Republi-CONs Con the Tea Party, Cont.

UPDATE IV: Those Republi-con budget cuts were all smoke and mirrors, and slick accounting gimmickry (a gimmick is a "device employed to cheat, deceive, or trick"). Read the Washington Post, Budget deal: CBO analysis shows initial spending cuts less than expected, which begins:

"A federal budget compromise that was hailed as historic for proposing to cut about $38 billion would reduce federal spending by only $352 million this fiscal year, less than 1 percent of the bill’s advertised amount, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

UPDATE III: "Without more revenue, there is no hope of tackling the federal budget deficit." Read The New York Times, Budget Battles: Tax and Spending Myths and Realities, which begins by noting that the "House Republicans’ budget plan . . . [would] cut spending on government programs over the next decade by $4.3 trillion . . . [but also] cut tax revenues over the same period by $4.2 trillion."


UPDATE II: For more 'pretending' about the deficits icing on the Republi-con balanced budget cake, note that even the Republi-con hyped 'Ryan budget' would be unconstitutional under the Republi-con proposed Balanced Budget Amendment. Read the Washington Post, The Balanced Budget Amendment vs. the Ryan budget.

Time to call the Republi-con bluff!


UPDATE: Want more proof that the Republi-cons are just 'pretending' about deficits and balancing the budget. Even Paul "Ryan’s Roadmap — a draconian but detailed plan to partially privatize Social Security, voucherize Medicare, block grant Medicaid, and eliminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program — would not meet the 18% of GDP spending cap for more than half a century. " Read the Washington Post, The Worst Idea in Washington, part IV.

The latest Republi-con con, a Balanced Budget Amendment. "It’s so unrealistic that it would’ve ruled all but two of the last 30 years unconstitutional, which means it’s so unrealistic that there has not yet been a Republican president who has proven it can be done. And that doesn’t just suggest it can’t be done: It suggests that when Republicans are actually in power and have control of the budget, they know perfectly well that it shouldn’t be done. They’re just pretending otherwise for the moment." Read the Washington Post, The worst idea in Washington.

The Republi-CON Double Dip Recession, Not a New Ice Cream, But It'll Make You Scream

UPDATE VII: "It is said that only a fool learns from his own mistakes, a wise man from the mistakes of others."

Read The New York Times, Pain of British Fiscal Cuts Could Inform U.S. Debate, which finds:

"A year into Britain’s controversial austerity plan, retail sales have had the sharpest monthly plunge in 15 years and real household income is expected to fall 2 percent this year."

UPDATE VI: "[S]lashing spending in the face of high unemployment is a mistake. Austerity advocates predicted that spending cuts would bring quick dividends in the form of rising confidence, and that there would be few, if any, adverse effects on growth and jobs; but they were wrong. . .

Which brings me back to what passes for budget debate in Washington these days.

A serious fiscal plan for America would address the long-run drivers of spending, above all health care costs, and it would almost certainly include some kind of tax increase. But we’re not serious: any talk of using Medicare funds effectively is met with shrieks of “death panels,” and the official G.O.P. position — barely challenged by Democrats — appears to be that nobody should ever pay higher taxes. Instead, all the talk is about short-run spending cuts.

In short, we have a political climate in which self-styled deficit hawks want to punish the unemployed even as they oppose any action that would address our long-run budget problems. And here’s what we know from experience abroad: The confidence fairy won’t save us from the consequences of our folly. "

Read The New York Times, The Austerity Delusion.


UPDATE V: What if "fiscal issues are just an excuse for ideologically driven policies to lower taxes on well-off people and business while reducing government programs." Read the Washington Post, What if we’re not broke?


UPDATE IV: Higher oil prices and "the GOP’s willingness to shut down the government or default on the debt if Democrats don’t sign onto harsh spending cuts that will reduce growth and employment through the rest of 2011." The Republi-con formula for a double dip recession. Read the Washington Post, Will we kill the recovery?

And is it part of the Republi-con 2012 election strategy?


UPDATE III: "It really is worth repeating: no matter how much the right-wingers may like to claim that the US government is “broke”, it’s not, in any normal sense of the term." Read The New York Times, Unbroke America.


UPDATE II: More on that planned Republi-con double dip recession.

"Though we finally seem to be climbing out of a very deep hole, many people on the political right want to send us sliding right back down again." Read The New York Times, How to Kill a Recovery.

And an "[i]ndependent economic analysts, including from the investment firm Goldman Sachs - hardly known for liberal or bleeding-heart tendencies - have concluded that the $61 billion in current-year budget cuts being demanded by House Republicans will shave up to two percentage points off the nation's growth rate and cause the loss of more than half a million jobs." Read Moody's Analytics, A Federal Shutdown Could Derail the Recovery.


UPDATE: "A Republican plan to sharply cut federal spending this year would destroy 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to an independent economic analysis." Read the Washington Post, GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says.

"[N]o matter how morally satisfying austerity may be, it’s the wrong answer. Hoover’s austere instincts worsened the Depression. Roosevelt’s postelection reversal helped, but he also prolonged the Depression by raising taxes and cutting spending in 1937. Only the giant stimulus program known as World War II finally ended the Depression. When the private sector is hesitant to spend, the government has to — or no one will."Read The New York Times, Why Budget Cuts Don’t Bring Prosperity, which includes this informative graph:



And if you forgotten, read about "The Great British austerity experiment," which will result in years of "unnecessarily slower growth and higher unemployment."

