The thing that became apparent with the Tea Party gathering this weekend in Nashville was the fact that they surely want a Theocratic form of government. They even have a name for their political party and the details are here.
Tea Party gathering really only solidifies the fact that the Tea Party WANTS a Theocracy
February 8th, 2010How do Republicans get elected and how can Democrats win the health care reform debate?
February 8th, 2010People are just like dogs. If you look like you are in control your dog will be happy. If voters believe you are control and making good decisions like George W. Bush they will be happy. The Democrats lost the cohesive thought that what they were doing with health care was the right thing to do despite the fact they had been working for almost 100 years to go in the direction. The voters became a little unhappy and the numbers sank a little in support of health care. We need President Obama or another leader to come forward with the same political weight as Obama and say this is what we need. Story is here.
But even for a voter who is less well-informed and is only picking up an impressionistic residue of each candidate’s message, there’s something to be said for Bill Clinton’s statement that “When people are insecure, they’d rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who’s weak and right.” If you’ve conceded that one of your ideas — one of your most important ideas is a bad one — why should the public trust any of the other ideas that you have? Instead, they’re going to say: Well, thank you Mr. Blue Dog — I’m glad you’ve come around to my way of thinking on this. Now I’m going to vote for the guy who didn’t have the bad idea in the first place.
Rachel Maddow on Letterman and his successes
February 7th, 2010Rachel is just the best. Her quote starting the interview is such a powerhouse overall!!!!
“The most interesting thing about Obama’s first year is how crazy the opposition has gone in reaction to him. And that’s been so exciting – the Sarah Palin, Michael Steel, Tea Party thing on the right – that I think that nobody’s noticed that he’s quietly put together the most legislatively accomplished first year of any president in a generation.” Video is located here.
His rate of promises made and kept has been pretty good. Story is here
NPR posted a story on Obama’s successes here
All with the Republicans saying NO to everything he wants. That in and of itself is pretty amazing!.
Phone service is mandated to be sent to all homes in America
February 5th, 2010FCC site located here with more on this topic
Question: What is the FCC’s Universal Service program and how does it apply to rural areas?
Answer: The FCC works to ensure that telecommunications services are available to “all the people” of the United States, including low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high-cost areas. Universal Service, sometimes called the Universal Service Fund, is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The FCC was mandated in 1996, to promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates and increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation, and it established the universal service program and its administrator to that end.
In addition, the 1996 Act states that providers of telecommunications services should contribute financially to Federal Universal Service in some equitable and nondiscriminatory manner and there should be specific, predictable, and sufficient Federal and State mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service. There are four universal service programs: the high cost fund; E-rate; rural health care; and the Low Income program, which provides funds to low income households for basic telephone service. See the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) website for additional information on their programs.
Paul Harvey fails to mention his close ties to FBI
February 4th, 2010He was a broadcasting legend, a commentator with a voice instantly familiar to listeners both loyal and sporadic.
But on the cusp of his national career, he was an FBI target whose network bosses fretted about whether he should be fired.
Paul Harvey’s FBI file, released to USA TODAY under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows how his relationship with the bureau evolved from perp to pen pal. The 1,375 pages also illuminate how the FBI cultivated one of the nation’s most popular media figures by not only providing flattery from its most prominent officials but also by secretly putting words in his mouth. Story is here
The lies of the anti-abortion groups debunked.
February 4th, 2010“Pregnancy resource centers” are virtually always pro-life organizations whose goal is to
persuade teenagers and women with unplanned pregnancies to choose motherhood or
adoption. They do not offer abortions or referrals to abortion providers. In addition to
initial counseling for pregnant teens and women, some centers may provide support
services or referrals to prenatal care.
Many pregnancy resource centers, including all the centers contacted in this
investigation, are affiliated with one or more national umbrella organizations. Two such
networks are Heartbeat International and Care Net.1 Heartbeat International describes
itself as the “first pro-life network of pregnancy resource centers in the U.S. and the
largest in the world, supporting, strengthening and starting nearly 1,000 pregnancy
centers to provide alternatives to abortion.”2 Care Net describes itself as “a Christian
ministry assisting and promoting the evangelistic, pro-life work of pregnancy centers in
North America.”3
Further reading of this report is located here.
Where does the current national deficit come from?
February 4th, 2010If it wasn’t for the Bush tax cuts we would be in a lot better shape. Why can the nation not see that raising taxes of the top wage earners is the way to pay this down??? Image showing where debt comes from is here
Why should the top wage earners pay for it? Well they owe it!!! Story is here
However Republicans/Teaparty people do not want a balanced budget as they want payoffs now regardless the increased amount they need to pay later. Story is here
Sarah Palin vs Rush Limbaugh
February 4th, 2010Who is going to bend on this issue? Story is here
Rush said he would not have any trouble from Sarah. Story is here
Then again it is not like Sarah is any good on this topic either since she does not truly support the issue that her daughter has. Story is here
Rush has a pretty long history of doing this type of thing so it comes as no surprise to anyone with eyes that are open.
