The mewling from the "two-percenters," as Matt Yglesias might put it, about "class warfare" is a bit of a laugh riot. Basically, these people have been wagging the economic policy dog for the better part of a generation, growing ever richer while the wages of working class and middle Americans have stagnated. Their share of wealth in the society has grown exponentially and they now pay taxes on large parts of their income (for capital gains and dividends -- when they still existed) at rates far lower than a middle class person pays for working for a living.
In the recent past, political calls to make the rich shoulder a level of tax burden commensurate with the benefits that society has bestowed upon them have generally not enjoyed the kind of broad-based support that would seem to make sense intuitively -- the phenomenon often associated with the book "What's the Matter with Kansas" and its spawn. The Republican Party and the members of the elite media who host or appear on Sunday talk shows seem to think that decrying class warfare will once again prevent plans to obtain higher tax payments from the well to do. However, I think they are missing what has changed in the equation this time.
People are really pissed off at the Master of the Universe class and their amen corner in the media. The business elite in this country has led us into a financial morass of terrifying dimensions. In so doing, they have forfeited the once credited (but always specious) claim that they are the reason we have all "prospered." Well now it's clear that they've screwed the pooch and that we are all going to suffer as a result. Good will for the rich has evaporated along with people's 401(k) balances and home equity. (Hell, things are so bad out there that even high-priced lawyers are getting laid off.) Claims that they are deserving of their obscene share because of their merits and threats that in a Galtian rage they will deny us the crumbs from their tables increasingly fall upon deaf ears.
The time is ripe for the kind of liberal-left politics that has not been seen since the 1966 mid-term elections. I think Obama sees the opportunity and in his outline of future budgets is thinking in transformational terms, expressed in the most reasonable of tones.
It's kind of ironic that it was us poor folk who spent the last 8 years trying to tell the middle class what Bush and the Republicans were doing to them, only to be told to butt out because they weren't going to be hurt, they were going to be rich. Hasn't quite worked out that way though, has it? http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2009/03/pity-the-poor-exmiddle-class.html#more
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The conference of the crazy people's action committee
According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, Mississippi has won the earmark contest in the omnibus budget package....
Rural and small-state voters were the big winners on an absolute and on a per capita basis, even though it was big states and urban areas that have delivered Congress and the White House to Democrats. Of the top ten earmarking senators, only Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.; $77 million solo; $235 combined), represents a large state and only three of the top ten are blue states. In the top 20, only six blue states are represented.
Bernard Madoff is seeking to keep a $7 million Manhattan penthouse and an additional $62 million in assets, saying they are unrelated to the fraud that authorities say cost victims more than $50 billion. In court papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Madoff and his lawyer claim the apartment, $45 million in municipal bonds and $17 million more in a separate account all belong to Madoff's wife, Ruth.Of course they're unrelated. That's what Wall Street says as well when questioned on bonuses or boondoggles.
The bonds in an account held by Ruth Madoff at COHMAD Securities Corp. and about $17 million held by her in a Wachovia Bank account "are unrelated to the alleged Madoff fraud and only Ruth Madoff has a beneficial interest in these assets," Bernard Madoff and lawyer Ira Sorkin said, according to the papers.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military could have kicked in doors to raid a suspected terrorist cell in the United States without a warrant under a Bush-era legal memo the Justice Department made public on Monday.
The memo, from October 23, 2001, also said constitutional free-speech protections and a prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure could take a back seat to military needs in fighting terrorism inside the country.
It was one of nine previously undisclosed memos and legal opinions which shed light on former U.S. President George W. Bush's legal guidance as he launched a war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks.
Lott: "By the way if you don't have these delays you end up with the stimulus bill, nobody read, nobody knew what was in it. It raises spending, it's gonna raise taxes, it's gonna wind up cuttin' defense. This is good?
Matthews: Well, it's better than what your crowd left us with. We got the DOW dropping down to 6000, based on the economic policies of the last 8 years. I wouldn't brag.
Oh snap.
