"The lion's share of the undermining comes in the form of the Blue Dogging that I should have anticipated. Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) is wary of "big pieces of legislation." Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) does what she does best: shielding her ultra-profitable oil industry donors from sacrifice. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) beat the drum for austerity." [Huff] How often have I said that the true obstructionists are not those desensitized members of the Tea...
"The Census Bureau reported that there are now 46.2 million Americans living below the official poverty line—the highest number in the 52 years since that statistic was first measured—and median household income has fallen back to the 1996 level." [NY Times] Yeah, I know most of us mainstreamers are fortunate to have jobs or pensions, some even get help from WWII or baby boomer parents, yet the glaring fact remains that there are far too many people hur...
Granted the special NY election result [Weiner’s seat] was partly to rebuke Obama, but in a heavily Jewish district, the publicized fact that the contestant Democrat and Jew David Weprin voted in favor of New York’s passage of gay marriage, not to mention that Weprin wasn’t monolithically pro-Israel. Of course, the ugliest skeleton in the closet was Weiner himself. The election, therefore, shows that it’s not just the right that goes crazy over socio-ethnic-ethic issues. ...
Once upon a Time the rich got richer and the poor got less poor because of enhanced productivity and its distribution. It was known as sharing in the efforts of capital and labor, NOT redistribution of wealth that today implies the Robin Hood system. Granted, this country is still well off when contrasted with the emerging nations, but we have different standards and the current wealth gap makes the perception virtually amorally embarrassing—if not immoral—when j...
Sunnunu—the acorn doesn’t fall far from the oak—using the same old arguments handed down to him. It’s as though Time planted this " … on the dole" [FOX balance?] to counteract Foroohar’s Keynesian memos. Coming from tax dodging New Hampshire, Sunnunu naturally thinks everyone is on the take. And as Foroohar points out it is exactly states like his that aggravate the national deficits by shortchanging its average citizens through phony accounting.His l...
Unless the Dems acknowledge that what’s a deficit that an income tax hike of ¼% on the poor, ½-1% on the middle class and 2¾- 4½% on the wealthy wouldn’t cure? There should be no floor, "earned income" credit: if you make a buck be prepared to hand over a percentage, however meager it still helps the deficit. Yet, there’s little chance Obama and the left of blue dogs will hammer it home for the good of the nation."
The most important action the government can take to ease the economic crisis is to bypass the middle-fiddle manipulators of Wall Street and deal with the thousands of solvent local and regional banks that still exercise sound lending and investment practices. Moreover, there are countless ways to put people to work without having to wait for new technology such as wind turbine grids and high speed rails. Decaying malls and housing are in need of immediate clean up and repair. Many malls in decl...
Rotten in Denmark is mild contrasted to what’s rotten in the United States. When politicians—such as Hoyer and Cantor— are still vying for funds from the likes of AIG, Bank of America, and Citigroup how can we hope for a clean slate? Even squeaky clean Obama was campaigning on $millions of corporate and union contributions. Other than the truly humanitarian, lobbyists should be chased out of Washington. Politics is so obscenely married to economic self-interests that ther...
It's not rocket science. The need for Public Works is a foregone conclusion; Furthermore, in order that others can be hired, we have to put an end to lionizing millions who work more than 40 hours a week, especially those who "manly" boast 60-80 hrs. The Labor Department should enforce the law. There should also be a surtax on every damnable item made overseas in order to discourage perpetual outsourcing. Call it a New, New Deal. &nb...
Jobs Bill? Punish small businesses that chronically violate overtime pay. After eighty years isn’t it time not only to preserve the work week but to incrementally reduce it to 35 hrs in ten years? Solution to malpractice lawsuits is to get rid of grossly incompetent physicians with the same venom the public wants to eliminate teachers. A subcommittee should look into fee-gouging by malpractice insurers. Competent doctors should be partly subsidized for the outrageous insurance ...
Twisting Ideology Ideology was first meant to be science of ideas and policy designed to set in motion societal reform. By the Mid 19 th century it became emotionally charged by religious and political delusions bereft of systemic philosophic coherence and hardly worthy of political theory as in such likes of Plato, Hobbes, Hegel, Kant and the Federalist Papers. Because he aligned his work with Hegel—thereby erroneously claiming political theory rather than economic ideology—...
Though it seems rational not to view things by ideology, the happenings of the times is geared to partisanship; Obama's call for bipartisanship fell on deaf ears big time. Take the majority leader's current situation: lefties see it as racism, righties see only the double standard when connected to Trent Lott. The true issue is that both senators—Lott and Reid—are awful wordsmiths. However, Trent Lott is a southern conservative, and perhaps even privately wishes for the good old days...
In browsing: "Pension Fund and Illinois shareholder Ken Brown alleges that Goldman's much-criticized compensation plan is not structured in the best interest of shareholders.... Citing New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's July report, Brown's lawsuit states that "Goldman earned $2.3 billion, paid out $4.8 billion in bonuses and received $10 billion in TARP funding." The lawsuit argues that the bank's 2008 bonuses were subsidized with taxpayer money. At issue in both lawsuits is whether or no...
Obama is over zealous in offering tax incentives or credits for domestic green industries in order to broach the labor famine. What is wrong with this county that it cannot get its citizenry to "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"? What industry would not be proud to take part in building the future without expecting handouts. Haven’t we had enough of that since Nov. ‘08? Yet why are so many employers so willing to shit o...
"Failure to connect the dots"—deja vu. What this means is the failure to connect various agencies concerned. Yet even this rationalization doesn’t address the issue of human sloth and incompetence. Perhaps the solution lies in awarding these agencies bonuses when in the unlikely event they arrest the terrorists before boarding the plane. Wait! Just as with the Wall Street Dummies, don’t these government employees already get a living wage? When is enough, enough?