The Republi-CON 'Texas Miracle' Myth

"Turns out Rick Perry’s 'Texas Miracle' owes much of its success to... Ben Bernanke. A new research paper from the Dallas Fed finds that Texas has rebounded from recession faster than the rest of the country thanks, in no small part, to actions by the U.S. Federal Reserve. (Yep, the same central bank that Perry occasionally deems 'almost treasonous.') . . .

[W]hy should that be? One theory is that Texas’ banking system was in better shape because of regulations put in place after the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. Regulations on mortgage finance and lack of zoning restrictions also meant Texas didn’t really suffer through a housing bubble." Read the Washington Post, Rick Perry should send Ben Bernanke a thank-you note.

In addition, one study "concludes that 81 percent of the jobs created in Texas since 2007 have gone to newly arrived immigrant workers—93 percent of whom aren’t US citizens and half of whom are illegal immigrants" Read the Washington Post, Did immigrants take most of the new jobs in Texas?

The Lord or Lockup, Your Choice

UPDATE: "A Bay Minette, Ala., alternative to incarceration program that asks first-time, nonviolent offenders to choose between church or jail, was slated to start today but is being delayed for legal review by city officials, said Bay Minette Mayor Jamie Tillery." Read ABC News, Church or Jail? An Alabama Alternative to Incarceration Program on Hold.

"Non-violent offenders in Bay Minette now have a choice some would call simple: do time behind bars or work off the sentence in church." Read or watch WKRG, Serve Time In Jail...Or In Church?

But not everyone likes the idea. Read or watch WKRG, ACLU: Bay Minette Cannot Impose Church Sentences.

About the Republi-CON War on the Middle Class

UPDATE: It's still Wall Street predatory business practices v. Main Street:

"A LOAF of whole wheat. A gallon of gasoline. A pair of Levi’s. Americans are paying more for many basic items this year, making tough economic times even tougher.

But these hardships for consumers provide another reason to check in on Dodd-Frank, that package of financial reforms that Congress passed in 2010. Here’s why:

Congress told federal regulators to write rules that would ensure that Dodd-Frank does what it’s supposed to do, which includes protecting consumers. But the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed rules that critics say might actually encourage speculation in the commodities markets, rather than reduce it.

Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, says that as things stand, the C.F.T.C.’s plan could cost ordinary Americans."

Read The New York Times, Speculators Get a Break in New Rule.

Meanwhile, the Republi-CONs, doing the bidding of their corporate overlords, continue to try to undermine the Dodd-Frank Act.

"Between 1979 and 2007, the income gap between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the poorest 40 percent more than tripled. Today, the richest 10 percent of Americans control two-thirds of the nation’s wealth, while, according to recently released census data, average Americans saw their real incomes decline by 2.3 percent in 2010. Though our economy grew in 2009 and 2010, 88 percent of the increase in real national income went to corporate profits, one study found. Only 1 percent went to wages and salaries for working people.

Last year, American companies posted their biggest profits ever, and bonuses for bank and hedge fund executives not only reached record highs, but grew faster than corporate revenue. Meanwhile, almost one in 10 Americans is unemployed, and 15 percent live at or below the poverty level."

Read the Washington Post, President Obama shouldn’t be afraid of a little class warfare.

Facts v. Republi-CON Tax Myths

Did you know that "[c]ompared to the size of the economy, federal tax revenues are very low. " For other tax facts, read The New York Times, Four Tax Facts for Congress Deficit Super Panel.

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.

Our Politically Induced Economic Stagnation, Part of the Republi-CON War on the Middle Class

UPDATE III: The Fed responds to the Repubi-cons:

"We are particularly amused by your reference to Fed actions that 'have likely led to more fluctuations and uncertainty in our already weak economy.' We here at the Fed watched in awe this past summer as you and your congressional allies demonstrated your vast power to create 'fluctuations and uncertainty,' by threatening to default on trillions of dollars' worth of U.S. debt. That triggered the first-ever downgrade of the nation's credit rating. The stock markets tanked. Consumer and business confidence plunged. You guys rock! Fluctuations and uncertainty indeed! So we humbly express our thanks for your insights on how to wreck the economy."

