'The Great Stagnation' and Our Broken Political System

UPDATE: "Today’s crisis was completely avoidable. You can blame it directly on the fools who brought our country to the brink of defaulting on its debts in the name of saving us from . . . I’m not sure what.

Yes, the tea party types bear primary responsibility — but they couldn’t have done it without the cowardice and incompetence of the Obama administration, which let things get way out of hand. This whole fiasco just enrages me. And it ought to enrage anyone who wants the United States to act like a real country rather than some third-rate failed state run by fanatical factions that hate one another."

Read the Washington Post, This time, the economic crisis is no one’s fault but the government’s.

As society tries to adjusts to a new economic reality, "the most debated nonfiction book so far this year," "The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History,Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better," offers a frank evaluation of the situation, and hope for the future:

"America is in disarray and our economy is failing us. We have been through the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, unemployment remains stubbornly high, and talk of a double-dip recession persists. Americans are not pulling the world economy out of its sluggish state -- if anything we are looking to Asia to drive a recovery. Median wages have risen only slowly since the 1970s, and this multi-decade stagnation is not yet over. By contrast, the living standards of earlier generations would double every few decades. The Democratic Party seeks to expand government spending even when the middle class feels squeezed, the public sector doesn’t always perform well, and we have no good plan for paying for forthcoming entitlement spending. To the extent Republicans have a consistent platform, it consists of unrealistic claims about how tax cuts will raise revenue and stimulate economic growth. The Republicans, when they hold power, are often a bigger fiscal disaster than the Democrats. How did we get into this mess?Imagine a tropical island where the citrus and bananas hang from the trees. Low-hanging literal fruit -- you don’t even have to cook the stuff. In a figurative sense, the American economy has enjoyed lots of low-hanging fruit since at least the seventeenth century: free land; immigrant labor; and powerful new technologies. Yet during the last forty years, that low-hanging fruit started disappearing and we started pretending it was still there. We have failed to recognize that we are at a technological plateau and the trees are barer than we would like to think. That’s it. That is what has gone wrong. The problem won’t be solved overnight, but there are reasons to be optimistic. We simply have to recognize the underlying causes of our past prosperity—low hanging fruit—and how we will come upon more of it."

Also read several articles about the book, including:

The Washington Post, 'The Great Stagnation', which notes:

“The political system -- and even the economics profession -- tends to be most comfortable talking about the things it knows how to talk about. Immigration, education, health-care costs, tax policy, labor density and so on. The major contribution of Cowen's book is to focus our attention on an explanation for our economic woes -- or at least some of them -- that's not currently central to the debate, and that's somewhat difficult to talk about. I don't think the book has enough data to say definitively how central the declining pace of innovation is to our economy. But there's more than enough to suggest it's a real factor, and one we need to do a better job thinking about and discussing:

1. How do you accelerate the pace of innovation? . .

2. How do we make developing countries into advanced countries? . .

3. How do we get more value out of our health care and education dollars? . .

4. How do we improve our political system?”

And The New York Times, The Experience Economy, which asks

"What happens when wealth and living standards diverge?"

The book may also be relevant to the health care debate. Read the Washington Post, How penicillin fooled us, which states:

"The problem with medicine is that it's very hard to say no, and that means we often end up paying a lot for treatments that do us very little good, and that squeezes the resources available to sectors that could do us a lot of good but are easier to say no to."

Best Speeding Excuse Ever

When asked by a young patrol officer "Do You know you were speeding?" a 83-year-old woman gave the young officer an ear to ear smile and stated:

"Yes , but .... I had to get there before I forgot where I was going."

The officer put his ticket book away and bid her good day.

Makes perfectly good sense to me.

My Mother's Wisdom

From an email:

1.. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE:
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION:
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL:
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC:
"Because I said so, that's why."

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC:
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT:
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7. My mother taught me IRONY:
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS:
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISTS:
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA:
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER:
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY:
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE:
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION:
"Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about ENVY:
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16.. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION:
"Just wait until we get home."

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING:
"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE:
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP:
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOR:
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT:
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS:
"You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS:
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM:
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."

And my favorite:
25. My mother taught me about JUSTICE:
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!!

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:

Local Business Shout-Out: TBD


Follow-up: TBD


Fact-free fantasies: my so-called 'obsession' with the shrieking hatemonger of right-wing rhetoric and partisan hackery, pandering to fear, anger and hatred,

don't be duped by the Birthers, including our very own Pastor Dred Scott (you may remember the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which asserted that African Americans were "beings of an inferior order" who "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." That ruling declared that African Americans could never be U.S. citizens and therefore could never be President), and

Church support for slavery and opposition to civil rights (4 major American Churches split over the issue of slavery, forming northern and southern factions, including:

The Methodist Church: In 1861, the North Carolina Christian Advocate wrote of "the demon spirit of abolitionism" and how Southern Methodists had "tested it fully, and found it to be heartless, inhuman and Christless." Although the two factions reunited in 1939 as the Methodist Church, they retained racial segregation.

The country's Presbyterian Church also split into two.

The Baptist Church: The Southern Baptists are the largest and most reactionary christian denomination in the USA. They split away from the Baptists in 1845 over slavery, because they thought that slavery was okay. After the civil war, some Southern Baptists founded the Ku Klux Klan. In the 1960s, the Southern Baptists supported segregation laws and opposed the black civil rights movement. In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention issued an apology to all African-Americans and asked for their forgiveness.)

