Jim Manis on Most Anything

2012-02-01T02:31:00.000-05:00

You Might Be Suffering, but Exxon Is Doing Just Fine:

Just because the economy is in the pits for most us, don't assume that's true for the oil companies. The big boys of big oil have figured out to earn record profits no matter what's happening with the rest of the world.

You probably turned your thermostat down this winter, wear an extra sweater around the house, drive fewer miles. Maybe you even traded in that old pick up for a little gas saver car.

But big oil just jacks its prices up. Exxon reported a greater profit this year than last: $9.4 Billion. Maybe it's just the economy coming back. For some people. (See The New York Times story.)

2012-01-28T20:24:00.000-05:00

Why Investing Properly in Education Makes Economic Sense:

Henry Levin and Cecilia Rouse make the argument for increased spending in public education in a recent issue of The New York Times. If their figures are correct, "there is a return of $1.45 to $3.55 for every dollar of investment, depending upon the educational intervention strategy."

If this is true, why then do conservatives so oppose making such an investment? Some people simply hate paying more in taxes, regardless of the benefit, while others, especially politicians, are concerned only with their own immediate benefit. They need to distinguish themselves from those with whom they compete. They are seduced by the desire for power, and someone else has already taken the pro-spending position, so they simply choose the other.

And then there are those who are simply hateful: The dropout rate for African Americans and Hispanics is 45 percent, while for whites and Asians it is only 20 percent. Some people simply don't care about these "others," and then there are those who want to insure a steady supply of very cheap labor.

2012-01-08T12:27:00.000-05:00

And the good news is …

The rich pay a lower tax rate than the rest of us. Today's Washington Post reveals some startling numbers about the inequality that exists in America between those who have benefited the most and those who have made it possible for them to do so.

Families earning below $100,000 per year pay an average of about 35 percent in payroll and income taxes, while those earning $1 million or more pay on average less than 30 percent.

And if that's not enough, the wealthiest 400 Americans paid only 18.1 percent (figures are for 2008).

By the way, the top 10 percent of Americans now own 70 percent of the country's wealth.

2011-12-27T10:06:00.003-05:00

Boiling Your Blood:

While you, Mr. and Mrs. Average American, have seen your wealth go down over the past 25 years, the average congressman has gotten 2 1/2 times richer.

Now, make no mistake, this hasn't occurred because working in congress is so profitable, although no politician ever leaves office poorer than when he enters. The wealth growth has occurred because the demographics of who runs and wins a congressional seat has shifted.

Once upon a time, congress actually had some resemblance to its constituency. At least in terms of the wealth of its members when they entered office. Nowadays the place consists of almost solely of the country club set. And yes, that includes Republicans, who make up the majority in the House. Is it any wonder that their views are identical to those of the Koch brothers?

See The Washington Post article.

2011-12-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

Gandalf engages an Orc in combat: "What have you done with the Hobbits?"

2011-12-24T16:39:00.000-05:00

Gandalf with several Hobbits before their last sighting in 2007.

2011-12-24T16:27:00.002-05:00

World's last Hobbit sighting. Look closely at the keyhole on the left of The Devil's Stand-Table. Large, furry footprints are evident in the stone. Reportedly, the Hobbit is wearing a mysterious ring that inhibits detection, but that seems unlikely.

2011-12-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday afternoon after mowing the grass in the back yard. The ground is slightly uneven.

2011-11-26T10:51:00.002-05:00

Truth or Dare: Are Republicans Serious about Cutting Gov't Spending?

Republicans are campaigning on the federal budget, vowing to cut it, but just how serious are they? George Allen is running for a senate seat in Virginia on the cut spending and reduce taxes theme, but Virginia's economy runs on federal government spending. Some 38 percent of every dollar spent in that state comes from federal taxes. Without the federal government, the Old Dominion would be bankrupt. (See The Washington Post story.)

Allen, who once had aspirations toward the White House, knows this as well as anyone. He knows the voters of Virginia are perfectly aware that "cut the federal budget" is nothing more than code for racist sentiments in southern states.

2011-11-24T12:43:00.002-05:00

Newt Gingrich: The Myth, The Man, The BS

Today's Washington Post addresses five myths about the disgraced former Speaker of the House. You remember him: he was the guy who spearheaded the "impeach Clinton" movement for fibbing about the former president's extra curricular marital activities while Nuke'm Getrich was busy doing a staffer while his wife was battling cancer. (And you thought John Edwards held the patent on that category of scumminess.)

My favorite is the first listed: "Gingrich is an academic." It's true that he was once employed as a faculty member at a small Georgian college. But he never produced any academic research. And "conservative political scientist James Q. Wilson … assessed materials for a televised history course Gingrich was teaching as a 'mishmash of undefined terms … misleading claims … and unclear distinctions.'" Sounds like a typical Gingrich speech.

2011-11-19T17:12:00.002-05:00

For a City to Shine upon a Hill, Somebody Must Turn on the Lights:

Charles Bow reflects on the nature of American exceptional-ism, the myth that somehow the U.S. is superior to all other nations, due to God's grace. (See The New York Times' op-ed.)

Bow believes that if we want to be exceptional we have to earn it. That wasn't quite true following the end of World War II, when we became exceptional because all the other developed countries that competed with us had been devastated by the world war, and we were the world's banker.

2011-11-18T18:46:00.002-05:00

Time Travel the Next Step:

More evidence that the universes tiniest particles can travel faster than the speed of light has come out of the CERN physics lab. Proof awaits further testing, but I'm betting on this tiny horse reshaping the world of physics and ultimately our vision of reality.

This little story is big stuff, folks. (See The Washington Post story, while I go read a real book!)

2011-11-18T08:03:00.002-05:00

Nuke Getrich: The Republican Party Brain Trust

Okay, now I get it. I always wondered why the press insisted on calling disgraced former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich the smartest guy in the Republican Party. I mean, he generally appeared to me to have little more intellect than the average college sophomore, spouting a few quickly learned factoids that may or may not have relavence to any given discussion, but now the most important factoid has come out:

The man made $37 million just by selling his political influence over the past eight years! Now that's shear genius! (See The Washington Post story.)

And here I thought the press was just referring to the plethora of shabbily written books the man produced over the years.

2011-11-10T01:54:00.003-05:00

Herman Cain Believers:

The New York Times' Charles Blow looks at the Pew Research Center data and discovers that Republican women are the people most likely to believe that Herman Cain is telling the truth with regards to the sexual harassment charges that have been made against.

What the report actually indicates, of course, is that the Cain supporters have chosen to believe what the want to believe is true rather than what the facts indicate. At this point, the facts available to all of us are too murky to have a clear idea about whether or not Cain crossed the line and how many times. One is inclined to believe that if there is this much smoke, surely there must be some fire. But then sexual impropriety assertions directed towards celebrities is quite common.

