Setting a bar that shouldn't be set

A line in an Adam Sorenson post over at Time magazine's "Swampland" blog got me thinking:

But Obama needs to ignite a fire under the recovery (or his base) to get re-elected.

Nope.

Obama can't let this be about whether or not we are officially into a recovery or not...it's a high bar to have to clear (similar to predicting what the future unemployment rate will be) and there's small chance that more than a few of last night's proposals will make it past the House anyway.

He needs to run against the people who don't want an American economic recovery to happen on his watch.

He needs needs to run against the people who don't want their fellow Americans to have jobs that earn a living wage or that don't want to pay for modernization or education or clean air and water or other things that a first-class country should value having and actually pay to have.

Run that campaign - and actually try to pass that agenda - and Obama will fire up more than just his base.

Points of Interest 08/26/2011

Reads:

They got some big vultures down in Texas.

...the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live.Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation.

"What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber"

"The laws of physics don’t take any notice of what is going in Congress. They're not subject to repeal or amendment."

While Granger’s committee was slicing funding for international climate projects, Mack was trying to make even deeper cuts. The Florida representative tried to zero out the entire $1.3 billion the president requested for international climate efforts in the 2012 budget. But because his committee didn’t have jurisdiction over the entire amount, he settled for chopping $650 million in funding that his committee does control.

"What it means is that about one out of five civil conflicts since 1950 were in some way influenced by El Nino."

"It's a good thing that the government helps, but if employers paid enough and gave enough hours, then we wouldn't need to be on food stamps."

"When we think about the trade-offs between inflation and unemployment it is important to remember..."

...that the tens of millions of people who are unemployed or underemployed today did not do anything wrong. It was people like Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke who messed up. And of course other actors in national policy debates, who were too obsessed with budget deficits to notice an $8 trillion housing bubble did not help either.

“There is an appropriate federal role in incidents like this,” Cantor said."

That role? The bare minimum. According to Cantor, Congress’s traditional practice of providing disaster relief without strings attached — a policy its followed for years — is going way beyond the call of duty. If Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) asks for federal aid, Cantor insists that the relief be offset elsewhere in the federal budget.

"...members of Congress have got to start realizing that complaining about a $174,000 annual salary..."

...sounds ridiculous to the vast majority of Americans. Southerland went on to complain about all “the hours” that he works, but this tone-deaf whining hardly makes the complaints any better — he’s a member of Congress who is well compensated for his long hours. He knew that when he sought that job, and instead of whining, Southerland should thank his constituents for the privilege.

"How Chase Ruined Lives of People Who Paid Off Their Mortgages"

"It's no surprise that liberal Democrats increasingly want Obama to fight back against Republicans..."

...but that's not the real story here. The biggest shifts in attitude have come from the center. Take a look at the circled parts of the table: the entire middle of the political spectrum — liberal Republicans, independents, and conservative Democrats — is speaking pretty loudly here. They want Obama to fight back harder against the shouters in the tea party wing of the GOP.

Watch:

Just a wee bit uncomfortable answering the questions.




Politics aside, Bill O'Reilly is about the worst interviewer/host on the teevee.

Points of Interest 08/25/2011

Reads:

Who's really funding these 'SuperPACs'?

According to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, all liberal super PACs have raised a combined $7.61 million during the first half of 2011 -- with more than 80 percent of their money coming from 23 donors. [...]

Meanwhile, conservative super PACs have collected $17.61 million so far -- with more than 80 percent of their money coming from 35 donors.

An alternate perspective on the collapse of Gaddafi's regime.

A veteran of the wars of the former Yugoslavia, he had been hired by the Gaddafi regime to help fight the rebels and, later, NATO. "Discipline was bad, and they were too stupid to learn anything. But things were O.K. until the air strikes commenced. The other side was equally bad, if not worse. [Muammar] Gaddafi would have smashed the rebels had the West not intervened."

"You know, nothing says '21st century global superpower' like schools turning to sheep because they can’t afford lawnmowers."*

"Did the stimulus work? A review of the nine best studies on the subject"

I guess it's a good thing I'm on a diet.

WCBD? (What Could Bernake Do?) Fourteen alternatives to another round of quantitative easing.

There are apparently other ideas under consideration...

...but the refinancing approach, the details of which still need to be worked out, would have the biggest bang for the buck: homeowners, many of whom are currently under water, would stand to save $85 billion. They’d still have a mortgage payment to make, but they’d find it easier to afford and would have more money to spend on other things.

"Now what do you suppose it means that BoA’s surrogates have gotten so angry and panicked and..."

...well, dickish, as Schneiderman continues to insist on actually looking at BoA’s books before making a settlement with them? And do you really think it’s a coinkydink that increasing numbers of Wall Street vultures are raising doubts about what’s in those books at precisely the time Obama’s surrogates are increasing pressure on Schneiderman to drop the legal efforts to do so?

"Braxton County West Virginia (160 miles from Mineral) has experienced a rash of freak earthquakes..."

...(eight in 2010) since fracking operations started there several years ago. According to geologists fracking also caused an outbreak of thousands of minor earthquakes in Arkansas (as many as two dozen in a single day). It's also linked to freak earthquakes in Texas, western New York, Oklahoma and Blackpool, England (which had never recorded an earthquake before).

