it figures to be tempted by an atypically large collection of red meat-spouting long shots: Michele Bachman, Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, Rick Santorum, maybe even Sarah Palin or (why not?) Herman Cain — personally and politically polarizing extremists who validate a damaging stereotype of the Obama-era GOP. It’s not impossible that one of these ideologues will fare surprisingly well in one or more of the early nominating contests next year (most likely activist-dominated Iowa).

It is this possibility that makes 2012 potentially different from previous Republican contests, in which the party has generally — but not always — succeeded in keeping the embarrassments to a minimum. Here’s a look at the most embarrassing Republican candidates to be taken (at least somewhat) seriously by the media since 1980:

MORE:   Before Bachmann: The 5 craziest GOP candidates of the modern era – 2012 Elections – Salon.com.

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March 31, 2011 · 6:16 pm

GOP Presidential Candidates: An American Embarrassment

From Joe Klein at Time Magazine on the 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates:

This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party’s banner. They are the most compelling argument I’ve seen against American exceptionalism. Even Tim Pawlenty, a decent governor, can’t let a day go by without some bilious nonsense escaping his lizard brain. And, as Greg Sargent makes clear, Mitt Romney has wandered a long way from courage. There are those who say, cynically, if this is the dim-witted freak show the Republicans want to present in 2012, so be it. I disagree. One of them could get elected. You never know.

via American Embarrassment – Swampland – TIME.com.

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March 30, 2011 · 7:10 pm

Poll: Americans Cooling on Tea Party – POLITICO.com

I knew people would eventually get tire of these lunatics….

Now, if only the press will recognize and accurately report that they are just a fringe group of Republicans…

From Jennifer Epstein at Politico.com

 

The tea party might be running out of steam.

The approval rating for the 2-year-old movement fell to 32 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research corporation poll released Wednesday, the lowest it’s been since CNN first polled on the tea party in January 2010.

Forty-seven percent of Americans, meanwhile, said they have an unfavorable view of the movement, a higher negative percentage than ever. An additional 7 percent said they’d never heard of the movement, and 14 percent said they had no opinion.

In December, 37 percent of the sample surveyed by CNN said they view the tea party favorably, while 43 percent said they view it unfavorably. The group’s favorability rating hovered at36 percent to 38 percent throughout 2010.

The biggest drop in the tea party movement’s favorability came among people who make less than $50,000 a year. In October, 30 percent in that income group said they had unfavorable views of the tea party. Now, 45 percent say the same.

via Poll: Americans cooling on tea party – Jennifer Epstein – POLITICO.com.

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March 30, 2011 · 7:05 pm

Freshman GOP Congressman Duffy Complains About His Congressional Salary…

Poor guy…

Just can’t scrape by on $174,000 a year…

Like I’ve repeatedly said, these guys in Washington live in a different world…

Duffy was asked about his pay by a constituent who said he had taken a job as a bus driver when his work as a builder dried up, and that his wife – a schoolteacher – would be taking a pay cut under the state’s new budget plan.

“I have six children and I’ve gone for roughly seven months with six kids and no paycheck,” Duffy replied, referring to the period when he left his job as Ashland County district attorney during the 2010 election campaign. “It was worth it for me to do that. I believed in what I was doing.”

Duffy told listeners he had cut his congressional office budget and didn’t vote on his own salary — “I got there on Jan. 5” — and that his federal health care and pension benefits are not nearly as good as they were when he worked for the state of Wisconsin. He described state benefits as “gold-plated.”

“The benefits that were offered to me as a congressman don’t even compare to the benefits that you get as a state employee. I just experienced that myself. They’re not nearly as good,” said Duffy.

“But $174,000 — that’s … three times what I make,” said the constituent. Someone else at the listening session asked if Duffy would vote to cut his salary, according to a recording of the event.

“I have no problem (with that). Let’s have a movement afoot. I walked into the job six weeks ago … And I can guarantee you, or most of you — I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With six kids. I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I generally use a minivan … I’ve got one paycheck. So I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high on the hog,” said Duffy. “Can everyone do more with less? Absolutely.”

Democrats accused Duffy of griping about his salary. State Democratic chair Mike Tate said in a statement, “Poor Hollywood Sean Duffy. He only makes four times the median family income in Wisconsin.”

via House freshman Duffy tells constituents “he’s not living high on the hog” on congressional pay – JSOnline.

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March 29, 2011 · 8:09 pm

My Thoughts: Life’s Great Mysteries

Just some random wonderings….