"The takeaway lesson should be 'austerity does not work; don't go there.' Unfortunately, in the land of faith-based economics, evidence does not count for much. The UK may pursue a disastrous austerity path and those of us in the United States may still have to follow the same road anyhow. But we opponents of that course all appreciate the willingness of the UK to demonstrate the foolishness of this action."

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Thursdays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I was hosted off, for a good cause. I'll be back in May to deprogram you.

The Religious "Fear, Anger, and Hatred" Industry

Without theological rigidity "you don't need the church" and the big business of religion goes bust. Read Time, Is Hell Dead?

Can You Say Sucker

UPDATE XV: The latest:

"A voluminous report on the financial crisis by the United States Senate — citing internal documents and private communications of bank executives, regulators, credit ratings agencies and investors — describes business practices that were rife with conflicts during the mortgage mania and reckless activities that were ignored inside the banks and among their federal regulators.

The 650-page report, 'Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,' was released Wednesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, whose co-chairmen are Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and Tom Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma. The result of two years’ work, the report focuses on an array of institutions with central roles in the mortgage crisis: Washington Mutual, an aggressive mortgage lender that collapsed in 2008; the Office of Thrift Supervision, a regulator; the credit ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service; and the investment banks Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

'The report pulls back the curtain on shoddy, risky, deceptive practices on the part of a lot of major financial institutions,' Mr. Levin said in an interview. 'The overwhelming evidence is that those institutions deceived their clients and deceived the public, and they were aided and abetted by deferential regulators and credit ratings agencies who had conflicts of interest.'"

Read The New York Times, Naming Culprits in the Financial Crisis.


UPDATE XIV: As I've said for almost two years now, Goldman Sachs "played a central role in the creation and sale of risky mortgage securities. The report says that Goldman provided billions of dollars in loans to lenders. "Most went to subprime lenders," the report says, adding that Goldman bought $53 billion of subprime loans from these lenders and sold them to investors around the world.

At the same time, Goldman was involved in financial engineering that magnified the bust-allowing investors not only to invest in real mortgages but to speculate on whether other people's mortgages would go up or down. And the bank often bet against investments it created and sold to others. . .

Even as the financial system's problems intensified, the report says, Goldman beat down on one of the most at-risk firms, American International Group, because Goldman was on the line for $14 billion if AIG were to fail. And Goldman pushed AIG to pay it more money than the other banks that did business with AIG were asking for."

Read the Washington Post, Government blames both regulators and financial institutions for economic collapse.


UPDATE XIII: Not only did the taxpayers bailout Government Sacks and the other Banksters, they also got get out of jail free cards. Read The New York Times, In U.S. Bailout of A.I.G., Forgiveness for Big Banks.


UPDATE XII: Goldman Sachs is a criminal racket and should be prosecuted under RICO statutes. Read The New York Times, Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide, which describes how "[b]ets by some of the same banks that helped Greece shroud its mounting debts may actually now be pushing the nation closer to the brink of financial ruin."

BTW, RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, which I think pretty much describes Goldman Sachs.


UPDATE XI: For more on the Goldman skulduggery, read The New York Times, Testy Conflict With Goldman Helped Push A.I.G. to Edge.

You might also read The New York Times, Moving the Deck Chairs, which reviews a book with harsh words for the government's approach to the economic crisis -- “because of the choices that have already been made, not only will the downturn be far longer and deeper than necessary, but also we will emerge from the crisis with a much larger legacy of debt, with a financial system that is less competitive, less efficient and more vulnerable to another crisis. [Instead,] the government should have played by the rules of capitalism and forced a financial reorganization” — conservatorships or the like that would have put the burden of mismanagement and malfeasance on shareholders, managements and bondholders, not the taxpayers.”


UPDATE X: Time for prosecutions, and they should start with the three inseparable friends -- Geithner, Paulson, and Friedman -- who live by the motto "all for Government Sacks, and screw the taxpayers." Read The New York Times, Two at Fed Had Doubts Over Payout by A.I.G.


UPDATE IX: The Banksters had inside help. Read Bloomberg, Geithner’s Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure.

Honestly, does this surprise anyone?

There needs to be a thorough investigation.


UPDATE VIII: For another article chronicling how the Banksters made foobs of us all, read The New York Times, Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won.


UPDATE VII: In the AIG bailout, why did the government pay full face value for nearly worthless contracts? To save Government Sacks from huge losses.

Read The New York Times, Audit Faults New York Fed in A.I.G. Bailout and Reuters, Goldman Was Exposed to AIG Losses: Government Report.

Don't forget that Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. was the former CEO of Government Sacks (GS).

And during the bailouts, Stephen Friedman, who was chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, sat on the Board of Directors of GS, owned a lot of GS stock, and as a federal reserve official, helped GS receive speedy approval to become a bank holding company in September to qualify for a $10 billion capital injection soon after. Then, in December and January, he purchased more GS stock.


UPDATE VI: Thank god we saved Government Sacks and the other Banksters:



UPDATE V: Read The New York Times, Paulson’s Calls to Goldman Tested Ethics.

Paulson should be prosecuted for criminal conflict of interest and put in jail, and Goldman Sachs should be declared an instrumentality of and/or proceeds of a crime, and confiscated and sold off.


UPDATE IV: Sad but true:




UPDATE III: Can you say stupid sucker? Read The New York Times, Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts.

The article includes a nice graphic, Big Bank Bonuses, Despite Taxpayer Help, with a list of nine large banks that lost billions last year and received more than $165 billion from the government. These banks then paid over $32 billion in bonuses, with at least 4,793 employees receiving a bonus of at least $1 million.


