Sen. Maria Cantwell will be on Face the Nation Sunday morning, 8:30 am KIRO TV-7.
UPDATE:
Anybody who says that Sen. Cantwell isn’t a strong leader, didn’t just watch her segment facing off with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska on energy policy. Cantwell made no bones about what needs to be done: protect consumers from price gouging in the short term, while immediately and aggressively developing a long term energy infrastructure based on alternative technologies.
Oh… and it was comforting to see that even Murkowski thought the GOP’s proposed $100.00 tax credit was a joke.
GOP DIRTY TRICKS IN NEW ORLEANS MAYORAL ELECTION
The following statement was issued by Sharon J. Lettman, director of National Programs and Outreach for the People For the American Way Foundation (http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/):
“It was infuriating. Polling places had been moved at the last minute. Some were poorly marked. Poll commissioners demanded to see identification when the law does not require it. And there was an intimidating police presence around polling places in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.”
Sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? Republicans do this shit because they know they CAN’T WIN AN HONEST ELECTION.
ES & S MELTDOWN: TEXAS ELECTIONS DIRECTOR AUTHORIZES EMERGENCY PAPER BALLOTS, OTHER STATES COMPLAIN OF ‘COERCION’ AND ‘THREATS’
“On Monday, Texas Director of Elections Ann McGeehan sent a letter to all state Election Officials authorizing them to create ’emergency paper ballots’ in light of statewide failures by Election System & Software, Inc. (ES&S) to provide ballots in time for the state’s upcoming May 13 Runoff Elections, The BRAD BLOG has learned.
” … counties across the state do not yet have ballots and, in many cases, programming for their optical-scan and touch-screen voting machines. ES&S has contracts with more than 140 Texas counties.
“McGeehan has instructed officials to create and number their own paper ballots, secure boxes to store them in, and hire additional workers to manually hand count ballots as an emergency procedure to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation.
“The letter from McGeehan … was sent in response to complaints from officials around the state that ‘programming media or, in some cases, your ballots’ had not been received yet by officials.
“In a statement to the San Antonio’s Express-News this morning, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says, ‘It sure is exasperating …W e are looking at avenues to hold them responsible for this.’ …
The BRAD BLOG has also received statements from officials in other states who were still more direct in expressing their frustration with the company’s business practices now being described by some as including ‘coercion’ and ‘threats.’
“This most recent embarrassment for ES&S, the country’s largest Electronic Voting Machine Vendor, is just the latest in what has now become an epidemic string of failures to meet contractual obligations in scores of states and counties across the country. The BRAD BLOG has reported on many of these troubling problems in a long series of articles in hopes of connecting the dots of those failures to illustrate and warn of the rapidly approaching E-Voting train wreck. …
“Texas was plagued, during their recent March 7th Primary Election, by a host of failures in voting equipment made by both ES&S and Hart InterCivic, another voting machine vendor ….
“ES&S, along with a handful of other such companies, including Diebold, Sequoia Voting Systems, Hart InterCivic, and a few others have been busy signing as many contracts as possible in the wake of the disastrous Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which set aside more than $3 billion federal dollars to encourage states to ‘upgrade’ their equipment to electronic voting machines.
“HAVA’s provisions kicked in as of January 1, 2006 and the vendors have made millions despite massive failures ….
“Prior to the mess in Texas, and especially since then, ES&S voting equipment has been found to fail in several states — by those jurisdication who bothered to test it. And in still more jurisdictions, the company has failed to meet contractual obligations to provide promised equipment and ballots.
“The memory cards used to store vote totals and ballot definition/programming on ES&S machines have been particularly troublesome for the company and found to be prone to complete failure to operate. In Summit County, Ohio, where officials are preparing for their own Primary Elections next week, pre-election tests several weeks ago revealed some 30% of memory cards had failed. In North Carolina, more than 1000 cards were recalled by ES&S prior to the state testing them but after the state was alerted to the problems in Ohio. …
“In West Virginia, early voting began on April 19 and, as the Daily Mail reported that day, ‘every county in West Virginia is facing trouble with new voting machines …. ‘ All 55 counties in the state have had problems with ES&S despite previous promises from the company that everything was under control.
“Last week, Oregon’s Secretary of State filed suit for Breach of Contract against ES&S after they failed to deliver touch-screen voting machines by the January 1, 2006 deadline agreed to in a contract signed last July. The company informed the state on January 10 this year, that they would not deliver machines at all unless the state changed the terms of the contract to allow late delivery of the promised machines.
“Yesterday, The BRAD BLOG learned via discussions with Nevada County, California Registrar of Voters Kathleen Smith, that ES&S was threatening to refuse to provide programming and other services for the county’s optical-scan systems, since the county had insisted on terms for the purchase of HAVA compliant touch-screen systems rejected by ES&S. …
“A source in the Oregon Secretary of State’s office has informed The BRAD BLOG that they have come to understand that ES&S has simply run out of machines, and they are now busy attempting to find reasons to blame anyone and everyone else for their failures to deliver.
“In the days after the March 7 Texas Primary Election, The BRAD BLOG reported on a whistleblower, William Singer, who had attempted to alert the Texas Secretary of State and Attorney General in July of 2004 about problems with both ES&S and Hart InterCivic machines in the state, including what he described in the letters as criminal action by the company. Singer had been an employee of Hart InterCivic ….”
For complete story, see http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002742.htm
Roger Rabbit favors HAND COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS!. That way, there can be no SHENANIGANS inside the voting machines — you know, like Mr. Cynical’s washing machine that changes L & I taxes for injured workers into Rossi slush funds!
You’d think Republicans would also favor HAND COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS to assure HONEST ELECTIONS — but don’t hold your fucking breath.
