8 Surprising facts about the shrinking Middle Class in the US

--Income Inquality Is Soaring: In 2005, the bottom 20 percent of household earners had an average income of $10,655 while households in the top 20 percent made nearly 160,000 – a disparity of 1,500 percent, the highest gap ever recorded, Arianna notes in Third World America; --Cash-Strapped States Are Cutting Crucial Services: "According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least twenty-nine states have made cuts to public health programs, twenty-four states have cut programs for the elderly and disabled, twenty-nine states have cut aid to K–12 education, and thirty-nine states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities. America’s states faced a cumulative budget gap of $166 billion for fiscal 2010. Total shortfalls through fiscal 2011 are estimated at $380 billion—and could be even higher depending on what happens to unemployment. These are massive numbers. But when you remember that we spent $182 billion to bail out AIG ($12.9 billion of which went straight to Goldman Sachs), you realize that this amount alone would be more than enough to close the 2010 budget gap in every state in the Union. Toss in the $45 billion we gave to now-making-a-profit Bank of America and the $45 billion we gave to now-making-a-profit Citigroup, and we would be well on the way to ensuring that no state’s vital services are cut through 2011." --Corporations are skipping out on taxes: "According to the White House, in 2004, the last year data on this was compiled, U.S. multinational corporations paid roughly $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign active earnings— putting their tax rate at around 2.3 percent. Know many middle-class Americans getting off that easy at tax time?" - Arianna Huffington, Third World America; --The Financial Services Sector Is Dominating Our Economy: "As MIT professor Simon Johnson recounted in the Atlantic, between 1973 and 1985, the financial industry’s share of domestic corporate profits topped out at 16 percent. In the 1990s, it spanned between 21 percent and 30 percent. Just before the financial crisis hit, it stood at 41 percent. The share of our economy devoted to making things of value is shrinking, while the share devoted to valuing made-up things (credit-swap derivatives, anyone?) is expanding. It’s the financialization of our economy." --Health care costs are bankrupting Americans: "The vast majority of people who file for bankruptcy are middle-class folks who can’t pay their bills because they’ve lost their jobs or been hit with high medical bills. In fact, a 2009 study by researchers at Harvard and Ohio University showed that health-care problems were the root cause of 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies in America in 2007. When the same researchers did this study across five states in 2001, health-care problems caused only 50 percent of bankruptcy filings. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, America had 1.4 million personal bankruptcies in 2009, a 32 percent increase over the previous year. Put another way: Every thirty seconds, someone in this country files for bankruptcy in the wake of a serious illness."; --The Foreclosure Crisis Is Not Abating: “Barry Bosworth and Rosanna Smart of the Brookings Institution found that the catastrophic collapse of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage market resulted in the disappearance of $13 trillion in American household wealth between mid-2007 and March 2009... on average, U.S. households lost one quarter of their wealth in that period," cites Huffington. She continues, “We are facing nothing less than a national emergency: 2.8 million homes faced foreclosure in 2009, and an estimated 3 million more are expected to be foreclosed on in 2010. If there was ever a middle-class Katrina, this is it." --America's Education System Is In Crisis: America's educational system is failing: "Eight years ago, amid much fanfare, the D.C. establishment passed No Child Left Behind...but it turned out to be reform in name only," Arianna explains Third World America . "Despite a goal of 100 percent proficiency in reading and math, eight years later we are not even close. In Alabama, only 20 percent of eighth graders are proficient in math. In California, it’s just 23 percent. In New York, it’s 34 percent." --America's Infrastructure Is Crumbling: "In studying car crashes across the country, the Transportation Construction coalition determined that badly maintained or managed roads are responsible for $217 billion in car crashes annually – far more than headline-grabbing alcohol-related accidents ($130 billion) and speed-related pile-ups ($97 billion)", Arianna writes in Third World America. But Americans are paying an even higher price for our deteriorating roads. Of the 42,000 road fatalities each year, 53% are at least partially the result of poor road conditions. "We are currently spending $70 billion annually on improving our highways, but that’s nowhere near the $186 billion a year that is needed. It's a collision of need versus resources; for far too many of us, it can be fatal," she adds. It is the point of Arianna Huffington's book, Third World America, that some of us, here in the US, are, in fact, members of the "Third World", that is, in poverty equal to undeveloped countries. Did you think we were better than that? Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/8-surprising-facts-about_n_675545.html#s121657

