Sunday, July 15, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
8 Right Wing Obama Myths Debunked
Written by Samuel Warde
Right wingers would like to make us believe that Obama is Un-American, Anti-Christian and worse. Those of us who know the facts, understand otherwise. Below, we have exposed 8 right-wing myths attacking Obama for what they are – complete falsehoods.
Myth 1: The Obamas demanded and spent more money than any first family to move into the White House.
Fact: The Obamas paid for the renovations of the private living quarters in the White House with their own money rather than using the funds provided to all new first families.
Myth 2: The Obamas are Muslims (or atheists) who do not allow Christmas to be celebrated in the White House.
Fact: The Obamas are Christian and celebrate Christmas in a very traditional way during each holiday season at the White House. They also recognized celebrations and customs from other religions. What was different about the Christmas celebration was that the Obamas reused many Christmas ornaments from previous White House trees rather than buy new ones and used LED energy-saving lights.
Myth 3: Obama received extra money as part of his Nobel Peace award and he pocketed it all.
Fact: Obama received the same award as other Nobel laureates, but donated the award money for the prize to several charities.
Myth 4: Obama has been secretive and unwilling to allow public or media access.
Fact: In only his first year in office, Obama held 23 town hall meetings, gave 158 interviews, and held 42 press/news conferences, as well as 411 speeches, comments, and remarks. * Note: Official numbers are not available on such things, but this seems to be a new record high in the White House.
Myth 5: Obama vacations more than any president.
Fact: In his first year in office, Obama took only 26 days of vacation (2009) * Note: Official numbers are not readily available on such things, but this seems to be a new record low and far lower than Bush
Myth 6: Obama was not born in America and is some sort of international “Manchurian” plant who supports other countries over America.
Fact: Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. He has been an internationalist president insofar as he took 10 foreign trips to 21 nations and met with 74 foreign leaders in only his first year in office (he also took 46 out-of-town trips to 58 cities and 30 states his first year in office).
Myth 7: Obama has not kept any of his campaign promises.
Fact: Official numbers are not kept on such things historically, but it appears Obama made more promises and discussed more policy issues during his campaign than any other presidential candidate. But, it also appears he has kept more promises than perhaps any other president. (As of 10/4/11) Obama has kept 147 of his campaign promises and another 197 of them are currently in progress; but he has broken 49 of them and compromised with Republicans on 44 of them; another 69 of his campaign promises have been stalled by Republicans. (Source: PolitiFact)
Myth 8: Obama is Anti-Reagan.
Fact: Obama promoted the celebration of the Reagan Centennial and established the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission (June 2, 2009)
Popularity: 6% [?]
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Under Obama’s Tax Plan “just 3.5 percent of small business tax filers would pay a higher rate”
http://www.classwarfareexists.com/under-obamas-tax-plan-just-3-5-percent-of-small-business-tax-filers-would-pay-a-higher-rate/
As the Economist wrote HERE – lobbying politicians by corporations brings an investment on return “comparable to the returns of the most blistering hedge fund.” In other words – you scratch my back … I’ll scratch yours. You get on your knees … I’ll give you some cash.
And you’ll often hear this laughable claim that American corporations have the 2nd highest tax rate in the world!!! Oh my god – run for cover and vote Republican. But what does reality look like? The only thing that matters when it comes to taxes is the EFFECTIVE tax rate – not the marginal tax rate. America has a MARGINAL tax rate that is 2nd highest in the world … but after corporations take advantage of deductions etc – this is how America’s ACTUAL tax rates i.e. effective tax rates stack up against other major countries (source):
Here are a few facts you may want to familiarize yourself with:
Source: Ezra Klein
I want you to read this quote from Mitt Romney:
“What the President is proposing is therefore a massive tax increase on job creators and on small business. Small businesses are overwhelmingly being taxed not at a corporate rate, but at the individual tax rate. So successful small businesses will see their taxes go up dramatically and that will kill jobs.”
And I want you to square that with REALITY.