On the other hand, males in power are often prone to the sort of hubris that leads to this behavior.

2011-11-06T14:24:00.002-05:00

What's Worth Reading Today:

Michael Kimmage addresses Adam Kirsch's new book, Why Trilling Matters, in Thursday's New York Times book section and explains the importance of 1950s critic Lionel Trilling:

For literary criticism to have any kind of political application today, literature must first have cultural currency. Here optimists are in the minority. Kirsch’s originality lies in a refusal to equate the existing crisis — literature is “on the verge of default,” he readily admits — with a permanent condition. Contemplating “our unmistakably fragmented literary culture,” Kirsch posits a virtuous circle derived from Trilling’s example. Trilling was “always less concerned with writers than with readers,” he points out, and “less interested in the way novels work than in the way we put them to work in our own lives.” Entertainment is peripheral, if not antithetical, to the true experience of literature, and it is surely less exciting than “the drama of individuals shaping their ideals and morals in reaction to texts.” The critic lives the drama, creating heroic readers in the process, and it is these readers who unite author, text and audience in a prospering literary culture.

Just for the fun of it, I've been watching the 1950s TV western Have Gun, Will Travel recently, and the quoted comments above rang particularly relevant.

2011-10-31T17:16:00.002-04:00

Did He? Or Didn't He?

Charges of sexual harassment have surfaced against another Black right-wing, conservative. (Remember Clarence Thomas?) Herman Cain has been busy denying the charges and arguing that he is unaware that any money was given to the two women involved in the charges. Reportedly a five figure payoff was made.

Cain claims liberals are behind the charges, but any one of the people he's currently running against in the Republican primaries has more to benefit. My money's on the Mormon. Can't trust those cult types. (See The New York Times' story.)

2011-10-29T11:26:00.002-04:00

Good Advice for Pennsylvania: End the Death Penalty

The New York Times makes the case for ending the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania, where "208 men and women are currently on death row, but no one has been executed since 1999 [and] only three people have been executed since … 1976."

The Times editorial focuses on the ineptitude of court appointed defense lawyers, thus pointing out, among other things, that the vast majority of people accused of capital offenses are far too poor to afford their own lawyers.

2011-10-28T20:05:00.003-04:00

Why Is Herman Cain Leading in the Republican Polls?

Unlike Michele Bachmann and Ricky Perry and Mitt Romney, dag gonnit, people jest like him! (Check out the Washington Week podcast.)

I say it's about time we hire a CEO to run this country. Give him a big stock option worth millions, so when he completely screws things up we can fire him and he can buy his own island and afford to hire his own army to guard it. Everybody knows gov't would run so much better if it were run like a company. The CEO could hire and fire whomever he pleases without worryin' 'bout no stupid consensus. Why would you want your gov't to actually try to please people when it should just be doin' the right thing, which is what I want it to do, and to heck with you. Jest as long as we make lots of money so's the CEO can be paid enough to be a part of that top 1 percent.

A CEO, after all is going to look around to see what's unproductive; that is, doesn't bring in sufficient income, and order them to start making the company a profit are he'll close'm down.

Ooops! There goes the military. Our armed forces makes lots of money for the private sector, but they sure don't bring in much, and they're still the largest single part of the federal budget.

2011-10-27T19:33:00.003-04:00

Oil Companies Continue To Record Massive Profits:

Responding to pointed questions about record setting profits, big oil has stated that American retirement plans own large shares of the companies.

Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil are big winners, showing profits up nearly double from last year. According to The New York Times, their profit margins are up. In case the terminology confuses you, that means they're buying crude oil for less but not passing the savings along to the consumer. Hmmm, where have I heard that before?

2011-10-27T17:24:00.002-04:00

More on income inequality:

The Washington Post quotes Erin Currier, project manager with the Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project on the matter today: "The amount of growth of the top 1 percent is shocking. But the piece that is missing is income mobility, and what we see there does not reflect the American dream. We're not seeing equality of opportunity."

2011-10-27T00:39:00.004-04:00

The Flat Tax Is the Answer to All Our Problems, Right?

During the past thirty years, the tax on the wealthiest Americans, the top 1 percent, has steadily been reduced. Wealth, Ronny Rayguns promised us, would trickle down.

The truth is that over the past thirty years is that the top 1 percent has seen their wealth double, while the rest of us are still earning the same amount of money. (Thus the key to American productivity: The rich earn more while the workers work harder and earn less.)

(See The New York Times' "Top Earners Doubled share of Nation's Income, Study Finds" explaining the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office.)

And, oh, yes, the flat tax—all the flat tax proposals would result in the richest Americans receiving another tax cut. But that's only fair; they're creating all the wealth, right?

2011-10-25T12:23:00.002-04:00

Today's Must Read:

Richard Cohen tries to come to terms with OWS in today's Washington Post. Claims by the right that the movement (is it is one) is anti-Semitic prove to be nothing more than a right wing red herring. Cohen travels to the site and can find no evidence, neither can the Anti-Defamation League.

My favorite Cohen analysis follow:

Occupy Wall Street has become an event for its own sake, a destination for the aimless. It is something that occurs on countless iPhone cameras, a tourist attraction with the usual vendors, the usual zaftig young women doing the usual arrhythmic dance, somehow missing the beat of many drums. The nostalgic scent of pot wafts occasionally through the air, and I feel so much younger. This, I’m sure, will bring an end to the Vietnam War.

On a given day, I decide that Occupy Wall Street is about nothing and then I decide it is the Herman Cain campaign in aggregate, just a media event that has captured the flea-thoughts of many Americans. Then I decide it is an incoherent articulation of anger at the institutions that have failed us, including — by way of both self-pity and self-flagellation — the media. It seems, above all, a conspiracy to have left-leaning writers make jackasses of themselves by imparting grave and grand meaning to what is little more than a vast sleepover.

If this doesn't make you laugh, you need your battery checked.

2011-10-24T17:35:00.003-04:00

Must Read:

The world is about to reach the 7 billion mark in population (or maybe it already has; it's impossible to know for sure), and the ramifications of the massive population growth witnessed over the past two hundred years can no longer reasonably be ignored.

Mathematical biologist, Joel E. Cohen, head of the Laboratory of Populations at Rockefeller University and Columbia University, presents the problems we'll face before this century is out in today's New York Times. This is a must read for anyone who believes we should actually have our eyes open.

For an additional story, see Juliet Eilperin's "Population growth taxing planet's resources" in today's Washington Post.

2011-10-23T11:55:00.003-04:00

What do they know that we don't?

The high tech geniuses in Silicon Valley send their kids to schools

without computers!

