Democurmudgeon: 29 August 2010

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The Year's Best Web Site: Teapartytracker.org!! My head hurts...

Even without nasty Obama signs, the hate, stupidity, fear and bigotry at the Beck inspired tea party rally is absolutely stunning.

It's hard to imagine a dumber bunch of well intentioned Americans, who seem to be drinking freely from a scum filled sewer of lies.

It's also a new site I'm following on my sidebar.

Here's Chris Matthews interview with Media Matters' Ari Rabin Havt:

Democrats Against the War endangers the Troops, Burning Koran's endangers troops but no conservative protests? Go figure.

Double standards and constitutional flexibility are allowed by the party fighting liberal fascism.

Calls for troop withdrawals of our fighting men in women in combat supposedly endangered them, Republicans claimed, but protesting mosque building in direct contradiction with the First Amendment, and burning Koran's oddly doesn't result in a mass mailing of press releases and conservative spokespersons to stop.

Hello, is anybody out there...?

Olberman talked about this very thing tonight.

Ah, the News Media love a fight, so they're now exaggerating the upcoming election results based on polls.

Let’s face it, the Democrats are going to lose, right? It’s all over, give up, go home, don’t vote.

The answers lie in the hands and the hearts of tea partiers and Republicans. No new laws, repeal and replace, investigations and the last 15 years of economic policy on steroids.

Democrats don’t stand a chance against that, say the liberal media over and over and over and over…
(AP) - Their control of the House in peril, Democrats are scratching to survive in races all across the country. Disgruntled voters, a sluggish economy and vanishing enthusiasm for President Barack Obama have put 75 seats or more - the vast majority held by Democrats - at risk of changing hands.

Remember When Republicans Made Health care Decisions for us in Congress. Sigh! Not some Doctor!

Remember Terri Schiavo?

Digging back into an old video clip, I found out what party was willing to allow government lawmakers to take control of health care. That's right, the biggest whiners over government run health care. Democrats? No. Republicans. Bureaucrats know best?

They saw nothing wrong with interfering, despite all their fear mongering over Obamacare, after all they had the looney base on their side.

Border Wars back again, on National Geographic.

Want to know more about illegal immigration and our southern border? National Geographic's series "Border Wars" is back for season two. This report from Newsy.com explains:

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

A side note: I'm in love with Jennifer Meckles. Wasn't that a Hollies song? (I know, Eccles)

Repeal Health Care Reform, Stop Government and Turn control over to Business. Republicans tip hand on agenda.

American have a lot to lose when it comes to repealing health care reform; the industry is now changing to better outcomes and lower costs, the uninsured are covered including college students, preexisting conditions return, rates will go up, 90,000 people will die due to lack of coverage, 18,000 preventable deaths will accure and Americans will be free at last from Obama the oppressor.
"The endgame is a fight over funding," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Faced with an opposition Congress "defunding" his health care plan, would Obama make a stand? Would he risk shutting down the Health and Human Services department, the IRS, or perhaps even the whole government?
"At that point, does he let everything else go?" asked former Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican elected in the GOP wave of 1994. "The game will be, does he shut the government down? Republicans can say, 'We gave him the money to fund other programs.'"
America Speaking Out, a website sponsored by the House GOP. They didn't mince words: "Obamacare will have dire consequences for our nation," Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, warned in a video on the site. "President Obama dismantled the finest medical system in the world and replaced it with a failed socialist model. The president nationalized your skin and everything inside it, and he enlarged the scope of the IRS by granting the agency the power to confiscate the assets of American who refuse to submit to the nanny state."
Of course telling the truth to Americans doesn’t serve their interests, so instead, lie like hell.
Nothing of the sort, say health care law backers. The law's requirement that most Americans carry insurance comes from a Republican proposal in the 1990s health care debate. Congress rejected a Medicare-like government option for all Americans that was the top priority for the political left. Most Americans will still have private insurance ten years from now. Republicans would face tricky political and policy challenges:
Would they allow insurance companies to again deny coverage to children with medical problems? The new law prohibits that.
How would the GOP make up billions in lost federal revenue, since the Congressional Budget Office has ruled that the law reduces the deficit?
Would Republicans bring back the coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug benefit? The law gradually closes it.
"The pain that a family feels when their sick child is denied health care is real," said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "The threat by Republicans to take away patients' rights and put insurance companies back in control just demonstrates the GOP's commitment to the special interests."
Consider too how many Republican governors took credit for the money their states received from health care reform. Rachel Maddow explains:

Despite the common sense and logic of not stopping reform, Republicans are now extremists, and will do anything. I know they will. Thank you voters...I mean, suckers.

GM, Chrysler Loans "just ass backwards."

Video is a funny thing. It's a ghostly spirit that haunts the Republican missteps time after time. Imagine Dicken's A Christmas Carol with either Sharron Angle or Rand Paul as Scrooge; no unemployment and no black allowed.

Keith Olbermann looks back at the dire warnings of loaning money to the auto industry by fear mongering Republicans. "It doesn't change anything..."-Sen. Jon Kyl. "Isn't that, to use a common phrase, just ass backwards"-Sen. David Vitter. "We're going to have riots...the unfairness of it becomes more and more evident as we go along"-Sen. Jim DeMint. Guess they were "a litttle" wrong!!!

The New Economy, the Tech Industry, Outsourced. So the old free market health care, energy and service industry is it?

