Category Archives: Current Events

The Kings and Queen of Mean.

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So far, the debates between Teapublican presidential candidates have been very entertaining. Watching them is somewhat like watching Voldemort, Simon Legree, the Joker, Scrooge, Alfred E. Neuman, Lex Luthor and the Wicked Witch of the West face off to see who can be nastier, more spiteful, more repugnant and more snide.

Yet the sentiments of the audiences have been even more revealing.

In one debate, an audience of upper middle class white Californians actually broke out in applause upon the mere mention of Gov. Perry’s 234 executions. In another debate, when confronted with the question of whether or not the government should allow a hypothetical uninsured young American die, members of the pitchfork crowd in Tampa screamed “yes.”

And these are the religious so-called “values” people?

If voters are unwise enough to put them in charge of our country, we won’t have to build a bigger fence to keep immigrants out of our country. We’ll have to build one to keep our own citizens in.

Teapublican Lie #5.

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“Regulations are bad for business.”

Teapublicans have been slinging this bovine excrement around for years. “Businesses face mountains of government red tape that make it impossible for them to operate,” they say. I admit it sounds plausible, but it’s just not true.

Certainly, every industry faces government regulations. But those regulations are not necessarily bad. For example, food growers must meet food safety regulations. They must maintain sanitary conditions and monitor the use of pesticides and chemicals. Not exactly onerous regulations, unless you don’t mind getting food borne illnesses. Similarly, restaurants must pass inspections for cleanliness and food preparation. Hotels must meet standards for safety and cleanliness…the list of such examples is long.

Contrary to the Teapublican talking point, a recent study by McClatchy Newspapers found that small business owners don’t feel that regulations and taxes are strangling their businesses at all. As a matter of fact, many of the business owners surveyed felt that the regulations actually create consumer confidence which is good for business.

So, if small business owners don’t oppose government regulations, who does?

One can conclude that the businesses most harmed by government regulation are those that don’t care about consumer safety. Companies that want to trash our environment without repercussions. Companies that want to cut corners to save money. Companies like BP, which apparently cut corners on a blowout preventer resulting in the worst environmental tragedy in history. Companies that buy toys painted with lead because they’re cheaper. Companies that purchase ingredients for pet food without testing them.

These aren’t small businesses. They’re huge, multi-national conglomerates that are more concerned about their bottom lines than their customers. If they don’t care about us, why on Earth should we care about them?

Teapublican Lie #3.

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“Cutting deficits and the national debt will create jobs.”

This is the most fashionable load of bull excrement being sold by Teapublicans. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Certainly, the debt has a chilling effect on the long-term prospects of our economy. But the debt does not constitute a crisis. In fact, the total debt equals roughly one year of the US GDP. To relate that to a family’s finances (as Teapublicans are so fond of doing), it’s akin to a family earning $100,000 per year holding a $100,000 mortgage.

Now let’s look at what severe cuts to our deficit and debt will do to our economy in the short term.

When the government cuts spending it cuts the budgets of government agencies. That forces those agencies to lay off many of their employees. So, inevitably, there’s a net loss of jobs. Further, the decrease in employees results in less oversight of banks, food and drugs, Medicare payments, etc. – all of which make our economy and taxpayers less safe. 

Moreover, government cuts can have a negative effect on private companies that act as vendors to those agencies. For example, large cuts to the Department of Defense will cause the DOD to suspend weapons acquisition and development. That means defense contractors will have to make dramatic cuts to their payroll.

Part of the reason for our jobless recovery from Bush’s Great Recession is that state and local governments are experiencing a loss of revenue from taxpayers. As a result, those governments have been laying off workers even faster than private companies can hire them.

So, in the short term, what do you expect a $1 trillion cut to our deficit will do to our economy? Obviously, it will cost tens of thousands of people their jobs. Maybe yours!

Teapublican Lie #2.

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“US corporate taxes are the highest in the world.”

You’ve heard it over and over during the past 2-1/2 years. Not only from Teapublicans. But from supposedly authoritative sources such as the US Chamber of Commerce. So let’s examine this myth more closely.

While it is true that the corporate income tax rate for the US is 34.2% (which includes a state tax rate of 6%), that is not significantly higher than the corporate tax rate for many other developed nations, and it’s less than Japan’s. Brazil has a rate of 32.5%; France and Germany have tax rates of more than 31%; Australia 30.8%; Canada 28% and the UK has a rate of 25.4%.

More to the point, this is not the rate that most large US corporations actually pay. In fact, the effective tax rate for large US corporations (after deductions and subsidies) is less than 18%!

For example, 12 major corporations made $171 billion in profits from 2008 to 2010, yet had a negative income tax rate of 1.5 percent! And the most egregious example is GE. Last year the global conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing in US federal income taxes. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion!

Moreover, employer payroll taxes in the US are just 7.7% – less than Korea, India, Mexico, Poland and most of the developed world. And since the 1940s, the corporate share of all federal income taxes has dropped dramatically. In 1940, corporations paid 43 percent of all the federal income taxes collected in the US. But, in 2010, that percentage was only 8.9 percent! Indeed, the US raises less corporate tax revenue than most developed countries.