Republicans, for all their bleating about “election fraud,” LOVE crooked voting machines! After all, they make and sell them, and they program them to turn Gregoire votes into Rossi votes, and Kerry votes into Bush votes, as was documented in Snohomish County and Ohio in the 2004 stealection.
Republicans know they CAN’T WIN AN HONEST ELECTION, so they lie, cheat, steal — and, when they lose, they need something and somebody to BLAME. Trust me, the last thing Republicans want is a foolproof method of counting ballots! Because then, they not only will LOSE but their hypocrisy will be visible to the whole work.
wow! this thread is already up to 4 posts! That’s more than Stefan’s pathetic little readerless blog gets in 20 minutes.
HOUSE BUDGET: SAME OLD, SAME OLD …
In early April, the House Budget Committee passed its 2007 budget resolution requiring $167 billion of unspecified cuts in domestic spending over the next five years. Likely GOP targets are education, public health, child care, and other programs low-income and middle-class families depend on.
And guess what? The budget resolution proposes $200 billion in tax cuts in new tax cuts that will mostly go to the wealthy, will boosting the deficit.
Yep, this is vintage Bushism: Rob the poor, give to the rich, and saddle future generations with more debt! It’s as if Robin Hood fell out of a tree, hit his head, and woke up thinking he’s Kenneth Lay.
But don’t worry, Republicans, you will be “re-elected” as long as you control the voting machines. As Stalin said, it’s not who people vote for that matters, but who counts the votes.
Ex-Ala. Governor Faces Trial Mid-Campaign
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Former Gov. Don Siegelman will be trying to convince a jury that he is innocent of corruption charges during the very weeks he is asking voters in the Democratic primary election to return him to office.
Siegelman is due to appear in federal court Monday for trial on bribery and other charges alleging he abused his power in schemes
The former governor acknowledges that the outcome of his campaign will be in the hands of the jury.
“The most important vote is going to be the vote of those 12 people,” he said.
Also on trial are Scrushy, who last year was acquitted of criminal charges stemming from accounting fraud at the Birmingham health services chain he founded; Siegelman’s former chief of staff, Paul Hamrick; and former state transportation Director Mack Roberts.
Siegelman is accused, while governor, of accepting $500,000 in disguised contributions from Scrushy in return for appointing him to a state board that approves hospital construction projects, accepting almost $300,000 from two developers in return for favorable state action, soliciting $250,000 from a Montgomery businessman whose product was used by the state Transportation Department, and trying to hinder the federal investigation by writing a check to one of the developers.
Scrushy is accused of arranging the $500,000 in donations, Hamrick of getting money from a developer in return for state help. Roberts is accused of improperly using his state post to help Siegelman and a toll road operator.
Siegelman and Hamrick also are charged with racketeering.
In May 2004, a federal grand jury indicted Siegelman on charges of conspiring to rig bids on state Medicaid contracts while he was governor. A judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to continue with that case.
Thad Beyle, political science professor at the University of North Carolina, said Siegelman’s predicament is unique.
“I can’t recall anyone who’s been in that much trouble and running at the same time,” Beyle said. He said he expects Siegelman’s legal troubles will make it hard for him to raise money and continue to wage an effective campaign.
It’s true that the charges have made fundraising difficult, Siegelman said, and he is trailing the other major candidates for governor in contributions. Baxley had raised $384,000 in the most recent reporting period compared with Siegelman’s $82,000, according to campaign finance records.
Still, he said he believes his campaign is in good shape, despite the fact that most of his days until the election will be spent in court.
Siegelman has promised to continue campaigning during the trial, saying he will attend meetings, greet workers at factory shift changes and participate in other campaign events that can be done at night, after court recesses for the day.
Chief prosecutor Louis Franklin said that the upcoming election would not effect his approach to the case and that Siegelman’s candidacy was not a factor in seeking the indictment last October.
“The timing had nothing to do with him running for office,” Franklin said. “We got the indictment as quick as we could.”
The primary is June 6. U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller has told jurors the trial could last four to six weeks.
REMEMBERING 9/11 … IN CONTEXT
About 2,900 Americans died on 9-11. Contrast this number with the roughly 6,000 American workers killed on the job every year. Bush is doing everything he can to raise that death toll by weakening workplace safety regulations so his rich campaign contributors can make more profit. Bush also wants less regulation of the food your family eats, of the air you breathe, and of the water you drink — and doesn’t care what it costs in human lives, if it increases his campaign contributors’ business profits. In short, Bush is implementing policies that will result in far more deaths and injuries of ordinary Americans so the privileged rich can make more money.
DEMOCRATS ARE BETTER AT CREATING JOBS
Here’s the job creation records of all presidents since Harding (giving jobs created during their administrations as a percentage of the total workforce), ranked in order of best-to-worst:
Democrat Roosevelt 5.3%
Democrat Johnson 3.8%
Democrat Carter 3.1%
Democrat Truman 2.5%
Democrat Clinton 2.4%
Democrat Kennedy 2.3%
Republican Nixon 2.2%
Republican Reagan 2.1%
Republican Coolidge 1.1%
Republican Ford 1.1%
Republican Eisenhower 0.9%
Republican Bush Sr. 0.6%
Republican Bush Jr. (0.7%)
Republican Hoover (9.0%)
TROLLFUCK ECONOMICS 101
Principle #1: Clinton was not responsible for the prosperity that occurred while he was in office.
Principle #2: Clinton is to blame for the recession that occurred while Bush was in office.
Principle #3: If your job was outsourced to India, you are unemployed because you are lazy and immoral.
Principle #4: Cutting taxes and increasing spending results in more government revenue.