Apparently, around three-fourths of the computer nerds running companies like Google know that computers teach their kids, especially the preteens, nothing. Many of these kids attend the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, where gadgets of all kinds are forbidden. This backward thinking educational institution actually believes in hands on learning, with plenty of personal interaction.

(See today's New York Times.)

2011-10-22T22:14:00.002-04:00

Henry Blodget Explains the OWS:

CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider, Henry Blodget, posted four interesting charts in an attempt to explain what the Occupy Wall Street folks are angry about:

1. Unemployment is at the highest level since the Great Depression

2. At the same time, corporate profits are at an all-time high

3. Wages as a percent of the economy are at an all-time low.

4. Income and wealth inequality in the US economy is near an all-time high

2011-10-15T14:47:00.003-04:00

Who's Herman Cain?

Gail Collins thinks she's able to tell us, or tries to shed some light in today's New York Times. The Herminator is apparently mostly a self-promoting, self-help sort of guy. Kind of a "bait piece" promoter of nose-to-the-grindstone and you-can-be-anything-you-want-even-if-you-have-no-known-abilities sort of person. We all love that. It's the American dream.

One of these days I'm gonna run for president too. As soon as they bring back the Know Nothing Party. I don't know what they stood for, but I guess that's the point.

2011-10-11T11:54:00.003-04:00

The People Who Own the Tea-Party:

The Washington Post recently ran a story on the Koch brothers, the people who are financing the grass roots groups collectively known as "The Tea-Party." The story reads like an encyclopedia on corrupt corporate behavior. The irony that a grass roots movement can so easily be bought out by a corporation should not be missed by even the slowest learners.

2011-10-09T13:34:00.003-04:00

Catching On:

Asia is outstripping the U.S. in education. They are mad for computers in the classroom on the Pacific rim, but so is the U.S., so why are the Asians so much better at math and creating engineers than the U.S. is?

Some of you will claim it's all genetics, Asians are simply born more mathematically inclined. Nonsense! There's simply no evidence of that.

Americans have been buying a bill of sale on computers and educational software for some time now, yet test scores and, more importantly the shear number of engineers we produce, have steadily declined. What's up with that?

The difference is cultural. China, Japan, Korea, all are on their way up. These countries have a unified culture of demanding achievement from their students. In the U.S. the culture is an expectation of privilege. Our young people are supposed to be successful as a matter of birthright. You got born in the shining city on the hill, and therefore you are owed success.

And about those computers, that "teaching technology," just keep in mind that administrators of all types, shapes, and sizes gain power directly from the size of their budgets. The computer stuff costs on average three times as much as books do.

Currently, there is no evidence that students learn any better as a result of using computers and computer software than they do from using traditional methods. The only people asserting otherwise are those who have a vested interest in having us believe the contrary; i.e. the computer and software makers and, of course, at least some administrators whose budgets are enhanced by doing so.

See today's New York Times for an excellent article addressing the fallacy that computers and software will improve education.

NOTE: The most important part of having students be familiar with computers is that they will likely need to use them in the work place. It's as simple as that. Being able to create a spreadsheet doesn't make you smarter at math, it simply makes you a more skilled worker. And that's good, but don't expect your test scores to automatically go up.

2011-09-25T16:07:00.002-04:00

The Social Contract and the Republican "Class Warfare" Myth:

Elizabeth Warren explains it.

2011-09-24T11:24:00.002-04:00

6 Ton Satellite Disappears:

I woke up this morning and rushed to the back porch to see if NASA's bus-sized satellite had parked itself in my backyard only to learn later that the thing is now a needle in a haystack. Nobody knows what happened to the space junk.

Speculation places parts of it in Canada, the Pacific Ocean, and maybe Africa. Most space junk, NASA says, ends up in the ocean. That's because more of the earth's surface is covered with water than dirt and rock.

So "the bus" sleeps with the fishes. (See Huffington Post article.)

2011-09-23T17:56:00.004-04:00

What Travels Faster Than the Speed of Light?

Neutrinos, baby! Take that, Einstein! S0 much for your theory of relativity!

CERN clocked the little dudes doing 60 nanoseconds faster than light could keep up with, but the experiment has to be reproducible because science ain't like religion. You gotta verify your claims.

So before we sell our Corvettes and check out the neutrino dealership, we'll just have to wait and see if the folks in Switzerland can catch another one in the act of passing up the flash bulb.

What does this mean? Well, for one thing we now have an idea how Scotty managed to beam up Kirk. And you probably thought it was the magic of TV.

(See The Washington Post article.)

2011-09-10T15:03:00.004-04:00

Republicans Cheer for Murder:

During the recent Republican presidential debate held at the Ronald (Ronny Rayguns) Reagan library in California (a state that spends more money on prisons than education), Texas governor Ricky Perry justified his record for having murdered more people than any other governor in modern times by glibly asserting that the highly flawed Texas justice system provided a "thoughtful" system that never made mistakes.

The Republicans sitting in the audience cheered vociferously. One could well imagine blood dripping from their maws.

For an intelligent analysis, complete with video and transcript, see Peter Catpano's New York Times' op-ed.

2011-09-06T15:50:00.002-04:00

Oil Profits Should Hit Record Highs:

The price of a barrel of oil has dropped to $84, which should mean that gasoline at the pump should cost you less than $3 a gallon, but the price at the pump in most places is still around $3.50, and where I live it is above $3.65. (See The Washington Post article.)

Traditionally, the price at the pump has been tied to the price of a barrel of crude, but the major companies have seemed to realize that the average person has no idea about this relationship. And let's face it, the oil companies have congress in their back pockets.

2011-09-04T14:51:00.003-04:00

Millions for Gadgets, Not a Dime for Education:

School districts that spend lavishly on gadgetry for the classroom are finding it impossible to demonstrate any positive results in the classroom. Oddly, countries like South Korea have been making dramatic progress in part as a result of incorporating advanced technology into classrooms. Why is there no progress in the U.S.? (See The New York Times.)

2011-08-15T13:50:00.002-04:00

When Warren Buffett Speaks …

We should all listen. Carefully.

Buffett wants to pay more in taxes. He wants most of us to pay less. In plain English, one of the world's richest, most financially successful men lays out the case for a more sensible tax structure in today's New York Times. Is anyone listening? Or are we all waiting for the "Texas miracle" to cure our ills? (See Paul Krugman's op-ed.)

2011-07-30T20:08:00.003-04:00

U. S. Postal Service Considers Branch Closings:

It's not secret that the Postal Service is a failure as a business, which is why it's called a service. In an attempt to stem the tide of red ink, branch closures are being considered.

Curious about which ones might be on the chopping block? Here's a list of the potential closures.

2011-07-30T13:04:00.003-04:00

$14 Trillion in Debt: How could this happen? What does it mean?