Today all GOP in the US House are Teaparty members
February 4th, 2010Thirty-seven Democrats, mostly from GOP-leaning districts, voted against the measure. So did every Republican, even though they routinely supported prior increases in the borrowing cap when their party controlled Congress or when Republican George W. Bush was president.
Senate approval last week on a party-line tally was only possible because Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown had yet to assume office. Brown was being seated Thursday. Story is here
Income inequality growing in USA
February 3rd, 2010Working Americans have long complained about a middle-class squeeze, but families focused on their day-to-day financial struggles may not always see how much ground has actually been lost.
EPI data tracking income and wage patterns show that the majority of income growth has for decades gone to a startlingly small number of top earners, while other workers have suffered a persistent stagnation or even decline in real earnings. While many middle-income families have lost jobs, homes, and retirement savings during the latest recession, their economic woes date back much further.
This pattern is best illustrated in the following chart, which shows that 34.6% of all income growth over the past three decades has gone to the top one-tenth of 1% of all earners—an exclusive group representing just 13,000 families. By contrast, the bottom 90% of all earners has collectively seen only 15.9% of all income growth over the same period:
55% of all income gains have been made by the top 1% of income earners in the past 30 years.
Without redistribution of those dollars 1/3 of the income gains for the nation goes to 13,000 people who make up top one tenth of 1% of the population.
Glenn Beck truly turns what Obama said into something he simply did not say
February 3rd, 2010Glenn Beck stages a lie in this story. Nothing new just documenting again that Glenn Beck simply lies. Story is here
The complete clip shows unequivocally that Obama is keeping his pledge regarding the doctor/patient relationship. But Beck’s audience won’t know that because Beck unscrupulously edited it out. Then he portrayed the President as negligent for not doing something that in reality he did. And he even went so far as to admit that the American people would reward the President for doing the things that Beck left on the cutting room floor. And, of course, that’s reason Beck did it.
Beck certainly knew the content of the whole speech. So it is inescapable that he deliberately misrepresented it to advance his deceit. He purposefully truncated it to prevent his audience from seeing anything about Obama that they might regard as positive. And in the process he hammered Obama for not doing what he actually did do.
It’s too bad that most of Beck’s disciples will never hear about this fraud. Although many are so thoroughly bewitched that they might not even grasp it if they did hear about it. But it is important to continue to document it. Open minded people who haven’t formed opinions about Beck need to have this kind of information to keep from being duped by him.
Rick Sanchez brings logic to a teaparty leader
February 3rd, 2010Rick Sanchez of CNN brings some logic and facts to a Teaparty leader who tried to lie but not enough. Video is located here
Teaparty people want to play dirty politics
February 3rd, 2010How bad is this recession as compared to other as far as jobs?
February 3rd, 2010This recession is very bad as compared to others as far as jobs is concerned. Story is here
Tea Party Express…brought to you by the GOP.
February 3rd, 2010The Tea Party Express leaders are literally in the next office down the hall from the GOP. How many Tea Party people know that? Well I am sure it is about the same number that see things incorrectly in the world. Another strange view they have that is not true and still another look at right-wingers who just do not know the truth. So it all makes sense that the people leading the Tea Party people and the GOP are one in the same because their Tea Party followers and GOP are one in the same.
31% of Virginia residents do not have health insurance.
February 3rd, 201031% of Virginians have no health insurance and here is the apparent GOP response to the issue. Photo is here. So who TRULY has Death Panels? Seems Teabaggers enjoy their Death Panels and want more as they call dying without insurance as 45,000 do annually…FREEDOM.
A poll of Republicans show what they think
February 2nd, 2010The Mind of a Republican. It is a very murky thing. This poll shows that they think things that are just kind of out there. The questions asked are pretty open ended and subject to interpretation but overall the answers are very telling as to where these people get their news and how they see the world. Story is located here
Glenn Beck is fact-checked by Arianna Huffington
February 2nd, 2010He’s the latest example of what the great historian Richard Hofstadter called “the paranoid style in American politics,” which he defined as angry minds that traffic in “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy,” and that see “the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms… always manning the barricades of civilization.” Unfortunately for Ailes, Beck, and Gray — but fortunately for fans of facts, reality, and the truth — we live in the era of DVRs, YouTube, and embeddable video. Story and video are here
Teabaggers-You claim to be getting screwed but you support your screwers!!!