Good questions on food and our government's complicity with corporations

When did we lose the right to know what we are eating? When did food labeling become a con game to make us think we're eating healthy even when we are not? Why is the government assisting those who wish to confuse us? --Robin Quivers Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-quivers/secret-ingredients_b_675961.html

Quote of the day--on "continual warfare" II

One of the biggest problems the US and the world has right now is our desire for "continual war" so we can feed our corporations. We need to get off the "war teat".

President Dwight Eisenhower's foreshadowing and prescience

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." --Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. I would love to know what Pres. Eisenhower saw that he warned us all about the "military-industrial complex" I think it would be fascinating. Besides war, that's what we're fighting--shutting down the feedbag for these corporations.Between their lobbying money and their ability to buy Senator's and Representative's votes AND the fact that they can claim jobs are being created or sustained AND the fact that, if you cut defense spending, you can be labeled "weak" or, worse, weak on defense and unpatriotic--what nonsense--there is a great deal in their favor. We really have to raise heck to get this changed. We have to understand what we're up against.

Further evidence Roy Blunt is bad for Missouri

Besides taking it upon myself to do what I can to help get the US out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (tongue planted firmly in cheek), I'm also taking it upon myself to get word out--truth only--about the kind of person Roy Blunt is so he won't be returned to Washington, DC this Fall, to represent us. So, besides being from a wealthy political family dynasty--and isn't that enough reason right there?--there's also the fact that he is a deeply entrenched "Washington insider"--strike 2--and, apparently, according to websites on the internet, a real party animal on the Washington cocktail circuit. (See http://www.roybluntpartyblog.com/) That should do it right there. And it would except Roy and his family and their wealthy and corporate friends have boodles of money and they can spend it to tell us buffoons back home to vote for him and them. Besides, unfortunately, it seems too many voters vote "familiar names" too frequently, rather than issues and on hard data and their own best interests. (banging head on desk) So, added to all the above on Mr. Blunt is the fact that he is misrepresenting his past voting record now, particularly as it relates to the TARP fund in 2008: Before he was against it, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt was for a 2008 bill authorizing up to $700 billion to shore up banks and other troubled financial institutions. In fact, Blunt helped negotiate its details and - as House Republican whip - helped round up enough votes to ensure its passage. Now a candidate for U.S. Senate, Blunt is carefully parsing his past support for the unpopular bank bailout. Some people, when speaking of people who misrepresent the truth, would call such a person a liar. Link to original post: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MO_MISSOURI_SENATE_ANALYSIS_MOOL-?SITE=MOCAP&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Quote of the day--on "continual warfare"

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." — James Madison, Political Observations, 1795

Quote of the day--on gender roles

"We live in a society where the nation's leading universities' enrollments are majority female, and it's time the media started recognizing that women and men should no longer feel pressured to follow strict, dated guidelines of gender behavior." --Daniel Koh, MBA Student at Harvard Business School

Our (screwed up) priorities

We would much rather have a Black man in prison than educate a child on Troost.

I'm so old...

I remember when the Country Club Plaza had no traffic lights. Keep cool, y'all and have a great weekend.

Just focus on the glaciers and ice caps

Forget everything else you hear, read or see on high and low temperatures locally or anywhere on the planet, when it comes to global warming or climate change or however you want to refer to it. Let's focus instead on one thing--or one group, anyway. Let's focus on the ice caps and glaciers of the world, shall we? They're both--all, really--melting. And they're melting at unprecedented rates. Sure, a big swath of Russia is on fire and their food crop is severely affected and they're having to move around their missiles and planes and other weapons and, finally, they're experiencing their highest temperatures in the history of record-keeping but let's ignore all that. We're not Russians, after all, right? and we're not there. But pay attention to the glaciers and ice caps and keep in mind that, again, they're both melting to our peril, and they are melting at unprecedented rates. Check this out, today, from The Huffington Post: A giant ice island has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. A University of Delaware researcher says the floating ice sheet covers 100 square miles – more than four times the size of New York's Manhattan Island. (See link below) 100 square miles of ice, folks. Can you even imagine that? I know I can't. And it just broke off the rest of the continent. And it's floating away. And melting. We're getting warmer and it's decidedly not a good thing. The way we live is not sustainable. Look around. We need to change. We need to use less. Keep cool this weekend, folks. (Just not too cool.) Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/07/petermann-glacier-giant-i_n_674326.html

