Newtie has been promising gas at $2.50 a gallon. Is that feasible? One way to make it happen: everybody in New York and Los Angeles would have to stop driving.
Or you could have the federal gov't subsidize the difference between $2.50 and the current price of gas. Jordan Weissman of The Atlantic says that would only cost $187 billion a year. Peanuts compared to the Bush tax cuts. However, the best way to screw up a market is to subsidize it.
The Box Turtle Bulletin has a Daily Agenda written by Jim Burroway. One item for today is the 40th anniversary of the first city to pass an ordinance to ban employers from firing workers simply for being gay. Yup, way back in 1972 when homosexuality was sill considered a mental illness. That city? Nope, not San Francisco. Try East Lansing. The city was spurred on by students of Michigan State University. Alas, there is a bill currently in the Michigan Legislature to overturn all such city ordinances.
Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Pulling on bootstraps without boots
Jon Stewart interviewed Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. The two videos combined are under 14 minutes. Stewart asks if government is incompetent at doing something (a favorite claim of conservatives) why should it keep doing it? Yes, government should be held accountable. But the things government does (infrastructure, education, research) are shared resources and they build up the middle class. The 1% have shown they have no interest in shared resources. Warren surprised Stewart with a statistic: Many of the big corporations spent more on lobbying than they are charged in taxes. Obviously, with that huge expense they expect it to help their bottom line.
Newsblog Firedoglake runs Occupy Supply. If you buy from them they will send a matching item to an Occupy encampment. As of last Monday there are 60 such encampments (at least that Occupy Supply knows about), with several more under threat of eviction, or have moved inside, or are daytime only. The movement is still strong.
Kevin Gosztola has been an Occupy Supply liaison and wrote a report of visiting the encampment in Buffalo. And, yes, it is winter there.
I recently wrote about Autumn Sandeen and her observation that lots of opponents of civil rights drag the bathroom into the discussion. In another essay she considers the flip side of the issue. If a law restricted bathrooms to the appropriate people, who would check and what would they check for? Do they check for what's under the front of your undies? What about intersex people where the distinction isn't clear? What about pre-op transgender people? Isn't this a monumental invasion of privacy? Do the potty police check ID cards? States have different rules on when a transgender person is allowed to change the gender on an ID. Why not just check facial features or secondary characteristics? There are too many people where classifying them as male or female on looks alone is difficult.
What is the definition of truth? Tea Party organizations in Tennessee want textbooks to omit references of Founding Fathers owning slaves. These great men were "revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it didn't exist." We should focus on that progress, and not on the details that get in the way of them being seen as great. We want students to know the truth about America.
Right.
Newt Gingrich has talked about his idea of giving jobs to poor kids, such as helping the janitor at school, so they can learn the work ethic. Joi Ruth Orr of Faith Leaders for Community Change wants Newtie to apologize for insulting poor kids. And that bit about "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" -- it can't be done. A poor kid needs a community to make that happen -- especially if the kid is so poor he doesn't even have boots.
Newsblog Firedoglake runs Occupy Supply. If you buy from them they will send a matching item to an Occupy encampment. As of last Monday there are 60 such encampments (at least that Occupy Supply knows about), with several more under threat of eviction, or have moved inside, or are daytime only. The movement is still strong.
Kevin Gosztola has been an Occupy Supply liaison and wrote a report of visiting the encampment in Buffalo. And, yes, it is winter there.
I recently wrote about Autumn Sandeen and her observation that lots of opponents of civil rights drag the bathroom into the discussion. In another essay she considers the flip side of the issue. If a law restricted bathrooms to the appropriate people, who would check and what would they check for? Do they check for what's under the front of your undies? What about intersex people where the distinction isn't clear? What about pre-op transgender people? Isn't this a monumental invasion of privacy? Do the potty police check ID cards? States have different rules on when a transgender person is allowed to change the gender on an ID. Why not just check facial features or secondary characteristics? There are too many people where classifying them as male or female on looks alone is difficult.
What is the definition of truth? Tea Party organizations in Tennessee want textbooks to omit references of Founding Fathers owning slaves. These great men were "revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it didn't exist." We should focus on that progress, and not on the details that get in the way of them being seen as great. We want students to know the truth about America.
Right.
Newt Gingrich has talked about his idea of giving jobs to poor kids, such as helping the janitor at school, so they can learn the work ethic. Joi Ruth Orr of Faith Leaders for Community Change wants Newtie to apologize for insulting poor kids. And that bit about "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" -- it can't be done. A poor kid needs a community to make that happen -- especially if the kid is so poor he doesn't even have boots.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Speaking the language
Essayist Terrence Heath talks about why Newt Gingrich has jumped to the top of the GOP pack. Newtie played the race card, speaking the language of South Carolina.