Zachary Goldfarb puts the situation in clear terms in today's Washington Post. The real problem is greed and stupidity.

The country has enough wealth to make this debt ludicrously small. To start with, the biggest portion of that money is simply owed to ourselves. Trillions are locked up in the mountains of cash private companies posses, including trillions the rich hide or invest overseas in order to avoid paying taxes.

2011-07-25T14:56:00.004-04:00

Right-Wing Terrorists:

After the murders in Norway, it's worth considering that here in the U.S. we are more likely to suffer from right-wing terrorists than from the left or Muslims. A recent New York Times' article points out that "(t)he Hutaree, an extremist Christian militia in Michigan accused last year of plotting to kill police officers and planting bombs at their funerals, had an arsenal of weapons larger than all the Muslim plotters charged in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks combined."

The Norway murderer evidently fueled his hatred with right-wing American blogs.

2011-07-23T11:58:00.002-04:00

What Recession?

With unemployment steadily around 9 percent and the number of underemployed around 20 percent, American workers know we're in a deep recession with no end in sight. Government seems oblivious with its focus on debt reduction and elected officials only concerned about being re-elected in in 2012.

So how's business?

The corporate sector, as it turns out, is flush with cash, so much so that it's wildly speculating in all sorts of technology ventures. If you've got a flashy idea about social networking, you can "go public" and get millions.

In addition to the oceans of cash, corporate earnings, overall, are beating expectations, increasing the amount of cash available. But don't bother looking for a job. They're not hiring, just investing.

The dragon finds a horde of gold and sits on it. (See The Washington Post story.)

2011-07-21T13:21:00.002-04:00

Best Op-Ed of the Year Candidate:

Nicholas Kristof explains the genius of the Tea Party caucus in today's New York Times.

2011-07-19T18:02:00.002-04:00

Now Here's Something You Don't See Everyday:

"Goldman Sachs Reports Disappointing Profit of $1.05 Billion"

That's a headline from this afternoon's edition of The New York Times. It seems that while Goldman Sachs has doubled its profits from last year the analysts were expecting much more. Well, so was I, gosh darn it! I mean, what can we expect from this economy anyhow? I'll bet there isn't an out of work or underemployed American in the country who doesn't feel for this venerable company. We should just rush to give 'em a new tax break, don't you think?

2011-07-17T12:31:00.002-04:00

Analysis of a Candidate:

Professor Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota describes Michele Bachmann: "That's her recipe: find the issue, then use it politically to mobilize previously marginalized or disconnected groups. For those of us who followed her from the beginning, it's like reading a romance novel with a formula" (qtd. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times).

2011-07-17T11:38:00.003-04:00

A Crack in the Empire?

Leave it to the Britts to make a scandal out of a scandal sheet. Rupert Murdoch's media empire, built on porn and the juicy tidbits about the lives of the high and mighty that we regular human beings love to discover about our superiors, has been scrambling to hold down the fort as his kingdom has come under attack.

His media chiefs have been caught bribing cops and politicians, tapping into the phones of a former prime minister and the royal family, and even snooping on a dead child. And now they're resigning and being arrested.

King Rupert issued a statement recently, apologizing for the bad behavior, in, of course, one of his newspapers: "[W]e are determined to live up to the expectations of our readers, colleagues and partners."

Well, Rupert, old boy, you were already doing that.

(See The Washington Post story.)

2011-07-10T12:39:00.001-04:00

Let's Keep That Animal Fat, Corn Syrup, and Salt Flowing!

The government wants the food processing industry to voluntarily come clean on all the ingredients added into the food we feed our children, but the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the food industry's many highly paid lobbyists are dead set against it. Fessing up, they claim, will kill jobs and stop the economic recovery. (See The Washington Post story.)

It turns out that childhood obesity and early death from many illnesses that grow from it are a patriotic duty.

2011-07-09T09:51:00.002-04:00

The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same:

James Bond has a license to kill. Of course, he's white. David Dow chronicles the continued racist and arbitrary nature of the death penalty in the U. S. in today's New York Times. It's been 35 years since this country briefly experimented with a ban on the barbarism of the death penalty, which has historically been used to terrorize minorities. Nothing has changed, especially in Texas where hatred and bullying apparently reign supreme.

2011-07-08T11:58:00.002-04:00

G. O. P.: Of, By, and For Billionaires

Nicholas Kristof explains who Republicans represent, and it's not the voters, and it's certainly not the American work force. This is about the massive tax breaks the super rich receive and the fact that the Republicans in congress refuse to discuss any modifications in the tax breaks, even though these tax breaks do absolutely nothing to help create jobs or help the small business person.

2011-06-30T09:26:00.003-04:00

Hang 'Em High!

At last! Someone is finally going to jail for helping to create and profit from the world-wide financial crisis. The Washington Post reports this morning that one of the thieves may receive life imprisonment for his part.

Still, we're not likely to see the real culprits pay—the Wall Street bankers and their political lackeys in the Bush administration.

And in other crime news:

We now know that Massey Energy knew their mine was unsafe and coerced their workers to create fake reports to mislead the Feds about the safety issues in West Virginia. If this were an episode of Law & Order, the mine owner would be going on trial for the murder of 29 miners in April of 2010, but this is real life, and Massey has major political punch with bought and paid for U. S. senators. (See The Washington Post story.)

2011-06-05T12:29:00.002-04:00

Shocking News!

Amazingly, Egyptians are more concerned about the money they make than the one man/one vote thing the press talked about non stop a short time ago. (See The Washington Post story.)

As the Chinese demonstrated after 1989, and Americans have consistently shown, "democracy" is a euphemism for the pocketbook.

2011-05-22T10:57:00.002-04:00

"Outsourcing Comes Home"

Looking for a job? Indian companies that specialized in the outsourcing boom are beginning to relocate to the U.S. and other countries, moving their employees and hiring local employees, to man the phones in cities closer to their customers. What goes around … and so forth. (See The Washington Post story.)

2011-05-19T08:56:00.002-04:00

The Myth of Capitalism:

Private run businesses are always more efficient than public run services, right? That's capitalisms great myth. Government workers have no profit motive to drive them toward efficiency.

Well, think again. One of the big scams of recent decades has been that privately run prisons are more efficient than publicly run ones. The truth is that this is simply not true. The only thing that private prisons are efficient at doing is redistributing the public wealth by funneling it into a few private hands.

In Arizona, a beacon of Republican mythology about capitalism, studies show that housing a prisoner in a private facility costs the same as doing so in a public one at best and sometimes as much as $1,600 per year more (Richard Oppel).

The truth is that those who advocate privatization of traditionally publicly run services have no interest in efficiently running these programs. Their sole interest is in moving taxpayer dollars into private pockets.

