We'll never claim to be fair and
balanced, just honest and trustworthy
December 26, 2007
Bush/GOP Economics: The Pit Deepens
From TomCat for
Politics Plus
For cash-strapped consumers already beset by higher gasoline prices and
escalating mortgage rates, the hits just keep on coming. This time, it's
food.
The sharp rise in food prices seen in 2007 is expected to be followed
by another higher-than-normal jump next year, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) said last week. And 2008's punch will be to the
breadbasket.
Items made with wheat (breads and crackers) and soybean oil
(cooking oil and fried foods) are expected to rise so much next year
that they'll boost the cost of cooking at home by up to 4.5 percent
— half a percentage point more than predicted just a month ago.
So pinched consumers thinking they can cut back by eating at home
more will find little relief there. Home cooking remains less expensive
than eating out, but the gap is closing.
This year is expected to go on record as having one of the
largest increases in food prices since 1990 — a jump of 4
percent, according to USDA economists. And 2008 will bring an additional
rise of at least 3 percent, according to the USDA forecast. Both rates
are substantially higher than the 2.4 percent gains seen each year in
2005 and 2006 and the 1.8 percent rise in 2002.
Meanwhile, the Energy Information
Administration forecasts a 17.7 percent jump in crude-oil prices next
year, with a corresponding 10.7 percent boost in the price of a gallon
of regular gasoline... [emphasis added]
The effect of increasing prices, brought about
by Bush and the GOP squandering our resources on their war for oil and
conquest and on No Millionaire Left Behind has
a serious consequence. More Americans are hungry than ever before.
...But there's one measure that's not in the slightest bit ambiguous:
hunger in America is on the march.
Throughout the 2000s, year in and year out - with the exception of
one blip downward in 2005 - the number of hungry people has been
increasing. By 2006, the US department of agriculture estimated
that 35.5 million Americans worried about how to put food on the table,
and over 11 million actually went hungry at times.
Actually, let me rephrase that: in
2006, the US government decided not to call these 11 million people
"hungry". Instead, in an Orwellian slight of hand, they were deemed to
have "very low food security". Saying there
are hungry people in the country, people with bellies rumbling, people
who go to bed at night unfed, children whose only hot meal is the lunch
they get weekdays at school, might actually result in anger - anger that
the richest country on earth is so badly failing its poorest citizens.
By contrast, saying there are "food insecure" people tamps down that
emotion rather well... [emphasis added]
What hypocrites they are! Low food
security, my ass! Hungry Americans is just one of the unforgivable
legacies brought upon us by Bush in the GOP. Normally taking care
of people in need has fallen to the states, but Bush/GOP economics have
fouled that resource, as well.
The housing market meltdown and fears of an economic downturn
are prompting state and local governments to cut spending plans for next
year.
Severe budget problems have arisen in states where home values have
deflated most, including California, Florida and Nevada. In other
states, strong revenue growth has turned sluggish...
...Unlike the federal government, most states must balance their
budgets. State and local governments will spend $1.8 trillion this year
— about 13% of the economy.
A nationwide gap of 1 percentage point between spending and revenue
requires states to cut spending or raise taxes by $18 billion... [emphasis
added]
During the 1970s, the federal government raised
taxes, mostly on the middle class, to fund revenue sharing with
the states. The purpose was to provide more federal oversight of
state spending and to help states poorer states by shifting revenue to
them from more well-to-do states. The plan seemed to function
well, until Bush and the GOP dominated Congress early in his reign
stripped most of the revenue sharing to fund tax cuts in which about 90%
of the benefits went to the top 10%. This left the middle class
paying a greater share of the tax burden. The states were not
hurting for revenue at the time, because the housing boom,
unrealistically driven by sub-prime lending abuses, kept the flow of
property taxes to states high. But now that the Bush/GOP economy
is collapsing, the states are left with the responsibility to care for
people, and the funds that used to go to revenue sharing now support
welfare for the rich.
Sadly, there is no light at the end of this
tunnel. The situation will continue to deteriorate, and even if we
make massive changes in the near future, it will take many years to
recover from the catastrophic damage Bush and the GOP have caused.
Know a blog that
deserves to be featured on the Blog World Report? Contact
Robert.