UPDATE II: How do the Banksters make their money? They have an insider advantage to pick our pockets. Read The New York Times, Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds, the article includes a nice graphic showing how it is done one penny at a time.


UPDATE: "Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America." (From The New York Times, The Joys of Sachs.)

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Unemployment will likely continue to rise. Read the Washington Post, Obama: Unemployment likely to keep ticking up.

But thank God we saved Government Sachs, where the average salary is $600,000. Read The New York Times, For Goldman, a Swift Return to Lofty Profits.

Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. the former CEO of Goldman Sachs thanks you.

And Stephen Friedman, former chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who also sat on the Board of Directors of GS, owned a lot of GS stock, and as a federal reserve official, helped GS receive speedy approval to become a bank holding company in September and a $10 billion capital injection soon after, then in December and January purchased more GS stock, also wants to thank you.

In fact, all the Banksters want to thank you suckers, and ask that you please not read, The New York Times, Chutzpah on Steroids.

Once a foob, always a foob.

Those Fact-Free Republi-CONs

Some halarious examples of Republi-CON created reality:

And here is a follow-up to Kyl's "groundbreaking excuse-planation by tweeting round-the-clock non-facts":

The Everyman For Himself Budget

UPDATE II: "Once you stop listening to all the swooning and read the numbers, the Republican budget proposal looks like more voodoo economics." Read The New York Times, Ludicrous and Cruel.

And for an alternate view, read The New York Times, The Ryan Journey, which notes that "Ryan’s budget plan isn’t perfect, but it’s forcing Americans to confront the reality of their choices and engage in a serious debate."


UPDATE: As a former Bush chief speechwriter and senior policy advisor notes, "H.R. 1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying." Read the Washington Post, The real-world effects of budget cuts.

Was the Ryan budget proposal "built on heaping sacrifice onto the poor, slashing scholarship aid to college students and bestowing benefits on the rich?"



Hardly the self-interest "properly understood" philosophy that made the country great.

Palin Fatigue?

UPDATE II: More speculation that Palin "may have peaked, politically speaking." Read the Washington Post, Sarah Palin’s tipping point.


UPDATE: So long Palin: "The presidential ambitions once harbored by the former Alaska governor are all but dead, with even the Republican base rating her in polls as 'strongly unfavorable.' And if there's one thing to blame for her short-lived national political career, it's television. Read TheWeek.com, How TV created, then destroyed, Sarah Palin.

But not just yet: "Let [her and Gingrich] suffer the media attacks so that another Republican can emerge unscathed." Read Forbes, Why The GOP Needs Palin And Gingrich.

Is it time to cry uncle regarding Palin? First Mika:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mika Brzezinski Experiences Palin Fatigue
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Now I'm declaring February a Palin-free month. Join me! and This Is Not a Post About Sarah Palin.

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Thursdays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I was hosted off, for a good cause. Unfortunately, Mike tells me he's going to replay a show full of birther nonsense. He must be promoting Trump for President. Fortunately, Trump is doing his best to discredit himself. (Read the Washington Post, Trump’s disgusting, dangerous dance with birthers.)

I'll be back in May to deprogram you.

Bye-Bye Bonkers

UPDATE: Race baiting and fringe conspiracy have lost their political panache. Read the Washington Post, Why Glenn Beck lost it.

What will those Republi-cons do to inspire the base for the 2012 election?

Appropriately enough, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that it is official, Bonkers is gone from Hedgehog News.

It is The GlennPocalypse:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The GlennPocalypse
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

I especially like the complaints by other Hedgehog News anchors that Bonkers undermines their credibility.

Childish Insults While the Republic Burns

Why is Congress "threatening to shut down the U.S. government in a dispute over a tiny fraction of the federal budget?" Maybe it is because they are too busy insulting one another. Read the Washington Post, 27% of communication by members of Congress is taunting, professor concludes.

Why Is America Great?, Part VII, Self-Interest "Properly Understood"

"Alexis de Tocqueville once described what he saw as a chief part of the peculiar genius of American society—something he called 'self-interest properly understood.' The last two words were the key. Everyone possesses self-interest in a narrow sense: I want what’s good for me right now! Self-interest 'properly understood' is different. It means appreciating that paying attention to everyone else’s self-interest—in other words, the common welfare—is in fact a precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being. Tocqueville was not suggesting that there was anything noble or idealistic about this outlook—in fact, he was suggesting the opposite. It was a mark of American pragmatism. Those canny Americans understood a basic fact: looking out for the other guy isn’t just good for the soul—it’s good for business.

The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late."

Read Vanity Fair, Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.

Help WEBY Stay on the Air!

UPDATE: Final tally for the host off competition between yours-truly and the host-who-can-not-be-named: 465 votes for him, and 250 votes for me. Guess you'll heard from me next in May.

If you enjoy Dave and Mike in the morning, followed by Neal Boortz and Clark Howard, and the 'spirited discussion and debate' of the live, call-in show, Your Turn, every weekday afternoon, help WEBY stay on the air:

From all of the hosts, thank you!

The God of Republi-CONism Flip-Flops

Republi-cons were for the war in Libya, before they were against it, just ask Rusty. Read The Atlantic, For the War Before He Was Against It.

State Republi-Con Fiscal Conservative Hypocrisy, Cont.

UPDATE: In Wisconsin, Republi-con Gov. Scott Walker says that "the state is broke and public employees are overpaid." So what does he do, hire a 20-something year old with "no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions" as the Department of Commerce bureau director of board services, a job that paid $64,728 a year.