2011-05-18T10:55:00.003-04:00

Red States Have Red Books:

Harold Meyerson makes the argument that the Republican states should put their money where their mouths are. The ten states causing the biggest drain on the national budget are all Republican strongholds: New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, South Dakota, Kentucky and Virginia.

These states receive far more in federal tax moneys than they pay in. Naturally, they're the ones demanding a balanced budget. Go figure.

Hint: The little boy crying wolf ain't playing a joke. He's trying to distract you from the fact that he's got his hand in the cookie jar.

2011-05-15T11:53:00.002-04:00

The Decline of the West:

In case you needed more evidence that we're on our way to hell in a hand-basket, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa point out the miserable state of college undergraduate education in the U.S. in today's New York Times.

For years, Americans have bragged and taken solace in the belief that at least college education in this country was the best in the world. Those on the inside, however, have realized that "the best" moniker actually referred to graduate school, not the undergraduate departments at state and private schools of higher education around the country.

While grade inflation is rampant and the work an undergrad is required to do in order to receive a B+ grade in all courses is about half in terms of time alone, ignoring quality, the two most important words in a college administrator's vocabulary are "recruitment" and "retention."

Employee growth, by the way, at nearly all colleges and universities, has been in staff and part-time teachers, not in full-time faculty.

Most college presidents, who are often paid like CEOs of Fortune Five Hundred companies, will tell you that the increased cost of education is a result primarily of increased benefit costs for faculty.

But consider that, while faculty numbers have remained at best stable at colleges around the country, the number of staff employees, who are both well paid and receive the same benefits as faculty, have tripled in number. In the meantime, the challenge of teaching the increasing enrollment at colleges has been met with more and more part-time teachers, who are poorly paid and receive no benefits.

You might remember the days when undergraduates lived in dorms that resembled a cell block and ate in cafeterias where the food was tasteless and served on metal trays. Today colleges offer amenities that more closely resemble those of Club Med, with the harshest environmental component being a disagreeable roommate.

And on the Other Side of the Pond: A Gun for Hire

Erik Prince, the Bush administration's pet toy and billionaire private army organizer, is reportedly organizing a private army for the United Arab Emirates, a country ruled by autocrats and awash in oil money. The rulers of the country are afraid that the Arab Spring might invade their little nation and their military force is too small to handle such an uprising, especially if backed by arch nemesis Iran.

Prince and his employees have been facing increasing scrutiny by the justice department in this country. Maybe Prince has found his way out of these troubles and a way to make another billion or so.

2011-05-11T12:49:00.002-04:00

Update on the Skype Purchase:

Ted Schadler makes the argument for why Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for a service with no business model. He's got some good points.

2011-05-10T19:05:00.003-04:00

The Skype Business Model – Sheer Genius:

I love Skype. What's not to like about free phone calls and messaging? But just how do you make money out of it if you're an investor or founder? Wait till Microsoft finds itself looking foolish in front of Apple and then sell it to Steve and the boys for $8.5 billion! Works for me! Or it would had I been smart enough to invent the service. Sheer genius. Now let's just hope that Microsoft doesn't screw it up for us little folks who just like the good service and low cost. (You still have to have some sort of device and an IP.)

2011-05-07T01:12:00.003-04:00

Breaking News:

The number of people who now believe President Obama was born outside the U.S. has plunged to half the number who believed it before the release of his "long birth certificate." The remaining number of doubters are on the extreme right of the Republican Party. (See The Washington Post story.) In other words, the party of Lincoln is now the most racist group in America. There is no evidence he was born anywhere other than where he says he was born. But he doesn't look like the face of America, according to the right wing of the Republican Party.

2011-05-05T13:15:00.003-04:00

Demagogue on the Rise:

The press is agog over the rise of David Barton, a collector of old texts who promotes himself as an authority on the "Christian" nature of the nation's founders. Barton, a graduate of the Oral Roberts religious institution, has been praised and sought after by Republican wanna be's as a messiah for the religious right. He was an important player in bringing out the southern right wing vote for George W. Bush.

Barton is proud to show off his massive collection of old texts housed at his Texas ranch, but, as The New York Times points out, the fact is he's read very little of them. He admits as much. (See the quote in the Times.) Barton spends most of his time and energy giving speeches. One suspects much the same speech over and over. Barton appeared on the May 4th episode of The Daily Show, where he seems to be auditioning for a position as snake oil salesman. You be the judge.

2011-05-04T11:59:00.003-04:00

Time Bomb:

While the media is filled with awe over the death of Bin Laden, the real story of this century is buried deeper in the news: the world's population is exploding. Projections have increased to ten billion within the next ninety years.

The usual question raised by a discussion of population growth is will we be able to feed everyone. Currently the answer is yes. But is just feeding everyone enough?

Nearly every issue we face today throughout the world is affected in one way or another by population pressure. Can the planet withstand such growth? God may be happy with this mob of miserable souls murdering one another and passing on infectious diseases while driving up global temperatures, but one suspects Mother Nature is not.

2011-05-01T13:07:00.002-04:00

How America Shot Itself in the Foot:

"The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis." - Lori Montgomery.

That's right. The Bush tax cuts, extended by Obama, account for most of the indebtedness. And then there are those two unnecessary and unpaid for wars, one of which was begun with fabricated information.

Back in 2000, the nation's economy was booming and the outlook was rosy beyond imagining today. Of course, an economy that was based on a housing bubble and credit default swaps was bound to bust anyway, but it needn't have been so painful.

So why did Republicans work so hard to bring the nation to this state? Easy, Republicans find their base among those who want weak government. For them, "government" plays no part in a definition of what it means to be American.

Keep in mind that the top 10 percent of Americans remain rich. The problems with the economy haven't harmed them any more than rampant inflation ever hurt the wealthy elite in Latin American economies. When politicians like Nuke Getrich start talking about Americans needing to make sacrifices, they are not talking about themselves and the wealthy elite who own the political parties. They are talking about the bottom 90 percent.

2011-04-30T17:15:00.002-04:00

American Demagoguery:

Mark Oppenheimer sheds some light on the so called "Christian Right" in a New York Times' column, "'Christian Economics' Meets the Antiunion Movement." It seems a character named Gary North has a strong influence on many of the far right's attitudes about something called "Christian economics."

As someone who has studied this matter for years, I can vouch for the fact that Christian economics can be stated in one short sentence: Give everything away to the poor. That's it, folks.

Oh, yeah, there is that part about rendering unto Caesar. Whatever anyone tells you about economics with a Christian label that doesn't fit within these quadrants …, well, he's lying. You'd better check your back pocket, because you can be sure you'll find his hand in it, and he ain't hardly poor, although he might be a Caesar wanna be.