February 1st, 2010This is about as good as it gets. This explains what is going on generally with the economy and why we all have seen benefits from the Obama plans and if more Obama plans are enacted we will see more benefits. If you know of any FOX News viewers…Limbaugh or Hannity or Glenn Beck fans send this off to them for their own sake. This is a blog post from a blog which is located here-
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/01/stop-demanding-that-you-get-screwed.html
Blog post follows…..please read it all prior to sending it off……
Hey you. You there in the Glenn Beck T-shirt headed off to the Tea Party Patriot rally.
Stop shouting for a moment, please, I want to explain to you why you’re so very angry.
You should be angry. You’re getting screwed.
I think you know that. But you don’t seem to know that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can stop it. You can stop it easily because the system that’s screwing you over can only keep screwing you over if you keep demanding that it do so.
So stop demanding that. Stop helping the system screw you over.
Look, you can go back to yelling at me in a minute, but just read this first.
1. Get out your pay stub.
Or, if you have direct deposit — you really should get direct deposit, it saves a lot of time and money (I point this out because, honestly, I’m trying to help you here, even though you don’t make that easy Mr. Angry Screamy Guy) — then take out that little paper receipt they give you when your pay gets directly deposited.
2. Notice that your net pay is lower than your gross pay. This is because some of your wages are withheld every pay period.
3. Notice that only some of this money that was withheld went to pay taxes. (I know, I know — yeearrrgh! me hates taxes! — but just try to stick with me for just a second here.)
4. Notice that some of the money that was withheld didn’t go to taxes, but to your health insurance company.
5. Now go get a pay stub from last year around this time, from January of 2009.
6. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld for taxes in your current paycheck is less than the amount that was withheld a year ago.
That’s because of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which included more than $200 billion in tax cuts, including the one you’re holding right there in your hand, the tax cut that’s now staring you in the face. Republicans all voted against that tax cut. And then they told you to get angry about the stimulus plan. They didn’t explain, however, why you were supposed to get angry about getting a tax cut. Why would you be? Wouldn’t it make more sense to get angry at the people who voted against that Obama tax cut?
But taxes aren’t the really important thing here. The really important thing starts with the next point.
7. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is more than it was last year.
8. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is a lot more than it was last year.
I won’t ask you to dig up old paychecks from 2008 and 2007, but this has been going on for a long time. Every year, the amount of your paycheck withheld to pay for your health insurance goes up. A lot.
9. Notice the one figure there on your two pay stubs that hasn’t changed: Your wage. The raise you didn’t get this year went to pay for that big increase in the cost of your health insurance.
10. Here’s where I need you to start doing a better job of putting two and two together. If you didn’t get a raise last year because the cost of your health insurance went up by a lot, and the cost of your health insurance is going to go up by a lot again this year, what do you think that means for any chance you might have of getting a raise this year?
11. Did you figure it out? That’s right. The increasing cost of health insurance means you won’t get a raise this year. Or next year. Or the year after that. The increasing cost of health insurance means you will never get a raise again.
That’s what I meant when I said you really should be angry. That’s what I meant when I said you’re getting screwed.
OK, we’re almost done. Just a few more points, I promise.
12. The only hope you have of ever seeing another pay raise is if Congress passes health care reform. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will swallow this year’s raise. And next year’s raise. And pretty soon it won’t stop with just your raise. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will start making your pay go down.
13. I wish I could tell you that this was just a worst-case scenario, that this was only something that might, maybe happen, but that wouldn’t be true. Without health care reform, this is what will happen. We know this because this is what is happening now. It has been happening for the past 10 years. In 2008, employers spent on average 25 percent more per employee than they did in 2001, but wages on average did not increase during those years. The price of milk went up. The price of gas went up. But wages did not. All of the money that would have gone to higher wages went to pay the higher and higher and higher cost of health insurance. And unless Congress passes health care reform, that will not change.
Well, it will change in the sense that it will keep getting worse, but it won’t get better. Unless the problem gets fixed, the problem won’t be fixed. That’s kind of what “problem” and “fixed” mean.
14. Sadly for any chance you have of ever seeing a raise again, it looks like Congress may not pass health care reform. It looks like they won’t do that because they’re scared of angry voters who are demanding that they oppose health care reform, angry voters who demand that Congress not do anything that would keep the cost of health insurance from going up and up and up. Angry voters like you.
15. Do you see the point here? You are angrily, loudly demanding that Congress make sure that you never, ever get another pay raise as long as you live. Because of you and because of your angry demands, you and your family and your kids are going to have to get by with less this year than last year. And next year you’re going to have to get by with even less. And if you keep angrily demanding that no one must ever fix this problem, then you’re going to have to figure out how to get by on less and less every year for the rest of your life.