Next convert the Department of Commerce to a public-private hybrid and give the young man a pay raise of more than $16,500 a year after only a couple of months with the state.

But this was no 'ordinary' young man, he is the son of an important campaign donor.

Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, No degree, little experience pay off big.

"State employees haven't received a raise in more than four years, but most agency heads that Gov. Rick Scott has appointed are making $20,000 a year more than their predecessors . . .

Asked this week why he was paying most of his secretaries significantly more when state employees haven't been given a raise, Scott did not directly answer the question. Instead he said that state employees are "very hard working people."

'And they clearly are doing a great job for the citizens of our state,' Scott told reporters. 'And I want to make sure I do everything I can to make sure we get the best people and we pay them a fair wage.'"

Read the Florida Tribune, Scott gives agency heads a big bump in their pay.

Guess Who

Who can:

Start the day without caffeine,

Always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

Resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

Eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,

Understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

Take criticism and blame without resentment,

Conquer tension without medical help,

Relax without alcohol,

Sleep without the aid of drugs,

The Family Dog:

Bankruptcy by Demographics

UPDATE II: The U.S. government spends $40 billion to $50 billion each year on end-stage kidney disease. Read The New York Times, Asking Kidney Patients to Forgo a Free Lifeline, which highlights one case:

"One patient, a 78-year-old woman whose name is being withheld, was not a good candidate for dialysis, her doctors said. She has complications from diabetes, high blood pressure, a heart valve problem and severe coronary artery disease. Her medical problems were so grave that dialysis was likely to lead to a series of medical interventions — hospital stays, drugs and doctor visits — but would not necessarily prolong her life. And her doctors told her that.

But she insisted on dialysis, saying, 'Some life is better than no life.' In the seven months she has been on dialysis, she has been hospitalized four times, including twice for heart surgery.

'I go to dialysis because I want to live,' she said in a telephone interview. 'I want dialysis.'"

UPDATE: Medicare doesn't cover everything. So how much do you need to save? A lot. Read The New York Times, Getting Old Is Expensive.

Should old people just die younger and quicker? Read the Washington Post, A growth lesson from China, which predicts a pretty bleak future for the U.S.:

"This demographic destiny might entail starving every other sector of society -- including national defense, at great cost to America's international standing. It had better not, given what Fogel argues in another essay, this one in the current issue of Foreign Policy. It carries the headline "$123,000,000,000,000." Fogel's subheadline is: "China's estimated economy by the year 2040. Be warned."

He expects that by 2040 China's GDP will be $123 trillion, or three times the entire world's economic output in 2000. He says China's per capita income will be more than double what is forecast for the European Union. China's 40 percent share of global GDP will be almost triple that of the United States' 14 percent.

Fogel finds many reasons for this, including the increased productivity of the 700 million (55 percent) rural Chinese. But he especially stresses "the enormous investment China is making in education."

While China increasingly invests in its future, America increasingly invests in its past: the elderly. China's ascent to global economic hegemony could be slowed or derailed by unforeseen scarcities or social fissures. America's destiny is demographic, and therefore is inexorable and predictable, which makes the nation's fiscal mismanagement, by both parties, especially shocking."

Tell your kids to learn Chinese.

Thank God We Saved the Banksters, But Why?, Cont.

UPDATE: Where is the anger? Read Mother Jones, Wall Street and the Public, which notes:

"Years ago I remember a lot of moderate liberals talking about how the Bush era radicalized them. For me, it was the economic collapse of 2008 that did it. The financial industry almost literally came within a hair's breadth of destroying the world, but even so it took only a few short months for them to close ranks with Republicans and the rich to prevent anything serious being done to rein them in. Profits are back up, new regulations are barely more than window dressing, nothing was done to help underwater homeowners, bonuses are as obscene as ever, unemployment remains sky high, and the public has somehow been convinced that this was all their own fault — or perhaps the fault of big government, or big deficits, or something. But the finance industry has escaped almost entirely unscathed. It's mind boggling. If this doesn't change your view of who really runs the world, I don't know what would."

Once a foob, always a foob.

The legislation that created TARP, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, "prevented a meltdown of the financial system, but failed to meet the legislative goal of protecting home values." Read The New York Times, Where the Bailout Went Wrong.

Florida Republi-CONs Unmasked

From the Pensacola News Journal, Editorial: It's not a crime?:



The editorial is a worthy read.

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

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Help WEBY stay on the air!, if you enjoy Dave and Mike in the morning, followed by Neal Boortz and Clark Howard, and the 'spirited discussion and debate' of the live, call-in show, Your Turn, every weekday afternoon


Follow-up to fact-free fantasies: shame on our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators, continuing his campaign of fear, anger and hatred by hosting a professional purveyor of hate, rememnber last week it was the faux Florida Sharia law case (perhaps our resident Pastor-to-the-dictators never heard of the religious autonomy principle regarding church faith, doctrine, discipline, and governance);


Local and regional: why did the Sheriff picking a fight with federal judges?, $2.35 million for NCAA Division II football program at UWF, is it worth it?, state Republi-con fiscal conservative hypocrisy, Cont., state worker get the pink slips, the bosses get a $20,000 raise,


National and international: I'm waiting, where's the balanced budget, don't hold you breath because the Republi-CONs Con the Tea Party, there'll be no $100 billion budget cut, and let's admit the obvious, the Republi-CONs are not serious about deficits,

the Middle East mess and the hope for democracy, and a Facebook revolution?, why Libya, and what next, and Obama -- damned when he didn't, and damned when he did -- and why are Republi-CONs undermining U.S. military and foreign policy objectives, after year of incessant moral blackmail regarding Iraq, when the U.S. has the power to do something constructive, and Gaddafi is good reason to try it, he reaffirms my support for an openly debated and conducted assassination policy for rogue dictators,

after the devastation in Japan, you should support better, not just less, government,