Local and regional: Go Argonauts!, Republi-CON Jeff Miller, R-Hypocrite-ville, Republi-CON Health Care Hypocrisy;


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, and who's responsible for the debt

The debt ceiling deal farce

The civil war continues: Republi-CON establishment v. Republi-CON rage

The Republi-CON's economic no recovery plan: destroy jobs and pay workers less

Be Very Very Afraid of 'The Invisible [Republi-CON] Bond Vigilantes'

Republi-CON Want to Crucify the Middle Class 'Upon a Cross of Gold', Part of the Republi-CON War on the Middle Class

The Republi-CON stimulus myth

How About a Fake Alien Invasion Stimulus

Let's play the Republi-CON game of 'spot the contradiction', can you explain the Republi-CON contradiction as regards the economy, the debt ceiling, or deficits, or national security, or health care costs, or or even jobs

The myth of expansionary austerity

Beware federal pensioners, your day of reckoning is coming

Government Profiteering

The Great Stagnation' and our broken political system;


150 years later


And the Republi-CON Race is On,

Still Searching for the Ideal Republican Candidate: Conservative, Interested, Electable

President Sexpot?

More premarital sex and another shotgun wedding for the Palin clan

Obama the One Term President, hell hath no fury like a liberal chumped again


A great write up on the bin Laden raid


1 to 1 in the COA, health care lawsuit update

The health care industry bottomline, the reason Republi-CON want to repeal the new health care law


Believe it or not: DUI/DWI at the demolition derby

CSI dog poop,

Who you callin a Neanderthal

Giving new meaning to navel gazing,

Another Republi-CON myth buster, no the government isn't banning incandescent light bulbs

and

Big brother is watching you,


Fun stuff: a new test, are you Smart or Stoopid!

That's How the Fight Started

No kidding, an 'amazing' ad campaign featuring vaginal puppeteering

Doo Wop test

Twelve things that a motorcycle can teach, and cute little cats in 'It Could Be Worse';

and

Donate to a good cause: read "the story of a 9-year-old girl who teaches us adults about maturity truly renews our faith in humanity" at The New York Times, Rachel’s Last Fund-Raiser.

I'll discuss anything, but expect a no mercy take down if you are a shrieking hatemonger of right-wing rhetoric and partisan hackery, 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.

How About a Fake Alien Invasion Stimulus

"[Y]ou know what would end the economic slump in 18 months? Aliens." Read Time, Paul Krugman: An Alien Invasion Could Fix the Economy:

"While talking off the cuff on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS program (Zakaria is also a TIME Magazine contributor), Krugman conjectured about what would happen if aliens landed on earth and attacked us.

'If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,' Krugman says, referencing an episode of The Twilight Show in which an alien threat was manufactured to bring about world peace."

Actually, it was "an episode of similar 1960s sci-fi series The Outer Limits, titled 'The Architects of Fear.'" [Link added.] Read Comic Alliance, Economist Paul Krugman Endorses 'Watchmen' Alien Invasion Plan for Fiscal Recovery, where "[y]ou can watch the full Outer Limits episode 'The Architects of Fear' now, via MGM Digital on Youtube."

The "[l]essons from WWII, [are] wasted on some people." Read The New York Times, Oh! What A Lovely War!

Black Guy With Muslim-Sounding Name Plays Along With Birthers to Distract His Political Opponents and the Press, and Gets the Country’s Number Foe

UPDATE IV: "What happened that night in Abbottabad." Read The New Yorker, Getting Bin Laden.


UPDATE III: "The adult sons of Osama bin Laden have lashed out at President Obama over their father’s death, accusing the United States of violating legal principles." Read The New York Times, Bin Laden Sons Say U.S. Violated International Law "by killing an unarmed man, shooting his family members and disposing of his body in the sea"

UPDATE II: The black guy with Muslim-sounding pulled "off an execution of the execrable Osama that would make Mario Puzo proud, with plenty of room for a sequel." Read The New York Times, Cool Hand Barack.


UPDATE: It is a small, small world, communications-wise.

Did you know that "one of the most important, secretive, tightly managed covert operation in U.S history — and it was on tweeted in real time"? Read the Washington Post, Sohaib Athar’s Tweets from the attack on Osama bin Laden.

After years of claims that he is "weak, indecisive and insufficently committed to defending America," and despite a relentless smear campaign, "Obama made the long-awaited decision to launch a ground operation in Pakistan in pursuit of bin Laden." Read the Washington Post, Bin Laden killing caps extraordinary week for Obama.

Rumor has it that Trump is saying bin Laden was not really dead because the long form death certificate has not been released.

Government Profiteering

Washington D.C. residents "now enjoy the highest median household income of any metropolitan area in the country, and five of the top 10 jurisdictions in America — Loudoun, Howard and Fairfax counties, and Falls Church and Fairfax City." Read the Washington Post, Government dollars fuel wealth: D.C. enclaves reap rewards of contracting boom.

Time to reform Washington.

That's How the Fight Started

From an email:

One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas gift.
The next year, I didn't buy her a gift.
When she asked me why, I replied, "Well, you still haven't used the gift I bought you last year!"
And that's how the fight started.


My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed.
I turned to her and said, "Do you want to have Sex?"
"No," she answered. I then said, "Is that your final answer?"
She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, "Yes."
So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."
And that's how the fight started.


I took my wife to a restaurant.
The waiter, for some reason, took my order first. "I'll have the rump steak, rare, please."
He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?"
"Nah, she can order for herself."
And that's how the fight started.


My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.
I asked her, "Do you know him?"
"Yes", she sighed,
"He's my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn't been sober since."
"My God!" I said, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?"
And that's how the fight started.


When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer. Always something more important to me.
Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.
When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.
I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, "When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."
And that's how the fight started.


My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
She asked, "What's on TV?"
I said, "Dust."
And that's how the fight started.


Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day.
I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife's back; now with a different anticipation, and whispered, "The weather out there is terrible."
My loving wife of 5 years replied, "And, can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?"
And that's how the fight started.


My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds."
I bought her a bathroom scale.
And that's how the fight started.


After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security.
The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age.
I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.
The woman said, "Unbutton your shirt."
So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.
She said, "That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me" and she processed my Social Security application.
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, "You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability too."
And that's how the fight started.


