Monday, August 08, 2011
All Tyrants Will Fall
Plato and Aristotle define a tyrant as, “one who rules without law, looks to his own advantage rather than that of his subjects, and uses extreme and cruel tactics — against his own people as well as others”
Krugman: A Must Read
Krugman: A Must Read
“To understand the furor over the decision by Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency, to downgrade U.S. government debt, you have to hold in your mind two seemingly (but not actually) contradictory ideas. The first is that America is indeed no longer the stable, reliable country it once was. The second is that S.& P. itself has even lower credibility; it’s the last place anyone should turn for judgments about our nation’s prospects.
Let’s start with S.& P.’s lack of credibility. If there’s a single word that best describes the rating agency’s decision to downgrade America, it’s chutzpah — traditionally defined by the example of the young man who kills his parents, then pleads for mercy because he’s an orphan.
America’s large budget deficit is, after all, primarily the result of the economic slump that followed the 2008 financial crisis. And S.& P., along with its sister rating agencies, played a major role in causing that crisis, by giving AAA ratings to mortgage-backed assets that have since turned into toxic waste.
Nor did the bad judgment stop there. Notoriously, S.& P. gave Lehman Brothers, whose collapse triggered a global panic, an A rating right up to the month of its demise. And how did the rating agency react after this A-rated firm went bankrupt? By issuing a report denying that it had done anything wrong.”
Paul Krugman, NYT
(Source: The New York Times)
"No, what makes America look unreliable isn’t budget math, it’s politics. And please, let’s not have the usual declarations that both sides are at fault. Our problems are almost entirely one-sided — specifically, they’re caused by the rise of an extremist right that is prepared to create repeated crises rather than give an inch on its demands."
Saturday, August 06, 2011
A Timeline In Real Facts Regarding Debt
Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?
1980: Ronald Reagan runs for president, promising a balanced budget
1981 - 1989: With support from congressional Republicans, Reagan runs enormous deficits, adds $2 trillion to the debt.
1993: Bill Clinton passes economic plan that lowers deficit, gets zero votes from congressional Republicans.
1998: U.S. deficit disappears for the first time in three decades. Debt clock is unplugged.
2000: George W. Bush runs for president, promising to maintain a balanced budget.
2001: CBO shows the United States is on track to pay off the entirety of its national debt within a decade.
2001 - 2009: With support from congressional Republicans, Bush runs enormous deficits, adds nearly $5 trillion to the debt.
2002: Dick Cheney declares, “Deficits don’t matter.” Congressional Republicans agree, approving tax cuts, two wars, and Medicare expansion without even trying to pay for them.
2009: Barack Obama inherits $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush; Republicans immediately condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.
2009: Congressional Democrats unveil several domestic policy initiatives — including health care reform, cap and trade, DREAM Act — which would lower the deficit. GOP opposes all of them, while continuing to push for deficit reduction.
September 2010: In Obama’s first fiscal year, the deficit shrinks by $122 billion. Republicans again condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.
October 2010: S&P endorses the nation’s AAA rating with a stable outlook, saying the United States looks to be in solid fiscal shape for the foreseeable future.
November 2010: Republicans win a U.S. House majority, citing the need for fiscal responsibility.
December 2010: Congressional Republicans demand extension of Bush tax cuts, relying entirely on deficit financing. GOP continues to accuse Obama of fiscal irresponsibility.
March 2011: Congressional Republicans declare intention to hold full faith and credit of the United States hostage — a move without precedent in American history — until massive debt-reduction plan is approved.
July 2011: Obama offers Republicans a $4 trillion debt-reduction deal. GOP refuses, pushes debt-ceiling standoff until the last possible day, rattling international markets.
August 2011: S&P downgrades U.S. debt, citing GOP refusal to consider new revenues. Republicans rejoice and blame Obama for fiscal irresponsibility.
There have been several instances since the mid 1990s in which I genuinely believed Republican politics couldn’t possibly get more blisteringly ridiculous. I was wrong; they just keep getting worse.
#2012RecallRepublicans
The Damage Done: #2012RecallRepublicans
We have a dysfunctional element in our Congress. While America strives to “form a more perfect Union”, the Tea Party is out to dismantle the social safety net, default on our Country’s obligations, and pathologically create a crisis where there is none in order to “ransom” a “hostage” that is our Government, which is “we the people”.
Never forget. #2012RecallRepublicans
Friday, August 05, 2011
212 Days and Counting
You can count on the GOP never addressing jobs because you can't make a job with a cut.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Capitalism Crushes Us All
Too many tax breaks for Big Oil and “Too Big To Fail” Banks. Unregulated Wall St gambled toxic mortgages and defrauded the world.
We make our own crisis. Now the Right Wing creates political crisis.
We need some changes. Allow Government to negotiate drug prices. End the wars. Tax the wealthy. Recall Republicans.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
GOP Class Warfare
If we stop spending as opposed to raising revenue through borrowing or taxes, only the poor and elderly will pay the price and that is a great outcome for those rich enough to not require government services. See?