"This is all about protecting the banks from future enforcement actions on both the civil and criminal sides."

The plan is to provide year-after-year, repeat-offending banks like Bank of America with cost certainty, so that they know exactly how much they’ll have to pay in fines (trust me, it will end up being a tiny fraction of what they made off the fraudulent practices) and will also get to know for sure that there are no more criminal investigations in the pipeline.

*now, it's not a bad idea for environmental reasons, but I agree with the larger point that Americans are not doing right when it comes to emphasizing (and paying for) education.

Points of Interest 08/24/2011

Reads:

"American Politics More Religious Than American Voters"

"New-student enrollments have plunged—in some cases by more than 45%—in recent months..."

...reflecting two factors: Companies have pulled back on aggressive recruiting practices amid criticism over their high student-loan default rates. And many would-be students are questioning the potential pay-off for degrees that can cost considerably more than what's available at local community colleges.

"It is likely that President Obama blames the recession for the rise in the deficit because it happens to be true."

"More importantly, why are Democrats still lining up behind Rhee?"

She could possibly be one of the most divisive forces in the Democratic party today. Between her cozy relationships with the ultra-right wing "reformers," and her push to bust unions, it makes no sense at all.

The Rhee post also contains a link to a comment by education activist Marion Brady, which is well worth a link of its own.

What is this Keystone XL pipeline all about, anyway?

"The Krugman Google+ Saga: Or, Why Fact-Checking is Important"

"Inherent in Schneiderman’s warnings was an implication that officials negotiating the current deal are willing to give away too much..."

...a suggestion that those involved in the talks describe as inaccurate and infuriating. Several people familiar with the talks said those at the negotiating table have never considered granting banks immunity from claims related to the securitization process, nor have they sought to prevent Schneiderman and others from pursuing broader investigations into other issues, such as securitization, fair housing claims and criminal fraud.

"Raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67 from 65 would cost states and private payers about twice as much as it would save the federal government."

Ron Paul forgets that media focus isn't always a good thing.

"Still, it’s worth adding one overlooked point to all this fact-checking."

It’s not just that Perry’s wrong. In many ways, the field of climate science is moving in precisely the opposite direction that he’s suggesting.

"First, because a serious scientist has been vilified, without basis, mainly because his work bears on current politics."

"Oh, never mind" clearance from charges rarely gets as much publicity as the original charges themselves. The fact that every scientific body examining Mann's behavior has exonerated him deserves publicity and emphasis.

"Michele Bachmann, as president of the United States, could keep her promise of lowering the price of gasoline. What voters must ask themselves is: 'What will that cost me?'"

"Anyone who thought former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold was quitting politics with his announcement that he would not run for office in 2012..."

...missed the point of the Wisconsin Democrat's decision. Feingold was not abandoning the fight for progressive values, he was signaling his determination to carry that fight forward as a citizen activist who promises to be a thorn in the side of the political elites of both parties.

Points of Interest 08/23/2011

Reads:

Kings in everymans clothing.

It’s not hard to guess what these people see in Tea Party politics. Here is a movement united around an unfailing support of tax cuts for people like them, at a time in which poll after poll (23 polls, by one count) reveals the American electorate to be united by unprecedentedly broad-based support for doing the opposite. But there also more specific interests at play: the wealthier freshmen generally made their livelihoods in one of three economic sectors—health care/insurance, real estate and energy—whose profit margins not too long ago appeared particularly vulnerable to Obama’s policy goals.

"With its handling of an ongoing spill in the North Sea..."

...it would seem oil multinational Shell has not absorbed the lesson of BP’s 2010 catastrophe. Small compared to last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill, the Shell leak is nevertheless the worst for the North Sea in over a decade.

A news channel should have enough allotted in the budget for news coverage. dontcha think?

Mike Konczal over at Rortybomb has a good wrap-up of the whole Administration versus AG battle over mortgage fraud investigations.

"Top Ten Myths About the Libyan War"

"This is, to put it mildly, a heartening development, for which President Obama and his team deserve a lot of credit."

Deportations will continue for those who commit felonies and those considered security threats, but DHS and the Justice Department will review existing cases and will “halt deportations of longtime residents with clean police records who came here illegally when they were children, or are close family of military service members, or are parents or spouses of American citizens.”

"(Tax)Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are (tax)free at last!"

"The point is that there is objectively a lot not to like about Bank of America."

And now that investors have decided to start thinking critically, as opposed to blindly accepting bank equity as the faith-based paper that it is, one shouldn’t be surprised that they are getting cold feet. And the fact that the authorities have undermined the limited value of bank balance sheets via allowing all sorts of rosy accounting treatments is a self inflicted wound.

"But apparently President Obama feels that these people need to make greater sacrifices."

For an average retiree who can expect to get benefits for 20 years, President Obama's plan would cut their lifetime Social Security benefits by roughly 3 percent. By comparison, his much feared tax increases on the rich would reduce the after-tax income of someone earning $300,000 a year by just 0.5 percent. In this case, a beneficiary who will be mostly dependent on their Social Security income in retirement will take about six times as large a hit relative to their income under President Obama's plan to cut Social Security than a couple earning $300,000 would from his plan to raise their taxes.