57 days til the end of the world, again,

so many lies, so little time to 'refudiate', turns out the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, was complete nonsense from the very beginning, this after the most recent incident of partisan zealotry through highly selective editing of reality, but even Glenn Bonkers doesn't believe it,

union busting, part of the Republi-CON war on the middle class, but who said: "where collective bargaining is forbidden, freedom is lost",

thank God we saved the Banksters, but why?,

budget gamesmanship and tough decisions, and Congressional pension reform hypocrisy,

the Republi-CON Double Dip Recession, not a new ice cream, but it'll make you scream,

after Palin fatigue?, the Republi-con's latest celebrity candidate, he's a birther, it is clear that he hasn't even read the Congressional Research Service that would agree that Obama is a "natural born citizen," (the Congressional Research Service is a part of the Library of Congress, providing professional, objective and non-partisan public policy research to members of Congress and their staffers. The writer of the memorandum is a qualified constitutional attorney who has summarized the historical and legal material with references, showing, by contrast, how shoddy the birther arguments are) (this memorandum explains why even Republi-CON Congressmen/women refuse to join the Birthers), and he hasn't talked to Barbara Nelson, who "specifically remembers his birth" because she spoke with the obstetrician who delivered him shortly after his birth,

so you don't believe in global warming, then explain what happens to 35 gigatons of CO2 each year,

the health care industry bottomline, the reason Republi-con want to repeal the new health care law, the nation’s bloated annual health-care tab would swell by more than $4 billion" after a company raised the price of a medicine from $20 to $1,500 per dose,

and who pushing a health care policy his family stands to profit from immensely, and did you know, the Republi-CONs secretly support Obamacare,

Republi-con education merit pay hypocrisy, it is a fraud,

the benefits of a modern secular legal system, don't read your spouse's email, or record her conversations, you can kill a rat, but not a hamster, is it a crime to have a false persona,

you're so wonderful, not,

and 'The Great Stagnation' and our broken political system;


Fun stuff: why men are just happier people, read the witticisms!, Mission Impossible, Squirrel Edition, and Escapa;

and

Donate to a good cause: help the friends of a former instructor at the Naval EOD school at Eglin Air Force Base, Gunnery Sgt. John Hayes, who was detachment company gunnery sergeant from June 2007 to June 2010 and taught several courses and was recently wounded in Afghanistan.

I'll discuss anything, but expect a no mercy take down if you are a party hack pandering to fear, anger and hatred, because the truth sure makes it hard out there for the party pimps.

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth and some ass kickin' discussion of politics and current events.

Shame on Our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators

Today, our resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators and his so-called Christian Church will host a professional purveyor of hate.

This evil man makes a fine living (as part of the Fear, Anger, Hatred Industry) traveling around the country to speak to naive church groups, making false, biased, ridiculous, and laughable claims, and playing on Holocaust guilty to encourage a "one-sided foreign policy in favor of Israel and continued wars with Muslim countries."

Although his claim to be running for the Israeli Knesset is not false, he is considered a fringe candidate with no chance of election, like our local Rick Outzen for President.

Shame on Our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators for hosting this man.

The Middle East Mess and the Hope for Democracy

"Egypt is messy, and Islamists are gaining ground. But keep your seat. Young democracies are always chaotic." Read The New York Times, Democracy Is Mess.

So Many Lies, So Little Time to 'Refudiate', Cont.

"Yesterday, the Justice Department released the long-awaited results of its inquiry into its own handling of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, and the verdict is in: This whole tale has been complete nonsense from the very beginning." Read the Washington Post, Surprise! The right’s New Black Panther obsession turns out to be a joke. The article concludes:

"Of course, we should be under no illusion that the OPR’s findings will put an end to this false controversy. The most likely outcome is that the conservatives who have spent the last two years flogging this case will now go after OPR head Robin C. Ashton, accusing her of whitewashing the case. Even before the results of the OPR investigation were known, conservatives had already begun smearing her as a political hack.

For today’s conservatives, the absence of evidence of a conspiracy merely serves as more evidence of a conspiracy."

Republi-CON Education Merit Pay Hypocrisy

When Republi-cons pay principals and teachers to produce big gains on standardized school test scores, they get what they pay for, courtesy of "extraordinarily high numbers of erasures . . . [with t]he consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones." Read USA Today, When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?

Name That Fraud

"In the 1990s, he made his money off single-payer health-care programs by cheating them. Today, he’s making his money off single-payer health-care programs by running them."

How? By "pushing a policy his family stands to profit from immensely."

Who is the fraud? Read the Washington Post, Rick Scott’s extremely profitable policy proposal.

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6:00 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line.