Quote of the day--wish I'd said that

"There is no question that we need to devote far more resources to enforcing federal gun laws. But it is a transparent fallacy to argue that deficiencies in enforcing current laws justify inaction to strengthen those laws." --Dennis A. Henigan, Vice President, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Author of "Lethal Logic" Link to orginal post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/obama-gun-policy-fear-and_b_672250.html

Quote of the day--on the Senate and the energy bill going through now

"This is a political commercial bill," said of the efforts on energy. "We do them too. We do political commercial amendments. This is a political commercial bill. This is 'Republicans love BP.' They won't help clean up the Gulf. They want to defend their Big Oil buddies. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And we're going to have our own oil spill bill, showing we do want to clean it up, blah, blah, blah, blah." --Senator Lindsey ("I'm not gay") Graham (R-SC)

War in the Middle East?

There's a report out right now from Consortium News (consortiumnews.com) that "Israel will attack Iran as early as this month." Wow. Let's hope there's absolutely no truth to this. I can't even begin to say how many ramifications this would have in the Middle East, more locally with Israel and all its neighbors, but then internationally, too. This would unhinge so many violent people in so many ways and directions it would be difficult to predict all the insanity that would develop in the short- and long-range. Let's hope there's no truth to this. Link to original post: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/080310c.html

Forget about reducing our defense spending

I've written here before about how much we--the US--spends on defense and our military and how ridiculously high it is and how it's bankrupting us. I held out hope that we could reduce that amount. There was even that one post I had, written by a military officer, telling of both why and how we could and should reduce our defense spending. Great stuff, that one. But now, word out today shows that China has a new missile that could be problematic for us: Chinese missile could shift Pacific power balance U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China — an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles). With this development, unless it turned out to be false--which I doubt seriously will happen--no president will be able to propose that we cut defense spending, even if it could be logically, statistically proven that we'd still be safe. It seems we are doomed to spend ourselves into oblivion and debt, just as the Russians did, leading to their collapse. I'm not suggesting this will happen any time soon but that's not to say it can't or won't eventually happen, in a decade or two. Heaven knows we're good at spending. Side note: I want to also mention that this article I've linked to, above, is loaded, I believe, with new and important information about the defense of our carrier ships and our place in the world. It's a good and important read and I didn't/couldn't cover all the issues it raises here. It's worth the quick read. Have a great weekend, y'all.