Now on PBS back in 2005 featured the documentary American Jobs and its filmaker Greg Spotts, who talked about the the truth behind outsourcing and the tech industry. It ties in well with the NY Times piece today about that struggling industry in this country, and its emergence in developing countries, along with China and India. First, the setup:
For years the technology sector has been considered the most dynamic … But as the nation struggles to put people back to work, even high-tech companies have been slow to hire. The disappointing hiring trend raises questions about whether the tech industry can help power a recovery and sustain American job growth … Employment in areas like data processing and software publishing has actually fallen. Additionally, computer scientists, systems analysts and computer programmers all had unemployment rates of around 6 percent in the second quarter of this year.
The chief hurdles to more robust technology hiring appear to be increasing automation and the addition of highly skilled labor overseas … not enough workers with the cutting-edge skills coveted by tech firms, and too many people with abilities that can be duplicated offshore at lower cost. Nevertheless, many high-tech companies large and small say they are struggling to find highly skilled engineering talent in the United States.
But as you can see in the video clip below, “cutting-edge skills” is just an excuse:

Rosamaria Carbonell Mann, 49, a software engineer … was terminated in June when her employer closed its branch and sent the work to China. Ms. Mann said that with layoffs from other tech companies in the area, including Hewlett-Packard, the city now has a glut of people like herself: unemployed engineers with multiple degrees.
Economists who follow highly skilled employment say that some of the most prominent companies that laid off workers during the recession … are expanding their work forces abroad. A global finance professor at the Brandeis University International Business School who studies the outsourcing of jobs (said)… you’re competing with people in India or China who will do the work for less.” In addition to lower wages, developing countries offer significant consumer growth.
“There’s been this assumption that there’s a global hierarchy of work, that all the high-end service work, knowledge work, R.&D. work would stay in U.S., and that all the lower-end work would be transferred to emerging markets,” said Hal Salzman, a public policy professor at Rutgers and a senior faculty fellow at Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.
The experience of Ms. Mann and others like her suggests that the technology industry may not be the savior of the American job market and a magic bullet for a moribund economy — even though the Obama administration has called for a revival of math and science training and emphasized the need for American companies to take the lead in fields like clean energy.

Health Savings Accounts Attract Healthy Wealthy! That raises costs for everyone else in traditional plans.

Again, rummaging through a few old saved doc's, I ran across the GAO study that basically destroys the argument for health savings accounts. Supported by Republicans, is it any wonder HSA's benefit the wealthy? They really are the party elite.

Yubanet.com: Senior House Democrats Pete Stark and Henry Waxman released a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) comparing enrollees in Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) with enrollees in the traditional Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). During his State of the Union Address earlier this week, President Bush signaled that expanding HSAs and HDHPs would be a centerpiece of his domestic agenda.

Health policy experts are concerned these will attract only the healthiest participants, raising costs and risking coverage for other individuals and families who remain in traditional plans. The GAO report appears to validate these concerns. "This report screams 'buyers beware', verifying what we have suspected all along:

• HSAs and high-deductible health plans proposed by President Bush and the Republicans are designed for healthy, wealthy people.
• Despite this reality, President Bush is pushing them on low-income workers -- not to provide them with better health insurance, but to meet his long-term goal of dismantling employer-provided health care.
• HSAs are another way for the GOP to benefit their special interest friends -- in this case, the insurance industry, corporations, and wealthy taxpayers -- at the expense of America's workers."
• The President's Health Savings Account plan combines the worst elements of the President's failed Social Security privatization plan and his Medicare Prescription drug fiasco.
• HSAs would increase healthcare costs for many consumers, and force others to ration care, embroiling them in a confusing morass of accounts and bills when they should be focused on their health. Unfortunately, they have the potential to increase the number of uninsured."
GAO found:

* HSA enrollees are younger than enrollees in traditional healthcare plans. According to GAO, "individuals with certain demographic characteristics" - younger enrollees who have lower healthcare costs - "may be disproportionately attracted to these plans." The average age of HSA enrollees was 46 years old compared to an average age of 59 for enrollees in traditional plans. The oldest enrollees, those who were retired, were only one fourth as likely to sign up for HSAs

* HSA enrollees are wealthier than other FEHBP enrollees. HSA enrollees in the highest income bracket analyzed by GAO (those with incomes over $75,000) were over three times as likely to sign up for HSAs.

* HSAs and HDHPs failed to provide adequate information to enrollees. According to GAO, "HDHPs ... are premised on the notion that enrollees will become more actively involved in making health care purchase decisions .... To do so, enrollees need information to help them assess the cost and quality trade-offs between different health care treatments and providers. However, the extent to which FEHBP HDHPs made such information available to enrollees was varied and limited."

Critics of HSAs and HDHPs have long held that their expansion would jeopardize health insurance coverage for the more than 160 million Americans who are currently covered through their jobs. This could translate into a massive shift in costs to consumers who - in addition to having to pay more for coverage - would be left on their own to try to bargain with insurance companies for needed medical care.

Republicans Raised the Cost of Medicare, and Now Whine about its Cost and Insolvency...A Look Back.

Combing through some old files I found this nugget from Dec. 24, 2003 in the debate over the proposed Medicare prescription drug plan. It showed two things; Democrats were appalled at the idea, and the ease in which the Republicans caved to the industry threats to drop senior coverage by giving them a gigantic bribe.
A generous $86 billion worth of payments and tax benefits for employers, giving them a new subsidy for the health benefits many of them already provide to retirees.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, said last week that provisions calling for increased payments to HMOs and other health plans were "obscene."
Health economist Marilyn Moon said: "It is very ironic. ... To increase participation in private plans, we are going to overpay them for the foreseeable future."
#1: As a way to NOT rein in the cost of health care, Republicans not only didn’t tell health providers to go to hell and control costs, but they DOUBLED the bribe:
A special $12 billion fund to try to persuade health plans to enter -- or stay in … Once federal benefits became available, corporate executives told lawmakers and Bush administration officials, companies might accelerate a recent trend in which some have been dropping -- or charging more for -- health coverage for retired workers.
As a result, the bill included incentives to deter companies from abandoning their retirees. They requested what Scully called "a modest buyout," equivalent to perhaps $350 per retiree. The bill, he said, provides more than twice that amount, a sum "way beyond their wildest requests."
#2: As a way to NOT rein in the cost of health care:
Medicare … the nation's largest purchaser of drugs, is expressly forbidden from negotiating price discounts with drug manufacturers, as the Veterans Administration, U.S. military and Medicaid programs do.
What a transparent way to make government look inefficient and costly. Isn’t it time now in the 2010 midterm elections to cut and restructure Medicare’s out of control costs?

