Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Headlines - Tuesday September 21

 
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Harley Farger, a leading Delaware masturbator and planner of the Million Masturbators March, said it was difficult to organize masturbators "because they're used to acting alone."
 
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A standard right wing talking point is that tax cuts for the rich and corporations create jobs.

This is, actually, true. They create jobs overseas.

The tax cuts' two bills, in 2001 and 2003 – changed laws so that personal income tax rates were reduced, exemptions for the Alternative Minimum Tax increased, and dividend and capital gains taxes also cut.

Yet in the debate, it seems of no moment to either side whether the tax cuts were effective in achieving their goal of spurring business investment and making the US economy more competitive.

Our own examination of US non-residential investment indicates that the reduction in capital gains tax rates failed to spur US business investment and failed to improve US economic competitiveness.

The 2000s – that is, the period immediately following the Bush tax cuts – were the weakest decade in US postwar history for real non-residential capital investment.

Not only were the 2000s by far the weakest period, but the tax cuts did not even curtail the secular slowdown in the growth of business structures.

http://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/tax-cuts-rich-create-jobs-outside-us

The logic of this is simple enough. If you have money to invest, you're going to invest it where it'll return the most. Right now and in the past couple decades that is either in leveraged financial games, or it is in economies which are growing fast and have low costs. The US does not have high growth compared to China or Brazil or many other developing countries. It has high costs compared to those countries as well.

If you can build a factory overseas which produces the same goods for less, meaning more profit for you, why would you build it in the US?

Until that question is adequately answered, by which I mean "until it's worth investing in the US", most of the discretionary money of the rich will either go into useless speculative activities like the housing and credit bubbles, which don't create real growth in the US, or they will go overseas.

There are a number of ways this question can be answered.

Continue reading »

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Dick's letter to the editor:

I think I have this figured out now.
 
The wealthy in this nation have come to the realization over the past twenty or so years they no longer need an expensive 'middle class' in this country to build their cars, staff their factories or write their programs.  Lesser minions in third world countries are eager to do those things for far, far less money. 
 
So what's to be done if one still needs one's toilets cleaned, limos driven and gardens tended?  Well why not simply reduce all the riff-raff to gardeners, chauffeurs and char-persons?  Take away their high-paying jobs…and those expensive social programs like welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, social security, Medicaid and Medicare.   Starve as many as possible into submission and terrify the remainder.  Bend them – nay, break them – to the will of the elite.
 
But who among the disaffected would be so crazed for power – and so insanely greedy for a bit of money – as to ignore the interests of all but themselves and eagerly abet such a diabolical undertaking?  Oh, I know…ask the Republicans what they're doing to amuse themselves whilst no longer in power.
  
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"The Bush bastards broke the law and what they did was disgusting and terrible and degrading." - Charles Fried, Reagan's Solicitor General, upset with the BBs for their use of torture. Link
 
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Very nice. Mama Rose

upstaging Gypsy?

"There will be high security tonight when Sarah Palin shows up to watch daughter Bristol perform on Dancing with the Stars," TMZ reports.

Most interesting: Security has been told if there is a breach, Sarah is a "higher priority than Bristol."

Of course Sarah Palin must be protected at the expense of her daughter. After all, she's the one who gets paid $100K for her word salads. Bristol only pulls down a paltry $30K.

I suspect Mama Grizzly wouldn't hesitate to use grandbaby Tripp as a human shield.

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Exhausted lady sticks it to Obama.

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The Obamas attended Christian religious services at a Washington church yesterday, wreaking Sharia terror on the modest God-fearing congregants. Perhaps President Obama wants fewer Americans to think he's Muslim. Will you take the bait?

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Stack of newspapers

It's an example of how stupid our national discourse has become. On September 11, the Portland Press Herald in Maine ran a front page story on Eid al Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. It was the worst thing ever, according to some readers, and editor Richard Connor felt the need to issue a front-page apology the next day.

We made a news decision on Friday that offended many readers and we sincerely apologize for it.

Many saw Saturday's front-page story and photo regarding the local observance of the end of Ramadan as offensive, particularly on the day, September 11, when our nation and the world were paying tribute to those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks nine years ago.

We have acknowledged that we erred by at least not offering balance to the story and its prominent position on the front page.