Principle #5: Neither the national debt nor gambling debts ever have to be paid.
Principle #6: The economy is prospering now because the rich have more money.
Principle #7: All jobs created under future Democratic presidents will be because of Bush’s policies.
Principle #8: The key to prosperity is cheap labor, tax cuts for the wealthy, and outsourcing.
Principle #9: A free market is a good thing as long as there’s no competition.
Principle #10: Spending taxes on war is “promoting democracy,” but spending taxes on food, health care, or education is “socialism.”
Help celebrate Pinko de Mayo on May-Day. No small coincidence that this massive rally by illegal aliens was scheduled to coincide with the biggest holiday of the year for communist bloc countries.
Bush is doing everything to help illegal aliens become American citizens and to open up the border for more of them to suck the life blood out of our economy – so where are you Bush bashers on this issue ? I am bashing him for being a stooge to the Mexican Government and screwing the taxpayer. There it is, but I think I’ll be hearing mainly crickets…
THE GREENSPAN LEGACY
Here’s a June 21, 2004 article from Roger Rabbit’s archives that is as pertinent today as when published nearly two years ago.
“By Bill Bonner
“Give me lucky generals,” Bonaparte used to say. The emperor did not trust skill, or training, or brains. He didn’t really know why some generals won and some seemed to lose. He chose the lucky ones. But … their luck ran out. Grouchy had not kept the Prussians back. Ney had failed to take Quatre-Bras. D’Erlon never quite got into the fight. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington … won.
“‘It was a damned close thing,’ he recalled of the battle. Mistakes were made. Communications were missed. The weather complicated things. It might have gone either way. But in the end … luck favored the Allies. It rained ….
“Looking through the long lens of history, we see heroes. … We don’t know if they were smart, virtuous … or just lucky. Looking at today’s wars up close, would-be heroes often turn into villains, blunderers, and scalawags. We see too much.
“The present chairman of the Federal Reserve is the most famous bureaucrat since Pontius Pilate. He is also probably the luckiest. And like Pilate, he merely gave the mob what it wanted. Not blood this time, but bubbles.
“Alan Greenspan came to the Fed when a very long cycle of falling interest rates and falling inflation was just beginning. For the 38 years until 1981, bonds had been in a bear market that peaked out with average yields on Treasuries over 14%. Paul Volcker had already done the hard work; he had slugged the inflation monster so hard it remained asleep for the next 2 decades. When Greenspan came to the Fed, inflation was out cold … interest rates were falling … and bonds were going up. All he had to do was nothing. Most likely, the great trend would continue throughout his tenure in office.
“The last bull market in bonds had lasted 26 years. It began in 1920 and continued through the ’29 crash, through the Great Depression, through WWII until it finally came to an end in 1945 with a Treasury yield below 2%. Greenspan might have been a hero – just by being lucky.
“But there seems to be some failing, some pernicious gene that drives the lucky to acts of self-destruction. Bonaparte could have stayed on Elbe … written his memoirs and enjoyed a satisfactory retirement. Greenspan could have done nothing. Instead, each over-reached.
“Mr. Greenspan cannot be blamed for Japan’s bubble of the late ’90s – even though it happened during his watch. Nor is he the real culprit behind the LTCM blowup or the technology bubble in America in ’98-2000. But surely he, more than any other human being, is responsible for America’s current real estate bubble, its consumer debt bubble, and even China’s capital spending bubble.
“A predecessor, William McChesney Martin, once remarked that the real job of the Fed was to ‘take the punch bowl away’ before the party got out of control. It would have been easy; just follow the rules – take the punch bowl away. Volcker had done it; the mob burned him in effigy on the capitol steps, but he retired with dignity. When he speaks in public, people do not snigger behind his back.
“Yet Mr. Greenspan did not remove the punch; he spiked it with the high-proof gin of easy credit. Each time the former gold-bug faced a problem, he eased over to the punchbowl and dumped more in, until Americans were wobbling under the influence of the lowest interest rates in 45 years … and a 1% key Fed lending rate for only the second time in history. According to the central bankers’ code, Greenspan has committed neither sin nor crime. He is seen as a paragon of virtue, not vice.
“Yet, as Talleyrand once remarked to Napoleon, ‘Sire, worse than a crime, you have committed an error.’ The Fed chairman’s error was to offer more credit on easier terms to people who already had too much – including consumers, business, and the government.
“During Greenspan’s reign at the Fed more new money and credit has been created than under all the rest of the Fed chiefs combined. Consumer debt rose to its highest level in history … the ratio of debt to income also higher than it has ever been.
“The effect was not only to inspire bubbles all over the world – but to make Americans poorer.
“‘A taste of the looming fiscal disaster is provided by the fact that, in the space of just one year, the trustees (Medicare) have moved up the expected date of “asset exhaustion,”‘ writes James Grant. … ‘Asset exhaustion’ is another way of saying ‘going bust.’ Senator Joseph Liebermann summarizes: ‘The entire U.S. government is going broke.’
“Mr. Greenspan’s error seems to be catching up to him. In the West, the armies of inflation are approaching. … In the East, the forces of worldwide deflation are stalking him too. … The day Mr. Greenspan’s luck runs out cannot be far off.
Regards, Bill Bonner for the Daily Reckoning 21 June 2004 Editor’s note: Bill Bonner is the founder and editor of The Daily Reckoning. He is also the author, with Addison Wiggin, of the international bestseller: Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving The Soft Depression of The 21st Century (John Wiley & Sons).
For complete, original, article see http://www.gold-eagle.com/gold.....61904.html
I just KNEW there was something about Greenspan I didn’t quite like — the Republicans like him and Bush reappointed him, so there had to be something wrong with him.
