June 03, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
MANIFEST DESTINY
Throughout our history there has been a belief that Americans are special. We can make up rules because we are special. There was the doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" that said it was the destiny of Americans to take over the continent. Never mind those pesky Mexicans and Indians. We created the "Monroe Doctrine" that said only the U. S. could dictate policy in this hemisphere. I doubt there was consultation with countries in the Caribbean or Latin America. George W. Bush and his administration ran with the ideas of the PNAC group who advocated a "project for a new American century." Bush and company have used the belief in American exceptionalism to preemptively attack a country and to torture people. This article by William T. Vollmann is at www.latimes.com:
We are Americans, and so until recently, we knew that we were the best. Because so many people wanted to be us, we could act as we pleased — and we did, because we were the Great Exception; we were America the Blessed. Hence our complacent belief, so long borne out by the facts, that American movies and American brands would always sell. Hence also our comforting faith that the Kyoto Protocol did not apply to us, so that we could spew out all the greenhouse gases we liked, and use a pig's share of the world's resources. (Just this week, I learned of the U.S.' new plan for energy independence: coal plants, subsidized for the next 25 years.)
Being America the Perfect, we invented the doctrine, even before 9/11, that we could seize war criminals in any part of the globe and whisk them off to The Hague. Of course, we insisted that should we ever commit war crimes, we would remain immune to prosecution in that court. Well, after all, how could Americans do any wrong?
THE CONTRAST
I have been disappointed in Democrats on many occasions. Initial support for this despicable war, voting for bankruptcy "reform," supporting globalization, and foot dragging on impeaching and removing Bush and Cheney are all major disappointments. But there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans, despite the rhetoric of people like Ralph Nader. Life will be better with Democrats in charge, not only for those of us in the United States, but for people around the world. We have a slate of Republican candidates who are fine with the war, fine with torture, who don't want to do anything about global climate change, who think we aren't unequal enough. They will continue the policies of George W. Bush, no matter how they try to dress them up. This article by E. J. Dionne is linked at www.working for change.com:
So when Democratic presidential candidates get together, they argue about who has the best health care plan. When Republicans have a big discussion, it's about torture and who'll use it when.
OK, OK, Republicans had their chat about torture in one debate in response to a hypothetical question. Still, the contrast points to one of the strangest qualities of the 2008 presidential campaign: Our two political parties and their candidates are living in parallel universes. It is as if they were running for president in two separate countries. Their televised debates next week will be productions as different from each other as "American Idol" is from "P.T.I."
The parties do have some things in common -- Iraq and the economy are concerns for both. But beyond these two issues, what matters most to Republican voters is hugely different from what matters most to Democrats. The polarization between our parties now extends to the very definition of our country, its problems and the stakes in the next elections.
Showing posts with label Republicans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republicans. Show all posts
Sunday, May 13, 2007
May 13, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
MORE OF THE SAME
In the recent Republican debate, the candidates assiduously avoided mentioning George W. Bush. They talked about Ronald Reagan instead. I think Reagan was a terrible president, but his name is magic in right wing circles. But, while they didn't mention George W. Bush, they also didn't indicate any real change in direction. They would keep us in the quagmire in Iraq. They would do nothing about national health care or protecting the middle class. They would do nothing for the working class. Their solution to illegal immigration is a wall on the border with Mexico. We can't count on them to address global warming. And what would they do about the massive corruption in the Bush administration? Since they have the same ideology, we could probably count on more crony capitalism and scandals. This column by Frank Rich is at www.welcome-to-pottersville.com:
The candidates mentioned Reagan’s name 19 times, the current White House occupant’s once. Much as the Republicans hope that the Gipper can still be a panacea for all their political ills, so they want to believe that if only President Bush would just go away and take his rock-bottom approval rating and equally unpopular war with him, all of their problems would be solved. But it could be argued that the Iraq fiasco, disastrous to American interests as it is, actually masks the magnitude of the destruction this presidency has visited both on the country in general and the G.O.P. in particular.