Read U.S. News, What Bernanke Might Say to His GOP Critics.


UPDATE II: "Congressmen have the right to speak out on monetary policy. As long as their advice is not politically motivated. Ask yourself the following question: Would these men be pressuring the Fed to adopt a tighter monetary policy if:

1. Unemployment were over 9%.

2. Inflation had averaged 1% over the past three years.

3. George Bush were president.

Were these men criticizing monetary policy under Bush, when inflation was higher than today? I don’t recall that happening."

Read TheMoneyIllusion, The definition of treason.


UPDATE: Yesterday, a letter was sent to Bernanke, signed by Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Jon Kyl, and Rep. Eric Cantor, "making clear that the Republican leadership in Congress is strongly opposed to any further attempts to help the economy." Read the Washington Post, Nice central bank you got here. Shame if something should happen to it.

As I said before, Republi-cons want Obama to fail, the American economy is just acceptable collateral damage to achieve that goal.

Why isn't Ben Bernanke 2011 taking the advice of Ben Bernanke 2000?

"Back then, Mr. Bernanke suggested that the Bank of Japan could get Japan’s economy moving with a variety of unconventional policies. These could include: purchases of long-term government debt (to push interest rates, and hence private borrowing costs, down); an announcement that short-term interest rates would stay near zero for an extended period, to further reduce long-term rates; an announcement that the bank was seeking moderate inflation, 'setting a target in the 3-4% range for inflation, to be maintained for a number of years,' which would encourage borrowing and discourage people from hoarding cash; and 'an attempt to achieve substantial depreciation of the yen,' that is, to reduce the yen’s value in terms of other currencies. "

As I said before, Republi-cons want Obama to fail, the American economy is just acceptable collateral damage to achieve that goal.

All part of the Republi-CON war on the middle class!

Can Republicans 'Campaign to Govern, Not Just Win'?

"The [Republican] governor of Indiana says his party’s presidential candidates should 'campaign to govern, not just win.'" Read The New York Times, Republican Calls for a More Honest Debate.

As I've said before, fear, anger, and hatred is a great campaign strategy, but not much of a governing philosophy.

Republi-CON Laissez-Faire Hypocrisy

Today's word in Republi-cons hypocrisy is laissez-faire, which 'describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies.

The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means 'let do', but it broadly implies 'let it be', or 'leave it alone.'"

Republi-cons have "lambasted the Obama administration over what he has described as its failed efforts to stimulate new jobs through clean-energy projects backed with billions of dollars in federal loans or other assistance. . .

[But] several prominent Republicans who have worked to steer federal money to clean-energy projects in their home states, Energy Department documents show. . .

[Senator] McConnell made two personal appeals in 2009, asking Energy Secretary Steven Chu to approve as much as $235 million in federal loans for a plant to build electric vehicles in Franklin, Ky. . .

Federal lobbying disclosure records show that Mr. McConnell’s support for the project came after Zap Motor hired a Kentucky-based lobbyist, Robert Babbage, who has been a frequent contributor to Mr. McConnell’s campaigns and boasts on his own Internet site about his close ties to Mr. McConnell. . .

Another [Republi-con], Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, recently asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to appoint an outside investigator to determine how the Department of Energy distributes clean-energy money. But in 2009, Mr. Smith wrote to Mr. Chu asking him to approve loan guarantees from stimulus money for a Texas project proposed by Tessera Solar, documents show.

Representative Fred Upton, [Republi-con] of Michigan and another critic of the Energy Department program, signed letters along with other members of the Michigan delegation in 2009 and 2010, pushing at least five clean-energy projects in his state, including a $207 million loan request from EcoMotors International. And Representative Cliff Stearns, [Republi-con] of Florida, praised the opening last year of a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in his state, which relied upon an Energy Department grant."

Read The New York Times, Republicans Sought Clean-Energy Money for Home States.

And "[h]ypocrisy is the state of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, ideals, thoughts, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie."