Women's Health Clinics Firebombed
X2 in ABQ
From Proud Progressive for Some Notes on
Living
Over the month of December starting here on the 6th with a private clinic in Albuquerque NM , "hooded "vandels" have now firebombed two Womens Health Service Centers. One private and one public. The second attack just occurred on Christmas Day ,at Planned Parenthood in Albuquerque the story is here. American Christoban fundi extremists have struck again. And on Christmas Day !!
Yes i am furious, as they say "if you don't want an abortion,don't have one" Further more, the services provided at the clinics are legal, health related, and necessary for the people who seek them. Planned Parenthood provides education, treatment, counseling for STDs and safe pregnancy termination. Services that are needed now more then ever due to abstinence only teaching in our public schools which have caused an increase in teen pregnancies, go figure eh ?
These bombers are no different, than any other religious extremists, who feel their religious beliefs should become public policy.
Now - Women'sHealth care providers are on high alert,and feel at risk.(and they are)
When the fire bombers are caught, the label "terrorist" is applicable and I hope they get "the book" thrown at them. This is an assault on freedom and it sends a shiver of fear/terror down the backs of Women's Health Care providers. Thankfully this time no one was injured. This type of zealotry has a long history and has killed health care personnel,nurses, doctors in the past. Remember Eric Rudolf?
Its pure nutfuckery for any Christian or preacher, to claim that somehow, in our culture its they who are persecuted No , not quite, its their kind of supercessionist extremism that is now holding our society by the throat,trying to intimidate us back to the dark ages.(newsflash the world is round, well over 6,000 yrs old, and science does not contradict faith) These extremists can't be ignored , nor empowered to forward this nonsense. They have been taken too lightly for WAY too long. And worse still, our politicians are pandering to them and in doing so , they're feeding a monster. and for what ? for votes ? gimme a break. This political empowerment has gone way way too far. It must be interrupted by our leaders. Religion needs to be relegated back to the churches , temples, and out of our public policies. We are a democracy , not a theocracy. Health Care Providers (all of us really) need to be freed from this kind religious bullying. Our politicians need to know WE the people will not tolorate their pandering to any one religion.
end.rant.here.
HNew York Times
Calls For Ending
Subsidies to
Medicare
Advantage Plans
From
Ron Chusid
for
Liberal Values
In addition to the prescription drug program,
George Bush’s Medicare Plan provided for extra
payments to private insurance companies to cover
Medicare patients. Under these
Medicare Advantage plans it now costs about
twelve percent more to cover Medicare patients than
under the government program, even though the
private companies often cherry pick the healthiest
patients. The extra payments also provide incentive
for fraud. In light of the problems which have been
identified with these plan, The
New York Times has an editorial today calling
for an elimination of the subsidies:
Heavily subsidized private Medicare plans are
continuing to prey on elderly Americans despite
state, federal and industry efforts to stop
them. It is yet another reason to rein in these
operations by eliminating their unjustified
subsidies.
These plans are a financial drag on Medicare
as the government pays them about 12 percent
more, on average, than the same services would
cost in the traditional Medicare program. All
too often, the private plans are an ethical
horror as well.
As Robert Pear reported in The Times last
week, unscrupulous insurance agents have tricked
people into dropping traditional Medicare
coverage and enrolling instead in private plans
that do not meet their needs. Agents typically
receive $350 to $600 for each patient they
enroll in a private plan. Some try to boost
sales by pretending to be Medicare officials,
forging signatures or hiding the fact that a
patient’s doctor will not be part of the private
plan. Others barge into homes and use
high-pressure tactics to push poor, semiliterate
people into a private plan…
Although federal officials claim the number
and severity of sales abuses have declined, they
remain a dark stain on the ethical performance
of private plans. Federal and state agencies
need to redouble their efforts to root out
abuses, and Congress ought to eliminate the
unjustified subsidies that give private plans a
competitive advantage over traditional Medicare.
Saw
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR at a theatre in Maui that
specified “shirts and footwear required”. Needless
to say, this crowd was not wowed by the film. But to
be fair, if anyone was expecting a big star-studded
splashy event picture this was not it. CHARLIE
WILSON’S WAR was a very well made but sober true
story about the Afghanistan-Soviet War of the late
80s. The stars make the tough subject matter
palatable for those general audiences who need to be
reminded not to attend the theatre barefoot.
