Mitch Daniels

What he said the war with Iraq would cost.

What would war with Iraq cost? - CNN

Here's Mitch.... (late 2002 or early 2003)

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday that such a conflict could cost $50 billion to $60 billion -- the price tag of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

What it's really cost (so far). War Costs

Based on DOD estimates and budget submissions, the cumulative total for funds appropriated from the 9/11 attacks through the FY2010 Supplemental Appropriations Acts for DOD, State/USAID and VA for medical costs for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and enhanced security is

$1,121 billion including:
• $751 billion for Iraq;
• $336 billion for Afghanistan;
• $29 billion for enhanced security; and
• $6 billion unallocated (see Table 1).1

Of this total, 67% is for Iraq, 30% for Afghanistan, 3% for enhanced security and 1/2%
unallocated. Almost all of the funding for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) is for Afghanistan.

I'd say Mitch was a little off.

tnb

Middle East

There's still a lot going on over there.

Juan Cole: Middle East

Health Care

A great post on the health care debate in the US from: Enough with the wait times, already | The Incidental Economist

I find the same issue when I talk to anyone about US health care. Most people agree its too costly but almost everyone is afraid to make any changes. The usual arguments are, the wait times, (always followed by "My brother, cousin, mother,.. knows someone from Canada...."), and the "We have the best healthcare in the world why change that" argument (usually followed by "My brother, cousin, mother,.. knows someone from Canada...."). No one every has any facts, just vague statements. The post above has some good facts...

Here's my argument.

1. We pay a lot more for our health care than the rest of the developed world. Not a little more, a LOT more.

US Per Capita Health care costs. We're #1

US Health Care costs as percent of GDP - we're #1

Health Care Costs


2. Our health care is not significantly better than the rest of the developed world.

Health Care Quality - many good comparisons

Life Expectancy US. We're #36

Infant Mortality - We're #33


So we're not the best and we pay a lot more for what we get. We're not getting our money's worth. We need a change.

TNB

Income Inequality, Big Cities and the Tea Party

Creative Class » Blog Archive » Cities, Inequality and Wages - Creative Class

"All of this leads to an intriguing conclusion about the connection between cities and wages. On the one hand, city-size has become a factor in increasing inequality, magnifying the underlying bifurcation of the labor market. On the other hand, bigger cities appear to pay better average wages. Cities make us richer, more productive and increase our wages, even as they reflect and compound the growing social and economic divides of today’s increasingly spiky world."

The big city adds to income inequality. This could help explain the rise of the mostly rural tea-party. The older, rural class sits at home watching their world change. Their successful children move to the big cities, leaving them to watch their now poorer and older neighborhoods, grow poorer and older.

This seems similar to the Oakies of the great depression. The changing world has passed them by, destroyed the life they had known. However, instead of being forced to move-out, take, or go with the family to California in search of a better life, they stay where they are, safe at home, comforted by their social security and medicare, watching fox news for hours on end. Blaming it all on Obama and those damned liberals.

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Cutting Eduction Spending

Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Blog Archive | Five Things You Might Not Know About Public Employees

1. Education is by far the largest category of state and local government employment. Nearly 7 million teachers, aides, and support staff work in the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools, more than twice as many as in the next largest job category (protective services, which includes police officers, fire fighters, and correctional officers).

I don't understand. The same people that want to attack big government deficit-spending because it "steals from our future" also want to attack spending on education. However, educating our children gives them the tools they'll need to compete in the future global economy. It is really giving to our future. So, they want to "not give" to our future so we don't "steal from" our future?

tnb

Dani Rodrik on Economic Development

Dani Rodrik's weblog: Another U-curve in economic development

What these results point to are two critical dynamics that take place during the course of development. First, you need some new, high-productivity activities to emerge in order for development to happen. These typically arise outside of agriculture. So as these new activities propel the economy forward, agriculture falls behind in terms of relative productivity. Second, labor tends to move from low- to high-productivity activities as an economy gets richer. This tends to reduce the gap between productivity in agriculture and non-agriculture (think of diminishing marginal returns). At some point, the second dynamic overwhelms the first, and the curve begins to slope outward.

Lesson: economic development requires both new activities (diversification) and ongoing transfer of resources from traditional to modern activities. Some countries are stuck with no new industries, so they never grow. Others get a few new industries (e.g. mining and other natural resource-based industries), but these do not expand sufficiently and absorb much labor, so development gets stuck at an intermediate level of income. The real successful countries are those that pull off both tricks.

The Truth

America and its media really has a hard time with the truth these days.

You can't believe a good percentage of the polls seen in the media today. Special interest group's release of slanted polls has destroyed the market.

Biased polls 1

Biased polls 2

Biased polls 3

You also can't believe everything you see on the news.

Mistake or Propaganda 1?

Mistake or Propaganda 2?

Of course there are always those bracelets that magically help your balance.

Scam

or those penis enlargers, or that cheap life insurance insurance for very old people or kids, or Head-on Pain reliever, or that you can trust those "we buy/sell gold" adds, or those weight loss plans, or the theories that space aliens built the pyramids, or glenn Beck, ....

