Thursday, November 8, 2012
Quote of the day
Rather describes our "two-party" political system, doesn't it?
We need at least a third party, at least. A true, strong, serious, thoughtful third party to challenge the entrenched status quo. And they need to not be hating racists, too, of course, naming no names.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
An open letter to President--now President-elect--Obama
Dear President, now President-elect Obama:
Congratulations, sir, on your win yesterday. It's been a lot of work but you earned it and your nation needs it.
Now, since you've got a mandate and you only really have 2 years, at most, of any real strength and power due to your "lame duck" status and the fact that the 2016 election will start in earnest in 2014, you need, sir, to "swing for the fences" and go for all you can get.
Besides working to kill the NDAA and restoring habeus corpus and officially killing presidential "signing statements", you should make a grand, sweeping, big, important speech calling on the world to end war and the possibility of war and wars. No one else is in quite the position you are in, Mr. President, and this call would be better heard and received from you more so than from anyone else--likely on the entire planet.
You are still running the richest and most powerful nation in the world and no one has, at this time, the pulpit you occupy. Please, Mr. President, call now for the end of war in our lifetimes and push--hard--to shrink what your own nation spends on war and tools of war. We can still be strong but we can also bring the world back from the brink of war across the world. The people of the planet can no longer afford this ugly, stupid, killing luxury.
Thank you and good luck to you and our nation,
Kevin Evans
Kansas City, Missouri
Kudos, America
Notes on an election:
--It's reassuring and encouraging, both, that the people have, in this case, overcome the big money and the big money people in yesterday's elections;
--We need the Republicans and Right Wing and Conservatives and Libertarians to now begin to work together, with the rest of the nation and yes, with the Democrats, for the betterment of the entire nation. It can't happen too soon;
--We need to entire Congress to also, now, begin immediately to work on fixing this "fiscal cliff" they both created and are bringing the nation too close to. We shouldn't be in this position, they created it, as I said and only they can take us away from this situation;
--We need to kill campaign contributions in the nation, for our election system so we get the big, ugly, corrupting money out of our elections so the wealthy and corporations can no longer buy our representatives, their legislation and so, finally, our laws and government;
--The Republicans need to end, once and for all, their work for keeping Americans from voting with all their voter ID laws, etc. This election should put an end to all that;
--We get to keep our healthcare reform, thank goodness.
--The Koch brothers were defeated last evening;
--Karl Rove and his PAC groups were soundly, roundly defeated last night, too. That's nothing but good for the nation, overall, and the working classes, middle-class, lower-classes, etc;
--It will be interesting to see, now, if the Republicans will finally, finally recognize that their Right Wing path of the last several years has been nothing but bad for the country and bad, too, even for them. Here's hoping they will and then strike a new, more productive course for themselves and the nation.
--Our new president-elect needs to "swing for the fences" in the next 2 years because he is, of course, a "lame duck" president since he can't be re-elected. His only strength and power will reside in this beginning of his 2nd term. He'll have the mandate from this election but it won't last that long until the next election season begins. On this list would be returning habeus corpus to the nation, closing Guantanamo Bay, killing the NDAA, declaring presidential "signing statements" officially dead and much, much more. It's th eonly time he has to do good for the nation.
--This was, ladies and gentlemen, a trouncing of the Republican Party, in a lot of different elections, specific races and issues, let it be clear;
--It was, also, a day and night of big, big wins for Democratic, Left Wing and Liberal causes, candidates and issues, let there be no doubt and it was coast to coast. Not in all races, admittedly, but in many, for sure;
--Finally, at least here, anyway, it needs to be said that we need both houses of Congress to get to work and create good, strong, sensible jobs bills and projects and programs that put America back to work but that also don't add to our national debt. It needs to be said.
Congratulations, America. You did the right thing, unequivocally.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Quote for a day of voting
''The great jousting tournament that is Election Day draws nigh, the prize the building you see behind me, Castle Congress.
But what side shall prevail in this epic electoral tilt? Who shall control the future of Fortress America?
Will we be, as the Republicans desire, a nation of wealthy heavily-armed white men, befouling the air and water in a ceaseless quest for profits, beholden to no laws but those of our lord and savior Jesus Christ?
Or shall we instead embrace the Democrats' vision of a namby-pamby quasi-Socialist Republic with an all-homosexual army flamboyantly defending a citizenry suckling at the foul teat of government welfare?
The choice is yours, fair maiden America, for the name of this feudal system is Democracy.''
—Stephen Colbert, comedian, satirist
America, today and tomorrow (guest post)
We need to all come together, as Americans.