NOTE: Due to reform, and the pressure from Obamacare to cover more Americans, the entire health care industry is revamping the way it does business. It’s actually looking at ways to improve treatments, outcomes and lower costs, something that wasn’t even on their radar before. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE:

Jan. '04: The Wall Street Journal now reports that the White House quietly added "a little-noticed provision" to the bill that allows companies to severely reduce - or almost completely terminate - their retirees' drug coverage "without losing out on the new
subsidy." In other words, the president did not just break his promise to sign a bill that prevents seniors from losing their existing drug coverage, he actually acted to reward companies who cut off their retirees with a lavish new tax break.

The provision was no mere oversight by the president. The major backers
of the provision were Lucent Technologies, General Motors, Dow Chemical and
SBC Communications - all major campaign contributors to the president. According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, executives from those companies have donated almost $140,000 in hard money and $2.5 million in soft money to Bush and his party since 2000.

PS: Back then I did not save links to stories. Sorry about the lack of attribution.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Republican Plan Vengeance in House Takeover, and Public Yawns!

I think this rant from Big Ed Schultz hit all the right points. Issues that would normally have been considered over the top once, is a reality based agenda from the Republican, who are proposing everything they were opposed to when Obama took office. We were told to look ahead, and not vindictively go after the previous administration. But that only applies one-way I guess. Is the GOP plan really a jobs agenda? Of course not.

Quran Burning may endanger Troops!! Ya think?

Opposition to the mosque in NY has not only insanely spread out to other states, but has spurred on the promoter of "International Burn a Quran Day." The blow back may seem obvious to most Americans, but now Gen. Petraeus has weighed in on the message it sends.
Think Progress reported: On September 11, 2010, the extremist evangelical Dove World Church — whose pastor, Terry Jones, has written a book called “Islam Is Of The Devil” — plans to host “International Burn a Quran Day,” when it will burn Islam’s sacred text and encourage others across the world to do so as well. Church member Wayne Sapp has even posted an instructional video that explains how and why to burn the Quran.
Wall Street Journal reports that Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians.
“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort,” Gen. Petraeus said. “It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here [in Afghanistan], but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”
Chris Matthews interviewed Terry Jones, the psychopath sponsoring the event.

America's Future without a Middle Class, is here.

I am amazed we haven't tried to stop the outsourcing of American jobs, or changed the terms in NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT. While other countries control their economic engines for quality of life and national security reasons, we're demanding even fewer regulations. So we're now at this spot in time:

(AP) Whenever companies start hiring freely again, job-seekers with specialized skills and education will have plenty of good opportunities. Others will face a choice: Take a job with low pay — or none at all … once employers do step up hiring, some economists expect job openings to fall mainly into two categories of roughly equal numbers: Professional fields with higher pay. Think lawyers, research scientists and software engineers … Lower-skill and lower-paying jobs, like home health care aides and store clerks.
And those in between? Their outlook is bleaker. Economists foresee fewer moderately paid factory supervisors, postal workers and office administrators. Not until 2014 or later is the nation expected to have regained all, or nearly all, the 8.4 million jobs lost to the recession. Millions of lost jobs in real estate, for example, aren't likely to be restored this decade, if ever.
The threat stems, in part, from the economy's continuing shift from one driven by
manufacturing to one fueled by service industries … the number of middle-income service-sector jobs will shrink, according to government projections. Any job that can be automated or outsourced overseas is likely to continue to decline. The service sector's growth could also magnify the nation's income inequality, with more people either affluent or financially squeezed.
On one point there's broad agreement: Of 8 million-plus jobs lost to the recession — in fields like manufacturing, real estate and financial services — many, perhaps most, aren't coming back … Says Richard Florida, a professor at University of Toronto, "We're becoming more of a divided nation by the work we do." And
innovations in high technology and alternative energy are likely to spur growth
in occupations that don't yet exist … Manufacturing has shed 2 million jobs since the recession began. Construction has lost 1.9 million, financial services 651,000.
But the biggest factor has been the bust in real estate. The vanished jobs range from construction workers and furniture makers to loan officers, appraisers and material suppliers. Moody's Analytics estimates the total number of housing-related jobs lost at 2.4 million.
Manufacturing is likely to keep shedding jobs, sending lower-skilled work overseas.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Banks Expose Lie of No Tax Increases to balance budgets in a recession.

Should we increase taxes on business right now? Jobs killer? Not in a recession? Ever?
Guess what, someone wants to make credit unions pay taxes on their profits, and it’s not the Democrats. Here’s a clue; who whined, received a taxpayer bailout and passed out gigantic bonuses to CEO’s? The banks want to increase taxes on credit unions, even in a recession.

Anybody still believe in “business uncertainty,” “no tax increase in a recession” or “tax increases kill jobs?” The Capital Times:

Amid the worst recession in a generation, the banking industry is again challenging the tax-exempt status of credit unions. Most credit unions have also managed to remain profitable despite the weak economy, a sore point for many today in the beleaguered banking industry.