So though the US has the world’s 2nd highest corporate income tax rate, the rate actually paid by US corporations is much lower. In fact, our effective tax rate is less than that of even Mexico, India, Vietnam, Korea, China and Russia. And that’s the truth!

Teapublican Lie #1.

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Today begins a series intended to de-bunk the many Teapublican lies that will be repeated over the coming election season. Primary amongst them is this pants-on-fire whopper:  “Cutting taxes creates jobs.”

This whopper has been repeated so often by so many that voters have come to believe it’s true. Yet when you examine the evidence, you find that it defies belief.  For example, if cutting taxes created jobs, then why was there negative job creation during the Bush administration despite the vaunted Bush tax cuts? (And that was even before the economy was driven off a cliff during the last few months of 2008.)

If cutting taxes created jobs, why did the economy flourish under the Clinton administration despite higher taxes?

And if cutting taxes creates jobs, why is our unemployment now so high despite the fact that US citizens are paying the lowest share of their income for taxes – all taxes – since 1958?

Truth is, the only thing cutting taxes on corporations and the rich does for our economy is to increase wealth for those who need it least.

Are We Still Fighting The Civil War?

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As I was reading a book about the Civil War, I was struck by the many similarities between the run-up to the war and today’s political climate. The Confederate States of America were sparsely populated and dominated by slave-owning plantation owners who resented any interference by the federal government. As one historian said, they likely would have seceded earlier, but it took 6 years for the plantation owners to convince the poor dirt farmers to fight their war for them.

On the other side, the Union was more densely populated with a recent influx of European immigrants. Many of these people had faced persecution themselves in the Old Country, and their religious beliefs were at odds with slavery. Moreover, as a result of the density of population, those in the North tended to understand that regulations and laws were necessary for everyone to thrive. Not just a few.

So the Civil War was as much the result of a conflict of philosophies as it was slavery. This conflict continued when, following the war, many former Confederate soldiers fled westward to get away from the law and order imposed by the victorious North. Unfortunately for them, they eventually ran out of real estate as settlers who believed in the law followed them west. But the philosophies of the former Confederates never entirely disappeared.

Fast forward to today. Our politics are now roughly divided into red states and blue states. The red states strongly oppose any “interference” by the federal government. And where are most of those red states? In the South and West.

And where are the blue states? In the heavily populated East, Upper Midwest, California and Northwest.

Certainly, there are pockets within the South and West where voters understand the necessary role of government. Those tend to be large population centers. But in the rural areas and smaller cities, government – especially the federal government – is viewed with disdain and suspicion.

Particularly in the West, many people identify with the cowboy mentality of old (not realizing that the term “cowboy” was originally a perjorative akin to calling someone a rustler or bandit). These people see themselves as modern day gunslingers who are standing up for their individual rights. They mostly could care less about anyone else, including the less fortunate. After all, to these people, everyone has the responsibility to pull themselves up by the bootstraps no matter the odds against it.

In the South, the story is somewhat different. Certainly resentment of the federal government continues. But now it’s wrapped in the cloak of religion. The new Christian right stems from churches that believe the Bible is literally the word of God. They selectively choose Bible verses that support their narrow views. They are anti-government (it’s the government that prevents openly Christian prayers in public schools and other public venues), anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-abortion, anti-education, anti-environmentalism, anti-evolution, anti-climate change, etc. If the government is for it, particularly the federal government, they are against it.

So here we are, politically not much further ahead than we were 150 years ago. But at least for the moment, we’re fighting with ballots. Not guns.

Who Does God Root For?

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As long as I’m on the subject of Divine intervention in current events, is it true that God is a sports fan? From watching collegiate and professional sports these days, you’d surmise that players believe God is dictating all of the outcomes like some sort of bribe-wielding bookie.

Many of the athletes would have you believe that their success is solely the result of their faith. What’s puzzling is that there appear to be athletes of great faith on every team – at least based on the number of players who point skyward following a touchdown or big play. (And, lately, it seems like that’s the required action after every play.)

God chooses one team to win and the other to lose? Seriously? Is it based on how many players on each team profess their faith? Is it based on the faith of the teams’ management? The faithfulness of the teams’ fans? It’s difficult to tell.

Until God reveals His team loyalties, I guess we’ll have to assume that it doesn’t matter how hard a team prays. Just how hard it plays.

Politics of God.

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Is God a Democrat? Or a Teapublican? Teapublicans like Michelle Bachmann would have you believe the latter. After all, she claims that God told her to run for president. But He apparently also told Rick Perry to run. And He’s currently negotiating with Sarah Palin. What kind of confusing message is that?

If He truly wanted a Teapublican to win the White House, wouldn’t He just annoint one of them?

And why would God send an earthquake and hurricane as a message for the Beltway to change as Bachmann suggests? One would think if God really wanted change, He’d just pick out a modern day Moses and carve some new stone tablets rather than send messages like Irene that can so easily be misinterpreted.