"The nation is becoming browner and blacker. Most children born in California are now minorities. In a few years America as a whole will be a majority of minorities. Meanwhile, women have been gaining economic power. Their median wage hasn’t yet caught up with men, but it’s getting close. And with more women getting college degrees than men, their pay will surely exceed male pay in a few years. At the same time, men without college degrees continue to lose economic ground. Adjusted for inflation, their median wage is lower than it was three decades ago.
In other words, white working-class men have been on the losing end of a huge demographic and economic shift. That’s made them a tinder-box of frustration and anger – eagerly ignited by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and other pedlars of petulance, including an increasing number of Republicans who have gained political power by fanning the flames.
That hate-mongering and attendant scapegoating – of immigrants, blacks, gays, women seeking abortions, our government itself – has legitimized some vitriol and scapegoating on the left as well. I detest what the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Rupert Murdock, and Paul Ryan are doing, and I hate their politics. But in this heated environment I sometimes have to remind myself I don’t hate them personally.
Not even this degree of divisiveness would have taken root had America preserved the social solidarity we had two generations ago. The Great Depression and World War II reminded us we were all in it together. We had to depend on each other in order to survive. That sense of mutual dependence transcended our disagreements. My father, a “Rockefeller” Republican, strongly supported civil rights and voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid. I remember him saying “we’re all Americans, aren’t we?”
To be sure, we endured 9/11, we’ve gone to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we suffered the Great Recession. But these did not not bind us as we were bound together in the Great Depression and World War II. The horror of 9/11 did not touch all of us, and the only sacrifice George W. Bush asked was that we kept shopping. Today’s wars are fought by hired guns – young people who are paid to do the work most of the rest of us don’t want our own children to do. And the Great Recession split us rather than connected us; the rich grew richer, the rest of us, poorer and less secure.
So we come to the end of a bitter election, feeling as if we’re two nations rather than one. The challenge – not only for our president and representatives in Washington but for all of us – is to rediscover the public good."
--Robert Reich, American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator, served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.
Links: https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/518021764877091
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich
Election 2012: "It's money that matters"
Randy was/is so right. He hit the nail on the head with this one, for sure.
Play loud.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Entertainment overnight
Once again, a gift from NPR.
It seems any good new music I come across is from Pandora or NPR.
Quote of the day
"Any politician who can be elected only by turning Americans against other Americans is too dangerous to be elected."
--Thomas Sowell, American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell
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The question for America after the election (guest post)
What I've asked for some time:
"The question I keep asking myself is, assuming Obama wins, will right-wing Republicans understand it as a repudiation and as a result temper their vitriol and become more reasonable, or will they see it as a further provocation and become even more vituperative and extreme? I'd like the believe the former but I fear the latter.
The issues that divide us -- the size of government, the impact of large companies and Wall Street on our economy and democracy, whether women have a right to control their own bodies, for example -- are not new points of division. The first has been with us since the time of Jefferson and Hamilton; we've been arguing over the second since the late nineteenth century; the third has been a point of contention since Roe v. Wade. So why, now, have these divisions become so rancorous?
We were far more divided over Vietnam in the late 60s and early 70s, over civil rights in the 60s, and over communism in the 1950s, than we are over the current group of divisive issues -- and yet in those days we carried on a national dialogue of sorts. We watched the same things on television and believed the same arbiters of facts (Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite); we came across others in our communities and sometimes our own families who disagreed with us; we didn't have Fox News or Rush and his imitators. We hadn't split into blue states and red states.
The fundamental question, assuming Obama wins, is how and whether we can find common ground again?"
--Robert Reich, American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.
When, if ever, will we come back together as Americans, all of us, and work together to solve our problems?
Links: https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?ref=stream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich
Disavowing the presumed Right Wing lean
"A majority of Americans still holds (George W.) Bush accountable for the Great Recession, and with good reason. We are still breathing the fumes of his toxic brew of deregulation, massive transfers of wealth to the rich and a doubling of the national debt. His policies, and those of the Republican Congress that had its way with the economy for six years, were in fact the culmination of a right-wing ideological revolution led by Ronald Reagan, which changed the way Americans view their government. Mr. Reagan's shadow continues to loom large, because Democrats have yet to make the case for a compelling alternative and have too often accepted the premises of the right."
--Drew Weston in The New York Times, yesterday, in his column "America's Leftward Tilt?"
Link: http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/americas-leftward-tilt/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121104
Vote for a rich guy? And for the rich?
Once again, Garry Trudeau and his "Doonesbury" comic hits the nail squarely (click on picture for larger, easier viewing):
Check out that quote, above. This one:
"You know, it just annoys me that only a few years after the economy was brought to its knees by a gang of predatory Wall Street Plutocrats...that the GOP would nominate a predatory Wall Street plutocrat!"