2011-04-29T10:48:00.002-04:00

The National Budget Proposal That No One Talks About:

The People's Budget: Paul Krugman wonders why no one talks about it. The answer? American's prefer our reality served up by Disney—lots of sugary fakery. It's medicine if it masks the symptoms.

2011-04-29T10:06:00.002-04:00

The State of the Union:

"One out of every five American children lives in poverty. Yet the most consuming issue in Washington—according to members of Congress, Hill staffers, lobbyists and Treasury officials—is determining how to slice up the $16 billion debit-card swipe fee pie for corporations" (The Washington Post "Wonkbook").

More than 100 ex-government officials serve as lobbyist for the all consuming banking industry, fighting to keep bank fees high. And you don't believe in vampires?

2011-04-20T12:17:00.002-04:00

Keep Your Filthy Gov't Hands Off My Medicare!

Americans are disgusted by America's indebtedness, but they have no idea what to do about it.

Polls show that Americans, by wide majorities, oppose significant cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and military spending. They do favor, by slightly smaller majorities, taxing the rich, as long as that doesn't include them. (See The Washington Post story.)

2011-04-19T07:15:00.002-04:00

Standard & Poor Manipulates Stock Market:

The S&P announced a poor outlook for stock prices based on concern over the federal budget, thus causing the price of stocks to be depressed. This means more bang for the buck for speculators who can now purchase more stocks at lowered prices and thereby make greater profits when the price of stocks rebounds in the near future.

While speculators will win over the long run, conservative players in the market, including retirees will be gouged as usual or chased out of the market altogether.

2011-04-16T17:48:00.003-04:00

Why Is It … ?

Why is it that the Feds can go after online gambling, but not one person in the international banking scandal that brought down half the world's economies is even being investigated?

Don't get me wrong. I'm no friend of online gambling. I don't even support the idea of state run lotteries. But come on, folks, nothing has been more criminal in the area of economics than the banking scandals, and there isn't even one case being investigated?

One is left to suppose that if banks are too important to fail bankers are too important to charge when they commit criminal behavior. Important how? Because they contribute too much money to politicians?

We had no trouble going after the criminals in the savings and loan fiasco twenty years ago. Why not now?

2011-04-16T12:08:00.002-04:00

The American Civil War: 150 years later

The New York Times, in the spirit of James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, has been running a series of articles reflecting on the American Civil War that I've come to look forward to reading daily.

A recent article, entitled "The Defenders," is well worth passing on. Of particular interest is the description of the disparity between officers and enlisted men. On average the enlisted man was just short of five feet, six inches tall, while several of the officers were over six feet in height. Rations are explained, including the fact that while officers often ate meat, the enlisted men got buy more often than not on bread and what passed for coffee. The diverse nature of nutrition is worthy of note here. In addition, the enlisted men were, more often than not, at the beginning of the war, migrants, often unable to speak English, or, if they did, possessed accents that made them almost unintelligible. They were also almost always illiterate.

Finally, while a myth has persisted that nearly half of the Federal forces betrayed their country and joined the pro slavery southern forces, the truth is that, while nearly thirty percent of the officers did this, less than one percent of enlisted men did.

2011-04-11T17:30:00.003-04:00

Privacy Issue: Online Tax Documents Reveal SSNs

Now this is scary: ZDNet blogger Stephen Chapman explains how easy it is to have social security numbers and other private information stolen by accessing online tax documents. Not only can you have your own social security number stolen but also your children's.

2011-04-09T12:55:00.003-04:00

The Giving Pledge:

Sixty of the richest people in the world have pledged to give away the majority of their wealth, following the dictum of Andrew Carnegie: "A man who dies rich dies disgraced." You can see who they are here.

No, the Koch brothers aren't on the list. They're donating their money to political causes intended to keep working class and poor people as poor and unhealthy as possible.

2011-04-08T13:11:00.002-04:00

Republicans Hate Poor Women and They'll Shut the Gov't Down to Prove It:

So this is the sticking point as we remain within a few hours of a government shut down over the current federal budget: funding for Planned Parenthood.

The budget currently contains a tiny sum for the organization that helps poor women, and in some cases this means abortions.

Naturally, the rich people's party isn't concerned about whether women have abortions. It's just that they don't want to fund poor women's abortions. The rich can safely continue to have the option. It's those pesky poor people they want to stop from getting one. (See The Washington Post.)

2011-04-06T13:05:00.003-04:00

The Ryan Agenda: Bankrupting America

Senator Paul Ryan of Tea Party fame has proposed what some have called the only intelligent attempt to solve the future budget crisis, but what is his real agenda? As a Tea Party devotee, his devotion can only be to destroying the American government. Paul Krugman points out how Ryan is attempting to do this by proposing massive cuts to government spending while slyly providing financially irresponsible tax cuts for the rich. Ryan, along with his daddy in the House, is among the very rich, as are the Koch brothers, the guys who own the Tea Party.

Have you been reading the Times' stories on the Civil War this year? Interestingly, the language the south used to justify slavery and session leading up to and during the War matches that of the Tea Party and the Republican party today.

2011-04-04T19:11:00.002-04:00

Obama breaks from the pack and tosses hat in ring for White House:

Surprise, surprise, President Obama announced today that he'll run for re-election, casting aside all doubts that he might follow in LBJ's footsteps and abandon ship.

Okay, so the only surprise is that he beat all those presidential wishy-washies on the right who are still "testing the waters," like Sarah-baby of "I can't make it through 4 years as Alaska's governor" fame. (She won't run anyway. She's making too much money profilin' from the sidelines, where you don't gotta do no face to face with opposition.)

Zack Whittacker, a ZiffDavis blogger, explains why Obama's gonna keep the key to the fancy place on Pennsylvania Ave. It's high tech, or Facebook.

2011-04-02T12:59:00.002-04:00

Grading Schools and Punishing Teachers:

The most recent controversy in public education comes from President Obama taking the stage with former Florida governor Jeb Bush in the latter's efforts to destroy the teachers' unions by grading schools on their performance and punishing them economically when they fail to live up to standardized testing. (See Nick Anderson's Washington Post piece.)

How do I know it's an attack on unions? Easy. If these folks, including the president, were serious about education, they would focus on school boards, not teachers.

If the citizens of this country ever become united again in their desire to have sound education for America's children, they will elect school board officials who will insist upon it.

The truth is, however, that there is very little that the federal or state governments can do about improving education. Education is something one achieves, not something that is imposed upon the student. All a teacher can do is direct students toward materials and activities while trying to maintain order so that the student can engage with the material and the activities that will lead the student to becoming educated. At best, the teacher is a facilitator and a minor role model. The most important role model and facilitator in the student's life is spelled "p-a-r-e-n-t."