Completely obliterating the excuse that state tax increases will destroy jobs and
discourage business, and shouldn’t be done to balance budgets:
"With local, state and federal governments all facing serious budgetary emergencies, the largest and most profit-driven credit unions can and should pay their fair share of the tax burden," says Kurt Bauer, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Bankers Association.
A new report from the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board … included
ending the credit union exemption in a long list of recommendations on addressing the nation's budget deficit … the report notes "Eliminating this exemption … would clearly raise taxes on credit unions."
And while the banks try to raise taxes on other businesses, they’re reducing their tax load:
The growth of Subchapter S corporation arrangements — a way to organize bank ownership to reduce tax obligations … Subchapter S banks pass their earnings along to shareholders in the form of dividends, who are then taxed as individuals. Theoretically, this can reduce tax liabilities for the bank's owners, who can use other deductions to lower their exposure.
Sweet huh?
Wisconsin Credit Union League president Thompson says he finds it ironic that banks are pushing to tax credit unions while they continue to lobby for tax breaks of their own.

Erin Burnett Slaps down weasel Rich Lowry over his comment, the stimulus was "pretty clearly a failure."

CNBC's Squawk on the Street co-host Erin Burnett unequivocally endorses the success of the Obama stimulus and doesn't let Fox News' worm-boy right winger Rich Lowry get away with his unsupported opinion that "it's pretty clearly a failure."

It's time we state with absolute confidence, like Erin Burnett, it did work and the CBO numbers back it up. Conservatives have no numbers and no way to back up their opinions. Like Erin said, "There's really no question about it. Ask any economist on Wall Street, or any CEO...I know you're shaking your head, but my reporting would
show otherwise."

Erin, you won back my heart and mind.

GOP Sen. Candidate Ron Johnson ad contains 3 Major Policy Mistakes. Should he get your vote?

I couldn't resist correcting the latest Ron Johnson ad. It should say a lot about electing a senator who can't get one important issue right.

If the media would correct the record everytime the above lies (for more moderate Democrats and media types-"misinformation") these talking points would have been replaced with real policy proposals. Sadly, the Republicans have a good chance of controlling the House wielding nothing but outright lies to form their vision of America's future.

Walker: Fire all the Teachers! But Student Test Scores Wrong Way to Go.

To hear governor candidate Scott Walker talk about it, teacher evaluations based on student tests is tough love, and another way to finally weed out freeloading union teachers. But why base anything on research when strict disciplinary remedies illicit stronger, more predictable voter reactions and outrage. From Upfront with Mike Gousha (Goo-shay):

The facts say otherwise, and once again reinforce the shoot from the hip style of the Republican Party and why were in this deep recessionary hole. From the Economic Policy Institute:
American public schools generally do a poor job of systematically developing and evaluating teachers. Many policy makers have recently come to believe that this failure can be remedied by calculating the improvement in students’ scores on standardized tests in mathematics and reading, and then relying heavily on these calculations to evaluate, reward, and remove the teachers of these tested students.
… there is not strong evidence to indicate either that the departing teachers would actually be the weakest teachers, or that the departing teachers would be replaced by more effective ones. There is also little or no evidence for the claim that teachers will be more motivated to improve student learning if teachers are evaluated or monetarily rewarded for student test score gains.
A review of the technical evidence leads us to conclude that … such scores should be only a part of an overall comprehensive evaluation. Some states are now considering plans that would give as much as 50% of the weight in teacher evaluation and compensation … Based on the evidence, we consider this unwise. Student test scores are not reliable indicators of teacher effectiveness, even with the addition of value-added modeling (VAM), a new Economic Policy Institute report by leading testing experts finds.
The distinguished authors of EPI’s report, Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers, make clear that the accuracy and reliability of analyses of student test scores, even in their most sophisticated form, is highly problematic VAM results show that they are often unstable across time, classes and tests; thus, test scores, even with the addition of VAM, are not accurate indicators of teacher effectiveness.
Student test scores, even with VAM, cannot fully account for the wide range of factors that influence student learning, particularly the backgrounds of students, school supports and the effects of summer learning loss. As a result, teachers who teach students with the greatest educational needs appear to be less effective than they are.
Furthermore, VAM does not take into account nonrandom sorting of teachers to students across schools and students to teachers within schools. Furthermore, creating a system in which teachers are, in effect, competing with each other can reduce the incentive to collaborate within schools—and studies have shown that better schools are marked by teaching staffs that work together.
Finally, judging teachers based on test scores that do not genuinely assess students’ progress can demoralize teachers, encouraging them to leave the teaching field.
Demoralizing teachers, by demonizing their unions or poorly funding mandates on educators, is really the point here. Oddly, teachers in private schools doing a similar job or more poorly are never mentioned. Voucher school advocates have never suggested similar tests for private school teachers, complaining instead that such meddling would interfere with the free market and inhibit innovation.

Corporate Liberty and Freedom=Republican Tax Cuts.