EASY CREDIT!!! That’s what it is!!! Greenspan flooded the American and world economies with EASY CREDIT!!! which will eventually lead to INFLATION and HIGH INTEREST RATES and UNEMPLOYMENT and RECESSION.
11
“Bush is doing everything to help illegal aliens become American citizens and to open up the border for more of them to suck the life blood out of our economy”
Of course he is! Because your exalted leader is a CHEAP LABOR CONSERVATIVE!
“When you cut right through it, right-wing ideology is just ‘dime-store economics’ – intended to dress their ideology up and make it look respectable. You don’t really need to know much about economics to understand it. They certainly don’t. It all gets down to two simple words.
“‘Cheap labor’. That’s their whole philosophy in a nutshell …
the larger the labor supply, the cheaper it is. The more desperately you need a job, the cheaper you’ll work … if you are a wealthy elite – or a ‘wannabe’ like most dittoheads – your wealth, power and privilege is enhanced by a labor pool, forced to work cheap.”
http://www.conceptualguerilla......php?id=103
Hey KS — don’t forget to BASH the immigrants serving in the U.S. armed forces in IRAQ, and don’t forget to DEPORT their families either!
“The swift-boating of enlisted immigrants
“By Man MKE
“The dirty little hypocrisy underlying the current immigration contretemps: As a nation, we not only want immigrants who can clean our motels, we want them to serve in Iraq and other battlefronts, even while some of us continue to demonize them as a class.
“It’s generally acknowledged that undocumented and perhaps ‘illegal’ immigrants do a lot of America’s domestic dirty work, cleaning motels and such, and at bargain prices ranging on down to free (as when the worker gets stiffed on his or her paycheck by an unscrupulous employer).
“What Americans DO NOT want to hear, however, is that such immigrants also increasingly serve as our military mercenaries, enlisting in the armed forces to soften the impact of decreasing interest by citizens in becoming warriors.
“And get this: Of all the foreign-born men and women serving in our armed forces, about half aren’t US citizens.
“Indeed, George W. Bush and the Pentagon have encouraged immigrant enlistments. And they’ve done it in a non-intuitive way: Even while we are moving as a nation to make it generally harder to become a citizen, we have made it very much easier to be naturalized, if you enlist in the military.
“From fact sheets compiled by the Migration Policy Institute:
“For the foreign born serving in the armed forces, the traditional five-year waiting period to apply for citizenship was waived by Bush in a July 2002 executive order. Foreign-born members of the military can apply for US citizenship without the mandatory five-year waiting period for green card holders.
“RESULT: the naturalization process for an immigrant enlistee typically takes eight to 10 months from the time an application is submitted until the oath of citizenship is administered. Can you say ‘fast track,’ boys and girls?
“In other words, if you’re an undocumented immmigrant slaughtering hogs in some Midwest meat-packing plant, you’re about to be labeled a criminal who may one day be deported. But agree to slaughter Iraqi insurgents, and a Social Security card awaits your (presumed) return.
“About 16,000 soldiers have received citizenship under the executive order. According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, about 12,000 of those 16,000 have been granted citizenship since the beginning of the war in Iraq.
“In other words, if you’re an immigrant, perhaps even of the undocumented or ‘illegal’ persuasion, and you’re willing to die for our country, you can become a citizen almost overnight.
“More startling hypocrisy in our immigration policy:
* There are approximately 69,300 foreign born serving in the US armed forces. Foreign born enlistees in the armed forces represent approximately five percent of the total on active duty. And as noted above, about half of these are not US citizens, at least yet.
* The Navy has the highest number of foreign-born personnel out of all military branches. Approximately eight percent of the men and women serving in the Navy are foreign born.
* Over 11,000 foreign-born women are serving in the armed forces.
* Across regions of birth, foreign born from Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for the highest percentage of the foreign born active in the military.
* Of the foreign born serving in the armed forces, 325 are from western Asian countries, and over 800 are from south-central Asian countries. [Gee, wonder if any of them come from Dubai?]
* Since September 11, 2001, 59 military personnel killed in the line of duty have received posthumous citizenship.
“But hey, the way Congress is going, if these patriots-in-waiting had made it home alive, they wouldn’t be able to get a driver’s license. Hasta la vista, baby.”
I don’t see a copyright notice anywhere — maybe you can find one — but in any case it’s quoted here under the Fair Use Doctrine, and if you’d like to read the original, click here: http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/28781
Returning to Mark the Rube’s favorite subject — economics … about which he is abysmally ignorant — let’s now take apart the GOP “supply side” bullshit.
“The supply-siders promised that tax cuts would pay for themselves — and then some — because they would give the economy a shot in the arm. The truth is that Reagan’s tax cuts never even came close to paying for themselves. If it wasn’t obvious enough just from the size of the deficit they ran up, the Department of Commerce found that individual tax revenues fell short by tens of billions of dollars every single year after Reagan’s tax cuts. Benjamin Friedman, a Harvard University economics professor, sums up the case: ‘Tantalizing as it was, Reagan’s claim that lower tax rates would enlarge tax revenues never had substance.'” (Source: James Carville, “We’re Right, They’re Wrong,” New York: Random House, 1996, at p. 17.)
Former Reagan budget director David Stockman, in his famous Atlantic Monthly mea culpa, said, “Kemp-Roth was always a Trojan House to bring down the top rate …. It’s kind of hard to sell ‘trickle down.’ So the supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that really was ‘trickle down.'” (Id., at p. 12.) Carville adds, “A powerful minority got richer. The rest sat there waiting for trickles of prosperity that never came, and that result was no accident. It was the game plan all along!” (Id., at p. 13.)