President Obama’s tax plan will raise taxes on 3.5% of small business
tax filers. Now … you may ask yourself … if only 3.5% of small
businesses were impacted by the plan – why would Republicans be so up in
arms about it? It’s because of LARGE CORPORATIONS and billionaires
that want to avoid being taxed what is already a small rate relative to
the average American.
Most people do not understand that the
average worker pays 50% more in taxes than someone making $200 million a
year. Don’t believe me – read THIS.
Republicans have perfected this little
bait and switch approach for YEARS. They tout their commitment to
“protecting small business” and then what they actually do … is pass
large tax cuts for corporations and really rich people. THAT is the
deal. After all – it’s those corporations and billionaires that are
helping fund those 3rd party attack ads … it’s those corporations who
are donating hundreds of millions to defeat political opponents.
In other words – what Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican party is parroting a lie to protect their wealthy donors.
Jared Bernstein – chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities writes HERE:
“The upper-income cuts return $850 billion over 10 years to the Treasury, simply by reverting to the top rates under Clinton, when the wealthy fared perfectly well, the budget balanced, and growth was much stronger and more broadly shared than in the Bush years. The fact that these upper-income increases hit only the top 2% — and that’s considering both households and small businesses — is also important. They won’t hurt the wobbly recovery, as these folks are not income constrained in the first place.”
As Talking Points Memo writes HERE:
In its latest estimate last month, Congress’s nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that in 2013, just 3.5 percent of small business tax filers would pay a higher rate — about 940,000 individuals, many of whom are lawyers and doctors in partnerships. But those few percent account for 53 percent of all small business income.As we’ve shown HERE – corporate profits are at an all time high:
GOP aides accept those facts but they say those few small businesses are the ones overseeing growing companies whom the nation is counting on to hire. According to a variety of analyses, the lion’s share of the tax hike would be absorbed by Americans earning well over $1 million.
Late in 2010, when the same debate played out, William Gale, co-director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, called it a “myth” to suggest that ending the tax cut on top marginal rates would hurt small businesses.
As the Economist wrote HERE – lobbying politicians by corporations brings an investment on return “comparable to the returns of the most blistering hedge fund.” In other words – you scratch my back … I’ll scratch yours. You get on your knees … I’ll give you some cash.
And you’ll often hear this laughable claim that American corporations have the 2nd highest tax rate in the world!!! Oh my god – run for cover and vote Republican. But what does reality look like? The only thing that matters when it comes to taxes is the EFFECTIVE tax rate – not the marginal tax rate. America has a MARGINAL tax rate that is 2nd highest in the world … but after corporations take advantage of deductions etc – this is how America’s ACTUAL tax rates i.e. effective tax rates stack up against other major countries (source):
And over time – this is what how much corporations are paying year to year. Notice – the burden on corporations keeps going DOWN. Remember – every $$$ a corporation doesn’t pay because of a special loophole equals a $$$ that you have to pay or a pot hole we can’t fix or a water line that doesn’t get repaired or a free lunch that we don’t give some kid at school. Every $$$ a corporation doesn’t have to pay in taxes is a $$$ that goes directly to a shareholder and we know that 57% of all capital gains go to the 1%. (source)American corporations do not have high tax rates – bottom line. End of story. I’m Done.
Here are a few facts you may want to familiarize yourself with:
- Corporate tax rates are at a 10 year low (source)
- 26 corporations had tax REFUNDS over 4 years (2008 – 2011). Americans PAID taxes so these corporations could continue to make billions in profits. (source)
- The U.S. spends double on it’s military what we tax corporations (source)
But the basic takeaway is that there are plenty of industries that are benefiting from the current corporate tax code, and are likely to fight like hell to preserve the breaks they’re currently getting. Moreover, as Appelbaum notes, a lot of these industries are the sympathetic ones: “High-tech industries pay relatively little in taxes. Utilities and other infrastructure providers pay some of the highest rates.