By my rough, conservative calculation — feel free to add — there have been corruption, incompetence, and contracting or cronyism scandals in these cabinet departments: Defense, Education, Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. I am not counting State, whose deputy secretary, a champion of abstinence-based international AIDS funding, resigned last month in a prostitution scandal, or the General Services Administration, now being investigated for possibly steering federal favors to Republican Congressional candidates in 2006. Or the Office of Management and Budget, whose chief procurement officer was sentenced to prison in the Abramoff fallout. I will, however, toss in a figure that reveals the sheer depth of the overall malfeasance: no fewer than four inspectors general, the official watchdogs charged with investigating improprieties in each department, are themselves under investigation simultaneously — an all-time record.
WE NEED GOVERNMENT SERVICES
If you work in an office, you've probably had some parent selling something for their kids for some school project. It's something like candy bars or, recently, magnetic license plates. It's getting almost ludicrous how underfunded schools and other parts of government are these days thanks to the anti-tax mania that swept the country a couple of decades ago. Our basic infrastructure, things like bridges, highways, sewer and water systems, are in bad shape because there isn't enough money to fix or rebuild them. The private sector can do some things better than government, but the government can do many things better than the private sector. This article by Ezra Klein is at www.latimes.com:
How has this come to pass? As the old adage goes, when the gods want to punish you, they give you what you want. Conservatives talk a lot about government failure, but over the last few years, it's really we who have failed government, depriving it of the revenue, the conscientious management and the attention needed for it to succeed. Undercapitalize a pizza joint and your customers will taste the poor ingredients, become frustrated by the long waits and grow repulsed by the grimy environs. Staff it with your unmotivated drinking buddies and the service will falter, as will the quality of the product. It's no way to run a pizza place, and it's certainly no way to run a government.
But that's exactly what we've done. With Proposition 13 and the famous California tax revolt, and with presidents whose entire domestic programs amounted to mindless tax-cutting, and with Congresses that have been happy to pass cuts and stack deficits, we have systematically deprived the government of the revenues it needs to provide basic services, even as we've come to need it to do so much more.
The Bush administration has only added to the problem. The president once said: "I was campaigning in Chicago, and somebody asked me, 'Is there ever any time where the budget might have to go into deficit?' I said only if we were at war or had a national emergency or were in recession. Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta." He's right. Not only have we spent more than $500 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan and untold more on homeland security measures, but we've created, in Medicare Part D, the most expensive new entitlement since President Johnson signed the Great Society into existence. We've also increased education spending through the No Child Left Behind Act.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
MORE OF THE SAME
In the recent Republican debate, the candidates assiduously avoided mentioning George W. Bush. They talked about Ronald Reagan instead. I think Reagan was a terrible president, but his name is magic in right wing circles. But, while they didn't mention George W. Bush, they also didn't indicate any real change in direction. They would keep us in the quagmire in Iraq. They would do nothing about national health care or protecting the middle class. They would do nothing for the working class. Their solution to illegal immigration is a wall on the border with Mexico. We can't count on them to address global warming. And what would they do about the massive corruption in the Bush administration? Since they have the same ideology, we could probably count on more crony capitalism and scandals. This column by Frank Rich is at www.welcome-to-pottersville.com:
The candidates mentioned Reagan’s name 19 times, the current White House occupant’s once. Much as the Republicans hope that the Gipper can still be a panacea for all their political ills, so they want to believe that if only President Bush would just go away and take his rock-bottom approval rating and equally unpopular war with him, all of their problems would be solved. But it could be argued that the Iraq fiasco, disastrous to American interests as it is, actually masks the magnitude of the destruction this presidency has visited both on the country in general and the G.O.P. in particular.
By my rough, conservative calculation — feel free to add — there have been corruption, incompetence, and contracting or cronyism scandals in these cabinet departments: Defense, Education, Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. I am not counting State, whose deputy secretary, a champion of abstinence-based international AIDS funding, resigned last month in a prostitution scandal, or the General Services Administration, now being investigated for possibly steering federal favors to Republican Congressional candidates in 2006. Or the Office of Management and Budget, whose chief procurement officer was sentenced to prison in the Abramoff fallout. I will, however, toss in a figure that reveals the sheer depth of the overall malfeasance: no fewer than four inspectors general, the official watchdogs charged with investigating improprieties in each department, are themselves under investigation simultaneously — an all-time record.