What the hell happened to telling the truth or at least getting close to the truth?

tnb

More On Mitch

The Rude Pundit on Mitch Daniels

Here's a little recent history lesson for the day: Back in 2005, the newly-elected governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, on his second day in office, canceled all union contracts by executive order, ending collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of state workers, many of whom earned less than $30,000 a year. Some of those contracts were supposed to be in effect until 2007. At the time, Daniels said that union contracts were not acceptable at a time when the state faced a $1.5 billion deficit.

One would think that, like in a village where a noble knight defeated a terrible dragon, all would be well in Indiana once this workers' right was eliminated, for, indeed, Daniels said it would make the state whole. Yet here we are, in 2011, and, oh, wait, Indiana has a $1.6 billion deficit. And now Daniels wants to limit collective bargaining rights for teachers. He had wanted to turn Indiana into a "right-to-work" state, effectively killing unionization, to close the budget gap, but when Democrats in the legislature went to Illinois to stop the vote, Daniels backed down.

Morning Links

Robert Reich takes on republicans

Mother Jones - Plutocracy Now

Mother Jones - Great charts on income and wealth distribution in the US

The Propaganda Network: Fair and Balanced? ... .

Bill'O is constantly talking about the filthy, left wing blogs. He should read a few comments on this Fox Nation page. Weird News - Fox Nation

tnb

Justice for all?

Well, not really. I guess it depends on which side of the power structure you're on.

Here's an update on this post: [tnb - justice for all]

Here's a quick summary of two similar "irresponsible parent" cases in the same general area of Indiana.

A mom drives drunk, has an accident, her kid gets two black eyes and a bump on the head. The mom gets some time in jail, 2 years probabtion and her kid taken from her (at least temporarily) [link]. Down the road a few miles, (indiana Highway 52), a cop leaves a loaded gun where his twin 4 year olds can get to it and one of them is killed. [link]

The cop will not be prosecuted. [Accidental Shooting]

BROOKVILLE, Ind. -- Criminal charges will be not filed in the shooting death last week of the 4-year-old son of a Franklin County deputy.

Franklin County Prosecutor Mel Wilhelm announced Tuesday through the Indiana State Police that his office would not seek charges in the Feb. 16 accidental shooting death of Aiden Mehlbauer.
The preschooler's funeral was held Tuesday at the St. Louis Catholic Church in Batesville.

Last week, Aiden and twin brother Mason were playing in the basement when they found a loaded, .40-caliber semi-automatic Glock handgun in the "office" area where their father, Deputy Greg Mehlbauer, kept his uniforms and other law enforcement equipment.

The boys were handling the gun when it discharged, striking Aiden in the abdomen, Indiana State Police Sgt. Noel Houze said.
Aiden's mother, Shavonne, was upstairs helping her 6-year-old daughter with her homework and Greg Mehlbauer was on duty when the shooting occurred. Aiden died about 2 hours later at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Indiana prosecutors often recuse themselves from cases involving local police officers with whom they work on a regular basis, but Wilhelm told the state police the circumstances surrounding the incident did not meet the elements of a crime under Indiana code.

Wilhelm said he had carefully reviewed the state police reports and spoken at length with investigators concerning their findings in the case

WTF?

tnb

Political Mandate

ginandtacos.com » Blog Archive » THE IMAGINARY MANDATE

Farmers vs the Poor

Farmers vs The Poor: Union County, Indiana

Farmers - from Union County, Indiana Top Recipients 2009 || EWG Farm Subsidy Database

"Recipients of Total USDA Subsidies from farms in Union County, Indiana totaled $2,849,000 in in 2009."

The Poor from Pladium Item Article 2010

Assistance varied from nothing spent in Harmony Township last year on poor relief to $3,130 spent in Brownsville Township. Union Township, which includes West College Corner, was the second lowest, spending $444 in 2010, according to townships' annual financial reports.

tnb

Anti-Settlement Vote

Deputy FM: Anti-settlement vote proves UN is "rubber stamp" for Arab nations - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

The Israeli Deputy Foreign minister Daniel Ayalon said the Anti-settlement vote proves that the UN is a rubber stamp for the Arab nations.

I would disagree. There are 15 nations in the security council.

China
France
Russia
England
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Colombia
Gabon
Germany
India
Lebanon
Nigeria
Portugal
South Africa
United States

I don't really see a lot of "Arab" nations on that list.

Of those nations, ALL OF THEM (say that again,... ALL OF THEM, England, Russia, every one of them), voted for the resolution to demand Israel stop building Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Again, all of those nations voted for the resolution.

The US Vetoed it.

It seems to me like our vote proves we are a rubber stamp for the Israeli nation.

Like it or not, we're on the wrong side of this argument.

tnb

How much Justice can you afford?

Stories like this tie together nicely. Madoff acted by himself to defraud people of millions so he goes to jail. Mazilo was part of a system that defrauded people of millions so he goes free.