My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.
She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
"I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment."
I replied, "Your eyesight's darn near perfect."
And that's how the fight started.


I rear-ended a car this morning.the start of a REALLY bad day!
The driver got out of the other car, and he was a DWARF!!
He looked up at me and said 'I am NOT Happy!'
So I said, 'Well, which one ARE you then?'
And that's how the fight started.

Republi-CON Health Care Hypocrisy

"Gov. Rick Scott, a critic of the federal health care overhaul, is paying less than $400 a year for [government-subsidized] health insurance for himself and his wife." Read the Pensacola News Journal, For Gov. Rick Scott, no Obamacare, no problem.

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.

Smart or Stoopid!

Take this short test and see how you compare to the average person. You only have 8 seconds to answer each question. You better be quick!

Republi-CON Immigration Hypocrisy

You've heard the claim that Americans won't do the jobs that corporations are force to hire immigrants to do.

But did you know that "a Tea Party favorite and president of the House Republicans’ freshman class . . . showed his true allegence to his corporate overlords by defending] a company in his district that discriminates against U.S. citizens in favor of Mexican migrant workers. Scott introduced the bill abolishing Legal Services exactly three days after it became public that Legal Services had won a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determination that Georgia’s Hamilton Growers 'engages in a pattern or practice of regularly denying work hours and assigning less favorable assignments to U.S. workers, in favor of H2-A guestworkers.' Hamilton also 'engages in a pattern or practice of discharging U.S. workers and replacing them with H-2A guestworkers,' the EEOC determined." Read the Washington Post, How Rep. Austin Scott betrayed his Tea Party roots, which noted:

"As one of the American plaintiffs put it: 'We worked hard at our jobs and really wanted the work, but Hamilton didn’t want Americans to work in their fields.' Americans, after all, would be more likely to know the laws and to complain if they’re being exploited.

Instead, Scott chose to side with a large employer of foreign migrants in his district — against his out-of-work constituents."

Health Warning

From an email:

To Help Balance the Federal Budget, Should the Blue Angels Be Cut?

"[T]he Blue Angels' budget is about $30 million." Read the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Could the Blue Angels be grounded -- forever?

Republi-CON Sexual Health Hypocrisy

Republi-cons oppose free birth control because they claim it "will wipe out the American race and instantly turn daughters into wanton harlots with insatiable sexual appetites."

Of course, Republi-cons support insurance paid "real, necessary medical expenses, like boner pills."

Watch The Colbert Report, Women's Health-Nazi Plan.

Priceless: A Republi-CON Candidate Caught Trying to Con the Other RepubliCON Candidates

"Allegations arise that 80% of Newt Gingrich's Twitter followers aren't real, but making up people may be the key to keeping his campaign alive." Watch The Colbert Report, Newt Gingrich's Twitter Scandal:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Israel Should Make Peace With the Palestinians ASAP

UPDATE II: "Welcome to the Arab Spring, Arab-Israeli chapter. Commentators sometimes talked as if the Facebook revolutionaries had forgotten about the Palestinian issue. Not so: The 'dignity revolution' is connecting, as in last week’s frightening riot at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, with the ever-flowing font of Arab shame and rage toward the Jewish state. Bidding for regional leadership is Erdogan, who thundered Monday, 'Israel cannot play with our dignity.' . .

When you strip away the posturing on all sides, what’s happening is that Israel now lives in an Arab neighborhood where public opinion matters. For decades, Israelis have dismissed the 'Arab street,' as if presidents and kings were the only decisive voices. That approach worked so long as dictators could suppress popular opinion, but no more. . .

[The] bottom line on the collision of the new Arab Spring and the old animosities: Israelis may ultimately be more secure in a world of Arab democracies. But it will be a world where compromise is part of survival."

Read the Washington Post, Israel’s new problem with the Arab Street.


UPDATE: "If you think Congress is obstructionist on the debt ceiling, look at the Middle East. But there’s hope." Read The New York Times, Seeking Balance on the Mideast.

"The struggle today across the Arab world is between the 'I will make you afraid' leadership and the 'We are not afraid anymore' citizens." Read The New York Times, The New Hama Rules.

Union Busting, Part of the Republi-CON War on the Middle Class

UPDATE VII: "The decline in organized labor’s power and membership has played a larger role in fostering increased wage inequality in the United States than is generally thought, according to a new study." Read The New York Times, Labor’s Decline and Wage Inequality.


UPDATE VI: There wasn't always Republi-con distain for labor unions. in 1983, Ronald Reagan said: “where collective bargaining is forbidden, freedom is lost.” Watch the mythical Reagan says it himself:

The Daily Show - Moment of Zen - Ronald Reagan Supports Unions
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

UPDATE V: "Since the early 1980s, when General Electric's widely admired chief executive, Jack Welch, declared that the primary goal of the corporation was to increase shareholder value, America's corporate managers have been faithfully rewarded for treating their employees as necessary - or unnecessary - evils, to be shed whenever possible, or replaced by foreign or temporary workers, and most certainly not allowed to form unions or receive wage increases. Thirty years later, this form of shareholder capitalism has swept the field of nearly all opposition, with results - chiefly, the eclipse of the decent-paying job - that grow more glaring with each passing day." Read the Washington Post, Where's the economic recovery?


UPDATE IV: Stephen Colbert's proposal for two America's -- America Plus and Poor America. Funny, but unfortunately true:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - New Country for Old Men
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

UPDATE III: "In the raging battle over union rights in Wisconsin, those seeking to curtail collective bargaining for state employees have advanced an argument that seems hard to resist: It will make it easier to reward those workers who perform the best [as judged by a performance review]. What could be fairer than that? . .

Performance reviews are held up as objective assessments by the boss, with the assumption that the boss has all the answers.