WE NEED GOVERNMENT SERVICES
If you work in an office, you've probably had some parent selling something for their kids for some school project. It's something like candy bars or, recently, magnetic license plates. It's getting almost ludicrous how underfunded schools and other parts of government are these days thanks to the anti-tax mania that swept the country a couple of decades ago. Our basic infrastructure, things like bridges, highways, sewer and water systems, are in bad shape because there isn't enough money to fix or rebuild them. The private sector can do some things better than government, but the government can do many things better than the private sector. This article by Ezra Klein is at www.latimes.com:
How has this come to pass? As the old adage goes, when the gods want to punish you, they give you what you want. Conservatives talk a lot about government failure, but over the last few years, it's really we who have failed government, depriving it of the revenue, the conscientious management and the attention needed for it to succeed. Undercapitalize a pizza joint and your customers will taste the poor ingredients, become frustrated by the long waits and grow repulsed by the grimy environs. Staff it with your unmotivated drinking buddies and the service will falter, as will the quality of the product. It's no way to run a pizza place, and it's certainly no way to run a government.
But that's exactly what we've done. With Proposition 13 and the famous California tax revolt, and with presidents whose entire domestic programs amounted to mindless tax-cutting, and with Congresses that have been happy to pass cuts and stack deficits, we have systematically deprived the government of the revenues it needs to provide basic services, even as we've come to need it to do so much more.
The Bush administration has only added to the problem. The president once said: "I was campaigning in Chicago, and somebody asked me, 'Is there ever any time where the budget might have to go into deficit?' I said only if we were at war or had a national emergency or were in recession. Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta." He's right. Not only have we spent more than $500 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan and untold more on homeland security measures, but we've created, in Medicare Part D, the most expensive new entitlement since President Johnson signed the Great Society into existence. We've also increased education spending through the No Child Left Behind Act.
Friday, May 04, 2007
May 04, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WHAT A SORRY SPECTACLE
I didn't watch the Republican debate from Ronald Reagan's library in Simi Valley. Nausea is something I try to avoid. I decided long ago that any working class person who votes for any Republican needs serious therapy. And it isn't just economics. These clowns would keep us in Iraq forever and maybe even expand our occupation to other parts of the Middle East like Iran. They would reverse a woman's right to choose. It makes you wonder how long it would be before they would have American women wearing burkas. They will do absolutely nothing constructive in protecting the middle class. A class of serfs is really to their liking. I once saw a book called Neanderthal when I was browsing at Barnes and Noble and, naturally, Republicans jumped to mind. But the book was about the original Neanderthals. This column by Robert L. Borosage is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
What do these monochromatic candidates offer? Without exception, war and more war. No exit from Iraq. New confrontation with Iran, with only former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani mumbling a hint of caution. For former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, brandishing his newborn wing-nut credentials, it's war not just against al Qaeda, Iraq and Iran, but against Shia and Sunni, Hezbollah and Hamas and more. Wartime for America.
All this is done while invoking Ronald Reagan's sunny optimism. But they've forgotten Reagan's basic caution.
While he committed serial follies in the Middle East, Reagan never got caught in a losing war. When the Marines he fecklessly dispatched to Lebanon were blown up, he cut and ran, invading hapless Grenada to cover his retreat. And when the USSR's Mikhail Gorbachev sued for peace, Reagan ignored the CIA, which called it a trick, spurned the neocons and went to the negotiating table.
TRUTH 1, REPUBLICANS 0
Around the same time as the Neanderthals were debating another debate was taking place between Bill Kristol, one of the major architects of modern conservatism, and Robert Kuttner. Kristol trotted out the standard lies about the great world we have thanks to the policies of Ronald Reagan, et al. Kuttner pointed out that the economy actually grew more under Presidents Carter and Clinton. We're seeing Gilded Age inequality now thanks to the policies of Reagan and the Bushes. This column by Isaiah J. Poole is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
In this universe, the conservatism of Ronald Reagan - whose library served as the stage for the debate - has ushered in what Kristol called "very impressive economic growth over the last quarter century" that not only benefited America but much of the world. Countries like China and India, by implementing Reagan's formula of supply-side economics, deregulation and open markets "brought hundreds of millions of people out of poverty."
In foreign policy, meanwhile, neo-conservatism brought down the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War, and would have meant a successful Iraq war if it had not been for the twin evils of President Clinton's underfunding of the military and President Bush's management missteps.