There is another possibility. Madoff was basically broke when he was caught as he lost everything. As far as I know, Mazilo is still filthy rich. That makes a difference.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Bernie Madoff; He Was a Nice Guy Back Then; - George Stephanopoulos; Bottom Line

Countryside's Angelo Mozilo will not be charged.

This originated at FDL and I've adjusted it slightly. See the last paragraph here [FireDogLake]

"If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”

"If you commit massive amounts of fraud by yourself, that's a problem but if everyone in an industry conspires to commit the same kind of fraud, That's not a problem".

"If you're broke after the fraud, that's a problem but if you still have a few million left that's not a problem"

tnb

Israeli Settlements - US Veto

Al Jazeera's top Political Analyst on the veto.

Three questions for Marwan Bishara - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

...
Moreover, settlements have been most damaging to the peace process, and its goal of a two states solution.

Since the start of this US-sponsored diplomatic process decades ago, the settlers have quadrupled in numbers from 75,000 to 300,000 scattered in about 200 settlements in the West Bank, and has doubled in cosmopolitan East Jerusalem, making it ever more improbable to separate Palestine from Israel, or establish a contiguous viable state.

Apart from the UN itself, Washington's other partners in the International Quartet -- the EU and Russia -- understand that all too well and hence decided to vote in favour of the draft resolution.

It's terribly embarrassing for the Obama administration that promised to integrate the US and improve its image around the world, to be seen to be so diplomatically isolated.

It's also humiliating not to be able to pressure Israel to freeze settlement activity and be forced to veto a resolution that was drafted in line with its own declarations. ...

And

... But the Obama administration finds itself all too often nowadays on the wrong side of history, embarrassingly supporting unpopular dictators and occupiers instead of people in their march to freedom.

Allowing Israeli colonisation of Palestine to go on unabated and with impunity in the age of de-colonisation doesn't bode well for wanting to be on the side of history.
...

And finally this (empahsis mine)

... When weighing in the costs and benefits of supporting such a resolution, the Obama administration seems to have concluded that angering Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, pales in comparison to angering Israeli premier Netanyahu and his allies in Washington and in Congress.

Israeli premier Netanyahu has more allies in Washington and Congress than the President? I guess that darned Israeli lobby has done its job. Who really determines our Middle-east policy?

Also,

I know many Americans will read this and think that AlJazeera is Arab media and is either anti-American or that its opinion doesn't really matter but this must be a more accurate depiction of how the average middle-eastern man-in-the street feels than we could get from a US news source.

tnb

Is Coal Really Cheap?

From My Polluted Kentucky Home By SILAS HOUSE: NYT

...

Over the past six years I’ve visited dozens of people who live at the edge of mountaintop removal sites. They bathe their children in water that has arsenic levels as high as 130 times what the E.P.A. deems safe to drink.

Their roads are routinely destroyed by overloaded trucks; their air is clouded with pollutants. Their schools sit below ponds holding billions of gallons of sludge. Their children lose sleep worrying that the sludge dams will break, releasing the sludge down upon them. It happened 40 years ago at Buffalo Creek, W.Va., killing 125 people, and it could happen again today.

It’s a horrible way to live. And yet, as it does in many other impoverished quarters of America, the news too often avoids covering Appalachia as if it were a no man’s land.

When a 3-year-old Virginia boy was crushed to death in his crib after a half-ton boulder was accidentally (and illegally) dislodged by a mining company, it barely made the national news. Many people around here believe the omission reflected that the child lived in a trailer home in the heart of coal country.

In 2000, 306 million gallons of sludge — 30 times more than the volume of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez — buried parts of Martin County, Ky., as deep as 5 feet. Yet hardly anyone outside the region remembers the disaster, if they ever heard about it.

More recently, my friend Judy’s grandson was playing in a creek when he was suddenly surrounded by dozens of dead fish. Tests later proved that a coal company was releasing polyacrylamide — a cancer-causing agent used to prepare coal for burning — into the creek. When Judy complained to the state, no one replied. She recently died of brain cancer.

I’ve heard dozens of stories like these, but they rarely make it beyond the mountains. Is it any wonder then that Appalachian residents feel invisible?

...

In Defense of Mockery

In Defense of Mockery : Pharyngula

I think that in mocking-the-right, the left has finally found it's talk-radio. For years the left has whined of the right's dominance of talk radio often trying to break into it with liberal talk shows but most (all?) attempts have been failures. However, left-leaning comedy, with the Daily Show and The Colbert Report leading the way, has been pretty successful. At the same time, I don't know of any conservative humor outlets, though there must be some out there somewhere. It looks to me like the left dominates political comedy the way the right dominates talk radio.

tnb

No More Mister Nice Blog

No More Mister Nice Blog points right-wing crazy better than most. Here's an example.

Gay marriage would lead to the introduction of an aspect of Sharia Law"

It's also very good at spotting the right-wing propaganda that's coming-to-a-teabagger near you.

Palin's coming excuse

Everything is Obama's fault

You should go read some. It's good, really.

tnb

Israeli Settlements

Obama gives big thumbs up to settlements at UN (and kills the two-state solution –Haber)

Well, we've vetoed the UN resolution on the Israeli settlements. We were the only Security Council member to vote against it. Of the 15 Security Council members, these 14 countries supported the measure.