I don’t know if I need a spoiler alert since the
trailer and every review I’ve seen pretty much lays
out the story. This Texas councilman arranges a
covert war. We just watch the events unfold. The
screenplay by Aaron Sorkin crackles at times,
occasionally goes off on riffs of policy and
political speak (the same stuff we all zoned out on
in WEST WING but followed the story anyway), and is
heavy on smart
but light on
emotion.
Tom Hanks, affable as ever, stars as Charlie Wilson.
He pretty much goes back to the accent he employed
in
VOLUNTEERS (and even dons the white dinner jacket
again). Philip Seymour Hoffman absolutely STEALS the
picture. Hands down. No one even close. His first
scene alone should earn both him and Sorkin Oscar
noms.
But then there’s Julia Roberts. There must easily be
a hundred other actresses who could have played her
part as well or better. You’re getting the name, a
really bad wig, and nothing remotely special. You
watch her scenes and think to yourself… if only
Meryl Streep were playing this… or even Allison
Janney.
Mike Nichols got some great performances and it was
refreshing to hear a Sorkin script spoken at a pace
that real people speak in. CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR is
well worth seeing, it’s a story that deserves to be
told, and I hope it does well in the boxoffice.
But I dunno, I was expecting more. After all, I paid
full price and wore real shoes, not even flip flops.
Patriot Game --
Kerry's Battle
With NFL Clear
and Present
Danger to
Congressional
Agenda
From
Station
Agent for
Ice Station
Tango
I
kinda want the Patriots to lose this Sunday. If
they win, I'll recover within a second. My
reaction to this game will be completely
imperceptible, mostly because it has nothing to
do with the ongoing apocalypse, which is
something that could use a good deal more
attention.
A Democratic member of the Senate, however,
feels that if you can't tune in to this
momentous game, then there's going to be
hearings.
From The Swamp:
With the New England Patriots now one win
away from finishing the regular season
undefeated, Sen. John Kerry is stepping up
his campaign to get the final game broadcast
on national television.
The contest Saturday with the New York
Giants is to air locally in Boston and New
York. But outside those markets it is
scheduled to appear only on the NFL Network,
a cable channel that reaches just 35 million
households nationwide while the league and
cable operators dicker over pricing and
distribution.
(more)
I believe John Kerry is a good man, but his
brain freezes up from time to time.
I'm glad you want us to be able to watch the
ballgame, Senator Kerry. You know what might be
nice though instead? Lots of other shit.
Inspired by the film "Calendar Girls," (starring
Helen Mirren) some of the residents of Greenspring
Retirement Community near Washington, D.C. have
created their own calendar to raise money for
charity. Residents modeled in the buff to create
this calendar, which both raises money, as well as
awareness.
In an age where young Hollywood starlets flash
crotch shots on a daily, it's a breath of fresh air
to see mature women posing tastefully with a
purpose. The calendar challenges conventional
notions of beauty and shows that you don't have to
be a size 0 to be sexy.
Greenspring's residents decided to make the
calendar in order to raise money for residents
who could no longer afford to pay for their
stay. Everyone involved in the production of the
calendar, from models to make-up artists and
photographers, is a Greensprings resident.
To order a calendar and support this exciting
project, go to
their website.
Bush backs
Turkish
bombing of
Iraq From
GottaLaff
for Cliff
Schecter
US President George Bush has spoken with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip and gave his backing for military strikes by Ankara on Kurdish rebel rear bases in Iraq. [...]
They agreed to continue sharing intelligence and again classed the PKK as a "common enemy", press agency Anatolia said.
It seems like it was only October 9 when the State Department had this to say:
But the U.S. State Department warned against such a move.“If they have a problem, they need to work together to resolve it and I am not sure that unilateral incursions are the way to go, the way to resolve the issue,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
Flip flops, just in time for Christmas! Nothing says "I care about humanity" like dropping more bombs.
Hillary Clinton
Hires Felons for
Her Tennessee
Steering Committee
From
Christopher
for
From the Left
If you thought Hillary Clinton’s teenage years as
a Nixon supporter was bizarre and her early career
years spent in corporate law representing Wal-Mart
and bravely defending Coca-Cola against disabled
employees was offensive, you haven’t seen anything
yet.