This is, of course, not the world the rest of us live in, and so if the Republican candidates who were trying to sell themselves as Ronald Reagan 3.0 seemed a bit out of touch, it is because conservatism itself gets the real world wrong. How wrong was evident in the Kristol-Kuttner debate.
Kristol's rosy portrait of the economy under conservative government was easily refuted earlier at the conference by William E. Spriggs, the chairman of the economics department at Howard University. Kristol scoffed at "stagflation" and "70 percent marginal tax rates" under President Jimmy Carter, but according to government data compiled by Spriggs, job growth during the Carter administration was actually higher (3.1 percent) than under Reagan's two terms (2.1 percent). During the Clinton administration, job growth was 2.4 percent. Job growth during the terms of both George W. Bush and his father are well under 1 percent. Median family incomes, in constant dollars, rose faster under both Carter and Clinton than they did under Reagan and the two Bushes.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WHAT A SORRY SPECTACLE
I didn't watch the Republican debate from Ronald Reagan's library in Simi Valley. Nausea is something I try to avoid. I decided long ago that any working class person who votes for any Republican needs serious therapy. And it isn't just economics. These clowns would keep us in Iraq forever and maybe even expand our occupation to other parts of the Middle East like Iran. They would reverse a woman's right to choose. It makes you wonder how long it would be before they would have American women wearing burkas. They will do absolutely nothing constructive in protecting the middle class. A class of serfs is really to their liking. I once saw a book called Neanderthal when I was browsing at Barnes and Noble and, naturally, Republicans jumped to mind. But the book was about the original Neanderthals. This column by Robert L. Borosage is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
What do these monochromatic candidates offer? Without exception, war and more war. No exit from Iraq. New confrontation with Iran, with only former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani mumbling a hint of caution. For former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, brandishing his newborn wing-nut credentials, it's war not just against al Qaeda, Iraq and Iran, but against Shia and Sunni, Hezbollah and Hamas and more. Wartime for America.
All this is done while invoking Ronald Reagan's sunny optimism. But they've forgotten Reagan's basic caution.
While he committed serial follies in the Middle East, Reagan never got caught in a losing war. When the Marines he fecklessly dispatched to Lebanon were blown up, he cut and ran, invading hapless Grenada to cover his retreat. And when the USSR's Mikhail Gorbachev sued for peace, Reagan ignored the CIA, which called it a trick, spurned the neocons and went to the negotiating table.
TRUTH 1, REPUBLICANS 0
Around the same time as the Neanderthals were debating another debate was taking place between Bill Kristol, one of the major architects of modern conservatism, and Robert Kuttner. Kristol trotted out the standard lies about the great world we have thanks to the policies of Ronald Reagan, et al. Kuttner pointed out that the economy actually grew more under Presidents Carter and Clinton. We're seeing Gilded Age inequality now thanks to the policies of Reagan and the Bushes. This column by Isaiah J. Poole is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
In this universe, the conservatism of Ronald Reagan - whose library served as the stage for the debate - has ushered in what Kristol called "very impressive economic growth over the last quarter century" that not only benefited America but much of the world. Countries like China and India, by implementing Reagan's formula of supply-side economics, deregulation and open markets "brought hundreds of millions of people out of poverty."
In foreign policy, meanwhile, neo-conservatism brought down the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War, and would have meant a successful Iraq war if it had not been for the twin evils of President Clinton's underfunding of the military and President Bush's management missteps.
This is, of course, not the world the rest of us live in, and so if the Republican candidates who were trying to sell themselves as Ronald Reagan 3.0 seemed a bit out of touch, it is because conservatism itself gets the real world wrong. How wrong was evident in the Kristol-Kuttner debate.
Kristol's rosy portrait of the economy under conservative government was easily refuted earlier at the conference by William E. Spriggs, the chairman of the economics department at Howard University. Kristol scoffed at "stagflation" and "70 percent marginal tax rates" under President Jimmy Carter, but according to government data compiled by Spriggs, job growth during the Carter administration was actually higher (3.1 percent) than under Reagan's two terms (2.1 percent). During the Clinton administration, job growth was 2.4 percent. Job growth during the terms of both George W. Bush and his father are well under 1 percent. Median family incomes, in constant dollars, rose faster under both Carter and Clinton than they did under Reagan and the two Bushes.