(Yes, I know, Republi-cons hypocrisy is another tautology, like criminal Republi-con or narcissistic politician or stupid politician.)

Republi-CON Constitutional Authority Hypocrisy

"In honor of Constitution Day we pose the question: Which part of the Constitution governs the use of laser pointers?

It sounds like a dumb question, since the Constitution predated the laser by 171 years. But this year, the House of Representatives declared it had found an answer: Article I, Section 8, Clause 3.

That clause says Congress has the power 'To regulate Commerce ... among the several States.' Which, of course, doesn’t say anything about lasers. But the House still used those words to justify a bill that prohibited pointing lasers at aircraft: The logic was that they were acting to protect “commerce.”

This legal loop-de-loop is the result of a new rule in the House, where Republican leaders require every bill to carry a 'Constitutional Authority Statement.' The idea was to demonstrate that a new GOP majority respected the enduring restraints of the Constitution.

Instead, this Congress has often demonstrated something else: an ongoing tendency to make the Constitution say whatever they want it to."

Read the Washington Post, Congress finds, and lists, meaning in Constitution.

Republi-CON Congressional Spending Bills Hypocrisy

"In last year’s campaigns, Republicans ripped into Democrats for failing to perform one of Congress’s most basic duties: providing money in a timely way for the operations of government.

But Republicans acknowledged Thursday that they would miss the deadline they had promised to meet. They began to rush a stopgap spending bill through the House because, they said, Congress could not finish work on any of the 12 regular appropriations bills before the new fiscal year starts in two weeks, on Oct. 1."

Read The New York Times, House Republicans Push Stopgap Spending Bill.

An Interesting Article Regarding Education

"What happens when you take three American kids and throw them in a classroom 5,000 miles from home where they can’t speak the language?" Read The New York Times, My Family’s Experiment in Extreme Schooling.

Moral Confusion and Public Health Illiteracy

"If Republican presidential candidates want to debate sexual health and hygiene, it would be nice if they displayed more collective knowledge and judgment than your average eighth-grade family-life class. During the Tampa debate, a viewer longed for a blunt, part-time football coach — or whomever they draft into teaching health classes nowadays — to mount the stage and present the facts of life.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a nasty, sexually transmitted disease contracted by about three-quarters of Americans at some point. You can have it, and spread it, without knowing it. In some women, the virus causes abnormal cells in the lining of the cervix that can develop into cancerous lesions. Virtually all cervical cancer is caused by HPV. There is, however, a vaccine that is highly effective against the most dangerous HPV strains. The main side effect, as you’d expect in a procedure involving a needle, is fainting. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all girls should get it anyway."

Read the Washington Post, A dose of reality for the HPV debate, which imagines "a parent-daughter conversation about sexual restraint and maturity that includes the words: 'Honey, I’m going to deny you a vaccine that prevents a horrible, bleeding cancer, just as a little reminder of the religious values I’ve been trying to teach you.' This would be morally monstrous. Such ethical electroshock therapy has nothing to do with cultivation of character in children. It certainly has nothing to do with Christianity, which teaches that moral rules are created for the benefit of the individual, not to punish them with preventable death."

Funny Signs

From an email:

Sign over a gynecologist's office:
"Dr. Jones, at your cervix."

In a podiatrist's office:
"Time wounds all heels."

On a septic tank truck:
We are #1, in the #2 business.
"Yesterday's Meals on Wheels"

At a proctologist's door:
"To expedite your visit, please back in."

On a plumber's truck:
"We repair what your husband fixed."

On another plumber's truck:
"Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber."

On a church's bill board:
"Seven days without God makes one weak."

At a tire shop:
"Invite us to your next blowout."

At a towing company:
"We don't charge an arm and a leg. We want tows."

On an electrician's truck:
"Let us remove your shorts."

In a nonsmoking Area:
"If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action."

On a maternity room door:
"Push. Push. Push."

At an optometrist's Office:
"If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place."

On a taxidermist's window:
"We really know our stuff."

On a fence:
"Salesmen welcome! Dog food is expensive!"

At a car dealership:
"The best way to get back on your feet - miss a car payment."

