November 2011
A Millionaire Small Business Would Benefit From...
“The anti-tax crowd is boxed in…. Are Republicans going to deny the average working family a $1,500 tax break in order to spare millionaires a modest increase? That $1,500 or so, multiplied by every paycheck in America, would have a huge effect on economic growth next year, widely estimated as between 1.5 and 2 percentage points. The tax increase would affect only a tiny...
Boehner's Inconsistent Tax Policy
The prospects for an extension of the payroll tax break are improving in the Senate, but what about the House, where far-right Republicans dominate? House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters today he’s open to the idea, but he has some conditions, most notably the fact that the tax cuts must be offset with savings elsewhere.
Here are a few questions for enterprising Capitol Hill...
Accused Adulterer vs Known Adulterer
“Herman Cain’s latest presidential campaign implosion has put some of the Republican Party’s most active voters in a distinctly uncomfortable position: deciding whether to abandon an accused adulterer to side with an admitted adulterer.” - LA Times
Such moral choices for the GOP.
Americans Used to Be Much More Anti-Tax, Now More...
“Congressional Republicans may have become more anti-tax in the last 30 years, but the American public has made the opposite transition: in March 1982, three-quarters of Americans said spending cuts alone should be used to reduce deficits; today, about the same [75%] share say tax increases should be included in any debt-reduction package. Remember, of course, that tax rates were much...
“For a couple of years, the left has joined the right in making Obama a piñata…...”
– Nicholas Kristof, President as Piñata - NYTimes (via brooklynmutt)
“People too smart to get involved in politics are doomed to live in societies run...”
– Plato (via cynosure-epr)
And that’s why for every smart person like Barack Obama or Elizabeth Warren, there are 10-20 Republican clowns thinking they can run things.
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
“We want a virgin to do a hooker’s job.”
– — Arizona state Sen. Lori Klein (R), quoted by CBS News, on the sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain.
She added that she has known Cain for 12 years and he’s “never been anything but a gentleman — and I am not an unattractive woman.”
Her rationale of...
Not All Boats Float In A Rising Tide
Paul Krugman once again points out today in the Times, things really aren’t improving for anyone. He cites a Congressional Budget Office report that showed that between 1979 and 2005, “the inflation-adjusted, after-tax income of Americans in the middle of the income distribution rose 21 percent. The equivalent number for the richest 0.1 percent rose 400 percent. For the most part, these...
Anonymous asked: my boyfriend is conservative & I am definitely liberal & we often get in arguments about politics. He pretty much believes everything on fox news & it is extremely annoying. What are some points I can make to him?
The More You Know, The Less You Like
Tom Jensen: “You want to know the biggest reason Mitt Romney hasn’t surged at any point in the Republican Presidential race this year? It’s because the more GOP primary voters across the country have been exposed to him, the less they’ve liked him. There are 13 places PPP has polled the Republican race in October or November where it also did a poll sometime between...
“Half of them think like Michelle Bachmann and the other half are afraid of being...”
– Barney Frank, on Congressional Republicans
Cain's Extramarital Affair Over 13 Years
Cain’s lawyer issued a statement to Fox 5 Atlanta that was less-than-helpful if he’s denying the affair: “This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace — this is not an accusation of an assault — which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate. Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct...
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The Fed: Secret Loans Highlight How The Rich Play...
“The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret…. The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same...
“Seriously, the notion that denying health care to the near-poor is a serious...”
– Paul Krugman
A stable middle class and social safety net created an economy that made the “super-rich” possible. The past 30 years of catering to the “super-rich” has destroyed the middle class and weakened the social safety net.
The super-rich would be nowhere without he...
“The political environment in the Republican primary … basically means you...”
– Bill Clinton
Republicans Do Not Understand Their Own Activism
“To hear the Republican presidential candidates tell it, the U.S. Constitution is the guiding light of democracy, a bedrock document so perfect and precise that it shouldn’t be challenged, interpreted or besmirched by modern-day judges. Except for all the parts the GOP candidates themselves want to change. The same candidates promising to appoint strict constructionist judges...
“I’m not mad at the tea party for being so loud. I’m mad at the progressives for...”
– — Van Jones
#yeswecan
“I don’t say this lightly, but the consumer is simply an income stream and...”
