Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
Why We Progressives Fight: William Rivers Pitt on "Beneath the Bottom of the Barrel"
In case y'all have forgotten or gotten distracted by daily news coverage of the election as a horse race, we fight for dignity and decent treatment--food to eat and medical care--for the least among our brothers and sisters.
And for the middle class, too.
[Have you ever wondered what's under the bottom of the barrel? I found out on Tuesday morning, when I cracked open the fetid wasteland that used to be the Washington Post. There, in the Editorials section, was an article titled "Senior Citizens' Financial Woes Are Exaggerated," written by something called Charles Lane.
The timing was interesting. Just as I read that headline, I heard the sound of clinking and clanking coming from the front of my house. I knew what it was immediately: one of the Can People was making her daily pass through my recycling bins. Years ago, the town I live in provided every home with a pair of large blue bins for residents to properly separate and store their recyclables for collection. Every Tuesday afternoon, a big yellow truck rumbles by to empty them. All week long, my neighbors and I fill these bins with paper, plastic, cans and bottles, and every day, the Can People come by to pick the bins over and collect anything worth five cents at the redemption center in the supermarket down the hill. More often than not, they push battered shopping carts to hold what they can find, but sometimes they have only a garbage bag slung over their shoulder to carry the load.
There are no young people doing this, nor even middle-aged people. The Can People are old men and women, stooped, wearing worn-out clothes and fraying shoes as they rattle through my refuse with gnarled, arthritic hands. Some are White, some are Asian, some are Black; can-collection, like poverty, knows no ethnic boundaries. I wave to them when I see them, but they seldom respond, either because their eyesight is too poor to make me out as I stand on my porch like a lord, or because they are too ashamed to acknowledge the fact that I see them, and thus see what it is they must do to survive.
When I heard the clinking and clanking on Tuesday morning, I remembered a brace of ginger ale cans I'd neglected to bring outside. Hurriedly, I tossed them into a bag and brought them to my porch. She was bent into the blue bin to the waist, and when she reared up at the sound of me, there was fear in her eyes. Maybe she thought I was going to shoo her away. Maybe that kind of thing happens a lot. I came to the railing, extended the bag of cans to her, and she took them without a word. Her face was a delta, a map of time itself, and she could not bring herself to meet my eye. She placed the bag of cans in her shopping cart, and I watched as she clattered her way down the sidewalk to the next set of bins.
When she was out of sight, I went back inside to read what Charles Lane had to say about how easy old people have it in America. He began with this:
"Now that Paul Ryan, the author of a major proposal to overhaul Medicare, is going to be on the Republican ticket, the fall presidential campaign shapes up as a battle over the federal government's obligations to senior citizens. Before it begins, I hereby declare that I admire and like the elderly. My parents are elderly. I myself hope to be elderly someday, and to remain that way for a long time. But I do not feel sorry for the elderly as a group, and neither should you.
In particular, you should not let an exaggerated portrayal of their economic vulnerability - the "Mediscare" campaign that Democrats have run in the past and are dusting off again - unduly affect your thinking about entitlement policy."
"Entitlement," Mr. Lane? Did they not teach you the definition of words in your time at Harvard and Yale? If something has been paid for with decades of hard labor, it is not an "entitlement." It is a justly deserved return on a very long investment.
An exaggerated portrayal of their economic vulnerability? Is it even possible to exaggerate the economic vulnerability of the elderly in America? To a person, they have to deal with at least one physical ailment, if not a multitude of them, and all in a nation where health care and prescription medicines are wildly expensive
commodities. They are no longer employed, and so have no employer-provided health insurance, but only the small financial protection they paid for by investing in the social safety net with every paycheck they earned. A very large majority of America's oldest citizens are required to squeeze every penny until Abraham screams just to survive.
Fact:
Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day.
The core of Mr. Lane's argument is a muddle of questionable statistics and broad assumptions, culminating in a concluding paragraph as obnoxious as it is astonishing:
"Sooner or later, politicians are going to have to treat older voters not as potential victims but as secure and fortunate citizens, who can and should contribute their fair share to resolving the country's fiscal predicament. In other words, to treat them as what they are."