Butting up against my recent dissection of Scott Walker's draconian plan for the state, Scot Ross, from One Wisconsin Now, put the above equation into words regarding the Republican position and direction they want to take our country. Corporate Royalty=GOP tax cuts and liability exemptions. I've posted much of his column here, so I can reference what actually does happen in Wisconsin if Walker does win. It's time to refute conservative revisionist history:
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has told Wisconsin he’s got a brown bag full of tax cuts for the rich and big business. And he wants to slash BadgerCare to pay for it.
Walker has refused pointedly to detail exactly how he will pay for his nearly $2 billion in tax cuts in the midst of a projected $2.5 billion budget deficit. But it is clear a major part of this plan would include creating a time limit for BadgerCare health coverage -- a move that could end coverage for as many as 350,000, including children, expectant mothers and working Wisconsinites.
This is an appalling notion. BadgerCare was created as a bipartisan program under Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson. As Joe Leann, Thompson’s former head of the Department of Health and Family services said recently, “There was no time limit envisioned. BadgerCare was intended to be there for however long (low-income) people were working jobs that didn’t provide health care.”
Scott Walker sees it a different way … For a year, Walker has repeated on the campaign trail that he wants time limits for BadgerCare … But suddenly, Walker … offer(ed) a sheepish “never mind.”
But the facts are clear: Walker has called for time limits for BadgerCare in news outlets across the state, dating as far back as almost a year ago. Walker may be momentarily waffling, but his campaign-trail rhetoric has been consistent: Walker wants time limits for BadgerCare.
Consider, for example these Walker quotes from the campaign trail: “I think it has to be not just a pure time limit, but progressions for, ‘You’ve got this amount of time; here’s what we expect you to do; here’s the options you should have by that time.’ ” -- WISC-TV, 10/9/09
“I’d streamline it down so you had time limits on things of that nature.” -- “On the issues with Mike Gousha,” 3/11/10
“I think you have to have time limits in place, as we did under Gov. Thompson’s original proposal, and the state has to work more aggressively for ways to plug people in on the W-2 side, working with local counties, into work opportunities. In most cases, you’re talking about 24 months, depending on the threshold there.” -- Appleton Post-Crescent, 6/16/10
According to figures from the state Department of Health Services, if Walker imposed a two-year time limit, nearly 350,000 working Wisconsinites, expectant mothers and children would be immediately without health care coverage.

What is most unsettling about Walker’s plan to create time limits for BadgerCare is the reason why.
Walker has proposed, according to figures from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, nearly $2 billion in tax cuts, including a first-of-its-kind income tax cut for just the top 1 percent (cost: $287 million) and reopening the Las Vegas corporate loophole for banks and other big businesses (cost: $187 million). Walker also wants to make changes to the capital gains tax, which provides 70 percent of its benefits to those making more than $200,000 a year (cost: $243 million), and he wants to shelter the assets of the wealthiest Wisconsinites even more by a radical end to tax paid on retirement income, regardless of income (cost: $920 million).
Scott Walker would cut 350,000 Wisconsinites from BadgerCare to pay for tax cuts for the rich and big business, and some would argue these are the same George W. Bush-type conservative policies that
caused the national economic collapse. In fact, Walker’s are worse.
Scot Ross is the executive director of One Wisconsin Now, a statewide liberal advocacy organization.

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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Health care Brings improvements with Obama Reform.

If the Republican had their Health care ways, and did nothing, would we be seeing the voluntary changes being made to the system to improve outcomes and lower prices?

Hell no.

Whether prices actually come down is debatable, and another solution to that may still have to be created, but right now the health care industry is being forced to move off their asses and help change for the better.

The new federal health care law is bringing additional demands by insurance companies that doctors and hospitals be held to higher quality standards. While insurance companies say quality is what gets the name of a doctor or hospital on its preferred choices list, cost is also a major factor. A doctor who manages his patient's medical care better and keeps costs low, for example, would be more apt to make the list. Insurers argue that higher-quality medical care at a lower cost is attainable.
And insurers are beginning to respond to consumers' hunger for information on medical care providers. Insurers increasingly will provide doctors and hospitals enhanced payments if they meet certain quality measures. Medical care providers "will be paid less and less on volume and more on value," Ho said.

Doctors and hospitals are finding ways to embrace the changing landscape.

At NorthShore University HealthSystem in Chicago's suburbs, Dr. Kenneth Anderson is setting goals for its hospitals' doctors and nurses to use fewer urinary catheters, which often are unnecessarily and account for about two in five hospital infections nationally.
"Better patient care of highest value, attention to measures of quality and use of technology to more completely deploy best practices are pivotal for success in the proposed new environment created by U.S. health care reform," said Anderson, who became NorthShore University HealthSystem's first chief medical quality officer two years ago.
"By predictably improving quality, we can drive higher-value health care services,
which are of benefit to patients."

Liberals are out to tax your corn dogs!!! Bachmann warns.

I just laughed when I read this fund raising letter voters received from Michele Bachmann the other day. If you can't get people motivated and angry enough about the economy and the unemployed, you can always piss 'em off about higher corn dog and beer prices at the fair if the Democrats win in November. She really said that.

"...while thousands of Minnesotans -- including my family -- are enjoying timetogether at the Minnesota State Fair, my opponent and her liberal allies are plotting new schemes to defeat me on November 2.

I'm running against a tax-and-spend liberal whose love for taxing hardworking families goes so far that she wants to raise taxes on state fair food like corn dogs and beer! It's facts like this that make it crystal clear: we can't afford to allow Tarryl Clark and Nancy Pelosi to defeat me.
Wow, pulling out her list of “facts,” Bachmann wants to protect fair goers from higher taxes on corn dogs and beer?

did you know Howard Dean has thrown his weight behind my opponent? His far-left liberal organization, "Democracy for America" raised $22,000 in 24 hours … liberals will stop at nothing to silence our voices.

Please don't sit on the sidelines and allow Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean steamroll me with their well-funded attacks.
Instead, Michele Bachmann wants to steamroll her Democratic opponent with “well-funded attacks.” How could the Democrats even think of spending money like Republicans to get elected? Crazy and just more dirty socialist tricks.

Money Influencing Government!!! Outspending Noncorporate individuals by Wide Margin. Now that's Free Speech.

Citizens United Ruling by Conservative Activist Supreme Court Starts to Dismantle Country
It didn’t take long, did it, to see what the end of our representative democracy would look like under the influence of the money changers. With all the money spent on media advertising by corporate America, think media outlets will report anything that would negatively impact these big spenders?

Go corporate personhood.

Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch have jumped on board an effort to suspend California's global warming law by making a million-dollar contribution this week. They join two Texas-based companies, Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp.
California's global warming law, known as AB32, seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide to 1990 levels over the next decade.
Proposition 23 is opposed by environmental groups, Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who called the contribution "extremely disappointing."
A Koch spokeswoman, said the company believes the law will cause "significant job losses and higher energy costs." So far, the Proposition 23 campaign has raised $8.2 million, of which 97 percent has come from oil interests.