Monday, April 02, 2007
April 02, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
REPUBLICANS OFFER NOTHING
One of the patterns emerging in the U. S. Attorneys firings is the effort by the Bush administration to suppress poor and minority voters. This has been a consistent Republican tactic, of course, but Republicans now have even more of an incentive. They offer absolutely nothing for working class and middle class voters. The Republican party is even more ostentatiously the party of big business and the rich than it ever was. Now they are also the party of eternal war. This article by Paul Krugman is at www.welcometopottersville.com:
But today’s Republicans can’t respond in any meaningful way to rising inequality, because their activists won’t let them. You could see the dilemma just this past Friday and Saturday, when almost all the G.O.P. presidential hopefuls traveled to Palm Beach to make obeisance to the Club for Growth, a supply-side pressure group dedicated to tax cuts and privatization.
The Republican Party’s adherence to an outdated ideology leaves it with big problems. It can’t offer domestic policies that respond to the public’s real needs. So how can it win elections?
The answer, for a while, was a combination of distraction and disenfranchisement.
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were themselves a massive, providential distraction; until then the public, realizing that Mr. Bush wasn’t the moderate he played in the 2000 election, was growing increasingly unhappy with his administration. And they offered many opportunities for further distractions. Rather than debating Democrats on the issues, the G.O.P. could denounce them as soft on terror. And do you remember the terror alert, based on old and questionable information, that was declared right after the 2004 Democratic National Convention?
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
I guess today our progressive talk radio station, KFPT, began a format switch to sports. I turned on the car radio this morning, wondering if I'd hear Stephanie Miller, and I heard something like dogs barking to Christmas music. I checked later on and weird sound effects continued. I have to wonder about the intelligence of the new owners. If you were going to play nonsense like this, why not keep Air America and other progressive programming on the air? I hope the new format really crashes because that will be karmic justice. I also hope that some astute radio programmer in Fresno will recognize the core audience built by KFPT since July, 2005, and put progressive talk radio back on the air in Fresno.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
REPUBLICANS OFFER NOTHING
One of the patterns emerging in the U. S. Attorneys firings is the effort by the Bush administration to suppress poor and minority voters. This has been a consistent Republican tactic, of course, but Republicans now have even more of an incentive. They offer absolutely nothing for working class and middle class voters. The Republican party is even more ostentatiously the party of big business and the rich than it ever was. Now they are also the party of eternal war. This article by Paul Krugman is at www.welcometopottersville.com:
But today’s Republicans can’t respond in any meaningful way to rising inequality, because their activists won’t let them. You could see the dilemma just this past Friday and Saturday, when almost all the G.O.P. presidential hopefuls traveled to Palm Beach to make obeisance to the Club for Growth, a supply-side pressure group dedicated to tax cuts and privatization.
The Republican Party’s adherence to an outdated ideology leaves it with big problems. It can’t offer domestic policies that respond to the public’s real needs. So how can it win elections?
The answer, for a while, was a combination of distraction and disenfranchisement.
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were themselves a massive, providential distraction; until then the public, realizing that Mr. Bush wasn’t the moderate he played in the 2000 election, was growing increasingly unhappy with his administration. And they offered many opportunities for further distractions. Rather than debating Democrats on the issues, the G.O.P. could denounce them as soft on terror. And do you remember the terror alert, based on old and questionable information, that was declared right after the 2004 Democratic National Convention?
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
I guess today our progressive talk radio station, KFPT, began a format switch to sports. I turned on the car radio this morning, wondering if I'd hear Stephanie Miller, and I heard something like dogs barking to Christmas music. I checked later on and weird sound effects continued. I have to wonder about the intelligence of the new owners. If you were going to play nonsense like this, why not keep Air America and other progressive programming on the air? I hope the new format really crashes because that will be karmic justice. I also hope that some astute radio programmer in Fresno will recognize the core audience built by KFPT since July, 2005, and put progressive talk radio back on the air in Fresno.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
March 29, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE INCOME CHASM
Newly released tax data shows income disparities in the United States at their highest levels since 1928. The Bush administration tries to claim these disparities aren't due to their tax cuts--oh no--but to changes in technology. The top 300,000 income earners collectively made as much as the bottom 150 million of us. There's something very wrong with this picture. And it's not as though the living standards for most of us are rising. To the contrary, most of us are losing ground. This article by David Cay Johnston is at www.nytimes.com:
The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.