Topics:

Follow-up to fact-free fantasies: complaints that Obama should go to Japan and the faux Florida Sharia law case (perhaps our resident Pastor-to-the-dictators never heard of the religious autonomy principle regarding church faith, doctrine, discipline, and governance);


Local and regional: why is the Sheriff picking a fight with federal judges?, $2.35 million for NCAA Division II football program at UWF, is it worth it?, school district lawsuit update, does anybody really care?, yet even more state Republi-CON fiscal conservative hypocrisy, after two years, a trial for Florida's former house speaker, will it lays bare a conspiracy to defraud taxpayers, ads on school buses in FL, what next, logos on sheriff's uniforms?, and remember days gone by, watch this 1964 Pensacola tourism film;


National and international: I'm waiting, where's the balanced budget, don't hold you breath because the Republi-CONs Con the Tea Party, there'll be no $100 billion budget cut, and let's admit the obvious, the Republi-CONs are not serious about deficits,

the Social Security trust fund lie,

a Facebook revolution?, did it take an ominous turn last week when Saudi Arabia invaded Bahrain, why Libya, and what next, and Obama -- damned when he didn't, and damned when he did -- and why are Republi-CONs undermining U.S. military and foreign policy objectives, after year of incessant moral blackmail regarding Iraq, when the U.S. has the power to do something constructive, and Gaddafi is good reason to try it, he reaffirms my support for an openly debated and conducted assassination policy for rogue dictators,

after the devastation in Japan, you should support better, not just less, government,

free speech, is it all or nothing?, or should there be limits on hate speech like our very on pastor-in-residence to the dictators, 57 days til the end of the world, again,

union busting, part of the Republi-CON war on the middle class, but who said: "where collective bargaining is forbidden, freedom is lost",

budget gamesmanship and tough decisions, and Congressional pension reform hypocrisy,

the Republi-CON Double Dip Recession, not a new ice cream, but it'll make you scream,

more partisan zealotry through highly selective editing of reality, but even Glenn Bonkers doesn't believe it, so many lies, so little time to 'refudiate', this time it the EPA and milk,

new score in the health care lawsuit: US 3 - VA 1 and FL, and Obama can continue the reform effort , and did you know, the Republi-CONs secretly support Obamacare,

the benefits of a modern secular legal system, don't read your spouse's email, or record her conversations, you can kill a rat, but not a hamster, is it a crime to have a false persona,

you're so wonderful, not,

and 'The Great Stagnation' and our broken political system;


Fun stuff: why men are just happier people, read the witticisms!, Mission Impossible, Squirrel Edition, and Escapa;

and

Donate to a good cause: help the friends of a former instructor at the Naval EOD school at Eglin Air Force Base, Gunnery Sgt. John Hayes, who was detachment company gunnery sergeant from June 2007 to June 2010 and taught several courses and was recently wounded in Afghanistan.

I'll discuss anything, but expect a no mercy take down if you are a party hack pandering to fear, anger and hatred, because the truth sure makes it hard out there for the party pimps.

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth and some ass kickin' discussion of politics and current events.

And Yet Even More State Republi-CON Fiscal Conservative Hypocrisy

UPDATE II: After being admonished for omissions on his "Constitutionally mandated" ethics disclosure forms, Haridopolos "has put the kibosh on a fellow Republican’s ethics bill — the same bill Haridopolos himself had co-sponsored last year." Read The Miami Herald, Why did Senate President Mike Haridopolos’ office stall ethics legislation?


UPDATE: Now Florida's new Senate president has been admonished for errors on his financial disclosure forms. He "left out key information from 2004 through 2008 in required financial-disclosure forms — such as a $400,000 investment home in Mount Dora and the names of two clients who paid him more than $120,000 over the five years." Rea the Pensacola News Journal, Florida Senate admonishes Haridopolos.

"Florida's new Senate president, who wants the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate next year, got $152,000 from a coastal community college to write a book on politics. . . The 175-page, double-spaced manuscript [didn't] come close to meeting the original contract's call for a publishable, textbook-quality look at the development of the Florida Legislature, state constitution, the governor's office and judiciary from pre-statehood until present. "

It did, however, include this sage advise, "'a cell phone will be essential' for the would-be candidate, and 'a computer with an Internet connection is equally important.'"

Read the Washington Post, Fla. politician's deal: 1 book, 1 copy, $152K.

He should relate well to Florida Gov. Rick 'Fifth Amendment' Scott, who "resigned under a cloud as CEO of Columbia/HCA, the world's largest hospital corporation, when it was busted for massive [$1.7 billion] Medicare fraud."

Men Are Just Happier People

From an email:

Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station toilet because this one is just too icky.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress $5000. Wedding Suit rental-$100.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a five-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You never have strap problems in public.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays its original color.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

The Republi-CONs Secretly Support Obamacare

UPDATE II: According to "MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, the man more responsible for helping Mitt Romney create Romneycare than anyone else . . . without Romneycare’s embrace of the individual mandate — which is now despised by conservatives — Obamacare would never have happened." He also says that "Romney was an aggressive champion of the individual mandate." Read the Washington Post, Former Romney adviser: Without Romneycare, Obamacare would never have happened.


UPDATE: "A few years ago, [the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) was the Republi-con healthcare plan] — but it was called RomneyCare, or the Dole-Chafee bill. Then Democrats adopted their plan, and rather than view that as a victory for the conservative movement, Republicans abandoned it. Now their plan is either nothing at all or some variation of the Affordable Care Act that differs in ways they have trouble explaining." Read the Washington Post, The conservative case for the Affordable Care Act, Part II.

You don't need to travel to an alternate universe to find a Republi-con plan to reform a government health care program into ObamaCare. It is happening today, in Washington, D.C. Read the Washington Post, ‘Even if he agreed with me, he couldn’t say so’.

The Social Security Trust Fund Lie

Those Social Security trust fund "IOUs 'do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits' . . . [and] pay off seniors for the next 26 years. . .

That money is gone with the wind. Those trust fund trinkets are nothing more than a record of past borrowings. They say nothing about the future."

Read the Washington Post, It’s still an empty lockbox.