And that, of course, would be this man:
For pity's sake, whatever you do tomorrow, Tuesday, election day, don't vote Romney.
From the "You have to be kidding" file
Did you see the article in the Star yesterday about the secret test spraying in the "projects" of St. Louis (and San Antonio, it should be pointed out)? (Link at bottom):
Secret testing in St. Louis was no health risk, Army says
Clandestine experiments were conducted in poor and mostly black areas during the Cold War era.
ST. LOUIS | -- An Army investigation into secret chemical testing in impoverished areas of St. Louis during the Cold War era has corroborated three previous studies that the testing posed no health risk to those who lived in the areas, according to a letter from a top Army official.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Army used motorized blowers atop a low-income housing high-rise, on schools and in other locations to spray zinc cadmium sulfide, a fine fluorescent powder, into the air. The testing was part of a biological weapons program and St. Louis was chosen because it bore some resemblance to Russian cities that the U.S. might attack.
Right.
And what were they going to say? That sure, they did it and it was wrong and it likely screwed people up? You think they're going to 'fess up to any problems here?
So what are they basing their claim on, anyway, the Army? That no one was effected by this negatively in any way? Ever? At all?
If this isn't an example of both racism and classism at its worst, I don't know what is.
One last question.
If this wasn't going to bother anyone, why didn't they do it in the wealthy areas of these cities?
Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/04/3900164/secret-testing-in-st-louis-was.html
Sunday, November 4, 2012
KC Chiefs do what the Royals--and David Glass--can't and won't
I just saw this evening where the Chiefs are offering tickets for their November 18 game starting at $5.99 a seat.
This just makes sense, given this season. Besides losing, it's been nearly painful.
But the thing is, tough as our NFL team's season has been, what's crazy is that the Royals not only have had at least as bad a year, win/loss wise, you have to admire the Hunt family's and the team's opening up tickets like this, at this low a rate. The Royals and David Glass, their owner, has, to date, come nowhere close to offering such a bargain, in spite of their repeated losses, game after game and year after year.
It's getting worse for the Chiefs, too. Check out these two articles, breaking last evening (links below):
Kansas City Chiefs: Sports Store Cuts Prices on Chiefs Gear Until Pioli Fired
Chiefs Fan Group Records Second Protest Song
And here's that video:
We need to do the same things--or more, really--to and about the Royals, for sure.
And the sooner, the better.
Links: http://www.kcchiefs.com/
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1396283-kansas-city-chiefs-sports-store-cuts-prices-on-chiefs-gear-until-pioli-fired
http://fox4kc.com/2012/11/04/chiefs-fan-group-records-second-protest-song/
http://www.SaveOurChiefs.com
http://www.no-more-glass.com
Breaking news: Why Mittens wouldn't release those tax returns
From The Daily Kos:
Breaking: Romney Paid Zero Taxes From 1996 To 2009
What did you pay in taxes all that time?
Anyone think this is fair or just or right for someone running for the highest office in the nation?
And can you imagine the screams that would be heard if Barack Obama hadn't paid any taxes in this time period?
It'd be deafening.
Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/04/1155381/-Breaking-Romney-Paid-Zero-Taxes-From-1996-To-2009
American financial scandals, then and now
"When Americans saw the scope of the savings an loan scandal in the 1980s, which today just seems like a bad day on the unregulated derivatives market, Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, Edwin Meese III, put nearly a thousand bankers behind bars. In contrast, Eric H. Holder, Jr., can't seem to smell the stench of a fraud that cost millions of people their jobs or homes."
--Drew Weston in The New York Times today, in his article "America's Leftward Tilt?"
We need to push for banking reform, support of regulations and breaking up the "too big to fail."
Link: http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/americas-leftward-tilt/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121104
Saturday, November 3, 2012
KCMO: Sweet 16 on "25 Most Dangerous Cities"
I've always appreciated the fact that, when a list of the top 10 most dangerous cities was released, Kansas City wasn't on it.
So far, anyway.
But expand that list to 25 and we just can't miss, dangit. It happens to be one of the top stories on Yahoo! News right now.
From the FBI's compilation of crime statistics in the nation:
16. Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas City reported 1,200 violent crimes per 100,000.
The city also reported 57.4 forcible rapes per 100,000, more than twice the national average of 26.8 forcible rapes per 100,000 people.
At least we're not St. Louis (number 3) or, heaven forbid, Detroit and its environs (numbers 1 and 2 when you take in top-ranked, nearby Flint, Michigan).
Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-25-most-dangerous-cities-in-america.html
On America and "Big Oil"
Additionally? We, the people, you and me, all the working class stiffs in the nation give "Big Oil", the oil companies like Exxon-Mobil and Shell and BP and all of them? We give them tax deductions and subsidies. Yep. The wealthiest and most profitable companies and industry in the nation and the world and we give them--they get--tax breaks.
We just aren't very smart.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Whatever happened to being "good Christians" or "nobless oblige"?
That people who call themselves Christians ever, ever fell in with these modern-day Republicans and Conservatives and Right Wing people is self-evident to us today but still stunning.
KSU player all over Yahoo! News and Sports last evening
Here you go:
Collin Klein’s faith led him to his wife and his first kiss, so why not a Heisman and a national championship?
Link to original article: sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/collin-klein-faith-led-him-wife-first-kiss-215824243--ncaaf.html
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Entertainment overnight
A first here--an entire album. And a classic, at that, back from when there was rock and roll:
Enjoy.
Shooting Kansas Governor Brownback's tax cuts all to heck
By sheer coincidence,I ran into two articles yesterday that, as the title above suggests, shoot Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's plans and ideas of getting a lot of business and employment and tax revenue for the state by slashing the tax rates of corporations and the wealthy:
Here's the first, from CNBC:
Taxes Don’t Drive Out the California Rich: Study
As Californians debate the "rich tax" contained in Gov. Jerry Brown’s Prop 30, a new report challenges one argument for lowering tax rates on the wealthy: that millionaires simply move to avoid higher taxes, leaving the middle class with a higher burden.
The study, by sociologists at Stanford and Princeton, looked at two tax changes in California, a 1996 tax cut on high-income filers and a 2005 levy called the Mental Health Services Tax that took one percent of income over $1 million. Using tax-return data, the researchers examined how the changes affected “millionaire migration” in or out of the state before and after the tax laws were passed.
The research showed that millionaires not only were unmoved, so to speak, by their taxes being raised, “the highest-income Californians were less likely to leave the state after the millionaire tax was passed,” wrote Charles Varner and Cristobal Young in their report.
In fact, the richer the Californian, the more likely he or she was to stay, the study found. Nor did the data suggest that lowering taxes lured millionaires to the state. (Read more: Millionaire 'Munger Sandwich' Squeezes Gov. Brown)
And sure, okay, I'll grant you, Kansas is not California, not by a long shot. It doesn't have an ocean and beaches nor mountains but it also doesn't have as many wealthy and uber-wealthy people, either, so it could be a wash.
But to go on and support this idea and theory, here's the 2nd article I referred to above:
Nonpartisan congressional study: Tax breaks for rich don't grow jobs
15 Comments
A congressional research service is challenging the candidates who say that preserving Bush-era tax breaks for the rich are a way to increase jobs.
In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service not only found no evidence that six decades of relief for the wealthy helped the nation's economy, they also warned that this may have expanded the gap between the rich and the poor.
"The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment and productivity growth," researchers wrote in their latest report to Congress.
Top federal income tax rates have changed considerably since World War II ended in 1945.
Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, the top marginal rate typically was above 90 percent, the report states. It now stands at 35 percent.
The top rate on capital gains was 25 percent in the 1950s and 1960s, reached 35 percent in the 1970s, and stands today at 35 percent.
Meanwhile, the growth rate in real gross domestic product -- the value of all goods and services produced, adjusted for inflation -- averaged 4.2 percent in the 1950s but just 1.7 percent in the 2000s.
"The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie," the report states, " ... but there may be a relationship to how the economic pie is sliced."
The nonpartisan service found the share of income accruing to the top 0.1 percent of American families rose from 4.2 percent in 1945 to a peak of 12.3 percent in 2007. And though it fell during the last recession, it remains more than double the post-war level at 9.2 percent.
Income tax rates have been at the center of policy debates in numerous races this fall.
Both the above articles have links here, below--the first two. The rest are additional sources, proving these points.
Could we please, now, dissuade ourselves of this silly idea that giving the wealthy yet more, in the form of tax cuts and subsidies and rebates, somehow makes the nation and the rest of us stronger and/or more wealthy?
Links: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49623297
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/17498/nonpartisan-congressional-study-tax-breaks-rich-dont-grow-jobs
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/tax-cuts-wealthiest-don-t-stimulate-economy-report-160714639.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/tax-cuts-wealthiest-don-t-stimulate-economy-report-160714639.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/tax-cuts-wealthiest-don-t-stimulate-economy-report-160714639.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/study-tax-cuts-dont-lead-to-growth-2012-9
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Congressional-Report-Tax-Cuts-for-the-Rich-Do-Not-Promote-Growth-63992-1.html
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