This struck a lot of people as crazy. In fact, if covering Eid on 9/11 could, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered a mistake, apologizing for it was a bigger one. Coverage of peaceful Muslims must now be "balanced" with coverage of violent Muslims? That's a pretty offensive stance. Connor now claims he was answering complaints that he didn't cover 9/11 at all, but the opening paragraphs of the apology suggests the complaints were about Muslims in the paper on 9/11 -- as if they're real Americans and not outsiders who all share responsibility for the worst terrorist attack in American history. In fact, a lot of people took it that way, which is probably why Connor took to NPR's On The Media to defend his editorial decision to apologize.
Keep reading:
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2010/09/wedge-issue-becomes-too-hot-to-use.html

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God's Gentle People™ at the Catholic charity Knights of Columbus have donated more to fight marriage equality than it has allocated for its own food bank program.

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The voters of Louisiana are clearly unconcerned with the admitted hooker patronage of "sanctity of marriage" defender, conservative Christian, and serial adulterer Sen. David "Diaper Boy" Vitter. As one of the Senate's chief sponsors of the (failed) Federal Marriage Amendment, Vitter called the banning of same-sex marriage "the most important issue" before Congress. He also said that gay marriage would wreak a devastation on Louisiana comparable to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And then he pulled $500 from the ATM, put on his diaper, and called Mistress Kandi.

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The Catholic News Agency announced today that all Catholics in Minnesota will be receiving a DVD and a letter from their bishops urging them to opposing same-sex marriage.

Will there be one urging them to insist they stop raping children?

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Creepy QOTD

"Palin is operating on a different plane, hovering higher than a mere celebrity, more buoyant than an average politician." Mark Halperin

Really? An unserious grifter is on a higher plane? Then operating on a higher plane is way, way, way overrated.

Seriously, elevating Palin with this kind of starburst talk is dangerous for America. She is utterly unqualified to hold any office or determine the direction of any policy. Yet by stroking her this way, the superficial nonsense trumps her lack of qualifications.

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This isn't helping, Mr. President.

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Why would a media savvy candidate like Christine O'Donnell blow off a coveted opportunity to appear on the Sunday political shows? Could it be because her lawyers warned her against risking incriminating herself by discussing on-air an ethics watchdog group's charge that she embezzled campaign funds?

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The pope told the British press that pedophilia, which he did so much to cover up, is an illness which robs people of their free will. So that's all right then. He said that his priority is to help the victims (not the priests, victims though they are of this horrible free-will-robbing illness) recover and "rediscover too their faith in the message of Christ." Don't know why he thinks they lost it; they weren't the ones raping children, they were the children being raped.

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Tony Perkins - smearing gays and allies alike

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on repealing DADT.

"Well, those [countries] that do [allow gays to serve openly], they're the ones that participate in parades, they don't fight wars to keep the nation and the world free."

It's one thing to be a homophobe and quite another to be a lying dick.  In fact…

Great Britain and Australia, two countries that have contributed significant numbers of soldiers to the war in Iraq and are close allies of the US, both allow gays to serve openly. Israel's military also permits gay and lesbian troops in its ranks, as do NATO countries including Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and France, all of which have forces in Afghanistan. Because at the Values Voter Summit, maligning the military forces of key American allies like Israel, Great Britain, and Australia is acceptable as long as it serves the greater goal of denigrating gays and lesbians.

Perkins, just another right-wing whack job intent on never allowing facts to get in the way of a bigoted rant.

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Marc Perkel - letter to the editor

Republicans are holding tax cuts for everyone hostage to get more tax cuts for millionaires hoping that the Democrats will give in. I'd rather see all the tax cuts expire than to go further into debt to fund tax cuts for the rich.

The poor and middle class are getting very little in tax cuts as it is and whatever we get will have to be paid back someday because we have to borrow money to pay for the rich. So if the rich get a tax cut the middle class really doesn't. We get a few hundred bucks while they get hundreds of thousands.

So I say let them all expire. I'll give up my trivial cut just to make sure the rich don't get theirs. We are already trillions in debt from these cuts and we still have 2 wars we are paying for. Americans need to feel the cost of their choices so that we don't keep making the same mistakes and show some fiscal responsibility.

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I wonder what else might be found in the Iraq PM's office? BBC

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Nicholas Kristoff has written a very nice column this week in the Times. He takes the theme of journalistic balance and twists it like a pretzel to show its ugly side. I can only quote part, so I'll do the Muslim–Christian opening. But do click through; his cleverness and insight will delight.

Many Americans have suggested that more moderate Muslims should stand up to extremists, speak out for tolerance, and apologize for sins committed by their brethren.

That's reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I'm going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.

He then goes on to tell about his interaction with the editor of the the story of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald. Seems they published a "good Muslim" story on the front page, and all hell broke loose (so to speak); oops, the date was last Sept 11. Balance; gotta add more balance.