Notice how Lane uses the Occupy Movement's rhetoric with that line about how elderly people "can and should contribute their fair share to resolving the country's fiscal predicament"? That's right, you ghoul...don't tax the rich. Don't tax the bankers or Wall Street. Don't touch the grotesquely bloated "defense" budget. Instead, let's tap the most vulnerable among us to be fodder for the wheat thresher of your callous, bottomless conservative greed. Yes, let's "treat them as what they are," just another juicy target....
But see, that's the thing. Once upon a time, ruthless conservative lickspittles like Lane would only whisper jokes about Gabby Giffords getting shot, and about old people being ripe plums for the picking, into their sleeves. They're not even bothering to hide their viciousness any more, and now that Paul Ryan has joined Mitt Romney on the Republican presidential ticket, this is the kind of argument we can look forward to. After all, it is Mr. Ryan who has built his career on a plan to annihilate Medicare, all the while defending the "defense" budget to the knife. All Mr. Lane has done with his pestiferous little missive is carry some water for Mr. Ryan. Welcome to Republican priorities, 21st century-style.
It is a national disgrace that any old person is forced to rummage through garbage for a few extra pennies to survive. The fact that millions of elderly people tremble on the cusp of economic calamity every single day, after they have fought our wars and served our peace and built our country in the decades they bent their backs to their work, is nothing more than simple, shameful fact. That the safety net they spent their lives paying for is under a full frontal assault from the Republican right should give anyone planning to live past the age of 65 more than a moment of pause. Mr. Lane thinks the elderly have it too good, an argument that is beyond contempt, but this is the thinking we are required to contend with in an age when people like Paul Ryan are actually taken seriously.
May you live a long, long life, Mr. Lane. May you grow very, very old...and when you are grubbing for cans in someone else's garbage, may you remember your own words, and know a moment of shame.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.]
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10933-beneath-the-bottom-of-the-barrel
And for the middle class, too.
[Have you ever wondered what's under the bottom of the barrel? I found out on Tuesday morning, when I cracked open the fetid wasteland that used to be the Washington Post. There, in the Editorials section, was an article titled "Senior Citizens' Financial Woes Are Exaggerated," written by something called Charles Lane.
The timing was interesting. Just as I read that headline, I heard the sound of clinking and clanking coming from the front of my house. I knew what it was immediately: one of the Can People was making her daily pass through my recycling bins. Years ago, the town I live in provided every home with a pair of large blue bins for residents to properly separate and store their recyclables for collection. Every Tuesday afternoon, a big yellow truck rumbles by to empty them. All week long, my neighbors and I fill these bins with paper, plastic, cans and bottles, and every day, the Can People come by to pick the bins over and collect anything worth five cents at the redemption center in the supermarket down the hill. More often than not, they push battered shopping carts to hold what they can find, but sometimes they have only a garbage bag slung over their shoulder to carry the load.
There are no young people doing this, nor even middle-aged people. The Can People are old men and women, stooped, wearing worn-out clothes and fraying shoes as they rattle through my refuse with gnarled, arthritic hands. Some are White, some are Asian, some are Black; can-collection, like poverty, knows no ethnic boundaries. I wave to them when I see them, but they seldom respond, either because their eyesight is too poor to make me out as I stand on my porch like a lord, or because they are too ashamed to acknowledge the fact that I see them, and thus see what it is they must do to survive.
When I heard the clinking and clanking on Tuesday morning, I remembered a brace of ginger ale cans I'd neglected to bring outside. Hurriedly, I tossed them into a bag and brought them to my porch. She was bent into the blue bin to the waist, and when she reared up at the sound of me, there was fear in her eyes. Maybe she thought I was going to shoo her away. Maybe that kind of thing happens a lot. I came to the railing, extended the bag of cans to her, and she took them without a word. Her face was a delta, a map of time itself, and she could not bring herself to meet my eye. She placed the bag of cans in her shopping cart, and I watched as she clattered her way down the sidewalk to the next set of bins.
