Politics

Interesting (and quite lengthy) article in Politico on Wednesday about anger and frustration amongst reporters covering the Obama administration. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36454.html Some interesting numbers: Ouch. On the other hand: But apparently it's not just about the numbers. Asking the wrong questions can get you into a lot of trouble. Playing favorites with the New York Times certainly seems familiar. Kinda like Bush playing favorites with Fox News Channel. But IMO a lot of this reads like sour grapes and petty grievances, but it's an interesting piece and it illustrates an ongoing problem that a lo…

Many threads under politics, and some posters, try to define the founders during the early days of America as atheist, non-believers or that they personally believed that religion had no place in in the NATION they were forming. This couldn't be further from the truth.... People that came to the 'New Land', particularly in what were later those 13 original Colonies, over the 250 years leading up to Independence were in LARGE part leaving religious intolerance. War's were being fought all over Europe, Asia, most with religious overtone. http://www.zum.de/whkmla/military/18cen/18cenindex.html A good site and list of wars in any century, nearly 200 in the 1500's alone…

What aspect would you consider to be the fairest way to distribute the tax burden? (This is an opinion, since what you regard as fair may not be the same as what others regard as fair). Would it be flat, proportional, progressive, or regressive? Would it depend on how the government spent said tax? Would it be based on number of people (head tax, dependent deductions)? Would it be based on ownership (property tax)? Would it be based on purchase value (sales tax, value added tax)? Would it be based on total revenue (income tax), or perhaps on net revenue (business/corporation income tax)? Would it be based on ownership of cash (inflation tax), or perhaps ownership of wealt…

Via CBC LET THE BOOBQUAKE BEGIN

So a lot of folks, for example Rush Limbaugh and Stephen Colbert, have given to charity, based at least in part on things like fund-raising and auctions. I have two questions: 1) How exactly does the tax-deductible aspect work? It can't all be deduced directly from the taxes, can it? 2) Who exactly gets to deduce this from their taxes? For example, if someone bids for an item knowing that the funds go to charity, and probably over-paying for it for that reason, do they get to count that as tax-deductible? Likewise, can the host, knowing that they got more money for an item than its real value since it is going toward charity, count all that money as tax deductible?

For regular readers here, many of you know I am a big fan of the PBS program FRONTLINE. In fact, based on many of my exchanges with several of you (of ALL political leanings and ideologies), I'm inclined to believe that many of you are fans/appreciators of the show, as well. Tonight on FRONTLINE was a special dedicated to exploring the real story behind how healthcare reform passed in the US. Fans of the show know, like me, that no matter how much you have read or paid attention to the issue they discuss and explore, viewing their specials always leaves you in a position of being more knowledgeable of the topic than you were prior to watching. They pick up on…

In this past week's Economist poll about the budget deficit, 62% of Americans favored cutting spending to combat the deficit, while only 5% favored raising taxes. Alright in theory, but cut spending where, exactly? The only thing that more than about a quarter of Americans can agree on cutting is foreign aid, at 71%. (Americans, on average, estimate that 24% of the budget goes to foreign aid. It is actually less than 1%.) Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that most of us want to abstractly "cut spending" without actually cutting any spending - we could all just have different opinions of what should be cut. But this still present a problem, since everyth…

http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/special/405_Bonus_Bet_Against_the_American_Dream.mp3 All we gotta do, to make our dreams come true is bet against the American Dream. ============ a little journalistic background http://www.propublica.org/feature/all-the-magnetar-trade-how-one-hedge-fund-helped-keep-the-housing-bubble a video of the studio session, recording the song http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/405/inside-job op-ed piece in the NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/opinion/25rich.html?hp

In the UK Election campaign, electoral reform is becoming a big issue. At the moment we have a first-past-the-post system, where each individual seat has a restricted voter pool (by geographic area) and the candidate with the most votes wins the seat. This can lead to situations where a party with just 30% of the vote but voters concentrated in a fixed number of constituencies, can win the election, in preference to a party with 40% whose voters are all spread out. The Labour party is suggesting an "Alternative Vote" system, while the Lib Dems would prefer a Single Transferable Vote system, or as a compromise, the AV+ system. The conservatives want no change. …

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/04/19/1386782/partisan-discipline.html So now you know, all you yellow-bellied surrender monkeys -- you just weren't spanked enough!

The Value Added Tax (VAT) is being highly talked about for the US, to cover current and pending expenses for the Federal Government. To the consumer, it simply would raise (inflate) the price on all goods purchased or the price paid to the distributor of any item, built into the cost, then the Federal, probably the IRS. There is no discussion on it replacing any current Tax, thereby being an additional tax. Of course there is nothing new in this, with a good many Countries already using this program to raise revenues for Social Programs, a couple at 25%*, 12 of which are 20% up to 25%, today. *http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tax_val_add_tax_sta_rat-value-added-t…

When it comes to national politics, is there some common ground that the vast majority (say 80-90%) can agree on, and move on from there? I think we spend a lot of time redesigning the wheel when it comes to a great many of these things, arguing without ever recognizing those things that the vast majority probably already accepts. I think most people don't want to deny aid to people who truly need it, but don't want to give tax dollars to those who could help themselves but find excuses not to. Yet both get lumped under the general term "welfare", and I think some people oppose welfare programs because of it. The Interstate Highway system seems like pretty good …

It boggles my mind when I realize that otherwise reasonably intelligent people still listen to this bloviating blow hard. http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/17/limbaugh-volcano/ Yesterday, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh talked about the volcanic eruption that’s affecting air travel over much of Europe, saying it was “God speaking” in response to the passage of health care. I stand firmly behind the principle of free speech, and I welcome this jackass continuing to poke about like the buffoon he is. He's taken a cue right out of Pat Robertson's playbook with this one, and look at what has happened with public perception of that asshat. Keep it up,…

