$2 Trillion and No Plans to Spend It:

What would you do with $2 trillion? Pay down the national debt, no doubt? Right! The corporate world is currently sitting on that enormous pile of gold, waiting to see how the economy turns out, while the economy is waiting for cash to start flowing again before more people can be employed.

You have read Catch-22, right?

Let's see, who else gathers a massive pile of gold and sits on it?

(See The Washington Post story.)

The Way We Were:

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi paints a picture that the average white southerner doesn't want others to see. Apartheid in Mississippi during the sixties. While young black men lived their lives in fear of being lynched for "not knowing their place," and black women lived in terror of being raped, young white boys lolled about ogling girls, oblivious.

Barbour's remarks during a recent interview reveal the blindness of many southerners and others who chose and continue to choose not to see beyond themselves. (See The New York Times story.)

Sex Sells! Who'd a Thunk It?

Turns out even hospitals use sexy models in short skirts to sell their services. In Boston, Caitlin Raymond International, a so called "nonprofit subsidiary" of UMass Memorial Medical Center, was paying as much as $60,000 per week to young hot-ties in minis to urge young men to have their mouths swabbed at the mall while getting the insurance companies to cover the costs, which ran up into the thousands of dollars per test. Presumably, the game was about building a data base of potential bone marrow donors. (See The New York Times' story.)

Here's a clue: "nonprofit" does not mean lots of money ain't being made. It just means no one is paid dividends on stocks. The people who run "nonprofits," especially those connected to the healthcare industry, often pocket fabulous paychecks and bonuses.

Yes, Your Federal Gov't Is Filled with Liars:

Republicans garnered a lot of votes this fall by claiming they hated earmarks, but you knew all along they were lying through their teeth.

So guess which two senators are the biggest liars of all? Republican senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, both from the glorious state of Mississippi. These latter day descendants of Frank and Jesse James have a combined total of 486 earmarks in the current spending bill, worth a grand total of $937.6 million.

Yes, both senators claim they'll vote against the spending bill. They figure that they'll get the earmarks into the bill, make sure there are enough votes so that it'll pass without them, and then claim that they were against earmarks while being slapped on the back by the contractors who'll make handsome profits off of the new walking paths on the beaches in Mississippi that the earmarks will pay for. Win! Win! Unless you're looking for honesty and were really hoping the crumbling bridges in this country would be fixed.

(See The Washington Post story.)

Washington, D.C. Area Richest, Best Educated:

The world is irony: Washington, D.C. has the worst schools in the nation; no one doubts this; and yet the census shows that the "area," which implies the burbs, is home to the wealthiest and best educated group of Americans in the nation, and why not? That's where the power is.

Probably many of you thought New York City would be home to the richest and brightest, but all those wealthy money managers just aren't that well educated. Maybe that helps explain why the banks got into such difficulties recently.

Who am I kidding? The banks were never in real trouble. They knew we'd bail 'em out no matter what kind of mess they made. Just imagine going to Las Vegas to play the slots and being guaranteed that no matter how much money you lost you'd still make a profit off of your gambling.

(See The Washington Post story.)

Washington, D.C. Area Richest, Best Educated:

The world is irony: Washington, D.C. has the worst schools in the nation; no one doubts this; and yet the census shows that the "area," which implies the burbs,

Republican Judge Invalidates Health Care for Working Class:

Republicans are busy finding friendly judges around the country whom they can count on to rule against Pres. Obama's health care law. Judge Henry E. Hudson, a federal judge in Richmond, VA, is one such man. (See The New York Times' story.)

Judge Hudson has recently ruled that the government lacks the authority to require its citizens to purchase health insurance. Frankly, I'm sympathetic. The health care system should be nationalized, and not just the insurance/pay portion of it. I would happily advocate a 99 percent tax rate on all income over $1 million with no exemptions as a means of helping to pay for it.

It has now been verified:

Stupidity is endemic in America, just as it is in every other country around the globe. The New York Times' Roger Cohen visited Oklahoma recently to face abject stupidity first hand. Oklahoma is the state that is battling the rapid spread of Shariah law.

In case you are wondering, Shariah law does not exist in Oklahoma. It never has. It won't at any time in the future whether anyone fears it or not, but that doesn't prevent people from being terrified of it. Of course, none of them have the slightest idea what Shariah law is. But that hasn't prevented Republicans from spreading the fear. After all, they have to make sure that their millionaire and billionaire benefactors receive their $700 billion tax cut.

In the other 49 states, the same people are spreading the fear of the debt, which, according to them, can only be solved by giving the same rich people their giant tax cut. Giving the rich a tax cut, according to Republicans, is the only way to solve all of America's problems.

The Washington Post on "The economic case for a millionaire's tax hike":

The economic case for a millionaire's tax hike is strong, writes David Leonhardt: "The country, as you’ve no doubt heard, is facing a huge budget deficit. To reduce the deficit to a level economists consider sustainable, Washington needs to find about $400 billion in annual tax revenue and spending cuts by 2015. A millionaire’s tax would be a good start, producing about $30 billion a year. By comparison, Mr. Obama’s plan to freeze federal workers’ pay would save about $5 billion a year. A millionaire’s tax would also fall on an income group that, by almost any definition, can best handle a tax increase. Since 1980, pretax income for households making at least $1 million has more than tripled, after adjusting for inflation. Pretax income for households in the dead middle of the income distribution, making roughly $50,000, has risen just 13 percent."

— The Washing Post

Now let's be clear, no one is advocating a tax hike for anyone (except me). The question is whether the huge tax breaks that the rich got under Bush should be continued.