When she was out of sight, I went back inside to read what Charles Lane had to say about how easy old people have it in America. He began with this:
"Now that Paul Ryan, the author of a major proposal to overhaul Medicare, is going to be on the Republican ticket, the fall presidential campaign shapes up as a battle over the federal government's obligations to senior citizens. Before it begins, I hereby declare that I admire and like the elderly. My parents are elderly. I myself hope to be elderly someday, and to remain that way for a long time. But I do not feel sorry for the elderly as a group, and neither should you.
In particular, you should not let an exaggerated portrayal of their economic vulnerability - the "Mediscare" campaign that Democrats have run in the past and are dusting off again - unduly affect your thinking about entitlement policy."
"Entitlement," Mr. Lane? Did they not teach you the definition of words in your time at Harvard and Yale? If something has been paid for with decades of hard labor, it is not an "entitlement." It is a justly deserved return on a very long investment.
An exaggerated portrayal of their economic vulnerability? Is it even possible to exaggerate the economic vulnerability of the elderly in America? To a person, they have to deal with at least one physical ailment, if not a multitude of them, and all in a nation where health care and prescription medicines are wildly expensive
commodities. They are no longer employed, and so have no employer-provided health insurance, but only the small financial protection they paid for by investing in the social safety net with every paycheck they earned. A very large majority of America's oldest citizens are required to squeeze every penny until Abraham screams just to survive.
Fact:
Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day.
The core of Mr. Lane's argument is a muddle of questionable statistics and broad assumptions, culminating in a concluding paragraph as obnoxious as it is astonishing:
"Sooner or later, politicians are going to have to treat older voters not as potential victims but as secure and fortunate citizens, who can and should contribute their fair share to resolving the country's fiscal predicament. In other words, to treat them as what they are."
Notice how Lane uses the Occupy Movement's rhetoric with that line about how elderly people "can and should contribute their fair share to resolving the country's fiscal predicament"? That's right, you ghoul...don't tax the rich. Don't tax the bankers or Wall Street. Don't touch the grotesquely bloated "defense" budget. Instead, let's tap the most vulnerable among us to be fodder for the wheat thresher of your callous, bottomless conservative greed. Yes, let's "treat them as what they are," just another juicy target....
But see, that's the thing. Once upon a time, ruthless conservative lickspittles like Lane would only whisper jokes about Gabby Giffords getting shot, and about old people being ripe plums for the picking, into their sleeves. They're not even bothering to hide their viciousness any more, and now that Paul Ryan has joined Mitt Romney on the Republican presidential ticket, this is the kind of argument we can look forward to. After all, it is Mr. Ryan who has built his career on a plan to annihilate Medicare, all the while defending the "defense" budget to the knife. All Mr. Lane has done with his pestiferous little missive is carry some water for Mr. Ryan. Welcome to Republican priorities, 21st century-style.
It is a national disgrace that any old person is forced to rummage through garbage for a few extra pennies to survive. The fact that millions of elderly people tremble on the cusp of economic calamity every single day, after they have fought our wars and served our peace and built our country in the decades they bent their backs to their work, is nothing more than simple, shameful fact. That the safety net they spent their lives paying for is under a full frontal assault from the Republican right should give anyone planning to live past the age of 65 more than a moment of pause. Mr. Lane thinks the elderly have it too good, an argument that is beyond contempt, but this is the thinking we are required to contend with in an age when people like Paul Ryan are actually taken seriously.
May you live a long, long life, Mr. Lane. May you grow very, very old...and when you are grubbing for cans in someone else's garbage, may you remember your own words, and know a moment of shame.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.]
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10933-beneath-the-bottom-of-the-barrel
Stupid Crook News: On the Highway to Jail
This made me laugh. Ironically surely 'cause neighbor behind me calls police if my music plays 1 minute past 9 pm, even with Johnny Cash version of "Hurt."
At tender age of 54, have learned needless assertion of my Constitutional rights does not make up for a night in jail. Before that happened, I bought headphones.
I don't mind getting arrested, but incarceration sucks: you get bad food, hotel staff has a bad attitude, and you can't check out when you want.