Source: Ezra Klein
Monday, July 9, 2012
How the 1 Percent and Transnational Corporations Hijacked Our Political System and What to Do About It
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9721-how-the-1-percent-and-transnational-corporations-hijacked-our-political-system-and-what-to-do-about-it
A major political realignment is the only way plutocratic control over our current elected officials in DC will change, according to Chuck Collins in his new book, "99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do about It." Truthout recently interviewed Collins. You can receive his book with a minimum contribution to Truthout by clicking here.
Mark Karlin: Given the frustration at impacting the grip of the plutocracy on the US and our government, let's start off with the subtitle of your book: "Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It." What are some of the activities individuals can do to create change, because the oligarchs have control of Congress, for the most part, and the backing of a one-vote majority on the Supreme Court?
Chuck Collins: We need to recognize that the 1 percent and a few thousand transnational corporations currently have captured and hijacked our political system in Washington DC. Over 238 members of the US House of Representatives and 41 Senators have taken a pledge never to vote for a tax increase under any circumstances. Very little meaningful change will happen without a major political realignment.
To shift this, we need to work to eliminate legalized bribery through our current political campaign system. But we must also organize for bold proposals to reduce concentrated wealth and power. These include: taxing the 1 percent, inheritance taxation, shutting down the "off shore system" that enables corporations to dodge taxes, break up the megabanks, and establish federal charters for large corporations that require greater accountability and transparency.
MK: Who are the 1 percent? What characterizes them?
CC: To join the 1 percent, you have income over $500,000 and/or wealth over $5 million. Within the 1 percent there are good people who have devoted their lives and money to a fair economy. They are part of networks like Wealth for the Common Good and the Patriotic Millionaires.
But there are also "rule riggers" and "game fixers," the greedy people who use their wealth and power to rig the rules of the economy in their favor. These are the people, like the billionaire Koch brothers, that we must defend our communities from. They use their power in the form of campaign contributions, charitable foundations, and organizing their peers,
MK: You have a chapter, "How Inequality Wrecks Everything We Care About." You discuss how it disrupts our sense of community. Would you expand upon that?
CC: Extreme inequalities of wealth tear our communities apart. A growing body of research shows too much inequality undermines public health, happiness and social mobility. At the root of this, extreme inequality leads to a breakdown of social solidarity and a sense that "we are all in the same boat." Extremely unequal societies stop making investments in education, infrastructure, public health and public programs that create opportunity and sustain the common good.
MK: How are the rules rigged for the 1 percent?
CC: A segment of the 1 percent uses its wealth and power to tip the rules of the economy in their favor. These rules include tax policy, trade policy, and corporate regulation. Rule changes such as whether the minimum wage goes up or workers have the right to organize.
For the last 30 years, the rules of the economy have favored the wealth holders at the expense of wage earners, favor global corporations at the expense of small business. Taxes on rich have gone down since the mid-1950s.
MK: You have a chapter that claims "the sleeping 99 percent giant wakes up." There is no question, as Truthout daily covers this, that there is an increase in public protest movements and even corporate media coverage of income inequality (limited, but still more than in the past). Yet, many citizens of the US who are in the 99 percent support politicians who vote on behalf of the 1 percent. To what is the gap here due?
CC: Yes, its true. Right-wing organizations - and the media that they control - does a bang up job distracting people and deflecting anger that should be directed at the greedy 1 percent and the "built to loot" transnational corporations. But some of this is cracking - with the further erosion of the middle-class - has increased the percentage of the population that understand that shrink government, pro-rich policies aren't going to improve their economic security.
MK: Given the license to buy elections granted under the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, what makes you hopeful that the super-rich can be removed from pulling the strings in DC?
CC: First, there is a huge awakening in a lot of different sectors about corporate domination and wealth inequality. Fewer people in the 99 percent are swallowing the snake oil - and recognize that "we the people" and representative government is the only countervailing power to runaway corporate power. Secondly, there are allies in the 1 percent like the Patriotic Millionaires. Third, people aren't waiting for President Obama to lead - they are taking action and pressing for what they believe - evidence of the "move our money movement" or "move to amend" resolutions at the local level to reverse Citizen United.