China
France
Russia
England
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Colombia
Gabon
Germany
India
Lebanon
Nigeria
Portugal
South Africa

Another 120 non-security council countries were rumored to be supporting the measure. We vetoed it.

How in the world did the US, historically a "good-guy" in world politics, end up basically alone on the wrong side of this argument? We are now the only country in the world supporting the land theft by this thug-ish, war-making, rogue nation. This has got to be one of, if not the, dumbest foreign policy move by the US in my lifetime.

It's probably the final nail in the coffin of any middle-east peace process add will certainly add some anti-American heat to already simmering middle eastern pot.

A very bad move Mr Obama

tnb

Israeli Settlements

Abbas rejects U.S. request to withdraw UN settlement resolution - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

The Palestinians have made it clear that there can be no peace agreement unless Israel stops building settlements on the captured Palestinian land. The land was captured during a war and UN rules are clear that land captured in war cannot be settled. So 120 nations around the globe, including 14 of the 15 security council members, support a resolution demanding that Israel stop building the illegal settlements on the captured Palestinian land. The US government has also made it clear that we want the settlement building to end. Yet that same US government is ready veto the resolution if it's allowed to come up for a vote.

How can this be? Basically the whole world is against the settlements, they are illegal, our government is against them but our leaders are not willing to give into to the Pro-Israel Lobbyists and do the right thing.

And we wonder why most of the middle east hates us.

tnb

Justice for All?

Interesting Indiana cases to compare.

A mom driving drunk has an accident that injures her child. A few quotes from the article. Mom sentenced for drunken crash that hurt daughter | jconline.com | Journal and Courier

Faye A. Grimes, 30, pleaded guilty in December in Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 to neglect of a dependent, a Class C felony, in connection to a July 31 wreck on U.S. 52 near County Road 500 West in West Lafayette.

Grimes was sentenced Thursday to 56 days in prison.
But that was negated by a combined 56 days credit for time already served and for good behavior.
She was further ordered to spend two years and 309 days on probation.

Grimes' daughter suffered two black eyes and a bump on her forehead in the wreck

Tippecanoe County Deputy Prosecutor Elizabeth Goodrich said the girl was placed in foster care afterward and that she remained in foster case as of Thursday.
Under a plea agreement, Grimes is required to complete substance abuse and mental health treatment.

A cop leaves a loaded gun where his twin 4 year olds can get to it. One is killed.

Gun Discovery turns deadly

What do you think will happen to the cop, his kids and family? Will the kids be placed in foster care? will the cop be charged? will he have to attend gun safety classes?

tnb

Fox News

Fox News Caught Running Old CPAC Footage After Ron Paul's Straw Poll Win? [VIDEOS]

The Propaganda Network caught "balancing" the news again.

tnb

Protests in the Middle East

Though the US may have dodged a bullet in the Egyptian revolution,.. maybe..[Egypt Situation Still Explosive], there is still plenty of unrest in the middle east and its hard to see how there isn't going to be at least some anti-american, pro-fundamentalist gains made somewhere.

[Bahrain] [Libya] [Yemen] [Iraq] [Iran]

All those years of US/Western,.. exploitation of their oil, backing of their oppressive regimes, war-ing against their people, and supporting/supplying the militant little country that steals their land may be coming back to haunt us.

tnb

Tucker Carlson:

Tucker Carlson: Michelle Obama will raise your kids 'at gunpoint' Video Cafe

Tucker Carlson is a little rich brat, that should take his ball, go home, and never appear in the US media again.

http://tuesdaynightbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/11/tucker-carlson-and-taxes.html

tnb

Medicare and Medicaid vs Social Security

Here's a good series of posts discussing Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and health care.

A reminder that they are not the same thing.

there-is-still-no-such-thing-as-socialsecuritymedicareandmedicaid

Then a reminder that Medicare and Medicaid are are not "the problem", it's the rising cost of health care.

Ezra Klein - The problem is not Medicare And Medicaid. Its health care.

Then more on Medicare/Medicaid vs Rising Healthcare Costs.

Break down of healthCare payers

EconomistsView shows it's medicare/Medicaid that are the key to budget issues

Even more from Brad DeLong

Even More on Social Security Fixing Social Security

We need to be working on stopping rising healthcare costs first before we attack other areas of spending.

tnb

Social Security

ginandtacos.com » Blog Archive » MY FELLOW AMERICANS, BEND OVER

My first thoughts on reading this went to the Tea-baggers, an older than average group with many of its members (over 50%?) being social security recipients. They are also one of the more vocal anti-deficit, anti-big debt groups out there with many signs at tea parties claiming that government debt was "stealing the future from our children".

Wouldn't aiming Social Security cuts at current working people while exempting current recipients (many Tea-baggers) also be stealing from our children's future?