[The Associated Press
EPPING, N.H. —
Authorities say a New Hampshire woman has been arrested four times in 26 hours for blasting the AC/DC song "Highway to Hell" and other loud music from her home and for throwing a frying pan.
Police first issued a warning to Joyce Coffey on Tuesday afternoon at her home in Epping. They say they were called back an hour later and arrested her for the loud music.
Police say Coffey was arrested again five hours later. She was released and arrested again before dawn Wednesday over more loud music.
Police arrested her again after her nephew said he tried to remove some of his belongings from her house and she threw the frying pan at him.
Coffey was jailed Friday and couldn't be reached for comment. WMUR-TV reports a judge has recommended she use headphones.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/ap/crime/police-nh-woman-arrested-4-times-in-26-hours/nRQjD/
At tender age of 54, have learned needless assertion of my Constitutional rights does not make up for a night in jail. Before that happened, I bought headphones.
I don't mind getting arrested, but incarceration sucks: you get bad food, hotel staff has a bad attitude, and you can't check out when you want.
[The Associated Press
EPPING, N.H. —
Authorities say a New Hampshire woman has been arrested four times in 26 hours for blasting the AC/DC song "Highway to Hell" and other loud music from her home and for throwing a frying pan.
Police first issued a warning to Joyce Coffey on Tuesday afternoon at her home in Epping. They say they were called back an hour later and arrested her for the loud music.
Police say Coffey was arrested again five hours later. She was released and arrested again before dawn Wednesday over more loud music.
Police arrested her again after her nephew said he tried to remove some of his belongings from her house and she threw the frying pan at him.
Coffey was jailed Friday and couldn't be reached for comment. WMUR-TV reports a judge has recommended she use headphones.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/ap/crime/police-nh-woman-arrested-4-times-in-26-hours/nRQjD/
Labour Day Thought:"It's the Rich Wots Gets the Gravy."
"And the poor wots gets the blame./Ain't it all a bloody shame."
[The real question is whether the working and middle classes of the United States will go on allowing themselves to be taken advantage of by our super-rich, who are gathering to themselves more and more of the national income. The top 1% owned 25% of the privately held national wealth in the United States in the 1950s, but have 38% of it today.
In contrast, real wages per hour for the average worker in the United States, adjusted for inflation, peaked in 1970. We’re now down from that, with a generation and a half blocked from meaningful economic advancement.
But, you will say, the US is a much wealthier society now than it was in 1970 or 1990. Where has all the extra money generated by American labor and investment gone?
It has gone to the rich. Yes, folks, the rich are taking home a fifth of everything we make as a country each year, up from ten percent in 1970. We are 310 million people. About 3 million get a fifth of the annual income. Those 3 million people are 3 million Mitt Romneys. They want low taxes and they want to get rid of social security, medicare and Obamacare.] emphasis added to make you mad
http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/labor-day-question-are-you-better-off-than-you-were-in-1970.html
"It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame It's the rich what gets the pleasure Ain't it all a bloomin' shame?"
[The real question is whether the working and middle classes of the United States will go on allowing themselves to be taken advantage of by our super-rich, who are gathering to themselves more and more of the national income. The top 1% owned 25% of the privately held national wealth in the United States in the 1950s, but have 38% of it today.
In contrast, real wages per hour for the average worker in the United States, adjusted for inflation, peaked in 1970. We’re now down from that, with a generation and a half blocked from meaningful economic advancement.
But, you will say, the US is a much wealthier society now than it was in 1970 or 1990. Where has all the extra money generated by American labor and investment gone?
It has gone to the rich. Yes, folks, the rich are taking home a fifth of everything we make as a country each year, up from ten percent in 1970. We are 310 million people. About 3 million get a fifth of the annual income. Those 3 million people are 3 million Mitt Romneys. They want low taxes and they want to get rid of social security, medicare and Obamacare.] emphasis added to make you mad
http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/labor-day-question-are-you-better-off-than-you-were-in-1970.html
"It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame It's the rich what gets the pleasure Ain't it all a bloomin' shame?"