Scott Walker as Governor: Pollution, No Rail, No Educational Rules, No High Tech Industry, No Health Care, No Pill..

Wisconsin State Journal had this interesting and obscure article, where I have added my critiques to in ( ):

If elected, Scott Walker says he would:
Bring 250,000 jobs and 10,000 new businesses to Wisconsin by 2015 by cutting taxes, easing regulations. (Don’t you just love this old saw? It never gets old.)

He would block frivolous lawsuits against businesses. (Why let the courts do that when some bureaucrat can? Where are the checks and balances between protecting public safety and someone making blood money?)

Stop the passenger rail project between Milwaukee and Madison. (Taxpayers should repair the tracks from the state coffers and forget about the future benefits of rail.)

Work to remove state mandates for education. (Yes, education should be whatever it wants to be, and as good as privates schools say they are)

Try to block federal health care reform from taking effect in Wisconsin, would support a lawsuit, state legislation or a constitutional amendment to stop the measure. (The trillions of dollars savings estimated by the CBO can’t be believed. A competitive race to the bottom of cheap health care should protect our freedoms, just as long as we can’t sue)

Oppose embryonic stem cell research. (The frozen eggs should all be adopted, tossed or saved, but not used to cure disease and save lives, not to mention build on a huge economic engine for the University of Wisconsin. So much for being a leader in the medical research industry. Hey, is that a jobs killer?)

Support a ban on all abortions in the state, with no exceptions, and has said he would protect pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control on religious grounds. (Forcing women to have an incestuous baby or rapists child, what could be wrong with that...if you're the Taliban? And the conscience clause makes medical treatment voluntary, subject to the whims of ideology. Crazy? Why the hell not...?)

In the world seen through the conservative mirror, the above dramatic changes are being packaged as a return to the "real America," and a rejection of the last 80 years of progress.

These people should scare us, but sadly don't anymore.

Government by God can operate without question, reason, or reproach.

I found this comment right on point:

The reason leaders (or so called leaders) want to push religion and “god” into politics, policy, and government, is because god can operate without question, reason, or reproach.

Those in power can simply do as they please, with the impunity of “god”.

Sarah Palin's thoughts in gutter: "Impotent" and "Limp" reveal what's really on her mind or Gay Bash?

I don't get into discussing Sarah Palin much, she has so little to offer and is just plain stupid, but the latest look beneath the surface of this political celebrity should raise some good questions. The clip from Morning Joe asks those questions and more.

Keep in mind that the supposed hit piece might be very negative, but if she were a generally nice person, such extremes are impossible to create. Here are a few perspectives:
Huffington Post:The author of the blistering Vanity Fair profile on Sarah Palin says he wanted to write a positive piece, but was shocked by what he learned as he
researched his story. "The worst stuff isn't even in there," Michael Joseph Gross said on "Morning Joe" Thursday. "I couldn't believe these stories either when I first heard them, and I started this story with a prejudice in her favor. I have a lot in common with this woman. I'm a small-town person, I'm a Christian, I think that a lot of her criticisms of the media actually have something to them. And I think she got a bum ride, but everybody close to her tells the same story."
In the profile, Gross paints Palin as an abusive, retaliatory figure with an extreme ability to lie. "This is a person for whom there is no topic too small to lie about," he said. "She lies about everything." Asked about Palin's political future, Gross said it depends on what the media lets her get away with. "If we decide to let her keep lying and getting away with it, she's gonna still be around," he said. "But if we start returning to the standard that a politician has to talk with people, and a politician has to tell the truth, then she's outta here, because she can't stand up to that."
Gross added that he takes exception to criticisms that he wrote a "hit piece" against Palin. "I started this with every good intention toward her," he said. "I was just shocked and appalled at every step at what I found. And I wrote this story sort of against my will. It wasn't what I wanted to write, it wasn't what I wanted to find. It was what was forced on me by the facts."
There's more from the Washington Post:

The former Alaska governor weighed in herself: "Those who are impotent and limp and gutless and they go on their anonymous -- sources that are anonymous -- and impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references," she told Sean Hannity. "It just slays me because it's so absolutely clear what the state of yellow journalism is today that they would take these anonymous sources as fact."

The Advocate wonders that Palin is gay-baiting, as Gross is gay.

GOProud's chairman, Chris Barron, defended Palin's language to Slate: It is The Advocate, not Sarah Palin, who is guilty of "gay-baiting." I don't think most people associate the words "impotent," "limp," or "gutless" with being gay - I know I certainly don't."

Impotent and limp are ways to describe a soft dick. Am I missing something here...? Kind of makes you wonder what Sarah does "read." Is Katie Couric around?

Sen. Scott Fitzgerald sued for defaming husband of Democratic Senator. “Families off limits” only applies to Republicans?

Getting what he deserves, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald went after a private citizen in his zeal to bash a public servant, a no no in the eyes of the law.

The biggest whiners over media pot shots at family members, conservatives see nothing wrong with breaking that ethical wall, since they’re fighting the enemies of liberty and freedom I guess.

A state senator's husband has filed a defamation lawsuit against Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. The La Crosse Tribune newspaper reports Sen. Kathleen Vinehout's husband, Douglas Kane, alleges in the lawsuit Fitzgerald made malicious and untrue statements about him in an Aug. 23 column. The lawsuit takes issue with statements that Kane had a "long and sordid" history as an adviser to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and counseled him on tax changes.

The lawsuit contends Kane doesn't have a sordid history and he never counseled Blagojevich or served as his adviser, though he did work as a consultant for him on tax issues.

Fitzgerald, a Juneau Republican, has led GOP attacks accusing Vinehout, an Democrat, of plagiarizing Kane's essays on taxes.

