December 2011
"Occupy": Word of the Year
A neologism or new sense of a word catches on, unlike the many neologisms that didn’t, and lexicographers ratify what everyone else already knew: that lots of people were saying “occupy” this year, or that in Britain, the “squeezed middle” was the top political catchphrase of 2011. Merriam-Webster, being a dictionary maker, picked a word that many people looked...
“After they took power in January, the hard-line Republicans who dominate the...”
– New York Times Editors
File Under: reason to vote in 2012
Romney Is Afraid to Expose His Tax Rate
Willard “Mitt” Romney won’t release his taxes because:
“It seems virtually impossible that Mitt Romney doesn’t pay the sort of effective tax rate that would make people’s eyes pop when compared to middle income and even relatively wealthy (by normal standards) people who pay considerably higher rate…. Issues of income inequality and particularly tax policy...
New Rules for the New Year
Bill Maher’s New Rules for 2012, in the New York Times Sunday Review.
New Rule You can’t be against same-sex marriage and for Newt Gingrich. No man has ever loved another man as much as Newt Gingrich loves Newt Gingrich.
New Rule If you were a Republican in 2011, and you liked Donald Trump, and then you liked Michele Bachmann, and then you liked Rick Perry, and then you liked Herman...
“There is no freedom or equality for women without reproductive freedom. Having...”
– Joan Walsh of Salon, “Today’s GOP Makes Mississippi Look Liberal”
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Keynes Was Correct
75 year later and still correct.
“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.” So declared John Maynard Keynes in 1937, even as F.D.R. was about to prove him right by trying to balance the budget too soon, sending the United States economy — which had been steadily recovering up to that point — into a severe recession. Slashing government spending in a...
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“We’ve seen a lot of candidate downfalls over the last few months. What sets Newt...”
– Josh Marshall, “Inside the Newt Smackdown”, Talking Points Memo
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Mitt: Why Quibble Over Reality?
“I am not a Wall Street guy, classically defined, but I am not going to quibble over definitions.” — Mitt Romney, in an interview with the Huffington Post, making the point that his former firm, Bain Capital, is not an investment bank.
Mitt is Wall St’s Gordon Gekko, a vulture capitalist. He was a corporate raider, period. Mitt never met an American job he ...
Ron Paul’s Rise Hurts the GOP and Helps Obama
The greater Ron Paul’s success, the better chance the Democrats have of using his crackpot notions to characterize all of the GOP.
“First, and most obviously, increased attention to the perplexing Paul phenomenon only serves to strengthen the core argument for Barack Obama’s reelection: that today’s Republicans have become a wild and crazy bunch, harboring oddball, irresponsible notions...
2011 Year in Review: Eight Ways the Health Care... →
“As we ring in the New Year, we also want to take a minute to reflect on the progress we made in 2011. I’m proud to say that we had a very productive year for protecting the health of all Americans, especially those who are least able to help themselves. From strengthening Medicare to expanding access to preventive services to holding insurance companies accountable – young adults,...
“With income inequality at its highest level in 80 years while the federal tax...”
– John Perr
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton Again Top Most... →
brooklynmutt:
“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil...”
– Rick Perry. Knob
The "Limited Government" Republicans' Mandate How...
South Carolina state Reps. John Richard King (D) and Wendell Gilliard (D) say state employees shouldn’t have to answer the phone with Gov. Nikki Haley’s (R) mandated cheery greeting unless it’s truly a great day in South Carolina, the AP reports. They’ve filed legislation saying no state agency can force employees to answer the phone with, “It’s a great...
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Romney Will Not Release Tax Returns
Steve Benen sums up why Mitt Romney — unlike every presidential candidate since Watergate — won’t release his tax returns:
1. Mitt Romney is worth $250 million. 2. He got rich by laying off American workers. 3. He pays a lower tax rate than you and the rest of the middle class. 4. He wants to be president so he can keep it this way.
…and Romney still collects...
Political Prediction for 2012: It's Obama-Clinton
robertreich:
My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State — a position he’s apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President.
So the Democratic ticket for 2012 is Obama-Clinton.
Why do I say this? Because Obama needs to stir the passions and enthusiasms of a Democratic...
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Anonymous asked: "But be careful, the Republicans’ plan is to keep minorities from voting." What do you mean by this?
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“I’m not going to change my positions by virtue of being in a presidential...”
– Mitt Romney, in an interview on Fox News.
Pure comedy on Fox. Technically he’s correct, Mitt’s been changing his positions long before he ran for president.
Obama Retains Hispanic Support
In a hypothetical general election match-up against Mitt Romney, a new Pew Research poll finds President Obama wins the Latino vote by a 68% to 23% margin. These results are quite similar to the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, when Obama carried the Latino vote over Sen. John McCain by 67% to 31%
These are metrics that matter. New and young Hispanic voters are a growing...
“I think he compared that to Pearl Harbor. I think its more like Lucille Ball at...”
– Mitt Romney, quoted by Politico, on Newt Gingrich not qualifying for the Virginia ballot.
For all the criticisms we give modern day “everyone gets a medal” nurturing, how inept and undeserving are these GOP candidates? Each one more inept than the other.
The American Lie: 2012 Is A Watershed
Esquire: “There are some truths so hard to face, so ugly and so at odds with how we imagine the world should be, that nobody can accept them. Here’s one: It is obvious that a class system has arrived in America — a recent study of the thirty-four countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that only Italy and Great Britain have less social...
“Obama will thus be the conservative in 2012, in the truest sense of that word....”
– E.J. Dionne Jr. (via azspot)
Season's Greetings
To all the great tumblrs I follow, and more importantly, all the great tumblrs who follow me [ha!], have a really nice weekend full of borrowed pagan solstice rituals and celebrations about home oil. Giants beat the Jets so it’s off to a good start. Knicks over the Celtics?
Posting will be light over the next few days, but I plan on putting out my Top 10 list for 2011 soon.
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Ron Paul: Off-Target, Scared, And Misinforming For...
Excerpt from Ron Paul direct-mail solicitation from 1993:
AIDS sufferers “enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick.” [This coming from a doctor?!]
Referring to the U.S. holiday bearing Martin Luther King’s name as “Hate Whitey Day.”
the U.S. government’s redesign of currency to include different colors - a move aimed at thwarting...
UPDATE: Go Daddy denounces their support for SOPA...
Discrimination With A Smile
File under “Financial Sector Are Scum”:
Countrywide specialised in sub-prime mortgages, which were often granted without proper checks on criteria including the creditworthiness of borrowers.
The justice department said Countrywide had “steered” more than 10,000 minority borrowers into sub-prime mortgages, while white borrowers with similar credit profiles received...
“Bank of America’s Countrywide Financial business has agreed to pay a record fine...”
– BBC News - Bank of America fined $335m for minority discrimination
As we protest corrupt systems and institutions like BofA, it is extremely important to remember that race still plays a major role in the oppression of the people.
Financially, culturally, and politically, racism is not over.
...
In Bizzaro World: Republicans Cave In; Extend Tax...
Obama wins:
Bowing under intense pressure from members of their own party to end the politically damaging impasse over a payroll tax holiday, House Republican leaders agreed Thursday to accept a temporary extension of the tax cut, beating a hasty retreat from a showdown that Republicans increasingly saw as a threat to their election opportunities next year.
The GOP House: destroying the...
“The idea that people were demanding that their leaders act like Mel Gibson...”
– Gail Collins, NYT