This cut to Social Security seems especially inappropriate since the near retirees who would feel the full impact of this cut have just seen most of their wealth destroyed by the collapse of the housing bubble and the plunge in the stock market. The typical near retiree (ages 55-64) has just $170,000 in net wealth, including the equity in their home.

This means that if they used every last penny in their 401(k) and other savings, they would have just about enough money to pay off the mortgage on a typical home. This would leave them 100 percent dependent on Social Security for their income. And of course, half of near retirees have less than this amount, meaning that they will not even be able to pay off the mortgage on a typical home.

"A delay of just 10 days in renewing the tax would mean the permanent loss of $1 billion in highway funding..."

...(and layoffs for thousands of workers). Longer delays would measurably increase the national unemployment rate. [...]

Incredibly, the system of highway financing championed by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower six decades ago is a target for today’s Tea Party-influenced Republicans.

"Edmund Phelps, a Colombia University professor who won the prize in 2006 for his theory on growth..."

...says that during the past decades the West has lived above its means and in so doing has already consumed part of its future. That means that the United States, but also Europe now face a long period of stagnation.

Phelps says the West has to pay for the mistakes of the past, but if it can get back on track rapidly, recovery can start that much faster and the mistakes will take less of a toll. He considers the political system to be the greatest problem. In the United States, political parties are busy putting spokes in each others’ wheels, while leaders in Europe have managed to create a system of perverted incentives with banks and insurers having to hold government bonds and governments exceeding agreed-on debt ceilings. Phelps says politicians need to show both more courage and a greater sense of responsibility, facing the fact that they are going to have to be the bearers of bad news -- such as tax hikes -- to their citizens.

Points of Interest 08/22/2011

Reads:

"Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s unprecedented effort to keep the economy from plunging into depression..."

...included lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress.

“One may ask how it is possible that Japan, after its experience with the atomic bombings..."

...could allow itself to draw so heavily on the same nuclear technology for the manufacture of about a third of its energy. There was resistance, much of it from Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. But there was also a pattern of denial, cover-up and cozy bureaucratic collusion between industry and government, the last especially notorious in Japan but by no means limited to that country.

"At a time of harsh austerity, high unemployment and a recession that never ended for most people, workers on the picket line at Verizon pointed to the company’s flagrant greed and union-busting."

While it made $10 billion in profits last year and paid its top five executives $258 million over the last four years, Verizon hasn’t paid a dime in federal income taxes in two years. In fact, it received a $1.3 billion federal tax rebate for 2010.

Despite its success, the company has cried poverty and is seeking big concessions from workers, including massive cuts to health benefits, pensions, job security protections and sick days. Striking workers had the advantage of wide public support—including solidarity pickets far beyond the East Coast—as they highlighted these facts about Verizon’s hypocrisy and anti-worker attacks. Having ended the strike prematurely, however, many workers feel union leaders have squandered that crucial advantage.

Considering things like this, I'm entirely comfortable questioning the impact a candidate's religious beliefs has on their approach to governance.

"A clash between these two newly created legal entities — children and corporations — was, perhaps, inevitable."

Century-of-the-child reformers sought to resolve conflicts in favor of children. But over the last 30 years there has been a dramatic reversal: corporate interests now prevail. Deregulation, privatization, weak enforcement of existing regulations and legal and political resistance to new regulations have eroded our ability, as a society, to protect children.

"The Big Three are well aware that their fates rest, in part, on the outcome of this SEC study, due out next year."

And the S&P's recent downgrade may well have been the industry's shot across the bow, an attempt to intimidate SEC regulators. It appears that the rating agencies have essentially gone from being recipients of bribery to the perpetrators of extortion.

When the Big Three's house of cards finally collapsed, the rest of America paid the price. Until we rein in the corruption of the credit rating agency industry, we are just asking for it to happen all over again.

“Texas politics does have this amazing pay-to-play culture...”

"If you're a moderate Republican in West Bend, you're a liberal..."


Watch:

"“Bank of America. We’ll help you out...”



Only about the Benjamins.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Points of Interest 07/01/2011

Plenty to carry us through the weekend...

First, sign the petition. Over 90,000 other people have to this point. #SharedSacrifice

Read:

US trade agreements may lead to filling North Korean coffers...

"But let’s do the math here. The US government estimates that the North Koreans are 5 years and $200 million away from having nuclear capacity. I understand why KORUS would benefit the mega corporations that use the Chamber of Commerce as their front, the ones that hope to profiteer off of “slave labor” in Kaesong. But how exactly is it good for the American people to allow North Korea access to US markets? I just don’t see the upside to offshoring jobs, increasing the trade deficit and writing a check to North Korea to spend on nukes."

...Not to mention the billions in trade deficits thousands of jobs lost.

"The court cannot maintain its legitimacy as guardian of the rule of law when justices behave like politicians."