Now, maybe your boss is all-knowing. But I’ve never seen one that was."

Read The New York Times, Why Your Boss Is Wrong About You.


UPDATE II: "Madison, Wis., is looking a lot like Baghdad in 2003, with government officials exploiting fiscal crises for fun and profit" to benefit our corporate overlords. Read The New York Times, Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.

The real objective -- "reward the G.O.P.’s wealthiest patrons by crippling what remains of organized labor, by wrecking the government agencies charged with regulating and policing corporations, and, as always, by rewarding the wealthiest with more tax breaks." Read The New York Times, Why Wouldn’t the Tea Party Shut It Down?


UPDATE: Wisconsin Gov. Walker has been caught "eagerly recounting his efforts to crush collective bargaining in Wisconsin to an out-of-state billionaire backer," who supported his election and has current (rules on pipeline transport) and possible future (no-bid sell-off of any state-owned heating, cooling, or power plants) business interest in the state. Read The Business Insider, Why A Reporter's Prank Call To David Koch Is No Laughing Matter.

Here is Jon Stewart's take:

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

"Republican talk of balancing budgets is cover for the real purpose of gutting the political force of middle-class state workers." Read The New York Times, Spreading Anti-Union Agenda.

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:

Local Business Shout-Out: Holy Smoke LLC, 11532 Old Ganey Road, Stockton, Alabama, "Planning a loved ones final arrangements can be a challenging responsibility, one you want to do with care and consideration. Allow Holy Smoke to help you create a tribute to your outdoorsperson like no other."


Follow-up: for long-time listeners who remember this oldie but goodie, "a $1,000 five day vacation to a South Carribean island with private bungalo and food, fun, and surf provided could put their name on the list and be considered for selection by the Goodin Travel Agency"


Fact-free fantasies: my so-called 'obsession' with the shrieking hatemonger of right-wing rhetoric and partisan hackery, pandering to fear, anger and hatred,

don't be duped by the Birthers, including our very own Pastor Dred Scott (you may remember the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which asserted that African Americans were "beings of an inferior order" who "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." That ruling declared that African Americans could never be U.S. citizens and therefore could never be President), and

Church support for slavery and opposition to civil rights (4 major American Churches split over the issue of slavery, forming northern and southern factions, including:

The Methodist Church: In 1861, the North Carolina Christian Advocate wrote of "the demon spirit of abolitionism" and how Southern Methodists had "tested it fully, and found it to be heartless, inhuman and Christless." Although the two factions reunited in 1939 as the Methodist Church, they retained racial segregation.

The country's Presbyterian Church also split into two.

The Baptist Church: The Southern Baptists are the largest and most reactionary christian denomination in the USA. They split away from the Baptists in 1845 over slavery, because they thought that slavery was okay. After the civil war, some Southern Baptists founded the Ku Klux Klan. In the 1960s, the Southern Baptists supported segregation laws and opposed the black civil rights movement. In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention issued an apology to all African-Americans and asked for their forgiveness.)

Local and regional: park bait and switch, the GOB network at work in Podunkville-cola, the sad case of the Avalon Middle School principal, and the sadder case of Warren Williams;


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, and who's responsible for the debt

The debt ceiling deal farce

The civil war continues: Republi-CON establishment v. Republi-CON rage

The Republi-CON's economic no recovery plan: destroy jobs and pay workers less

Republi-CON Jeff Miller, R-Hypocrite-ville

Obama the One Term President, hell hath no fury like a liberal chumped again

The Republi-CON stimulus myth

Let's play the Republi-CON game of 'spot the contradiction', can you explain the Republi-CON contradiction as regards the economy, the debt ceiling, or deficits, or national security, or health care costs, or or even jobs

The myth of expansionary austerity

Beware federal pensioners, your day of reckoning is coming

The Great Stagnation' and our broken political system;


Fear, anger, and hatred = violence, again


150 years later

Congressional government reform hypocrisy

More Republi-CON family values hypocrisy

Name that Florida Republi-CON,

Beware the so-called fair tax


The myth of voter fraud

Who is your favorite 2012 GOP candidate, or do you have a favorite not-yet-a-candidate?, or none of the above,

President Sexpot?

More premarital sex and another shotgun wedding for the Palin clan


The health care industry bottomline, the reason Republi-CON want to repeal the new health care law

Believe it or not: DUI/DWI at the demolition derby

CSI dog poop,

Who you callin a Neanderthal

Giving new meaning to navel gazing,

Another Republi-CON myth buster, no the government isn't banning incandescent light bulbs

and

Big brother is watching you,


Fun stuff: No kidding, an 'amazing' ad campaign featuring vaginal puppeteering

Doo Wop test

Twelve things that a motorcycle can teach, do I look fat responses before the divorce, random thoughts, questions a dog might ask God, did you ever wonder . . ., the liquid nitrogen burger, paraprosdokians, the Y Generation, Husband Day Care, and cute little cats in 'It Could Be Worse';

and

Donate to a good cause: read "the story of a 9-year-old girl who teaches us adults about maturity truly renews our faith in humanity" at The New York Times, Rachel’s Last Fund-Raiser.

I'll discuss anything, but expect a no mercy take down if you are a shrieking hatemonger of right-wing rhetoric and partisan hackery, 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.

Ashes to Ashes, to 'Fully-Functioning' Bullets to 'Continue to Protect Your Home and Family Even After You Are Gone'

Believe it or not, "Alabama company Holy Smoke turns loved ones' ashes into real bullets that can be used to hunt turkeys on Thanksgiving." Watch Stephen Colbert, From Ashes to Bullets:

The Colbert Report
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If you want "Holy Smoke to help you create a tribute to your outdoorsperson like no other", see their website.