16. So please, for your own sake, for your family’s sake and the sake of your children, stop. Stop demanding that problems not get fixed. Stop demanding that you keep getting screwed. Stay angry — you should be angry — but start directing that anger toward the system that’s screwing you over and taking money out of your pocket. Start directing that anger toward fixing problems instead of toward making sure they never get fixed. Instead of demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you never, ever, get another pay raise, start demanding that they pass health care reform, as soon as possible. Because until they do, you’re just going to keep on getting screwed.
And it’s going to be that much worse knowing that you brought this on yourself — that you demanded it.
Thanks for your time.
P.S. — I didn’t mention this because I’m trying here to be as patient with you as I can, but you might also want to keep in mind that in addition to screwing over yourself and screwing over your family and screwing over your own children by demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you will never, ever see another pay raise, by doing that you’re also demanding that I never, ever see another pay raise, which means that you’re also screwing over me, and my family, and my children. Not to mention the millions of poor and uninsured and uninsureable people I didn’t even mention above because they don’t seem to matter at all to you. And for that, let me just say the only appropriate thing that can be said to someone so determined to do direct, tangible harm to the welfare of my family: Fuck you, you fucking moron.
Project Censored 2010 is released
February 1st, 2010The most underreported stories from the past year…most stories got no airplay in America. Story is here
See the Unemployed invade America
February 1st, 2010Video on unemployment numbers is here
Laughable- GOP votes AGAINST resolution recognizing poverty in America
February 1st, 2010This is how far to the NO they really are! Story is here
Last week, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) brought forth a rather innocuous House Resolution expressing support for designating January as Poverty Awareness Month. McDermott, a member of the Ways and Means Committee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, highlighted that in 2008, 40 million Americans were living in poverty. Even worse, one in five children lived in poverty.
These numbers are even worse then they appear. First, the current economic recession has no doubt forced many more Americans into poverty. Second, as McDermott points out, the current threshold for determining poverty is grossly antiquated and as a result, understates the poverty rate. For example, a family of four making just $23,000 is not considered to be living in poverty. In the midst of a pronounced recession, recognizing the existence of and reformulating efforts to combat poverty are important steps to real recovery.
Such reasoning, however, does not hold water among some members of the Republican Caucus. In fact, 18 Republicans, including Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), voted against the resolution, presumably on the grounds that the bill suggests safety-nets “should be increased and that Congress should further increase education, housing, and other programs.” In other words, they opposed it because it calls for a more concerted effort to fight poverty.
The actual wording of the bill which is located here makes it clear that this bill was an innocuous bill which is basically what politicians pass as a boilerplate support of something. This bill truly had no action beyond moral support of policies such as education, training, childcare assistance and housing security that really had no action items beyond giving moral support to support those issues. Apparently those issues are something those GOP Senators are against…again including
education, training, childcare assistance and housing security.
The GOP does not believe in those issues apparently. Voting against this bill with no teeth is an affirmation that those things are not a priority to the GOP in a time of an incredibly bad recession brought on by Reaganomics and policies of the right which the right has agreed were WRONG. See video of Alan Greenspan admitting he was wrong here.
Bush left us deficits that Obama is wrongfully blamed for
February 1st, 2010In short, of the $602 billion increase, more than 40 percent was actually passed under President Bush, another 26 percent was automatic spending to pay for mandatory programs set in place long ago, and only 20 percent was for the president’s Recovery Act, measures that are helping the economy back to its feet. Not exactly the huge Obama expansion of government that some have been railing against. Story is here
Another look at deficits going forward. Story is here
What else did Bush leave us with? A warped sense of right and wrong.
February 1st, 2010As has been voluminously documented here, one of the most notable aspects of the first year of the Obama presidency has been how many previously controversial Bush/Cheney policies in the terrorism and civil liberties realms have been embraced. Even Obama’s most loyal defenders often acknowledge that, as Michael Tomasky recently put it, “the civil liberties area has been [Obama's] worst. This is the one area in which the president’s actions don’t remotely match the candidate’s promises.” From indefinite detention and renditions to denial of habeas rights, from military commissions and secrecy obsessions to state secrets abuses, many of the defining Bush/Cheney policies continue unabated under its successor administration. Story is here
Republican vs Democrat results in hmmmm…considering trends…logic demands Democrats would be best
February 1st, 2010An interesting analysis when looking at the national debt under Democrats vs Republicans.
A chart showing the debt under different administrations.