Le Hill has hired two convicted felons to run her
Tennessee steering committee.
Gladys Crain, an octogenarian West Tennessee
political power broker, was convicted in 1981 on
federal charges connected with a scheme to rig bids
on a state highway construction project.
Tommy Burnett, the twice-jailed former state
House Majority Leader was imprisoned in 1984 for
failure to file an income tax return. Burnett easily
won re-election to an eighth term from his jail
cell. A few years later, he was caught up in
Operation Rocky Top, the federal corruption probe,
and went back to jail for another year on federal
conspiracy and illegal gambling charges. He went on
to a successful career as a lobbyist.
Sound judgment was never one of Hillary’s strong
suits.
"Dead
Freddie"
Ratchets Up the
Racism
From Jolly Roger
for
Reconstitution
I
think
I’ve
settled
on
“Dead
Freddy”
as
my
sobriquet
for
Thompson,
since
the
process
of
decomposition
moves
with
about
the
same
speed
and
level
of
energy
the
Thompson
campaign
does.
It
appears
he
keeps
the
same
schedule
for
his
campaign
that
he
kept
as
Arthur
Branch
of
“Law
and
Order”-about
15
minutes
per
week.
15
minutes
was
enough
this
week
for
Fred
to
haul
out
some
good
old-fashioned
Klanservatism
for
his
audience,
when
he
blamed
the
mortgage
meltdown
on
people
who
speak
Spanish.
Yes,
you
read
that
right-it’s
them
damn
wetbacks
who
wrecked
housing
in
this
country.
Not
ARM
loans
that
were
100%
guaranteed
to
fail,
not
mortgage
brokers
who
fudged
paperwork
in
order
to
get
lonas
approved
that
never
should
have
been
made,
not
Chimpy’s
stagnant-wage
economy-none
of
that
would
have
mattered
if
the
funny-talking
brown
people
hadn’t
been
buying
houses!
The
saddest
thing
about
this
is
that
the
Chimpletons
will
latch
right
onto
it,
since
finding
someone
else
to
blame
is
what
they
always
do.
There’s
no
way
in
hell
you’ll
ever
hear
them
admit
that
dishonest
brokers+wrecked
economy
had
anything
to
do
with
this.
Hell,
aren’t
they
STILL
saying
Saddam
had
WMD,
and
that
it’s
all
hidden
in
Syria?
Hispanic
is
the
new
gay,
replacing
the
traditional
Klanservative
Black
bogeyman
(although
to
be
sure,
that
bogeyman
still
exists
too.
Just
ask
anyone
in
Jena,
Louisiana
for
confirmation
of
this.)
The
Goppers
are
about
as
intellectually
bankrupt
as
millions
of
former
American
homeowners
are.
This
new
spiel
is
beyond
pitiful.
Coming
up
next;
Huck
claims
the
bright
colors
that
gay
couples
paint
their
houses
is
directly
to
blame
for
plummeting
house
prices.
During what must’ve been a strenuous day of campaigning in Iowa, GOP candidate Fred Thompson told potential voters at his one-and-only appearance that immigrants deserve some of the blame for the mortgage crisis.
“A lot of them couldn’t communicate with the people they were getting the mortgage from,” the lagging Republican told an Iowa audience during his “Clear Conservative Choice bus tour,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Thompson’s stop in Mason City, Iowa, allowed him to play on Republicans’ fears of immigrants and riff on apparent frustration with hearing options in Spanish on recorded phone messages.
Janice Easley, one voter in the audience, was boiling with frustration at having to hear, “Para el español, prensa dos,” whenever she called the power company.
“Everything is in Spanish,” she said. “It’s sickening.”
“You are so, so right,” Thompson said, calling for English to be made the national language, before placing the blame for the sub-prime mortgage crisis on non-English-speakers.
Thompson’s anti-immigrant rhetoric — which apparently wasn’t limited just to those people who enter the US illegally — came as the former Tennessee senator and Law & Order star tried to breathe some life into his lackluster campaign. His attempt to come across as the “true conservative,” came just days after the virulently anti-immigrant Tom Tancredo withdrew from the presidential race, and it marked a 180-degree switch from his attempt to appeal to Hispanic voters at a Spanish language debate less than three weeks earlier.