Obama the One Term President, Hell Hath No Fury Like a Liberal Chumped Again

UPDATE III: Happy Birthday Obama! "The good news is that, although unemployment remains hideous, you, personally, are employed, which is always good for a man at the half-century mark in an economy that increasingly views middle-aged workers as health care time bombs. The bad news is that you may get laid off in just 17 months. I don’t think that’s the likeliest outcome, but recent events have made the 2012 election look very much in play.

[Of course, t]he Republicans may yet bail you out by nominating someone who wants to return to the Gold Standard, or who says flouride in the drinking water is a communist plot, or who has pledged fealty to a demon dwelling in the hollow Earth. But I think it’ll be Mitt Romney. Romney’s not the perfect candidate, but he’s not going to scare 2/3rds of the electorate like some of the GOP hopefuls. He’s the frontrunner and frontrunners usually win."

Read the Washington Post, Obama Five-oh.


UPDATE II: "When handling budget negotiations, Troll Obama should never have let the Republican billy goats clomp over his bridge." So says Stephen Colbert as he recounts Obama's negotiating style in a storybook adaptation he calls, "Three Billy Goats Gruff" Budget Negotiations:

The Colbert Report
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UPDATE: Some Naive-ocrats now realize they've been chumped again by the Republi-cons.

"Jon Stewart, the most intellectually astute of the left's comic darlings, went after President Obama in hilarious fashion", in a piece called Dealageddon, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Compromise:

The Daily Show
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The debt deal farce "will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status." So says the 2008 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. Read The New York Times, The President Surrenders.

And another commentator speculates that Obama is just 'playing the angles and wonders whether we are "living through yet another failed presidency." Read The New York Times, The Diminished President.

The Debt Ceiling Deal Farce

UPDATE VI: Not surprisingly, the debt ceiling deal farce "is getting very muted applause from serious fiscal experts -- the ones who actually understand the federal budget.

'No one should pretend that they have solved anything other than an artificial political crisis,' said Bob Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan deficit watchdog group."

Read CNN, What's wrong with the debt ceiling deal.


UPDATE V: "Democrats should use the Bush tax cuts as a trigger in 2012 to force revenue. Which is not to say they should campaign for raising taxes. They should campaign against an outdated, inefficient, unfair tax code as well as the Washington way of leaving hard problems for somebody else to handle." Read the Washington Post, To govern responsibly, the White House will need to negotiate like Republicans.


UPDATE IV: Did your Congressman vote for the debt ceiling deal farce? If so, s/he would be a Congressional veteran and/or moderate.

"The deal that solved the crisis was cut, over the phone, by two men with a combined 64 years in federal office. [And t]he votes that passed that deal were cast by veterans and moderates." Read the Washington Post, In debt deal, the triumph of the old Washington.


UPDATE III: The final voting "results seem to suggest that Mr. Obama left something on the table." Read The New York Times, What the White House Left on the Table.


UPDATE II: Review some of the other "[n]umerous plans [that had] been proposed by lawmakers in Washington to raise the federal debt limit and address the nation’s growing deficit, at The New York Times, Debt Plans That Failed.


UPDATE: "The first round of cuts include 'only' about $22 billion in reductions in 2012 spending . . . That would reduce 2012 G.D.P. by just 0.1 percent, other factors being equal." Read The New York Times, The Fine Print on the Debt Deal.

The best analysis I've seen so far regarding the proposed debt ceiling deal. Read the Washington Post, A deal that found the lowest-common denominator, which notes:

"The upside of this deal is that 'the debt ceiling will cave in and Congress will create a global financial crisis for no reason' is not one of the potential outcomes. So that’s something.

The downside is that we actually haven’t come that far: we’re still pretending that a deal a few months from now will somehow be easier than a deal today, we’re moving to austerity budgeting -- note that neither unemployment insurance nor the payroll tax cut are extended -- while the economy remains weak, and we’re putting off the decisions about what to cut and how to handle taxes.

And that gets to the truth of this deal, and perhaps of Washington in this age: it’s all about lowest-common denominator lawmaking. There are no taxes. No entitlement cuts. No stimulus. No infrastructure. Less in actual, specific deficit reduction than there was in the Simpson-Bowles, Ryan, or Obama plans, and even than there was in the Biden/Cantor or Obama/Boehner talks. The two sides didn’t concede more in order to get more. They conceded almost nothing in order to get a trigger and a process, not to mention avoid a financial catastrophe.

There’s reason to be skeptical that a trigger and a process will do much to change these basic dynamics. We’ve now attempted to get a deficit-reducing grand bargain by yoking it to both a near-shutdown and a near-default, not to mention a series of negotiations, commissions, and senatorial gangs. None of it has been enough. And that’s because bipartisan commissions and terrible consequences have not been enough to convince Republicans to agree to revenues, and revenues are fundamental to large deficit-reduction compromise.

Perhaps this deal signals the end of the need to actually reach an agreement, however. If the Joint Committee fails, the trigger begins cutting spending. If negotiations over taxes fail, the Bush tax cuts expire and revenues rise by $3.6 trillion. Neither scenario is anyone’s first choice on policy grounds. But you can get to both scenarios without Republicans explicitly conceding to higher taxes or Democrats explicitly conceding to entitlement cuts in the absence of higher taxes. Politically, that’s the lowest-common denominator, and that might mean it’s also the only deal the two parties can actually make. But that’s because it’s the only deal that doesn’t require, well, making a deal."

This reminds me of the game of kick the can that Bush played in Iraq, "we’re still pretending that a deal a few months from now will somehow be easier than a deal today, we’re moving to austerity budgeting."

And beware of the myth of expansionary austerity. But who cares, as I've said before, Republi-cons just want Obama to fail, and the American economy is just acceptable collateral damage to achieve that goal.