A very interesting comment on the differences between the two parties ruling the nation is posted below below the line…but I have to add this. Simply put….if you cut revenue and increase spending you are trying to kill something whether it is your fiscal health or your government’s. Those two actions box in the future for the government to be far less powerful in the future. This is what the Republicans since Reagan have done consistently as a platform. I want you as a person to go to your boss and tell them you want to halve your paycheck and at the same time buy 3 more houses. This is going to box you in to fewer things you can do like going on vacations or buying cars. For your future if you are laid off you will almost certainly financially die and you become bankrupt. There is the plot that the Republicans have for the US Government. This concept was the centerpiece of Grover Nordquist’s concepts for America. He believes government should be small enough to drown in the bathtub. The problem with that is highlighted when looking at the issues of the world. Do we want a US Government so small that we cannot help Haiti recover from its issues…do we want a US Government so small that we cannot maintain our national parks….do we really want a US Government so small so as to reduce oversight of such things as drugs and food and we allow future possible tragedies as the Melamine from China? Or how about a US Government so small that it cannot bail out banks or you? If we DID have the government the Republicans want the banks would have all failed and we would be possibly in an irreparable place as far as finance because the world would see our nation as a bad credit risk…OUR national credit could have dried up and over the period of a day our nation would have gone bankrupt as we could not make other nations loan us money. We live on credit and without it we are dead and having SUCH a small government would have resulted in no safety net and therefore credit and no nation.
Current day Republicans want the government to be strangled to death to the point that only corporations can do things for Americans solely for profit. When things are done solely with profit in mind as we see with Health Care…the industry they are in is not done for the sake of that industry but rather it is done for the sake of profit and they sure can dump out of that industry as they see fit. Corporations in health care are there because they make profits and would do different things if they were to gain more profit that other way.
Remember that the US Government was reconciled by the US Constitution in the Preamble as WE THE PEOPLE. If we truly allow the government to not be an overseer for our own good then who is looking out for us when faced with the power of multinational corporations? The thing that we as individuals must remember is that money is power…money is media…media is information therefore the one with the most money has the media and controls information. As a Democracy if the people are not informed properly our Democracy is useless as we determine the direction of the nation. In these days of multi-national corporations owning so many things in our daily world we NEED a regulator…an equalizer…an overseer that is big enough and bad enough to tell the corporations to stop going so far as to hurt people as corporations make profit. Corporations making profits is a good thing…but when they leave the air and water polluted and food contaminated and ground contaminated and they drop the pay for individuals below a level which allows people to live…who will be our Sheriff? This is why the concept of the Teaparty people is nonsensical in a time of multi-national corporations. Then again the Teabaggers could possibly want corporations to be allowed to slash and burn their way to profits…meaning…people and the nation will pay in the long run for short term profits today. Which is the Republican Theocratic look at the future….which is why Republicans are generally not environmentalists.
IF your government does not protect you against corporations who will? Corporations want profit. The Free Market wants profit. The Capitalist concept is profit above people. Regulation humanizes that and regulation comes from Uncle Sam and Uncle Sam is you protecting yourself and neighbors. So the FREE MARKET will simply not buy their items and the FREE MARKET will regulate itself? So I challenge you not to buy a Halliburton product or GE product or other multinational product. It is impossible to since they own everything…so the FREE MARKET controlling the FREE MARKET is a fallacy since it is a self-perpetuating very inbred thing since so few corporations own so much. There needs to be a simply beneficent force powerful enough to say NO. That role is Uncle Sam’s.
Now onto the comment about the deficit spending chart…..
—————
To some degree I agree with your points, however, this particular point, I disagree with. In 1981, Ronald Reagan took control of the Executive branch, and began pushing through Congress huge increases in government spending while at the same time pushing for some tax cuts (he later had to increase some taxes, but that didn’t have enough of an effect on the deficit). The federal government budget is influenced, of course, by the economy—a strong economy means a higher revenue for the government, while a weaker economy means a lower revenue— the federal government budget is also influenced by how a budget is balanced.
If you hypothetically receive 1 trillion dollars as an annual revenue from taxes, that should wisely be what you spend on your government budget. If your budget produces a surplus, you can give the surplus back to your citizens or keep it in a slush fund for emergencies (likely not, because no one rightly trusts government with extra money ::) ).
If your budget gets you above the 1 trillion dollars revenue you received, you have to borrow money and add the payments to your budget. The more you borrow, the more you have to pay back.
Now, some of the rhetoric from conservatives claims that by reducing taxes you magically get an increase in tax revenue, because that tax cut supposedly fuels a growth in the economy. Now, I look at the graph, and see huge deficits from Reagan to Bush I. With Clinton in office, the budget deficit is reduced, and you actually get a surplus. Now, conservative commentators claim this surplus came about because of the Reagan tax cuts. Fine, but as you said, this revenue came from the Internet “bubble,” and not really from a legitimate and stable growth in the economy. If it were not for the internet bubble, would the economy have grown so strongly? Probably not. So were Reagan’s tax cuts really that effective?