I was just thinking today about an idea of how to bipartisanship a little easier by refining the nuance in how the Senate and Congress cast votes. Nothing would change mathematically or how they are counted, just each "Yes" would be on record as one of two variations and the same for each "No" vote cast: Yes - in the affirmative: You agree with and support this action and consider it's success or failure as reflective on your reputation. Yes - concessional: You may not agree with the action entirely for ideological reasons or are otherwise skeptical of it's chances for success, but you concede given the political climate and the need to give solutions a chance …

I as an American found it somewhat funny and troubling at the same time when I mentioned "Tories" in a discussion with my wife the other day and had my 7 year old perk up and say that she had read about Tories in a book recently at school. In the book there was a little girl protagonist fighting the evil Tories to save some parkland from construction. I can only assume that it was some young readers book of British origin. She couldn't remember the name of the book, but would such a book be common in the UK? I would ask her to check it out next time so I could see it but I don't want her to waste her book choice on such a book just to satisfy my political curios…

With the Finance Reform bill on a smooth track (well-supported by Republicans who know a popular measure when they see one), word began to spread today that the next item on the agenda will be the budget. With that word came a reminder of something that the Obama administration campaigned on -- a desire to preserve the middle-class portion of the Bush tax cuts. The reasons aren't hard to find. From 2001 to 2007, the most recent economic boom period, 2/3rds of the increase in revenue went to the top 1% of earners. During the same period middle-of-the-road income was completely flat. (source) Those of us in the moderate middle dislike even a hint of income redistri…

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0420/Supreme-Court-rejects-animal-cruelty-law-upholds-free-speech The Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling by an 8-1 vote, so videos of animal cruelty are now legal. The one dissent came not from one of the liberal justices but from one of the Bush conservatives -- Alito -- who said he felt it should have instead been referred back to a lower court. I agree with this ruling in terms of consistency with free speech and the constitution. Perhaps there's some other way we can stop this sort of thing, but I think we have bigger fish to fry. (sorry, couldn't resist)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/business/18view.html?ref=business A very well reasoned argument from my favorite economist. Tyler Cowen is libertarianish but sometimes argues for paternalism and never for dogmatism. Operating, on the assumption that we'll need to cut gov't spending soon, it turns out "socialist" nations of Sweden, Finland, Canada and Ireland are much better at it than we are. Are Americans too cynical of our government's ability to get the job done? If we trusted politicians a bit more, would that empower them to make positive bargains when it's time to tighten the belt? I see potential for the argument, and use the tea party as a…

I came across this essay from 2006 at the Cato Institute. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6800 It suggests that the conservative-libertarian fusion of the past is largely exhausted, and that an alliance of liberals and libertarians is actually more natural, if only each could get around their respective kneejerk hangups. The argument is that libertarian means naturally support progressive ends and vice versa, and offers numerous examples of shared ends and suggestions for reasonable compromise regarding seemingly insurmountable differences (like the entitlement system). I thought I'd share it because I like its optimism, and because I think there ar…

I'm something of a fairweather friend of the Democrats, and while I'm sure many of you know I practically hate the Republicans, the Democrats have their fair share of foibles which makes me mad at them. Well, this week, I've been pleasantly surprised... SEC charges Goldman Sachs with fraud Congress pursues a ban on large financial institutions trading in CDOs Hospitals that want federal money must allow visits to same-sex partners Former Blackwater president indicted on illegal arms sales That seems like some progress to me Unfortunately, the Tea Party has done a great job of drumming up bad press. Completely unfounded, ignorant bad press. B…

Caught a few minutes of Rush at lunch time today, as open line Friday's are always kind of interesting and he is doing his annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society money drive, kicking it off with a $400,000 donation. And apparently donations are surprisingly high this year, as well as last - at least according to the show. So it dawned on me, that this serves a better example of a point I've tried to make over the years. (I always used starving chinese kids as an example.)That when we set up programs to help folks and fund them with taxes, that we are essentially forcing everyone to redirect their capital to causes that we find important. We've decided that your cau…

We have all heard about Crashtheteaparty.org by now. The most famous of these supposed racist outbursts happened at the steps of the Capitol where Tea Party activists supposedly shouted racial and sexual slurs at Congressman as they went to sign the health care bill. These accusations quickly vanished into the ether after CNN reviewed all the tape they had and found no such slurs hurled, and the spitting to be accidental. Given that this group exists, and claims to have operatives at all events, and major accusations have been found to be baseless, how reliable do you consider the evidence to be out there of racist signs and shouts at the Tea Party rallies?

I'm sure everyone's probably heard of this or has seen this clip. This accidental slip of the truth helps to validate suspicions many of us Constitutional types have long suspected out of the democratic party. (And to be fair, it's not that republicans are off the hook, it's that republicans do what they do and actually believe the constitution supports them. So, they manage to escape blatant dismissal of our founding document.) So, Phil Hare doesn't care what the constitution says. Yet, he took an oath to uphold it. Shouldn't he be impeached? And removed from office, never allowed to return? Isn't this open and shut? Granted, he'll likely los…

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/04/16/2010-04-16_obama_assassination_plot_paul_schlesselman_sentenced_to_10_years_for_plotting_mu.html I say they should've thrown this guy in with the Gitmo inmates... what's the difference really?

I caught a partial segment of CNN today and Sarah Palin was speaking at a TEA Party rally. She said "We'll keep our religion and our guns-you keep the change." Who is trying to take away religion and guns?