"The justices must address doubts about the court’s legitimacy by making themselves accountable to the code of conduct. That would make their rulings more likely to be seen as separate from politics and, as a result, convincing as law."

"But despite the fact that this is all recent history, it's treated like some kind of dreamscape."

"No one talks about it. Republicans pretend it never happened. Fox News insists that what we need is an even bigger dose of the medicine we got in the aughts, and this is, inexplicably, treated seriously by the rest of the press corps instead of being laughed at."

"Even for Romney, who’s flip-flopped more often and on more issues than any American politician in a generation..."

"...this is ridiculous. He’s argued repeatedly that Obama made the economy worse, and when asked to defend the bogus claim, says he never made the argument in the first place."

And speaking of those who refuse to admit when they were wrong...

"What’s remarkable, however, is that with the error pointed out, Heritage is digging in its heels and acting snide at those of us who are trying to point out the truth."

"So what would be the penalty for disobeying that order? Nothing, it turns out."

"They are too close to industry, concealing problems, rather than revealing and dealing with them."

"The lease deals are arranged between seemingly corrupt African leaders..."

"...reportedly without disclosing the details to the members of the communities that will be displaced because of the land development, and investors such as hedge fund managers."

A sensible 2012 budget that eliminates the deficit in 10 years.

"However, a growing number of climate scientists are now prepared to adopt a far more aggressive posture..."

"...arguing that the climate has already changed enough for it to be affecting the probability of an extreme weather event, whether it is an intense hurricane, a major flood or a devasating drought."

2010: The warmest year on record.

The 2050 Census.

Watch:

"Requiem for a Rodeo Clown."



For fun, because this was what I grew up with in a pre-CGI world.

Points of Interest 06/30/2011

Reads:

The Village takes a vacation.

"The best thing the organizers could do to solve America's most pressing problems would probably be to encase the city of Aspen in an impenetrable dome on the last day of the festival, trapping all participants and attendees inside, forever."

Our debate, growing more stupid by the day.

Needed 231,000, got nearly 1.3 million.

Bachmann: Cease and desist, pert deux.

"So once again, just like in the government shutdown debate..."

"...Obama and the Democrats are fighting to get what the Republicans and the right-wing economic think tanks originally proposed they should do, and the GOP just keeps walking the goalposts to the right. If this comes down to the constitutional option, I hope everyone remembers that the Democrats have actually proposed doing exactly what the Republicans and the right-wing economists originally asked for."

"Not since the Gilded Age has a Supreme Court been so determined to strengthen the hand of corporations and the wealthy."

A well-oiled War Machine.

I like Campaign Obama better then Pragmatic Governance Obama.

Highlighed on Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word feature last night, this editorial from middle America is on point regarding today's GOP.

"It's sad to see what has happened to the Party of Lincoln, and for that matter, the party of lesser mortals like George H.W. Bush of Texas, Bob Dole of Kansas and Jack Danforth of Missouri. No one ever would mistake them for liberals, but they were statesmen who put country before party.

Today we have the spectacle of smart, patriotic men and women putting their brains and integrity on ice to please a party dominated by anti-intellectual social Darwinists and the plutocrats who finance and mislead them."

“These risks,” the IMF said, “would also have significant global repercussions, given the central role of U.S. Treasury bonds in world financial markets.”

Chris Christie's 'successes' in New Jersey might be a lesson on how the pursuit of political power can make a party blind to the bigger picture.

"Halperin’s choice of words pales in comparison..."

"...to the fact that he’s offended by the president’s mild rebuke of political recklessness the likes of which American hasn’t seen in generations."

(Legitimately) slacking off, Senate bipartisanship edition.

"In every instance, conservative rulings received more coverage, longer articles, and better placement."

Points of Interest 06/29/2011

If you haven't already, sign it. At this time, over 73,000 others have. #sharedsacrifice

Reads:

"It's cheaper to fire a couple of workers then let a union vote succeed."

"Somalia has slightly higher standards than Wyoming and Nevada."

"A corporation is a legal person created by state statute that can be used as a fall guy, a servant, a good friend or a decoy," the company's website boasts. "A person you control... yet cannot be held accountable for its actions. Imagine the possibilities!"

Most fathers love their sons and will do anything for them.

"Interviews with a number of sources close to the Huntsmans reveal a powerful, ambitious father who has played a significant role in his son’s political rise at every turn—leaning on contacts, calling in favors, and, in several cases, lashing out at those he feels have slighted Jon Jr."

Once upon a time, we did work like this.

"And then there's the talk and opinion shows which no one ever pretends are news and factual."

"More than half of New Jersey residents say they wouldn’t back Governor Chris Christie for a second term..."

"...disapproving of his choices on a range of policy and personal issues, from killing a commuter tunnel to using a state-police helicopter to attend his son’s baseball game."

Simple: No Congressional recess, no recess appointments. Result: More obstructionism.

For your reading pleasure, I give you the Quadruple Bachmann:

• Cease and desist, American Girl.
• Where better to get fake history than from a fake historian?
• Both lying and demonstrating hypocrisy in one single statement.
• "Michele Bachmann, for example, has argued that eliminating the minimum wage would eliminate unemployment entirely."

Yeah, me too.