Climate change: more conclusive evidence, it seems

There are five headlines right now, concerning Russia and their record-setting heat and fires: --Fires Rage Across Russia Amid Record Heat Forest fires raged across Russia on Friday, destroying villages, surrounding one southern city and killing at least 25 people, including three firefighters. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin consoled survivors at one smoldering village and urged officials to redouble their efforts against the blazes. The fires have spread quickly across more than 200,000 acres (90,000 hectares) in recent days after a record heat wave and severe drought. July has been the hottest month in Moscow in 130 years of recorded history. Fields and forests have dried up, and much of this year's wheat harvest has been ruined. --Russia Bans Grain Exports Amid Drought, Fires Russia banned grain exports for the rest of the year on Thursday after a severe drought and wildfires destroyed 20 percent of its wheat crop. The price of wheat, which has already jumped 70 percent on world markets this summer, rallied further on the news. --Russia Moves Rockets As Wildfires Spread A Russian military garrison near Moscow moved all its artillery rockets to a safer location as wildfires advanced in the region, the government said Thursday. Col. Alexei Kuznetsov, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press that the garrison near Naro-Fominsk, 70 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of Moscow, was not in immediate danger. But the decision to move the explosive materiel underlined the challenges posed by the hundreds of fires raging in Russia after weeks of intense heat and drought. A wildfire leapt into a Russian naval air base outside Moscow last week, causing substantial damage; Russian media reported as many as 200 planes may have been destroyed. Kuznetsov did not give details of where the rockets were moved to, or when the operation occurred. --Russia Bans Grain Exports Amid Severe Drought Worst smog yet hits Moscow, planes are diverted To minimize further damage, Russian workers have evacuated explosives from military facilities and were sending planes, helicopters and even robots to help control blazes around the country's top nuclear research facility in Sarov, 300 miles (480 kilometers) east of Moscow. A wildfire leapt into a Russian naval air base outside Moscow last week, causing substantial damage. Russian media reported as many as 200 planes may have been destroyed. The forecast for the week ahead, with temperatures approaching 38 C (100 F), shows little change in Moscow and surrounding regions, where the average summer temperature is around 23 (75). What further proof do we need that climate change--or whatever you want to call it--is real? At what point do we do something about this and about how we live so we reduce the effects this is already having on us, how we live and how we may exist into the future? Already, now, it's affecting Russia's food supply and it's defensive weapons. It's affecting its security. How long until it affects other country's security? How long until it affects ours?

I'd love Tea Party member quotes---if they didn't believe what they said

The Most Ridiculous Tea Party Quotes Wednesday August 4, 2010 A roundup of the most idiotic and outrageous statements made by the nation's most prominent Tea Partiers: "We needed to have the press be our friend ... We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported." —Nevada GOP Senate nominee and Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle, during an interview with Fox News "I guarantee it's one of their long-term goals, to have one sort of borderless mass continent.'' —Kentucky GOP Senate nominee and Tea Party favorite Rand Paul, on the future of North America and secret U.S. plans for a European Union-style merger with Mexico and Canada Tea Party candidate Ken Buck, after being asked why people should vote for him for the Colorado GOP Senate nomination: ''Because I do not wear high heels. She (Buck's GOP primary opponent) has questioned my manhood, and I think it's fair to respond. I have cowboy boots, they have real bulls**t on them. And that's Weld County bulls**t, not Washington, D.C., bulls**t.'' ''There's a communist living in the White House.'' —Former SNL star and Tea Partier Victoria Jackson, at the Tea Party's Tax Day protest in Wahington, D.C., April 15, 2010 ''He has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.''—Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), member of the Tea Party Caucus, on President Obama's decision to fund international family planning organizations that support legal abortion, Sept. 26, 2009 For more wonderful, utterly stupid quotes from Tea Party members, go here: http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-tea-party-quotes.htm

On California and the downing of Prop 8

‎"Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians.The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples." -- U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker What part of "all men are created equal" are we not supposed to get?

Political campaigns: good news/bad news

The good news? It's against John Boehner. The bad news? This is the beginning, I think, of ugly advertising attacks that will be unleashed this Fall, before the election, particularly since the Supreme Court ruled corporations and organizations can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. Get ready, folks. Ugly political campaigning is about to get a LOT worse.

Milwaukee loss? Kansas City win?

I see in the Associated Press news just now that there are rumors Harley Davidson may be leaving Milwaukee: Harley-Davidson warned employees in April that it will move its Wisconsin manufacturing operations elsewhere if it cannot cut millions of dollars at the factories that build the bikes known as "Milwaukee Iron." It could just be an attempt to wrest yet more tax cuts from the local populace: Harley chief executive Keith Wandell said the company will make its decision on whether to move in the next two months. Harley executives are already scouting out other states, though Wandell will not say which ones. The company, he said, would also be open to incentives to keep the 1,630 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin. I have to think there would be at least an outside chance Harley could move that production here. I mean, it's within possibility, at least. They would have seen how the State of Missouri just handed over $150 million in tax "incentives" (read: cuts) for the Ford Motor Company. They no doubt figure we'd gladly do the same. Who knows if any of this is true? But, as I said, it's certainly within the realm of possibility. Keep cool, y'all, and think positive thoughts. Link to original post: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100804/ap_on_bi_ge/us_harley_milwaukee_breakup

"Is the Tea Party racist?" --from Jackie and Dunlap

Andrew "Breitbart's kind of a genius. You get accused of something and you just throw it back at your accusers--'You're the racist! Nuh-uh, Black people are the racists!' Now the whole country is in a dick-measuring contest over who's the most racist--White people or Black people." Back to me: That is some delicious, true, biting satire, right there, folks. If only it weren't true.