Rush Limbaugh once said Reagan is a “man to whom we Americans owe a debt that we will never be able to repay.” No kidding, Rush! It’s probably the only truism Rush has ever spoken.
If you want to read the classic Atlantic Monthly article, “The Education of David Stockman,” (having read it, I can say with authority that it’s well worth the read), go here: http://www.theatlantic.com/pol.....ockman.htm
The good news is, it’s still available on-line. The bad news is, you have to buy a subscription to access it.
Since the original article itself is not available without paying for it, for you Republican
F R E E L O A D E R S
this one will have to do:
“David Stockman, Working-Class Hero
“William Greider reclassifies Reaganomics’ onetime poster child.
“By Timothy Noah
“Posted Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003, at 7:21 PM ET
“In 1981 the journalist William Greider laid out the economic self-deceptions of the Reagan administration, which would unbalance the federal government’s books for the next two decades, in a classic Atlantic Monthly article titled, ‘The Education of David Stockman.’
“David Stockman was President Reagan’s budget director, a true believer in supply-side economics and the last powerful conservative to make a serious attempt at radically shrinking the size of government. His ambition to cut federal spending made him a poster child for Reaganomics and much-reviled by the left. …
“Stockman told Greider he wanted to attack ‘weak claims,’ not ‘weak clients,’ but in the end, he couldn’t prevent his budget cuts from falling disproportionately on the poor; the rich clients with weak claims proved too powerful to defeat.
“Ultimately, Stockman failed to achieve budget cuts of any kind sufficient to reverse a trend toward growing deficits fed by the Reagan administration’s tax cuts. Greider’s piece depicted Stockman as a brilliant young conservative idealist who gradually became disillusioned with the conservative movement’s grand theories about how the world worked. …
“Greider’s piece still makes for compelling reading today, not least because another White House in thrall to supply-side economics (or, more likely, cynical tax-cut politics) has once again created a huge federal budget deficit ….
“Once again — remarkably, in this case, given President Bush’s unwillingness to fund his much-vaunted compassion agenda — the size of government is growing. According to a new study by the Brookings Institution’s Paul C. Light, the federal government employs, directly or through government contracts and grants, 12 million people, or a million more than it did under President Clinton.
“Surprisingly, these additional million people aren’t working solely, or even largely, to fight the war on terrorism; they’re divided roughly between employees working in defense- and non-defense-related areas, with slightly more in the latter category.
“The few conservatives who still want to shrink big government are up in arms about the fact that under Bush there’s been an increase in ‘domestic discretionary spending’ as a percentage of the nation’s gross domestic product. Even Stockman managed to shrink that. To paraphrase Stockman (as quoted by Greider), the hogs are really feeding.
“These parallels are evident to many political commentators, and Stockman’s name has been popping up here and there. But what’s doing with Stockman himself? Greider tells us in his new book, ‘The Soul of Capitalism’: He’s become a working-class hero of sorts, albeit in pinstripes.
“Greider’s new book is an examination of the ways in which trends in the flow of capital have created opportunities to promote social justice. … Stockman, who now specializes in corporate buyouts, is apparently an example …. You won’t find any rhetoric on the Web site of Heartland Industrial Partners, the private equity firm Stockman founded, that sounds even vaguely socialist. But according to Greider, Heartland is one of ‘a handful of specialized investment firms committed to a “worker-friendly” mode.’ Even its name, Greider posits, is borrowed from an investment fund started by Leo Gerard, now president of the United Steelworkers of America, called the Heartland Labor Capital Network. Gerard’s fund invests labor pension funds in companies that agree to allow union organizing. So does Stockman’s.”
(This article may be copyright; who knows? who cares? I quoted it under the Fair Use Doctrine. If you want to know, look it up! I’m not your fucking research assistant. I’m a fucking bunny.)
So there you have it — conservative darling David Stockman has RENOUNCED the supply-side bullshit he invented and turned into a PRO-ORGANIZED LABOR investment executive.
Choke on your own bile, MTR.
Lest we forget that Republicans are THUGS and NAZIS, click here for a reminder: http://talkleft.com/new_archives/007851.html
wow! this thread is already up to 20 posts in less than 2 hours — that’s more than Stefan’s sucky little blog gets in 15 weeks.
Say, speaking of Stefan … hey Stefan, I know you read this blog … how come you won’t share the proceeds of your lawsuit against King County with the generous donors to your “legal action fund” who paid for the lawsuit? Why are you keeping all the money for yourself? Whatsamatter, didn’t King County give you any more work as a $9-an-hour temp after you were insubordinate to your supervisor and walked off the job?
Well, it’s time for me to go work the night shift, so I’m gonna hop up the hill to Keystone Place and shit on Stefan’s lawn.
Lol R Rabbit needs a blog bad.
Senator Cantwell is on TV. Good. I wonder if Alaska’s Senate candidate Mike McGavnick will get on TV. I’d like to hear him try to spin his ties to big insurance and big oil.
Sen. Cantwell is on opposite AK Sen. Lisa Murkowski, for a NW energy policy showdown.
And Democrat dumbass liberals wonder why prices for energy are high………..
Dem energy policy [ex Hollywood Democrats, Kerry and Kennedy’s private jets, 110 ft Chris Crafts, mansions, water craft, and SUVs]
– tax and litigate as many energy/oil/transportation/retailers/corner gas station owners [ producers] as possible
– don’t drill anywhere, ingore the Russian drilling in Siberia, but it’s OK for the Chicomms and Cubans to drill 75 miles from Key West, FL because they are sweet and socialist. – blame Bush
– don’t pursue nuclear power. Jane Fonda’s movie taught all Democrats everything they need to know!! Only the French should because they are socialist.