"Republicans are actively opposed to any ideas, even their own, that might help give the economy a boost. They are, however, equally enthused in support of ideas that are likely to hold the economy back.

I wonder why that is."

Pictures:

Some things are fail no matter where you are from, and they must be mocked. (via)

Points of Interest 6/28/2011

Sign it, already. #sharedsacrifice

Reads:

Almost a regular Joe.

"The debate between shrill free traders and strident protectionists has become utterly irrelevant."

"In-market production or national champions? This is the kind of debate we should be having -- not the tired old debate between academic free traders and nostalgic protectionists. It is certain that transnational production, in some form, is here to stay -- and it is just as certain that nation-states, democratic or otherwise, will use their power to shape the pattern of transitional production by global corporations to advance their own domestic and foreign policy goals, at the expense of the free market, if necessary."

"A line has to be drawn somewhere; it should have been drawn last fall; but to concede now would effectively mean the end of the presidency."

"Indeed, in Texas’ case..."

"...Republicans have dominated state government for years, and never felt the need to cut off Planned Parenthood. The preventive health care organization hasn’t changed; its mission hasn’t changed; and its menu of health services hasn’t changed. The only thing that has changed is the radicalism of Republican Party."

"That's why they don't want state insurance commissioners having any more regulatory authority than they currently do, which is really precious little."

"In fact, access to justice – like access to elected office, let alone a pundit's perch – is becoming a perk just for the rich and powerful."

"America's unique hatred of finance reform."

"A lot of sunlight hits tall office buildings, only to go to waste."

"Relative to national economic trends, states that increased spending enjoyed on average:

• 0.2 percentage point decrease in the unemployment rate
• 1.4 percent increase in private employment
• 0.5 percent real economic growth since the start of the recession

In contrast, states that cut spending saw on average

• 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate
• 2.1 percent loss of private employment
• 2.9 percent real economic contraction relative to the national economic trend"

"In fact, they are just as wrong about this as they are about the relationship between marginal tax rates and overall economic growth."

"In the past 60 years, job growth has actually been greater in years when the top income tax rate was much higher than it is now."

"...the congressional GOP has decided it’s against their own ideas about helping the economy, which necessarily raises some awkward questions about their motivations."

"Again, what we’re seeing here are the limits of fact-checking..."

"...something we rediscover every cycle. Candidates, party committees and outside groups make false claims. Media fact-checkers go to work and debunk the claims. The candidates and groups go right on making them anyway. Reporters stop pointing out that they’re false."

Points of interest 06/27/2011

Of prime note - we celebrated grape_wifey's birthday over the weekend. Happy birthday, honey. I love both you and the fact that you'll always be younger than me.

Reads:

"Nearly 10 percent of the world’s adults have diabetes, and the prevalence of the disease is rising rapidly."

"It really feels like the only job category showing growth in America right now is the "scams" category."

“You know, it’s bad enough trying to find 29 people..."

"...you don’t need to have 40 more to look for…They just had a major explosion. They could’ve killed every one of us … We were expendable that night, that’s my opinion … they didn’t care what they did with us.”

"[NJ Governor Chris Christie] appears to be fine with cutting back on education..."

"...and social spending out of supposed concerns for cost and is willing to deride public media as a relic of the Soviet Union, but does not seem to have the same qualms about subsidizing a giant corporate mall."

"A 30-year war for energy preeminence?"

God, I'm tired of political ads that flat-out lie.

A month later, fully employed, King appeared in a Romney ad, blaming the president for the fact that “no one is going to hire” him and he “can’t get a job.” He even told Facebook friends, the day after the filming, “Off to work for the day.”

"Inside Nancy Pelosi’s drive to win the House majority back for Democrats."

"But we could also be talking about 1991..."

"...when the consequences of vast, loan-financed overbuilding of commercial real estate in the 1980s came home to roost, helping to cause the collapse of the junk-bond market and putting many banks—Citibank, in particular—at risk."

"Has 'too big to fail' transformed into 'too big to challenge?'"

"Flake," idiot, lunatic, right-wing extremist...and now "Gay Rapist Clown Serial Killer."

"Economists have known for many years that many tax cuts are nothing more than spending by another name."

"They call such things “tax expenditures” and there are about $1 trillion worth in the tax code. Getting rid of many of them would have exactly the same economic benefits as reducing on-budget subsidies. Nevertheless, Republicans oppose eliminating tax expenditures unless other taxes are cut because any net tax increase would depress growth. The historical evidence, however, does not necessarily support this view."

Pictures:

Actual news headlines versus Fox News headlines.

Points of Interest 6/24/2011

Lots of stuff to carry us through the weekend....

Reads:

"The secretary-general of the Apparel Industry of Shenzhen, Shen Yongfang, said..."

"...the region’s garment export industry used to sell more than 100 billion dollars worth of goods per year. Now, at the best, it can generate just a few billion."

Record flood season continues. (with pictures)

Irony, Israeli edition.

Shimon Peres is a skeptic about foreign aid: "Giving is problematic. We take money from poor people in rich countries and give it to rich people in poor countries. Aid sometimes creates corruption."