Basil Marceaux for Tennessee Governor?

Is this what has happened with our election system? I know it's easy to get on television but seriously, folks, surely we're better and smarter than allowing this to happen to us. Holy cow. Since George W. Bush got the Presidency is anything now possible?

The Sham and Embarrassment That Is Roy Blunt

In November, 2006, The New York Times ran an article about the Republican Party and our very own representative Roy Blunt and what he means and represents in Washington, DC and this country. I ran a post on it then, all those years ago. It's still true, very true, right up to today.

 Some excerpts from that article on this man, what he is, what he does and how he represents us:

Roy Blunt embodies the insidious, half-legal corruption that has permeated the G.O.P. majority since 1995. Blunt’s election as minority whip, by a 137-to-57 margin, was a defiant Republican rejection of calls to clean up their act. Warnings by Blunt’s challenger, John Shadegg of Arizona — “We ceded our reform-minded principles in exchange for a ...tighter grip on power” — went unheeded.

  In 2004, Blunt turned his lobbyist team loose to win passage of a bill eliminating a $50 billion corporate tax break that the World Trade Organization had ruled in violation of international agreements. These lobbyists inserted $143 billion worth of new corporate tax breaks, turning the bill into a Fortune 500 Christmas tree.

  Blunt...is bland, unctuous and adept at keeping a low profile. But there is plenty to see. After divorcing his wife of 35 years to marry a tobacco lobbyist, Abigail Perlman, he cleared his second marriage with the House Ethics Committee to get “a waiver of the limitations of the gift rule to allow me to accept gifts in connection with my wedding.” 

 Blunt unblushingly told the Heritage Foundation this month that Republicans “have allowed our efforts to defend traditional values to be defined as little more than a politically driven effort to appease ‘family groups.’ ” 

 For Blunt, the blurring of boundaries is a family tradition. His son Matt is the governor of Missouri. Another son, Andrew, is one of the state’s top lobbyists. Almost all Altria subsidiaries — Kraft, Miller Brewing, Philip Morris (remember Abigail Perlman) — hired Andy Blunt, along with other financial backers of Roy Blunt. 

 In Blunt, House Republicans have kept on display a top official reminding voters why they cast ballots for Democrats on Nov. 7. After winning the post of minority whip last week, Blunt declared that the Republicans had “come together ... frankly, to get rid of the bad habits that we may have developed in 12 years in the majority.” This is precisely the opposite of what they actually did, which was to affirm their bad habits. The burden on the Democrats will be to make the elusive Blunt a nationally recognized figure.

 All reasons why we need to get Roy Blunt out of our government and with all due, deliberate haste.

 Link to original post:  Same Old Party

Minorities and the poor: to war or prison

War and prisons. We love spending money--big money--on war and prisons. As long as it's poor or minority people--or both--we don't mind throwing them away. After all, it's their fault, right? From Truthout, yesterday: Our Prisons Don't Do Us Justice Monday 02 August 2010 by: William A. Collins Lock the prisons, Toss the key; Just don't send The bill to me. Prison numbers are tough to pin down. There is the federal system, there are 50 state systems, and no one is just sure how many local jails or military brigs. All told, professionals estimate that one in every 100 Americans resides in one of them. To observe that this figure sounds surprisingly high badly understates the point. It's totally obscene. We have replaced Russia and China as the world's incarceration powerhouse. And whatever else you may think of some of our allies, our incarceration rate is six times that of Canada and eight times that of France. No, nothing special has happened to our actual crime rate to cause this jump. The difference is politics. President Ronald Reagan decided that wars on drugs and crime would be good vote-getters and his idea stuck. Then, to consolidate the change, along with all the new prisons came a slew of new guards. To protect their jobs they have quickly become a potent lobby against any sort of criminal justice reform. What a mess! Link to original post: http://www.truth-out.org/our-prisons-dont-do-us-justice61969