Finally, Reagan may have passed tax cuts (the same with Bush II), but both also fundamentally INCREASED the size of the government and the budget. Economically speaking, why would you do that? Why would you increase your spending while decreasing your revenue? Does that even make economic sense?
And, from a “freedom” perspective, how free will future societies be that have to pay for our debt? At the moment, our national debt equals roughly $25,000 per PERSON. In other words, it would take taxing each individual living in America $25,000 to pay off our national debt. The continual use of deficit budgeting does not bring this nation closer to freedom; it in fact binds more Americans with a greater chain around their neck than ever before.
Lastly, my comments about the numbers seemingly going up with Democratic presidents were partially in jest, but also partially serious. In the past 35 years, we’ve had but 12 years of Democratic administrations. During those 12 years, our budget gets closer to a surplus and away from deficits. What would happen if Democrats were given more of a chance to run this country? From these numbers, it sure looks like they would balance a budget far better than Republicans could.
———————–
The above was a great comment on the budgets of Republicans and Democrats. What about the Reagan Revolution? How did the nation do? Well if you were in the top 1% it was great…the rest of you didn’t seem to enjoy it much as unemployment rose higher than it is today
Reagan was sworn into office in 1981 – and 22 months LATER the unemployment rate was 10.4%
How long did it take Reagan to reduce the unemployment rate to below 8%?
1/1981 – unemployment rate 7.5% …. Reagan sworn in.
1/1981 – 7.4%
3/1981 – 7.4%
4/1981 – 7.2%
5/1981 – 7.5%
6/1981 – 7.5%
7/1981 – 7.2%
8/1981 – 7.4% * Reagan CUTS taxes for top 1% & said unemployment would DROP to 6.9%
9/1981 – 7.6%
10/1981 – 7.9%
11/1981 – 8.3%
12/1981 – 8.5%
1/1982 – 8.6%
2/1982 – 8.9%
3/1982 – 9.0%
4/1982 – 9.3%
5/1982 – 9.4%
6/1982 – 9.6%
7/1982 – 9.8%
8/1982 – 9.8%
9/1982 – 10.1%
10/1982 – 10.4%
11/1982 – 10.8%
12/1982 – 10.8%
1/1983 – 10.4%
2/1983 – 10.4%
3/1983 – 10.3%
4/1983 – 10.3%
5/1983 – 10.1%
6/1983 – 10.1%
7/1983 – 9.4%
6/1983 – 9.5%
7/1983 – 9.4%
8/1983 – 9.5%
9/1983 – 9.2%
10/1983 – 8.8%
11/1983 – 8.5%
12/1983 – 8.3%
1/1984 – 8.0%
2/1984 – 7.8%
Took Reagan 28 MONTHS to get unemployment rate back down below 8%.
***Stock Market C R A S H E D in 1987.
Is this the future for cities in the US? Teaparty ideals are seeming to take hold in Colorado Springs
February 1st, 2010Some of the comments were interesting in that property values drop like a rock when services drop. Plus the city will simply be a lot less nice in which to live with fewer services. Story is here
Colorado Springs is the epicenter of the megachurch movement so it kind of makes sense that this happen there.
Let’s go back in time and see what Krugman said in 2006 and today as well
January 31st, 2010And what happened? Sorry Bill O’Reilly….Krugman was 100% correct. Video is here
Krugman’s view on GOP economic plans. Video is here
Krugman interviewed long form about the economic downturn. Video is here
Americans seen on British TV criticizing the UK healthcare system
January 31st, 2010Americans really opening their mouths without knowing what is falling out of it. Video is here
A second BBC report on health care in the UK video is here
A third video on health care in the UK. Video is here
The people opposing Health Care Reform are the ones that need it most
January 31st, 2010Last year, in a series of “town-hall meetings” across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms.
What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.
Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.
But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.
In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%. Story is located here
Roger Ailes is exactly the lies that FOX News spouts
January 31st, 2010This is just an incredible video and very telling as to why Roger Ailes does not go on shows like this. Arianna Huffington and Paul Krugman take Roger Ailes to task at the very end of this video which has Ailes claiming things that are just WRONG. Ailes simple does not tell the truth in this video. Just headshakingly misinforming of what was going on. Video is located here.