And all that money we borrowed up to now, it didn’t just disappear. It’s in the coffers of the rich.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Obama's Accomplishments In A Time Of Right Wing Extremism
Obama’s Accomplishments In A Time Of Right Wing Extremism
A little reminder of some of Obama’s accomplishments in Congress during 2009 and 2010 in the face of unrelenting opposition from the GOP:
- Health care reform (which Democrats have been trying to pass since Truman in 1948 and Teddy Roosevelt proposed in 1911)
- Financial reform (written in part by Barney Frank with Elizabeth Warren forming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
- DADT repeal
- Obama saving approximately 4 million jobs in manufacturing industries by forcing GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and within 6 weeks resurrecting them with union representation on the board (taxpayers are on track to make money on that one and GM has hired back just about everybody laid off in 2009)
- making sure all the TARP money is paid back and recycling it back it into the economy (with $26 billion in profit so far to the American taxpayer, raise your hand if you think George Bush would have pulled that off, or even tried)
- 2 more women on the Supreme Court
- the Lilly Ledbetter Act
- more private sector jobs created in 2010 than in the entire 8 years of the Bush administration
- expansion of: Medicaid, mental health care for veterans, and Pell Grants
- the Recovery Act which by itself is the single biggest accomplishment by a Democratic president since FDR (not my opinion - Rachel Maddow’s)
- the START treaty
- and in general dragging us back from the brink of another Great Depression,
- hmmm…what am I missing? Oh yeah Obama got Osama bin Laden.
Some things Obama has done by presidential fiat:
- raised fuel efficiency standards
- removed Bush ban on embryonic stem cell research
- provided federal benefits for same sex couples by executive action.
- The new food safety law so you don’t buy poison eggs, spinach etc.
- Monday July 11, 2011 the Obama Administration announced that it would require gun dealers in states bordering Mexico to report to law enforcement multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles.
Imagine what more could be done with a Democratic House and a filibuster proof Senate. Recall all Republicans and Tea Baggers.
We need to pass this info along to all the disgruntled people who say they’ll sit out 2012.
Parity is gone from politics. The two parties are no longer equal. #obama2012
Friday, July 22, 2011
NYC Set To Break Records As Gay Marriage Legalization Starts Sunday
NYC Set To Break Records As Gay Marriage Legalization Goes Into Effect On Sunday
NYC bakers better start whippin’ up fondant. Florists, you’d best stock up on lilies, because let me tell you: this weekend is gonna be busy for the dearly beloved.
The City Clerk Office is prepped to marry 764 couples this coming Sunday as New York’s Marriage Equality Act takes effect — and ceremonies are in such high demand that it’ll take a winning lottery ticket to make the Day One cut.
Add that excitement to last night’s announcement that the Pentagon is set to repeal the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in the military, and it’s a particularly good weekend for LGBT rights progress.
Six down (Iowa, New Hampshire, Massachussets, Connecticut, Vermont and New York), 44 to go.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Doubling Down On St. Norquist, The Patron Saint Of Starving Economies
Republicans followed Norquist and created the debt problem we have by cutting taxes too low. Now they want to double down and follow this unelected lobbyist again.
Imagine if every Democrat signed an oath with George Soros or Al Gore and were willing to put the global economy in the tank, do you think it would have the same coverage in the media?
I, pledge allegiance, to Grover Norquist...
Republicans are so afraid to upset Grover Norquist, they are willing to put the entire economy and global markets into chaos to protect the failed Bush tax cuts for the richest 1%.
The GOP pledges their allegiance, not to a flag or a Republic or a Nation, but to special interests and corporate profits.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
We Have A Revenue Problem
"Republicans assume, and expect everyone else to assume, that the government is bringing in plenty of money to meet its needs. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) went so far as to tell a national television audience this week, “Four of the last five years, we’ve had record levels of revenue.”
It’s important to understand how very wrong Republicans are about this. Federal revenues have dropped to 15% — a 50-year low. To bring the federal budget closer to balance, we’d expect to see this number around 19%. Given the fact that we’re fighting at least two wars and dealing with the aftermath of a brutal recession, all while worrying about deficit reduction, the fact that the right sees 15% as too high is insane."
We have a revenue problem. FACT
Republicans are completely and willfully wrong on this matter. FACT
Friday, July 15, 2011
Why Did Bachmann Quit Her Church?
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) "has long been a darling of conservative evangelicals, but shortly before announcing her White House bid she officially quit a church she'd belonged to for years," CNN reports.Bachmann was asked about her status with the church at the airport, but an aide "quickly hustled her away, noting they were late for a flight."
The Bachmann campaign declined to immediately respond to a request for further comment.
However, Jack Kilcrease notes she quit her church earlier this year when learning that her church taught that "the office of the Papacy is the Antichrist."
I'm sure Catholic Conservatives will have no problem with this. They gave Palin a free pass.