Name Those 22 Congressional 'Tea Party' Republi-CON

UPDATE: "The road to Washington is paved with broken campaign promises. But few are so rich in hypocrisy as those of House Republican freshmen caught engineering hometown pork even as they vow to slash the federal budget for the supposed good of the nation." Read The New York Times, Pork? That? What Do You Mean?

First there was the Florida Republi-CON, but he has friends in Congress.

"House Republicans who rode a wave of voter discontent into office last year may be pushing for spending cuts, but they’re also quietly funneling millions of federal dollars back home." Read The New York Times, Cost-Cutters, Except When the Spending Is Back Home.

Fear, Anger, and Hatred = Violence, Again

UPDATE: "Racism is stupidity’s recourse. There are plenty of stupid people in the world. . .

[In the past, it was the persecution of blacks. And today Jews] seemed to have forgotten that not being a race but a religion had scarcely saved Jews from racist persecution.

Hatred of Muslims in Europe and the United States is a growing political industry. It’s odious, dangerous and racist. . .

The settings change, the vile stupidity does not."

Read The New York Times, The Racist Scourge.


UPDATE V: "Evil's larger narrative, and why we must guard against it." Read The New York Times, A Madman and His Manifesto, which notes the "alternative is war under the banner of heaven, as both Breivik and his hated Islamists advocate."


UPDATE IV: Despite his denials, our shameful pastor was just one of many who preach their Islamophobic ideology of fear, anger, and hatred and initially tried to blame Muslims for the massacre:

The Colbert Report
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Of course, he is now trying to back track, and claim he prophesied the identity of the real killer, a professed Christian 'crusader', and in a very nuanced argument offered only for Christians states that the killer was not really a Christian.


UPDATE III: "Breivik is no loner. His violence was brewed in a specific European environment that shares characteristics with the specific American environment of Loughner: relative economic decline, a jobless recovery, middle-class anxiety and high levels of immigration serving as the backdrop for racist Islamophobia and use of the spurious specter of a 'Muslim takeover' as a wedge political issue to channel frustrations rightward. . . [and] to enlist [Christendom] in apocalyptical warfare against an 'infidel' enemy supposedly threatening the territory, morals and culture of an imagined community of devout believers." Read The New York Times, Breivik and His Enablers.


UPDATE II: "How many people can assert [civilization-threatening jihad] before small numbers of the disaffected take them literally? If all that were true, wouldn't a lot of people respond violently? Overheated, hyperbolic rhetoric must come naturally once you've immersed yourself in the hard core anti-jihadist blogosphere. Regulars there lose the conviction that words have precise meanings, and the belief that arguing with integrity requires staying within their bounds. Shortcuts are so much easier, hence the frequent descents into ad hominem, the constant reliance on hyperbole, and the crutch of playing on the civilizational anxieties of the audience, in an effort to shake them into awareness." Read The Atlantic, Anders Behring Breivik and the 'Anti-Jihadist' Blogosphere.

Our shameful pastor and his ilk should repudiate their Islamophobic ideology of fear, anger, and hatred.


UPDATE: "Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who apparently justified last week’s mass murder of helpless teenage campers with a 1,500-page 'compendium' calling for a right-wing revolution against Europe’s ruling class. . .

His compendium quotes repeatedly from conservative writers on both sides of the Atlantic, and it’s filled with attacks on familiar right-wing targets: Secularism and political correctness; the European Union and the sexual revolution; radical Islam and the academic left. . .

Conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have an obligation to acknowledge that Anders Behring Breivik is a distinctively right-wing kind of monster. "

Read The New York Times, A Right-Wing Monster.

For years our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)) has waged a campaign of fear, anger and hatred by hosting professional purveyors of hate.

He is one of many "anti-Muslim bloggers and right-wing activists" that influence people to violence. Read The New York Times, Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.

And "their response to the attacks is nonetheless revealing, in that they are now demanding the kind of nuanced analysis of the Norway shootings that they’ve always failed to offer when implicating jihadism or all Muslims for terror attacks." Read the Washington Post, In response to Norway attacks, right-wing bloggers suddenly demand nuance.

I find it no coincidence that this incident was done on Friday, just before the Pastor's show.

The formula is old: Republi-con fear, anger, hatred = violence. But the Republi-CONs have no shame or concern for the violence they may incite.

We Discuss and Debate to Find the Truth

"It’s salvation of a kind: our apparently irrational quirks start to make sense when we think of reasoning as serving the purpose of persuading others to accept our point of view. And by way of positive side effect, these heated social interactions . . . can lead to the discovery of the truth." Read The New York Times, Biased but Brilliant.

No Kidding, An 'Amazing' Ad Campaign Featuring Vaginal Puppeteering

For mature audiences only:

The Colbert Report
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As noted before, nobody is better at satire than Colbert. Remember his roast of Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner.

The Republi-CON's Economic No Recovery Plan: Destroy Jobs and Pay Workers Less

UPDATE II: Recent GDP "numbers solve the mystery in the labor market. This isn’t about confidence or uncertainty or regulations or any of the other bankshot explanations we’ve been using to explain why unemployment seems stuck even as the economy rebounds. The economy isn’t rebounding. Demand isn’t returning. And without demand, there can’t be jobs." Read the Washington Post, The recovery-less recovery.

Hello globalization, good-bye jobs.


UPDATE: "Hard as it can be to land a job these days, getting one may not be nearly enough for basic economic security." Read The New York Times, Many Low-Wage Jobs Seen as Failing to Meet Basic Needs.

"A Republican report argues that slashing government spending and employment in the face of a deeply depressed economy would actually create jobs." Read The New York Times, The Mellon Doctrine.

All part of the Republi-con war on the middle class.