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The 50 vote strategy
If this is the only way it can happen, then so be it:
President Obama's budget director said the White House would consider using a Senate procedural tactic so that only 50 votes would be required to pass major healthcare and energy reforms.
Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration would prefer not to use the budget reconciliation process to push through its package. But he added: "We have to keep everything on the table. We want to get these…. important things done this year." Orszag called healthcare in particular "the key to our fiscal future."
Orszag made the comments on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
Because they can not be filibustered, budget reconciliations only require 50 votes to pass the Senate. Democrats hold strong majorities in Congress, but still come up short of the 60 votes necessary in the Senate to end debate, which makes it easier for Republicans to block legislation. House rules in comparison make it harder for the minority party to stop bills.
Still, using budget reconciliation to pass policy proposals is controversial, even among some Democrats who believe doing so strains Senate rules and tradition.
The Obama blueprint calls for major changes in both energy and healthcare policies that is likely to engender significant opposition from Republicans and business lobbies. The reforms are expect to win widespread support from Democrats and more left-leaning constituencies.
The budget plan calls for a cap on carbon emissions, for example, and projects $645 billion in revenues from an auction of pollution permits that a variety of business groups, including oil companies, large manufacturers and utilities, would have to purchase.
On healthcare, the plan calls for a $634 billion reserve fund to pay for a first step on healthcare reform.
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Latest stimulus lie courtesy Faux News
Megyn Kelly: It's a super railroad, of sorts — a line that will deliver customers straight from Disney, we kid you not, to the doorstep of the moonlight bunny ranch brothel in Nevada. I say, to the moonlight Bunny Ranch brothel in Nevada. So should your tax dollars be paying for these kinds of projects? […]
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ): The majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Harry Reid has fought for this publicly and is committed to this project, even in the face of criticism. … If this is something that is truly the priority of the majority leader of the US senate, it's pretty late in the day, Megyn.
ThinkProgress was unable to find such an earmark in the omnibus spending bill.
Ironically, at the end of the pathetically ill-informed segment, Kelly asked how politicians can be held accountable for these mythical boondoggles; Franks replied with praise for Fox News: "Fortunately, people like yourself and Fox News are a tremendous help in that regard because they tell the people — you know, sunlight has a way of being an accountability all by itself."
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Kyl's earmark hypocrisy: requested $118 million for earmarks in budget, but railed against them in stimulus: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/02/kyl-earmarks-hypocrisy/
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Yes, this has been mentioned before and it bears repeating
Here is a SHOCKER regarding the holy trinity of American hobbies (religion, wingnut politics and pornography). It turns out that conservative Jesus Goblins are using up all of America's precious porn reserves. A new study proves the "red states" consume so much (gay and interracial) naked sex media, it's crazy! But is there another, hidden angle to this "Wingnuts Love the PORN" journalistic revelation? Yes!
The evidence that McCain/Palin-supporting gay-marriage-banning church-going "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behavior"-believing Americans are the biggest consumers of pornography comes from a "new nationwide study of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider."
These people are paying for pornography, on the Internet.
They are absolute idiots.
The Internet is about 97.8% porn. It is impossible to avoid it. Children must be kept away from computers, lest they click upon some innocent smiley-face graphic that inevitably leads to "Adult Friend Finder."
But if you've ever wondered who actually pays to see what most people spend all day at work trying to avoid, lest they be fired during this awful Greatest Depression, now you know: Sarah Palin supporters, jesus goblins and other Red State fools.
Utah is the nation's biggest buyer of porno "subscriptions."
Red Staters consume the most porn [ABC News]
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Oxycontin addict, taste tester of young Dominican boys, and leader of the Republic party, Constitutional expert Lush Limpballs doesn't know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution:
We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. [Applause] We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life. [Applause] Liberty, Freedom. [Applause] And the pursuit of happiness. [Applause] Those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault. [Applause]
Ground control to fat assed blowhard: It's is the Declaration of Independence — and not the Constitution — that guarantees man's inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It's not like his audience is going to know any difference.
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WASHINGTON — President Obama sent a secret letter to Russia's president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/washington/03prexy.html?_r=1
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