Even if you accept that the earthquake and Irene were God’s messages to Washington, D.C., why did God-fearing people in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachussets and Vermont have to suffer?

Of course, Bachmann isn’t the first to push the idea of Divine intervention in politics. The space-alien-like Pat Robertson told his thought-challenged followers that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God in retribution for the Godlessness of New Orleans. More specifically, he said that God felt there were too many gays in the city.

So where does God really stand politically? Does He stand with corporate profits, big money lobbyists and the military-industrial complex? Or does He stand with working people, the poor and the disenfranchised? And if He’s pro-American as so many Christian right-wingers would have us believe, why does He encourage his Teapublican followers to ship jobs overseas to dictatorships populated by non-Christians?

It’s all very confusing.

An Exposed Dick

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With Richard “The Dick” Cheney set to release his tell-all book about his term as dictator-in-waiting and puppet master of the George W. Bush presidency, the early reviews are all too predictable.  Apparently Cheney praises all those who agreed with him as smart, tough and patriotic.  At the same time, he portrays those who disagreed with him as stupid, naive and weak.

Reportedly, those who fit into the latter category are former Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. 

Of course, he also continues to support his so-called “enhanced” interrogation methods, otherwise known as torture.  The methods he ordered to be implemented on captives in our “War on Terror” included sleep deprivation, ear-splitting noise, humiliation and, of course, waterboarding.  The latter technique is officially banned as torture by the Geneva Conventions of which the US is a signator.  Indeed, in the past, the US executed enemies who were convicted of using waterboarding on US troops.

Cheney is not only unapologetic for his role as Torturer-In-Chief, he has said he would do it all over again in the same circumstances.  If he has actually put those statements in writing, I couldn’t be happier!  Those statements would be a confession of war crimes, admissable in court.  Not a court presided over by his buddies, Justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Scalia and Kennedy.  But the International Criminal Court which has the authority to prosecute war crimes.

Once his book is published, Cheney may never be able to travel outside the US again without fear of arrest and prosecution.  Of course, that threat is not likely to stop someone as arrogant as Cheney.  So let’s hope he decides to tour Europe.  If you believe in the rule of law, Cheney’s arrest and subsequent trial could be of real benefit to world peace.

Yee Haw! Another Texass Evangelical For President.

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In 2000, an evangelical governor from Texas was awarded the office of President of the United States. He ran as a compassionate conservative promising to cut federal spending and to get the US out of the business of “nation-building.”

Instead, he cut taxes, eliminated financial and environmental regulations, ignored direct warnings of threats by al-Qeada to use hijacked airliners to attack the US, and started two wars costing as much as $3 trillion. His policies failed to create a single private-sector job in the US and led to the worst economic collapse since 1929. In the process, he doubled our national debt.

Now we have Rick Perry following in his footsteps. As Lieutenant Governor, he replaced Bush as Governor of Texas. Like Bush, he talks about his faith all the while promoting an agenda that favors the rich and attacks the poor. And like Bush, he brags about his “accomplishments” as governor. Foremost in his braggadocio is the so-called “Texas Miracle.” The miracle, as the story goes, is that Perry created 80 percent of the jobs in America over the past three years.

Rrrrrrright!

If you examine his claim, you find that it’s a complete and utter fraud just like the cowboy boots he wears. Certainly, Texas did create more jobs in the last year than any other state. But all of them were in the public sector;  i.e. they were government jobs, many of which resulted from Perry extending his hand to Washington in order to receive a disproportionate number of the stimulus funds. Indeed, Texas actually lost jobs in the private sector over the past three years!

And, if you look further, you see rising unemployment in Texas in addition to overcrowded homeless shelters and public schools facing billions in budget cuts. And that’s not even the scary part.

More frightening about Perry (as well as Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin) are his way-out-of-this-solar-system religious beliefs. These were put on display just days prior to his announcement that he is running for president. On August 6, he spoke at The Response, billed as a day of prayer and fasting. In fact, it was a day of lunacy with some of the nation’s most radical evangelical “religious” figures. These are people who believe the US should be a Christian theocracy; who believe in the end times and the necessity to prepare the Earth for the rapture by cleansing the Seven Mountains (arts and entertainment, business, family, government, media, religion and education) from demonic influence. These are people who believe Oprah is the precursor of the AntiChrist; who believe that gays are controlled by demons; who believe that Islam is a demonic spirit.

Just the kind of people you want in the White House and a presidential administration.

Can’t you imagine a US run by a President Perry or a President Bachmann or a President Palin? The administration would begin with a hands-on healing of gays followed by the threat of bombing every non-Christian nation unless they converted. The FCC would command that all sex (violence is okey-dokey) be banned from TV. Public broadcasting would be forced to carry Christian-only programming. All schools would be openly Christian. Every business logo would have to incorporate the symbol of a fish. And all cathedrals, synagogues, temples and mosques would be converted to New Apostolic churches.

In other words, the US would become a Christian version of Iran.