Doo Wop Test

From an email:

1. When did ''Little Suzie'' finally wake up?
(a) The movie's over, it's 2 o'clock
(b) The movie's over, it's 3 o'clock
(c) The movie's over, it's 4 o'clock

2. ''Rock Around The Clock'' was used in what movie?
(a) Rebel Without A Cause
(b) Blackboard Jungle
(c) The Wild Ones

3. What's missing from a Rock & Roll standpoint? Earth _____
(a) Angel
(b) Mother
(c) Worm

4. ''I found my thrill . . .'' where?
(a) Kansas City
(b) Heartbreak Hotel
(c) Blueberry Hill

5. ''Please turn on your magic beam, _____ _____ bring me a dream,'':
(a) Mr. Sandman
(b) Earth Angel
(c) Dream Lover

6. For which label did Elvis Presley first record?
(a) Atlantic
(b) RCA
(c) Sun

7. He asked, ''Why's everybody always pickin' on me?'' Who was he?
(a) Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
(b) Charlie Brown
(c) Buster Brown

8. In Bobby Darin's ''Mack The Knife,'' the one with the knife, was named:
(a) MacHeath
(b) MacCloud
(c) MacNamara

9. Name the song with ''A-wop bop a-loo bop a-lop bam boom.''
(a) Good Golly, Miss Molly
(b) Be-Bop-A-Lula
(c) Tutti Fruitti

10. Who is generally given credit for originating the term ''Rock And Roll''?
(a) Dick Clark
(b) Wolfman Jack
(c) Alan Freed

11. In 1957, he left the music business to become a preacher:
(a) Little Richard
(b) Frankie Lymon
(c) Tony Orlando

12. Paul Anka's ''Puppy Love'' is written to what star?
(a) Susan Gibbs
(b) Connie Francis
(c) Annette Funicello

13. The Everly Brothers were ........
(a) Pete and Dick
(b) Don and Phil
(c) Bob and Bill

14. The Big Bopper's real name was:
(a) Jiles P. Richardson
(b) Roy Iddings Jr.
(c) Marion Michael Morrison

15. In 1959, Berry Gordy, Jr. started a small record company called...
(a) Decca
(b) Cameo
(c) Motown

16. Edd Brynes had a hit with ''Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb''. What TV show was he on?
(a) 77 Sunset Strip
(b) Hawaiian Eye
(c) Surfside Six

17. In 1960 Bobby Darin married:
(a) Carol Lynley
(b) Sandra Dee
(c) Natalie Wood

18. They were a one hit wonder with ''Book Of Love'':
(a) The Penguins
(b) The Monotones
(c) The Moonglows

19. The Everly Brothers sang a song called ''Till I ______ You.''
(a) Loved
(b) Kissed
(c) Met

20. Chuck Berry sang ''Oh, ___________, why can't you be true?''
(a) Suzie Q
(b) Peggy Sue
(c) Maybelline

21. ''Wooly _______''
(a) Mammouth
(b) Bully
(c) Pully

22. ''I'm like a one-eyed cat . . . ."
(a) can't go into town no more
(b) sleepin' on a cold hard floor
(c) peepin' in a seafood store

23. ''Sometimes I wonder what I'm gonna do . . . . .....''
(a) cause there ain't no answer for a life without booze
(b) cause there ain't no cure for the summertime blues
(c) cause my car's gassed up and I'm ready to cruise

24. ''They often call me Speedo, but my real name is ..... . . .''
(a) Mr. Earl
(b) Jackie Pearl
(c) Milton Berle

25. ''You're my Fanny and nobody else's ......''
(a) girl
(b) butt
(c) love

26. ''I want you to play with my . . . ''
(a) heart
(b) dreams
(c) ding a ling

27. ''Be Bop A Lula .......''
(a) she's got the rabies
(b) she's my baby.
(c) she loves me, maybe

28. ''Fine Love, Fine Kissing ...''
(a) right here
(b) fifty cents
(c) just for you

29. ''He wore black denim trousers and . . .''
(a) a pink carnation
(b) pink leotards
(c) motorcycle boots

30. ''I got a gal named . ... .''
(a) Jenny Zamboni
(b) Gerri Mahoney
(c) Boney Maroney

See comments for the answers.

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:

Local Business Shout-Out: TBD.


Follow-up:


Fact-free fantasies: : don't be duped by the Birthers, including our very own Pastor Dred Scott (you may remember the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which asserted that African Americans were "beings of an inferior order" who "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." That ruling declared that African Americans could never be U.S. citizens and therefore could never be President), and

Church support for slavery and opposition to civil rights (4 major American Churches split over the issue of slavery, forming northern and southern factions, including:

The Methodist Church: In 1861, the North Carolina Christian Advocate wrote of "the demon spirit of abolitionism" and how Southern Methodists had "tested it fully, and found it to be heartless, inhuman and Christless." Although the two factions reunited in 1939 as the Methodist Church, they retained racial segregation.

The country's Presbyterian Church also split into two.

The Baptist Church: The Southern Baptists are the largest and most reactionary christian denomination in the USA. They split away from the Baptists in 1845 over slavery, because they thought that slavery was okay. After the civil war, some Southern Baptists founded the Ku Klux Klan. In the 1960s, the Southern Baptists supported segregation laws and opposed the black civil rights movement. In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention issued an apology to all African-Americans and asked for their forgiveness.)

Local and regional: school district lawsuit update, ransom paid, lawsuits dismissed, and hello globalization, good-bye jobs, Clearwire jobs headed overseas, that makes two county employers, Lumber 84 in the Santa Rosa County Industrial Park is closing;


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, and who's responsible for the debt

'What would Jesus cut?'