Lawrence O'Donnell vs Bill O'Reilly

Lawrence O'Donnell to Bill O'Reilly: Put up or shut up | Crooks and Liars

We need more of this calling-out of the lies, half-truths and generally stupid views. You can't fix things unless you really understand them and we Americans really understand very little these days.

tnb

Means-Testing

The Means-Testing Mirage - NYTimes.com

I've always been for means testing for social security. Giving money to people who don't really need it adds to the image of bloated, ineffective, inefficient governemt but the argument that means testing makes social security look more like a welfare program therefore making it easier for politicians to convince some Americans to gut the program, is a good one.

So,.... I guess at this point I'm for keeping it a universal program and then just tax it back from those that don't really need it.

Hey,.. we're in this together. If you're an American we should make sure you have something in your old age.

tnb

Egypt

Pressman: “Coup with a mass(ive) twist” | Informed Comment

The American media has moved on but Egypt's revolution may not be complete.

tnb

janis

That Liberal Media

from uggabugga

Let's trace this story. At Washington Monthly, Steve Benen writes:
... Sunday show bookers continue to be obsessed with McCain, and they shouldn't be.
... the senator is making his 29th appearance in the last two years this morning
... McCain will be on "Face the Nation" for the second time in just four weeks.

... McCain's wasn't scheduled to be on "Face the Nation," which had booked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to appear, but host Bob Schieffer explained Friday that the show bumped Reid to get McCain (again) as part of the show's coverage of developments in Egypt.
What was Schieffer's reason for doing that? Think Progress has the answer:
On local Washington, D.C. talk radio on Friday, CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer discussed his thought process behind the selection of John McCain to be his guest tomorrow:
We were gonna have Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, and thought this would be the week we could kinda get back to covering what’s going on in Washington. But, we added last night Sen. John McCain from the Foreign Relations Committee. We’ll be spending a lot of time in the square there in Cairo if things continue to go as they are.

When you plan on covering a story like this, first thing you've gotta to do is cover the news. Right now, were' not sure what the news is, but we'll be ready.
Schiffer bumps the Senate Majority Leader for McCain of the Foreign Relations Committee because of developments in Egypt.

There's a problem, though. John McCain isn't on the Foreign Relations Committee.

John Kerry is the chairman; Dick Lugar is the ranking member. That's the committee you want to hear from. Second best is the Armed Services Committee; Carl Levin is the chairman. McCain is the ranking member, which is way down on the totem pole.

That's a pretty conservative liberal media you got there.

tnb

Monday Morning Music

Government Spending

From Hullabaloo.

What do you want to cut?

Egypt

Scenarios for Egypt’s Future: How Democratic Will it Be? | Informed Comment

The Propaganda Network is trying to convice Americans that an Iran-like, Islamic revolution is just around the corner. The more level-headed out there, like Juan Cole at the link above, realize that Egypt is different and isn't really at risk of a fundamentalist take-over, at least for now.

Personally, I think the ultimate result will depend more on the actions of those in power than any revolutionary group. The more they fight to hold back real reform, the more radical the final outcome will be. Like the shifting of continents, political change in frequent, small shake-ups, reduces the chance of "the big one" down the road.

tnb

O'Reilly vs Obama

uggabugga

Don't forget Fox Nation, where the real crazies hang out.

tnb

Revolutions: Egypt vs TeaBaggers

From: The Rude Pundit

The other difference? In Egypt, they have been revolting against a government that has stripped away their rights, with the arrest and random torture of citizens, with a three-decade state of emergency in existence, with corruption wrecking the standard of life for the populace. The Egyptians have been intense and unrelenting, sacrificing their time, their bodies, their jobs, and, in some cases, their lives in order to guarantee democracy in their country, doing so with comparatively little violence. In the United States, a few cranks didn't like the way an election went. And they wandered aimlessly for a little while, listening to their incoherent speakers, fondling their guns that most of them will never really use, but, oh, they can fantasize, and then they went home until it was time to vote again, probably stopping at the Taco Bell drive-thru on the way to watch Beck on the Tivo.

well said.

tnb

Hospitals

Reid part of hospital lawsuit seeking $57 million | Palladium-Item | pal-item.com

They don't want the government involved in health care but they do want that government money.

tnb

Comparing State Unemployment

Found here: Geography, Unemployment, and Senators - Grasping Reality with Eight Tentacles

It's hard to find any one economic, tax or political ideology outperforming any other from this map. High tax vs Low Tax, Tightly regulated vs limited regulations, democrat vs republican, its not good anywhere really.

tnb

Tax and Spend Quote Quiz

From Robert Reich: Robert Reich (Who Says Republicans Have No New Ideas?)

Who said this?

We have seen tax-and-tax spend-and-spend reach a fantastic total greater than in all the previous 170 years of our Republic.

Behind this plush curtain of tax and spend, three sinister spooks or ghosts are mixing poison for the American people. They are the shades of Mussolini, with his bureaucratic fascism; of Karl Marx, and his socialism; and of Lord Keynes, with his perpetual government spending, deficits, and inflation. And we added a new ideology of our own. That is government give-away programs….

If you want to see pure socialism mixed with give-away programs, take a look at socialized medicine.

.
.
.