They're hoping that if they push that meme hard enough, it will take hold.

As "fruitless" as going after Clarence Thomas may be, there still might be some good that comes out of doing it.

Meet the real-world effects of denying Planned Parenthood the Medicaid funds necessary to treat low-income residents of Indiana.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Dumbass) and his latest dumbassery. (with video, just forward to the 2:55 mark)



And here I thought there wasn't any more room in the GOP primary clown car.

Singin' | go on | take the money and run

A report by China’s central bank found that thousands of Chinese government officials have smuggled billions out of the country and fled, mainly to the U.S., highlights "the corruption within a corrupt system".

"Government red tape" and "burdensome regulations" are bad, at least up until they can be used to promote a right-wing agenda.

Credit reporting system found flawed and subject to "mission creep": credit information being used for purposes other than lending.

"He put $9 million of his own money into the campaign, and then he has the company pay him back shortly after the election..."


Watch:



The fun part of this is that the kids were just as enthusiastic about being in a limousine as they were to meet the President.

Points of Interest 6/23/2011

Reads:

"The conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power has attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false."

"It's also the ultimate 'green' way to create electricity because it uses waste heat to create electricity with no carbon dioxide."

I hear slave labor is really cheap. Why don't businesses use that?

Money can buy you a more agreeable Dick.

But there’s one other problem with his critique. As a long-time proponent of controlling health care costs, Gephardt has supported greater government intervention in the health sector and in 1994 proposed empowering the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish “target rates of growth” for health costs that included the private sector (thus going further than the IPAB).

"Nurses are calling for a change in priorities because they have seen enough and want to stop the bleeding now."

"She's trying to look like June Cleaver..."

...but she actually looks like the T2 skeleton posing for a passport photo. You will want to laugh, but don't, because the secret of Bachmann's success is that every time you laugh at her, she gets stronger.

"Indeed, choosing a leader of the free world from the ranks of those who sport a self-serving incuriosity is a habit, like crash landings and cock-fights, best cultivated in strict moderation."

On the road again. Maybe. Not to Sudan. Also. Too.

Banksters and slumlords.

"Once a household or nation is burdened with stupendous debt loads and stagnating earnings, 'growing your way out of debt' is impossible."

Points of Interest 06/22/2011

Reads:

"My first choice is a strong consumer agency. My second choice is no agency at all and plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor."

Bachmann and other GOPers may be using taxpayer money to support Tea Party activities.

The money came from the Members' taxpayer-funded office accounts, despite House rules prohibiting the use of these funds for political activities. Bachmann's office insists the expense was a proper use of official funds.

Whistling past the submerged graveyard.

According to the authors, we are "at high risk for entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history." It's not just about overfishing or marine pollution or even climate change. It's all of those destructive factors working cumulatively and occurring much more rapidly than scientists had expected.

9/11, for fun and profit.

And Grassfire Nation is a company -- not a political action committee devoted to promoting conservative causes or candidates. It is a division of an Iowa company, Grassroots Action, which calls itself "the leader in building custom conservative action networks for organizations seeking to expand their impact through the Internet" and in getting "results that reach your bottom line."

"But in an unusual mid-month note to his investors..."

...Gross hammered the “anti-Keynesians” in both parties who believe “that fiscal conservatism equates to job growth.” The truth, he says, is just the opposite. “Fiscal balance alone will not likely produce 20 million jobs over the next decade. The move towards it, in fact, if implemented too quickly, could stultify economic growth.”

Politifact's fact-checking rates a "false."

"CBO: We’ll only have giant deficits if Congress wants giant deficits."

If Congress passes laws extending the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the cost, repealing the Affordable Care Act and its cost controls and protecting doctors from Medicare cuts without making up the savings elsewhere — the “alternative fiscal scenario” — the national debt will be totally out of control...

Any clue why this isn't a bigger story?

Many of the WikiLeaks US embassy cables reveal the naked intervention by our ambassadorial staff in the business of foreign countries on behalf of US corporations. From mining companies in Peru to pharmaceutical companies in Ecuador, one WikiLeaks embassy cable after the next illuminates a pattern of US diplomats shilling for corporate interests abroad in the most underhanded and sleazy ways imaginable.

We need to legislate with the deficit we had in mind, not the deficit we wish we had.

To put it in budgetary terms, the deficit we imagine comes largely from discretionary spending. The one we have comes partly from discretionary spending but mostly from everything else: tax rates, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Senate kills job-creating bill.

But let’s be clear about what transpired yesterday: Republicans who’ve praised the Economic Development Administration for years voted in lock step to kill a measure that would have created jobs. They did so in part because they wanted to waste time on a bunch of irrelevant amendments and Harry Reid didn’t want to let them.

Watch:

How to build and utilize an echo chamber.



Consider:

If universal health care is good enough for soldiers, veterans, and prisoners, then why isn't it good enough for other Americans?

Points of Interest

Reads:

Rocky start for Huntsman campaign.

“So far today, Huntsman campaign has gotten his name, phone number & address wrong. That’s a rough day in first grade.”

Rocky start for Gingrich campaign continues.