MK: Don't the ultrawealthy have more in common with their global equals in assets rather than with their own nations?
CC: Yes, the wealthy 1 percent in different nations have more in come as a global elite than they do with their own country-women and men. Their wealth is mobile and they are huge users of the "offshore tax haven system" - that give global capital the ability to avoid taxes, regulation and accountability.
MK: How does our current time period compare with the Gilded Age of the robber barons?
CC: There are amazing similarities. One hundred years ago was the last time the richest 1 percent had over 40 percent of all private wealth. Corporations dominated and corrupted our political system. Similar to 2008, extreme inequalities in 1929 contributed to economic instability and depression.
It's important to remember that we reversed these extreme inequalities of wealth between 1929 and 1940. We taxed concentrated wealth and made investments in education, like the GI bill, to expand education and housing opportunity.
MK: Advocates for the wealthy keep touting small businesses as the backbone of America. Yet, global corporate giants are in the business of putting small businesses out of business. Isn't that the case?
CC: The vast majority of small businesses are rooted in localities and are "built to last," as business journalist Jim Collins calls them. They won't stay in business for long if they mistreat their customers, employees and communities.
In my book I describe the couple thousand big global corporations that are wrecking the world as "built to loot" companies. Their business model is all about shifting their costs off their own balance sheet - shedding jobs, dodging taxes and trashing the environment - and leaving the rest of us to pick up after them. They are not "job creators," they are job destroyers.
MK: How did Wall Street and the emergence of financial firms that engage in everything from banking to hedge funds nearly bring down the Us economy with their manipulation of "funny money": financial manipulation of trillions of dollars that they basically xeroxed and have no relation to actual assets?
CC: Over the last 40 years, the financial sector gained more political clout - and they used that power to ward off regulation and oversight. Even today, Bank of America and the 5 other mega financial institutions have gained market share and power. We have to advocate for breaking up the megabanks, allocating their assets to community-based financial institutions that are meeting the real credit needs of our communities - not speculating in finance.
You can receive this book with a minimum contribution to Truthout by clicking here.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
A major political realignment is the only way plutocratic control over our current elected officials in DC will change, according to Chuck Collins in his new book, "99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do about It." Truthout recently interviewed Collins. You can receive his book with a minimum contribution to Truthout by clicking here.
Mark Karlin: Given the frustration at impacting the grip of the plutocracy on the US and our government, let's start off with the subtitle of your book: "Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It." What are some of the activities individuals can do to create change, because the oligarchs have control of Congress, for the most part, and the backing of a one-vote majority on the Supreme Court?
Chuck Collins: We need to recognize that the 1 percent and a few thousand transnational corporations currently have captured and hijacked our political system in Washington DC. Over 238 members of the US House of Representatives and 41 Senators have taken a pledge never to vote for a tax increase under any circumstances. Very little meaningful change will happen without a major political realignment.
To shift this, we need to work to eliminate legalized bribery through our current political campaign system. But we must also organize for bold proposals to reduce concentrated wealth and power. These include: taxing the 1 percent, inheritance taxation, shutting down the "off shore system" that enables corporations to dodge taxes, break up the megabanks, and establish federal charters for large corporations that require greater accountability and transparency.
MK: Who are the 1 percent? What characterizes them?
CC: To join the 1 percent, you have income over $500,000 and/or wealth over $5 million. Within the 1 percent there are good people who have devoted their lives and money to a fair economy. They are part of networks like Wealth for the Common Good and the Patriotic Millionaires.
But there are also "rule riggers" and "game fixers," the greedy people who use their wealth and power to rig the rules of the economy in their favor. These are the people, like the billionaire Koch brothers, that we must defend our communities from. They use their power in the form of campaign contributions, charitable foundations, and organizing their peers,
MK: You have a chapter, "How Inequality Wrecks Everything We Care About." You discuss how it disrupts our sense of community. Would you expand upon that?