As part of Newt knowing his audience Heath quotes Paul Waldman who explains how the GOP, or at least Newt, operates. Yes, they promote class warfare (while accusing Obama of the same thing). But it isn't based on economic classes. As we've heard for many years, it is a cultural class warfare -- Don't worry about the economy because those liberal elites are out to destroy the soul of the nation. As the economic mess drags on, fewer people are buying that argument.
Newtie adds one more ingredient into his winning stew. He characterizes Obama as a black person who has become too "uppity" -- who has forgotten his proper place in society. Of course, he doesn't say that in so many words.
My friend and debate partner has said such culture war/racist talk might resonate with the GOP base and give Newtie the nomination. But it won't play well in the rest of the country. Alas, so much of what Newtie says is a dog whistle -- the intended audience is energized by it and everyone else has a hard time understanding why an apparently harmless statement should be considered inflammatory.
As part of Newt knowing his audience Heath quotes Paul Waldman who explains how the GOP, or at least Newt, operates. Yes, they promote class warfare (while accusing Obama of the same thing). But it isn't based on economic classes. As we've heard for many years, it is a cultural class warfare -- Don't worry about the economy because those liberal elites are out to destroy the soul of the nation. As the economic mess drags on, fewer people are buying that argument.
Newtie adds one more ingredient into his winning stew. He characterizes Obama as a black person who has become too "uppity" -- who has forgotten his proper place in society. Of course, he doesn't say that in so many words.
My friend and debate partner has said such culture war/racist talk might resonate with the GOP base and give Newtie the nomination. But it won't play well in the rest of the country. Alas, so much of what Newtie says is a dog whistle -- the intended audience is energized by it and everyone else has a hard time understanding why an apparently harmless statement should be considered inflammatory.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Taking the other guy down too
It has been rather interesting to see how the GOP field is going after each other. Perhaps I should rephrase that -- the Super PACs behind the candidates are going after other candidates. One wonders (hopes) the nominee will be so damaged in the process he can't win in November.
Terrence Heath documents what Romney said about Gingrich (causing Gingrich to drop about 20% in Iowa polls), and what Gingrich is saying about Romney. And it is all true.
First, about Gingrich:
* He was fined $300,000 for ethical violations while Speaker of the House.
* He received $1.6 million from mortgage company Freddie Mack.
* He's a career politician and continued to be so after leaving the House.
* He became wealthy through selling his influence through connections created by being House Speaker
* He has a record of being on both sides of a long list of issues, a list longer than Romney's known flip-flops.
But Gingrich is near the middle of the pack now and we may not have to worry about him getting close to the nomination. But Gingrich appears to be willing to take Romney down as he goes. So, about Romney:
Before getting into politics, Romney was head of Bain Capital, a company that bought other companies, fixed them up, and sold them for a profit. Romney likes to say that he has worked in the private sector and knows how to create jobs. But the point of Bain was to create money for investors and jobs were beside the point. And a good number of the companies bought by Bain were liquidated, taking the jobs down the tubes too. The people who used to have those jobs are now speaking out. Even when those companies were liquidated Bain -- and Romney -- made money.
Heath pulls apart the exit polling in New Hampshire and shows Romney decisively won the 1% vote.
Terrence Heath documents what Romney said about Gingrich (causing Gingrich to drop about 20% in Iowa polls), and what Gingrich is saying about Romney. And it is all true.
First, about Gingrich:
* He was fined $300,000 for ethical violations while Speaker of the House.
* He received $1.6 million from mortgage company Freddie Mack.
* He's a career politician and continued to be so after leaving the House.
* He became wealthy through selling his influence through connections created by being House Speaker
* He has a record of being on both sides of a long list of issues, a list longer than Romney's known flip-flops.
But Gingrich is near the middle of the pack now and we may not have to worry about him getting close to the nomination. But Gingrich appears to be willing to take Romney down as he goes. So, about Romney:
Before getting into politics, Romney was head of Bain Capital, a company that bought other companies, fixed them up, and sold them for a profit. Romney likes to say that he has worked in the private sector and knows how to create jobs. But the point of Bain was to create money for investors and jobs were beside the point. And a good number of the companies bought by Bain were liquidated, taking the jobs down the tubes too. The people who used to have those jobs are now speaking out. Even when those companies were liquidated Bain -- and Romney -- made money.
Heath pulls apart the exit polling in New Hampshire and shows Romney decisively won the 1% vote.
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