The whole show is linked here and should play one clip after the other….I think…. Video is located here
They discuss Health Care Reform Video is located here
And the Green Room discussion posted onlines was interesting too in that Roger Ailes left before the discussion could start so there is Roger Ailes in a nutshell…he ran from the truth…leaving the rest to discuss the issues that he started. Video is here
Income inequality is bad for you and bad for the nation
January 30th, 2010“Over the past 30 years, the income of the top 1%, adjusted for inflation, doubled: the top one-tenth of 1% tripled, and the one-one-hundredth quadrupled,” says Pizzigati. “Meanwhile, the average income of the bottom 90% has gone down slightly. This is a stunning transformation.” Story is located here
With 20 minutes left in possibly the most dramatic political story in decades FOX News cuts away and changes topic
January 29th, 2010FOX News cut away with 20 minutes left of Obama’s Q&A with the GOP. I want to know who made this horrible horrible non-news decision. Story is here
Again with 20 minutes left in the Q&A FOX News dumped out of the first time a President has takes Q&A from the opposition party on live TV. This truly was HUGE news. This once again confirms that FOX News is not a news channel. Story is located here
Former McCain advisor says Obama Stimulus reason for 4th Quarter GDP gains
January 29th, 2010It is pretty obvious. The Stimulus produced GDP gains in the 4th Quarter. And one of McCain’s advisers agrees. Story is here
Obama addresses GOP at GOP retreat and eats them alive
January 29th, 2010Obama has possibly had the most powerful 1-2 punch of addresses as any President has ever had.
FIRST- State of the Union from 1/27/10. The full video is located here
SECOND- He addressed the GOP at the GOP meeting in Baltimore on 1/29/10. Obama addressed the group and answered questions for 90 minutes. His responses to the questions simply eviscerated their arguments and loaded questions at every turn. Video is located here
MSNBC aired the entire Q&A with the Republicans (as opposed to FOX News that dumped out after Obama began to eat them alive) and the MSNBC coverage had fantastic comment from Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann. Video is here
The GOP regrets the day they made that agreement to allow TV cameras roll during their meeting. Story is here
UFO over Ireland?
January 29th, 2010Here is a video showing something flying over Ireland.
Could it be a prototype military aircraft such as this?
Or possibly another article on this same aircraft.
Or maybe it was like the video of the UFO over Haiti.
Only these guys know for sure as to what is going on over our heads.
FOX News distorts Bush’s economic record
January 28th, 2010FOX News simply does not tell the truth as to what happened with the economy under Bush. Story is here
President Obama’s State of the Union Speech
January 28th, 2010The Republicans seemed to not want to clap for several very obvious things that Americans want and need. Story is here
Supreme Court Justice Alito disagrees with Obama. Story is here
Olbermann with a good wrap up of the night. Video is located here
Katie Couric talks to a Teabagger leader
January 28th, 2010The teabaggers are an extension of movement conservatism, and especially its long use of the politics of resentment. That started with Goldwater and morphed into the New Right and then Abramoff and Norquists’ College Republicans. They’ve always found it useful to stor up right-wing populism. Their idea that left-wing libertarians can join with them is absurd in any meaningful way; the Tea Party exists for one reason, to attack the left. I will change my mind if and when the Tea Party movement does one thing that actually hurts conservatism and conservative politicians when it counts. I’m not holding my breath. Story is here
So why are Republicans elected?
January 27th, 2010There is a method to their madness and the people that vote for them are taken in. Story is here
When Reagan rolled out Supply Side Economics in the early 80s, dramatically cutting taxes while exploding (mostly military) spending, there was a moment when it seemed to Wanniski and Laffer that all was lost. The budget deficit exploded and the country fell into a deep recession – the worst since the Great Depression – and Republicans nationwide held their collective breath. But David Stockman came up with a great new theory about what was going on – they were “starving the beast” of government by running up such huge deficits that Democrats would never, ever in the future be able to talk again about national health care or improving Social Security – and this so pleased Alan Greenspan, the Fed Chairman, that he opened the spigots of the Fed, dropping interest rates and buying government bonds, producing a nice, healthy goose to the economy. Greenspan further counseled Reagan to dramatically increase taxes on people earning under $37,800 a year by increasing the Social Security (FICA/payroll) tax, and then let the government borrow those newfound hundreds of billions of dollars off-the-books to make the deficit look better than it was.
Ralph Nader speaks about the power and corrupting influence of the corporation
January 27th, 2010These 4 videos are particularly glaring with the decisions that have been made and have not been made lately. He addresses the political power of corporations and the issue of health care as well how corporations pay less in taxes than you do. These 4 videos are quite good
“It does not matter how much the economy grows as long as the distribution of the benefits of that economy cycle back to the top 5 and 1% of the richest people in the country and their corporations. The crumbs are not enough.” Ralph Nader.