Starting tomorrow, PBS will re-air Ken Burn's Civil War saga. It is worth noting that Abraham Lincoln was self educated, as most people were during that period. The fledgling public school system was primarily manned by folks who had failed at everything else in life.

2011-04-02T12:18:00.002-04:00

Did the economy bust? Or was it simply manipulated?

While the mass of humanity in the developed world suffered under the economic turn down, Wall Street and its bankers have done quite well, thank you. William D. Cohan lays out the successful exploitation of the economy by the few at the top in a recent New York Times op-ed.

It's business as usual at the top, folks. We're just the chattel, being milked as usual. While unemployment remains stagnant, the rich just keep getting richer. And the only thing they create is a new way to manipulate the game.

2011-03-18T18:27:00.003-04:00

Americans Back Gay Marriage:

The Washington Post reports today that the majority of Americans now accept the legalization of gay marriage. It should be noted that a growing number of young people are showing little interest in the institution of marriage overall.

NOTE: Spring arrives on Sunday, exactly one week after Friday the13th fell on a Sunday this month. Life is sure strange.

2011-03-16T23:53:00.002-04:00

Student Debt Surpasses Nation's Credit-card Debt:

Thanks to the Bush administration, greedy college presidents and even greedier banks the nation's youth is being saddled with massive debt, and nobody is addressing the problem.

The cost of higher education has been skyrocketing well beyond inflation for sometime, as colleges and universities spend like they've found the proverbial pot of gold in order to turn their physical facilities into "club meds."

College administrators claim they have to spend whopping sums to build fancy pleasure palaces to attract continuing growth. The real truth is that an administrator's power is directly related to the size of his budget, just as it is for any bureaucrat.

Of course, they'll tell you the cost is growing because health costs for faculty is driving the budget up, and to some extent, that's true. But it's no truer for colleges than it is for any other business.

And then there's the tie between the Bush administration and the banks. You'll recall that the Bush administration dramatically reduced government assistance for students, forcing the latter to rely on high interest school loans from banks, backed by government guarantees. It was a win/win situation for the banks.

(See the story in yesterday's New York Times.)

2011-03-15T18:47:00.002-04:00

He Ain't There, so Why Are We?

Today's Washington Post reports that two-thirds of Americans no longer support the Aghanistan war. We've been searching for Osama in that country for nearly ten years now, and for almost as many, we've known that he scampered out of the country and into Pakistan where our troupes can't follow.

Now, no matter how many of their own women Afghanis may mutilate, we don't want to go on spending our money and soldiers' lives on a war that seems futile at best. If the country is capable of doing something more productive than soliciting bribes and heron, we haven't figured out what that is, and the people, at least in significant numbers, seem unwilling or incapable of finding out what that might be. Besides, they don't have any oil to pay for the war. Wait, that was Iraq! Wonder when that's going to start paying off?

2011-02-19T13:00:00.002-05:00

Government by the NRA, for the NRA, and of the NRA:

The House kept illegal gun sales safe for drug dealers in Mexico on Friday, by voting down a measure that would require gun dealers to report multiple sales of AK-47s and AR-15s, the weapons of choice used by the murders in Mexico.

The NRA dumps millions of dollars into the reelection campaigns of elected government officials, who in turn care only about being reelected, without regard for human life.

According The Washington Post, "[M]ore than 65,000 guns recovered in Mexico have been traced back to the United States." So we get our illegal drugs from poverty stricken Mexico, and we sell them our guns so they can murder each other. All sponsored by the National Rifle Association and its lackeys in Washington. And you don't believe in vampires?

2011-02-19T12:23:00.002-05:00

Nepotism is spelled "W-i-s-c-o-n-s-i-n":

So, the Assembly speaker in Wisconsin, where the Republican governor is trying to use the budget crisis to bust up public unions and do irreparable harm to the Democratic base in that state, is one Jeff Fitzgerald, who has directed the state police to find AWOL Democratic senators in order to create a forum, necessary to get the vote needed for the union busting plot. His brother is Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate majority leader, and guess what, their daddy is Stephen Fitzgerald, who was recently appointed chief of the state patrol after having failed to win election as a county sheriff. The new job pays $105,678 per year.

Are you starting to get a clearer picture of what's going on in Wisconsin?

For more entertaining takes on the Republican party's attempts to exploit the current financial mess for purely political reasons, see Gail Collins' op-ed on Big Bird vs. Nascar.

2011-02-13T04:56:00.002-05:00

Class and Race in America:

Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott examine "Hollywood's Whiteout" in today's New York Times, raising important questions about race and class struggle in America.

2011-02-13T04:02:00.004-05:00

Silence of the Lambs:

The New York Times reports that Tuesday will mark the fifth anniversary of the last time that Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during oral arguments during a Supreme Court case. Thomas, whose wife owns an extreme right wing lobbying firm in Washington, is best known for staring at the ceiling in either boredom or extreme anger while cases are being argued.

In the meantime, Justice Scalia with whom Thomas shares ultra right wing political views, asks more questions than any other member of the court, averaging 25 questions per hour, peppering litigants with questions about the infallibility of the founders' intentions in creating the divinely inspired constitution.

Speculation about Thomas's many years of silence include his admission that he is self-conscious about the manner in which he speaks, an attitude he attributes to his experiences as a youth. Others, however, believe Thomas is simply following orders to keep his mouth shut or face ridicule at home.

2011-02-05T11:37:00.002-05:00

No More Plain Vanilla:

Except in Utah. Census numbers illustrate the blending of America. (See The New York Times' story.) The nation no longer looks like it did in the 1950s, saying something about the lily white Teaparty and their whining leadership. While old folks are still predominantly white, American youth is clearly a blend, and this might play into how the care of seniors will evolve over the next twenty years. The thing is old folks vote, while the young often don't.

2011-02-01T08:05:00.002-05:00

Another Right Wing Judge Attacks Health Care:

People who hate other people and love money have found another like-minded judge in Florida to declare the new health care law unconstitutional. Federal Judge Roger Vinson ruled that the whole law was unconstitutional because it requires people to purchase health insurance.

Whether the Supreme Court will support the ruling or not remains to be seen. Of course the whole problem could have been moot if the U.S. had done the morally correct thing decades ago and socialized medicine rather than making people's misfortunes a mode for making a few people rich.

(See The New York Times' story.)

2011-01-30T13:08:00.002-05:00

Guns and Sanity:

Nicholas Kristof makes the case for new gun laws with satire in today's New York Times. Comparing our two national obsessions—guns and cars—, he points out the absurdity of our national attitude toward gun ownership and its lack of regulation. I particularly like the notion of owning a tank. Can I get that with a battery powered option? And then there's the bumpers with bayonet option.