The correct answer is Herbert Hoover.


tnb

Electricity

There are several articles on the Texas rolling blackouts here: Roundup of news and commentary on the Texas rolling blackouts « Knowledge Problem

Trade with China

We've been selling a lot more to China recently.

from The Street Light: Selling Stuff to China

Mitch Daniels - 2012

Daniels: I have big-name support | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

I think Mitch Daniels will be the guy for the republicans in 2012. His more centrist, Mitt-Romney-business-man-like image should appeal to Independents more than the Palin, Bachmann, Huckabee, TeaBagger "crazy" that so many of his competitors have. But, he also has a pretty well hidden, bonafide, religious crazy side that will give him an advantage over Romney with the the religious right. For 2012, he's the closest thing the republicans have to a perfect storm.

Here's Daniels doing some religious crazy.

WANE.COM: Daniels talks candidly about his faith

Daniels: To me, the core of the Christian faith is humility, which starts with recognizing that you're as fallen as anyone else. And we're all constantly trying to get better, but... so I'm sure I come up short on way too many occasions.

Our country was founded -this is just an historic fact; some people today may resist this notion but it is absolutely true- it was founded by people of faith. It was founded on principles of faith. The whole idea of equality of men and women [and] of the races all springs from the notion that we're all children of a just God. It is very important to at least my notion of what America's about and should be about and I hope it's reflected most of the time in the choices that we make personally.

Mellinger: Is there part of you that is bothered by the aggressive atheism of a [Sam] Harris, a [Christopher] Hitchens, a [Richard] Dawkins? And what I mean is... this atheism is a little different than atheism has been in the past because it does seek to convert people.

Daniels: I'm not sure it's all that new. People who reject the idea of a God -who think that we're just accidental protoplasm- have always been with us. What bothers me is the implications -which not all such folks have thought through- because really, if we are just accidental, if this life is all there is, if there is no eternal standard of right and wrong, then all that matters is power.

And atheism leads to brutality. All the horrific crimes of the last century were committed by atheists -Stalin and Hitler and Mao and so forth- because it flows very naturally from an idea that there is no judgment and there is nothing other than the brief time we spend on this Earth.

Everyone's certainly entitled in our country to equal treatment regardless of their opinion. But yes, I think that folks who believe they've come to that opinion ought to think very carefully, first of all, about how different it is from the American tradition; how it leads to a very different set of outcomes in the real world

Of course, there have never been any horrific crimes done in the name of religion.

tnb

The 58 Billion in budget cuts

from GinAndTacos: ginandtacos.com » Blog Archive » LOW HANGING. AND DIMINUTIVE.

Yglesias: Roy Blunt

Yglesias » Roy Blunt: Agribusinesses Subsidies Are More Important Then Feeding Poor People

The basic way that conservative politics works is that first you reduce taxes on rich people, creating a budget deficit. Then you rail against “spending” with reference to specific “weak claims” on the public purse. Then when it comes time to actually write a budget, you slash spending on “weak claimants,” vulnerable people with little political influence. Then you come back and do it all over again.

I would add,.. that as a conservative politician, you should also look at any existing regulatory body, cut its funding and staff, give it's key positions to members of the very group it supposed to be regulating, then, when it fails it's regulatory duty, you scream to the masses "See,.. government regulation doesn't work. We need less regulation not more". rinse and repeat.

tnb

Israeli Settlements

They really don't give a damn what we say about the settlements. They might actually stop building them if we'd stop the 3.0 Billion per year we give them.

U.S. official: Israel's actions in East Jerusalem go against Mideast peace efforts - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

The Rude Pundit on Beck and O'Reilly

The Rude Pundit Nails Beck and O'Reilly. The Rude Pundit

This, on Beck, is a classic.

... You gotta hand it to Beck, though. The son of a bitch is doubling down on psychotic. Here he is from his TV show yesterday: "Progressive, socialist, Marxist groups, religious groups, green groups, communist, powerful unions led by communists, SEIU, AFL-CIO, radical group like La Raza -- what did all of these groups, what were they all working together for? Well, in one way or another, they want to end the Western way of life as you and I understand it." That's some masterful madness right there. One might think that if a large percentage of the American population was working to overthrow everything everywhere, one might see more evidence of it than the broad interpretations of a delusional TV host who is willing to dress like Moses to show us all who's gonna lead us out of Egypt. Or some such shit. Truly, who the fuck knows anymore. All he cares about is that "caliphate" sounds scary and foreign.

Here's some more from yesterday: "They're working together to help stomp out the free market and capitalism. They'll work everything else out later. That's why Code Pink and the AFL-CIO can stand together in America. And it's why they're rushing in to support the democratic revolution in Egypt." And, no joke, in the course of an hour, Beck connected Van Jones, the unionization of the TSA, the Muslim Brotherhood, and community organizers into one grand unified theory of world domination. Somehow, this will bring about the apocalypse. Because it just will. Apparently, liberals are willing to overlook all other goals having to do with equal rights and freedom and throw in with Islamic extremists in order to overthrow capitalism. The Rude Pundit must have missed that meeting.

Beck - Crazy?