– Former JPMorgan executive David Mooney. (via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)
James Murdoch Resigns From U.K. Newspaper Boards
LONDON (Reuters) - James Murdoch has resigned from the boards of the publishing units within News Corp’s British newspaper arm, which used to include the now-defunct News of the World tabloid at the centre of the phone hacking scandal, regulatory filings show.
Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert and deputy chief operating officer of News Corp, remains chairman of News International,...
“I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer; and...”
– — Gov. John Kitzhaber (D-Ore.)
New York Times: “Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon on Tuesday said he would halt the execution of a death row inmate scheduled for next month and that he would allow no more executions in the state during his time in office.” The Oregonian story is...
Pepper Spray: "Banned for Use in War."
Meredith Melnick of Time:
“… in the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice cited nearly 70 fatalities linked to pepper-spray use…. Getting pepper-sprayed is worse than getting maced [PDF] — mace causes burning but no respiratory effects [which pepper spray causes]….
Classified as a riot-control agent and banned for use in war by Article I.5 of the Chemical...
The GOP's Family Friendly Facade
Sadly, this sane approach will get Newt in trouble:
Wading into treacherous territory in Republican primary politics just as he is climbing in polls, Mr. Gingrich said during a nationally televised debate that he would support allowing some illegal immigrants — those who had been in the country for decades, had paid taxes and had raised families here — to remain in the country. Mr. Gingrich,...
So if you're stuck having Thanksgiving dinner with... →
truth-has-a-liberal-bias:
Barack Obama Is Now The Biggest Tax Cutter In American History
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beneath all of the Republican and Tea Party grumbling about taxes, one key fact continues to be ignored. According to the Tax Policy Center, Federal taxes are lower than at any time since 1955. Obama has now reduced taxes by more than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
According to...
Occupy Movement Has Best Media Week Yet
The Pew Research Center finds that the Occupy Wall Street movement had its best week yet in news coverage.
“Last week, the U.S. economy was the No. 1 story at 22% of the newshole, with the majority of that coverage focused on the confrontations between protesters, law enforcement, and the city governments that preside over the public spaces that have become encampments. All totaled,...
Fallon Apologizes to Bachmann
TV show host Jimmy Fallon apologized to Rep. Michele Bachmann for a song played as the presidential candidate walked on stage for her interview on his late night show, CNN reports. As Bachmann walked out to greet Fallon, the show’s band played a song by Fishbone called Lyin’ Ass Bitch.
Zing!
Megyn Kelly Calls Pepper Spray a ‘Food Product,...
Last night on Fox News, anchor Megyn Kelly joined Bill O’Reilly to assess just how much the protesters at UC Davis deserved to get pepper-sprayed while staging a nonviolent protest last week. “First of all, pepper spray — that just burns your eyes, right?” O’Reilly asks Kelly, the legal (and apparently chemical) expert. “It’s like a derivative of actual...
“I paid her for two years to make this announcement on my network.”
– Fox News chief Roger Ailes, infuriated that Sarah Palin didn’t make the announcement she wouldn’t run for president on Fox News.
Imagine that, gee whiz, the ol’ hockey mom Palin turned her back on someone. Did half a job. Grifted by a grifter.
A Sustained Protest
Glenn Greewald:
“Every time the citizenry watches peaceful protesters getting pepper-sprayed … many become increasingly fearful of participating in this citizen movement, and also become fearful in general of exercising their rights…. That’s … exactly what the climate of fear imposed by all abusive police state actions is intended to achieve: to coerce citizens to...
Anonymous asked: Nobody said it was nice and clean, but unfortunately this is the best way to organize a system of selfish people. What's your alternative?
Anonymous asked: Here's the thing about raising wages: if you do that, the companies are going to go somewhere where the wages aren't as high, thereby removing the jobs completely.
Anonymous asked: If kids are allowed to work, though, they can help contribute income to bring their family out of poverty.
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Gingrich Thinks Child Labor Laws Are "Truly...
Support for child-labor laws was taken as a given for much of the 20th century. Not anymore.
Newt Gingrich proposed a plan Friday that would allow poor children to clean their schools for money, saying such a setup would both allow students to earn income and endow them with a strong work ethic.
Speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the former House Speaker said his system...