CC: Extreme inequalities of wealth tear our communities apart. A growing body of research shows too much inequality undermines public health, happiness and social mobility. At the root of this, extreme inequality leads to a breakdown of social solidarity and a sense that "we are all in the same boat." Extremely unequal societies stop making investments in education, infrastructure, public health and public programs that create opportunity and sustain the common good.
MK: How are the rules rigged for the 1 percent?
CC: A segment of the 1 percent uses its wealth and power to tip the rules of the economy in their favor. These rules include tax policy, trade policy, and corporate regulation. Rule changes such as whether the minimum wage goes up or workers have the right to organize.
For the last 30 years, the rules of the economy have favored the wealth holders at the expense of wage earners, favor global corporations at the expense of small business. Taxes on rich have gone down since the mid-1950s.
MK: You have a chapter that claims "the sleeping 99 percent giant wakes up." There is no question, as Truthout daily covers this, that there is an increase in public protest movements and even corporate media coverage of income inequality (limited, but still more than in the past). Yet, many citizens of the US who are in the 99 percent support politicians who vote on behalf of the 1 percent. To what is the gap here due?
CC: Yes, its true. Right-wing organizations - and the media that they control - does a bang up job distracting people and deflecting anger that should be directed at the greedy 1 percent and the "built to loot" transnational corporations. But some of this is cracking - with the further erosion of the middle-class - has increased the percentage of the population that understand that shrink government, pro-rich policies aren't going to improve their economic security.
MK: Given the license to buy elections granted under the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, what makes you hopeful that the super-rich can be removed from pulling the strings in DC?
CC: First, there is a huge awakening in a lot of different sectors about corporate domination and wealth inequality. Fewer people in the 99 percent are swallowing the snake oil - and recognize that "we the people" and representative government is the only countervailing power to runaway corporate power. Secondly, there are allies in the 1 percent like the Patriotic Millionaires. Third, people aren't waiting for President Obama to lead - they are taking action and pressing for what they believe - evidence of the "move our money movement" or "move to amend" resolutions at the local level to reverse Citizen United.
MK: Don't the ultrawealthy have more in common with their global equals in assets rather than with their own nations?
CC: Yes, the wealthy 1 percent in different nations have more in come as a global elite than they do with their own country-women and men. Their wealth is mobile and they are huge users of the "offshore tax haven system" - that give global capital the ability to avoid taxes, regulation and accountability.
MK: How does our current time period compare with the Gilded Age of the robber barons?
CC: There are amazing similarities. One hundred years ago was the last time the richest 1 percent had over 40 percent of all private wealth. Corporations dominated and corrupted our political system. Similar to 2008, extreme inequalities in 1929 contributed to economic instability and depression.
It's important to remember that we reversed these extreme inequalities of wealth between 1929 and 1940. We taxed concentrated wealth and made investments in education, like the GI bill, to expand education and housing opportunity.
MK: Advocates for the wealthy keep touting small businesses as the backbone of America. Yet, global corporate giants are in the business of putting small businesses out of business. Isn't that the case?
CC: The vast majority of small businesses are rooted in localities and are "built to last," as business journalist Jim Collins calls them. They won't stay in business for long if they mistreat their customers, employees and communities.
In my book I describe the couple thousand big global corporations that are wrecking the world as "built to loot" companies. Their business model is all about shifting their costs off their own balance sheet - shedding jobs, dodging taxes and trashing the environment - and leaving the rest of us to pick up after them. They are not "job creators," they are job destroyers.
MK: How did Wall Street and the emergence of financial firms that engage in everything from banking to hedge funds nearly bring down the Us economy with their manipulation of "funny money": financial manipulation of trillions of dollars that they basically xeroxed and have no relation to actual assets?
CC: Over the last 40 years, the financial sector gained more political clout - and they used that power to ward off regulation and oversight. Even today, Bank of America and the 5 other mega financial institutions have gained market share and power. We have to advocate for breaking up the megabanks, allocating their assets to community-based financial institutions that are meeting the real credit needs of our communities - not speculating in finance.