Glenn Beck, is he crazy or just doing it wrong?.

Adam Serwer Archive | The American Prospect

Anyway, I don't get it. Conservatives have spent the last two years espousing the links between "caliphate-promoters and the American left." Why turn on Beck? Because he's just doing it wrong?

GinAndTacos on Reagan

ginandtacos.com

Krugman: Food

Food: The Late Surge - NYTimes.com

It looks to me like the big money played in the other commodities for a while and finally decided there was money to be made in food.

Sarah Palin - The Stupid Hurts 2

Sarah Palin Criticizes President Barack Obama on Egypt Saying 3 a.m. call Went to Answering Machine - ABC News

I doubt Sarah Palin could have found Egypt on a map a couple of years ago but now she's qualified to comment on Obama's handling of the revolt. How the fuck can that be?

Americans, especially the right-wing evangelical type, just kill me. They scream continually about the constitution, democracy, freedom, the will of the people, etc. but they go freakin' berserk as soon as a country even looks like it could elect a government with a different religion or vision. Hell, they could barely contain themselves with the results of our last election. Effectively throwing a two-year, Fox News/republican led hissy-fit because THEY didn't like the guy MOST people voted for.

tnb

Food Prices

Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com

I still can't believe that the big pools of money ricocheting around the world economy don't have something to do with rising food prices. They were in the dotcom bubble, California electricity fiasco, the world housing bubble, the financial crisis, stock market bubbles, gold, oil, etc. The greed of our financial overlords touches everything in todays world. Manipulating the food market seems a logical next step.

tnb

Egypt - NYT - Frank Rich

A good article here, Wallflowers at the Revolution - NYTimes.com. A couple of clips.

This provocative debate isn’t even being acknowledged in most American coverage of the Internet’s role in the current uprisings. The talking-head invocations of Twitter and Facebook instead take the form of implicit, simplistic Western chauvinism. How fabulous that two great American digital innovations can rescue the downtrodden, unwashed masses. That is indeed impressive if no one points out that, even in the case of the young and relatively wired populace of Egypt, only some 20 percent of those masses have Internet access.

and

Al Jazeera English, run by a 35-year veteran of the Canadian Broadcasting Company, is routinely available in Israel and Canada. It provided coverage of the 2009 Gaza war and this year’s Tunisian revolt when no other television networks would or could. Yet in America, it can be found only in Washington, D.C., and on small cable systems in Ohio and Vermont. None of the biggest American cable and satellite companies — Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner — offer it.

The noxious domestic political atmosphere fostering this near-blackout is obvious to all. It was made vivid last week when Bill O’Reilly of Fox News went on a tear about how Al Jazeera English is “anti-American.” This is the same “We report, you decide” Fox News that last week broke away from Cairo just as the confrontations turned violent so that viewers could watch Rupert Murdoch promote his new tablet news product at a publicity event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Unable to watch Al Jazeera English, and ravenous for comprehensive and sophisticated 24/7 television coverage of the Middle East otherwise unavailable on television, millions of Americans last week tracked down the network’s Internet stream on their computers. Such was the work-around required by the censorship practiced by America’s corporate gatekeepers. You’d almost think these news-starved Americans were Iron Curtain citizens clandestinely trying to pull in the jammed Voice of America signal in the 1950s — or Egyptians desperately seeking Al Jazeera after Mubarak disrupted its signal last week.

A few of thoughts.

On the US Media.

Our media, especially television, just plain sucks, with most stories being directed at odd angles of the subject at hand for example,.. With Egypt the stories were, the social media is great, Al Jazeera is evil, it is Bushes fault, it is Obama's fault, the Muslim Brotherhood is evil, etc. With Wikileaks, the cables themselves were hardly covered at all in this country; the stories were about Assange, the "rape", his arrest, etc. TV News just dances around the story offering little real content.


On Social Networking.

Playing up the Internet and social networking's place in the uprising may not be "implicit, simplistic Western chauvinism" but more "the latest-greatest-thing" chauvinism. Social Networking is the latest killer-app of the Internet (the last latest-and-greatest). It's on everyone mind. It seems natural for media types to look for ways to give it credit and tie it to every major news story. If our crappy media were around during the civil war there would have been "trains change warfare" stories. WW1 would have had "Airplanes change warfare stories", WWII probably "Radios or RADAR" change warfare.


On Al Jazeera and US Media

Al-Jazeera should be on all US cable outlets. Some competition in the news market couldn't hurt, could it?

I'm sure one argument of the cable providers would be that there's no market for Al Jazeera, but I think Egypt's revolution has proven this wrong. Besides, is there really a market for 37 home shopping channels?


On Censorship.