Obama Campaign Slogan from Culture of Truth
General Motors lives; Bin Laden is dead: http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/meet-press-september-2-2012.html. Language not suitable for work but accurate nevertheless.
Paul Ryan's Big Lie: He Will Kill Medicare and Seniors
Accidentally watched approximately 7.5 seconds of the Republican't convention trying to switch to local news at 11 pm and Paul Ryan lying on my TV, saying the test of any society remains how it treats the less fortunate.
How on Earth can savage cuts to Medicaid protect the poor?
They can't, meaning Ryan a hypocritical heartless bastard who probably sacrifices babies to Moloch as well as worshiping Mammon bestowed upon him by billionaire backers.
[Others were infuriating, like his sanctimonious declaration that “the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.” This from a man proposing savage cuts in Medicaid, which would cause tens of millions of vulnerable Americans to lose health coverage.
And Mr. Ryan — who has proposed $4.3 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, versus only about $1.7 trillion in specific spending cuts — is still posing as a deficit hawk.
But Mr. Ryan’s big lie — and, yes, it deserves that designation — was his claim that “a Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare.” Actually, it would kill the program....
But back to the big lie. The Republican Party is now firmly committed to replacing Medicare with what we might call Vouchercare. The government would no longer pay your major medical bills; instead, it would give you a voucher that could be applied to the purchase of private insurance. And, if the voucher proved insufficient to buy decent coverage, hey, that would be your problem.
Moreover, the vouchers almost certainly would be inadequate; their value would be set by a formula taking no account of likely increases in health care costs.] emphasis added to highlight cruelty
[Others were infuriating, like his sanctimonious declaration that “the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.” This from a man proposing savage cuts in Medicaid, which would cause tens of millions of vulnerable Americans to lose health coverage.
And Mr. Ryan — who has proposed $4.3 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, versus only about $1.7 trillion in specific spending cuts — is still posing as a deficit hawk.
But Mr. Ryan’s big lie — and, yes, it deserves that designation — was his claim that “a Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare.” Actually, it would kill the program....
But back to the big lie. The Republican Party is now firmly committed to replacing Medicare with what we might call Vouchercare. The government would no longer pay your major medical bills; instead, it would give you a voucher that could be applied to the purchase of private insurance. And, if the voucher proved insufficient to buy decent coverage, hey, that would be your problem.
Moreover, the vouchers almost certainly would be inadequate; their value would be set by a formula taking no account of likely increases in health care costs.] emphasis added to highlight cruelty
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Bush and Blair: Put war criminals on trial
First, let's charge Henry Kissinger and ex-President Cheney for war crimes for evidence abounds on their guilt. I'll settle for any of the bastards in the dock, however.
[Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush to be hauled before the international criminal court in The Hague and delivered a damning critique of the physical and moral devastation caused by the Iraq war.
Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner and hero of the anti-apartheid movement, accuses the former British and US leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction and says the invasion left the world more destabilised and divided "than any other conflict in history".
Writing in the Observer, Tutu also suggests the controversial US and UK-led action to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003 created the backdrop for the civil war in Syria and a possible wider Middle East conflict involving Iran.
"The then leaders of the United States and Great Britain," Tutu argues, "fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us."
But it is Tutu's call for Blair and Bush to face justice in The Hague that is most startling. Claiming that different standards appear to be set for prosecuting African leaders and western ones, he says the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict is sufficient on its own for Blair and Bush to be tried at the ICC.] emphasis added for emphasis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/02/tony-blair-iraq-war-desmond-tutu
[Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush to be hauled before the international criminal court in The Hague and delivered a damning critique of the physical and moral devastation caused by the Iraq war.
Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner and hero of the anti-apartheid movement, accuses the former British and US leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction and says the invasion left the world more destabilised and divided "than any other conflict in history".
Writing in the Observer, Tutu also suggests the controversial US and UK-led action to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003 created the backdrop for the civil war in Syria and a possible wider Middle East conflict involving Iran.
"The then leaders of the United States and Great Britain," Tutu argues, "fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us."