– Always blame Bush
– don’t allow new hydro
– blame oil companies. Tax them even more. Add 50 cents more in taxes per gallon, then blame Bush for higher pump prices!!!.
– tear down old hydro
– blame Republicans. Oil Companies must not show any profits. Profits are evil.
– don’t allow wind mills if they spoil a Kennedy view off Cape Cod.
– blame people that drive to work alone. Make them use bikes and/or walk. No horses because of horse poop. Democrat welfare hacks who need to power their 42 inch Sony plasma HDTVs in Detroit, Gary, Philly, and South Central LA are OK.
– don’t use coal. Coal kills.
– blame businesses that use energy to produce products or generate jobs. “Guvment” jobs: good, private sector jobs: bad, must tax them until they go away.
– don’t give incentives to anyone, anywhere to find and develop hydrocarbons. “All you need is love”!!
– blame capitalists and shareholders of any energy/oil companies for being “greedy”. Russian oil companies are OK. So are Chicomm energy companies. EXXON is a four letter word!!
Top talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has donated $250,000 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as part of his annual fundraising broadcast to cure the dreaded disease.
In the fifteen years since he began participating in the society’s on-air curathon, the conservative talker has raised $15 million. […………………………………………………………………………Compare Rush’s charity donation with Al Gore’s $427 or Hillary deducting Bill’s USED underwear.[noted in their released 1040.]
*We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.*
Hillary Clinton – June 2004
JCH, how big is your boat?
29, 39 feet……Thanks for “axing”. JCH
*We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.*
Hillary Clinton – June 2004
Can I have a ride?
Daddy Love
You ask me question, I reply, I ask you the same question and you fail to reply, I ask you again in an attempt to goad into a civil discourse and all you can is duck the subject again. Please next time keep out of my threads.
Your non-reply on illegal immigrants does speak wonders about where you are coming from.
After $2 trillion in tax cuts Bush’s economic policy has done nothing for the middle class: Employment lags; wages are stagnant or falling; household debt is at a record high; inequality and poverty have rise; and deficits are out of control. The middle class flourished in the 90s:23 million new jobs; seven years of income growth; a sharp drop in poverty; widely shared increases in wealth; and huge budget surpluses.
During the 1990s family income went up 17 % following two decades of stagnation; representing the fastest and longest real wage growth since the 1970s; 8 million Americans moving out of poverty – 100 times greater than under Reagan.
Under Bush millions of jobs have been lost, unemployment is higher, real wages for the middle class have stagnated, poverty is up 7%, mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure up, and household costs going up beyond wage increases.
Bush squandered trillions of dollars in projected budget surpluses on economic policies designed by and for corporations and the wealthiest Americans. In the 1990s, a rising tide really did lift all boats. Economic growth was widely shared. Opportunities to get ahead touched everyone. Budgets were balanced. Under Bush, the exact opposite has occurred. Corporate profits are at all-time highs while average wages can’t keep up with inflation. The wealthy secured almost all of the benefits from tax cuts. And skewed economic priorities will leave the government nearly $5 trillion in the hole over the next decade
29, 30
For photo of JCH’s boat, click here: http://www.getodd.com/duck/largeimg/duckwild1.jpg
31
*We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.* Hillary Clinton – June 2004 Commentby Hillary [JCH]Clinton— 4/30/06@ 9:51 am
Let’s take their BALLS away from them so they can’t REPRODUCE.
33
So now some yahoo who probably helped vote in the administration that is opening the floodgates to illegal immigration wants to know our position on illegal immigration!
Ok, here’s my answer, wingturd: You guys created this mess, so you wallow in it.
If immigrants — legal or not, regardless of how they got here — pay taxes on their wages, the things they buy, etc. then why shouldn’t their children be allowed to attend public schools like everyone else?
What kind of subhumans would deny education, medical care, even food to babies, toddlers, and children who didn’t get to choose who their parents were?
The U.S. Constitution says anyone BORN in the U.S. is a U.S. citizen, no exceptions allowed. Like it or not, if an illegal immigrant gives birth on U.S. soil that child is an AMERICAN CITIZEN because THE CONSTITUTION SAYS SO.
Immigrants who enlist in the armed forces and fight our wars for us (e.g., Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq) deserve to be granted immediate citizenship, and citizenship or at least legal residency for their immediate families, as well. They’re AT LEAST as deserving of the right to live in this country, and vote, as the fucking Republican draft dodgers and deferment kings who send other people’s children to fight wars they won’t fight themselves or send their own kids to fight!
An illegal immigrant who works hard, pays taxes, and obeys our laws deserves to be in this country more than the Republicans who are looting the public treasury and the middle class.
ROGER RABBIT’S SOLUTION TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Grant citizenship to anyone who works, pays taxes, and obeys our laws; strip corrupt warmongering lying Republicans of their citizenship, put ’em on a boat, and send ’em to Haiti.
Does that answer your question, sillydude?
34
You forgot to mention that Bush has reintroduced raging inflation to the economy that is destroying savings and pensions, squeezing the middle class, and inevitably will lead to recession and high unemployment.
Oh, you did mention it (in 35, 36) — my bad.
Roger
Your replies are appreciated…now what about Daddy Love?
Labor is the driving force behind all economic production – in any social or economic system – it is necessary to secure a labor supply in order for the system to operate. When people quit working, things don’t get made, services don’t get performed. You righties instinctively understands this, you just don’t admit it.
For the pamperers of the rich, wages must be kept low, to keep people hungry. Social services must be minimized, to keep people hungry. Education must be limited, to maintain a supply of unskilled “grunts” – who are hungry. The only alternative is to provide labor with more civilized incentives than hunger and destitution.