Republican President job creation falls way behind Democratic Presidents
January 27th, 2010No Republican President — not Eisenhower, not Nixon, not Reagan, not Bush — has ever created more jobs, or created jobs at a faster rate, than his Democratic predecessor. It’s not even close. The contrast has been especially stark over the past 16 years, when 23.1 million jobs were created under Clinton and less than 5 million were created under Bush. On average, job growth under Democrats is more than twice that under Republicans. Story is here
Another graph showing job growth comparing Republicans and Democrats is located here
Graphs and analyses are interesting when a different view is taken and here is another view
Even with debt Democrats do far better than Republicans and the story is here
The charts show that job creation is best under Democrats. The stock market does best under Democrats. Spending is less and government is smaller under Democrats.
The obvious conclusion is that Democrats are better for our economy, for our country, than Republicans.
Silly video showing how to pass Health Care Reform
January 27th, 2010The video says it all. Video is located here
James O’Keefe go to jail go directly to jail. Possible wiretapping of Mary Landreau’s Senate office could bring prison sentence for ACORN video perp
January 27th, 2010This could be his theme song now. Song is here
FOX News had an initial report on the story that was decent but now let’s see what they do with the story as time brings more facts. Story is here
FOX News now urges caution when looking at the arrest of James O’Keefe. Story is here
MediaMatters has a lot more on who James O’Keefe goes after with his videos. Story is here
As Media Matters‘ Eric Hananoki noted, O’Keefe’s three alleged accomplices — Joseph Basel, Robert Flanagan, and Stan Dai — are right-wing activists as well. Basel was the founder of a conservative campus publication at the University of Minnesota-Morris, which, like the campus publication started by O’Keefe at Rutgers University, received funding from the conservative Leadership Institute’s “Balance in Media” grant. Flanagan, the son of acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana William Flanagan, reportedly works at the conservative Pelican Institute in New Orleans, just half a block from Landrieu’s office. Dai received $5,000 from the right-wing Phillips Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Future Leaders Scholarship Program. Additionally, during his time as a campus conservative, Dai reportedly co-wrote “a satirical work entitled The Penis Monologues, apparently a takeoff on the Vagina Monologues.”
Corporations vs terrorists and recognition of rights
January 26th, 2010Kind of amazing that the NeoCons want to limit the rights given to terrorist suspects however the rights of Free Speech given to foreign corporations to influence our elections seem to be unlimited.
FOX News poll shows Obama would command easy reelection in 2012 with present crop of GOP contenders
January 26th, 2010FOX News online puts this paragraph at the bottom of the story but overall this shows that their attempt to show Obama is losing people may be a loss. GOP contenders are not picking up people…nor is the much hyped Teaparty group. Story is located here
In hypothetical head-to-head matchups, President Obama tops each of the Republican candidates tested.
By 47 percent to 35 percent Obama bests former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The president has an even wider edge over former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (55 percent to 31 percent), and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (53 percent to 29 percent).
Finally, twice as many people say they would vote for Obama (48 percent) as would back a candidate from the Tea Party movement (23 percent).
Venezuela forgives Haiti’s debt
January 26th, 2010And Hugo Chavez gives Haiti $100 million as a first installment of aid following their earthquake. Story is here
Don’t forget that FOX News went to court in order to remove the aura of truth from news
January 26th, 2010FOX News went to court to the definition of news would not necessarily include the truth. Story is here
Here is a video done by the reporters that had this issue crop up. Story is here
Sherrod Brown lays out the problem with the cutbacks in spending that is being discussed
January 26th, 2010Sherrod Brown has this to say plus more
Start with this: The people who have been most outspoken about debt are the people most responsible for it…. The people, as I said, who have been most outspoken against the budget deficit have been those that voted for the Iraq war, and charged it to our kid, those who voted for the giveaway to the drug and insurance industry in 2003 and charged it to our kids, and those who voted who tax cuts for the rich and charged it to our kids, and those who ignored infrastructure needs in this country for a decade and charged that to our kids. And they come and they’re screaming the loudest about the balanced budget. And that disturbs me.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/brown-hits-back-on-white-house-spending-freeze-push.php
Teabaggers really do not understand who they support at all
January 26th, 2010Teabaggers support Corporatists.
Corporatists make profits.
Teabaggers really do not understand what they are even saying. Story is here
Another sponsor of the upcoming National Tea Party Convention has pulled out, citing fears over possible “profiteering and exploitation of the grassroots movement” by the organizing group, Tea Party Nation (TPN).
FOX News coverage on Haiti contradicts itself and then they simply do not tell the truth
January 26th, 2010FOX News posted a short report from AP about Cuba responding to the Haitian earthquake however on air they say that Cuba did not respond to the Haitian earthquake. FOX News simply does not tell the truth…again. Story is here