But it is Tutu's call for Blair and Bush to face justice in The Hague that is most startling. Claiming that different standards appear to be set for prosecuting African leaders and western ones, he says the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict is sufficient on its own for Blair and Bush to be tried at the ICC.] emphasis added for emphasis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/02/tony-blair-iraq-war-desmond-tutu
Starvation: A Great Business Opportunity
This explains the complete and utter moral and ethical bankruptcy of predatory capitalism, the categorical imperative to put profit above all else, above the value of human life and beyond common human decency.
Silly proletariat, you thought "Hunger Games" a metaphor?
Why should those who hold the capital dictate the ability of other humans to buy food?
Simple human decency requires some socialism to get food to hungry people.
Glad we heard lots about the coming global food crisis at the Republican't convention. Guess the billionaire elites just assume their grandchildren will still eat filet mignons while the rest of the world has to become vegetarians.
Not to rail against meat consumption-bought a 2 pack of ribeyes on sale for my steaks for the month--but producing the quantity to over feed our fat Western asses, generalizing from my own posterior, for maximum profit for the middlemen, the commodity funds speculator, does not efficiently allocate food resources if we judge the provision of food by whether or not the system prevents famine.
http://empireofdirt77.blogspot.com/2011/06/eric-schlosser-food-system-based-on.html
[Barclays has made as much as half a billion pounds in two years from speculating on food staples such as wheat and soya, prompting allegations that banks are profiting handsomely from the global food crisis.
Barclays is the UK bank with the greatest involvement in food commodity trading and is one of the three biggest global players, along with the US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, research from the World Development Movement points out.
Last week the trading giant Glencore was attacked for describing the global food crisis and price rises as a "good" business opportunity.
The extent of Barclays' involvement in food speculation comes to light as new figures from the World Bank show that global food prices hit an all-time high in July, with poor harvests in the US and Russia pushing up the average worldwide cost of staples by an unprecedented 10 per cent in a month.
The extent of just one bank's involvement in agricultural markets will add to concerns that food speculation could help push basic prices so high that they trigger a wave of riots in the world's poorest countries, as staples drift out of their populations' reach.]
Barclays is the UK bank with the greatest involvement in food commodity trading and is one of the three biggest global players, along with the US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, research from the World Development Movement points out.
Last week the trading giant Glencore was attacked for describing the global food crisis and price rises as a "good" business opportunity.
The extent of Barclays' involvement in food speculation comes to light as new figures from the World Bank show that global food prices hit an all-time high in July, with poor harvests in the US and Russia pushing up the average worldwide cost of staples by an unprecedented 10 per cent in a month.
The extent of just one bank's involvement in agricultural markets will add to concerns that food speculation could help push basic prices so high that they trigger a wave of riots in the world's poorest countries, as staples drift out of their populations' reach.]
Professor Cole Answers Mr. Eastwood
Updated with extra bonus link: “have you had your Thorazine this morning?”
If you need rhetorical questions answered, you can go here.
I'd rather sit on my porch and yell at kids to stay off my lawn.
[6. You criticized President Obama for ‘talking about student loans.’ The Republican Party, especially Paul Ryan, wants to take away the government-backed loans on which millions of students depend, at a time when student indebtedness is at an all-time high. Just because some people are way overpaid for play-acting doesn’t mean that ordinary people don’t need student loans to get the credentials that allow them to make a better life for themselves.
7. Mr. Eastwood, you criticized President Obama for saying he is an ‘ecological man’ but flying in Air Force One. Under President Obama, non-hydro forms ofgreen energy in the United States have doubled from 3 percent of electricity production to 6 percent. Obama’s tax credits have been a big reason why. In contrast, Mr. Romney wants to get rid of credits for wind energy, which will hurt the Iowa economy, e.g., and is in the back pocket of Big Oil, so that he will stand in the way of green energy. I think doubling renewables rather offsets an occasional jet ride. And, it is Obama’s policies that will get us to the solar-driven airplane, not Romney’s.]
If you need rhetorical questions answered, you can go here.
I'd rather sit on my porch and yell at kids to stay off my lawn.