"People familiar with Gingrich's campaign spending say his fundraising has been weak since he launched his bid and that he has racked up large travel bills. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk openly about campaign inner workings."

"With Friends Like These"

"But we already know how many in the New Democrat coalition feel about an independent board to help reduce Medicare costs: during health care reform, several signed letters opposing its formation."

Oceanfront property.

"The sea-level is now rising faster along the U.S. Atlantic coast than at any time in the past 2,100 years, and this surge is linked to increasing global temperatures, an international research team reports."

"The Myth of the Lower Marginal Tax Rates"

"Altogether, in years when the top marginal rate was lower than 39.6 percent—the top rate during the 1990s—annual real growth averaged 2.1 percent. In years when the rate was 39.6 percent or higher, real growth averaged 3.8 percent. The pattern is the same regardless of threshold. Take 50 percent, for example. Growth in years when the tax rate was less than 50 percent averaged 2.7 percent. In years with tax rates at or more than 50 percent, growth was 3.7 percent."

Clarence Thomas, meet Abe Fortas.

"If this sounds familiar, it’s because America has seen this movie before. Indeed, the Thomas scandal is little more than a remake of the forty year-old gifting scandal that brought down Justice Abe Fortas. Like Thomas, Fortas liked to associate with wealthy individuals with potential business before his Court. And like Thomas, Fortas took inappropriate gifts from his wealthy benefactors."

"How states are rigging the 2012 election"

"These statutes are not neutral. Their greatest impact will be to reduce turnout among African Americans, Latinos and the young. It is no accident that these groups were key to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 — or that the laws in question are being enacted in states where Republicans control state governments."

Watch:

What's wrong with the US recovery, in a little over two minutes.

The radicalization of the U.S. Muslim

So, when right-wingers do stuff like this...

Ms. Gabriel is only one voice in a growing circuit that includes counter-Islam speakers like Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Walid Shoebat. What distinguishes Ms. Gabriel from her counterparts is that she has built a national grass-roots organization in the last three years that has already engaged in dozens of battles over the place of Islam in the United States. ACT! for America claims 155,000 members in 500 chapters across the country. To build her organization, Ms. Gabriel has enlisted Mr. Rodgers, who had worked behind the scenes for the Christian Coalition’s leaders, Ralph Reed and the television evangelist Pat Robertson. (Ms. Gabriel herself was once an anchor for Mr. Robertson’s Christian television network in the Middle East).

(and this and this)

...and the detainment of American citizens who are Muslim without charge is excused by the courts...

Gelernt tries to close by painting a picture of a statute "that had enormous consequences." As he reminds us, ACLU-ishly: " People were held—half the people were held more than 30 days, even though the statutory presumption is 10 days. Many people were held for months. They were arrested at gunpoint. They were not immunized. Half the people were not called to testify. It went on in cities all over the country. People being held under horrendous conditions for long periods of time, interrogated about their own activities."

 ...and go on witch hunts targeting U.S. Muslims...

Representative Peter T. King Republican of New York, said he would rely on Muslims to make his case that American Muslim leaders have failed to cooperate with law enforcement officials in the effort to disrupt terrorist plots — a claim that was rebutted in recent reports by counterterrorism experts and in a forum on Capitol Hill on Monday. 

...do you think all that makes an American Muslim more or less willing to become part of whatever is considered 'mainstream America'? How likely is it that a person for who is singled out for investigation, demonized, and ignored by a system that doesn't work for them to be satisfied with their status?

The right wing in America is doing far, far more to promote Al-Qaeda's recruitment efforts in the US than Al-Qaeda could ever hope to do on their own.

Points of Interest

Reads:

John and John.

Ensign and Edwards, respectively. The former bows out to avoid an ugly campaign while the latter gets ready for Federal court.

Zen campaigning with Senator Scott Brown and David Koch.

In public appearances, the senator says that he's not interested in politicking right now, that there will be time for it in 2012 — his re-election year.

Yet in the video, Brown tells Koch he's politicking right now.

Overpromised and unable to deliver.

In retrospect, I think Republicans will see that they had one bite at the apple to enact significant budget cuts – and that they blew it.

Lobbying over debit card fees intensifies.

What can happen when you privatize infrastructure. (via)

2011 Nobel Peace Prize nominees announced.

Watch:

Dear God

My Twitter feed alerted me to this post from Digby:

Grayson tried to do that and used the "T" word, which is out of bounds because apparently Americans can never be compared to anything evil, whether historical or contemporary, even if the analogy is extremely apt. He got hammered not only for being imprecise in his ad but for taking on his opponents fringe religious views at all. I'm sure it was noted by other politicians and it will be a cold day in hell before anyone does it again. And that's too bad because Grayson was right. Webster is a member of a fringe, patriarchal cult that is as far out of the Christian mainstream as the Taliban is outside the mainstream of Islam...

It also includes a link to this disturbing profile of right-wing evangelist Bill Gothard. Both are worth the read*.

What amazes me is that there are people who possess the strength to break free from these closed worlds. How hard must it be to leave a lifetime of belief and your closest friends and family who remain believers? It's a wonder that it happens at all.