Don't be duped by CONgress

Damn the unemployed, Republi-CON polly wants a tax cut

The myth of expansionary austerity

Let play you choose: who gets paid (and who doesn't),

To balance the budget, end tax expenditures, better known as tax deductions, which amounted to about $1 trillion in 2009,

To balance the budget, do nothing

Choose your medicine

Call the Republi-CON bluff

Let's play the Republi-CON game of 'spot the contradiction', can you explain the Republi-CON contradiction as regards the economy, the debt ceiling, or deficits, or national security, or health care costs, or or even jobs


Fear, anger, and hatred = violence, again


150 years later

Congressional government reform hypocrisy

More Republi-CON family values hypocrisy

Name that Florida Republi-CON,

Beware the so-called fair tax


The myth of voter fraud

Who is your favorite 2012 GOP candidate, or do you have a favorite not-yet-a-candidate?, or none of the above,

President Sexpot?

More premarital sex and another shotgun wedding for the Palin clan


The health care industry bottomline, the reason Republi-CON want to repeal the new health care law

Believe it or not: DUI/DWI at the demolition derby

CSI dog poop,

Who you callin a Neanderthal

Giving new meaning to navel gazing,

Another Republi-CON myth buster, no the government isn't banning incandescent light bulbs

Big brother is watching you,

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


Fun stuff: twelve things that a motorcycle can teach, do I look fat responses before the divorce, random thoughts, questions a dog might ask God, did you ever wonder . . ., the liquid nitrogen burger, paraprosdokians, the Y Generation, Husband Day Care, and cute little cats in 'It Could Be Worse';

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 shrieking hatemonger of right-wing rhetoric and partisan hackery, 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.

Choose Your Medicine

UPDATE II: The longer the Republi-CONs refuse to compromise, the bigger the debt. See the Washington Post, The incredible, shrinking debt deal in one graph, which shows:




UPDATE: "Over the last several weeks, leaders in Washington have proposed various plans to address the nation’s growing deficit as a condition of raising the debt ceiling by Aug. 2. [Review a] running comparison of some of the major proposals or ideas that have been released" at The New York Times, Comparing Deficit-Reduction Plans.

From the New York Times, A Debt Ceiling Cheat Sheet: 8 Possible Plans, which are nicknamed:

1. The Grand Bargain,
2. The Half-Bargain,
3. The House Cuts,
4. The White House Cuts,
5. The Stop-Gap,
6. The Balanced Budget Plan,
7. The McConnell Option, and
8. The Hybrid McConnell.

And as I've said before, there is the NoBullU solution for the federal deficit and debt is: restructure the federal government (to end Congressional free lunchism), reform the federal tax code (so that revenues pay for ALL government spending), and amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget (because Congress can't control its spending).

Congressional Government Reform Hypocrisy

"Like many members of Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann has been a fierce critic of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, blaming the government-backed loan programs for excesses that helped create the financial meltdown in 2008.

And like millions of other home purchasers, Bachmann took out a home loan in 2008 that offered lower costs to the borrower through one of the federally subsidized programs, according to mortgage experts who reviewed her loan documents."

Read the Washington Post, Bachmann benefitted from federal home loan program.

Beware the So-Called Fair Tax

Do you believe the myth that your boss will raise your salary when the income tax is eliminated? Fat chance.

When "various federal [aviation] taxes expired, most airlines lifted prices by an amount equal to the customer’s savings." Read The New York Times, A Bonanza for Airlines as Taxes End.

The Health Care Industry Bottomline, the Reason Republi-CON Want to Repeal the New Health Care Law

UPDATE III: More proof that it's all about the health care industry bottomline.

"One of the nation’s largest providers of kidney dialysis deliberately wasted medicine in order to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments from Medicare, a former clinic nurse and a doctor are charging in a whistle-blower lawsuit." Read The New York Times, Lawsuit Says Drugs Were Wasted to Buoy Profit.


UPDATE II: Speaking of health care industry profits, "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. Read the Washington Post, Critics slam cost of FDA-approved drug to prevent preterm births.


UPDATE: "In a world where the two parties' top priority on health care was providing answers for the uninsured and cost control, an argument over the best way to do health-care reform would be a very healthy thing. But that's not what we've got. We've got the Democratic Party, whose top priority is to try and solve our health-care problems and who've shown their commitment to that by moving steadily rightward over the last century in a bid to pick up Republican support for some sort of solution, and the Republican Party, whose top priority is that we shouldn't do whatever the Democrats are proposing and have proven their commitment to that by abandoning previously favored policy proposals as soon as the Democrats demonstrated any interest in adopting them."

Further prrof that Republi-CONs want to repeal the new law to protect health care industry profits.

"Opponents of the health law sometimes suggest that cutting costs would be easy, with common-sense ideas. Several writers -- David Wessel, most recently -- have recently explained why that's not so. " Read The New York Times, Wishful Thinking on Health Costs.

So why the push to repeal the new law -- as I noted in an earlier post, without reform the cost of health care is projected to rise about 75%. But to the health care industry those higher costs mean higher profits. And since half the people in the country cheat and get their health coverage courtesy of Uncle Sam, the taxpayers pay. This is the reason the health care industry opposed reform and want their Republi-con political lapdogs to repeal the new law.

Of course, it make no difference to Congress, you pay for their health care, which they gladly accept even while claiming to oppose 'socialized medicine.'

Can you say sucker.

Twelve Things That a Motorcycle Can Teach

From an email:

1. The only good view of a thunderstorm is in your rear view mirror.

2. Four wheels might move the body... but two wheels move the soul.

3. I'd rather be riding my motorcycle and thinking about God than sitting in Church and thinking about my motorcycle.

4. Life may begin at 30 but it doesn't get interesting until about 95 . . . mph.

5. Midnight bugs taste just as bad as noontime bugs.

6. Sometimes it takes a whole tank of gas before you can think straight.

7. A bike on the road is worth two in the shed.

8. Young riders pick a destination and go, old riders pick a direction and go.

9. When you are riding lead, don't spit.

10. Catching a yellow jacket in your shirt at 75 mph can double your vocabulary.

11. I've never seen a motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrist's office.

And Finally:

12. Only Bikers know why dogs stick their heads out car windows.