  1. Why does Jennifer Anniston still have a career?  Or does she?  Why is she in the news constantly?  Has she ever had a hit movie?  Has she really done anything since that TV series went off the air years ago and Angelina stole her husband?
  2. Is Katherine Heigl the next Jennifer Anniston?
  3. Does anyone really think Tom Cruise and John Travolta are straight?  And who cares besides the Church of Scientology…
  4. Speaking of John Travolta, why do so many movie stars wear such obvious toupees?  Do they really think they are fooling anyone?
  5. Is Meryl Streep getting all those great roles for older women not just because she is a great actress, but because she is the only actress in Hollywood, over 30, who hasn’t had a facelift or been botoxed to death?
  6. Has anyone really ever heard  Britney Spears sing or is she just a mentally unstable dancing lip-stinker?
  7. Is there anything Anne Hathaway can’t do-besides host the Oscars?
  8. How did “Crash” beat “Brokeback Mountain” for the Best Picture Oscar?  Does anyone remember “Crash” besides the entire city of LA who was in it?  Oh, that’s how it won…
  9. Are there any young female “stars” today equal in style and mystique to Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly? Or in talent to Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep?  Why not?
  10. Who really cares about Lindsey Lohan?
  11. Does anyone really think Social Security is bad?
  12. Why don’t Democrats fight for their core beliefs and Republicans not have any?
  13. How come the Religious Right still supports Republican candidates who have had two or three marriages and cheated on their wives and husbands?
  14. Does anyone really think Corporations and the Rich should not pay taxes in proportion to their incomes?
  15. What ever happened to the social contract theory?
  16. Why do people wear flip-flops in New York City?
  17. How does Michelle Bachmann keep getting re-elected?
  18. Is watching Fox News a sign of or a cause of Alzheimer’s Disease?
  19. Why does anyone think their life is so important or interesting that they have to text their friends during a live theatrical performance?
  20. Do people really think lighted cell phones are invisible when texting in theatres and really don’t bother anyone?
  21. What makes anyone without a uterus think they have a voice in the abortion debate?
  22. Are commercials dumber and more crass now due to societal change or only because the smart people don’t watch TV anymore?
  23. Will television really be relevant in 10 years or will it be replaced by the internet.
  24. Will people give up the Internet because it has as many commercials as television?
  25. Why are pharmaceutical companies allowed to advertise controlled substances on TV?
  26. Does anyone really think, after all these years, we are winning the “war on drugs” by simply locking everyone up?
  27. Why aren’t there more white people in prison for financial crimes that wrecked the economy?
  28. If the Supreme Court thinks Corporations are people, then why aren’t they taxed at the individual tax rates and rules?
  29. Why does anyone believe anything any politician says anymore?
  30. Is Debbie Reynolds ever going to retire?

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March 29, 2011 · 7:02 pm

Democrats offer Boehner a lifeline to avoid tea party-forced shutdown

This is the most succinct summary of what’s going on regarding the budget I’ve seen…

The question is:  Is the Republican Leadership ready to act like adults and make a deal or are they going to play to their loud, angry and ignorant base…

I still fear most of these cuts are going to hurt the economy in the long run.

It can’t be said often enough:  You do not drastically cut the budget when the recovery is this fragile.  You need to focus on growing jobs…

Ask Herbert Hoover’s ghost- or FDR’s….

From DailyKos:

To recap, the issue here is that tea party Republicans in the House have made it clear they will not support any funding bill that does not include provisions such as a repeal of the health care reform law and a ban on family planning funding. Obviously, those are poison pill provisions; the Senate wouldn’t pass them, and even if it did, President Obama wouldn’t sign them into law.

Because the most recent stop-gap funding measure, which will keep government open until April 8, did not include those provisions, 54 tea-party Republicans voted against it in the House, forcing the GOP to rely on Democratic votes to prevent a government shutdown. (They needed 32, but got 85.)

Unless tea-party Republicans flip-flop, John Boehner is going to need Democratic votes to pass a funding bill that can pass the Senate and get President Obama’s signature, and Hoyer’s comments were designed to make it clear to Boehner that Democrats are ready and willing to achieve a bipartisan compromise to keep the country moving forward.

Boehner is facing enormous pressure from his party’s right-flank to refuse the Democratic offer for cooperation, even though that would force a government shutdown. Polls show that tea-party supporters are losing confidence in Congressional Republicans on budget issues and by significant margins favor a government shutdown. But while a majority of Boehner’s political base says they favor shutting down government for several weeks, nearly three-quarters of Americans say such a shutdown would be a bad thing.

So John Boehner needs to choose between satisfying his the extreme right of his party, or forging a compromise with Democrats to move forward. The choice is his. Whether or not we have a government shutdown is entirely up to him.

via Daily Kos: Democrats offer Boehner a lifeline to avoid tea party-forced shutdown.

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