2011-01-30T12:03:00.003-05:00

"I'm white because people tell me I'm white and I believe them." — Stephen Colbert

The vision of America as a place given by God to "white" people who tolerate folks who don't quite look like them is rapidly changing. Population growth among northern European inhabitants in the U.S. slowed to a standstill a couple of decades ago, but the growth in population among peoples of other skin tones has continued to grow, and now the groups are intermarrying without the virulent stigma of the past. Today's New York Times reports that one in seven marriages in the past couple of years has occurred between mixed racial couples.

For my money, the great revolution of my time has not been seeing a man walk on the moon, it's been the shift from the anger and fear that existed between the races to the easy acceptance of one another. Certainly, the lion has not lain down with the lamb yet, but the change in attitude and acceptance is remarkable when considered over the brief space of one man's lifetime.

2011-01-23T12:29:00.003-05:00

Military Mentality at the Top:

Seymour Hersh may be America's greatest journalist: He broke the My Lai Massacre story in 1969 and in 2004, the Abu Ghraib prison story, both of which exposed the obscenely cruel bluntness of the military tool and the willingness of commanders to cover up responsibility. Now he's preparing a book in which he plans to reveal a mindset among the military's commanders that inevitably undermines hope for peaceful solution to America's goals in the Muslim world.

According to Hersh, military leaders see themselves as 12th century crusaders, intent on turning mosques into churches. (See Paul Farhi's story in The Washington Post.)

2011-01-22T23:29:00.002-05:00

GOP Sells Its Soul to Big Corporations:

Life is good when your in power, the money just keeps rolling in to keep you there. Read about how corporations are dumping millions into the hands of the new Republican party congressional members, reported in today's Washington Post. It didn't take long for the power brokers to start lining these boys and girls' pockets. And you Tea Partyers thought it was about change.

How many politicians do you know who've left "public service" poorer than when they went in?

2011-01-22T14:47:00.001-05:00

Quote of the Decade:

"This is America, where a white Catholic male Republican judge was murdered on his way to greet a Democratic Jewish woman member of Congress, who was his friend. Her life was saved initially by a 20-year-old Mexican-American gay college student, and eventually by a Korean-American combat surgeon, all eulogized by our African-American President."

— Mark Shields, PBS

2011-01-22T14:07:00.003-05:00

Hubris Rushes In:

Now that Republican lawmakers have passed their anti-health-care measure in the the U.S. House of Representatives, conservative legislatures and governors around the country are feeling their oats. They know they can do nothing about the economy, the real reason they've won sweeping elections, so they are turning to that old social war-horse: abortions.

Erick Eckholm reports on the status of the anti-women's movement as it plays out in many state capitols around the nation in today's New York Times. The anti-abortion movement plays on superstition, fear, bigotry, and ignorance to blind the electorate to the ineptitude of governing officials to take serious action to improve the flailing economy while at the same time further fostering the right-wing's class warfare program.

2011-01-10T10:30:00.002-05:00

Our Idiotic Gun Laws:

In the wake of the murder of six people in Arizona by a lunatic, all the focus seems to be on the vitriolic language of political commentators and politicians, unlike past gun violence discussions that focused on gun Laws. Evidently, only Gail Collins at The New York Times, seems to be willing to focus attention on the problem at hand: how did this nut come to possess a weapon whose sole purpose is to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

It's time to put the NRA on trial for their complicity in all the gun deaths in this country. And you can add to that much of the violence that's occurring in Mexico as well.

2011-01-04T13:43:00.002-05:00

Kill the Shield Bill:

The recent Wikileaks have revealed how human those in government are and how willing they are to classify just about anything as secret to keep voters from finding out. Geoffrey Stone, writing on the op-ed pages of today's New York Times, makes the argument for why we should not allow government to railroad us into allowing our legislators to pass a bill that could prevent the next Pentagon Papers from coming to light and arming voters with the evidence to cause their government to act responsibly, if only after a long delay.

2011-01-03T21:46:00.002-05:00

Should've Passed the Equal Rights Amendment when We Had the Chance:

An equal rights amendment to the constitution has been in the works since 1923, and in the seventies it came close to passage, falling short only by a couple of states. But conservatives who rely on fear, stupidity, and ignorance have managed to use the power of a minority of voters to keep women second class citizens in this country.

For the past couple of decades, advocates have been relying on the court system and the Fourteenth Amendment to seek justice for women. Unfortunately, with judges like Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, women and minorities could find their rights in jeopardy at any moment. Scalia is currently in the minority seeking to turn the U.S. into a Nazi state, but who knows what the Court will consist of in the future.

You will remember that Scalia is former Vice President Dick Cheney's shooting buddy. No, not the one that Cheney shot in the face. Scalia is too quick for that. Okay, so Scalia has never advocated Nazism or admitted publicly to his worship of Hitler, but his vision of America certainly more closely resembles a Fascist state than not. A government by the rich, for the rich, and supported by the other 90 percent of us who pay for the phenomenal healthcare he and the top ten percent receive. You and I pay this guy's salary so he can go to the opera; you and I pay a full-time wage to him so he can travel around the country receiving huge speaking fees to tell us we have no rights and he's the hanging judge who intends to keep things that way.

You gotta love it.

2011-01-02T12:03:00.002-05:00

The Argument for Equality:

Nicholas Kristof, undoubtedly the most humane journalist in America, presents his argument for equality in an America where the dream has always been for inequality, in today's New York Times. The American dream has always been that equality of opportunity to be superior to everyone else should exist at birth.

Kristof points out all of the health issues that develop with greater inequality for those at the bottom, and lists some of the sources that inform his assertions. With 90 percent of us now at the bottom and at a growing distance from those at the top, this should be of particular concern.

2011-01-01T13:39:00.003-05:00

The Triumph of Reaganomics: This is trickle down.

A description of how things work from The New York Times:

After being laid off from a job as a quality control supervisor at a department store warehouse and losing his house, he moved his family across the state to live with his mother. Unable to find similar work, he initially took a “soul-sucking” temporary job on an assembly line making auto parts, and is now working in a kitchen at a high school.

His hourly wage has fallen from $15 an hour at the warehouse to $10.50 an hour washing dishes and preparing food, and he has gone from having health insurance coverage for his whole family to no benefits. He, his pregnant wife and their 4-year-old son are now on Medicaid.

Naturally, if Ronny had had his way, there would be no Medicaid either.

Note: If you rob the bank, you will go to jail. If the bank robs you, the banker will receive a bailout from the government and a bonus.

2010-12-28T14:06:00.002-05:00

$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.)

2010-12-21T21:23:00.003-05:00

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.)

2010-12-17T13:52:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-12-17T01:55:00.004-05:00

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.)

2010-12-15T18:25:00.003-05:00

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.)

2010-12-14T00:36:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-12-07T12:33:00.003-05:00

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.

2010-12-01T18:40:00.002-05:00

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.