More Partisan Zealotry Through Highly Selective Editing of Reality

UPDATE: "James O’Keefe’s guerrilla video attack on NPR [had] . . . all the hallmarks of a hit piece. . .

O’Keefe did not merely leave a false impression; he manufactured an elaborate, alluring lie. . .

The result is more than a race to the murky journalistic bottom. It is the triumph of a thoroughly postmodern view of politics: Power means everything. Truth means little. Ethical standards are for the weak and compromised. Influence is gained, not by persuasion, but by deception and ruthlessness.

This escalation is really a descent. "

Read the Washington Post, The NPR video and political dirty tricks.

Another deceptively edited tape, causing a faux Republi-con firestorm. Read TheBlaze (Glenn Beck's website), Does Raw Video of NPR Expose Reveal Questionable Editing & Tactics?, which concluded that while "undercover reporting is acceptable and ethical in very defined situations, it is another thing to approve of editing tactics that seem designed to intentionally lie or mislead about the material being presented."

Budget Gamesmanship and Tough Decisions

UPDATE VI: Something else to cut, undeserved combat pay. Read the Washington Post, I didn’t deserve my combat pay.


UPDATE V: Another tough decision after years of irresponsible budget decisions. Read the Washington Post, Tricare target of Pentagon cuts as health care projected to reach $65B.


UPDATE IV: "Public media fear budget may pull plug" Read the Pensacola News Journal, Public broadcast cuts catch static.


UPDATE III: As noted before, "we should discuss some of the difficult decisions that will have to be made to balance the budget, with a case study of WUWF, focusing on the general expenses (I'm trying to get a copy of the station's $1.135 million budget), funding sources, and Public Radio's campaign to prevent cuts to government funding."

Well, I got a copy of WUWF's 2010 Audited Financial Statements. The total WUWF budget is $2 million.

I noticed that "Cash paid to Employees" (page 9) is approximately $730,000. To understand that number, I asked the station manager how many full-time paid employees work at WUWF. Also, what part of that budget item is attributable to his position. His reply:

"WUWF radio has 12 full-time employees. Of that, 3 positions are funded by federal or state grants. 7 positions are funded by the university (including mine). The remaining 2 positions are funded by the UWF Foundation. $55,334 of the salary budget is attributable to my position, representing 50% of my compensation. The other 50% is paid from our television operation, which I also oversee. The television operation has 3 positions (in addition to mine), funded partially by the university and partially from earned revenue. It receives no federal or state grants."

We can discuss on the next show.


UPDATE II: "We’re going to be doing a lot of deficit cutting over the next several years. The country’s future greatness will be shaped by whether we cut wisely or stupidly. So we should probably come up with a few sensible principles to guide us as we cut.

The first one, as I tried to argue last week, is: Make Everybody Hurt. The sacrifice should be spread widely and fairly. A second austerity principle is this: Trim from the old to invest in the young. We should adjust pension promises and reduce the amount of money spent on health care during the last months of life so we can preserve programs for those who are growing and learning the most. . .

[Third, n]ever cut without an evaluation process. Before legislators and governors chop a section of the budget, they should make a list of all the relevant programs. They should grade each option and then start paying for them from the top down."

Read The New York Times, The New Normal.


UPDATE: "Governing is not a 'hostile corporate takeover,' Morgan tells Gov." Read the Pensacola News Journal, Sheriff Morgan gets frank with Gov. Scott.

The article includes a link to the letter.

Imagine a politician who takes a logical approach to budget decisions by "recommend[ing] that the governor compile a list of agencies and tasks performed, then delineate 'want vs. need,'" instead of focusing on political gamesmanship. Read Rick's Blog, Sheriff Morgan questions Scott’s budget.

Time to Call the Bluff of Republi-CON Budget Hypocrites

On the budget, "Boehner is in a pickle. If he moves to the right on the continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government, he loses the Senate. If he moves to the left, he loses his own Republicans. And if he just stands there, the government gets shut down -- and polls suggest the public will blame Boehner and the Republicans." Read the Washington Post, John Boehner’s problem — and ours.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Maxine

Class Today at McNoBullU on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6:00 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line.

Topics:

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Maxine


Follow-up to fact-free fantasies: TBD;


Local and regional: our very own Sunshine advocate, and more disclosures about Florida's new Senate president, and after two years, a trial for Florida's former house speaker, will it lays bare a conspiracy to defraud taxpayers, and remember days gone by, watch this 1964 Pensacola tourism film;


National and international: I'm waiting, where's the balanced budget, don't hold you breath because the Republi-CONs Con the Tea Party, there'll be no $100 billion budget cut, but the budget battles continue, is the problem that there are too many old people?,

after the devastation in Japan, you should support better, not just less, government

free speech, is it all or nothing?, or should there be limits on hate speech like our very on pastor-in-residence to the dictators, 64 days til the end of the world, again

union busting, part of the Republi-CON war on the middle class, but who said: “where collective bargaining is forbidden, freedom is lost”

budget gamesmanship and tough decisions, and Congressional pension reform hypocrisy

the Republi-CON Double Dip Recession, not a new ice cream, but it'll make you scream,

and they're off and running, reports are that former speaker of the House Gingrich will become the first major Republican candidate to enter the 2012 Presidential race, and he start the campaign by explaining his patriotic affair(s), but he's number four, how do the others rate,

more partisan zealotry through highly selective editing of reality, but even Glenn Bonkers doesn't believe it, so many lies, so little time to 'refudiate', this time it the EPA and milk