He ends with a serious point, one I share. Yes, there are horrid Muslims in the world — "theocratic mullahs oppressing people in Iran; girls kept out of school in Afghanistan in the name of religion," etc. — but there are millions of gentle Muslims as well, literally millions.

It's in fact a gentle religion; more about practice than orthodoxy (how refreshing). And that practice is prayer, five times a day, every day of your life, in which you acknowledge the primacy of an Other and humble yourself before it, again literally.

Kristoff appreciates this as well:

I'm sickened when I hear such gentle souls lumped in with Qaeda terrorists, and when I hear the faith they hold sacred excoriated and mocked. To them and to others smeared, I apologize.

As should we all, sir. Thank you.

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Athenae's pissed ...

 
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In the second place, in the second paragraph, really. You're really going to tell starving children to go blow because you're mad about your taxes. That's a thing you're going to do. The starving children, natch, having all kinds of influence in Congress, given how everybody's falling all over themselves to help THEM. Those are the people who can do exactly dick about your tax sitch, so I'm sure your brave moral stand will SO TOTALLY get noticed by our decision makers. Shit, stop giving money to politicians if you don't like how they behave, but Toys for Tots did nothing to you to deserve your contempt, and you're doing plenty to earn mine.
 
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Are we at "We suck, but we suck a LOT less" yet?
 
God knows the Democrats are awful. They're cowardly, they can't frame an argument worth shit, they're every bit as much in the pockets of corporations and Wall Street as the Republicans are, and they regard their base with scorn and disdain.

If the Republicans were normal human beings, the "There's no difference" argument would be a no-brainer. I've been voting since 1976 and I am sick and tired of voting for people who I know even as I hit the "X" on the non-verifiable Sequoia voting machine we use here in my hometown will sell me out for a corporate nickel.

But Jesus H. Christ....what are we supposed to do when the alternative is what Rachel Maddow reported on from the Values Voters Summit:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/09/are-we-at-we-suck-but-we-suck-lot-less.html
 
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If they really gave a shit about budget deficits
 
The Bush tax cuts would be allowed to expire. But you would go far and wide to find a politician who is willing to consider allowing the tax cuts expire.

You might recall that the reason why the tax cuts were set to expire in the first place was because they would have completely shattered the long-term federal budget if they were made permanent. The party of the Confederacy figured that they could make them permanent later. But even though they controlled the Congress completely up to 2006 and the White House to 2008, they couldn't ram it through into law.

You also will not find a politician who is willing to tell the truth, and that is this:

The Federal budget will never be slashed enough to balance the budget with the Bush tax cuts in force. The Republicans will never stand for the defense budget cuts necessary to get there and the Democrats will never stand for cutting Medicare (and neither will the older Teabaggers).

So if we are going to ever balance the Federal budget, the tax receipts have to equal the spending. And if that means taxes have to go up, well, so be it.

It is time that people, especially the Right, grew up and realized that shit has to be paid for.
 
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rite-inn vot3.
 
America's first-grade teacher, Lisa Murkowski, just wants to teach Alaskans to spell her dumb last name so she can try to beat hair-cheeked teabagger Joe Miller. But it seems her campaign can't spell Murkowski either, according to the screen shot from one of her teevee commercials. [Ben Smith]
 
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Family Research Council racistly implies Sarah Palin's a 'cheerleader'    

Somebody tell Tony Perkins that Michelle Malkin said cheerleaders are DEMOCRATS.

After snowbilly grifter Sarah Palin's lame performance at the "Value Voters" pretend straw poll in Iowa, America's Christian Moral Majority began washing their hands of the Wasilla scam artist. The actual leader of the Family Research Council went so far as to say Palin "maybe" isn't a viable candidate for anything. But she could function as an effective wingnut "cheerleader," which is a completely racist/sexist demeaning thing to say about the only qualified person in America to do anything, based purely on her experience in quitting her only elected statewide office and brilliantly figuring out how to get pregnant and have a bunch of kids. READ MORE »

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Ain't Corporatocracy Grand? 

I'm so tired of the bullshit meme going around that now is not the time to raise taxes on the job providing small business owners. It's a three card monte game and guess who's getting screwed?

Fun with facts:
Of all the small business income filers in 2009, only 1.9 percent were in the top two tiers which would be hit by the Obama tax plan.

Seriously.

See also: GOPers Back 'Small' Biz Like Bechtel And PriceWaterhouse

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Cat food, baby!!!