Illegal immigration is central to the agriculture and restaurant industries. It is necessary to keep the McMansions operating properly with manicured lawns and gardens, vacuumed floor, cleaned windows and nannied children.
The management of California’s strawberry industry offers a case study of both the dependence on an imported peasantry that characterizes much of American agriculture and the destructive consequences of a deliberate low-wage economy.
Rabbit Pellet the Moonbat Librul tried to convince other moonbats of this shit: “GOP DIRTY TRICKS IN NEW ORLEANS MAYORAL ELECTION
…Blah blah blah… …Blah blah blah… …Blah blah blah… …Blah blah blah… …Blah blah blah… …Blah blah blah… …Blah blah blah… – [emphasis mine]
Sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? Republicans do this shit because they know they CAN’T WIN AN HONEST ELECTION.
Commentby Roger Rabbit— 4/29/06@ 11:26 pm
Pellet: Donk have controlled LA and NO since 1935. I posted the truth about Huey Long and the Landrieus many months previous. I know that little Rabbit Pellet brain can’t remember where it shit last, let alone the truth of LA politics, or even where Stefan hid his prized carrots!
For you to even think the Repubs are involved in this banana republic further emphasizes to all ASSHeads how out of reality you really are!!! You better go and get those 1-800-petmeds you are paying 1/3 of your retirement for!!!
Ahhh yes Rabbit Pellet and his 9th posting of the concept guerilla. No new material Rabbit Pellet?
I love how Harry Tuttle AKA Voter Advocate really known as mummified brain throw around dem statistics.
Lets see mummified one:
Poverty: illegal hispanic immigrants and asian immigrants are where the increase in poverty went up. – US Census. Black and white poverty levels stayed the same. Does mummified tell you that? HELL NO!
Regarding good jobs: Look on Monster.Com and Jobs.Com mummified one. Good paying middle class jobs to be had from wonderful employers. But for mummified to visit would break his mantra of above!
Then mummified here is the kicker that got me:
“The number of African-American children living in the harshest, most extreme conditions of poverty has climbed to its highest level in 23 years, according to a recent study by the Washington DC-based Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). Still worse, if the Bush administration has its way, the number of Black and other poor children in these desperate straits will only increase.” http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/3436/1/163
You see mummified one, October 1, 2001 was the first Bush budget. So Clinton made black poverty worse! An he wuz de firs blak preznit? Hmmm… Another mummified argument trashed!!!!!
Every time Puddy gives us the url to one of his sources of information you get 56 viruses, annoying pop-ups, and blindingly crude graphics with the colours bleeding and making the print hazy and almost unreadable.
Now mummified voter advocate: You need to read from the fed reserve. Median family income in 2004 was higher than the Clinton years.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/.....survey.pdf
And Mummified, read the whole article then come back and report. Yes there are some good things that happened in each administration, but the way you and pellet and poontang love to broad brush stuff, I love to dissect it!!!
Pellet in 41 sez: An illegal immigrant who works hard, pays taxes, and obeys our laws deserves to be in this country more than the Republicans who are looting the public treasury and the middle class.
Commentby Roger Rabbit— 4/30/06@ 10:40 am
So they need to be moved to the front of the line in front of my wife’s family trying to legally come to the US? BULLSHIT!
Poontang@52. BULLSHIT. My sources are the US government, the NY Times, the WaPo, etc. Awww poor poontang. He must have some redirector spyware on his 386 PC!
Puddwhack at 51: You blame the Clinton Administration for all the problems in Bush’s Administration and take credit for what went right in the Clinton era by giving credit to Gingrich and his cronies.
Looks like x-treme rightie tunnel-vision, or, if you watch Faux News, a fair and balanced approach.
re 53: The increase in the average is because of the increase at the top — which is because of tax breaks, not anything good going on in the economy.
Republicans lie with numbers. Under Bush, government statistics are very very suspect — except for kool-aid drinkers like yourself.
Conservatives live in a world — in their business lives, in their academic lives, and apparently in their personal lives — where even the most abysmal of failures are simply ignorable. You can run a company into the ground, and still get your bonus. You can flatly make up statistics and keep your “think tank” job. You can sexually harass coworkers, pop pills, blow a wad in Vegas, or get caught with your hand in an indicted crook’s pocket, and it won’t affect your career opportunities in the slightest. Morality is for chumps, and consequences are for the little people.
The thing of it is, we saw this after Reagan, too, and after Poppy Bush. The economic blunders on their watch were a result of them being “not conservative enough.” If they had lowered taxes more, the economic listlessness, wealthy re-entrenchment, and budget-busting deficits under their administrations wouldn’t have been so dismal.
Because, like robed and scruffy cult leaders swearing up and down that the apocalypse they predicted last year will, after further review, most certainly happen next year, if their followers only keep giving them cash, the only way conservatives can actually believe in their own movement is if they flatly deny the obvious effects of their philosophies as implemented.
We could choose to believe that they’ve just been terribly unlucky in electing leaders too dimwitted or corrupt to really implement conservatism, of course. We could choose to keep believing in the power of unimpeded unicorn farts. Or we could judge conservatism, quite reasonably, on the actions of those that say they are conservatives, and hold them to be the true conservative intent:
Tax cuts for the rich, and an increased tax burden on the poor and middle class.
Cash giveaways of historic proportions to selected industries.
A stifling and public condemnation of science.
Record deficits.
Rampant nepotism and cronyism.
Decreased civil liberties.
Pork by the barrelful.
Conservatives have the entirety of legislative and executive power, in the Presidency, in the Senate, and in the House. They could choose to implement whatever they want. They have chosen to implement precisely what they want. We’re living it.