Prof. Emmanuel Saez, the University of California, Berkeley, economist who analyzed the Internal Revenue Service data with Prof. Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics, said such growing disparities were significant in terms of social and political stability.
“If the economy is growing but only a few are enjoying the benefits, it goes to our sense of fairness,” Professor Saez said. “It can have important political consequences.”
Last year, according to data from other sources, incomes for average Americans increased for the first time in several years. But because those at the top rely heavily on the stock market and business profits for their income, both of which were strong last year, it is likely that the disparities in 2005 are the same or larger now, Professor Saez said.
REPUBLICANS EFFORT TO SUPPRESS VOTE
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Then an amendment to the Constitution prohibited discriminating against anyone in the United States on the basis of race. But segregation continued until the 1960's. Dr. Martin Luther King and others led the way toward desegregation. But Republicans liked it better in the good old days when the votes of African-Americans and the poor could be suppressed. Some groups just don't like Republicans for some reason. The scandal that is exploding over the firing of U. S. Attorneys is very much tied to Republican efforts to suppress the votes of poor and minority voters. This article by Joseph D. Rich is at www.latimes.com:
Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.
It has notably shirked its legal responsibility to protect voting rights. From 2001 to 2006, no voting discrimination cases were brought on behalf of African American or Native American voters. U.S. attorneys were told instead to give priority to voter fraud cases, which, when coupled with the strong support for voter ID laws, indicated an intent to depress voter turnout in minority and poor communities.
At least two of the recently fired U.S. attorneys, John McKay in Seattle and David C. Iglesias in New Mexico, were targeted largely because they refused to prosecute voting fraud cases that implicated Democrats or voters likely to vote for Democrats.
This pattern also extended to hiring. In March 2006, Bradley Schlozman was appointed interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Two weeks earlier, the administration was granted the authority to make such indefinite appointments without Senate confirmation. That was too bad: A Senate hearing might have uncovered Schlozman's central role in politicizing the civil rights division during his three-year tenure.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE INCOME CHASM
Newly released tax data shows income disparities in the United States at their highest levels since 1928. The Bush administration tries to claim these disparities aren't due to their tax cuts--oh no--but to changes in technology. The top 300,000 income earners collectively made as much as the bottom 150 million of us. There's something very wrong with this picture. And it's not as though the living standards for most of us are rising. To the contrary, most of us are losing ground. This article by David Cay Johnston is at www.nytimes.com:
The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.
Prof. Emmanuel Saez, the University of California, Berkeley, economist who analyzed the Internal Revenue Service data with Prof. Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics, said such growing disparities were significant in terms of social and political stability.
“If the economy is growing but only a few are enjoying the benefits, it goes to our sense of fairness,” Professor Saez said. “It can have important political consequences.”
Last year, according to data from other sources, incomes for average Americans increased for the first time in several years. But because those at the top rely heavily on the stock market and business profits for their income, both of which were strong last year, it is likely that the disparities in 2005 are the same or larger now, Professor Saez said.
REPUBLICANS EFFORT TO SUPPRESS VOTE
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Then an amendment to the Constitution prohibited discriminating against anyone in the United States on the basis of race. But segregation continued until the 1960's. Dr. Martin Luther King and others led the way toward desegregation. But Republicans liked it better in the good old days when the votes of African-Americans and the poor could be suppressed. Some groups just don't like Republicans for some reason. The scandal that is exploding over the firing of U. S. Attorneys is very much tied to Republican efforts to suppress the votes of poor and minority voters. This article by Joseph D. Rich is at www.latimes.com:
Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.
It has notably shirked its legal responsibility to protect voting rights. From 2001 to 2006, no voting discrimination cases were brought on behalf of African American or Native American voters. U.S. attorneys were told instead to give priority to voter fraud cases, which, when coupled with the strong support for voter ID laws, indicated an intent to depress voter turnout in minority and poor communities.