Outside a muffler shop:
"No appointment necessary. We hear you coming."

In a veterinarian's waiting room:
"Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"

At the electric company:
"We would be delighted if you send in your payment. However, if you don't, you will be."

In a restaurant window:
"Don't stand there and be hungry; come on in and get fed up."

In the front yard of a funeral Home:
"Drive carefully. We'll wait."

At a propane filling station:
"Thank heaven for little grills."

At a radiator shop:
"Best place in town to take a leak."

Sign on the back of another septic tank truck:
"Caution - this truck is full of political promises."

Why the Individual Mandate, Because Ron Paul is a Hypocrite

UPDATE: "Compassion is out of fashion among the G.O.P.’s base." Read The New York Times, Free to Die.

"During Monday’s debate, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked whether an uninsured 30-year-old who had chosen to go without insurance should be left to die if he falls unexpectedly ill. Ron Paul dodged the question. 'What he should do is whatever he wants to do and take responsibility for himself,' Paul said. 'That’s what freedom is about.' Blitzer pressed the issue. 'But, Congressman, are you saying the society should just let him die?' 'Yeah!' whooped the crowd. But Paul stammered out a 'no.' And perhaps for good reason.

In 2008, his campaign manager, a healthy-but-uninsured 49-year-old, died from pneumonia and left his family with $400,000 in medical debt." Read the Washington Post, Why libertarianism fails in health care.

Someone should ask Paul who paid the medical bills.

As the article notes, "though it sounds nice to say that charities will pick up the slack, any hospital system in America will tell you that even with Medicare and Medicaid assuming much of the burden for the most intractable and expensive cases, charities are not capable of or interested in fully compensating the medical system for the services needed by the un- or underinsured."

Does Palin Have a Point About the "Collusion of Big Government and Big Business and Big Finance to the Detriment of All the Rest — to the Little Guys"

UPDATE II: About that 'detriment of all the rest' of us, which I call predatory business practices, did you know that Wall Street "don’t want the American people to know the extent to which speculators keep oil prices artificially high and the great damage that does to our economy. " Read the Washington Post, What Wall Street doesn’t want us to know about oil prices.

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


UPDATE: More on Palin's observation regarding 'corporate crony capitalism', "[n]early 5,400 former congressional staffers have left Capitol Hill to become federal lobbyists in the past 10 years, according to a new study that documents the extent of the revolving door between Congress and K Street." Read the Washington Post, Revolving door of employment between Congress, lobbying firms, study shows.

At a Tea Party event in Indianola, Iowa, Palin "made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a 'permanent political class,' drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called 'corporate crony capitalism.' Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private)." Read The New York Times, Some of Sarah Palin's Ideas Cross the Political Divide.

She could be a real reformer.

If you "look at what Palin did while in office in Alaska—the only record she has—[it] shows a very different politician: one who worked with Democrats to tame Big Oil and solve the great problem at the heart of the state’s politics." Read The Atlantic, The Tragedy of Sarah Palin.

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

UPDATE: As discussed, from the Washington Post, David Nakamura, Obama has beer with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, sparking debate between critics, reporters.

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/Event Shout-Out: 3rd Annual Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival, Featuring 80+ Songwriters, 18 Stages, 200+ Performances!, September 28 through October 3, 2011, also on Facebook


Follow-up: 9/11, ten years later, hate just begets hate and the legacy of 9/11 can’t be fully measured even now, but perhaps the most damaging aspect can be found in our national discourse;


Fact-free fantasies of the shrieking hatemongers of right-wing rhetoric and partisan hackery: 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),

See The Fogbow, "your best resource for debunking the lies of the 'birther' movement and discussing the birther antics" and WhatsYourEvidence.com, there is even a Birther Case Scorecard, 0-80 for the birthers;


Local and regional: more good ol’ boy shenanigans in Podunk-cola, and accusations are a flyin' and nothing like a little oil spill to expose the Republi-con ' less government' myth;


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

To balance the budget, do nothing

Was 'Karl Marx right

Hello globalization, goodbye jobs

It's China, stupid

The Republi-CON stimulus myth

The myth of expansionary austerity

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

More Republi-CON deficit and debt hypocrisy

More on the Republi-CON war on the middle class

Beware federal pensioners, your day of reckoning is coming

The Great Stagnation' and our broken political system;


What Next in Libya?