What’s fascinating about conservatism is that it really is, at this point, more corporatist and faux-socialist religion than political movement. If you believe enough, then maybe it’ll work this time. Maybe the manufacturing jobs America has lost will magically reappear. Maybe ignoring the economic and scientific experts will work the next time, though it hasn’t worked any of the other times. Maybe cutting taxes, which has predictably reduced revenue every time it has been done, will suddenly make the deficit disappear. It’s illogical, it’s contrary to experience, it’s contrary to the laws of mathematics, economics, sociology and simple reality — but what the hell. The heads of Enron and ExxonMobil say it might just work next time. And if it doesn’t, then look out for the homosexuals in those other states over there, or the immigrants, or the uppity blacks, or the uppity women.
They’re terribly eager to let us know their very important ideas, but when it comes to actual expertise, they’re proven fakes. And, like any good fake, they’re trying now to do the walkback, to tell us what they really meant, to tell us why they really were clever, to tell us why their preachings were solid, if only everyone around them hadn’t been incompetent buffoons in the actual implementation of their genius.
So what of the people who weren’t wrong, in predicting the outcomes? What of the people who predicted the economic consequences of Bush fiscal policies? What of the people who not only challenged the clearly ridiculous assertions of the administration in the run-up to the Iraq War, but predicted precisely what would happen next?
They were right. And no amount of petulant bitching is going to change that, but you can damn well believe the conservative snake-oil salesmen who preached for these fiascos and demonized those that opposed them are going to do their best to restore their own tattered self-declared brilliance — all actual real-world evidence notwithstanding.
No. Conservatism is entirely described by the actions of the men who preach it. There is no such thing as a trickle-down unicorn. There is no such thing as an honorable war fraudulently started. There is no magical conservative
Harry Tuttle AKA Mummified Brain: I only worked half a year in 2005 and probably made twice your salary! Yes we are sooooo bad. No we work for our bread, not looking for handouts!!!!
sillyguy
“You ask me question, I reply, I ask you the same question and you fail to reply, I ask you again in an attempt to goad into a civil discourse and all you can is duck the subject again. Please next time keep out of my threads. Your non-reply on illegal immigrants does speak wonders about where you are coming from. ”
No, fuck you. I’ll say what I please anywhere and anytime I please.
Sorry, old chap, but if you ever did reply to my original request to state your position on the immmigration issue, I’m afraid I missed it in this busy whirl of a blog. I’ll bet it was a doozy, if it bears any resemblance to the passive-aggressive faux-courteous attacks of the replies to me that I have read. My experience thus far with your replies has been far, FAR from “civil discourse.”
So the right-wingnuts have been touting the 4.8% economic growth of the last quarter as nothing short of miraculous, like jesus walking on Galilee. The truth (as usual) is a bit different, to wit: real wages are still dropping. Inflation was over 3% but wage growth was only 1.7%. Wage-earners are falling further behind, as they have ever since King George seized power.
Maria Cantwell was right on. The US has never had more than 3% of the world’s oil. It never WILL have more than that. The math is easy. Do it.
The only “crisis” with Iran is the Boy King’s 32% approval rating.
61.
You are a liar, a persistent, bald-faced liar.
Puddwhack: Kevin Carns is an even BETTER and MORE SUCCESSFUL person than you! He does many and varied things, but not one of them is holding down a job.
And he gets paid more than you for “consulting” , for Christ’s sake. You are such a feckless loser, Puddy!
He’s a ratfucker.
62
Daddy Love
You asked the question and I replied on 4/28/06@ 9:43 am so please go back and find my reply so you can reply with with some inntelligence rather than beg off with “I’m afraid I missed it in this busy whirl of a blog”. My replies back to you have only shown that you apparently missed the 9:43 reply.
cALLING YOUSELF “SILLYGUY” makes me want to hit you.
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I didn’t waste my fucking time watching Miz Cantwell, but from Goldy’s synopsis about “protecting from gouging” and the bit about “alternative technologies” tells me all I need to know.
First, numerous AGs in many states have grandstanded and photo-op’d this same scam. None of of them have found even a shred of evidence of gouging.
Second, “alternative technologies” have been investigated since the early 70s. Take yer pick… geo, hydrogen, solar, wind… all of them cost more than existing sources and they all have a myrid of problems.
So if Miz Cantwell was serious about fixing the problem, she’d be promoting drilling, reduced regulations, and reducing taxes on oil companies. But since she’s not serious… she’s just another moonbat hack… she’s doing just the opposite.
If ya listen real closely, you can hear GREEN THUMB cheering in the background…
http://www.september-11th.us/media/jumpers.mpg
71
Why?
The Democrats in Olympia are NO better than the Republicans in D.C. The Federal Government and the State Government have all gone beserk with spending. Next year ought to be a real dream with Gregoire taking on “Health Care for all.”
How many billions are we wasting in Washington State???
Revenue goes up 6 percent, spending goes up 17 percent last budget cycle. We have almost 1 billion deficit next year, the only question is – whose sin will they tax into the ground next year???
sgmmac – You know who… The Producers. They will penalize intellect, industriousness, character, and success.
Wake up brain-dead Democraps – you are way clueless about the Pro-illegal immigration demonstrations tomorrow ! You think its cool not to care ?
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey Peeeeeeeeeeeee-Dooooooooooooooookie-
Gotten any SMARTER yet?
Jus’ askin’.
Naw, he’s just changin’ his ID.
Dumb troll.
The overly-fertile Rabbit is right. I peeked. There’s nobody at Sound Politics anymore. Even the right wingers are over here at HA. Hilarious.