I didn't think
anything could beat 2006 for conservative lunacy, but this
past year was absolutely positively rich and rife with it.
Global warming denial, Islamophobic paranoia, persecution
complexes, authoritarian interventionism (especially into
our S-E-X lives), fetus worship, racist tripe, misogynist
garbage, homophobic bullshit by the steaming shovelful...
whew. All that and more were evident in that mass of roiling
putrescence that was the right-wing rage-o-sphere of 2007.
In an exercise that tested the bounds of my nausea threshold,
I've assembled what I recall as some of the highlights of the
past year's wingnuttery. In no particular order, here's some of
the freaky phenomena they visited upon us:
1.
Freeping!
The practice of "freeping" online polls really came into its own
in the Canadian wankosphere this year. It was especially popular
among social conservatives like SUZANNE, who've finally figured
out that it's the only
way they'll ever get to see poll results that show the majority
of Canadians agree with their authoritarian, sexually-obsessed
nanny-statism. Through determined freeping campaigns, they
succeeded in showing, time and again, that online polls
can be manipulated to skew the results. Revelation!
It was kind of funny to see them run around all excited,
thinking they'd proven that Pierre Trudeau and Henry Morgentaler
are Canada's first and third-Worst
Canadians when all they've proven
is this.
1(a)
Facebook
Freeping! No mention of the year's freepage would be
complete without a nod to that Social Conservative
pinnacle of freepiosity, the CBC Facebook Wishlist.
CBC formed a Facebook group to ask Canadians what they wished
for Canada, the top wish to be given some airtime after the
contest closed. Socons desperate for attention recruited every
wingnut with internet access, Catholic school kids, non-citizens
and that weird guy who stands outside the Parliament Buildings
with a dead fetus poster, and feverishly freeped the Wish List,
freeped it long and freeped it hard. When it had been well and
truly freeped, the results were surprising to say the least.
Environics pollsters take note: forget environmental issues,
Afghanistan and health care, the Number One wish of all
Canadians is that a minor elective medical procedure be banned.
Also high on our wish list -- ban gay marriage and install a
theocracy. Now, who fucking knew?!
2.
Creeping! Conservative wingnut, um, I don't know,
"writer"? "commentator"? "entertainer"? "curiousity"?
Rachel
Marsden found that Old Habits Die Hard, and two of her old
habits, stalking creepily and talking stupidly, came back for a
bite.
Talking stupidly about torture led to her being
shit-canned from the Toronto Sun, then
Christmas came early for progressive blogging snarkmeisters
when Rachel thought "Christmas stocking" meant "Christmas
stalking" and she went back to her
old standby activity. 3.
Anti-semitism!
Wingnut pun-dit Ann Coulter suggested that Jews needed to be "perfected"
-- a concept eerily similar to one advanced in Germany in the
late-1930s. Anti-semite? Nahhh... she just thinks Jews are less
perfect than Christians. Kind of like Larry Craig isn't gay, he
just likes having sex with men. Okay, well uh...
Achtung!, Annie.
4.
Racism!
It was everwhere this year, but never more expressively oinked
out than by Canada's own "Five Feet of Pigshit". Her witty
repartee about first nations people (including a sassy little
call for more genocide and a denial that the first genocide even
happened) was a
laugh-riot... isn't she just the edgiest
evah? But it was her
deranged hypothesis about the poor in America -- and by "poor",
FFofPS means "those who are any colour darker than deathly
pallid" -- that gave her the 15 minutes of fame she longs for at
the able keyboards of USian bloggers
TBogg and
Sadly No.
The evisceration, while fun to watch, was short-lived: she's
just not interesting enough to command the attention of anyone
who matters for longer than that.
5.
Misogyny!
In certain conservative circles, a year without misogyny would
be like a year without... misogyny. My favourite mind-blowingly
misogynist blog post ran December 6, which is of course the
anniversary of the
Ecole Polytechnique
tragedy, and was titled "Gamil
Gharbi Appreciation Day", after the cool dude that murdered
the 14 women. Hyuk! Hyuk! Hyuk! Nothing tickles the funnybone
like disrespect for the dead! Especially dead women! Cuz they
prolly axed for it, d'yup. Hyuk!