Is Palestinian terrorism 'justified'?


Great quote on so-called government wisdom


And the Republi-CON Race is cont., to find America’s Not-Mitt, time will tell if Perry's the Not-Mitt but, "under the traditional rules of American politics, last night was a very bad night for" Perry

Still searching for the ideal Republican candidate: conservative, interested, electable

Did the tea so-called party debate pass the test of 'limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility'

Rick Perry, R-Murderer and Believer of Junk Science

The Republi-CON 'social security is a ponzi scheme' myth and The Republi-CON I'd be a millionaire if it wasn't for social security myth

Miller's in good company, Perry, a former West Texas cotton farmer, [who] received at least $83,000 in federal farm subsidies between 1987 and 1998, during the time he was in elected office, according to his tax returns

Does Palin have a point about the corrupt crony capitalism


2 to 1 in the COA, health care lawsuit update

Why the individual mandate, because Ron Paul is a hypocrite


and

Big brother is watching you,


Fun stuff: If you want . . . adopt a dog, riddle of the day, and recession humor

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.

Great Quote On So-Called Government Wisdom

For all you partisan and/or conspiracy groupies out there, "probably the most famous Swedish quotation in the English-speaking world":

"Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?"

More on the Republi-CON War on the Middle Class

UPDATE: "Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it.

And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household incomes fell last year to levels last seen in 1996.

Economists pointed to a telling statistic: It was the first time since the Great Depression that median household income, adjusted for inflation, had not risen over such a long period, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard."

Read The New York Times, Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on 'Lost Decade'.

But it has not been a lost decade for one group, seniors. From The New York Times, Poor Are Still Getting Poorer, but Downturn’s Punch Varies, Census Data Show:

"When so much income goes to the top, the middle class doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going without sinking ever more deeply into debt — which, as we’ve seen, ends badly. An economy so dependent on the spending of a few is also prone to great booms and busts. The rich splurge and speculate when their savings are doing well. But when the values of their assets tumble, they pull back. That can lead to wild gyrations. Sound familiar?" Read The New York Times, The Limping Middle Class, which includes this graph:



As the Republi-CONs continue their war on the middle class, the American dream withers.

More Republi-CON Deficit and Debt Hypocrisy

UPDATE: Republi-cons voted to raise the debt limit before they voted against it. Read the Washington Post, Republicans’ underhanded serve.

Another instance of demanding pay-as-you-go spending from 'the other guy,' after being "against pay-as-you-go, for both disaster relief and mega-expensive wars, as long as a Republican was in the White House." Read The New York Times, Cantor, Irene, and Interest Rates.

Hello Globalization, Goodbye Jobs

"From 1951 through 2007, there were never more than three unemployed workers for each job opening, and it was rare for that figure even to hit two-to-one. In contrast, there have been more than three jobseekers per opening in every single month since September 2008. The ratio peaked somewhere between five-to-one and seven-to-one in mid-2009. It has since declined but we have far to go before we return to “normal” levels.

The bleak outlook for jobseekers has three immediate sources. The sharp deterioration beginning in early 2007 is the most dramatic feature of the above chart (the rise in job scarcity after point C in the chart, the steepness of which depends on the data source used). But two less obvious factors predated the recession. The first is the steepness of the rise in job scarcity during the previous recession in 2001 (from point A to point B), which rivaled that during the deep downturn of the early 1980s. The second is the failure between 2003 and 2007 of jobs per jobseeker to recover from the 2001 recession (the failure of point C to fall back to point A)."

Read Brookings, A Decade of Slack Labor Markets, which includes these graphs:





And why the anemic job market? It's China, stupid.

The Republi-con's economic no recovery plan, as they lobby for more tax cuts: destroy jobs and pay workers less.

As I said in February 2009, tax cuts are not the answer, this downturn won't be over 'til the fat lady gets a job.