That’s right, crazy conservative Scott Fitzgerald accused the Senator of plagiarizing her own husbands writings:

The state Republican Party claims three essays written over the past
three years by Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D, lift passages nearly verbatim from
columns written by her husband, Douglas Kane.
You read that right, HER HUSBAND. It actually gets even better…

Kane said he wrote drafts of some of her columns, much like a campaign staff writer would write a candidate's speeches. Some of the language from his works carried over, he said. "If it wasn't so stupid, it would be amusing," he said of the GOP's allegations. "(How can it be) plagiarism if it's donated from one person to another?"

Republicans say the similarities raise questions about Vinehout's credibility. "This is the definition of plagiarism," said John Hogan, executive director of the Committee to Elect Republican Senators. "Does she have any original ideas?"

James Peterson, a Madison-based intellectual properties attorney, said using Kane's work was no different than any politician turning to a speech writer or a staff writer.
You have to wonder just how the conservative brain can come up with this stuff. Is it paranoia, fear of someone getting something for nothing, the peoples government not controlled by private business, an inability to understand the human condition, a distrust of everyone around them...what?

U.S. on verge of electing the Anti-government government. Joe Miller can thank Government for Success.

Even as zealot right wing candidates chalk up a few wins here and there, the voter mood of the country is following the media created theme that government is so bad and big, that even psychopathic loners might help save our Constitution. But a closer look reveals that even these libertarian outsiders depended on government “handouts.” Take the case of recluse Joe Miller, who wouldn’t be where he is today without taxpayer dollars. It’s really amazing:

The Myth: NY Times: The man with the best chance of becoming the next senator from Alaska lives at the end of a long gravel road … Tribulation Trail … Signs warn against trespassing … A dog’s baritone bark rattles the aspens when car wheels, unexpected, churn the driveway. Joe Miller, 43 … comes across as a self-confident iconoclast but wraps his message in the Constitution … Even as Miller vows to drastically scale back the size and spending of the federal government; he has spent much of his life in some form of government employment or service.
Joe Miller the Taxpayer Parasite: The military helped educate him. For seven
years, until last September, he worked part time as a salaried assistant attorney for the Fairbanks North Star Borough, roughly equivalent to a county government. His work with the borough allowed him to complete a master’s degree in economics from the University of Alaska. “We paid his tuition,” said Rene Broker, the borough attorney who first hired him.
He worked 20 hours a week for the borough, enough to receive health care benefits for his family of 10, Because Mr. Miller is married and has eight children, his family is eligible to receive 10 dividend checks each year from the Alaska Permanent Fund, an account that pays dividends from state oil revenues to residents of Alaska. The amount changes yearly and is often between $1,000 and $2,000. In 2008 Palin pushed through a one-time increase to $3,269. That would have meant more than $32,000 for Mr. Miller’s family.
Joe Miller the Carpetbagger: In 2004, two years after moving to Fairbanks, he challenged the city’s lone Democrat in the State Legislature, David Guttenberg. Mr. Miller lost, 52 to 48 percent. “He’s a carpetbagger,” Mr. Guttenberg said. “He moved into my district to run against me because I was the only Democrat in Fairbanks.”
Joe Miller federal welfare slayer?: Miller has faced repeated questions over how he will square his views on federal spending if he becomes a senator from a state that depends on government for one-third of its economy. He argues that ending restrictive federal regulation will free Alaska to reap more from its natural resources “in an environmentally responsible way.”

Which means what, that he will end the biggest return on the dollar from federal coffers, and/or add to Alaskan pockets with oil money? Think Progress found this on Miller's hypocricy on the New Deal: Today on ABC’s Top Line, host Rick Klein asked Miller to expound. “Do you think those programs are constitutionally authorized?” Miller dodged, first — noting that his parents benefit from Social Security and Medicare — arguing that they should be preserved now, but “transition” to a privatization model in the future.
Joe Miller, WRONG on the Constitution: Then, Miller again suggested the programs are not constitutional:
MILLER: "I think we have to look at transferring power back to the states in such a way that states can then look at solutions that may be more appropriate. Then ultimately, when you look at the Constitution and you evaluate what the plan was originally, it was for states to take on more power than the federal government, particularly in the areas of, such as those things that may promote the general welfare. It was not a federal role."
Miller’s claim that the Constitution gives states the sole power to provide for general welfare is exactly wrong. In fact, Article I, Section 8 specifically states:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
Miller appears to be embracing what the Wonk Room’s Ian Millhiser describes
as “tentherism,” the belief adopted by many on the right that posits that progressive policies such as health care reform and entitlement programs are an unconstitutional infringement on states’ rights.

Paul Ryan's Road Map Hits Road Block in Chicago.

Paul Ryan greeted by protesters over privatizing Social Security? Surprised? Me too, since you never see stories like this anywhere. Tea party protesters joined in.

On Sept 1, 2010,150 IL seniors gathered outside a campaign luncheon at the
Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago to protest Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)'s
'roadmap' budget plan to privatize Social Security and dismantle Medicare.