At least two of the recently fired U.S. attorneys, John McKay in Seattle and David C. Iglesias in New Mexico, were targeted largely because they refused to prosecute voting fraud cases that implicated Democrats or voters likely to vote for Democrats.
This pattern also extended to hiring. In March 2006, Bradley Schlozman was appointed interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Two weeks earlier, the administration was granted the authority to make such indefinite appointments without Senate confirmation. That was too bad: A Senate hearing might have uncovered Schlozman's central role in politicizing the civil rights division during his three-year tenure.
Monday, March 26, 2007
March 26, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
DECLINE IN REPUBLICAN SUPPORT
I don't like the Republican party and I don't like conservatives, so it's welcome news that polls show a huge drop in Republican support. It's a party with very few accomplishments unless you want to consider the harm it's done to working people, to the Constitution, and to foreign policy. Bush is certainly the greatest example of that, but other Republican presidents like Nixon and Reagan and the first Bush also did considerable harm. This article by Paul Krugman is at www.welcometopottersville.com:
Right now the talk of the political chattering classes is a report from the Pew Research Center showing a precipitous decline in Republican support. In 2002 equal numbers of Americans identified themselves as Republicans and Democrats, but since then the Democrats have opened up a 15-point advantage.
Part of the Republican collapse surely reflects public disgust with the Bush administration. The gap between the parties will probably get even wider when — not if — more and worse tales of corruption and abuse of power emerge.
But polling data on the issues, from Pew and elsewhere, suggest that the G.O.P.’s problems lie as much with its ideology as with one man’s disastrous reign.
For the conservatives who run today’s Republican Party are devoted, above all, to the proposition that government is always the problem, never the solution. For a while the American people seemed to agree; but lately they’ve concluded that sometimes government is the solution, after all, and they’d like to see more of it.
WARMEST WINTER ON RECORD
Yeah, global warming is just hysteria from us on the left. It's just solar activity. It's a normal cycle of warming and cooling the earth experiences every few million years. I wonder what right-wing talking point we'll hear about a report that we've experienced the warmest winter on record. This is not an aberration. We've had some of the warmest temperatures on record in the past ten years. This article is at www.guardian.co.uk:
The world experienced its warmest period on record during this year's northern hemisphere winter, the US government said today.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report said the globally averaged combined land and sea surface temperature for December to February was the highest since records began in 1880.
During the three-month period, known as boreal winter, temperatures were above average worldwide, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and areas in central United States.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
DECLINE IN REPUBLICAN SUPPORT
I don't like the Republican party and I don't like conservatives, so it's welcome news that polls show a huge drop in Republican support. It's a party with very few accomplishments unless you want to consider the harm it's done to working people, to the Constitution, and to foreign policy. Bush is certainly the greatest example of that, but other Republican presidents like Nixon and Reagan and the first Bush also did considerable harm. This article by Paul Krugman is at www.welcometopottersville.com:
Right now the talk of the political chattering classes is a report from the Pew Research Center showing a precipitous decline in Republican support. In 2002 equal numbers of Americans identified themselves as Republicans and Democrats, but since then the Democrats have opened up a 15-point advantage.
Part of the Republican collapse surely reflects public disgust with the Bush administration. The gap between the parties will probably get even wider when — not if — more and worse tales of corruption and abuse of power emerge.
But polling data on the issues, from Pew and elsewhere, suggest that the G.O.P.’s problems lie as much with its ideology as with one man’s disastrous reign.
For the conservatives who run today’s Republican Party are devoted, above all, to the proposition that government is always the problem, never the solution. For a while the American people seemed to agree; but lately they’ve concluded that sometimes government is the solution, after all, and they’d like to see more of it.
WARMEST WINTER ON RECORD
Yeah, global warming is just hysteria from us on the left. It's just solar activity. It's a normal cycle of warming and cooling the earth experiences every few million years. I wonder what right-wing talking point we'll hear about a report that we've experienced the warmest winter on record. This is not an aberration. We've had some of the warmest temperatures on record in the past ten years. This article is at www.guardian.co.uk:
The world experienced its warmest period on record during this year's northern hemisphere winter, the US government said today.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report said the globally averaged combined land and sea surface temperature for December to February was the highest since records began in 1880.
During the three-month period, known as boreal winter, temperatures were above average worldwide, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and areas in central United States.
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