Results of a lazy American electorate

A fellow blogger brought up this subject and yesterday's election brought out more of this so I have to ask: What is it with us Americans that we just reboot politicians, again and again, in the election booth? Why do we let them have these family dynasties in government? There's the Bush family, nationally (and look how well that turned out). There's the Blunts, here in Missouri--a den of thieves, in my view and a lot of other people's. There's the Carnahans (whom I'm for, frankly, but still, it's a family government dynasty, there's no denying it). Allow me to quote blogger friend Damnitkage from yesterday's mail: "Goddamit, I hate it so much that political offices have been converted into birthrights of certain wealthy families." I couldn't agree more. My response: What is it about the laziness of the American electorate that we keep voting in these family governance dynasties? Speaking of which, did you see where, in Kansas, Dennis Moore's wife got breezed back into his place? Holy cow. All you need is the last name and you're there. It's bloody looney. Pensions for life. What dolts we are. Why do we do this? I can't help but think it's just laziness. Answers anyone?

John Lennon's "Imagine", revised

I've always loved John Lennon's song "Imagine", as so many of us do. No surprise. Anyone who reads here (both of you) would likely be able to guess that, right? But I've always thought it had one problem. I've always believed it should be more inclusive and not require that "you join us" but that "we join together", period. Herewith, below, is how I think the lyrics should go, should have been written, with apologies to John Lennon, may he rest in peace, for my chutzpah: You may say that I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one, I hope someday we'll join up, And the world will live as one. See? There's a lot less self-assumption here that "I'm/we're right" and you need to join us. That, after all, is what causes wars in the first place. Peace, y'all.

War vs. peace, guns vs. butter

War has just become business for the US. War has become business we want to do and that we don't want to live without--unless and until we stand up, all of us, and demand that we stop this, as a nation. --me

Quote of the day--on elections and marketing on this election day

The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. ~Adlai E. Stevenson. We're in way over our heads, Adlai.

A staunch Republican---on Republican fiscal irresponsibility

David Stockman, for those of you who may not know, has always been a staunch, life-long Republican, having been elected to political office (the US House of Representatives) but most famously was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for Ronald Reagan's administration, serving there until 1985. He was famously for "supply-side economics" and had a bit of an illustrious career, for a few different reasons (you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stockman). This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a column from him, chiding the Republicans for saying they want to lower our debt but simultaneously trying to keep the "Bush tax cuts" which benefit the wealthiest of the nation. It is an article I think all voting, thinking Americans should read. Following are but the first two paragraphs of the article (for the rest of the column, see the link at bottom): Four Deformations of the Apocalypse How my GOP destroyed the U.S. Economy IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nation’s public debt — if honestly reckoned to include municipal bonds and the $7 trillion of new deficits baked into the cake through 2015 — will soon reach $18 trillion. That’s a Greece-scale 120 percent of gross domestic product, and fairly screams out for austerity and sacrifice. It is therefore unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase. More fundamentally, Mr. McConnell’s stand puts the lie to the Republican pretense that its new monetarist and supply-side doctrines are rooted in its traditional financial philosophy. Republicans used to believe that prosperity depended upon the regular balancing of accounts — in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the financial affairs of private households and businesses, too. But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance — vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes. Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html

Election Day--get out and vote today, people (please?)

Yes, this is the requisite blog entry pointing out that it's election day and imploring you to go to the polls and vote. I'll also add one more thing---vote no on proposition C. We need health care reform, people, even in this form. Our health care system isn't working and doesn't work well for all of us. This gets us closer to having it work. Now, get out there, have a great day and above all, keep cool.

Quote of the day II--who doesn't feel this?

"Here's the thing with this new technology. I think it's incredibly effective. I just don't think it's made anyone much happier. If anything, we are now always connected but we don't know what we're connected to. It's just an endless stream of information." --Gary Shteyngart, author Super Sad True Love Story Link to original post: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128872279