Loved this post at the Huffington Post and the idea that if politicians want to privatize Social Security and Medicare, they should give up their Cadillac benefits and "enjoy" their brilliantly conceived privatized plan like every other American. It's a challenge every interviewer should pose to these free market failures. Why shouldn't elected officials expect to make a similar sacrifice to balance the budget.
Events of the last week have made the Deficit Commission an embarrassment. Co-Chair Alan Simpson is a one-man disaster movie, compulsively offending one key voting bloc after another. Commission member Paul Ryan faced an angry crowd over his anti-Social Security stance, while another Commissioner locked experienced workers out of a nuclear facility rather than provide retirement benefits. That's right: He's cutting retirement benefits. But if the political blowback is obvious, here's what isn't:
The Commissioners who are determined to cut your Social Security benefits are going to enjoy their own retirements in comfort. Their own pension plans insulate them from the fears that many other Americans face.
If you don't know much about the topic and are protected from the problem, what
makes you credible? Their pre-established prejudices makes the situation even
worse, and their own situations underscore the irony of their self-professed
willingness to make "brave choices" - choices whose consequences will mean little or nothing to them.
Consider Commissioner Alice Rivlin. Rivlin co-authored a paper that called for raising the retirement age and other benefit cuts, will presumably enjoy a comfortable retirement supported by multiple public pensions. Says Rivlin: ""We can't get out of this problem without doing both spending cuts, especially slowing the growth of entitlement, and tax increases."
Experts on Social Security finance (including the long-time Chief Actuary for the program) flatly disagree with Rivlin, pointing out that an adjustment to the payroll tax cap would unquestionably be enough to get the job done. They have the numbers to prove it.
Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, an aggressive advocate of Social Security cuts and privatization, will also enjoy his sunset years in comfort, thanks to a publicly-funded pension from his tenure as a Congressman. (He'll presumably earn even more as a result of his employment as an aide to two United States Senators.)
Rep. Jeb Hensaerling has served as both a Representative and as an aide to Sen. Phil Gramm, so he should be safe from financial insecurity in his old age too . The average annual pension payments for former members of Congress ranged from $41,000 to $55,000 in 2002, considerably more than the average $13,836 that Social Security recipients received in 2009.
Yet neither Ryan nor Hensaerling have proposed cutting Congressional retirement benefits - nor should they. Sound pension plans like theirs were once available to most working Americans, and more effort should be made to restore them.
Tom Coburn, another would-be Social Security cutter, will receive a Congressional and Senatorial pension too.
If these Deficit Commission members want their recommendations to have any credibility, they should pledge to live on the same Social Security benefits that they would impose for other Americans. Better yet, they should dedicate themselves to helping provide every American with the kind of retirement security they enjoy.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Lakoff: Conservatives Determined to Preserve Moral System, like Ron Johnson's "discipline, hard work and common sense."

I'll be honest, I was stump by the three reasons why GOP/tea party candidate Ron Johnson would be a better senator than Russ Feingold. As you can see by the list in Johnson's TV ad, we're not given actual policy ideas, only moral platitudes. There's a reason for that, and George Lakoff knows why, as he explains in the piece below from the Huffington Post:

In the conservative moral system, the highest value is preserving and extending the moral system itself. That is why they keep saying no to Obama's proposals, even voting against their own ideas when Obama accepts them. To give Obama any victory at all would be a blow to their moral system. Their moral system requires non-cooperation. That is a major thing the Obama administration has not understood.
The conservatives understand the centrality of morality. They attacked the Obama health care plan as immoral for violating the moral principles of freedom ("government takeover") and reverence for life ("death panels.") The Obama administration made a policy case, not a moral case. The conservatives have characterized the bailouts as thievery and Obama's ties to Wall St. as immoral -- as being in bed with the thieves.
The attacks on government are seen as moral attacks, with government seen as taking money out of working people's pockets and giving it to people who don't deserve it. Whether it is the birthers, or the anti-Muslims, or the anti-immigrants, of the pro-lifers, the attack is a moral attack. The Tea Party cry is moral -- for "freedom" (see my book Whose Freedom?), for God, for patriotism. Even jobless benefits are seen as giving money to people who are not working and don't deserve it. Even social security that workers have earned, that are deferred payments for work, are seen as undeserving people "sucking on the tits of the government."
Why are so many people about to vote against their interests?
The Republicans are not offering kitchen-table benefits. The "swing voters" are really "swing thinkers." And it is language -- moral language, not policy language, heard over and over -- that strengthens one political moral system over the other and determines how people vote. The kitchen table arguments must become moral arguments as well -- arguments about freedom, life, fairness, and the most central of American values.
Argue for your values. Frame all issues in terms of your values. Avoid their language, even in arguing against them. There is a reason that I wrote a book called, Don't Think of an Elephant! Don't list their arguments and argue against them using their language. It just activates their arguments in the brains of listeners. Don't move to the right in your discourse or action. That will just strengthen the conservative moral system in the brains of swing thinkers.
Frame your arguments from your moral position.
Finally, Democrats need a truly effective communication system. They need unified, morally-based framing of issues. They need to train spokespeople all over the country in using such framing and avoiding mistakes. They need to organize those spokespeople. And they need to book them, as conservatives do, on radio, TV, in civic and religious groups, in schools and universities.

Shocker!! NRA "Trigger the Vote" ad with Chuck Norris FUNNY!

Just so liberals weren't confused about the conservative assassination agenda to take back their country, the NRA humorously makes pulling the "trigger" fun, with a big fat target for a logo.

Gee, I wonder who they have in their sites?

Bush Tax cuts Bad for Small Businesses, Paid for by Lower and Middleclass.

Here's a video clip collection that pretty much tells the Bush tax cut story, and why it really is an amazing argument coming from Republican deficit hawks and supporters of private business investments. David Cay Johnston is an intelligent voice cutting through the politics.

Something I've got to get off my chest: Because politicians borrowed from the Social Security surplus fund, we are now expected to make cuts to the program to keep it solvent. Sorry, no!!!

The fund was a tax on the lower and middleclass that was used by the politicians and the wealthy for reckless spending. They used our retirement safety net for spending. They can't just walk away and say Soc. Sec. is broke and the money is gone forever.

Who the hell said borrowed money doesn't need to be paid back? Politicians and the wealthy who benefited from their little middleclass slush fund have to pay us back. Period.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

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Monday, September 6, 2010

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Sunday, September 5, 2010

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Friday, September 3, 2010

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