Paul Krugman:

[W]hen the tax fight is over, one way or another, you can be sure that the people currently defending the incomes of the elite will go back to demanding cuts in Social Security and aid to the unemployed. America must make hard choices, they'll say; we all have to be willing to make sacrifices. But when they say "we," they mean "you." Sacrifice is for the little people.
Meanwhile, back in D.C., the congresscritters will sit on their fat asses enjoying all their many perks and bribes while they make sure that their fortunes increase at the expense of the poorest among us.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Conservative policies are making us poor and poorer,

Who counts and who doesn't count? We hear so much about the "middle class" but rarely about the plight of the poor. And of course we hear again and again that the wealthy are "successful" and the "job-creators" who shouldn't be "punished" by being asked to give something back to the country that enabled their wealth. Conservative "market" thinking and Ayn Randian "the poor are losers" dehumanizing ideology has become pervasive and dominant as we transition from one-person-one-vote democracy to one-dollar-one-vote plutocracy. In this plutocratic environment the national discussion of tax cuts for the wealthy saturates the corporate media, while the 44 million of us in poverty now are barely mentioned and count for little.

H/T Seeing the Forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Right now, there are a lot of angry people on the left who are pissed at the President and his administration because a group of undisciplined thugs - I will not call them Soldiers - went on a killing spree in Afghanistan. They deliberately killed civilians, they collected trophies, including a human skull, and now they are facing charges.

This is heinous behavior, and it needs to be punished, swiftly and severely. But this President is not at fault. He assumed command of a force that had been stretched too thin long before he got there, and there are no quick fixes for what ails our military. And the left needs to remember who to be mad at over it.

AT JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASH. The U.S. soldiers hatched a plan as simple as it was savage: to randomly target and kill an Afghan civilian, and to get away with it.

For weeks, according to Army charging documents, rogue members of a platoon from the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, floated the idea. Then, one day last winter, a solitary Afghan man approached them in the village of La Mohammed Kalay. The "kill team" activated the plan.

One soldier created a ruse that they were under attack, tossing a fragmentary grenade on the ground. Then others opened fire.

According to charging documents, the unprovoked, fatal attack on Jan. 15 was the start of a months-long shooting spree against Afghan civilians that resulted in some of the grisliest allegations against American soldiers since the U.S. invasion in 2001. Members of the platoon have been charged with dismembering and photographing corpses, as well as hoarding a skull and other human bones.

The subsequent investigation has raised accusations about whether the military ignored warnings that the out-of-control soldiers were committing atrocities. The father of one soldier said he repeatedly tried to alert the Army after his son told him about the first killing, only to be rebuffed.

Two more slayings would follow. Military documents allege that five members of the unit staged a total of three murders in Kandahar province between January and May. Seven other soldiers have been charged with crimes related to the case, including hashish use, attempts to impede the investigation and a retaliatory gang assault on a private who blew the whistle.

Army officials are loathe to ascribe a motive for the behavior, and they haven't offered any explanations for how the attacks could have continued without anyone up the chain becoming aware of the severe problems in the unit. They refuse to comment beyond the charges, citing the ongoing investigation as the reason they can't elaborate.

They can't, but I can. I have been bitching for years that this sort of thing was coming down the pike because we are losing leadership that can't be readily replaced .

Here's the thing...in order to make the  recruiting numbers in an all-volunteer force during a time of two wars, both lacking popular support among the American public, a lot of waivers were issued to troops who would have been u-turned out the recruiting office door without ever being offered a chair and engaged in conversation before George Bush went and made a huge mess out of Mesopotamia.

By 2006, 17% of all new recruits only got in because they were granted waivers.  That means they might have had a criminal record, or they might have a medical reason for the waiver.  The "moral conduct" waiver was used to allow gang members and felons into the ranks to be trained in urban warfare.

Seventeen percent of 80,000 is 13,600. That is almost an entire Division of waivered troops every single year for the last five years.

But it gets worse...not only did we take a bunch of hinky troops, there was no one to lead them. The lack of leadership at the top has only gotten worse since I started beating the drum four years ago and there were 3500 officer billets unfilled in the Army, and 11,000 in the Reserves.

Here is what I said about that all those vacant officer billets back then:

A depleted Officer Corps is ill equipped to maintain discipline and order in a hinky command. How many PFC Steven Green's do we want to read about? How many Lindie England's? Those type problems can only propagate under this game plan.

I wonder if any of the soldiers who are currently charged with murdering civilians were granted moral conduct waivers to get into the Army in the first place? What about the officers who led them? Were they mediocre at best? Would they have washed out of OCS a few years ago? These are valid questions and the Armed Services Committees and an Inspector General or two  need to be asking them.

Our military is broken. Repairing it is going to take a long time, and a whole bunch of those hinky, waivered troops are going to have to be culled from the ranks. Preferably we will find and mitigate the problem soldiers in the future before they are charged with capital crimes instead of after.  

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