6.
Homophobia!
2007 was a banner year for homophobia, not so much on its own
than as a springboard to free speech debates. Nitwits like
Wartcott, Boissonn and little nazi Jessica Beaumont were all
given
legal slaps upside their vacuous heads for engaging
in incendiary speech against gays, muslims or both... anyone who
isn't just like them will do, really. Free Dominion has been
plagued with ongoing human rights complaint problems, which they
intelligently deal with by posting even longer, more offensive
threads and going on the radio to announce that "gay
men like to walk down the street naked". Uh yeah. The Great
Free Speech Debate goes on, but I'm not so sure it's free speech
they're worried about as much as their right to be assholes to
minorities.
7.
Islamophobia! SHRIEEEEEK! This could go with "Racism",
but it's really kind of a category unto itself. It's been on the
march for about 6 years -- SHRIEEEEEEK!-- but 2007 was the year
Islamophobia
bloomed like a putrid skunk cabbage. The paranoia was manifest
in the
increasing number of right-wingers warning -- SHRIEEEEEEK!
-- that "western" society, society "as we know it", our
"traditional" society (okay, we get it -- "white" society) is
about to collapse and crumble into the dust because we aren't as
prolific as Da Moooslims, and are in fact about to be --
SHRIEEEEEK! -- "overrun" by Them. No, their extremists don't
help matters, but I'm thinking that
their extremists and
our extremists are
starting to be not that far apart.
8.
Global
Warming Denial! Oh yeah, this was non-stop. Pictures of
weather meters and barbeques abounded in the jerkosphere this
year, where genuine Scientists were shunted aside in favour of
retired weathermen. And that sentence alone says it
all better than anything else I could possibly come up with,
although the expression "LALALALALALALA" sort of
comes to mind.
9.
Conservative Family Values-style Hypocrisy! You knew I
wasn't gonna let
this one pass by without comment. Senator Larry
Widestance "I'm Not Gay (I Just Like Sex With Men)"
Craig
led the conga line in this always-crowded dance category. The
"Stall of Fame" also includes such lavatory luminaries as GOP
congressman
Bob Allen. But apart from the "public washroom" aspect of
things, these at least involved normal gay sex. There was also
some genuine conservative depravity: Scuba Sex with the
Rubber Reverend, and *gag* child sexual abuse with
this piece of crap, a registered republican prosecutor. It
got so bad this year that a frustrated GOP strategist lamented,
“The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low
can you go, because we are approaching a level of
ridiculousness,” said Mr. Reed, sounding exasperated in an
interview on Tuesday morning. “You can’t make this stuff
up."
No. For purveyors of progressive snark, it
was 2007 and the livin' was easy.
And finally...
10.
A Miracle!
Huh? What? A Miracle? Yes, there was a miracle, a Conservative
Christmas miracle, a Doughy Pantload of miracles:
Jonah
Goldberg's book, "Liberal
Fascism", 10 Friedman Units
in the making and
re-making, was finally published a couple of weeks ago, and
*gasp* will be on sale in January. A
sneak peak
at the contents page reveals snarkbait aplenty; I can hardly
wait for the "reviews" of the actual book.
***************************
There's more, of course -- there's always
more from these nitwits. But I don't have all day
week. So
that's it. The bell has almost rung on this year, and it's
definitely rung on this post. Have a merry merry and a happy
happy. I'm sure next year will be... oh good god in a go-kart, I
almost forgot! Next year there's a Preznitial Election! It'll be
just like this year -- except worse!
For cash-strapped consumers already beset by higher gasoline prices and
escalating mortgage rates, the hits just keep on coming. This time, it's
food. 
...But there's one measure that's not in the slightest bit ambiguous:
hunger in America is on the march. 
The housing market meltdown and fears of an economic downturn
are prompting state and local governments to cut spending plans for next
year. 
I
think
I’ve
settled
on
“Dead
Freddy”
as
my
sobriquet
for
Thompson,
since
the
process
of
decomposition
moves
with
about
the
same
speed
and
level
of
energy
the
Thompson
campaign
does.
It
appears
he
keeps
the
same
schedule
for
his
campaign
that
he
kept
as
Arthur
Branch
of
“Law
and
Order”-about
15
minutes
per
week.