You can receive this book with a minimum contribution to Truthout by clicking here.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Randi Rhodes: Showdown
President Obama and Mitt Romney are both delivering major speeches
about the economy in Ohio today. Get used to it, Ohio—you’re the new
Wisconsin. Ohio residents might want to form support groups with people
from Wisconsin about how to survive a full-on political advertising
blitz. Many swing voters are just now making up their mind. President
Obama needs to let them know what he intends to do. More importantly, he
needs to let them know what Mitt Romney plans to do. Obama needs to
educate the American public about who Mitt Romney is—because if Mitt
Romney gets elected, there’s not going to be any more education of any
kind. Sheldon Adelson is throwing in $10 million to get Mitt Romney elected, though hopefully “throwing out” $10 million will end up being the more accurate phrase. Sheldon, the guy worth $25 billion, is giving $10 million to Mitt, who is worth $250 million. That’s the only thing the superrich do with their money—they pass it back and forth between each other. What kind of idiot gives $10 million to a guy who already has $250 million of his own? To Sheldon, a guy with only a quarter billion must look like a charity case. I guess Sheldon is just giving money to the less incredibly fortunate.
Yesterday JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon appeared before the Senate Banking Committee. To listen to the Republicans on the Committee, Dimon appeared riding on a sunbeam as the clouds parted and a choir of angels sang. The Republicans on the committee didn’t exactly give Dimon a dressing down. What they gave him was more of a sucking up. Under Dimon, JPMorgan just lost over $2 billion in a high risk hedge. But the only questions that Republicans wanted to ask him were things like “Are you OK?” and “Is there anything we can do to help you?”
It was quite the love fest from the Republicans on the Banking Committee. If this had been conducted over the telephone, Jamie Dimon should have been billing them $5.99 per minute. Senator Bob Corker cooed to Jamie, “You’re obviously renowned, rightfully so I think, for being one of the best CEO’s in the country.” I’m just glad that Corker was sitting behind the dais, because I’m pretty sure he was aroused. Corker was acting like a groupie who got backstage at a Led Zeppelin tour in the 70’s. Somebody grab the mud shark!
Today’s Homework | Discuss | Blog Archive
Flashback: Yesterday's banker lovefest was very reminiscent of Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) apologizing to British Petroleum...
Thom Hartmann:: The United States ranks 88th on the Global Peace Index
According to a new study by the Institute for Economic and Peace -
the world is getting more peaceful - but the United States is still a
pretty violent place to live. The just released 2010 Global Peace Index
ranks the nations of the world based on how peaceful they are - taking
into consideration prison populations, political instability, wars, and
military expenditures. Iceland ranked first on the Global Peace Index -
while the United States ranked 88th out of 158 nations.
It's no surprise considering the United States has the highest
incarceration rate in the world and is currently waging a limitless war
on so-called terror in several nations across the Middle East, Asia, and
Africa. These conflicts - including U.S. military misadventures and
other wars - are costing the global economy a lot of money.
The report argues that if the world was in peace in 2011 - then
there would have been $9 trillion more in global economic activity.
More than a half century ago - Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about
the growing influence of the military industrial complex. Tragically,
his warnings were ignored.
-Thom
(Will America become more peaceful? Tell us here.)
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Randi Rhodes: Painful Legacy
A new report from the Federal Reserve says that families’ median net worth fell 40 percent from 2007 to 2010.
That’s not an easy concept to grasp. Let me put into three words—Bush
screwed you. You wouldn’t see numbers like this if Republicans ran
everything. For one thing—the numbers would be far worse. And for
another, you would never see those numbers. Hello! The numbers were in a
report from the Federal Reserve. If Republicans had their way, there
would be no reports... and there would be no Federal Reserve. Karl Rove blamed President Obama for the massive decline of 2007 to 2010. I guess Karl couldn’t see the decline very clearly because he was too busy causing it. Obama has been trying, and succeeding, in stopping the decline and reversing it. Blaming him for the decline is like blaming firemen who show up to save a building for the fire in the first place.