BE AFRAID!, says the terrorist group support, now Republi-con the Congressman

a Facebook revolution?, did it take an ominous turn this week when Saudi Arabia invaded Bahrain, America's addiction to oil, and support of Middle East dictators

new score in the health care lawsuit: US 3 - VA 1 and FL, and Obama can continue the reform effort , and did you know, the Republi-CONs secretly support Obamacare

the benefits of a modern secular legal system, don't read your spouse's email, or record her conversations, you can kill a rat, but not a hamster, is it a crime to have a false persona,

no class like this at my school,

you're so wonderful, not

and 'The Great Stagnation' and our broken political system;


Fun stuff: test your power of observation, quiz for the know-it-all, what Dads do when Moms are not home, read the witticisms!, America's Funniest Grandmother and Mission Impossible, Squirrel Edition, Escapa;

and

Donate to a good cause: help the friends of a former instructor at the Naval EOD school at Eglin Air Force Base, Gunnery Sgt. John Hayes, who was detachment company gunnery sergeant from June 2007 to June 2010 and taught several courses and was recently wounded in Afghanistan.

I'll discuss anything, but expect a no mercy take down if you are a party hack pandering to fear, anger and hatred, because the truth sure makes it hard out there for the party pimps.

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth and some ass kickin' discussion of politics and current events.

You Can Kill a Rat, But Not a Hamster

"Why do we protect pets more than farm animals?" Read The New York Times, Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.

Congressional Pension Reform Hypocrisy

Despite the call to cut the pensions of government workers, "members of Congress, regardless of party, aren’t saying much about their own retirement plans, which are much more generous than those held by most Americans." Read the Washington Post, Congressional pensions fall on high end of scale.

And They're Off!

UPDATE III: From the Washington Post, Rating the Republican primary field:




UPDATE II: And let's not forget the "governor of New Jersey[, whose] videos are a sensation, fueling buzz about a national candidacy." Read The New York Times, Christie’s Message Gets Wide Audience on YouTube.


UPDATE: For the next celebrity contestant in Who Wants to be the President, read USA Today, Donald Trump considers taking on Palin in presidential bid.

Next up, Mickey Mouse.

It's still early, but it's past candidates Romney, Huckabee and Gingrich down the back stretch, with newcomers Pawlenty and Thune close behind, many others dreaming of Air Force One, and Palin on everybody's mind. For the current odds on the prospective Republican presidential candidate, read The New York Times, 2012 Contenders to Bet Against.

Florida Republi-CONs, and Their Corrupt Relationship With Their Corporate Overlords

You remember former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom -- over 2½ years, a 25-year-old junior Sansom staffer, who was given a party American Express card, spent nearly $1.3 million. Thousands were spent "on jewelry, sporting goods and in one case $15,000 for what's listed as a monthlong stay at a posh Miami Beach hotel." The Florida Republi-cons spent "$650,000 in lodging, $60,000 in airfare — mostly commercial airlines — and $66,000 for charter planes."

Now, more than two years after first calling for his prosecution, the show will soon begin. Read the St. Petersburg Times, Corrupt capital culture exposed from the inside, which notes that "[s]ome in Tallahassee, inured to the capital's corrupt culture, have defended Sansom and argue that he has paid a price for doing nothing more than what many other lawmakers do to help their districts and benefactors. But . . . testimony now lays bare a conspiracy to defraud taxpayers."

I remind you that Florida government is dominated by those waskly Republi-cons.

Witticisms!

From an email. The first and last two regard Congress:

It 's not whether you win or lose, but how you place the blame.

You are not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.

We have enough youth. How about a fountain of "smart"?

The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.

A fool and his money can throw one heck of a party.

When blondes have more fun do they know it?

Five days a week my body is a temple. The other two it's an amusement park.

Learn from your parents' mistakes, use birth control.

Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps the kids in touch.

Don't drink and drive, you might hit a bump and spill something.

If at first you don't succeed skydiving is not for you..

Reality is only an illusion that occurs due to a lack of alcohol.

Time's fun when you're having flies. --Kermit the Frog

We are born naked, wet and hungry. Then things get worse.

Red meat is not bad for you Fuzzy green meat is bad for you.

Ninety-nine percent of all lawyers give the rest a bad name..

One good thing about Alzheimer's is you get to meet new people every day.

Xerox and Wurlitzer will merge to produce reproductive organs.

Alabama state motto: At least we're not Mississippi

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

The latest survey shows that three out of four people make up 75% of the population

You know why a banana is like a politician? When he first comes in he is green, then he turns yellow and then he's rotten.

I think Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we can identify their corporate sponsors.

So Many Lies, So Little Time to 'Refudiate'

The latest Republi-con lie: "Assertions by Republican lawmakers and in the press that dairy farmers will have to build containment facilities are 'fictions,' the E.P.A. chief says." Read The New York Times, Spilled Milk Regulations a Myth, E.P.A. Says.

A School Teacher, Tea Party Member and CEO

First seen at Rick's Blog.biz:

A school teacher, Tea Party member and CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the Tea Party member and says, "Look out for that school teacher, she wants a piece of your cookie."

Patriotic Affair(s)

UPDATE: "Thanks to Newt Gingrich, we have learned of the link between patriotism and adultery." Read The New York Times, Eye of the Newt.

Gingrich explains the reason for his marital affair(s), giving new meaning the phrase 'in service to our country.' Read the Washington Post, Newt Gingrich: 'Passion for the country' led to personal indiscretion.

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Thursdays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I can't make it today. I'll be back next week to deprogram you.