Censorship in the US, whether intentional by our government/media, the result of inept media agents or simply set by market forces is being exposed by the Internet. However, the Internet also makes it very easy to hide the true story behind floods of disinformation. Our mass media also play the disinformation game very well. Fox News is the master but the others play it at as well. I fear this censorship-thru-disinformation will get worse before it gets better.

tnb

Palin - the stupid hurts

Palin: U.S. out of step with Reagan's values - msnbc.com

Palin and daughter Bristol seek to trademark names

Trademarking your name? There's a real-American, Reagan value for you.

tnb

The Inequality Wildcard - Kenneth Rogoff

The Inequality Wildcard by Kenneth Rogoff - Project Syndicate

The Tunisian Catalyst by Joseph E. Stiglitz - Project Syndicate

Here are two good, related, posts worth reading.

tnb

Money and Politics

Mike Pence (R-IN) U.S. House | MAPLight.org - Money and Politics

Mike Pence received 80% of campaign contributions ($1,680,496) from outside his district.

Mike Pence received 51% of campaign contributions ($1,070,499) from outside his state.

How can a politician work in the interest of his home district when most of his monetary support comes from somewhere else?

Mike Pence is not alone in this, he's shown because he my rep, at least in theory.

tnb

Worker Democracy Works

Stumbling and Mumbling: Worker democracy works

"The best forms of democracy don’t ask; “what do you think?” This just invites speak-your-branes drivel. Instead, it asks: what do you know?"

Over the last few decades our democracy has moved away from the "what do you know" camp. Today's media-fed masses generally reject intellect, science and understanding the subject at hand in favor of "just knowing" the stupid dogma. I believe we're firmly in the "what do you think" camp at this point.

tnb

Privatizing Government

Paralegals Paid More Than County's Own Lawyers - :: Cincinnati news story :: LOCAL 12 WKRC-TV in Cincinnati

I wonder how often the cost of privatizing government is actually more expensive than not?

Yglesias on Huckabee

Matthew Yglesias on Mike Huckabee's stupid middle-east tricks.

Yglesias » Biblical Israel

tnb

Beck on Egypt #2

Here's a very good post on Glenn Beck from NoMoreMrNiceBlog: Beck's Poison

This....

Basically, we've allowed Beck and others to turn a bloc of U.S. citizens into exact analogues of the most paranoid Islamist anti-Semites -- you know, the people who think literally every Jew on the planet is actively involved in a global Zionist conspiracy to destroy Islam. We mock those people, but Beck's viewers are exactly like those people.

...fits nicely with an earlier tnb post repeated here.

Tuesday Night Buzz: Beck on Egypt

This quote from Beck....

BECK: I understand that, but what you're not taking into account is that that is what the average person thinks, just like the average person on the street of -- of Cairo thinks they're swept up in some freedom movement. It is not about freedom. It is being orchestrated by the Marxists, communists and primarily also the Muslim Brotherhood.

Could also be written as

BECK: I understand that, but what you're not taking into account is that that is what the average person thinks, just like the average TEA-PARTY person on the street of -- of DC thinks they're swept up in some freedom movement. It is not about freedom. It is being orchestrated by the BIG BUSINESS, CONSERVATIVES and primarily also the FOX NEWS NETWORK.

Huckabee: Hypocrite

Huckabee: Palestinians Should Be Resettled In 'Muslim' Territory | TPMDC

Huckabee first said this....

"I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English," Huckabee said. "I would be outraged if someone told me that in my country, I would be prohibited and forbidden to live in a part of that country, for any reason"

then a few moments later said this....

Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Huckabee said, should settle in "territory that [is] in the hands of Muslims, in the hands of Arabs," as determined by the "international community."

So he doesn't want anyone telling Christians where to live, "can't imagine it", "would be outraged", but he himself is ready to allow the international community tell Palestinians where they can live.

He doesn't seem to realize that most of the International community agrees that the Palestinains should live where they are and it is the Israelis that are on Palestinian land. Not the other way around.

Christian Hypocrite.

tnb

It's the Urban Pot That Boils Over

Edward L. Glaeser: It's Always the Urban Pot That Boils Over - NYTimes.com

This may be have been true in the past or in less developed countries but the Tea-Bag revolution in the US in 2009-10 was mostly rural people, not major metropolitan urban folks, united and organized by The Fox Propaganda Network.

tnb

Beck on Egypt

Planet Beck nears critical mass with wingnutty theory about Egypt uprising | Crooks and Liars

This quote from Beck....

BECK: I understand that, but what you're not taking into account is that that is what the average person thinks, just like the average person on the street of -- of Cairo thinks they're swept up in some freedom movement. It is not about freedom. It is being orchestrated by the Marxists, communists and primarily also the Muslim Brotherhood.

Could also be written as

BECK: I understand that, but what you're not taking into account is that that is what the average person thinks, just like the average TEA-PARTY person on the street of -- of DC thinks they're swept up in some freedom movement. It is not about freedom. It is being orchestrated by the BIG BUSINESS, CONSERVATIVES and primarily also the FOX NEWS NETWORK.

tnb

Bing uses Google Search Results

Official Google Blog: Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it

Hey you crazy capitalists, rand-ites, and tea-baggers how does "The Market" fix this? Do consumers vote with their dollars to decide who's right? Maybe some of that big, bad government will have to help out, eh?

tnb

Taxes are Too High?

Tax bills in 2009 at lowest level since 1950 - USATODAY.com

Federal, state and local income taxes consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8.% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010.