Fox News keeps saying American’s net worth is down 40 percent in just “THE PAST THREE YEARS.” They’re trying to make Obama responsible for the Bush recession, when in reality, Obama took responsibility for getting us out of it. Well, the report from the Fed covers the years 2007 to 2010. Here are some numbers you don’t need to be an economist to understand—2007 to 2010 is four years... and two of them were completely under George Bush. It’s not like the damage Bush did stopped on the day he left office. The man left a legacy!
Here’s a shocker—Newt Gingrich says that the current campaign finance system is rigged in favor of the wealthy. Here’s a bigger shocker—Newt thinks that’s a bad idea. Of course Newt opposes a system that favors the person with the most money—Newt realizes he’s not the one with the most money. I guess that became clear when Mitt Romney mopped the floor with Newt in the primaries. Newt prefaced his remarks by saying “I’m going to surprise you...” When Newt says that, it means he’s about to say something reasonable. Newt proposed “that any American can give any amount of after-tax personal income to the candidate as long as they report it every night on the internet.” That’s not nearly enough, but WAY more than you’d expect from Newt Gingrich.
Today’s Homework | Discuss | Blog Archive
Add another mugshot to the Zimmerman family album - George's wife Shellie was arrested yesterday on perjury charges...
Thom Hartmann: Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?
Currently - the President is working on a new Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade pact to open up trading markets with eight Pacific
nations. This morning - a critical document outlining new provisions in
this trade deal was leaked - revealing the President stands behind
giving foreign transnational corporations' unprecedented power to abuse
American workers, pollute our environment, and destabilize our markets.
Under the agreement - American companies would have to comply with
American law and any labor, banking, and environmental regulations. But
foreign companies operating on U.S. soil wouldn't have to. Instead,
they can appeal to an international tribunal that has the power to
overturn laws passed by our Congress - and levy trade sanctions on the
United States. In other words - if this trade deal passed then
Americans laws would no longer apply to foreign business tycoons setting
up shop in the United States.
This is yet another blow to American sovereignty - and the power of
"we the people" to protect our commons and our workers. We're headed
toward a nationless world where only transnational corporations rule -
and they aren't exactly big fans of democracy or the middle class.
-Thom
(Is there no end to globalization? Tell us here.)
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Randi Rhodes: Class (Size) Warfare
Mitt Romney actually told a group of teachers that smaller class sizes don’t make for better learning.
I wonder how big of a group it was. Hey Mitt, how would you like to try
and make the same point to a group twice as large and unruly? Why are
we even considering letting someone who went to an elite boarding school
run our public education system? In his hearty, Mitt doesn’t believe
the terms “public” and “education” even belong together. Mitt Romney’s campaign chairman, John Sununu is defending the “wisdom” of having fewer teachers. Some people never learn. And if Republicans have their way firing teachers, nobody will ever learn. Sununu said “people ought to stop jumping on” Mitt’s statement about teachers “and understand that there’s wisdom in the comment.” Ah yes! The “wisdom” of fewer teachers! Is that like the “democracy” of fewer voters? Got that America? Under the Republican scheme of things (and I do mean “scheme”), Fewer Teachers=Wisdom. That sounds like something George Orwell left off of the list of sayings like War=Peace, and Freedom=Slavery.
Florida and the federal government are suing each other over Rick Scott’s schemes to purge all the Democrats from Florida’s voting rolls. Rick Scott is trying to conduct an illegal purge of voters, and he’s suing the Feds for not helping him do it! That’s like eating the face of somebody and suing the cops for not bringing you some soy sauce to go with it.
A new poll shows that 49 percent of people believe that Republicans are deliberately stalling the economic recovery in order to hurt Obama. My only quibble is that they shouldn’t say 49 percent “believe” that. They should say 49 percent “realize” that.
Finally, officials are investigating what appears to be a pair of lungs found on a sidewalk in south Los Angeles. OK people, cannibalism is one thing, but wasteful cannibalism is even worse. Do like the Native Americans did with the buffalo—don’t kill someone unless you mean to make use of every part of the person!
Today’s Homework | Discuss | Blog Archive
Poet and former teacher Taylor Mali's 'What Teachers Make'...
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