(*on the same subject, I'd like to point you towards yesterday's POI, which includes a link to The New Yorker's profile of Paul Haggis, a former Scientologist)

Points of interest

Reads:

"But now that they have a majority in the House, Republicans certainly have the power to ignore nature."

If you don't believe climate change is a problem, then most of these new carbon rules are pointless. And, within the Republican Party, the belief that global warming is a made-up non-problem has become thoroughly ingrained - so much so that it's no longer even worth justifying.

"The Chamber of Commerce and the President of GE Have a Plan to Restore Business Confidence and Create Jobs, 1931 Edition."

His Swope Plan is considered one of the main documents for the idea of an associationalist economy, or what we would now call a corporatist economy.   Let businesses collude and form price-fixing organizations, and in response they’ll hire more workers and even provide a social safety net for those workers.  The government will need to suspend all anti-trust laws first, obviously, before all the sweet growth and jobs show up.  Many socialists at the time realized that this was asking for trouble for obvious reasons of rent-seeking and businesses not following through and fighting any type of regulatory oversight.

"By making it harder for borrowers to avoid paying credit card debt, [the 2005 bankruptcy law] made it more difficult for them to pay their mortgages, so foreclosure rates rose."

Despite opposition from public interest groups, the 2005 law easily cleared both chambers of Congress and was signed into law by President George W. Bush. In a paper released Tuesday, New York Fed researchers Donald P. Morgan, Benjamin Iverson and Matthew Botsch determined that the law sparked about 116,000 additional subprime mortgage foreclosures a year after going into effect.

"My internal compass was to think like an intolerant meathead."

The insider was asked whether Fox News should be considered a legitimate news outlet. After laughing, the person explained, "I don't think people understand that it's an organization that's built and functions by intimidation and bullying, and its goal is to prop up and support Republicans and the GOP and to knock down Democrats. People tend think that stuff that's on TV is real, especially under the guise of news. You'd think that people would wise up, but they don't."

 The anti-gay evolution of Tim Pawlenty.

In light of last year’s Pentagon study, which concluded that “the risk of repeal … to overall military effectiveness is low,” Pawlenty’s stance on gays in the military cannot be justified with the customary nod toward ‘unit cohesion.’ In fact, his new position should be seen as part and parcel of the Governor’s evolving view of gays, which, over nearly two decades, is sometimes nuanced but generally regressive...

"The Apostate" (lengthy article alert)

He had read a recent exposé in a Florida newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, which reported, among other things, that senior executives in the church had been subjecting other Scientologists to physical violence. Haggis said that he felt “dumbstruck and horrified,” adding, “Tommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil-rights violations.”

Also: Friends in high places.

The church has had, throughout its history, plenty of friends on both sides of the aisle. Or, at least, plenty of people willing to cash its checks. Few prominent politicians, that I know of, have said much about the things we've learned about the church more recently.

Matchmaking on Twitter.

The "baby talk" and emoticons inspired by Twitter's character limit can be nauseating. We don't even need to talk about the usernames. But while the correspondence above is not exactly sophisticated, it's meaningful because a connection was made.

Points of Interest

Reads:

"What this tells me is that the emphasis is on 2012 — on politics, not on policy."

Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R), who served as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Bush administration, said that her party's focus during its first month had tended more toward placating activists in the party. 

It's not the 'center' if the solutions you are pushing are the same ones the Republicans were proposing two decades ago.

...a growing number of outside groups are vying to fill the space that the leadership council occupied for more than two decades, betting that an appeal to moderation, rather than polarization, is the best way to win over fickle independent voters.

"Ron Paul Versus the Kochtopus."

He’s also going to make Paul Ryan look reasonable instead of someone who is both uninformed and terrible on monetary policy. In each case he’s building on problems people are experiencing and pushing them further to the right. Do liberals have any type of counter-narrative rather than relying on discredited technocrat expertise?

"Loser people and loser organizations..."

Grover Norquist closes the curtain on the groups that have showily boycotted the conference over annoyance at the gay Republican group GOProud, the business transactions of ACU's David Keene, or the participation of Muslim Republican Suhail Khan.

"National governments and the international community must urgently address this issue in a proactive manner."

Existing migration patterns expected to accelerate, the study says, include rural-urban migration, especially to large cities; cross-border migration to India; migration of semi-skilled laborers to Middle East and Southeast Asian countries, as well as the continued "brain drain" of educated and wealthy people to developed countries.

In a future remake of the movie Red Dawn, a battle cry of "Wolverines!" won't make much sense.

Built for the cold, wolverines make their homes mostly in the northern forests and tundras of North America, Europe, and Asia. The carnivores are rarely found in places where temperatures get higher than 72 degrees F (22 degrees C).[...]

The new study shows that climate change might endanger wolverines in the mainland U.S. by eliminating springtime snow and significantly increasing summer temperatures.

I guess it depends on whom you are trying to appeal to.

While the modest increase in the inflation rate in many countries may have some negative impact on the standing of central bankers, their failure to stem the housing bubbles that brought on the worst downturn since the Great Depression would be a more obvious explanation for their loss of status.

Laugh:

Dewey defeats Truman.

(picture at the link)