[6. You criticized President Obama for ‘talking about student loans.’ The Republican Party, especially Paul Ryan, wants to take away the government-backed loans on which millions of students depend, at a time when student indebtedness is at an all-time high. Just because some people are way overpaid for play-acting doesn’t mean that ordinary people don’t need student loans to get the credentials that allow them to make a better life for themselves.
7. Mr. Eastwood, you criticized President Obama for saying he is an ‘ecological man’ but flying in Air Force One. Under President Obama, non-hydro forms ofgreen energy in the United States have doubled from 3 percent of electricity production to 6 percent. Obama’s tax credits have been a big reason why. In contrast, Mr. Romney wants to get rid of credits for wind energy, which will hurt the Iowa economy, e.g., and is in the back pocket of Big Oil, so that he will stand in the way of green energy. I think doubling renewables rather offsets an occasional jet ride. And, it is Obama’s policies that will get us to the solar-driven airplane, not Romney’s.]
Say It, Cenk!
Cenk Uygur writing at Huffpost:
[{T}he real action isn't at the convention. It's at Cracker Bay. That's the name of the yacht where the Romney team just hosted 50 partiers, including some of his top donors. This was one of about a dozen events outside of the convention where they had private meetings with donors giving more than $1 million dollars to his campaign. Over $1 million a piece. Now, where do you think the real policy gets made?...
"It was a really nice event. These are good supporters," said billionaire Wilbur Ross, an energy industry executive, according to ABC News. I bet it was. Mitt Romney just revealed his energy plan a couple of days ago. Are you going to be surprised to find out that it massively helps energy companies? A really nice event is where you pay a million bucks and you get billions back if the candidate you supported wins the presidency....
It's clear what Mitt Romney owes these people. What do you think he owes you? Ann Romney said that Mitt was a man who would not fail. She's right; he will not fail his donors. He is a good businessman, so he will give them the service they paid for.
They're so brazen the boat they were meeting on was flying a Cayman Islands flag. As one local put it, even their yacht doesn't want to pay taxes.] emphasis added
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/mitt-romney-yacht_b_1842680.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=083012&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief
[{T}he real action isn't at the convention. It's at Cracker Bay. That's the name of the yacht where the Romney team just hosted 50 partiers, including some of his top donors. This was one of about a dozen events outside of the convention where they had private meetings with donors giving more than $1 million dollars to his campaign. Over $1 million a piece. Now, where do you think the real policy gets made?...
"It was a really nice event. These are good supporters," said billionaire Wilbur Ross, an energy industry executive, according to ABC News. I bet it was. Mitt Romney just revealed his energy plan a couple of days ago. Are you going to be surprised to find out that it massively helps energy companies? A really nice event is where you pay a million bucks and you get billions back if the candidate you supported wins the presidency....
It's clear what Mitt Romney owes these people. What do you think he owes you? Ann Romney said that Mitt was a man who would not fail. She's right; he will not fail his donors. He is a good businessman, so he will give them the service they paid for.
They're so brazen the boat they were meeting on was flying a Cayman Islands flag. As one local put it, even their yacht doesn't want to pay taxes.] emphasis added
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/mitt-romney-yacht_b_1842680.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=083012&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief
WISE Telescope
[The new photo reveals a leggy cosmic apparition called IC 342, sometimes known as the "hidden galaxy," and was snapped by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The WISE space telescope is mapping the sky in unprecedented detail to find previously unseen asteroids and other objects.]
Willard Romney, Fortunate Zygote
Don't know what blew up on embed code but you can find it here: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/romney-human-being-who-built-narrated-leona.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Cheeky British Soldiers Support Prince Harry
Bollocks to ye prudes!
This link has pic of D Squadron of the King's Royal Hussars saluting the Prince. Should I post it? Hmmm, guess not even though all thankfully bollocks free as pictured so probably safe for work.
Prince Harry's bum even has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Prince-Harry-with-a-Naked-Salute/354329084642543
This link has pic of D Squadron of the King's Royal Hussars saluting the Prince. Should I post it? Hmmm, guess not even though all thankfully bollocks free as pictured so probably safe for work.
Prince Harry's bum even has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Prince-Harry-with-a-Naked-Salute/354329084642543
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